John W Rodat

Chronically Confident Calculations

May 29, 2012 Budget

In Bias in Government Forecasts, Jeffrey Frankel, an economist at Harvard’s Kennedy School asks the question, “Why do so many countries so often wander far off the path of fiscal responsibility?” In his the full paper at the Oxford Review of Economic Policy Frankel details how national governments (with very rare exceptions) propose consistently optimistic […]

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Usually Customer Dissatisfaction Leads to Reduced Prices

May 29, 2012 Economics

Usually customer dissatisfaction leads to reduced prices … but not always in health care. Lousy care, but the price keeps going up. Didn’t we already know that? If this isn’t evidence that there are significant distortions in the healthcare market, I don’t know what might be. And if there are significant distortions in a market, […]

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Are You Kidding Me? No Property Taxes at All?

May 29, 2012 Property Taxes

North Dakota is considering … voting on a Constitutional amendment … abolishing property taxes. I say go for it. Leave the place to wingnuts and survivalists. Those with IQs, both intellectual and social, above mediocre and anyone who prefers that their children be educated will flee. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities has a […]

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In Memorium

May 27, 2012 Military

Thomas Trammel Hart, III MIA in Laos, December 21, 1972.

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Friday Afternoon Before a Holiday

May 25, 2012 Cash

Always release bad news late Friday before a holiday weekend. Right? Just a few minutes after posting about New York counties, including Albany, needing to repay the Federal government for excess payments received for their nursing homes, Albany County finally sent an update of their cash position. First look? Not as bad as it might […]

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Feds Want Their County Nursing Home (IGT) Money Back

May 25, 2012 County Government

The word is out that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has made a final decision and will be retroactively recovering “Intergovernmental Transfer” (IGT) funds from counties operating nursing homes in New York. This retroactive recovery goes all the way back to State fiscal year 2006-07. This will be partially counterbalanced by a small […]

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Outdated Legal Doctrines

May 22, 2012 Law

Read Stephen J. Gottlieb’s, Outdated Legal Doctrines. This is how it starts: The law of contract, based on the consent of the parties, and the law of torts, based on our obligations when no agreement covers what happened, are fundamental to American law. There is only one problem. Both fields are hopelessly out of date. […]

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Albany County. Once Again Between a Nursing Home Rock & a Nursing Home Hard Place

May 22, 2012 County Government

Albany County Legislators are frustrated. They want to build a new nursing home, but they’ve bungled it repeatedly so they’re in a “no-man’s land” in the approval process. At the same time, Federal regulations require all Federally qualified nursing homes to have sprinklers by August of 2013. The only exception to the rule is when […]

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It’s Now Been Four Months Since Albany County, NY Knew (or Revealed) How Much Cash it Has

May 21, 2012 Cash

Following up on last month’s post on Albany County’s cash, we renewed our FOIL request. It’s now been four months and there’s still no response. The explanation given earlier was that the County doesn’t have the data because they’re in the midst of changing banks. I’ve tried that explanation on a number of public officials […]

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Information From Another Perspective

May 21, 2012 Visualization

Visualize an eclipse. Now go look at this image. Same data, different angle. This one’s from space. Stunning.

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