Miscellaneous

O'Bama Health Scare gives employees a reason to quit.

Why do Americans have jobs?

If your answer is, to earn money, you’re only partially right. There’s one other important reason: To get health insurance. And as President Obama’s health-reform law starts to go into effect, it could give millions of workers a reason to quit.

A new study distributed by the National Bureau of Economic Research finds that 4.2 million Americans might quit their jobs after January 1, 2014, as they’re able to get affordable health insurance through one of the public exchanges to be set up under Obamacare. That could provide ammunition for both critics and supporters of the politically explosive law. Critics might see it as evidence that Obama’s reforms encourage idleness while contributing to a growing welfare state. But it might also be a sign that workers have more freedom to pursue meaningful work or other interests instead of sticking to one job just because of the benefits, a phenomenon economists have dubbed “employment lock.”

I do believe a significant number of older folks take jobs at Wal-Mart for the health care benefits.

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Is it starting? Gasoline lifts consumer inflation in June.

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Europe's car sales hit a 17-year low -- and the recovery is far off. A 17-year low. Not a one-year low, or a decade low, but almost a 17-year low. In fact, I assume that's not far from a post WWII low based simply on numbers and common sense. And the drop month-over-month was not trivial, almost 6% -- on top of almost 6% the month before, suggesting that the rate of the decline in car buying is increasing, not slowing down. How's that renewable energy policy working out, EU?

In fact, new car registrations in May was the lowest in 20 years; sales were propped up due to gimmicks. 

Car sales for June in the European Union fell to their lowest point since 1996, prompting analysts to warn the data could get worse before it gets better. 

New car registrations in the EU dropped 5.6 percent in June to 1.175 million cars from a year ago, after falling 5.9 percent in May, according to figures released by the automotive industry body ACEA on Tuesday. May's level was the lowest level for 20 years.

My hunch is Mr Hollande will suggest the French government buy more automobiles to save the industry. The article noted that factories were not closing; they were operating at 70% of capacity. Of course there's a reason for that: it's either illegal or too expensive to close a factory in the EU. Just easier to slow it down.