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The Fed Has A Problem: Inflation May Hit 3.5% By December Due To Gas Price "Base Effect"

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The Fed Has A Problem: Inflation May Hit 3.5% By December Due To Gas Price Base Effect One of the officially stated reasons why the Fed delayed hiking rates so far, is because inflation in late 2015 and early 2016 has been lower than the Fed's bogey (as long as one does not look at core inflation, or such critical price levels as asking rents and health insurance). And, based at least on the CPI's basket weighing of headline input prices, the Fed may have been right: the main reason for this is that tumbling energy prices have resulted in a sharp drop in gasoline prices at the pump, one of the primary drivers of Headline CPI.

What is left unsaid is that keeping rates low has been a blessing in disguise for the Fed: following the early 2016 market rout, which was the functional tightening equivalent of three rate hikes, Yellen was happy that inflation was low enough to let her get away without a rate hike so far this year.

However, as we approach the anniversary of last year's oil - and gasoline - price lows and the base-effect goes away, the sharp pick up in gas prices is set to have an even sharper upward impact on Consumer Price Inflation. It will also wreak havoc on the Fed's strategy of playing possum and not hiking as long as inflation remained "stubbornly low" because suddenly inflation will be the highest it has been in years.

In short: the Fed suddenly has a problem. Here's why.

As BofA writes in a note today, the recovery in oil prices this year should lift headline CPI inflation, "confirming the transitory nature of the energy drag." What is startling, however, is that assuming BofA's gas price forecast is right, the bank calculates that its baseline forecast is for CPI to rise to 2.4% by year-end 2016 from the current 1.1% reading. This forecast uses futures prices for wholesale gasoline (RBOB) to estimate future energy prices.

Note that 2.4% CPI inflation in December is BofA's *base case,* based on an all too realistic gas price of $1.77/gallon retail ($1.41 wholesale). *According to BofA's "bull case" in which gasoline returns to its historical price of $2.76/gallon ($2.06 wholesale) would more than triple headline inflation from its current 1.1% level to a whopping 3.5%: *this would be a shock to the Fed, to inflation expectations, and to the market. It would also force the Fed to hike rates far faster than the market currently expects.

Here is the math:



*Futures wholesale prices are set to inch up from $1.64/gallon to $1.65/gallon in June before ending the year at $1.41/gallon, above the December 2015 level of $1.27/gallon*. We sensitize our inflation forecast by defining “bull” and “bear” cases for gasoline prices in addition to our baseline. In particular, we use the highest and lowest observed RBOB price over the last twelve months. *This means a bull case of $2.06/gallon and bear case of $1.07/gallon wholesale, by year-end, with the shock gradually building over our forecast horizon*. $1.41/gallon wholesale would be $2.11/gallon for retail gasoline, assuming a steady wholesale-retail spread of $0.70 (which covers distribution/marketing and taxes). *Our “bull” case would be $2.76/gallon retail and the “bear” case would be $1.77/gallon retail.*



The impact of the base-effect is so pronounced, that as BofA notes, an *extreme bearish scenario *is needed for inflation to stall. A far less extreme scenario is needed for inflation to jump dramatically. To wit:



Our analysis shows that there is a clear uptrend in CPI ahead, under most reasonable scenarios (Chart 1). *CPI would accelerate to 3.5% yoy under our bull case, and rise to 1.6% under our bear case*. Supportive base effects are a key driver. It is only under an extreme bear case (year-end wholesale gasoline price of $0.88/gallon, or retail at $1.58/gallon), that we would see CPI inflation flatten out at 1.1%, all else equal.



What about after 2016? BofA again:



*One of the key reasons why we think CPI is set to head higher later this year is because of base effects: gasoline prices were so low late last year that it’s hard to get to a lower year-on-year comparison point come late-2016*. This “base effect” *will push the year-on-year rate higher in late 2016*. Beyond that, we continue to see elevated inflation, but the trajectory slows slightly through 2017.



The one saving grace the Fed may have if challenged with suddenly surging headline CPI is that inflation expectations will lkely be far slower to rise.



In contrast, market-based inflation expectation measures such as the Fed’s 5-year breakeven inflation rate remains subdued, currently at 1.5%. A simple correlation chart shows that the Fed’s 5-year breakeven inflation rate closely tracks gasoline prices (Chart 2). Thus, inflation expectations may only rise if gasoline prices/energy costs push higher. But as a recent Fed paper argued, both TIPS breakevens and oil prices are driven by the same factor: changes in the outlook for global economic activity.* Thus, a rebound in market-based inflation expectations may require a rebound in aggregate demand. *Furthermore, breakevens face many headwinds, including investor doubts about central bank credibility. Add it all up, and we see a much more protracted recovery for inflation expectations than for actual inflation.



That said, even with depressed and delayed inflation expectations, Yellen will be hard pressed to explain why she isn't aggressively hiking at every opportunity if and when headline CPI rises to 2.4%, let along the "bull case" of 3.5%. We wonder how long until China figures this out. We also wonder if the recent near doubling in oil prices, so eagerly greeted by the Fed, will not be promptly undone by the very same Fed which will need to get gas price inflation out of the picture if Yellen wishes to preserve the optionality of keeping rates low any time the market suffers an even modest 5% selloff.

In short, keep a very close eye on gas prices: over the next few months, gas prices will become far more important to the Fed's monteray policy than even China. Reported by Zero Hedge 10 hours ago.

Real-Life Dream Boss Wants To Pay For Your Wedding

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When it comes to employee perks, the startup Boxed is clearly thinking outside of the cardboard containers for which it’s named.

Boxed CEO Chieh Huang announced last week that the company will pay for employees' weddings, up to $20,000.

Last year the company, an online Costco-like retailer, said it would pay for employees' kids to attend college. As of this September, Boxed is footing tuition bills for five students, including one who’s headed to Brown University in September.

“Free snacks get old,” Huang told The Huffington Post, explaining that college and weddings are more important than the happy hours, snacks and ping-pong tables you’d find at other startups. “I just want to do the stuff that really matters.”

The wedding perk wasn’t just some lavish benefit dreamed up inside Huang’s office. It happened because one of the startup’s workers needed help.

Marcel Graham, a 26-year-old packer making $13 an hour in the company’s Edison, New Jersey, fulfillment center had been working 7 days a week, two shifts a day to save for his wedding. But he wound up spending his savings to help pay his mother’s medical bills. With his wedding coming up, he felt desperate. He recently cried at work on the warehouse floor.

Huang called him that night to find out what was going on. “We had to step in and do the right thing,” Huang told HuffPost.

He pointed out that at most companies, if the boss needs you -- to pull an all-nighter, work extra shifts, etc. -- most workers will step up. If you reverse the scenario, though, most employers aren’t there for their workers. “If someone is in a life-altering situation, most companies will not help them,” Huang said.

Huang arranged to bring Graham’s fiancee, Tara Aucoin, to the fulfillment center and announced the new wedding perk to everyone there.“It was overwhelming, that Boxed would pay for my wedding," Graham said in a press release. "I was in tears, and so was my fiancee. It just makes me feel that they appreciate my work here.”

HuffPost asked Huang why he wouldn’t just give workers like Graham a raise, erasing the need to get help with weddings or school tuition. He said a raise wouldn’t be enough.

“Even if we doubled wages, they wouldn’t be able to pay” for college tuition or weddings, he said.

The 34-year-old Huang, who spent roughly $14,000 on his own wedding about six years ago, said he is aware of about four more weddings coming up, three involving workers in the company's fulfillment centers.Boxed, which Fortune dubbed the “millennial Costco,” recently raised $100 million and this week announced an investment from American Express. Ultimately, Huang said he’d like to take the company public.

When it comes to treating employees well, Boxed seems to have taken a cue from the very company it seeks to “disrupt." Costco is known for paying its hourly workers well and treating them with respect.

Boxed employees have more in common with Costco workers than they do with the highly paid and perked up employees of Silicon Valley companies who pull in six figures and likely don’t need much help with weddings or anything else. Many of Boxed's approximately 125 employees work in fulfillment centers, making an average of $14 an hour.

Boxed gives these hourly workers the same benefits as salaried ones. They are very good benefits, including health insurance and -- notably -- unlimited sick time and vacation time.

Parental leave is unlimited, as well. And unlike Netflix, which calls its 12-month leave policy “unlimited,” there’s no maximum, Huang said. He leaves it up to workers to decide how much time is right.

“I remind everyone that this is a system of trust. You don’t want to be the person that messes it up for everyone. You can’t, like, fuck off to Nepal for six weeks without telling anyone.”

The longest parental leave taken so far was a little over seven months, he said. And “she’s gonna be pregnant again soon,” Huang said this woman told him. “If she needs another seven or eight months, then so be it.”

Only two people have ever left the company, Huang added.

I mean, yeah.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 9 hours ago.

How Firms Can Prepare for the Freelance Economy

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*That Sucking Sound Is Your Workforce Going 1099*

A lot of companies ask me how they can prepare their firms to take on more freelance tech talent. Before I explain, let me provide a little background. Since 1993 I've been working in the freelance gig economy...literally. I started my career booking concerts, then transitioned to managing bands and five years ago expanded the definition of talent management to include the top 1% of tech freelancers. My company, 10x Management is at the forefront of the biggest shift in the workplace since Henry Ford instituted the assembly line.

Forbes predicts that by 2020 50% of the US workforce will be comprised of freelance workers. While a large portion of these workers will be non-strategic -- your Uber drivers, etc -- the real shift is with highly skilled, strategic thinkers. I've referred to them as Innovative Millennials, others have called them Agile Talent. However you want to refer to them, they're here to stay.

In the blink of an eye, thanks to the confluence of a major imbalance between the supply and demand for tech talent, the rise of cloud computing, and the ease of access to individual health insurance the numbers of developers that are opting to freelance has ballooned. We've observed this first hand with thousands of brilliant coders applying to be represented by us.

We've also seen it in the sheer number of companies that have popped up to provide services to freelancers. What started with the Freelancers Union in 2001 has grown into dozens and dozens of companies that support contingent workers. Companies like recent startup And Co who provide back office services to freelancers. The world is changing and changing fast.

With this rapid change underway, many enterprise and legacy economy companies have asked us how they can get ready to take on more freelance workers. Here's what I tell them:

1. *Appoint someone in your organization to own the freelance space.* They should learn about the different companies that work with freelancers and which one(s) might be best to engage with. They should learn best practices of how to effectively utilize freelancers, and help implement those strategies within their company.

2. *Empower your product teams to understand the benefits of bringing in freelancers*. There are many benefits, but the ones most often cited include: easy access to specific expertise, an increase in speed to market, and the introduction of new ideas and methodologies into a project.3. *Provide an environment that is conducive to freelancers.* Many people shift to freelancing because they want the ability to work where they want, when they want. Yet many companies today still require work to be conducted on site. There are many reasons why working on site, especially for coders, is not ideal. By creating a flexible work environment you're likely to get access to the best and brightest minds, as opposed to limiting your options to only those that are either located in your market and/or are willing to work out of your office.4. *Adjust your accounts payable policies to ensure that your freelancers are paid in a timely manner*. More often than not, freelancers are paid more slowly than W2 workers. Often WAY slower. Net 60 payment terms for someone providing mission critical, high level product work for your company is truly unacceptable. In many cases you're talking about an individual who is providing the service, not a large consulting firm that may be running hundreds if not thousands of other projects. Set payment terms not to exceed 14 days; sooner if possible. We all know you can pay faster. So, pay faster!

If your company builds technology, you rely on having access to the best technology talent. More and more of the best minds in tech are leaving the W2 world and moving to 1099 freelance/contractor status. This is not a trend; it's the new normal. The sooner you adapt and embrace it, the better off you'll be in the coming years when competing for tech talent becomes even more fierce.

Is the sky falling? Maybe. But the good news is that you can do something about it. You have been warned (smiley face).

If you like this article please recommend and/or share it. I appreciate your comments and feedback.

You might also enjoy reading, In 5 Easy Steps - May the Millennial Workforce Be With You!

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 9 hours ago.

Health startup Bright Heart picks Colorado as first market

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UnitedHealth Group Inc. and Humana Inc., two of the largest U.S. health insurers, are quitting the health insurance exchange in Colorado next year. Bright Health, a startup that hasn’t yet signed up its first customer, sees opportunity. Reported by Denver Post 8 hours ago.

Startup health insurer to jump on Colorado exchange, partner with Centura

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Minneapolis startup health insurer Bright Health has selected Colorado as its flagship market and plans to sell individual plans on the state's public health-insurance exchange starting in 2017. It said it will offer plans in partnership with Colorado-based hospital operator Centura Health. Centura previously partnered with a co-op that shut down last year. The new partnership will be called Colorado Health Neighborhoods, or CHN. “We’re committed to finding better ways to serve our communities,”… Reported by bizjournals 8 hours ago.

This exclusive report reveals the ABCs of the IoT

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The Internet of Things (IoT) Revolution is picking up speed and it will change how we live, work, and entertain ourselves in a million ways big and small.

From agriculture to defense, retail to healthcare, everything is going to be impacted by the growing ability of businesses, governments, and consumers to connect to and control their environments:

· “Smart mirrors” will allow consumers to try on clothes digitally, enhancing their shopping experience and reducing returns for the retailer
· Assembly line sensors will detect tiny drops in efficiency that indicate critical equipment is wearing out and schedule down-time maintenance in response
· Agricultural equipment guided by GPS and IoT technology will soon plant, fertilize and harvest vast croplands like a giant Roomba while the “driver” reads a magazine
· Active people will share lifestyle data from their fitness trackers in order to help their doctor make better health care decisions (and capture discounts on health insurance premiums)

No wonder the Internet of Things has been called “the next Industrial Revolution.” It’s so big that it could mean new revenue streams for your company and new opportunities for you. The only question is: Are you fully up to speed on the IoT?

After months of researching and reporting this exploding trend, John Greenough and Jonathan Camhi of Business Insider Intelligence have put together an essential briefing that explains the exciting present and the fascinating future of the Internet of Things. It covers how IoT is being implemented today, where the new sources of opportunity will be tomorrow and how 17 separate sectors of the economy will be transformed over the next 20 years, including:

· Agriculture
· Connected Home
· Defense
· Financial services
· Food services
· Healthcare
· Hospitality
· Infrastructure
· Insurance

· Logistics
· Manufacturing
· Oil, gas, and mining
· Retail
· Smart buildings
· Transportation
· Connected Car
· Utilities

 

If you work in any of these sectors, it's important for you to understand how the IoT will change your business and possibly even your career. And if you’re employed in any of the industries that will build out the IoT infrastructure—networking, semiconductors, telecommunications, data storage, cybersecurity—this report is a must-have.

Among the big picture insights you’ll get from *The Internet of Things: Examining How the IoT Will Affect The World*:

· IoT devices connected to the Internet will more than triple by 2020, from 10 billion to 34 billion. IoT devices will account for 24 billion, while traditional computing devices (e.g. smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, etc.) will comprise 10 billion.
· Nearly $6 trillion will be spent on IoT solutions over the next five years.
· Businesses will be the top adopter of IoT solutions because they will use IoT to 1) lower operating costs; 2) increase productivity; and 3) expand to new markets or develop new product offerings.
· Governments will be the second-largest adopters, while consumers will be the group least transformed by the IoT.

And when you dig deep into the report, you’ll get the whole story in a clear, no-nonsense presentation:

· The complex infrastructure of the Internet of Things distilled into a single ecosystem
· The most comprehensive breakdown of the benefits and drawbacks of mesh (e.g. ZigBee, Z- Wave, etc.), cellular (e.g. 3G/4G, Sigfox, etc.), and internet (e.g. Wi-Fi, Ethernet, etc.) networks
· The important role analytics systems, including edge analytics, cloud analytics, will play in making the most of IoT investments
· The sizable security challenges presented by the IoT and how they can be overcome
· The four powerful forces driving IoT innovation, plus the four difficult market barriers to IoT adoption
· Complete analysis of the likely future investment in the critical IoT infrastructure: connectivity, security, data storage, system integration, device hardware, and application development
· In-depth analysis of how the IoT ecosystem will change and disrupt 17 different industries

*The Internet of Things: Examining How the IoT Will Affect The World* is how you get the full story on the Internet of Things.

To get your copy of this invaluable guide to the IoT universe, choose one of these options:

1. Purchase an ALL-ACCESS Membership that entitles you to immediate access to not only this report, but also dozens of other research reports, subscriptions to all 5 of the BI Intelligence daily newsletters, and much more. >> *START A MEMBERSHIP*
2. Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> *BUY THE REPORT*

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the fast-moving world of the IoT.

Join the conversation about this story » Reported by Business Insider 12 minutes ago.

Lice Troopers Announces Launch of All-Natural, In-Home Head Lice Removal Product Line

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The Miami-based company is providing a safe solution for treating head lice at home with a new line of treatment and preventative products.

Miami, Florida (PRWEB) May 27, 2016

With cases of head lice and super lice among children and teens consistently on the rise, Miami-based Lice Troopers, the recognized name in professional lice removal, is launching its very own line of at-home treatment products.

Unlike over-the-counter products, which contain harsh chemicals like pyrethrins, the Lice Troopers home treatment line is pesticide-free, and safe for even the youngest children. Product offerings contain everything from a specialized shampoo to a daily lice preventative solution, plus the specialized metal nit comb that has made the company's method so successful.

The problem with pyrethrins goes beyond the health risks. As the parasite and its eggs (nits) become more resistant to the pesticides that have been traditionally used to treat them, parents find themselves wasting money on treatments that now have reported success rates of less than 25%. Super lice are increasingly hard to kill.

This is why Lice Troopers developed a method to remove lice, instead of trying to kill them. Using all natural products and a state-of-the-art comb, plus a good amount of patience, they treat children and adults without the use of chemicals. And now, for the first time ever, they are making their products and comb available to parents who want to handle the task at home.

Said Arie Harel, owner and operator of Lice Troopers, “We’re excited to make the products available. They’ve been working for us for decades and they’ll work for parents too. Most parents will still choose to come to the salon, because our technicians are experts and they can handle the job in about an hour. But we have a lot of parents who are up for tackling the bugs at home and that’s why we’re launching the line.”

The new Lice Troopers home lice removal product line will be available in the company’s treatment salons and online by mid June of this year.

Lice Troopers is the all-natural, guaranteed Head Lice Removal Service™ that manually removes the head louse parasite safely and discreetly in child-friendly salon settings, or other chosen location. Providing safe solutions for frantic families, the Lice Troopers team has successfully treated thousands of families nationwide, with services widely recommended by pediatricians and reimbursed by many major health insurance carriers, flexible spending accounts and health savings accounts. Reported by PRWeb 20 hours ago.

You Say You Want a Revolution

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“Political revolution”—it’s the notable phrase of campaign 2016. For those who are for it, and feel like they’re in it, it’s worth the effort to get clear what it means and how it might be achieved.

Credit goes to Bernie Sanders for popularizing it. (It’s so compelling a concept that even Carl Palladino, Donald Trump’s New York state chair, uses the words.) To both it means an upheaval, pushing out those in power. To Sanders, the strategic core of the revolution is the suppression of the influence of the rich and big business by limiting big money in politics. That would facilitate substantive change in such areas as banking, health insurance, college affordability, and prescription drug pricing.

But Sanders underscores that any of this requires not just getting big money out, but getting people in.

He describes the method of the political revolution as electoral victory followed by pressure from the grassroots. Millions must mobilize, he says, to make change achievable.

There is indeed a strategic path to the kind of win that animates millions of progressives, a win not just to preserve the gains they have made for equal rights and justice, but real change for economic equality and opportunity, for the climate, for the positive role of government, for unions. That’s what a political revolution would yield.

But here’s the rub. The kind of electoral victory required to realize Sanders’s or any progressive vision has to be big, big as the victories of 1932 and ‘34, and 1964. Big and sustained, in contrast to the victories of 2008 and 2012, which were followed by the reversals of 2010 and 2014. In our federal system, with its checks and balances, that means winning a partisan majority that’s big enough to control the White House and Congress, and governorships and state legislatures. And robust in other ways, which I will explain.

 

*“Revolution.” The word usually suggests* violent upheaval, though not exclusively. Whether violence is part of the picture depends more on the means used to block change than the intentions of movements for change. We had an armed revolution in 1776. Armed struggles, including guerrilla wars as in Cuba, and civil wars and insurrections like those in Algeria and South Africa, are one of the three main avenues for revolution.

But that’s not what today’s “political revolutionaries” have in mind.

Mass protest rebellions are a second type, recently including Iran (1979) and the Arab Spring (2011). “Color revolutions” go back to the Carnation Revolution (Portugal 1974), the Yellow Revolution (Philippines 1986) and many others in the former Soviet bloc. These typically include political general strikes. The transfer of power can be nonviolent if the old regime, having lost legitimacy, cedes it—as did the Shah, Hosni Mubarak, Marcelo Caetano, and Ferdinand Marcos. It’s what Phil Ochs sang about in “Ringing of Revolution.”

Today’s America is not congenial to either type of upheaval. 

So “political revolution” means power struggle by electoral means. That’s the third type.

It has been done before, here and elsewhere.

The Swedish Social Democratic Workers Party came to power in an election following a general strike that protested of the use of the military as strikebreakers in the Ådalen Valley in 1931. Its successes, as well as those of the New Deal and the French Popular Front (1936) followed election victories in the wake of the Great Depression’s wage cuts, unemployment, and general dislocations. After World War II, Britons were eager for social change, and voters ousted Winston Churchill’s Tories in favor of Clement Attlee’s Labour Party. In 1972, Australians, reacting against the governing Conservatives failed economic policies and their and their continued involvement in the Vietnam War, elected their first Labour government under Gough Whitlam. And the Brazilian PT (Partido dos Trabalhadores) came to power in 2003 after years of dictatorship and several electoral rounds.

Each of these governments enjoyed, at least initially, a robust majority mandate. It was sustained for decades in Sweden, but for only three years in France and Australia, and less than ten in the U.K. Majorities vary in depth and breadth; our own New Deal majority was undercut in the late ‘40s and ‘50s, but was renewed and extended by the civil rights movement. 

Each of these regimes faced entrenched opponents who did their utmost to undermine them, both constitutionally and extra-constitutionally. Whitlam was dismissed from office by act of the Governor General, in cahoots with the foreign offices of the U.K. and U.S. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is now facing impeachment, though no one has even alleged she’s committed any financial improprieties or exceeded the constitutional limits of her office.

Ollie Atkins/White House/Public Domain

Since the success of Richard Nixon’s Southern Strategy, the Republican coalition has been led by the rich and big business, a small minority group. Nixon in Philadelphia during his 1968 presidential campaign. 

 

In the U.S., the progressive movement that made great strides during Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency was driven back from the high water mark it had reached in the mid-‘40s by its enemies employing every means at their disposal. It took almost 50 years for progressives to bury McCarthyism, and, after almost 80 years, Taft-Hartley still curtails workers’ right to organize.

“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will,” Frederick Douglass said. Progressives believe their goals are just and aspirations noble. But they do themselves a disservice by underestimating the dangers their enemies pose, and failing to do all the things they must in order to prevail.

The kind of intensity that the Sanders campaign has demonstrated is critical. But it isn’t sufficient for a political revolution. It’s insufficient because of its demographic narrowness.  And insufficient because of its reliance on one election: Progressives need to win in both 2016 and 2018 to have enough power to start to make real change. Winning only in 2016, even if followed by continued mobilization of the Sanders movement, wouldn’t be enough.

 

*The United States has* one of the most diverse populations on earth; it is, perhaps, the single most diverse country. We have a two-party system for most of our elections. So the formulas for winning depend on building coalitions, one on the right, one on the left. In the party alignment that has prevailed since the success of Richard Nixon’s Southern Strategy, the Republican coalition has been led by the rich and big business, a small minority group.

The next segment of the coalition consists of middle-class elements drawn from the for-profit business system: business managers, lawyers, engineers, professionals in sales and accounting, real estate and insurance agents, entrepreneurs and investors, including “small” business, and physicians and farmers. 

It also embraces elements in all social strata connected to the military-industrial complex: enlistees, officers, veterans, and workers in defense industries.

The Southern Strategy wasn’t just geographical; racial demagogy, exploiting fears it fanned about quotas, busing, and crime, drove a wedge into the Democrats’ base all over the country. The right expanded its reach by taking on the anti-abortion cause, and then the anti-gay cause, and making the institutional backers of those causes—Catholic and evangelical churches—political partners. The wedge strategy led the right to embrace gun rights and the Sagebrush Rebellion.

All these forces usually see clearly that their long-run interests are better served by Republican Party success, even when particular causes are deferred, and even when it means abandoning Democrats who support those particular causes. Though GOP unity is being sorely tested by Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 primaries, the widely-shared repugnance to Democrats, Obama and Obamacare, Hillary Clinton, and all they represent, provides a solid foundation for Trump, as it would have for Ted Cruz or any of the Republican field.

In the mid-2000s, this coalition came close to establishing the degree of hegemony that Democrats enjoyed in the FDR years. So close that pundits wrote about a “permanent Republican majority.” After all, they had been working methodically toward that goal since President Nixon and Lee Atwater moved the Southern Strategy and Lewis Powell penned the Powell Memorandum. But they were set back by the anti-Iraq war sentiment in 2006, and then along came Barack Obama, animating a coalition now dubbed the Rising American Electorate or the New American Majority.

The Democrats don’t present a neat parallel, though they, like the Republicans, must find a path to majority control.

First, there is no central guiding force in the Democratic Party that is quite equivalent to big business in the GOP. The Democrats are not a Labor Party; organized labor is but one element under a big tent.

Tim Bekaert/Public Domain

The 2008 election frustrated Republican attempts to create a "permanent Republican majority." Then-candidate Barack Obama speaking in Houston, Texas, on the eve of the state's primaries and caucuses in March 2008. 

Labor would like to see itself in the leading position in the party; it’s the logical counterforce to big business. But the modern period, with its sharply defined polarization between the parties, has also seen the shrinkage of organized labor. Union households are a minority of the Democratic vote, even in states with the highest union density.

African Americans certainly have a case for leading the party. They are by far the most partisan group of voters, and have been so since the partisan realignment triggered by the civil rights movement and the Voting Rights Act. More than any other group, African Americans have invested their aspirations in the Democratic Party. And the party’s success in ‘08 and ‘12 was achieved by rallying behind an African American.

But far from being in a position to plan the party’s majority-making strategy, in most states it is more common for black Democrats to feel they are “being taken for granted” by the Democrats.

Second, the left (at least parts of it) doesn’t view the Democratic Party the same way the right views the GOP. Senator Sanders himself is a registered independent, as are a large number of those who have voted for him (or would have but for the obstacle of living in a state with a “closed” primary). 

Against these two deficiencies, the Democrats benefit from two trends: the growth of the Hispanic and Asian minorities, and the greater liberalism of millennials. 

Electoral outcomes are determined by a combination of variables: resources, unity, turnout, and the underlying size of the electoral coalitions drawn upon. Occasionally, the coalitions themselves are reshaped by shifting constituencies, like the turn to the GOP of Southern whites or the turn away from it by Latinos.  

Unity isn’t always determinative: Harry Truman won in 1948 despite losing five states to Dixiecrats who’d walked out of the Democratic convention when it adopted a civil rights plank; Ronald Reagan won in 1980 even though John Anderson drew off some moderate Republicans and the Ed Clark/David Koch Libertarians drew 920,000 votes. But Ross Perot damaged George H.W. Bush in 1992, as Ralph Nader did to Al Gore in 2000.

The Obama coalition was broad enough, united enough, and motivated enough to win in 2008 and 2012. The party was just as unified and broad-based in 2010 and 2014, but the turnout sagged. Even if Democrats win in 2016, why should they expect 2018 to be any different from 2010 or 2014?

They should not, unless strategies like those offered below bear fruit:

·      Delivering to the base. The new president will try to deliver on a wide range of subjects of great interest to Democratic voters, both for their intrinsic merits, and in the hope that it would spur turnout in 2018. Though the ACA guarantee of coverage through age 26 didn’t seem to increase youth vote, and the ARRA auto rescue didn’t seem to help in midterm elections in Michigan, Ohio, or Indiana, a Democratic president is sure to try to produce real gains for her supporters. A Jobs Agenda would seem most promising: If voters in 2018 see and feel progress on domestic manufacturing, wages, and infrastructure, and inner-city joblessness, they might credit the Democrats. And perhaps there’s some administrative action on student debt that will pay off; perhaps the courts will leave some leeway for administrative deferral of deportations. 

·      Changing the electoral rules. The Justice Department and the Hillary Clinton campaign have each brought suits against state practices that violate the Voting Rights Act, including practices that go beyond those proscribed by the Supreme Court’s Shelby decision, which curtailed the scope of the Voting Rights Act. Most of that litigation will still be in various stages of appeal in 2017. And the 2016 elections might yield some states in which automatic voter registration, vote by mail, and election-day registration can be expanded or reinstated.

Phil Roeder/Creative Commons

Supporters listen to Bernie Sanders speak at the Des Moines Register's political soapbox at the State Fair in August 2015. 

·      Wedge Number One: Seniors. Most Republicans (though not Donald Trump—at least, today) want to diminish earned benefits: Medicare, Social Security, traditional pensions, veterans’ health care. Seniors, who are a growing fraction of the electorate, particularly in off years, ought to move away from the GOP if these issues are given proper prominence.

·      Wedge Number Two: Women. The Clinton campaign will do its best to bring some Republican women into the Democratic column, and the new administration can do its best to reinforce the campaign's outreach. 

The common thread running through each of these policies is the use of power to build power. They are premised on the clear-headed recognition that the wherewithal for big change, for a “political revolution,” is not in hand, but can be built.

Longer-range strategies toward the same end include creating paths to citizenship for those among us who are currently forced to live in the shadows, and paths to union organizing for workers who want to join unions but are blocked by hostile employers and an unresponsive labor relations system.

The right found a way to rebuild, in the wake of the Johnson-Goldwater landslide of 1964. So can the left. 

Successes now, in ‘16, ’18, and ‘20, could also yield a more equitable set of state redistricting plans.

Success now could wrest the federal judiciary, particularly the Supreme Court, from the right-wing activists who have held sway and used it in a very political way.

A robust, multi-dimensional understanding of majority-building is the necessary catalyst that can turn the desire for a political revolution into a serious strategy for change.

In Obama’s 2008 win, the words were “hope” and “change.” The hopes were valid, but, as progressives learned, it took more than one election to redeem them. For today’s words, “political revolution,” the same is true. Progressives have to win this year, but they also have to do everything that a majority-building strategy requires. Reported by The American Prospect 20 hours ago.

Poor Coverage of Health Care by the Corporate Media: How Can the Electorate be Informed?

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During this election season, with health care one of the serious issues, the mainstream media are missing in action. As they posture coverage of contentious issues, they deliver disinformation and non-information at such a superficial level as to be useless.

What can we expect, since the so-called mainstream media have been corporatized and consolidated under the ownership of a few billionaires dedicated to free markets above public service? In this process, the numbers of paid reporters per capita has plummeted. (1) In their recently released book, People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy, John Nichols and Robert W. McChesney tell us:
In the current crisis that is decimating the commercial model for journalism, the amount of resources for actual hard-digging into the actual panning and ambitions of the powerful is generally non-existent, and not something corporate owners have shown much inclination to encourage. As for political journalism, with a few fine exceptions, it is mostly pointless gossip and nutritionless assessments of spin and polls. With regard to political campaigns the journalism hits rock bottom. (2)
The reach of today's "journalism" extends to all forms of media, including print, digital, radio, and television. The news industry is bought and paid for by large corporate interests dedicated to their own financial bottom lines. Interlocking directorates among media corporations tighten the controls of the "news," as shown by a 2009 study by Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), when single-payer national health insurance was barely mentioned as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) progressed through its political compromises and manipulations. (3)

General Electric (GE) and Comcast give us examples of how big their reach has become. GE has a 49 percent interest in NBC Universal, with Comcast at 51 percent. GE media holdings include TV networks NBC and Telemundo, 27 TV stations, and many cable TV networks, including the popular web-based TV website Hulu.

So here we are in 2016 with three very different proposals by the leading presidential candidates on health care financing--the Republicans with a free market plan still in the works, the Democrats with Hillary Clinton's support of the ACA, and Bernie Sanders' single-payer proposal for national health insurance. The media again give almost no coverage to these proposals, and when it does, provides distortion and disinformation, as shown by these examples:

· The Washington Post, which was acquired in 2013 by Amazon's· libertarian CEO Jeff Bezos in 2013, recently ran 16 negative articles on Bernie's campaign in 16 hours. (4)· A recent article in the New York Times highlighted a proposal by Hillary Clinton to resuscitate the public option (5) (briefly considered as a provision of the ACA as it was being developed); but there was no critical coverage of this idea, which would be just another useless addition to the ACA with no chance of competing with the powerful consolidated and subsidized private insurance industry.· A later New York Times article accepted uncritically a flawed analysis by the Urban Institute that Bernie's single-payer proposal would be far more expensive and require higher taxes than proposed. (6) Since then, that "analysis" has been soundly rebutted by such flawed assumptions as Bernie's plan continuing with private insurance (not true, with some476 billion in annual savings by its being replaced by not-for-profit public financing), its underestimation of savings on drug costs by the government's negotiated drug prices (as the Veterans Administration has done for years), and unrealistic projections of overutilization of health services when universal coverage to health care is implemented (7)
Obviously, the political, economic and lobbying power of corporate
interests in the medical-industrial complex want to continue to defend the highly profitable, under-regulated marketplace in health care. We need a vigilant and critical media, but it's been long gone, bought off by their owners and advertisers as they deliver empty pablum to their mass audience. Corporate acquiescence to those in power has been openly acknowledged, as Chuck Todd of MSNBC's Meet the Press did in 2014 when he admitted that his career goals prevented him from asking tough questions, which could limit guests' return to the program, inhibit his getting high-profile guests, and cause drops in ratings that could lead to shutting down the program. (8)

The corporate media continue to posture that they are covering the real news. But their investigative capacity has been largely diminished through underfunding by corporate chiefs. Edward R. Murrow would cringe at what our media are today, having failed to report accurately on the Iraq War, the many problems with trade agreements that outsource American workers overseas, and alternatives to our overpriced and unaffordable health care industry. Our democracy cannot work unless we have an electorate informed by accurate information as to policy alternatives. We need more investigative journalism, but corporate control and power block the way.

visit: http://www.johngeymanmd.org

*References: *

1. McChesney, RW, Nichols, J. The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution that Will Begin the World Again. New York. Nation Books, 2010.

2. Nichols, J, McChesney, RW. People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy, New York. Nation Books, 2016, p. 140.

3. Murphy, K. Single-payer & interlocking directorates. Extra!, August 2009, p. 7.

4. Johnson, A. Washington Post ran 16 negative stories on Bernie Sanders in 16 hours. Common Dreams, March 8, 2016.

5. Rappeport, A, Sanger-Katz, M. Hillary Clinton takes a step to the left on health care. New York Times, May 10, 2016.

6. Sanger-Katz, M. A single-payer plan from Bernie Sanders would probably still be expensive. New York Times, May 16, 2016.

7. Woolhandler, S, Himmelstein, DU. Doubling down on errors: Urban Institute defends its ridiculously high single-payer cost estimates. Huffington Post, May 22, 2016.

8. LeftofCenter, "'It's not my job' Chuck Todd admits he can't ask tough questions." Crooks and Liars, December 28, 2014. Accessed March 10, 2015. htpp://www.crooksandliars.com/2014/12/todd-admits-he-wont-ask-tough-questions-so

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 10 hours ago.

How This Marathon-Running Veteran Who Lost Both Legs Found His Footing After Afghanistan

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Some days he wears the legs with the American flags. There's an American flag sticker on his motorcycle, too, and another on his truck. Plus an American flag patch on his softball uniform, an American flag tattooed on his muscular right arm, and one hanging from the front porch of his house -- where his wife and young daughter are still sleeping inside.

The clock reads 4 a.m. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he slips on polyurethane liners — like big socks or cushions — around his knees, up to his thighs. Then, he fastens on the prosthetic legs and eases his way around the room to make sure they're comfortable. 

In the last five years he's done more on these two pieces of hard plastic than most of us will do in a lifetime: learned to walk again, then to run. Then there was the Disney half marathon, the Marine Corps 10k, the Navy 5-miler, the Detroit Marathon, the New York City Marathon.

In October, he made headlines for saving a baby from a car wreck in Queens.It's a 45-minute commute from his quiet Long Island neighborhood to Manhattan. Some days it's still dark when he walks through the gates of the massive construction site on 131st Street and Broadway. Almost everyone here knows him by now. In a trailer all the guys call the "shanty" -- where there's coffee and donuts -- he slips on boots over the prosthetic feet and puts on a hard hat. 

Then it's the elevator down and down to the deep basement level of a giant new medical complex at Columbia University’s Manhattanville campus. There, he puts on a welding visor — adorned, of course, with an American flag sticker. He gets to work. 

Matias Ferreira, 26, lost his legs five years ago as a Marine in Afghanistan. Now, thanks to a program called Helmets to Hardhats, he is a proud apprentice with the Steamfitters Local 638, whose 8,200 members fit pipes all over New York City and Long Island. "I wanted to give back." 

Ferreira was born in Uruguay. He and and his family immigrated to the U.S. when he was 6 and lived here with green cards. At 19, like so many immigrants, he joined the Marines. 

"I wanted to give back," he told The Huffington Post. "As an immigrant, this country has given so much to my family and myself and so much opportunity."

He took his oath to become an American citizen in September 2010, just a few days before he was deployed to Afghanistan. 

On Jan. 21, 2011, Ferreira says he was working as a machine gunner when he and his platoon secured a compound in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. He and two other Marines were told to set up their equipment on the roof of the building. 

"We started taking off our gear, but something told me not to take off my kevlar [vest] or anything and I should maintain my sidearm," he recalled. 

He told his team to stay put -- he'd get the rest of the equipment. "I jumped off the roof same way I came up and that's when I realized something wasn't right," Ferreira recalled. "I heard almost like this Hollywood-ized pin drop. Then, all of the sudden, I didn’t hear or see anything." 

Ferreira had stepped on an IED, or improvised explosive device. When the dust cleared, a fellow Marine was wrapping tourniquets around his legs, giving him morphine and telling him jokes. Everything's going to be fine, the Marine told him. We're going to grab beers when we get back stateside. 

"I didn't know the severity of my injury," Ferreira said. "I saw blood on my pants but I didn't know I was missing my legs." 

Then they waited for 30 minutes -- which seemed like an "eternity," Ferreira said -- for the medevac helicopter to arrive. His platoon started saying their farewells. "We love you, man," they said. Ferreira says he managed to give them a thumbs up before being lifted onto the helicopter. 


You push yourself because you have to find reasons to keep going.

Ferreira passed out. He was given an oxygen mask while medics performed a series of blood transfusions. He'd lost a lot of blood. He woke up in the Bagram Airfield hospital and from there was shipped to Germany for a 24-hour emergency surgery. On top of losing his legs, he'd broken his pelvis and femur. 

When he arrived at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., he was wheelchair-bound for four months until they could fit on the prosthesis. Once he got the prosthesis, he started training -- hard. Just nine months later, he was running a half-marathon at Disney World, in Florida.

"You push yourself because you have to find reasons to keep going," he said. 

Ferreira medically retired from the Marines a year after the IED explosion. Then he had to find a new career.For many soldiers and Marines, returning from wars is a fraught moment. As much training as they receive to be in the military, they don't always get training for life in the civilian world. Their skill sets don't always translate into jobs, and those suffering from injuries or post-traumatic stress disorder are at an immediate disadvantage. (It's partly why there is a disproportionate number of homeless veterans.)

Ferreira started attending school at the University of Central Florida but grew restless. 

"I pursued education -- I went for my bachelor's in business management," Ferreira recalled. "With that, though, I went to school every morning, but I didn’t have a purpose. My wife and I recently had had a daughter and as important as education is, I didn’t have any career or anything guaranteed for the near future. It was nice and all to go to school but as a husband and father, I needed to make sure I provide for my family."That's when a friend told him about about Helmets to Hardhats. 

Helmets to Hardhats, a nonprofit, says Ferreira is among some 20,000 American veterans it's connected with good-paying, often unionized jobs in the construction industry. No prior experience is needed, and the veterans enter earn-while-you-learn apprenticeship training programs that last three to five years. After the apprenticeship is over, they have a career. 

“Helmets to Hardhats has given our union some of its best and most productive workers, able to harness their significant military training,”* *Richard Roberts, the Steamfitters' business agent at large, said in a statement. “We believe that America has a duty to give back to those who served, so veterans are not stuck in dead-end hourly jobs without any career pathway or hope of achieving the American Dream of homeownership, sending our kids to college and being able to retire with dignity when we are too old to continue working.”"You know the union's going to take care of you." 

It's programs like Helmets to Hardhats that have also contributed to the steadily declining unemployment rate among military veterans. According to data released in December from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 3.9 percent of the country's 20 million veterans were unemployed in October -- the lowest rate in seven years. 

The unemployment for post-9/11 veterans like Ferreira also dropped dramatically to 4.6 percent last year, from 7.2 percent in 2014. That's the lowest level since the BLS began tracking that particular group in 2008.

"This steamfitter union, Local 638, has pretty much set me up for success," Ferreira said. "The health benefits are imperative. Although I’m covered by military health insurance, it’s not that good. Getting covered through the steamfitter local is -- it’s unbelievable. I can take care of my family and not have to worry about getting a $5,000 bill because my daughter went to the hospital to get checked out." 

"Also, it sets you up for different retirement plans," he continued. "You know the union’s gonna take care of you." And there's the work itself. For Ferreira, there are similarities he enjoys between being in the steamfitters union and being in the military. There's a clear chain of command, Ferreira said, and a real camaraderie among steamfitters.

Plus, there's a lot at stake. The work is delicate, sometimes dangerous. Steamfitters like to say they build and maintain the hearts, arteries, and lungs of New York City: the high-pressure gas, steam and water pipes, fire sprinklers, and HVAC systems of big buildings. If a pipe is fitted incorrectly, or if something isn't welded the way it should be, there can be explosions or other accidents, and people can get hurt. 

Ferreira's post-Afghanistan life has been molded by programs for veterans. Another nonprofit, Home For Our Troops, is building him and his family a house in a Long Island town near Merrick, where they currently live.He plays for the Wounded Warrior Amputee Softball Team -- made up entirely of veterans who have lost limbs -- which travels the country playing able-bodied teams and raising funds for military amputees, amputee children and medical research. (It was at a softball game in New York, incidentally, where he met his wife, Tiffany.)

Ferreira said this kind of support system and the help of his family has helped him get by. It's also afforded him a sense of humor. 

Sometimes when he's riding the train with shorts on, he said, young children will stare at his prosthetic legs and ask what happened. "It's what happens when you don't eat your vegetables," he usually replies.
He doesn't regret joining the Marines. If he could do it all over again, he would. 

"9/11 was my reason for joining the service and now I'm working in this city building these buildings," he said. 

He said being a steamfitter in New York is more than just going to work every morning. 

"It's an honor."

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 10 hours ago.

Mergers in the healthcare sector: why you'll pay more

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We know all about the benefits in store for us when big hospital chains merge and bigger health insurance companies grow even bigger: 

Lower prices. More efficient healthcare. More innovation. Better customer service.

That's what hospital and insurance companies say, anyway. 

But here's what the... Reported by L.A. Times 9 hours ago.

What Killed The US Consumer, In One Chart

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What Killed The US Consumer, In One Chart Once again, a topic we have beaten to death over the past several years, namely that US consumers *spending on discretionary items has collapsed *for the simple reason simply because these same consumers are forced to spend much more on staples such as housing (or since nobody can afford houses anymore, on rent) and health insurance (thanks Obamacare), has made it into the sellside, in this case the latest Greed and Fear report by CLSA's Chris Wood.

Here is the Chris Wood's delightfully simple explanation which summarizes what we have said over the past three years.



The failure of American consumption to pick up over the past year and more in the manner expected can be explained not just by increased consumer caution but also by the increasing costs of two essentially nondiscretionary items for most Americans. *That is the soaring cost of medical care and the rising cost of rents*.

 



Thanks president Obama and Janet Yellen for killing the US middle class, but it was all worth it: the S&P is at 2,100, or as Janet Yellen would say "the Fed's handling of financial crisis nothing short of magnificent." Reported by Zero Hedge 9 hours ago.

10 Reasons Not to Retire Before 66

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There are many reasons to not retire before 66, such as the ability to save more, amass more, spend less, and enjoy more health insurance. But if all your ducks are in a row, retiring early might still work. Reported by Motley Fool 16 hours ago.

America's Seniors Can Count on Hillary Clinton

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In May, we celebrate Older Americans Month and the fundamental commitment our country makes to its seniors. In November, we will determine whether we honor that commitment.

Every day, thousands of American seniors reach retirement age after a lifetime of working hard to support their families. Because of Social Security and Medicare, older Americans can mark these milestones with the peace of mind that their retirement future is secure. We created these lifelines so that hard working seniors never have to worry about putting food on the table, or landing in debt after their next trip to the pharmacy.

Yet, Donald Trump seems willing to put these programs at risk, and take a gamble on our seniors' future. He has called Social Security a Ponzi scheme, claiming privatizing the program would be "good for all of us." He has repeatedly flip-flopped on his position on Medicare, first claiming he would avoid cuts, then having his senior advisor place those cuts back on the table. He won't even agree to AARP's call to put out a Social Security plan. 

Donald Trump's radical and unpredictable policies undermine the promises we've made to America's seniors--promises that Hillary Clinton has fought for her entire life, and will honor as president.

I've known Hillary Clinton for a long time. She has always believed that if American families work hard and play by the rules, they should have the opportunity to thrive. She understands that the strength of lifelines like Social Security and Medicare is tied to our long-term prosperity as a Nation.

Hillary's plan for seniors expands Social Security, instead of privatizing the program at the expense of the nearly two out of three seniors who depend on it for the majority of their income. She wants to expand benefits for those who need them the most, like women who often take time out of the paid workforce to care for sick or aging loved ones.

Hillary will defend Medicare against attempts to privatize it, which would only drive up costs for the nearly 45 million retired Americans who rely on it to provide some or all of the health insurance needs. Hillary's plan will build upon reforms that began with the passage of the Affordable Care Act, keeping affordable and reliable healthcare within reach for older Americans, which is especially critical for the millions of American seniors who live with disabilities.

Hillary also knows that supporting our seniors means supporting their caregivers. Safety nets need to be in place for those who have to take time to look after an ailing loved one. That's why Hillary will offer a 20 percent tax credit to help family members offset up to $6,000 in caregiving costs. These savings could make a real difference in the lives of our hard working American families.

This May, we celebrate Older Americans Month by honoring our seniors. But our obligations to them and their caretakers must be enduring throughout the year. Hillary Clinton's record proves she will never roll the dice on our seniors' futures. We need a president who holds sacred this country's commitments to its citizens. That president is Hillary Clinton.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 14 hours ago.

Losing Ground In Flyover America, Part 3

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Losing Ground In Flyover America, Part 3 Submitted by David Stockman via Contra Corner blog,

As we indicated in Part 2, the Fed’s crusade to *pump-up* inflation toward its 2.00% target by *hammering-down* interest rates to the so-called zero bound is economically lethal. The former destroys the purchasing power of main street wages while the latter strip mines capital from business and channels it into Wall Street financial engineering and the inflation of stock prices.

In the case of America’s *80 million* working age adults (25 or over) with a high school education or less, the Fed’s double whammy has been catastrophic. As we demonstrated yesterday, the employment-to-population ratio for this group has plummeted from 60% prior to the great recession to about 54% today.

In round terms this means that the number of job holders in that pool of the less educated has shrunk from* 49.4* million to* 43.5* million since early 2007. *That’s nearly 6 million workers gone missing or 12% of the total from just nine years ago.*

And as we documented yesterday this plunge is not due to aging demographics. The MSM meme that it’s all about the baby boomers hanging up their spikes doesn’t wash; the labor force participation rate of persons over 65 has actually increased sharply in recent years.

But even those who have managed to stay employed have suffered a devastating reduction in purchasing power. In fact, based on our Flyover CPI, each dollar of wages would buy *3.1% less* *annually or a cumulative* *70% less since 1999.*

And that assumes just 65% of the budgets of these lower-wage households are consumed by the four horsemen of inflation—-food, energy, medical and housing. There can be little doubt that they actually spend a materially greater share on these necessities than we have allocated to them in our index.

By contrast, nominal wages rates for the high school and under workers have risen by less than 50% over the same period. That means drastic purchasing power compression.

In fact, flyover America’s vast cohort of less educated workers has experienced an approximate *1.1% decline* in their real weekly wages every year this century. In 2015 dollars of purchasing power, average pay has declined from $475 per week to $397 per week.

*That’s right. When viewed on an annualized basis, households which were scraping by on $24,700 per year in 2000 have seen the purchasing power of their pay checks drop to $20,600 today or by nearly 17%.*

Yet the house of academic fools in the Eccles Building keep insisting that we have insufficient inflation!

Likewise, the all knowing pundits of the Acela Corridor (Washington/Wall Street) can’t figure out why Donald Trump has come roaring out of nowhere.

 

That gets us to the Wall Street/Keynesian cult of consumer spending. The latter holds that Americans who “shop until they drop” are the mainspring of the US economy based on the silly observation that personal consumption expenditures (PCE) comprise 70% of the GDP accounts, which themselves are a Keynesian construct.

Then again, no one told them that fully $3.5 trillion or 28% of total PCE consists of *imputed* housing consumption via OER (owners equivalent rent) and health care costs heavily funded by *third-parties* such as government entitlements and employer-based health insurance plans.  No one “shopped” to fund either of these huge PCE components, but self evidently someone worked to pay the taxes and premiums.

*That is, real capitalist growth and prosperity stems from the supply-side ingredients of labor, enterprise, capital and production, not the hoary myth that consumer spending is the fount of wealth.*

Yet even within the framework of our Keynesian monetary central planners, how did real PCE grow so strongly during the last two decades when real incomes for a huge share of the work force were falling so sharply?

In a word, *debt.* The flip-side of the Greenspan/Bernanke/Yellen wage crushing operation was a national LBO in the household sector.

During the 21 years between Greenspan’s arrival at the Fed in August 1987 and the early 2008 peak, household debt erupted from $2.7 trillion to $14.3 trillion or by* 5.3X.*

To be sure, nearly $12 trillion of extra debt, representing an annual growth rate of nearly 8.5%, speaks for itself in terms of the implied monumental excess. But our Keynesian witch doctors have a way of attempting to minimize the import of it by what we call the “inflation lockstep fallacy”.

That is to say, there is purportedly not so much to see here because much of this huge gain represents inflation; and, of course, wages and incomes were inflating over this 21 year period, too. What counts, or so claim our Keynesian bettors, is “real dollar” amounts as computed by their bulimic inflation indices.

*Au contraire!*

Wages in the Chinese export factories were not being set by the PCE deflator less food and energy as confected and tabulated by some GS-16s in the BLS’ statistical puzzle palace. On the margin, the “China price” in the world’s labor market was less than $1 per hour equivalent during most of that time.

And that’s a full stop. Constant dollar statistical deflators had nothing to do with it.

The Fed’s policy of systematically and massively inflating the domestic cost of living and household debt, therefore, resulted in a giant economic deformation—-one even greater than that implied by the parabolic debt gains through 2008 shown above.

Indeed, the full import can only be grasped by considering the sound money contrafactual case. To wit, as we demonstrated in an earlier post on this topic the CPI would have *declined by 1-2%* per year under a sound money regime after the early 1990’s when China’s export machine took off.

That means that even under a scenario of 3% labor productivity growth and constant household leverage ratios (i.e. debt-to income), total household debt would have grown by perhaps *2%* per annum.

So by 2008 outstanding household debt would have been in the range of *$4* trillion, not *$14* trillion.

That’s right. Thanks to the utterly wrong-head monetary policies of Greenspan and his successors, US households ended up with $10 trillion of extra debt to lug around. And in the bargain, they got bloated nominal wage rates, which resulted in the massive off-shoring of their jobs, and shrinking purchasing power, which lowered the living standard of the less educated flyover zone work force by *17%* just since the turn of the century.

The extent of this destructive household sector LBO is hinted at in the graph below. Historically, the ratio of household debt—-mortgages, credit cards, car loans and the rest—–was under 80% of wage and salary income.

*After Nixon pulled the props out from the last vestiges of sound money at Camp David in August 1971 and turned the Fed loose to print at will, however, the ratio began to creep steadily higher.*

*Yet it was only after the arrival of Greenspan in the Eccles Building that the household leverage ratio went virtually parabolic, climbing from about 100% of wages and salaries to nearly 225% by the early 2008 peak.*

We have called this a one-time parlor trick of monetary policy because while the leverage ratio was rising, it did permit households to supplement spending from their current wages and salaries with the proceeds of incremental borrowings. Undoubtedly, this artificial goosing of living standards by the central bank money printers did help insulate flyover America from feeling the full brunt of its shrinking job opportunities and  the deflating purchasing power of its pay checks.

No more. The household LBO is over and done, but the slightly declining leverage ratio shown in the chart is not a measure of progress; it’s an indicator of the distress being felt by households that have been forced to cut their consumption expenditures to the level of current earnings, which, in turn, are not rising nearly as fast as the 3.1% inflation rate afflicting flyover America.

There is no secret or mystery as to how America’s working households were led into this appalling debt trap. The fact is, the befuddled Greenspan actually bragged about it when he celebrated the higher consumption levels that were being funded by MEW or mortgage equity withdrawal.

That was just Fedspeak for the fact that under its interest rate repression policies, American families were being massively incentivized and encouraged day and night by cash-out mortgage financing ads ( e.g “Lost another one to Ditech!”) to hock their homes to the mortgage man and splurge on the proceeds.* This reached nearly a $1 trillion annual rate and 9% of disposable personal income at the peak just before 2008.*

That Greenspan took great pains to track the data and publish the above chart is a measure of how far the Fed had descended into “something for nothing” economics.

Did they think that the leverage ratchet would never stop rising? Did they not recognized the fundamental economic fact of the present era? Namely, that there is a massive 80-million strong baby-boom generation heading for retirement and that for better or worse, home equity accumulation owing to the deductibility of interest has been its primary vehicle of savings?

Well, apparently not in the slightest. Here is what was happening behind the screen during Greenspan’s spurious MEW campaign. American households were strip-mining the equity from their homes and burying themselves in mortgage debt.

Total mortgage debt outstanding soared from *$1.8* trillion to *$10.7* trillion or by nearly 6X during this 21 year period. And even though housing prices more than doubled, the ratio of equity to owner-occupied housing asset value plunged from *67%* to *37%* over the period.

Here’s the thing. The MEW party ended nine years ago, but virtually all of Greenspan’s MEW is still there. Flyover America may not know exactly how it got buried in such massive debts, but it knows that the current Washington/Wall Street Bubble Finance regime has left it high and dry. It now suffers a relentless shrinkage of living standards even as these contractual debt obligations chase the huge cohort of baby-boomers right into their retirement golden years.

The only thing worse than the MEW legacy plaguing seniors is what’s happening on the other end of the demographic curve. Among student age Americans, the degree of debt enslavement has become even more draconian.

In the last decade alone, total student loans outstanding have nearly* tripled*, rising from *$500 billion* in 2006 to *$1.34 trillion* at present. And for reasons laid out below, a disproportionate brunt of this massive student loan burden is being shouldered by flyover America.

*That’s mainly because the preponderant share of the nation’s 25 million higher education students comes from the flyover zones. Those precincts still had a semblance of a birth rate 25 years ago, unlike the culturally advanced households of the bicoastal meccas.*

Stated differently, these staggering debt obligations were not incurred by Wellesley College art history majors or even needs-based diversity students at Harvard Law School. They are owed by the inhabitants of mom and pop’s basements scattered over the less advantaged expanse of the land.

After all, the Ivy league schools including all of their graduate departments account for only 140,000 students or *0.5%* of the nation’s total. Even if you add in the likes of MIT, Stanford, Caltech, Northwestern, Duke, Vanderbilt and the rest of the top 20 universities you get less than 250,000 or 1% of the student population.

The other 24 million are victims of the feckless Washington/Wall Street ideology of debt and finance. To wit, tuition, fees, room and board and other living expanses have erupted skyward over the last two decades because Washington has poured in loans and grants with reckless abandon and Wall Street has fueled the madcap expansion of for-profit tuition mills.

Even setting aside the minimum $50,000 annual price tag at private institutions, the tab has soared to $20,000 annually at public 4-year schools and nearly $30,000 per year at the tuition mills.

These figures represent semi-criminal rip-offs. They were enabled by the preternaturally bloated levels of debt and finance showered upon the student population by the denizens of the Acela Corridor.

So the former now tread water in an economic doom loop. Average earnings for 35 year-olds with a bachelors degree or higher are $50,000 annually, compared to $30,000 for high school graduates and $24,000 for dropouts.

Thus, the sons and daughters of the flyover zones feel compelled to strap-on a heavy vest of debt in order to finance the insanely bloated costs of higher education. But once so “educated”, the overwhelming majority end up with $30,000 to $100,000 or debt or more.

In this regard, the so-called for-profit colleges like Phoenix University, Strayer Education and dozens of imitators deserve a special place in the halls of higher education infamy. At their peak a few years ago, enrollments at these schools totaled 3.5 million.

But overwhelmingly, these “students” were *recruited* by tuition harvesting machines that make the all-volunteer US Army look like a piker in comparison. To wit, typically 90% of the revenues of these colleges were derived from student grants and especially loans——-hundreds of billions of them—-*but less than one-third of that money went to the cost of education, including teachers, classrooms, books and other instructional costs.*

At the same time, well more *33%* went to SG&A and the overwhelming share of that was in the “S” part. That is, prodigious expenditures for salesmen, recruiters, commissions and giant bonuses and other incentives and perks.

Needless to say, this made for good growth and margin metrics that could be hyped in the stock market.  In fact, after the cost of education and all of the massive selling expense to turbocharge enrollment growth was absorbed, there was still upwards of 35-40% of revenue left for operating profits.

That’s right. For a decade until the Obama Administration finally lowered the boom after 2011, the fastest growing and most profitable companies in America were the for-profit colleges.

In short order they became a hedge fund hotel, meaning that the fast money piled into the for-profit college space like there was no tomorrow. So doing, they often drove PE ratios to *6**0X* or higher, bringing instant riches to start-up entrepreneurs and top company executives, who, in turn, were motivated to drive their growth and profit “metrics” even harder.

At length, they became tuition mills and Wall Street speculations that were incidentally in the higher education business, or not. The combined market cap of the six largest public companies went from less than *$2 billion* to upwards of *$30 billion* in a decade.

*The poster boy for this scam is surely Strayer Education. Between 2002 and the 2011 peak, its sales and net income grew at 25% per year and operating profit margins clocked in at nearly 40%.*

Not surprisingly, Strayer was peddled as the second coming of “growth” among the hedge funds. The momo chasers thus pushed its PE ratio into the *60-70X* range in its initial growth phase, and it remained in the *30-40X* range thereafter.

Accordingly, its market cap soared by *7X* from *$500 million* to *$3.5 billion* at the peak. The hedge funds made a killing.STRA Market Cap data by YCharts

Then the Federal regulators threw on the brakes, and it was all over except the shouting. Total market cap of more than *$27 billion disappeared* from the segment within three years after 2011 and the hedge fund hotel experienced a mass stampede for the exits.

What was left were millions of flyover zone thirty-something’s stuck with crushing unpaid loans, educations of dubious value and a lot more years in mom and pop’s basement.

Should any of these tuition mills have even existed, let alone been valued at *60X earnings——-*earnings that did not derive from real economic value added and which were totally at the whims of the US department of education?

Of course not.

*But then again, after 20 years of radical financial repression the Wall Street has been turned into a casino that scalps the flyover zone whenever it gets half the chance.* Reported by Zero Hedge 14 hours ago.

Fully understand the IoT with this report

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The Internet of Things (IoT) Revolution is picking up speed and it will change how we live, work, and entertain ourselves in a million ways big and small.

From agriculture to defense, retail to healthcare, everything is going to be impacted by the growing ability of businesses, governments, and consumers to connect to and control their environments:

· “Smart mirrors” will allow consumers to try on clothes digitally, enhancing their shopping experience and reducing returns for the retailer
· Assembly line sensors will detect tiny drops in efficiency that indicate critical equipment is wearing out and schedule down-time maintenance in response
· Agricultural equipment guided by GPS and IoT technology will soon plant, fertilize and harvest vast croplands like a giant Roomba while the “driver” reads a magazine
· Active people will share lifestyle data from their fitness trackers in order to help their doctor make better health care decisions (and capture discounts on health insurance premiums)

No wonder the Internet of Things has been called “the next Industrial Revolution.” It’s so big that it could mean new revenue streams for your company and new opportunities for you. The only question is: Are you fully up to speed on the IoT?

Research analysts John Greenough and Jonathan Camhi of BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, spent months of researching and reporting this exploding trend and have put together a report on the Internet of Things that explains its exciting present and the fascinating future.

It covers how IoT is being implemented today, where the new sources of opportunity will be tomorrow and how 17 separate sectors of the economy will be transformed over the next 20 years, including:

· Agriculture
· Connected Home
· Defense
· Financial services
· Food services
· Healthcare
· Hospitality
· Infrastructure
· Insurance

· Logistics
· Manufacturing
· Oil, gas, and mining
· Retail
· Smart buildings
· Transportation
· Connected Car
· Utilities

 

If you work in any of these sectors, it's important for you to understand how the IoT will change your business and possibly even your career. And if you’re employed in any of the industries that will build out the IoT infrastructure—networking, semiconductors, telecommunications, data storage, cybersecurity—this report is a must-have.

Among the big picture insights you’ll get from *The Internet of Things: Examining How the IoT Will Affect The World*:

· IoT devices connected to the Internet will more than triple by 2020, from 10 billion to 34 billion. IoT devices will account for 24 billion, while traditional computing devices (e.g. smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, etc.) will comprise 10 billion.
· Nearly $6 trillion will be spent on IoT solutions over the next five years.
· Businesses will be the top adopter of IoT solutions because they will use IoT to 1) lower operating costs; 2) increase productivity; and 3) expand to new markets or develop new product offerings.
· Governments will be the second-largest adopters, while consumers will be the group least transformed by the IoT.

And when you dig deep into the report, you’ll get the whole story in a clear, no-nonsense presentation:

· The complex infrastructure of the Internet of Things distilled into a single ecosystem
· The most comprehensive breakdown of the benefits and drawbacks of mesh (e.g. ZigBee, Z- Wave, etc.), cellular (e.g. 3G/4G, Sigfox, etc.), and internet (e.g. Wi-Fi, Ethernet, etc.) networks
· The important role analytics systems, including edge analytics, cloud analytics, will play in making the most of IoT investments
· The sizable security challenges presented by the IoT and how they can be overcome
· The four powerful forces driving IoT innovation, plus the four difficult market barriers to IoT adoption
· Complete analysis of the likely future investment in the critical IoT infrastructure: connectivity, security, data storage, system integration, device hardware, and application development
· In-depth analysis of how the IoT ecosystem will change and disrupt 17 different industries

*The Internet of Things: Examining How the IoT Will Affect The World* is how you get the full story on the Internet of Things.

To get your copy of this invaluable guide to the IoT universe, choose one of these options:

1. Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> *START A MEMBERSHIP*
2. Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> *BUY THE REPORT*

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the fast-moving world of the IoT.

Join the conversation about this story » Reported by Business Insider 9 hours ago.

Lice Troopers Responds to CDC Shift in Stance on Head Lice, Parent Concern

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With a shift in the CDC position on school head lice policies, Miami-based treatment service partners with schools to keep classrooms bug and nit free.

Miami, FL (PRWEB) May 30, 2016

As the CDC relaxes its stance on traditional No-Nit policies, parents wonder what this will means for their children and their efforts to keep their households lice free.

According to a May 26 article from news source KHON2, schools across Hawaii are enacting new policies that keep kids in the classroom despite the fact that they may be harboring an infestation. Previous No-Nit policies stated that children showing signs of an infestation, such as nits or lice bugs in the hair, could not reenter the classroom until the infestation had been eradicated. The rationale being that, given the highly contagious nature of lice, it was better to keep them out of school and away from other children.

However, due to the fact that lice do not transmit infectious diseases, the CDC and American Academy of Pediatricians have concluded that it is not necessary for children to miss school on account of it. Kids should be treated as soon as possible, but need not remain at home until the process is completed.

Parents, however, especially those who’ve had a houseful of head lice, disagree, seeing the new policy as a recipe for an unending lice epidemic. Once they’ve treated their own children, sending them back into a classroom among other children with lice seems a guarantee of re-infestation.

Lice Troopers, the Miami-based professional lice removal company, has largely supported the No-Nit policies, understanding how quickly and easily lice can pass. However, the better solution, they remind, is a regular schedule of school-wide screenings. No-Nit policies or not, kids with lice show up to school and summer camp and play on sports teams; each of these environments is one in which lice can easily transmit. By screening kids regularly, no one is singled out and the individual can be treated the very same day.

Said Lice Troopers owner and operator Arie Harel, “Keeping lice out of schools and helping parents stay calm is our aim. For this reason, we’ve made school partnerships a priority. The goal is to keep kids lice free and in the classroom. With all that parents and teachers have to deal with, we don’t want lice to be one more hassle.”

Lice Troopers is the all-natural, guaranteed Head Lice Removal Service™ that manually removes the head louse parasite safely and discreetly in child-friendly salon settings, or other chosen location. Providing safe solutions for frantic families, the Lice Troopers team has successfully treated thousands of families nationwide, with services widely recommended by pediatricians and reimbursed by many major health insurance carriers, flexible spending accounts and health savings accounts. Reported by PRWeb 23 hours ago.

Zane Benefits Releases New Infographic: Health Benefits Reimbursement Compliance Timeline

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New Resource Helps Businesses and Health Insurance Professionals Visualize the Compliance Behind Zane Benefits

Salt Lake City, Utah (PRWEB) May 30, 2016

Zane Benefits, the leader in individual health insurance reimbursement for small businesses, announced today the publication of an original infographic, "Health Benefits Reimbursement Compliance Timeline."

The new resource helps business owners and health insurance professionals understand how Zane Benefits complies with various federal regulations and reforms.

Navigating the new health reforms can be confusing. This is especially true for businesses helping employees with individual health insurance premiums.

Can employers still reimburse individual health insurance premiums? According to Zane Benefits, yes.

Do employers need to use a compliant plan to avoid costly penalties? Yes. According to Zane Benefits, the fees for non-compliance are costly; up to $100 a day, per employee.

The free infographic is available at the ZaneBenefits.com website (no download required) and provides a look the following topics:

-A compliance timeline, 1954 to today
-The rules and regulations for individual health insurance reimbursement
-How employers can reimburse individual health insurance and avoid penalties

If you find the infographic helpful, please share it with friends, employees, clients, or colleagues. You can embed the infographic on your website or download a printable PDF for your business or clients.

About Zane Benefits, Inc.

Zane Benefits was founded in 2006 with a mission to consumerize employee benefits for small business. We have a vision for the world where employee benefits are actually employee benefits rather than employer benefits. "Consumerize" is the word we use to describe that vision. When small businesses offer Zane Benefits instead of traditional benefits, they save time and money by empowering employees with tax-free dollars. Using our online software platform (PeopleKeep®), small businesses help employees purchase their own benefits with real dollar contributions. Reported by PRWeb 23 hours ago.

Shift from Growth to Income in Retirement is the Focus of New Lake Point Advisory Group Radio Program

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Certified Financial Planner Jonathan Lawton of Lake Point Advisory Group announces the launch of the firm’s new radio program, “Wealth Smart Show” on 660-AM The Answer. The Sunday morning program focuses on income-generating strategies for pre-retirees and retirees.

Fort Worth/Arlington, TX (PRWEB) May 31, 2016

Financial Advisor Jonathan Lawton of Lake Point Advisory Group announces the launch of the Rockwall, Texas-based firm’s new radio program, “Wealth Smart” on 660-AM The Answer, airing Sunday mornings from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. The goal of the program is to reach out to the greater North Texas pre-retiree and retiree community weekly to provide information on strategies to achieve financial security and enjoy retirement comfortably.

Making sure one never runs out of money during retirement can be a challenge. In the past, one simple solution was to buy an annuity that would pay a stream of income for the rest of one’s life, but Lawton says that annuities are only one component of the big picture. Creating a portfolio that shifts from growth to income at this stage of life is the goal, and that requires building an income-driven portfolio by leveraging asset classes that generate income for lifelong financial security.

“Pre-retirees and retirees have spent a lifetime contributing to their retirement plans that are designed for growth,’ Lawton says. “They see the performance of their plan based on dollar cost averaging into the investment, and so they are rewarded for volatility, they are rewarded for putting a consistent payment in over time; the problem is, when we are putting together a plan for someone who is about to go into retirement or is in retirement, where volatility helps in a growth portfolio, the opposite is true for a retirement income portfolio.

“We really have to shift from growth to income, and the tools we use are very different.”

Lawton says his approach to helping pre-retirees and retirees is to build a portfolio through income producing assets. By using all of the 18 different asset classes available when setting up an individual’s investments, owning assets that provide yield translates into income generation.

“With a growth portfolio, you have to sell shares to create income,” Lawton says. “If you want your money to last, you have to have an income-generating portfolio based on yield.”

As a certified financial planner and fiduciary, Lawton says that his approach is not to pressure anyone into buying any product. Instead, he reviews each client’s existing retirement plan and offers ways to improve their portfolio. The process begins with a review of the client’s social security benefits, after which Lawton says a 28-page report is produced that helps determine ways to reduce the individual’s taxes on Social Security, increase their fixed monthly income and help preserve their retirement nest egg.

“For the majority of Americans, Social Security is going to be your most important retirement asset, making sure you have a plan for Social Security is essential in creating a foundation to your retirement plan” Lawton says.

Pensions, health insurance, and retirement and investment accounts—IRAs, 401(k)s, etc.—are examined, and Lawton measures their levels of risk, whether the client is fully diversified in the market, is there any overlap, and how much income can be generated from the portfolio.

“We analyze your current situation and determine if your plan fits ,” Lawton says. “We don’t just do insurance, I’m not just a stockbroker, as a fiduciary it’s my job to build a plan that is in the best interest of our clients.

“I think a lot of people are afraid of the cost of working with an advisor and I’ll tell you, nine times out of 10 we’re saving people money. We’re showing you a strategy that makes sense for your individual situation, with all the components of a fully diversified portfolio—income generating asset classes, defensive strategies, actively managed, passively managed, but all of the components get to the end goal cost effectively, in a way that improves their situation,” he says.

As retirement approaches, there’s a shift for ongoing income from investments playing a greater role in balancing expenses and securing lifestyle preferences.

For more information, visit the Lake Point Advisory Group website, email info(at)lakepointadvisorygroup(dot)com, or call 214.771.3363.

About Lake Point Advisory Group:

Established in 2000 by President Reid Johnson, Lake Point Advisory Group is committed to helping clients meet their financial needs. By evaluating and assessing their clients’ financial situations, the firm’s wealth management team provides suitable recommendations to improve each client’s portfolio, and they do so with integrity and transparency. Lake Point Advisory Group’s experienced professionals are not only knowledgeable about finances, they also understand the importance of priorities, family and confidence in the client’s financial future.

Lake Point Advisory’s wealth management team employs members of the Financial Planning Association (FPA®), the largest membership organization for personal financial planning professionals in the United States. FPA members are those who commit to the highest standards of professional competence, ethical conduct and clear, complete disclosure to those they serve. They deliver advice using an objective, client-centered, ethical process. Reported by PRWeb 23 hours ago.

Medical Insurance Advocate Adria Goldman Gross Looks at America’s “Modern Medical Money Maelstrom” in Eye-Opening Greenburgh Report Interview

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In the recent Greenburgh Report interview that aired on May 7, 2016, the Founder of MedWise Insurance Advocacy covered a broad range of critical issues, including the financial nightmare that can unfold when hospitalized people are deemed by their doctor as an outpatient under observation rather than an inpatient.

(PRWEB) May 31, 2016

In a recent interview on The Greenburgh Report radio show hosted by Greenburgh, NY Town Supervisor Paul Feiner and broadcast on New Rochelle, NY-based WVOX (1460 AM), leading medical insurance advocate Adria Goldman Gross discussed several eye-opening issues that have combined to create what she calls the country’s “modern medical money maelstrom.”

During the interview with Mr. Feiner that aired on May 7, 2016, Ms. Gross, the CEO and founder of MedWise Insurance Advocacy and author of the acclaimed book “Solved! Curing Your Medical Insurance Problems,” highlighted that:· An increasing number of people are going bankrupt due to excessive medical billing.
· In many cases, people are being vastly overcharged -- yet have no idea.
· Contrary to popular belief, only about half of doctors working in specialized hospitals accept any type of health insurance.
· People whose coverage is provided by a self-insured corporation, and who seek non-emergency health care from an out-of-network provider, can wind up with bills that are dramatically higher than they expected.
· People with insurance need to proactively find out what their insurance company is going to pay – because while many companies use Medicare rates as their baseline, some use lower Medicaid rates.
· Hospitals are notorious for over-testing, which translates into bills that are far higher than necessary.
· People should compare the procedure code for each item that appears on their bill with the Medicare Fee Schedule, in order to discover the customary charge. Armed with this data, they can make an offer to their provider that will be accepted in the majority of cases.
· When it’s safe to do so, people should choose urgent care rather than going to the hospital, where the bills are going to be tremendously higher.
· When going to the hospital is unavoidable, people should try to take a relative or friend with them, and ask them to take meticulous notes of the doctors involved and what they do.
· Many hospitals aren’t telling people if they’re admitted as an inpatient or outpatient under observation. If it’s the latter, they aren’t covered for Medicare Part A, which includes hospitalization and medication.

On this last point, Ms. Gross shared the example of a 50-year old security guard from New Jersey who was hospitalized for three days. After getting discharged, he received a $50,000 bill as he was deemed an outpatient under observation. His insurance company was only willing to pay $50. Terrified and with only $600 in the bank, he contacted Ms. Gross, who on a pro bono basis offered some advice that has helped him cut the bill by $32,000. Ms. Gross added that she’s in the process of trying to get all of the providers written off, and is confident that will happen.    

Added Ms. Gross: “It was an honor and pleasure to be interviewed by Paul Feiner. He has been in office for 25 years, and his commitment to community service is both impressive and inspirational. Putting an end to modern medical money maelstrom will take a while, but with leaders like Paul helping shed light on key issues that directly impact the quality of life for million of Americans in every state, we are moving closer to that goal.”

More information on Ms. Gross is available at http://adriagross.com, and more information on her company MedWise Insurance Agency is available at http://medicalinsuranceadvocacy.com.

About Adria Goldman Gross

Adria Goldman Gross, FIPC, is the CEO and founder of MedWise Insurance Advocacy, as well as a New York State-licensed insurance broker and consultant who uncovers discrepancies in diagnostic or procedure coding, exposes dubious loopholes through which insurance companies attempt to deny claims, and helps attorneys, individuals and families resolve medical claim matters. She is also a bestselling co-author of books that are both endorsed by consumer protection advocate Ralph Nader: the recently-published Solved! Curing Your Medical Insurance Problems, and Multi-Payer Medicine Nightmare Made in the USA. Both books are available from Amazon.com and BN.com. Reported by PRWeb 23 hours ago.
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