One problem with a Federal minimum wage is there are variations in the cost of living in various parts of the Nation. Thus one size does not fit all. A $15/hour wage in Manhattan might be the equivalent of $10/hour in Mississippi. Thus it would seem logical to have a tiered minimum wage based on available cost of living indices. Also, by definition the minimum wage should be free of all income taxes. The combination of the personal exemption and the standard deduction should equal the minimum wage rate times 2080 hours per year (adjusted for the differing costs of living). This should also be applied to the States. Sequential exemptions and credits for dependents might be adjusted downward to maintain revenue neutrality. Further, there should be a minimum fringe benefit encompassing vacation time, health insurance, sick leave etc. This should apply to all employers of a given size or larger. Loopholes for contract labor/services and part time employment should be closed.

Stephen Hawking Says We Should Really Be Scared Of Capitalism, Not Robots:

Machines won't bring about the economic robot apocalypse -- but greedy humans will, according to physicist Stephen Hawking.

"If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/stephen-hawking-capitalism-robots_56...

USA TODAY: "Medicare Part B premiums to rise 52% for 7 million enrollees: For seven in 10 Medicare beneficiaries, 2016 will be much like 2015. They will pay $104.90 per month for their Medicare Part B premium — just as they did in 2015. But for some 30% of Medicare beneficiaries — roughly 7 million or so Americans."

[* Forgive my math but: How to reconcile no change for 7-in-10 and 52% of 7 million.]

USA TODAY: Premiums for [7 million] individuals could increase a jaw-dropping 52% to $159.30 per month ($318.60 for married couples). And for individuals whose incomes exceed certain thresholds, premiums could rise to anywhere from $223.00 per month up to $509.80 (or $446 to $1,019.60 for married couples), depending on their incomes. Blame the “hold harmless” provision in the law that addresses cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) for Social Security benefits."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/columnist/powell/2015/10/07/medicare...

From a recent Newsletter from the Alliance for Retired Americans:

"On Wednesday, House and Senate Democrats introduced bills (H.R. 3696 and S. 2148) that would protect Medicare Part B beneficiaries from a 52% increase in their premiums next year. About 30% of the 51 million Americans who benefit from Medicare Part B would otherwise be affected by the massive change, which would raise premiums from $104.90 monthly to $159.30 if Congress does nothing. Deductibles for all Medicare recipients would increase from $147 to $223."

[* Forgive my math but: 30% of the 51 million Americans would pay more?]

Petition from Alliance for Retired Americans
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/tell-congress-to-act-now-and-avert-d...

there is also a spike in mortgage delinquencies during the month of an iphone release; i've followed that for years...ie, 4.83% of mortgages were delinquent in August, up from 4.71% in July...apparently for some people having the latest gadget is more important than paying on their home..

VIA Al Jazeera (October 6, 2015 by Tom Kutsch, Digital News Producer)
http://america.http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/10/6/top-us-co...

According to a new study (released by Citizens for Tax Justice and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund in October 2015)
http://ctj.org/pdf/offshoreshell2015.pdf

The largest 500 U.S. companies would owe an estimated $620 billion in U.S. taxes were it not for the more than $2.1 trillion in offshore cash that most of the firms hold in foreign tax havens.

Apple has the lion's share, followed by GE and Microsoft.

Last June GE’s Jeff Immelt warns that US jobs depend on Export-Import Bank. He was also one of those who urged members of Congress to support giving Obama trade promotion authority [for the TPP trade deal], saying it was essential for concluding deals with Asia and Europe that would benefit small businesses and workers.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/25c69b04-152d-11e5-a587-00144feabdc0.html#axzz...

As Obama’s “Jobs Czar", Jeff Immelt had also threatened to outsource [more] bobs if the Export-Import Bank had expired.
http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2015/06/23/crony-corporate-ceo-jeff-immelt-...

August 2015: "Now, with Congress out of session and Ex-Im increasingly a political football, Boeing [another tax dodger] and pro-Ex-Im allies like GE are changing tack, lashing out vocally, pulling political donations from opponents of the credit agency, and threatening to move American jobs overseas if Ex-Im isn’t renewed."
http://fortune.com/2015/08/25/boeing-export-import-bank/

October 2015: House GOP squabbles over reviving Export-Import Bank - "Republican leaders told their rank-and-file to hold off on such a move, and lawmakers leaving the meeting said it seems the matter might have to wait until the election of a new House speaker, scheduled for Oct. 29."
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/house-gop-squabbles-over-reviving-expo...

Apple CEO Tim Cook said this about the company’s Q3 results: “We had an amazing quarter, with iPhone revenue up 59 percent over last year ... and we’re looking forward to releasing iOS 9, OS X El Capitan and watchOS 2 to customers in the fall.” --- and Luca Maestri, Apple’s chief financial officer, added this: “In the third quarter our year-over-year growth rate accelerated from the first half of fiscal 2015, with revenue up 33 percent and earnings per share up 45 percent,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “We generated very strong operating cash flow of $15 billion, and we returned over $13 billion to shareholders through our capital return program.”
http://9to5mac.com/2015/07/21/apple-earnings-fy15-q3/

Apple to Announce Q4 2015 Earnings on October 27
http://www.macrumors.com/2015/09/28/apple-q4-earnings-october-27/

[* This is an update on October 6, 2015 to the original post above.]

What am I missing here? It seems that Medicare premiums and deductibles might go up in 2016, but very little in proportion to benefits, because it's mostly affects those who already have very substantial annual earnings.

According to the New York Times:

Aides to Nancy Pelosi (D) and John Boehner (R) are quietly exploring a possible deal to hold down Medicare premiums that could rise by roughly 50 percent for some beneficiaries next year. [This came about because of the earlier "doc fix" — so doctors get their cut.]

Under federal law, Medicare premiums are linked closely to Social Security benefits. Inflation has been so low that Social Security beneficiaries may not receive a cost-of-living adjustment next year. For most Medicare beneficiaries, that means that their premiums will stay the same.

Most people on Medicare have their premiums deducted from their monthly Social Security checks. To protect older Americans, federal law stipulates that, in most cases, the increase in a person’s Medicare premium cannot exceed the increase in the person’s Social Security benefit. The purpose of this “hold harmless” provision is to prevent a reduction in Social Security benefits.

Several groups of people do not have this protection and would be subject to higher premiums. They include certain high-income Medicare beneficiaries who are already required to pay higher premiums, lower-income people eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid, new beneficiaries, and those who do not receive Social Security checks.

30 percent of Medicare beneficiaries are not protected against higher premiums. Medicare actuaries predicted in July that the standard premium for them would rise to $159 a month. The standard premium is now just under $105 a month [a monthly increase of $24].

The actuaries also predicted an increase in the annual deductible — the amount that beneficiaries pay for health care before Medicare begins to pay. They estimated that the deductible would rise to $223 next year, from $147 in 2015 [an annual increase of $76]

Medicare beneficiaries with annual incomes greater than $85,000 already pay more than the standard premium. The most affluent ones — those with incomes over $214,000 a year — pay premiums of about $335 a month. If there is no cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security, their Medicare premiums next year could exceed $500 a month.

ya learn something new everyday...i talked to the Census Bureau this morning, and they tell me they do not collect data on new orders for non durable goods, because of the quick turnaround time...hence, the new factory orders reported monthly are equal to new orders of durable goods plus shipments of non-durable goods...

when i started to write about that report, i noticed that the line listing the totals for new orders for non-durable goods and shipments of non-durable goods were identical, ie, all the amounts for June, July, August and year to date were identical, as were the percentage changes shown...those numbers are then carried through to the totals...i downloaded the excel files for both and they also showed non-durable data for shipments and new orders to be identical...i called the Census bureau before 5PM on Friday and left a message notifying them of this error, but as of this writing on Saturday it has not been corrected...i suspect the error is with the new orders, but it’s hard to tell, since the monthly $ difference between orders and shipments has been less than 1% (0.6% in July)...
if the error is in new orders as i suspect, then unfilled orders would be screwed too...good thing the Fed and the markets had other bad data that overshadowed this...

new orders for non-durable goods are the same numbers as shipments: http://www.census.gov/manufacturing/m3/prel/pdf/s-i-o.pdf

meanwhile, everyone reported on both as if the totals were accurate...