Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Only the Little People Pay Taxes

...except for estate taxes on inheritances. And most rich people don't pay this tax either. Only a small fraction of the super-duper rich pay this tax (on money they don't hide overseas).

Sunday, March 29, 2015

This is what job polarization looks like (animation)

Latest wage data from the Social Security Administration for 2013 showed an annual median wage of $28,031 — and at 40 hours a week for 52 weeks would be $13.48/hour. But FiveThirtyEight.Com reports the median worker earned $17.09 an hour in May 2014 — or $35,547 for a typical full-time job.

FiveThirtyEight.Com -- Middle-Class Jobs Are Still Lagging (March 26, 2015 by Ben Casselman)

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Did the Medicare Doc Fix just get Fixed?

(October 9, 2005) This is an update to my update below, which is an update to my original post:

USA TODAY: "Medicare Part B premiums to rise 52% for 7 million enrollees: For seven in 10 Medicare beneficiaries, 2016 will be much like 2015. They will pay $104.90 per month for their Medicare Part B premium — just as they did in 2015. But for some 30% of Medicare beneficiaries — roughly 7 million or so Americans."

[* Forgive my math but: How to reconcile no change for 7-in-10 and 52% of 7 million.]

USA TODAY: Premiums for [7 million] individuals could increase a jaw-dropping 52% to $159.30 per month ($318.60 for married couples). And for individuals whose incomes exceed certain thresholds, premiums could rise to anywhere from $223.00 per month up to $509.80 (or $446 to $1,019.60 for married couples), depending on their incomes. Blame the “hold harmless” provision in the law that addresses cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) for Social Security benefits."

Newsletter from the Alliance for Retired Americans:

"On Wednesday, House and Senate Democrats introduced bills (H.R. 3696 and S. 2148) that would protect Medicare Part B beneficiaries from a 52% increase in their premiums next year. About 30% of the 51 million Americans who benefit from Medicare Part B would otherwise be affected by the massive change, which would raise premiums from $104.90 monthly to $159.30 if Congress does nothing. Deductibles for all Medicare recipients would increase from $147 to $223."

[* Forgive my math but: 30% of the 51 million Americans would pay more?]

Petition from Alliance for Retired Americans
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/tell-congress-to-act-now-and-avert-drastic-spike-in-medicare-part-b-costs


[* This is an update on October 6, 2015 to the original post further below.]

What am I missing here? It seems that Medicare premiums and deductibles might go up next year, but very little in proportion to benefits, because the increases will mostly affect those who already have very substantial annual earnings.

According to the New York Times:

Aides to Nancy Pelosi (D) and John Boehner (R) are quietly exploring a possible deal to hold down Medicare premiums that could rise by roughly 50 percent for some beneficiaries next year. [This came about because of the earlier "doc fix" — so doctors get their cut.]

Under federal law, Medicare premiums are linked closely to Social Security benefits. Inflation has been so low that Social Security beneficiaries may not receive a cost-of-living adjustment next year. For most Medicare beneficiaries, that means that their premiums will stay the same.

Most people on Medicare have their premiums deducted from their monthly Social Security checks. To protect older Americans, federal law stipulates that, in most cases, the increase in a person’s Medicare premium cannot exceed the increase in the person’s Social Security benefit. The purpose of this “hold harmless” provision is to prevent a reduction in Social Security benefits.

Several groups of people do not have this protection and would be subject to higher premiums. They include certain high-income Medicare beneficiaries who are already required to pay higher premiums, lower-income people eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid, new beneficiaries, and those who do not receive Social Security checks.

30 percent of Medicare beneficiaries are not protected against higher premiums. Medicare actuaries predicted in July that the standard premium for them would rise to $159 a month. The standard premium is now just under $105 a month [a monthly increase of $24].

The actuaries also predicted an increase in the annual deductible — the amount that beneficiaries pay for health care before Medicare begins to pay. They estimated that the deductible would rise to $223 next year, from $147 in 2015 [an annual increase of $76]

Medicare beneficiaries with annual incomes greater than $85,000 already pay more than the standard premium. The most affluent ones — those with incomes over $214,000 a year — pay premiums of about $335 a month. If there is no cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security, their Medicare premiums next year could exceed $500 a month.

Original post below:

Thursday, March 26, 2015

The GOP's Bloody Budget Axe

Unlike politically incorrect journalists in the mainstream media (including Fox News), one can't accurately report on the GOP's proposed bloody budget cuts — and then, just to appear non-partisan, say it's "Congress" who's proposing the cuts — when it's the Republicans within Congress who are the ones proposing all these bloody budget cuts.

Friday, March 20, 2015

The Robots are Coming! The Robots are Coming!

I don't believe that (in my lifetime at least) a robot will displace the bartenders at our local bars. But that's not to say that one day (soon after I'm gone) it couldn't happen. They say the Apollo computers that got our first man to the moon in 1969 had less computing power than our cell phones do today. But since that time, technology has incrementally been displacing a lot of middle-wage workers, and leaving a lot of low-paying jobs in their wake.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Funky Media Hucksters: How does one "Re-enter" the Work Force?

[* Editors note: This could be considered "Part Two" or an "update" to a previous post I did on this subject.)

Bill Anderson, chief economist of Nevada's Department of Employment says: "We are starting to see more people re-enter the labor force” — and that's the reason why the Las Vegas unemployment rate jumped UP from 7.0 to 7.5 percent.

Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval also said the increase in the unemployment rate was "a reflection of more Nevadans re-entering the workforce and seeking suitable employment" — and that employers are "regaining confidence, and are steadily adding jobs to the economy".

How does one determine that more people "re-entered" the labor market ...

Monday, March 16, 2015

Non-Union and Anti-Union Workers Beware!

* Editor's Note: This is a political commentary that doesn't mention a certain political party by name, because I was accused of being too partisan. So the only time a political party is ever mentioned in this particular post is when it was already quoted previously by a different source. This way, I leave up to you, the reader, to be partisan.

For decades the top 0.01% (and their political allies) have been winning the war on working-class Americans (meaning, about 92.2% of the labor force). One particular political party always wants to cut government agencies and programs that protect workers' health, safety and welfare — such as workers' wages, workers' pensions, workers' voting rights and workers' labor unions (like they do with their so-called "Right to Work" laws).

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Infrastructure Spending at Historically Lowest Level

Speaking to a packed room at the National Press Club on Monday, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) detailed a $1 trillion plan to rebuild the country’s crumbling infrastructure, and in the process, create 13 million good-paying jobs. [VIDEO]

Larry Summers at the Wall Street Journal: Spending on Our Crumbling Infrastructure (March 10, 2015)

Larry Summers recently said something startling: “At this moment the share of public investment in GDP, adjusting for depreciation, so that’s net share, is zero. Zero. We’re not net investing at all, nor is Western Europe,” he told a Princeton University audience ... Net federal public investment spending, both defense and non-defense, in 2013 (the latest year for which data are available) works out to zero as a percentage of gross domestic product, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis’s National Income and Product Accounts tables. Non-defense investment spending, which was nearly 1% of GDP in the mid-1960s–and hasn’t come close to that since–was about $9.8 billion in 2013, or a paltry 0.06% of GDP.

Mr. Summers wasn’t exaggerating.

Monday, March 9, 2015

Forced Out of the Labor Market

The highest-paid talking heads on the big cable news channels have been misreporting to millions of gainfully employed Americans that the labor force participation rate has been declining because: “People are leaving the labor force because they think they can’t find a job.”

Not true at all. This is a myth that needs to be debunked.

New Poll Confirms: Fox News Sucks

USA Today (March 9, 2015)

20% said they trusted Fox 'a great deal' while 35% said "somewhat."

Sunday, March 8, 2015

Excess Profits Funneled to CEO Pay Packages

Corporate earnings, in many cases, are taxed lower than executive pay packages — which are also tax deductible as "employee wages". It's a win-win situation for the CEOs and other boardroom members, because they get paid with stock-options, which are taxed as "capital gains" — which is much lower than the top marginal rate for regular hourly wages and salaries.

Not in Labor Force at Record High (Tell Paul Krugman)

Paul Krugman at the New York Times is complaining about "Employment Truthers". Why doesn't Krugman also mention the labor force participation rate (LFPR), instead of just the number of jobs created?

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Reds States Gutting Worker Comp Laws

In President Obama’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2016, OSHA would be funded at $592.1 million — which includes the following increases: $4 million for State Plan states; $18 million for federal enforcement; and $5 million for whistleblower protections. But as Safety and Health Magazine notes: "Where things get sticky in his proposal is under standards development and federal enforcement, for which the administration is seeking a $3.3 million and $17.6 million increase, respectively. Given the Republicans’ historically sour view of enforcement in favor of compliance assistance, I have a hard time seeing that dramatic rise happening."

Friday, March 6, 2015

The REAL Jobs Report (Feb. 2015 Edition)

We have 3 million high school graduates every year (not counting college grads or dropouts). If we divided 3 million by 12 months, that would be 250,000 a month. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. added 295,000 jobs in February 2015 and the unemployment rate fell to 5.5% --- as 8.7 million jobless Americans are still counted as "unemployed".

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Larry Summers: An Act of Contrition?

Larry Summers Interview: Robots are hurting middle class workers

"Rapidly advancing technology — like robots — is killing jobs and hurting incomes for the middle class; because automated technology replaces the need for human labor and thus devalues it ... In the 1960s, about 1 in 20 men between the age of 25 and 54 was not working. Today, the number is more like 1 in 6 or 1 in 7 ... If the income distribution was the same as it was in 1979, the top 1 percent would have about $1 trillion less [and] the bottom 80 percent would have about $1 trillion more ... The rise of the top 1 percent is likely very tied up with technology."

From one reader at Mark Thoma's blog:

GDP per Capita: China, US and India (What did QE do?)

The U.S. economy only grew by a rate of 2.4 percent for all of 2014. Whereas, The Wall Street Journal reported China's economy expanded at 7.4% in 2014 — and that was the slowest in decades. But Bloomberg also reports that it could be much higher. (But yet, another post at Zerohedge says it could be les than 3% — but still higher than the U.S.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

CBO Director makes Wild Claims about Disability

The Congressional Budget Office always been touted as a "non-partisan" body of the U.S. Government that can always be wholly trusted to provide our political leaders with unbiased facts, free and clear of any ideological spin. But evidently, not any more.