iftttwall – Page 26440

Try Not to Laugh at the Latest Folks Losing Their Health Coverage

Sure, schadenfreude can be
fun, but let’s not forget that the rolling disaster that is the
Affordable Care Act is an opportunity to teach a valuable lesson to
progressives about the inability of central planners, no matter how
smart they are (or just think they are), to truly know enough about
the markets to control them. Obamacare cancellations are hitting
people that actually matter:
the New York elite.

From their very own hometown newspaper, The New York
Times:

Many in New York’s professional and cultural elite have long
supported President Obama’s health care plan. But now, to their
surprise, thousands of writers, opera singers, music teachers,
photographers, doctors, lawyers and others are learning that their
health insurance plans are being canceled and they may have to pay
more to get comparable coverage, if they can find it.

They are part of an unusual informal health insurance system
that has developed in New York in which independent practitioners
were able to get lower insurance rates through group plans,
typically set up by their professional associations or chambers of
commerce. That allowed them to avoid the sky-high rates in New
York’s individual insurance market, historically among the most
expensive in the country.

But under the Affordable Care Act, they will be treated as
individuals, responsible for their own insurance policies. For many
of them, that is likely to mean they will no longer have access to
a wide network of doctors and a range of plans tailored to their
needs. And many of them are finding that if they want to keep their
premiums from rising, they will have to accept higher deductible
and co-pay costs or inferior coverage.

Read the whole piece
here and try not to chuckle too hard at the fancy smart people
having the exact same problems trying to use the program as the
rest of us muggles.

Follow this story and more at Reason
24/7.

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at @reason247.

from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/12/13/try-not-to-laugh-at-the-latest-folks-los
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Are We Headed For Class Warfare?

Over the course of the last few years we have vociferously exposed the growing inequalities and divergences between various elements of the status quo society.

With even the President now seemingly inciting class warfare (which as we discussed here and here is becoming an increasingly new normal "age warfare" issues); we roll out the wayback machine for 150 seconds of clarity from Doug Casey. With roughly half the American people net recipients of government support in some way (and work punished), Casey explains what happens when the entitled elect themselves (as Michael Burry so aptly noted "the party accelerates, and the brutal hangover is inevitable,") and the social and political consequences.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/_q8oVzvsnXo/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Tonight on The Independents: At the Intersection of Public Policy and Sexytime!

Brittni Ruiz is against pornography. ||| Every Friday on Fox Business Network’s The
Independents—your very favorite new nightly cable news
show—we will be taking a respite from the breaking news of the day,
and exploring in more depth a series of stories grouped around a
single theme. Like, you know, sex.

So tonight at 9 pm ET & 6 pm Long Beachian, as well as on
the midnight-hour re-runs, we will be talking about:

* The social, biological, evolutionary, and religious impulses
toward sexytime, and how modern technology affects the mating
ritual, featuring a you-have-to-see-it-to-believe-it panel of
blue-eyed priest Father
Jonathan Morris and evolutionary anthropologist Dr. Helen Fisher. It’s genuinely
insightful stuff, which I know, because we’ve already taped it!

* How the only reason that The Pill is
threatening Obamacare in any way is that it
stupidly requires a doctor’s prescription. This segment stars
Bloomberg Opinion columnist
Megan McArdle, who is very sensible and has excellent taste in
dudes.

* Should prostitution be legalized? Do social conservatives
worry about the black markets that prohibition creates? Are hookers
Republican? How many months, precisely, will Kennedy punish her
husband if he wanders down the wrong street in Amsterdam? Swear to
God, these topics are all broached, with novelist and former sex
worker Tracy Quan
and Sun-Sentinel columnist
Noelle Nikpour.

Misleading heights there. ||| * Should Valley porn stars wear
safety goggles? Porn actress-turned anti-porn activist Brittni Ruiz says
professional sex is unclean and made by people who are unhappy.

All these topics and more, tonight at 9 pm ET, with your host
Kennedy, plus
co-hosts Matt
Welch and Kmele Foster. Click
on the links to read the open threads for Episodes
Three and
Two. And you can follow the show on Facebook, and give
us some NSFW heckling on Twitter @IndependentsFBN.

from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/12/13/tonight-on-the-independents-at-the-inter
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Trading The Technicals: “Beware The Bear Trap”

While fundamentals remain, for now, as useful as useful as having the only phone in the world; we demur to BofAML's technical analysis team for their short-term trading focus across various asset classes. In light of the only thing that matters, the Fed balance sheet (as Hugh Hendry so eloquently explained), BAML warns "beware the bear trap" in stocks…

In FX markets,

CHF at risk of a bearish reversal. $/¥ choppy, but bullish

Across many pairs the CHF has reached significant resistance and is now at risk of a bearish reversal. €/CHF is particularly worthy of note as it has completed a Bullish Reversal candle from retracement and pivot support. With momentum rolling bullish from its lowest levels since Apr'12, €/CHF could squeeze back towards 1.2346. $/CHF is in a similar situation and could squeeze back towards 0.9240, potentially 0.9472.

Turning to $/¥; since the 101.62 lows, price action has turned very choppy and overlapping, a condition likely to persist for the next week or so.

However, STAY BULLISH. THE UPTREND REMAINS FOR 104.60/105.00.

101.62 should mark the low end of price action AND $/¥ CAN'T TRADE BELOW 101.14/100.62.

Bonds remain a sell…

US 5yr yields stall at support, but stay bearish.

We remain bearish Treasuries. 10yr ylds are on track for 2.950%/2.992%/3.007% (swing targets and multi-month range high), while we remain short TYH4 (Dec-05 LTA : Sell TYH4. Treasuries are in Trouble). The completed TYH4 Head & Shoulders Top targets 122-06+. Meanwhile, 5yr yields have held the initial test of 1.556%/1.551% support (50% retrace of the Sep/Oct yield decline and mid-Sep pivot), but this should be only a temporary stopping point before the bear trend resumes for 1.670%/1.659%.

Back below 1.488% (equivalent to 2.839% in 10s and 124-17+ in TYH4) warns of stalling, while below 1.445%/1.443% (2.790% in 10yr yields and 124-30 in TYH4) negates the bearish potential. We recommend adjusting TYH4 stops to 125-02 from 125-08.

But "beware the bear trap" in stocks…

Conditions align for an ESZ3 Bear Trap

Finally we reiterate our BEAR TRAP VIEW on ESZ3. While 1773.25 support remains pivotal, BEWARE A BEAR TRAP!!. Intra-day momentum is at levels that have coincided with important lows AND seasonals into year end and the week of triple Witching are VERY BULLISH.

Indeed, the S&P500 has finished higher in 22 of the past 28 years the week of December Triple Witching (Next week). Above 1784.50 confirms a base and turn higher.

And Buy WTI…

Time to buy WTI

The CLM4 impulsive advance from 92.21(Nov-267 low) says the near-term and, POTENTIALLY, medium-term trend has turned bullish for WTI. Targets are seen to the Aug highs at 100.65, but likely beyond towards 105. Indeed, there is potential for a resumption of the long term bull trend towards 122/123 (basis continuation charts). We are wrong on this view below the Nov-27 low at 92.21 (CLM4).

BUY CLM4 at 95.00, add at 94.00, risking 92.20, targeting 100.65 & beyond.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/TOqa0YXKE-8/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Trading The Technicals: "Beware The Bear Trap"

In FX markets,

CHF at risk of a bearish reversal. $/¥ choppy, but bullish

Across many pairs the CHF has reached significant resistance and is now at risk of a bearish reversal. €/CHF is particularly worthy of note as it has completed a Bullish Reversal candle from retracement and pivot support. With momentum rolling bullish from its lowest levels since Apr'12, €/CHF could squeeze back towards 1.2346. $/CHF is in a similar situation and could squeeze back towards 0.9240, potentially 0.9472.

Turning to $/¥; since the 101.62 lows, price action has turned very choppy and overlapping, a condition likely to persist for the next week or so.

However, STAY BULLISH. THE UPTREND REMAINS FOR 104.60/105.00.

101.62 should mark the low end of price action AND $/¥ CAN'T TRADE BELOW 101.14/100.62.

Bonds remain a sell…

US 5yr yields stall at support, but stay bearish.

We remain bearish Treasuries. 10yr ylds are on track for 2.950%/2.992%/3.007% (swing targets and multi-month range high), while we remain short TYH4 (Dec-05 LTA : Sell TYH4. Treasuries are in Trouble). The completed TYH4 Head & Shoulders Top targets 122-06+. Meanwhile, 5yr yields have held the initial test of 1.556%/1.551% support (50% retrace of the Sep/Oct yield decline and mid-Sep pivot), but this should be only a temporary stopping point before the bear trend resumes for 1.670%/1.659%.

Back below 1.488% (equivalent to 2.839% in 10s and 124-17+ in TYH4) warns of stalling, while below 1.445%/1.443% (2.790% in 10yr yields and 124-30 in TYH4) negates the bearish potential. We recommend adjusting TYH4 stops to 125-02 from 125-08.

But "beware the bear trap" in stocks…

Conditions align for an ESZ3 Bear Trap

Finally we reiterate our BEAR TRAP VIEW on ESZ3. While 1773.25 support remains pivotal, BEWARE A BEAR TRAP!!. Intra-day momentum is at levels that have coincided with important lows AND seasonals into year end and the week of triple Witching are VERY BULLISH.

Indeed, the S&P500 has finished higher in 22 of the past 28 years the week of December Triple Witching (Next week). Above 1784.50 confirms a base and turn higher.

And Buy WTI…

Time to buy WTI

The CLM4 impulsive advance from 92.21(Nov-267 low) says the near-term and, POTENTIALLY, medium-term trend has turned bullish for WTI. Targets are seen to the Aug highs at 100.65, but likely beyond towards 105. Indeed, there is potential for a resumption of the long term bull trend towards 122/123 (basis continuation charts). We are wrong on this view below the Nov-27 low at 92.21 (CLM4).

BUY CLM4 at 95.00, add at 94.00, risking 92.20, targeting 100.65 & beyond.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/TOqa0YXKE-8/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Why ‘Better Mental Health Treatment’ Won’t Prevent Future Sandy Hooks

One year
after the Sandy Hook massacre, Fox News
reports, “the White House has little to show for its aggressive
campaign to pass new gun control legislation” and is instead
“shifting its focus to mental health as a way to prevent future
shooting sprees.” Politically, that seems like a pretty smart move.
According to the latest Reason-Rupe
Public Opinion Survey, 63 percent of Americans
think “tighter restrictions on buying and owning guns
would not be effective in preventing criminals from obtaining
guns.” And of various “factors that some say might have helped
prevent last year’s mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School,”
a plurality of 27 percent
favored “better mental health treatment,” an option that was
especially popular among independents and Republicans. Leading
defenders of Second Amendment rights have been trying to
change the subject from gun control to mental health since
shortly after the massacre, and it looks like they have succeeded
pretty well. The problem is that controlling crazy people
makes no more sense than controlling guns as a response to
Sandy Hook.

What would “better mental health treatment” have meant for Adam
Lanza, and how might it have stopped him from murdering 20 children
and seven adults (including his mother)? According to the official
report issued last month by State’s Attorney Stephen Sedensky,
Lanza “had significant mental health issues that affected his
ability to live a normal life and to interact with
others,” but it is not clear whether those problems
“contributed in any way” to his crime. His mother attributed his
shyness, isolation, and rigidness to Asperger syndrome, a condition
that has never been associated with an elevated risk of violence.
And while it is never hard to find details in the lives of mass
killers that in retrospect look like red flags (such as an interest
in morbid topics, firearms, or violent video games), almost no one
who displays these purported warning signs becomes a violent
criminal, let alone commits mass murder.

“Those mental health professionals who saw [Lanza] did not see
anything that would have predicted his future behavior,” Sedensky’s
report says. “Investigators…have not discovered any evidence that
the shooter voiced or gave any indication to others that he
intended to commit such a crime.” In high school, Lanza “was not
known to be a violent kid at all and never spoke of
violence….Despite a fascination with mass shootings and firearms,
he displayed no aggressive or threatening tendencies.”

The idea that mental health professionals can accurately predict
which seemingly harmless people will turn violent has no basis in
fact. “Over thirty years of commentary, judicial opinion, and
scientific review argue that predictions of danger lack scientific
rigor,” notes University
of Georgia law professor Alexander Scherr in a
2003 Hastings Law Journal article. “The sharpest
critique finds that mental health professionals perform no better
than chance at predicting violence, and perhaps perform even
worse.”

If everyone who behaves like Lanza did prior to his horrifying
crime is to be stripped
of his Second Amendment rights and/or forced
to undergo psychiatric treatment, a lot of innocent people who
pose no threat to others will
lose their freedom. Should everyone diagnosed with Asperger
syndrome (or, to use the newer terminology, everyone placed on the
“autism spectrum”) be deemed a threat to public safety, based on
this sample of one? A year ago, National Rifle Association
Executive Vice President Way LaPierre
demanded “an active national database of the mentally
ill,” which taken literally would include information on something
like half
the population. Even then, future mass murderers would not
necessarily be on LaPierre’s list, since they typically do not
receive psychiatric diagnoses until after they commit their
crimes.

The reasoning behind “better mental health treatment” as a way
to prevent mass shootings starts with the tautological premise that
only crazy people commit such crimes and proceeds to the conclusion
that letting them go untreated is reckless. But people prone to
mass murder are not likely to welcome treatment, which means they
must be forced. And so must many other people who will never hurt
anyone, since we cannot identify mass murderers ahead of time. Such
massive coercion can be rationalized as “help,” but that is not the
way its targets will perceive it.

from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/12/13/why-better-mental-health-treatment-wont
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Why 'Better Mental Health Treatment' Won't Prevent Future Sandy Hooks

from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/12/13/why-better-mental-health-treatment-wont
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US, Chinese Warships “Nearly Collide” In South China Sea

With the recent deployment of China’s air defenze zone, and the subsequent announcement of a comparable zone by South Korea which overlaps not only with China’s own, but with that of Japan, it almost seems like a scenario designed to provoke an escalating conflict on the tiniest of provocations is actively being produced. A scenario such as the one US defense officials revealed today, when a guided missile cruiser operating in international waters in the South China Sea was forced to take evasive action last week to avoid a collision with a Chinese navy ship maneuvering nearby.

Hold on: how can two massive ships, visible to the naked eye and certainly to radar from hundreds of miles away, “nearly collide”?

Reuters reports that the incident took place on December 5 and involved the USS Cowpens. The Pacific Fleet statement did not offer details about what led to the near-collision.

But it did say the incident underscored the need for the “highest standards of professional seamanship, including communications between vessels, to mitigate the risk of an unintended incident or mishap.”

The rest of the story is widely known:

Beijing declared the air defense zone over the East China Sea late last month and demanded that aircraft flying through the area provide it with flight plans and other information.

The United States and its allies rejected the Chinese demand and have continued to fly military aircraft into the zone, which includes air space over a small group of islands claimed by China but currently administered by Tokyo.

In the midst of the tensions over the air defense zone, China deployed its only aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, to the South China Sea for maneuvers. Beijing claims most of the South China Sea and is involved in territorial disputes in the region with several of its neighbors.

And so, the waters have been tested, so to speak, with a media “warning” on just how brazen China can be when it comes to its “aggressive” tactics in what we are confident the Chinese media will describe as its own maritime territory, begging the question of just who was provoking whom, especially since the response to a Chinese missile cruiser sailing idly by New York or San Francisco, even if in “international waters”, would hardly see the same controlled reaction by the US.

Then again, it has been only two weeks since China’s most recent “escalation.” We are confident that given time, this will be the least of the close shipping encounters that involve Chinese, US, Japanese and/or Korean navies in the East China Sea. After all, one must think of all that, GDP that as WWII taught us, can be easiest gained through some modest, or not so modest, international conflict.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/HmU28RkJt6M/story01.htm Tyler Durden

US, Chinese Warships "Nearly Collide" In South China Sea

Hold on: how can two massive ships, visible to the naked eye and certainly to radar from hundreds of miles away, “nearly collide”?

Reuters reports that the incident took place on December 5 and involved the USS Cowpens. The Pacific Fleet statement did not offer details about what led to the near-collision.

The rest of the story is widely known:

Beijing declared the air defense zone over the East China Sea late last month and demanded that aircraft flying through the area provide it with flight plans and other information.

The United States and its allies rejected the Chinese demand and have continued to fly military aircraft into the zone, which includes air space over a small group of islands claimed by China but currently administered by Tokyo.

In the midst of the tensions over the air defense zone, China deployed its only aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, to the South China Sea for maneuvers. Beijing claims most of the South China Sea and is involved in territorial disputes in the region with several of its neighbors.