In recent years, utilities, credit card issuers and banks have made a real effort to redesign their statements so theyre easier for their customers to understand. In many cases theyve succeeded, and Im grateful.

But for some reason, my health insurer (Anthem Blue Cross) has continued to to send me the same kind of inscrutable Explanation of Benefits letter that it has sent for years. Its filled with information that is of no value to me, including machine-readable bar codes and glyphs (who are these for?the letters dont say). And the kind of information I would like to know is incomplete. For example, the letters include the members medical deductible applied to date but doesnt say what the deductible actually is, or how much is remaining.

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Unfortunately, most schools do not teach children about the importance of money and how to budget properly (Whats up with that!?). Because of this many kids learn how to budget from their parents. So its time to flex that financial muscle of yours and teach Jr how awesome you are when it comes to finances. Time now to teach them a thing or two about the importance of money.

You remember that first job you had and the first paycheck you got? It felt great to see that your hard work paid off at the end of the week in the form of a check. Well you can help your child feel that way too by giving them a small allowance depending on how much work they get done around the house (Or for excellent grades in school). Teaching your child that hard work pays off in the end is such an important lesson to learn at an early age.

Value of Money

As you obviously know that piece of paper with an old man on the front has a value (Depending on which old man is on it).

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The FSU has received calls from our QBE members across all states who are concerned about major changes occurring in their workplaces. FSU members are concerned about restructures, QBE claims roles being created in Manilla and service centres being reduced to operate only out of Sydney and Victoria. The FSU met with QBE Management last week to discuss these concerns and to seek a response to the offshoring concerns of staff.

QBE confirmed that they will meet their obligations to consult and notify the FSU about major changes at QBE which is required by the Fair Work Act 2009. QBE also advised that there are redeployment opportunities within QBE for staff whose work teams are being restructured and that the roles created in Manilla are additional roles that will not result in any Australian QBE employees losing their jobs.

Being an FSU member means that you belong to the Union that has access to QBE management to discuss staff concerns and to also ensure our members are given comparable positions as a result of restructures.

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When I discuss Lost Decades I always stress the fact that the “s” denotes the plural. Figure 1 shows that a decade and a half in, the trajectory of output has been noticeably depressed since 2001Q1.

The downtrend post-2001Q1 is more pronounced in per capita terms (extends only to 2011Q3, since I don’t have population post November 2011, and didn’t have the patience to hunt up projections to interpolate to quarterly frequency).

In Lost Decades, we make clear that we can avoid two complete lost decades, if we implemented reasonable policies. But we also recognized the obstacles (p.221):

… Financial interests resist regulations that shift the burden of risky behavior back onto them and off of taxpayers. Beneficiaries of government programs fight against attempts to curb their benefits.

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