Noise fills the airwaves and so many “pundits” keep the outlets from going dark by providing opinions that are less than ridiculous. These are the same people who failed to identify many of the significant political dynamics during the last few years. There is a viral video of Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo interviewing the much-maligned Jonathan Gruber. I have no opinion on the politics of the interview but I do offer this criticism of Gruber’s hypothesis of the positive outcome from the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Gruber raises the counterfactual that insurance costs and medical care would be at the same levels as now and maybe even higher and with the addition of 22 million people on the health insurance rolls, the ACA is a success.
Posts Tagged ‘bond markets’
Notes From Underground: A (Wo)man Hears What (S)he Wants to Hear and Disregards the Rest
November 16, 2016Notes From Underground: Three Negatives Can’t Make A Positive
July 9, 2012Today in Europe the short-term BILL RATES in Germany, Netherlands and France all had NEGATIVE YIELDS. Think about the meaning of this: The hunger for quality sovereign paper has even driven the FRENCH SHORT RATES negative. (ABSURD as Jean-Claude Trichet might opine.) Again, QUANTITATIVE EASING and the FEAR of non-quality collateral has rendered the BOND MARKETS of the DEVELOPED ECONOMIES MEANINGLESS.