Rising Health Insurance Premiumns
The PBS NewsHour reports on the recent jump in premiums for employer-paid health insurance.
Watch the full episode. See more PBS NewsHour.
Losing Their Way?
Naked Capitalism isn’t particularly impressed by the economic policy preferences of today’s Democratic Party.
The left is obsessed with what ought to be peripheral concerns, namely, political correctness and Puritanical moralizing, because it is actually deeply divided on the things that matter, namely money and the role of the state. The Democrats have been so deeply penetrated by the neoliberal/Robert Rubin/Hamilton Project types that they aren’t that different from the right on economic issues. Both want little regulation of banking and open trade and international capital flows. Both want to “reform” Medicare and Social Security. Both are leery of a welfare state, the Republicans openly so, the Rubinite Dems with all sorts of handwringing and clever schemes to incentivize private companies that generally subsidize what they would have done regardless (note that Americans have had a mixed record in providing good social safety nets, but a big reason is our American exceptionalism means we refuse to copy successful models from abroad).
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The powerful influence of moneyed interests on the Democratic party has achieved the fondest aims of the right wing extremists of the 1970s: the party of FDR is now lukewarm at best in its support of the New Deal. Most Democrats are embarrassed to be in the same room with union types. They are often afraid to say that government can play a positive role. They were loath to discuss the costs of income inequality until it became so far advanced that it is now well nigh impossible to reverse it. After all, that sort of discussion might sound like class warfare …
Around The Dial – September 29, 2011
Economic policy reports, blog postings, and media stories of interest:
- Policy Shop mulls the ties between individual aspiration and tax policy.
- Working Economics notes that “regulatory uncertainty not to blame for our jobs problem.”
- Martin Wolf describes “fear and loathing in the Eurozone.”
- The NY Times reports on Reading, PA, which is the poorest larger city in the U.S.
NC Unemployment Claims: Week of 9/10/11
For the benefit week ending on September 10, 2011, some 12,233 North Carolinians filed initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits, and 105,859 individuals applied for state-funded continuing benefits. Compared to the prior week, there were fewer initial and more continuing claims. These figures come from data released by the U.S. Department of Labor.
Averaging new and continuing claims over a four-week period — a process that helps adjust for seasonal fluctuations and better illustrates trends — shows that an average of 11,319 initial claims were filed over the previous four weeks, along with an average of 105,641 continuing claims. Compared to the previous four-week period, the average number of initial claims was higher, while the average number of continuing claims was lower.
One year ago, the four-week average for initial claims stood at 12,184 and the four-week average of continuing claims equaled 122,245.
While the number of claims has dropped over the past year so has covered employment. Last week, covered employment totaled 3.7 million, down from 3.8 million a year ago.
The graph shows the changes in unemployment insurance claims (as a share of covered employment) in North Carolina since the recession’s start in December 2007.
Both new and continuing claims appear to have peaked for this cycle, and the four-week averages of new and continuing claims have fallen considerably. Yet continuing claims remain at an elevated level, which suggests that unemployed individuals are finding it difficult to find new positions.
Service Activity In The South Atlantic: September 2011
From the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond’s latest survey of service-sector activity in the South Atlantic (District of Columbia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia):
Service sector activity weakened in September, according to the latest survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. Revenues dropped at both retail and non-retail establishments. Retail shopper traffic fell, and big-ticket sales also ended the month in decline. Merchants’ inventories edged up on pace with a month ago. Retailers expected sales to remain weak for the six months ahead, and non-retail services providers anticipated flattening in business prospects over that period.
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In service sector employment, the number of employees changed little this month, while average wages grew modestly.
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Price growth slowed slightly in September. Survey respondents looked for the pace to accelerate during the next six months, though by a bit less than their outlook of a month earlier.
Fun With Numbers
In a nifty online video, the U.S. Census Bureau explains “the importance of accuracy” and offers a real-life example of how the agency catches and addresses data problems.