Health Care Rip-Offs, Globalization, and the Uncertain Future

Looking back to 2024, some of my features were big explanatory pieces about the complex corruption of American capitalism, especially in the health care and industrial complexes. The most attention-grabbing article was an investigative article about Epic Systems, a multibillion-dollar company that manages electronic patient record databases for most of America’s hospitals. Epic is used to help hospitals maximize revenue through the dark art of upcoding, and is hated by clinicians as a waste of time.

A companion article called “Fantasyland General” examined hospitals’ Byzantine pricing strategies. And speaking of the health care system, the murder of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson has put the nation’s worst and most corrupt health insurance conglomerate in the spotlight. I did a little research on why AARP would give this company a shilling and found a $1 billion annual rebate scheme.

Trump and his company have repeatedly cut Medicare. I’m more concerned about Medicare being slowly destroyed by stealth.

In the run-up to the election, I wrote several articles warning of what Trump would do if elected to a second term. Unlike his first term, he won’t be bogged down by more mainstream corporate Republicans or honorable generals. This article, “The Left’s Fragile Foundations,” discusses the potential for the IRS to be weaponized to target progressive ecosystems that rely heavily on 501(c)(3) nonprofit status and foundation grants. I did.

I continue to follow globalization and trade. President Trump’s Wall Street cronies will try to curb his thirst for tariffs. Tariffs are fine when part of a targeted strategy, as in the case of China, but President Trump sees them as a panacea. President Trump’s tariff plan is not enough to offset the massive tax cuts he is proposing. As a result, the federal deficit could rise, spooking the Fed into raising interest rates, and potentially causing a stock market collapse.

And speaking of inflation, deportation is also one of President Trump’s obsessions, and it could explode. American businesses rely heavily on cheap and vulnerable immigrant labor. Sending everyone home increases costs.

Financial regulation and deregulation are themes that I have been pursuing for many years. Even before Trump was elected, cryptocurrencies were able to overwhelm regulators thanks to massive campaign contributions. It promises to be the next great bubble.

I have also written several articles about the Middle East, particularly about Biden and the human and political costs of failing to rein in Prime Minister Netanyahu. and falsely exploiting incidents of anti-Semitism to impose political views on whether or not to support Israel.

Corrupt capitalism is everywhere if you keep your radar on. It turns out that, thanks to price manipulation, hurricanes have become profit centers for insurance companies. The challenge for Democrats and progressives is to successfully connect the dots between popular discontent and the corrupt capitalism of which Donald Trump is the epitome. Telling and explaining the meta-story of our time is why we are here.