Given health care reform has been a major topic among citizens and elected representatives over the past year, it seems appropriate to post a few links to thought provoking graphics and articles.  There are several countries for leaders to benchmark regarding implementing or reforming a health care plan.

Below is a scatter-plot presented by the blog FiveThirtyEight depicting health care spending and life expectancy (click to enlarge).

For a different perspective, National Geographic Magazine presented a linear graphic of health care expenditures and life expectancy (below):

And, lastly, the Organization of Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) presents an overview and offers an interactive visual related to health care expenditures and effectiveness, and Wikipedia includes several charts and resources for further research, including a revealing chart of U.S. health care expenditures as a percentage of GDP (below).

In a Wall Street Journal opinion article published last month, former high-yield corporate bond salesman and trader, Michael Milken, who has his share of detractors, penned an opinion titled Why Capital Structure Matters.  He commented on this theme previously, including in a Forbes cover story titled My Story (March 16, 1992). 

Milken stresses that an appropriate capital structure evolves and corporate leaders must consider various factors in managing it.  Likewise, he provides recent examples (Alcoa and Johnson Controls) that deleveraging the capital structure of companies with uneven revenue streams can positively affect a company’s valuation, contrary to conventional financial theory.

He describes market signals that may prompt a CFO to consider modifying the capital structure.  For instance, when equity market values surpass replacement value of assets, then deleveraging should occur, when practical.

According to the article, there were unwise modifications to the capital structures of AIG, Merrill Lynch, Washington Mutual, Home Depot and CBS, among others.  What was the alleged error?  They borrowed a lot of money to repurchase expensive common equity – some at peak 2007 values – equity that was more valuable than the underlying corporate assets. 

Shoestring Venture and Sramana Mitra provide related articles, among several others.  Nevertheless, as Milken states, “It doesn't matter whether a company is big or small. Capital structure matters. It always has and always will.”