Tag Archives: political economy

They Disagreed with Me!?

Posted on by
Reply

“[Juncker] said we were ready to front-load EU funds at the disposal of Greece for the future and the Greek government didn’t take the offer, which convinced them that [the Greeks] weren’t interested in an agreement and it was ideological,” an MEP who was in the room told Politico after the meeting.

How dare they not immediately take our deal!? How dare they put patriotism against the wishes of their creditors!?

“He said, ‘We were so close, in fact, we were so close that it was just €60 million that we were arguing over.”

Then, Mr Juncker, why didn’t you cede the €60 million point, if it was such a trivial thing?

Even The Washington Post is looking at this with clearer eyes.

Another Government Has Shut Down

Posted on by
Reply

…at least partially, and again over Democrats’ intransigence with fiscal responsibility. Tom Corfman, of Crain’s Chicago Business:

The financial situation in Illinois has been dire for a number of year. What brings it to a head is the election of Governor Bruce Rauner, a Republican with a strong agenda to change the state. At the same time, he faces opposition from the Democratic legislature and their constituents.

Indeed. Rauner won’t agree to any tax increases unless the Democrats agree to making the state more friendly to business: which means reducing Illinois’ regulatory environment, reducing spending (including on the Teachers Union’s schools), and reducing taxes generally, especially on businesses.

But those Democrats have to have their spending. Never mind that the state has the nation’s lowest credit rating, the nation’s most underfunded state pension system, and the nation’s largest deficit at the state level.

It’s only money.

Obamacare….

Posted on by
Reply

…again. The claimed purpose of Obamacare is to get every American covered by a health plan.

Prior to the passage of the Affordable Care Act, with its mandate that all Americans purchase insurance and requirement for businesses to offer employees insurance plans, many small companies provided coverage by directly reimbursing medical costs or for the cost of private insurance plans. Businesses do it because that’s a less complicated process than dealing with an official health insurance plan….

An IRS Rule (remember these guys and their rules?) that took effect on 1 Jul punishes those businesses for helping their employees.

…those reimbursements…are “considered to be group health plans subject to the market reforms, including the prohibition on annual limits for essential health benefits and the requirement to provide certain preventive care without cost sharing.”

“Such an arrangement fails to satisfy the market reforms and may be subject to a $100/day excise tax per applicable employee (which is $36,500 per year, per employee) under section 4980D of the Internal Revenue Code[.]

No. The true purpose of Obamacare is to get every American covered by a government-approved health plan. Choice be damned. An employer actually helping his employees be damned.

US Access to Space

Posted on by
Reply

Last weekend, a SpaceX rocket carrying supplies to the Space Station exploded while staging after launch. This follows an Orbital Sciences resupply rocket explosion last fall and a Russian resupply rocket failure last spring.

USAF General (Ret) William Shelton, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, is lamenting legislation barring the use of Russian rocket engines in our launchers, and his concern is sparked by those failures.

The problem, and it’s a legitimate concern, is that SpaceX and United Launch Alliance, a partnership between Lockheed Martin and Boeing, are the only two American reliable rocket companies we have—Orbital Sciences hasn’t succeeded yet—and ULA uses those Russian rocket engines in its launchers. With the legislation, of the two rocket companies (and at least two are strongly desired for safety and redundantly assured access to space), only one will be able to fly until ULA develops another engine.

The other side of the problem, though, is that of the two current American companies, one can fly only with the engines supplied by one of our enemies. That’s not very reliable, either.

A Greek Exit

Posted on by
2

There is some concern about Greece’s current debt strait causing it to leave the EU, and there is additional concern about “contagion” spreading—that with the precedent set, other members might leave, also. Mark Dowding, BlueBay Asset Management’s co-head of investment grade and a senior portfolio manager, offered this, for instance:

If we get a Greek exit, you have to say the potential for other countries to exit the eurozone is suddenly no longer negligible. That would need to be reflected in bond prices.

It’s certainly true that the potential for others leaving is no longer negligible. However, it’s neither sudden—the possibility has been there for years—nor is it much higher than negligible. The only nations with any non-zero likelihood of leaving at all are the remaining PIIGS, and they’ve either already been through their crises (Ireland, for instance), or they’ve already begun taking steps, however halting, to improve their financial situation.