Central Perk

luni, 28 octombrie 2013

1,000 bands

Brian Eno possibly said that, "the first Velvet Underground record may have only sold 1,000 copies, but every person who bought it started a band." [*]

It certainly wasn't a bestselling album, but without a doubt, it changed things.

The scarcity mindset pushes us to corner the market, to be the only one selling what we sell.

The abundance alternative, though, is to understand that many of us sell ideas, not widgets, and that ideas are best when used, and the more they get used, the more ideas they spawn.

Kevin Kelly has inspired 10,000 companies, and Shepard Fairey, a generation of artists.

How many bands will you inspire today?

* Two footnotes here. The first is that like most revolutionary ideas that start a ruckus, the first album was poorly reviewed. It wasn't the obvious next thing, the idea that's easy to celebrate. And second, Eno's quote has been amended over time: "I was talking to Lou Reed the other day and he said that the first Velvet Underground record sold 30,000 copies in the first five years. The sales have picked up in the past few years, but I mean, that record was such an important record for so many people. I think everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band!"

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duminică, 27 octombrie 2013

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

4th and 1st Amendments Under Fire; "Everyone Spies" a Favorite Cry of US Apologists; War Against Journalists; "We Hit the Jackpot"

Posted: 27 Oct 2013 11:42 AM PDT

The way to stop media reporting of NSA is simple: Shut down the agency entirely. It is too big, too bloated, and too useless. It spies on friends and foes alike. And when you tap the phones of 35 heads of state, including Angela Merkel, it's pretty damn hard to make the case that US spying is about terrorism.

Please consider the Guardian article NSA Chief Says Government Must Stop Media Reporting by Glenn Greenwald.

The most under-discussed aspect of the NSA story has long been its international scope. That all changed this week as both Germany and France exploded with anger over new revelations about pervasive NSA surveillance on their population and democratically elected leaders.

As was true for Brazil previously, reports about surveillance aimed at leaders are receiving most of the media attention, but what really originally drove the story there were revelations that the NSA is bulk-spying on millions and millions of innocent citizens in all of those nations. The favorite cry of US government apologists -–everyone spies! – falls impotent in the face of this sort of ubiquitous, suspicionless spying that is the sole province of the US and its four English-speaking surveillance allies (the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand).

There are three points worth making about these latest developments.

First, note how leaders such as Chancellor Angela Merkel reacted with basic indifference when it was revealed months ago that the NSA was bulk-spying on all German citizens, but suddenly found her indignation only when it turned out that she personally was also targeted. That reaction gives potent insight into the true mindset of many western leaders.

Second, all of these governments keep saying how newsworthy these revelations are, how profound are the violations they expose, how happy they are to learn of all this, how devoted they are to reform. If that's true, why are they allowing the person who enabled all these disclosures – Edward Snowden – to be targeted for persecution by the US government for the "crime" of blowing the whistle on all of this?

Third, is there any doubt at all that the US government repeatedly tried to mislead the world when insisting that this system of suspicionless surveillance was motivated by an attempt to protect Americans from The Terrorists™?

Speaking of an inability to maintain claims with a straight face, how are American and British officials, in light of their conduct in all of this, going to maintain the pretense that they are defenders of press freedoms and are in a position to lecture and condemn others for violations? In what might be the most explicit hostility to such freedoms yet – as well as the most unmistakable evidence of rampant panic – the NSA's director, General Keith Alexander, actually demanded Thursday that the reporting being done by newspapers around the world on this secret surveillance system be halted.

Recall that it was Glenn Greenwald who broke the NSA spy story episode with leaks from Edward Snowden.

As one might expect from criminal agencies, the NSA is fighting back, with an attack on constitutional rights.

4th and 1st Amendments Under Fire

TechDirt reports Keith Alexander Says The US Gov't Needs To Figure Out A Way To Stop Journalists From Reporting On Snowden Leaks

Apparently not satisfied with just setting fire to the 4th Amendment, NSA boss Keith Alexander's next target is the 1st Amendment. In an interview with the Defense Department's "Armed With Science" blog, it appears that Alexander felt he'd have a friendly audience, so he let loose with some insane claims, including suggesting that the government needs to find a way to "stop" journalists from reporting on the Snowden leaks.

Please click on the above link to see TechDirt's rebuttal to blatant lies by the NSA chief.

Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill to Setup Independent News Agency

Jeremy Scahill, National Security Correspondent for The Nation magazine, author of the international bestseller Blackwater, and also the author of Dirty Wars, is starting his own independent news agency along with Glenn Greenwald.

CNN reports Glenn Greenwald to join media venture backed by eBay founder Omidyar

Pierre Omidyar, founder of online auction site eBay, said Wednesday he is teaming up with journalist Glenn Greenwald, who has led reporting on secret U.S. surveillance programs, to create a new online mass media venture.

Greenwald announced late Tuesday that he was quitting The Guardian for "a once-in-a-career dream journalistic opportunity" but said he was not ready to give more details.

Now Omidyar has confirmed to CNN's Christiane Amanpour that he is behind the new media venture, which includes Greenwald and others -- and that he will personally fund it.

Greenwald has been at the forefront of a series of high-profile reports based on leaks from former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

Journalist Jeremy Scahill and documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras will also be joining the venture, Omidyar said.

Greenwald has been working with Poitras, based in Berlin, on NSA-related stories. Scahill is the author of the New York Times best-seller "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army."

U.K. government and press collide in bullying of reporter's partner

The Guardian has come under fire in recent days from figures in the UK intelligence community who suggest its reporting has undermined efforts to keep the country safe in the face of terror threats.

Both Greenwald and The Guardian have accused UK authorities of using heavy-handed tactics to try to silence legitimate reporting.

Greenwald's partner, David Miranda, was detained for hours by UK authorities at London's Heathrow Airport in mid-August, as he was changing planes en route to the couple's Rio de Janeiro home. Items including a laptop, a hard drive and USB memory sticks were confiscated from him and are the subject of a legal challenge.

Greenwald said the episode was designed to deter him and other investigative journalists from using classified information and digging into stories critical of the British and allied governments -- but vowed to continue regardless.

"We Hit the Jackpot"

Finally, please consider the following video on the formation of the new independent news agency. In the video, Jeremy Scahill discusses his partnership with Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras:

"We Hit the Jackpot" says Scahill.

Link if video does not play: "We Hit the Jackpot"

War Against Journalists

Says Scahill: "The Role of journalists is to hold those in power accountable... We are incredibly excited by this project because all three of us are journalists to the core ... There is a war against journalism around the world. Journalists are missing, beaten and imprisoned around the world ... And in the United States we have a president who won the Noble Peace Prize, who is a constitutional lawyer by training, and he is prosecuting whistleblowers in record numbers. They are monitoring the metadata of journalists, trying to figure out who they are talking to ... and we have a media culture that is totally morally bankrupt."

Indeed. And I wish Greenwald, Scahill, and Poitras huge success in their new venture.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Seth's Blog : Entrepreneurship => impact

Entrepreneurship => impact

Innovation is something else entirely. Many entrepreneurs use an innovation to make an impact, but the hard part, the part that we're rewarded for, is engaging with the user, the audience, the market. Bringing something to people who didn't think they wanted it, know about it or initially welcome it, and make a difference.

One reason it's so difficult to teach entrepreneurship is that we're not teaching tactics or skills. We're not teaching spreadsheets or finance or even marketing. No, when we encourage entrepreneurship, we're actually trying to get people to the place where they care enough and where they are confident enough to stand up and try to make things change.

Don't tell me what you invented. Tell me about who you changed.

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sâmbătă, 26 octombrie 2013

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

More Obamashock! Glitches Hit Paper, Phone Applications; Obamacare Glitch Great Quotes

Posted: 26 Oct 2013 06:44 PM PDT

Millions of Existing Plans Dropped

I posted my personal experiences on Obamacare, as well as those of a reader, in Tips on Navigating Obamacare Costs on HealthCare.Gov - My Personal Experience - Obamashock!

Just in case anyone thought "ObamaShock!" was an isolated incident, the Weekly Standard reports Millions of Americans Are Losing Their Health Plans Because of Obamacare.

While the Affordable Care Act was making its way through Congress in 2009 and 2010, President Obama famously promised the American people over and over again that if you like your health plan, you can keep it.

"Let me be exactly clear about what health care reform means to you," Obama said at one rally in July 2009. "First of all, if you've got health insurance, you like your doctors, you like your plan, you can keep your doctor, you can keep your plan. Nobody is talking about taking that away from you."

But the president's promise is turning out to be false for millions of Americans who have had their health insurance policies canceled because they don't meet the requirements of the Affordable Care Act.

According to health policy expert Bob Laszewski, roughly 16 million Americans will lose their current plans.

Because the Obama administration's regulations on grandfathering existing plans were so stringent as many as 16 million are not grandfathered and must comply with Obamacare at their next renewal.

Millions of people are now receiving letters from their carriers saying they are losing their current coverage and must re-enroll in order to avoid a break in coverage and comply with the new health law's benefit mandates––the vast majority by January 1. Most of these will be seeing some pretty big rate increases.

Obamacare in Rural Areas

The New York Times reports Health Care Law Fails to Lower Prices for Rural Areas

As technical failures bedevil the rollout of President Obama's health care law, evidence is emerging that one of the program's loftiest goals — to encourage competition among insurers in an effort to keep costs low — is falling short for many rural Americans.

While competition is intense in many populous regions, rural areas and small towns have far fewer carriers offering plans in the law's online exchanges. Those places, many of them poor, are being asked to choose from some of the highest-priced plans in the 34 states where the federal government is running the health insurance marketplaces, a review by The New York Times has found.

Of the roughly 2,500 counties served by the federal exchanges, more than half, or 58 percent, have plans offered by just one or two insurance carriers, according to an analysis by The Times of county-level data provided by the Department of Health and Human Services. In about 530 counties, only a single insurer is participating.

"There's nothing in the structure of the Affordable Care Act which really deals with that problem," said John Holahan, a fellow at the Urban Institute, who noted that many factors determine costs in a given market. "I think that all else being equal, premiums will clearly be higher when there's not that competition."

The Obama administration has said 95 percent of Americans live in areas where there are at least two insurers in the exchanges. But many experts say two might not be enough to create competition that would help lower prices.

Glitches Hit Paper, Phone Applications

Politico reports "The online website signup procedure is such a disaster that President Barack Obama is urging Americans to go ahead and try to get health coverage by mailing in a paper application, calling the helpline or seeking help from one of the trained "assisters.""

Please consider 'Glitches' hit Obamacare paper, phone applications too

But the truth is those applications — on paper or by phone — have to get entered into the same lousy website that is causing the problems in the first place. And the people processing the paper and calls don't have any cyber secret passage to duck around that. They too have to deal with all the frustrations of HealthCare.gov — full-time.

"We're confident by the end of November, HealthCare.gov will be smooth for a vast majority of users," said Jeff Zients, the former White House aide and management expert brought into oversee the repair drive.

But for now, with HealthCare.gov crippled by design flaws and a morass of messy code, the president and health officials have been using a variety of posts and announcements to urge people to try low-tech ways of enrolling. Basically they are saying while the front door is stuck, try the side.

Of course, reading an 800 number on national TV — as the president did in the Rose Garden the other day — created a flood of callers who couldn't get through. That led to another wave of frustration and Obamacare punch lines. But Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius tweeted on Thursday that HHS bulked up the call center to include more than 10,000 trained representatives.

Even before the tech problems, the government had a private contractor, Serco, to handle paper applications, which were expected to come primarily from less Web-savvy people. On Thursday, the company's program director John Lau told the House Energy and Commerce Committee that it had completed between 3,000 and 4,000 applications.

But Serco will be flooded with paper applications if the website glitches persist, predicted John Gorman, founder of the Gorman Health Group, which has advised some of the insurance exchanges. "Serco is going to be swimming in paper within the next two to three weeks," he said.

Obamacare Glitch Great Quotes

Inquiring minds looking for the most telling and colorful comments made about Obamacare "glitches" can find them on Politico. Here's a particularly funny one.

"We're going to do a challenge. I'm going to try and download every movie ever made and you are going to try to sign up for Obamacare — and we'll see which happens first." — Jon Stewart to Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on "The Daily Show," Oct. 7

Nonetheless Obama insists the Obamacare show must go on. And what a horror story it is.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

New Tools! More Pure Bank Profit!

Posted: 26 Oct 2013 10:52 AM PDT

Inquiring minds are monitoring the Fed's Balance Sheet.

click on chart for sharper image

One more week like this and the FED balance sheet will be $1 trillion more than last year at this time. Currently now at $980 billion with this past week adding $20 billion.

Breakdown From Year Ago

Total Credit: +980.711 Billion to $3.796 Trillion
US Treasuries: +448.877 Billion to $2.106 Trillion
Mortgage Backed Securities: +525.072 Billion to $1.401 Trillion

Of US treasuries, the Fed added (and holds) precisely $0 in short-term bills.
Of US Treasuries, the Fed added 16 Billion in Inflation Indexed notes

Obviously inflation is not a concern to the Fed. Bank profits are.

Excess Reserves

The Fed is pumping money into the economy at at rate of $85 billion a month. Banks cannot use the money and are not lending it. The money piles up as excess reserves and the Fed (taxpayers) pays interest on excess reserves.

Nonetheless, the Fed has a clever idea! It proposes a new tool to pay banks even more interest on money banks don't lend and cannot use (as an alternative to shrinking money supply).

New Tools!

With little fanfare or analysis by mainstream media as to what is really happening, Bloomberg reports Fed Gets Bigger in Markets as QE Prompts New Tools.

The Federal Reserve is getting more involved in debt markets as it tries to compensate for the impact of its almost $4 trillion balance sheet on short-term interest rates.

Policy makers are testing a new tool intended to improve their control of near-term borrowing costs. The facility would allow banks, broker-dealers, money-market funds and some government-sponsored enterprises to lend the Fed unlimited amounts of cash overnight at a fixed rate in exchange for borrowing Treasuries in so-called reverse repo transactions.

The facility is the latest innovation from a central bank that has participated on an unprecedented scale in U.S. debt markets since the credit crisis began in 2007. It's designed to help policy makers -- buying $85 billion of bonds a month -- siphon off excess cash in the banking system when they begin to tighten policy. Three rounds of so-called quantitative easing have enlarged the Fed's balance sheet to almost $3.8 trillion.

The new tool -- called the fixed-rate, full-allotment overnight reverse repo facility -- also is aimed at helping Fed officials address distortions in the market caused by their securities purchases.

"It will serve to put whatever floor they want under rates," said Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP LLC in Jersey City, New Jersey. "You're providing pretty broad-based access to Fed balances as an investment option."

While the Fed gained the ability in 2008 to pay interest on cash it holds in the form of excess bank reserves, that tool has limited effect in anchoring borrowing costs because only banks could park their funds at the central bank, Crandall said. By now offering to pay a fixed rate to a wider range of counterparties for their cash overnight, policy makers should be able to improve their control of near-term rates, he said.

"By offering a new, essentially risk-free investment, one would expect that anyone with access to such a facility would generally be unwilling to lend instead to someone else" at a lower rate, New York Fed President William C. Dudley said in a speech in New York Sept. 23.

Where Does It End?

From the Bloomberg article, one person sees things correctly. ...

With "the amount of bonds that have been piling up on the Fed's System Open Market Account" there "has been a collateral shortage," said Jim Bianco, president of Bianco Research LLC in Chicago. "What worries me about the Fed is that in reacting to the fact that their actions have created an unintended consequence in a free market, instead of saying 'Oh, maybe we ought to re-think these actions,' their answer is 'No, we'll go manipulate that problem now.' Where does this end?"

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Enrolling in the Affordable Care Act Marketplace

Featured

Weekly Address: Enrolling in the Affordable Care Act Marketplace

In this week's address, President Obama discusses the launch of the Health Insurance Marketplace for the Affordable Care Act, which gives millions of Americans the opportunity to have access to affordable and reliable healthcare -- many for the first time.

Click here to watch this week's Weekly Address.

Seth's Blog : Patrons and assistants wanted

Patrons and assistants wanted

Wouldn't it be great if you had a patron who would pay for you to have the time to be your best creative self?

And assistants to worry about all the details of your messy life?

This is the business school model of success. The industrial age taught executives that patrons (bosses, shareholders, large banks) would pick us and pay us, and that workers (cogs, assistants, functionaries) would do what we told them to do. All you had to do was find the first and you could hire the second.

In an economy based on art and connection and innovation, though, the first is hard to find, and the second is worth less than you might imagine--you still have do all the leaping yourself.

The goal is to be on the hook, not to let someone else do the scary parts.

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Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

NSA Monitored Calls of 35 World Leaders; Mistrust Mounts: Merkel and Hollande to Change Intelligence Ties With US; Edward Snowden - US, World Hero
Made in France: Montebourg Ridiculed in Text and Pictures; France Goes After "Red Bull" Energy Drinks to Finance Social Security
Tips on Navigating Obamacare Costs on HealthCare.Gov - My Personal Experience - Obamashock!

NSA Monitored Calls of 35 World Leaders; Mistrust Mounts: Merkel and Hollande to Change Intelligence Ties With US; Edward Snowden - US, World Hero

Posted: 25 Oct 2013 01:07 PM PDT

NSA contact lists show NSA monitored calls of 35 world leaders.

The National Security Agency monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders after being given the numbers by an official in another US government department, according to a classified document provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The confidential memo reveals that the NSA encourages senior officials in its "customer" departments, such as the White House, State and the Pentagon, to share their "Rolodexes" so the agency can add the phone numbers of leading foreign politicians to their surveillance systems.

The document notes that one unnamed US official handed over 200 numbers, including those of the 35 world leaders, none of whom is named. These were immediately "tasked" for monitoring by the NSA.

The NSA memo obtained by the Guardian suggests that such surveillance was not isolated, as the agency routinely monitors the phone numbers of world leaders – and even asks for the assistance of other US officials to do so.

The memo, dated October 2006 and which was issued to staff in the agency's Signals Intelligence Directorate (SID), was titled "Customers Can Help SID Obtain Targetable Phone Numbers".

The NSA memo seen by the Guardian was written halfway through George W Bush's second term, when Condoleezza Rice was secretary of state and Donald Rumsfeld was in his final months as defence secretary.

Merkel Phones Obama Over incident

On Wednesday, Merkel phoned president Obama to complain.

For details see Germany Accuses US of Spying on Merkel's Phone; Merkel Phones Obama; Why Should Any Country Trust the US?

Mistrust Mounts: Merkel and Hollande to Change Intelligence Ties With US

As mistrust mounts over NSA spying, Merkel and Hollande to change intelligence ties with US.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said she and her French counterpart would launch a "joint initiative" to renegotiate their intelligence services' co-operation with the US, saying protocols must be set following revelations of widespread American eavesdropping on European leaders.

"I think the services need to come to agreement between each other on yardsticks and other norms and standards," Ms Merkel said at a press conference after the first day of a two-day summit in Brussels. "Words are not sufficient. True change is necessary."

The insistence on renegotiating the agreements is likely to ratchet up the transatlantic tensions over spying by the US National Security Agency, which Berlin alleges tapped into Ms Merkel's personal mobile phone.

Over the course of the past week, several media organisations relying on documents supplied by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden have reported extensive spying operations in France, Germany and Italy.

The German chancellor said she has not changed her communications behaviour, adding it was unclear whether her encrypted mobile used for government work or a non-secure line she uses for party politics was being tapped.

"This partnership . . . is a partnership that has stood the test of time," Ms Merkel said of US-German ties. "But for the future, things have to change and they have to change radically."

Whistleblower Snowden Explains Himself

Edward Snowden - US, World Hero

Edward Snowden, the man who leaked NSA data to the Guardian is a wanted man in the US. I consider him a national hero. Ironically, many countries who benefited from his leaks, including France and Germany, refuse to grant Snowden political asylum.

Last summer, France and Portugal would not grant air space to plane carrying Bolivian president Evo Morales based on false US intelligence that Snowden was aboard. Morales' plane was forced to make an unscheduled stopover in Vienna.

For details, please see Venezuela, Nicaragua offer asylum to Snowden; Double Standards and Hypocrite Allies.

This is what I said at the time ...

The Snowden affair is an absolute disgrace all around: By the US for its actions, then by Spain, by Portugal, by France and by any country that would not grant air clearance to Bolivia President Evo Morales based on totally unfounded and piss poor US intelligence reporting that suggested Snowden was on Morales' plane.

Even if countries were 100% certain Snowden was on the plane, they should not have honored the request by the US to ground the plane or deny air space flyover.

I am disappointed that neither New Zealand nor Australia would offer asylum.

Is there any dignity left in this world?

I guess not, given the world bows down to the almighty US even when we spit in the face of our key allies by bugging their offices.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Made in France: Montebourg Ridiculed in Text and Pictures; France Goes After "Red Bull" Energy Drinks to Finance Social Security

Posted: 25 Oct 2013 09:49 AM PDT

In response to Montebourg Announces Deal Between Goodyear and Titan to Save Union Jobs (One Problem - Goodyear Did Not Even Receive the Offer), one of several recent posts on Arnaud Montebourg, France's Minister of Productive Recovery, reader "AC" who lives in France responded ...

Hi Mish,

To understand Montebourg, take a look at some "Made in France" images.

Montebourg "advertises Made in France" while holding Moulinex blenders and wearing classical "marinière" shirts.

He is literally the object of tons of sarcastic comments and gags.

Once president Francois Hollande was elected, Hollande preferred having Montebourg within the government rather than outside, to avoid having him contest actions each and every day from the left.

When telecom operator Free was awarded the fourth mobile license in France and launched its very low cost service, Montebourg said that Free had done more for purchasing power of French people than all the actions of then president Nicolas Sarkozy.

But when Montebourg became Minister he started a very aggressive campaign against Free and its pricing, accusing them of destroying French jobs.

Best regards,

AC

Montebourg in the News

Check out these Montebourg Headlines on Ozap.Com (the same site that mocked Montebourg and his blender).

You Have a Problem With Your Brain - Arnaud Montebourg to a reporter: "You have a problem with your brain"
Montebourg Preserves "French Gem" DailyMotion From the Clutches of Yahoo! - The day Arnaud Montebourg prevented the acquisition of DailyMotion by Yahoo!

France Goes After "Red Bull" Energy Drinks

Where there's socialists, there's economic nonsense. Here is another case in point via translation from Les Echos.

Socialists want to introduce a levy of 1 euro per liter of energy drinks

Members start Tuesday afternoon discussion of the draft law on financing of Social Security. Three highly controversial tax reforms will focus much of the attention.

Tax Hike Number One: Taxes Harmonized (to the Highest Level)

The tax bill provides for an overhaul of the tax burdens on investment products. Social security contributions applicable to the majority of products are 15.5%, but the rate may be lower depending on the date of realization of gains. The executive wants to "harmonize the rule", which should generate 600 million euros in 2014.

Tax Hike Number Two: Energy Drinks

Gérard Bapt, a Socialist Party member of the National Assembly of France wants to introduce a levy of 1 euro per liter on energy drinks, which would bring about sixty million. "It is not a measure of fiscal performance but public health," he defends.

Measure Number Three: Redistribution Schemes (to Make People Feel Better)

In April, half of retirees started paying a levy of 0.3% on their pensions, expected to bring €645 million in 2014. After "embezzlement" claims from both the left and the right, socialists adopted an amendment that directs a portion of the performance fee - €130 million - to help the frail elderly.

Perspective on €1 Per Liter

A liter is about 1.057 quarts. €1 is worth about $1.38. So, imagine paying a tax of $1.38 on a quart of pop, and you approximately understand the proposal.

The tax is meant solely to "protect the public health". What France really needs is protection from Hollande, Montebourg, and socialists in general.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Tips on Navigating Obamacare Costs on HealthCare.Gov - My Personal Experience - Obamashock!

Posted: 24 Oct 2013 11:47 PM PDT

You can now see cost options of various Obamacare plans whether or not you are registered.

Once on the site (click on the above link), filter your state and county.

Click on the lines as shown by the arrow, not the "i" symbol.

Don't bother with the instruction line at the top of the form that reads "For instructions on how to read and use this data, please view the documentation available under the 'About' tab on"

If you find and click on the "about tab", it humorously looks like this:

After you click on the "about tab", one of the first things you will see is the message "For instructions on how to read and use this data, please view the documentation available under the 'About' tab on this page."

Zero Stars

One person actually gave this page three stars. I wanted to give it zero stars, but that was not an option. I tried one star, but I was not registered, so my vote did not count. Out of 399,014 visits, only one person voted on the quality of the page.

There are some links on the page, but none of them were at all helpful on how to use the page.

After doing some external searches as to what some of the fields mean, I attempted to download data and it actually worked. Rather than use the site tools, I did additional filtering, sorting, and column removal in Excel.

McHenry County, Illinois Plans

I live in McHenry County, Illinois. There were 4216 plans for Illinois. There were 60 plans for McHenry County.

I stripped off the columns for State, Issuer Name, Rating Area, and Display. Here are the results for McHenry County.

County	Level	Plan Marketing Name	Type	Age 27	Age 50	Family
MC HENRY	Platinum	Humana National Preferred Platinum 1000/1500 Plan	PPO	$383.48	$653.52	$1295.34
MC HENRY	Gold	Aetna Premier 2000 PD	PPO	$358.00	$611.00	$1210.00
MC HENRY	Gold	Land of Lincoln National Premier PPO Plan	PPO	$353.63	$602.65	$1194.52
MC HENRY	Gold	Land of Lincoln National Elite PPO Plan	PPO	$342.38	$583.48	$1156.52
MC HENRY	Gold	Humana National Preferred Gold 2500/3500 Plan	PPO	$340.26	$579.88	$1149.38
MC HENRY	Gold	Blue Cross Blue Shield Premier 1, a Multi-State Plan	PPO	$339.54	$578.65	$1146.92
MC HENRY	Gold	Land of Lincoln National Complete PPO Plan	PPO	$337.28	$574.80	$1139.30
MC HENRY	Gold	Blue Cross Blue Shield Premier 2, a Multi-State Plan	PPO	$336.22	$572.99	$1135.72
MC HENRY	Gold	Land of Lincoln National Confidence PPO Plan	PPO	$333.97	$569.14	$1128.10
MC HENRY	Silver	Land of Lincoln National Premier PPO Plan	PPO	$328.32	$559.52	$1109.04
MC HENRY	Gold	Land of Lincoln National Preferred PPO Plan	PPO	$325.33	$554.43	$1098.94
MC HENRY	Gold	Blue PPO Gold 002	PPO	$323.65	$551.56	$1093.22
MC HENRY	Silver	Aetna Classic 3500 PD	PPO	$321.00	$547.00	$1086.00
MC HENRY	Silver	Land of Lincoln National Elite PPO Plan	PPO	$318.24	$542.34	$1074.98
MC HENRY	Gold	Blue PPO Gold 001	PPO	$313.14	$533.65	$1057.74
MC HENRY	Silver	Land of Lincoln National Complete PPO Plan	PPO	$308.33	$525.46	$1041.52
MC HENRY	Silver	Aetna Classic 5000	PPO	$308.00	$524.00	$1038.00
MC HENRY	Silver	Humana National Preferred Silver 4250/6250 Plan	PPO	$296.60	$505.46	$1001.88
MC HENRY	Silver	Land of Lincoln National Preferred PPO Plan	PPO	$296.00	$504.44	$999.84
MC HENRY	Gold	Land of Lincoln National Choice PPO Plan	PPO	$294.42	$501.75	$994.54
MC HENRY	Gold	Land of Lincoln National Freedom PPO Plan	PPO	$293.00	$499.32	$989.70
MC HENRY	Silver	Land of Lincoln National Confidence PPO Plan	PPO	$290.67	$495.36	$981.84
MC HENRY	Silver	Humana National Preferred Silver 3650/3650 Plan	PPO	$288.86	$492.28	$975.74
MC HENRY	Platinum	Humana Connect Platinum 1000/1500 Plan	HMO	$285.44	$486.45	$964.20
MC HENRY	Bronze	Humana National Preferred Bronze 4850/6350 Plan	PPO	$283.84	$483.72	$958.78
MC HENRY	Silver	Land of Lincoln National Choice PPO Plan	PPO	$272.74	$464.80	$921.28
MC HENRY	Silver	Land of Lincoln National Freedom PPO Plan	PPO	$272.65	$464.65	$920.96
MC HENRY	Silver	Blue PPO Silver 004	PPO	$268.44	$457.48	$906.76
MC HENRY	Silver	Blue Cross Blue Shield Solution 3, a Multi-State Plan	PPO	$258.75	$440.96	$874.02
MC HENRY	Silver	Blue PPO Silver 003	PPO	$256.15	$436.53	$865.26
MC HENRY	Bronze	Aetna Advantage 5750 PD	PPO	$254.00	$433.00	$858.00
MC HENRY	Gold	Humana Connect Gold 2500/3500 Plan	HMO	$253.17	$431.46	$855.20
MC HENRY	Bronze	Humana National Preferred Bronze 6300/6300 Plan	PPO	$251.10	$427.92	$848.18
MC HENRY	Silver	Blue Cross Blue Shield Solution 4, a Multi-State Plan	PPO	$248.88	$424.14	$840.68
MC HENRY	Bronze	Aetna AdvantagePlus 5500 PD	PPO	$248.00	$422.00	$836.00
MC HENRY	Bronze	Aetna Advantage 6350	PPO	$246.00	$420.00	$832.00
MC HENRY	Gold	Blue Choice Gold PPO 002	PPO	$233.29	$397.58	$788.04
MC HENRY	Bronze	Land of Lincoln National Complete PPO Plan	PPO	$230.89	$393.48	$779.92
MC HENRY	Bronze	Land of Lincoln National Preferred PPO Plan	PPO	$228.24	$388.96	$770.98
MC HENRY	Gold	Blue Choice Gold PPO 001	PPO	$223.89	$381.55	$756.26
MC HENRY	Silver	Humana Connect Silver 4600/6300 Plan	HMO	$219.87	$374.71	$742.70
MC HENRY	Bronze	Land of Lincoln National Premier PPO Plan	PPO	$215.86	$367.86	$729.12
MC HENRY	Bronze	Humana Connect Bronze 4850/6350 Plan	HMO	$208.99	$356.16	$705.96
MC HENRY	Gold	Blue Precision Gold HMO 001	HMO	$208.17	$354.76	$703.16
MC HENRY	Bronze	Blue Cross Blue Shield Basic 5, a Multi-State Plan	PPO	$207.16	$353.04	$699.76
MC HENRY	Bronze	Blue PPO Bronze 005	PPO	$199.18	$339.45	$672.82
MC HENRY	Bronze	Blue PPO Bronze 006	PPO	$197.18	$336.04	$666.06
MC HENRY	Catastrophic	Humana National Preferred Basic 6350/6350 Plan	PPO	$196.88	$335.52	$665.02
MC HENRY	Bronze	Humana Connect Bronze 6300/6300 Plan	HMO	$193.88	$330.41	$654.90
MC HENRY	Catastrophic	Blue Security PPO 010	PPO	$192.87	$328.69	$651.48
MC HENRY	Bronze	Land of Lincoln National Choice PPO Plan	PPO	$192.81	$328.59	$651.30
MC HENRY	Bronze	Land of Lincoln National Freedom PPO Plan	PPO	$191.23	$325.89	$645.94
MC HENRY	Silver	Blue Choice Silver PPO 004	PPO	$187.50	$319.54	$633.36
MC HENRY	Catastrophic	Aetna Basic	PPO	$185.00	$316.00	$626.00
MC HENRY	Silver	Blue Precision Silver HMO 002	HMO	$179.22	$305.42	$605.36
MC HENRY	Silver	Blue Choice Silver PPO 003	PPO	$177.84	$303.08	$600.72
MC HENRY	Catastrophic	Humana Connect Basic 6350/6350 Plan	HMO	$148.24	$252.62	$500.72
MC HENRY	Bronze	Blue Precision Bronze HMO 003	HMO	$138.53	$236.08	$467.94
MC HENRY	Bronze	Blue Choice Bronze PPO 005	PPO	$128.87	$219.62	$435.30
MC HENRY	Bronze	Blue Choice Bronze PPO 006	PPO	$128.78	$219.47	$435.00

No Plan Descriptions

Each of those plan names should be a link to a description of the plan so you can see what the hell you are getting for your money. Alas, there is no link. Nor is there a link to the issuer so you can call them.

This is why you need to contact a certified In-Person Assister (IPA) to help you figure this all out.

Alternatively you can call a Certified Application Counselor (CAC), a community health center, an insurance agent or an insurance broker.

The rules say "States with partnership marketplaces must have a separate IPA program. States with state-based marketplaces can choose to have a separate IPA program. States with federally facilitated marketplaces are not permitted to have an IPA program"

Confused?
Just call your IPA except in the 34 states where you can't. Then call someone else.

Navigation Roulette

David Steinberg at PJ Media has additional comments and anecdotes about the navigation process in his post Identity Theft Russian Roulette: Healthcare.gov Refers Users to Uncertified Navigators and Assisters

I did as Steinberg did. I tried "Find Local Help" for my zipcode and found "461 results".

Results display 10 at a time. Most of the contacts require a phone call to schedule an appointment.

It seems you need a navigator to help you find a navigator. No problem.

If you "didn't find what you were looking for" then the "Contact Us" button will take you to a page where you can "Find Local Help". Alternatively, you can start a live chat.

I did not bother with any of that since I have a good plan that fortunately was not cancelled. Thus, I cannot tell you how much additional money Obamacare would have cost me personally. Others can, and the results are best described as ...

Obamashock!

Prepare to be shocked.

Reader Tim Wallace did figure out how much extra Obamacare would cost him.

Tim writes ...

My plan that I had for years no longer exists.
So much for Obama's claim you can keep your existing plan.
The truly affordable plan I used to have cost me $753.60 per month with a $5,450 family deductible.
The most "affordable" plan with similar benefits will cost $1,360.09 per month, except the family deductible is now $11,000.
So much for Obama's claim "your costs will be lower"
I am trying to clarify if I can even have a plan outside the company plan.
Unfortunately the company plan is soaring to $2,100 a month because the plan is located in NJ and I live in NC.
If I can have a plan in NC, it appears I will no longer be able to pay for it in pretax dollars like I used to. That is a hit of another 30% or so.

Unfortunately, I am reading other similar horror stories. If you have a plan you like, I hope you get to keep it.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

luni, 28 octombrie 2013

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