ERMUSR Misc Issues 02-08-2005 - Laserfiche WebLink

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~._ 2 i-vs Look for another solid uptick in IPOs (initial public offerings) this year. About 400 privately held firms are likely to go public in 2005, raising something over $55 billion. That continues the uptrend since 2003, when a mere 85 firms opted to sell shares to the public. Tech, biotech, financial services, energy, media and utility firms are all good bets to make the move as business owners and managers eye a strong stock market. The rush signals a rebound in capital spending and business investment, which will help buoy growth in the coming year. One big-growth business: Payday lending...small cash loans repaid with personal checks postdated for payday or electronic drafts of borrowers' bank accounts. Storefront operations are big business... $40 billion a year, collecting $6 billion a year in finance charges. Now lenders are turning in droves to the Internet to increase profits. Online loan sharks work from states with few or no protections for consumers and/or lax enforcement. They charge exorbitant fees... as much as $30 per $100 borrowed, equivalent to an APR of a whopping 780%. But federal authorities show scant interest in stepping in. There's little tracking of online-lending sites and few complaints filed. Many consumers are embarrassed to admit they're in such desperate straits. Want help picking mutual funds? Kiplinger's Mutual Funds 2005 ranks more than 2500 funds and provides comprehensive data on them. It's available for $5.95 plus shipping and handling. To order, call 888-547-5464, or go to www.kiplinger.com/annuals/mutualfunds.html. ® Unemployment insurance rate hikes won't sting quite so much this year. They'll climb just 10% on average, a welcome reprieve after a two-year increase averaging 50% in 2003-2004. Employers in Okla., N.H., Ore., Tenn. and Texas have even more to celebrate...2005 decreases. One more legal pitfall for employers: Anti-body-piercing rules. Employee suits charging discrimination based on personal appearance... tattoos, dreadlocks or other hairstyles and items of religious dress, as well as piercings...are on the rise. So far, courts have mostly ruled that employers have the right to set standards for employee appearance. But compromising is safer. Costco Wholesale's offer to let a cashier cover her pierced eyebrows with bandages won its case. Domino's Pizza allows a Sikh to substitute a turban with a logo for the standard cap. Who selects the health care plan for your company? Increasingly, it'll be finance officers, not personnel managers, who make the decisions. That's another sign of how critical health costs have become to firms' bottom lines and means even more fiscal discipline. ® A home health care boom is in the works. The aging population '~ and tremendous pressure to trim hospital and nursing home costs spell at least 10% annual growth for the industry for five years or so. States, including N.H., Tenn. and Wis., as well as private health plans, are turning to home care as a cheaper alternative to institutional care. But there are clouds on the horizon, too: Home health care companies can't find enough workers, and some states want to trim Medicaid payments. Look for more specialty hospitals to crop up. Members of Congress will let a ban on them expire in June. A federal study says that hospitals that specialize in lucrative fields such as cardiac care and orthopedics don't have a lasting impact on the health of full-service facilities. '_~,; -' I Remember, your subscription includes The Kiplinger Letter online ~