April 29, 2024 | Michael R Lewis, ASJA

August 14, 2013January 1, 2024

How to Reduce Labor Costs in Your Business

Salaries and wages are one of the largest costs of every company, and are often the most difficult to control. But changing compensation is touchy for those who are affected, so it is important to handle the changes with compassion, truth, and firmness.

One way to do this is to identify your key employees and get their commitment to your plans before you implement them. Companies that reduce compensation or fire employees without considering other methods to increase productivity or reduce costs invariably suffer from poor morale, indifferent customer relations, and further declines in sales, potentially falling into a downward spiral from which there is no recovery.

The following tips will lead you through a difficult, though necessary process to ensure your company is positioned to survive and thrive in any economic environment.

Living with Superbugs, Viruses & Bacteria

Newspapers and television news reports have shrieked the appearance of new “superbugs” and the dangers they pose for humanity. “Deadly Superbug Scare: Flesh-Eating Germ in 31 of 63 State Hospitals” headlined the “Boston Herald” on March 7, 2013. ABC News Chief Health and Medical Editor Dr. Richard Besser proclaimed earlier on a March 6th newscast that “bacteria that start in hospitals often find their way out into the community. That would be a nightmare scenario.”

On March 11, the “Atlantic Wire” reported that public health officials in the United States and Great Britain were concerned about a potentially catastrophic threat to human health due to a spike in the appearance of the drug-resistant bacteria carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE). According to Dame Sally Davies, the United Kingdom’s chief medical officer, “If tough measures are not taken to restrict the use of antibodies and no new ones are discovered, we will find ourselves in a health system not dissimilar to the early 19th century at some point.”

Is it time to run for cover, avoid contact with other human beings, and prepare for Armageddon? Read more . . .

August 14, 2013January 3, 2024

Life Insurance – How Much Do You Need?

Many people’s first experience with life insurance is when a friend or acquaintance gets an insurance license. In my case, a college friend, recently hired by a major insurance company, contacted me to buy a $10,000 policy. He reached out to several other friends as well, and many of us signed on the dotted line.

Though this isn’t the ideal way to buy life insurance, it is, nonetheless, the way by which most people acquire it: They don’t buy life insurance – it is sold to them.

7 Mutual Fund Performance Measures & What They Mean

For years, investors, fund managers, and stock analysts have sought reliable indicators to project the future return and risk of owning an individual stock, bond, or a portfolio of securities. The underlying assumptions are as follows:

All investments have inherent risk which is assumed upon ownership.
Returns and risk can be objectively quantified by mathematical analysis of historical results.
The correlation of potential return and underlying risk constantly varies, providing opportunities to acquire investments with maximum potential return and minimal risk.

These assumptions exemplify modern portfolio management and are the basis for the widely used capital asset pricing model (CAPM) developed in the 1960s, which led to a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for its creators. Enabled by technology, Wall Street wonks amass and analyze massive amounts of historical data searching for hidden, often arcane relationships to identify undiscovered opportunities for gain without risk. The results of their analysis are often publicly available for use by private investors.