Other stuff

2 live examples of opting out of ACA

Two businesses talked to the Wall Street Journal about the possibility they may drop health coverage for their employees next year. Let’s look at their numbers.

I’ve been wanting to write about the implications of dropping out of the mandatory health care coverage. Obviously, I can’t use as an illustration any of the organizations I’m familiar with.

So when the WSJ had a discussion today, I found some public numbers we can work with. The article is Some Small Businesses Opt for the Health-Care Penalty.

The data

I’ll quote just enough of the article to get the basic data on the table: (more…)

Jim Ulvog

Before you think about suing a blogger…

….you might want to read this:

Libel in the Blogosphere: Some Preliminary Thoughts by Glenn Reynolds. It’s a free download. Only 14 pages long.

Although the paper was written in 2006, it is remarkably current.

Full disclosure time. Yes, I have a biased and vested interest in the idea of not suing bloggers. Take my comment with whatever size grain of salt you wish.

The biggest issue to consider is the pushback you may receive from the rest of the blogosphere if you even threaten a blogger.

A few minor points are that most bloggers don’t have enough of a deep pocket to make litigation worthwhile and you can probably get a near instantaneous correction with a polite request.

Back to the major issue.

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Jim Ulvog

Check out Evernote for storing articles, ‘net resources, and lots of other stuff

(Cross-post from my other blog Attestation Update.)

I’ve been using Evernote for about two months now. It is a great tool to store internet articles, PDF documents, and other files.

It gives you a great way to store, access, and search those interesting web articles you would like to look at again.

Charles Hall, at CPA-Scribo introduces Evernote for CPAs:

Evernote is a game-changer for CPAs.

It is every bit as useful for someone in the NPO world. Mr Hall continues: (more…)

Jim Ulvog

How many people die from reusable grocery bags?

5.5 per year in the county of San Francisco.

Plus a large increase in the number of ER visits.

That is the statistical conclusion from the Grocery Bag Bans and Foodborne Illness study by Professors Klick and Wright. You can download the study for yourself at the link in the previous sentence.

(Why is this post here instead of one of my other blogs since it is a bit off-topic from the focus here? Two reasons. First, my unintended consequence discussion is on this blog. Second, this illustrates the concept of unintended consequence which has huge implications for the missions community.)

In his article The Disgusting Consequence of Plastic-Bag Bans, Ramesh Ponnuru summarizes the study as follows: (more…)

Jim Ulvog

‘Tragedy of Fraud’ in e-book format – soon to be released

Tragedy of Fraud – The Ripple Effects from Fraud and the Wages Earned will be released soon in Kindle format. This is a compilation of blog posts about the damage caused by fraud. It will also discuss the fraud triangle.

The sections of the book are: (more…)

Jim Ulvog

Another example of the right way to apologize and own your errors

I dislike the way many people try to apologize today. The typical “I’m sorry if you were offended” is not an apology. Not even close.

Here is a superb illustration of the right way to apologize. Check out Via Meadia Blew It.

I missed the original issue, but apparently a Via Meadia post unjustly insulted another journalist. Look at the first part of the key apology paragraph:

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Jim Ulvog

Ulvog CPA firm receives “Pass” rating in Peer Review

I am pleased to report that my firm received a pass rating on the peer review which was performed in November 2012.

The peer review program is a process the CPA profession has developed to look at the quality of audit and other attestation work performed by CPAs. Firms are inspected by other firms to evaluate compliance with various professional standards.

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Jim Ulvog