Will increasing tariffs help or hurt the U.S. economy? Steve Goldstein of MarketWatch offers analysis on how tariffs are affecting economic performance. Soaring health insurance deductibles are leaving millions unable to afford health care. Middle class families are being pulled into the affordable crisis, as Noam Levey reports for the LA Times. Legislation is pending to keep seniors from losing their 2020 cost of living increase. Bernice Rapach covers the news on the upcoming Medicare premium hike for ThinkAdvisor.
With Trump Threatening To Tighten The Trade Screws, Here’s A Look At What Tariffs Have Done So Far — To say that tariffs have helped the economy is, to put it mildly, a stretch. The net contribution from trade over the last three quarters has, on average, been negative. Analysts at Oxford Economics say that U.S. economic performance has “been restrained, not facilitated, by tariffs,” noting that exports to China have fallen more sharply than exports from China have dropped. Read more…
Health Insurance Deductibles Soar, Leaving Americans With Unaffordable Bills — Soaring deductibles and medical bills are pushing millions of American families to the breaking point. They’re fueling an affordability crisis that is pulling in middle-class households with health insurance as well as the poor and uninsured. Read more…
2020 Medicare Premium Hike Could Wipe Out Social Security COLA for Many Retirees — If The Senior Citizens League is correct in its forecasts — and it has a strong record of that — roughly half of the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for 2020 for the average retiree will be wiped out by the increase in Medicare Part B premiums that year. Read more…
John R. Day, Bill Ennis, Stephanie Hall, and Matt Heller
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