Small Business Health Insurance Update

I just returned from a meeting sponsored by the OKC Chamber of Commerce regarding the health insurance plan with Blue Cross that our company has used for the past many years.  Here are a few points of significance which came up for me as an employer and a consumer:

1)  The Chamber Choice Plans as we have known them since 2001 are not available as of January 2014.
2)  Insure Oklahoma Plans are still in place through 2014 and not part of the general state budget.
3)  There were two large firm lawyers and a couple of Blue Cross people fielding questions.  The lawyers seemed to get the most action I am sorry to say. 
4)  EVERY EMPLOYER'S SITUATION IS VERY DETAIL SPECIFIC AND THERE IS NO RULE OF THUMB OR EASY ONE-OFF ANSWERS.

Nobel Prize in Economics

Here are pictures of the 3 guys who shared the Nobel Prize in Economics this year.  Just to remind us of how fuzzy economics is the two guys on the left and right disagree with one another and the guy in the middle has math programs to explain the theories but no one really talks about him much since he doesn't disagree with the others. 

Mother Natures Way

So I went to a conference last week in Dallas where financial advisors from around the region gathered to discuss strategies for "High Performing Firms".  I was NOT enthusiastic about being there until Ren Cheng, PhD gave a kooky professor presentation on Systemic Risk.

Debt Ceiling Explained...Simply?

Here is a link to a video putting the Debt Ceiling in terms of an individual. While the video does help us think about the situation in more personal terms I can't be sure it is a fair comparison. Unlike the US Government and others, individual human citizens have a life expectancy and DO NOT have a printing press.