It is probable that states and cities will soon be recording the full cost of health care promised to public employees once they retire. New Government Accounting Standards Board principles urge officials to record all health care liabilities on their balance sheets instead of pushing a portion of the debt to foot notes. Most states … Continued
The U.S. economy is generally believed to be substantially consumer driven. Accordingly, trends in consumer spending are closely watched by investors and economists. With an economy that is largely dependent on consumer spending, it is important to recognize that an individual consumer can spend only so much. Recently reported retail sales figures have been disappointing. … Continued
It is beginning to appear that life expectancy approaching 100 years may be a realistic premise. This raises some key questions, of which perhaps the most important is, “can you afford to live to 100?” We are all probably familiar with the quote, “if I’d known I was going to live this long, I would … Continued
Healthcare remains a headline issue with a wide range of proposals. The discussion is highly politicized and generally tends to emphasize benefits while glossing over costs. Inevitably, there are comparisons with other national systems and recurring comments, from advocates and critics, without much clarity as to what actually comprises single-payer healthcare. Wikipedia defines single-payer healthcare … Continued
At any given moment, investors are faced with a multitude of uncertainties. For example, we see geo-political risks both here and abroad; the threat of war with North Korea and the senseless massacre in Las Vegas can shake anybody’s confidence in the market. Storms have destroyed cities in Texas, Florida, the Caribbean and Puerto Rico … Continued
The Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) program is a California state regulation that requires automakers to sell electric cars and trucks in California and 9 states on the east coast. The exact number of vehicles is linked to the automaker’s overall sales within the state. While the ZEV regulations include plug-in hybrids and hydrogen fuel cell … Continued
A value-added tax (VAT), known in some countries as a goods and services tax (GST), is a type of general consumption tax that is collected incrementally, based on the surplus value, added to the price on the work at each stage of production. Unlike sales taxes, which are added to the selling price at the … Continued
Several months ago Facebook announced a plan to create a new, third class of nonvoting shares, designed to further strengthen Mark Zuckerberg’s voting control. According to the latest proxy information, he already holds approximately 60% of the voting power in a two class stock structure. A trial for a class action law suit, seeking to … Continued
Warren Buffett, speaking at an event to mark the 100th anniversary of Forbes magazine, suggested that the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) would be “over 1 million” in 100 years. One million may look like a big number, and it is, but it only assumes a compound average annual return of approximately 4%. Considering that … Continued
Search engines are a great method of accessing information. Just “google it” has become the “go to” way to find information on an infinite range of knowledge. But before Google, Yahoo and all the rest, there was the beauty shop. Case in point. More than 30 years ago, before the broad availability of search engines, … Continued
On September 7th, Equifax announced that the personal information of 143 million U.S. consumers was stolen from their servers. Hackers stole data that included full names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, and addresses. This breach is one of the largest, and some say most damaging, to date. We understand that there are a lot of … Continued
Does anyone really set out to make a bad movie? No, but many new movies, if not a majority, fail to gain consumer acceptance. The ability to successfully anticipate consumer acceptance is critical to corporate success and, therefore, to investors. Perhaps one of the better comments on this problem came from Steve Jobs, who is … Continued
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