Wednesday, March 20, 2002

Bad Medicine March 19, 2002 " . . . this is just the beginning of a struggle that will soon dominate American politics. . . . The effort to live within unrealistically low targets for Medicare expenses has already translated into unrealistically low payments to health-care providers. . . . More and more conditions . . . can now be treated, adding years to the lives of patients and greatly increasing the quality of those years — but at ever greater expense." " . . . the intent of our system is that nobody should be denied life-saving treatment for lack of funds. . . . a society in which rich people get their medical problems solved, while ordinary people die from them, is too harsh even for us." " . . . we have already reached the point at which we must either come up with more money or deny health care to retirees. . . . recipients can't find doctors willing to take them. Something will have to give, and soon." ... [more] 4:15:17 PM  Google It!  comment  []

Flying high? [U.S. Fed decides not to raise interest rates] "ALL OVER bar the shouting. That’s the American recession for you, and for that matter, the long run of interest-rate cuts which the Federal Reserve . . . embarked on in January 2001 and ended, eleven cuts later, last December. At the end of its second meeting of the year . . . the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) . . . decided against another cut in interest rates. That is the second time this year the Fed has decided to hold off. Confident that the recovery is gaining momentum, the FOMC went further . . . it altered its judgment about the future: instead of reckoning that the risks are weighted towards economic weakness, the FOMC has now moved . . . to a neutral bias—where it believes that future risks are evenly balanced between economic weakness and inflationary pressures."  ... [more] 11:02:07 AM  Google It!  comment  []

EMI Recording Unit Cuts 1,800 Jobs "EMI Group is cutting nearly 1,800 jobs in its recorded music unit that has struggled in a depressed music market. The cuts represent about 19 percent of the division's work force." ... [more] 10:23:17 AM  Google It!  comment  []