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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (886321)	9/9/2015 11:58:56 AM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575535

No its still true. We didn't have any period of really robust growth in this recovery. Its not the weakest on record, but its weaker then the norm.

To: tejek who wrote (886321)	9/9/2015 12:12:51 PM
From: bentway	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575535

What Are a Hospital’s Costs? Utah System Is Trying to Learn By GINA KOLATA SEPT. 7, 2015 nytimes.com SALT LAKE CITY — Only in the world of medicine would Dr. Vivian Lee’s question have seemed radical. She wanted to know: What do the goods and services provided by the hospital system where she is chief executive actually cost? Most businesses know the cost of everything that goes into producing what they sell — essential information for setting prices. Medicine is different. Hospitals know what they are paid by insurers, but it bears little relationship to their costs. No one on Dr. Lee’s staff at the University of Utah Health Care could say what a minute in an M.R.I. machine or an hour in the operating room actually costs. They chuckled when she asked. But now, thanks to a project Dr. Lee set in motion after that initial query several years ago, the hospital is getting answers, information that is not only saving money but also improving care. [....] Recently, Dr. Porter and a colleague, Robert Kaplan, visited Utah and concluded that the hospital group was one of the few in health care to properly measure the costs of care. Elsewhere, with a very few exceptions, Dr. Porter said, “it’s a total mess.” [....] Some were skeptical the program would make a difference, Dr. Bull said. But costs fell by 30 percent because patients spent less time in the hospital and had fewer complications. Letting nurses initiate treatment meant patients got needed medications faster, and the emphasis on “perfect care” meant the most important things got done. “When I first started working in health care, like everybody I thought: ‘Oh, my God. It’s such a tough problem,’ ” Dr. Porter, the Harvard economist, said. Now he has changed his mind. “I have no doubt we can solve it,” he said. “We know exactly what we have to do.”........

To: tejek who wrote (886321)	9/10/2015 6:51:09 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575535

The sustained decline in the official jobless rate – now approaching the Fed’s estimate of “full employment” – is a misleading indicator of labor market slack. Indeed, the stagnation in nominal wage growth is consistent with the weakness in the employment/population (E/P) ratio. That said, even the E/P ratio may be overstating the health of the jobs market. After dropping to three-decade lows in the wake of the Great Recession, the E/P ratio, has barely improved since the fall of 2013, reversing only about one-fifth of its decline from its pre-recession highs. Furthermore – as a breakdown of the E/P ratio by education level shows –this modest improvement is illusory. Since 2011, when the E/P ratio for those with less than a high school diploma bottomed, that metric has regained almost two-thirds of its recessionary losses (orange line in chart). But the E/P ratio for high school or college graduates – i.e., eight out of nine American adults – has not recovered any of its recessionary losses, and stands about where it started, one, two and three years ago (purple line). businesscycle.com In some ways the shift if good. More demand for lower skilled labor, even if its only for low paying jobs, will help out those who face the most economic dificulty. Still it doesn't seem like something that makes for a solid recovery. Ignoring the distribution of jobs, the overall ratio hasn't improved much. Not enough to make for a solid recovery, not even as much as I would have guessed it had improved. At least by that measurement things are worse then I thought.