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Tata AIG, Paytm tie up to provide cashless insurance to cab drivers

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The new health insurance scheme will cover expenses hospital expenses upto Rs 50,000. Reported by DNA 2 hours ago.

AIS-Softheon Webinar to Highlight Payer-Provider Collaborations

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In a complimentary Sept. 27 webinar from Atlantic Information Services and Softheon, providers and payers will learn how payer-provider collaborations can deliver unique benefits and increase payers’ and providers’ profitability.

Washington, DC (PRWEB) September 16, 2016

Atlantic Information Services, Inc. (AIS) and Softheon, Inc. are pleased to announce “Payer-Provider Collaboration: The Future of Healthcare?,’” an upcoming Sept. 27 webinar. In this complimentary program, Eugene Sayan, Founder & CEO of Softheon, Jeff Burbank, Softheon’s Director of Provider Solutions, and Jon Kingsdale, Ph.D., of Wakley Consulting Group, will examine how the roles and traditional functions of payers and providers are converging, and what this means for the future of the healthcare industry.

Webinar participants will get answers to questions such as:· How has the transition from fee-for-service to the value-based reimbursement model affected payer-provider relationships?
· What are the advantages and challenges associated with this type of collaboration?
· What approaches should payers consider when looking to collaborate with providers?
· What are the chief pitfalls that payers and providers should avoid when forming these new relationships?
· How can this approach assist both payers and providers in achieving better health outcomes at lower costs?
· What role does data play in enhancing care coordination and improving clinical results?

Visit http://www2.softheon.com/AIS-webinar-20160927 for more details and registration information.

About Softheon
Empowering the nation's first state health benefit exchange since 2008, Softheon's vision and strategic direction address healthcare payer, provider, and government agencies' goal of meeting Affordable Care Act (ACA) milestones. Softheon provides HIX Integration, Direct Enrollment, Premium Billing, and Edge Server solutions for insurance carriers of all sizes participating in Federal and State Health Insurance Exchange (HIX) Marketplaces. Softheon's Marketplace Connector Cloud (MC2) has been trusted by health plans, in all 50 states, as an accelerated federal, state, and private exchange integration platform. Softheon MC2 is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution where insurers pay a one-time activation and ongoing PMPM fees for exchange members only, while eliminating most, if not all, risks associated with ACA enrollment compliance and other mandates. To find out more about Softheon, visit http://www.softheon.com.

About AIS
Atlantic Information Services, Inc. (AIS) is a publishing and information company that has been serving the healthcare industry for nearly 30 years. It develops highly targeted news, data and strategic information for managers in hospitals and health systems, health insurance companies, medical group practices, purchasers of health insurance, pharmaceutical companies and other health care organizations. AIS products include print and electronic newsletters, databases, Websites, looseleafs, strategic reports, directories, webinars and virtual conferences. Learn more at http://www.AISHealth.com. Reported by PRWeb 2 hours ago.

Frontrunning: September 16

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· Deutsche Bank to fight $14 billion demand from U.S. authorities (Reuters)
· Exxon’s Accounting Practices Are Investigated (WSJ)
· European leaders seek elusive 'road map' after Brexit shock (Reuters)
· Johnson Said to Tell Italy Exit Talks Likely to Start Early 2017 (BBG)
· Brexit Bulletin: Merkel Sings the Bratislava Blues (BBG)
· Atlante manager's CEO says Popolare di Vicenza may need more capital (Reuters)
· Unilever Is in Talks to Acquire Jessica Alba’s Honest Co. (WSJ)
· Japan’s Central Bank Splits Over Easing Program (WSJ)
· Japan Looks to Bring in More Foreign Workers as Population Falls (BBG)
· Clinton visits North Carolina in campaign trail return; Trump up in polls (Reuters)
· Donald Trump Promises Tax Cuts, Offset by Robust Growth  (WSJ)
· In Pennsylvania Senate race, unfamiliar battle lines on gun rights (Reuters)
· Earnings Secrecy to End in Junk-Bond Market Under EU Rules (BBG)
· Investors reluctant to back Monte Paschi's cash call (Reuters)
· In Places With Fraying Social Fabric, a Political Backlash Rises (WSJ)
· White Ohio policeman kills black teen armed with BB gun (Reuters)
· Apple’s 21% Rally Is Tough Pill for 295 Funds That Bailed (BBG)
· Hedge Funds Find a New Short-Selling Guru (BBG)
· Facebook steps up fight against fake news (Hill)

 

*Overnight Media Digest*

WSJ

- The U.S. Justice Department proposed that Deutsche Bank AG pay $14 billion to settle a set of high-profile mortgage-securities probes stemming from the financial crisis, according to people familiar with the matter, a number that would rank among the largest of what other banks have paid to resolve similar claims and is well above what investors have been expecting. http://on.wsj.com/2chMRQp

- Unilever PLC is in talks to acquire Honest Co., the consumer-products retailer co-founded by actress Jessica Alba, according to people familiar with the matter. http://on.wsj.com/2crWUW1

- Donald Trump offered an expanded economic blueprint and outlined an overhaul of his tax plan on Thursday, but skeptics in both parties questioned his promise to offset steep tax cuts with significantly stronger economic growth. http://on.wsj.com/2cufEAW

- The partial closing of a major pipeline running from the Gulf Coast to the East Coast could reduce gas supply and raise prices at the pump in several U.S. states during the next few days. http://on.wsj.com/2cK0KrB

- Hillary Clinton returned to campaigning Thursday after illness and a pair of self-inflicted wounds took her presidential quest off message and off the road for the better part of a week. http://on.wsj.com/2d4nl2t

- Samsung Electronics Co, faced with exploding batteries in some of its top-selling phones, exacerbated the situation in the way it communicated with regulators and consumers, say former U.S. officials and people familiar with similar product recalls. http://on.wsj.com/2cZXw0R

- Congressional lawmakers have launched a formal investigation into whether solar-energy companies improperly received billions of dollars in tax incentives from the Obama administration. http://on.wsj.com/2cdhKqt

- Pandora Media Inc rolled out a new version of its ad-free internet radio service Thursday, allowing subscribers to replay songs, skip more of them and listen offline for the same $4.99 monthly price. http://on.wsj.com/2czhPnv

- Oracle Corp's cloud-computing business posted another strong sales gain, but the quarterly growth was offset by steep declines in its conventional software-licensing business. http://on.wsj.com/2cYJyjQ

 

FT

Deutsche Bank asked to pay $14 bln in US probe http://on.ft.com/2cuNyFH

US recalls 1m Samsung phones after reports of burns and damage http://on.ft.com/2cuOZE0

Informa acquires US events and publishing rival for 1.2 bln stg http://on.ft.com/2cuOQ3r

US and Dutch plan to hand out $1.4 bln fine to Telia http://on.ft.com/2cuP6PZ

Overview

The U.S. Department of Justice asked Deutsche Bank AG to pay $14 billion to settle allegations of mis-selling mortgage securities.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a formal recall notice for 1 million Samung Glaaxy Note 7 smartphones on Thursday, after nearly a hundred reports of overheating batteries.

Informa Plc agreed to buy US rival Penton for 1.2 billion stg as it seeks to expand into the North American market.

US and Dutch authorities indicated they intend to fine Nordic telecom operator Telia Company AB over its entry into Uzbekistan in 2007.

(Compiled by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan in Bengaluru)

 

NYT

- Senator Ted Cruz, who once led a government shutdown in his efforts to defund President Obama's healthcare law, has turned his sights on a more obscure target: the federal government's plan to end its oversight of the internet's master directory of website addresses. http://nyti.ms/2cdVlcO

- Mutual funds that mimic hedge fund strategies - the so-called liquid alternatives sector - were among the hottest investments just a few years ago. Despite lagging returns and setbacks at several noteworthy funds, retail investors until recently have stuck with them even as they have pulled billions of dollars out of other funds. http://nyti.ms/2cZitNy

- Safety regulators in the United States have issued warnings in recent days cautioning consumers not to turn on their Samsung Note 7's on airplanes - and not to use their phones at all. South Korea's flight regulator, in a reversal, followed suit, as have others around the world. http://nyti.ms/2cCQA8h

- U.S. President Obama, beginning a final uphill push for a trade initiative that is opposed by both party's presidential candidates, will host an Oval Office meeting on Friday to showcase support among public figures in both parties. http://nyti.ms/2cK2i4A

- In a move that is sure to draw the ire of Republicans, California officials are asking the Obama administration this week to approve a plan that would allow undocumented immigrants to buy health insurance on the state's public exchange. http://nyti.ms/2crnQ2N

 

Canada

THE GLOBE AND MAIL

** Magna International Inc will likely need to build a new assembly plant if it wins more contracts to manufacture vehicles, chief executive officer Don Walker says. http://bit.ly/2crRqFp

** British Columbia will haul in more tax revenue from the sale of homes this year than its combined revenues from the province's historical economic foundation of mining, energy, forestry, Crown land tenures and natural gas. http://bit.ly/2crSyIX

** Unhappy with flood damages this spring, a group of Muskoka property owners has launched a class-action suit against the Ontario government, underlining long-held complaints by area residents about the way the province operates water-control structures in the region. http://bit.ly/2crRIMx

NATIONAL POST

** For the first time, the level of debt held by Canadians has exceeded the country's gross domestic product as the red ink spilled over in the second quarter to 100.5 per cent of GDP, up from 98.7 per cent during the previous three-month period. http://bit.ly/2crRxAL

** More pain is likely in store for Sobeys owner Empire Co. as the grocery retailer seeks to cut costs and drive up flagging sales in the wake of its botched integration of the Western Canadian Safeway chain. http://bit.ly/2crSmcW

** NewLeaf Travel Co Inc will temporarily cease flights to four cities as part of its new core schedule, which allows travellers to book out to April 2017. http://bit.ly/2crS6KR

 

Britain

 

The Times

First-half profits have plunged by nearly 15 percent at the John Lewis Partnership Plc after it had to absorb higher pay costs and pricing pressures. http://bit.ly/2cuQOAW

Informa Plc, the publishing and events group, is expanding in America with the 1.2 billion pounds purchase of U.S. rival Penton. http://bit.ly/2cuQqSX

The Guardian

The Bank of England left the door open to another interest rate cut this year, but decided that the safest option for now was to wait and see if the economy can continue to weather the initial shock of the Brexit vote. http://bit.ly/2cuRfLv

Shares in Sports Direct International Plc have fallen by more than 5 percent after the company's joint house broker cut full-year profit expectations for the beleaguered retailer by a fifth. http://bit.ly/2cuRy9g

The Telegraph

Shareholder adviser Glass Lewis recommended that SABMiller Plc shareholders support the takeover by Anheuser-Busch InBev, which is designed to soften the tax hit suffered by the two biggest shareholders in the London-listed beer giant. http://bit.ly/2cuU1jE

Sky News

George Osborne is vowing to save his Northern Powerhouse initiative in a move likely to be seen as a challenge to Theresa May after she sacked him. http://bit.ly/2cuTgY1

The Hinkley nuclear power station deal will go ahead after months of doubt, the government has announced - but there will be new conditions. http://bit.ly/2cuTgqX

The Independent

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV has said it is recalling 1.9 million vehicles worldwide for an air bag defect that is linked to three deaths and five injuries. http://ind.pn/2cuUNgF

Waitrose, the supermarket arm of the John Lewis partnership (JLP), has scrapped plans to open new stores, opting to revamp existing ones with wine bars and bakeries instead. http://ind.pn/2cuUBOC Reported by Zero Hedge 1 hour ago.

This exclusive report reveals the ABCs of the IoT

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This exclusive report reveals the ABCs of the IoT 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 29 minutes ago.

Survey: Companies manage health care costs; burden shifts to workers

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A Kaiser Family Foundation analysis shows that although the employer health insurance market shows stability, underneath the data is a continuation of the shift of costs to workers, The New York Times reports. The number of employers offering insurance remains steady, and the cost of premiums have stayed largely unchanged, the report says. But more employees are seeing their deductibles increase by about 50 percent from five years ago. To read the full Kaiser report, click here. Reported by bizjournals 26 minutes ago.

More than 90 percent of N.J. residents have health insurance (MAP)

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The number of New Jerseyans lacking insurance dropped by nearly a third between 2011 and 2015 Reported by NJ.com 18 minutes ago.

By One Measure, Health Care Law Is a Record Success

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While the number of people without health insurance is at its lowest, thanks largely to Obamacare, continued declines are far from certain. Reported by NYTimes.com 21 hours ago.

10 Things That Every American Should Know About Donald Trump's Plan To Save The U.S. Economy

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10 Things That Every American Should Know About Donald Trump's Plan To Save The U.S. Economy Submitted by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

*Can Donald Trump turn the U.S. economy around?*  This week Trump unveiled details of his new economic plan, and the mainstream media is having a field day criticizing it.  But the truth is that we simply cannot afford to stay on the same path that Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and the Democrats have us on right now.  Millions of jobs are being shipped out of the country, the middle class is dying, poverty is exploding, millions of children in America don’t have enough food, and our reckless spending has created the biggest debt bubble in the history of the planet.  Something must be done or else we will continue to steamroll toward economic oblivion.  *So is Donald Trump the man for the hour?*

If you would like to read his full economic plan, you can find it on his official campaign website.  *His plan starts off by pointing out that this has been the weakest “economic recovery” since the Great Depression*…



Last week’s GDP report showed that the economy grew a mere 1.2% in the second quarter and 1.2% over the last year. It’s the weakest recovery since the Great Depression – the predictable consequence of massive taxation, regulation, one-side trade deals and onerous energy restrictions.



And Trump is exactly right about how weak this economic recovery has been.

*So how would he fix things?*

The following are 10 things that every American should know about Donald Trump’s plan to save the U.S. economy…

-*#1 Donald Trump would lower taxes on the middle class*-

The tax savings under Trump’s plan would actually be quite substantial for middle class families.  The following numbers come from a recent Charisma article…

• A married couple earning $50,000 per year with two children and $8,000 in child care expenses will save 35% from their current tax bill.

• A married couple earning $75,000 per year with two children and $10,000 in child care expenses will receive a 30% reduction in their tax bill.

• Married couple earning $5 million per year with two children and $12,000 in child care expenses will get only a 3% reduction in their tax bill.

-*#2 Donald Trump would lower taxes on businesses*-

Under his plan, no business in America would be taxed more than 15 percent.  Alternatively, Hillary Clinton’s plan would tax some small businesses at a rate of close to 50 percent.  So Trump’s plan would undoubtedly be good for businesses, and it would encourage many that have left the country to return.

But where would the lost tax revenue be made up?

-*#3 Childcare expenses would be exempt from taxation*-

For working families with children this would be a great blessing.  Without a doubt this is an effort to win over more working women, and this is a demographic that Trump has been struggling with.

It is definitely an idea that I support, but once again where will the money come from to pay for this?

-*#4 U.S. manufacturers will be allowed to immediately fully expense new plants and equipment*-

This would undoubtedly lead to a boom in capital investment, but it would also reduce tax revenue.  As an emergency measure this would be very good for encouraging manufacturers to stay in America, but it would also likely increase the budget deficit.

-*#5 A temporary freeze on new regulations*-

Red tape is one of my big pet peeves, and so I greatly applaud Trump for this proposal.  I think that Bob Eschliman put it very well when he wrote the following about Trump’s planned freeze on new regulations…



In 2015 alone, federal agencies issued over 3,300 final rules and regulations, up from 2,400 the prior year. Studies show that small manufacturers face more than three times the burden of the average U.S. business, and the hidden tax from ineffective regulations amounts to “nearly $15,000 per U.S. household” annually. Excessive regulation is costing our country as much as $2 trillion dollars per year, and Trump will end it.



-*#6 All existing regulations would be reviewed and unnecessary regulations would be eliminated*-

In particular, Trump’s plan would focus on getting rid of regulations that inhibit hiring.  The following are some of the specific areas that he identifies on his official campaign website…

· The Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, which forces investment in renewable energy at the expense of coal and natural gas, raising electricity rates;
· The EPA’s Waters of the United States rule, which gives the EPA the ability to regulate the smallest streams on private land, limiting land use; and
· The Department of Interior’s moratorium on coal mining permits, which put tens of thousands of coal miners out of work.

-*#7 Donald Trump would fundamentally alter our trade relationships with the rest of the globe*-

Donald Trump is the first major party nominee in decades to recognize that our trade deficit is absolutely killing our economy.  I write about this all the time, and it is a hot button issue for me.  So I definitely applaud Trump for proposing the following…

· Appoint trade negotiators whose goal will be to win for America: narrowing our trade deficit, increasing domestic production, and getting a fair deal for our workers.
· Renegotiate NAFTA.
· Withdraw from the TPP.
· Bring trade relief cases to the world trade organization.
· Label China a currency manipulator.
· Apply tariffs and duties to countries that cheat.
· Direct the Commerce Department to use all legal tools to respond to trade violations.

-*#8 Donald Trump’s plan would be a tremendous boost for the U.S. energy industry*-

Barack Obama promised to kill the coal industry, and that is one of the few promises that he has actually kept.  Obama also killed the Keystone Pipeline, and right now the energy industry as a whole is enduring their worst stretch since the last recession.  To turn things around, Trump would do the following…

· Rescind all the job-destroying Obama executive actions including the Climate Action Plan and the Waters of the U.S. rule.
· Save the coal industry and other industries threatened by Hillary Clinton’s extremist agenda.
· Ask Trans Canada to renew its permit application for the Keystone Pipeline.
· Make land in the Outer Continental Shelf available to produce oil and natural gas.
· Cancel the Paris Climate Agreement (limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius) and stop all payments of U.S. tax dollars to U.N. global warming programs.

-*#9 Trump would repeal Obamacare*-

Trump claims that Obamacare would cost our economy two million jobs over the next ten years.  And without a doubt, it has already cost the U.S. economy a lot of jobs.

Not only that, but Obamacare has also sent health insurance premiums soaring, and this is putting a tremendous amount of financial pressure on many families.

Trump says that he would “replace” Obamacare, but that is a rather vague statement.

What exactly would he replace it with?

-*#10 Trump’s plan says nothing about the Federal Reserve*-

This is a great concern, because the Federal Reserve has far more power over the economy than anyone else does.  It is at the very heart of our debt-based system, and unless something is done about the Fed our debt bubble will continue to get even larger.

Since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, the value of the U.S. dollar has fallen by more than 96 percent and our national debt has gotten more than 5000 times larger.  For Trump to not even mention the Federal Reserve in his economic plan is a tremendous oversight.

We are in the midst of a long-term economic decline, and things have not gotten better during the Obama years.  If you can believe it, a study that was just released by Harvard even acknowledges this…



America’s economic performance peaked in the late 1990s, and *erosion in crucial economic indicators such as the rate of economic growth, productivity growth, job growth, and investment* began well before the Great Recession.

 

Workforce participation, the proportion of Americans in the productive workforce, peaked in 1997. With fewer working-age men and women in the workforce, *per-capita income for the U.S. is reduced.*

 

*Median real household income has declined since 1999, with incomes stagnating across virtually all income levels.* Despite a welcome jump in 2015, median household income remains below the peak attained in 1999, 17 years ago. Moreover, stagnating income and limited job prospects have disproportionately affected lower-income and lower-skilled Americans, leading inequality to rise.



*That same study found that the percentage of Americans participating in the labor force peaked back in 1997 and has been steadily declining since that time…*

*If we continue to do the same things, we will continue to get the same results.*

Donald Trump is promising change, and many of his proposals sound good, but there are also some areas to be concerned about.

*Ultimately, just tinkering with the tax code and reducing regulations is not going to be enough to turn the U.S. economy around. * We need a fundamental overhaul of our economic and financial systems, and Trump’s plan stops well short of that.  But without a doubt what he is proposing is vastly superior to Hillary Clinton’s plan, and so he should definitely be applauded for at least moving in the right direction. Reported by Zero Hedge 15 hours ago.

Friday Talking Points -- Media Gets Played By Trump, Again

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The media got played by Donald Trump this morning, once again. Picture Charlie Brown lying flat on his back, wondering why he keeps falling for the old kick-the-football bit. That was cable television, after they had carried -- live -- a full hour of an empty podium (Trump didn't start on time), then a full-on advertisement for Trump's new D.C. hotel, then some surrogates saying how wonderful Trump was. At the very end, Trump uttered the 30 seconds of soundbite the cable channels had been waiting for, and then even though it was billed as a press conference, Trump walked off and refused to answer any questions.

Here's a hint, for the clueless cable networks: if you don't want to feel cheap and dirty afterwards, then don't get in bed with Trump again. If you don't want to hear: "Oh, and there's some money on the dresser, why don't you buy something nice for yourself..." then don't put yourself into that situation in the first place.

Of course, the networks were outraged. They'll be outraged right up until Trump pulls the exact same trick on them in a few days. Rinse and repeat. Trump did almost exactly the same thing with his Dr. Oz appearance, a few days earlier. First, he was going to release his medical report. Then he wasn't. Then, he let Dr. Oz have a peek at a one-page summary. The media ate it up with a spoon, breathlessly reporting on each twist and turn. No wonder the Trump campaign isn't buying many ads -- they really don't have to when they can play the media like a fiddle, week after week.

Perhaps there's a silver lining to this story. Perhaps this will finally be the straw that breaks the camel's back. After Matt Lauer's disastrous performance with Trump and Clinton, the media has gotten noticeably tougher on challenging Trump's blithe claims and shifting positions. Harder questions are being asked, and non-answers (and outright lies) are being challenged. Nobody wants the scorn that was heaped on Lauer. Well, except for Jimmy Fallon, but he's a comedian and doesn't call himself a journalist. The ones that do consider themselves journalists all seem to be coming out of their daze in the past week or so, and waking up to their responsibilities to separate fact from fiction on the campaign trail. So perhaps Trump blatantly playing them this morning will stiffen their spines even further. Hey, anything's possible, right?

In other news from the campaign trail, Trump once again failed badly in a photo-op event reaching out to African-Americans. No surprise there, really. After being chastised by the pastor who invited Trump to Flint to speak about their water crisis, Trump was on television the next day picking a fight with her. Chalk up another fail on the Trump minority outreach tote board, folks!

In similar news, Donald Trump Jr. insulted Jewish voters by making an offhanded Holocaust joke. Junior also admitted that Dad isn't going to release his tax returns at all, because then people might say mean things about his finances. A chip off the old block!

Let's see, what else? Yet another newspaper that routinely (for the past century, in fact) endorses Republican candidates could not bring themselves to endorse Trump. So far, there have been precisely zero major newspapers to back Trump. More papers have endorsed Gary Johnson than have endorsed Trump, in fact. Embarrassing!

Hillary Clinton had a pretty dismal week as well, beginning by not admitting she had been diagnosed with pneumonia last Friday. She then pigeonholed half of Donald Trump supporters into a "basket of deplorables," and refused to back down (except for the part about "half"). While attending a 9/11 memorial service, Clinton was overcome by the heat and stumbled badly getting into a van. It took her campaign hours to admit she actually was sick, which certainly didn't do her any good on the transparency front. Also, all week long her poll numbers have been falling.

It isn't exactly time for Democrats to panic, but Clinton surely does need to turn things around soon. Her best chance will be at the first of the three televised presidential debates, for which she's been preparing for weeks now. Now, if (hypothetically speaking) Clinton physically collapses on stage during the debate, that would be the time for Democrats to panic, because that might guarantee President Trump. But if Clinton confidently shreds Trump in the first debate, her campaign can get back onto the right track in an instant. To put it another way, there's a lot riding on this debate, and it will doubtlessly be the most-watched presidential debate of all time.

And finally, we got a whole bunch of excellent economic news this week, not that most of the media was paying much attention. I wrote about this good news in more detail on Wednesday:



To review: wages grew more than ever previously recorded. Poverty fell at the steepest rate since L.B.J. was in the White House. According to Gallup, the rate of uninsured Americans was at 18.0 percent in 2013, and it is now down to 9.1 percent. That means the percent of people without health insurance is now half what it was, just before Obamacare started. Half! Obamacare has done precisely what it was designed to do, to put this another way. The job market continues to improve, as it has steadily throughout most of Obama's term in office (after the bottom was hit during his first year). The wage gap between men and women even slightly improved. Oh, and raising minimum wages means everyone's wages increase, and this starts from the lowest income levels and moves up -- instead of the top-down wage increases that really only benefit the one percent.



All of these facts should be highlighted by Hillary Clinton during the debate, because they all paint exactly the opposite picture as what Trump's been saying during his entire campaign. Things are getting better out there, mostly because of Obamacare and hiking the minimum wage -- two prime issues for a Democrat to campaign on.

 

President Obama earned at least an *Honorable Mention* this week, for appearing solo on the campaign trail for Hillary Clinton. He was back to his old campaigning form, but the real reason it's worth a mention here is because an event like this hasn't happened in almost thirty years. An incumbent president is normally expected to campaign for his party's nominee, but it hasn't actually happened since Ronald Reagan did so for George H. W. Bush in 1988. Both times it could have happened since then, it didn't. The first was in 2000, when Al Gore didn't want Bill Clinton to campaign for him, because the Monica Lewinsky impeachment scandal was still so fresh. Many pundits later wondered whether Clinton making appearances (say, in urban environments) for Gore could have pushed him over the top. The second time this might have happened, neither John McCain nor any other Republican candidate wanted anything to do with George W. Bush, whose approval ratings had sunk into the 20s. Bush was roughly as popular as Richard Nixon was, just before he resigned, so he didn't get any invitations to campaign (to say the least). So Obama's appearance this week really should have been a normal thing for a second-term president to do, but this hasn't actually happened for a very long time.

But our *Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week* award instead goes to five senators, led by Jeff Merkley of Oregon, who are attempting to bring back the public option for health insurance. Merkley was joined by Bernie Sanders, Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin, and Patty Murray, and soon dozens of other Senate Democrats were flocking to co-sponsor the measure.

They realize they have an uphill climb in front of them. They are really hoping to build support so they can pass a bill in the next Congress, with a new president. These things take time, in other words, but that shouldn't detract from beginning the effort now. The public option is supported by Hillary Clinton and by millions of Americans, so raising the issue now means it will be talked about during the campaign.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has already succeeded in reducing the uninsured rate of the American public by half -- from 18 percent down to 9 percent. Introducing a public option will only make the marketplaces better and more competitive. Now that the two biggest Democratic foes of the public option (Max Baucus and Joe Lieberman) are both gone from the Senate, it is time for the debate to begin anew.

For reintroducing the measure, we have five *Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week* awards this week, for Senators Jeff Merkley, Bernie Sanders, Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin, and Patty Murray. If Democrats manage to take back the Senate, we can expect a full-throated debate early next year on the issue. For getting this particular ball rolling, these senators deserve recognition and support, so handing them *MIDOTW* awards is the least we can do.

[Rather than congratulating the five winners directly, instead we'd encourage you to take a minute to sign the petition supporting a public option for health insurance.]

 

The obvious choice for *Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week* this week is none other than Hillary Clinton. While she was resting up, perhaps a fitting punishment would have been to write 100 times on a chalkboard (Bart Simpson-style): "It's not the crime but the coverup that gets you."

Sigh.

There was no real "crime" here, of course. Not telling the public and the media that you are sick is not even remotely against the law, even for presidential candidates. And, once again, you can fully sympathize with Clinton's motivation for keeping a lid on her personal information -- there was already a lot of wild and unfounded speculation running around the darker corners of the right-wing echo chamber that she had some deathly disease. Admitting that she had been diagnosed with pneumonia would, obviously, just feed into that whole rumor mill.

Still, the penchant for secrecy when none is really necessary is a definite pattern of behavior for Clinton, and one she would do well to change in the future. Imagine the following scenario, instead of what happened: Clinton publicly announces she's got pneumonia on the same day she is diagnosed (last Friday), and shows the media a letter from her doctor explaining what she's got and how she's treating it. Then she boldly announces that while she will be taking a little time off from normal campaign events, she will make the effort to go to the 9/11 memorial service, since she was so intimately involved in the aftermath (being one of New York's senators, at the time). She attends the event and then has to leave early for medical reasons. She staggers getting into her vehicle, and is caught on video.

That would be a much more sympathetic scenario than what took place, wouldn't it? Rising from her sickbed to honor the fallen, but being overcome and having to be helped away. That's a sympathetic portrait of a dedicated politician. Instead, what we got was a whole lot of unnecessary secrecy and a very bad photo op.

Instead of the story being defused before it happened, it becomes a story about Clinton not being fully transparent and choosing secrecy when it really wasn't even warranted. That feeds into a negative image of her that plenty of voters already hold.

So for not being upfront with the state of her health while running for president, Hillary Clinton is indeed our *Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week*. Repeat after me: It's not the crime, it's the coverup that gets you. It's not the crime, it's the coverup that gets you. It's not the crime, it's the coverup....

[Hillary Clinton is currently running for office, and it is our standing policy not to provide contact information to campaign websites, sorry.]

 

*Volume 409* (9/16/16)

Lost in all the circus acts the media has been blindly chasing, the Washington Post has quietly been doing a bang-up job digging into the namesake charity of Donald Trump. They've spent months and months combing through public records and phoning up hundreds of charities to discover the truths behind the Donald J. Trump Foundation scam. What they've found so far is pretty astounding, even if the entire rest of the media world has largely ignored it while chasing Trump's shiny distractions and eruptions.

The Post -- in the past week alone -- has published story after story after story after story after story on the Trump Foundation's shenanigans, and we can only hope some bright researcher puts these stories on Lester Holt's desk so he can brush up on the facts before the first presidential debate.

We have to thank the Washington Post for committing these acts of real journalism in the midst of the presidential campaign. Nobody else has bothered to track this stuff down, and now the only thing left to do is to ask Trump to his face about what has been uncovered. This would require television "journalists" to do their homework and boldly confront Trump, though, so we're not exactly holding our breath in anticipation of it happening.

Still, it gives us plenty of fodder for this week's talking points. Our theme today comes from Hillary Clinton. We had to scratch our heads a bit about the whole "baskets" thing, but we did appreciate her calling out the Trump campaign's deplorable appeal. So each of these is presented as a response that can be used any time the word "deplorable" pops up in a political conversation.

 *   Where's the $10,000,000, Donald?*Saying stuff is easy. Writing checks, not so easy, apparently.

"You know what's deplorable? Telling the public you've given 'tens of millions of dollars' to charity when you haven't even given your own namesake charity one thin dime in years. Or refusing to prove that you've given any money to charity at all. We've already seen Trump do this earlier in the campaign, when reporters began asking about the money Trump promised to donate to veterans -- and none of it had actually been donated. Donald Trump loves saying he'll donate to charity, but he rarely follows through with the actual money. And that's pretty deplorable."

 *   Political slush fund*This is the only one that is actually getting some attention from the rest of the media. But it needs to be hammered as many times as possible.

"You know what's deplorable? Using your own charity as a slush fund to make campaign donations to bribe an attorney general into not investigating your fraudulent university scam. That's truly deplorable."

 *   Lying about donations*This one is just straight-up lying. Lying about donations given to charity. So far, I don't think Trump has ever been asked about it by anyone.

"You know what else is deplorable? Telling the I.R.S. you've given money to charities when you didn't. The Washington Post has been digging through the Trump charity's financial statements, and has found multiple examples of false donation claims. Trump's paperwork says he gave a certain amount to a certain charity, but when the Post calls them up and asks them to verify, the charities say they've never received a penny from either Trump's foundation or Trump himself. That's not only deplorable, it also could be tax fraud."

 *   It's yuuuuge!*This one has been picked up, not by journalists, but by late-night comedians. Hey, it's a start, we suppose.

"You know what's really deplorable? Paying $20,000 to a charity to buy a six-foot painting of yourself, that you then hang in the boardroom of one of your golf courses. That even reaches beyond deplorable into downright narcissism, folks."

 *   Birtherism non-apology*Trump tried to weasel his way out of leading the birther movement today. Without apologizing, and bizarrely blaming Clinton for it all.

"You know what's deplorable? Spending years championing a conspiracy theory that America's first black president wasn't born in the United States, based on absolutely nothing. Then refusing for an entire year to dispute your birtherism on the campaign trail. And when you are finally forced to admit you were wrong, refusing to apologize for it and blaming someone else for your deplorable behavior."

 *   The KKK is deplorable, Mike*Trump's running mate refuses to say mean things about a former wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. There's a word for that, Mike.

"You know who is deplorable? David Duke, former Klan leader, is deplorable. It's not even all that close a call, really, which is why it is astounding that Mike Pence couldn't bring himself to say it. Not only is David Duke deplorable, but not clearly saying so is also pretty deplorable."

 *   Gas chamber jokes are...*Donald Trump Junior made a jaw-dropping reference to "gas chambers" the other day. Now he says he didn't mean what everyone thinks he meant by it. Because, apparently, nobody in the Trump family ever apologizes for anything.

"You know what's deplorable? Making jokes about the Holocaust. That is unbelievably deplorable. And despicable, just for good measure."

 

Chris Weigant blogs at:

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant

Full archives of FTP columns: FridayTalkingPoints.com

All-time award winners leaderboard, by rank

 

-- 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 13 hours ago.

America’s biggest 401(k) adviser has a plan to manage all your money

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For average Americans, hiring a financial adviser doesn’t make sense because the cost of the advice can easily exceed any benefit seen in your bottom line. [...] most platforms offer only simple guidance, focused on investing rather than more complicated questions like budgeting and retirement income. Another idea is to get people wide-ranging, soup-to-nuts financial advice the same way they get health insurance — through their employers. Co-founded in 1996 by Nobel Prize-winning economist William Sharpe, Financial Engines is leveraging a unique business model: About 700 companies, employing a total of 10 million workers, already pay the firm to help their workers manage 401(k)s. It offers basic education and online tools that sync up with each company’s plans. Raffone said Financial Engines has an inherent marketing edge: a captive audience of 10 million workers who already know the company through their employers, which are some of the biggest companies in the U.S. When it comes to managed 401(k) accounts, Financial Engines has a 60 percent market share, according to research firm Cerulli Associates. Since some employers worry that employee financial stress hurts productivity, the firm provides the managed-account option to help ease the burden, particularly for employees close to retirement. [...] Financial Engines’ “Income+” product helps retirees with the challenging task of turning nest eggs into regular income after retirement. Managed-account providers, or the employers themselves, can offer online resources or put on group seminars covering financial topics, but the advice is often vague and unhelpful. “In a group setting, you can’t solve an individual’s problems in the same way you could if someone is sitting down across the table,” said Jason Roberts, CEO of the Pension Resource Institute, a firm that helps companies manage retirement plans. [...] can Financial Engines make a profit providing personal advice to workers with an average person’s net worth? About half of U.S. households age 55 and older have nothing saved in a retirement account, according to the Government Accountability Office, and the rest hold a median of about $109,000. Financial Engines was a strong supporter of a new Department of Labor “conflict of interest rule,” scheduled to go into effect next year, that requires advisers to put clients’ interests first when handling retirement accounts. Reported by SFGate 12 hours ago.

Obama’s trickle-up economics

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Only serious nerds like me eagerly await the annual Census Bureau reports on income, poverty and health insurance. But the just-released reports on 2015 justified the anticipation. We expected good news; but last year, it turns out, the economy partied like it was 1999. And this tells us something very important — namely, that a […] Reported by Seattle Times 14 hours ago.

Kejriwal's tongue had to be trimmed as he spoke against PM Modi: Parrikar

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*Taking a jibe at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who recently underwent a tongue surgery, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today said Kejriwals tongue had to be trimmed as it had grown long due to speaking much against Prime Minister and him.*

However, the minister also sympathised with the AAP leader for being on "sick leave".

"In Delhi he speaks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and here (in Goa) he speaks against me. Due to this his tongue has grown big, and now it had to be trimmed," Parrikar said addressing core group of workers in Goa ahead of the State Legislative Assembly polls.

But, Parrikar was quick enough to add, "I sympathise with him (Kejriwal) as he is on sick leave."

The Defence minister took a dig at the AAP leaders for "abandoning" Delhi when the state was reeling under chikungunya and dengue attack killing 40 people.

"If your Mohalla clinics were so much effective then how come 40 people died due to chikungunya. The lies of AAP are getting exposed in Delhi after the incident," he said.

He said the AAP leaders are currently on world tour after cheating the people of Delhi, with its deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in Finland. "From where does AAP get the money? They spent Rs 26.82 crore merely on advertisement budget," Parrikar added.

Referring to sacked Delhi Minister Sandeep Kumar, who was arrested on charges of rape on a complaint of a woman who figured in an objectionable video with him, Parrikar said, "AAP leaders are found exploiting a woman merely to give a ration card."

The woman had alleged that she was raped by Kumar when she had gone to his office in Outer Delhis Sultanpuri seeking help to obtain a ration card.

Parrikar also quoted a WhatsApp joke making rounds in Delhi circles, which says that Tihar Superintendent has written to Delhi Governor asking to make him the CM as he has majority of AAP MLAs with him (in jail).

Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, while addressing the workers, said the concept of mohalla clinics introduced by AAP in Goa is "unwarranted" as BJP-led government has already made treatment in the private hospitals and government-run hospitals free of cost by introducing health insurance scheme. Reported by Deccan Herald 5 hours ago.

Star Health eyeing Rs 2,800 crore gross written premium this fiscal

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The largest stand-alone health insurance provider, Star Health and Allied Insurance, is eyeing gross written premium of Rs 2,800 crore by the end of this fiscal, a top company official has said.

The Chennai-based company, which saw a sales revenue of Rs 2,007 crore last fiscal, said it will continue to focus on retail customers and not group policies and is looking at covering around 90 lakh people this year.

"With only a fortnight left for the second quarter to end, we are very close to our first half target of a gross written premium (GWP) of Rs 1,100 crore as we have already sold policies worth Rs 970 crore, and want to take this to Rs 2,800 crore by March," Executive Director, Star Health & Allied Insurance, S Prakash told PTI.

In the June quarter, its gross written premium stood at Rs 486 crore, he added.

Star Health, which has around 48% market share is promoted by private equity players like Tata Capital, ICICI Venture, Sequoia Capital and the England-based APIS. The other standalone private health-cover providers are Apollo Munich, Cigna-TTK, Max Bupa and Religare.

All these five players had an GWP of Rs 1,791 crore as of August 31, 2016, as against with Rs 1,358 crore a year ago, a growth of 31%.

On claim settlement, he said it is settling around 26,000 claims worth around Rs 100 crore every month. In the June quarter alone, it had settled claims worth Rs 290 crore, while for the whole of last fiscal year, it had cleared claims worth Rs 960 crore.

Prakash also said the company's own staff makes all claim settlement and that it doesn't have any third-party administrators for this. Talking about sales plans for the current year, he said they had sold 68.23 lakh policies last year and the company has set a target of over 90 lakh policies this year.

On income from its investments, he said it was Rs 80 crore last year and this year the target is Rs 100 crore.

According to Prakash, 93% of the company's business fall under retail segment which is considered to be a healthy segment. 

 

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· Tata Capital
· ICICI Venture
· Sequioa Capital

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Get Corporations Out of Politics: Ciara Torres-Spelliscy

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The Supreme Court's Citizen United decision, giving corporations the right to unlimited political contributions usually kept secret from voters and shareholders, was just the most recent in a series of rulings giving corporations "personhood" rights. In her new book, Corporate Citizen?: An Argument for the Separation of Corporation and State, Stetson law professor Ciara Torres-Spelliscy documents corporate efforts to dramatically enlarge their political and commercial speech and religious "rights" through lawsuits, campaign contributions, and lobbying. They also use these "rights" to limit their liability for the damage they do to investors, employees, customers, and the community. In an interview, Torres-Spelliscy discussed the impact corporate money has on preventing progress on issues like climate change and what options there are for reducing the distortion effect of corporate money from government.

How did you first get interested in this issue?

I first ran into the issue of money in politics as a senior at Harvard in a class called "Democracy" which was taught at the Harvard Law School. I had to read Who Will Tell The People by William Greider and that introduced me to the issue of corporate lobbying and campaign finance.

Can you give some examples of corporate money distorting the legislative process in (1) Obamacare, (2) climate change, and/or (2) post-Enron era/post-financial meltdown reforms?

As I discuss in Corporate Citizen?, corporate money can distort the legislative process by curtailing what is on the agenda of Members of Congress and by narrowing what lawmakers think is even possible. So for example, when the U.S. was revising its health care system, instead of going with a public option where the government provides health care for all, which is basically the approach of most western democracies, instead what American got with Obamacare was essentially a mandate for people of a certain income level to purchase private health insurance from private companies. This served the interests of private companies, but not necessarily the public. But because of years of lobbying--including derailing the efforts of President Bill Clinton to reform health care in the 1990s--the public option wasn't really even seriously considered as a starting point for the Obama Administration.

One of the most troubling conclusions I came to when writing Corporate Citizen? was that the American Congress seems utterly incapable of dealing with climate change. This is a potentially deadly mistake that even the U.S. military recognizes as an existential threat. When I asked environmentalists why Congressional inaction on climate was the case, I got very similar answers from scientist Gretchen Goldman, environmental lawyer Deborah Goldberg and the former head of Greenpeace, Phil Radford. They all described how industries--especially the oil and gas industries--were particularly effective at lobbying to get Congress and regulators to do as little as possible to protect the environment. A common theme each mentioned was the attempt by businesses to manufacture doubt about the underlying climate science by paying scientists to spout the industry position that climate change is not caused by man, even though the scientific consensus is that climate change is caused by human activity. This is very similar to recent revelations that the sugar industry paid scientists to cast doubt on the link between sugar and heart disease. The impact is similar, the public is confused about what the truth is, and meanwhile elected officials are provided cover for failing to act. I find this lack of urgency on the issue of climate change personally troubling as I live in Florida, close to the coast. If nothing is done about climate change federally, my community and my home could be literally under water.

Even after corporate interests like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable and the National Association of Manufacturers lose a legislative fight like with the passage of Dodd-Frank, they don't give up waging the war. After Dodd-Frank became law, these trade associations were active challenging many regulations that were promulgated under Dodd-Frank through litigation. For example, these trade associations were successful in stopping Dodd-Frank's proxy access rule, the conflict mineral rule and a rule on reporting payments to foreign governments by extractive industries. Frequently, the arguments raised in these cases tried to expand corporate First Amendment rights by making elaborate claims about how a given regulation was unconstitutional.

After the Citizens United decision, what are the options at the state or federal level to limit the amount or increase transparency in corporate political contributions and lobbying expenses?

As I explicate in Corporate Citizen?, because Citizens United was decided on Constitutional First Amendment grounds, it severely curtails the options for state and federal regulators to limit corporate money in politics--especially if the money is spent independently of candidates. But there is some room for Congress and the states to maneuver. For one, because of a case called Beaumont from 2003, states can still ban corporate contributions that are given directly to candidates' political campaigns. And the federal government and states can vastly improve their disclosure of the sources of money in politics--ending the dark money problem. The Supreme Court in Citizens United ruled in favor of disclosure by a margin of 8 to 1. This frees federal agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to all improve transparency of political spending.

Do other countries limit corporate political contributions?

According to Transparency International, Belgium, Estonia, France, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Portugal all ban corporate political contributions, as does the United States at the federal level under the Tillman Act of 1907. The catch is in over half of the 50 states in America, corporations can give money directly to state candidates. And furthermore, as I noted in Corporate Citizen? because of Citizens United, corporations are free to spend an unlimited amount of money on political ads (making the underlying federal contribution ban nearly meaningless).What is "dark money?" How do litigation and bankruptcy proceedings give us insight into the size and use of "dark money?"

So-called "dark money" is money that is spent in politics--typically to buy political ads--without revealing to the public who paid for the political expenditure. Dark money can be revealed through bankruptcies if the debtor was a source of dark money. Clever investigative reporters have discovered that when they pull the matrix of creditors in certain bankruptcies like that of Corinthian Colleges and coal company Alpha Natural Resources, they find dark money conduits are listed. This means that these corporations were spending dark money before they went bankrupt. Also on occasion, courts will order a dark money spender who is violating a disclosure law to actually tell the public where their money came from. This happened in Montana with a group called Western Tradition Partnership (which later changed its name to American Tradition Partnership). As I explain in Corporate Citizen? this group had bragged to donors that only they would know who had influenced the election. This promise of anonymity was one Western Tradition Partnership couldn't legally keep.

What is the best hope for solving this problem?

The antidote to expanding corporate political power is placing more power in the hands of American voters. While certain regressive states have made it harder for voters to exercise the franchise though restrictive voter ID laws or cutbacks in early voting, there is some forward motion to empower voters as well. As I wrote in Corporate Citizen?, California and Oregon have adopted automatic voter registration. And since the book was written, Connecticut, Vermont, and West Virginia have passed similar laws empowering American voters. More states should follow suit-- placing voters back at the center of the democratic process.

-- 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 23 hours ago.

East Africa: Makerere Dons Want Health Insurance Policy Fast-Tracked

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[Monitor] Kampala -Makerere University lecturers have urged government to fast-track the enacting of the health insurance Bill into law, saying many Ugandans can't afford good health services. Reported by allAfrica.com 11 hours ago.

Podcast: Maryland Insurance Commissioner Al Redmer Jr. talks health insurance hikes, state of co-ops

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It's fair to say that Al Redmer Jr. has a lot to balance on a daily basis. Not only is he constantly fielding questions about the Affordable Care Act, the price of pharmaceuticals and the cost of individual health insurance plans, he's having to talk to business owners about flood insurance and others about homeowners insurance. As the Maryland Insurance Commissioner, Redmer has to explain certain concepts in layman's terms to people who have never even looked at their full health insurance policy… Reported by bizjournals 4 hours ago.

Morning in America Delivered by Democrats

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Nine years after the Great Recession began during the tax- and regulation-slashing Bush administration, some startlingly good economic news arrived from Washington, D.C., last week.

The incomes of typical Americans rose in 2015 by 5.2 percent, the first significant boost to middle-class pay since the end of the Great Recession, and the largest, in percentage terms, ever recorded by the Census Bureau. In addition, the poverty rate fell 1.2 percentage points, the steepest decline since 1968.  Also smaller were the numbers of Americans without health insurance and suffering food insecurity.

That sounds good, right? Especially after all it took to pull out of the Bush recession. During the month Bush left office, 818,000 Americans lost their jobs. Unemployment increased to 10 percent before President Obama’s stimulus programs started ratcheting it down to the current 4.9 percent. Now, wages are beginning to rise again. It seems like an event that Ronald Reagan might call morning in America. But not the current Republican nominee. Trump says, “This country is a hellhole, and we’re going down fast.”
To hoist America up out of that bogus hellhole, Trump proposes the same tired-and-untrue tax- and regulation-cutting formula that Bush did. The one that actually did drop the country into a hellhole – the Wall Street collapse, massive foreclosures and high unemployment.

Trump offered yet another tax plan last week – the third of his campaign. This one, just like Bush’s, lavishes tax cuts on the rich. He would hack the 35 percent business tax rate to 15 percent. He would eliminate the estate tax paid only by the nation’s richest 0.2 percent. So, basically, Trump would cut taxes for himself – a 10 billionaire.

In Trump’s previous tax plan, low-income people, those in the lowest tax bracket, would have paid 10 percent, but now Trump makes them pay more. They’ll have to cough up 12 percent.

At the same time, Trump said, he’d eliminate all that pesky government regulation that’s getting in the way of business doing whatever it wants. So, for example, he’d abolish that annoying regulator, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. That’s the one that just fined Wells Fargo $100 million, part of a total of $185 million in penalties, for issuing credit cards and opening accounts without customers’ consent, sham accounts that customers learned about only after they started accumulating fees and damaging credit. Republicans like Trump have tried to kill the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from the day Democrats created it.

By cutting taxes on the rich and letting businesses run roughshod over consumers, Trump claims he would create 25 million jobs over a decade. This is Reagan and Bush trickle-down economics. It worked great for the rich. They got richer and richer. It never worked for the rest. The rest always do better when there’s a Democrat in the White House, as there is now. The Census report issued last week showing progress on wages is testament to that. But there’s more. Far more.

Princeton economists Alan Blinder and Mark Watson found in 2013 that since World War II, the economy performed significantly better under Democratic presidents, regardless of the measurement used. For example, Democratic presidents average 4.35 percent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth. Under Republicans, it was 2.54 percent.

Democratic presidents presided over higher stock market returns and corporate profits, greater compensation growth and productivity increases.

Economist Steven Stoft analyzed 72 years of jobs data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, during which Democrats controlled the White House for 36 years and Republicans for 36 years. He found that 58 million jobs were created under Democrats and 26 million under Republicans. That means Democratic presidents created more than twice as many jobs.

Significantly, because Trump is telling African-Americans how horrible their lives and their communities and their schools are, and how great he would be as a Republican president for them, a study published by the American Political Science Association found that that over 35 years of Republican presidents, black unemployment rose 13.7 percent. On the other hand, over 22 years of Democratic presidents, black unemployment fell 7.9 percent.

And here’s another noteworthy fact as Trump runs around claiming he’s going to bring manufacturing back, even though he manufactures his own signature suits and ties and shirts offshore in places like China and Mexico and Bangladesh: Democrats create manufacturing jobs; Republicans destroy them.

Bloomberg news service analyzed data from the past eight decades and found manufacturing jobs increased under each of the seven Democrats and decreased under the six Republican presidents.

Even as employment expanded, manufacturing jobs declined under Republican presidents. The largest losses occurred under Reagan and the two Bushes – an average of 9 percent.

Republicans are bad for jobs. They’re bad for manufacturing. They’re bad for the GDP in general. Trump’s 25 million job promise? Malarkey.

Moody’s Analytics looked at his tax, trade and immigration policies and projected they’d cause a recession and eliminate 3.5 million jobs. That was before he changed his mind on taxes again and released the third plan this week, but it’s virtually unchanged from the previous two, other than costing low-income people more.

Americans should reject Trump’s Republican trickle-down promises that have done nothing for workers in the past but swipe their cash and flood it up in torrents to billionaires like Trump.

Americans who want a job, a raise, improved GDP, more American manufacturing, better health insurance – just improved security in general – should look to the Democrats. They’ve got a long track record of actually delivering on those promises.

 

-- 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 4 hours ago.

Morning In America Delivered By Democrats

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Nine years after the Great Recession began during the tax- and regulation-slashing Bush administration, some startlingly good economic news arrived from Washington, D.C., last week.

The incomes of typical Americans rose in 2015 by 5.2 percent, the first significant boost to middle-class pay since the end of the Great Recession, and the largest, in percentage terms, ever recorded by the Census Bureau. In addition, the poverty rate fell 1.2 percentage points, the steepest decline since 1968.  Also smaller were the numbers of Americans without health insurance and suffering food insecurity.

That sounds good, right? Especially after all it took to pull out of the Bush recession. During the month Bush left office, 818,000 Americans lost their jobs. Unemployment increased to 10 percent before President Obama’s stimulus programs started ratcheting it down to the current 4.9 percent. Now, wages are beginning to rise again. It seems like an event that Ronald Reagan might call morning in America. But not the current Republican nominee. Trump says, “This country is a hellhole, and we’re going down fast.”
To hoist America up out of that bogus hellhole, Trump proposes the same tired-and-untrue tax- and regulation-cutting formula that Bush did. The one that actually did drop the country into a hellhole – the Wall Street collapse, massive foreclosures and high unemployment.

Trump offered yet another tax plan last week – the third of his campaign. This one, just like Bush’s, lavishes tax cuts on the rich. He would hack the 35 percent business tax rate to 15 percent. He would eliminate the estate tax paid only by the nation’s richest 0.2 percent. So, basically, Trump would cut taxes for himself – a 10 billionaire.

In Trump’s previous tax plan, low-income people, those in the lowest tax bracket, would have paid 10 percent, but now Trump makes them pay more. They’ll have to cough up 12 percent.

At the same time, Trump said, he’d eliminate all that pesky government regulation that’s getting in the way of business doing whatever it wants. So, for example, he’d abolish that annoying regulator, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. That’s the one that just fined Wells Fargo $100 million, part of a total of $185 million in penalties, for issuing credit cards and opening accounts without customers’ consent, sham accounts that customers learned about only after they started accumulating fees and damaging credit. Republicans like Trump have tried to kill the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from the day Democrats created it.

By cutting taxes on the rich and letting businesses run roughshod over consumers, Trump claims he would create 25 million jobs over a decade. This is Reagan and Bush trickle-down economics. It worked great for the rich. They got richer and richer. It never worked for the rest. The rest always do better when there’s a Democrat in the White House, as there is now. The Census report issued last week showing progress on wages is testament to that. But there’s more. Far more.

Princeton economists Alan Blinder and Mark Watson found in 2013 that since World War II, the economy performed significantly better under Democratic presidents, regardless of the measurement used. For example, Democratic presidents average 4.35 percent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth. Under Republicans, it was 2.54 percent.

Democratic presidents presided over higher stock market returns and corporate profits, greater compensation growth and productivity increases.

Economist Steven Stoft analyzed 72 years of jobs data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, during which Democrats controlled the White House for 36 years and Republicans for 36 years. He found that 58 million jobs were created under Democrats and 26 million under Republicans. That means Democratic presidents created more than twice as many jobs.

Significantly, because Trump is telling African-Americans how horrible their lives and their communities and their schools are, and how great he would be as a Republican president for them, a study published by the American Political Science Association found that that over 35 years of Republican presidents, black unemployment rose 13.7 percent. On the other hand, over 22 years of Democratic presidents, black unemployment fell 7.9 percent.

And here’s another noteworthy fact as Trump runs around claiming he’s going to bring manufacturing back, even though he manufactures his own signature suits and ties and shirts offshore in places like China and Mexico and Bangladesh: Democrats create manufacturing jobs; Republicans destroy them.

Bloomberg news service analyzed data from the past eight decades and found manufacturing jobs increased under each of the seven Democrats and decreased under the six Republican presidents.

Even as employment expanded, manufacturing jobs declined under Republican presidents. The largest losses occurred under Reagan and the two Bushes – an average of 9 percent.

Republicans are bad for jobs. They’re bad for manufacturing. They’re bad for the GDP in general. Trump’s 25 million job promise? Malarkey.

Moody’s Analytics looked at his tax, trade and immigration policies and projected they’d cause a recession and eliminate 3.5 million jobs. That was before he changed his mind on taxes again and released the third plan this week, but it’s virtually unchanged from the previous two, other than costing low-income people more.

Americans should reject Trump’s Republican trickle-down promises that have done nothing for workers in the past but swipe their cash and flood it up in torrents to billionaires like Trump.

Americans who want a job, a raise, improved GDP, more American manufacturing, better health insurance – just improved security in general – should look to the Democrats. They’ve got a long track record of actually delivering on those promises.

 

-- 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 3 hours ago.

NetPEO, Georgia-Based Professional Employee Organization Broker, Celebrates 16-Year Mark

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Professional Employee Organization broker, NetPEO, based in Duluth, Georgia is celebrating 16 years of business.

Dulth, Georgia (PRWEB) September 19, 2016

NetPEO, a Duluth, GA., based Professional Employee Organization broker, is celebrating 16 years in business. President and CEO, Layne Davlin, started the business to offer a full suite of services and providers to clients. “We’ve placed over 1,000 clients in the last 16 years,’’ Davlin said. NetPEO has clients throughout the United States and recently added an international business component.

NetPEO began as Davlin’s vision to be a one-stop shop for businesses across the country. His business, he says, “Is like a matchmaker. We shop for the client.”

The business world is littered with companies that go under because of noncompliance with taxes and benefits. And business owners are often at the mercy of a manager who insists he or she knows what’s best for the company’s growth. Instead, NetPEO founder Davlin says, let his team take these worries off your plate.

“We’re selling the HR competencies of an IBM or Chase to these smaller employers that don’t have internally,’’ says Davlin.

A PEO is an organization that offers a suite of services, including payroll, HR services, benefits brokering and any other service that a company may need. NetPEO works with about 100 providers, including providers who service companies that do international business. NetPEO analysts do all the work for the client and then present a list of services.

NetPEO’s clients vary from a dental office with seven to 12 employees, a realtor with two employees, and law firms with a few hundred employees to semi-pro sports teams and truck driving companies. Imagine, Davlin says, a tech startup that began in a dorm room and suddenly has 20 employees and $100 million in funding. Those founders better have a company handbook that spells out vacation policies and bereavement leave. They are looking for health insurance. And they undoubtedly need help hiring, and at times, firing employees. About half of all small businesses do not survive to the five-year mark, according to the Small Business Administration.

“Most entrepreneurs know their industry and that’s it,” he says. And why should they? After all, HR professionals are experts in a broad and constantly evolving landscape. Just consider the murky boundaries of employees using cell phones and mobile devices for work and home—it’s enough to keep a business owner up at night. Payroll services must meet federal, state and local standards that often change as well. “Our company gives back lost time to clients, time they can spend with their family or building their business,’’ he says.

“All those things business owners rather not do, I get to do that, and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else,’’ Davlin says.

In fact, companies that use PEOs can be at a tremendous advantage, states the National Association of Professional Employer Organization, NAPEO.ORG. Small businesses that use PEOs are 50 percent less likely to go out of business and have a 9 percent growth rate higher than the industry standard. They save 21 percent in HR costs, according the NAPEO’s own studies. And these companies are more likely to offer retirement benefits, an offering that retains staff members.

For more information, contact Layne Davlin at 678-376-1212 or info(at)netpeo(dot)com. Reported by PRWeb 4 hours ago.

How New Mexico's health insurance co-op has stayed in the game

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When the Affordable Care Act went into law in 2010, co-op health plans were born, and 24 received funding from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). One of those 24 never received a license, and now only six remain. Among those six is New Mexico Health Connections. Dr. Martin Hickey, CEO of New Mexico Health Connections, says co-ops have been failing for a number of reasons. Co-ops, like all insurance providers, didn't realize how many sick people there were when they first created,… Reported by bizjournals 2 hours ago.
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