From: Google Voice [mailto:voice-noreply@google.com] Sent: Monday, February 24, 2014 3:28 PM To: Jim Garven Subject: New voicemail from Unknown Caller at 3:25 PM
Month: February 2014
“Unknown” Callers and the upcoming Texas Primary Election
All I can say is, thank God for Google Voice. The Texas Primary Election is scheduled for March 4, 2014, and since the automated robo-calls that the political candidates are spamming “we the taxpayers” with are typically configured to generate “Unknown” caller ID’s, all I had to do in Google Voice was to set it up to automatically reject all such callers. The voicemail then automatically gets routed to an appropriate location (AKA my email Spam folder J)…
From: Google Voice [mailto:voice-noreply@google.com]
Sent: Monday, February 24, 2014 3:28 PM
To: Jim Garven
Subject: New voicemail from Unknown Caller at 3:25 PM
Should the Minimum Wage Be Raised? Economists Weigh In
What College Graduates Regret
theatlantic.com
This article from The Atlantic is well worth reading; quoting from this article,
“… when asked what they wish they’d done differently in college, “choosing a different major” wasn’t the top answer. The most popular answer, given by half of all respondents, was “gaining more work experience.” Choosing a different major was the fourth most popular response, after “studying harder” and “looking for work sooner.”
Assorted Links (2/15/2014)
Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading and videos that I have been viewing lately:
1 in 4 Americans unaware that Earth circles Sun
news.yahoo.com
No, this is not from The Onion… “Americans are enthusiastic about the promise of science but lack basic knowledge of it, with one in four unaware that the Earth revolves around the Sun, said a poll out Friday.”
Obama’s Favorite Gini
online.wsj.com
“In The Wall Street Journal, Daniel Henninger writes that the Democratic left will never support the real solution to income inequality.”
The Presidential Bible Class
online.wsj.com
“Abraham Lincoln’s diligent reading of the Good Book informed the Gettysburg Address.”
Here’s What ‘Income Equality’ Would Look Like
online.wsj.com
“In The Wall Street Journal, Scott Hodge writes that if you take about $4 trillion from the top 40% of families and give it to the bottom 60%—voilà, no more inequality.”
Laffer Curve Explains Why Obama’s Class-Warfare Tax Policy Won’t Work
nationalreview.com
“A new video featuring UCLA economist Tim Groseclose explains why trying to maximize tax revenues is a bad idea.”
economist.com
The Economist predicts the end of business schools as we know them…
nationalreview.com
“Democrats are celebrating the CBO’s report that Obamacare will reduce the number of workers.”
Downtonomics: A fictional estate’s troubles echo in the modern world
washingtonpost.com
“Eight things ‘Downtown Abbey’ can teach you about economics…”
nationalreview.com
“At a time when millions want work that doesn’t exist, Democrats are claiming victory by trimming the amount of work actually being done.”
The GOP’s Botched Plan on Immigration and Welfare
reason.com
“Poised to take the Senate, Republicans spurn newcomers while embracing handouts, surveilance for natives.”
Socialism in Venezuela, like Socialism Everywhere, Means Shortages
cato.org
“After 15 years, Hugo Chavez’s socialist revolution is finally reaching socialism’s signature achievement: shortages of toilet paper.”
Gender Pay Gap: When You’ve Lost Slate…
cato.org
“Hanna Rosin is the latest in a long line of careful writers to correct bogus numbers about the alleged gender pay gap. So why do politicians keep using the bogus numbers?”
economist.com
“THE Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, was supposed to transform American health insurance. Critics have long feared that it would do much more. Republicans have cast Obamacare as a job-killing, economy-crushing villain. Democrats have brushed them off, exalting the law as a blessing to American industry. On February 4th this fiery debate was doused with reason, in the form of a 182-page report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The new data are devastating to Democrats.”
Freeing Workers From the Insurance Trap
nytimes.com
The editorial board of the New York Times claims that reducing full-time employment opportunity is a feature, not a bug of the ACA…
Options Away: Insurance Against Airfare Price Hikes
The underlying idea behind “Options Away” is quite interesting. I can’t help but wonder why the airlines and/or the various intermediaries such as Expedia and Orbitz haven’t already implemented similar arrangements.
The “insurance” described in the article referenced below is different from traditional travel insurance which requires purchasing a ticket prior to buying the insurance. Here, one can purchase a call option that locks in a favorable fare today without obligating the consumer to actually purchase the ticket.
Options Away: Insurance Against Airfare Hikes
“Options Away… will sell you the right to buy a plane ticket within a certain timeframe at a certain price. If the airfare goes up within your option’s time frame, good for you—you can buy the ticket, paying your optioned fare, and Options Away pays the difference. If the airfare goes down within your option’s timeframe, you simply ignore your option and buy your ticket at its now lower fare. Either way, you’re out the option fee, but you are not obligated to buy the ticket.”
About Social Security's future…
About Social Security’s future… Social Security is a compact between generations. Since 1935, America has kept the promise of security for its workers and their families. Now, however, the Social Security system is facing serious financial problems, and action is needed soon to make sure the system will be sound when today’s younger workers are ready for retirement. Without changes, in 2033 the Social Security Trust Fund will be able to pay only about 77 cents for each dollar of scheduled benefits.* We need to resolve these issues soon to make sure Social Security continues to provide a foundation of protection for future generations. * These estimates are based on the intermediate assumptions from the Social Security Trustees’ Annual Report to the Congress. ]]>
About Social Security’s future…
Quoting from my annual Social Security Statement; I can’t help but wonder what the numbers are for “optimistic” assumptions and for “pessimistic” assumptions (see the “fine print” by the asterisk below):
About Social Security’s future…
Social Security is a compact between generations. Since 1935, America has kept the promise of security for its workers and their families. Now, however, the Social Security system is facing serious financial problems, and action is needed soon to make sure the system will be sound when today’s younger workers are ready for retirement.
Without changes, in 2033 the Social Security Trust Fund will be able to pay only about 77 cents for each dollar of scheduled benefits.* We need to resolve these issues soon to make sure Social Security continues to provide a foundation of protection for future generations.
* These estimates are based on the intermediate assumptions from the Social Security Trustees’ Annual Report to the Congress.
Assorted Links (2/1/2014)
Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading and videos that I have been viewing lately:
Nina Munk on Poverty, Development, and the Idealist
www.econtalk.org
Nina Munk provides a very interesting case study on how the road to hell is often paved with very good intentions indeed! Here’s the quote from EconTalk: “Nina Munk, journalist and author of The Idealist: Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about her book. Munk spent six years following Jeffrey Sachs and the evolution of the Millennium Villages…”
Obama Seeks to Borrow More from Poor, Middle Class
online.wsj.com
“President unveils new plan to finance government; declares climate change “a fact.””
Obama’s State of the Union’s Most Despicable Moment: Using Wounded Vets as Props
reason.com
“The most emotionally powerful moment in Barack Obama’s State of the Union address was also its most morally dubious.”
www.youtube.com
“The Cato Institute’s annual State of the Union response video features a number of prominent Cato scholars who analyze the President’s address, highlighting inaccuracies, flawed logic, and even the occasional positive remark.”
New Snowden Revelation: NSA, GCHQ Look Through Apps To Find Personal Data
reason.com
“The efforts were part of an initiative called “the mobile surge.””
A Victory for the Little Sisters Against the ObamaCare Birth-Control Mandate
online.wsj.com
“The Supreme Court suspends ObamaCare’s birth-control mandate for the order of nuns, the Wall Street Journal writes in an editorial.”
More Imperfect Unions
www.nytimes.com
“Marriage in America has been on the decline, but there is little honest talk about the root causes.”
So What Was The Point of Obamacare Again?
www.nationalreview.com
“The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that the uninsured haven’t been rushing to sign up for insurance under Obamacare.”
‘Hand of God’ spotted by NASA space telescope
www.nbcnews.com
“Religion and astronomy may not overlap often, but a new NASA X-ray image captures a celestial object that resembles the “Hand of God.””
Obama’s polls fall as middle class gets his number
washingtonexaminer.com
“Are you dazed and confused by Barack Obama, the nominal Democrat, whose conduct as president since 2009 has seen him sink from nearly 70 percent to 40 percent or less in the national polling, from which he has seemed to learn nothing, but still marches on?”
Bill Gates on minimum wage hikes
overlawyered.com
“The Microsoft founder “warned against raising the minimum wage Tuesday on Morning Joe, saying it results in a ‘huge tradeoff’ that can adversely affect households in poverty.””
www.nationalreview.com
“The Left gets the facts wrong on economic and racial disparities.” Repeat after me: correlation is not causation…
Aetna could be forced out of Obamacare: CEO
www.cnbc.com
Here’s an update on the so-called insurance death spiral: “Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini tells CNBC that Obamacare has failed to attract the uninsured, and he offered a scenario in which the insurance company could be forced to pull out of program.”