Off The Cuff: Our Out-Of-Control Cost Of Living

In this week's Off The Cuff podcast, Chris and Mish Shedlock discuss:

• The Runaway Cost Of Health Care
  • The premium for Chris' family went up 61%(!) this year
• A Failure Of Intelligence
  • The lack of substance underlying the latest smear campaign
• Fake News
  • When everyone is covered in mud, whom can you trust?
• What To Expect As The Presidential Torch Gets Passed
  • How Trump's strategy is likely to depart from Obama's

Well, there's a lot of red meat tossed around in this latest podcast. There's something in it for nearly everyone to find righteous outrage with.

It begins with Chris railing about the year-over-year 61% increase just slapped onto his family's basic insurance plan. The ACA has quickly turned into a racketeering operation in many states like Massachusetts, where Chris lives. Mish joins in on the harsh criticism of the current system:

For some instances of some people, forty percent of their income going to health insurance.

And then look at the millennials. I mean, they've just decided to opt out. And who can blame them? They're not making enough money, but they just decided well, I’d rather keep it all. And they’ve decided that they will just rather pay the penalty if they get caught. But if they get sick, then they’ll join on the spot and get coverage. That’s the game everyone's being forced to play.

And nowhere along the line, as we’ve discussed many times, is there any impetus to control costs. And not only are there not