Tag: "unemployment"

Maybe Sen. Bunning is Right about Unemployment Benefits

Here’s what Obama advisor Larry Summers wrote in The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics:

Unemployment insurance also extends the time a person stays off the job. [Kim] Clark and I estimated that the existence of unemployment insurance almost doubles the number of unemployment spells lasting more than three months. If unemployment insurance were eliminated, the unemployment rate would drop by more than half a percentage point, which means that the number of unemployed people would fall by about 750,000. This is all the more significant in light of the fact that less than half of the unemployed receive insurance benefits, largely because many have not worked enough to qualify.

HT to David Henderson at Econlog.

Note: The Chilean unemployment system, based on self-insurance, individual control, and better economic incentives, is far superior to ours.

Mar 10, 2010 | 4 comments | by

Reid Celebrates “Big Day” in America, Obama’s Tax on Investment Income, and the Real Cost of Obama’s Health Plan

Harry Reid: “Only 36,000 people lost their jobs today, which is really good.” (video)

James C. Capretta: Obama’s health plan will not cost “only” $950 billion over ten years: Ten years’ worth of spending will total up to $2.5 trillion, and maybe even as much as $3 trillion.

Mar 05, 2010 | 5 comments | by

The Cultural Consequences of Unemployment

Last November nearly a fifth of all men between 25 and 54 did not have jobs, the highest figure since the labor bureau began counting in 1948. We are either at or about to reach a historical marker: for the first time there will be more women in the work force than men.

Full David Brooks editorial here.

Feb 17, 2010 | 4 comments | by

Posner and Becker on Obama’s Job Subsidy Plan

Posner’s comments:

The President is asking Congress to enact a one-year $33 billion job-subsidy plan. An employer would receive a $5,000 tax credit in 2010 credit for increasing his labor force by one person and an additional subsidy for giving an employee a wage increase greater than the inflation rate. The total subsidy would be limited to $500,000 per employer, in the hope that the principal recipients would be small businesses. I do not know why the ceiling should be expected to have that effect. Even big businesses like $500,000 windfalls. If a big business happens to be increasing its hiring or its wages, why wouldn’t it claim the subsidy?

That point to one side, and disregarding also the abundant possibilities of gaming the program, stressed by Becker, the proposal is unlikely to be effective because it violates the economic principles that ought to guide stimulus programs.

Read More » »

Feb 05, 2010 | 3 comments | by

Hits & Misses – 2009/10/27

Donald J. Boudreaux: Insider trading should be legal.

Butchering your own food: “With classmates looking on, Jake hunkered down over a 120-pound castrated pig with a .22-caliber rifle pointed at its skull and…pulled the trigger.”

Oct 27, 2009 | 6 comments | by

It’s Even Worse Than You Think

This is James C. Capretta and Yuval Levin, writing in The Weekly Standard:

The Democrats want to spend $1.5 trillion over a decade, impose an $800 billion tax increase in the midst of the worst recession in a generation, increase federal borrowing by $239 billion (on top of the $11 trillion the Obama budget already requires us to borrow through 2019), impose costly mandates on employers that will discourage hiring as unemployment nears 10 percent, force individuals to buy one-size-fits-all government defined insurance, and insert the government in countless new ways between doctors and patients. All of that would occur whether or not the plan includes a "public option," which at this point it does include and which will exacerbate all of these problems.

Jul 31, 2009 | 3 comments | by

Hits & Misses – 2009/4/7

Obesity update: The tablescape (the placement and size of dishes, bowls, silverware and drinking glasses) can increase consumption by more than 20 percent. 

Why do we need Washington? Walgreens is offering free health care to the jobless and the uninsured.

What happens when it's free: Austin's ERs got 2,678 visits from 9 people over 6 years.

Keeping prices up: Some drug companies are paying other drug companies to keep generic drugs off the market.

Apr 07, 2009 | 4 comments | by

How to Keep Health Coverage If You Lose Your Job

Someone facing the loss of a job has options to prevent losing coverage along the way.  Many workers will qualify for COBRA continuation coverage. Those laid off after September 1 may qualify for a subsidy equal to 65 percent of the costs for up to nine months.  People have other options that are outlined in this article.

Mar 30, 2009 | 10 comments | by

Recessions May Be Good for Health

This is Tyler Cowen writing in the New York Times:

Sure, it's stressful to miss a paycheck, but eliminating the stresses of a job may have some beneficial effects. Perhaps more important, people may take fewer car trips, thus lowering the risk of accidents, and spend less on alcohol and tobacco. They also have more time for exercise and sleep, and tend to choose home cooking over fast food. 

In a 2003 paper, "Healthy Living in Hard Times," Christopher J. Ruhm, an economist at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, found that the death rate falls as unemployment rises. In the United States, he found, a 1 percent increase in the unemployment rate, on average, decreases the death rate by 0.5 percent.

Feb 02, 2009 | 2 comments | by

National Health Insurance by Stealth

This is Kimberley Strassel, writing in today's Wall Street Journal:

Under "stimulus," Medicaid is now on offer not to just poor Americans, but Americans who have lost their jobs. And not just Americans who have lost their jobs, but their spouses and their children. And not Americans who recently lost their jobs, but those who lost jobs, say, early last year. And not just Americans who already lost their jobs, but those who will lose their jobs up to 2011. The federal government is graciously footing the whole bill. The legislation also forbids states to apply income tests in most cases.

Jan 30, 2009 | 3 comments | by
« Previous Page — Next Page »