Welcome to the Cavalcade of Risk #44!
The theme of this carnival is risk management. From disruptive physicians, to Indian IPOs and patents, and even baboons, you’ll find quite a diverse set of articles in this carnival that are tied together by the common thread of risk management and the concept of risk. There were a good number of submissions that I’ve decided to all include in today’s presentation, and why not? The more the merrier I guess. As I’ve done before, I’ve decided to include a sampling of each post as a way to describe what each one is about.
I hope you all enjoy this list of articles! A big thanks to Hank Stern from InsureBlog, for letting me host this carnival.
Editor’s Choice
Dave Ramsey, Peter Schiff, and decline of U.S. Economy @ Debt Prison
Dave Ramsey and Peter Schiff are two men that I respect because they exist within a group of little known “truth tellers,” speaking out on the perils of personal debt and a troubled U.S. Economy. But there are two distinct differences in their perspectives concerning our U.S. Economy and monetary policy that I find puzzling.
Why Buying A Luxury Car Is Smarter Than Buying A Luxury Home @ Contrarian Goldfish
Contrarian thought: Buy an average house instead and do not become a slave to your mortgage for the rest of your life. Buy a car that you will be happy with for a long time and hold on to it.
Have Gold Prices Peaked? @ Living Off Dividends
In case you were asleep, last week saw gold break all records and almost closed at $900/Oz. I still think its a good time to buy for long term investors. Lets see what other investment advisers think.
Should the Insurance Industry Use Your Credit Score to Set Rates? @ Debt Free
One of the open secrets in the insurance industry is that many insurance companies use your credit score to help calculate your insurance payments. The insurance industry claims that a person’s credit score is an excellent predictor of that person’s overall level of responsibility.
Image gently, or when the diagnostic is worse than the disease @ Health Business Blog
From the time I was little I had an awareness of the potential dangers of medical X-rays. My mom was always careful to limit the number and frequency of dental x-rays she let us have, and luckily we rarely needed X-rays for anything else.
Baboons can demonstrate the same risk management skills as some managers @ Security Views
A year or two ago I was attending a session presented by a businessman who grew up in South Africa. He drew an interesting parallel between the wild baboons from his native land and the counter-productive habits of many businesses today.
Insurance and Risk Management
Personal Finance QuickTake: Insurance @ Life, Liberty And The Pursuit Of Money
Every year it is a good action item to do a total review of your insurance needs; Life, Home, Car, everything. But the wrong time to find out you are not insured is after something bad happens.
Silly Candidate Tricks: P&C Version @ InsureBlog
A few months ago, we reported on Sen Edwards’ empty threat to strip congressgritters of their elite medical coverage. Lest folks believe that we only ding the Democrats, we bring you the latest goofball idea from the Republican side…
Consumer Reports Massively Underreports Cost of Maintaining an Unhealthy Lifestyle @ Consumer’s Health Insurance Blog
I always enjoy reading Consumer Reports financial articles, and the February 2008 “12 Money Mistakes That Can Cost You $1,000,000” was great. However, I think that the cost of #7, Maintaining an unhealthy lifestyle, was far too low.
Employee v. Contractor @ InsuranceBuzzer.com
In most states employers must buy workers’ compensation insurance to protect their employees. Contractors are not employees and therefore you don’t need to buy workers’ compensation coverage for them. Beware of trying to call an employee a contractor. If they look like employees and act like employees, they are employees.
Business and Economic Risk
Ben Stein on Equity Risk Premium and Cash Holdings @ Leonard Wealth Management
“The whole reason you get paid so much more to be in the stock market than in cash is that it fluctuates so much. You get paid to be scared.”
Dollar Cost Averaging @ Unequivocal Notes
Dollar cost averaging is the method of investing in a particular stock/fund at regular intervals. It suits a buy and hold investor. This provides insulation in a volatile market.
Will the Fed avert a recession and other questions @ Sox First
So the Fed has stopped, at least for now, a global rout but fears of a recession are continuing to mount. Will the Fed avert a recession? And what are some of the questions that still need to be answered?
What does the recession mean for workers comp? @ Managed Care Matters
The US is either in a recession or about to be. What does that mean for workers’ comp? Broadly speaking, there are no studies that indicate WC costs decline as a result of recessions; in general costs tend to increase.
Patents in India @ Healthcare Economist
In their 2003 NBER working paper, Chaudhuri, Goldberg and Jia (CGJ) attempt to measure the welfare effects of pharmaceutical patent enforcement in India for the anti-bacterial category fluoroquinolones.
Stocks Tumble on Self-fulfilling Prophecy Fears @ Avant News
In Venezuela, markets bucked the trend and were steady on reduced inflation concerns with President Hugo Chavez’ recent edict declaring live chickens legal tender. “Chickens are generally considered an inflation-proof safe haven,” Mr. Springer said. “The swap makes good sense.”
Moral Hazard and Systemic Risk @ Ozrisk.net
One question that often arises from situations like the recent, unusual, drop in US interest rates and the economic stimulus package to support the markets is one of moral hazard. The question is whether the tendency of the monetary regulators to respond to widespread market drops with action to push more cash into the system creates a moral hazard…
Personal Financial and Investment Risk
The First Few Days After A Buy Can Be The Most Gut Wrenching @ Millionaire Neumes
It is sort of like a honeymoon. You’re married, but are the reasons you picked your spouse holding up once the deal is done. It’s been a few days since the buy. How is Wachovia doing and how is it fairing compared to Citigroup? So far so good.
The Problem With Structures — Risks and Hidden Costs @ The Personal Financier
Are these structured products better then other forms of investment just because the principal is ensured at the end of the investment period? Isn’t this a cheap marketing trick?
Grandma’s 529 Account Probably Better @ American Consumer News
Which is better: a parent who sets up a 529 plan for their child’s college savings or a grandparent? A 529 Plan is a college savings plan operated by each state.
What to Do When You Can’t Afford to Pay for College Anymore @ American Consumer News
There’s a statistic that any given freshmen class will lose 10% of its students each semester of college. If you find yourself in a situation where there’s just not enough money to pay the tuition bill, don’t worry, you have options.
Why Financial Planner will be the Hottest Job in 2008 @ KC Lau’s Money Tips
Financial planning is a very professional job. It requires high level of social skills, and also technical knowledge. Don’t ever look down on this professional. This magnificent job is just as professional as a doctor, lawyer, or accountant.
Defensive Stocks — Are They Really? @ A Slacker’s Quest For His First Million
Chances are, you’ve probably been hearing a lot about defensive stocks lately. I have been wondering about them myself, and decided to investigate how they have fared recently and in the last bear market.
Reliance Power: An Indian IPO @ Living Off Dividends
Unlike the US, where non-accredited investors cannot invest in a stock’s Initial Public Offering (and other high-risk investments), in India anyone can invest in an IPO. Right now Anil Ambani, son of legendary industrialist Dhirubhai Ambani and the 6th richest man on earth, is raising $3 Billion via IPO for Reliance Power.
The Biggest Risk @ Searchlight Crusade
If you aren’t putting your money into investments where there is some market risk, then the only guarantee you have is the guarantee that it won’t succeed, the guarantee that you will be living in poverty or forced to somehow keep working your whole life. In financial planning, the biggest risk is in not accepting some.
Medicine and Miscellaneous
Health Information Online: New & Interesting Developments @ The Sentinel Effect
The goal is to create the classic “knowledge pyramid”: Data needs to be organized into information, and information needs to be organized to become knowledge. If somebody builds it, they will come.
Religion and Medicine A Bad Mix @ Colorado Health Insurance Insider
Religion has no place in medicine, just as it has no place in politics. But unfortunately, we have muddled the waters by allowing hospitals to be owned by whatever private entity can offer the highest bid.
Data Security Breach @ Identity Mate
Data security breach incidents continue to occur worldwide in record numbers. Why are there so many cases of lost personal information and security breaches in the same manner? Don’t companies learn from others’ mistakes?
And the Winner of the LWBS sweepsakes is…. @ ER Murse
A simple litature search on the subject of patients who leave without being seen from Emergency Departments reveals a lot of information about the characteristics of patients who LWBS, factors associated with it, and methods to reduce it.
Shooting Lawyers the Bird: The Tribune’s Employee Handbook @ Worker’s Comp Insider
It is with some ambivalence that we tackle the issue of the Tribune Newspaper’s new Employee Handbook. Written by a non-lawyer, the handbook attempts to present the myriad issues contained in a handbook in a light, rather flippant tone.
New study shows that birth control pill lowers risk of ovarian cancer @ Babies Online Blog
British researchers have found that taking the birth control pill lowers women’s chance of getting ovarian cancer. Women taking the pill for 15 years cut their chances of getting this often fatal form of cancer in half.
Bad Bedside Manner: The Disruptive Physician @ SB Consulting
Often, disruptive behavior of physicians impacts the work environment. Facilities become prone to receiving complaints by other professionals, patients, or families about their experience with the particular physician. As a result, risk management rises for that facility.
That’s our carnival for now! For this edition’s takeaway: whatever you do, just keep an eye out on the risks that you take.
Image Credit: DailySpeculations.com
Copyright © 2008 The Digerati Life. All Rights Reserved.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh. My. Gosh!
What a TREMENDOUS issue!
Thank you for hosting, and for doing such a terrific job!
Thanks for putting together the cavalcade of risk carnival
Thanks for the link. Great carnival!
Incredible Job…
This was a great job. Thanks so much for the include!
Great set of links — love the graphics!
Wow, amazing job putting all that together. Thanks so much for hosting and including my blog!
Just wanted to say thanks…..
Barry
Wow, thanks! That is a valuable list, which reminds me the importance of managing risks to keep your business (and personal) life up and going. That was one of the things that I learned from James D. Brausch recently.
Wow! HUGE Cav. You can take a break now. Thanks for including us.
Jay and Louise
You know, it’s been a great pleasure to work on carnivals, but for now, I’m thinking I’m going to have to take a break from hosting. It’s a big effort to do and well, I have to space them out throughout the year so they don’t wipe me out! 🙂 Next one I host will probably be sometime much(!) later in the year.