Joyful Alternative

Business Trends: Banks, Cars, Healthcare and Safe Vermont Mortgages

I wonder who Mr. Collier would like to fall through the cracks. I pay $350 a month for individual health insurance, my knee replacement cost me $9,000 out of pocket, and friends tell me I'm lucky that the insurer didn't drop me for costing them money. Friends in other states tell me I'm lucky to be able to buy health insurance at all. Am I supposed to fall through the cracks?

Mr. Collier obviously doesn't want his wife to fall through the cracks, and how nice for him that they received charity rather than a bill he'd be paying off for the rest of his working life. Should I fall through the cracks if my osteoarthritis makes another joint replacement necessary and I can't come up with the out-of-pocket expense (plus self-employed people don't get sick leave or sick pay!)? Keep in mind that the surgeon wants cash up front; he's had too many patients unable to pay him after he's done his part. Should somebody who makes $15,000/year and can't possibly pay insurance premiums of $350/month, not to mention all those out-of-pocket amounts, fall through the cracks? Is this guy a freeloader if he gets charity, too, when he gets cancer? And keep in mind that his and Mrs. Collier's charity are paid for by higher bills for you and me.

As a long-time self-employed person (and health insurance buyer), I wish I had access to "Medicare for All." I suspect never before in history have so many people looked forward to their 65th birthdays.

Helloooo Moral Hazard

You wonder where the extreme outrage is. Well, in these parts it's outraged grayhairs storming Arlen Specter's town hall meetings to denounce government takeover of Medicare!

By and large, all anybody knows is what the mass media will tell them, which isn't anything that will affect the ownership of the mass media. For example, Keith Olberman of MSNBC was told by the network brass to stop picking on a Fox News host because Rupert Murdoch was retaliating by publishing stories about GE sales to Iran. So don't blame ordinary people for not reacting to what they don't know about.

Bloomberg Reports Extreme Recession: I'm Shocked

This program will also help those states that tax cars as personal property: Clunker owners pay peanuts; new car owners pay a lot.

Conflict of Interest?

C-SPAN doesn't get its funding from the federal government. Its funding comes from the cable companies.

Gloom and Doom Returns to the Markets

Your Wolfgang Munchau link doesn't work, too many s. So after I fixed the URL, it took me to Tyler Burden guest posting at Naked Capitalism. Where did you want to direct us?

But I do agree with you. Anyone who believed the too-big-to-fail banks were suddenly turned around and profitable in January, and bought their stock as a bargain, needs a conservator.

For Insurance Companies, Is a Crisis Looming?

insuranceguy is right, and especially so for life insurance companies. They're not invulnerable, but they're not AIG.

Wall Street, 1792 - 2008?

No problems getting mortgages in Pennsylvania. There are even some no money down mortgages around.

Long-Term Ugliness

They posted the article to get us to comment, and we did.

GM's big mistake was not to push for single-payer universal health insurance long ago, say, maybe the Nixon era. They've been burdened by heavy costs for employee, employee family, and retiree health insurance that foreign car makers were spared; they've been competing with one arm (and maybe a foot, too) tied behind their back for a long time. Then again, they're kind of ponderous, and they might very well have screwed up and still found themselves the world's foremost provider of SUVs nobody wants. We'll never know.

As far as Pfizer, I agree with the commenter above. They've got a lot of cash and a fat dividend, and I bought some last week. They may turn around and go places with something in the pipeline or a purchase; if not, I'll get a better return than my bank offers for the foreseeable future.

I'm staying away from the whole banking, insurance, financial sector until it shakes out to my satisfaction, if ever.