Mercer Money

[GPIG]

Thanks Lynx, informative.

I agree, and good points bpatters. My preference would have been more what you mentioned also and to not allow insurers to cherry pick customers. I distrust corporate anything. They whined about Obamacare until they made record profits because of it. Now they are against it again probably because they feel Wall Street is at the end of it's run , they are in a risk business and understand risk. They know it's time to get out. I don't understand why we let the behemoth corporations do as they please, cherry picking customers. Yes I know that's more of a republican side mess up. But I have a solution......

My plan would need very few directives to work, not sure what would follow, but it would bring about a solution. I swear, if I was a congressman I would vote for it, and some form of my idea will be the first bill my son sponsors. Every member of Congress must be forced to go out and get their own health insurance, they will be allowed a subsidy akin to what the average America worker's employee contribution is. They would be forced to get their own prescriptions, no one would be allowed to touch a member of Congress prescription, by law. They would have to go down to Walgreen's, wait on line with all the coughing people, use the hand sanitizer on the counter, listen to why their prescription can't be filled and so on. No special Doctors or nurses office in Congress. No perks of any kind. And until they get a plan we all like, that' it. No free haircuts, no tickets to ballgames, no nothing.

I'm just so sick of Congress being used as "hey man, I got a great job, I'm a Congressman" No it's not, its to serve the people!

[Lynx]

Great idea, GPIG! They don't have a Cadillac plan, they have a Ferrari plan!

I think insurers are making money. They do hate the unknown though.

[bpatters]

Insurers are absolutely making money. Between thirty and forty percent of every medical dollar goes to an insurance company, not for reimbursement of expenses, but into their pockets.

[GPIG]

Yes the insurance companies are making a killing, additional premiums, higher cost for group premiums and return on investments has created some staggering profit. My wife and I invest some of the little saving we have and boy are we happy if we get something a windfall of 12 or even 10%. I think Aetna made about 160% in the last 3-4 years. That type of profit can only lead to bad things. When companies use a number like that as a goal they are going to get in trouble.

A large junk of the engine driving institutional investing comes from insurance premiums bundled up and put into the market. Senior Secured Notes. Remember that "alleged" high grade, low risk product that replaced collateralized debt obligations to fund investment banking - it will be the crumbling cornerstone of the next crash. Too much of a good thing....we all know what happens.

[bpatters]

There's too much money chasing too few stocks. When you look at the billions of dollars invested in the market, and the comparatively few publicly owned companies, it's obvious that all the money isn't in the company stocks. They're bundled into funds of different sorts, traded in many different ways, but it's all built on a small foundation relative to the number of shares and dollars invested.

It's one of the main reasons I'd never want to see Social Security privatized. That house of cards is going to come tumbling down someday, and I'd like for my retirement to be more secure that that promises to be.

[GPIG]

Yup bpatters and those Senior Secured Notes are one of the products, guarantee we will hear about them in big and bad way, just like CDOs. I've been yelling this for a while. Don't blame anyone for not listening to lil all gpig though - 10% return goal investor I am!!!!

Don't know what to do about SS, too big for my brain. I agree I don't wanted it invested in the market. I can see a bunch of wall street bankers at a conference table with knives and forks salivating over that chunk of money.

[Lynx]

Not really sure this should go in this thread, but it is the tip of the iceberg regarding manipulation of US.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/04/02/1649365/-Informatio ... ws-What-Else

We are all being manipulated. Koch money, Mercer money, company money - there are subtle and what I consider illegal methods to influence us for gain.

[OurMissEllie]

Much of the hate-rhetoric that is spewed around by today's Republican party, depends on ignorance for acceptance. Facts and education are the enemy. Bringing people together and seeking common understanding is also not desirable, as it could get in the way of oppression, tyranny, and profits. Always profits. Citizens United was the destructive endpoint of a 150 year legal process where corporations were given the same rights as individuals. Gorsuch being confirmed, sadly cements the oppressive majority.

[GPIG]

I hate the family Koch.

[Lynx]

OurMissEllie, I have always thought the republicons embraced ignorance. Their education policies, their lies - you say it long enough and people believe it and never question it. And ditto, it is always about the money.

Me too, GPIG, me too.