Sunday, June 18, 2017

June 18, 2017, Bob Brinker's Moneytalk: Stocks, Bonds, Economy and Investing

June 18, 2017....Bob Brinker's Moneytalk....Live show on Father's Day....(comments welcome)

Honey here: Great gratitude to Frankj for coming to my rescue today. I have been too under the weather to write the Moneytalk Summary today. 

FRANKJ'S MONEYTALK SUMMARY: 

MoneyTalk, June 18, 2017: Father’s Day.


Miss Honeybee asked me to help out today but I didn’t realize it until almost 1:30, so I was late to the party.
==> Thanks to dRahme, short clip of the opening monologue that includes Brinker's report on the Federal Reserve.   
Bob’s first call concerned what might happen with bond yields, given the Fed’s recent raise. Bob told David in Santa Clarita that he had doubts about the level of demand for long term bonds. Investors in 10 year bonds are making about zero interest when inflation is factored in. The high quality of German sovereign bonds makes them competitive with US gov’t bonds.

David in St. Louis called to tell his company merged with another and the new entity made some tweaks to the 401K plan. They upped their match, from half of the first 6% to 100% of the first 6% the employee kicks in. But the Fidelity Spartan 500 fund is no longer available and it paid dividends 4 times per year. The new 500 fund, from State Street only pays dividends once a year. Bob said the frequency of dividend payments would make a difference over a long period of time. The two funds have similar expense ratios. I think the increase in contribution by the new company outweighs the frequency of the dividend payment.

What kind of house would $1 million buy in your town? 

In Santa Barbara, it buys a “starter” house. Caller Carol’s son is 26 and makes about $140K. He wants to buy a $1 million dollar house and rent it out. He lives in a rental with other people now and will stay there. Carol wanted to know what Bob thought about her co-signing a loan for $800K since he has scraped together a $200K down payment.

As a MoneyTalk listener, Carol credited Bob with her building a nest egg of $2.5 million. She owes $131 on her own house and has a very low interest rate. Bob and Carol batted this issue back and forth. Bob wasn’t keen on the idea, that was obvious. In the end he wished her good luck.

Meanwhile, in North Carolina, Todd was mulling this over and he called in later. His suggestion was for Carol to buy the house, “be the bank,” and her son could pay her back with 4% interest. Bob threw cold water on this idea, asking Todd what he thought would happen if Carol had to foreclose.

Are you a member of the club?

Bob opened the second hour with a rundown on the richest people, a lot of whom are in the USA. The statistics came from a study by a Boston consulting firm. America is the land of opportunity: of the total millionaires around the world, 40 % are in the USA and they control 63% of the wealth in this country.

Don’t get in a bidding war with Jeff Bezos for Whole Foods. Amazon’s market cap is about $500 billion. Bob said Amazon’s offer for Whole Foods (Whole Paycheck) is $13.7 billion – “rounding error.” Will other bidders come out of the woodwork? Maybe, but what’s the point in trying to outbid Bezos? Will the Whole Foods locations become distribution hubs for products bought on Amazon? We will know in the fullness of time.
==> Thanks to dRahme, here is a short clip that covers how many millionaires worldwide, Whole Foods and Amazon.
Bob helped Jim in IL with some simple math. Jim has $400K in money market and the only bond fund available to him is one with a 6.8 duration. How much should he move from money market to the bond fund to obtain an overall duration close to what Bob recommends for his $400K in fixed income. Answer: move $80K. I think Bob did the calculation in his head, this would give Bob an average duration of 1.36 on his fixed income.

Another Carol called in, this one from Ft. Myers, FL. She is looking ahead and worried that the Fed policy can lead to recession. The Fed’s tightening could result in problems for people with adjustable rate mortgages. They tossed this topic around quite a bit. Bob ended up agreeing with her. He said all we have is monetary policy – fiscal policy (the role of Congress) is absent without leave.

George in San Diego: You’re 69. It is good you’re thinking about your upcoming RMD. Put about 4% of your retirement value in a money market inside your retirement account, take it out the year you turn 70 ½.

Another George, this one in Monterey wanted to know if he’s in the Land of Critical Mass with $8000 in monthly income and $600K in a retirement account. Bob thought he was. (I think George has called before with a very similar question).

Third hour


Bob’s third hour guest today was Mohamed A. El-Erian's “The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability, and Avoiding the Next Collapse.” (Now out in paperback originally published in 2016). Mr. El-Erian was the former CEO at PIMCO. Bob listed his many other activities including being a contributor to various news outlets and his association with the Harvard Endowment. 

The Fed has three things they said they’re going to do. They hiked the Fed funds rate by 25 basis points, which was expected. They indicated there will be three increases next year (not expected). And they will shrink their balance sheet by letting $600 billion in bonds “run off,” (also unexpected).

With about 2% GDP growth, can we afford to raise the Fed funds rate three more times? The guest’s answer was no.

Can we afford to continue with a 2% GDP growth rate? Again, the answer is no. This low rate puts a strain on the economy. There is the perception that the benefits in the economy are going to a handful of people and this breeds resentment. The problem is self-inflicted, something the guest mentioned twice. We need more investment, infrastructure projects and tax reform. Demographics has an impact on GDP: even with an ageing population we can support a 3% growth rate but probably not a 4-5% rate.

With the Fed funds rate so low, the ten year government bond, has negative real returns when inflation is figured in. The guest said people (organizations) accept this because they may have a mandate to invest in “safe” US government bonds. Or, people invest because they think the rate could go lower!

After the break Bob asked Mr. El-Erian what he would do if he was the Fed chair. He would commit the Fed to normalize interest rates. Then he would carry through on the commitment. And he would visit Congress A LOT to convince them we need a policy handoff, that is, they need to do THEIR job with fiscal policy, a theme Bob has pounded on for years.

The guest’s medical analogy: The economy is impaired. It can walk but not run. The ministrations of the Fed are the equivalent of painkillers. We cannot continue with this regimen without risking more serious harm. The GOP has been critical of the Fed so now is their chance to take some of the burden off the Fed. Wall Street drove growth by financial engineering. After 2007 it was the Fed bank in the driver’s seat. We need to get back to growth based on the expansion of businesses.

CEOs face an uncertainty scenario with regard to tax reform so they wait to see what might happen. Low interest rates encourage people to do things they would not do in normal times such as corporations doing stock buybacks. Borrow money at low rates, buy back your own stock, reduce the number of shares, the share price goes up. Executives with stock options exercise them and increase their income. What’s not to like?
  
For a different view on the Fed and a number of other government regulatory agencies, one might consider John A. Allison’s book, “The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure.” (2013). Mr. Allison is the former CEO of BB&T, an Atlanta-based bank. He served as president and CEO of the CATO Institute from 2012 to 2013. Mr. Allison explains the failings of government agencies and particularly the Fed in a clinical and incisive way. 

==> Thanks to dRahme, here is a clip of  The Week Ahead and Carol's Fascinating House  Call! 

84 comments:

Anonymous said...

I listen on KOH AM 780 Reno at 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time every week. He's on now. Rob

Unknown said...

I have Bob on 1460AM Monterey

MikeE said...

I got him on WTMA.com.

MikeE said...

He is on live. I can't get WNTK to work.

Anonymous said...

Bob on live now KKOB online'

Steven said...

KBOI Boise every week. WLS (my home station) usually puts a sports game on in place of MT.

Bluce said...

Wow, the psychiatrist has diarrhea of the mouth. I couldn't wait for that call to end, although it was otherwise interesting. Sounds like a great plan, co-signing for a house for your kid who earns $140k per year, and isn't even going to live there.

What could go wrong?

David said...

I listen to KNUS Denver online and it seems to be ok.

Jim said...

Wow, here we are about a half hour before the "superstar" guest segment that Brinker is really hyping. He said it's the guests first time on Moneytalk and everyone should cancel their plans. Based on all that I'll go out on a limb here and say it's Ben Bernanke.

Bluce said...

Jim: Imma stay close to the trunk of the tree and predict that it's someone I've never heard of.

daisy said...

is there any stations that carries archive? KGO used to keep archive for one week.
I need to relisten to a smart caller on real estate at about 1:46 minutes into the program.

Bluce said...

Ha, well Jim, yes I do know who he is.

Jim said...

Well Bluce,
It looks like you were closer to being right.I've heard of the guest but would not put him in "superstar" status. The way Brinker likes to hype things maybe he should be working for CNN.

Anonymous said...

I never heard of the guest myself but he was more interesting than most Moneytalk guests.

bob said...

If you never heard of the guest, you are not paying attention.

Bluce said...

I only know him cuz he worked at Pimco with Bill Gross, and I hold PONDX, one of their funds.

Bob (not THAT Bob) said...

I'm confused,

Were there MoneyTalk technical difficulties or is there some kind of new radio station call letter check-in procedure for Honey's Brinker Blog?

(I thought I was on the wrong web site and landed in a short-wave radio enthusiast's chat room!)

Honeybee said...

.
LOL! Jokes are fine, Bob (not That Bob)....but I always appreciate help from all Blog Team Members.

frankj said...

The guest was at PIMCO for some of the same time Bill Gross was there. Gross was the "face" of the company but I think El-Erian had as much to do with its success as Gross. Just my opinion.

Anonymous said...

The guest, Mohamad A. El-Erian, was a co-manager at Pimco with Bill Gross until he decided to bail out, or up, into the parent company Alianz. He was also a very frequent guest (once a week or more) on the old Nightly Business Report when it was a great PBS show, before CNBC bought it and replaced all the good reporters except the very concise Susie Gharib, but she bailed soon thereafter anyway. Susie had one-on-one interview access every year with Warren Buffet during the big B-H Omaha jamboree.

NBR was a quality show back then, not all glammed-up like at CNBC. The reporters were solidly knowledgeable with intelligent follow-up questions. Besides Susie it was Tom Hudson, Suzanne Pratt and the revered bull-in-a-china-shop Paul Kangas. Personally, was hoping to meet Suzanne at a party some night. "We coulda made music".

With regards to Bob's giggly opening monologue today, why is he being so shady, so unclear, so hazy, so vague and so opaque about the actual mechanics of the Fed's "Quantitative Tightening" plan which he's been pining for ever so loudly for so long?

If it's beneath him to lay out the greasy details, then I volunteer to get dirty. Will compare QT, as Bob named it today, to the QE program(quantitative easing) that we just waded through this past decade.

(This is a very basic explanation, from a blue-collar Joe's point of view.) In QE, the Fed bought up a ton of Treasury bonds (and mortgage-backed securities) to put a huge demand into the market so that sellers didn't have to offer much yield to make the sale. This effectively pushed down yield all across the bond market. Check the yield on the 10-year Treasury since 2008.

In QT, the Fed is going to offer for sale the Treasury bonds "on it's balance sheet", as Bob says, at a reduced price which raises the yield on the bonds for whomever purchases them. The Fed will do it on such a massive scale that it will effectively push up yield across the bond market, which is similar to raising the federal funds overnight rate this past Wednesday in order to make borrowing more expensive and tamp down any runaway inflation-causing economic activity.

In other words, if you can purchase a bond with good yield, you don't need to loan your money to anyone for lesser interest.

Any suggestions on how to chop down that excessively wordy and verbose summary are definitely appreciated.
-Mr. Flintstone, Ann Arbor

Honeybee said...

.
Mr. Flintstone (How's Wilma?),

I'm glad you did not shorten your post. Every word was outstanding!!!

Bob (not THAT Bob) said...

Honeybee,

Did you happen to come across a post I made an hour or so ago (maybe around 6:30?)

Honeybee said...

.
not THAT Bob....the last post I received from you was at 5:43, I posted it.

Bob (not THAT Bob) said...

Honeybee,

Thanks for checking.

I can't figure out what became of my 6:30-ish post. I probably screwed up somewhere. It wouldn't be my first (or last) senior moment!

Anonymous said...

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gabe said...

Bob's monologue re: setting interest rates by the Fed caught my interest in the context of one wagering on the outcome reminding me of the betting process associated with horse racing.

Vanguard's Prime Money Market fund now paying 1.01 percent .

Gabe

BWV said...

A really interesting radio show this week has made for an equally great series of blog posts. While El-Arian qualifies as a superstar, or at least as a very famous money manager, it was not too many years ago that Brinker rightfully ridiculed him & Bill Gross for being so off-base with their economic forecasts, while never actually mentioning either of their names.

gabe said...

Well, picked up a lot of dollars today! Great day for the Market.

Thank you Amazon for buying Whole Foods!

Gabe

birdbrain said...

With Amazon in the news, a recap of the amazing (amazoning?) timeline of its stock performance:

May 1997 $2

May 1999 $60 3000% increase in two years. Barrons cover story Amazon.bomb claiming the market cap is unsustainable

Sep 2001 $6 90% drop in just over two years

May 2007 $69 1000% gain from that low and return to the May 99 price

Today $995 over 1300% rise in last ten years

Jim said...

Maybe my standards for "Superstar" status are higher than they should be but there's only three guests Brinker's had that I consider superstars. Schwab, Bogle, and Greenspan. Those three are names that even people who don't follow the investing world would have heard of. It's true that El-Arian is well known to people who follow Wall Street and the investment world but I think most money managers are overrated. They get on a hot streak for a while but eventually come down to Earth.

Gabe, I thought you were in a defensive posture by taking some money off the table 2 weeks ago because you thought the market was frothy. Did you buy back in?

gabe said...

Jim: I just took a bit off the table and kept the majority of my position(s) invested.

Thanks,

Gabe

Bluce said...

Did (the REAL) Bob use the word "Superstar?"

Jerrod Clarkson said...

To the best of my knowledge, Mohamed El-erian is no longer engaged in money management. He currently serves as Chief Economic Adviser at Allianz (corporate parent of PIMCO).

For those interested, he has graciously furnished his bio:

http://www.mohamedel-erian.com/biography/

JC

Jerrod Clarkson said...

Anonymous birdbrain said...



Amazon also has a rather amazing P/E ratio. There doesn't seem to be much "aggreeance" regarding their P/E. One of the more "conservative" figures I have seen is from Fidelity. They show AMZN P/E (TTM) 185.66.

Some (but by no means all) of the bloated P/E is attributable to the fact that AMZN always reinvests its earnings rather that paying a dividend to shareholders.

JC

Bluce said...

Jerrod: I believe Berkshire-Hathaway has never paid divvies either, and that's why its share price is in 6 figures(?) -- I think, haven't looked lately and too lazy to Google.

But, as with all else throughout the history of investing, some day Amazon will come back to earth. When? Don't know, my crystal ball is in the shop being repaired.

Jerrod Clarkson said...

OOPS! The intro on my 7:07 PM post should read:

Anonymous birdbrain said...
With Amazon in the news, a recap of the amazing (amazoning?) timeline of its stock performance:

JC

MK said...

JC: Amazon...amazing P/E ratio...some of...the bloated P/E is attributable to...AMZN always reinvests its earnings rather that paying a dividend...

Great tool to help bypass the earning-are-whatever-we-say-they-are dilemma? Use FCFY. Last I heard AMZ was about 2%? Walmart 6%, Gap 10%.

Moe Howard said...

Taking a trip down memory lane...
The company I worked for at the time, sold Amazon its first servers in 1997. I thought hmmm, book sales. As AMZN took retail by storm I kept telling myself, price is too high. Our president at the time even highlighted AMZN in his Sales kick off speech. Anyway, its was at $1.54 in 1997. I never jumped in and bought it. I'm not buying now because the price is too high....

BTW, myself and another sold the first server to a little startup in Los Gatos. After the meeting, the salesman and I got in the car and burst out laughing. "You've got to be kidding, movies sent over mail?"

Jerrod Clarkson said...

Moe,

Wonderful reminiscing stories!

I guess this quotation is apt: "Mighty Oaks from Little Acorns Grow".


JC

Jerrod Clarkson said...

Looks like I will be "giving back" and more today. What a sick market day, particularly international and emerging markets.

JC

gabe said...

JC: The old saying........the market will do what the market will do!

Gabe

Mad as HELL ! said...

Did Jeff Immelt work for the state of California at one time?

At $31 billion, GE’s pension shortfall is the biggest among S&P 500 companies and 50 percent greater than any other corporation in the U.S. It’s a deficit that has swelled in recent years as Immelt spent more than $45 billion on share buybacks to win over Wall Street and pacify activists like Nelson Peltz.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-16/ge-s-31-billion-hangover-immelt-leaves-behind-big-unfunded-tab

gabe said...

Energy was the big loser...a major factor in the bringing of the market down!

Gabe

Anonymous said...

Scary was the US shooting down a Russian jet

frankj said...

Moe: "You've got to be kidding, movies sent over mail?"

I passed on it for much the same reason. "We can just go down to Blockbuster ..."

Yeah, and wait in line with a bunch of people with whiny kids, while the employees at the counter listen to sad tales about why the DVD was late being turned in and why the customer should be let out from paying the late fee.

Bluce said...

Moe and frank: LOL @ Netflix.

I dated a woman in 2006 who had a NF account. I had never heard of it before but it sounded really different when she explained how it worked. Roaming through the local rental shop on Saturday afternoons seemed like a much better way to rent movies to me.

Whoda thunk, thirty years ago, that movie rental places would all disappear within a generation? They did a fantastic business "while the iron was hot" though.

Mad as HELL! said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Mad as HELL ! said...

SECOND AND FINAL NOTICE TO:
FAKE Mad as HELL, FAKE Gabe, FAKE JC and FAKE et al.

You can't say you weren't warned. If you think this is a big joke, rest assured it clearly is NOT!

-----------------

I know a C-Suite executive at Alphabet/Google, the company that owns and operates Blogger. So, if you continue your HARASSMENT CAMPAIGN against Honeybee and others on this blog, I will make it my personal mission to "See Something - Say Something."

Contacting Google will be just be for starters. Your ISP will be informed as well as the appropriate Federal, State and Local authorities. Oh, and there's also the matter of HARASSMENT litigation filings against you.

So, put another way: GO AWAY! LEAVE US THE HELL ALONE!

Jerrod Clarkson said...

Welcome to the United Bezos of Murica!


The Jeff Bezos Empire in One Giant Chart

http://www.visualcapitalist.com/jeff-bezos-empire-chart/

JC

gabe said...

Oh well, my comment "market gyrations" was not posted! Perhaps, too short?

Gabe

Mad as HELL ! said...

Honeybee,

The SACTO THIEVES are at it again! Got an extra $1,000 around (give or take) that you wish to "donate" each year?

This is part of an article written a week ago (on 6/13/17).


"...Yet politicians continue to look for new ways to extract money from your wallet without the bother of asking you first.

Today the state Assembly Committee on Local Government is scheduled to hold a hearing on Senate Bill 231, which would change the definition of “sewer” to include stormwater.

With that one little change, the cost of constructing and operating billion-dollar stormwater projects could be added to property tax bills without voter approval, because “sewer” is one of the three exceptions under Proposition 218.

How much would it cost? We could see hundreds of dollars in new charges added to property tax bills every year, maybe more. The San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments, a coalition of 33 cities, estimated that the cost of stormwater projects could add $1,400 to a homeowner’s annual tax bill.

If you’d like to call your representative in the Assembly about SB 231, this would be a good day to do it. You can find their names and contact information online at"

findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov.6/13/17).

Anonymous said...

I guess ol' Immelt knows upon which side his bread is buttered, and it ain't the "funded pensions" side.

Never trust a businessman. All my friends who are businessmen will cheat any and everyone, including friends, without a speck of guilt upon their conscience.

It's dog eat dog.
Guitar Johnny

Anonymous said...

Bob was so jazzed during his opening monotone that it caught my bad ear by surprise and generated a few questions.

He kept saying that the Fed's QT strategy was going to let the Treasury bonds on it's balance sheet mature... and then all hell would break loose.

He was implying that the Fed would present to the Treasury the matured bonds for redemption, but since the Treasury is already in the hole (needs to borrow to pay most of it's current debts) that the Fed's QT action would contribute to more Treasury borrowing, also known as deficit spending.

And then there's the matter of the Fed's windfall. What will they do with the cash? You see, previously the Fed would "roll over" the Treasury redemption and just take more Treasury bonds as payment, sorta like rolling over a tab at the corner bar. Eventually, someone wins and someone loses. Bob seems to say that the Fed would "put it into circulation," whatever that means. Is he talking inflation? A devalued dollar? A panic into Gold? Ron Paul actually being credible?

Bob was certainly salivating over the prospect of "interesting times."
-Smitty, Bar Harbor ME

Bluce said...

Hey Guitar Johnny: I've been self-employed for 32 years and have a lot of friends who are also -- and none of us are crooks, as you seem to think everyone in business is.

Your attitude is probably more of a reflection on YOU and the company you keep. If all your friends are crooks, then you probably are too.

gabe said...

As we all were aware, it is important to keep your equity and fixed income ratios in line with your risk tolerance. My equity portion has risen as the Market has increased in value and has prompted me to sell "small amounts" in order to maintain a 70/30 level.

Gabe

gabe said...

A ho hum market today!

Three (3) horses going this weekend.

My son, a physician, does not take medicaid. He does not see new medicare patients. Reimbursement is too low.

He accepts selective private insurance that reimburse reasonably well. So what happens to patients who need medical intervention? Well.........they go to the ER at a hospital. Long waits and poor service.

I am very concerned about our health care here in the US. The above dynamics are very common around the Country. I am not smart enough to offer solutions and neither are our leaders.

The wealthy will do just fine. However, the middle and lowers classes will suffer.

Boutique Medicine is the future of medical care. This is where individuals pay a monthly fee to a provider for outpatient care. Depending upon the Doctor the fee can very. But it is in the range of $250 to $400 monthly. Of course it does not cover procedures or Labs or hospitalization.

Well, I needed to get this off my chest.

Thanks,

Gabe

MikeE said...

Well said Gabe, I feel the same way about our health care system.

Anonymous said...

rasputin here. Gabe are your 70/30 retooling the same as when you trim back waiting for a correction or does one evolve into the other? This seems cloudy.

gabe said...

Ras: Essentially, I attempt to maintain the 70/30 mix. In essence, if equities reach 5% higher I will sell 5% and shovel it into my cash account or divert it to my racing stable or spend it. With bonds.....my RMD consists of both equities and bonds and so I do little to adjust it permitting the RMD to do its work yearly. That works best for me! With that income, I most likely spend it or speculate or gift it.

Hope that helps.

Gabe

Bluce said...

The only answer to the health care system is the one that politicians will NEVER let it go back to: The free market.

But someday, probably not in our lifetimes, the system WILL collapse and it WILL go back to the free market.

Gawd said...

The free market will work beautifully with regard to health care the day illness and calamity adheres to the lovely free market coincidence that those with the greater need for it are also those with the greatest ability to pay for it. Otherwise, a free market approach ultimately requires us to live in a society where those in the higher income margins step over or ignore those who are in desperate need of help but cannot afford to pay the going rate. It is a choice every society faces. Not all societies make the choice the USA has made.

Pig said...

Guitar Johnny says Never trust a businessman. All my friends who are businessmen will cheat any and everyone, including friends, without a speck of guilt upon their conscience.

Make sure you tell this to your heart surgeon since he is a businessman. I was going to say brain surgeon, but he obviously would have nothing to work on in your case. It's a shame about your friends. Maybe they are not really your friends. My gut says that you don't have any. Also, dogs don't eat dogs but obama did.

Mad as HELL ! said...

Gabe said:

"My son, a physician, does not take medicaid. He does not see new medicare patients. Reimbursement is too low.

He accepts selective private insurance that reimburse reasonably well. So what happens to patients who need medical intervention? Well.........they go to the ER at a hospital. Long waits and poor service."



Gabe,

With all due respect, I think your son may be making a rather broad assumption there. I sincerely doubt that every Medicaid patient (or prospective new patient on Medicare) that your son refuses to treat goes to the ER. More likely, they "do without". Doesn't that concern him at all?

I am on Medicare A and B only, and go to one GP Doctor and several Specialists. All of my Doctors are affiliated with UCLA and/or local hospitals. None of them seem to have any problems with Medicare reimbursement schedules.



Moe Howard said...

GAWD,
You beat me to the punch but said very well.

Honeybee said...



.MadasHell...I was thinking the same thing, but hesitated to tell Gabe that I consider his son's selfish, greedy decisions appalling.

I'll stop now....since I might say something I would regret.

gabe said...

Mad and HB: Well, I disagree. Medicine is a business. As "selfish" as it sounds, medical providers have to earn a living as well. In operating a medical practice, a physician must look at costs or else he/she will not be able to provide services. Folks there are expenses to be met. For example, payroll, rent, power, liability or malpractice insurance, janitorial, etc, not including student loans association dues, board certification expenses, etc. When a patient is seen a host of the above expenses accompanies the patient not including the provider's time. Medicare pays about 40% of the fee charged. Example...if the fee is $100 medicare pays the provider $60. So... the $60 left over has to cover all of the above expenses leaving the provider a very modest profit. In addition, medicare has started a program with certain specialists that will pay the fee for ALL services rendered to the patient for that particular malady for a given time to include return visits and telephone consults to the patient and other providers of the patient requiring information. Medicaid pays less than medicare. As many of President Trump advisers have learned and have known...Dr. Price, for example that medicaid is not accepted by many Doctors. And so my son has decided that his time is valuable and wants to be reimbursed fairly. And this is true for many of his colleagues. As a result, many providers are leaving the field of medicine and private practice and decided to work for large HMO's or VA, or other government entities and ditching the private endeavor completely.

Gabe

MikeE said...

Gabe,
Doesn't your son get money from supplemental insurance and medicare? I have both and never get a bill from my doctors. Maybe some folks do not have supplemental insurance but I think they are rare.

gabe said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Jerrod Clarkson said...

Re: http://www.siliconinvestor.com/

Hello, a brief request, if possible.

I have had trouble accessing SI today, (via Firefox, Explorer, etc.) yet when I check downforeveryoneorjustme.com and similar sites there seems to be no problem.

My ISP says there is no apparent problem on their side of the aisle. I have deleted cache, history, cookies and my SI password. I have "flushed" the SI landing page (via Ctrl + F5) repeatedly.

The furthest I can get is a brief page load lasting about 3-5 seconds, then it disappears to white space (with the exception of "Waiting for www.statcounter.com" appearing at the bottom of the empty browser page.

Is there any way to contact SI Tech Support via email or Phone?

Thanks!

JC

Unknown said...

Some very attractive solutions to health care are present. Rand Paul has one for example. He claims most could have health insurance for $1/day. So, what's going on within the beltway? Why can't they do much? Because they benefit from the current system. It's not a Left or Right thing other than their talking points to pacify constituents and keep them fighting each other. The health field is loaded with money. The power brokers have tons of political power per deep pockets. Citizens are being held up and don't know it or can't do anything about it. Does Cuba have a better way to manage care? It doesn't cost much, nor worth much.

Our problem lies within the swamp. They hide there per cover of partisan politics and phony rhetoric they don't believe. They are the career politicians that make great money within the business of usual. They get fame and respect by doing little other than acute political speak. If ever confronted with performance requirement, such as Trumps business acuity requires they anger. "This is NOT how we do things in D.C.. So, what is the current status. Republicans mostly are go along big government solutions people, just like the Left. They want a bigger dinning table to feast upon for increased power and wealth. Sure, they will foot drag and complain, but they also have every intention of not following the voter desires. They think doing that would anger the D.C. elites and cause much trouble for themselves. They would gain a horrible press and fail within written history that is basically a reward system for following elites dictates.

Health Care is just another symptom of our government malady. In this respect probably the most powerful medicine for health care reform is TERM LIMITS. In Michigan, we have done this and I can say it is marvelous. Sure, NPR for example will blast away at attempting to convince public of need to expert politicians ever present within the halls of government. Don't believe it. Now, Michigan is considering part time politicians. Another good thing.

Mad as HELL! said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Pig said...

I happen to agree 100% with Gabe and his son. Until you stand in their shoes and pay the bills and education costs AND LIVING WAGE PAYROLL, I would not not climb too high on those pedestals and render judgement of others.

p.s. I have no objections at all to saying things I might regret. I just deny saying them or accuse others of misunderstanding. :--)

Pig said...

JC, here is an email for the site. si.admin@siliconinvestor.com

Or if you can finally log in there is a link to SI RON at the bottom of the home page under "contact us". It's a direct link that doesn't show an email address. I often have to activate ad-block since the loading of the ads is ridiculous.

Honeybee said...

.
Jerrod....Silicon Investor website has no problems right now and is working fine.

If you have more than one browser, I'd try a second one and see what happens - sometimes these browsers mess up.

Here is a direct like to my thread there where I have been posting this morning:

Silicon Investor

Honeybee said...

.
Gabe and Pig....Okay, so you have both presented excellent and probably unassailable arguments. thanks....

Pig said...


JC, I asked SI RON and there is no phone number. Use email only to clear it up.

Honeybee said...

.
JC...Following Pig's advice is a good way to go.

And SI Ron is VERY helpful. Just drop him a note.

Mad as HELL ! said...

Note to FAKE Mad as HELL! who said:

--------------------------------------
Anonymous Mad as HELL! said...

JC the site comes through fine here.

June 24, 2017 at 6:11 AM
--------------------------------------


FAKE Mad as HELL! you have been warned TWICE about your constant HARASSMENT and IMPERSONATION on this board.

I noted that my second warning (on June 21, 2017 at 11:38 AM) would be my last.

And this is the last message of any type you will receive from me on this board. My patience has run its course and it is now time for action.

Here is a bit of information and advice. Potential legal action against you will be reviewed in the coming weeks and months. If you don't already have legal counsel, you may want to begin interviewing separate top tier attorneys practicing in: a) civil law, and b) criminal law.

Oh, and you might be receiving calls, memoranda, and visits from various State and Federal authorities.

See ya in Court(s), bub!

Jerrod Clarkson said...

Honeybee and Pig,

Thanks very much to both of you! I really appreciate your help!


Honeybee said: "JC...Following Pig's advice is a good way to go." Honeybee, I agree with you 100%!

The only exception might be in a Pig-to-person verbal interchange. Certainly I would follow Pig, however I might want to keep a respectable distance (considering time of day, environmental and weather conditions, etc.) ;-)

Big thanks to you both! I have been in contact with SI. I contacted Ron who advised me to review it with Dmitri who is currently looking at it.

The really strange things in this case are:

1) I am the only person who has reported the problem
2) SI is the only site where I am having the problem

So, doesn't that make me special? LOL!

Yesterday, I spent about 5 hours messing around with this (including 3 virus scans), all for naught.

However, in experimenting this morning I may have come across a work-around. I'm going to try it a few times later today to see if it still functioning.


JC


Pig said...

Anonymous Jerrod Clarkson said...


"JC said Certainly I would follow Pig, however I might want to keep a respectable distance (considering time of day,...

Smart choice. Beer and beans for lunch today. Plenty of both!

Anonymous said...

Gosh, I'm probably on the road to perdition with this one. Then again, maybe nobody will read it late on a Saturday.

Brinker keeps dodging-and-weaving about his expected results of the Fed's offloading of it's bond portfolio. Seems like his mantra is, "Wait and see."

In terms of gray areas, he's more like charcoal, grayer than the teenage kid at the hardware store when you ask for some advice about fence construction. Naturally, the boy ran from those tasks when his dad sounded the wake-up-and-work bell at the old homestead, so he can't help you.

I mean, why won't BB say what he thinks? He provided an overview of the Fed's options, such as the finger-in-a-dike trickling of flow into the market, versus the open-the-flood-gates approach that would send the market rocking-n-reeling, no disrespect to Chuck Berry.

So where's the numbers and the predictions from the bond-timer guru? The guy is flakier than a flaky Croissant on Sunday morning during Mardi Gras.

The guy needs to step up and provide gutsy feelings, if he has any. No need to be perfect, just rational.

-Hank

MikeE said...

Bob keeps talking about the FED reducing their balance sheet by selling 4 trillion worth of bonds, don't believe that would reduce anything as they would get cash for the sale. They would only by moving one asset to another asset category, no change in total footings. It would certainly take money out of circulation and tighten interest rates but not reduce their balance sheet.

KC said...

I generally listen to Moneytalk live at 3 p.m. Central time but can not today. Anyone tell me of online radio stations where it is delayed and I could catch today's show? Thanks.

Anonymous said...

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