The Plunge Protection Team and Wall Street
Have either of y'all looked into the Plunge Protection Team run by Yellen and Powell? It appears to have no obligation to transparency and a be a hidden mechanism for bailing out Wall Street on the taxpayer's dime. It seems we need more people looking at this as inflation and asset bubbles become more and more treacherous. Would love to hear y'alls thoughts on the matter. Thanks
Super Opinionate
It seems you guys have become really opinionated. Don't you think that could get in the way of the actual news, especially for people who disagree with your opinions but still want to hear you report the news? Maybe trying to keep your major opinions to the radar segments could be a good idea? It feels like you were both far less opinionated back on Rising. I can tell that you are more comfortable in your current work setting, which is really good for you, but the opinions are becoming very charged which is making it difficult for me to get a clear picture of what the news actually is.
Hospitals taking advantage of Resident and Medical Student labor
***If you read this would appreciate not mentioning my name as hospital systems and medical schools can be very vindictive - I am a current student**** Less of a question and more just wanted to draw your attention to an issue that I have seen across the country in hospitals from the east coast to the west coast and everywhere in between. Much of the problem during the omicron wave has not been ICU capacity itself but is staff shortages due to staff being exposed to covid and getting sick. In response to this Medical students are being asked to volunteer to fill positions that are otherwise paid and many residents are being made to work extra shifts to keep the hospital running. This would be fine, of course, if the workers were being compensated fairly. However, in many cases hospitals are either not paying or are paying as little as $65 a **day** in supplementary pay for people with MDs. This is a result of them being salaried employees who are already taken advantage of and aren't able to negotiate higher pay. Per hour worked, residents are often paid less than $15 an hour while carrying debt from both undergrad and medical school (~50% carry over $200K debt). https://money.com/medical-resident-pay-match-day/ While they can expect high incomes after residency their loans accrue interest during their training and this means delaying having families and any financial freedom until between 13-20 years after they finish high school ( 4 years undergrad, average 2 years of research/internships to prepare to apply for med school, 4 years med school -5 if applying to a specialty, 3-9 years of residency depending on specialty) The situation was bad in the early 2000s And has only gotten worse: https://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/07/us/medical-students-sue-over-residency-system.html What is most important here is this: Residents do not have the option to quit for higher-paying jobs as the only way to get a job as a resident is through the formal match process which you cannot enter if you have already started a residency. Funding and positions for residencies are set by the federal government and hospitals profit off of resident labor tremendously. If you quit your residency, that is the end of your medical career. These same hospitals are where residents eventually want to work, too, so they are doubly disincentivized from advocating for themselves. The exact dollar amount is itself not as important as the fact that there is no way for residents to advocate for themselves. If they ever think about going on strike, patients would die. In effect, the hospitals hold them hostage to their consciences. Nurses, especially those who are unionized, work far fewer hours than residents (36-48hrs vs 60-80+hrs) but make more per year than residents do. I am certainly not denigrating the work of nurses- they are vital- I am just illustrating that the money is there. The hospitals can afford to pay more, they just don't because residents have no leverage or time.
Intel in Ohio
Love that you all mentioned the news that we are bringing back semiconductor and battery manufacturing here. I was wondering, does the lack of domestic firms with fabs concern you all? Intel is the only American chip designer with it's own fab, we rely on South Korea (Samsung), Taiwan (TSMC), and GlobalFoundries to place their fabs here. Along with the only equipment maker being Dutch (ASML), does the lack of domestic firms concern you with regard to our ability to bring back jobs?