Obama Whirlwind Whirls On With New Laws; Calls Bonuses “Shameful”
January 30th, 2009 - by: danny
President Obama rips Wall Street over $18,000,000,000.00+ paid as bonuses
Ads from Americans United for Change, MoveOn.org Political Action, AFSCME and SEIU are being used as a rapid response, nationally, to awaken not only Republicans, but also to senators in their home states.
PRESIDENT BLASTS WALL ST BONUSES AS “SHAMEFUL”
MORE MONEY LOOMING FOR BANKS
REPORTS FROM DAVOS AND BRAZIL
It’s impressive and encouraging to have a president that reads newspapers and follows the news. Recall that the Bush people were about challenging the fact-based world and creating their own faith-based understanding so they could then bombard us with their simplistic neo-con world view using message points and perception management techniques.
So far, according to reports I have read, Obama is trying to achieve some normality in the White House including eating with his family and reading the press. His comments about Wall Street bonuses — even though they are down 50% — was on target. The Administration is trying to come up with a legislative remedy to “crack down.” Already, a reporter on CNN suggested they have to be careful lest they be accused of being “socialists.”
Truth on TV: “It’s a stupid f***ing question”
Rolfe Winkler writes on a financial blog: “Charlie Gasparino said the above about 30 seconds ago on CNBC during an argument about Wall Street bonuses. He said big banks are all “insolvent” and bankers bonuses should have been zero. That we’re even asking how much Wall Streeters should have gotten in bonuses is a “stupid f***ing question.”
Congresswoman Kaptur Points Out The Revolving Door Between Wall Street & The White House
GREEN HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL
Working Together for a Green New Deal — by Van Jones
In the New Deal period, it was a broad electoral coalition that moved the government onto the side of ordinary people, not FDR alone. Farmers, workers, ethnic minorities, students, intellectuals, progressive bankers and forward-thinking business leaders all joined forces at the ballot box to support FDR and his Congressional backers as they worked to revive the economy.
To accomplish our tasks today, we need a similar force: an electoral New Deal coalition for our time. Let’s call it the Green Growth Alliance. Such an alliance would be a broad effort fusing wise, compassionate forces in civil society with the enlightened self-interest of the rising green business community.
Green Collar Jobs to Fuel Future Economy By Michael Schirber, Special to LiveScience
With the economic downturn, many job markets seem in peril. However, investment in energy efficiency and renewable-energy strategies could create 2 million jobs in two years, economists claim. In a recent report, researchers from the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts propose a $100 billion stimulus package that they say would create four times more jobs than would a similar investment in the oil industry.
“Our proposal is a Green Recovery program,” said lead author Robert Pollin. “It is designed to precisely counteract the forces pushing the economy into a recession.” Besides reducing carbon emissions, the investment – which would combine tax credits and loan guarantees for envirotech companies – would reduce the country’s dependence on foreign oil.
Moreover, it would create so-called “green collar” jobs that would benefit both traditional blue and white collar workers.
“Green investments will create jobs across the spectrum – from truck drivers, roofers, welders, secretaries, CEOs and research scientists,” Pollin told LiveScience.
A Green Stimulus for the People
“But with a bolder plan to make working families the agents of change, Obama can take a historic opportunity to remodel the way we generate, transmit and use energy, stimulating the economy in the short term and building a broad green constituency of workers and industry in the long term.
For a green stimulus plan to achieve its goals, Obama needs to popularize environmentalism and empower Americans to control their energy use. Instead of a million solar roofs and hundreds of thousands of pricey Priuses, we need 30 million well-insulated ceilings and 15 million Chevy Cobalts (or similar cars that get thirty mpg or more) for the majority of American households that make less than $60,000 a year. A populist energy-efficiency stimulus plan will create jobs as it reduces energy use and costs, eliminates emissions and puts families in charge of their energy consumption. The stimulus package also needs to address the inadequacies and inequities of our system of generating, transmitting and consuming electricity so that the greatest burden does not fall disproportionately on working families. An ambitious overhaul of America’s power grid would have short-term stimulus benefits while kicking off a long period of technological and commercial innovation.
The simultaneous collapse of our economic and ecological systems has created a great opportunity to support industries that at once rebuild the market and the planet. The transition of the economy from a fossil-fuel to a renewable resource base will provide new jobs and revitalize the American working class, according to Robert Pollin.
Liza Featherstone discusses the potential for jobs in the promising solar and wind energy fields. As these industries grow it will be up to labor unions and legislators to ensure they provide full employment and secure wages.
The American Wind Energy Association reported Tuesday that the amount of electricity generated by wind turbines grew by 50 percent last year and 55 new manufacturing facilities were built to make turbine components.
But the association sees storm clouds ahead.
“The financial downturn has begun to take a serious toll on new wind development,” said Denise Bode, the group’s top executive, in releasing statistics on the industry’s dramatic growth during 2008. READ FULL STORY HERE
RELATED:
• Green Jobs: Good Work If Youth Can Find It
• Rob Hopkins at the Positive Energy Conference part 1 — Part II — Part III
• VideoNation: A City Made of Waste
NYT: Obama Signs Equal-Pay Legislation
President Obama signed his first bill into law on Thursday, approving legislation that expands workers’ rights to sue over pay discrimination.
Senate Passes Child Health Bill (WP) Senate Passes Health Insurance Bill for Children
The Senate overwhelmingly approved legislation yesterday to provide health insurance to 11 million low-income children, a bill that would for the first time spend federal money to cover children and pregnant women who are legal immigrants.
NYT: Impassioned Blagojevich Finally Pleads Case at Trial, and is Impeached
Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich delivered a dramatic closing argument in his impeachment trial on Thursday. It didn’t do any good. The State Senate voted him out 59-0. Bye, Bye Blago. Former Lieutenant Governor and grass roots organizer Pat Quinn is now Governor.
Astonishing Incongruities Is It Time to Bail Out of the US? By Paul Craig Roberts
How can President Obama even think about fighting wars half way around the world while California cannot pay its bills, while Americans are being turned out of their homes, while, as Business Week reports, retirees will work throughout their retirement (which assumes that there will be jobs), while careers are being destroyed and stores and factories shuttered.
RELATED:
• WILL PLAN WORK? WILL JOBS BE CREATED?
• FT: US policymakers missed crisis warnings
WASTE, FRAUD and ABUSE
From the not so distant past: Senator Dorgan — Haliburton: “The taxpayer will pay for that.”
More Money looming for Banks: the number? TWO TRILLION
(Reuters) – Government officials seeking to revamp the financial bailout have discussed spending another $1 trillion to $2 trillion to help restore banks to health, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.
The paper said the Barack Obama administration could announce its plans within days but has not yet determined the final shape of its new proposal, and the exact details could change. The administration is also seeking more effective ways to pump money into banks, and is considering buying common shares in the banks, according to the paper.
Big Banks Hoarding TARP Funds: Why Not Just Nationalize Them?
“Meanwhile, banks are mainly just sitting on the TARP funds, as The Wall Street Journal details. But that’s what you’d expect them to do given they (still) have to please private shareholders and maintain sufficient capital to appease their federal regulators. (Yes, on the one hand Uncle Sam is giving banks money and saying “lend”, and on the other hand telling them they better hold enough capital to meet regulatory requirements.)”
Right now we seem to have the worst of both words, neither free market capitalism nor full government control. I don’t understand why policymakers:
• Seem to think continuing the TARP program is a good idea, even with strings attached. (Isn’t doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result the definition of insanity?)
• Aren’t giving the Swedish Solution – where banks are forced to write-down bad debt before they get government capital – more serious consideration.
• Don’t do a better job explaining how FDIC receivership will accomplish many of the same goals as nationalization – clearing out bad loans and getting the banking system running again – but avoids using the “n-word,” as well as more permanent government ownership, which is what people really fear.
The Twisted Psychology of Banking and Wall Street’s Sense of Entitlement
• “We made money. It was just one part of the firm that lost it all. So we deserve to be paid.” Sorry, buddy. That’s not the way capitalism works. Ask the guy who just lost his job installing seat belts in GM cars. He was really good at that but since no one is buying those cars, he’s out of a job. Being really good at what you do doesn’t matter if your firm is broke – and your firm is broke. It’s now on taxpayer supported life-support.
• “We didn’t use taxpayer money to pay the bonuses.” This is the most ridiculous idea ever. Money is fungible. If you use billions to pay bonuses and then need to ask the government for money to stay alive, you are using taxpayer money to fill in the hole you dug by paying the bonuses.
• “We’ll lose all the greatest people if we don’t pay them.” Oh really? Where will they go? Who, exactly, is going to hire them? Also: so what? That’s how capitalism works. Failing firms that cannot afford to pay for talent lose that talent to successful firms. That’s an important part of market discipline.
• “If we don’t pay bonuses when firms take the TARP, they won’t take it.” This is the most sophisticated argument for huge bonuses. In Germany, this actually happened. As it turns out, executives would rather risk their firm collapsing due to lack of capital than give up their big paydays. But there’s an easy solution to this: throw the bastards out. The boards of every single financial company that turned down bailout bucks with a bonus limit cuuld demand a full accounting of why a bank’s executives think it is healthy enough to forego a bailout. And if they aren’t satisfied they should just fire the management.
“But when you pay yourself a bonus with taxpayer money you are simply taking money from someone who earned it and giving it to someone who didn’t. If the government hadn’t supplied the means for redistributing that money, you’d just be a mugger.” READ FULL STORY HERE
AARP PUSHING TO STRENGTHEN PACKAGE
Language in the House and Senate economic stimulus packages could cause some Medicaid beneficiaries to lose access to home-and community-based services (HCBS), according to the senior group AARP.
“Congress must close the maintenance of effort loophole so that federal increases also protect the benefits, as well as eligibility, for people in need,” AARP Vice President Elaine Ryan said in a statement.
Reducing Medicaid beneficiaries’ access to community- and home-based services also could mean that beneficiaries would have to be placed in long-term care settings, such as nursing homes, which are more costly, Ryan told reporters Monday during a telephone news conference.
The stimulus package requires states to maintain Medicaid eligibility and mandatory services, but not optional services, such as funding for home- and community-based care. Without changes to the stimulus packages, Ryan said that given states’ mounting budget deficits, services could be reduced for some of the neediest beneficiaries, especially the frail elderly.
The House Energy and Commerce and the Senate Finance committees had no immediate response to AARP’s concerns.
A congressional aide said Monday that Medicaid language in the stimulus “does not change anything” concerning governors’ current flexibility on what optional benefits they can provide to beneficiaries.
“The Medicaid program is based on state flexibility. In a perfect world, we would hope that states would not make cuts. But under the program, states can cut optional benefits today, they could have cut them yesterday, they can drop them tomorrow,” the aide said, stressing that the package would provide an additional $87 billion to states for the Medicaid program over the next two years. “We are trying to make it possible for states to continue those benefits.”
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, at least 21 states are cutting medical, rehabilitative, home care or other services needed by low-income people who are elderly or have disabilities, or significantly increasing the cost of these services, due to state budget shortfalls.
US DENOUNCED IN DAVOS
Reuters: Russia and China started it, using the opening speeches to lambast America for binging on debt. At least, the audience assumed it was America. Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, was talking about when he alluded to “inappropriate macroeconomic policies of some economies”, before launching into a tirade against “prolonged low savings and high consumption” and “excessive expansion of financial institutions in blind pursuit of profit and the lack of self-discipline among financial institutions and ratings agencies”.
Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, said he wasn’t going to criticise the US, but did anyway.
He said: “I just want to remind you that just a year ago, American delegates speaking from this rostrum emphasised the US economy’s fundamental stability and its cloudless prospects. Today investment banks, the pride of Wall Street, have virtually ceased to exist. In just 12 months they have posted losses exceeding the profits they made in the last 25 years. This example alone reflects the real situation better than any criticism.”
“There is a certain concept, called the perfect storm, which denotes a situation when Nature’s forces converge in one point of the ocean and increase their destructive potential many times over. It appears that the present-day crisis resembles such a perfect storm.”
DS: While Putin was speaking, a Russian airline canceled $2.4 billion dollars in orders for new “Dreamliner” aircraft from Boeing. Another blow to the US economy, more not so perfect storm.
Larry Eliott, The Guardian: Still No Contrition
“…it would be wrong, dangerously wrong, to assume that the events of the past 18 months have changed the world forever. Sure, there is a recognition that things went badly awry during the bubble. Yes, there is the mantra — always familiar at the bottom of any economic cycle — that this must never be allowed to happen again. But there is, as yet, little evidence of an action plan and — to be honest — little real appetite for radical measures either.”
LATEST STAT: The number of jobless claiming benefits jumped to a record in mid-January, while new orders for durable goods fell for a fifth straight month in December,
Marketwatch: Unemployment lines stretched to the longest on record, the Labor Department reported Thursday, a sign that the US labor market continues to worsen.
All 50 states recorded an increase in the jobless rate in December and an overall spike since last year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Tuesday (Jan. 27). The national unemployment rate rose from 6.8 percent to 7.2 percent – compared with 4.9 percent a year ago.
Find your state’s unemployment rate and compare jobless rates across the nation over time in a new interactive map. Check it out on Stateline.org’s Economy and Business page, where you also can read daily headlines with the latest recession news from all 50 states.
KNOCK, KNOCK
While Americans shake their heads at all the bad economic news, so far the popular reaction has been muted and quiet. This is not the case in other countries. This may be a reflection of the lack of urgency in the media which is focusing more on the NFL Superbowl than the super crisis that is kicking all of us in the ass. As I ask in my book, ‘PLUNDER,’ “When will the American people realize how badly they have been had and turn on the plunderers?” How long will it take for the American public to wake up and take action? How many jobs need to be lost? How many homes have to be foreclosed upon? How much debt can we live with? How many suicides do we need to read about?
Knock Knock, anyone there?
Marching for Jobs in Paris By Estelle Shirbon PARIS (Reuters) – Hundreds of thousands of teachers, nurses, factory workers and plumbers marched through French cities on Thursday to demand pay rises and protection for jobs.
DS Note: After posting this story, I watched BBC coverage which reported more than a MILLION people marched all over France. There were also clashes, l968 style, between the CRS riot police and protesters. This movement is mushrooming.
UPDATE:
France came to a near standstill on Thursday as two and a half million people took to the streets to protest against French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s handling of the financial crisis.
“It’s the only way to act and get the government to its knees,” said a French citizen.
Marching in Brazil: 50,000 March to Open Social Forum
ELEM, Brazil (AP) – Some 100,000 activists of all stripes converged on this steamy Amazon city Tuesday, opening the World Social Forum with a rambunctious march to the beat of samba drums.
The streets of Belem were overflowed – by both water and the activists, who came wearing homemade shirts extolling every social cause under the sun. Massive banners were unfurled, trumpets blared a chaotic chorus as Indians from across the Amazon performed traditional dances, barefoot, bodies ornately painted and heads adorned with the feathers of exotic birds.
Local fire officials and media estimated that 100,000 people were in Belem for the ninth World Social Forum and 50,000 took part in the march.
IPS: “We are raising our voices as a wake-up call to the world, especially the rich countries that are hastening its destruction,” said Edmundo Omoré, a member of the Xavante indigenous community from the west-central state of Mato Grosso on the border between the Amazon region and the Cerrado, a vast savannah region in the centre of the country.
Both men belong to the Coordinating Committee of Indigenous Organisations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB), which joined the Quito-based Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organisations of the Amazon Basin (COICA) to create their “message from the heart of the Amazon.”
Nearly 1,300 indigenous people from about 50 countries, although mainly from Brazil, plan to raise the issues of their rights as original peoples and environmental preservation at this year’s edition of the WSF, which runs through Sunday in Belém, a city of 1.4 million people and the northeastern gateway to the Amazon.
Indigenous people have participated in the WSF in previous years, but this time a much larger presence was sought. The aim was for 2,000 to take part, but transport costs and financial difficulties prevented many participants from coming from other countries and from remote areas within Brazil itself.
RELATED:
Press TV (IRAN): Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has described the world leaders gathering in Davos for the World Economic Forum representing a “world that is dying“.
Chavez was speaking at the anti-globalization World Social Forum (WSF) currently underway in the northeastern Brazilian city of Belem.
• Turkish Premier, Israeli President Clash at Davos
NATIONAL SECURITY NETWORK: Global Impact of Obama Bill
The interconnectedness of the global economy means global implications of Obama’s stimulus package. The implications for the passage of the stimulus package go far beyond America’s borders. Steven Schrage, an international business and finance specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies explained that “Washington’s bid to fix the largest economy in the world has global implications as well. ‘The world is really watching the stimulus (legislation in Congress). The hopes are this will restore U.S. demand for goods, which has driven a lot of the international economy over the last decade.’” Nina Hachigian at the Center for American Progress also said, “The fact is that America, the big powers, and most other countries are going through very tough economic times. The stimulus plan will kick-start the U.S. economy in the short term, but its domestic prescriptions will also help put our nation on the path of global success-even in a world with more powerful players.” Global reaction to yesterday’s passage by the House of the stimulus package has underlined its importance beyond US borders.
See the whole Post / →
Where Do You Want To Live? The Latest on Iran, Iraq and Israel
January 30th, 2009 - by: danny
Pew Study: (LBN) — ALMOST HALF OF AMERICANS WANT TO LIVE SOMEWHERE ELSE:
• Living in Las Vegas appeals more to men than women.
• Affluent adults are twice as likely as poorer folks to want to live in Boston.
• Young people like big cities such as New York and Los Angeles.
• More Americans would rather live in a place with more McDonald’s than one with more Starbucks.
TORTURE PLANE STILL FLYING
Nevada shouldn’t tolerate Torture Airlines
Few eyebrows were raised on Sunday when an otherwise-obscure Boeing 757 slipped into McCarran airport. The airliner is known to sometimes carry a crew of 11 and can accommodate 178 passengers, but it’s unlikely the plane was ferrying gamblers or CES conventioneers to our fair city.
The plane is well-known, though, to a cadre of die-hard aviation watchers who recognized the registration number — N226G. That number speaks volumes to those who understand what it represents. N226G is widely suspected of being one of the infamous “rendition planes.” As readers know, American intelligence agencies have been waging their own secret war on terror.
They use an innocuous term “rendition” to describe the tactics they employ, but there’s another word that would work just as well — torture.
More from Vegas — “ma cherie, if they can, we all can” — h/t to dyippie
Strip to go dark in global event — 8:30PM Saturday 28 March 2009
Planned marquee outages on the Strip come along about as often as Megabucks jackpots. And like many of those slot-machine fortunes, lights-out events on Las Vegas Boulevard typically don’t last long. But on March 28, signs and message boards along the Strip — the brightest spot on Earth when viewed from space, the lore goes — will power down for 60 minutes as part of a global event intended to raise awareness of climate change.
Las Vegas is a flagship city for Earth Hour 2009, a World Wildlife Fund movement encouraging individuals, governments and businesses to dim or turn out lights.
“For the Strip to stop anything is a really big deal. The Strip doesn’t like to do that.” It will be one of the few times Strip lights have been darkened for specific occasions, such as the deaths of presidents and entertainers. This time, the lights will fade to honor Mother Earth.
• ACLU TO OBAMA: GIVE US BUSH FILES
The American Civil Liberties Union asked the Obama administration on Wednesday to release Justice Department memos that provided the legal underpinning for harsh interrogations, eavesdropping and secret prisons.
For years, the Bush administration refused to release them, citing national security, attorney-client privilege and the need to protect the government’s deliberative process.
RELATED: Naomi Wolf — video: Not Even Obama Can Take On Special Interests
• Netanyahu: I’m not bound by Olmert pledges, won’t evacuate settlements
Likud Party Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said he would not be bound by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s commitments to evacuate West Bank settlements and withdraw from the territories. “I will not keep Olmert’s commitments to withdraw and I won’t evacuate settlements. Those understandings are invalid and unimportant,” Netanyahu said. Together with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Olmert arrived at these understandings in final status talks with the Palestinians, which included settlement evacuation, dividing Jerusalem and returning to 1967 borders.
• Dozens believed dead in reprisal attacks as Hamas retakes control
• PRESS TV: A new report has revealed that the Obama administration has drafted a letter to Iran in a bid to pave the way for face-to-face talks.
• Israel has renewed its air strikes on the Gaza Strip, injuring eighteen Gazans, including 11 school children and a Hamas policeman.
SUICIDES IN THE MILITARY UP
Yesterday, I reported on the growing number of financial crisis related suicides. The number of military suicides is, tragically, also up.
New York Daily News – Officials: Army suicides at 3-decade high
WASHINGTON (AP) – Suicides among Army troops soared again last year and are at a nearly three-decade high, senior defense officials told The Associated Press on Thursday.
IRAQ TO BLACKWATER: TIME TO GO
AP: MOYOCK, N.C. — Blackwater Worldwide, denied an operating license in Iraq, said Thursday it could leave the country within 72 hours but cautioned that such a move would cause more harm to the American diplomats it protects than the company itself.
Iraqi officials made public Thursday a decision to deny the North Carolina-based company an operating license, citing lingering outrage over a September 2007 shooting in Baghdad’s Nisoor Square that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead.
BUSH SHOE’D OUT: Saddam’s hometown unveils statue dedicated to man who threw shoe at President Bush
NEW HAMPSHIRE CONFRONTS $365% LOAN
New Hampshire declares 365% loans oppressive, unfair trade practice
Responding to a request from Advance America, the largest payday lending chain in the nation, the New Hampshire Bank Commissioner ruled that the company’s proposed new loan product is unacceptable and declared that “an APR of 365 percent on a small loan constitutes an unfair trade practice… and is therefore unlawful.”
This commonsense ruling shines a light on triple-digit interest rates, an essential element of the payday lending business model in other states and on the federal level, where the Obama administration has voiced support for enacting a 36 percent, annual interest cap on high-cost loans.
See the whole Post / →
How is the Mortgage Meltdown Affecting Banker’s Girlfriends?
January 30th, 2009 - by: danny
WOMEN DISCUSS LIFE WITH BANKERS
Are you or someone you love dating a banker? If so, we are here to support you through these difficult times. Dating A Banker Anonymous (DABA) is a safe place where women can come together — free from the scrutiny of feminists— and share their tearful tales of how the mortgage meltdown has affected their relationships. DABA Girls was started by two best friends whose relationships tanked with the economy.
TIMES IN TROUBLE?
(Via EJC) The New York Times Co. reported on Wednesday that net profit fell 47 percent in the fourth quarter of the year and confirmed it was seeking a buyer for its stake in the Boston Red Sox baseball team. The newspaper company, which owns the Boston Globe and International Herald Tribune among other properties, said net profit was USD 27.6m in the last three months of 2008 compared with USD 52.9m a year ago. For the full year, the Times reported a net loss of USD 57.8m compared with a net profit of USD 208m the previous year. Internet advertising revenues increased 9.3 percent to USD 308.8m in 2008.
The Times said its Internet businesses, which include About.com, accounted for 11.9 percent of revenue for the year compared with 10.3 percent of total revenue in 2007. Despite the gloomy figures, the results surpassed the expectations of analysts and the Times’ share’s price gained 6.79 percent to USD 5.98 on Wall Street. The Times also announced Wednesday it has retained Goldman Sachs as its financial advisor for the possible sale of its 17.75 percent stake in New England Sports Ventures, which includes the Boston Red Sox and their iconic stadium, Fenway Park. (AFP)
UPDIKE’S LAST THOUGHTS
Before his death of Lung Cancer at age 76, writer John Updike wrote a poem about what lie ahead:
Were I to die, no one would say,
‘Oh, what a shame! So young, so full
Of promise – depths unplumbable!
Instead, a shrug and tearless eyes
Will greet my overdue demise;
The wide response will be, I know,
‘I thought he died a while ago.’
For life’s a shabby subterfuge,
And death is real, and dark, and huge.
The shock of it will register
Nowhere but where it will occur.
• KUDOS TO NBC: They will not air this ad during the Super Bowl.
• LAST PHOTO: BUSH CHECKING OUT
• BELIEVE IT OR NOT: Holocaust survivors in Israel want to decriminalize Pot.
• SLIDE SHOW: from TheNation.com on our fragile planet.
Music Video of the Day — A song for the times — sort of — Madelaine Kahn
Letters
Jerry Policoff writes from The Commonwealth of Pennslyvania:
Yesterday I mentioned the 2008 study that found a substantial link between medical foreclosures and medical issues. I reviewed the study and thought its findings were startling and important enough to share with this group in greater detail. I’ve included extracts below containing what I think are the central findings, and you can read the entire 41-page pdf if you follow the url at the end. I believe this study demonstrates that one of the primary causes of our financial meltdown and continuing foreclosure crisis is our medical system. The study found that:
• 49% of all foreclosures are caused by medical problems.
• 69% of families that are in foreclosure experienced significant medical distress in the two years preceding foreclosure.
• About a third of respondents and their spouses lacked health insurance, a rate nearly double the population in general.
• Even households where both the respondent and spouse were insured, the household experienced significant out-of-pocket medical expenses that exceeded those households that were uninsured.
• 33.8% of the uninsured households attributed their foreclosure to medical problems; and a similar number, 30.4% of insured households also attributed their foreclosures to medical problems.
• The study found that “most of those suffering medical foreclosures are solidly in the middle class, with apparently affordable homes, and health insurance to boot.”
The study concludes that “the middle class in America is financially insecure, both because they are living too close to the margins, and because they are now exposed to risks that can push them over the edge. “Those who cited medical bills as the cause of their foreclosure were hit, on average, with over $15,000 in uncovered expenses [that were] apparently too much for them to handle, and it pushed them into foreclosure.” Mortgage foreclosures are not just the result of bad loans, bad properties, or bad borrowers. Instead, many mortgage foreclosures are the result of unpredictable medical disruptions…
Adam McConnell writes from Istanbul about a Davos debate on GAZA
Hi Danny –
Since BBC World has already been able to distort what actually happened, and since the U.S. press will undoubtedly be extremely negative, if they say anything at all, I should give you some info about what happened at the WEF Gaza panel tonight, since I was watching it on TV.
The problem was the moderator, a reporter for the Washington Post. Each of the panelists were supposed to have a limited amount of time to speak, 12 minutes apparently. The moderator let Peres speak for 25 minutes, but then tried to cut off Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan after 12 minutes. Erdogan spoke eloquently, condemning Peres’ comments on the recent Gaza situation to Peres’ face, as they were sitting side-by-side. BBC World evaluated Peres’ speech as “eloquent,” but a more neutral observer might have considered “shrill” a more appropriate word since Peres was almost screaming at some points. When the moderator persisted in not allowing Erdogan to have more time to speak, Erdogan gathered his papers and walked off the stage (not “stormed,” as the news line on CNN International said). As Erdogan gathered his papers he said that he would not be joining the Davos Conference again. All of this came after the panel started more than 20 minutes late; the only two panel members who were on time? Erdogan and Azerbaijan President Aliyev.
Turkish TV channels who oppose the current Turkish government quickly began rolling out “the usual suspects” to roundly condemn Erdogan’s actions while pro-government stations have had a wider range of views. Palestinian officials have already been phoning their thanks to Erdogan for opposing Israel’s policies at one of the most important international forums.
The additional context that needs to be added to this was the way that the Turkish government was treated by the Israeli government over the Gaza situation. As you may know, the Turkish government has been heavily involved as an arbitrator between, especially, Israel and Syria, but also in the Israel-Palestine and Lebanon issues. Turkish officials actually met with Israeli negotiators concerning the on-going peace negotiations only a couple of days before Israel began to attack Gaza; as a result, the Turkish government took the Israeli attack as a mixture of back-stabbing, bad faith, and disrespect.
At a later press conference tonight Erdogan reiterated that his actions were aimed at the moderator, not at Peres, not at Israelis, and not at Jews. He emphasized the need for equal allocation of time to the speakers if there is to be free and open dialogue at forums such as Davos. He also back-pedalled a bit on the “not coming back” part and tied it to whether a more just time allocation for speakers on panels can be ensured.
Probably the most interesting statement of the evening was this: Erdogan asserted that a former Israeli President had told him, verbatim, that “he felt especially happy while riding a tank into Palestine.” Erdogan did not name the former Israeli President who told him that, however.
LATE REPORT FROM ISTANBUL: Thousands going to the airport to welcome Erdogan home.
I asked Adam about the role played by Washington Post editor Davic Ignatius who was moderating:
His response: “. . . unfortunately, Ignatius wouldn’t let Erdogan have the same amount of time to speak that he granted Peres. In fact, Peres simply spoke as he wanted, without warning from Ignatius, whereas Ignatius warned Amr Moussa, for example, that his time was up after 13 or so minutes. Then Ignatius refused to allow Erdogan adequate time to answer all of Peres’ statements, to the point of putting his hand on Erdogan’s shoulder, then arm, to stop Erdogan from speaking, as if Erdogan were his kid or something. It was extremely disrespectful to the leader of a sovereign state, and Erdogan let him know it. . . Erdogan later confirmed that Peres personally called him and expressed his concerns over the situation; TV reports claimed that Peres apologized to Erdogan.”
Noemy Sanchez writes from Costa Rica
The republicans should do as much as they can to assist Obama to get the country out of what they, the republicans, two illegal wars and a “president” who was completely fiscally irresponsible rather than giving Obama such a hard time. The republicans only show themselves as petulant sore losers with their behavior.
THEY caused the mess the world is in now. THEY have a DUTY to fix it not try to lay it on the Obama administration which I’m sure is in their plan book.
Now Its Official: OMG By Aaron Kuriloff
Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) — Playboy’s playmates may be lonely at Super Bowl XLIII.
The magazine, which hosted a bunny-heavy pre-game extravaganza for nine years of National Football League championships, canceled the gala for the title match between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals. Sports Illustrated also called off its party and the NFL reduced the price of some Super Bowl seats for the first time in history.
Even the most-watched sporting event in the U.S. “is not immune to the effects of an economic downturn,” said Amanda Holt, a spokeswoman for the Tampa Bay Super Bowl Host Committee, which lowered its fundraising goal to $7 million from $8 million.
As another week draws to an end, we, at Mediachannel, are counting on your help to keep us going. Have a great weekend, enjoy the Super Bowl and let me know what’s on your mind. Roseanne Barr posted what was on her mind in a message to Bruce Springsteen:
“Springsteen at the Super Bowl
The Boss oughta demand during his half-time appearance this Sunday that Obama stop bombing Pakistan (which even President Karzai of Afghanistan has requested) and stop funding the Israeli war machine!”
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About Danny Schechter
Danny Schechter is an Emmy award winning journalist, television producer and independent filmmaker who also writes, blogs and speaks about media issues.
His latest film is PLUNDER The Crime Of Our Time.
Mr. Schechter is NOT the Godfather of Soul.
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