Today in Capitalism

Has anyone else noticed that every other ad on cable television these days is for Medicare Advantage plans? I guess “Obamacare” didn’t kill Medicare Advantage after all.

I also noticed a news story about a company called High Road Capital, which seems to be in the business of buying things, snapping up a whole lot of health care businesses.

Private equity firms have snapped up many companies that provide medical billing, coding and document processing this year in an effort to reap some of the government stimulus earmarked for the digitization of health care and to help the sector meet upcoming regulatory changes.

I assume they expect to make a profit.

Also, rejoice that we just had the strongest holiday sales season since 2006. That’s something you’ll never hear on Faux News.

Pallavi Gogoi, Associated Press, writes that top American corporations are racking up big profits, and stock prices also are up. And they’re hiring! Just not in the U.S.

All but 4 percent of the top 500 U.S. corporations reported profits this year, and the stock market is close to its highest point since the 2008 financial meltdown.

But the jobs are going elsewhere. The Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank, says American companies have created 1.4 million jobs overseas this year, compared with less than 1 million in the U.S. The additional 1.4 million jobs would have lowered the U.S. unemployment rate to 8.9 percent, says Robert Scott, the institute’s senior international economist.

“There’s a huge difference between what is good for American companies versus what is good for the American economy,” says Scott.

That last sentence is significant. Naturally, the incoming Congress will be tripping all over itself giving tax breaks to big corporations to create more jobs. India should thank us for subsidizing its economy.