Taxes + Death=Certainty^2

Today I opened my paycheck and realized one of the few things I hate. This, "thing" attacks me every two weeks as I open my pay check and see funds taken for, you guessed it, taxes.

My biggest irk, the city of Cincinnati took more taxes than the state of OH (but that's ok since UC is paying my checks).

It would be nice to have an interactive chart on each of my checks to show me exactly where my tax dollars are going (most to social security).

Anyways, I do not know anyone who enjoys taxes, and I will not complain about them for 2 more weeks.

Simple S and D

I uncovered a nice Supply and Demand problem in the following New York Times article today:

"Shortage of Doctors an Obstacle..."

The article explains the lack of supply of shortage of Doctors currently in the United States and the growing number of baby boomers who are getting older and in need of health services.

Doctors are not becoming physicians or practicing Medicare services due to the lack of pay. Also, since medical school is so expensive, most doctors specialize. There is a demand for physicians, but a lack of incentive to be a physician due to low pay.

One answer, proposed by several people is too increase Medical School enrollment. Personally, I do not want a check up from a B or C average-student, but hey, grade inflation has occurred everywhere else in college, why not Med-School?

I love this part of the article, "Under a far-reaching 2006 law, the state (Massachusetts) succeeded in reducing the number of uninsured. But many who gained coverage have been struggling to find primary care doctors, and the average waiting time for routine office visits has increased."

So a state has attempted a more, "universal health model." The result, more waiting, and more demand for doctors who are not there. No problem, we have an example not too follow in creating a new health system........I bet politicians don't see it this way.

So putting 2 and 2 together, we should give health care to everyone, then we will all have to drive many miles, wait many hours, or both in order to be helped, minimally. To fix it, lets increase the number of doctors or subsidize Med-School costs so we can have third tier students examining us on a regular basis....There has to be a better way.

Looking at the state of Massachusetts example, I think the problem of high demand and low supply of doctors should be solved in a different manner. Possibly substituting some capital for labor.........Can a machine or system such as Cook County Hospitals for diagnosing heart problems help this supply and demand problem?

From Blink by Malcolm Gladwell "One of the stories I tell in "Blink" is about the Emergency Room doctors at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. That's the big public hospital in Chicago, and a few years ago they changed the way they diagnosed heart attacks. They instructed their doctors to gather less information on their patients: they encouraged them to zero in on just a few critical pieces of information about patients suffering from chest pain--like blood pressure and the ECG--while ignoring everything else, like the patient's age and weight and medical history. And what happened? Cook County is now one of the best places in the United States at diagnosing chest pain.

Krugman Speech Today

I just finished attending the Paul Krugman (far left) speech today in TUC's Great Hall at the University of Cincinnati. He recently won the Nobel Prize in economics, and his talk today centered around the current economic crisis (an obvious choice).

He made some interesting points, but you could tell he had to watch his words as he did not want to get too political as he does in his New York Times Column. He did a wonderful job staying focused on economics and had a pessimistic but honest outlook as he said of the future, "it will be a long, and difficult haul." His main worry was unemployment could remain high for the next decade.

Attending the lecture was 200+ composed of Economic faculty across the coutnry, Trustees of the University of Cincinnati, and some other local big-whigs.

One of Krugmans best points was our neglect in remembering history and the problems that occur when we as Americans become complacent. The question is, how many students really understand or are attempting to understand what is happening now? If we are not students of the current problem, what will the future hold in store and how bad could it be if we are to get out of this mess?

What is the answer? Is big business (too big to fail) the main problem? Or did politics go too far in selling thier votes to companies? Krugman even mentioned the "off with the heads," attitude has been very mellow. Perhaps it is due to the fact many politicians were in the pockets of these CEO's so everything has been kept quiet.

Will government spending move us forward or should small business be the way out? Instead of 20 huge conglomerate financial banks, how would it be if bank owners had to conduct due dilligence in handing out loans becasue if they failed to do so they would receive no gov't help (like small banks for instance)?

All I can say is someone (probably my generation) will have to pay for this mess. And someone (my gen. again) will have to "starve" or not receive lovely health/monetary benefits until the age of 100. Hopefully the most educated generation in American history (again, my genereation) can make some decisions and force the older gens to understand its not their game and its not their rules anymore when it comes to our tax dollars going to their benefits and foul-ups. But then again, we will also have to realize, the dream of retirement is over and the American dream of a huge house is finally reverting back to the American dream of a steady job and a loving family. It will get better, but it will not be short and sweet.

Can everyone ever have it all? Let's Hope Not.

Every American should own a home.

Every American should have healthcare.

These are a few things Democrats and Republicans have tried to push over the last 10 years. When have we as Americans been entitled to anything? How about, Every American should go to work, work hard, save for their family and not expect any help. The attitude that placed us atop the world commercially.

Maybe out motto should be changed to a quote I read today, "It was on my fifth birthday that Papa put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'Remember, my son, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm." - Sam Levenson

No offense, but the only time everyone can have equal of anything, resorts in Communism, where everyone is equally poor. Promises are annoying, how about politicians just give us the facts and hurt some feelings. We cannot allow Healthcare to become as big a problem as this crises, in which politicians and financiers alike never revealed the complications or truths of the business. Trying to give everyone a home helped lead to subprime. Trying to give everyone healthcare...........could lead to something worse.

Problems with the Banks and their Balance Sheets

Two days ago, the Dow dropped over 280 points after Bank of America had posted earnings of 0.46 cents a share crushing expected estimates of 0.04 cents per share.

The question is, after this news, why did the market fall? My accounting professor made an interesting point that seems obvious and is occurring now and will be for the next few quarters.

"The banks balance sheets and income statements look good because they have devalued an asset (risky mortgages) from say $100 to $50. Then the banks have found someone to purchase that lousy asset at say $55. Their financial statements show a $5 dollar accounting profit, but in reality and hopefully in the footnotes a -$45 economic profit is shown."

So even though the numbers "look good," based on that $5 accounting profit, investors saw the truth and the lack of economic profit.

I can't get enough Politics.....

The Fifth Summit of the Americas took place last week. The Summit is a meeting of 34 leaders from the Americas (yes South and Central America are America too). I began to wonder, since 33 of these 34 leaders speak Spanish (guess who does not), why the United States has not had a bilingual president since .....Martin Van Buren????

Searching the net I could not really find a biligual president after the early Van Buren (he was fluent in Dutch) but Jimmy Carter and George Bush spoke, "marginal spanish." You can argue other presidents had minimal spanish skills as well (but seriously, you could argue any American knows minimal spanish, so that does not count.)

When will the day come when the U.S. president will have to be multi-lingual? Would it help our country get more foriegn respect?

Dont get me wrong, all the other leaders of the world do not speak english, but many do. I understand the The United States is the leader of the commercial world, but that said, our leaders have had to expensive and elite of an education to not at least suffice some sort of foreign language skill (possibly a minor or undergraduate degree).

Any thoughts.......

That Guy is Loaded!

Too often, many of assume a big house or a big anything means someone is rich. Maybe its as Chris Rock once said, "There is a difference between Rich, and Wealthy, Shaq is rich, the guy who writes his checks is Wealthy!"

I agree, Shaq is probably rich, but even so, always be safe in assuming, until you see the numbers (accurate ones) no one has what they claim. I do not want to come off as a misanthrope, but here are a couple examples......

Bernie Madoff, worth 823 million dollars at the end of last year....he wasnt rich, but many people that gave him money to invest were. Currently, he faces 150 years in prison.

Evander Holyfield, who once had a 3 page write up on his mansion in Sports Illustrated almost had to auction it to cover child support. He was quoted saying, "I'm not broke, I'm just not liquid." Im sorry Evander, but I don't know the difference between broke and ill-liquidity.....His electric bill accoring to Yahoo was $17,000 last December alone!

My personal favorite...Travis Henry (picture above with his dependants), in 2007 he signed a five year 22.5 million dollar football contract. He was cut a year later and 9 children with 9 different women forced him into a drug trafficing arrest. Estimeated child support payments were $170,000 a year!

I hate to play the monday morning quarterback, but even if you make a million dollars a year, you cannot spend one million + 1 in that same year. A good thing to say if you do spend a dollar to much is, "Im just not liquid."