Given that at one point in my life I was a futurist and that I still claim to know something about forecasting, let me start 2005 at THCB by telling you what I think may be the big trends to look out for this year. I’m not going to necessarily tell you what the end results will be, but if you are interested in health care, and working on topics that matter to you and your organizations, these issues are where you may both see plenty of activity and also spend much of your time.

So in no particular order

FDA reform: Last years revelations included unsuccessful clinical trials going unreported, data being selectively reported in major journals, information not released to the public when it was available to the FDA, and drugs being put on (and in at least the case of Vioxx taken off) the market without full disclosure of the dangers that were known to the manufacturers. Furthermore the blame for all this is shared between pharma, the FDA and the main medical journals. There may be good reasons for keeping potentially dangerous drugs available for physicians to prescribe (see Sydney’s sensible view in the last paragraph of this post at Medpundit). But I urge you to read John Abramson’s Overdosed America which demonstrates how poorly the information that’s known about the use of drugs and other therapies is presented to the public and the medical profession. Even with the domination of all branches of government by the Republicans, it’s unlikely that nothing significant will be done to the FDA. Look for the bolstering of the post-market surveillance function, and also for an enhancement of the clinical trials.gov site as better reporting of all trials is demanded by governments internationally. However, we’re not ready for an American NICE just yet.

Medicare “Modernization” (or NAIM as Jeanne Scott calls it or TEOMAWKI as I called it after Ross wrote about it–prizes for those figuring out the acronyms). There is going to be a great deal of mind-numbing details to be sorted out in 2005 regarding how much of what’s happening in Medicare this year and next will work. Five quick ones are:

• How the Part D private drug benefit plans are going to be developed, marketed and chosen, and what they’re going to have to include in their formularies, and how much lee-way they’ll have to negotiate with pharma
• How (and if) the new Medicare Advantage PPOs are going to work cross-state-borders.
• Will the Medicare Advantage HMOs grow as fast as Wall Street thinks they will with the new money going to the plans?
• What will be the real progress of the Medicare CCIP disease management programs? This will be the focus of disease management wonks for the next 24 months.
• Everyone involved in the business of injectable drugs for oncology, ESRD, etc paid for by Medicare Part B will continue to scramble to figure out what’s really going to happen and what “ASP plus 6%” really means.

My impression is that the next 2-3 years will see slightly slower transformation of Medicare than the hype would have us believe. Most seniors will stick with their current drug coverage, and employers will be relatively reluctant to dump their retirees from Medigap coverage immediately. Most seniors will be somewhat reticent to go back into the HMOs which dumped them a few years back. And eventually the Congress will notice that paying private plans more for something the main Medicare program can deliver cheaper is not great business in a time of ever largening deficits. So I’m not among those thinking that the traditional Medicare program will be gone in a few years. But for those of you in the business there is a lot of work to be done figuring out the details of these new programs.

Pharma Marketing Reform: I don’t think that the FDA will ban DTC advertising quite yet, and I don’t think that the current Congress will get too involved in regulation of pharma marketing. But I do think that the slow changes seen last year in the way that big pharma itself does its sales and marketing will become more obvious. Results are starting to come in that some of this electronic detailing and other approaches to marketing are more cost-effective than sending out reps. Sales teams are the biggest empires in big pharma, and big empires only change in times of stress. But stress in the form of some big patent expiries and some unexpected pulls of drugs from the market–and the associated decrease in revenue–is on the way (or already here in Merck’s case). Despite all the money spent on data and sales force automation, there is room for a lot more efficiency in this area. Expect pharma to grapple with making their sales forces smaller, more effective at physician targeting, and less willing to use the technique of throwing vast quantities of mud at the wall and hoping that some of it sticks.

Medical Errors: Michael Millenson will continue to write articles about how appallingly slow the response by the health care system and medical profession has been in responding to the crisis. The current slow rate of CPOE installation will pick up the pace oh-so-slightly, and going to the hospital in the US (and the UK) will remain a somewhat dangerous endeavor. Congress will do, effectively, nothing. (Yes that’s an actual real-life prediction).

Malpractice: Medrants’ comments section will continue to be filled with dueling doctors and trial lawyers and, barring any new national emergency distracting their attention, the Repubs in the Senate will make a run at instituting a national cap on pain and suffering damages. If they pull the nuclear option of changing the Senate rules in order to get some of Bush’s wackier nut-job nominations through for the Federal bench, then malpractice “reform” might get through too. But even if it passes physicians will quickly figure out that they got it wrong; damages caps don’t help them too much. Instead they should have gone for a real system-changing compromise while they had the chance. But as that would involve giving something up (such as the admission that doctors should be held accountable to national best practices), there’s no way the AMA will allow it.

Consumers, HSAs, CDHPs and all that: The fuss about consultant-directed health plans will continue to grow and their role in the individual insurance market will expand somewhat. I still don’t think that they’ve really got too much chance of being a major force in the employer based-insurance market once VPs of HR start being able to do basic math. However, health plans and banks will slowly get it together on offering integrated products that actually work for consumers. Most important for providers is whether the typical CDHP (or high-deductible plan) comes with a PPO attached as most do now. In that case claims will be routed through the health plans and all the hopes physicians have been holding all these years of the simplicity of direct payment from consumers will be dashed, as the consumer waits for their EOB and gets as confused about it as they do now. Plus they’ll get (or at least see) the discounted rate and won’t want to pay more. I think this is the likely future of HSAs — it’s how mine works– and I foresee physicians being very disappointed by their impact. I also foresee my inbox being filled with missives from ideological libertarians who don’t understand health care and fruitcake insurance salesmen. Oh, and customer service from health plans will continue to suck.

Quality: We may, just, be at the start of some public awareness about quality issues in health care. Obviously Vioxx is part of that, but I also picked up some discussion of quality in more mainstream publications, including in the NY Times Editorial for resolutions for 2005. This is a sleeper issue that may well stay asleep forever, but perhaps something could bring it closer to the forefront, and my hope is that something is a Nobel Prize for Jack Wennberg.

Information Technology: Now we’ve all sung Kum-ba-ya and got the T-shirt, we will return to our caves and notice that David Brailer believes that interoperability (or at least seamless transfer of data) is the reason for making all these vast IT investments. We’ll then also notice that even Brailer says that there are no business reasons for anyone in health care to make their systems inter-operable, and that there won’t be any government regulation forcing them to do so. Then we’ll further notice that Brailer’s office didn’t get funded by Congress and he’ll have to pass the hat around at HHS to buy his staff sandwiches (and pay them); whereas the Brits are putting $20 billion into their IT initiative (and BTW believe it or not are giving Halliburton a job as a watchdog on how the money is spent…yes, that Halliburton!). However, the good news is that some of the bigger private systems, like the Kaisers and the Sutters, will forge ahead with their initiatives but the vast majority of American patients and doctors won’t notice the difference for several more years. The EMR will remain 3-5 years into the future, but it won’t necessarily stay that way forever. (There you go, how about that for a hint of forecasting optimism!)

Specialty Hospitals: A big fight is coming up concerning the end of the moratorium on specialty hospitals. My guess is that the moratorium ends and that hospitals get heavily involved in doing whatever it takes to placate their superstar surgeons, which probably means most of them joint-venturing with them on new facilities. The “haves” versus “have-nots” divide will be exacerbated.

Policy: The Bushies will have a run at promoting the Federalization of AHPs. I suspect that they’ll fail given the strength of the Blues, and the limited capital Bush will have for this. But it’s a new full employment act for insurance fraud if they succeed!

The uninsured: Will continue to be turned back at the Canadian border. If you’re uninsured there’s no hope for significant change this year. But this issue combined with the cost issue will fester away until some Democrat picks it for their 2008 topic and tries to go after Bush’s middle class support with it.

Wildcards: These events probably won’t happen, but if they do it’ll be a big deal

• A major implantable medical device gets recalled, as in needs to be removed from everyone it’s inside of
• Avian flu crosses over and public health systems virtually collapse
• A class action suit against big pharma takes on the anti-tobacco suit properties and dominates the industry.
• The terms of Medicare Drug coverage are so good that almost all seniors join it
• Some Republicans develop a conscience and we get a Congressional opposition to many of the wackier Bush plans.

Blogs: If 2004 was the year of the political blog, 2005 might begin to be the year of mainstreaming of business blogs. My forecast is that bloggers will try to figure out how to make money at this, but that most of them will fail at that (and sadly their numbers will probably include me!)

Soccer: Chelsea will finally win the league after 50 years. OK that’s a fervent hope, but we’re 5 points clear and looking good!

Happy New Year and Welcome to 2005! Every year I put out an email to my friends and family about what I’ve been up to, and what charities and causes I’m supporting. If you’d like to read it, it’s posted on my personal blog here.

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THIS IS A BRIEF COLLECTION of twenty-five posts written for THCB in the nearly two years since I started this project .  You’ll find essays on a wide range of topics in health care policy and health care economics.  You may want to try reading them through end to end (probably ambitious) or you may want to dip in for a quick browse around and then come back later for more.  I’ll update this list with more later when I get a chance. If there is a post you’d particularly like to see here, you can add a comment with your suggestion at the bottom of the page. Cheers! — Matthew

Oh Canada
http://matthewholt.typepad.com/the_health_care_blog/2003/11/policy_oh_canad_1.html

Letter from England
http://matthewholt.typepad.com/the_health_care_blog/2004/01/quality_quickie.htmlIt’s a good year for the Rowe(s)
http://matthewholt.typepad.com/the_health_care_blog/2004/03/health_plans_it.htmlWhy is the individual market such a mess?
 http://matthewholt.typepad.com/the_health_care_blog/2003/12/health_planspol_1.html

Michael Porter sinking into the Healthcare Quaqmire
 http://matthewholt.typepad.com/the_health_care_blog/2004/09/policyhealth_pl_1.html

As you may have guessed CDHP = cost shifting
http://matthewholt.typepad.com/the_health_care_blog/2004/04/health_plans_as.html

For Profits cost more but that’s not the point
 http://matthewholt.typepad.com/the_health_care_blog/2004/06/hospitalspolicy.html

The value of healthcare–interesting issue but appalling analysis
http://matthewholt.typepad.com/the_health_care_blog/2004/01/policyindustry_.html

Why Wall Street hates health care services but doesn’t know it
http://matthewholt.typepad.com/the_health_care_blog/2003/09/why_wall_street.html

PHARMA: The New Yorker, Industry Veteran and Atlas on pharma pricing and
where the industry goes next.
http://matthewholt.typepad.com/the_health_care_blog/2004/10/pharma_the_emne.html

The Real Debate behind Reimportation
http://matthewholt.typepad.com/the_health_care_blog/2004/09/pharma_the_real.html

Drug prices here and there
http://matthewholt.typepad.com/the_health_care_blog/2004/03/pharma_drug_pri.htmlAre Cox-2s over used? http://matthewholt.typepad.com/the_health_care_blog/2003/11/pharmapbms_are_.html

Online detailing and perscribing–taking off at last?
http://matthewholt.typepad.com/the_health_care_blog/2003/08/online_detailin.html

Sorry! Got it all wrong–PBMs save money.
http://matthewholt.typepad.com/the_health_care_blog/2004/07/pbms_sorry_got_.html As I’ve always suspected, Health Care = Communism + Frappuccinos
http://matthewholt.typepad.com/the_health_care_blog/2005/01/policy_as_ive_a.html

Prop 72- Sorry couldn’t help myself
http://matthewholt.typepad.com/the_health_care_blog/2004/11/policypolitics_.html

Why dishonesty rules in our health care "debate"
http://matthewholt.typepad.com/the_health_care_blog/2004/10/policy_why_dish.html

"Producers" comment on how much we should spend on health care.
http://matthewholt.typepad.com/the_health_care_blog/2004/09/policypharma_pr.html International comparisons, or "How does Japan do it?" revisited
http://matthewholt.typepad.com/the_health_care_blog/2004/09/policy_internat.html

Toto, we’re back in Kansas and it’s 1991 again.
http://matthewholt.typepad.com/the_health_care_blog/2004/07/policy_toto_wer.html

Reggie’s back and the intellectual slop goes on
http://matthewholt.typepad.com/the_health_care_blog/2004/04/consumersindust.html

Health Care Costs 101 http://matthewholt.typepad.com/the_health_care_blog/2003/12/policy_health_c.html

User fees, employer-based insurance and why it won’t go away
http://matthewholt.typepad.com/the_health_care_blog/2003/10/policy_user_fee.html

Medicaid–a bleak picture gets bleaker
http://matthewholt.typepad.com/the_health_care_blog/2003/09/medicaida_bleak.html

Jeanne Scott looks at Single payer, MSAs and what employees want: I
editorialize back
http://matthewholt.typepad.com/the_health_care_blog/2003/09/jeanne_scott_lo.html

This post includes links to featured posts worth a close look.

To contact Matthew Holt at THCB please email ma*****@*********lt.netFor more information see my consulting site www.matthewholt.net

The Health Care Blog (THCB) has acquired a
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Started in August 2003, for most of the first five years of its existence THCB was the mostly exclusive domain of Matthew Holt, who still owns and runs THCB. But a mix of increased consulting work and the growth of the Health 2.0 Conference that
Matthew co-founded with Indu Subaiya in 2007 limited Matthew's time to write every day. And the growth of readership (from a few each day to over 80,000 visits in October 2008) and the interest of other people in writing on THCB has all meant that there's been less of Matthew and much more of
many great authors on the site. And so in March 2008 THCB officially became a group blog, in which all authors (including Matthew) started to use their own byline. (For posts prior to March 2008, no byline means Matthew was the author)

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And Matthew is not sure whether he should be happy or chagrined but since the change to the group blog status, readership has more than doubled!

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Musings about the goings-on in American health care from a general health care consultant. Topics can include policy, health insurers, technology and eHealth, physicians, pharma and anything else that grips my fancy. Although my opinions shine through, this blog tries to concentrate on what I think is happening and will happen, rather than what I’d like to happen. Feel free to email me, and to send tips, opinions and requests for work my way.

The Blogs Insiders Read to Stay Current

November 16, 2005; Page D1

The music industry has one, Wall Street bankers have several and even CPAs have come around.

No self-respecting industry these days is without a
must-read blog. Although they vary wildly on fine points like accuracy,
they are now so widely read that it’s assumed anybody in the business
is up to speed on the latest postings. For outsiders, they are also a
window into the inner workings, preoccupations and gossip of fields
ranging from real estate to mergers and acquisitions.

People who follow electronics got an early peek at a key new product when Engadget posted photos of Microsoft Corp.’s
XBox 360 videogame console a week ahead of its debut. TV executives
keep tabs on which networks are ordering and canceling shows. Doctors
and others in health care can link to the latest news and commentary on
drug marketing. Reporters and media watchers turn to Jim Romenesko, who
runs a blog on the Poynter Institute’s Web site.

Here are some of the most influential blogs across
industries ranging from publishing and finance tonhealth care and
Hollywood, put together by The Wall Street Journal’s beat reporters in
these areas.

Healthcare:

www.thehealthcareblog.com

This blog, billed as "Everything You Always Wanted to
Know About the Health Care System, But Were Afraid to Ask," is
published by Matthew Holt, a consultant and publisher of an email
digest of health-care news for executives and hospital administrators.
Mr. Holt uses his blog to draw attention to health-policy articles in
other publications and on other blogs, and share his thoughts about
Medicare policy, health insurers, electronic medical records and
doctors. There have been frequent posts dissecting the new Medicare law
and highlighting waste and fraud in the system. The site is currently
running a contest for readers to come up with solutions for fixing the
health-care system — in 250 words or less.

Real Estate

Curbed.com

This blog attempts to deflate real-estate hype.
Updated roughly a half dozen times a day, the site, run by former
magazine editor Lockhart Steele, takes on overpriced condo listings,
pokes fun at the language brokers use to pump up properties, and links
to the relevant news from mainstream press and other blogs. A running
feature called PriceChopper highlights grossly overpriced apartments
and takes credit when the asking price drops. Another fixture called
BubbleWatch links to optimistic market forecasts. Curbed’s major
drawback is its New York-centric coverage and its obsession with
celebrity and luxury properties. Recent posts on projects in Los
Angeles and Boston, however, indicate the site’s willingness to
acknowledge there is a real estate world outside the Big Apple.

Theslatinreport.com

A sober alternative to Curbed, the Slatin Report
delivers all-original commentary and analysis on the world of
commercial real estate. The brainchild of veteran real-estate
journalist Peter Slatin, the site weighs in on real-estate investment
trusts, industry dealmakers, and design and architecture. A recent
article pointed out how Donald Trump could get locked out of profits
for decades in a complicated transfer of a property he’s involved in.
Mr. Trump disputed the characterization as "totally false." One issue
with the site is that the posts are sporadic and irregular. But users
can sign up for an email alert when new items appear.

Advertising

adrants.com

This blog is one of the best ways to keep up on
Madison Avenue’s ups and downs. Published by Steve Hall, a former
ad-agency employee, adrants covers topics ranging from urinal
advertising to the news of the day, all with a bemused tone. The site
also provides links to breaking-news stories featured by other Web
publications. John Osborn, president and chief executive of the New
York office of Omnicom Group‘s BBDO Worldwide, is a fan.

Wall Street

www.footnoted.org

This site systematically takes apart proxy statements,
quarterlies and news releases, offering opinions and asking questions
about management compensation and other items tucked away in the small
print. Free-lance journalist Michelle Leder, who runs the site, hands
out gold stars on Fridays to companies with clear disclosures and
points out oddities buried in the footnotes, like sudden changes to
stock-option plans, or when loan issuer Dollar Financial Corp. recently
forgave the interest on a loan to its own chief executive. (Dollar
Financial didn’t return calls seeking comment.) Newer entries have
included one about Lisa Marie Presley’s evolving stake in a company
called CKX Inc.

jeffmatthewsisnotmakingthisup.blogspot.com

A popular opinion and news-analysis blog among traders
and institutional investors written by Jeff Matthews, head of the hedge
fund Ram Partners in Greenwich, Conn. Mr. Matthews, a mostly
value-oriented investor, isn’t afraid to rile up the vocal trading
community by commenting on closely watched stocks such as Overstock.com
Inc., dissecting the chief executives latest public comments on his
blog. While he occasionally makes grand market pronouncements — he
recently declared that the real-estate market had peaked — he is
admired for also supporting any such prophetic dictums. The blog
skewers boilerplate financial filings, and features analysis on
everything from Google Inc. (he’s a fan) to the Hawaiian Public Utilities Commission.

www.deallawyers.com/blog

This blog from deallawyers.com, an educational group
that offers research on legal issues surrounding deal activity,
dissects M&A flow based on both obscure and widely known legal
issues. It evaluates private-equity involvement, recent arbitrations,
cross-border transactions and other issues for companies like Toys ‘R’
Us Inc. and Six Flags Inc. It also examines deal technicalities
like lock-ups, stapled financings and M&A accounting. Downsides to
the blog, though, are that it’s written with a lot of jargon and
postings can be a little sparse.

Health Care

pharmamarketingblog.com

The site focuses on how drug companies can get
accurate and trustworthy information to doctors and consumers. John
Mack, publisher of the monthly online newsletter Pharma Marketing News,
started his blog in January 2005. He offers commentary on news events
and is often critical of the industry’s focus on blockbuster drugs and
what Mr. Mack views as unethical or misguided marketing. Among his pet
peeves is erectile-dysfunction advertising, which he believes focuses
too heavily on younger men and libido-enhancing promises while failing
to educate consumers about the disease. The site lambastes pharma
companies for ads that foster a "magic pill solution preference among
Americans," while rarely mentioning changes in lifestyle or diet that
will help reduce risks such as cardiovascular disease. But he’s quick
to praise efforts that address the industry’s credibility problem with
consumers, such as Johnson & Johnson‘s new TV and print campaigns that he says put drug risks on more-equal footing with drug benefits.

Music

The Lefsetz Letter started in 1986 as a photocopied
tip sheet for music-industry executives. Today Bob Lefsetz, a former
artist-management executive, posts his opinions on everything to do
with the music business. Mr. Lefsetz offers wide-ranging,
stream-of-consciousness rants — often blasted out multiple times
daily. They include ruminations on everything from the industry’s
strategy of suing peer-to-peer network users (futile), to U2’s recent
guest appearance on HBO’s "Entourage" (like a married man flaunting a
girlfriend on the side, "just to be able to impress his buddies") to
Rod Stewart fans ("so old and so out of it that they’ll buy ANYTHING
with his name on it. As long as it doesn’t disrupt their cocktail
parties.") Sign up for email list at http://lefsetz.com¹², or on the Web at: rhino.com/rzine/columnists/lefsetz/index.lasso¹³

Hollywood

defamer.com

This blog compiles entertainment news and adds a heavy
dose of snarky opinion. Agents, producers, studio executives and other
power players in Hollywood read it religiously — largely because it
lavishes attention on them. (The site’s motto is: "LA is the world’s
cultural capital. Defamer is the gossip rag it deserves.") A recent
entry on CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves describes him as "a future
galactic despot who will one day use his humble position as head of a
successful network to hold the entire universe in his incredibly
charismatic sway." (CBS declined to respond to the quote.) The site,
launched last year by Gawker Media, keeps tabs on which networks have
ordered or canceled which shows and closely monitors movie box-office
tallies, along with the latest peccadilloes of major stars.

Television

mediabistro.com/tvnewser¹⁵

Focused on TV news, the blog presents snippets from
top stories of the day and is constantly updated with items ranging
from major network decisions — NBC’s recent move to make its entire
flagship "Nightly News" broadcast free on the Internet, for example —
to gossip about behind-the-scenes fighting at the morning news shows.
TV Newser, which is hosted by the journalism-related Web site Media
Bistro, also includes job listings and detailed parsing of ratings with
a heavy focus on cable news channels. Towson University student Brian
Stelter says he founded the site last year after being inspired by the
blanket coverage the cable networks gave the start of the 2003 Iraq war.

Publishing

publishersmarketplace.com¹⁶

Run by Michael Cader, a former book packager, this
paid site (cost: $20 a month) contains a selection of print and
Web-based book-publishing stories, as well as first-person
editorializing. Mr. Calder gets information from sources including
agents, editors, publicists, authors, and licensees. The site lists the
latest book proposals to be sold, including in some cases a sense of
what price they fetched. It’s also widely used to get in touch with
people in the industry — the agent who represents a particular author,
for example. Mr. Cader has an arch tone, and is quick to jump on news
involving Internet companies such as Google Inc. or Amazon.com Inc. But
he sometimes is too reliant on industry handouts, such as this recent
posting: "Hyperion Plans ‘Lost’ Book."

bookslut.com

This daily blog provides links to reviews and news,
along with sharp commentary. A recent posting noted that the New
Orleans Public Library had reopened — but only after firing 90% of its
staff. Elsewhere, after romance publisher Harlequin Enterprises Ltd.
said it plans to add novels with Nascar storylines, the site posted
this prediction: "Look for ‘Naked Came the Pit Crew’ early next
spring." The site is published by Jessa Crispin, a former nonprofit
fund-raiser.

Theater

broadwaystars.com

A lot of fan sites and trade publications operate Web
sites dedicated to theater news, but the big gun is BroadwayStars.
Filled with an exhaustive list of daily theater news — some stories
are culled from obscure regional alternative publications — the site
also contains links to various discussion boards. (Things can get catty
in a hurry.) A popular feature here is a list of Broadway shows that
have been discussed by producers in news articles but haven’t been
formally announced, such as a stage production of Walt Disney
Co.’s "The Little Mermaid." On the downside, the site, operated by a
company called 2die4 Productions of Irvington, N.Y., is cluttered —
there’s even a five-day weather forecast for top theater cities.

Taxes

taxanalysts.com¹⁹

This site, run by Tax Analysts, a nonprofit publisher
based in Arlington, Va., offers a handy way to catch up on breaking
news. The site also has interesting historical material, such as copies
of actual federal income-tax returns filed by presidents from Franklin
D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush. (Look under "Tax History.") There also
are transcripts of conferences organized by Tax Analysts, such as one
last month on the subject: "Can or should you have tax reform without
increasing taxes?" Tax Analysts also offers several subscription-only
publications, such as Tax Notes, an influential weekly.

Economics

bigpicture.typepad.com²¹

This blog from Barry Ritholtz, chief market strategist
at money-management firm Maxim Group LLC, mixes straight market
commentary with Mr. Ritholtz’s musings on the inner workings of
glamorous industries such as music, film and technology. Mr. Ritholtz
mulls over interest rates, gross domestic product and bond markets,
complete with charts and links to news sites. Then, on separate pages,
he ruminates on movie box-office slumps, TiVo and music file-sharing.
Contemplation takes many forms, including quotes and essays. He
evaluates news like the latest on the avian flu and inserts
eye-catching charts and graphics to make his point.

Accounting

www.accountingobserver.com/blog/²²

This opinion and news analysis blog is run by Jack
Ciesielski, a certified public accountant who owns the
investment-research firm R.G. Associates in Baltimore. Mr. Ciesielski
has served on several accounting rule-making and policy advisory
boards. He uses his blog, which he updates roughly once a week, to rant
about the latest corporate troubles, such as Delphi Corp.’s recent
accounting mess. Other frequent topics include stock-option expensing,
Sarbanes-Oxley compliance and lease restatements. Recently, Mr.
Ciesielski has taken up troubled auto companies as discussion fodder,
with a posting last month called "Dana in the Dumps," referring to
auto-parts maker Dana Corp.’s latest restatements.

Insurance

www.insurancescrawl.com²³

This blog spells out legal issues affecting
property-casualty insurers, and keeps editorializing to a minimum. The
person behind the site is Marc Mayerson, a Harvard Law School-trained
lawyer with Spriggs & Hollingsworth in Washington, D.C. Unlike
other more light-hearted blogs, these postings are written with some
wonky weight — recent entries dissected court decisions against State
Farm Insurance Cos. and the nuances of liability issues in certain
insurance policies. Mr. Mayerson keeps up with hurricane-related
insurance issues, sometimes even discussing his own insurance policy as
a reference point.

Digital Content

Paidcontent.org²⁴

This blog tracks the latest developments from a range
of businesses interested in delivering entertainment, news and other
services to consumers in new ways (through mobile phones, for example).
It reports its own news, offers commentary and draws attention to
articles in other publications. The site is run by Rafat Ali and Staci
Kramer. This month, Mr. Ali wrote that pricing the new Sanyo Mobile
ESPN phone at $500 was "suicide, pure and simple." (ESPN said the price
listed for the phone was incorrect on the blog site, omitting a $100
rebate, and that the blog entry didn’t describe the phone’s range of
features.) The blog regularly breaks news, in September scooping
mainstream media outlets including The Wall Street Journal on Viacom
Inc.’s deal to acquire IFilm. Fans include Jim Bankoff, executive vice
president for programming at AOL, and Liz Schimel, senior vice
president for content development at Comcast Corp.

Currencies

www.rgemonitor.com/blog/roubini²⁵

This blog tracks monetary issues, among others,
through a macroeconomic lens. It offers the views of Nouriel Roubini
and is affiliated with the subscription-based site, Roubini Global
Economics Service, a New York-based economics research group. Entries
take a global view on currency swings and appear every few days. Recent
meditations have included postings on Brazil issuing long-term
local-currency-denominated bonds in the international market. Mr.
Roubini also recently examined asset bubbles.