Tag Archives: Barack Obama

Government Run Health Care

Posted on December 16, 2009 | Leave a comment

In action!

ATLANTA – Hundreds of thousands of swine flu shots for children have been recalled because tests indicate the vaccine doses lost some strength, government health officials said Tuesday.

Render unto Caesar!

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Posted in Health Care, Politics: National

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This Will Soon Be US

Posted on December 13, 2009 | 1 comment

As we slip further and further into the cluthes and dangerous mindset of the Government nanny state, we will soon find ourselves in THIS siutation:

A SHOPKEEPER has been fined £180 by Southend Council for NOT producing commercial rubbish.

…

Mr Howard was astonished when a council official visited to check his waste disposal credentials. The officer refused to believe he did not produce any waste and he was issued with a £180 fixed penalty notice…

Awesome.

Now that I think of it, this is EXACTLY where the Leftists are sending us.  If you DON’T use our Health Care system, we will fine you!

Hat Tip: Kids Prefer Cheese

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Posted in Health Care, Politics: International

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When Down is Up

Posted on December 10, 2009 | Leave a comment

Let’s say that you are running a lemonade stand.  You buy your cups, your ice, sugar and lemons.  All in, it costs you $0.10 to make a cup of lemonade.  Include your time and risk plus the profit you need and you sell it for $0.20 a cup.  Anything less and the risk of running the stand forces you to pack up shop and go back to work at the local grocery store.

Now, let’s say that the friendly neighborhood HOA comes over and says that some of your customers are kids who are thirsty because they are mowing lawns for the old ladies on the block.  They can’t afford the 20 cents you are asking but it’s just not fair that these kids don’t get to drink lemonade when they are so so thirsty and so so deserving.  You shake your head and kick your toes….you know what’s coming.

If you wanna keep selling lemonade on this street you have to sell lemonade to the kids for a nickel; a stinkin’ nickel!

What happens to your lemonade business model?  Well, you either:

  • Quit
  • Raise the price such that you compensate for the reduced price to kids
  • Move to another street so that none of your customers, including the poor deserving yet thirsty kids have ANY lemonade.

Right?

So how is that different than this?

WASHINGTON – A bipartisan group of lawmakers hopes to finally win a long struggle to ease curbs against importing low-cost prescription drugs…

Same thing, right?

Drug companies have a market that they sell into.  The prices currently are set such that they make the profits they need to exist.  In fact, those prices might ALREADY be higher than they would because foreign nations are already forcing prices below market levels.

Well, guess what will happen when/if this becomes law?  Our fearless reporter gets to it.  In the SIXTH paragraph:

…the billions of dollars drug companies would lose if Americans began buying large amounts of lower-priced pharmaceuticals from other nations — has prevented the proposal from being implemented for about a decade.

Good for our young reporter!  Finally he gets what might happen.  See, if the drug companies lose billions of dollars they are going to have to …. Ahh, what?  What did you say?  Our fearless reporter is continuing in ANOTHER direction?

“Does the pharmaceutical industry have a lot of clout? The answer is they sure do,” Dorgan said Wednesday. He said when it comes to a vote, he hoped “the interest of the American consumers will have as much clout in this chamber.”

Heh.  I should have known.  But lucky for us we can spot the key phrase:

the interest of the American consumers

And that means that this bill is a bunch of:

You Know What This IS

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Posted in Economics, Economy, Health Care

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And I Will Name Him — Success

Posted on December 9, 2009 | 6 comments

I can’t prove it, of course.  And, in fact, it may not even happen.  But I swear to you that I won’t be surprised if the recent reports of H1N1 vaccine being available is reported as reducing the number of cases of H1N1.

Back in late November, experts were calling the H1N1 peak:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The pandemic of swine flu may be hitting a peak in the Northern Hemisphere, global health officials said on Friday, but they cautioned it was far from over.

Not sure that a lot of people caught that.  And for those that did, they may have responded like I did:

Big “effin” deal.  My family already got it.

But, when you combine the news that the outbreak has peaked with this bit of good news:

Raleigh, N.C. — About 200 people showed up Tuesday morning at the Wake County Public Health Center in Raleigh to get the H1N1 flu vaccine.

…

Tuesday was the first day the county opened the vaccine up to anyone over 6 months old.

Traffic was slow and steady at the Sunnybrook Road location, as well as three other health department sites in Fuquay-Varina, Wake Forest and Zebulon.

Ray Martin, 71, said he was in and out of the Raleigh site in 15 minutes – a stark contrast to earlier this year, in which hundreds lined up and were turned away due to a limited supply of the vaccine.

Now look, I for one am very pleased to see that those folks who need a shot are getting one.  But really.  Providing a shot to people older than 6 months of age fully 2 weeks AFTER the peak is not really A-Okay in my book.  Especially considering that the vaccine takes nearly 2 weeks to fully “bake-in”.

Sadly, I am afraid that this is what we have to look forward to in the Government sponsored health care.  See, in the world of government, a vaccine is an expense that needs to be minimized.  In the private world, the vaccine is a product that needs to be available, marketed and sold.

‘Nuff said.

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Posted in Economics, Health Care

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Where a Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Posted on December 8, 2009 | 2 comments

I like this picture:

National Job Approval" Barach Obama December 8, 2009

Partly because it’s showing the shine is wearing off and America is starting to understand what many of us saw at the outset.  But also because this is a “poll of polls”.  Go to the site and see for yourself.  Each dot in the graph shows the results of an independent poll.  USToday, CNN, Gallup and so on.  And, in short, the survey SAYS!

NoBama.

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Posted in Politics: National

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Free Market Guy

Posted on December 5, 2009 | Leave a comment

So, word is that I trust the free market to a fault.  It might be hard to dispute that, but then again, my limited knowledge of economics as a science could argue in my favor that what I do or don’t know doesn’t mean squat.  Hell, for all I know, the only reason that I feel the way I do is that when I was a kid I mighta thought my dad was a Republican.  [he wasn’t, democrat blue through and through].  Anyway, so I started thinking.  They have books on sports.  Everything from who wins and loses, point spread, over under and even crazy things, like TDs in a game, fumbles in the first half or yards rushing per carry.  Crazy crazy stuff.  More crazy is how accurate it is.

See, it’s one thing to SAY that the Vikings are gonna beat Green Bay.  It’s another thing entirely to BET money that they will.  One is a hope.  The other is, or can be, an investment.

So I went out to see if there was a market for the stuff that I talk about here.  Turns out; there is:  Intrade

Intrade is a clearing house for all kinds of strange things.  You can bet on whoo will have control of the House of Representatives after 2010 election.  You can bet on Cap and Trade regulations, Gov Sanford staying in office and–well, Health Care plans.  Let’s check it out.

And as of right now, this board is tracking three “markets”

  1. A federal government-run health insurance plan to be approved before midnight ET 31 Dec 2009
  2. A federal government-run health insurance plan to be approved before midnight ET 31 March 2010
  3. A federal government-run health insurance plan to be approved before midnight ET 30 June 2010

Now, the way it works is that the “Closing Price” is what the “market” feels is the % chance that a “thing” will occur.  So, if the closing price for the “Vikings winning the NFC Norris” is at 83.5, then that is saying the market feels there is an 83.5% chance of the Vikings winning the Division.

Check out the graphs for each of our Health Care scenarios:


Price for Will a federal government run health insurance plan (a public option) be approved in the US? at intrade.com

This one looks very promising.  With a closing price of 2.7, the market is saying that there is only a 2.7% chance that we’ll see a “Public Option” by December 31, 2009.  How about March 31, 2010?

Note:  These graphs are show with their real time rates.  At the time of prining the first was at 2.7 and the bottom two at 12.0.


Price for Will a federal government run health insurance plan (a public option) be approved in the US? at intrade.com

Ouch, that one doesn’t look so good.  Fully 400% increase to 12% that we’ll see the public option by March 31, 2010.  For our last time frame; June 30, 2010?


Price for Will a federal government run health insurance plan (a public option) be approved in the US? at intrade.com

Fascinating.  The exact same closing price; 12.  The market feels that there is a 12% chance that we’ll have a “Public Option” passed by June 30th, 2010.

Very interesting stuff.  One note, this data is saying that if we don’t pass this by April 1, there is a zero percent chance that we’ll pass it by July 1.  If the market felt that there was a chance of passing after March 31, the close would reflect a number HIGHER than the March 31 closing.

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Posted in Economics, Health Care

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The Fruits of Our Labor

Posted on December 5, 2009 | Leave a comment

Quick.  Below, which company would you want to own?

52 Week View Range: $0.06 - $5.10

This is one Company.  See the second one below.

52 Week View Range: $1.50 - $9.14

Is it even close?  One company is taking off.  Not hard to do, the market has come back by some 60%.  However the other company, even in one of the best markets we have seen in years, is tanking.

The first company is Government Motors.

The second one is Ford.

Go Obama!

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Posted in Economy, Politics: National

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Danger Ahead

Posted on December 5, 2009 | Leave a comment

A couple of days ago I gave my explanation of why California doesn’t have any water left.  The basic idea is that when the price of a thing is reduced and limited below what the market would otherwise bare, you will experience a shortage of that thing.

This is true of water in California
This is true of housing in New York during rent control.
This is true of housing in San Francisco during rent control.
This is true of gasoline during times of rising prices.

So why is it that very smart people don’t take these lessons to heed?

Dorgan’s drug re-importation amendment is another significant hurdle. Allowing for the importation of cheaper drugs from Canada and European countries is popular among many Democrats and Republicans, giving Dorgan’s proposal a strong chance of passage.

Unbelievable.  Drug companies make drugs to sell, at a profit.  The market in the US is SO massive that they can sustain gross economic policies in other countries that force these companies to sell thier drugs for less than cost.  Now, the US wants to take those drugs from those countries and re-import them here.  For a price less than the market can bare.
Guess whats gonna happen?

Hat Tip: Say Anything

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Posted in Economics, Economy, Health Care

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OJT: On the Job Training

Posted on December 3, 2009 | Leave a comment

Barack Obama.

You know it’s bad when the far left begins to give you economic advice:

Liberal Democratic lawmakers, including the Congressional Black Caucus, are unhappy with the Obama administration’s pace of efforts tackling the unemployment rate, which is a whopping 10.2 percent and expected to rise.

The CBC, in particular, say Obama officials have not done enough to address the severe economic problems in the black community. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif, reportedly issued a warning Wednesday that the 43 members of the caucus are planning to vote with the GOP to derail a number of Democratic bills if it isn’t addressed.

However bad it is for Obama this, at least, is encouraging:

Labor support is more in favor of funding labor projects, in terms of public works, putting more money into the states and cities but the White House is concerned about the deficit.

Finally.

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Posted in Economy, Race

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Don't Be a Turkey: Czar

Posted on December 2, 2009 | Leave a comment

Really.  All ya’ll.  Just get out of the way and let people make decisions that reflect their best interests.  If you do that, wonderful wonderful things will happen.  All by themselves!

Like in previous years, you probably didn’t call your local supermarket ahead of time and order your Thanksgiving turkey this year. Why not? Because you automatically assumed that a turkey would be there when you showed up, and it probably was there when you showed up “unannounced” at the grocery store to select your bird.

The reason your Thanksgiving turkey was waiting for you without an advance order? Because of “spontaneous order,” “self-interest,” and the “invisible hand” of the free market – “the mysterious power that leads innumerable people, each working for his own gain, to promote ends that benefit many.” And even if your turkey appeared in your local grocery stores only because of the “selfishness” or “corporate greed” of thousands of turkey farmers, truckers, and supermarket owners who are complete strangers to you and your family, it’s still part of the miracle of the marketplace where “individually selfish decisions lead to collectively efficient outcomes.”

The entire process of raising turkeys for slaughter is timed so that a huge demand is met with a huge supply, but not TOO much of a supply.  And nobody, not even ONE body, is in charge of making it so.

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Posted in Economics

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