Monday, May 21, 2007
Tanta Goes Wild
by Ken Houghton
Read the whole thing here.
Scratch a free-marketer, and you’ll find someone who secretly believes that a vast, heterogenous, discontinuous, non-centrally-planned and inconsistently regulated industry with participants who enter and exit over time not only can be but has been reporting uniform historical data to some central database which is freely and unproblematically available to the public, and therefore any inconsistency or incommensurate data must be another Enron.
Read the whole thing here.
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Why We Refinanced, Part I
by Ken Houghton
After dancing around the FMLA, I instead departed from the ranks of those full-time employed at an Investment Bank. Which means we are covering this through COBRA.
Since the departure was in mid-April, the paperwork from The Old Firm didn't arrive until near the end of last month. And since it was clear from their documentation that nothing absolutely needed to be done until the end of this month, I waited until the return from vacation to mail the formal notice out, hoping that the newly-formed business would be in place with its own checks by the end of the month.
This appears to have thrown a major spanner into the U.S. health care system.
Yesterday's second call from the hospital prompted me to the call my provider, and be assured that everything was fine. (Their representative, without my using the word said, "You went COBRA, right." I confirmed this, and she assured me that everything was approved and would be fine.)
There were three or four calls today, with both the hospital and the doctor. Apparently, the provider has not been so upbeat with the hospital, threatening that my opting for COBRA meant that, if the check hasn't cleared already, they may not cover it.
Upshot: barring a last-minute sanity check from The Old Firm (whose administrator had gone home before 4:30 today), and/or acceptance of my copies of the mailed forms, we're giving the hospital a $2,000 deposit tomorrow, and have committed a somewhat larger sum to the surgeon in the event that COBRA turns out to be something that businesses can treat as a free option not to allow employees to continue coverage.
This in addition to paying almost $2,000 a month in COBRA to The Old Firm. Which I guess makes us really "gold-plated." And a lot of others will follow me, just as Roy headlined (h/t Tom).
Between this and the insurance cf Tom described, is there any wonder that the voters believe that providing affordable health care independent of their employment situation is a key issue? Or that it's the centerpiece of John Edwards's War on Poverty/Two Americas campaign?
As I said before, several transitions, not the least of which being that Shira is going in for back surgery around 7:00 a.m. tomorrow.
After dancing around the FMLA, I instead departed from the ranks of those full-time employed at an Investment Bank. Which means we are covering this through COBRA.
Since the departure was in mid-April, the paperwork from The Old Firm didn't arrive until near the end of last month. And since it was clear from their documentation that nothing absolutely needed to be done until the end of this month, I waited until the return from vacation to mail the formal notice out, hoping that the newly-formed business would be in place with its own checks by the end of the month.
This appears to have thrown a major spanner into the U.S. health care system.
Yesterday's second call from the hospital prompted me to the call my provider, and be assured that everything was fine. (Their representative, without my using the word said, "You went COBRA, right." I confirmed this, and she assured me that everything was approved and would be fine.)
There were three or four calls today, with both the hospital and the doctor. Apparently, the provider has not been so upbeat with the hospital, threatening that my opting for COBRA meant that, if the check hasn't cleared already, they may not cover it.
Upshot: barring a last-minute sanity check from The Old Firm (whose administrator had gone home before 4:30 today), and/or acceptance of my copies of the mailed forms, we're giving the hospital a $2,000 deposit tomorrow, and have committed a somewhat larger sum to the surgeon in the event that COBRA turns out to be something that businesses can treat as a free option not to allow employees to continue coverage.
This in addition to paying almost $2,000 a month in COBRA to The Old Firm. Which I guess makes us really "gold-plated." And a lot of others will follow me, just as Roy headlined (h/t Tom).
Between this and the insurance cf Tom described, is there any wonder that the voters believe that providing affordable health care independent of their employment situation is a key issue? Or that it's the centerpiece of John Edwards's War on Poverty/Two Americas campaign?
Labels: Economics, Health Care, John Edwards, just life, refinance, The Old Firm
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Transitions Post
by Ken Houghton
Multiple transitions recently: pretty much everything except marriage/divorce and buying a new house (though we did complete the refi). A few more to come, so posting will be spotty.
But, especially since Tom referenced it, I want to post the beginning of this "lost post":
Tom dealt quite well with the absurdity of Cuban's example. Music videos, after all, are charged back to the artist, no less. But the question of how to make content "available" is rather more expansive than Cuban allows.
For instance, the first thing the folks of my hometown (defined as the place from which one graduated high school) were told when Visteon (nee Ford) announced they were closing the plant (to which many of our families were relocated ca. 1966-1968) is that the town is Valuable because of its Workers.
You know, the same Workers who are now out of jobs because Visteon decided they couldn't get enough value from the plant. So all that "available" content remains unused.*
This is hardly a unique situation. Check out any of Save the Rustbelt's posts about Ohio at AngryBear. What is interesting is that the first thing the Consultants do is come in and assure the workers (read: voters) that It's Not Their Fault.
Which is a good message. And, especially in this case, largely True. (The unemployed workers, after all, are not the Ford executives whose CF strategy put the company in its current situation.)
More later.
*Update: Apparently, there is now a plan for an ethanol processing plant. Considering the cost, in both senses, of using ethanol as fuel (as Tom has documented), this will allow the workers to Demonstrate their Value only if one double-counts the government subsidy. So much for Proud and Independent.
We're back at Willow Valley, which in the intervening year has moved on to offering free WiFi in all areas. (And now on to Hershey Park, with the same amenity.)
Multiple transitions recently: pretty much everything except marriage/divorce and buying a new house (though we did complete the refi). A few more to come, so posting will be spotty.
But, especially since Tom referenced it, I want to post the beginning of this "lost post":
It's no secret that I disagree with Mark Cuban on the details of IP costing and benefits. (This and $2.00 gets you on the NYC subway, which I take much more often than Mr. Cuban, in part because he has made a lot of money from IP.) But we are completely agreed on the principle: if your content isn't available, no one will pay for it.
It's the reverse of that I want to consider today.
Tom dealt quite well with the absurdity of Cuban's example. Music videos, after all, are charged back to the artist, no less. But the question of how to make content "available" is rather more expansive than Cuban allows.
For instance, the first thing the folks of my hometown (defined as the place from which one graduated high school) were told when Visteon (nee Ford) announced they were closing the plant (to which many of our families were relocated ca. 1966-1968) is that the town is Valuable because of its Workers.
You know, the same Workers who are now out of jobs because Visteon decided they couldn't get enough value from the plant. So all that "available" content remains unused.*
This is hardly a unique situation. Check out any of Save the Rustbelt's posts about Ohio at AngryBear. What is interesting is that the first thing the Consultants do is come in and assure the workers (read: voters) that It's Not Their Fault.
Which is a good message. And, especially in this case, largely True. (The unemployed workers, after all, are not the Ford executives whose CF strategy put the company in its current situation.)
More later.
*Update: Apparently, there is now a plan for an ethanol processing plant. Considering the cost, in both senses, of using ethanol as fuel (as Tom has documented), this will allow the workers to Demonstrate their Value only if one double-counts the government subsidy. So much for Proud and Independent.
Labels: Economic Development, full employment, Hershey Park, Intellectual Property, just life, refinance, Willow Valley
Friday, March 09, 2007
The Surest Sign the Mortgage Apocalypse is Nigh
by Ken Houghton
Tom adds: And our bank is going to lend us a sizeable chunk of money for a round of work on the house, which starts with major heating-system surgery a week from Monday. (Hey, someone has to prop up residential investment!)
We reached an agreement in principle to refinance last night.
Tom adds: And our bank is going to lend us a sizeable chunk of money for a round of work on the house, which starts with major heating-system surgery a week from Monday. (Hey, someone has to prop up residential investment!)
Labels: Housing Bubble, mortgage, refinance
