|
||||||
 Crown Princess atrium Seating
|
Some happy thoughts courtesy of Paul Farrell at MarketWatch: Retire? You can fuggetaboutit if the new Global Debt Time Bomb is detonated by any one of 20 made-in-America trigger mechanisms. Yes, 20. And yes, any one can destroy your retirement because all 20 are inexorably linked, a house-of-cards, a circular firing squad destined to self-destruct, triggering the [...] 
Oops. Via CBS: The latest calculation of the National Debt as posted by the Treasury Department has – at least numerically – exceeded the statutory Debt Limit approved by Congress last February as part of the Recovery Act stimulus bill. The ceiling was set at $12.104 trillion dollars. The latest posting by Treasury shows the National Debt [...] 
Seen at the LA Times: Getting into the holiday spirit, the House of Representatives on Thursday approved a spending bill loaded with goodies for the folks back home. Trails for Monterey Bay. An arts pavilion for Mississippi. Bus shelters for Bellflower. In all, the bill contains 5,224 earmarks costing about $3.9 billion, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, [...]
Seen at a Washington Post blog: U.S. Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today signed by 13 other freshman Democrats urging the use of a "substantial portion" of unspent or repaid Troubled Asset Relief Program funds to reduce the federal deficit. Connolly noted that some members of Congress have proposed [...] 
Between travel and work I haven’t had much time to do much recreational reading or writing. But to clear out the inbox right quick, I give you: Chop Suey: Over in Europe, Business Insurance mentions that the increased capital requirements for insurers proposed under Solvency II standards could have the side effect of reducing capacity for [...] 
Here’s yet another installment in my preaching that congressional health care reform measures do nothing to address the reality that a troublingly huge amount of money is poured into the health care system. The Hill has shared a memo from the Office of the Actuary for CMS (Medicare) expressing its evaluation of the net impact of [...]
The New York Times over the weekend featured this gem: The Democratic Party wants to spend more than we can afford; the Republican Party tends to want to cut taxes more than we can afford. So we are stuck. …uttered by Senator Bayh (D-IN) The article surrounding that observation also notes: The main driver of long-term deficits is the [...]
From a Washington Post article on updated federal deficit estimates: $1.4 Trillion in Red Ink Means Less to Spend On Obama’s Ambitious Jobs, Stimulus Policies Maybe it’s all the years studying applied math and statistics in college, and the years I’ve spent putting that knowledge to use as an actuary… but if you’re already spending significantly more money [...]
While I have in the past disagreed with him on some points, I generally respect former Fed Chairman Greenspan’s opinions. And this time, they’re spot on. As seen at CNN: Greenspan told the ABC program "This Week" that the federal debt was already getting too big, so reforming health care must do more than achieve what [...] 
While the graphics in USA Today sometimes make the paper feel a little too frü-frü, sometimes they do a very effective job at telling a story: I appreciate the need to help reignite the economy after last year’s crash…but doesn’t the path we’re heading down have a certain…Zimbabweish feel? Contrast that with what’s happening in Germany, according [...] |
|||||
|
Website content © MikeTheActuary 1994-2010 |
||||||
