tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22694625229334415182024-03-13T21:51:25.456-01:00Wordsmith WarsA Georgetown Professor and international government advisor, both syndicated journalists, bring a fresh perspective to current issues, literature and life.Sandy Prisanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469180943074887710noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269462522933441518.post-14051884433039610152013-09-20T17:53:00.000-01:002013-09-20T17:53:33.659-01:00The Sunshine State<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<em>Ed Note: Welcome to sunny Florida--the home base for <u>Wordsmith Wars.</u> Our governor is a probable unindicted co-conspirator in the largest Medicare fraud in US history and our uninsured, just in this state, would fill a medium-sized nation. Florida is one of the 50 states the World Health Organization ranks down at thirty-seventh in quality of health care. 37th.</em><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: lime;">A S Prisant</span></span></div>
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<nyt_headline type=" " version="1.0">Blocking Health Care Reform in Florida</nyt_headline></h1>
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<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/opinion/editorialboard.html" rel="author" title="More Articles by THE EDITORIAL BOARD"><span itemprop="name">THE TIMES EDITORIAL BOARD</span></a></span></h6>
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Published: September 19, 2013 <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Florida’s </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/18/us/florida-among-states-undercutting-health-care-enrollment.html?pagewanted=all" title="A Times Article"><span style="font-size: large;"> destructive efforts</span></a><span style="font-size: large;">
to sabotage health care reform has drawn a much-needed response from
the Obama administration. Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and
human services, has been visiting the state to encourage private groups
to help residents understand what insurance policies and federal
subsidies will be available to them when the enrollment period opens
Oct. 1. </span></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">"I am Obamacare. I'm 34 and my</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> job does not provide benefits or </span></em><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEzrcm4tprFER65Yo7jUjxtPE61fUIUzuC7l5_jovMwBtUapJr0ZF8A5OEdpF5sWzq1QTO35bNjvYGshOxxBgFMdtdsMxeAFkTahvegp9ZHTjyFI6tBK8_v_KlLlucW09ASIAOTJeuqYU/s1600/ObamaCare120627054959-m-turner-obamacare-story-top.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEzrcm4tprFER65Yo7jUjxtPE61fUIUzuC7l5_jovMwBtUapJr0ZF8A5OEdpF5sWzq1QTO35bNjvYGshOxxBgFMdtdsMxeAFkTahvegp9ZHTjyFI6tBK8_v_KlLlucW09ASIAOTJeuqYU/s400/ObamaCare120627054959-m-turner-obamacare-story-top.jpg" width="400" /></a><em><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">health insurance. I was in pain</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">for days and went to the ER. I </span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">discovered my uterus was full of</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">tumors. I couldn't pay for the surgery </span></em><em><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">and because it was now a "pre-</span></em><em><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">existing condition" insurance</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">companies would (and did!) turn </span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">me down for coverage. But because </span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">President Obama passed health care</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">reform I was able to get health </span></em><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>insurance</em> and the surgery I needed to </span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">get well. Thank you President Obama </span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">for helping me live."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Florida has been shameless in attempting to destroy what top officials
call “Obamacare,” with tactics that will deprive its own poor and
middle-income citizens of the benefits of the national reform law.
Although almost 25 percent of Florida’s population, or 3.8 million
people, are uninsured, the state declined to expand its Medicaid program
to cover more low-income residents despite extremely generous federal
matching grants to pay for such expansions. And it refused to set up its
own health care exchange, leaving that job to the federal government. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">A
few months ago, the Republican-dominated Legislature and Republican
governor stripped the state insurance commissioner’s office of its broad
powers to hold down premium increases to affordable levels. </span><br />
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In the latest outrage, the state Department of Health on Sept. 9 ordered
some 60 county health agencies, whose clinics treat large numbers of
poor and uninsured people, to bar from their premises counselors, or
“navigators,” seeking to inform people how to enroll in insurance plans
and get subsidies under the health reform law. The department claimed
this edict was consistent with its general policy of preventing
outsiders from using county property for their own purposes and
protecting individuals’ privacy. But the main goal was to keep
counselors away from people apt to enroll in the health exchange. </span></div>
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Ms. Sebelius has awarded almost $8 million in grants to Florida
organizations to hire and train outreach workers and another $8 million
to community health centers for the same purpose. Businesses like CVS
Caremark, Florida Blue and insurance brokers are also mounting campaigns
to inform Florida residents about what the federal law provides. With
the state government so adamantly obstructive, the success of health
care reform in Florida will depend heavily on such private efforts.</span>
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Sandy Prisanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469180943074887710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269462522933441518.post-46190192852395574312013-08-16T20:00:00.000-01:002013-08-16T20:00:13.992-01:00Depression Year 6: The Shoe Finally Drops<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<strong><span style="color: lime; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;">By Alexander (Sandy) Prisant</span></strong></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">(Reuters) - U.S.
consumer sentiment ebbed in August and residential construction rose less than
expected last month, potentially dimming (US economic) hopes…” (8/16/13)<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The beginning was 5 1/2 years ago. It was January 2008. And it was Chicken Little's
Moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sky was actually
falling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6ysb3TzyeO8BpMroVwfV486yO3EnAzWAGcc0USKr82ozmWpmKc7_56fVCzodaDFMchSZMZRp4pn4K4b-tLcfg3LyznrfQClKldzsAEDlPlzHsL1rggMuINn-ylun-YIGXyCvXBgxxOC4/s1600/TIME+cover+imagesCA3GGQKW.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6ysb3TzyeO8BpMroVwfV486yO3EnAzWAGcc0USKr82ozmWpmKc7_56fVCzodaDFMchSZMZRp4pn4K4b-tLcfg3LyznrfQClKldzsAEDlPlzHsL1rggMuINn-ylun-YIGXyCvXBgxxOC4/s320/TIME+cover+imagesCA3GGQKW.jpg" width="238" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">One morning on the radio, they indifferently reported that
in the middle of the night, the Federal Reserve, in conjunction with Europe had
cut interest rates a whopping two (2) percent "to stabilize global
markets".<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two Percent. In the
middle of the night.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">My wife Susan and I were in South Florida, seeking a home
for retirement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We looked at each other
across coffee in bed, with wide eyes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We're just writers and teachers and like good interior design.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We're not economists.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;">"This sounds like a Depression, " I said. Susan
nodded. We talked about ramifications. The first would be the huge real estate
bubble in the middle of which we were sitting. It would collapse just as we
were buying.</span> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">We drove to our
agents, Coldwell Banker. Susan went in and sat down with the manager. She
explained In basic terms about the Fed and what was about to happen and that
real estate prices would go first.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
agent rejected every word of it. "South Florida prices" she
declared,"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>are very strong and will
not drop."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We never talked to
Coldwell Banker again.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">One university defines a Depression as: "a severe
and prolonged downturn in economic activity... a depression is
commonly defined as an extreme recession that lasts two or more years...(it) is characterized by factors such substantial increases in
uemployment, a drop in available credit, diminishing output, bankruptcies,
sovereign debt defaults and reduced trade and commerce..." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Does this sound like the country you're living in?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span><br />
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<o:p><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">A noted economist confirms: "A depression is a sustained
and severe recession. Where a recession is a normal part of the business cycle,
lasting for a period of months, a depression is an extreme fall in economic
activity lasting for a number of years...some economists believe a depression encompasses only the period
plagued by declining economic activity. Other economists, however, argue that
the depression continues up until the point that most economic activity has
returned to normal."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bottom Line: We are year #6 of a Depression.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->A smaller percentage of the population<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is working today than in the frightening days
of 2009 (59% to 64%)<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4jGCJEzV2qSL7dXb4joCroYOj_25bLZ0oDLVNOTBPbTMk0ObWQoxwPAJqb59z3Ju72dVKAl-Glt5xK5S5kJzowtCjxg-gUoDAoQ-7_K-VJ7EjDVr0K9CnyxIlxhi8ret3Y4wDPNOYo_k/s1600/long+term+unemployment.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4jGCJEzV2qSL7dXb4joCroYOj_25bLZ0oDLVNOTBPbTMk0ObWQoxwPAJqb59z3Ju72dVKAl-Glt5xK5S5kJzowtCjxg-gUoDAoQ-7_K-VJ7EjDVr0K9CnyxIlxhi8ret3Y4wDPNOYo_k/s320/long+term+unemployment.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;">
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<o:p><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Century Gothic";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">•<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->At current growth rates, employment will not
come back to "normal" until between 2020 and 2025.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Century Gothic";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">•<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->In the July 2013 jobs reports, over 60% of jobs
created were in those positions classified as "the lowest paying
jobs"<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">• <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The UN
Industrial Development Organization reports "a sharp fall in production in
North American in this period."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">And yet only now is
the White House grasping this is NOT another cyclical,short recession, but an
upheaval requiring structural change to rebuild the economy. Reports are they are thinking about this only now. In Year<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>#6 of this Depression.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">David Brooks of The New York Times, notes<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>" We have politicians talking about very
small fixes to enormous problems that are structural."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQC91W-afW6jMRm9VA24-QG6JQnBjFDjwlE_sPUwp5YaFSs7f4j0MJp9GoazQ7gMulfHKDOu4OthPextgyZRK8UW9FhFnrPtcpsaWn57t2CEtQ_I-h0ufgw2150p1hZDLnjsZkNr2ozq0/s1600/us-economy-2013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQC91W-afW6jMRm9VA24-QG6JQnBjFDjwlE_sPUwp5YaFSs7f4j0MJp9GoazQ7gMulfHKDOu4OthPextgyZRK8UW9FhFnrPtcpsaWn57t2CEtQ_I-h0ufgw2150p1hZDLnjsZkNr2ozq0/s320/us-economy-2013.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">No one is being more honest than Mr Brooks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is talking about the need to create new
economic engines. About transforming the workforce and the way we work--not
just one or two retraining courses.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">He suggests:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Part of the problem has to do with structural changes
in the economy. Sectors like manufacturing,
agriculture and energy have been getting more productive, but they have not
been generating more jobs. Instead, companies are using machines or foreign
workers.</span> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">"This is a big problem. It can’t be addressed through the
sort of short-term Keynesian stimulus some on the left are still fantasizing
about. It can’t be solved by simply reducing the size of government, as some on
the right imagine. “<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span><br />
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<o:p><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">You won't hear a single politician talk like this. Or about
this. The White House, only now, is beginning to THINK about this. But this, dear
reader, is the huge challenge we are facing for years to come.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;">Beginning in Year #6 of this Depression</span>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Sandy Prisanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469180943074887710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269462522933441518.post-63672740169488092962013-07-25T06:57:00.000-01:002013-07-26T15:23:19.097-01:00The ObamaTest: Is It Too Soon To Grade Him?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: lime; font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">By Sandy Prisant</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The other day, President Barack Obama travelled halfway cross the country to give what the White house billed as a seminal speech. It was on what the President calls his "priority issue"--economic equality. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">It is a subject he speaks about eloquently,yet there is nary a blip on the policy radar from his Administration in five years. Will we ever see real action on this one?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The week before, he spoke poignantly about thought-provoking issues of race. Thought- provoking, but unlikely to lead to policy-making.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The week before that it became clear that the Affordable Care Act is not yet fully funded, most states have not opted in and there is no public sign ObamaCare is logistically ready to sign up millions of Americans starting in just three months.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Two weeks before that he used Europe as a backdrop to make important remarks on slashing nuclear arsenals. There has been no follow-up on that one either. And none is in sight.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4oxhAQLuKP59iMZnxWyLAUZkA1mn2Bz3CGwTc1UxlAHNqMy401JfHNloiM-Lij6_9Bf0aoqC4622E2sOe-PiM_OWDMjP61t_5DBPz5FyhTfnVjHhUgb79h6tamK7oDks7vUz0IsG8f9M/s1600/long+term+unemployment.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4oxhAQLuKP59iMZnxWyLAUZkA1mn2Bz3CGwTc1UxlAHNqMy401JfHNloiM-Lij6_9Bf0aoqC4622E2sOe-PiM_OWDMjP61t_5DBPz5FyhTfnVjHhUgb79h6tamK7oDks7vUz0IsG8f9M/s400/long+term+unemployment.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">And in not one of those weeks, nor the 225 weeks before it, have we seen a single new Presidential initiative that actually created the single absolute priority for almost all Americans--jobs. Even one job. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Yes, Obama saved jobs in Detroit. But we have 17 million actual people with no work for years and years. Politicians talk about them every day. But none of them have devised and implemented a program to create one brand new job.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">As we enter the last 24 meaningful months of Obama's Time, are we seeing the true legacy of this Administration? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">In the face of a preposterous House of Representatives which seem able to direct the whole government in ways Democratic-controlled Houses never could, has Obama left the legislative playing field, to fall back on his strength?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Are we being left with the neophyte persona we saw with great hope five years ago? Is he now and will he be ever known as <u>Obama The Speechifier</u>??</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEL9Ww-a7sqp-hSSZkP_rUo6fertshmMu4ZGttrBbtUX5e4EuAWkzzGxd_PxfH5bJk-CRLh6pDvCBCXkKerHehju3xkO8xTU2k1Ez6qBI3twg0H8IelR7l1I7Vme6xhMd8XqRlS64jkuM/s1600/Crash_1476209c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEL9Ww-a7sqp-hSSZkP_rUo6fertshmMu4ZGttrBbtUX5e4EuAWkzzGxd_PxfH5bJk-CRLh6pDvCBCXkKerHehju3xkO8xTU2k1Ez6qBI3twg0H8IelR7l1I7Vme6xhMd8XqRlS64jkuM/s320/Crash_1476209c.jpg" unselectable="on" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">When we entered this post-Tech Depression in 2007, it seemed obvious Obama could look to FDR's tool kit from the last Depression and possibly pick out a WPA or a CCC, modify it and get something done. Granted, FDR could work with Congress. But in 2008 there was a wholly Democratic congress.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">By now we're wondering: has policy given way to prose? And even there we see a bully pulpit which doesn't seem effective for immigration reform, gun control or even the Affordable Care Act.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Instead it feels like we're being distracted. By some oratory here. A new initiative there. All of it left to lay fallow by an Administration that can't get government out of neutral.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">As we start to form the Obama Legacy, this futility may be replacing hope in this nation. At a time it needs the latter much more. Especially those 17 million. </span></div>
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Sandy Prisanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469180943074887710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269462522933441518.post-9412778864239728242011-07-22T20:40:00.000-01:002011-07-22T20:40:43.745-01:00Depression Factoid #137<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="color: lime;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">By Sandy Prisant</span></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">After four years of job losses, here is this week's news:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><h1 class="entry-title">Unemployment up in 28 states in June<span id="goog_1512034490"></span><span id="goog_1512034491"></span></h1><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhoa4pYuV9qDZ3EL2-LOP7dAXy5x-C4mjpmxg_OlIrgtZooNGd2uOAAjwI2ceVVTEDEOTAuFsXQsk76F_Wj-WvFxj0zrKh045OfRMcHY_cTP4NI_JYrEDV14FUloIEq3PfUDbZlMfvto0/s1600/Fraud.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhoa4pYuV9qDZ3EL2-LOP7dAXy5x-C4mjpmxg_OlIrgtZooNGd2uOAAjwI2ceVVTEDEOTAuFsXQsk76F_Wj-WvFxj0zrKh045OfRMcHY_cTP4NI_JYrEDV14FUloIEq3PfUDbZlMfvto0/s400/Fraud.jpg" width="400" /></a><span class="imgleft"><span class="blog_caption"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><u>Washington Post</u>, 22 July--</span></span></span>Unemployment rates rose in 28 states and the District in June, the <a href="http://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.nr0.htm" target="_blank">Labor Department announced</a> in a report Friday. The U.S. unemployment rate is now 9.2 percent.<br />
The unemployment rate for the District surpassed the national rate, rising to 10.4 percent. In Maryland, the rate rose to 7 percent; Virginia has a 6 percent unemployment rate. <br />
The report also highlighted that Virginia lost 14,600 jobs in June. <br />
Only eight states saw rates decline in June, </div>Sandy Prisanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469180943074887710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269462522933441518.post-2418919183805755112011-06-27T20:44:00.000-01:002011-06-27T20:44:29.330-01:00The New Normal: Pessimism Is the Last Taboo<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="color: lime;"><i>Editor's Note: While we to distract ourselves with Anthony Weiner or Wimbledon or even upcoming Presidential politics, <u>none </u>of these offer any remedy to what increasingly looks like the "new normal"for America. The facts are cold and hard. And relentless. </i></div><div style="color: lime;"><br />
</div><i><span style="color: lime;">Here, Professor Martin Kaplan of the Annenberg School at USC, says what politicians dare not, ticks off the negative underpinnings in Year 4 of this Depression and is hard-pressed to find assets for America on the positive side of the ledger.</span></i><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: lime;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>By Prof. Martin Kaplan</b></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">It gets worse. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirwG242Qu4CDRXQ9PFR-zHd-plVdkFDg2kClnY-gNZHxEkJ9_xidjZtVeWUq8MwDuBpPFYof4iUTdMk6nmTJG76rrmaUiHsGAOmihx4xgtd5xnjDi5KJxuJTgCl8GRlAZMGzes9xlA-es/s1600/stateofemergency.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirwG242Qu4CDRXQ9PFR-zHd-plVdkFDg2kClnY-gNZHxEkJ9_xidjZtVeWUq8MwDuBpPFYof4iUTdMk6nmTJG76rrmaUiHsGAOmihx4xgtd5xnjDi5KJxuJTgCl8GRlAZMGzes9xlA-es/s1600/stateofemergency.jpg" /></a>If you pay attention to the news, the prospects for the future look grim. The new normal of high unemployment and stagnant wages will likely not turn out to be just a phase. The next generations may indeed do worse than the ones before them. Thanks to the Supreme Court, big money will keep tightening its stranglehold on elections and lawmaking. Financial reform and consumer protection will never survive the onslaught of lobbyists. Reckless bankers will go on making out like bandits, and the public will always be forced to rescue them. The Internet, along with cable and wireless, will be controlled by fewer and more-powerful companies. The world will keep staggering from one economic crisis to another. We will not have the leadership and citizenship we need to kick our dependence on oil. We will not even keep up with the Kardashians.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Add your own items to the list. Whatever global threats scare you -- climate change, the Middle East, loose nukes, pandemics -- and whatever domestic issues haunt you -- failing schools, crumbling infrastructure, rising poverty, obesity -- the odds are that the honesty, discipline, resources and burden-sharing required for a happy ending will not, like Elijah, show up at our door.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Sure, there's some good news around, and there are advances ahead. Gay marriage is legal in New York, and perhaps one day the resistance to it will seem as unfathomable as the opposition to women's suffrage. Technology is growing exponentially, and today's iGizmos will doubtlessly seem like steam engines tomorrow. We will some day actually be gone from Afghanistan. Justices Scalia and Thomas will eventually retire. French fries or salami will turn out to be good for us, at least for a while. Some Wall Street slimeballs will be nailed, some good guys will win elections and some little girl will be rescued from a well. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">But it would pretty much take a miracle for our intractable problems to become tractable. Without one, political polarization is not about to give way to kumbaya. Cultural coarsening is not going to reverse course. The middle class will not be resurgent; the gap between rich and poor will not start closing; the plutocrats calling the shots will not cede their power. No warning on its way to us -- no new BP, no next shooting, no future default -- will bring us to our senses about the environment, assault weapons or derivatives for any longer than it takes for the next Casey Anthony or Anthony Weiner comes along. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Politicians, of course, can never say something like this. They're selling progress, greatness, can-do. The only place for pessimism in the public sphere is as a handy foil. "There are those who say that we can't solve our problems, that our best days are behind us, that China is the future. But I say...." It's a surefire applause line. But it's also a straw man. There aren't "those who say" that. Americans hate pessimism. We get discouraged, our hope flags, but predicting defeat is inconceivable. The comeback kids, the triumphant underdogs, the resilient fighters rising to the challenge: that's who we see in the mirror. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">We place fatalism beyond the pale. To give up on the possibility of change, to doubt that we're up to the task, is socially aberrant. You may fear that we are doomed to be a nation of big babies: we claim to want leaders who'll face tough choices, but we punish them for actually making them. You may despair that the rationality required to face up to reality will never overcome the fundamentalism, know-nothingism and magic thinking that has a hammerlock on our national psyche. You may believe that big money and big media have become so powerful that our sclerotic democratic institutions are inherently incapable of checking them. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXiFdeVqDq6LlwhFE2IDPVehBTFgvZGVpyTvpaWeKBMRXE6VUwUrw07sxa7Pd63x0hMqPz-ifN6g2EWLOUeeGKR6RMCMQWT6yHQM6rJMWIqGAhiXGeAZYFDlNEkfxBt_hnYEboSSQUwU0/s1600/usstandard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXiFdeVqDq6LlwhFE2IDPVehBTFgvZGVpyTvpaWeKBMRXE6VUwUrw07sxa7Pd63x0hMqPz-ifN6g2EWLOUeeGKR6RMCMQWT6yHQM6rJMWIqGAhiXGeAZYFDlNEkfxBt_hnYEboSSQUwU0/s400/usstandard.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">But you can't admit any of that. In public, we never let such darkness prevail. Instead, we work to improve things. We organize, rally, blog, join movements, work phone banks, ring doorbells, write checks, sign petitions. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">We are not a tragic nation. If a leader disappoints us, or breaks our hearts, we say it's just a setback, not a sign that the system itself manufactures impotence and capitulation. If a problem festers, we cling to the belief that money, know-how and perhaps some sobering wake-up call are all we need to solve it; we don't dare entertain the notion that there's something in human nature that's causing and protracting it. If social conflict splits us, we diagnose a communication problem, a semantic setback on the road to common ground, a gap that can be bridged by consensus on facts and deliberation on goals; it's just too painful to think that tribal values impervious to rationality and insusceptible to compromise are the ineluctable driver of our divisions.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I wish I could declare my confidence in our ability to solve our problems without sounding like some candidate who just wants my vote. But ironic optimism won't do. I'm desperate for evidence that we're prepared to pay for the services we demand, or to subordinate our desires in order to meet our obligations to one another, or to reform our governance so that special interest money, filibusters and the other Washington diseases didn't sicken the system. I just wish it didn't take drinking the can-do Kool Aid to see the glass as half full.</div></div>Sandy Prisanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469180943074887710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269462522933441518.post-436453192388549742011-06-12T15:59:00.000-01:002011-06-12T15:59:42.067-01:00A New Dawn for the University? Part 2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: lime;">Professor Claudia Ricci</span></span></b></div><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Editor's Note: Professor of Journalism Claudia Ricci is a noted educator, novelist and journalist. </span></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Her latest novel is "Seeing Red" (http://www.seeingredthenovel.com) </span></i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">She is also a founding partner in the <u>Wordsmith Wars </u>blog. In the past year she has put together a custom academic curriculum at the State University of New York. It addresses a subject very much needed by students and society as we grind through the current Depression. The subject: Happiness.</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Below is a piece inspired by this course work: </span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"> </span></i></span><br />
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://happinessclass.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-i-learned-to-eat-raisin-and-how-its.html">How I Learned to Eat A Raisin, and How it's Helping Me Learn to Do NO Thing</a></h3><h2 class="date-header" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span></span></h2><a href="" name="1093712219854762092" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></a><div class="post-header" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguiyBi6SPb7kXJrH1ujJctaNDlbNQFnxTYL0NSJ7BbDMzZNrkVr8-2coQL5JMgcB6MSuxgJ6CE3SQuKOt-Sp2lO3bklLx4kBHoH53GSA8iuZQaD5Gv3RE2FciJxXdHtx9lY1U_oTjPWgM/s1600/raisin.jpg" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5608131549242969490" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguiyBi6SPb7kXJrH1ujJctaNDlbNQFnxTYL0NSJ7BbDMzZNrkVr8-2coQL5JMgcB6MSuxgJ6CE3SQuKOt-Sp2lO3bklLx4kBHoH53GSA8iuZQaD5Gv3RE2FciJxXdHtx9lY1U_oTjPWgM/s400/raisin.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 300px; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">Not to sound too dramatic or anything</span>, <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">but this is a rather dangerous time of year for me. The middle of May -- when the school year comes to a screeching halt -- is usually a time when life turns into a slick wet deck and I go skating over the edge. I land in a deep dark pool and thrash around in the murky black water feeling like I'm drowning.</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Nothing too dramatic about that.</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">It's been 13 years that I've been working as a college teacher, and for many of those years, after classes ended, I have been so depressed that I haven't known where to turn.</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I am not particularly proud of this situation. People who are lucky enough to have jobs these days (and I regularly count my blessings in that regard) are generally lucky enough only to get two weeks off in the summer. Most of these people count the days until summer vacation arrives, and then they savor each of their days off, hour by hour. Most of them would kill to have a long summer vacation.</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">So what kind of a loser am I that I can't seem to enjoy my extended summer break? Why can't I just kick back and have fun? Why is it that the prospect of four "empty" months makes me so anxious that I often need to turn to one or more prescription drugs?</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The answer to that question is complex, but simple too: I have a very very hard time doing nothing. (I can hear people screaming at their screens right about now, HEY LADY JUST GO GET A SUMMER JOB AND STOP WHINING. To all of you who are sitting at a desk at work, screaming at me, ready to smack your computer, I want to apologize and say, yes, I do realize that getting a second job is an option!)</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">But the issue here really is why can't I just enjoy doing nothing in particular? Why I have such difficulty with summer break is itself a long story, having to do with deep dark childhood neuroses that I won't bore you with here (never fear, though, there is always another post.) </span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In the past, after my May Nosedive, I've usually managed to cobble something together. I have volunteered for worthy causes, and once I ran a really cool program for a couple dozen kids down in DC. I absolutely loved that job but I haven't been able to get another program up and running here.</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Generally, I busy myself with this and that in the summer: gardening and guitar, writing and painting. And of course, preparing for the upcoming fall semester. Through much of these summer weeks, I have struggled to stay ... happy. I have struggled with boredom. I have felt lost and low and hopeless. It's just rotten feeling that way.</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">OK, so it's that time of year again. But this year is different.</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This year, I taught the happiness class and I found myself learning some amazing lessons. I think I learned as much as the students (hopefully) did.</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Many of the readings for that class were life-changing. So too was the mindfulness workshop that I took, along with the students, with a wonderful teacher named </span><a href="http://mystorylives.blogspot.com/2011/05/mindfulness-can-heal-what-ails-you.html" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Lenore Flynn</a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">. These experiences have given me enormous insight into something very basic:</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">how to live, each day, moment by moment, staying present and aware.</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">For those of you who already know what mindfulness is all about, and how it can really turn your head in a wonderful new direction-- you understand. And for those of you who are skeptical, I want to say that I truly do understand your skepticism. How can something as simple as paying attention to your breathing, and to the mundane minutia of everyday activities, possibly turn you into a very happy camper? </span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">If I hadn't also seen it happen to many of the students, I too might be skeptical. But the fact is, paying very very close attention to the seemingly minor and unimportant matters of life is a rather revolutionary activity. </span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">It is not an exaggeration to say that mindfulness teaches you to SEE and FEEL life and your role in it in a whole new way.</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In the first mindfulness class, for example, Lenore led us in a meditation exercise as she frequently did during the workshop. But she also handed to each of us a couple of raisins. It was our challenge to NOT eat those raisins, at least right away. The task we were given was simply to appreciate those wrinkled little dried grapes in a way that we had never done before. Holding them in our hands, we had to stare at all their whitish folds. We had to study very carefully their appearance: their plump, or not so plump shapes, their size, color and fullness. We had to roll them around, feeling the squishy way they felt on our fingertips. We had to inhale the sweet fragrance of those raisins. </span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In short, it was our job to consider the "raisin-ness" of raisins, the very essence and nature of them. Sitting in the palm of our hand, those raisins were very tempting. But more importantly, they turned into rather profound little teachers, or at least I found that they did for me. Instead of just popping them into our mouths, we had to anticipate the pleasure that those raisins would give us. (Of course there were a few students who hate raisins, but that's another matter.)</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">When we were finally, after several long and drawn out minutes, allowed to place the raisins in our mouth, we still were not allowed to eat them. Instead, we had to TASTE them. We let them roll around our tongues. We savored the way those little withered grapes felt up against our cheeks. We salivated all over those raisins.</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">And finally, FINALLY, Lenore gave us the go-ahead and let us eat them.</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">You bet we tasted those raisins. You bet we enjoyed them more than we'd ever enjoyed a raisin before. I mean how many times has it taken five whole minutes to eat a raisin?</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The point is, most of us rarely taste any of our food. We don't eat mindfully. We don't slow down enough to really pay attention to the look of our food. To the texture of it. To the smell of it. We don't think about the fact that many many people worked many many hours to grow that food, and to harvest it. We don't think about what it takes to prepare the meal.</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Most of the time, we gobble down our meals faster than it takes for someone to boil a pot of water. I know I do, or at least, I used to.</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Now, I have begun to eat more mindfully. I try to remember to say a small prayer before I eat each meal (my husband has joined me in this ritual.) I try to take a few moments to stare at the food in an appreciative way, giving thanks for the fact that I am fortunate enough to have food.</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Mindful eating was just one lesson. Mindful walking was another. All 15 of us spent most of one class walking very very slowly back and forth across the classroom, thinking about walking. Paying attention to the micro movements of our leg muscles, our foot muscles. We paid attention to the way we lifted our legs, and how we set our feet down on the floor. We paid attention to the way that the floor supported us. </span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Mindfulness is all about paying very very close attention: paying attention when you breathe. When you eat, when you see, when you walk, when you talk, whenever you do anything. It involves taking time out to be grateful for every one of our blessings, the things we normally take for granted. Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh says that each morning we wake up without a toothache is a day we should be grateful. How many of us say thanks for things like: </span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Having a bed to sleep in each night. </span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Having a roof over our heads. </span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Having clean water to drink.</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Having a brain to think whatever we want to think.</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Being able to walk. </span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Being able to chew and digest food. </span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Being able to hear birds singing.</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Being able to hear lovely music. </span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Being able to see a gorgeous flower, or a stunning rainbow or a special sunset. </span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Even the so-called dirty chores of our life are, if we alter our perspective, something we can enjoy doing. Jon Kabat-Zinn, who is responsible for inventing the incredibly effective Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction program at the UMass Medical Center in 1979 in order to help people deal with chronic illness and pain (stress is a big factor in most chronic disease) writes very poignantly about how to clean a stove in a mindful way. Thich Nhat Hanh describes the joy of washing dishes, enjoying the warm soapy water on our hands.</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Mindfulness isn't very complicated. It's just hard to do. It's hard to stay present. It's hard to stay grateful. It takes energy and sometimes, it takes work. A lot of work.</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">And so, this summer I do have a job. I have to learn to do nothing. A few days ago, I started to find myself on the edge of that very slippery deck. I started to see the way I could, without much difficulty, go slipping and sliding off the deck into that deep dark pool.</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">But now I've got a new set of tools, including a book (I didn't use in class) that Lenore Flynn loaned me. It's called </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-style: italic;">Radical Acceptance</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">, by psychologist Tara Brach.</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I highly recommend this book to anyone who has, like me, trouble slowing down and doing NO THING.</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Brach describes in great detail the value of what she calls the Sacred Pause. Stopping, whether for a moment to check in with how we are feeling, or for a day, to contemplate life, or for a season, to take a sabbatical -- all of these are profoundly important activities.</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Pausing is, after all, an edict of God's: the Sabbath is a day of rest, a day to stop DOING, and celebrate BEING. That's why, in the old days, stores would close on Sundays, so people everywhere could just sit and enjoy a big family meal.</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Brach also preaches, as the book's title suggests, radical acceptance, that is, she suggests that we accept everything about ourselves, be it our unattractive noses, our straight (or curly) hair, our hips, our aging bodies, all of our shortcomings. That's not to say that we settle for all of our faults. But we have to start by accepting who we are, and embracing everything about ourselves, all the "shadow" parts of our personalities that we would just as soon tuck into the closet. It isn't until we embrace ourselves fully that we can begin to make the transformations that we need to make.</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">She isn't the first writer to discuss the shadow self. Carl Jung coined the term many years ago. Many have written about it (Deepak Chopra has a great book, </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-style: italic;">The Shadow Effect,</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> on the topic, one of my students did her class presentation on it.)</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Brach's approach to the shadow is wonderful and compelling. She suggests that sll of us want so much to be loved and accepted that we try to bury our dark impulses. We try to "ignore our anger until it becomes knots of tension in our body; cover our fears with endless self-judgement and blame." (54)</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">"Our shadow," Brach writes, "is rooted in shame, bound by our sense of being basically defective."</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The solution? Stop running away from the dark side. Brach tells a wonderful tale to illustrate her point: "A traditional folktale tells the story of a man who becomes so frightened by his own shadow that he tries to run away from it. He believes that if only he could leave it behind, he would then be happy. The man grows increasingly distressed as he sees that no matter how fast he runs, his shadow never once falls behind. Not about to give up, he runs faster and faster until he finally drops dead of exhaustion. If only he had stepped into the shade and sat down to rest, his shadow would have vanished."</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">It is with some shame that I admit to my shadow: I admit that I have a desire to be incessantly busy, staying so fully (and sometimes frantically) occupied that I cannot stop and sit and do NO THING. I keep busy so that I remain distracted from what my husband calls the "existential dilemmas" posed by life.</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">A big part of my "job" this summer is to step into the shade, and rest in the shadow. And use the mindfulness techniques to embrace the moment and contemplate why the shadow has had such a fierce grip on my life. </span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Mostly, I am hoping that I can learn to do NO THING and have that be OK. It's not that I won't do stuff. Of course I will (and I'll inevitably write about it, because I can't help myself.)</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">It's just that I want it to be acceptable, and sufficient, to do nothing at all, and simply enjoy the many beauties of summer. </span></div>Sandy Prisanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469180943074887710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269462522933441518.post-32403577421968933792011-06-05T12:37:00.000-01:002011-06-05T12:37:16.807-01:00The US Economy: Everything You Need to Know<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: lime;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">By Sandy Prisant</span></span></span></span></div><br />
<div class="padding_5"></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Have you noticed that house prices are the lowest in 9 (nine) years? Do you understand that the American worker's earning power has not risen a jot in a couple of decades? Do you know there is no record of any politician in the past 4 years who has offered any specific plan or program that would guarantee creation of one single, new American job? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Are you aware there is at least one Depression each century? And that there are boatloads of economic statistics that demonstrate we are in about the 4th year of what is likely to be a classic 10-year Depression?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">If so, you need not waste time following the monthly grind of house prices, jobless claims and GDP numbers, because not very much different or better is going to happen over the next five years. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">History teaches us clearly that government cannot by itself pull us of this slump. It also teaches that the private sector only hires when it needs, because of increased demand and new orders--not because of irrelevant changes in the tax base or accounting rules. We need a fresh economic engine to drive us forward. Hitler provided such an engine. Osama did not. The effect:</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Today one in five Americans are either out of work or can’t find meaningful work right now.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></span><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Read Robert L Borosage's analysis of the real issues below and why we need an honest examination. Of ourselves and our future. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOoKBBhKeBsPdSXcqvwz9znitjY9o7igWd0hrAScGcty6hRzcFbknbOX5gscd9pc7uH-q9I8bPVLMmx-VKcYCCWe3A_9uT1wYXvZsT7gduKkyipFzkbQuLXHIh85KLNguP9lWSCkn5QVo/s1600/joblessmen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOoKBBhKeBsPdSXcqvwz9znitjY9o7igWd0hrAScGcty6hRzcFbknbOX5gscd9pc7uH-q9I8bPVLMmx-VKcYCCWe3A_9uT1wYXvZsT7gduKkyipFzkbQuLXHIh85KLNguP9lWSCkn5QVo/s320/joblessmen.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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This is a classic "small d" democratic moment. The economy is in deep trouble -- immediate and long term. Washington is oblivious, compromised by moneyed interests, knotted by ideological divides. It will take an angry and aroused citizens' movement to demand the debate worthy of a great nation in deep trouble.<br />
The <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/03/jobs-report-may-unemployed-jobless_n_870786.html" target="_hplink">dismal jobs numbers</a> only punctuate the reality of an economy that isn't producing sufficient jobs. The crisis is both immediate and long-term. The so-called recovery hasn't begun to recover the jobs lost in the Great Recession. 25 million people are in need of full time work. Home values continue to fall. 25 percent of 17- to 25-year-old high school graduates not in college are out of work. Much of a generation is at risk.<br />
The immediate is only an expression of more profound problems. The middle class was losing ground before the Great Recession. Good jobs are being shipped abroad. Wages aren't keeping up with the costs of basics. The broad middle class that made America exceptional is disappearing. The American dream seems ever more like a nostalgic memory. The nation continues to run unsustainable trade deficits, and must dig out of a mountain of debt -- both public and private. For the first time, an increasing majority of Americans fear their kids won't fare as well as they have. <br />
We need action to put people to work. But short term fixes aren't enough. Americans are looking for a serious strategy that will get us out of the mess we are in.<br />
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<b>The Beltway Bloviating</b><br />
But inside the beltway, Washington is clueless. It's the only major city in the country where housing prices are going up. A flood of corporate lobby money insures that the tables are full at the high end restaurants. Entrenched corporate interests buy a lot more than lunches with their dough. They block vital reforms on health care, energy, trade, Wall Street. They feed off taxpayers, protecting their subsidies and tax dodges, avoiding taxes, while deficits rise and essential programs like nutrition for infants get cut.<br />
The politicians prefer posturing to bold action, "message" and "spin" to leadership. Republicans even with the majority in the House are focused on obstruction. They vote for more tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, paid for by ending Medicare and Medicaid, hiking costs for those least able to pay -- seniors, the disabled, the dying. They vow to blow up the economy if they can't get a deal on trillions in domestic spending cuts, accompanied by more tax breaks for the wealthy. They're lining their campaign coffers carrying water for the big banks against even minimal reforms.<br />
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The adult Republican presidential candidates like Mitch Romney claim they can get the economy going and create jobs. But they only recycle old and failed nostrums. More tax cuts for corporations who are already sitting on over a trillion in cash waiting for customers. More tax cuts for the wealthiest, who already have the most concentrated income and wealth since the eve of the Great Depression. More corporate trade deals that ship goods jobs abroad, undermine wages at home, and force up to borrow over a billion a day from abroad to balance the deficits. Less regulation when we haven't recovered from the catastrophe caused by the excesses of deregulated Wall Street. They pretend they can balance the budget and put people to work by cutting domestic spending, cutting taxes, increasing spending on the military, and not dismantling basic promises like Medicare and Social Security. They and everyone else knows that is a lie.<br />
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The White House offers no clear way out. The president wants to hail the successes of an economy that isn't working for most people. Yes, his policies saved us from free fall -- thanks, but we're worried about what we face, not where we've been. He sensibly calls for "winning the future" -- making investments in areas like education, innovation and infrastructure. But he's locked himself into austerity, focused on cuts, and offering no big vision of how we move forward. He's more sensible than the tea party zealots, but remains unwilling to tell Americans what needs to be done and that fight for it.<br />
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The Democrats in the Senate are a babble, too divided to deliver a message. The House Democrats are cowed by the losses in 2010, too worried about being accused of being "big spenders" to lay out a course to get the economy going and put people to work.<br />
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And few seem ready to put out a strategy that necessarily will take on the interests that are strangling the dream. A national trade strategy that isn't controlled by multinationals. Affordable health care not catering to private insurance and drug companies. Fair taxes that shut down the tax havens, the dodges, the obscene subsidies that drain our resources. An investment strategy that generates vital public and private investment, not more Wall Street speculation, or CEO incentives for laying off workers and plundering their own companies.<br />
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It will take a popular uprising to get Washington even to begin to focus seriously on jobs and the economy. We've seen this before. There was a bipartisan consensus on the Iraq War until a growing movement forced first Democrats and then the Bush White House to face reality. The Washington establishment was drunk on slashing Social Security and Medicare to address deficits, and Republicans embraced gutting Medicare, until popular disapproval expressed both in the polls and in the special election in upstate New York sobered them up a bit. The anger expressed by the Tea Party minority still has Republicans in Washington reeling.<br />
Now we need the people to speak again. This time for the American majority. We aren't buying the old conservative elixirs. The New Dem-Republican lite embrace of half measures and conservative cross dressing isn't acceptable.<br />
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Washington has to hear a clear message. We elected you to get this economy going, not gut Medicare. We want to know how you will create jobs. We don't want to be served the old tired babble. We know we can't simply cut our way to prosperity. We know we need a major change in our global strategy. We know we've got to make investments vital to the future -- in education and in innovation. We know this economy needs major reforms. Anyone not willing to challenge the corporate interests that are strangling change isn't serious. We know it is hard to focus on creating jobs when deficits are this high. We know we'll have to sacrifice, but we're not broke -- we don't have to break promises to our kids or our parents. And don't ask the victims of this economy to sacrifice when those making out like bandits are given a pass. We know once the economy is moving, taxes have to go up and spending has to be brought under control. So stop the nonsense of no tax hikes. Tell us what you will cut and why. Don't pretend choices don't have to be made.<br />
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So lay it out. How do you put people to work, change our economic strategy so we begin once more to make things in America and create good jobs, not poverty wage jobs? How does that relate to getting our books in order and our priorities straight? Give us a debate worthy of a great nation in deep trouble.<br />
In August, after Washington reaches an inevitable deal on lifting the debt limit after weeks of posturing and bluster, of an idiotic debate focused on what to cut rather than how to get the economy going, legislators will return home for recess. They need to hear from us. <br />
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<div></div><div class="clear full"></div><div class="clear full"><i>Robert L Borosage is President of the Institute for America's Future.</i> </div></div>Sandy Prisanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469180943074887710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269462522933441518.post-78376085754007932872011-05-29T20:40:00.000-01:002011-05-29T20:40:30.588-01:00Needled<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: lime;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">By Prof. Claudia Ricci</span></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: lime;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: lime;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Editor's Note: Professor Ricci is a noted novelist, journalist and educator. She has taught and created programs at Georgetown University and the State University of New York. Dr Ricci is a founding collaborator in the <u>Wordsmith Wars</u> blog.</span></i></span></span></span><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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</style> <![endif]--> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">At the worst moments of the chemo, after she throws up into the basin, and forces herself to eat some cherry jello and maybe a few bites of banana, Anna plays the flamenco, drifting perhaps into a <i>soleares</i>, a sweet lament that starts slow and then pulls up tempo.<span> </span>And when the <i>soleares</i> stops working, and no longer transports her, she shifts to a <i>tango</i> or even, a <i>fandango</i>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw7epOG5fpjGD-orjxli6ntWfKyMX5y_uFwgFOYZc01v9Ok7X80wdruZuDgRJqvdoIi5DvoRtZHj1LjpleMMSDN1UZ4_qT73SzVnfZSYiP6fcfVf_Ac4C5Jg0tYOSovEopVE_PiVB-tG8/s1600/flamenco+dancer+in+red+dress.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw7epOG5fpjGD-orjxli6ntWfKyMX5y_uFwgFOYZc01v9Ok7X80wdruZuDgRJqvdoIi5DvoRtZHj1LjpleMMSDN1UZ4_qT73SzVnfZSYiP6fcfVf_Ac4C5Jg0tYOSovEopVE_PiVB-tG8/s320/flamenco+dancer+in+red+dress.jpg" width="257" /></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">And then comes the day that she steps inside the doctor’s office in the black and red satin dress.<span> </span>It rustles as she walks, and the luscious tail of the <i>bata de cola</i> trails behind her.<span> </span>Anna picks up a fistful of ruffles in the train, and enters the examining room.<span> </span>Her nailed shoes, tied at the ankles in ribbons, clatter on the waxed floor.<span> </span>Her black hair is sleek, almost wet looking, pulled tight to her head and knotted at back in a donut.<span> </span>She hugs a black lacy shawl to her shoulders and in her free hand, she is pumping a red flowered fan.<span> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">The nurse enters behind her.<span> </span>Oblivious.<span> </span>She opens Anna’s medical file –three inches thick—and asks Anna to step on a scale against the wall.<span> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">“Must I?” Anna sneers.<span> </span>The nurse hesitates.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">“Must I get the doctor?” the nurse asks.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Anna’s eyes narrow.<span> </span>Still holding the ruffles, she steps on the scale, and the nurse records Anna’s weight.<span> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">“Remember to subtract for the dress,” Anna says.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">The nurse starts to say something.<span> </span>Stops.<span> </span>She asks Anna to turn around and stand against the wall.<span> </span>Anna sighs, then swivels.<span> </span>As she steps against the wall, she lifts her head with all the dignity of a Castilian queen.<span> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">“Five feet ten and one half with those heels,” the nurse says, wrinkling her nose ever so slightly as she eyes the shoes.<span> </span>Then she turns to Anna’s right arm.<span> </span>“Now, how about the veins today?<span> </span>How are they?”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span> </span>“My veins.”<span> </span>Anna pauses.<span> </span>Sneers.<span> </span>“Are the same as always.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Thrusting one arm overhead in the manner of the great <i>bailoras</i>, Anna locks herself in the dancer’s stance.<span> </span>She looks as if she could be plucking a ripe Seville orange off a tree.<span> </span>Twisting one wrist, she pulls the imaginary lush globe of fruit tightly to her bosom.<span> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span> </span>“I am glad you are so limber, Anna.”<span> </span>The nurse crosses her arms.<span> </span>“But would you mind sitting down?<span> </span>This will go a lot faster if you do.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span> </span>Anna glares, sits down and arranges the dress around her.<span> </span>Then she thrusts one arm forward, exposing a pale blue vein.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">“That one looks like it will work,” the nurse muses, reaching up and snapping one finger against the inside of Anna’s arm.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">“Please,” Anna snarls, pulling her arm back.<span> </span>“Please be gentle.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">“I’m sorry,” the nurse says.<span> </span>Her voice softens.<span> </span>“I really <i>am</i> sorry.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Anna turns away, as if the nurse’s sudden kindness has made it so much worse.<span> </span>“Do you know how many times that my arm has been needled?<span> </span>Do you realize what you do to me every week?<span> </span>And do you realize how important these arms are to my dance?”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">The nurse bites her lip.<span> </span>“I’m sorry.<span> </span>I forget sometimes.<span> </span>I know there are days when…when they, when we…have…considerable trouble getting in.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Anna draws her shawl closer around her shoulders.<span> </span>A single tear dribbles out of one eye.<span> </span>She ignores it and sitting up straighter, she lifts her chin in the manner of the Iberian royals, casting a decidedly unfriendly glance at the nurse.<span> </span>Then she thrusts her arm forward again.<span> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">The nurse anchors Anna’s arm on the armrest and prepares the needle.<span> </span>“Here we go,” she whispers.<span> </span>Anna flinches as the needle passes into the crotch of her arm, but the nurse has tight hold of her hand.<span> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">At first Anna and her pert red lips turn away, but soon she can’t help herself: she is tipping backward to look, drawn to staring at the syringe, particularly the small butterfly spread of sky blue plastic attached to the needle.<span> </span>Anna brightens.<span> </span>“Ah, you see, my fan has blue butterflies too.”<span> </span>She flicks open her red fan again with her right hand, showing off the intricate design: a red background, swatches of yellow and orange flowers and blue and black butterflies dancing here and there.<span> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">The nurse glances at the fan, but is more preoccupied with the needle.<span> </span>She jiggles it.<span> </span>“I think this vein may be blocked.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Anna blinks.<span> </span>Looks away.<span> </span>As the nurse pokes the needle in further, Anna’s eyes open wider and begin to water.<span> </span>Then she rapidly fans her face.<span> </span>The fan is a hot blooded color, and the blue of the fan’s butterflies is exactly the same blue as the butterfly of the needle, the needle which the nurse is now pushing even deeper into Anna’s skin.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">“Oh <i>Dios mio</i>, PLEASE NO!” Anna yelps.<span> </span>Her face is chalky and as sweaty as it is when she dances the <i>farruca</i>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">“I am sorry I am hurting you, Anna, I really am.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span> </span>Anna sighs.<span> </span>Keeps fanning.<span> </span>“Yes, I should say so.”<span> </span>Her voice breaks.<span> </span>She fans faster. “How much longer must this go on?”<span> </span>She chews into her lower lip, and her teeth pick up some of the berry-colored lipstick glazing her mouth.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span> </span>The nurse wiggles the needle ever so slightly.<span> </span>She sighs.<span> </span>Exhales.<span> </span>“It’s just that I have to get a blood return on this one, and I’m not getting it.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span> </span>Anna closes her eyes and stops fanning.<span> </span>At moments like these, when it gets particularly difficult, she always resorts to intense mental rehearsal: she goes through the newest <i>alegria</i> in her head.<span> </span>She can count it better than the <i>seguiryas</i>, or even the <i>sevillanas</i> or the <i>malaguena</i>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent2" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-US">She starts counting, but a moment later, is interrupted.<span> </span>The nurse sighs, slides the needle out.<span> </span>“I guess this </span></span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent2" style="line-height: 150%;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent2" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-US">one won’t work,” she says.<span> </span>“Sorry.”<span> </span>She applies a tiny circle of a bandaid over the hole left behind in Anna’s</span></span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent2" style="line-height: 150%;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent2" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-US"> arm. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">“I’m going to have to get some back up.<span> </span>See if someone else can help.”<span> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Anna blinks.<span> </span>“Yes, well, and I think I am going to need my prescription now,” she mumbles, her fingers trembling slightly as she reaches into the ruffled bosom of her dress.<span> </span>Inside is a tiny vial of pills.<span> </span>Before the nurse can say anything, Anna has two tiny white pills in her hand and she is popping them under her tongue.<span> </span>“This will help.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">The nurse looks embarrassed.<span> </span>“Look, I am really sorry to put you through this.<span> </span>But I …”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">“…But I don’t want to hear it,” Anna says curtly.<span> </span>“I really don’t want to hear it.”<span> </span>She smiles her thinnest, tightest grin.<span> </span>“Just go ahead, please, find someone.<span> </span>Someone who won’t hurt me.<span> </span>And get it over with.” Anna inhales, saying a small prayer that the pills will work their miracles once again. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">The nurse leaves and returns almost immediately with another nurse.<span> </span>A young man.<span> </span>Slim and very tall and dark-skinned.<span> </span>He smiles and Anna<span> </span>looks into his eyes and her first thoughts are, he is not at all handsome, but he is very kind.<span> </span>And he would make a suitable partner.<span> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">He takes Anna’s hand and for a moment she expects him to kiss it.<span> </span>But he simply rubs his long brown fingers over the surface of her skin.<span> </span>“I hear we are turning you into a pin cushion today,” he says very quietly.<span> </span>The way he says pin: peen.<span> </span>And cushion: cooshun.<span> </span>His accent is…what?<span> </span>Latin?<span> </span>Indian?<span> </span>Iranian?<span> </span>She cannot tell, and well, what does it matter?<span> </span>He grows more handsome by the moment.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">He keeps sliding his fingers over the back of her hand.<span> </span>“So how are the veins here?” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span> </span>Anna closes her eyes, smiles, and gracefully pulls up her hand.<span> </span>Her blood red nails glitter.<span> </span>“My hands…are magnificent,” she whispers, opening her eyes again.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">He smiles, bashfully.<span> </span>Anna notices the intense silkiness of his black hair.<span> </span>The giant oily pearls that are his eyes.<span> </span>She sighs.<span> </span>The other nurse, who is standing in the corner of the examining room, arches one eyebrow, then turns and leaves the room, making the door smack shut as she goes.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">The young man looks up.<span> </span>Meets Anna’s eyes.<span> </span>Clearing his throat, he takes Anna’s outstretched hand and pulls close to examine it again.<span> </span>“Well, these don’t look as ravaged as the ones in your arm.<span> </span>I see what these treatments have done to torture your poor arm.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">“Ah, and not just my arm,” Anna shoots back.<span> </span>Her voice croaks.<span> </span>The man lifts his eyes and Anna returns the look.<span> </span>In it is an odd combination of fire and ice.<span> </span>Sorrow and fatigue.<span> </span>Fortitude and resignation.<span> </span>Pride and shame and mostly, relief.<span> </span>She watches in silence while he proceeds to wrap a rubber tourniquet around her wrist, making the veins in her hand bulge slightly.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span> </span>“So, would you mind if I played my CD?” Anna asks, her eyelashes fluttering.<span> </span>Her vision is beginning to swerve.<span> </span>Hard shapes and straight lines are turning to butter.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span> </span>“Oh, no problem,” the nurse says.<span> </span>“Do you need help?”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span> </span>“Not a bit,” Anna says.<span> </span>“I have done this all before.”<span> </span>She uses her free hand to reach into a satin bag for a pair of headphones.<span> </span>One-handed, she slips the headphones over her sleek hairdo.<span> </span>By now there are several stray black hairs at her moist brow.<span> </span>Anna switches on the CD player and so, when the needle vanishes into a vein in the back of Anna’s left hand this time, she is listening to a <i>canta</i>or singing a woeful tale of his lost gypsy.<span> </span></span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent2" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US">Anna closes her eyes as a <i>bailora </i>joins in, dancing in the background; there, now, she can hear her feet clacking rapidly on wood.<span> </span>Besides that, there is a set of castanets rattling and a clang of the <i>martinetes</i>, the ironsmiths’ metal hammering against metal.<span> </span>The <i>cantaor’s</i> voice rings up to a prolonged trill just as the young man gets his blood return.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span> </span>“That will do it,” the young man says, filling a small clear tube with Anna’s ruby blood.<span> </span>“Now we just need to put the radioactive tracer into the vein and we’ll be all set to do your scan.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span> </span>Anna looks up from her CD, a docile smile on her lips.<span> </span>Her head feels loose, as if it coming unattached from her shoulders, which are now bare of the shawl.<span> </span>The fan sits closed up in her lap.<span> </span>She blinks, sinking ever deeper into the music.<span> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span> </span>“Did you know, young man, that <i>duende </i>eases all of our pain?”<span> </span>She whispers this, and her words are slightly slurred.<span> </span>He nods.<span> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">“Please,” she says.<span> </span>“Please state your name?”<span> </span>He hesitates.</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent2" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US">“Arturo.”<span> </span>He pats her hand once more and starts to pull away.<span> </span>Anna wants to hold his hand there, but her grip comes too slow.<span> </span>He leaves the room, and she goes limp, sinking listlessly into her chair.<span> </span>The pills have taken hold, no doubt, because now she is yawning, and smiling broadly, and dancing on a brightly lit stage that is rising into the air.<span> </span>She laughs.<span> </span>After all this is over she will call her sister, Margarita, and tell her this: that it isn’t hard to dance when you are rising toward heaven, because there you can freely pluck oranges and apples from the Garden of Eden.<span> </span>And because you are on chemo, and because everyone feels sorry for you--even God—He doesn’t care one bit that you are there stealing His fruit.<span> </span>And eating it right there in the Garden.</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Anna laughs.<span> </span>When the tall young man returns with a small lead box, the one that contains the radioactive isotope, she reaches out to take his hand.<span> </span>He puts the box down and staring hard into her eyes, he readily accepts her hand – and his role in the dance. </span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Anna watches him, a placid smile on her lips.<span> </span>And then the music turns fiery, and the moment comes.<span> </span>The stage clears and he steps into the white circle of light.<span> </span>His elbows lifted to each side, and his narrow hips immobile, he tips his head back proudly and begins pounding his heels in perfect unison with the <i>compas</i>, the rhythm of the music.<span> </span>Ah but what a pair of legs Arturo has, thundering now against the floor. Yes, she thinks: he is more talented than any partner I have had before.</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Now it is her turn to spin: the young man reaches out one hand to her.<span> </span>Mustering all of her grace and dignity, she lifts herself off the chair and thrusts her torso forward.<span> </span>Her bosom swells fully into the satin fluff and ruffles.<span> </span>Moving slowly at first, she begins swiveling and tapping, all the while holding one armful of ruffles at her hips.<span> </span>The other arm stands overhead.<span> </span>Her movements quicken, and soon her hips are twisting, and her feet hammering like a sewing machine.<span> </span>And there, there are her wrists and fingers, all bent at odd angles, giving her hands the look of branches, branches on an orange tree, a tree from which she always plucks her imaginary fruit.<span> </span></span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">She pauses, out of breath.<span> </span>The two of them –she and her amazing Arturo.<span> </span>They are holding hands, and now, suddenly, they are bowing.<span> </span>Surely it cannot be over already?<span> </span>Together they occupy the stage light.<span> </span>Staring blissfully into the darkness behind her eyes, she feels her heart pump as quickly as her fan, as the young man whispers “Anna, you were just wonderful.”</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">“Thank you,” she whispers back.<span> </span>And then she waits, patiently, for all the clapping to stop.<span> </span>And for the needle to be withdrawn and for the curtain, finally, to fall on all of this.<span> </span></span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Dancing.</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">The End</span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";"></span></b></div><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";"></span></b> </div>Sandy Prisanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469180943074887710noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269462522933441518.post-27534658767355988702011-05-24T13:27:00.000-01:002011-05-24T13:27:40.709-01:00A New Dawn for the University? Part 1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Editor's Note</span></i></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: small;"> : <i>When the Egyptians created the first university over 1000 years ago--Al-Azhar in </i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Cairo</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">--it was envisioned as a place for advanced academic instruction, disciplined thought, debate and meditation on the student's relationship to society and the world around him.</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Then something went wrong. Everything shifted towards corporate internships and a straight line between a 4-year degree and a 5-6 figure salary. Effectively, your entrance exams became your first job interview.</span></i></span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Today, the increasingly desperate marketing of colleges notwithstanding, we all know the truth. That straight line has been broken. The commercial value of a degree is now dubious. But that may be a good thing. </span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">It may mean that serious Universities can resume a traditional non-career-based role as institutions where we learn about ourselves, our society and how to think more clearly about issues more profound than resumes. This could be a silver lining in a world where there will never again be enough jobs. </span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The University, at least, may be allowed to get back to its earnest, erudite, creative roots. Back to </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Cairo</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"> in the 10th century.</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Case in point: Professor of Journalism Claudia Ricci is a noted educator, novelist and journalist. She is also a founding partner in the <u>Wordsmith Wars </u>blog. In the past year she has put together a custom academic curriculum at the State University of New York. It addresses a subject very much needed by students and society as we grind through the current Depression. The subject: Happiness.</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Here's the course prospectus</span>:</i></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">ERDG 491Z -- University at Albany, SUNY</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Professor Claudia Ricci, Ph.D.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">READING & WRITING THE HAPPIER SELF: Spring 2011</span><span style="font-family: "; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 8pt; text-align: center;"><style>
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</style> </div><span style="font-family: "; font-size: 12pt; font-size: large; font-size: large; font-size: large;">Reading and writing transform the way we think, and how we see ourselves in the world. Neurological research now shows that changing the way we think can produce positive physiological changes in the brain. At a time when an epidemic of mental health issues plagues our nation, and threatens to paralyze students in the academy, this class presents a set of cognitive tools and practical skills that will help students refine and enhance their educational goals while examining a broad range of life issues. Beginning with philosophical ideas set forth by Aristotle, the class will rely on texts from psychology, neuroscience, literature and narrative theory, to open up discussions about the patterns of human behavior and thinking that tend to produce lasting fulfillment and deep reward. In keeping with research by psychologist James Pennebaker and others who have demonstrated the value of expressive writing, students will engage in extensive journaling and other self-reflective writing assignments as they seek to define what it means, and what it takes, to find happiness. Part of the work in the classroom will be to help students identify their individual “signature strengths” that can produce what positive psychologist Martin Seligman defines as “authentic happiness and abundant gratification.” <b>In addition to classroom work, a special two-hour laboratory session, with attendant readings and writing exercises, will be required each week</b>; students will work with experts in mindfulness, meditation, yoga, spirituality and stress reduction, and will document how these techniques can help the student better cope with the inherently stressful nature of University life. </span><br />
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<i> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In the coming days, Professor will be posting blogs that draw on the techniques and outcomes of her first Happiness curriculum.</span></i><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6uTpP6g9Dvy3n52Krrwd5CgqaMhvSsZ37EnEsbeHtfYVGj7d2hNilAGYqaoIUWUoJqYftX16g57yAabETvf72eEwaMFIqus2v0qu0f03r6GfyZhLcTia6-Lj1k4v8T6_tcwmuFPcPyhI/s1600/happiness.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6uTpP6g9Dvy3n52Krrwd5CgqaMhvSsZ37EnEsbeHtfYVGj7d2hNilAGYqaoIUWUoJqYftX16g57yAabETvf72eEwaMFIqus2v0qu0f03r6GfyZhLcTia6-Lj1k4v8T6_tcwmuFPcPyhI/s320/happiness.gif" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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</div>Sandy Prisanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469180943074887710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269462522933441518.post-12219991930918485692011-05-09T18:01:00.000-01:002011-05-09T18:01:31.757-01:00Competition: Guess the State!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div></div><div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: lime;"><span style="color: lime;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b>By</b></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b> Sandy Prisant</b></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: lime;"><span style="color: lime;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">I live in a state that is certainly not timid in its approach to this Depression--and its future. Within the past year alone here are some of the things my fellow citizens have done. From these clues, can you...</span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: lime;"><span style="color: lime;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><b>"Guess the State!"</b> </span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">As our new Governor, we elected the primary unindicted co-conspirator in the largest Medicare fraud in US history.</span></li>
</ul></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></span></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> We entirely neutered the Democratic party, throwing them out of every single statewide office.</span></li>
</ul></div><br />
<div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">We elected overwhelming GOP majorities to both houses of our legislature, leaving no checks and balances.</span></li>
</ul><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Still hewing to 19th century policies that limited most state legislators to very short sessions--on the premise that any politician can only be trusted for so many days a year--our legislature is only allowed to meet for 60 days/annum.</span></li>
</ul></div><div><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">But that did not hinder our representatives and unindicted governor from a breathtaking set of legislation in the term just completed, to help our citizens through this Depression. Among the most notable new state laws:</span></li>
<ul><li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Reduce unemployment benefits to under 6 months, even though we have one of the worst unemployment rates in the country-- a third higher than the national average.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Total new job creation programs proposed or passed by lawmakers all running on a job -creation platform: Zero.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Specifically use the benefits taken from the unemployed to deliver significant tax cuts to 30,000 corporations. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Proposed elimination of the State Development Agency.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Cut funding to education across the board in a state that tests near the bottom.</span></li>
</ul></ul></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><ul><li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Dismantle Medicaid, ignoring the Federal mandate requiring 90% of funds go to patient services, choosing instead to share $1.1 billion in <br />
patient funds as profits with managed care companies. (According to the <u>New York Times.)</u></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Total new jobs created by lawmakers all running on a job-creation platform: Zero. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Reversed thirty (30) years of state environmental legislation</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Defied the state constitution by making the state Supreme Court a servant of the legislature--permanently ending checks and balances.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Passed all three priorities of the National Rifle Association.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Assaulted democracy through new restrictions to actually reduce voting days and hours in all elections.</span></li>
</ul></ul><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">What is this enlightened state, beholdened only to corporations, party pros and gun owners? Send your answer to Wordsmith Wars. And pray for the 95% of my state's citizens whom are not rich.</span></div><div><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div></div>Sandy Prisanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469180943074887710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269462522933441518.post-28036576782749480612011-05-09T18:00:00.000-01:002011-05-09T18:00:34.672-01:00Competition: Guess the State!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: lime;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>By Sandy Prisant</b></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: lime;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">I live in a state that is far from timid in its approach to this Depression, the fate of it's citizens, or its future. </span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Within the past year, here are some of the things my neighbors up and down the state have done. From these clues</span>, <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">can you...</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b>"Guess the State!</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b> </b> </span></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">As our new Governor, we elected the unindicted chief executive in the largest Medicare fraud in US history.</span></li>
</ul><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> We entirely neutered the Democratic party, throwing them out of every single statewide office.</span></li>
</ul></div><br />
<div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">We elected overwhelming GOP majorities to both houses of our legislature, leaving no checks and balances.</span></li>
</ul><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Still hewing to 19th century policies that limited most state legislators to very short sessions--on the premise that any politician can only be trusted for so many days a year--our legislature is only allowed to meet for 60 days/annum.</span></li>
</ul></div><div><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">But that did not hinder our representatives and unindicted governor from a breathtaking set of legislation in the term just completed, to help our citizens through this Depression. Among the most notable new state laws:</span></li>
<ul><li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Reduce unemployment benefits to under 6 months, even though we have one of the worst unemployment rates in the country-- a third higher than the national average.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Total new job creation programs proposed or passed by lawmakers all running on a job -creation platform: Zero.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Specifically use the benefits taken from the unemployed to deliver significant tax cuts to 30,000 corporations. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Proposed elimination of the State Development Agency.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Cut funding to education across the board in a state that tests near the bottom.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Cut 5,000 jobs in the public sector</span></li>
</ul></ul></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><ul><li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Dismantle Medicaid, ignoring the Federal mandate requiring 90% of funds go to patient services, choosing instead to share $1.1 billion in <br />
patient funds as profits with managed care companies. (According to the <u>New York Times.)</u></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Total new jobs created by lawmakers all running on a job-creation platform: Zero. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Reversed thirty (30) years of state environmental legislation</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Defied the state constitution by making the state Supreme Court a servant of the legislature--permanently ending checks and balances.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Passed all three priorities of the National Rifle Association.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Assaulted democracy through new restrictions to actually reduce voting days and hours in all elections.</span></li>
</ul></ul><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">What is this enlightened state, beholden only to corporations, party pros and gun owners? Send your answer to Wordsmith Wars. And pray for the 95% of my state's citizens whom are not rich.</span></div><div><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div></div>Sandy Prisanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469180943074887710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269462522933441518.post-14836659308473455152011-05-04T19:14:00.001-01:002011-05-04T19:18:08.091-01:00US Shock: Treasury to Exempt Regulation of Forex Derivatives That Caused 2008 Freeze<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: lime;">By Sandy Prisant</span></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: lime;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i>Editor's Note: Over 60% of Americans believe the US is headed in the wrong direction, but they have no sensible idea why. Please read the piece below by Avery Goodman in <u>Seeking Alpha </u>and understand why the end of Osama Bin Laden is not the end of our problems:</i></span></span></span><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: lime;"> </span></span></b></span></div><br />
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Under the requirements of the Dodd-Frank legislation, all FX swaps and forwards are supposed to be reported to a swap data repository or, if there wasn't one, to a regulator like the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The regulator is supposed to investigate irregular activity. Foreign exchange forwards and swaps represent about $50 trillion in nominal value of a total derivatives market of almost $600 trillion. Unfortunately, Congress gave some leyway to the U.S. Treasury to exempt some derivatives from regulation. If the U.S. Treasury has its way, FX swaps and forwards will not be regulated, and trillions of dollars of interest rate swaps and OTC forward contracts are almost certainly going to be restructured into the form of FX swaps and forward contracts, defeating the purpose of Congress.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Regardless of what the U.S. Treasury claims, FX swaps and forwards are high risk derivatives and were one of the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/29/geithner-blocks-regulatio_n_855634.html" rel="nofollow">primary reasons</a> currency markets froze after the demise of Lehman Brothers. That freezing, in turn, was part of the cause of the 2008 Financial Crisis. The Federal Reserve established emergency currency exchange swaps with many foreign central banks in the hope of stabilizing the world financial system because of an alleged "shortage" of dollars. We thought that doing it was a mistake. We still feel that way. However, there are other people whose opinions we respect, who think otherwise. They think it was the correct decision.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Correct or not, those emergency lines of "credit" were established because European banks could not find enough dollars to make their payments under these type of derivatives because most of them bet on a declining dollar. The U.S. claims that there is no need to post performance bonds at a clearing house like the CME and Ice exchanges. While the exchanges are certainly not perfect places, and we have critiqued them heavily in the past, they are better than the extreme instability that follows the OTC market for derivatives.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Yet, according to the Treasury, it is too problematic to post performance bonds. Indeed, the Treasury says that no bond is needed to insure performance. But, if no bond is needed, why would a clearing exchange force banks to put up anything more than the most nominal bond, if any at all? After all, isn't it a no-risk FX swap or forwards contract? However, that isn't going to happen, because it isn't true. The exchanges would require substantial performance bonds on these type of derivatives. They are highly risky, and other clearing members prefer not to be bankrupted, or at least "lose their shirts" because of the capricious gambles of other banks.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Performance bonds are just a small part of the story. Even more important is the fact that by exempting FX swaps and forwards, the Treasury defeats the so-called "Lincoln" provision of the Dodd-Frank legislation. Swap dealers are supposed to get " No Federal assistance" including "loans" from Federal Reserve credit facilities, discount windows, emergency lending facilities etc. can be provided to any "swaps entity." If FX swaps and forwards are exempted, financial institutions that write them will have full access to the Federal Reserve (a/k/a big bank slush fund) at the ultimate expense and risk of the taxpayers of America. That is probably what this exemption is all about. </span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Being able to access Federal Reserve funding will allow swap dealers, such as the biggest banks with the most systemic risk, to engage in high leverage derivative writing. When backstopped by the Federal Reserve, such derivatives allow sophisticated entities to control cash markets that trade the underlying product. Levels of leverage that are typical in OTC and even exchange traded derivatives have been illegal in the cash stock markets since the Crash of 1929. Not in the derivatives markets. A tiny amount of collateral can buy control over a huge swath of the market, especially when the leverage is infinite, as it is when you aren't required to post any bond at all. If you are backed up by the ability to access the Federal Reserve lending windows, then its bombs away! You can do whatever you want, makes tons of money temporarily and, when the gamesmanship finally blows up in your face, you can shift the loss to the American taxpayer, while you retire to a nice island in the Carribean.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Changes to prices created in derivatives enter the cash market by way of arbitrage. Consequently, dealers in derivatives who have access to a large source of backstop money have the power to manipulate the value of all assets, including stocks, bonds, commodities, precious metals and currencies, at least in the short run. The changes in psychology that repeated short term manipulations can induce, will also profoundly affect the long term perception of various assets, unless most market participants become aware of the manipulated nature of the pricing structure.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Most market participants do not understand the interaction of derivatives and cash markets. Most believe, for example, that they can predict future market behavior by carefully crafting elaborate technical charts and graphs using historical pricing data. This could work, in theory. However, in practice, blind adherence to charts results in deep losses because technical analysis in cash markets cannot fully account for the interference from small numbers of market participants, playing in derivatives, who use a very small amount of assets to create large marking-moving price fluctuations in the cash markets. If they can be backstopped by the Federal Reserve, as they will be, with respect to FX swaps and forwards, if they are exempted from Dodd-Frank, there is no end to the mischief they can create with no long term adverse effect on themselves if they screw up.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A case in point is the so-called "Flash Crash." According to the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/54534904/SEC-Flash-Crash-Report" rel="nofollow">report,</a> it was precipitated by heavy buying of short positions at the CME Group's mini-S&P 500 futures on May 6, 2010. In response, the Dow industrial average plunged by 900 points, and a similar plunge in the market as a whole. Just one investment fund wanted to hedge stock positions, and its brokers sold too many Mini-S&P 500 short contracts at one time. The cash market was not aware of what was happening, and responded with panic. Many market participants erroneously concluded that massive selling was happening in the real cash market by persons holding real stock positions, a lot of market makers withdrew in fear of big losses, and everyone began dumping equities. Not mentioned in the official report is the fact that stock prices collapsed until a mysterious "force" began to buy huge numbers of long mini-S&P contracts in sudden and concentrated pulses, without regard to the losses that such buying habits would give to a profit-oriented entity. Cash markets recovered almost immediately as this buying "force" rescued the mini-S&P 500 derivatives market.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> There is yet another concern. Exclusion of FX swaps and forwards from transparency and clearing requirements, applied to other derivatives, will cause banks to restructure interest rate and credit swaps as foreign exchange swaps or forwards. A notional amount of about $450 trillion dollars worth of interest rate swaps are now floating around in the world, for one example. If even a fraction of those are converted to exempt FX swaps and forwards, tens or even a hundred trillions or so of non-transparent, inherently unstable derivatives will hit the Street, with no performance bonds to insure compliance. We have written, in the past, critiquing the game of strategically changing performance bonds levels to achieve desired prices in precious metals. However, requiring no performance bond at all, and having no ostensibly "third party" entity to hold them, is an even greater folly.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The potential for instability is enormous. If banks can issue FX swaps and forwards that are not subject to Dodd-Frank, they will be able to hide this activity from shareholders and regulators. Enormous and irresponsible risks are sure to follow. We've already seen this in the past. The legislation was meant to change the sitution. With this new Treasury initiative, change will be torpedoed. Large banks have not been broken up. They are even bigger than before. If they were perceived as "too big to fail" back then, they are certainly too big now. U.S. Treasury action seems guaranteed to insure that private profits will, yet again, be pocketed by bank executives, while private losses are socialized by being shifted to taxpayers and savers in the U.S. dollar denominated investments.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">As we noted, earlier, the need for the opening of Federal Reserve swap lines in 2008/2009 was partly the result of FX swaps and forwards which drained U.S. dollars from banks in Europe. The next freeze could involve these same instruments draining foreign currencies from American banks. There is no guarantee that foreigners will be as kind to us as we were with them. The World Financial Crisis of 2008 was not caused by sub-prime mortgages, but by the triggering of derivatives. When the contingency of massive mortgage default occured, credit default swaps were triggered. The hoarding of dollars by banks who needed to pay off on these obligations sapped demand from other areas of the economy. A massive shock to the system that could not be slowly and laboriously healed occured. Non-reportable credit default swaps are a similar threat. </span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The risk is simply too great to be allowing banks to engage in non-reportable, non-marginable activities, especially when they will be allowed to obtain sponsorship of the Federal Reserve in their speculations. Yet, Mary Miller, Assistant Treasury Secretary for Financial Markets, has tried to explain that this will not be a problem. She says that the CFTC has anti-evasion authority, and that will <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/treasury-exempts-forex-market-from-costly-rules-2011-04-29" rel="nofollow">prevent</a> financial institutions from using exemptions to evade derivatives regulations. That doesn't make sense. As long as the bank employees have decided that whatever they've structured is an exempted "FX swap" or forward, they won't need to report it. How, then, can the CFTC hope to spot evasion? Identifying restructured transactions will be impossible. The agency will never even know that a transaction took place.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Allowing banks to retain the ability to make mistakes that put the entire world financial system into jeopardy is a big mistake. Transparency and accountability that were supposed to enter the world of OTC derivatives, as a result of Dodd-Frank, will be replaced by opacity. Opaque transactions invariably are a recipe for corruption, and behind-the-scenes manipulations. Allowing the U.S. Treasury to exempt deliverable foreign currency swaps and forwards gives us more darkness, when the financial system is in desperate need of light.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">From a practical standpoint, once this proposal becomes a regulation, as it probably will, currency market traders will need to deal with the consequences. We may see greater short term dollar stability and/or currency exchange value increases than would otherwise be expected after QE-2 ends if the Treasury encourages the banks and Federal Reserve to enter into the type of FX swap and forward transactions that help dictate that result. This desire to manipulate currency markets may well be why the Treasury support the exemption.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Without that, we will probably see a big increase in currency volatility right away. But, even if the banks do as the Treasury would like, and help stabilize the dollar from collapsing, with such swaps and forwards, the pay back will be heavier volatility in the long run, once the instruments mature. In any case, U.S. regulations tend to affect almost all banks, all over the world, since most are involved, in some way or another, with the American financial system, due to current U.S. economic dominance. Exempting these derivatives means foreign banks, which are not as influenced by U.S. government policy regarding the dollar, to restructure other types of derivatives.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The main result is that the shadow world of derivatives will get yet another "pass" from the need for transparency and regulation. Traders can expect to deal with much greater currency volatility than ever seen before, and regular citizens will need to deal with this too. With this exemption, instead of adding stability as it was intended to, the net effect of Dodd-Frank will be greater instability. Tens or even hundreds of trillions of notional derivatives are going to be restructured to become exempt FX swaps and forwards. These have the potential to profoundly destabilize the cash currency markets in ways that we cannot fully anticipate. A bigger crash than the one in 2008 is ahead and market participants should begin preparing for it. It is no longer a matter of "if" but only of "when."</span></div></div>Sandy Prisanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469180943074887710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269462522933441518.post-45935908332306656102011-03-26T14:30:00.000-01:002011-03-26T14:30:34.312-01:00Safe Nuclear does Exist, and China is Leading the Way with Thorium<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: lime;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b> By Sandy Prisant</b></span></span></span><i><span style="color: lime;"> </span></i></div><br />
<i><span style="color: lime;">Editor's Note: Events this month may not just set back Japan by a decade; they could set back the planet by a century. We accept wars, plagues, auto mayhem and gun violence that kills tens of thousands annually, without a blink. The thought of one nuclear worker effected by radiation causes a collective swoon by all civilization. Have we lost our minds? Our sense of </span></i> <i><span style="color: lime;">reason</span></i><span style="color: lime;">? <i>We have been bombarded with fear-mongering about Japanese radiation for two weeks--yet only two workers have been treated. Meanwhile no one gives thought to the toll from the earthquake and tsunami--over 10,000 dead and thousands missing.. </i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: lime;"><i>In short, we seem incapable of even examining rational energy policy</i></span><i><span style="color: lime;">--even when Middle East turmoil leaves the entire oil market wildly unstable. If we can't do this now, then when??</span></i><span style="color: lime;"><i> For those who can remain calm and rational, the following is another development on a more sensible course for future energy planning. Yet again, as we rush to hide under a rock, China finds answers</i>. </span><span style="color: lime; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: lime; font-size: large;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><i> </i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: lime; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>The following analysis is from Ambrose Evans Pritchard in </i><u>The Telegraph </u>of London on March 26:</span></span><br />
<span style="color: lime; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span> </span><br />
<div class="firstPar"> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">"This passed unnoticed –except by a small of band of thorium enthusiasts – but it may mark the passage of strategic leadership in energy policy from an inert and status-quo West to a rising technological power willing to break the mould. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></span><br />
</div><div class="secondPar" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> If China’s dash for thorium power succeeds, it will vastly alter the global energy landscape and may avert a calamitous conflict over resources as Asia’s industrial revolutions clash head-on with the West’s entrenched consumption.<br />
<br />
</div><div class="thirdPar" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> China’s Academy of Sciences said it had chosen a “thorium-based molten salt reactor system”. The liquid fuel idea was pioneered by US physicists at Oak Ridge National Lab in the 1960s, but the US has long since dropped the ball. Further evidence of Barack `Obama’s “Sputnik moment”, you could say.<br />
</div><div class="fourthPar" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Chinese scientists claim that hazardous waste will be a thousand times less than with uranium. The system is inherently less prone to disaster.<br />
<br />
</div><div class="fifthPar" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> “The reactor has an amazing safety feature,” said Kirk Sorensen, a former NASA engineer at Teledyne Brown and a thorium expert.<br />
</div><div class="related_links_inline" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> “If it begins to overheat, a little plug melts and the salts drain into a pan. There is no need for computers, or the sort of electrical pumps that were crippled by the tsunami. The reactor saves itself,” he said. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> “They operate at atmospheric pressure so you don’t have the sort of hydrogen explosions we’ve seen in Japan. One of these reactors would have come through the tsunami just fine. There would have been no radiation release.” </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Thorium is a silvery metal named after the Norse god of thunder. The metal has its own “issues” but no thorium reactor could easily spin out of control in the manner of Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, or now Fukushima. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Professor Robert Cywinksi from Huddersfield University said thorium must be bombarded with neutrons to drive the fission process. “There is no chain reaction. Fission dies the moment you switch off the photon beam. There are not enough neutrons for it continue of its own accord,” he said. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Dr Cywinski, who anchors a UK-wide thorium team, said the residual heat left behind in a crisis would be “orders of magnitude less” than in a uranium reactor. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> The earth’s crust holds 80 years of uranium at expected usage rates, he said. Thorium is as common as lead. America has buried tons as a by-product of rare earth metals mining. Norway has so much that Oslo is planning a post-oil era where thorium might drive the country’s next great phase of wealth. Even Britain has seams in Wales and in the granite cliffs of Cornwall. Almost all the mineral is usable as fuel, compared to 0.7pc of uranium. There is enough to power civilization for thousands of years. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> I write before knowing the outcome of the Fukushima drama, but as yet none of 15,000 deaths are linked to nuclear failure. Indeed, there has never been a verified death from nuclear power in the West in half a century. Perspective is in order. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> We cannot avoid the fact that two to three billion extra people now expect – and will obtain – a western lifestyle. China alone plans to produce 100m cars and buses every year by 2020. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> The International Atomic Energy Agency said the world currently has 442 nuclear reactors. They generate 372 gigawatts of power, providing 14pc of global electricity. Nuclear output must double over twenty years just to keep pace with the rise of the China and India. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> If a string of countries cancel or cut back future reactors, let alone follow Germany’s Angela Merkel in shutting some down, they shift the strain onto gas, oil, and coal. Since the West is also cutting solar subsidies, they can hardly expect the solar industry to plug the gap. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> BP’s disaster at Macondo should teach us not to expect too much from oil reserves deep below the oceans, beneath layers of blinding salt. Meanwhile, we rely uneasily on Wahabi repression to crush dissent in the Gulf and keep Arabian crude flowing our way. So where can we turn, unless we revert to coal and give up on the ice caps altogether? That would be courting fate. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> US physicists in the late 1940s explored thorium fuel for power. It has a higher neutron yield than uranium, a better fission rating, longer fuel cycles, and does not require the extra cost of isotope separation. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> The plans were shelved because thorium does not produce plutonium for bombs. As a happy bonus, it can burn up plutonium and toxic waste from old reactors, reducing radio-toxicity and acting as an eco-cleaner. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Dr Cywinski is developing an accelerator driven sub-critical reactor for thorium, a cutting-edge project worldwide. It needs to £300m of public money for the next phase, and £1.5bn of commercial investment to produce the first working plant. Thereafter, economies of scale kick in fast. The idea is to make pint-size 600MW reactors. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Yet any hope of state support seems to have died with the Coalition budget cuts, and with it hopes that Britain could take a lead in the energy revolution. It is understandable, of course. Funds are scarce. The UK has already put its efforts into the next generation of uranium reactors. Yet critics say vested interests with sunk costs in uranium technology succeeded in chilling enthusiasm. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> The same happened a decade ago to a parallel project by Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research). France’s nuclear industry killed proposals for funding from Brussels, though a French group is now working on thorium in Grenoble. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Norway’s Aker Solution has bought Professor Rubbia’s patent. It had hoped to build the first sub-critical reactor in the UK, but seems to be giving up on Britain and locking up a deal to build it in China instead, where minds and wallets are more open. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> So the Chinese will soon lead on this thorium technology as well as molten-salts. Good luck to them. They are doing Mankind a favour. We may get through the century without tearing each other apart over scarce energy and wrecking the planet." </div><span style="color: lime; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"></span></div>Sandy Prisanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469180943074887710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269462522933441518.post-75506156239533030392011-03-13T17:03:00.000-01:002011-03-13T17:03:05.839-01:00Nuclear Power: Hysteria on Steroids<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: #38761d;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">By Sandy Prisant</span></span></b></span> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #38761d; text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: small;">(Editor's Note: the Author is a former manager at American Electric Power Co. and has helped build a safe Nuclear Power Plant)</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">How long must this irrational hysteria about everything nuclear paralyze us and our societies? Whom would have heeded Peter and the Wolf for 65 years, when virtually no threats materialize?</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">But that doesn't stop perfectly experienced reporters from knee-jerk movement of any discussion about Japan now to to the most extreme, unlikely outcomes--making that the centerpiece of their alleged "news analysis".</span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span><br style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Do you or those reporters know the first thing about building nuclear plants to exacting specifications? Do you know that for all the hysteria about Three Mile Island, no one there even broke an ankle? Do you know that almost every flood, tornado or major car pile up kills more than virtually all nuclear plants, ever?</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoG0WgVh8Fj1SDWUNKkiET6p7q4gH8I0rfHh6hXdgBTIZra8EQHA5ZXmTIinrvCvA0tlrSvP8c5QX083YiunxGgCr_LCtf7oLVSKPgBoomCGUQmrjLAOe-i1TtzlABmeqE6jv165Pu6V8/s1600/cumulative_reactor_years.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoG0WgVh8Fj1SDWUNKkiET6p7q4gH8I0rfHh6hXdgBTIZra8EQHA5ZXmTIinrvCvA0tlrSvP8c5QX083YiunxGgCr_LCtf7oLVSKPgBoomCGUQmrjLAOe-i1TtzlABmeqE6jv165Pu6V8/s320/cumulative_reactor_years.png" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Do you know that <u>Times'</u> articles claiming Japan paid too little attention to future earthquakes before nuclear plant construction are flat out wrong? Do you know that the very first bar for any plant in a developed nation is a reactor design that can withstand an earthquake epicenter smack underneath <em>while </em>a 747 is crashing into the containment structure above?<br />
<br />
Do you know that for 40 Years, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has required this as the minimum safety thresh hold they call MCD--Maximum Credible Disaster?<br />
<br />
Do you think Chernobyl in a collapsing nation is any more representative of nuclear safety than the victory of Adolph Hitler in 1933 was of free and fair elections?<br />
<br />
Finally, if these plants were unsafe, have you wondered why terrorists haven't crashed a plane into one of them--anywhere in the world? Wouldn't it be much worse than hitting a building, you say?<br />
<br />
No it wouldn't, because Al Qaeda knows more than you do about the strength of these vessels and why they're pretty much impregnable. <br />
<br />
Do you appreciate that nations like France and Japan have been getting the majority of their<br />
energy from nuclear power with NO accidents for decades, but you never hear about it?<br />
<br />
Finally, do you realize that we could have had safe nuclear power with far less foreign oil for the past <em>40 years</em>, avoiding the War in Iraq; instead we've stuck with coal, directly giving our grandchildren the highest rates of asthma mankind has ever seen?<br />
<br />
That is the real effect of the freedom you've been given to be hysterical for two generations.</div></div>Sandy Prisanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469180943074887710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269462522933441518.post-6570716943040351022011-02-19T18:35:00.000-01:002011-02-19T18:35:55.855-01:00And You Thought Our Big Problem Is Debt??<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: lime;"><span style="color: #6aa84f; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b>By Sandy Prisant</b></span></span></span></div><br />
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<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2011/02/19/opinion/19blowch.html">Here's a look at how the United States compares with other advanced economies.</a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTQBys6hueC3RvoA4DHw4DROdMydWmwLvP7Ce4RtC1MzCyf44tN19TL42IQx58DDRTs30jRAwzF0x1cpl7IUjEa7xFDrdwKewR5rCts30pP493mexq3CVg3xKpjyeaSaj40M0Gq05V9WA/s1600/USrank-v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTQBys6hueC3RvoA4DHw4DROdMydWmwLvP7Ce4RtC1MzCyf44tN19TL42IQx58DDRTs30jRAwzF0x1cpl7IUjEa7xFDrdwKewR5rCts30pP493mexq3CVg3xKpjyeaSaj40M0Gq05V9WA/s640/USrank-v2.jpg" width="443" /></a></div></div>Sandy Prisanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469180943074887710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269462522933441518.post-81169238332829887422011-01-24T18:29:00.000-01:002011-01-24T18:29:24.363-01:00The Banks: Capitalism's Own Worst Enemy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: center;"><span><span style="background-color: lime;"></span></span><b style="color: #93c47d;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">By Sandy Prisant</span></span></b> </div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9gyH3JtTEd1ECScpZXlAUXb52AJPWjxqaRrIxBwI8BwEsTVbff30p9Kt9HVnvCFH_3MjV5YHw_Ybb3R1oM-N0TkBgpaT3LStqEGeGB-Fu6cvSRWjwSC4PehZnApUd8hcLxjUOpv_DNkc/s1600/bankerimages.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9gyH3JtTEd1ECScpZXlAUXb52AJPWjxqaRrIxBwI8BwEsTVbff30p9Kt9HVnvCFH_3MjV5YHw_Ybb3R1oM-N0TkBgpaT3LStqEGeGB-Fu6cvSRWjwSC4PehZnApUd8hcLxjUOpv_DNkc/s320/bankerimages.jpg" width="282" /></a></div>This morning I closed all my bank accounts at J P Morgan Chase. It was where my father opened my very first account when I was 16. I remember Mr. Marty, the branch manager in Great Neck, NY. Nice smile. Nice man. <br />
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How things have changed. I had opened additional accounts with the guarantee of <u>no-fee checking for life</u> a few years ago, but this month Chase has swooped in and arrogantly broken that guarantee for all customers. No apologies. No explanations. This hardly caused a ripple, because we all now expect banks to abuse us to an extraordinary degree.<br />
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In recent days, Goldman Sachs has announced bonuses of SIXTEEN BILLION TWO HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS for results in the same year that 1.2 million American families lost their homes . And now we learn that US taxpayers will be picking up tens of millions in legal fees for some of our public bankers at Fannie and Freddie Mae, whom are millionaires in their own right, but with the ethics of bag ladies (<i>New York Times/Jan 24).</i> In the same week, two other financial institutions are petitioning the courts to burn their sub prime loan records.<br />
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The questions abound:<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li>What has happened to the re-establishment of banking regulation that was so vital in ending the last Depression? The stripping of Glass-Steiglitz regulation is a primary cause of this Depression. What is Washington waiting for?</li>
<li>We created TARP to keep the banks and the economy liquid. The banks, on their own, decided to take the money, but not pass it on.Single-handedly they have made America illiquid. Can neither the Fed nor the Comptroller of the Currency oblige banks to make sound loans--as has been required in the United Kingdom?</li>
<li>In short, if the Banks were a foreign enemy or terrorist organization, could they do any greater harm, more effectively, to the United States?</li>
<li>And could they do it with greater disdain? </li>
</ul>The root of the word "capitalism" is "capital". It is our understanding that in a free enterprise system, capital is the core element in economic development and that it comes through institutions called banks. In this Post-Prosperity Era, banks have decided they are not here to provide capital, but to charge fees for everything imaginable, pay out little or no interest but demand huge credit card fees and interest, while simultaneously repossess our homes. That's their entire business model.<br />
<br />
Except for those bank shareholders who receive dividends, there is in fact no "Capitalism" being conducted by these institutions. <br />
<br />
Recently people were fascinated to see Goldman "invest" a large sum in Facebook, suggesting that website was worth billions, but Goldman was proving nothing of the sort. In fact the investment bank was simply doing what it does best: (1)Acquiring equity that could be re-sold to existing or new clients at a profit and with commissions and (2) Putting itself in an almost unassailable position to earn hundreds of millions more for handling Facebook's IPO in the next five years.<br />
<br />
Any corporation has the right to make a profit. But only banks have as their raison d'etre facilitating not just a nation's profits, but its economic survival through Main Street liquidity. <br />
<br />
The banks are quite clearly telling us that is not their role and they want nothing to do with it. In the words of Nobel Laureate in Economics, Joseph Stieglitz: "If bankers win, they walk off with the proceeds, and if they lose, taxpayers pick up the tab."<br />
<br />
Which leaves us with the greatest question of all: If banks no longer will provide capital, what is the future of Capitalism? A recent study shows almost half of all Americans believe our nation's best days are behind us. With banks like ours, we can't blame this one on China.</div>Sandy Prisanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469180943074887710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269462522933441518.post-16615217294040418032011-01-07T17:39:00.001-01:002011-01-07T17:42:30.080-01:00The Future Doesn't Work<span style="background-color: lime;"></span><i><span style="color: lime;">Editor's Note: As we enter Year 4 of this Depression, history reminds us that we are at the nadir of the economic cycle</span></i><span style="color: lime;">. T<i>he budget cutting, </i></span><span style="color: lime;"><i>the downsizing, </i></span><span style="color: lime;"><i>the firings--it's all been done. The savings for "a rainy day" will now begin running out for most Americans and small business at an accelerated pace, this year and next--which bring</i></span><i><span style="color: lime;">s us to ideas for solutions. According to the American voter, we should now try a solution that has already proven it will not work: </span></i><br />
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<h1 class="articleHeadline" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The Texas Omen</h1><h6 class="dateline" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">By <a class="meta-per" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/paulkrugman/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More Articles by Paul Krugman">PAUL KRUGMAN</a> </h6><h6 class="dateline" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">January 6, 2011</h6><div class="articleTools" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><div class="box">Wait — Texas? Wasn’t Texas supposed to be thriving even as the rest of America suffered? Didn’t its governor declare, during his re-election campaign, that “we have billions in surplus”? Yes, it was, and yes, he did. But reality has now intruded, in the form of a deficit expected to run as high as $25 billion over the next two years.<br />
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<br />
And that reality has implications for the nation as a whole. For Texas is where the modern conservative theory of budgeting — the belief that you should never raise taxes under any circumstances, that you can always balance the budget by cutting wasteful spending — has been implemented most completely. If the theory can’t make it there, it can’t make it anywhere. <br />
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These are tough times for state governments. Huge deficits loom almost everywhere, from California to New York, from New Jersey to Texas. <br />
How bad is the Texas deficit? Comparing budget crises among states is tricky, for technical reasons. Still, data from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities suggest that the Texas budget gap is worse than New York’s, about as bad as California’s, but not quite up to New Jersey levels.<br />
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The point, however, is that just the other day Texas was being touted as a role model (and still is by commentators who haven’t been keeping up with the news). It was the state the recession supposedly passed by, thanks to its low taxes and business-friendly policies. Its governor boasted that its budget was in good shape thanks to his “tough conservative decisions.”<br />
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Oh, and at a time when there’s a full-court press on to demonize public-sector unions as the source of all our woes, Texas is nearly demon-free: less than 20 percent of public-sector workers there are covered by union contracts, compared with almost 75 percent in New York.<br />
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So what happened to the “Texas miracle” many people were talking about even a few months ago?<br />
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Part of the answer is that reports of a recession-proof state were greatly exaggerated. It’s true that Texas job losses haven’t been as severe as those in the nation as a whole since the recession began in 2007. But Texas has a rapidly growing population — largely, suggests Harvard’s Edward Glaeser, because its liberal land-use and zoning policies have kept housing cheap. There’s nothing wrong with that; but given that rising population, Texas needs to create jobs more rapidly than the rest of the country just to keep up with a growing work force.<br />
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And when you look at unemployment, Texas doesn’t seem particularly special: its unemployment rate is below the national average, thanks in part to high oil prices, but it’s about the same as the unemployment rate in New York or Massachusetts. <br />
What about the budget? The truth is that the Texas state government has relied for years on smoke and mirrors to create the illusion of sound finances in the face of a serious “structural” budget deficit — that is, a deficit that persists even when the economy is doing well. When the recession struck, hitting revenue in Texas just as it did everywhere else, that illusion was bound to collapse.<br />
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The only thing that let Gov. Rick Perry get away, temporarily, with claims of a surplus was the fact that Texas enacts budgets only once every two years, and the last budget was put in place before the depth of the economic downturn was clear. Now the next budget must be passed — and Texas may have a $25 billion hole to fill. Now what? <br />
Given the complete dominance of conservative ideology in Texas politics, tax increases are out of the question. So it has to be spending cuts.<br />
<br />
Yet Mr. Perry wasn’t lying about those “tough conservative decisions”: Texas has indeed taken a hard, you might say brutal, line toward its most vulnerable citizens. Among the states, Texas ranks near the bottom in education spending per pupil, while leading the nation in the percentage of residents without health insurance. It’s hard to imagine what will happen if the state tries to eliminate its huge deficit purely through further cuts. <br />
I don’t know how the mess in Texas will end up being resolved. But the signs don’t look good, either for the state or for the nation.<br />
<br />
Right now, triumphant conservatives in Washington are declaring that they can cut taxes and still balance the budget by slashing spending. Yet they haven’t been able to do that even in Texas, which is willing both to impose great pain (by its stinginess on health care) and to shortchange the future (by neglecting education). How are they supposed to pull it off nationally, especially when the incoming Republicans have declared Medicare, Social Security and defense off limits?<br />
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<br />
People used to say that the future happens first in California, but these days what happens in Texas is probably a better omen. And what we’re seeing right now is a future that doesn’t work.</div></div><div class="articleBody" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
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</div>Sandy Prisanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469180943074887710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269462522933441518.post-62293770385492110792010-12-26T17:42:00.000-01:002010-12-26T17:42:24.325-01:00Outlook 2011: Is the Smart Money Right About China?<span> <i><span style="color: lime;">Editor's Note: In multiple media, this editor has defended China's economy and its coming world impact against the sour grapes hur</span><span style="color: lime;">led at it by angry Americans since the current Depression began. The following however is a tour de force that Wordsmith Wars believes demands pause for thought.</span></i></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span> </span> <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://seekingalpha.com/author/dian-l-chu">Dian L. Chu</a></span> <br />
<div class="followup_contributor_info_on_author"> <div class="followup_contributor_info_pic_cont"> <div class="pic_cont"> <div class="pic_contributor"> <div class="the_pic"> </div><div class="the_pic"><a href="http://seekingalpha.com/author/dian-l-chu"><img align="center" alt="Dian L. Chu picture" height="54" src="http://static.seekingalpha.com/images/users_profile/000/422/282/big_pic.png?1268875401" width="54" /></a> </div></div></div></div><div class="followup_contributor_info_text"> <i>M.B.A., C.P.M. and Chartered Economist with a syndicated financial blog frequently published and quoted by media outlets worldwide</i></div></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">China has been ranked as the top growing country among the G20 since 2001, and is expected to retain that title for at least another five years (See Growth Chart). However, the news coming out of China for the past three months has not been good. It is looking more and more that it is not a question of if China is a bubble and going to burst, but when. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><em> Click to enlarge images</em><br />
<a href="http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2010/12/25/saupload_china_growth.png"><img height="189" src="http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2010/12/25/saupload_china_growth_1.png" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: left;">The country has major infrastructure issues, troubling population dynamics, poorly aligned employment outcomes, inflation problems, a real estate bubble, an opaque and potentially insolvent banking system (had mark-to-market accounting been applied), geo-political problems with North Korea and Taiwan, and an underperforming stock market in 2010 (see stock comparison chart).</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
<strong>Smart Money Rushing Out</strong></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2010/12/25/saupload_picture1.png"><img src="http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2010/12/25/saupload_picture1_1.png" /></a></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">While the hot money is flooding into China, the smart local money is doing everything they can to get their money outside of China, which partly explains why Shanghai SE Composite has underperformed other markets for the past year or so (see Comparison Chart).</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The many issues of China could conspire to become the biggest train wreck waiting to happen, and potentially dwarf any little budget problems in Europe by a factor of ten.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
<strong>Big Trouble In Big China </strong></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">China has a population related societal structural problem. The nation has tried to utilize the vast manpower to its advantage over the last two decades building a powerhouse manufacturing economy through the availability of low cost workers, which supplied the world with lower cost goods.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Nevertheless, the harsh reality is that the nation's infrastructure, quality jobs, food, and overall resources are too scarce to support such mass population, while achieving the government's goal of a smooth transition to a developed middle class to sustain an internal demand model going forward.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">If you think having riots in Greece over the pension retirement age being raised is bad, just wait till riots break out in Beijing and other cities over a 90 cent bowl of noodle soup now costing four dollars due to food shortages, and a runaway inflation problem.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
<strong>Loose Lending = Non-performing Projects </strong></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This is only reinforced by some of the news events taking place over the last three months. Let's start with the raising of banks reserve requirements by the central bank, which is the sixth such increase in 2010.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">These measures are meant to curb the excess lending which has fueled much of the overbuilding and real estate speculation occurred over the past two years as China`s central bank initially wanted to avert a recession by artificially creating demand for workers and construction projects to replace lagging demand from the developed economies.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The problem is that too much lending has occurred, and bad lending at that. Because of the cheap available credit, now you have cement companies and manufacturing firms getting bank loans to invest in endeavors such as real estate, which is outside of their core expertise and competency.<br />
<br />
<strong>Real Estate Misery Loves Company – China & Spain</strong></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2010/12/25/saupload_china_empty_cities_1b.jpg"><img height="127" src="http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2010/12/25/saupload_china_empty_cities_1b.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The result is a bunch of excess inventory and poorly thought-out construction projects which have no means of recouping the initial investment needed to repay the bank loans.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This practice is similar to Spain`s situation now, where they have entire uninhabited building complexes that have yet to be marked to market, and will probably ultimately be demolished. But at least in Spain, even though it was a construction boom, it was engineered by developers in Spain, and not by some manufacturing outfits like those in China.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">So, multiply the bad business project factor by ten and you get an understanding of the magnitude of bad loans on the books of Chinese banks. The problem is being further exacerbated by the practice similar to Spain's-- of banks making additional loans to the businesses just so that they can then turnaround and pay back the interest owed on the original loans.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The only way this would work out is if these projects magically develop revenue streams. Unfortunately, in the case of Spain, a 20% unemployment rate, coupled with a still overvalued housing market in which prices still need to come down significantly, would suggest that by the time the Spanish economy recovers enough to support the excess inventory, the abandoned projects are run down and uninhabitable.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">A similar scenario could play out in China as well.<br />
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<strong>True Smart Money Wary of the Write-off Domino </strong></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Furthermore, China's practice of overbuilding at the height of real estate valuations makes even haircuts on loan write-offs an untenable practice for banks, and by further throwing good money after bad, the ultimate mark- to-market effect could be catastrophic for Chinese Banks.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This is the main reason all the major Chinese banks have gone to the market in 2010 to raise more capital before investors wise up to the underlying deficits these banks face, as these bad loans eventually would need to be written off the books.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Victor Shih, a Northwestern University professor estimates that Chinese local governments borrowed some 11.4 trillion renminbi at the end of 2009, and that local government financing loans to be roughly one-third of China's 2009 GDP. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Shih reckons the most likely scenario over the next few years is that there would be increases of non-performing loans ratio from local governments. This would require a large scale of recapitalization of the Chinese banking system, which would eat up a large share of China's foreign exchange reserves and possibly slow down growth.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I do believe Beijing is quite capable of a few bailouts and surviving a widespread banking crisis, but this most definitely will not bode well for the financial markets. That's most likely why you see insiders removing capital from direct exposure to the inevitable re-pricing that will happen throughout Chinese markets from real estate to the stock market. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This can be seen at this early stage by the underperformance of the Chinese stock market compared to other global markets. Remember, foreigners cannot invest directly in these markets, so these capital outflows are truly the smart money.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
<strong>Logistic Gridlock Crimping the Middle Class </strong></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Next let's look at the recent news regarding a severe cutback in automobile registrations in Beijing to 240,000 in 2011 from 700,000 registered in 2010 by the municipal government. Other large cities in China are bound to follow. This is most likely related to the reported 9-day traffic jam on the Beijing-Tibet expressway in August, and other extended traffic jams throughout China in 2010.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">China is trying to build infrastructure projects after the fact; whereas with proper central planning these should have been established far ahead of the massive transition from a rural, agricultural based populous to that of a modern, large city based business and manufacturing concentration.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Simply put, it is impossible for all the Chinese citizens who want and can afford automobiles to be able to own and utilize this form of transport without a total breakdown in the transportation system. We are seeing the early stages of complete and counterproductive gridlock in the transportation system of China, and it is only going to get worse over the next decade.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
<strong>No Jobs for College Grads</strong></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">For all the talk about how China graduates more engineers each year, and other college educated young people who have strong backgrounds in the hard sciences than most developed nations combined, this is actually another sign of problems to come over the next decade in China.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">China's wealth and emergence into the second largest business economy hasn't been built around the need for these types of mind and skill set. So literally, you have a large mismatch between the types of available jobs in China, that are supported by the heavy manufacturing and construction intensive focus of the past twenty years, to that of the recently educated pool of graduates who have grown in sizable numbers over the past five years.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
<strong>The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste</strong></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This results in a large human asset class that China is currently wasting, as most of the newly educated workforce is working in jobs which require little or no advanced education at the university level. So you have highly educated university graduates in areas like engineering and accounting working low level service and sales jobs that pay less than many manufacturing jobs.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In short, there are too many highly educated Chinese citizens graduating each year for the number of jobs available needing their skill set because China`s economic model isn`t built around these type of jobs. This type of misaligned employment outcome never ends well; it usually manifests itself in increased civil and social unrest.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
<strong>8% Inflation in 2011</strong></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The next major challenge for China is skyrocketing inflation, which at its root is the fact that there are too many people chasing too few resources. This fundamental flaw in population dynamics underpins many of the problems that China faces going forward.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Recent CPI data for November illustrates the inflation problem in China with a reading of 5.1% from a year ago comparison, this is up from a 4.4% reading for the previous month. Couple this with the latest 4% hike in fuel prices in China because of rising oil prices, you could expect future CPI and PPI reports to reflect even higher rates of inflation.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">For now, most of the year over year spike has revolved around higher food prices as energy has mainly been flat for 2010 thanks mostly to government subsidies. Now that energy prices have entered the picture, China will start to experience even more inflation pressures in 2011. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Furthermore, with the undervalued yuan pegged to the dollar, it is only getting worse for China in 2011 due to Fed's QE2 pressures on the dollar. The real inflation rate for Chinese citizens for 2011 will probably approach 8% next year.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
<strong>An Asian Contagion by China? </strong></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This escalating inflation concern is further compounded by Beijing's lack of decisive action to combat the problem by delaying a much needed currency appreciation, and hiking interest rates in a timely fashion. There is no getting around the fact that these two things need to occur as soon as possible.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">By the time the Chinese government is forced to implement these tightening tools, the damage to the economy is most likely already done. The longer China delays the inevitable serious tightening measures, the harder the economic crash that will occur in the aftermath of these policy changes. And it is unlikely to end well. The resultant impact will probably take the rest of the Asian economies down with it – an Asian Contagion scenario.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
<strong>History Repeats Itself</strong></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Eventually central planners and finance ministers around the world might start to understand that policies which lead to bubbles being formed in the first place are counterproductive in the long run. But until that lesson is learned, it seems like we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over again.</div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Right now, there are more and more signs coming out of China that all is not well with its economy, and the likelihood of a more severe downturn in the future is a distinct possibility, unless its policy makers take decisive and prudent actions to minimize the damage of a hard landing</span>Sandy Prisanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469180943074887710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269462522933441518.post-34762074254445277062010-11-23T18:19:00.001-01:002010-11-23T18:20:25.385-01:00The American Way?<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><em><span style="color: lime;">Ed- American capitalism is working more efficiently than ever. What does that mean for the future of our country?</span></em></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQprIZ0D5MnvACUON-anlSyuo9Zy9UL8hSTIK_Ei1Bbe58JlK1MJMJo-rYCSrHApfD_z-PmGlkOMJzwO5W-LKE1mat3Up2VSFYf0clHrtOhq6A6lslWzntGfERlqg4h6RTNBRDJmr01N0/s1600/nytlogo152x23.gif" /></span></strong></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Corporate Profits Were the Highest on Record Last Quarter</span></strong></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">By CATHERINE RAMPELL</div><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Published: November 23, 2010</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The nation’s workers may be struggling, but American companies just had their best quarter ever. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div>American businesses earned profits at an annual rate of $1.66 trillion in the third quarter, according to a Commerce Department report released Tuesday. That is the highest figure recorded since the government began keeping track over 60 years ago, at least in nominal or non-inflation-adjusted terms. <br />
<br />
Corporate profits have been going gangbusters for a while. Since their cyclical low in the fourth quarter of 2008, profits have grown for seven consecutive quarters, at some of the fastest rates in history. <br />
<br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig2MX0B44OYFNa_JapT5SgFucv3VCztr0Y-mczl0aBmCSTnboVujdbDDuw80a2y9f8sqLWE8Kup5vy21ahkWD7Dez7qaZN5Yoen3EelzZS39TJR1wQ6lZAQPpGTmw3d2ATaYIy_y020cY/s1600/20101124_EXISTINGHOMESALES_graphics-articleInline.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig2MX0B44OYFNa_JapT5SgFucv3VCztr0Y-mczl0aBmCSTnboVujdbDDuw80a2y9f8sqLWE8Kup5vy21ahkWD7Dez7qaZN5Yoen3EelzZS39TJR1wQ6lZAQPpGTmw3d2ATaYIy_y020cY/s400/20101124_EXISTINGHOMESALES_graphics-articleInline.jpg" width="148" /></a>This breakneck pace can be partly attributed to strong productivity growth — which means companies have been able to make more with less — as well as the fact that some of the profits of American companies come from abroad. Economic conditions in the United States may still be sluggish, but many emerging markets like India and China are expanding rapidly. </div><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Tuesday’s Commerce Department report also showed that the nation’s output grew at a slightly faster pace than originally estimated last quarter. Its growth rate, of 2.5 percent a year in inflation-adjusted terms, is higher than the initial estimate of 2 percent. The economy grew at 1.7 percent annual rate in the second quarter. </div><br />
Still, most economists say the current growth rate is far too slow to recover the considerable ground lost during the recession. <br />
<br />
“The economy is not growing fast enough to reduce significantly the unemployment rate or to prevent a slide into deflation,” Paul Dales, a United States economist for Capital Economics, wrote in a note to clients. “This is unlikely to change in 2011 or 2012.” <br />
<br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The increase in output in the third quarter was driven primarily by stronger consumer spending. Wages and salaries also rose in the third quarter, which might help bolster holiday spending in the final months of 2010. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Private inventory investment, nonresidential fixed investment, exports and federal government also contributed to higher output. These sources of growth were partially offset by a rise in imports, which are subtracted from the total output numbers the government calculates, and a decline in housing and other residential fixed investments.</div>Sandy Prisanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469180943074887710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269462522933441518.post-68352619643070803442010-11-05T13:42:00.000-01:002010-11-05T13:42:07.053-01:00Want Sane Politics? Start Here:<h3> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Editors note: This is how the Mother of Parliaments deals with candidates or campaigns run on lies and half-truths. At a stroke. Can we learn?</span></span><span style="color: #6aa84f;"><span style="color: #6aa84f; font-size: small;"> </span><i><span style="font-size: small;">(reprinted from <u>The Telegraph of London </u> (11/5). </span></i></span></i></h3><h3><span style="color: #6aa84f;"><i><u> </u></i></span></h3><h3></h3><h3> <span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/8112536/Labour-minister-barred-from-Commons-for-three-years.html">Labour minister barred from Commons for three years</a></span> </h3><div class="piccentre containerdiv "> <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/8112536/Labour-minister-barred-from-Commons-for-three-years.html" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Phil Woolas: Re-run ordered of Labour minister election win" border="0" height="237" src="http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01754/woolas_1754465d.jpg" width="380" /> <span class="cornerimagecentre"> </span></a> </div>Phil Woolas loses seat after knowingly making false statements about opponent in May's general election.<br />
<br />
<div class="firstPar"> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The Labour MP could be barred from the Commons for three years, with the election contest for his Oldham East and Saddleworth seat set to be re-run. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></div><div class="secondPar" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> But Mr Woolas said he would fight the ruling - the first of its kind in 99 years - and was seeking a judicial review.<br />
<br />
"The court has decided that an election should be overturned and an MP should lose his seat and be incapable of being elected to the House of Commons for three years because statements which attacked a candidate's 'political conduct' were also attacks on his 'honour' and 'purity'."<br />
<br />
The court decided that the Oldham election should be be re-run, and that Mr Woolas should lose his seat and be barred from being elected to the House of Commons for three years. <br />
It is now up to Commons Speaker John Bercow to decide whether to impose the three year ban, initiate a by-election for Oldham East and Saddleworth immediately or wait for further legal proceedings.<br />
<br />
The Speaker's office said Mr Bercow would make a statement to the Commons on Monday. <br />
Lord Falconer, the former Lord Chancellor, had earlier conceded that Mr Woolas would be forced out, saying he will not be Labour's candidate in the by-election that must now be held.<br />
<br />
He said: "If there is to be a by-election, which it sounds like there is going to be, then Labour will have a new candidate."<br />
<br />
Mr Woolas, who won May's general election with a majority of just 103 votes, is the first MP for 99 years to face a successful challenge to his election victory on the basis of publishing false statements about an opponent.<br />
<br />
The specially convened election court had heard that the Labour MP stirred up racial tensions in a desperate bid to retain his seat in Oldham East and Saddleworth.<br />
<br />
<br />
Giving their judgment, Mr Justice Nigel Teare and Mr Justice Griffith Williams said Mr Woolas was guilty of illegal practices under election law.<br />
<br />
Mr Woolas was also found to have knowingly made a false statement that Mr Watkins had reneged on a promise to live within the constituency prior to the election.<br />
<br />
That suggested Mr Watkins was "untrustworthy". <br />
</div>Sandy Prisanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469180943074887710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269462522933441518.post-36504486199543218752010-10-17T16:40:00.000-01:002010-10-17T16:40:07.084-01:00Soles of War<div align="center"><strong><span style="color: lime; font-size: large;">by Claudia Ricci</span></strong></div><div align="center"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="color: lime;">Professor Ricci is an author, professor of journalsim at SUNY/Albany </span></em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="color: lime;">and a founding principal in "Wordsmith Wars"</span></em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Outdoors, in the garden. The light is the color of seawater. There are shadows. There are feathery astilbe tails, swishing like golden wings. There are lilies of every color, cupped to the sky. And there are trees: palm and mango and even, a dwarf apple. Always in a story like this, a tale of evil and temptation, a story of sin and possible redemption, there has to be an apple tree. And of course, an Eve. Only in this case, Eve’s name is Caroline. Cee for short.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Oddly enough, his name is actually. Adam.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
“Oh but why?” she asks him. Her eyelashes are as thick and dark as midnight brooms. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
“Why do you have to go?”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
“Why do you think?” He toys with her earlobe. A teardrop of flesh between his callused fingertips. Then he slides one finger down her neck. Traces her collarbone. Stops right on the point of it. Her collarbone. The rounded nub. It sticks out so far. She’s always been so self-conscious. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
“Could you not do that?” She speaks in a low voice. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
“Don’t whine.” <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
She sits up. They are parked on the lush green lawn that occupies one side of the hotel’s garden. She is sitting enveloped in between his legs. His arms wrap hers. His arms in fatigues. Hers in a white T. “I’m not whining,” she says, struggling to ramp her voice up to a new note. It sounds false.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
She cocks her head back. Her eyes are giant black olives. “I just can’t believe you are leaving me. Again. When you promised you wouldn’t. When you came back you said you would never ever have to…”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
He moves roughly to cover her mouth with his hand. “And so now I do. I have to go, Cee. Please don’t make it hard for me.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
She tries to move his hand away with her own two, but his hand is vised there. She smells his cologne. A fragrance her body owns. She makes a small ragged noise as she pries away at his grip. Finally she bellows loud and sharp and starts kicking her sneakered feet. For a fleeting moment, she thinks: this is what it must feel like, to be one of his enemy prisoners.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
One long screech, and then she is free of his embrace. She gets to her feet. Her face is red and blotchy. Her heart is slamming.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
“Damn you Adam. Damn you. You didn’t have to do that.” She bolts out of the garden. Walks the curved white stone path that ends up in the slate courtyard of the hotel. The doors slide open and she steps into the frigid air conditioned lobby. The chill feels good on her face, which is burned by his hand. She walks past the desk and the dull-eyed clerk and pushes the elevator button. She is going up.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
The door of the elevator opens. As it does, she sees into the mirror inside. He’s standing there behind her. He is more than a full head taller than she is. She hesitates, glares at him. They get into the elevator. She turns away from him. Crosses her arms. The door closes. They are going up.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
“Caroline, the simple matter is this. I have to hit the sands in 33 hours exactly. Now are you going to spend this last day being angry at me?”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
She blinks. Her image of him now: silty. Covered in the fine white and yellow dusts of the desert. His helmet. His eyes. His nostrils. All encrusted. The terrible terrible desert he has described to her so many times. Her heart pumps a little bit faster. Thinking of him like this makes her eyes watery. All those months she spent. Watching CNN. Waiting for email. Cringing at every early morning or late night phone call.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
She can’t live life with him over there. She shouldn’t have to. Again.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Tears balance like waves on the rims of her eyes.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
But they don’t fall.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Instead, she hears these words. They form all on their own, as if her lips are a forge of their own.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
“I’m going. I’m going too, Adam. I’m going to sign up. Join. If you are going, then, hell, I’m going to. I’m not staying here. I won’t…I just won’t do it, won’t stay behind. Waiting. Waiting. I won’t do it anymore. I can’t. I can’t live that way.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
There is a small ding. The doors open. They both stand there. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
“That is the stupidest thing you have ever said.” He mutters that and shuffles out of the elevator. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
She sniffles. Starts to trail after him. “Oh what, so you think I can’t do it? You think I can’t be a soldier. What I’m too weak, too scared?”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
He doesn’t speak. And then he does. “No, Caroline, you are not too weak. You are not too scared. There are just things you could never do,” he says. He starts down the hall. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
“What things? What things? What like marching or something?” She is following him. She is hurrying. She hears herself. She is shrieking.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
He stops. He turns to face her. To look down into her eyes. He’s smirking. She stares at him. His squared jaw. His pouty lips. His eyes, which narrow into slits.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
“What things can’t I do?” she says again, breathing hard, but more quietly now. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
He bends toward her. She can smell garlic on his breath. Garlic from the shrimp they ate at lunch. And she can smell the bottle of white wine they shared.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
“You couldn’t hurt somebody Caroline. You would fall apart before you shot somebody in the head. And there comes a time when you have to hurt somebody in war. You have to hurt somebody real bad. As in, pow. Splat. Red blood. Dead.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
His eyes –hazel with a yellow streak--widen. And maybe it’s her imagination, but they seem to shine. They seem to shine in some kind of violent color.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
She shrinks away from him. He turns, and all of a sudden she sees him. Falling. Fallen. His face blackened, one cheek crushed into the ground. His teeth smashed. Bits of teeth everywhere. And his right leg. A bloody stump lying a few feet away on the side of the road. The fabric of his pants blood soaked. The humvee he was riding in a moment ago, now tipped upside down, the dull grey metal in shreds. The shattered pieces scattered across the road amid dead body parts and a tangle of brambles and bushes.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
She shakes her head. She has to make the image go away. “I would do anything to stop you from going, Adam.” She says that so quietly it cannot be heard. And now she is starting to sob. But he is walking away. “Doesn’t that matter to you Adam? At all? Adam?”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
He stops again. Doesn’t turn to face her. Speaks into the empty hotel hallway. His voice thunders in her ear.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
“Caroline for chrissakes what has gotten into you? You went through two years with me gone. And you knew there was a chance I’d have to go back. And now here I am half-way there. No, three quarters. For chrissakes. Here I spend a goddamn fortune on two days with you in a five-star hotel just so you can ruin things this way? What the hell are you doing?” <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
“Adam, I just know,” she says, sucking in her breath. “I just…I know you shouldn’t go. Something…something is going to…” <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
He is too far down the hallway now to hear her. The thick carpet sucks up the word “happen.” There is no sound from his boots. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
She stares into the muted lights on the walls. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
He disappears around the corner.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
She blinks. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
She follows him. Something comes to her now. Another vision of him.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
She is thinking something she can’t possibly think.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
********<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
They make love with the television blaring. When they finish, they lie in silence, side by side, changing channels. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
“You hungry Cee?” he says after a while. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
“I guess. I don’t know. I’ll be fine.” She hugs her knees. She is in a short pale blue silk bathrobe, sitting on the bed, cross legged.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
He picks up the phone and orders a bottle of chilled champagne and fresh strawberries and warm chocolate from room service. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
After a while, there is a knock on the door. It is about four o’clock. The sun rays are lying across the bed like strips of gold.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
The waiter, an older black man dressed in a short red jacket and crisp grey trousers, wheels in the table, covered in a spotless white cloth. The champagne is in a large silver decanter that gleams. The strawberries are piled high in a silver bowl. The chocolate is in a closed bowl astride a small candle.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
The waiter offers to open the bottle but Adam declines the offer.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
As soon as the waiter leaves, Adam twists off the wire caging at the top of bottle. Then he leans to a chair and pulls out his pocket knife from his fatigues. The blade is a sharp little mirror that catches a narrow wedge of sun and casts it on the wall. He uses the blade to loosen the cork. In a moment the cork shoots up across the bed. Champagne the color of ginger ale slops out of the bottle. He holds the bottle to his lips and slurps in the champagne. Grinning, he offers her the bottle. She refuses.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
“Geesh,” he says, wiping the back of his hand across his mouth.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
He lays the pocket knife on the table. She eyes the blade. She blinks. She is thinking something she doesn’t want to think.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
He is bare-chested. In red plaid boxer shorts. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he pours two glasses of champagne. The white fizz foams up and over the top of the slender glasses. He holds up one glass and hands her the other. She raises her glass but averts her eyes.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
“Caroline?”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
She looks up at him. She blinks. Her mouth is cottony. Her lips are a grim little line. She raises her glass and the two glasses come together in a dull “clink.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
They dip strawberries into warm chocolate. She eats one and says she’s had enough.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
“You know, Cee, lately you are no fun at all.” He dips one after another strawberry into the chocolate goo.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
They finish the champagne. He drinks most of the bottle.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
They sit in bed, slumped together under the comforter. There is a smudge of chocolate on the sheets.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Soon, she can tell from his occasional snore, and his steady breathing, that he is asleep. She pulls herself from his grasp. She keeps the television on.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
She stares at his sleeping face. The soft O in his pouty lips. She picks up one of his hands and kisses the back of his knuckles. He mutters something, but drops back to sleep. She kisses his lips. Her hair falls onto his cheeks.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
She makes the sign of the cross and lifts her eyes into the air. “Bless me Father,” she whispers, “for I am about to sin.” Her head drops. “Please, that I may be forgiven.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
She walks to the end of the bed. Pulls up the comforter. Pulls up the sheet. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
His feet are bare. The tops of his feet are wired in sparse black hairs. His toenails are square and ragged. Yellowing. They need clipping.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
She walks over to the table where the empty champagne bottle lies in the silver decanter. She picks up the pocket knife.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
She is not crying or trembling and she can’t figure out why she is not.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
She carries the pocket knife to the end of the bed. She sits cross legged on the floor. She reaches up to the bottom of his left foot. She stares at the callused heel a moment, and then, she cuts.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
She slashes the knife straight up, from heel to toe, going deep with the knife. Then she switches direction, cuts again, perpendicular this time, so that he has what looks to be a crude red crucifix on the bottom of his foot. Blood spurts out from the cross. His leg jerks back into the covers. Her breath grows rapid as warm crimson streaks the sheets.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
She kneels, and bowing over the right foot, she sets quickly to work. Digging. Deep into the other sole.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
The EndSandy Prisanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469180943074887710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269462522933441518.post-63372005659860973042010-09-15T15:16:00.000-01:002010-09-15T15:16:53.014-01:00The Roman Empire Comes to Delaware <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiQDb1CSJ0HsZECFFZ2YT9x1hb5XM1gvQ5ydCjfFTi8Lxn1wd4LYyv8AZzJZQQgKT8QjJGGM74_sm7r4ZNbaP0ApONqFxJ09Sw20dtR9f7op9pcM46TJizuZwVvxy06RhfWKt4uflPjsg/s1600/ODonnell15elect7_337-span-articleLarge-v5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="220" qx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiQDb1CSJ0HsZECFFZ2YT9x1hb5XM1gvQ5ydCjfFTi8Lxn1wd4LYyv8AZzJZQQgKT8QjJGGM74_sm7r4ZNbaP0ApONqFxJ09Sw20dtR9f7op9pcM46TJizuZwVvxy06RhfWKt4uflPjsg/s400/ODonnell15elect7_337-span-articleLarge-v5.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">This single Republican may cost Republicans control </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">of the Senate</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">and Nation</span></td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong>By A S Sandy</strong> <strong>Prisant</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Are we about to prove the adage: if you don't heed history, you're condemned to repeat it?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Those who know Europe appreciate there isn't that much to see today that can't be linked back to the Romans and their stunning Empire. </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Roman aqueducts still stand, all the way down to the Middle East. Roman roads still criss-cross the continent. Almost all spa baths are the ones Roman discover and developed 3,000 year ago. Some say, only partly tongue-in-cheek, mankind has created little of import since the Romans--except possibly Lipitor for cholesterol.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Tuesday night, the US Republican Party--already the most right-wing of all the world's major right-wing parties, was embarrassed to learn that its followers had nominated in a Delaware primary for US Senator, an amateur so far off the end of the cliff that she, Sarah Palin, and The Tea Party that supported her have now left the Planet Earth.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">What is the difference between standard Republicans and this latter lot? Every Republican sentence on policy includes the words "cut" or "repeal". Never an idea. Even a bad one. The Tea Party folks say the very same thing, but add at the end of each sentence: "or I will shoot you." </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Christine O'Donnell has no management experience and no political or government experience. At all. For years she's just been running and losing. She is a fiscal conservative whom personally is a fiscal radical with a record of horrendous personal debt. She is a strident believer in truth, morality and no abortions, but it turns out her academic credentials are a thin tissue of lies. Upon hearing of her victory, it was reported that Karl Rove--Bush's ex-Rasputin--had to undergo a Heimlich Maneuver to be saved from choking to death. </span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Rove, who knows much more about such things than us, says O'Donnell can't possibly win in November.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Meanwhile in liberal New York State, one of the first Tea Party candidates for governor won the Republican nomination. The <em>New York Times </em>said<em>: "</em>The result was a potentially destabilizing blow for New York Republicans." The little known man, who seems to struggle with English, is like Silvio Berlusconi, but without the style. In short, a tough guy.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">And how is this like the Roman Empire? Historians have shown that every great nation has its day and then begins to slip. Usually this is the moment when more extremist elements come out and society begins to break down into sects--more concerned with internal spats and resisting change than righting the Ship of the Nation. It's human nature: let's do anything to keep our eye off an unpleasant future.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">This is precisely what caused Rome's collapse--no direct invasions; no major competitors, simply endless internal sniping, distracting minor wars over the horizon and arguments over angels dancing on the head of a pin. All sense of community was lost, meaning common will and purpose was replaced by endless domestic power grabs. Then, by nobility. Today, by the banks. The result: slow, steady utter collapse of a nation-state. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">In the O'Donnell case, It leaves everyone in the middle--44% of whom have someone unemployed in their family--flailing in frustration and irrationally yelling to the heavens: "Don't Confuse Us With Ideas. Just Do Something or We'll Vote for an Anti-Candidate!!"</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Does any of this sound like what's happening in a nation near you?</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div>Sandy Prisanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469180943074887710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269462522933441518.post-4988794626596026552010-07-14T17:20:00.000-01:002010-07-14T17:20:30.296-01:00A Second Opinion on U.S. Health Care Reform<em>editor: the following is a reply to a "New England Journal of Medicine" commentary. The author, an M.D. and Ph.D., is assistant professor at the Institute for Health and Aging at the University of California, San Francisco.</em><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><strong>By Claudia Chaufan MD</strong></span></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">In a recent issue in the New England Journal of Medicine, economist Jonathan Gruber praises the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act (PPACA) as a “step in the right direction,” even as he expresses a healthy skepticism about PPACA’s capacity to control escalating health care costs, which he recognizes as “key to the long-term viability of our health care system.” Gruber also argues that there is “shortage of evidence” regarding which approach will meet Americans’ health care needs while controlling costs; therefore there is “no consensus” on what works [1].</span><br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Had Gruber looked beyond the U.S. borders, however, he would have found plenty of evidence. For instance, he would have found that U.S. consumption of health care as measured by critical indicators — per capita annual doctor visits, length of stay following heart attacks, or length of stay following normal childbirth – is no greater than the OECD average, and therefore cannot justify the extraordinary level of U.S. spending [2].</span></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHzAe6VaFG9Z300njct1BiL6855K8Y0PYjj7pvFIQw2x1Cnu8t16qASRcYxV8-VJaT8koSEVmU_23hMj3yGXnRsm-9kVAK0h_EhX1WLlRZKA78Xp8GmVSqwNKkLe7AaPpstJk_ZVwZseE/s1600/slowing-down-healthcare-reform.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="275" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHzAe6VaFG9Z300njct1BiL6855K8Y0PYjj7pvFIQw2x1Cnu8t16qASRcYxV8-VJaT8koSEVmU_23hMj3yGXnRsm-9kVAK0h_EhX1WLlRZKA78Xp8GmVSqwNKkLe7AaPpstJk_ZVwZseE/s320/slowing-down-healthcare-reform.gif" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">He would also have found that U.S. prices for medical care commodities and services are significantly higher than in other nations and constitute a key determinant of U.S. overall spending [3], and that such prices are determined by the exceptionally high administrative overhead caused by the system’s fragmented, public-private financing [4] and by the comparatively limited market power of American patients vis-à-vis their counterparts in countries with national health systems where the government negotiates prices with drug and medical device companies [5]. And he might have concluded that PPACA will do predictably little to change all this.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Moreover, the international literature would have shown the author the extraordinary international consensus around nonprofit financing to cover medically necessary services [5].</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">But what about the dramatic expansion of coverage promised by PPACA? Is this not a step in the right direction? The problem is that insurance coverage, as desirable as it may be, is not health care, but just a means to that end. And the U.S. system is notorious for providing coverage without care. High co-pays and deductibles are significant obstacles to access. Nor does health insurance offer financial security: nearly 78 percent of personal bankruptcies in 2007 that were linked to medical debt involved persons who were insured at the onset of their illness or injury [6]. PPACA, by allowing the sale of premiums for policies that will cover only 60 percent of health expenses [7], will do predictably little to change this state of affairs.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">There is, however, an alternative proposal whose financial and policy soundness are based on decades of international experience and evidence. It would improve and expand Medicare to include all residents in the nation or in one state. That alternative may have to wait until PPACA unravels, as it predictably will [8].</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">President Obama argued that a model of reform as that implemented by PPACA would allow Americans to build on “what works” [9] – a decades-long experience with employer-sponsored for-profit health insurance. Maybe paradoxically, however, PPACA will unravel as employers realize that it is cheaper to pay a fine than pay for increasingly more expensive and inadequate policies, and employees enter the individual health exchanges implemented by the new law and find them so expensive that they “clamor for a nationalized health care system” [10].</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">References</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">1. Gruber, J., The Cost Implications of Health Care Reform. N Engl J Med: p. NEJMp1005117.</span></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">2. Peterson, C.L. and R. Burton, U.S. Health Care Spending: Comparison with Other OECD Countries. 2007. Order Code RL34175(September 17): p. http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/RL34175_20070917.pdf (Accessed November 10 2007).</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">3. Anderson, G.F., et al., It’s The Prices, Stupid: Why The United States Is So Different >From Other Countries. Health Affairs, 2003. 22(3): p. 89-105.</span><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">4. Woolhandler, S., T. Campbell, and D.U. Himmelstein, Costs of Health Care Administration in the United States and in Canada. The New England Journal of Medicine, 2003. 349(August 21): p. 768-75.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">5. White, J., Competing solutions: American health care proposals and international experience. 1995, Washington D. C: The Brookings Institution.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">6. Himmelstein, D., U. , et al., Medical Bankruptcy in the United States, 2007: Results of a National Study. The American Journal of Medicine, 2009. 122(8): p. 741-746.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">7. Dorgan, B., The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act. http://dpc.senate.gov/dpcdoc-sen_health_care_bill.cfm, 2010. Democratic Policy Committee.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">8. Angell, M., Is the House Health Care Bill Better than Nothing? Physicians for a National Health Program, 2010: p. http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/november/is_the_house_health_.php (May 17, 2010).</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">9. The New York Times, Obama’s Health Care Speech to Congress. 2009: p. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/us/politics/10obama.text.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print (Date accessed September 12, 2009).</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">10. Helderman, R., Gingrich in Va.: A Republican Congress could defund health care law. 2010: The Washington Post. p. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/virginiapolitics/2010/05/former_speaker_of_the_house.htm</span></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Sandy Prisanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469180943074887710noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269462522933441518.post-24505038454376610322010-07-05T14:56:00.000-01:002010-07-05T14:56:20.789-01:00Finally: People Are Using the "D" Word<div align="center"><br />
</div><div align="center"><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;">By Sandy Prisant</span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">While there are a few facts about the number of bank failures and percentage of US unemployed that are less grim this time, the greatest difference between the The Great Depression and The Great Recession is the choice of one word.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">As we roll through Year 3 of this, house prices are again falling, consumer confidence and stock markets are again dropping. At the current rate of job creation it will take more than 10 years to replace all the jobs we've lost--which is a tactful way of saying we will NOT be able to replace all the jobs we've lost. Ever.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">At the moment we are locked in a profound debate about the choice between balanced budgets and throwing lifelines. But the US economy seems to snicker at all this chatter and continues to wend its way down hill.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">In the last couple of years we've had a surfeit of wild estimates about this decline lasting 6 months. Or a year. Or a couple of years. We've had "jobless recoveries" before and our gut tells us this isn't one of them. The fact is The Great Depression lasted 10 full years and it took Adolf Hitler to get us out of it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">To date no one has presented any compelling case for our current malaise lasting less than a decade--as Depressions can. But there are some experts detailing what most US sources are unwilling to say. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The following article from Sunday's Telegraph (London) comes from a senior economics analyst:</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><strong>With the US trapped in depression, this really is starting to feel like 1932</strong></span></div><br />
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The US workforce shrank by 652,000 in June, one of the sharpest contractions ever. The rate of hourly earnings fell 0.1pc. Wages are flirting with deflation. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0ddTw24yQ2aHtj2nu62_KXr3Vg3L6SlAZ2g1ieTUnfNUU5zIxZms8RwxM4Ei9vXymN7Rdq7OPN9p4vNqK8xQV67AStrIj08g6FOiSlx3bsSFxjZi3p_lFZrgZyWrQQTMZSZnJnl8rKPs/s1600/job_1672384c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0ddTw24yQ2aHtj2nu62_KXr3Vg3L6SlAZ2g1ieTUnfNUU5zIxZms8RwxM4Ei9vXymN7Rdq7OPN9p4vNqK8xQV67AStrIj08g6FOiSlx3bsSFxjZi3p_lFZrgZyWrQQTMZSZnJnl8rKPs/s400/job_1672384c.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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<em>People queue for a job fair in New York. The share of the US working-age population with jobs in June fell from 58.7pc to 58.5pc. The ratio was 63pc three years ago. Photo: EPA </em><br />
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<br />
<strong>By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard</strong><br />
<br />
Published: 9:33PM BST 04 Jul 2010<br />
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"The economy is still in the gravitational pull of the Great Recession," said Robert Reich, former US labour secretary. "All the booster rockets for getting us beyond it are failing." <br />
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"Home sales are down. Retail sales are down. Factory orders in May suffered their biggest tumble since March of last year. So what are we doing about it? Less than nothing," he said. <br />
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California is tightening faster than Greece. State workers have seen a 14pc fall in earnings this year due to forced furloughs. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is cutting pay for 200,000 state workers to the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour to cover his $19bn (£15bn) deficit. <br />
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Can Illinois be far behind? The state has a deficit of $12bn and is $5bn in arrears to schools, nursing homes, child care centres, and prisons. "It is getting worse every single day," said state comptroller Daniel Hynes. "We are not paying bills for absolutely essential services. That is obscene." <br />
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Roughly a million Americans have dropped out of the jobs market altogether over the past two months. That is the only reason why the headline unemployment rate is not exploding to a post-war high. <br />
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Let us be honest. The US is still trapped in depression a full 18 months into zero interest rates, quantitative easing (QE), and fiscal stimulus that has pushed the budget deficit above 10pc of GDP. <br />
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The share of the US working-age population with jobs in June actually fell from 58.7pc to 58.5pc. This is the real stress indicator. The ratio was 63pc three years ago. Eight million jobs have been lost. <br />
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The average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks. Nothing like this has been seen before in the post-war era. Jeff Weninger, of Harris Private Bank, said this compares with a peak of 21.2 weeks in the Volcker recession of the early 1980s. <br />
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"Legions of individuals have been left with stale skills, and little prospect of finding meaningful work, and benefits that are being exhausted. By our math the crop of people who are unemployed but not receiving a check amounts to 9.2m." <br />
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Republicans on Capitol Hill are filibustering a bill to extend the dole for up to 1.2m jobless facing an imminent cut-off. Dean Heller from Vermont called them "hobos". This really is starting to feel like 1932. <br />
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Washington's fiscal stimulus is draining away. It peaked in the first quarter, yet even then the economy eked out a growth rate of just 2.7pc. This compares with 5.1pc, 9.3pc, 8.1pc and 8.5pc in the four quarters coming off recession in the early 1980s. <br />
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The housing market is already crumbling as government props are pulled away. The expiry of homebuyers' tax credit led to a 30pc fall in the number of buyers signing contracts in May. "It is cataclysmic," said David Bloom from HSBC. <br />
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Federal tax rises are automatically baked into the pie. The Congressional Budget Office said fiscal policy will swing from a net +2pc of GDP to -2pc by late 2011. The states and counties may have to cut as much as $180bn. <br />
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Investors are starting to chew over the awful possibility that America's recovery will stall just as Asia hits the buffers. China's manufacturing index has been falling since January, with a downward lurch in June to 50.4, just above the break-even line of 50. Momentum seems to be flagging everywhere, whether in Australian building permits, Turkish exports, or Japanese industrial output. <br />
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On Friday, Jacques Cailloux from RBS put out a "double-dip alert" for Europe. "The risk is rising fast. Absent an effective policy intervention to tackle the debt crisis on the periphery over coming months, the European economy will double dip in 2011," he said. <br />
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It is obvious what that policy should be for Europe, America, and Japan. If budgets are to shrink in an orderly fashion over several years – as they must, to avoid sovereign debt spirals – then central banks will have to cushion the blow keeping monetary policy ultra-loose for as long it takes. <br />
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The Fed is already eyeing the printing press again. "It's appropriate to think about what we would do under a deflationary scenario," said Dennis Lockhart for the Atlanta Fed. His colleague Kevin Warsh said the pros and cons of purchasing more bonds should be subject to "strict scrutiny", a comment I took as confirmation that the Fed Board is arguing internally about QE2. <br />
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Perhaps naively, I still think central banks have the tools to head off disaster. The question is whether they will do so fast enough, or even whether they wish to resist the chorus of 1930s liquidation taking charge of the debate. Last week the Bank for International Settlements called for combined fiscal and monetary tightening, lending its great authority to the forces of debt-deflation and mass unemployment. If even the BIS has lost the plot, God help usSandy Prisanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469180943074887710noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269462522933441518.post-45425526229454056552010-06-11T17:04:00.000-01:002010-06-11T17:04:57.925-01:00Oil in the Gulf: The 100 Million Gallon Truth<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLJZ9d8K9GTcNdRVvTmlDya7HOBHbGHtz0j3dJsz9p4AnDDzy7q1qq63ksd5NaokCbNudSz96xeFeR_bVmyHoEpm15V7gCC40mtTGUbgSFHV2y8HiCswVs1yu9uWPfufSTl99SwVfEnI0/s1600/BPbody-bg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="144" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLJZ9d8K9GTcNdRVvTmlDya7HOBHbGHtz0j3dJsz9p4AnDDzy7q1qq63ksd5NaokCbNudSz96xeFeR_bVmyHoEpm15V7gCC40mtTGUbgSFHV2y8HiCswVs1yu9uWPfufSTl99SwVfEnI0/s640/BPbody-bg.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;">By Sandy Prisant</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The 24-hour news cycle and the explosion of media mean an awful lot of people need to do an awful lot of talking about the Gulf of Mexico Oil Catastrophe and anything periphal to it: the President's image, volume of oil recovered, compensation claims, oyster beds, marshes, barriers, ruined vacations, Federal law, etc. </span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXHwWjvjmRGJYhlEr_cb5v9ZleLhgmu4jAnKxKwB9TA_BhV2zhPnixrKyNq_LD2mZlHPXBFiyZZa8rxJfjqof_lhb1Zqbblr8TFgGQk2bMmqsG4oZgU4v_PaqNQXfqcxSKVSRvhqBvJfo/s1600/imagesCA79M30C.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXHwWjvjmRGJYhlEr_cb5v9ZleLhgmu4jAnKxKwB9TA_BhV2zhPnixrKyNq_LD2mZlHPXBFiyZZa8rxJfjqof_lhb1Zqbblr8TFgGQk2bMmqsG4oZgU4v_PaqNQXfqcxSKVSRvhqBvJfo/s320/imagesCA79M30C.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">And BP is really OK with all that because it means a lot of help for them in keeping your eye off the ball. So what should you do? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Don't Listen. There is only one fact that matters and from which all consequences spring</span>:<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The consensus of US technical experts from the Government's flow rate panel, the University of Indiana U.S. Geological Survey and Woods Hole Observatory is that <em>"from April 22 when the Deepwater Horizon rig sank until June 3 the well has gushed 1.26 million barrels of oil, or 52.9 million gallons." </em>(Blomberg News)</span> <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXHwWjvjmRGJYhlEr_cb5v9ZleLhgmu4jAnKxKwB9TA_BhV2zhPnixrKyNq_LD2mZlHPXBFiyZZa8rxJfjqof_lhb1Zqbblr8TFgGQk2bMmqsG4oZgU4v_PaqNQXfqcxSKVSRvhqBvJfo/s1600/imagesCA79M30C.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXHwWjvjmRGJYhlEr_cb5v9ZleLhgmu4jAnKxKwB9TA_BhV2zhPnixrKyNq_LD2mZlHPXBFiyZZa8rxJfjqof_lhb1Zqbblr8TFgGQk2bMmqsG4oZgU4v_PaqNQXfqcxSKVSRvhqBvJfo/s320/imagesCA79M30C.jpg" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Since the leak cannot be stopped for at least another 75 days therafter, (until new side wells are completed) the most conservative estimate insures a total spill of 3-3.5 million barrels. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"> </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh95_WGlTGr22PJ-IDcd4t7BlskqOxFausUS6DvStAN9BSSfXSptI2o4KOWrII82dNoAwrgnKMoHgYb5-9c36XH2iFS9mzQW6bhc9S4zMSL2yCbN2v57D-SkUcldydWfHCfe_Y96RWeXhw/s1600/imagesCAOEF56N.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh95_WGlTGr22PJ-IDcd4t7BlskqOxFausUS6DvStAN9BSSfXSptI2o4KOWrII82dNoAwrgnKMoHgYb5-9c36XH2iFS9mzQW6bhc9S4zMSL2yCbN2v57D-SkUcldydWfHCfe_Y96RWeXhw/s320/imagesCAOEF56N.jpg" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">According to the Department of Energy, there are 42 gallons of oil in one barrel. And that means the only fact you need to think about is this: By the end of August BP will have spilled into the Gulf, a minimum of: </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"> </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><strong><span style="color: #660000; font-size: large;">130 MILLION GALLONS OF OIL</span></strong> </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><strong><span style="color: #660000; font-size: large;">130 MILLION GALLONS OF OIL</span></strong> </div><div align="center" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><strong><span style="color: #660000; font-size: large;">130 MILLION GALLONS OF OIL</span></strong> </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <br />
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<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Sandy Prisanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12469180943074887710noreply@blogger.com0