There is NO school of economics that says health care costs should be a marginal cost of production. That distorts pricing and produces sub optimal results in ANY model.
Yet again, we are paying the price for an administration that doesn’t understand the monetary system.
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This raises national budget deficits and inches them closer to a liquidity crisis:
| Europe Unemployment Rate Rises More Than Expected |
| Trichet Says Spending, Deficits Can’t Keep Rising, Le Monde Says |
| Germany’s Steinbrueck Says New GDP Outlook to Be Clearly Worse |
| German Retail Sales Unexpectedly Fall After Unemployment Rises |
| France, Germany Not Satisfied With G-20, Sarkozy Says |
| Sarkozy Says Concrete Decisions Are Needed on Tax Havens |
Europe Unemployment Rate Rises More than Expected
by Jurjen van de Pol
Apr 1 (Bloomberg) — European unemployment increased more than economists expected in February to the highest in almost three years as the recession forced companies across the continent to cut output.
The jobless rate in the euro zone rose to 8.5 percent from a revised 8.3 percent in January, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said today. The February reading is the highest since May 2006 and exceeded the 8.3 percent rate economists forecast, according to the median of 23 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. The January figure was revised higher from 8.2 percent reported on Feb. 27.
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| Survey | n/a |
| Actual | 3.0% |
| Prior | 32.2% |
| Revised | n/a |
More evidence of the rising deficit turning the economy sideways ahead of the fiscal package kicking in this month to increase the injection of net financial assets to the non government sectors:
US mortgage applications climb, rates at fresh low
by Lynn Adler
Apr 1 (Reuters) — The Mortgage Bankers Association’s applications index, which includes both refi and purchase requests, rose by a seasonally adjusted 3 percent in the week ending March 27 to 1,194.4.
The purchase applications index was little changed, rising 0.1 percent to 268.0, while the refinancing gauge gained 3.7 percent to 6,600.1.
This is up sharply from 2,722.7 as recently as early February.
| Survey | n/a |
| Actual | 268.00 |
| Prior | 267.80 |
| Revised | n/a |
| Survey | n/a |
| Actual | 6600.10 |
| Prior | 6363.20 |
| Revised | n/a |
| Survey | n/a |
| Actual | 180.7% |
| Prior | 158.4% |
| Revised | n/a |
| Survey | -663K |
| Actual | -742K |
| Prior | -697K |
| Revised | -706K |
| Survey | 36.0 |
| Actual | 36.3 |
| Prior | 35.8 |
| Revised | n/a |
| Survey | 33.0 |
| Actual | 31.0 |
| Prior | 29.0 |
| Revised | n/a |
| Survey | -1.9% |
| Actual | -0.9% |
| Prior | -3.3% |
| Revised | -3.5% |
| Survey | n/a |
| Actual | -10.0% |
| Prior | -10.1% |
| Revised | n/a |
| Survey | 0.0% |
| Actual | 2.1% |
| Prior | -7.7% |
| Revised | n/a |
| Survey | n/a |
| Actual | -6.2% |
| Prior | -6.6% |
| Revised | n/a |
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