For the last decade or so, energy companies have much-reduced the risk they face in the oil patch through the use of 3D technology. Rather than blindly drilling underground on the basis of little more than sonic data transferred into lines on long sheets of paper, the companies have been able to project 3D images of a subterranean reservoir onto a screen, snap on some fancy glasses, and figuratively walk through an oilfield, picking precisely where to drill.
Now the companies responsible for this technology are branching out. Companies like Norway's Cyviz, Belgium's Barco and Canada's Christie Digital are marketing 3-D "media walls" to militaries, to pharmaceutical companies, to aerospace companies, and more. Pharmaceutical researchers based in offices around the world can simultaneously, for instance, make a close examination of the molecular structure of a virus, and figure out strategies for attacking it. The companies are hot competitors in Washington, D.C., at the moment, vying for the business of government agencies.
I asked Washington-based Cyviz executive Jeff Eisenhard to talk about the technology.
Health care and solar power seem to be worlds apart. Yet the massive health care bill could cast a pall on renewable energy.
How? The link is an obscure tax provision in the House version of the health care bill, explains tax attorney Jerome Breed, a partner at Bryan Cave LLP. The provision actually has nothing to do with health care either—its purpose is to raise revenue.
The provision centers around the idea of “economic substance.” It puts into legislation the idea that a transaction (such as putting solar panels on a house or a buying health care policy) has to have some economic substance (i.e. an economic return) to be eligible for a tax credit. In the case of solar panels, the federal government offers a tax credit of 30% of the cost of systems consumers install. But what if the return to the consumer is mostly in the tax credit—so that they really don’t get any other economic benefit? “It’s not clear if, when you take away the effect of the credit, there has been a meaningful change in their economic position,” explains Breed. So if an economic substance requirement passed, the consumer would no longer be eligible for the tax credit.
Renwables power isn’t the only industry that could get hit by this provision. The economic substance doctrine would also make it harder to use the low income housing tax credit, the credit for rehabbing historical buildings, and others, says Breed.
Why is the provision in the bill at all? It’s a revenue raiser. The House expects to get about $5.4 billion, mostly from penalties levied from transactions that don’t meet the economic substance test. The provision is also supposed to discourage people from entering into transactions that don’t result in economic substance, thus preventing tax money for being used for dubious purposes.
Clearly, some sort of provision disallowing dubious transactions is needed. Otherwise, “there could be fraud,” says Breed. “Someone could claim tax credit for building 1000 solar panels in the desert that don’t exist, or could claim that the panels cost $1 million when they only cost $100,000. So it’s appropriate to protect against that type of transaction.”
The worry is, though, that a blanket prohibition against transactions without economic substance will also knock out many legitimate transactions. Tax lawyers have been meeting with the Joint Committee on Taxation to push for a compromise position, so far without success.
The U.S. union workforce is increasingly female, Asian or Latino, and more highly educated, according to a study released today by the non-profit Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C.
The report, “The Changing Face of Labor, 1983-2008," chronicles the demographic shift that’s taken place over the past 25 years among union members. It underscores that new forces will continue to shape the political agendas of labor unions, which played a key role in get-out-the-vote operations in Presidential elections.
“The view that the typical union worker is a white male manufacturing worker may have been correct a quarter of a century ago, but it’s not an
accurate description of those in today's labor movement,” said John Schmitt, senior economist at CEPR and an author of the report. “The unionized workforce is changing with the country.”
Another survey out today blows holes in the oft-repeated claim that the U.S. has the best health care in the world. The survey, of 10,000 primary care doctors in 11 wealthy nations, found that American patients are far more likely to lack access to medical treatment because of insurance restrictions or cost, despite the fact that the U.S. spends twice as much per capita on health care as any other developed nation.
All told, 58% of U.S. doctors said their patients often have difficulty paying for medications and other medical care, compared with 5% to 37% in the other countries surveyed. In addition, U.S. doctors are less likely than those in the other countries surveyed to offer care outside of regular office hours, and are far, far behind several other nations in the use of electronic health records that could reduce errors.
The survey, conducted by the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund, questioned 10,000 doctors in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Britain and the U.S. between February and July of this year.
The U.S. spent $7,290 per person on health care in 2007 -- more than double the expenditures by Britain, France and Germany -- with no meaningful edge in the quality of care on a number of measures, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The UN ranks France the best in the world for health care.
The Commonwealth Fund concludes:
Despite spending more on health care than other countries, an international survey finds the United States lags behind on important measures of access, quality, and use of health information technology. There are opportunities to learn as other countries move ahead to enhance the primary care foundations of their health care systems.
Yesterday, we posted a story on potential changes in the net-operating loss carryback rules that would allow firms of any size to get a significant tax break to offset losses they experienced since the onset of the financial crisis. The rule change comes as part of a bill that would extend unemployment compensation and is likely to pass the Senate and House by week’s end.
A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research claims that extending the carryback period from two years to five years as proposed in the legislation would prove to be a $34 billion financial windfall for corporate America (most major banks are excluded from receiving the tax benefits because firms that received TARP money do not qualify).
There is a set of charts flying around the policy blogosphere today that starkly illustrates why the U.S. devotes almost 18% of its gross domestic product to health care spending,...
It's a busy, busy day at the White House on the economic front. With sky-high joblessness still a big economic and political problem, the President and his economic advisors will...
Today's message from Exxon: Think, value, embrace natural gas. The world's largest publicly traded oil company reported its third-quarter earnings today, and -- apart from its missed profit numbers --...
Congress moved another step closer to health care reform today, with the release by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) of a combined House bill that merged together key aspects of the...
By our colleague Chris Palmeri FDIC Chief Sheila Bair spoke at the Town Hall Los Angeles this morning, sharing her thoughts on financial markets and some of the policy issues...
From our colleague Prashant Gopal: It’s increasingly likely that Congress will extend and expand the popular home buyer tax credit, which will expire next month. CNN.com reported today that a...
Washington Bureau Chief Jane Sasseen and other BusinessWeek writers peel back the curtain on the economy, business and money matters at the White House, Congress, and federal agencies.
