Chingo De Dinero

Is the Federal Reserve part of the Government?

In school we all learn that there are three parts of the Government; legislative, judicial, and executive.  So, just check the Fed, and determine if it belongs to one of the parts, if not, it is not Governmental.  It belongs to none, answer found.

Not so fast, the Government is always making things complex, this included.  The Fed was started in 1913 by the federal reserve act, from the legislative and approved by executive.   The Board of Governors are appointed by the president.  Sounds pretty governmental to me.  But, if that is not enough for you, they are in charge of the money supply.  That’s right, they make US dollars!!!!!!!!

Although the Fed is not clearly governmental, I think it is safe to say they are the government.

In looking at my stock quotes during the day, I could not help but to notice a large drop in price, but green being shown for the daily change.  The stock NCTY, traded at 16 on 1/28/2009, but then the following day traded in the low 15s, but showed an increase.  The reason, a $1.1 per share cash dividend.

It is amazing how this is factored in perfectly, so the true gain or lose are shown.  Basically, to ensure arbitrage is not present, a stock should drop by the same amount of its dividend, if not, you could buy right before the dividend, then sale right after, and pocket the dividend.  This also has to do with the term fair value used in pre-market figures.  It takes the previous day’s closing price and makes adjustment to show the actual change.

So, if you ever wonder why the stock price is down, but Google or Yahoo are showing an up, look at the dividend.

I am not sure about others, but the majority of this financial crisis, I have seen on TV, and not in real life.  Is there a slow down?  I don’t doubt, but if you look at the facts there are three reasons why it does not have such a strong affect:

1.  The GDP has just begun to dip and the dip is not so large, so really this year’s consumption is not so different than last year’s.

2.  The cut back that we do have is on discretionary funds.  The point I am trying to make here is that in the past a larger portion of our income went to things we really needed, food, shelter, etc.  Now, we have to buy the 25 KUSD instead of the 35 KUSD…this is much different than having to skip meals due to a lack of food.

3.  Unemployment is still low.  It is true that we are not at full employment, but we are not much over it.  If you need a job, you can get one.  It may be at a grocery store, or flipping burgers, but something is out there.  If you are worried about finding work to feed your family, no need to worry, those jobs are there.  The unemployment now, keeps us from getting our dream jobs, but not from putting food on the table.

Here are a few reasons why I do not think the “crisis” is so bad.  It may get worse, but I think we have a ways to go before people really feel pain.  In my opinion, I do not think this will happen, the economy should turn early in 2009, and we will be back on the upward path.  Lets hope I am right!!!

Maybe they won’t save the world, but they could sure help the economy.  First, let me start with what they are, HSA are a tax free savings account which can be used to pay for medical related cost.  High Deductible Health Plans are just like regular insurance, except much cheaper and with a higher deductible.  Using the two together, you can control the cost of insurance without sacrificing care.

Let me explain in a little more detail…the idea of health insurance is to protect you from the high cost of low occurrence activities, sure as a coma, or life threatening disease.  But, because typical insurance has low deductibles, many people use it to pay for normal doctor visits, or prescription drugs that they do not necessarily need (fun debate to have with people who use them).  It also removes the cost of not taking care of ones self, which commonly leads to diabetes, which is extremely expensive.  Before I get too far off subject, all of these little cost, and lack of effort of people to stay in shape has lead to more use of the medical system, which has increased cost.  Because people are pooled together, they do not pay cost directly, so there is little individual incentive to take corrective action.

To fix this, the government has allowed for Health Savings accounts.  If a person wants to take responsibility for their health, is willing to pay for the low cost doctor visits or prescription drugs, and wants coverage for the high cost low occurrence accidents this is perfect.  How it works is you and your employer pay your respective portions for health insurance…but unlike typical insurance, not all of it goes to premiums.  Because of the High Deductible insurance, premiums are less (this is because it does not pay for many of the low dollar items which make up a large portion of typical insurance claims).  The savings from the low premiums is then deposited into a Health Savings Account, which can be used to pay for the low dollar items.  Any dollars left over roll from year to year, and can be used for anything although a penalty is levied if not used for health cost.

This situation produces a very favorable outcome, people take responsibility for their health, use less of the low cost items which add up to be a majority of health cost, and are insured for any high cost health issue.  Wow, people will be healthier and the cost will go down.  It is amazing what happens when people are given responsibility for their actions.

We are what we are, humans act how they act, right or wrong, there is no reason to be idealistic and think people will change.  We are selfish and do what is best for us.