Archives: September 2009

Medicaid Enrollment Up 5.4%, Highest Increase in Six Years

Posted by: Cathy Arnst on September 30, Categories: Healthcare

High unemployment caused Medicaid enrollments to rise an average of 5.4% in fiscal 2009, and spending on the program to rise 7.6%—the biggest increases in six years. The gains were...

Poll Finds Public Support for Health Reform Rising

Posted by: Cathy Arnst on September 29, Categories: Healthcare

The public's support for health care reform is rising after a summer slide, according to the latest tracking poll from the non-profit Kaiser Family Foundation. The poll, released today, found...

Unleash Your Inner Lobbyist: Annotate Bills Like a Pro

Posted by: Theo Francis on September 28, Categories: Legislation

Ever have a yearning to mark up pending health-care legislation like one of those high-powered lobbyists or a duly elected representative of the people? Now's your chance -- and there...

G-20 Update via Advisor to Russia's Medvedev

Posted by: Theo Francis on September 25, Categories: G20

Note: See our article on the results of the G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh. Russian president Dmitry Medvedev's chief economic adviser, Arkady Dvorkovich, briefed Russian-language reporters on progress so far. Here...

G-20 Trumps G-8, Recognizing Global Reality

Posted by: Theo Francis on September 25, Categories: G20

The big news in Pittsburgh this morning, of course, was Iran's newly unveiled nuclear facility, and threat of sanctions from world leaders. On the economic front, the most concrete detail...

Geithner Sees Global Pay Pact by Year’s End

Posted by: Theo Francis on September 24, Categories: G20

PITTSBURGH – Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner predicted world leaders in Pittsburgh would sign off on a "really far-reaching ... pretty detailed" executive-pay standards to take effect by year’s end, lay...

Executives: Smart Grid Will Take Off in the U.S.

Posted by: Steve LeVine on September 24, Categories: Energy & Climate

A key part of the Obama Administration's green-energy policy is the development of a so-called "smart grid." This is a new electric power system that would coordinate power demand with...

Preview of Major Business Cases in Supreme Court's 2009-2010 Term

Posted by: Brian Burnsed on September 24, Categories: Law

It looks to be a busy term ahead for business-oriented cases before the Supreme Court. When the Court commences its next session on October 5th one of the most closely...

How Many Jobs Is The Stimulus Creating? New Data Is Coming

Posted by: Jane Sasseen on September 23, Categories:

In recent months, as unemployment has continued to rise despite signs that the worst of the recession may be over, economists and politicians alike have engaged in an increasingly vigorous...

Barney Frank Proposes Weaker Consumer Protection Agency

Posted by: Jane Sasseen on September 23, Categories:

The debate over the Administration's proposed new agency to protect consumers from predatory lending continues to heat up. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass) who is working on the bill that would...

Demise of a Dizzying Idea: Banks Lending to FDIC

Posted by: Theo Francis on September 22, Categories: Banks

So that idea that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. would borrow from big, healthy banks to replenish its deposit-insurance fund? Turns out it's "not something that’s under serious consideration," an...

Russia Says WTO Accession Need Not Include Its Neighbors

Posted by: Steve LeVine on September 21, Categories: trade

When Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was asked about President Obama's decision to scrap his predecessor's plans for missile defense in Poland and the Czech Republic, Putin said Obama was...

Financial Regulation: How We Got Here

Posted by: Theo Francis on September 21, Categories: Financial regulation

Could it have been different? This week promises to be an action-packed one on the financial-regulation front -- it's on the agenda at the G-20 in Pittsburgh at week's end,...

Obama Defends New Consumer Protection Agency

Posted by: Jane Sasseen on September 19, Categories: Financial regulation

Throughout the summer, financial services lobbyists and their allies at the US Chamber of Commerce have quietly put together an aggressive strategy to kill the Administration’s proposal for an independent...

U.S., Chinese Economic Recovery Under Way, Two Experts Say

Posted by: Steve LeVine on September 17, Categories: Economics

We have all been reading about the embryonic signs of economic recovery coming into view. Until now. Over at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, the talk today was not...

Financial Crisis: Time for More Study, or Action?

Posted by: Dan Beucke on September 17, Categories: Legislation

By Brian Burnsed Do we really need another commission to study what led to the financial crisis? More important, do taxpayers really need to pay millions of dollars for it?...

Specter and Labor: Deal or No Deal?

Posted by: Dan Beucke on September 17, Categories: Legislation

By Moira Herbst Sen. Arlen Specter’s assertion on Sept. 15 that he and fellow Senate Democrats had “pounded out an employees'-choice bill which will meet labor's objectives” hasn't been confirmed...

Can Climate Legislation Help Eliminate Oil Imports?

Posted by: John Carey on September 17, Categories: Energy & Climate

There’s a long-running, fierce debate over the cost of reducing the emissions of gases that cause climate change. Opponents say that the climate bill passed by the House of Representatives,...

Smaller "Shadow" System Means Bigger Banks

Posted by: Theo Francis on September 16, Categories: Financial regulation

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke got a lot of attention on Tuesday for proclaiming the recession "very likely over." He got less attention for saying, at the same event, that he...

Obama, Treasury Study Say Losing Healthcare Is Common

Posted by: Theo Francis on September 12, Categories: Healthcare

Aside from cost, health-care reforms fall into two categories, broadly speaking: Covering the uninsured and reassuring the insured. Now, President Obama and a new Treasury study make the case that...

In China Tires Case, Obama Strikes Middle Ground

Posted by: Steve LeVine on September 12, Categories: trade

President Barack Obama slapped a stiff tariff on the import of Chinese-made tires into the U.S., but elected not to act as tough as he could have. The politically charged...

Health Care Reform Studies Focus on Costs

Posted by: Cathy Arnst on September 09, Categories: Healthcare

Interest groups and think tanks are rushing out their studies on various aspects of health care reform today ahead of President Obama's speech to the nation (8 pm EST). Two...

Study Questions Savings From Comparative Effectiveness Research

Posted by: Cathy Arnst on September 08, Categories:

Health care experts regularly call for more comparative effectiveness research, in which head to head studies of various treatments for a disease are conducted in order to determine which one...

AFL-CIO's Trumka: A Card Check Compromise by Year End

Posted by: Jane Sasseen on September 02, Categories:

Richard Trumka, who is expected to become the next head of the AFL-CIO later this month, has earned plenty of headlines as he's made the rounds in Washington over the...

ADP Job-Loss Report: Glass Half Full or Half Empty?

Posted by: Dan Beucke on September 02, Categories: Economics

The latest job-loss report is out, and take your pick of whether it shows signs of recovery or a continuation of the same old misery. The FT greets the news...