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
Tax and other incentive programs, primarily state and local, aimed at attracting new corporate investment have been around for a long time. The primary motivation for states is usually related to jobs and for the corporation, lower costs. A recent, major, proposed transaction involves efforts to induce Foxconn (a key Apple supplier) to build a new … Continued
A recent article in The Wall Street Journal highlighted a debate between economists as to whether workers or investors bear the greater burden of U.S. corporate taxes. This is very interesting and manages to politicize corporate taxation. If workers bear the greatest burden, a reduction in the corporate tax might attract Democratic votes. On the … Continued
According to Wikipedia, a Goldilocks economy is one that is not too hot or too cold, in other words, sustains moderate economic growth, and has low inflation, which allows market-friendly monetary policy. Where are we now? Economic growth, during the last several years, as the economy recovered from the severe decline during the “great recession”, … Continued
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