Online Guide to Investments and Insurance

Modeling risk can be associated with the data quality as well as simple bugs in the calculation engine. The sector came of age at a time when the reporting requirements were minimal. Some servicers have voluntarily increased the volume of reported data. Best practices for disclosure in the sector include web-posted reports, detailed lease rollover [...]

Suppose we were to run a contest in which a group of 30 individuals were asked to predict the outcomes (heads or tails) on a series of coin flips. After each coin flip, some of the players would drop out because they made the wrong selection. If we continue the experiment until there is one [...]

States have great flexibility in moving tax base and spending among local governments. The classic case is Texas. State officials wanted the revenues and tax policy consequences of a statewide property tax for schools, but the state constitution forbids such a tax. The effect is achieved by a complex device which gives school districts the [...]

States can effectively mandate local taxes by making eligibility for state aid contingent on local governments levying them. For example, Florida requires local governments to levy certain gasoline taxes and Arkansas requires local income taxes in some school districts. Such moves can become quite elaborate. For example, in the 1990s, California: (1) allowed its temporary [...]

States have been increasing their gasoline taxes and other highway user charges such as vehicle registration fees and drivers’ license fees. These moves are continuing as many states are in the midst of highway construction programs which cannot be sustained without further increases. States have been increasing taxes on cigarettes and tobacco products, both to [...]

A high percentage of legislators and governors have expressed a desire to cut property taxes, which are the least popular of the three major tax sources — income, property and sales.
Several states — notably South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wisconsin — have financed large rollbacks of property taxes with state revenues. Many states have financed [...]