Money's Best Bank in PA

The November issue of Money Magazine has a list of "The Best Banks in Every State," compiled by Kaitlin Mulhere and Megan Leonhardt (pp. 72-82).  The bank listed for Pennsylvania is Northwest Bank.

WalletHub Analysis Reports

Our friends at WalletHub have been sending me a lot of emails.  I'll post a few sentences about each link.


In a study of African American political involvement by state, Pennsylvania ranked 21st overall, (Data used to create these rankings were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, and History, Art & Archives - United States House of Representatives.)  Read the full report.

WalletHub reviewed presidential candidates' personal finances.  Read the full report.

In a review of how dependent states are on the gun industry,here is how Pennsylvania ranked:
Pennsylvania’s Dependence on the Gun Industry (1=Most Dependent; 25=Avg.) 

• 27^th – Number of Firearms-Industry Jobs per Capita
• 18^th – Average Wages & Benefits in the Firearms Industry
• 27^th – Total Firearms Industry Output per Capita
• 41^st – Total Taxes Paid by the Firearms Industry per Capita
• 35^th – Gun Ownership
• 23^rd – NICS Background Checks per Capita
• 18^th – Gun-Control Contributions to Congressional Members per Capita
• 32^nd – Gun-Rights Contributions to Congressional Members per Capita

Read the full report.

In a study of the 2015uninsured rate, here is how Pennsylvania ranked (read the full report):
Health Insurance Coverage in Pennsylvania:

• Obamacare reduced the children’s uninsured rate by 0.46 percent between 2010 and 2014.
   
• Obamacare reduced the adult uninsured rate by 19.23 percent between 2010 and 2014.
   
• The uninsured rate for whites is 45.22 percent lower than that for blacks.
   
• The uninsured rate for whites is 64.84 percent lower than that for Hispanics.
   
• The uninsured rate for higher-income households is 71.26 percent lower than that for lower-income households.
   
• The rate of publicly insured is 30.98 percent.
   
• The rate of privately insured is 69.02 percent.
   
• The rate of employer-based health insurance coverage decreased by 0.09 percent between 2010 and 2014.
   
• The uninsured rate pre-Obamacare was 10.16 percent and has fallen to a current rate of 8.46 percent, with 206,603 persons gaining health insurance coverage.

Mark Zandi in Money Magazine

I used to track quotes from Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics; he was mentioned frequently.  These days he writes regularly in the Inquirer.  Zandi is quoted in the January / February 2016 issue of Money Magazine "Is there a hidden bubble in the market?").

Now that Suze Orman is off the air (at least temporarily -- she is supposedly developing a new television series), there is an opening for a new financial guru on tv.  Personal finance isn't really Zandi's thing (his two books are on finance more generally).

Zandi has several degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and lives in the Philadelphia area.

Open Note to the Governor, State House, and State Senate

Dear Gov. Wolf, State Legislators, and State Senate,

You've had your fun with the annual budget circus, but as the Inquirer notes ("School officials slam Pa. budget stalemate," by Caitlin McCabe 8/19), school is getting ready to start and the schools need to know what their budgets are.

To put it in blunt terms, it is time for you to stop farting around and get down to business.

Here are my personal thoughts on the budget:

Fund the public schools.  Think you're spending a little too much  money there?  Too bad.  Let's see what we can cut from the legislature's budget, tax credits for marcellus shale, special jackets for the state health dept, and so on.

Want to privatize liquor stores?  Sure, just find another revenue stream to replace the lost income from the state stores. I don't drink alcohol and could provide you boatloads of statistics on the social harms caused by it.  You could shut them all down as far as I'm concerned.  Carrie Nation had a good point.

Pension reform?  I'm sure the employees of the state would be happy to follow any example the state government would care to set.  Note this excerpt from "Pennsylvania public pension dilemma rooted in 1990's," by Madison Ross, TribLive 6/15/2014:

Before 9/11 sent financial markets tumbling, the pension funds for public employees were overfunded. In May that year, lawmakers and former Gov. Tom Ridge passed Act 9 of 2001 to raise benefits for employees by about 25 percent, in the future and retroactively.

The law required employees to contribute more to help cover costs. It gave lawmakers a 50 percent pension boost.

So I would expect them to take the lead in reducing benefits as well.  Whatever reductions or changes they pass for state employees and teachers I would expect them to double for themselves.  

But first and foremost -- fund the public schools.

That's my initial budget rant.

Delaware Losing Popularity as Corporate Friendly State?

Over a week ago, on August 3rd, the Wall Street Journal ran an interesting article on Delaware as a place where companies incorporate for favorable legal reasons.  The focus of the article is the number of corporations facing shareholder lawsuits.  "Firms sour on Delaware as corporate haven," by Liz Hoffman goes into a lot of detail on this.

Interesting reading, especially as Pennsylvania has railed against the Delaware Loophole for years.  Maybe this loophole is being to unravel.

Report on Pennsylvania Wage Theft

A report on wage theft in Pennsylvania was released this past week.  Prepared by the Social Justice Lawyering Clinic at the Stephen and Sandra Sheller Center for Social Justice at Temple University Beasley School of Law.  In response to the report, Community Legal Services is calling on the City of Philadelphia and the State of Pennsylvania to take action to protect workers.

Entitled Short Changed:  How Wage Theft Harmed Pennsylvania's Workers and Economy, the report is available at:  http://www2.law.temple.edu/csj/files/wagetheft-report.pdf.  Wage theft is defined as:  

Wage theft, the illegal non-payment or under payment of wages, is a pervasive problem hurting hundreds of thousands of low-wage workers across the state each week.

Researchers based their report on a 2009 study of low wage workers in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers.  The report offers statistics on the occupations most affected by wage theft, the ways that wages are stolen (for example, unpaid overtime, or refusing to pay workers who are required to travel as part of their job for travel time), and regional statistics for wage theft in Pennsylvania.  

Those who are not sympathetic to the cause of workers might consider the tax revenue lost when employees are not paid all they are owed.

You can read more at Life Under $10.10, http://lifeunder1010.com/

Zivtech a Top System Integrator

Back in the day when Young Philly Politics was the top political blog in the city I read it mostly for the political news, but also for the comments.  One conversation point I especially enjoyed was the banter between or about two brothers who were among those who set up and ran the site.

One of them is now a rising tech entrepreneur, having co-founded Zivtech, an open source software programming firm.  It is now one of the city's thriving small nerd firms.  Who knows, maybe it's the next Microsoft.

Zivtech was mentioned in this week's Philadelphia Business Journal as one of Philadelphia's exceptional system integrators for 2015.  System integrators pull together existing hardware and software products to come up with streamlined, cost efficient solutions to solve business programs faster (or at least that's what the press release said).

Here's how the business describes itself:

Zivtech, founded in 2008, is a Philadelphia web design and web development shop. Our jawn is open source software programming.  Zivtech works with healthcare, pharmaceuticals, education, publishing, government, startups, and nonprofits. Zivtech partners with leading digital companies, including Acquia, to deliver reliable websites and web applications to organizations worldwide. The Hebrew term “ziv” translates to the light that comes from a candle: radiance, beauty, and seeing something new. Zivtech illuminates technology.

Interesting Articles from the WSJ

A few articles in the Wall Street Journal from the past week or so:

"Pro Stadiums, Public Money," by Eliot Brown 3/09/15 (behind paywall)
The president's proposed budget would bar the "use of tax-exempt bonds to finance professional sports facilities."  The Treasury Department noted that such bonds "shifted more of the costs and risks from the private owners to local residents and taxpayers in general."   Yeah, let's stop doing this.



"Executive Pensions Swell at Top Firms," by Theo Frances and Andrew Ackerman (3/25/15)
One of the examples discussed is that of Jeff Imhelt of GE. Compare these two quotes: "In all, Mr. Immelt’s pension is valued at about $4.8 million a year for life. The company puts its current value at about $70 million, up from around $52 million a year ago." and this "In 2011, GE stopped offering new employees traditional defined-benefit pensions and replaced them with 401(k) plans. At the time, Mr. Immelt cited recent market downturns and lower interest rates as being among the reasons for the shift."  Somehow that just doesn't seem fair.

"Wells CEO Sees Pay Stay at $19.3 Million," by Emily Glazer (3/18/15) (behind paywall)

"For Google CFO, a $70 Million Package," by Rolfe Winkler (3/27/15) (behind paywall)

These last two are self-explanatory from the headlines.

Medtronic and Inversion

Some things are just infuriating.  For example, reading "Medtronic Avoids U.S. Taxes While Saddling Shareholders With a Hefty Tax Bill," by Rakesh Sharma on Philly.com on 1/28/15.  The article starts with this:

Medtronic's $49.9 billion acquisition of Dublin-based Covidien -- the largest tax inversion deal ever -- will leave shareholders with a big tax bill, while allowing the Minnesota-based company to pay little or no U.S. taxes.

To make pour salt in the wound, note this:

The Medtronic acquisition saddles shareholders with a capital gains tax accrued as part of the transaction. Under IRS rules, this is typical for inversion deals in which the acquiring company holds 50% or more of the shares of the acquired company. Medtronic reimbursed $63 million to senior executives last year to offset their tax liability as a result of the merger. However, individual shareholders did not receive the same courtesy.

Just truly annoying.

Two Notes on Workforce Training

Two notes this week on workforce training.

One from the White House:

In his 2014 State of the Union address, the President tasked Vice President Biden with leading a review of federal employment and training programs, with the aim of making them more job-driven. That review is complete, and now that the White House has identified what is working across the country, the aim is to multiply those shining examples. The Vice President’s report highlights successful job-driven training strategies, details executive actions that are being taken by the federal government, and new commitments by employers, non-profits, unions and innovators to help spread what’s working and to support more Americans in getting and moving up in in-demand jobs and careers. (Read the full report or fact sheet)

Last Thursday (7/17) the Wall Street Journal published an article by  Lauren Weber, called "Just whose job is it to train workers?"

Amtrak Veterans Job Fair

from the inbox:

In support of an initiative to make 25 percent of new hires veterans by the end of 2015, Amtrak is proud to play host to a Veteran Opportunity Expo at 30^th Street Station on Thursday, July 24, 2014 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.  More than 60 firms, including Amtrak, will have representatives on hand to discuss career opportunities for veterans and other men and women with military backgrounds.

A dedicated team of Amtrak recruiters will be on hand to work with veteran applicants to understand how their military skills, experience and training correspond to career opportunities that best align with their capabilities. 

An Amtrak spokesperson will also be available to discuss the Veterans Hiring Initiative.  Amtrak committed itself to this aggressive goal last year and has hired more than 800 veterans since 2011.  A custom-painted locomotive (Engine #42) was dedicated in June 2013 to honor our employees who are veterans, and raise awareness of the company’s initiative.  Amtrak President & CEO Joe Boardman is himself a veteran of the Vietnam War and cares deeply about providing career opportunities for other veterans. 

The event is produced by the military-to-civilian recruitment firm RecruitMilitary and sponsored by the NorthStar Solutions Group and Disabled American Veterans (DAV). 

Sins of the Father: IRS Style

In an alarming story of government overreach and lack of accountability and transparency, the Washington Post reports a story, "Social Security, Treasury target taxpayers for their parents' decades-old debts," by Marc Fisher (4/10/14).  People are finding their tax refunds are intercepted to recompense for overpayments by Social Security going back decades, sometimes to when the person was a child and the payments were to their parents.  No proof is given that the person benefited from the overpayment.  One example given is for a woman who is charged for a nearly 40 year old overpayment, back to the time she when she was four.  Neither of her two surviving siblings, one older and one younger, were charged.

It's all because someone put a sentence into a farm bill doing away with the statue of limitations on recovering overpayments.  I really think there should be a way to find out which of our elected officials added that sentence (or which lobbyists actually wrote it and has someone add it to the bill).

This is scary.

Update:  On Monday the Social Security Administration said it would stop this practice (see "social security stops trying to collect on old debts by seizing tax refunds," by Marc Fisher 4/14).  I will want to know who started it.

Lobbying for Failure

This was included in Mike Allen's Politico Playbook this morning.  Just despicable, betting on a company to fail and people to lose their jobs, then lobbying to try to make it happen, not among corporate competitors but hedge fund profits:

WASHINGTON, INC. -- N.Y. Times 2-col. lead, "After Big Bet, Hedge Fund Pulls the Levers of Power: Staking $1 Billion That Herbalife Will Fail, Then Lobbying to Bring It Down," by Michael S. Schmidt, Eric Lipton and Alexandra Stevenson : "At a Midtown Manhattan steakhouse last June, William A. Ackman, the activist hedge fund manager who had bet a billion dollars on the collapse of the nutritional supplement company Herbalife, offered his latest evidence to a handful of other hedge fund managers about why the company's stock could soon plummet. Mr. Ackman told his dinner companions that Representative Linda T. Sánchez, Democrat of California, had sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission the previous day calling for an investigation of the company. The commission had not yet stamped the letter as received, nor had it been made public.

"But Mr. Ackman, who had personally lobbied Ms. Sánchez and stood to profit if the company's stock dropped as a result of the call for an inquiry, ... read from a copy of it that he had on his cellphone. ... Ackman's efforts illustrate how Washington is increasingly becoming a battleground of Wall Street's financial titans, whose interest in influencing public policy is driven primarily by a desire for profit - part of an expanding practice in the nation's capital, with corporations, law firms and lobbying practices establishing political intelligence units to gather news they can trade on." http://goo.gl/Wrqcxl

New Yorker Article on Merck

In the December 9, 2013 issue of the New Yorker there is an article entitled "The Big Sleep," by Ian Parker.  It is on Merck's research and development of a new sleep aid; the working name for it is suvorexant.  Merck's work to get the drug through the FDA is the focus of the article, along with a brief history of prescription sleep aids, such as Ambien.

I noted three interesting geographic mentions in the article:

For months, in rooms across Merck's archipelago of mismatched buildings north of Philadelphia, [David] Michelson had taken part in role-playing rehearsals for the F.D.A. meeting.

One reason this was such a priority:

The company was impatient.  A factory in Las Piedras, Puerto Rico, was ready to start production.

 As for the active ingredient, the aforementioned suvorexant, "Merck synthesizes it in Ireland, and ships it across the Atlantic in hundred-and-twenty-litre drums."

Given the large number of community colleges and universities in this area I don't quite understand why this area cannot provide the trained workforce this work would require.  Wouldn't it be easier to have everything, executives and scientists, and manufacturing in one general area?  While this medication, if approved, would be shipped all over the world, moved the main ingredient from Ireland to Puerto Rico sounds expensive and risky.  If it were all in one place there would be less opportunity for loss or damage.

There might be room for one or more manufacturing plants in several locations around the Philadelphia area.  It's too bad it can't all be done here.

[Blogger's note:  Big Bang Theory fans take note -- a retired medical professor named Dr. Daniel Kripke.]

Audit of County Pension Plans

modified press release:

Auditor General Eugene DePasquale today announced the release of $320 million in funds for municipal pension plans and volunteer fire relief associations in each of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.

The total dollar amount in municipal pension funds for 2013 is $248 million being distributed to 2,542 local government pension plans. An additional $72 million is being released for nearly 1,950 Volunteer Fire Relief Associations (VFRA) to purchase equipment, training, insurance and pay death benefits.

Under state law, the Department of Auditor General distributes the funds to municipalities to help defray the cost of various police, fire and municipal pension plans. Funding is allocated through the municipalities to volunteer fire relief associations.

State pension aid for police, paid firefighters and non-uniformed municipal employee pensions is provided from a two-percent tax on out-of-state casualty insurance premiums; a portion of the out-of-state fire insurance tax is designated for paid firefighters.

On an annual basis, municipalities provide the Pennsylvania Employee Retirement Commission with the number of employees, payroll and the actuarial costs of their pension plans. Municipalities also certify this information with the auditor general’s office. The data is used by the auditor general to compute the amount of state aid that is due to the municipal pension fund.

In addition to distributing state aid, the auditor general’s office audits nearly 1,950 volunteer fire relief associations and 2,542 local government pension plans, which include 963 police officer plans, 81 firefighter plans, and 1,598 non-uniformed municipal employee pension plans. A report detailing the amount of state pension aid distributed to each municipality and funding for VFRAs is online at www.auditorgen.state.pa.us/allocations.

Notes from the December Issue of Money Magazine

A few interesting notes from the December issue of Money Magazine.

The editor's column suggests an alternate way of managing the lottery:

"Enter the prize-linked savings account.  The idea:  You place money with a private of government institution,and in exchange for a slightly lower interest rate, you're entered into a lottery that could make you a lot.  You get the entertainment value of dreaming about a big score while still saving." (p. 11)

Sounds like a great idea to me.

the first student loan ombudsman at the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Rohit Chopra, is a Wharton grad (p. 80).

Two Marcellus Shale Notes

Two notes in the inbox this week regarding Marcellus Shale.

A new report was released today [Nov 22nd] by the Multi-State Shale Research Collaborative — a group of research organizations, including the Keystone Research Center and Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, tracking the impacts of shale drilling.


And, from the Nov. 26th inbox:

The Pennsylvania Growing Greener Coalition, the largest coalition of conservation, recreation and preservation organizations in the Commonwealth, today celebrated the approval of more than $28 million in Marcellus Legacy Fund grants to support recreation and critical land and water protection efforts throughout the state. 

“The Pennsylvania Growing Greener Coalition is pleased that funds from the Marcellus Legacy Fund will be used to support vital recreation and land and water protection efforts,” said Andrew Heath, executive director of the Pennsylvania Growing Greener Coalition.  “These grants will have a lasting impact on the Commonwealth by supporting projects that provide numerous benefits including protecting watersheds, mitigating risk of flooding, building and maintaining recreational trails and treating former mining sites.”  

A result of Act 13, which was signed into law in 2012, the ‘impact fee’ collects fees on natural gas drilling.  To date, the state’s impact fee has collected more than $400 million.  Forty percent of the fees collected are allocated to the Marcellus Shale Legacy Fund.  A portion of the Fund is administered by the Commonwealth Financing Authority (CFA) to support statewide conservation and recreation efforts.  This initial round of grants distributed more than $28 million in grants.

The Pennsylvania Growing Greener Coalition was instrumental in ensuring that funds collected through the Marcellus Legacy Fund be made available for statewide conservation and recreation projects. 

A breakdown of the grants distributed by the Commonwealth Financing Authority is as follows: 

 ·     $5.6 million to restore streams impaired by polluted runoff in 18 counties. 

·     $16 million to support 116 greenway, trail and recreation projects throughout the state. 

·     $5.2 million to support 12 abandoned mine drainage abatement and treatment projects statewide. 

·     $700,000 to support flood mitigation projects in Blair, Bucks, Lackawanna and Northumberland counties. 

·     $225,000 to plug orphaned and abandoned wells in Allegheny and Washington counties. 

Barry Ritholtz on Wal-Mart as Welfare Queen

Interesting article over on Bloomberg.com by Barry Ritholtz, "How McDonals and Wal-Mart Became Welfare Queens."  He writes about the large number of employees at these two companies who receive welfare and / or food stamps.

CNN Report on Income Inequality

"The most unequal place in America," by John D. Sutter, is a really thought-provoking piece on the CNN website.  It focuses on income inequality in the town with the greatest income inequality in the country.  The two items that really stood out for me were these:

Money might not buy happiness but it does frequently buy options and second chances.  It is also related to educational achievement and that, along with avoiding teen parenthood, are important factors in economic stability.

The second was the chart comparing farm subsidies and food stamps.  The average recipient of a farm subsidy receives about seven times the amount of the average recipient of food stamps.

Interesting.

Two Articles on Philly Start Ups

Two interesting articles on the start up scene in Philadelphia:

"Meet the Philly Start-Ups Leading the Entrepreneurship Era," by Ashley Primis, Philadelphia Magazine, October, 2013

"Here's What 10 Philly Tech Leaders Told 100 College Entrepreneurs Last Week," by Christopher Wink, Technically Philly, 10/25/13