With Mother’s Day behind us, President Obama spoke to a group of women—including a number of moms—about the ways the new Affordable Care Act is already providing aid to millions of Americans like them.

“The female population in particular has more control today over their own care than ever before,” the President of the United States said. “I am pleased to be joined today by many women who contacted us to describe what the Affordable Care Act does for them.”

Carol was just one of the women who contacted President Obama, and today, she introduced him in the East Room. Carol’s son, a recent college graduate and survivor of a traumatic brain injury, was able to stay on his family’s health care policy instead of being removed off the plan this year. Procuring coverage on his own would have been virtually impossible, as Carol mentioned to the President. “Given my son’s history, he would be uninsurable under the archaic set of laws. Instead of finishing law school, my resources and my son’s resources would have been channeled into somehow finding an insurance policy that would cover him.”

Carol and her son, according to the Whitehouse, are why the new Affordable Care Act lets you people stay on their parent’s healthcare plan until they reach the age of 26, President Obama said. 

Another woman named Alycia also spoke about the benefits the new laws bring to her family. “Alycia is the mother of Avey, who is a 3-year-old girl who is battling Leukemia,” President Obama explained. “Imagine what this is like for a parent. While you are just figuring out how to take care of a baby, you have to figure out how you are going to pay for expensive treatment that could save your baby’s life. This is why the Affordable Care Act made it illegal for unscrupulous individuals in the insurance industry to discriminate against children like Avey.”

President Obama mentioned a few more ways the Affordable Care Act is helping people throughout the United States. “Insurance companies can no longer impose lifetime limits on the amount of care you undertake, or drop you from coverage if you get sick, or discriminate against your children who have preexisting conditions,” President Obama said. “And women are now given access to free preventive care like mammograms, checkups, and cancer screenings, so you can evaluate and catch preventable illness on the front end. Because of this Act, seniors on Medicare can now receive free checkups and preventive care with zero deductibles or co-pay. These individuals also receive discounts on prescription drugs, which have already saved over 6 million seniors more than $700 each.”

Source: whitehouse.gov

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission, along with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority issued an investor alert for Pension or Settlement Income Stream Investments.

This alert informs investors about the risks involved when selling rights to an income stream or when investing in another entity’s income stream. The alert cautions investors who are considering an investment in settlement income streams or pensions to proceed with extreme caution.

Any individual receiving regular distributions form a settlement following a personal injury suit or a monthly pension may be targeted by corrupt salespeople who offer an immediate lump sum in exchange for rights to some or all of the payments you would be entitled to receiving in the future. Typically, recipients of a structured settlement or a pension will sign over said rights to some or all of their monthly payments to a factoring institution in return for a lump-sum figure; this figure is typically much lower than the present value of the future income stream.

“Investors must always educate themselves before making an investment decision, and this is of course true with respect to investing in a structured settlement product or a pension,” said the Director of the SEC’s Investor Education and Advocacy Division. “This alert intends to help investors understand the risks and costs associated with these transactions.”

The investor alert is equipped with a checklist of questions that you should go over before selling away an income stream:

·Is the transaction I’m about to undertake legal?

·Is the transaction worth the cost? You should locate the discount rate that the factoring company has applied to the income stream and compare the rate to alternatives such as a bank loan.

·What is the reputation of the institution offer the lump sum?

·Will the underlying factoring company require life insurance?

· What are the tax consequences if you undertake this transaction? The lump-sum payout offered by the factoring company may be taxable. 

 A long winter held back construction activity in Germany, which contributed to a sharper than expected drop in first quarter output across the Eurozone. German barely avoided recession at the start of this year, but its return to growth was not enough to prevent the Eurozone economy from contracting for a record sixth quarter in a row. 

Gross Domestic Product in the 17-country Eurozone dropped by .2 percent in the first quarter, largely due to France’s recent struggles. This compared to a decline of .6 percent in the fourth quarter. 

The region’s economy has failed to grow since the third quarter of 2011, making this the longest stretch of declining output in the history of the Eurozone. 

The pace of contracted eased up slightly in struggling Spain and Italy, but both economies still contracted by 0.5 percent in the quarter.

The prospects of a second consecutive year mired in a recession and tumbling inflation prompted the zone’s central bank to slash interest rates earlier this month to a record low of 0.5 percent. 

“An interest rate cut to 0.25 percent looks probable while the European Central Bank will also continue to evaluate the case for a negative deposit rate and ways of securing more credit to smaller companies,” said Howard Archer, the chief European economist at HIS Global Insight. 

The euro continue to slide against the dollar, and European stocks were weaker in early trading hours before recovering to roughly even. The recession has hurt business confidence, blown attempts to slash government debts, and has sent unemployment to record numbers. Many leaders within the European Union have signaled their willingness to ease austerity in the hope of shoring up a recovery that the majority of economists are still forecasting for later this year. 

However, Wednesday’s GDP estimate was far worse than economists were forecasting, largely due to poor growth in Germany. If the estimate proves to be accurate, the news could increase pressure on the European Central Bank to take further action to stimulate activity. 

Germany, which accounts for roughly 30 percent of Eurozone output, grew by only 0.1 percent in the quarter, as an unusually cold winter impacted construction activity. Analysts were expecting growth of roughly 0.3 percent in Europe’s largest economy. Investment and exports also dropped, underscoring the impact of the Eurozone recession and poor global growth. 

Source: Congressional Budget Office

Headed by Douglas Elmendorf, the United States Congressional Budget Office, projects this year’s deficit will be $200 billion less than it projected just a few months ago. That said, it’s not all good news over the next ten years or so. 

Annual deficits are dipping even faster than the Budget Office predicted back in February, and the nation’s total debt is expected to drop as share of the economy for a couple years. However, the downward trend will not persist since lawmakers have not implemented measures to address the long-term drivers of the nation’s debt. 

In its budget outlook released yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office now estimates the annual deficit for the fiscal year of 2013 to be roughly $642 billion or 4 percent of GDP. This is $203 billion less than the office estimated earlier this year. The office attributes the improved figure to higher-than-expected tax revenues and more payments to the Treasury by mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

By 2015, the United States’ deficit will drop to its lowest point in the decade (roughly 2.1 percent of GDP). Moreover, the deficit will remain below 3 percent until 2019, at which point it will begin to increase again. Deficits under 3 percent are regarded as sustainable because it signifies that budget shortfalls are not growing faster than the economy. 

In a similar fashion, the budget office estimates the country’s total debt—the sum of yearly deficits procured over decades—will dip to 71 percent of GDP in 2019. This figure is four percentage points below the present day. However, the debt will begin to climb higher again, reaching almost 74 percent by 2023.

“Budget shortfalls are expected to increase later in the coming decade, but because of the pressures of an aging population, increased health care costs and increased interest payments on the federal debt,” the Congressional Budget Office claimed in its report. 

The bulk of the deficit reduction that is expected to take place in the next few years will be the result of several measures that do not address said pressures. Specifically, the expiration of the payroll tax cut, increased tax rates on high-income homes, the sequester, and lower spending caps for defense and domestic programs between 2014 and 2021. 

In the meatime, the better-than-expected deficit for this year allows provides lawmakers with more time before they are required to raise the debt ceiling, which is the nation’s legal borrowing limit. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that Congress will need to render a decision regarding the ceiling in October or November. 

Source: Congressional Budget Office