No Sunshine and Lollipops in the U.S. Economic Future
June 4th, 2009 1:29 pm | by Mike Miller of Liberty Maven
If you’ve been following the actions of the Federal Reserve, the Treasury Secretary, and big spenders in government, it’s quite clear that our economic woes won’t be over any time soon. In fact, we’re potentially headed for a cataclysmic disaster (if that’s not repetitively redundant enough for you).
The Fed has lowered interested rates to effectively zero, and is now embarking on massive quantitative easing (a fancy euphemism for printing money) which could ultimately result in the destruction of the U.S. Dollar.
China is buying less and less of our bonds, and foreign governments are holding less and less dollars in favor of the Euro or other currencies, and there are even calls to have the dollar replaced as the world’s reserve currency.
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has gone to China to calm the fears. However, even before he arrived, a Chinese central bank spokesman gave Geithner the message that the US should not assume China will continue to finance Washington’s extravagant budgets. The governor of China’s central bank is calling for the abandonment of the dollar as reserve currency, using the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights in its place.
The method by which the Fed “prints money” is by creating money out of thin air and then uses this money to buy our own Treasuries.
Washington’s financial irresponsibility has brought pressure on the dollar and the US bond market. Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke thought he could push down interest rates on Treasuries by purchasing $300 billion of them. However, the result was to cause a sharp drop in Treasury prices and a rise in interest rates.
As monetization of federal debt goes forward, US interest rates will continue to rise, worsening the problems in the real estate sector. The dollar will continue to lose value, making it harder for the US to finance its budget and trade deficits. Domestic inflation will raise its ugly head despite high unemployment.
The incompetents who manage US economic policy have created a perfect storm.
…
Life for most Americans will become truly stressful.
No sunshine and lollipops here.
Read As the Dollar Falls off a Cliff… by Paul Craig Roberts in its entirety and subscribe to Liberty Maven.
Showing posts with label Market Regulation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Market Regulation. Show all posts
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
Vanishing Doctors
Vanishing Doctors
April 13th, 2009 1:16 pm | by Mike Miller | Published in Big Government, Health Care, Market Regulation, Politics, congress, law
D o w n s i z e r - D i s p a t c h
Quote of the Day: “Government cripples you, then hands you a crutch and says, ‘See, if it wasn’t for us, you couldn’t walk.” — Harry Browne (1933-2006), co-founder of Downsize DC
Subject: The not so mysterious case of the vanishing doctors
In case you missed it . . .
A survey by The Physician’s Foundation finds that nearly HALF of primary care doctors plan to reduce or eliminate their practices in the next three years!
The survey also gives the reasons . . .
* Too much non-clinical paperwork
* Difficulty getting reimbursed
* Too much government regulation
* Lack of time (caused by the above problems) to form patient relationships
These problems exist because the government has corrupted the nature of health insurance.
* Insurance is supposed to cover rare but expensive procedures
* But various government policies have made health insurance cover the medical equivalents of oil changes and tire rotations
* This means that most medical care is paid for by the government, or by insurance companies, and not by the people actually seeking the care
* This causes people to over-use medical services, and doctors to order questionable procedures
* That causes both insurance companies and the government to limit their costs by second-guessing every decision your doctor makes
* This burden of regulation leads to piles of non-clinical paperwork and difficulty getting reimbursed
But it gets worse. Health care prices are actually set by the government . . .
* The government funds HALF of all medical care
* This gives the government huge clout as the largest purchaser of health care
* The government uses this clout to limit what it’s willing to pay for every medical procedure
* The insurance companies use these government prices to set their own prices
* If these fixed prices are too low, shortages result, AND DOCTORS VANISH!
But that’s only the beginning . . .
If your health insurance is tied to your employer — if you risk catastrophe because losing your job means losing your health insurance — you can thank the government for that. Federal tax policies created the incentives that caused your health insurance to be tied to your job.
But if you don’t have employer-provided health insurance, and find coverage too expensive to buy on your own, you can thank the government for that too. State and federal laws mandate that insurance policies cover everything under the sun, making it hard to buy affordable major medical coverage.
The politicians could easily fix these problems by . . .
* Providing tax refunds for all health care expenses, including insurance premiums
* Allowing insurance companies to compete with different policies at different prices by ending mandates on what all health insurance must cover
* Funding Health Savings Accounts for Medicare recipients so they’ll have more incentives to be frugal
The solution to our health care problems is less meddling by the politicians, not more. The case of the vanishing doctors isn’t mysterious. The politicians did it, and they want to do more of what caused it!
Send your Congressional employees instructions asking them reduce their meddling in health care. Use your personal comments to mention the arguments in this Dispatch (you could just cut and paste if you want). If you’ve used our Educate the Powerful System before, do the following . . .
SEE MORE AT Liberty Maven
Thank you for being a part of the growing Downsize DC Army.
Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.
D o w n s i z e r - D i s p a t c h
is the official email list of DownsizeDC.org, Inc. & Downsize DC Foundation
April 13th, 2009 1:16 pm | by Mike Miller | Published in Big Government, Health Care, Market Regulation, Politics, congress, law
D o w n s i z e r - D i s p a t c h
Quote of the Day: “Government cripples you, then hands you a crutch and says, ‘See, if it wasn’t for us, you couldn’t walk.” — Harry Browne (1933-2006), co-founder of Downsize DC
Subject: The not so mysterious case of the vanishing doctors
In case you missed it . . .
A survey by The Physician’s Foundation finds that nearly HALF of primary care doctors plan to reduce or eliminate their practices in the next three years!
The survey also gives the reasons . . .
* Too much non-clinical paperwork
* Difficulty getting reimbursed
* Too much government regulation
* Lack of time (caused by the above problems) to form patient relationships
These problems exist because the government has corrupted the nature of health insurance.
* Insurance is supposed to cover rare but expensive procedures
* But various government policies have made health insurance cover the medical equivalents of oil changes and tire rotations
* This means that most medical care is paid for by the government, or by insurance companies, and not by the people actually seeking the care
* This causes people to over-use medical services, and doctors to order questionable procedures
* That causes both insurance companies and the government to limit their costs by second-guessing every decision your doctor makes
* This burden of regulation leads to piles of non-clinical paperwork and difficulty getting reimbursed
But it gets worse. Health care prices are actually set by the government . . .
* The government funds HALF of all medical care
* This gives the government huge clout as the largest purchaser of health care
* The government uses this clout to limit what it’s willing to pay for every medical procedure
* The insurance companies use these government prices to set their own prices
* If these fixed prices are too low, shortages result, AND DOCTORS VANISH!
But that’s only the beginning . . .
If your health insurance is tied to your employer — if you risk catastrophe because losing your job means losing your health insurance — you can thank the government for that. Federal tax policies created the incentives that caused your health insurance to be tied to your job.
But if you don’t have employer-provided health insurance, and find coverage too expensive to buy on your own, you can thank the government for that too. State and federal laws mandate that insurance policies cover everything under the sun, making it hard to buy affordable major medical coverage.
The politicians could easily fix these problems by . . .
* Providing tax refunds for all health care expenses, including insurance premiums
* Allowing insurance companies to compete with different policies at different prices by ending mandates on what all health insurance must cover
* Funding Health Savings Accounts for Medicare recipients so they’ll have more incentives to be frugal
The solution to our health care problems is less meddling by the politicians, not more. The case of the vanishing doctors isn’t mysterious. The politicians did it, and they want to do more of what caused it!
Send your Congressional employees instructions asking them reduce their meddling in health care. Use your personal comments to mention the arguments in this Dispatch (you could just cut and paste if you want). If you’ve used our Educate the Powerful System before, do the following . . .
SEE MORE AT Liberty Maven
Thank you for being a part of the growing Downsize DC Army.
Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.
D o w n s i z e r - D i s p a t c h
is the official email list of DownsizeDC.org, Inc. & Downsize DC Foundation
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