Seems like wishful thinking. The current “New Right” admin has betrayed much of what is argued for here. DOGE and Vought destroyed CFPB on completely spurious grounds, Trump has pardoned and cultivated crypto scammers (and gotten in on the scamming himself), Gail Slater has now been ousted at DOJ, and the list goes on. Those of us who supported a populist agenda and hoped to see it realized by this admin should be honest about this.
The author wrote 'When thousands of Americans—especially elderly Americans—are preyed upon by offshore scammers hawking cryptocurrencies or business-building opportunities, that is a scheme to immiserate the American populace and enrich bad actors abroad.' Obviously its OK if they're scammed and immeserated by bad actors at home, especially if they are in the Oval Office. I also find it deeply ironic that a MAGA adjacent individual is championing consumer protection while MAGA complains about European regulation, most of which is intended to serve the common good by regulating corporations. If we dare to try and regulate American social media corporations from rotting our brains we're threatened with more random tarrifs.
The cognitive dissonance is extreme. We even saw Fox News hosts and GOP pols starting to praise Europe’s food regulations due to MAHA’s influence while still of course calling the EU regulatory state communist and totalitarian.
That so many commentators championing the “New Right” refuse to recognize the work Biden’s — really, Warren’s and Sanders’s — antitrust team did for the sake of this bipartisan issue is astounding.
Two candidates, insurance companies and credit card companies. I've never had an auto claim go smoothly. Insurers alway offer way less than something is worth. Credit card rates and levels of debt are horrible. Yes many would no longer be able to borrow money, and well they shouldn't if they are horrible about paying it back. We could reduce useless interest payments by billions or more.
For myself, the auto insurance companies claims people have been easy to deal with and I have experienced claims where the incident was my fault, another driver's fault, a criminal's fault and a deceased deer's fault. For my priority see my separate comment on health care.
Priority #1 has got to be the health care industry. This is a complete mess. Everyone wants to blame the insurance companies. While they are far from blameless, that's a gross oversimplification. Two other major players are the plan sponsors who don't look out for their members and violate their fiduciary duties and the providers themselves. This is so complex that there is no silver bullet. It will take a case of silver bullets. Plan sponsors for most Americans are employers, CMS, or the Obamacare exchanges. Start with CMS since it is a government agency and wouldn't need regulations, just competent management. I know that is a big ask for government but if you have never dealt with customer service there consider yourself lucky. All of the plan sponsors need to push back at insurance companies and providers but seldom do. Sponsoring ombudsman operations would help with customer service. I am a mean SOB with decades of experience running an employer plan and can fight on my own but that's not normal. Requiring an independent ombudsman would be a big help.
Also there's a lot of things plan sponsors can do with plan design to make things better. Insurance companies will do what sponsors tell them as long as you don't try to repeal math. But most sponsors are not strong enough.
The providers are the biggest mess. Running private equity out of town would be a good start. Vigorous antitrust would too. This would include action against the cartels that control entry to the professions. A sharp increase in the numbers of providers is drastically needed.No doctor goes to medical school to be a bean counter so they either outsource it or do it poorly. True for all medical professions. So there needs to be a competence upgrade for the people who actually do it. Standards for training including English language fluency are needed. Some places might need Spanish fluency as well. In my experience, some removals from practice or even criminal charges may be warranted.
Seems like wishful thinking. The current “New Right” admin has betrayed much of what is argued for here. DOGE and Vought destroyed CFPB on completely spurious grounds, Trump has pardoned and cultivated crypto scammers (and gotten in on the scamming himself), Gail Slater has now been ousted at DOJ, and the list goes on. Those of us who supported a populist agenda and hoped to see it realized by this admin should be honest about this.
The author wrote 'When thousands of Americans—especially elderly Americans—are preyed upon by offshore scammers hawking cryptocurrencies or business-building opportunities, that is a scheme to immiserate the American populace and enrich bad actors abroad.' Obviously its OK if they're scammed and immeserated by bad actors at home, especially if they are in the Oval Office. I also find it deeply ironic that a MAGA adjacent individual is championing consumer protection while MAGA complains about European regulation, most of which is intended to serve the common good by regulating corporations. If we dare to try and regulate American social media corporations from rotting our brains we're threatened with more random tarrifs.
The cognitive dissonance is extreme. We even saw Fox News hosts and GOP pols starting to praise Europe’s food regulations due to MAHA’s influence while still of course calling the EU regulatory state communist and totalitarian.
That so many commentators championing the “New Right” refuse to recognize the work Biden’s — really, Warren’s and Sanders’s — antitrust team did for the sake of this bipartisan issue is astounding.
Two candidates, insurance companies and credit card companies. I've never had an auto claim go smoothly. Insurers alway offer way less than something is worth. Credit card rates and levels of debt are horrible. Yes many would no longer be able to borrow money, and well they shouldn't if they are horrible about paying it back. We could reduce useless interest payments by billions or more.
For myself, the auto insurance companies claims people have been easy to deal with and I have experienced claims where the incident was my fault, another driver's fault, a criminal's fault and a deceased deer's fault. For my priority see my separate comment on health care.
Priority #1 has got to be the health care industry. This is a complete mess. Everyone wants to blame the insurance companies. While they are far from blameless, that's a gross oversimplification. Two other major players are the plan sponsors who don't look out for their members and violate their fiduciary duties and the providers themselves. This is so complex that there is no silver bullet. It will take a case of silver bullets. Plan sponsors for most Americans are employers, CMS, or the Obamacare exchanges. Start with CMS since it is a government agency and wouldn't need regulations, just competent management. I know that is a big ask for government but if you have never dealt with customer service there consider yourself lucky. All of the plan sponsors need to push back at insurance companies and providers but seldom do. Sponsoring ombudsman operations would help with customer service. I am a mean SOB with decades of experience running an employer plan and can fight on my own but that's not normal. Requiring an independent ombudsman would be a big help.
Also there's a lot of things plan sponsors can do with plan design to make things better. Insurance companies will do what sponsors tell them as long as you don't try to repeal math. But most sponsors are not strong enough.
The providers are the biggest mess. Running private equity out of town would be a good start. Vigorous antitrust would too. This would include action against the cartels that control entry to the professions. A sharp increase in the numbers of providers is drastically needed.No doctor goes to medical school to be a bean counter so they either outsource it or do it poorly. True for all medical professions. So there needs to be a competence upgrade for the people who actually do it. Standards for training including English language fluency are needed. Some places might need Spanish fluency as well. In my experience, some removals from practice or even criminal charges may be warranted.