Good morning
The headlines:
- Dimon says that the trading loss was an isolated event.
Link: Well obviously.
Wrote about it here.
- And JP Morgan pulls in Republicans for damage control.
Link: Politicians…doing “damage” control…
The reason that this is news is because Jamie Dimon was once known as Obama’s “favourite banker”. Which has now been followed by #ThatAwkwardMoment when he had to cross party lines.
- Romney outlines health care plan.
Link: Ha ha ha ha.
Obviously, it replaces the current Obama plan with one that relies heavily on private markets to provide access to good health for all Americans. And I quote: “Free enterprise is the way that America works. We need to apply that to healthcare”.
Isn’t that the euphemised version of “we’ll let y’all sort y’selves out because y’all can make the best decisions for y’all”?
Either way, Romney is taking it upon himself to either “repeal and replace, or replace, Obamacare”, and he intends “to do both”. But replacing Obamacare twice sounds like a bit of overkill. Unless “overkilling” is part of the plan. Which would be very free market*.
Romney’s solution looks like he wants to make medical coverage the responsibility of the states rather than the Federal government. Which is genius – because then the states will have to cover it, without the fiscal deficit being called into more play. On the other hand, we might see more individual states go bankrupt…
- Obama tells everyone that his economic plan is best for most Americans.
Link: Ha ha ha ha.
Appeaser.
The Obama counter-argument to Romney’s plan was: Romney’s plan can be condensed into a 140-letter tweet with letters to spare.
Ladies and Gentlemen. I give you: “rhetoric”.
- New York asks insurers of lapsed borrowers for new rates.
Link: Outrageous.
So – the backstory. If you lapse in your mortgage payments, not only do you lose your house, you’re also required to pay for insurance on the house you just lost, to cover potential damage from “vandalism” and “storms”.
The Department of Financial Services has determined that the insurers are charging too much for this insurance, so have demanded that they come up with new rates. Why? Well if you’re a normal home-owner, and you pay premiums for protection against such damage, then the insurance companies pays out about 63 cents in claims for every $1 of premium it collects.
For the same insurance policy, if you’re a lapsed mortgage borrower, the insurance companies pay out less than 25 cents in claims for every $1 of premium collected. What does that mean?
That the premiums are too high.
That’s all for now.
Have a good day.
*“Survival of the fittest”, etc.
