Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
That's one man's opinion. (Likely many others' as well, given the crickets whenever this is mentioned.)
A downside of linking to printer-friendly versions is that one must manually navigate to the non-print-friendly version in order to see people'…
Given the suggestion that there weren't serious arguments raised in favor of medical underwriting, I went back to look at objections raised when the ACA was being debated. Sure enough, lots to be found. Here's one summary I found of the discourse…
"Basing premiums on how much you will cost. The way floodplain insurance should be."
So you're not objecting to pricing insurance based on actuarial cost in principle.
"Should healthcare costing be so set, naturally? I've never seen that argument …
Lewis: Good morning Lewis, it's called online shipping ! Here are a dozen more closings.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.clark.com/major-retailers-closing-2017
Closings represent only one side of the ledger. Sometimes a store moves down the street. O…
The decline of retailing, or at least middle class retailing, has been going on for decades. Some of the upper middle class stores went further upscale, other middle class retailers went downscale or bust. IMHO online shopping just accelerated the …
Vanguard says that it sells its funds "at cost". But what would you say if Vanguard sold some funds a bit above cost in order to price other funds below cost? Vanguard actually does this, to stay competitive. (There's a Bogle speech or intervie…
I think I see where people are getting confused with 401(k)s. VF gave too much info.
Wife made non-deductible contribution to "piddly IRA". That's the current state of affairs, it doesn't matter how she got there.
The back story (which is i…
I think you mean non-deductible contributions. In Roth IRA leagalize, "qualified" generally refers to "distributions" (withdrawals). Distributions are said to be qualified if they meet the five year rules and you're over 59.5 or meet some except…
The link is a nice try, but is talking about something different - money in employer-sponsored plans (e.g. 401(k)s). With all due respect to LLJB, I think you might be advised to ignore it, at least for now. Especially given your question asking…
FWIW, I got a response from the broker on the wash sale. Chalk another one up to "the customer is always wrong" attitude.
As I explained, here and in writing to the broker, the clearing house Pershing said there was a wash sale because replacement…
That's an interesting question. My gut says very important. One factoid: the largest employer in several states is a health care company.
Delaware: Christiana Care Health System
Idaho: St. Luke’s Health System
Indiana (sort of): Indiana Unive…
Still don't have the time for a good edit, and since OJ finds my post readable, and DRM finds it mostly obvious (so I'd assume not worth the read regardless of length), I'll defer editing.
Maybe you haven't read about actuarial fairness, but it's j…
Long post. Please bear with me, I'm trying to lay thoughts out in a more expository manner. First, shorter part, addresses some definitional questions. Second part goes into objectives, design, problems.
Got to dash before taking time to trim.…
Those rhetorically handy reciprocals.
This seems weak analogizing:
'begrudge property taxes being used for schools if the only people being taxed were those living in even numbered homes. That's what is happening here',
as if in this market cap…
Actuarially fair. "From a consumer's point of view, an insurance contract is actuarially fair if the premiums paid are equal to the expected value of the compensation received."
I would begrudge property taxes being used for schools if the only pe…
For those who gave up on the WSJ after Murdoch eviscerated it, here's the same column without a paywall:
http://conservativeread.com/steve-bannon-and-the-making-of-an-economic-nationalist/
If it took 2008 for the senior Bannon to notice that T wasn…
Fidelity sure doesn't make it easy to figure out which funds it is talking about. The second supplement is obviously for its Advisor A, B, C, and T class shares, while the third is for the Advisor I class. The first is apparently FINPX, which i…
That is an excellent overview. Much of it discusses political realities. I'd like to call attention to Lesson 1, and briefly Lessons 6 and 7, as they are more about the ACA itself.
Lessons 6 and 7 talk about bending the cost curve. They say som…
There is a lot of play in most figures, because of large uncertainties (check the size of those error bars), because of different assumptions being made (which are almost never discussed), because frankly people are not 100% rational consumers.
I…
A minor update on the Medicaid portion of coverage: "Out of the 20 million people who have gained insurance under the law [ACA], about 14.5 million received coverage through Medicaid, 3.3 million of whom were previously eligible."
https://www.nytim…
Many people seem to think that you need to buy an annuity (and a high priced one at that) to get an equity-linked fixed investment. Maybe that's because principal is guaranteed and annuities are marketed as protecting principal.
But there's anoth…
Mr. Jetson, I think I'll wait for the version that folds into an attache case.
Just one megawatt of power? Wimp. 0.1% of a DeLorean - of course that needs a Mr. Fusion fuel cell. Batteries extra. Void where prohibited by law.
:-)
Have a b…
Oh it's not really a desire to spend more on the military. It's just an excuse for cutting out NEA, NEH, CPB, etc. (That's a joke in multiple senses.)
https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2017/01/19/report-trump-administration-plans-to-privatize-cpb-cut-ne…
The repeal would reduce the federal budget deficit by $337 billion over 10 years. Most of that would be the result of a stunning $880-billion reduction in Medicaid outlays
Interesting decision to use the word "most". Gross reductions come also fro…
The latter figure is wrong or at least misleading, because tax subsidies would not be eliminated but changed in form.
The old (ACA) subsidies (refundable tax credits and cost sharing subsidies) do comprise most of a $673B savings, and these form…
We'll hope for the best. That said, one line from Blackrock caught my eye as an excuse they're already teeing up:
BlackRock stopped short of pledging to vote more often against companies' management. It said it still prefers private meetings with …
I got a hard copy description in the mail today.
I've never understood what the difference is between services like this (offered by TRP or any other fund family at no cost) that allocates among house funds, and asset allocation funds (e.g. TRP's S…
I'd be more comfortable if congress was getting the same HC as us.
Define "us". 49% of "us" get our health care through our employer. Some of us get that through large employers who still purchase "traditional" group plans. Others work for s…
That's not quite ANALogous, not unless Gundlach were to rate funds from over 150 companies, over 1000 funds in all, like M*. If all Gundlach did was comment on a competitor's funds, there would wouldn't be two competing interests to conflict. His…
Those are nice Kiplinger tables (data from M*). Be careful with the top figures though, because funds often have multiple share classes.
For example, it says the top 3 year performer was DSENX, but DSEEX performed about 1/4% better. That's as…
Or as VBS (Vanguard Brokerage Services) customers might ask, what service?
Disclaimer: I'm just repeating others. I've never used VBS, though I do hold Vanguard funds directly at Vanguard and don't have service issues.
The article mentions pric…
You'll find my comments on the Investment News page. In short, M* has been selling advisers "managed portfolios" for years. They had been picking funds and allocations on paper, leaving it to the advisers to buy.
All this seems to be doing i…
The article notes that one of the conservative desires was to eliminate the employer tax deduction for health care, but that didn't make it into the bill (though the Cadillac tax was not eliminated). This is one of the ideas floating around that I…
fascinating graphics and analysis on the current state:
https://t.co/WfM8orEPl8
Three times the number of people who pay full freight have no coverage at all. Here's KFF's data page showing its latest data (2015). The figures don't change much f…
I will also note that fees always have a negative impact on investor returns. ... Mutual fund managers never have a losing year when their funds have negative years, the investor does. ER is paid regardless as to whether the investor subtract the fe…
And yet the article complains about12b-1 fees (which are already accounted for in the ERs). If expenses don't matter, then why complain about a fee?
The article is short and doesn't describe how the study was done. (The non-print version doesn't…
Spicer's comment (paraphrase) was: sure it would be nice to get support from lots of groups, but it's not about paying off lots of beltway groups to get their buy-in. We [Trump et al.] are working for the American people, not these groups.
Oh, he …
>>forgive thickness, but not seeing how ...
Regardless of whether you see how, Shiller does. The index removes one of the five lowest CAPE sectors due to fear of a value trap (low momentum remaining low). If one of the ten sectors that ou…
A fair number of funds have similar strategies (though they're often tied to the S&P 500 index or something else less "esoteric" than the CAPE index).
The idea is not the the bonds moderate the volatility, but that they enhance returns. That …
That's the supposed Planned Parenthood "defunding". On the plus side, it's "only" for a year. On the minus side, it affects all healthcare providers, not just PP. (Otherwise it would look like a bill of attainder, albeit not criminalizing anyt…
