Prescription Drug Costs in the U.S. Are a Crime - Bloomberg
...Another way to boost competition would be to let people and pharmacies import some drugs from other countries with sound pharmaceutical regulation, such as Canada.
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
Friday, February 23, 2018
The Two Words That Will Help Get an Airline Upgrade Over the Phone - Bloomberg
The Two Words That Will Help Get an Airline Upgrade Over the Phone - Bloomberg
...We have never bought an upper-class seat; if ever we’ve flown anywhere up front, we’ve used miles to upgrade from economy. If you want to do that, call reservations and drop the name “revenue management.”...‘Have revenue management released any first-class seats for miles upgrades yet?’ When they say no, ask them to check or just be put through to revenue management so you can ask when they will release some, as well as how many seats are left. Politely respond like this: ‘You have 20 seats unsold? Why aren’t you releasing them?’ Often by the end of the conversation they say, ‘OK, we’ll release one for you,’ or they might tell you to call back tomorrow. Doing that, we’ve had a pretty much 100 percent success rate.
...We have never bought an upper-class seat; if ever we’ve flown anywhere up front, we’ve used miles to upgrade from economy. If you want to do that, call reservations and drop the name “revenue management.”...‘Have revenue management released any first-class seats for miles upgrades yet?’ When they say no, ask them to check or just be put through to revenue management so you can ask when they will release some, as well as how many seats are left. Politely respond like this: ‘You have 20 seats unsold? Why aren’t you releasing them?’ Often by the end of the conversation they say, ‘OK, we’ll release one for you,’ or they might tell you to call back tomorrow. Doing that, we’ve had a pretty much 100 percent success rate.
There is a two-step calming ritual for nervous flyers, and Bagshawe s
Thursday, February 22, 2018
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
Euro Zone Countries Viewed the Financial Crisis Differently - Bloomberg
Euro Zone Countries Viewed the Financial Crisis Differently - Bloomberg
...It's as if the euro area's four biggest economies didn't share a reality. The four quality dailies resemble the blind men in the Indian parable, feeling different parts of an elephant's body, declaring the whole animal should look like a tree or a snake, then coming to blows when they can't agree...but the difference in narratives were more likely to be driven by the relationship between the papers and their readers -- that is, in the final analysis, by public opinion.
...
...It's as if the euro area's four biggest economies didn't share a reality. The four quality dailies resemble the blind men in the Indian parable, feeling different parts of an elephant's body, declaring the whole animal should look like a tree or a snake, then coming to blows when they can't agree...but the difference in narratives were more likely to be driven by the relationship between the papers and their readers -- that is, in the final analysis, by public opinion.
...
Mueller's Indictment of Russian Trolls May Backfire - Bloomberg
Mueller's Indictment of Russian Trolls May Backfire - Bloomberg
....As economist Konstantin Sonin, a University of Chicago professor, posted on Facebook, "I still don't see a mechanism through which an operation on a $5 million scale can seriously affect the outcome of a campaign in which one side spent $600 million and the other more than $1 billion."
....As economist Konstantin Sonin, a University of Chicago professor, posted on Facebook, "I still don't see a mechanism through which an operation on a $5 million scale can seriously affect the outcome of a campaign in which one side spent $600 million and the other more than $1 billion."
Tuesday, February 20, 2018
Blame IQ Tests for the Student Debt Problem | Mauldin Economics
Blame IQ Tests for the Student Debt Problem | Mauldin Economics
(more on the world of unintended consequences)
...So why is college the key to gainful employment? It hasn’t always been so.
Photo: Getty Images
(more on the world of unintended consequences)
...So why is college the key to gainful employment? It hasn’t always been so.
It’s because employers require a degree as job qualification... and that’s partly the fault of IQ tests.
Photo: Getty Images
Unreasonable Tests
In 1971, the US Supreme Court decided a case called Griggs vs. Duke Power Co. The subject was employment requirements.
Duke’s practice—and many other companies at the time—was to give job applicants an IQ test. Supposedly, this let them hire qualified people, but some companies also used tests to discriminate by race. The 1964 Civil Rights Act banned pre-employment tests that were not “a reasonable measure of job performance.”
The court ruled that Duke’s tests were too broad and not directly related to the jobs performed, which made them illegal.
Furthermore, the court said employers had the burden of proving employment tests were necessary for business purposes and not racially discriminatory. That’s hard to prove, so many US companies stopped using pre-employment tests at all.
That left a problem, though. How were employers supposed to evaluate job applicants without illegally discriminating?
As Some Got Free Health Care, Gwen Got Squeezed: An Obamacare Dilemma - The New York Times
As Some Got Free Health Care, Gwen Got Squeezed: An Obamacare Dilemma - The New York Times
...the law is far more generous to the poor and near poor than the middle class.
...“Democrats have begun to recognize the political costs of playing into the narrative that they only care about the poor,” ...
...About 25,000 New Hampshire residents paid full freight for Obamacare plans last year,
...Another 29,000 were getting subsidized coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplace, and many of them have seen their out-of-pocket costs drop this year.
... About 53,000 are getting free Medicaid coverage ...
...Medicaid platinum, silver for the rest,” read a recent headline in The Union Leader, New Hampshire’s largest newspaper. The story was about a report that found Medicaid recipients used health care more aggressively than marketplace customers, presumably because their coverage was free.
...Even members of her own family take advantage of a flawed system, in her view, by getting Medicaid. “They don’t work because they don’t want to, and they get free health insurance.”
...the law is far more generous to the poor and near poor than the middle class.
...“Democrats have begun to recognize the political costs of playing into the narrative that they only care about the poor,” ...
...About 25,000 New Hampshire residents paid full freight for Obamacare plans last year,
...Another 29,000 were getting subsidized coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplace, and many of them have seen their out-of-pocket costs drop this year.
... About 53,000 are getting free Medicaid coverage ...
...Medicaid platinum, silver for the rest,” read a recent headline in The Union Leader, New Hampshire’s largest newspaper. The story was about a report that found Medicaid recipients used health care more aggressively than marketplace customers, presumably because their coverage was free.
...Even members of her own family take advantage of a flawed system, in her view, by getting Medicaid. “They don’t work because they don’t want to, and they get free health insurance.”
Monday, February 19, 2018
Billionaire Richard Branson Unveils Hyperloop Plans for India - Bloomberg
Billionaire Richard Branson Unveils Hyperloop Plans for India - Bloomberg
...Virgin Hyperloop One, which has been testing in Nevada with speeds reaching 240 miles an hour, is working to meet a goal of having three production systems in service by 2021, according to its website. The startup is working on technology that would use magnetic levitation in low-pressure tubes to transport people and goods at airplane-like speeds.
...Virgin Hyperloop One, which has been testing in Nevada with speeds reaching 240 miles an hour, is working to meet a goal of having three production systems in service by 2021, according to its website. The startup is working on technology that would use magnetic levitation in low-pressure tubes to transport people and goods at airplane-like speeds.
Sunday, February 18, 2018
Ray Dalio's Short Puzzle for Bridgewater Is Missing Some Pieces - Bloomberg
Ray Dalio's Short Puzzle for Bridgewater Is Missing Some Pieces - Bloomberg
U.S. companies have done even better than the U.S. economy in recent years. Earnings per share for the S&P 500 Index have grown by 9.7 percent a year from 2010 to 2017, or real growth of 8 percent.
Here’s the disconnect, however: Unlike U.S. companies, those in the Euro Stoxx 50 have performed horribly. Their revenue declined 1.3 percent annually from 2010 to 2017. They eked out earnings growth of 0.3 percent a year thanks to cost cutting.
U.S. companies have done even better than the U.S. economy in recent years. Earnings per share for the S&P 500 Index have grown by 9.7 percent a year from 2010 to 2017, or real growth of 8 percent.
Here’s the disconnect, however: Unlike U.S. companies, those in the Euro Stoxx 50 have performed horribly. Their revenue declined 1.3 percent annually from 2010 to 2017. They eked out earnings growth of 0.3 percent a year thanks to cost cutting.
Saturday, February 17, 2018
Friday, February 16, 2018
Supertall Towers Are Driving an Elevator Revolution - Bloomberg
Supertall Towers Are Driving an Elevator Revolution - Bloomberg
Kone won the 57-elevator Jeddah contract, the details of which are closely guarded, in part because of its invention of UltraRope.
...Kone’s inventions have helped it become Finland’s largest nonfinancial enterprise.
...But one area where the company has lagged is speed.
Kone won the 57-elevator Jeddah contract, the details of which are closely guarded, in part because of its invention of UltraRope.
...Kone’s inventions have helped it become Finland’s largest nonfinancial enterprise.
...But one area where the company has lagged is speed.
...No matter how quickly elevators go up, they all have to come down at about the same speed—no more than about 10 meters per second—because the inner ear doesn’t adjust to descent as well as to ascent. And then there’s another constraint that Fortune says companies don’t like to talk about: bladder compression. “Older people can wet their pants if they come down too fast,”
Thursday, February 15, 2018
Putin Is Struggling to Keep His Wars Separate - Bloomberg
Putin Is Struggling to Keep His Wars Separate - Bloomberg
...Russians are engaged in two wars today. One is being fought by regular troops for the geopolitical priorities of the Kremlin. The other involves mercenaries seeking commercial profit. The line between the two wars isn't as blurry as it might seem. But there is, at times, a bit of an overlap.
...The outsized role of mercenaries in Russia's conflicts isn't just about deniability. It's basically an extension of the freelancing culture that has thrived under Putin in Russia's law enforcement agencies, with intelligence services using mobs and hiring black-hat hackers for odd jobs that hold the promise of side revenue.
...Russians are engaged in two wars today. One is being fought by regular troops for the geopolitical priorities of the Kremlin. The other involves mercenaries seeking commercial profit. The line between the two wars isn't as blurry as it might seem. But there is, at times, a bit of an overlap.
...The outsized role of mercenaries in Russia's conflicts isn't just about deniability. It's basically an extension of the freelancing culture that has thrived under Putin in Russia's law enforcement agencies, with intelligence services using mobs and hiring black-hat hackers for odd jobs that hold the promise of side revenue.
Friday, February 9, 2018
Thursday, February 8, 2018
SpaceX Stuns the World - Bloomberg
SpaceX Stuns the World - Bloomberg
..At $90 million per launch, the Falcon Heavy will be able to carry twice the payload of its nearest competitor for about one-fifth the cost.
..At $90 million per launch, the Falcon Heavy will be able to carry twice the payload of its nearest competitor for about one-fifth the cost.
Tuesday, February 6, 2018
A Driverless Future Threatens the Laws of Real Estate - Bloomberg
A Driverless Future Threatens the Laws of Real Estate - Bloomberg
...Google parent Alphabet Inc. has imagined such a world in an autonomous-only future.
...Google parent Alphabet Inc. has imagined such a world in an autonomous-only future.
Sidewalks Labs, Alphabet’s urban-development unit, is designing a district in Toronto’s eastern waterfront that could be among the first fully driverless neighborhoods.
...Truckers’ adoption of self-driving vehicles could have a big impact on industrial land values, according to Bill Page, business space research manager at Legal & General Group Plc’s investment-management unit.
In the U.K., areas that have been most popular for delivery companies, like the so-called golden triangle in center of the country, may take a hit since there will no longer be limits on drivers’ shifts. Companies such as Amazon.com have to set up in the area, which is uniquely within a single shift drive from most everywhere in Britain, pushing up rents for warehouses in the region....
...“In the U.S., an entire network of truck stops, motels and gas stations could fall in value if vehicles no longer need drivers.”...
...“You see it in the retail space—there’s death and destruction in the U.S. on something that’s been known forever but is finally coming home to roost.”
Monday, February 5, 2018
Here’s the Trump Tax Loophole Your Accountant Can Blow Wide Open - Bloomberg
Here’s the Trump Tax Loophole Your Accountant Can Blow Wide Open - Bloomberg
One strategy being discussed is to combine diverse businesses into a single entity. Let’s say you’re an accountant who also invests in real estate, managing hotels and other properties. Depending on how the IRS writes the regulations, it might make sense to put everything in one company, according to Richard Kollauf, director of wealth services at BMO Private Bank.
Instead of appearing to the IRS to be an accountant -- a service-based profession that wouldn’t qualify for the pass-through break over the income limit -- you look more like a real estate magnate, who would qualify because of large capital investments.
Or, if your business makes the majority of its money through your service profession, the opposite strategy could work. By breaking different businesses apart, service business owners could have at least some of their income qualify for the pass-through deduction. A medical practice might do a fair amount of debt collection or other back-office support. Those divisions could be spun off into a separate “management company,” which could qualify for the break.
Sunday, February 4, 2018
Saturday, February 3, 2018
Friday, February 2, 2018
GOP Releases Disputed Memo Saying FBI Misled Judge in Trump Case - Bloomberg
GOP Releases Disputed Memo Saying FBI Misled Judge in Trump Case - Bloomberg
...The Republicans say a judge might not have approved the request for surveillance of Page if the FBI had revealed that Trump’s campaign opponent, Hillary Clinton, and Democrats helped fund research by a former British spy, Christopher Steele, that produced a dossier of unverified allegations against Trump that was used in seeking the warrant.
...The Republicans say a judge might not have approved the request for surveillance of Page if the FBI had revealed that Trump’s campaign opponent, Hillary Clinton, and Democrats helped fund research by a former British spy, Christopher Steele, that produced a dossier of unverified allegations against Trump that was used in seeking the warrant.
Thursday, February 1, 2018
Some Trades Are Shady, Not All Are Illegal - Bloomberg
Some Trades Are Shady, Not All Are Illegal - Bloomberg
... “If you have information that you know is nonpublic and material, but you have no duty to keep quiet, it’s in the category of information you overhear in a taxi,” says Stephen Crimmins, a former SEC enforcement lawyer who now works for Murphy & McGonigle. “You can trade on it.”
... “If you have information that you know is nonpublic and material, but you have no duty to keep quiet, it’s in the category of information you overhear in a taxi,” says Stephen Crimmins, a former SEC enforcement lawyer who now works for Murphy & McGonigle. “You can trade on it.”
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