Another Stupid Law Imposed on Business

There are many stupid laws the U.S imposes on the international activities of U.S. Business.

One that is disastrous is a tax on the earnings made on business done completely out of the country, something others do not as a rule impose. That’s a subject for another day.

My attention today is on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA, which makes it a serious crime for an American citizen to offer a “bribe” to do business in another country where you cannot do any semblance of business without such “incentives” to each and every official who issues countless business permits.

So, if the U.S. decides it wants to eliminate much of its export business around the world where “business gifts” are local tradition, fine. Americans ought to show they are above all that while keeping up with domestic law imposed by American do-gooder legislators.

It’s a way to keep American executives out of American jails, and also our U.S. dollar to remain even weaker. Perhaps some day so weak it will not be a convertible world currency and our dollar will be really mere paper.(See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

The Hypocrisy of Career/Job-Seeking Basics

There are basics for careers and job-seeking that I have commented on for some time. They include my comments on college attendance.

In short: You go to college if you’re a scholar. Otherwise it’s a waste of time and money.

Too many graduates find a college education does not qualify them for a decent job, so their career-path has to start from scratch once they’re out of school.

Where do they start? How do they begin a more practical plan? There are several options:

One: The best security option is a government job. Believe it or not, it will pay off in terms of better salary and better pension, despite the gibberish from politicians and unions. While not entirely in the public interest, governmental job sinecures will be for you, if that is what you want from a job career. And job demands may be the easiest, as the positions are often unionized; you will have a proverbial nanny in your corner at all times.

Two: The second option is a job in private enterprise. That requires lots of hustling, and resume usage, once you have a skill that employers want. And, of course,  you know how to market your ability.

Three: Should the job be of an exotic  or artistic  nature or variety, you will have to fight steep odds for success, especially if you do not have family or related connections. I’m referring to being an actor or an artist.

Jobs which you may get as an intern may pay minimum wage forever. That is if you are lucky to land that position in the first place, or get recognition.

Four: Another option is to be an entrepreneur. That has its major risks. As I have pointed out in my work, I suggest every one be a part-time entrepreneur, starting as soon as possible. 

Be careful; invest as little cash as possible to mitigate risk. That will prove a means of learning about business and possibly earning additional income, or possibly establishing a real business. (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

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Your Job Application Resume

1. How do you write a resume that gets results?
   
   To start: Always maintain contacts with sites such as LinkedIn where you can keep an updated profile that will be a basis of the resume you will be using.
   
   Before you write your resume, plan what you’re going to say and how.Try to be as terse as you can; keep the resume to one easily-read, typewritten page.
   
   Use essential keywords that nail what you want to convey about yourself. Think of your experience and what you have done in the past that would be of interest to your prospective employer.  If you have an advanced degree, show how it can be used by the employer. If you had excellent grades, mention it, especially if it covers the tasks required. Your degrees are useless unless they have given you a special leg-up you can use as a competitive edge.    
   
   Don’t falsify your records; sooner or later the truth will come out. And learn the difference between promoting your best assets and embellishing them. Above all, follow the employer’s application instructions.
   
   You can personalize your application with after-interview thank-you notes, handwritten, if short.(See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Does Everyone Have To have a House?

The need to have housing for everyone who wanted a home caused the sub-prime crisis of 2008-09.   U.S. politicians saw to it that their voters got what housing they wanted whether they could afford a home or not. The banks, stuck with the paper, did what bankers have to do, manage and sell that mortgage paper to investors in order to operate their business, while making a profit. And become a political scapegoat in the process.
This also leads to the question of present-day “affordable housing” when the markets are still disjointed by ancient, unwieldy codes and artificial building costs and wages.(See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole®comments.)

Educational Failings to Educate

The primary purpose of education is to teach a student to think, not to merely graduate and collect a degree. 

  By that standard, all current independent research and surveys have come to one conclusion. Education in the U.S., at all levels, from elementary school to high school, through college, has been a complete, dismal disaster. That is. for the students.


It has done extremely well for the “educators” who have given the latter term a new meaning.(See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)
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Torts Increase Health Insurance Costs

The neglected cost of tort reform in health insurance discussion is a subject that ObamaCare  intentionally glosses over because about 90% of lawyer political contributions go to one party.


Yet, the cost of malpractice insurance, and the need for tort reform to reduce cost, represents a major area for health insurance reform. It has not been directly addressed by ObamaCare, under which MDs can still be sued for malpractice. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

How About Government Doing Nothing to “Improve the Economy?

Remember, in the years from 1787 to the 1930s, the U.S. government did relatively little to remedy our cycles of both mild and severe financial downturns.
Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt thought that something had to be done to remedy natural economic facts of life. In the process of government manipulation, unemployment rose from 6%  to 20% over the next ten or so years. Ordinarily, the recession cycle  would have been over in a couple of years; instead we got the infamous Great Depression.
Our current Federal Reserve head, Ben Bernanke, is a student of the Great Depression. He has claimed to have been schooled to follow all the errors accomplished by the political leaders of that time. It seems he’s following similar Keynesian, easy money, free-spending, enabling, big-deficit mistakes.(See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Statistical Ambiguity and Hypocrisy

Further to a previous blog on cost-benefit analysis of environmental planning, which often fails, you can see the hypocrisy of the same folks on non-environmental social issues.

Affordable housing and its so-called rights or needs is one. The right to health care no matter one’s personal wealth to pay on his own behalf, is another. Food stamps to those who really are not needy but have some emotional requirement is yet another. 

There is absolutely no useful reason why some measures are adopted by government except that they help politicians appeal to mass voter emotions.(See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Cost-Benefit Analysis of Environmental Planning Often Fails

How much does it cost to get that last environmental toxin out of the environment, versus the use of the funds used elsewhere?

This exercise often shows how environmentalists fail to prove their case,  pushing for many of their reforms. To get the most exacting safety statistic they go to an extent of cost that makes the project unreasonable and impractical. Just one example is the way they go after the slightest benzine toxins in the air. (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Do You Understand What Trillion Dollar Deficits Really Represent?

As a financial/business observer with over 2,100 daily blogs, I have a pretty good idea of what turns folks on economically. Public sentiments usually have little concept of the impact of trillion-dollar deficits in this age of instant billionaires and mega-million entertainers and athletes. Accomplished, I may add, with little actual skills and elbow-grease.

There has to be a better way to make an educational impact on the average citizen, especially the youngsters who know little about economic struggle, even during these recessionary times.

An apt lesson to make an impact on how governmental deficits will empty their wallets and pocketbooks ought to be a repetitive slogan that teaches them a valuable thought they never get seriously elsewhere.

And that is: Trillion Dollar Deficits = Devastating Inflation; Have You Gone Shopping lately? Added with: Are you familiar with Europe's financial meltdown? (See Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Can You Profit From Cyber Chatter?

1. The media reports about use of chatter on cellphones and computers, as useful for the determination of securities market direction. Or for the fortune of individual companies and the future action of their stock market pricing. Some chatter effects have been studied as formal research.
   
   The media also has reported the results that purport such chatter can be useful as predictive stock market evaluation.
   
   I have looked at some of the claims as I have at other strategies and I still do not see any overwhelming evidence of any bonanza here. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)
   
   

Inventory Check on the Economy for Stock-Pickers

For would-be stock-pickers:

The inventory figures you may decide to check on individual companies, as an idea of where they are, or the overall economy stands. is not too accurate and therefore not too important an evaluation.

Look instead at “days-inventory-outstanding” or DIO. That is, the time it would take to eliminate the inventory, given the rate of current sales. (See Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Confusing Job Figures

The media quotes job figures to suit their own inclinations or political slants. So always be on your guard if you want accurate anlysis.

The media take numbers from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics or BLS, to suit their purpose. It’s like moving goal posts for a football game.

Fact: You can look instead at the participation rate of American workers, also issued by the BLS.

Fact: When folks drop out of the job market because there are no jobs, suddenly you have less unemployment. Thus, figures can convey a rosy point of view. Just as the political party in office may want.

Fact: There is an official unemployment rate vs the job-vacancy rate. There may well be job openings but no one around to fill those jobs. What’s the good. for example, of having skilled jobs with only unskilled workers around to fill them? (See Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

ObamaCare Costs

With all the talk about ObamaCare, it stands to reason that any government has a disadvantage in cutting costs. Politics finds it easier to hire than to fire. Voters you fire will not vote for you again. Politicians find it easier to overpay. Especially when government jobs are unionized.

Has any government ever run efficiently? The Post Office, for example?

Also: Let us consider our experience with Medicaid and Medicare. How they have botched efficiency and costs of that forerunner to ObamaCare.

If the cost of Medicaid and Medicare have gotten so far out of hand, beyond their original projections, how can we believe the health care savings fantasies of the future? (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

The Urgent Need for Unlikely Tort Reform

There’s a lot of talk about talk reform but don’t expect to see much of it. Mark that up to the fact that at least 90% of political donations goes to one national party in the U.S.; guess which one?

As a result, we are impacted with a health insurance program most Americans do not want, when health care cost can be sharply reduced, should there be tort reform.

Costs rise sharply when business has to protect against frivolous law suits. Those class actions where the “aggrieved” consumer gets compensated with a couple of bucks and the lawyers make millions.(See Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

When Should Your Business Self-Insure?

When you have to insure employees and you feel the insurance companies have become too expensive or are not efficient in pursuing claims (as in phony worker compensation claims) you may look at the possibility of self-insuring,

About half of companies with a minimum of 200 employees feel they have a large enough pool. About 80% of those with 1000 or more employees actually do. Many often hire consulting firms to assist them. The individual states have regulations that apply to such coverage (See Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Should You Buy Long-Term Health Care?

The issue of whether to buy long-term health care is an important one for all seniors approaching their fifties and sixties. It appears to be even more serious for those selling the policies and the media who comment on them, often quite incorrectly.

Most folks who buy them fail to realize a couple of facts:

1) The insurance companies can raise the premiums for an entire group as costs rise; they’re not in the business to lose money as is Uncle Sam.

2) The benefits paid cover only a fraction of the potential costs to be covered for only a limited time.

3) The insured does not get credit for earlier premiums paid; this is like payments for fire insurance where you have had no fire and not a life insurance policy that builds up equity.

There is a way to settle the question of buying: Those who can afford to self-insure for a possibility of needing long-term care are better off without a policy. Those who cannot afford it will eventually have to opt for a form of medicaid or assistance. (See Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.

It’s Wise to Read Up on Friedrich Hayek

Friedrich A. Hayek, who died in 1992, left an indelible mark on practical economics that makes lots of sense these days when so many young college grads, particularly, are so worried about social justice, that their reasoning is clouded to all else.

Hayek had much to say about the pursuit of “social justice” and how it affects the way government operates. Its historic end-product is redistribution of wealth where most everyone’s pocket is picked by a political elite in non-democratic fashion. (See Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

How Important is a Business College Degree?

The National Center for Education for 2008-2009 reported that about 22% or so of college majors are in business. About half as many, almost 11%, are in social science majors. The rest of those studies; under 10% are health and related courses; just under 8% are education; a bit more than 6% are psychology majors; and visual and performing arts about 5.5%.

My comments on courses other than business will be made at another time. But with a focus on business; what ought to be taught in the curriculum? Many believe not enough is done to get students to think creatively and to master business problems beyond the routine accounting and fundamental basics taught today.

I know the classic case studies promulgated by Harvard Business School can be useless in real life. There are basics and the rest is up to the individual. Apart from that business cannot be taught. (See Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

The Fed Solution to Inflation?

The Federal Reserve Bank policy under Alan Greenspan after the turn of the 21st Century, and under Ben Bernanke today, has always shown some fear of deflation, the kind that has engulfed Japan for well over twenty years. So the Fed always has had an inflation bias.

But why was deflation acceptable in the second half of the 19^th Century when the U. S. operated and expanded under the gold standard? Prices trended down for decades. The financial panics the U. S. experienced were relatively short.

And why must we have 2% or 3% inflation as a norm? That can hurt middle class savings over time? To make it worse, an International Monetary Fund economist has suggested a target inflationary rate of 4%, to make it easier to fight recessions by adjusting inflation rates. He deems today’s rates too low to be used as a recession-fighting tool. But even 2% inflation is a cruel tax. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

The Cap &Trade Environmental Fiasco

Cap & trade is a fad that appears to be past its heyday; good riddance that it is.

The movement is a politically-inspired anti-so-called -global warming tool that was created primarily as a means of having government get first dibs at funds which really were indirect taxes.

The market for such cap & trade “credits” developed in Europe where cap & trade was adopted by left-leaning governments. But in recent years the market has unravelled as China, India and the U.S., all major manufacturing power-houses, refused to participate. Cap & trade is an economic straitjacket. Even Europeans are now disillusioned with the concept. (See Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Bureaucratic Systems Never Seem To Work

Experience in following finance and observation of financial techniques, and use by bureaucrats and politicians should have taught us a genuine, basic lesson over the years. Centralized bureaucratic systems never work well, no matter how supposedly brilliant the individual members of the system may be.The centralization and the regulation become impossible to implement in an effective manner.

Friedrich Hayek commented on this extensively in the middle and later 20th century; his work ought to be read by every serious student of practical economics and observers of every-day government. (See Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

When Is The Best Time to Buy a Home?

Some pundits compare the historical cost of buying a home to renting instead, (Using the ratio of the price of a house to rent.)

But the measurement is not a precise indicator. All is relative. Were mortgage rates to go up, folks would opt to buy homes more quickly, despite what the pundits at the Federal Reserve now think. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Correcting the Shortage Of U.S. Doctors

With all the ObamaCare talk, we already have a shortage of doctors, particularly in primary care. This gets worse every year. Moreover, this occurs most rapidly where the government keeps restricting their income and adds to the workload.

While ObamaCare planning has doctors still subject to any alleged tort malfeasance.

Massachusetts, for example, covers 97% of its residents with enforced coverage, but it does not have enough doctors to accommodate the added insured that were put into the system. The average wait time to see a primary care MD is up to from 36 to 50 days. Yet, the state happens to have more of these doctors than others.

Furthermore, the shortage is expected to get worse through out the country, as doctor income is pressured downward, while workloads go up.

Doctors start careers in heavy debt and it is becoming more and more impossible for them to recoup that burden with present political thinking in this country.

Universal health care planning loses lots of its common sense regarding doctor employment. Without enough competent doctors, the best planning is useless.(See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Doctor Shortages Under ObamaCare?

Finding a doctor under ObamaCare will not be as easy as passing a law offering universal health insurance. You have to pay them a decent wage for the skills they have.

About 1,500,000 Canadians don’t have or cannot easily find a primary care physician. Because of a shortage in medical staff in Norwood, Ontario, in one instance, a TV video showed a town clerk pulling names of lucky winners to see a doctor in a lottery. Losers had to wait.

That’s only one reason many sick Canadians have come to America for surgery. Canadian officials call much of what we may consider essential surgery as “elective.”

Before we accept our system to emulate Canada’s or that of the British, or any other universal health coverage version, remember health coverage does not automatically mean health care.(See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Our Own Greece-Like Problem?

Under the Maastricht Treaty, leading to the European monetary union, budget deficits were limited to 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) and total debt was restricted to 60% of GDP.

However,Greece consistently cheated. France and Germany and others also broke the Treaty agreement in this regard.

Ben Bernanke, the head of the Federal Reserve Bank in the U. S., has said that total debt of 2% and 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) is sustainable, and we are now past that level. (The extraordinary Fannie Mae and Freddie Mae debt were not in the federal budget.) So why are we not headed down the same road to disaster? (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Medicine Supply and Demand

To make health coverage cheaper without government, increase supply to meet demand. And be alert to how it should NOT be done.

Add the number of patients but add more doctors. Developing disincentives for doctors to practice family medicine will not make medicine cheaper. You cannot legislate lower income for doctors and have more in the system. Driving out of business over 1,500 competing private insurance companies with onerous mandates will not reduce costs. Have insurance companies compete over state lines, which they presently are not permitted to do. That may even attract competition.

And remember, central board rationing of benefits under the guise of “suggesting” treatments that doctors ought to give, is not a proper way to reduce demand to meet supply.(See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

ObamaCare for Everyone?

All Amercans are getting medical help now? Yes, they do, even if destitute, when they go to ERs.

Should we tinker then with the entire health insurance system?

ObamaCare could have everything change. What we like today should be kept; what we would like corrected can be changed. The use of doctors and medical treatment, when we want it, and when we need it can be retained.

A solution: Give the poor uninsured a free membership card for private insurance of their choice. (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

America Adopt the Flawed European Economic Model?

Despite Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy in economic miasma, and France right behind, too many in America are hellbent on following the European economic example of deficit spending,

The belief that government spending produces jobs and that corrective reduction in that spending will cut jobs, persists in those countries. Yet the proof exists that the Keynesian philosophy they follow never works. It doesn’t work today and it didn’t do a thing for Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930s. It couldn’t save the Soviet Union or East Germany or any of the other vaunted socialist societies. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)