Wednesday, December 12, 2012
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www.enetshoppers.com online marketing: Financial Management | Operations & Business Manag...
www.enetshoppers.com online marketing: Financial Management | Operations & Business Manag...: More health systems bundling payments to cut costs More health systems bundling payments to cut costs Read more: More health systems bundlin...
Financial Management | Operations & Business Management
More health systems bundling payments to cut costs
More health systems bundling payments to cut costs
Read more: More health systems bundling payments to cut costs - FierceHealthcare http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/more-health-systems-bundling-payments-cut-costs/2012-08-24?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss#ixzz24mCC5RWo
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More health systems bundling payments to cut costs
Read more: More health systems bundling payments to cut costs - FierceHealthcare http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/more-health-systems-bundling-payments-cut-costs/2012-08-24?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss#ixzz24mCC5RWo
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www.enetshoppers.com online marketing: Hospitals Look To Become Insurers, As Well As Prov...
www.enetshoppers.com online marketing: Hospitals Look To Become Insurers, As Well As Prov...: Topics: Hospitals , Insurance , Marketplace By Roni Caryn Rabin Aug 26, 2012 This story was produced in collaboration with Michael D...
Hospitals Look To Become Insurers, As Well As Providers Of Care
This story was produced in collaboration with 
Michael Dowling, a burly Ireland native running one of New York’s largest hospital networks, is preparing to turn his business model on its head: He wants to keep his hospital beds empty, rather than full.
That’s because the North Shore-LIJ Health System, with 16 hospitals and more than 300 outpatient centers in Long Island and New York City, is laying the groundwork to be an insurer, as well as a provider of health care.
Like other hospital chains across the country, it’s under intense pressure from public and private insurers, as well as employers, to accept flat-rate payments for care, rather than reimbursements for every service. And that puts pressure on hospitals not just to manage costs, but to keep people well – in short, to act more like insurers.
“This is a huge, dramatic cultural shift,” said Dowling, president and CEO of North Shore-LIJ, who expects it will take several years to market coverage to the general public.
Once the system becomes an insurer, picking up the tab for a hospitalization rather than generating revenue from it, more resources will be devoted to preventive care, Dowling said.
“The last place I’ll want you to be is in the hospital,” he said. “I’ll be doing everything to get you to take care of yourself.”
Hospitals from Colorado to Virginia are exploring similar strategies spurred by rising costs and incentives in the health law. An estimated 20 percent of networks market an insurance product, including MedStar Health, serving the Washington-Baltimore region with Georgetown University Hospital and eight other facilities.
Another 20 percent are exploring doing so, according to a survey last year of 100 hospital leaders by The Advisory Board Company, a research firm.
“This trend is definitely picking up steam across the country,” said Chas Roades, the firm’s chief research officer.
Impact on consumers
Proponents say consumers would benefit from streamlined care and possible lower costs, but some also worry they could find themselves with fewer choices and limited access to outside experts and cutting-edge treatments.
“The idea of managing care for patients in a holistic fashion sounds great,” said Carmen Balber, who directs the Washington office of Consumer Watchdog. “The question is how it plays out. Are doctors given the freedom to make recommendations outside of cost calculations?”
Driving the change is the transition from fee-for-service payment schemes – which pay for each doctor’s visit, appendectomy or CT scan separately – to one that pays providers a global, or lump sum per-person-per -year. This will shift more of the financial risk of medical care from insurers to providers.
Once hospital systems are paid this way, “they’re sort of halfway toward being an insurance company,” Roades said. “The more hospitals take on risk and manage the care, the more they look like insurance companies. And ultimately you have to ask: Why do we even need an insurance company sitting between a health system and an employer?”
Of course, Americans rebelled against an earlier iteration of this model, known as managed care, when insurers ran the show.
“The big wild card is: how will patients view it?” he said. “Is it just going to be viewed as managed care 2.0 and engender the same kind of backlash, or will people engage with it because it can help them live healthier lives?
“I don’t think it’s a slam dunk one way or another.”
Managed care redux?
One change, experts say, is technology. Electronic medical records and a wealth of health databases that did not exist during the first wave of managed care can now guide appropriate medical treatment.
In the ’90s, “we were flying blind,” said Paul Keckley, executive director of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions. “Now we’ve got a whole wave of clinical algorithms to know what’s an appropriate referral.”
Several large hospital networks -- like The Ford Health System in Detroit and UPMC in Pittsburgh -- have entities that sell insurance policies. But that can complicate relations with insurance companies, and health systems like North Shore-LIJ, which depend heavily on contracts with commercial plans, would not want to jeopardize those relationships. Dowling said he might partner with an insurer to market a North Shore-LIJ insurance product; he envisions a hybrid system that would continue to contract with numerous plans in the future.
It can get tricky, though. UPMC, for instance, has been embroiled in a nasty legal dispute with Highmark, a large insurer, over its acquisition of a rival hospital network in Pittsburgh, though the parties reached an agreement in May. Texas Health, which experimented with health plans in the 1990s, found the business a distraction from their primary mission and have sold them off.
“Hospitals think this is a way to cut out the middle person, tailor care more closely and save a lot of extra money, but there’s a history to this and it generally doesn’t work,” said Howard Berliner, a visiting professor of health policy at NYU. “It sounds easy, but it winds up being incredibly complicated.”
Several DC-area health systems already market plans or self-insure their employees. Besides MedStar, Sentara Health Care, a Norfolk, Va.-based health system that owns Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center in Woodbridge, Va., markets Optima Health, a health plan with 433,000 members. And Inova Health System, a hospital network based in Falls Church, Va., recently announced it would partner with Aetna to establish a jointly-owned health plan that will start selling insurance products in northern Virginia next January.
The transition is complex and fraught with risk for hospitals, experts say. Insurance is a different business from health care, and requires a different mind-set and skills; Hospitals will have to change the way they are run and radically alter the way they take care of patients, possibly taking on powerful interests – like doctors.
To become licensed as an insurer, a health system also needs to have millions of dollars in capital reserves, and must run a regulatory gauntlet to prove it has an adequate provider network and can deliver required benefits. And a hospital system cannot dip into the health plan’s reserves to fund new services.
“Many hospitals sold their insurance plans even though they were profitable because the hospital had better use for the money – the money sitting in insurance reserves could be better devoted to building the tower,” said Paul Ginsburg, president of the Center for Studying Health System Change.
‘GPS system for patients’
The North Shore-LIJ system has entered into several new full-risk contracts with Medicaid and Medicare to treat some of the neediest patients, who are elderly, poor or both (the two government plans make up the majority of hospital patients). Many struggle with chronic illnesses, and require non-medical support services, from health education to nutrition and weight management programs.
Under the old model, there was little if any reimbursement for these services. As an insurer, North Shore could direct resources to them. Some of the new initiatives are basic, like making sure patients get needed medicines, know which symptoms indicate a worsening condition and have a number they can call for advice 24-7 --and can get in to see a primary care physician before a crisis develops.
Others are high-tech. A team generates detailed color-coded maps of the service area that enables it to zero in on neighborhoods, even city blocks, that are hot spots of diabetes, hypertension, asthma and heart disease.
“I can look at a map and see the pockets of diabetes, and where the patients come from and say, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we had some educational resource close to them?’” said Dr. Tracy Breen, chief of endocrinology, who is recruiting diabetes educators to target these communities and translating the best patient materials into Russian, Spanish, Korean and two dialects of Chinese.
Another problem hospitals have is they usually see patients only during a crisis. So North Shore-LIJ computer analysts are developing a “GPS system for patients” to determine why some patients are admitted so frequently: Do they resort to the emergency room because the doctor isn’t available in the evening? Does the doctor need backup on weekends?
“We can wrap services around the physician to coordinate with patients and make sure prescriptions are refilled and there is coverage outside hours,” said Dr. Jeremy Boal, chief medical officer, who has started a house calls program for homebound and frail patients. “That would allow physicians to focus on what they do best – being at the bedside.”
As insurer, the health system may also have to make tough decisions that rub physicians the wrong way or reduce their income, Dowling said.
“If I find out that instead of surgery there is a more efficient way of doing something with better outcomes and less cost – I have to manage the doctors,” he said, referring to a study that found that inserting stents into narrowed arteries was no more beneficial for stable patients than standard drug therapy although it generates enormous revenues for doctors and hospitals.
“You can blame the insurance company now,” Dowling said, “but if you are the insurance company, now you’re the one telling your own doctors to do something they don’t want to do.”
That’s because the North Shore-LIJ Health System, with 16 hospitals and more than 300 outpatient centers in Long Island and New York City, is laying the groundwork to be an insurer, as well as a provider of health care.
Like other hospital chains across the country, it’s under intense pressure from public and private insurers, as well as employers, to accept flat-rate payments for care, rather than reimbursements for every service. And that puts pressure on hospitals not just to manage costs, but to keep people well – in short, to act more like insurers.
“This is a huge, dramatic cultural shift,” said Dowling, president and CEO of North Shore-LIJ, who expects it will take several years to market coverage to the general public.
Once the system becomes an insurer, picking up the tab for a hospitalization rather than generating revenue from it, more resources will be devoted to preventive care, Dowling said.
“The last place I’ll want you to be is in the hospital,” he said. “I’ll be doing everything to get you to take care of yourself.”
Hospitals from Colorado to Virginia are exploring similar strategies spurred by rising costs and incentives in the health law. An estimated 20 percent of networks market an insurance product, including MedStar Health, serving the Washington-Baltimore region with Georgetown University Hospital and eight other facilities.
Another 20 percent are exploring doing so, according to a survey last year of 100 hospital leaders by The Advisory Board Company, a research firm.
“This trend is definitely picking up steam across the country,” said Chas Roades, the firm’s chief research officer.
Impact on consumers
Proponents say consumers would benefit from streamlined care and possible lower costs, but some also worry they could find themselves with fewer choices and limited access to outside experts and cutting-edge treatments.
“The idea of managing care for patients in a holistic fashion sounds great,” said Carmen Balber, who directs the Washington office of Consumer Watchdog. “The question is how it plays out. Are doctors given the freedom to make recommendations outside of cost calculations?”
Driving the change is the transition from fee-for-service payment schemes – which pay for each doctor’s visit, appendectomy or CT scan separately – to one that pays providers a global, or lump sum per-person-per -year. This will shift more of the financial risk of medical care from insurers to providers.
Once hospital systems are paid this way, “they’re sort of halfway toward being an insurance company,” Roades said. “The more hospitals take on risk and manage the care, the more they look like insurance companies. And ultimately you have to ask: Why do we even need an insurance company sitting between a health system and an employer?”
Of course, Americans rebelled against an earlier iteration of this model, known as managed care, when insurers ran the show.
“The big wild card is: how will patients view it?” he said. “Is it just going to be viewed as managed care 2.0 and engender the same kind of backlash, or will people engage with it because it can help them live healthier lives?
“I don’t think it’s a slam dunk one way or another.”
Managed care redux?
One change, experts say, is technology. Electronic medical records and a wealth of health databases that did not exist during the first wave of managed care can now guide appropriate medical treatment.
In the ’90s, “we were flying blind,” said Paul Keckley, executive director of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions. “Now we’ve got a whole wave of clinical algorithms to know what’s an appropriate referral.”
Several large hospital networks -- like The Ford Health System in Detroit and UPMC in Pittsburgh -- have entities that sell insurance policies. But that can complicate relations with insurance companies, and health systems like North Shore-LIJ, which depend heavily on contracts with commercial plans, would not want to jeopardize those relationships. Dowling said he might partner with an insurer to market a North Shore-LIJ insurance product; he envisions a hybrid system that would continue to contract with numerous plans in the future.
It can get tricky, though. UPMC, for instance, has been embroiled in a nasty legal dispute with Highmark, a large insurer, over its acquisition of a rival hospital network in Pittsburgh, though the parties reached an agreement in May. Texas Health, which experimented with health plans in the 1990s, found the business a distraction from their primary mission and have sold them off.
“Hospitals think this is a way to cut out the middle person, tailor care more closely and save a lot of extra money, but there’s a history to this and it generally doesn’t work,” said Howard Berliner, a visiting professor of health policy at NYU. “It sounds easy, but it winds up being incredibly complicated.”
Several DC-area health systems already market plans or self-insure their employees. Besides MedStar, Sentara Health Care, a Norfolk, Va.-based health system that owns Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center in Woodbridge, Va., markets Optima Health, a health plan with 433,000 members. And Inova Health System, a hospital network based in Falls Church, Va., recently announced it would partner with Aetna to establish a jointly-owned health plan that will start selling insurance products in northern Virginia next January.
The transition is complex and fraught with risk for hospitals, experts say. Insurance is a different business from health care, and requires a different mind-set and skills; Hospitals will have to change the way they are run and radically alter the way they take care of patients, possibly taking on powerful interests – like doctors.
To become licensed as an insurer, a health system also needs to have millions of dollars in capital reserves, and must run a regulatory gauntlet to prove it has an adequate provider network and can deliver required benefits. And a hospital system cannot dip into the health plan’s reserves to fund new services.
“Many hospitals sold their insurance plans even though they were profitable because the hospital had better use for the money – the money sitting in insurance reserves could be better devoted to building the tower,” said Paul Ginsburg, president of the Center for Studying Health System Change.
‘GPS system for patients’
The North Shore-LIJ system has entered into several new full-risk contracts with Medicaid and Medicare to treat some of the neediest patients, who are elderly, poor or both (the two government plans make up the majority of hospital patients). Many struggle with chronic illnesses, and require non-medical support services, from health education to nutrition and weight management programs.
Under the old model, there was little if any reimbursement for these services. As an insurer, North Shore could direct resources to them. Some of the new initiatives are basic, like making sure patients get needed medicines, know which symptoms indicate a worsening condition and have a number they can call for advice 24-7 --and can get in to see a primary care physician before a crisis develops.
Others are high-tech. A team generates detailed color-coded maps of the service area that enables it to zero in on neighborhoods, even city blocks, that are hot spots of diabetes, hypertension, asthma and heart disease.
“I can look at a map and see the pockets of diabetes, and where the patients come from and say, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we had some educational resource close to them?’” said Dr. Tracy Breen, chief of endocrinology, who is recruiting diabetes educators to target these communities and translating the best patient materials into Russian, Spanish, Korean and two dialects of Chinese.
Another problem hospitals have is they usually see patients only during a crisis. So North Shore-LIJ computer analysts are developing a “GPS system for patients” to determine why some patients are admitted so frequently: Do they resort to the emergency room because the doctor isn’t available in the evening? Does the doctor need backup on weekends?
“We can wrap services around the physician to coordinate with patients and make sure prescriptions are refilled and there is coverage outside hours,” said Dr. Jeremy Boal, chief medical officer, who has started a house calls program for homebound and frail patients. “That would allow physicians to focus on what they do best – being at the bedside.”
As insurer, the health system may also have to make tough decisions that rub physicians the wrong way or reduce their income, Dowling said.
“If I find out that instead of surgery there is a more efficient way of doing something with better outcomes and less cost – I have to manage the doctors,” he said, referring to a study that found that inserting stents into narrowed arteries was no more beneficial for stable patients than standard drug therapy although it generates enormous revenues for doctors and hospitals.
“You can blame the insurance company now,” Dowling said, “but if you are the insurance company, now you’re the one telling your own doctors to do something they don’t want to do.”
We want to hear from you: Contact Kaiser Health News
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Stocks & economy
By CHRISTINA REXRODE
NEW YORK — The stock market keeps getting tossed around by the Fed.
Stocks opened lower Friday but reversed course after a letter surfaced from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke suggesting there was room for the central bank to do more to help the economy."There is scope for further action by the Federal Reserve to ease financial conditions and strengthen the recovery," Bernanke wrote to California Rep. Darrell Issa, a Republican, in a letter obtained by The Wall Street Journal.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 30 points at its low but finished 100.51 points higher, at 13,157.97, its first gain all week. It was still the first losing week for the Dow since early July.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 9.05 to 1,411.13 but also snapped a six-week winning streak. The Nasdaq composite index rose 16.39 to 3,069.79, ending five straight weeks of gains.
In a typically slow August, without much else to influence trading, investors have grasped for hints about what the Fed might do.
On Wednesday afternoon, investors pushed stocks higher after the Fed released meeting minutes that appeared to signal it was ready to take more action to prop up the economy.
On Thursday, stocks declined when a Fed regional bank president cast doubt on the idea, saying in an interview with CNBC that the economic recovery appeared to be gaining strength.
Then on Friday, Bernanke shook up the market again. His letter was in response to questions from Issa, the head of the House oversight committee, who had asked whether it was premature to consider additional steps.
The Fed has several options, including buying bonds, as it has done twice since the 2008 financial crisis, to try to lower interest rates and drive investors into the stock market.
Still, it's debatable how much future Fed action would help the market or the economy. On Friday, some analysts thought it strange that the market moved so decisively on just an inkling about what the Fed chairman might be thinking.
Major Market Indices
For the most part, the market has been hard to read this month. Without much news, trading volume has been low, and investors haven't had much conviction either way about the economy.
Of 18 trading days in August, only once has the Dow moved more than 1 percent. On five days, it has been virtually flat, moving less than one-tenth of a percentage point.
The turbulence likely lies ahead. The Fed's annual meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyo., is at the end of the month. German courts are set to decide next month whether the country can keep participating in bailouts for weaker European countries.
And the presidential election in November, which will help determine whether taxes go up and government spending is cut next year, could throw the markets into turmoil for weeks beforehand.
"People look forward to a lot of questions being answered in the months ahead," said Tony Fratto, a former aide to President George W. Bush and managing partner at Hamilton Place Strategies in Washington. "But they don't have answers today."
Economic reports that have trickled out this week have been mixed at best.
Europe, though quiet, still showed signs of tension Friday. Britain reported that its economy shrank in the second quarter, the latest confirmation that the country is still in recession.
Monday, June 18, 2012
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Friday, June 1, 2012
www.enetshoppers.com online marketing: Inflation
http://enetshoppers.blogspot.com/2012/06/inflation.html?spref=bl: HyperInflation Survival Guide A Free Research Report from the Institute For Individual Investors Peter Bernholz, an economist at ...
Inflation
HyperInflation Survival Guide
A Free Research Report from the Institute For Individual Investors
Peter Bernholz, an economist at Basel University in Switzerland, has studied every episode of hyperinflation in recent history. Poland, Germany, Brazil, Greece, and dozens more ...
Dr. Bernholz’s work shows that in nearly all cases, there is a
common “tipping point” signaling hyperinflation is imminent. It occurs
when a country borrows 40 cents of every dollar they spend.Today, the U.S already borrows 42 cents of every dollar spent.
Hyperinflation is not just a remote possibility. It’s becoming more likely by the day. We have only begun to print our way out of this mess, and prices are already soaring. (ignore the official data; it is biased, as we will argue in this free report).
Look at food prices, which are up 34% in the last year, according to The Economist.
Or simply look around you. $200 for your monthly cable bill, $2 for a soda, $100 for a night of bowling. Yet salaries are stagnant.
Something is fundamentally wrong with the system. And if history is any sort of a guide, it may take another decade or more to sort out.
IMPORTANT: Rampant inflation WON’T be the end of the world.
BUT it is likely to mean a lower standard of living, for an extended period.
There is no easy solution to a 40+ year debt binge. The money must be paid back, and inflation is often viewed by politicians as the path of least resistance.
There may be a period of market turmoil as the economy adjusts to the “new normal”.
This is why it is absolutely critical to have a plan in place to preserve, even grow your family’s assets during these chaotic times.
I’m not talking about just owning gold and silver, either. We like precious metals, but they’re only one piece of the pie. And they have their limitations.
In this comprehensive (and free) report from the Institute For Individual Investors, we will explain:
- What hyperinflation is and why the ‘Bernholz Line’ is so important to your future
- How to preserve purchasing power with foreign bonds
- When to sell gold & silver
- Why TIPS are a bad inflation investment
To get your free copy, simply enter your email address below.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
The Season
Every now and then we have these seasons when even Mr Scrooge and the Grinch agree with one another. But then we are faced with where to shop and what to shop for and for that special person, or that someone we are thinking of. At last we have a website that will deliver that special thought transformed into a present to that special person. www.enetshoppers.com. Shop at www.enetshoppers.com where you can never be wrong, we are affiliated with merchants that offer your gift at discount prices, some, without tax and free delivery, all in the comfort of your home. Shop in your pajamas, while watching your favorite tv program, or on the road in the hotel. We respect your privacy and will do everything to keep it that way. So, come and try www.enetshoppers.com where you can never be wrong.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Economic Overview
Fed sees stronger growth, holds off on further actions
Reuters
The Federal Reserve left monetary policy on hold on Wednesday and offered a moderately brighter economic outlook, but flagged risks to growth that appeared to leave open the door for further easing.
"Economic growth strengthened somewhat in the third quarter," the Fed said in its post-meeting statement. "There are significant downside risks to the economic outlook, including strains in global financial markets."
However, Charles Evans, president of the Chicago Fed, dissented from the decision because he believed the central bank should have taken additional policy action at this meeting.
The Fed did not offer any hints that it was considering additional purchases of mortgage-backed securities or a major overhaul in its communications policies, two options that appeared to be on the table.
Hinting that further bond purchases remain an option, the central bank reiterated that it was prepared to adjust its balance sheet as needed to foster recovery.
Analysts will get more clarity on the Fed's outlook for the economy when the Fed releases quarterly economic forecasts at 2 p.m. ET, followed shortly after by a news conference with Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.
The U.S. central bank's debate over the course of policy comes against a troubled global backdrop and with the U.S. economy far from full health.
Greece's call for a referendum on the latest eurozone debt deal dashed hopes Europe had finally come to grips with its debt crisis, sending global equity markets into a tailspin.
The U.S. recovery, for its part, remains anemic and could be knocked off course if Europe fails to quell its crisis.
A report on Wednesday showed U.S. private-sector payrolls expanded by 110,000 workers in October, not enough to signal a robust hiring revival, while data on Tuesday showed growth in the manufacturing sector slowed to a crawl.
The economy grew at a 2.5 percent annual pace in the third quarter, a significant improvement over the second quarter's 1.3 percent increase but still too soft to put a dent in the nation's 9.1 percent unemployment rate.
Faced with a still-weak recovery, the Fed decided in September to embark on a program to sell $400 billion in short-term Treasuries and invest the money in longer-dated bonds, an effort to keep long-term rates down.
It also dipped back into the mortgage market by reinvesting proceeds of its real estate bond holdings back into MBS.
Those actions followed an already aggressive series of steps to try to lift the economy. The central bank slashed benchmark interest rates to effectively zero in December 2008 and expanded its balance sheet to a record $2.8 trillion.
More recently, Fed Gov. Daniel Tarullo and New York Fed President William Dudley have hinted at the possibility of expanding the central bank's presence in the mortgage market. It has already bought some $1.25 trillion in MBS.
MBS purchases are seen as even more controversial than Treasury bond buys. Some Fed officials worry targeting a specific sector of the economy encroaches on fiscal policy, and policymakers had previously pledged to return to an all-Treasury portfolio.
The absence of any mention of this tool in the statement suggests there is not enough consensus around the idea just yet.
Related: Full text of Fed statement
The above article seem to be hinting to the general public that there's hope after all in this unstable economic state we are in.
Should we gauge this in terms of the political season we are experiencing or the reality of the global outlook.
Hope for the future.
The Federal Reserve left monetary policy on hold on Wednesday and offered a moderately brighter economic outlook, but flagged risks to growth that appeared to leave open the door for further easing.
"Economic growth strengthened somewhat in the third quarter," the Fed said in its post-meeting statement. "There are significant downside risks to the economic outlook, including strains in global financial markets."
However, Charles Evans, president of the Chicago Fed, dissented from the decision because he believed the central bank should have taken additional policy action at this meeting.
The Fed did not offer any hints that it was considering additional purchases of mortgage-backed securities or a major overhaul in its communications policies, two options that appeared to be on the table.
Hinting that further bond purchases remain an option, the central bank reiterated that it was prepared to adjust its balance sheet as needed to foster recovery.
Analysts will get more clarity on the Fed's outlook for the economy when the Fed releases quarterly economic forecasts at 2 p.m. ET, followed shortly after by a news conference with Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.
The U.S. central bank's debate over the course of policy comes against a troubled global backdrop and with the U.S. economy far from full health.
Greece's call for a referendum on the latest eurozone debt deal dashed hopes Europe had finally come to grips with its debt crisis, sending global equity markets into a tailspin.
The U.S. recovery, for its part, remains anemic and could be knocked off course if Europe fails to quell its crisis.
A report on Wednesday showed U.S. private-sector payrolls expanded by 110,000 workers in October, not enough to signal a robust hiring revival, while data on Tuesday showed growth in the manufacturing sector slowed to a crawl.
The economy grew at a 2.5 percent annual pace in the third quarter, a significant improvement over the second quarter's 1.3 percent increase but still too soft to put a dent in the nation's 9.1 percent unemployment rate.
Faced with a still-weak recovery, the Fed decided in September to embark on a program to sell $400 billion in short-term Treasuries and invest the money in longer-dated bonds, an effort to keep long-term rates down.
It also dipped back into the mortgage market by reinvesting proceeds of its real estate bond holdings back into MBS.
Those actions followed an already aggressive series of steps to try to lift the economy. The central bank slashed benchmark interest rates to effectively zero in December 2008 and expanded its balance sheet to a record $2.8 trillion.
More recently, Fed Gov. Daniel Tarullo and New York Fed President William Dudley have hinted at the possibility of expanding the central bank's presence in the mortgage market. It has already bought some $1.25 trillion in MBS.
MBS purchases are seen as even more controversial than Treasury bond buys. Some Fed officials worry targeting a specific sector of the economy encroaches on fiscal policy, and policymakers had previously pledged to return to an all-Treasury portfolio.
The absence of any mention of this tool in the statement suggests there is not enough consensus around the idea just yet.
Related: Full text of Fed statement
The above article seem to be hinting to the general public that there's hope after all in this unstable economic state we are in.
Should we gauge this in terms of the political season we are experiencing or the reality of the global outlook.
Hope for the future.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Law and Ambiguity
A Pennsylvania couple is suing a prominent medical center after doctors transplanted the woman’s kidney into her boyfriend’s body despite a test that showed she was infected with hepatitis C. Partner of 21 years and father of their 18-year-old son, “He did need it very badly,” Mecannic told msnbc.com. “The dialysis was not working well for him. He was not doing well. I just wanted to do whatever I could to help.”Blood test result conducted as early as Jan. 26 that showed Mecannic had the virus. In other words, she knew of her condition, yet elected to continue, volunteered to donate her kidney to keep her boy friend alive. Jan, 26, did she reveal the result of the test to her boy friend? If they she did, why sue the medical the institution?
It is obvious here that had the institution refused to continue with the transplant, and as a result, lost her boyfriend of 21years, and father to their 18year old son, they would have been sued for failing to perform life saving transplant.
“Remember, I am neither a bear nor a bull, I am an agnostic opportunist. I want to make money short- and long-term. I want to find good situations and exploit them.”
James Cramer
just a thought
It is obvious here that had the institution refused to continue with the transplant, and as a result, lost her boyfriend of 21years, and father to their 18year old son, they would have been sued for failing to perform life saving transplant.
“Remember, I am neither a bear nor a bull, I am an agnostic opportunist. I want to make money short- and long-term. I want to find good situations and exploit them.”
James Cramer just a thought
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Credibility
Financial forecasts and financial projections are estimated future financial statements of the company that presents its expected financial position. Financial forecasts assume that the company will continue to function in the same manner as it is currently functioning and in financial projections there are few hypothetical assumptions about a company's future course of action.
Based on the above, where does the global economy stands, and who decides the global credibility, and if they so do, who decides their credibility?
Our economic stand needs a lot to be desired.Why we have these myopic politicians squabble over the state of economy, and the direction it is going, some mystic force is out there predicting our doom.
We are a nation of agree to disagree, but serve each other, but our new generation of political aspirants have completely forgotten our history, and embraced their selfish,discriminative, secret motives; willing to let greed, gluttony, and mischief takeover service to all.
Create hope and future for our future generations. We don't need a legacy of a tarnished, unstable, stagnated economy for them for inheritance.
Just a thought.
Based on the above, where does the global economy stands, and who decides the global credibility, and if they so do, who decides their credibility?
Our economic stand needs a lot to be desired.Why we have these myopic politicians squabble over the state of economy, and the direction it is going, some mystic force is out there predicting our doom.
We are a nation of agree to disagree, but serve each other, but our new generation of political aspirants have completely forgotten our history, and embraced their selfish,discriminative, secret motives; willing to let greed, gluttony, and mischief takeover service to all.
Create hope and future for our future generations. We don't need a legacy of a tarnished, unstable, stagnated economy for them for inheritance.
Just a thought.
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