Q1 2013 has come to a close…

Week of March 25, 2013

FOR YOUR EDIFICATION AND ENTERTAINMENT:

Why Your Boss is Dumping Your Spouse

Sheepskins Compared

Why Your Emails Aren’t Opened

Econ Recon: The Sequester-If not now, when?

Why Your Boss is Dumping Your Spouse 

If there is an issue that is on the minds of both employers and employees this year it is the cost and coverage implications of the Affordable Care Act.  One aspect of this that has not received much attention is increasing the number of employers “carving out” or denying of coverage to spouses.   Employers save not only the premiums by doing this but the new  “covered life” fees that Obama Care imposes and which will increase over time..    As employer and/or employee you need to know more about this… so find out why your boss is dumping your spouse.

Sheepskins Compared

The US Department of Education has unveiled a new website.  “College Scorecard “ that allows you to screen out schools  on a number of different criteria, including  graduation rates, typical student debt, and student loan default rates.  This site does not yet have stats on how many grads land good jobs, but the loan default rate may be a good indicator of failure in this area.  The site also provides info on the school’s annual tuition, room and board  actual costs, which are usually less than those advertised.   If you have kids looking at college,  or already there and wonder if they made the right choice, check this site out today.

Why Your Emails Aren’t Opened

Everyone has two complaints about emails:  we get too many and we can’t get those we want to connect with to open the ones we send.     Vistage Speaker Tom Searcy  , whose presentations to our CEO groups on finding and closing the really big prospects is a perennial favorite of our members,  offers some sound yet easy to implement advice to make sure your message doesn’t  hit the trash bin with his recent Inc Magazine article “7 Ways to Ensure Your Emails Get Read.” 

Econ Recon: The Sequester-If not now, when? 

The Sunday news shows are focused on the sequester of government spending due to be imposed this Friday, March 1.  Will it be the disaster that one party warns of  or the non-event predicted by the other?    Vistage Staff Economist and ITR President Alan Beaulieu asks in his latest ITR Blog  “If the US Can’t Begin Serious Spending Reductions Now, When Will It?”  and warns CEOs that there is a new normal on GDP Growth that will not let us grow our way of this situation without some hard choices.

Economist Brian Wesbury also chimes in with a brief analysis that leads him to say Don’t Fear the Sequester.