Category / Government

by Hoosier Econ

Wal-Mart Now Offers Checking Accounts

walmart
New banking competitor just entered the market as of today. Wal-Mart is now going to offer checking account services in hopes of regaining their customer base that has left for other low dollar competitors.

The monthly membership fee of $8.95 is waived if customers set up direct deposits of at least $500 a month, something that even consumers with subprime credit scores probably would be able to do. Users also may load cash into their accounts at participating stores or deposit checks remotely by taking photos with their smartphones, officials at the Bentonville, Ark., company said Tuesday. A formal announcement of the new push was to be made Wednesday, according to the companies, which said GoBank would be available in most of Wal-Mart’s nearly 4,300 U.S. locations by late October.

Debit cards should be especially appealing to Wal-Mart’s core customers, many of whom do not have traditional banking accounts, Friedman said. The fact that fewer people are struggling to get by these days makes these individuals crucial to the company, he said.

Elimination of overdraft fees will remove a source of income that is huge for traditional retail banks, which typically charge $34 per balance-busting transaction.

GoBank is designed to decline transactions that exceed an account balance, but sometimes larger purchases slip through, Green Dot spokeswoman Sharon Pope said. When that occurs, the account is frozen until the difference is made up out of subsequent deposits, she said.

You can read the rest here at the L.A. Times

by Hoosier Econ

IRS Now Taxing Business Meals

The government is broke and with that the IRS will go searching for any revenue possible. Unfortunately it will probably cost more then what it actually brings in. This will stretch out to many industries and not just tech firms listed in the article. The first people to lose any benefits should be the politicians and government employees who are allowed up to $20/day bought for them.

Here is the tax news out of Silicon Valley Business Journal:

The Internal Revenue Service wants to tax the free food that tech companies like Facebook and Google give to employees, potentially putting one of Silicon Valley’s most famous perks in jeopardy.

The IRS argues that the employer-provided food is a taxable fringe benefit and has sought back taxes that may amount to a third of the meals’ fair-market value

In another move that shows more focus on complimentary fare, the IRS and U.S. Treasury Department said their top tax priorities list for the current tax year that ends next June will include taxing “employer-provided meals,” the Journal reported. The agencies plan to issue new instructions on the matter as well, though specifics and details were not provided.

by Hoosier Econ

Indiana Toll Road Company Bankrupt

Per Chicago Tribune and read the rest here:

The private operator of the Indiana Toll Road, facing possible bankruptcy due to $6 billion in debt, said it expects to submit a restructuring plan in court by Monday.

ITR Concession Co. LLC, created by a Spanish-Australian partnership, said over the weekend that its strategy involves either selling its assets or recapitalizing the company by cutting debt, without a sale.

The company issued a statement saying it has “received overwhelming support from its lenders and equity sponsors.”

The current toll-increase schedule would remain locked in and drivers would not notice any differences if new buyers take over the operation and maintenance of the 157-mile toll road that extends between the Chicago Skyway and the Ohio Turnpike, the company said.

It said any new operator would be subject to the terms of the 75-year lease agreement with the Indiana Finance Authority. The authority last week said the company has until late November to demonstrate it can meet its obligations.

by Hoosier Econ

Indiana Unemployment Rate Drops Again

Hat Tip Indianapolis political pundit Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

Indiana unemployment rate drops 0.1% to 5.8%.

by Hoosier Econ

NASDAQ & Producer/Consumer Price Index News

Here is some economic news I’ve picked up over several days pertaining to the stock market and prices on goods around the country.

About 47 percent of stocks in the Nasdaq Composite Index are down at least 20 percent from their peak in the last 12 months while more than 40 percent have fallen that much in the Russell 2000 Index and the Bloomberg IPO Index.

Here is a breakdown of Producer Prices

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that for the 12 months through August, producer prices increased 1.8 percent after rising 1.7 percent in July.

Prices for services related to securities brokerage and dealing fell 4.5 percent in August.

Gasoline index fell 1.4 percent.

Prices for utility natural gas, chicken eggs, diesel fuel, electric power, and raw cotton also moved lower.

The index for potatoes surged 28.0 percent.

Prices for pharmaceutical preparations and jet fuel also advanced.

Consumer Price Index showed decreases and increases as well. I highlighted the bigger jump in food prices jumping with inflation.

Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 1.7 percent. The energy index fell 2.6 percent, with the gasoline index declining 4.1 percent and the indexes for natural gas
and fuel oil also decreasing.

Food index rose 0.2 percent in August after increasing 0.4 percent in July. The food at home index was also up 0.2 percent. The index for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs rose 1.5 percent in August, the largest increase among the groups. The index for beef and veal rose 4.2 percent, its largest increase since November 2003. The index
for dairy and related products rose 0.6 percent, and the cereals and bakery products index advanced 0.2 percent.

Over the last 12 months, the food at home index has risen 2.9 percent, with the index for meats, poultry, fish and eggs up 8.8 percent.

And finally, picked up an explanation on gas prices stabilizing or decreasing here lately.

The fall in the gasoline index can best be understood in terms of the increased oil productivity in the U.S. OPEC production continues to hover between 36mbd and 38mbd. BUT, non-OPEC output rose to a record 54.8mbd during July. Contributing to that record high is US oil field production, which is soaring and reached almost 9.0mbd in early September. The US is now exporting 3.7mbd of crude oil and petroleum products.

Hat Tip many sources

by Hoosier Econ

Illegal Immigrants Hitting Indianapolis Area

Spoke with an law enforcement officer I know today. Police officers are a great resource in detecting various societal trends because they engage with citizens in various situations.
I asked the officer if he had seen any sort of up tick in illegal immigrant activity since the border surge happening late last year. His response, “Big time”. He went onto state that his department were making contact mostly through traffic stops. The illegals have no driver licenses, identification, insurance and speak no english. He also stated that about the only thing they can do is tow their vehicles and send them on their way.

by Hoosier Econ

Indiana BMV Will Issue $29 Million in Refunds

After some legal depositions were taken of former state employees about overcharging,  the Indiana BMV decided to surrender and payback some customers. Here is more from the IndyStar:

About 180,000 Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles customers may be entitled to excise tax refunds due to their vehicles being improperly classified during registration, officials announced today.

Total amount of refunds may run as high as $29 Million plus interest.

Officials said the BMV has issued about 60 million registrations and collected about $3.4 billion in excise taxes since 2006. While final data is not yet available, it is believed that about 180,000 individuals were impacted by this miscalculation

Indiana Department of Revenue will issue the refunds. You can read the rest here.

by Hoosier Econ

Doctors Take on Obamacare

tireddoctor
Ran across this piece at Economic Policy Journal. Disturbing how bogged down our doctors will get in the future.

Dr. Mark Sklar writes:

The push to use electronic medical records has had more than financial costs. Although it is convenient to have patient records accessible on the Internet, the data processing involved has been extremely time consuming—a sentiment echoed by most of my colleagues. To save time, I was advised by a consultant to enter data into the electronic record during the office visit. When I tried this I found that typing in the data was disruptive to the patient visit. My eyes were focused on the keyboard and the lack of direct contact kept patients from opening up and discussing their medical and personal problems. I soon returned to my old method of dictating notes and pasting a print-out of the dictation into the electronic record.

Yet to avoid future financial penalties from Medicare, I must demonstrate “meaningful use” of the electronic record. This involves documenting that I covered a checklist of items during the office visit, so I spend 90 minutes each day entering mostly meaningless data. This is time better spent calling patients to answer questions or keeping updated with the medical literature…

To prevent physicians from prescribing more costly medications and tests on patients, insurers are increasingly requiring physicians to obtain pre-authorizations. This involves calling a telephone number, often being rerouted several times and then waiting on hold for a representative. The process is demeaning and can take 30-45 minutes…

To avoid Medicare penalties, I also must participate in the Physician Quality Reporting System program. Initially, this involved choosing three codes during the patient visit to reflect quality of care, such as blood pressure or blood-sugar control, and reporting them to Medicare. In 2015, the requirement will increase to nine codes.

Coming down the pike, but thankfully postponed from the October 2014 deadline, is something called ICD-10. This is a newer system that will contain about 70,000 medical diagnostic codes used for billing insurance. The present ICD-9 system has about 15,000 codes. The Physician Quality Reporting System and ICD-10 requirements are intended to benefit population research, but the effect is to turn physicians into adjuncts of the Census Bureau who spend time searching for codes—and to further decrease the amount of direct contact with patients.

The practice of medicine in the current environment is unsustainable. The multiple bureaucratic distractions in my day consume so much time that I have to give up what little personal time I have in the morning, evening and on weekends if I want to continue to provide excellent care during office hours.