Breaking News

Viewpoints

My Medication Was More Than $350

Question: Why was my new medication more than $350? Answer: In 2020, there are only three products with no deductible, so most people will have a deductible impact their medication purchases. Many of the insurance products with a deductible waive the deductible rule for medications that are Tier 1 or Tier 2 level. You may have been filling medications up to this point that are Tier 1 or 2 so you may not have noticed this deductible. This new medication may be a Tier 3, 4 or 5 and therefore the cost is much higher during the deductible. Medicare allows up to a $435 deductible. Most ...

Notes On The Coming Meat Shortage

The Great Toilet Paper Scare of 2020 has come to end, but don’t breathe a sigh of relief just yet. The Spring Meat Stampede is here. At my local Costco in Colorado Springs on Monday, fresh chicken breast was nowhere to be found. Nationwide, bacon prices doubled. Wholesale pork prices for ham, ribs and loins rose between 12% and 32% over the last seven days. COVID-19 outbreaks among the nation’s major meat processing plants have shut down nearly 20% of the country’s fresh pork production. Chinese-owned Smithfield Foods has shuttered five facilities so far because of sick and ...

Rebuilding Economy And Society

The massive economic destruction being wrought by the COVID-19 epidemic and the government’s attempt to mitigate the impact on American families and businesses raises a fundamental question: Is the sum total of America’s greatness measured by its markets or by its people? Americans have served the world, and particularly the developing world, as the largest consumers of goods and services of any nation on earth. Entire civilizations have risen from the dust — notably China — on the back of the American consumer. In return for opening its markets to foreign goods and services, ...

Simple Economic Principles Are Not Simple-Minded

Modern mainstream economics tends to involve complex mathematical models that purport to forecast the future from past results, in close enough detail for politicians to make decisions that affect the economic well-being of an entire nation and even the world. They have, however, proven no better at predicting key turns of events than the average man in the street. The irony is that many economists have forgotten or totally ignore basic economic principles when building the models. Some even consider them quaint, outdated, or simple-minded. Basic economic principles, however, are ...

What’s My Favorite Line? A Movie Game

A popular 50s-70s TV favorite was a show called, “What’s My Line,” where panelists asked questions of guests trying to determine what that guest did for a living. The panel consisted of regulars Dorothy Kilgallen, Journalist; Arlene Francis, Actress, Radio/Television talk show host; a different weekly celebrity guest panelist; and Bennett Cerf, publisher, punster, jokester, who had the honor of introducing the show’s host each week, John Charles Daly. In a twist of that show’s title, the VFTB today poses the question “What’s My Favorite Line,” as in what’s one (or ...

Be Resourceful, Use What Mother Nature Has Provided To You

A few weeks ago, I found a jar of dandelion jelly in my cupboard. I made that a few years back, but it was still good. That got me to thinking about how we used nature to provide. My mother-in-law and her sister always enjoyed eating dandelion salad. When Aunt Lillian celebrated one of her milestone birthdays, there was a party at her daughter’s in her honor. My husband potted a dandelion to give to her. That may seem like a strange gift, but it brought tears to her eyes since he was always the one who picked the dandelions for them. Another thing grandma liked were leeks. My ...