Nobrainer’s Think Tank

Creative accounting…

Congressional budget scorekeepers say a Medicare fix that Democrats included in earlier versions of their health care bill would push it into the red…

The so-called doc fix was part of the original House bill. Because of its high cost, Democrats decided to pursue it separately. Republicans say the cost should not be ignored. Congress has usually waived the cuts to doctors year by year.

And rosy assumptions:

There has been a lot of talk lately about the CBO scoring of the health bill. Here is one thing people should understand about their numbers: When they estimate the budget impact of a bill like this, they assume the path of GDP is unchanged.

Recall that the bill raises taxes substantially. Some of these tax hikes are the explicit tax increases on capital income to pay for the insurance subsidies. Some of these tax hikes are the implicit marginal rate increases from the phase-out of the insurance subsidies as a person’s income rises. Both of these would be expected to reduce GDP growth.

Indeed, to be very wonkish about it, these tax changes could have especially large GDP effects. Some people like to argue that taxes have small GDP effects because income and substitution effects offset each other. But if you give someone a subsidy and then phase it out, both the income and substitution effects work in the direction of reducing work effort.

While washing my hands in a McDonald’s restroom the other day, it dawned on me why so many places are switching to foamy hand soap. I reckoned it isn’t happening because the foamy soap is generally nicer, it’s that it induces people to use less soap and thus saves companies money. And as a google search revealed, I was correct, but the advantages don’t stop there.

From WiseGeek

For manufacturers, the advantage of foam soap is that they do not need to make as much soap. They argue that foam soap is also easier to lather, encouraging people to use soap properly, and that since many people overuse soap, foam soap dispenses a more appropriate amount of soap for basic hand washing needs. Foam soap is also thinner, making the dispensers less prone to clogging.

From Parrish-Supply

You’ll get significantly more Handwashings out of the Foam Soap System than traditional liquid soap dispensers. Foam Soap combined with the dispenser will create a powerful cleaning system. Air is infused into the soap as it’s dispensed creating a rich, luxurious lather. Just ONE push delivers a generous portion of foam. The volume of lather feels so satisfying in users’ hands that they don’t need a second push.

As the chart shows, you actually get more than two-times as many pushes per unit volume with foam soap. So you not only end up with a product that’s more appealing to the customer, but one that uses less to begin with and encourages still encourages people to be less wasteful. What an invention!

From NYT:

If large majorities of Americans favor increased government support for clean energy, as polls suggest, why are so many people reluctant to back such programs when it comes to paying extra themselves?

I won’t call that a stupid question. But I will call supremely ignorant any adult who can’t figure out the answer in under 2 milliseconds.

• I’m becoming convinced that Maryland is home to the worst drivers in the country.
• In my new house I chose FiOS over Cox. The internet has been working well, but I haven’t seen a difference VS Cox (not that I’ve really tried or bothered to benchmark it or anything). The only problem is that the Verizon DNS doesn’t find my work intranet. Fortunately that was easily fixed by telling my router to use OpenDNS.

  Unfortunately I can’t comment on the FiOS TV selections. Long story short, I’ve been seeking permission to install cable jacks in the rooms where I put my TVs and my property management company, which is apparently run by people who are under-qualified to be employed as trained monkeys, has yet to be able to get approval from the owner for those installations (They are also yet to remove the “For Rent” sign, or remove the Realtor’s lockbox from the front door, or have anyone fix a leaky sink).

• I was compelled to install Google Chrome this week after one of my favorite work-related web-pages quit working after I upgraded Firefox. It’s definitely a slick little browser, but I don’t see it replacing Firefox as my default any time soon. It has replaced Safari as my backup work browser, however. (No I didn’t try Opera… I’m just not hardcore geek enough to “get” Opera).
• I’ve also been using Bing more and more, but I have yet to see how it is drastically better than Google. Although Bing Cashback is probably going to get a lot more attention from me as I start to buy presents for Christmas.
• I’m also getting close to pulling the trigger and buying myself a Palm Pre. I was leaning toward getting one after my most recent flights and my desire to be better able to access the internet in the airport. And I was almost to the point of buying one when I found out that Sprint has unlimited data plans that start at $69.99 rather than at $99.99. I have yet to purchase the phone for two reasons. The first has to do with my inept property managers. Because of their ineptness, my roomates and I have been unable to fill our fourth bedroom and therefore I don’t want to sign on to a higher monthly phone bill since my housing bills are higher than I had budgeted them to be. Secondly, I realized that after a while the price tag of the Pre will fall down from the $200 it is now to something more reasonable and that if I’m going to have to wait anyway, that I might as well wait a little longer.
• One more thing, as some of you know I’ve been playing softball all summer in two different leagues. I hadn’t realized how used to a softball I had become until I just found a baseball lying around. Now a baseball seems so tiny… but it still seems right.

PS - The DC Clemson Alumni softball team is much better at drinking than it is at playing softball. That is all.

The treatment of IRAs is changing in 2010, and from what I’ve read, the new rules could be a boon for those who like the Roth IRA but find themselves locked out by income limits.

Right now, you’re only able to convert a traditional IRA to a Roth if your adjusted gross income is less than $100,000. However, in 2010, this limit is scheduled to be lifted, and the Roth IRA option will be available to almost anyone with earned income.

By converting to a Roth IRA in 2010, you’ll spread any taxable income created by the conversion evenly across 2011 and 2012, unless you choose to recognize the income in 2010. Keep in mind that when you convert, all pre-tax contributions and earnings will be subject to taxation at ordinary income tax rates.

I believe this means that if you are locked out the Roth IRA for 2009, you can effectively contribute to a Roth by simply contributing to a regular IRA in 2009, not claim it as a deduction, then roll it into a Roth in 2010.

There’s a chance, and talk to your favorite tax/finance professional to make sure, that you could contribute to both the Roth (if you meet the income requirements) and the regular IRA in 2009 and then roll the regular over in 2010 to effectively double the annual contribution limit.

Yesterday I happened across an editorial from a socialist. The argument was that Con Edison, a privately owned company was failing the electricity users of New York City and that there is a clear solution. That Con Ed is a joke is not a new argument, and I try not to defend them, but in this case the argument was spelled out thusly:

1) Con Ed is a regulated utility that operates with a government granted local monopoly that people cannot avoid.
2) Con Ed recently raised its rates to reflect the higher property taxes imposed on it by the government of New York City.
3) Said rate increase was approved by the state government’s Public Service Commission.

The conclusion, obviously, was that this private company had failed to serve it’s consumers and should be taken over by the government in order to better serve the people.

Yeah.

What a curious way of thinking.