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Whole Foods HealthCare?

  January 30, 2018 January 30, 2018   By:   Health Care, US  , , , , , No Comments

Well folks, someone had to take this on.

So why not a consortium of Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and J.P. Morgan Chase to try to figure out and tackle the intractable Health Care problem in the US.

At the gist of it, the problem on supply side of the equation involves the incentive system.

The incentives of the service providers (hospitals, physicians, labs etc), the payers (private insurance, Medicare, Medicaid) and the pharmaceutical industry are not aligned with the real overall long term well-being of the patients.

On the demand side of the equation, patients themselves are not empowered, educated or incentivized to take charge of their own health.

Large corporations are usually self insured. Meaning that the claims are paid by the corporation. However, they do hire a service provider to manage the healthcare plan. Like Anthem, United Health, Aetna etc.

So in this case, this consortium of Amazon, Berkshire and JPMorgan, will instead create its own administrator as a non profit.

Second, They will also most likely be a provider as well by building their own hospitals and hiring staff. Could be a non profit as well.

Third, the patients (the employees of the three firms to begin with) will be incentivized to really care for their own health for the long term.

Last but not least, this consortium will roll out this system to other interested corporations or even patients directly. How about $2,000/year per person for continuous monitoring of ones  health and proactively addressing issues?

Whole Foods might be leveraged to be part of this solution. Perhaps ship stuff on demand to address issues identified by this self monitoring system.

 

Now we know the real reason for why Amazon acquired Whole Foods.

 

Health Care Maintenance As a Service offering once the service matures in its internal operations in collaboration with Berkshire and J.P. Morgan and Chase.

This is Very similar to the strategy Amazon used with AWS. System was first developed for its own retail operations and then sold as a service to others. Now half the internet is hosted on Amazon including Netflix!

Real ISquared Immigration Innovation using Blockchain

  January 26, 2018 January 26, 2018   By:   Blockchain, Immigration Reform, Political Process, Regulatory Issues, US  , , , , , , , , , , , No Comments

The big news on immigration reform this week wasn’t DACA.

It was the so called Immigration Innovation (ISquared) Act of 2017 being reintroduced in the Senate by Senator Orrin Hatch (R) of Utah.

The innovation in this Senate Bill that caught my attention was the following:

Prohibitions on Replacement: Prohibits employers from hiring an H1B visa holder with the purpose and intent to replace a U.S. worker.

The intent is good here but the wording is very vague and open to lot of interpretation.

The Real Immigration Innovation would consist of a robust system that ensures the intent of the above which is, or should be if it is not, that American workers are not being short changed.

I propose the following to address this issue:

Let us create a national system for matching jobs to job seekers using, you guessed it, Blockchain!

Step 1: All US employers post all jobs in this system. Required. Not optional. Real job postings, not fake ones to eliminate US workers.

Step 2: All US Citizens seeking employment would register in this first system that automatically checks all credentials and does background checks.

Step 3: The system would match the jobs to candidates and select top 10% for further screening. The employer can decide who they want to interview in person and make selection.

Step 4: If none found, the job gets posted into a second layer where legal US residents (Green cards holders) go through the same process.

Step 5: Job gets posted to a third layer where other legal US residents (ie other than Green card holders) can apply. This would include F1 Visa students, H1B workers, H4 dependents etc. If selected, they get a temporary green card. No work visa or H4EAD or OPT needed.

Step 6: Job gets posted globally. Anyone can apply. If selected, get a provisional Green Card immediately. No work visa needed.

Highlights and Link (ISquared by Senator Orrin Hatch):

Link  https://www.hatch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=releases&id=F7E803D0-753E-4787-B5F7-9CAB10EE5878

Employment Based Non Immigrant H1B

Allows for unto 195,000n annual non immigrant H1B visas for skilled workers to fill the so called skills gap.

Work authorization for the spouses and children of the above H1B workers.

Raises the salary threshold for H1 Dependent employers to $100,000/year

“Super-Dependent” Employers lose that exception.

Green cards

Eliminate per country limit for Employment based green cards for those “Non Immigrant” workers.

Allow recapture of unused numbers from previous years.

Exempt the spouses and children from this cap

Exempt STEM workers and other extraordinary ability folks (athletes, artists etc)

Separate direct path for US based F1 students and those on OPT.

 

Blockchain – The Mother of All Disruptions!

  January 25, 2018 January 25, 2018   By:   Blockchain, Regulatory Issues, US  , , , No Comments

The mother of all disruptions could be happening right now with Blockchain.

Not to be confused with the digital currency bubble.

Blockchain could be an enabler for Decentralization of just about everything. This will happen rapidly.

Think back to 2000 and compare it today.

Due to Rate of change acceleration 2050 could happen by 2030.

High fixed cost conglomerate business model might be a casualty as well.

As evident from the recent strategic shift at GE after a catastrophic drop in free cash flow from $14 Billion to $ 7 Billion.

The last man standing of the original Dow components.

 

By 2030, more than half of the current Dow Components could be gone. Possibly two thirds.

Yes, that is right, 20 of 30 current dow component could be gone by 2030.

 

The biggest reason for that will be Blockchain in my opinion.

 

So how is all this related to Political Discourse?

 

Stay tuned…

 

Good additional information here: https://oilprice.com/Finance/the-Economy/The-Blockchain-Revolution-Is-Heading-To-Space.html

Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! TaxCutsAndJobsAct Is it the TrumpEconomics Era?

  January 24, 2018 January 24, 2018   By:   Economy, Fiscal Policy, Political Process, Regulatory Issues, US  , No Comments

Are we at the cusp of a historic structural shift of the same magnitude as the Reaganomics due to the Tax Cuts And Jobs Act passed last year 2017?

 

I think we are. Let me explain.

The biggest change in the Tax Code is the change to the Corporate tax for C corps. All publicly listed firms are C corps.

It is not the rate change from 35% to 21% that is the game changer.

Most corporations don’t really pay that top rate due to various tax strategies. All legal.

The bigger change is the change to a territorial tax system.

What does that mean?

It means US Corporations will now pay US taxes only on US Revenue minus US Costs.

So Tax = 21% x (Revenue in US – Cost in US)

Guess where most of the revenue comes from for most US multinationals?

From overseas. It is global economy. US is only 5% of world population. So this is not a surprise. Shouldn’t be. Right?

US based corporations have been shifting jobs overseas to lower costs since wages are lower.

Now there is a huge incentive to bring all those jobs back to the US due this new Tax Code.

Back to the Tax equation. Tax = 21% x (Revenue in US – Cost in US)

 

So that is why, Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!

India Means Business! Fifth largest economy.

  January 22, 2018 January 22, 2018   By:   Economy, Fiscal Policy, India, Monetary Policy, Political Process  , , , No Comments

Discourse of this blog post on Twitter

China and India have always been the world largest economies by virtue of the fact that those two subcontinental areas, since national boundaries are a more recent phennomenon, have always had the largest populations for the past few thousand years.

 

Then Europeans took over. Followed by Britain. Then the Americans. Japan had its roaring 80s and then fell into a deflation malaise.

Most of these economic shifts were due to trade, industrialization and currency.

 

Now once again we are in the midst of tectonic shifts in the world economy. Most of it is due to technology and obviously population and demographics play a role as well.

 

China overtook Japan to become the world’s second largest economy a decade or so ago. Will soon be largest overtaking the United States by 2032 I hear.

 

This year, 2018, is when India is expected to or already has over taken France and United Kingdom to become the world’s fifth largest economy.

 

This is a watershed moment. India overtaking its former colonist, mighty Britain, to become world’s fifth largest economy.

 

Prime minister Narendra Modi’s Make In India initiative and later de-monitization most likely will pave the way for future growth even though it (de-monetization) did cause a temporary setback.

 

The US Tax Code change and currency fluctuations could provide some challenges especially to the now quite mature IT export sector.

 

The multinational corporations that have a large USD denominated debt component on their balance sheet would need to watch out for further depreciation of Indian Rupee against the USD.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, hold on to your seats and watch the lift off of Indian economy. Stars are all lined up for India.

 

21st Century belongs to India. India Means Business indeed!

 

Caveats are the the following:

The GDP metric and units of measurement for gross domestic product is USD. That could change in the future.

Also, all this is predicated on the assumption that things will continue to progress as executed.

Unfortunately, they never do.

Remember Japan in 1980s?

 

Good additional information here in this WSJ Article (paywall):

Davos is Narendra Modi’s big stage to push a muscular vision of India https://www.wsj.com/articles/davos-offers-modi-stage-to-push-muscular-vision-for-india-1516552979 via @WSJ

 

To be continued…

US Senate 60 Vote Rule – Is it fair?

  January 22, 2018 January 22, 2018   By:   Fiscal Policy, Political Process, Regulatory Issues, US  , , , No Comments

The Senate 60 Vote Rule discussion.

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/295859-senate-60-vote-rule-is-an-abuse-of-democracy

 

Yes, the smaller states do get the same votes (two senators from each state) as the bigger states and can filibuster legislative agenda.

 

We do have a similar issue, although of not the same magnitude, with the US Electoral College system where one can lose the popular vote but still win.

 

The 60 Vote rule apparently can be changed by the senate and it has been in the past (2013).

 

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/democrats-threaten-nuclear-gop-blockade-obama-nominees/story?id=20964700

 

However, the above change from 60 to 51 vote was for presidential nominees excluding US Supreme Court judges.

 

So it appears, the agreement right now might be for the Senate to change the 60 Vote rule to 51 for Appropriation legislative voting as well?

 

The Nuclear Option?

 

Stay tuned…

US Government Shutdown 2018 Day 2

  January 21, 2018 January 21, 2018   By:   Political Process, Politics, Regulatory Issues, US  , , No Comments

It is Sunday morning in America. Third Sunday of the year already. We have come out of a deep freeze and looking like a spring day almost!

 

NFL Playoffs are on later today with New England Patriots taking on the Jacksonville Jaguars in Foxboro (what a shocker!) and the Philadelphia Eagles taking on Minnesota Vikings.

 

But the talk of the Country today on Sunday Morning talk and news shows is this:

 

Government shutdown 2018 Day 2.

 

Time to fix the budget impasse with real long term sustainable regulations instead of short term continuing resolutions.

 

Wake up America!

 

Pay attention to regulatory issues in general and fiscal policy in particular.

 

US Senate and Congress do this via Bills which can be found here:

 

https://www.govtrack.us

 

This is more important than NFL.

 

Stay tuned for updates…

Update 1: http://processisinc.com/blog3/us-senate-60-vote-rule-is-it-fair/