Retail Medical Offices and ObamaCare

This is another ObamaCare casualty that has been stifled; However, it can be resuscitated.

Mall medical services have been designed to accommodate everyday, urgent medical problems that may arise, where patients want to immediately know how serious their illness may be. The idea is to avoid overcrowded conditions in hospital emergency facilities. ERs are there for specific purposes, other than routine health evaluations.

Such medical offices can be made adjuncts to other types of retail facilities. Many already are in operation. They are supervised on staff by licensed nurses, while overseen by licensed physicians. Doctor referrals are made by those nurses.

Different states have varying regulations, depending on pressure groups, who would prefer not to have this form of competition.

Results? A form of reliable, private choice, low-cost, health care coverage. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

The Europeans and American Unemployment Insurance Models

About one third of the unemployed on benefits get jobs once those benefits expire. The longer the benefit term, the longer many unemployed take to start looking.

The difference between the U. S. and Europe has been that the latter has better unemployment benefits. Europe also has chronically higher unemployment.

Europeans also generally earn about as much for not working. No wonder they take to the streets whenever belt-tightening is suggested. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Temporary Jobs are Practical

Why not look for a temporary job when permanent opportunities are scarce? There are a variety of temporary positions in different industries, over a variety of activities.

This advice is for those just out of school with a new diploma but with no job offers in their chosen profession. Or a suggestion for those of you who have no idea what it is, exactly, you would like to work at.

You will get the on-the-job experiences you need, though few may relate in any way to what you studied in courses at school. You may even wait tables in some instances.

But they will all add to your practical education. And, importantly, to your pocketbook. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Public Economic Knowledge and the Media

I listen to late night/early morning call-in radio to hear how people around the country think about everyday living matters.

They talk about personal finance, economics and business and related political slants.

I find it a difficult chore because most folks are in the dark about the basics that they should have acquired in public school. College graduates often are just as lacking in fundamentals.

Except for any leftist indoctrination they may have gotten from professors. Most have no knowledge of basic finance, economics and business.

And unfortunately, most radio and Tv moderators and anchors have had similar “liberal” schooling, and are in no position to correct such views. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

The Climate Pays Off For Many

Since the heat waves of summer have replaced the dire hardships experienced of severe winter, climate control is bound to get more media attention.

There are adherents who treat climate control as a religion and have no doubt the earth is warming.

To others it’s a political cause that creates a road to office and helps to keep them there.

To still others in government, it’s a subterfuge for quietly and indirectly raising taxes on consumers, as well as industry.

And for others, it’s business in which you can buy and sell so-called cap and trade credits.

They market a green philosophy in a variety of industrial and consumer products that you choose to develop for profit.

Eventually the now-gullible public will find out the climate promoters can be grouped with the types who used to tell us the world would come to an end by a certain date. When that never occurred, we just forgot about the quacks. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Profit Versus Non-Profit Companies

Government-operation proponents are always enthusiastic about non-profit business. They rant against profit-making businesses.

The so-called non-profits can lose fortunes for their backers, while the for-profits can make pennies-on-the-dollar of sales. Yet, the government-operation fanatics remain committed to left-wing perception and deception.

It is impossible for private business to compete for long, whether it be the insurance business, health care, energy production, whatever, if taxpayer funds are grabbed by government for capital and operating capital needs. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

The Dollar as a Reserve Currency

The potential loss of the dollar as a reserve international currency is now underway. The ability to protect U.S. global interests in the future will be diminished in this process.

Do not treat unlimited government spending lightly. The repercussions can be extremely serious in matters of our economic and national security.

Think of what is happening with Greece and the European Union right now. The debt ceiling question is not important. Spending below that ceiling resolves the problem.

A budget deficit that cannot be overcome without massive taxation guaranteed to stifle economic growth to prevent deficit reduction is the major difficulty. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Ben Bernanke and Franklin D. Roosevelt

I have read that Ben Bernanke has made an avid study of the actions of Franklin D, Roosevelt during the latter’s tenure in office during the Great Depression.

Roosevelt made many errors, including enormous spending and raising taxes after signs of economic recovery became apparent later on. In fact, he never got us out of the depression. The war effort did.

Yet, Bernanke appears to be following a similar easy-money route that is not working.

Can it be that, Roosevelt’s administration, as present-day Obama’s, was dedicated to class warfare and “soaking the rich”? ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Government Business Efficiency

Whenever the government proposes a function that is now done by private industry, the taxpayer, will be contributing the necessary capital and operating funds.

And will be taking all the risks that is taken on by the stockholders of private industry. As well as responsibility for the losses, which are bound to happen under government operation. Think Post Office as an example.

So be careful of any government attempt to reduce costs by competing with private enterprise. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Our Well-Paid Teachers Flunk Again

The National Assessment of Educational Progress has been called the Nation’s Report Card. It reported that only 23% of fourth-graders, 30% of eighth-graders, and 21% of 12^th-graders were” proficient” or “advanced” on their national geography exam, given in January to March, 2010.

I saw one of the simple questions posted in the Wall Street Journal. The newspaper reported that only 33% of eight-graders got it right.

With a student body such as this in the U.S., we certainly do not get our money’s worth when it gets to education cost. But I do notice teachers’ unionized pay and benefits are highest ever.

Chronic European Unemployment Problems

Much of Europe is on the edge of bankruptcy amidst its permanent 10%-Plus unemployment. And its experience with younger workers, who do not get counted as unemployed because they give up early on, and are, in fact, permanently on the dole the moment they leave school in their teens.

If they excel at something, it’s in their demand for funds from their neighbors’ taxes. Those neighbors who work.

This is the society many of our left-leaning politicians fail to point to, when they sell us on government-supervised ObamaCare and other services the Europeans get so “cheaply.” ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

The Media’s Lack of Free Market Knowledge

Few general media reporters, columnists and editors have free market views and, certainly, a background on financial subjects.

In addition to what generalities journalists are ever taught, they receive a modicum of economic and financial training in school.

Not theory from economists such as Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell, Walter E. Williams, among others.

Thus you get left-leaning slants in many financial articles. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Government “Experts” and Spending

Americans should always think seriously about politicians who tell them government “experts” know all about spending and deficit control.

Any politician or bureaucrat with a short-term horizon is never reliable on this score.

Especially a politician unfriendly to, or unfamiliar with the true understanding of capitalism.

Our tremendous deficit will spell enormous inflation. Or a loss of currency value. And the certain loss of the eminence of America. As an economic and, therefore, a political and military entity. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

ObamaCare and the Post Office

Everything the government has done, including its health care under Medicaid, have been inefficient with equally poor service, comparable to that of the Post Office.

Government never fosters competition. It can cut out competition when it is permitted to write rules to have taxpayer money undercut the pricing of products or services of potential private producers.

As with ObamaCare.

The Post Office will not give up its first class mail handling privilege. It knows it cannot compete if it has competition. Other forms of non-first class package shipping are handled by private shippers efficiently and at low cost. While private carriers would love to carry first class mail, the Post Office continues to maintain its monopoly.

The Post Office says it provides service to areas no private carrier will want to service. Not true, as evidenced by cutbacks the Post Office constantly imposes. And destinations to which private carriers now go.

ObamaCare claims to provide everything private medicine can do better and cheaply but government has never allowed it. Such as interstate competition and tort reform and fraud correction, ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

American Constitutional Ignorance

I often write about our inefficient schools and how they prove to be a waste of so much of our educational funds. They appear to do more for the welfare of the teachers than they do the kids being taught.

As an example I refer to Prof. Walter E. Williams, in his recent column. Professor Williams, is now retired as head of the Economics Dept. of George Mason University but still actively writes and comments about his specialty.

According to one survey, Dr. Williams says, only 28% of students can identify the Constitution as the supreme law of the land.

And that fewer than 25% of students knew that George Washington was the first president of the United States.

And that only 26% of students knew that the first ten amendments to the Constitution are called the Bill of Rights.

Years ago, kids did better, when they sat, 30 and 40 to a class, and in one-room school houses. And so did the taxpayers funding their education. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Why Not Health Malpractice Courts?

We have special courts for bankruptcies where judges handle creditor and debtor claims, tax liens, workers compensation, and so on.

One of the complications that requires change, and proves costly with health care, is malpractice cost. The problem is primarily due to the huge amounts of lawsuits against providers. And fraud that permeates the system.

The result: The high outlays due to defensive medicine and doctor malpractice insurance premiums.

ObamaCare does nothing to stop this menace.

The practical solution: Arbitration courts made up of judges, trained in science and medicine. That would eliminate awards because of “junk science.”

The courts could eliminate attorney’s cuts of the award proceeds and put a cap on outsized sums that ordinarily come from ignorant jurists. While seeing that patients are compensated for actual malpractice. The courts would be financed from doctor insurance premiums.( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

European Central Bank Politics

Central banks are supposed to be completely independent. The European Central Bank or ECB took this position until recent years.

Thanks to the Greece, Irish, and related European Union bailouts, the central bank no longer is an independent vehicle.

In Great Britain, the Bank of England is a centuries older counterpart. The BOE, too, has always been entrusted with being an independent, non-political, overseer of the British pound. But the BOE now is also in the management game.

Americans are no better off. The Federal Reserve slowly but surely lost its independence as well, as I have commented over recent years. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Expensive College Inefficiency---Revisited

I constantly revisit college problems and whether many students actually ought to be attending in the first place.

I suggest reading "Going Broke by Degree: Why College Costs Too Much," by Richard Vedder and "Faculty Lounges and Other Reasons and also Why You Won't Get the College Education You Paid For." by Naomi Schafer Riley,

In the Vedder book, for instance, you learn that two out of five students entering four-year study programs don't achieve a bachelor's degree after the sixth year. And that colleges accept these students because of the money they bring, usually government-guaranteed loans.

Comments are quite instructive; you will learn why it appears so many of our Ivy-League graduates appear to be far dumber than ordinary plain-vanilla grads of the not-so-distant past.

Another example of college being useless: Vedder states there are 80,000 bartenders in the U. S. with bachelor's degrees, and17% of baggage porters and bellhops have college degrees, along with 15% of taxi/ limo drivers. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Economic Growth Impeded by Deficits

Economics 101 is seldom taught in high school, or for that matter, college: There is a major difference between a dollar “invested” by government and a dollar invested by private industry.

State control, liberal-leaning politicians believe that they’re the same. That it’s better if government makes the decision to spend. Or as the Obama administration says, “invest,” as opposed to private enterprise doing the function.

The government allocation is made by a political decision. That is often subject to pressures which have nothing to do with supply and demand. Rationing and corruption are bound to follow. The other, privately imposed decision is, however, more likely to confront what the public wants.

Moreover, private industry investment has a multiplier effect, while government spending does not. Government jobs have no leverage impact on the economy. Their purpose often has political, social and environmental intentions.

Governments do not innovate and create new companies and multiples of jobs. Nor do they enervate the needed psychology of a booming economy. Psychological effect is most important. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

The Phony Unemployment Reports

We keep getting unemployment reports that have little to do with true unemployment. It’s yet another case of the administration getting away with chicanery that the executives of a private enterprise would be arrested for.

Right now the unemployment rate is supposedly 9.2%. The media tells us so, and they are out to report on all the dirt they can find, or so they say.

But if you look even deeper in the June report’s U-6 unemployment rate, which includes folks who are underemployed and seeking full-time jobs that they can't find, that rate is 16.2 and growing.

By the way, the U-6 number doesn't include those who have givenup seeking work.

I would suggest viewers look up the Bureau of Labor Statistics site at www.bls.gov for details on the different facets of unemployment the media forgets about. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Politics 101 That Media Conveniently Overlooks

Lesson: Two political sides attempt to negotiate a budget deficit. The question is to cut spending and size of the budget.

When one side says it will severely cut spending a few years in the future but in the meantime takes current funds from taxes or keeps on spending, you just know that one of the two bargainers has just gotten ripped off.

Why? No politician has ever followed through on promises made years earlier to cut budgets.. Never. Look it up.

So all negotiated deals of this kind have always been decided in favor of the big government spenders and taxers.

Questionable Polls

Before you believe a political, business or scientific poll, ask yourself: Who pays or sponsors it? That can affect the results.

The samples can be selected to give different results. Questions an be posed to produce preferred answers. Demographics can be altered to assure outcomes. And of course, interpretations can be subjective.

Sponsorship, for that matter, can also influence the results of research. The Food and Drug Administration carries on quite a bit about that. See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Government Union Pension Fantasies

One reason why most state budgets are out of control is attributed to union-contracted, public employees pensions. I have often commented on the subject.

Unfortunately, the unions continue to feel optimistic about the ability of their pensions to accommodate their coming obligations by earning more on their investments than most experts envision.

Unions find it easy to be optimistic about the future return on investments, far much higher than what most market observers consider possible in the light of our budget deficits and their effects on investment markets. And prospective future inflation.

Government union pension bigwigs entertain lots of false optimism. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Incredibly Inept Regulators and Dodd-Frank--Again

I keep writing about our inept federal regulators, about their actions and how they do everything but regulate what they set out to do.

I have taken particular aim at the now year-old Dodd-Frank Act with its over 250 provisions still to be completed, and which has had so many, by now, countless unforeseen negative effects.

Such as forcing the banks “too big to fail” to keep adding to capital. This makes them less profitable, when they must be able to attract necessary capital for a thriving economy.

Moreover, this is foolish when capital cushions can be wiped out overnight whenever you mark-to-market the bank’s assets in poor markets, as in 2008. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Job Resume Suggestions

Job resume suggestions generally involve what not to mention. So many job applicants add superfluous information which helps impede the essential message, It’s of course important that everything, particularly your educational background, be truthful.

Topics such as the salary you’re seeking ought to be left off the resume. That question should come up only if the interviewer decides to ask about the subject during the first interview.

Your hobbies can be listed only if they specifically apply to the work you’re to do.

Your photo is not required and is generally left out unless your appearance is a prime aspect of the job.

Business Management, Government-Style

According to those leaning to the left, government can outperform corrupt “capitalists.”

So we have the perfect example of how government manages to handle politics.

General Motors decided to close dealerships after the government took it over. Closed dealers contacted their congressmen and senators, and the orders were then mostly rescinded, by political influence.

Valid business decisions became arbitrary decisions. The exact opposite the Obama administration promised would never happen, when it took over GM control.

Politicians need voters; they cater to voter pressures. That means private industry employees will lose out to political influences over time.

Business people need profits and do what they must to get them, or they go bankrupt. Bankruptcy resolves problems. Otherwise those difficulties fester for years at taxpayer expense, as they do under government control.

Lay Off Teachers Before Police and Fireman

Gutless politicians, mostly those on the left who are beholden to government unions for political funding and patronage, have a way of cutting spending.

It’s a favorite resort if you are going to spite those greedy taxpayers who refuse to keep paying salaries and benefits to those who earn more than they do.

The political payback device of the leftists? Lay off or fire the cops and firemen or let the prisoners out of jail.

In a society where the kids are getting dumber each year and only a third are educationally prepared to go to college, why do average class sizes have to remain at about 20 or so students? The small classes are still not working.

It is beyond me. Why not 40 kids in a class? It was in my youth, and the kids were smarter and better behaved.

And the larger class size with astute teachers would save sufficient educational outlay, while keeping cops, firemen, and criminal vigilance intact.

Graduate School Emphasis on Ethics

Graduate schools who specialize in high-priced MBAs go out of their way to be politically correct and fashionable. To do so, and be PC while charging exorbitant fees, they teach ethics.

In fact, the MBA schools are going out of their way to teach ethics in return for the obscenely, unconscionably high tuition they charge.

Why not teach the subject in high school and undergraduate college? It’s too late to bother if the graduate student has to be taught ethics.

State Correction of Illegal Immigration Factors

You find illegals in states such as New Jersey, New York and Illinois, yet not heavily in states that surround them. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Missouri and Michigan have them, though not heavily. Nor are they heavily populated in North and South Dakota or Montana. You do not find them concentrated in Mississippi. But next door in Alabama, Louisiana and Arkansas, there are larger percentages.

Would it be social benefits or schooling or legislation? There must be a particular combination of reasons in those states.

Those reasons can be addressed if the state governments truly wanted to correct them.

Should Greece Finally Go Bankrupt?

I know this is not not popular wisdom: A Greek bankruptcy would probably be the best solution for that country and its general population, along with the rest of Europe and the United States.

It would actually be the best medicine for Greece and the world, despite the gloom and doom portents being given. The pain would be severe but short lived. Not much more than what is still festering after the current efforts.

The result would have been the lesson Greece, Europe and the U. S. desperately need; that you cannot avoid living forever on air or the productive energy of other taxpayers. Debtors would learn to tighten their belts today, not down the road, tomorrow.

Bailouts always fail except for politicians in office who keep kicking the solution can down that road.

The Media Can Teach Economics 101

The Dow Jones Economic Sentiment Indicator tries to gauge the U.S. economy by weighing the balance of sentiment in articles published by fifteen major American newspapers. The Indicator analyzes published stories. They look for key words that indicate changes in economic sentiment.

Journalism schools do not teach enough economics. If they have any real economic study at all. Because that would entail a balance of conservative as well as liberal thinking on the subject. The results of the work of their graduates show a deficiency.

About 50,000 newspaper journalists work in the U.S., with thousands of published articles daily, Economics are integral to the news, particularly finance and its relation to politics.

Unfortunately, schools do not teach news balance. Journalists do not know enough to screen what has worked and not worked economically in the past.

And to avoid passing along political nonsense without critical oversight. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)