Business Week broke a story on Wall Street getting dibs on H1N1 Vaccine this week. It was also covered on the Today Show this morning, albeit with a slightly different spin. The Business Week article suggested that Wall Street firms were getting their vaccine only for high risk individuals [...]
After reading the media reports on this, it seems pretty lame, and yet another gift to the insurance industry at a cost to taxpayers and consumers. However, upon reading the actual proposals, if implemented correctly, some of these concepts might actually work to the benefit of the consumer and the [...]
Its interesting to note that so many folks on both sides of the issue of healthcare reform think its free. Democrats think that preventative care will save money, and reductions of waste will fund healthcare for all. Republicans don’t want higher taxes, don’t want illegal immigrants covered, and think insurance [...]
One of the problems with health care costs, is regulation which protects monopolies , ie the good old boys must not be subject to competition. An $8000 medical device maker cannot compete with a $150 Iphone and custom software. I sort of like this quote “We look at determining [...]
Argh…on the whole death panel thing. Guess what, we already have them. Nearly every time an insurance companies denies life saving treatment, people die sooner than they would have they been given care. Nearly every time congress roles back Medicare funding, care is rationed to someone, and people die. Nearly [...]
You know, at one time there must’ve been dozens of companies making buggy whips. And I’ll bet the last company around was the one that made the best goddamn buggy whip you ever saw. Now how would you have liked to have been a stockholder in that company? You invested [...]
I had an interesting thought… influenced greatly by Dr Laffer’s paper. What if the entire medical sector, pharma, hospitals, insurance, and other providers were to be de-regulated, and truly operate on a much more free market basis. Ie, only the bare minimums as concerns safety and contract law were left [...]
Why all the outrage? Do some not see the problem with the status quo, and the major crash and burn we are looking towards? Short of the most isolated individual, I dont see how anyone can view todays practices as sustainable.
I think what it comes down to is morality. Even [...]
In Dr Laffer’s paper, he explains of the health care wedge, where patients often dont have a financial interest in their care because its hidden from them. A situation this weekend came to light that presents another yet wedge. Its probably not an isolated deal either, as I sort of [...]
I’ve been perusing Laffer’s paper as of the last few days. His views often lean quite conservative, and while I have often disagreed with any number of positions he chooses, he is well spoken, articulate, and appears to disdain rhetoric as much as I do. He presents a number [...]
To some extent, many dont want healthcare reform for any number of reasons, ranging from personal financial interest, to ideology, to the status quo being ideal for them and their family. All are reasonable and understandable objections. Of course, the problem is, whether now, or later by market force, [...]
Healthcare reform is needed due to fear, morality, and costs, but there are so many opinions out there, things get buried. In fact, it seems the fear of change is perhaps the biggest fear of all. By the same token, for some, they really do percieve no need to change, [...]
I was looking at the Blue Cross Blue Shield of MN 2008 Financial statement. Â Their total revenue was $8.8 billion and paid out claims were $8 billion putting their administrative percentage a tad under 10%. In many ways, thats pretty impressive. Membership is roughly $2.2 million, putting a rough [...]
I agree that the intent of this makes sense. “To get our economy back on track and to create jobs now, we must fundamentally shift power from politicians to small business, from lobbyists to entrepreneurs, and from bureaucrats to investors.” However, tax policy, while it plays a role, is [...]
The problem with healthcare solutions, is that they dont address the problem at its most basic level, and that is the skin is in the wrong place. Ie, skin = whos finances are at stake. Insurance companies dictate to Dr’s, and balk at paying, or covering specific items as doing [...]
The blogosphere has been awash with folks crying in their beer… Egads, investors will never invest again, banks wont lend, the end of economic civilization as we know it is near… Well short of the last one, which imho is needed, the another two are pretty blatantly in error.
Investors want [...]
Ben Bernanke brought this analogy up yet again as concerns bailing out AIG. However, it doesn’t hold water at all anymore, let me expand on it.
The situation:
The neighbors apartment complex is still burning after an extensive effort to put it out. So far, only minor fire damage has been [...]
To establish the Food Safety Administration within the Department of Health and Human Services to endanger the public health by encouraging food-borne illness, decreasing the safety of food, improving research on contaminants leading to food-borne illness, and decreasing the security of food from intentional contamination, and for other purposes.
1. It [...]
Wowzers, talk about a ton of spin on this deal, I wonder how many folks have actually read the proposed legislation, instead of the sound bites. Granted, its not super easy to follow, but the Committee on Education and Labor has a mythbusters page Its a must read [...]
demonstration is removed in the Omnibus spending bill. Yep, the Bush administrations program was costing the taxpayers $346,000 every time a recorded participating truck traveled beyond the border zone. Some stats from the inspector generals report based upon the first years result.
Only 1,443 of 12,516 (11.5 percent) trips that [...]
Its probably old news by now, but a confidential memo from AIG likely to the treasury was leaked a few hours ago. What an absolute mess… For reference, the memo is located at:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/13112282/Aig-Systemic-090309
Apart from the obvious outrage the memo’s content will create, I’m wondering what on earth motivated someone [...]
The usual conservative argument is based upon trickle down economics, and while I believe a careful analysis shows that model doesn’t work out all that great, I don’t believe Keynes does either. Instead, I’ll focus on the practical in your face situation when it comes to business decisions.
First of all, [...]
The program was killed off in the house yesterday as part of the budget vote. There are some detailed studies out, and there is a ton of spin. I decided to take a look at the academic part of the studies to see if I could sift through things a [...]
Last night, volcano monitoring was portrayed in a negative light as part of the stimulus bill. In some ways, I must admit a good point was made, ie, its a long term investment, and short of preventing brain drain at USGS, it doesn’t immediately stimulate the economy. Same with hurricane [...]
If another budget cut of 5 percent or more comes down, Magnuson will recommend dramatic action — shutting down conciliation court, cutting hours and suspending prosecution of 21 types of cases, including property damage, harassment, probate, and more than 1 million traffic and parking cases a [...]
Paying retention bonuses greater than employee production with taxpayer money.
Brokers at Morgan Stanley and Citigroup’s Smith Barney unit who produce at least $1.75 million of revenue may be eligible for a payment equal to 105 percent of their annual production, according to a person familiar with the [...]
Yep, I got a typo in the title, and then thought hey, why not live it as is… it is a dud in many ways. The legislature has asked for opinions, so I cranked out a number of suggestions in their online form, not sure how well that format will [...]
Wabasha and Goodhue counties are considering considation of their police, ambulance, and fire dispach centers. For the most part it is a win win deal, once the dispatchers get trained on the new areas. The problem is the interim time, when they are not yet up to speed as [...]
Proposed changes to workmans comp in MN
Coverage for undocumented immigrants would be cut… Hmmm, so now we have an incentive to hire undocumented immigrants in dangerous occupations. Does anyone see anything wrong with this, apart from the fact unemployment is shooting through the roof? Also, by taking them out [...]
In Pawlenty’s budget, Q-Comp is increased from $64 Million to $113 million. Argh, its not really tested, its not widely implemented, and it is filled with tons of overhead. First, lets look at implementation, and then some studies.
Currently, MN spends $64 million on it for 72 school districts and [...]The NYT interviewed some people, andtwo issues showed up in their article Practically Speaking - Small Businesses Critical of Stimulus Bills - NYTimes.com. Tax cuts, and a payroll tax holiday. In some ways, they make sense, but neither does much as concerns increasing demand in the short term, and [...]
I’ve seen reference to the 2009 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure in numerous news sources, but had to do some digging to find the actual source. Well,its there in the previous link. Obviously, the ASCE wants things fully funded, as their membership base would do very well financiall. However, [...]
Senate approves four-month delay to digital TV changeover — OrlandoSentinel.com.
This was a good call, albeit it doesnt solve the underlying technical issue, which is lack of coverage, which could result in no OTA (over the air) availability for some, and drastically reduced selection for others. In some cases, its [...]
House Journals - Minnesota House of Representatives
Being this session should be pretty interesting, I’m posting the Journal link here so I can find it on any machine. Its interesting to see the magnitude of proposed legislation, especially legislation that adds to the budget that has already been presented. I [...]
Egads, everyone dependent upon govt funding is having a bird, and THEIR program is an absolute must, and of course, for each dollar spent, more revenue is generated….. Sure
Granted, in some cases, spending a dollar now, will end up being revenue positive… in some cases, perhaps in under a year, [...]
The Tax Foundation - Educating Taxpayers Since 1937
A most interesting data set…. [www.taxfoundation.org]
Federal Spending in each state per dollar of federal taxes in 2004. I then took the data and overlayed it on a map of the US, with red being states that had the highest federal funding per [...]
AIG Faces $10 Billion in Losses on Bad Bets - WSJ.com
I’m reminded of Ross Perot and the term “giant sucking sound” which in todays case is TARP. Considering the hoops the automakers are going to have to jump through, and the creation of a car czar, it makes me [...]
AFP: Laid-off workers furious as bank pulls Chicago plant’s credit.
Federal law mandates that workers get paid for unused vacation time and are either given 60 days notice of a mass layoff or paid for that time.
But company officials said they could not make those payments because the bank was [...]
I must admit, other than the TV ads, I had no idea what this was about so I did some digging. First I went to the above mentioned sites home page, [...]
U.S. Mulls Widening Bailout to Insurers - WSJ.com
Go figure… life insurance companies made bad investments, and now want in on the bailout too… but they also do not want to fess up to their precarious financial position, and thus want govt to socialize the whole industry so as not [...]
Reviewing Minnergys SEC filings
This looks to be a deal not unlike the VC world of 10 years ago, ie throw money at anything with a dotcom. Granted, had this business been proposed some years back, I think they may well have been onto something big… but alas, at this point, [...]
A friend sent me the 10 men in a bar story to show how progressive taxes as well as increases are damaging to the economy. Being I strongly disagree with such a model, I rewrote it and sent it back. 
Increasing taxes on the rich?? Here [...]
I was taking a look at the week in petroleum this evening, and its pretty amazing. I pulled a few of the graphs to see how supply and deman influenced prices, or not.
[...]
I just saw one of Norm Coleman’s commercials and went ouch… they must be in cost cutting mode, as the media quality was subpar and then some. They used a green screen, and a profile shot of Norm talking, rather than an on location shoot. Well, they messed up. Norm [...]
Its interesting to take a look at ones banks financial situation… actually quite fascinating. Of course, the difficulty for those of us not in the banking realm is how to interpret the data. Certaining non-performing assets are a key factor, as well as the change in non-performing [...]
So Tim Walz voted it down Monday, and we called over to his office to say thank you. Its not that something needs to be done, but the bill as written is so full of holes it would appear one could sink a battleship.
The bill is really complex… egads, I spent an [...]
So how critical is this? apparently its not very critical if exec compensation is on the line.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson stressed that time was critical to get the proposal passed and that changes to the administration’s measure, which was sent to lawmakers on Saturday, could delay that [...]
ts interesting to note the differences of opinion over FAA user fees. From MPR: News Cut: Blaine setting for Palin speech highlights a difference with McCain
Senator McCain…. “I wanted to get at, which we should get at, the wealthiest people in America who are flying corporate jets around this [...]
