by Tom aka Rusty The Trouble with Cost Containment Long-term care facilities face multiple pressures thwarting cost containment attempts. The nursing homes have three types of patients: rehab: typically younger post orthopedic surgery or cardiac care, short stayjoint hospice patients: who are to be provided comfort care while dyingtrue long-term care residents: typically an 84 […]

by Rebecca Wilder The term of Brazil’s President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, concludes this year. During President Lula’s tenure, Brazil enjoyed stable monetary policy and strong economic growth. However, President Lula is likewise known for growing the size of Brazil’s government, for example, by adding over 300k government jobs. This translates into a 4.8% […]

(h/t Mudflats) Humor: This little video resonated with some of my thoughts on the MA Senate election and responses in the media. The little guy/gal is MA. Where the startle goes remains to be seen… Today is Bank Regulation day with Paul Volcker and the White House. And Health Insurance reform day is coming soon. […]

by Linda Beale Two “R”s in the news: Rachel Alexandra and Rudolf Elmer–Swiss banks, hedge funds? assist with tax evasionMaybe the world is looking up. A filly has won the Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year, by a whopping 130 votes to second runner Zenyatta’s 90 votes. I’ve always had a soft spot in […]

by Rebecca Wilder How are the data presented? At an annual, quarterly, monthly, or weekly frequency? At the onset of the New Year, you will undoubtedly see many charts illustrating records broken in 2009 using annual measures. This is always fun (from a data junkie’s point of view), but it only tells the reader where […]

AARP and Social Security Matters sent these messages: AARP: As early as today, your senators will vote on whether to allow the future of Social Security and Medicare to be decided by a commission without a public debate. Unless we can count on AARP supporters like you to flood their senators with calls right now […]

AFTER THE PARTYby Dale Coberly I wrote the following note to Bruce Krasting after our earlier exchange on Angry Bear. He sent the reply below, and agreed to have it be printed here with the disclaimer that it was not originally intended for publication. My reply to him is in comments, at his request. COBERLY […]

by cactus Taxes and Business Creation When you cut taxes, it leads to the creation of new businesses. By cutting taxes, people keep more of their hard earned money which gives them the resources to start new businesses. The cut in taxes also encourages people to take more risk knowing the fruit of their efforts […]