Private Equity Taking Over Main Street

 

Fork In The Road

At a recent conference in Nashville, Ed, a therapist, asked if i would drive him up the road to pick up some medication he needed since he left it at home.  Ed and I go a ways back and he is one of those people who is chock-full of intelligent humor and sweet and meaningful anecdotes.  Hence, the rest of the story about the Yogi Berra saying.  

The Wealth of a Nation

Adam Smith is often referred to as the father of modern capitalist economics. He was known to have said--"the decisions of individual owners to use their capital for their own gain, and of purchasers to buy for their own interests, would somehow be guided by an "invisible hand" to produce the greatest overall prosperity of society."
That was back in the day when money represented HUMAN productivity.  Needless to say our world financial systems have diverged from such a practical  measure.  Below is a clip from a piece that struck me as interesting, challenging and on some level bothersome.

Pain in the Back

The perfect follow-up to the last blog post on disability.  In the most recent Economist magazine this insert--sourced from the Lancet--shows the results from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation study on the burden of disability on countries.  The legend is as follows:

Disability "Insurance"--the REAL Thing

In the dental business--according to insurance companies--the number one cause of disability insurance claims is due to neck and back issues. Just imagine that you spend your entire day seated and leaning over a patient with at least a little tension in the room;-)  That seems like a prescription for some sort of physical therapy to counter the long-term potentially negative effects.  However, in my 33 years in business the most common solution is to buy disability insurance--which is more expensive than ever and not nearly as good as it used to be.  Recently, a dentist client asked 

Dying With Class and Leaking Oil

If everything goes as planned and you have a chance to do something like this at the end of life--WOW--what a way to go.  We have witnessed many families beautiful endings with loved ones.  If you choose to click on the video link below then you can see one families story.