The world’s most high-profile climate change sceptic is to declare that global warming is “undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today” and “a challenge humanity must confront”, in an apparent U-turn that will give a huge boost to the embattled environmental lobby.
Bjørn Lomborg, the self-styled “sceptical environmentalist” once compared to Adolf Hitler by the UN’s climate chief, is famous for attacking climate scientists, campaigners, the media and others for exaggerating the rate of global warming and its effects on humans, and the costly waste of policies to stop the problem.
But in a new book to be published next month, Lomborg will call for tens of billions of dollars a year to be invested in tackling climate change. “Investing $100bn annually would mean that we could essentially resolve the climate change problem by the end of this century,” the book concludes.
Jon Stewart continued his coverage of the ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ debate last night, focusing on Fox News’ incongruities harder than he ever has. In a segment called “The Parent Company Trap,” Stewart shared with his viewers how Fox News’ plan to “follow the money” from mosque builder Imam Rauf to terrorists will be a tricky one because it leads right back to Fox News.
Stewart showed clips from his show last week, in which he mocked Fox News for playing a dangerous game of association based on speculation, and wherein Fox continued to mention a nameless man with ties to Imam Rauf through the “Kingdom Foundation.” It turns out the man they are referring to but never name is Saudi prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, one of the biggest shareholders of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
Showing a photo of the prince shaking hands with Rupet Murdoch, Stewart exclaimed, “That’s right, the guy they’re painting as a sinister money force OWNS Fox News.” Stewart then used Fox’s own logic to explain how the “terror mosque” is funded by Prince Alwaleed, despite being a co-owner of Fox News, and therefore funding terrorism. So, using their logic, Stewart said, “If we want to cut off funding to the terror mosque, we must, together as a nation, stop watching Fox.”
But with this new information, one thing is now uncertain. Did Fox actually not know the name of the Kingdom Foundation leader or that he is a News Corp investor? Or did they, as Stewart said, “purposefully cover it up because it didn’t help their fear-driven narrative?”
I have to side with Team Evil here. I mean seriously, how could they NOT know that one of the people they are trying to demonize is Co-Owner of News Corp. I can’t really believe that they are that stupid. Just further proof that Fox is just spinning nonsense in order to try and scare the public.
Yahoo NewsJapan growth slows amid worry about yen’s climb
By Tetsushi Kajimoto and Stanley White Tetsushi Kajimoto And Stanley White – Sun Aug 15, 11:27 pm ET
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s economic growth slowed to a crawl in the second quarter and analysts see more weakness ahead, adding to policymakers’ headaches as they grapple with deflation and a rise in the yen that threatens an export-reliant recovery.
Slowing growth in main export destinations such as the United States and China clouds the outlook, while policymakers are trying hard to talk down the yen after it surged to a 15-year high against the dollar last week.
Japan’s quarterly gross domestic product growth of 0.1 percent translates to annualized expansion of 0.4 percent, well below the median market forecast of 2.3 percent and the United States’ 2.4 percent annualized growth in the same quarter.
That followed revised 4.4 percent annualized growth in the first quarter, when both exports and a stimulus-driven recovery in consumption contributed to overall growth.
In the April-June quarter the stimulus effects have worn off, leaving exports as the sole engine of growth and with its contribution to growth halved to 0.3 percent, the economy just eked out a third straight quarter of expansion.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa are expected to meet later this week to discuss the yen’s strength and possible responses, although analysts said there is not much they can do.
“I think the Bank of Japan and the government need to take decisive action against currency moves. Solo currency intervention is possible if the yen approaches 80 to the dollar. If that is accompanied by monetary easing by the Bank of Japan, it may have a certain effect,” said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute in Tokyo.
CHINA LEAP-FROGS AHEAD
The latest figures put China ahead of Japan as the world’s second-largest economy for the quarter on a nominal dollar basis, said Keisuke Tsumura, a parliamentary secretary at the Cabinet Office. He added, however, that one should wait for full-year figures before changing the rankings.
“Since we have different calculations for seasonal adjustments, it would be correct and fair to compare the figures for the whole year,” Tsumura said.
Japan’s second quarter GDP before seasonal adjustments totaled $1.2883 trillion against China’s second-quarter unadjusted GDP of $1.3369 trillion, he said.
China’s top currency regulator said last month that his country’s economy had already overtaken Japan’s.
Japanese government bond futures jumped after the weak data, with September 10-year futures rising 0.28 point to 142.67, their highest since June 2003, while benchmark 10-year yields slipped to a seven-year low of 0.950 percent. The Nikkei stock index (.N225) fell nearly 1 percent.
“The economy may enter a lull late this year or early next year, or even stagnate,” said Yoshiki Shinke, senior economist, Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute.
“Much depends on the performance of overseas economies.”
YEN PINCH
Analysts added that the rise in the yen, which climbed to 84.72 per dollar, may begin to pinch export growth in the latter half of the fiscal year to next March.
Kan has expressed concern about the yen’s strength and government sources said he may meet the central bank governor as early as this week to discuss the matter.
Late last year, the last time the yen strengthened beyond the 85 yen mark, the BOJ called an emergency meeting and announced a 3-month funding scheme, a day before Shirakawa met with then-Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.
The yen has risen steadily against the dollar since early May, gaining more than 10 percent and closing in on its 1995 record high of 79.75 per dollar, prompting markets to speculate that Tokyo might take action.
But currency market intervention is seen as difficult, whether jointly or alone, although market players say the risk of solo action increases the closer the yen gets to 80 per dollar and if its rise accelerates to a pace of 2 to 3 yen per day.
Investors see a monetary policy response from the BOJ as more likely than currency intervention.
Signs of a faltering economy put more pressure on Kan ahead of his party’s leadership vote next month in which he may face a challenge from powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa or a proxy, either of whom would be less keen to forge ahead with fiscal reform.
Japan’s recovery has been spotty since emerging from its worst recession since World War Two in mid-2009, relying heavily on exports, particularly to Asia, and government stimulus for spending on energy-efficient cars and electronics.
(Additional reporting by Kaori Kaneko and Yoko Nishikawa; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Tomasz Janowski)
Ehhh…that’s not looking too good. That’s a huge plunge quarter-over-quarter…and just look at the yen. Japan’s taking a beating right now.
Last week, a topic was started about a rumored government plan to forgive a portion of the debt owed by home borrowers. Some tempers flared when I and other referred to the people who over-borrowed as idiots. It is my opinion that not only subprime borrowers were idiots, but so were the prime borrowers who bit off more than they could chew. I used an allegorical example of someone who makes $80,000 a year buying a $400,000 house.
Turns out my allegory was not off the mark. If anything, I was way short of the mark. Hold on a minute and I will show you.
First, I want to explain how these borrowers dug themselves into even deeper debt than their mortgage. I have in the past explained how when I was shopping for a house after all this crap blew up, I could look up exactly how much someone paid for their house using county records. And I would always find that people were asking far and above what they paid for their house. And that is when I would say “I am not going to help you pay for your SUV or boat or Disney vacation”. I was referring to HELOCs that people took out on their home equity.
To this day, I still see people asking for more than they paid, even though the market has imploded and there is no way their house is worth anywhere close to what they paid for it.
HELOCS and home equity loans, you see. Home equity loans are just another way of saying “second mortgage” without using that term. The term “second mortgage” used to carry a negative connotation to it. People only got them when they were in some kind of financial trouble, and they were embarassed about it.
But a second mortgage became practically de rigeur during the recent housing boom. You bought a house and the value instantly began going up. And so people took out loans against that extra equity. And they bought SUVs and boats and Disney vacations with the money.
When I first got pre-approved for a loan so I could go to a distressed real estate auction, my bank’s loan officer literally pushed a home equity loan application across the desk to me with one hand while pushing the loan pre-approval form with the other. I pushed the second mortgage app right back at her and said, “I didn’t get into this financially advantageous position by being that stupid.”
The other type of equity loan is called a HELOC (hee-lock). Home Equity Line Of Credit. Pretty much the same thing as a home equity loan, but you use it like a credit card instead. You don’t have to spend it all in once place or all at once. It just sits there for you to draw on.
Borrowers refuse to pay billions in home equity loans
Quote:
During the great housing boom, homeowners nationwide borrowed a trillion dollars from banks, using the soaring value of their houses as security. Now the money has been spent and struggling borrowers are unable or unwilling to pay it back.
Okay? So not only did they buy houses they couldn’t afford, they borrowed even more money on top of that!
Quote:
The delinquency rate on home equity loans is higher than all other types of consumer loans, including auto loans, boat loans, personal loans and even bank cards like Visa and MasterCard, according to the American Bankers Association.
Remember my $80K earner allegory?
Quote:
“When houses were doubling in value, mom and pop making $80,000 a year were taking out $300,000 home equity loans for new cars and boats,” said Christopher A. Combs, a real estate lawyer here, where the problem is especially pronounced.
That’s $300,000 on top of the amount they borrowed to buy their house.
What special kind of idiot does it take to do that?
Here’s the part that really busts my chops:
Quote:
“Their chances are pretty good of walking away and not having the bank collect.”
Quote:
Even when a lender forces a borrower to settle through legal action, it can rarely extract more than 10 cents on the dollar. “People got 90 cents for free,” Mr. Combs said. “It rewards immorality, to some extent.”
These people stole that money. No ifs, ands, or buts.
I want you to imagine something. I want you to imagine a person who makes $50,000 a year who bought a $1,000,000 house. This is a person with an 820 credit rating. Solid gold.
Just because you have an 820 credit rating does not mean you can afford to buy the moon. It is important you understand this simple thing, because it is the basic underlying assumption behind the entire planet’s overleverage problem.
Estimates of your ability to pay should be based on your past performance and your income, at the very least.
Someone who makes $50,000 and has an 820 credit rating would easily be able to pay off a $200,000 house. It does not follow from there that they would be able to pay off a $1,000,000 house. But that is exactly the assumption that has been made. This analogy applies to homebuyers, corporations, and governments. They are all $50K earners with million dollar debts they were sweet talked into by the bank. They were offered low, low introductory interest rates with assurances of refinancing later. Revolving credit.
So I want to you to keep in mind that while I am talking about our imaginary $50k earner, I am analogizing every debtor on Earth.
During the first few years of his mortgage, the $50K earner has low mortgage payments. These are easily paid by him. These mortgage payments are a revenue stream to the lender.
The lender, in turn, takes this revenue stream and bundles it with a bunch of other mortgage revenue streams and sells them to investors.
By this point, you all know that when the mortgage payments go up after the introductory period, borrowers begin to default and the revenue stream dries up and the whole thing comes crashing down.
But back up a little, because there is a whole other horror which amplified this problem.
I now want you to imagine a guy who is loaded with common sense who can plainly see all these $50K borrowers with million dollar homes and who realizes there is no way these borrowers will ever be able to pay off their loans.
So he decides to bet against these loans. He is betting these loans will default. So he buys credit default swaps against those loans. He is allowed to do this because there is no law against it. As has been said many times before, this is like being able to buy fire insurance against your neighbors house even though you have no vested interest in that house. You don’t stand to lose anything if it burns down.
A credit default swap is just like insurance. Someone who buys a credit default swap has to make premium payments.
Guess what? A premium payment is a revenue stream!
Are you feeling a cold sweat yet?
All right. Follow me closely here.
Say you are the bank. You have been lending money to idiot borrowers and packaging their mortgage payments into MBS’s and CDO’s. Eventually, though, you run out of prime borrowers with 820 credit ratings and you begin to loan to subprime borrowers. But you have so much money on your hands ($70 trillion, in fact) that you actually begin to run out of even the worst borrowers and begin to think about giving loans to people in the graveyard. Your investors are screaming for more revenue stream investments. These investors being the aforementioned stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid investment managers. Your 401K managers, pension fund managers, and the like, who don’t know due diligence from a basketball.
Along comes the common sense guy who want to bet against all of your loans. He is willing to pay insurance premiums.
That’s a new revenue stream you can sell to your investors.
Yes.
Oh, yes.
Really.
I kid you not.
So NOW what happens when your borrowers begin defaulting?
I want you to imagine a house. A million dollar house. Well, it was a million dollar house a couple years ago, but now you will be lucky if you can get $600,000 for it. So right there, you have lost $400,000 when your $50K earner walks away. And that is as far as it should have ever went. Which all by itself is one gigantic clusterbleu.
But guess what? Your losses are multiplied because you now have to pay off on the insurance. And you allowed ten people to buy insurance against that house.
So not only does the revenue stream from the insurance payments stop going to your investors who end up collecting less than they invested (taking a loss themselves), you also have to pay off many times over what was paid in premiums. And remember, the only reason these common sense people bet against you was because you went out of your way to find borrowers to the point of loaning money to borrowers who were guaranteed to default. So it is a snowball effect here.
“According to the system of natural liberty, the sovereign has only three duties to attend to; three duties of great importance, indeed, but plain and intelligible to common understandings: first, the duty of protecting the society from violence and invasion of other independent societies: secondly, the duty of protecting, as far as possible, every member of society from the injustice or oppression of every other member of it, or the duty of establishing an exact administration of justice; and, thirdly, the duty of erecting and maintaining certain public works and certain public institutions which it can never be for the interest of the individual, or small number of individuals, to erect and maintain; because the profit could never repay the expense to any individual or small number of individuals, though it may frequently do much more than repay it to a great society.” – Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
I would think it is apparent that we have strayed from the duties in this quote at the federal level. My question is, if you believe we should return to these duties, what would be your suggestions to return? If you don’t believe we should return to these duties, what is your position and why?
I’m breaking from tradition here a bit, and posting my own “thing”. I found this artist on Youtube, while looking for some other stuff, and have not been able to stop listening to her songs since.
The song posted below is probably my favorite, though I also really like “The same things”, “Lever and Gears”, “From Chambers, Slow”, and 1988 to name a few. As a pretty big Audiophile, Drummer since grade school, here is my take.
Lauren O’Connell’s songs are essentially what would happen if Beck, and Bob Dylan sat together and wrote songs for a voice, that can only be described as an Angelic child singing with bluegrass inflections, and a hint of whiskey at the back of the throat. Its memorizing. In another time, I have little doubt that Lauren would have been on the same stage as people deemed as legends, as one the inheritors of songmenship. I know I’m generalizing when I say this, but I’m going to say it anyway. Where as African American’s are primarily judged by how much soul they put into a song, white people’s measurement is their sincerity. Thats what makes Lauren’s voice and Lyrics stand out for me. Her lyrics are clever enough to make you smile, though not so abstract that people would have to “fake” understanding their meaning. Her voice, and guitar playing compliments this in much the same way. An innocent sincerity (without an inkling of victim hood) is what drives her music. Sincerity is something that has been extremely lacking since the “total collapse” of music since the mid 90s.
I’m fairly certain that Lauren is either from Rochester NY, or near it, so maybe I do have some bias as that is where I grew up as well, and still live not terribly far from; however with 200k some odd views of her songs and climbing, I’m hoping that Lauren is the answer or at least part of the answer that so many of us in our late 20s and early 30s are looking for in destroying the pop crap save few exceptions (The Killers for instance), that we are stuck with.
On the flip side, I almost wish she does stay underground as that could afford me the chance of someday possibly meeting her, and who knows..possibly playing with her..something that I have been very lucky to have the opportunity to do with a small number of my favorite bands before they hit it “big”.
To cap everything off, Lauren O’Connell has managed to do all this “home brew”.
If you want to purchase any of Lauren O’Connell’s songs, you can get them here from Itunes. Unfortunately ”White Noise” inst on there yet, but most of her others are. Without further ado…”White Noise” by Lauren O’Connell
Vocational training
Too narrow, too soon?
America’s misplaced disdain for vocational education
Jun 17th 2010 | Waunakee, Wisconsin
Learnt it at high school
SARAH ZANDER and Ashley Jacobsen are like many teenage girls. Sarah likes soccer. Ashley was captain of her school’s team of cheerleaders this year. They are also earning good money as nursing assistants at a retirement home. Sarah plans to become a registered nurse. Ashley may become a pharmacologist. Their futures look sunny. Yet both are products of what is arguably America’s most sneered-at high-school programme: vocational training.
Vocational education has been so disparaged that its few advocates have resorted to giving it a new name: “career and technical education” (CTE). Academic courses that prepare students for getting into universities, by contrast, are seen as the key to higher wages and global prowess. Last month the National Governors Association proposed standards to make students “college and career ready”. But a few states, districts and think-tanks favour a radical notion. In America’s quest to raise wages and compete internationally, CTE may be not a hindrance but a help.
America has a unique disdain for vocational education. It has supported such training since 1917; money now comes from the Perkins Act, which is reauthorised every six years. However, many Americans hate the idea of schoolchildren setting out on career paths—such predetermination, they think, threatens the ethos of opportunity. As wages have risen for those with college degrees, scepticism of CTE has grown too. By 2005 only one-fifth of high-school students specialised in an industry, compared with one-third in 1982. The share of 17-year-olds aspiring to four-year college, meanwhile, reached 69% in 2003, double the level of 1981. But the fact remains that not every student will graduate from university. This may make politicians uncomfortable, but it is not catastrophic. The Council of Economic Advisers projects faster-growing demand for those with a two-year technical-college degree, or specific training, than for those with a full university degree.
A growing chorus of state and local leaders argues that CTE can help. Rather than pit training against university preparation, they are trying to integrate the two. CTE students may go on to university, to training or directly into work. The Perkins Act nudges such efforts forward, but the big shove comes from beyond Washington. Wisconsin’s governor, Jim Doyle, has expanded his state’s youth apprentice programme, which provides high-school students such as Sarah and Ashley with jobs. Academic courses are complemented by those at technical colleges.
The most successful model, however, may be “career academies”. Started in Philadelphia in 1969, mimicked in California in the 1980s and supported elsewhere by Sandy Weil’s National Academy Foundation, these small schools combine academic and technical curriculums and give students work experience. When properly implemented, career academies can produce striking results. The non-partisan MDRC found that college attainment did not rise relative to a control group, but career academies did boost students’ earnings by 11%. Among boys, earnings were 17% higher. Young men were more likely to be married.
The challenge is to scale up such programmes. Within a sprawling high school in Chicago, Kevin Rutter runs a small finance academy, teaching students about markets, accounting and personal finance, welcoming executives and helping students find internships. Chicago’s schools system this year said it would revamp its CTE system to mimic academies such as Mr Rutter’s, merging academic work with training for growth industries. California has pursued similar reforms; CTE’s main champion is Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Mr Obama should presumably push along such efforts. Last year he asked every American to commit to at least one year of training, whether through a “community college or four-year school, vocational training or an apprenticeship”. However, the governors’ new standards still emphasise academic skills. The education secretary’s plan to reauthorise No Child Left Behind barely mentions CTE. Advocates hope this will change.
In the meantime, a bold new programme is inching forward. The National Centre on Education and the Economy (NCEE), a think-tank, is developing a test that students may take in their second year of high school. On passing, they could proceed to a community college or stay in high school to apply to a four-year university. Those who fail would take extra courses to help them pass. A pilot programme, supported by the Gates Foundation, will begin in eight states next year. Some parents are already outraged by the imagined spectre of tracking. Marc Tucker, who leads the NCEE, argues that a path to a community college might keep students engaged. Such a system would provide students with more opportunity, not less.
I’ve been saying this for a while. As the return on investment of a college degree falls, I think a return to votech would be a good thing, both for individuals and for our workforce.
This came up a lot while at college and the end all to be all from what I can derive is that it’s looked down upon as a backup plan as a matter of luck. Everyone who can’t find a job asks, “Why me? Why do I have to go into trade school and not the other guy?”
To an extent, I sympathize with this belief because of how subsidized education has allowed tons of people to enter college who aren’t interested in it besides how it’s cool to be a college kid and live the college life. Combined with how modern IT amplifies networking and emphasizes how who you know becomes even more valuable than what you know, crowding out is hurting a lot of intelligent students in the job market who are being substituted by more charismatic students who have the will and skills to be competitive in entering the workforce… but not necessarily the will and skills to be competitive in participating in, sustaining, and improving the workforce.
Yes, college is not a guarantee to a career niche and there’s the free market argument to be made that everything’s a gamble, so man up if your risk assumption goes sour…
…but when education gets subsidized like it is now, that argument doesn’t apply to reality.
There’s also the argument that subsidies have opened the way for so many intelligent students to arrive and develop through college, but the recognition of intelligence is a subjective value judgment. Obligating market participants and taxpayers to deal with value judgments they don’t appreciate again negates the argument.
A key problem as noted in the article is that 70% of HS grads are heading off to 4 year schools. Trouble is…I believe fewer than half are ready for college level coursework. A lot of new freshmen aren’t moving straight into their programs…but are finding themselves taking remedial classes before they can even start. A great many college freshmen are unable to pass English Comp, and aren’t even reading at an appropriate level. Math is a much worse situation….university students are often starting out learning Algebra…which should be taken sometime around the 8th grade, if memory serves.
So we have a great many kids leaving high school and (somehow) getting into the universities…only to suffer massive failure….and then drop out. In debt. All because they are told that this is the only honorable way to make a living for themselves. Education in the trades is frowned on…and I cannot understand why. It pays well. There is usually work. People seem happy to be doing it. WTF is the problem, and why are we telling out kids that an academic degree is the only way to avoid wearing a smock and a nametag?
Jeez. Maybe everyone should just do a 2 year term in the military and get their head screwed on straight before deciding to head to the University, or to trade school, or whatever. Watching Van Wilder and then getting bounced out of college owning bucks to the government is not a great way to get started in life.
Washington Post wrote: Goldman Sachs agreed Thursday to pay $550 million to settle a fraud suit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission that accused the storied Wall Street bank of selling a subprime-mortgage investment that was secretly designed to fail.
The fine is the largest the SEC has ever assessed against a financial company. But the settlement also is striking because Goldman agreed to a host of changes to how it does business and because the bank, while not admitting wrongdoing, agreed to express “regret” for including “incomplete information” in marketing materials touting the investment to clients.
Also,
Wall Street Journal wrote: The Securities and Exchange Commission split in its decision to settle its landmark lawsuit against Goldman Sachs, The Wall Street Journal has learned, in a dispute over the agency’s move to levy a $550 million fine even after diluting its fraud allegations against the giant bank.
Mary Schapiro, the SEC chairman appointed by President Obama, cast the deciding vote in the decision to settle the SEC’s landmark lawsuit against Goldman Sachs.
The 3-2 decision on party lines Thursday came after a 30-minute closed-door session where the SEC’s two Republican commissioners voted against settling, said people familiar with the matter. Mary Schapiro, the SEC chairman appointed by President Obama, cast the deciding vote, the people said.
Thursday’s settlement—in which Goldman agreed to pay a $550 million fine, but didn’t have to admit it committed fraud—capped one of the most closely watched cases in the SEC’s 76-year history. The agency had charged Goldman with intentionally duping clients by selling a mortgage-security product that secretly was designed by another Goldman client betting that the housing market would crash.
I was surprised that I didn’t see a thread created about this, so I went ahead and did it. Or, if there is one, then slap me and call me Johnny.
I know it has only been one day, but I really want to hear some comments from Obama regarding this. He accepted almost $1 million in campaign funds from this company. (Don’t get me wrong, others are not any far off, they just are not the President at the moment.) However, whether or not I believe in the creation of SEC is another story, I am glad that something productive did come from this. In addition, here is another story that I felt needed mention. I think both these cases really highlight the welfare system in this country whether it regards individual or corporate welfare.
Yahoo.com wrote: MIAMI – Elderly Russian immigrants lined up to take kickbacks from the backroom of a Brooklyn clinic. Claims flooded in from Miami for HIV treatments that never occurred. One professional patient was named in nearly 4,000 false Medicare claims.
Authorities said busts carried out this week in Miami, New York City, Detroit, Houston and Baton Rouge, La., were the largest Medicare fraud takedown in history — part of a massive overhaul in the way federal officials are preventing and prosecuting the crimes.
In all, 94 people — including several doctors and nurses — were charged Friday in scams totaling $251 million. Federal authorities, while touting the operation, cautioned the cases represent only a fraction of the estimated $60 billion to $90 billion in Medicare fraud absorbed by taxpayers each year.
The article does note that new procedures were passed in a bill signed by Obama. However, I think it is very apparent that the concepts of the welfare system must be challenged. Ever since Johnson’s Great Society and even before that, no-one has dared to stand up to the welfare issue. It would be impossible/political suicide to even attempt to eliminate the corporate handouts and the individual handouts. Today might have been a good win for the SEC, but hardly worth anything compared to how much we have lost. Something such as this:
Suspects across the country were accused of billing Medicare for unnecessary equipment, physical therapy and other treatments that patients never received. In one $72 million scam at Bay Medical in Brooklyn, clinic owners submitted bogus physical therapy claims for elderly Russian immigrants.
We had two groups from our church go down there for mission work here are some things they witnessd first hand:
There is equiptment there. It’s just sitting locked up, no explanation as to why it’s not being used. Well, it has to do with money and there is none there. The people who own it want to be paid. Then there is the problem of where to put the rubble. Apparently ouside the city is not an option and there was little/no explanation.
The people living there won’t work unless they get paid. Makes no sense because there is no structure/currency so they sit around and watch mission workers build their bridges and dig trenches. There is no sense of “let’s get this done for the greater good”, it’s “pay me first”. Now this is not all of them, once they realized that the mission workers weren’t getting paid, many stepped in to help, many still refused.
The tent city’s have leaders. So a mini form of government is keeping things in “order”. These leaders have absolute say over what and who goes in and out of their cities. Our mission workers had to get permission to come in with food.
Mission workers are getting ripped off. Our 2nd group went down paying X amount of dollars per person for arrangements made with the same people for the first group. When they got there, they were left with no place to stay, no arrangments and the “trusted guide” from the first trip took them to an unknown camp and abandoned them. Thankfully, the camp was for a large mission organization and they took them in and helped our group make the most of thier trip. Finding out in the meantime that the costs to be there were half of what was payed per person. Mission work is not for the weak and our groups were able to do wonderful things all the while never getting angry about the issues that came up, just adjusting and moving forward to help as much as possible.
The families are not taking in orphaned children and the ones that do are getting treated like…………well, not good. The family structures of Haitian people are very different. These families left with nothing are looked at as burdens and thier relatives don’t want the burden. Many children are put to work peddling anything they can and begging. Our groups had many deep conversations with locals about what the family’s and children left orphaned have to endure. It was dark and disturbing and I’m putting things mildly here.
From what I gather, it is all about self preservation. No desire to rebuild for the greater good of the city and the people as a whole, but every man for themselves. It’s very different indeed and yes I pray there are no hurricanes. I doubt they could survive it.
