OnTrack Reading

This part of the OnTrack Reading website has nothing to do with reading. Over the years, I’ve written papers on a few economics issues that have interested me. Only one paper, A Bubble-icious Tax Cut, has ever gotten published, but now we have the worldwide web and unlimited pixels and what appears to be unlimited server space, so I’m uploading some of my unpublished papers as PDF’s along with descriptions of their content. All of the topics revolve around economics.

Monetary Policy Past and Present

As an investment manager in the late 1970’s, I became interested in monetary policy and its influence on the economy. At that time I managed the Bond Portfolio of the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System and developed a theory of monetary policy that I believe is still relevant today. See the page Monetary Policy to gain an understanding of the Federal Reserve’s power and how it can be unwittingly applied.

Health Savings Accounts on a National Basis

My next topic of interest was health insurance, and particularly, the use of Health Savings Accounts. In 1992, after living six years back in my home state of Wisconsin, I ran for the Wisconsin State Assembly on a platform of introducing Health Savings Accounts (which at the time I called Individual Retirement and Medical Accounts, or IRMA’s - to go with the already existing IRA’s, of course.) I lost, and to get IRMA out of my system, I wrote and published a pamphlet titled The Wisconsin Plan describing how IRMA’s, or what came eventually to be called HSA’s, or Health Savings Accounts, could be used. That pamphlet is now a PDF on this website. See Health Savings Accounts if you want to learn why they are a true solution to our current health insurance morass.

Health Savings Accounts on a Statewide Basis

Later, following the authorization of Health Savings Accounts at the federal level and the election of a Republican majority in both houses of the Wisconsin legislature, I attempted to convince my legislator, State Senator Ron Brown, to consider a proposal for initiating HSA’s in Wisconsin on a statewide, voluntary basis that I believe would have resulted in a 90% or better sign up rate, but to no avail. Since then, Democrats have taken over the Senate, Senator Brown is no longer in office, and it’s probably a dead issue for now. However, legislators from any state could implement what I propose, to their constituents’ advantage. See A Statewide HSA Plan to learn how your own state legislators could implement a health insurance plan for your state, utilizing Health Savings Accounts, that would have everyone eagerly signing up for coverage on a voluntary basis.

The Housing Bubble and Tax Law

In 1997, Congress changed the tax law applying to housing and initiated the greatest housing boom the country had ever seen. Because of my investment training, and an appreciation developed over thirty years for how tax treatment can drive investments, it was obvious to me from the very date of enactment that housing was destined to go up in price significantly. My concern arose early that it would eventually lead to a bust of the sort we are now experiencing and on October 22, 2002, I submitted an article to Barron’s Other Voices section expressing that concern. It was rejected without comment. On June 21, 2005, I resubmitted the article unchanged along with a short note that I suspected “that very few submissions containing forecasts made nearly three years ago could be resubmitted without change.” They agreed and published it with minor editing changes in the November 14, 2005 of Barron’s. See A Bubble-icious Tax Cut for links to the article and further information on what you might expect from the housing market over the next few years. Hint: It won’t be pretty.

Reading, Dyslexia and Vision Therapy

After that, I got interested in reading instruction, and that led to this website and its content being developed around the topics of dyslexia, vision therapy and phonics instruction.