Back To Basics In Banking
By Larry M. Elkin, CPA, CFP®
June 29, 2009
President Obama’s overhaul of the financial regulatory system promises to add a new flavor to consumer financial products: “plain vanilla.” A requirement that banks and other lenders offer a basic mortgage plan with simple and straightforward terms is part of the administration’s sweeping plan to reform government oversight of financial services in the wake of last [...]
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June 29, 2009
President Obama’s overhaul of the financial regulatory system promises to add a new flavor to consumer financial products: “plain vanilla.” A requirement that banks and other lenders offer a basic mortgage plan with simple and straightforward terms is part of the administration’s sweeping plan to reform government oversight of financial services in the wake of last [...]
To read the complete post, click here.
113 view(s)
Where Are The Bats?
By Larry M. Elkin, CPA, CFP®
June 26, 2009
Our bats are missing in action. The small clearing behind our Vermont vacation house is a neighborhood diner for little brown bats, the area’s most common species. Two to six of the creatures customarily show up at dusk every spring and summer evening, doing their part to keep a lid on the local population of flying [...]
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136 view(s)
June 26, 2009
Our bats are missing in action. The small clearing behind our Vermont vacation house is a neighborhood diner for little brown bats, the area’s most common species. Two to six of the creatures customarily show up at dusk every spring and summer evening, doing their part to keep a lid on the local population of flying [...]
To read the complete post, click here.
136 view(s)
Hard Times For Hezbollah
By Larry M. Elkin, CPA, CFP®
June 25, 2009
Hezbollah has had a rotten month. It started with the generally positive reception generated by U.S. President Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo. Obama quoted the Koran and promised an evenhanded U.S. approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, into which Lebanon-based Hezbollah has injected itself. A few days after Obama’s speech, Hezbollah was drubbed in the Lebanese parliamentary elections, [...]
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115 view(s)
June 25, 2009
Hezbollah has had a rotten month. It started with the generally positive reception generated by U.S. President Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo. Obama quoted the Koran and promised an evenhanded U.S. approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, into which Lebanon-based Hezbollah has injected itself. A few days after Obama’s speech, Hezbollah was drubbed in the Lebanese parliamentary elections, [...]
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Why Public And Private Health Insurance Cannot Coexist
By Larry M. Elkin, CPA, CFP®
June 24, 2009
President Obama does not buy the argument that a government-run health insurance program would drive private insurers out of the business. He ought to think about Medicare. Since Medicare was enacted in 1965 to insure elderly Americans, comprehensive private insurance for that segment of the population has disappeared. There are plans that cover items that Medicare does [...]
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141 view(s)
June 24, 2009
President Obama does not buy the argument that a government-run health insurance program would drive private insurers out of the business. He ought to think about Medicare. Since Medicare was enacted in 1965 to insure elderly Americans, comprehensive private insurance for that segment of the population has disappeared. There are plans that cover items that Medicare does [...]
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141 view(s)
Taxing Health Insurance Benefits
By Larry M. Elkin, CPA, CFP®
June 23, 2009
Being an employer of about 20 full-time staff in three states makes me look at health care reform differently than most people do. My dilemma: If Congress raises the cost of health benefits to me and to my employees, is it fair for me to insist that everyone be covered? Palisades Hudson currently pays the full [...]
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191 view(s)
June 23, 2009
Being an employer of about 20 full-time staff in three states makes me look at health care reform differently than most people do. My dilemma: If Congress raises the cost of health benefits to me and to my employees, is it fair for me to insist that everyone be covered? Palisades Hudson currently pays the full [...]
To read the complete post, click here.
191 view(s)
Waiting For Life To Go On
By Larry M. Elkin, CPA, CFP®
June 22, 2009
As the winter’s meltdown recedes, financial markets have gotten over their worries about Armageddon. Now they are waiting for evidence that life really does go on. Most stock markets around the world retreated last week, many for the first time in more than a month, while commodity prices also softened. Meanwhile the dollar reversed course and [...]
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126 view(s)
June 22, 2009
As the winter’s meltdown recedes, financial markets have gotten over their worries about Armageddon. Now they are waiting for evidence that life really does go on. Most stock markets around the world retreated last week, many for the first time in more than a month, while commodity prices also softened. Meanwhile the dollar reversed course and [...]
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126 view(s)
Gays Get Choosier About Their Friends
By Larry M. Elkin, CPA, CFP®
June 19, 2009
Bill Clinton reached out to America’s homosexual community. Then, as president, he refused to let gays in uniform come out of the closet, and he signed the Defense of Marriage Act (DoMA) that denies federal recognition to same-sex marriages and supports states that ignore such marriages, too. Barack Obama has reached out to gays as well. [...]
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180 view(s)
June 19, 2009
Bill Clinton reached out to America’s homosexual community. Then, as president, he refused to let gays in uniform come out of the closet, and he signed the Defense of Marriage Act (DoMA) that denies federal recognition to same-sex marriages and supports states that ignore such marriages, too. Barack Obama has reached out to gays as well. [...]
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180 view(s)
Protect Us From Our Protection
By Larry M. Elkin, CPA, CFP®
June 18, 2009
Health insurance is supposed to provide you with the assurance that if you have a medical emergency, you won’t be crushed by debt as well. But what if your insurance company drops your policy just when you really need it? Jennifer Wittney Horton of Los Angeles told a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee this week that [...]
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141 view(s)
June 18, 2009
Health insurance is supposed to provide you with the assurance that if you have a medical emergency, you won’t be crushed by debt as well. But what if your insurance company drops your policy just when you really need it? Jennifer Wittney Horton of Los Angeles told a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee this week that [...]
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141 view(s)
Civil Cyberwar In Iran
By Larry M. Elkin, CPA, CFP®
June 17, 2009
As Iran’s hard-line government struggles to put down post-election protests, we may be seeing the first example of a civil war fought in cyberspace. On the streets the situation is nowhere near civil war, at least not yet. Though crowds reported to be in the hundreds of thousands marched Monday in Tehran to protest the allegedly [...]
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126 view(s)
June 17, 2009
As Iran’s hard-line government struggles to put down post-election protests, we may be seeing the first example of a civil war fought in cyberspace. On the streets the situation is nowhere near civil war, at least not yet. Though crowds reported to be in the hundreds of thousands marched Monday in Tehran to protest the allegedly [...]
To read the complete post, click here.
126 view(s)
Congressional Kangaroos Hold Court
June 30, 2009
The kangaroos are holding court on Capitol Hill, where a House committee suspects Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke of preventing another economic train wreck. Bernanke was perp-walked last week in televised hearings that explored his role in the acquisition of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America. (In case you don’t know the term, a perp walk [...]
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