The Annotated News

Trains passing in the night, Europe going American?

2011-03-05T08:04:00.003-05:00

Like 'The Prince and the Pauper', Europe and the USA seem to have reversed roles the past few years.

European countries are grappling with high government debt by cutting budgets.... the USA is grappling with massive gov't debt by , er, well, by NOT cutting budgets, and going into much deeper debt ??

America publishes official gov't documents in many languages and is proud to be a multilingual society , while Europe now is requiring all citizens be fluent in the language of the land (unilingual).

Europe is confronting multiculturalism and Germany's Merkel and several other countries' political leaders have declared it a failed experiment. The USA meanwhile continues to promote multiculturalism as the ideal society and to promulgate that all cultures are equally good.

Europe is erecting barriers both literally and figuratively against waves of immigrants while America continues it's policy of open, porous borders.

As we pass each other going opposite directions on these train tracks, can one ask, Who's heading away from the train-wreck in the future and who is blithely heading toward it?

March 5, 2011

Italy Makes Immigrants Speak Italian

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 7:22 a.m. EST

FLORENCE, Italy (AP) — Svetlana Cojochru feels insulted.

The Moldovan has lived here seven years as a nanny to Italian kids and caregiver to the elderly, but in order to stay she's had to prove her language skills by writing a postcard to an imaginary friend and answering a fictional job ad.

"I feel like a guest," said Cojochru. She had just emerged from Beato Angelico middle school where she took a language test to comply with a new law requiring basic Italian proficiency for permanent residency permits following five years of legal residence.

Italy is the latest Western European country turning the screws on an expanding immigrant population by demanding language skills in exchange for work permits, or in some cases, citizenship. While enacted last year in the name of integration, these requirements also reflect anxiety that foreigners might dilute fiercely-prized national identity or even, especially in Britain's case, pose terror risks.

Some immigrant advocates worry that as harsh economic times make it harder for natives to keep jobs, such measures will become more a vehicle for intolerance than integration. Others say it's only natural that newcomers learn the language of their host nation, seeing it as a condition to ensure they can contribute to society.

So far, Italy is only giving a gentle turn to the screw. Cojochru and other test-takers described the exam as easy. No oral skills were tested.

In Austria, terms are tougher. There, where native speakers have been sometimes known to scold immigrant parents for not speaking proper German to their children, foreigners from outside the European Union need to prove they speak basic German within five years of receiving their first residency permit. Failure to do so can bring fines and jeopardize their right to stay.

The government argues that foreigners who master German can better integrate and help foster understanding across cultures. But, like in Italy, critics say it's a just a pretext for erecting barriers.

"The German language is increasingly being used as a marginalization tool," said Alev Korun, a Turkish-born member of the opposition Greens party who immigrated to Austria when she was 19.

Austria's Cabinet approved new rules requiring most immigrants to have elementary German skills before they even enter the country. They're part of a plan to create a new "red-white-red card" — the colors of the Austrian flag — for a work permit for qualified non-EU citizens aimed at filling gaps left by an aging work force. The legislation now goes to parliament for consideration.

Critics say requiring people to speak basic German before they set foot in Austria would be an unreasonable barrier for people from poor, rural areas who can't afford or access German classes.

"I think this is a very clear form of discrimination of certain type of immigrants," said Barbara Liegl, head of the Austrian anti-racism organization ZARA. "I see massive disadvantages for specific groups."

Terrorism pushed Britain to start strictly enforcing a requirement for English-language competency for prospective citizens. Three of the 2005 London suicide bombers were native Britons of Pakistani descent while the fourth was born in Jamaica.

Since 2005, would-be citizens and permanent residency holders have been asked to prove their command of "Britishness" by answering multiple choice questions, in English, on British history, culture and law, from explaining the meaning behind the fireworks-filled Guy Fawkes Night, to knowing which British courts use a jury system.

Britain's government has pledged to dramatically cut immigration, and the language requirement is effectively a tool to put a cap on the number of newcomers, said Sarah Mulley, an immigration expert at the Institute of Public Policy Research, a London think tank.

Home Secretary Theresa May, who aims to cut immigration to below 100,000 by 2015, said language tests will help weed out those who don't plan to contribute to British life. She has singled out spouses seeking marriage visas to join English-speaking partners as a particular concern.

"There is a concern about long-established communities in the U.K. who are not well integrated, for examples, some of the Pakistani (and) Bangladeshi communities, and that's largely linked to language limitation," Mulley added.

But Mohammed Reza, a Pakistani on a student visa who is studying for Britain's citizenship test, saw language as a path to integration.

"If I'm wearing traditional clothing on my way to the mosque, everyone on the tube (subway) looks at me funny and gives me wide berth," Reza said. "It's hard to beat the stereotype, but speaking English is probably the most important thing for fitting in. That's why I read as much as I can and try to learn the lingo here."

In Italy's case, there has been a much weaker tradition of immigration and no major Islamic terror attacks. Still, a strong spike in newcomers in recent years — along with the very newness of the immigration phenomenon — has fueled a xenophobia surge and boosted the popularity of the anti-immigrant Northern League, Premier Silvio Berlusconi's main coalition partner.

In 1990, immigrants numbered some 1.14 million out of Italy's then 56.7 million people, or about 2 percent, according to the state statistics bureau, ISTAT. At the start of this year, foreigners living in Italy amounted to 4.56 million of a total population of 60.6 million, or 7.5 percent, with immigrants' offspring accounting for an ever larger percentage of births in Italy.

Amid the trend, Northern League leader Umberto Bossi's influence in government has grown ever stronger, his rhetoric often laced with a racist tinge. Bossi once referred to immigrants as "bingo bongos" and has suggested that migrant smugglers' boats off Italy's shores be fired upon with cannons.

Last year, a Northern League lawmaker proposed extending the language requirement to all non-EU citizens who want to open a store or other business in Italy, but the move died in Parliament.

Bossi "represents the extreme" in stands on immigration, said Manuele Bacci, 38, one of a fourth generation of butchers running a shop in Florence's cavernous San Lorenzo covered market. The other extreme, he said, is absolutely no restrictions.

"We need to take a step toward them and they need to take a step toward us," was Bacci's formula for integration.

But many immigrants say they'll be rejected no matter how hard they try to fit in.

Cojochru, the Moldovan nanny and caregiver, hoped obtaining permanent residence would help her bring her two teen children to Italy; they live with her sister in Moldova, where wages are among the lowest in Europe. She was skeptical that the language requirement would encourage integration.

Italians always "see me as a foreigner," an outsider, despite her years in the country and despite her flawless command of the local language, she said.

Tax my neighbors please !

2011-02-20T07:31:00.004-05:00

.... because I can't bring myself to give to causes I vociferously support and believe in.

The NYTimes publishes in the wealthiest and most liberal area in the country.

Liberals support higher taxes for government programs that help people down on their luck.

While taxes are forced and mandated for everyone unless you can find the right loophole, charitable contributions are voluntary and open to anyone with a liberal view.

$6million from all it's readers after 3 months of daily articles highlighting the plight of individuals down on their luck !?

This isn't enough to run a small social service agency for more than a couple months.

When it comes to pocketbook action, it appears that liberals want others to pay for their programs, via the government,through forced taxes.

February 19, 2011

A Season of Giving Motivates Donors in Greater Numbers

By KARI HASKELL

The 99th New York Times Neediest Cases Fund campaign began Nov. 7 and ended Jan. 30. Daily articles in the newspaper and online offered a window into the lives of New Yorkers coping with poverty and spotlighted how the fund helped ease some of their struggles.

Thanks to money given to the fund, Mary Spencer, who at 102 had outlived her savings, was able to replace worn-out clothing. Patricia Walsh, formerly homeless and barely getting by collecting cans and bottles, bought a bed and a dresser — the first time in her life she had a new bed, she said. Mirna B. López, a Guatemalan refugee who cleans houses for a living, fell behind on her rent after a kidney transplant, but was able to avoid eviction.

As the worst economic slowdown since the Great Depression dragged on, increasing the need for help, there was concern that donations would dry up. But readers responded in greater numbers than the year before. A total of 10,457 donors gave $6,061,024 in the course of the campaign, according to the fund’s accountants. Last year, 10,428 donors contributed $6,280,243.

“We are extremely pleased and honored that our readers have remained so generous,” said Desiree Dancy, the vice president of the New York Times Company Foundation, which administers the fund. “While the dollar amount we received in donations this year was down, the number of online donations increased.”

This year’s total contributions were about 3 percent short of last year’s. Online, 4,689 donations came in, a 13 percent increase from last year’s.

“The percentage of online gifts has climbed to 23 percent of the total, which is remarkable given that many donors have contributed for years by writing a check,” said Cristine Cronin, president of NYCharities.org, which manages online donations for the fund. “Donors clearly feel increasingly confident with the security and ease of Internet giving.”

Readers were particularly moved by an article about Thakane Masondo, an 18-year-old who was living in a homeless shelter while attending high school. Many wrote in, offering not only money but a room in their homes and help applying to college. A filmmaker expressed interest in making a documentary about her.

Alice Kenny, spokeswoman for Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, one of the seven agencies supported by the Neediest Cases Fund, said that thanks to the outpouring of support, Ms. Masondo had found a home in the Riverdale section of the Bronx with a family that rents out rooms in its home to international college students; the family offered her a free room.

Two investment banks, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, continued a tradition of conducting company drives organized by first- and second-year associates. On Feb. 3, the people who led the fund-raising efforts — Matthew Perlman and Caroline McKim Woodworth of Citigroup, and Nat Wells, Matthew T. Healey and Azer Songnaba of Goldman Sachs — presented a total of $286,289 to Ms. Dancy.

The amount was an 81 percent increase from last year’s and the largest sum raised by the banks in any year since the start of their involvement with the Neediest Cases Fund, in 1991. Ms. Dancy thanked the bank representatives and their colleagues for their efforts.

“There was a feeling that everyone was contributing, and that everyone should,” Ms. Woodworth said.

Donations ranged from a few dollars to thousands. An executive at Citigroup matched every dollar raised over $50,000 — excluding his own $25,000 donation. At Goldman Sachs, the company matched employee contributions.

“The articles are the most compelling way to get people to donate,” Mr. Healey said.

Mr. Perlman agreed, saying, “The articles show that you can make a big difference at the margin, with a little bit of money.”

During the campaign, some donors explained what inspired them, including brief notes with their checks or online forms.

Florence Glazer wrote: “Enclosed is a check for $77, $1 for every year of my age. My dad started this with $1, and I am continuing the tradition.”

On NYCharities.org, Susan Glenn, inspired by Luke 12:48, wrote, “To those whom much is given, much is required.”

Larry Mark found an envelope on the street, he said: “I picked it up in curiosity, and it contained a couple hundred dollars in new bills. I contacted two local police precincts, but no one reported the missing money.”

So Mr. Mark gave it to the Neediest Cases Fund.

This year, Alquena Reed was a donor, but in the past, she had been a recipient of Neediest Cases aid. She wrote: “Things were really bad for me. I was told about the charity. They said they could help me. They did.”

Every dollar sent to the fund during the 2010-11 campaign will be divided among seven of New York’s largest charities to provide continued emergency assistance. Profiles of some of those people helped will appear in the 100th campaign.

Objective Journalism - NYTimes on the Juan Williams case

2010-10-22T08:14:00.003-04:00

The NYTimes tries to take a holier-than-thou high moral ground in this brouhaha by defending the purity of true and objective journalism (high on the mountain) versus opinion journalism (languishing in the depths of underground caves).

But this very article makes the point that strictly 'objective' reporting takes a definitive slant continually by its choice of words and the juxtaposition of ideas that are cherry-picked to not-so-subtly make this an opinion piece.

I've added highlights to show where the use of wording turns soft objectivity into strong subjectivity.

By the way, what about shows like PBS's 'Washington Week in Review' with Gwen Ifill ? A panel of 'objective' , 'real' journalists give their opinions (interpretations?) on the week's stories.

When an NPR journalist like Tom Gjelten speaks on this show 'interpreting' news stories of the week, how is it ANY different than when NPR journalist Juan Williams speaks on Fox?

And isn't Mara Laisson, senior correspondent for NPR, also a panelist on the Fox Sunday News program hosted by Chris Wallace? A program that is explicitly defined to interpret and analyze news stories, not report them.

No breach '...in impartiality, a core tenet of modern American journalism ...' with her or Gjelten?

October 21, 2010

Two Takes at NPR and Fox on Juan Williams

By BRIAN STELTER

NPR’s decision on Wednesday to fire Juan Williams and Fox News Channel’s decision on Thursday to give him a new contract put into sharp relief the two forms of journalism that compete every day for Americans’ attention.

Mr. Williams’s NPR contract was terminated two days after he said on an opinionated segment on Fox News that he worried when he saw people in “Muslim garb” on an airplane. He later said that he was reflecting his fears after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks nine years ago.

NPR said on Wednesday night that Mr. Williams’s comments were “inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices.” According to a report in The Los Angeles Times, Roger Ailes, the Fox News chairman, offered Mr. Williams, who was already a paid contributor to Fox, a new three-year contract worth nearly $2 million in total.

After dismissing Mr. Williams, who was one of its senior news analysts, NPR argued that he had violated the organization’s belief in impartiality, a core tenet of modern American journalism.(the reporter feels the need to define 'impartiality' as 'core' to a 'real' News organization, thus setting up for his argument that NPR is 'true' journalism and Fox News is not.) By renewing Mr. Williams’s contract, Fox News showed its preference for point-of-view — rather than the view-from-nowhere — polemics. (He is tarring ALL of Fox News as being 'point of view' journalism even though in the 2nd paragraph the reporter specified that Williams spoke on an 'opinionated segment' program of the channel). And it gave Fox news anchors and commentators an opportunity to jab NPR, the public radio organization that had long been a target of conservatives for what they perceived to be a liberal bias.( He reinforces the 'all of Fox News is opinionated and conservative' point by lumping anchors and commentators together)

Those competing views of journalism have been highlighted by the success of Fox and MSNBC and the popularity of opinion media that beckons some traditional journalists. (here we have a lament that money is corrupting the purity of real journalists That Mr. Williams was employed by both Fox and NPR had been a source of consternation in the past.

Last year, NPR made it known that it did not want Mr. Williams identified as an NPR employee in appearances on “The O’Reilly Factor,” the Fox News program hosted by the conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly.

“This isn’t the first time we have had serious concerns about some of Juan’s public comments,” Vivian Schiller, NPR’s chief executive, wrote in an e-mail to affiliates.

She said that his most recent comments “violated our standards as well as our values and offended many in doing so.” (it is one thing to violate standards and guidelines of an organization, but here she admits that NPR has shared ('our') values, which is an explicit admittance that the organization has a singular point of view and tolerates no diversity from it)Ms. Schiller, the general manager of NYTimes.com before she moved to NPR in 2009, declined an interview request.

Like many other news organizations, NPR expects its journalists to avoid situations that might call its impartiality into question — an expectation written into the organization’s ethics code.(hello Mara Liasson!)

That expectation can erode under television lights and on Twitter. At outlets like NPR, some journalists have found it difficult to not share their opinions, especially when they are speaking in forums that lend themselves to commentary, like “The O’Reilly Factor.”

Kelly McBride, the ethics group leader for the Poynter Institute, a school for journalists, called the Williams case an “object lesson in how different news organizations have different values.” She said the ethics guidelines at many news organizations matched those at NPR.( 'many news organizations' ... implies that 'real' news organizations do this , coming from a Journalism School 'ethics group leader' ... does MANY mean MOST? SOME?)

“If you make some outlandish statement on your Facebook page or at a public event somewhere, you are still representing your newsroom,” she said. “So there are consequences to that.”

The consequences can differ widely, though, depending on the news organization. Mr. Williams is one of just a few prominent liberal contributors at Fox News (hello Mara!), a channel with a bigger bench of conservative contributors.(this is stated - bigger bench of conservative contributors - as a statement of fact, acknowledged as such. Based upon some objective report of these contributors, showing their number and the method used to define them as conservative?) A Fox News spokeswoman declined to comment on Mr. Williams’s new contract. But The Los Angeles Times published a statement from Mr. Ailes, who said: “Juan has been a staunch defender of liberal viewpoints since his tenure began at Fox News in 1997. He’s an honest man whose freedom of speech is protected by Fox News on a daily basis.”

Many prominent conservatives pounced on Mr. Williams’s firing. John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader, told National Review Online that “I think it’s reasonable to ask why Congress is spending taxpayers’ money to support a left-wing radio network — and in the wake of Juan Williams’s firing, it’s clearer than ever that’s what NPR is.”

On the “O’Reilly Factor” broadcast that contained his remarks, Mr. Williams had been set up as the liberal foil. ('set up' ? Williams was duped and didn't understand his role bringing a different perspective in debating issues? And he doesn't have the intellectual strength and capital to respond strongly to O'Reilly? ) After Mr. O’Reilly conveyed to viewers that there was a “Muslim dilemma” in the United States, he asked Mr. Williams to explain, “Where am I going wrong?”

Mr. Williams answered, “I hate to say this to you because I don’t want to get your ego going. But I think you’re right.” He proceeded to talk about being nervous on an airplane that had passengers in “Muslim garb.”

Mr. Williams tempered his remarks, though, by reminding Mr. O’Reilly that all Muslims should not be branded as extremists. “We don’t want, in America, people to have their rights violated, to be attacked because they hear rhetoric from Bill O’Reilly and they act crazy,” Mr. Williams said, and Mr. O’Reilly agreed.

Still, his comments quickly came under fire online. On Wednesday, CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, called on NPR to “address the fact that one of its news analysts seems to believe that all airline passengers who are perceived to be Muslim can legitimately be viewed as security threats.”

Mr. Williams said in an essay published Thursday on FoxNews.com that he was fired “for telling the truth.”

He continued in the essay: “Now that I no longer work for NPR let me give you my opinion. This is an outrageous violation of journalistic standards and ethics by management that has no use for a diversity of opinion, ideas or a diversity of staff (I was the only black male on the air). This is evidence of one-party rule and one-sided thinking at NPR that leads to enforced ideology, speech and writing. It leads to people, especially journalists, being sent to the gulag for raising the wrong questions and displaying independence of thought.”

'For a thousand years ...'

2010-10-20T08:22:00.002-04:00

This article is about old fashioned paper-based college textbooks but a quote from a student at Hamilton College caught my attention .

“The screen won’t go blank,” said Faton Begolli, a sophomore from Boston. “There can’t be a virus. It wouldn’t be the same without books. They’ve defined ‘academia’ for a thousand years.”

'Defined Academia for a thousand years' ??

When was the Gutenberg printing press invented?

Where there any 'colleges' 1000 years ago? If so, how many ?

How long has any kind of formal education been required and commonplace in the West, elementary thru High Scool type education?

The worst part is that the reporter doesn't mention that this statement is either wrong or meant as strong hyperbole. Probably because the reporter didn't pick up on it or it sounded correct to her.

October 19, 2010

In a Digital Age, Students Still Cling to Paper Textbooks

By LISA W. FODERARO

CLINTON, N.Y. — They text their friends all day long. At night, they do research for their term papers on laptops and commune with their parents on Skype. But as they walk the paths of Hamilton College, a poster-perfect liberal arts school in this upstate village, students are still hauling around bulky, old-fashioned textbooks — and loving it.

“The screen won’t go blank,” said Faton Begolli, a sophomore from Boston. “There can’t be a virus. It wouldn’t be the same without books. They’ve defined ‘academia’ for a thousand years.”

Though the world of print is receding before a tide of digital books, blogs and other Web sites, a generation of college students weaned on technology appears to be holding fast to traditional textbooks. That loyalty comes at a price. Textbooks are expensive — a year’s worth can cost $700 to $900 — and students’ frustrations with the expense, as well as the emergence of new technology, have produced a confounding array of options for obtaining them.

Internet retailers like Amazon and Textbooks.com are selling new and used books. They have been joined by several Web services that rent textbooks to students by the semester. Some 1,500 college bookstores are also offering rentals this fall, up from 300 last year. Here at Hamilton, students this year have a new way to avoid the middleman: a nonprofit Web site, created by the college’s Entrepreneur Club, that lets them sell used books directly to one another.

The explosion of outlets and formats — including digital books, which are rapidly becoming more sophisticated — has left some students bewildered. After completing the heavy lifting of course selection, they are forced to weigh cost versus convenience, analyze their own study habits and guess which texts they will want for years to come and which they will not miss.

“It depends on the course,” said Victoria Adesoba, a pre-med student at New York University who was standing outside that school’s bookstore, a powder-blue book bag slung over her shoulder. “Last semester, I rented for psychology, and it was cheaper. But for something like organic chemistry, I need to keep the book. E-textbooks are good, but it’s tempting to go on Facebook, and it can strain your eyes.”

For all the talk that her generation is the most technologically adept in history, paper-and-ink textbooks do not seem destined for oblivion anytime soon.

According to the National Association of College Stores, digital books make up just under 3 percent of textbook sales, although the association expects that share to grow to 10 percent to 15 percent by 2012 as more titles are made available as e-books.

In two recent studies — one by the association and another by the Student Public Interest Research Groups, a national advocacy network — three-quarters of the students surveyed said they still preferred a bound book to a digital version.

Many students are reluctant to give up the ability to flip quickly between chapters, write in the margins and highlight passages, although new software applications are beginning to allow students to use e-textbooks that way.

“Students grew up learning from print books,” said Nicole Allen, the textbooks campaign director for the research groups, “so as they transition to higher education, it’s not surprising that they carry a preference for a format that they are most accustomed to.”

Indeed, many Hamilton students waxed passionate about the weighty tomes they still lug from dorm room to lecture hall to library, even as they compulsively check their smartphones for text messages and e-mails.

“I believe that the codex is one of mankind’s best inventions,” said Jonathan Piskor, a sophomore from North Carolina, using the Latin term for book.

That passion may be one reason that Barnes & Noble College Booksellers is working so hard to market its new software application, NOOKstudy, which allows students to navigate e-textbooks on Macs and PCs. The company, which operates 636 campus bookstores nationwide, including Hamilton’s, introduced the free application last summer in hopes of luring more students to buy its electronic textbooks.

“The real hurdle is getting them to try it,” said Tracey Weber, the company’s executive vice president for textbooks and digital education.

The company is giving away “College Kick-Start Kits” to students who download NOOKstudy in the fall semester, with ramen noodle recipes and a dozen classic e-books like “The Canterbury Tales” and “The Scarlet Letter.” CourseSmart, a consortium of major textbook publishers, is letting students try any e-textbook free for two weeks.

But not every textbook is available in digital or rental format. At Hamilton, for instance, only about one-fifth of the titles are sold as e-textbooks this fall. A stroll through the campus store revealed the price difference. A book on constitutional law, for instance, was $189.85 new, $142.40 used and $85.45 for rent. (Typically, an e-textbook is cheaper than a used book, though more expensive than a rental.)

The expense of college textbooks, which is estimated to have risen four times the inflation rate in recent years, has become such a concern that some politicians are taking up the cause. Last month, Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York urged more college stores to rent books, after a survey of 38 campus bookstores in New York City and on Long Island by his office found that 16 did not offer the option.

On Thursday, students at more than 40 colleges nationwide are planning an Affordable Textbooks Day of Action, organized by the Student Public Interest Research Groups, to encourage faculty members to assign texts that are less expensive, or offered free online.

For now, buying books the old-fashioned way — new or used — prevails. Charles Schmidt, the spokesman for the National Association of College Stores, said that if a campus store sold a new book for $100, it would typically buy the book back for $50 at semester’s end and sell it to the next student for $75.

The buy-back price plummets, however, if the professor drops the book (or edition) from the syllabus or if the bookstore has bought enough books to meet demand. When Louis Boguchwal, a junior at Hamilton who is majoring in economics and math, tried to sell a $100 linear algebra textbook back to the college bookstore, he was offered $15.

“It was insulting,” he said. “They give you next to nothing.”

Thus, the creation of Hamilton’s new nonprofit Web site, getmytextbooks.org. So far, traffic has been light: only about 70 books have been sold this fall. But Jason Mariasis, president of the Entrepreneur Club, said he expected sales to pick up as word spread. The site also lists hundreds of other colleges.

Mr. Begolli, a member of the club, recently sold three German novels for $17 on the site. “If I had sold them back to the bookstore, I would have gotten $7 or $8,” he said. “The bookstore is king when it comes to textbook sales. We felt there should be something for students, by students.”

Yet some students have to go it alone. Rosemary Rocha, 26, an N.Y.U. student pursuing a degree in hospitality and tourism management, tallied up her required reading for the semester: $600. “It’s harsh,” she said. “I’m currently collecting unemployment, so that’s not going to happen.”

Instead, she waits to borrow the few copies her professors leave on reserve at the library, or relies on the kindness of classmates. “My friends will let me borrow their books in exchange for coffee or a slice of pizza,” she said. “I very seldom buy the textbooks, but I’m always like a chicken without a head.”

Jerry Manuel's firing from Mets - A liberal view

2010-10-19T10:12:00.002-04:00

Jerry Manuel was fired 2 weeks back as the manager of the NY Mets baseball team after 2 years of high hopes for the team but resulting with poor results.

A liberal's view of Manuel's management record after 2 years might echo Obama's term as president, except of course that fans are much more demanding for results from sports people than from politicians:

He only had 2 years under his belt
He inherited a mess from the previous manager (i.e. administration)
He is not being given enough time due to racism
While there was a vast increase in spending on players and infrastructure (new stadium) in the two years, there was no corresponding increase in wins or attendance.
Results (a pennant) were promised immediately.
The fans (i.e. taxpayers) were promised no increases in tickets (taxes) because of the spending, but everything from tickets to hot dogs and beer increased (taxes and fees).

These management techniques did not seem to help the outcome:

They hired the best players (Ivy Leaguers) .
Diversity in the management team and the players.

Exception-al Liberal thoughts

2010-10-18T14:37:00.004-04:00

Liberals:

Believe in quotas everywhere EXCEPT at the border.

Are against killing anything, anywhere EXCEPT in the uterus.

Believe in spending on everything EXCEPT Defense.

Are against anyone bearing arms EXCEPT criminals.

Believe women and minorities should have equal representation everywhere EXCEPT death row.

Are for affirmative action in every field EXCEPT the athletic field.

Cause of the forclosure processing mess

2010-10-14T08:00:00.003-04:00

The biggest banks were bailed out by American taxpayers. And when they need to hire people to process their immense backlog of foreclosures where do they go?

Well it seems that banking is more work that Americans won't do . Or can't do. So they are 'forced' to look for these 'special skills' overseas.

Well, that doesn't seem to be working out too well either.

You have to go to the VERY last paragraphs to learn about one of the major causes of the problems currently plaguing the banks foreclosure operations.

They never wanted to hire people to process and manage mortgages or any resultant foreclosures. Now that they had tons of foreclosures and no experienced personnel, what should they do?

Hire the cheapest workers, provide them with minimal training and overwhelm them with work.

A perfect scenario for massive outsourcing, which is what they did:

And even when banks did begin hiring to deal with the avalanche of defaults, they often turned to workers with minimal qualifications or work experience, employees a former JPMorgan executive characterized as the “Burger King kids.” In many cases, the banks outsourced their foreclosure operations to law firms like that of David J. Stern, of Florida, which served clients like Citigroup, GMAC and others. Mr. Stern hired outsourcing firms in Guam and the Philippines to help.

The result was chaos ....

Globalization !

October 13, 2010

Bankers Ignored Signs of Trouble on Foreclosures

By ERIC DASH and NELSON D. SCHWARTZ

At JPMorgan Chase & Company, they were derided as “Burger King kids” — walk-in hires who were so inexperienced they barely knew what a mortgage was.

At Citigroup and GMAC, dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s on home foreclosures was outsourced to frazzled workers who sometimes tossed the paperwork into the garbage.

And at Litton Loan Servicing, an arm of Goldman Sachs, employees processed foreclosure documents so quickly that they barely had time to see what they were signing.

“I don’t know the ins and outs of the loan,” a Litton employee said in a deposition last year. “I’m not a loan officer.”

As the furor grows over lenders’ efforts to sidestep legal rules in their zeal to reclaim homes from delinquent borrowers, these and other banks insist that they have been overwhelmed by the housing collapse.

But interviews with bank employees, executives and federal regulators suggest that this mess was years in the making and came as little surprise to industry insiders and government officials. The issue gained new urgency on Wednesday, when all 50 state attorneys general announced that they would investigate foreclosure practices. That news came on the same day that JPMorgan Chase acknowledged that it had not used the nation’s largest electronic mortgage tracking system, MERS, since 2008.

That system has been faulted for losing documents and other sloppy practices.

The root of today’s problems goes back to the boom years, when home prices were soaring and banks pursued profit while paying less attention to the business of mortgage servicing, or collecting and processing monthly payments from homeowners.

Banks spent billions of dollars in the good times to build vast mortgage machines that made new loans, bundled them into securities and sold those investments worldwide. Lowly servicing became an afterthought. Even after the housing bubble began to burst, many of these operations languished with inadequate staffing and outmoded technology, despite warnings from regulators.

When borrowers began to default in droves, banks found themselves in a never-ending game of catch-up, unable to devote enough manpower to modify, or ease the terms of, loans to millions of customers on the verge of losing their homes. Now banks are ill-equipped to deal the foreclosure process.

“We waited and waited and waited for wide-scale loan modifications,” said Sheila C. Bair, the chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, one of the first government officials to call on the industry to take action. “They never owned up to all the problems leading to the mortgage crisis. They have always downplayed it.”

In recent weeks, revelations that mortgage servicers failed to accurately document the seizure and sale of tens of thousands of homes have caused a public uproar and prompted lenders like Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Ally Bank, which is owned by GMAC, to halt foreclosures in many states.

Even before the political outcry, many of the banks shifted employees into their mortgage servicing units and beefed up hiring. Wells Fargo, for instance, has nearly doubled the number of workers in its mortgage modification unit over the last year, to about 17,000, while Citigroup added some 2,000 employees since 2007, bringing the total to 5,000.

“We believe we responded appropriately to staff up to meet the increased volume,” said Mark Rodgers, a spokesman for Citigroup.

Some industry executives add that they’re committed to helping homeowners but concede they were slow to ramp up. “In hindsight, we were all slow to jump on the issue,” said Michael J. Heid, co-president of at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. “When you think about what it costs to add 10,000 people, that is a substantial investment in time and money along with the computers, training and system changes involved.”

Other officials say as foreclosures were beginning to spike as early as 2007, no one could have imagined how rapidly they would reach their current level. About 11.5 percent of borrowers are in default today, up from 5.7 percent from two years earlier.

“The systems were not ever that great to begin with, but you didn’t have that much strain on them,” said Jim Miller, who previously oversaw the mortgage servicing units for troubled borrowers at Citigroup, Chase and Capitol One. “I don’t think anybody anticipated this thing getting as bad as it did.”

Almost overnight, what had been a factorylike business that relied on workers with high school educations to process monthly payments needed to come up with a custom-made operation that could solve the problems of individual homeowners. Gregory Hebner, the president of the MOS Group, a California loan modification company that works closely with service companies, likened it to transforming McDonald’s into a gourmet eatery. “You are already in chase mode, and you never catch up,” he said.

To make matters worse, the banks had few financial incentives to invest in their servicing operations, several former executives said. A mortgage generates an annual fee equal to only about 0.25 percent of the loan’s total value, or about $500 a year on a typical $200,000 mortgage. That revenue evaporates once a loan becomes delinquent, while the cost of a foreclosure can easily reach $2,500 and devour the meager profits generated from handling healthy loans.

“Investment in people, training, and technology — all that costs them a lot of money, and they have no incentive to staff up,” said Taj Bindra, who oversaw Washington Mutual’s large mortgage servicing unit from 2004 to 2006.

The result was chaos, said Tammie Lou Kapusta, a former employee of Mr. Stern’s who was deposed by the Florida attorney general’s office last month. “The girls would come out on the floor not knowing what they were doing,” she said. “Mortgages would get placed in different files. They would get thrown out. There was just no real organization when it came to the original documents.”

Citigroup and GMAC say they are no longer giving any new work to Mr. Stern’s firm.

In some cases, even steps that were supposed to ease the situation, like the federal program aimed at helping homeowners modify their mortgages to reduce what they owed, had actually contributed to the mess. Loan servicing companies complain that bureaucratic requirements are constantly changed by Washington, forcing them to overhaul an already byzantine process that involves nearly 250 steps.

Ig Nobel suggestions

2010-10-04T09:12:00.002-04:00

These are all legit research projects, not made up.

I'm including this here because I like the winner for 'management' :

MANAGEMENT PRIZE: for demonstrating mathematically that organizations would become more efficient if they promoted people at random.
Alessandro Pluchino, Andrea Rapisarda, and Cesare Garofalo of the University of Catania, Italy

Seems to me that this is probably true for management in large organizations but the idea of random selection can be applied to many other 'competitive' areas.

First, just parse out those without the minimum requirements ( I'm not sure there are ANY for management). Then randomly choose from the remaining pool of 'qualified' candidates.

Should work very well for college admissions whether undergrad or later professional schools (Medical, Law, etc.) and make the process fairer, cheaper and much more simple.

Professional sports drafts? Why not? Just because you didn't attend a big sports school doesn't mean you don't have the skills necessary to be competitive and shouldn't leave you out of consideration.

Should work well for politics, i.e. running for public office. The minimum requirements vary but basically proof of citizenship and sometimes a minimum age. It would

make the process much cheaper
take away the power of incumbency
reduce politics as a lifetime career choice
take away 'inherited, family name' dynasties
make it a true citizen run enterprise

Given the gov't as it is today, could this process possibly create a worse outcome?

Genius or Goofball? It's Both at the 2010 Ig Nobel Awards
By Alec Liu
Published September 30, 2010 | FoxNews.com

Having trouble breathing? Try riding a roller-coaster.

A pair of Dutch researchers who discovered that the symptoms of asthma can be treated with a roller-coaster ride are among this year’s winner of the Ig Nobel awards, the annual tribute to scientific research that seems wacky -- but also has real world applications.

"The awards are for science that makes people laugh, then think," Gareth Jones, professor of biology at the University of Bristol told FoxNews.com. Jones' team took the biology prize for documenting fellatio in fruit bats.

"It is the first documented case of fellatio by adult animals other than humans to my knowledge, and opens questions about whether female animals can manipulate males via sexual activity," he said.

Other winners honored Thursday at Harvard University’s Sanders Theater included scientists who perfected a method to collect whale snot using a remote-control helicopter; researchers who demonstrated mathematically that organizations would become more efficient if they promoted people at random; and in homage to the global financial crisis, the executives of various financial institutions including Goldman Sachs, AIG, and Merrill Lynch.

The 19th annual event centered on the theme of “bacteria,” and was produced by the scientific humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research, featured actual Nobel Laureates handing out prizes -- one of which was the prize in the Win-a-Date-With-a-Nobel-Laureate Contest.
Most winners, despite the silliness, were enthusiastic about their award and saw the value in the light-hearted event.

“A bit jet-lagged but I’m very excited,” beamed Ilja van Beest of Tilburg University, who had just flown into Boston from the Netherlands. Along with his colleague Simon Rietyeld of the University of Amsterdam, the pair were honored for their work researching unusual cures for asthma.

“Of course, it’s important to spread news of your research," van Beest told FoxNews.com. "One of the parts I like of being a scientist is to learn -- but it’s also to make people laugh. Make them laugh first and then make them think,” van Beest continued, quoting the Ig Nobel motto.
Still, this is more than simply a laughing matter, their's is real science with real implications. “We've been doing research for 10-15 years now,” van Beest pointed out. Nor is it a gimmick. The beauty of the roller-coaster is that it provides a controlled setting where the entire spectrum of emotional stress is experienced, negative immediately before the ride, and positive after.

“The lungs are difficult because you can’t just look down and see if your tubes are constricted,” van Beest said. “You have to rely on how you feel so a lot of our research has been looking at various ways people try to understand their symptoms.”

Other researchers were equally excited by the event.

Mark Fricker received an award for using slime mold to determine the optimal routes for railroad tracks -- and was delighted to be included in the event.

“It’s a great way of getting some public interest in science in a very accessible format," Fricker told FoxNews.com. "That’s quite a challenge nowadays because lots of areas are very complex, so to present it in an entertaining fashion while be grounded in very real science is quite an achievement.”

"Our work showed that even simple organisms like slime molds have things to teach us," he said.

From the world of physics, Lianne Parkin, Sheila Williams, and Patricia Priest of the University of Otago, New Zealand, were feted for demonstrating that, on icy footpaths in wintertime, people slip and fall less often if they wear socks on the outside of their shoes. Parkin explained to FoxNews.com the genesis for the unusual bit of research.

"We live in the south of New Zealand in a very hilly city (we have the steepest street in the world!), and intermittent icy conditions in winter can create major havoc," she said. "As for the award, we're delighted that something we did for fun has been recognized in this way.”
The complete list of 2010 Ig Nobel award winners:

ENGINEERING PRIZE: for perfecting a method to collect whale snot, using a remote-control helicopter.
Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse and Agnes Rocha-Gosselin of the Zoological Society of London, UK, and Diane Gendron of Instituto Politecnico Nacional, Baja California Sur, Mexico

MEDICINE PRIZE: for discovering that symptoms of asthma can be treated with a roller-coaster ride.
Simon Rietveld of the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and Ilja van Beest of Tilburg University, The Netherlands

TRANSPORTATION PLANNING PRIZE: for using slime mold to determine the optimal routes for railroad tracks.
Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Atsushi Tero, Seiji Takagi, Tetsu Saigusa, Kentaro Ito, Kenji Yumiki, Ryo Kobayashi of Japan, and Dan Bebber, Mark Fricker of the UK

PHYSICS PRIZE: for demonstrating that, on icy footpaths in wintertime, people slip and fall less often if they wear socks on the outside of their shoes.
Lianne Parkin, Sheila Williams, and Patricia Priest of the University of Otago, New Zealand

PEACE PRIZE: for confirming the widely held belief that swearing relieves pain.
Richard Stephens, John Atkins, and Andrew Kingston of Keele University, UK

PUBLIC HEALTH PRIZE: for determining by experiment that microbes cling to bearded scientists.
Manuel Barbeito, Charles Mathews, and Larry Taylor of the Industrial Health and Safety Office, Fort Detrick, Maryland

ECONOMICS PRIZE: for finding ways to maximize financial gain and minimize financial risk for the world economy -- or for a portion thereof.
The executives and directors of Goldman Sachs, AIG, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, and Magnetar

CHEMISTRY PRIZE: for disproving the old belief that oil and water don't mix.
Eric Adams of MIT, Scott Socolofsky of Texas A&M University, Stephen Masutani of the University of Hawaii, and BP

MANAGEMENT PRIZE: for demonstrating mathematically that organizations would become more efficient if they promoted people at random.
Alessandro Pluchino, Andrea Rapisarda, and Cesare Garofalo of the University of Catania, Italy

BIOLOGY PRIZE: for scientifically documenting fellatio in fruit bats.
Libiao Zhang, Min Tan, Guangjian Zhu, Jianping Ye, Tiyu Hong, Shanyi Zhou, and Shuyi Zhang of China, and Gareth Jones of the University of Bristol, UK

Where's Waldo

2010-09-24T08:44:00.001-04:00

.... can you spot anything of particular interest in this short article?

There is a hidden 'Waldo' in plain sight. See my answer below ....

September 24, 2010

Netflix Signs Expanded License Agreement With NBC

By REUTERS

Filed at 7:54 a.m. ET

BANGALORE (Reuters) - Netflix Inc said it signed an expanded license agreement with NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution that will allow its subscribers to watch content from some of NBC Universal's popular cable channels.

The multi-year deal, which kicks off next week, allows the streaming of prior season cable and broadcast TV series new to Netflix members.

Netflix subscribers will be able to watch content like "Saturday Night Live," "Friday Night Lights," "Monk" and "Battlestar Galactica," the company said.

General Electric, which owns NBC Universal media business, is in the process of selling a majority stake to cable operator Comcast Corp.

(Reporting by Jennifer Robin Raj in Bangalore)

Answer: This article was filed from Bangalore India, also the home of most of the high-tech industry in India.

So what, you say? Well it would make sense if the companies involved with this announce were Indian ones, but NetFlix and NBC are US-based (although they almost certainly have parts of their business done from India).

So what else would explain a Bangalore byline for this ? Obviously Reuters has created a major 'journalism hub' in Bangalore, most probably for the major cost-savings (i.e. people costs). So not only are the 'old media' journalism outlets in the West dying but any journalism that will remain in the future will be all be done overseas.

Any job which strictly deals with 'information' can and will be done overseas.

They came first for the factory jobs,
and I didn't speak up because I didn't have a factory job.

Then they came for the help desk jobs,
and I didn't speak up because I didn't have a help desk job.

Then they came for the information technology jobs,
and I didn't speak up because I didn't have an information technology job.

Then they came for my job
and by that time there were no other alternative jobs available.

The cost of connectedness

2010-02-09T08:18:00.002-05:00

... is even greater in Connecticut!

An offhand statement toward the end of the article (written by a woman reporter) exhibits a strong whiff of male condescension ... she writes :

' ...Her husband, Mike Hughes, 37, a project manager, has both an Xbox and a Wii game console, but, in an effort to keep their bills down, she would not let him sign up for any gaming subscription services....'

Now imagine a male reporter stating:

'.... he would not let her sign up for any gaming subscription services.... '

That would never sneak by an editor , particularly at the NYTimes.

A (not so) subtle feminist slant in an otherwise 'objective' (??) article.

It could've been written something like '... they decided not to sign up ....' without the need to imply who wields the power in the household.

February 9, 2010

As Data Flows In, the Dollars Flow Out

By JENNA WORTHAM

John Anderson and Sharon Rapoport estimate they spend $400 a month, or close to $5,000 a year, keeping their family of four entertained at home.

There are the $30-a-month data plans on their BlackBerry Tour cellphones. The Roanoke, Va., couple’s teenage sons, Seth and Isaac, each have $50 subscriptions for Xbox Live and send thousands of texts each month on their cellphones, requiring their own data plans.

DirecTV satellite service, high-speed Internet access and Netflix for movie nights add more.

“We try to be aware of it so it doesn’t get out of control,” said Mr. Anderson, who with his wife founded an advertising agency. “But, yeah, I would say we’re pretty wired.”

It used to be that a basic $25-a-month phone bill was your main telecommunications expense. But by 2004, the average American spent $770.95 annually on services like cable television, Internet connectivity and video games, according to data from the Census Bureau. By 2008, that number rose to $903, outstripping inflation. By the end of this year, it is expected to have grown to $997.07. Add another $1,000 or more for cellphone service and the average family is spending as much on entertainment over devices as they are on dining out or buying gasoline.

And those government figures do not take into account movies, music and television shows bought through iTunes, or the data plans that are increasingly mandatory for more sophisticated smartphones.

For many people, the subscriptions and services for entertainment and communications, which are more often now one and the same, have become indispensable necessities of life, on par with electricity, water and groceries. And for every new device, there seems to be yet another fee. Buyers of the more advanced Apple iPad, to cite the latest example, can buy unlimited data access for $30 a month from AT&T even if they already have a data plan from the carrier.

“You don’t really lump these expenses into a discretionary category,” said Robert H. Frank, an economics professor at the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. “As the expectation of connectedness increases, it’s what is expected for people to be functional in society.”

Americans are transforming their homes into entertainment hubs, which is driving up the amount of money they spend, said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

“More people are creating experiences in their homes that are very similar to the kinds of public experiences they enjoy in movie theaters and concert halls,” he said. “Our homes are bristling with technology.”

Most people think home entertainment is cheaper. “Every time I want to go to Fenway Park or see the Killers in concert, I’m paying $50 to $100 each time. But once you build and install that home system, its basically pennies per minute of enjoyment,” said James McQuivey, an analyst with Forrester Research.

But they do not take into consideration the long-term economic effect — both in the maintenance and operational costs — of the devices they purchase. “A subscription model is the perfect drug,” Mr. McQuivey said. “People see $15 per month as a very low amount of money but it quickly adds up.”

Kate Goodall, for example, a 32-year-old director of fund-raising for museums, in Alexandria, Va., said the high costs of home cable and other subscriptions began to eat into her budget. “We saw the writing on the wall in terms of the cost,” she said. “It was getting ridiculous.”

She and her husband disconnected their cable and home phone line so they could more easily afford frequent dinners out and swimming, ballet and art lessons for their two small sons. Instead, they catch shows like “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” free at Hulu.com and rely on their cellphones as their primary phone lines.

Her husband, Mike Hughes, 37, a project manager, has both an Xbox and a Wii game console, but, in an effort to keep their bills down, she would not let him sign up for any gaming subscription services.

Consumers will have to make tough choices like Ms. Goodall and her husband as the next generation of connected devices — TVs and various mobile devices — that have their own data plan or subscription service come to market. The cable TV companies battle the phone companies by bundling cable, landline phone and Internet services, but most wireless carriers do not yet have any programs to bundle the data plans and offer discounts for myriad mobile devices.

Ms. Goodall says she dreads the day when her sons, 1 and 4, get bitten by the texting craze, as her 12-year-old nephew has.

“We’ll probably have to sign our sons up for cellphones even sooner than we’d like because we don’t have a home phone,” she said. “I’m not looking forward to dealing with that set of issues.”

You can't fool Mother Nature

2010-02-07T09:14:00.003-05:00

If politicians are not subject to the rule of law and taxes, then why shouldn't they think that they are above the rules of nature?

- FOXNews.com

- February 06, 2010

Daschle Gets Stuck in D.C. Snowstorm

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle was caught on video Friday pushing his stranded car in the monster snowstorm pummeling the Mid-Atlantic

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, whose nomination to President Obama's Cabinet was derailed by tax problems last year, was caught on video Friday pushing his stranded car in the monster snowstorm pummeling the Mid-Atlantic.

Washington, D.C., affiliate Fox 5 was covering the likely record-setting blizzard when it spotted Daschle, whose car was stuck along the roadway in northwest Washington. One of the station's photographers helped Daschle push the car.

D.C. officials have begged residents to stay indoors, but Daschle apparently didn't get the memo. Most people couldn't drive anywhere by Saturday because their cars and the roads were buried.

Online Doctor help

2009-12-21T08:49:00.002-05:00

.... from Bangalore ?

Well, this technology, if eventually accepted, will quickly revert to using overseas physicians.

And this is the beginning of the end for American physicians just as using overseas workers was the beginning of the end for high tech jobs here.

Congress is now taking over the national health-care system and they are looking to slash high costs and wastes and programs like this claim to decrease costs. It will be embraced by the national health care provider.

Doctor's earning power will decrease significantly over time time and job openings dwindle just as it has for information technology workers.

How much of doctor visits concern mundane things like sniffles and fever? A great deal.

Add doctors to the list of professions you don't want your children to pursue.

Will anyone in the US profit from this? The large firms that provide this service will make a bundle.

Another indication that soon all jobs that can be done overseas WILL be done overseas.

December 21, 2009

The Virtual Visit May Expand Access to Doctors

By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER

SAN FRANCISCO — Americans could soon be able to see a doctor without getting out of bed, in a modern-day version of the house call that takes place over the Web.

OptumHealth, a division of UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest health insurer, plans to offer NowClinic, a service that connects patients and doctors using video chat, nationwide next year. It is introducing it state by state, starting with Texas, but not without resistance from state medical associations.

OptumHealth believes NowClinic will improve health care by ameliorating some of the stresses on the system today, like wasted time dealing with appointments and insurance claims, a shortage of primary care physicians and limited access to care for many patients.

But some doctors worry that the quality of care that patients receive will suffer if physicians neglect one of the most basic elements of health care: a physical exam.

“This is a pale imitation of a doctor visit,” said David Himmelstein, a primary care doctor and associate professor at Harvard Medical School. “It’s basically saying, ‘We’re going to give up any pretense of examining the patient and most of the nonverbal clues that doctors use.’ ”

Others, including Rashid Bashshur, director of telemedicine at the University of Michigan Health System, say online medicine is a less expensive way of providing routine care.

“The argument that you need the ‘laying on of hands’ to practice medicine is an old and tired argument that simply has no credibility,” he said. “There are two constants in medicine: change and resistance to change.”

Christopher Crow, a family physician in Plano, Tex., who used the system during its test period, said, “NowClinic gives you the ability to have that gut feel if something is wrong, in tone or facial expression or body language, that you have when you walk in the door with a patient.”

Many patients who do not have primary care physicians nearby use the emergency room for routine problems. Wait times for patients needing immediate attention have increased 40 percent, in part because of overcrowding, according to a study by Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Health Alliance.

In Texas, 180 counties do not have enough physicians, 70 percent of patients cannot obtain a same-day visit with their primary care doctor, and 79 percent of emergency room visits are for routine problems, according to OptumHealth.

“We are, through this technology, replenishing the pool of physicians and making them available to patients,” said Roy Schoenberg, chief executive of American Well, which created the system that OptumHealth is using.

For $45, anyone in Texas can use NowClinic, whether or not they are insured, by visiting NowClinic.com. Doctors hold 10-minute appointments and can file prescriptions, except for controlled substances. Eventually they will be able to view patients’ medical histories if they are available.

The introduction of NowClinic will be the first time that online care has been available nationwide, regardless of insurance coverage.

American Well’s service is also available to patients in Hawaii and Minnesota, through Blue Cross Blue Shield, and to some members of the military seeking mental health care, through TriWest Healthcare Alliance.

Some hospitals and technology companies provide similar services on a smaller scale, including Cisco, the networking equipment maker, which uses its videoconferencing technology to remotely connect employees with doctors. It is working with UnitedHealth Group to offer the service more broadly.

The service has encountered resistance in states where it is already available. Texas law requires that before doctors consult with patients or prescribe medicine online or over the phone, they form a relationship through means like a physical examination.

The Texas Medical Board, which regulates doctors in the state, is evaluating its telemedicine policies in light of new technologies. But Mari Robinson, executive director of the board, said that an online or telephone exam was inadequate if doctors and patients had not met in person and was “not allowed under our rules.”

After American Well’s service began in Hawaii last year, lawmakers passed legislation that allowed doctors and patients to establish a relationship online, though the Hawaii Medical Association opposed the bill.

“From our perspective, we still are a little bit concerned that a relationship can be established online with no prior relationship,” said April Troutman Donahue, the association’s executive director.

American Well and OptumHealth predict that health care professionals will adapt. “This is new technology, so you have a lot of code written that doesn’t take these medical technologies into account,” said Rob Webb, chief executive of OptumHealth Care Solutions.

Many patients seem ready to embrace the new technology. In a recent study, a Harvard research team at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center found that patients were comfortable with computers playing a central role in their health care and expected that the Web would substitute for face-to-face doctor visits for routine health problems.

Keeping Foreign Labor out

2009-12-21T08:27:00.002-05:00

The open border USA?

Not quite.

How about India, one of the very countries that has exported labor to the US over the past 15 years, allowing it to become an 'economic miracle' :

Vietnam and India are among the nations that have moved to impose new labor rules for foreign companies and restrict the number of Chinese workers allowed to enter, straining relations with Beijing.

December 21, 2009

Uneasy Engagement

China’s Export of Labor Faces Scorn

By EDWARD WONG

TRUNG SON, Vietnam — It seemed as if this village in northern Vietnam had struck gold when a Chinese and a Japanese company arrived to jointly build a coal-fired power plant. Thousands of jobs would start flowing in, or so the residents hoped.

Four years later, the Haiphong Thermal Power Plant is nearing completion. But only a few hundred Vietnamese ever got jobs. Most of the workers were Chinese, about 1,500 at the peak. Hundreds of them are still here, toiling by day on the dusty construction site and cloistered at night in dingy dormitories.

“The Chinese workers overwhelm the Vietnamese workers here,” said Nguyen Thai Bang, 29, a Vietnamese electrician.

China, famous for its export of cheap goods, is increasingly known for shipping out cheap labor. These global migrants often work in factories or on Chinese-run construction and engineering projects, though the range of jobs is astonishing: from planting flowers in the Netherlands to doing secretarial tasks in Singapore to herding cows in Mongolia — even delivering newspapers in the Middle East.

But a backlash against them has grown. Across Asia and Africa, episodes of protest and violence against Chinese workers have flared. Vietnam and India are among the nations that have moved to impose new labor rules for foreign companies and restrict the number of Chinese workers allowed to enter, straining relations with Beijing.

In Vietnam, dissidents and intellectuals are using the issue of Chinese labor to challenge the ruling Communist Party. A lawyer sued Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung over his approval of a Chinese bauxite mining project, and the National Assembly is questioning top officials over Chinese contracts, unusual moves in this authoritarian state.

Chinese workers continue to follow China’s state-owned construction companies as they win bids abroad to build power plants, factories, railroads, highways, subway lines and stadiums. From January to October 2009, Chinese companies completed $58 billion of projects, a 33 percent increase over the same period in 2008, according to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.

From Angola to Uzbekistan, Iran to Indonesia, some 740,000 Chinese workers were abroad at the end of 2008, with 58 percent sent out last year alone, the Commerce Ministry said. The number going abroad this year is on track to roughly match that rate. The workers are hired in China, either directly by Chinese enterprises or by Chinese labor agencies that place the workers; there are 500 operational licensed agencies and many illegal ones.

Chinese executives say that Chinese workers are not always less expensive, but that they tend to be more skilled and easier to manage than local workers. “Whether you’re talking about the social benefits or economic benefits to the countries receiving the workers, the countries have had very good things to say about the Chinese workers and their skills,” said Diao Chunhe, director of the China International Contractors Association, a government organization in Beijing.

But in some countries, local residents accuse the Chinese of stealing jobs, staying on illegally and isolating themselves by building bubble worlds that replicate life in China.

“There are entire Chinese villages now,” said Pham Chi Lan, former executive vice president of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “We’ve never seen such a practice on projects done by companies from other countries.”

At this construction site northeast of the port city of Haiphong, an entire Chinese world has sprung up: four walled dormitory compounds, restaurants with Chinese signs advertising dumplings and fried rice, currency exchanges, so-called massage parlors — even a sign on the site itself that says “Guangxi Road,” referring to the province that most of the workers call home.

One night, eight workers in blue uniforms sat in a cramped restaurant that had been opened by a man from Guangxi at the request of the project’s main subcontractor, Guangxi Power Construction Company. Their faces were flushed from drinking Chinese rice wine. “I was sent here, and I’m fulfilling my patriotic duty,” said Lin Dengji, 52.

Such scenes can set off anxieties in Vietnam, which prides itself on resisting Chinese domination, starting with its break from Chinese rule in the 10th century. The countries fought a border war in 1979 and are still engaged in a sovereignty dispute in the South China Sea.

Vietnamese are all too aware of the economic juggernaut to their north. Vietnam had a $10 billion trade deficit with China last year. In July, a senior official in Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security said that 35,000 Chinese workers were in Vietnam, according to Tuoi Tre, a progressive newspaper. The announcement shocked many Vietnamese.

“The Chinese economic presence in Vietnam is deeper, more far-reaching and progressing faster than people realize,” said Le Dang Doanh, an economist in Hanoi who advised the preceding prime minister.

Conflict has broken out between Vietnamese and Chinese laborers. In Thanh Hoa Province in June, a drunk Chinese worker from a cement plant traded blows with the husband of a Vietnamese shopkeeper. The Chinese man then returned with 200 co-workers, igniting a brawl, according to Vietnamese news reports.

One reason for the tensions, economists say, is that there are plenty of unemployed or underemployed people in this country of 87 million. Vietnam itself exports cheap labor; a half-million Vietnamese are working abroad, according to a newspaper published by the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor.

Populist anger erupted this year over a contract given by the Vietnamese government to the Aluminum Corporation of China to mine bauxite, one of Vietnam’s most valuable natural resources, using Chinese workers. Dissidents, intellectuals and environmental advocates protested. Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, the 98-year-old retired military leader, wrote three open letters criticizing the Chinese presence to Vietnamese party leaders.

No other government in the world so closely resembles that of China as Vietnam’s, from the structure of the Communist Party to economic policies and media controls. Vietnamese leaders make great efforts to ensure that China-Vietnam relations appear smooth. So over the summer, the central government shut down critical blogs, detained dissidents and ordered Vietnamese newspapers to cease reporting on Chinese labor and the bauxite issue.

But in a nod to public pressure, the government also tightened visa and work permit requirements for Chinese and deported 182 Chinese laborers from a cement plant in June, saying they were working illegally.

Vietnam generally bans the import of unskilled workers from abroad and requires foreign contractors to hire its citizens to do civil works, though that rule is sometimes violated by Chinese companies — bribes can persuade officials to look the other way, Chinese executives say.

At the Haiphong power plant, the Vietnamese company that owns the project grew anxious this year about the slow pace of work. It sided with the Chinese managers in pushing government officials to allow the import of more unskilled workers.

The Chinese here are sequestered in ramshackle dorm rooms and segregated by profession: welders and electricians and crane operators.

A poem written on a wooden door testifies to the rootless nature of their lives: “We’re all people floating around in the world. We meet each other, but we never really get to know each other.”

Federal running of Medicare

2009-12-16T10:55:00.002-05:00

... and they want to use this 'expertise' to run ALL healthcare .

Note the very last paragraph that shows the expertise and efficiency of the current Medicare program and how it is managed by the Federal Gov't :

The raids came a week after a report that Miami-Dade County got more than half a billion dollars from Medicare in home health care payments intended for the sickest patients in 2008, more than the rest of the country combined, even though only 2 percent of those patients nationwide live there.

December 16, 2009

26 Arrested in Three States in Medicare Fraud Schemes

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Federal agents arrested 26 suspects in three states on Tuesday, including a doctor and nurses, in a crackdown on Medicare fraud totaling $61 million.

Arrests in three separate cases in Brooklyn, Detroit and Miami included a Florida doctor accused of running a $40 million home health care scheme that falsely listed patients as blind diabetics so he could bill for twice-daily nurse visits.

The Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services said 32 indicted suspects lined up bogus patients and otherwise billed Medicare for unnecessary medical equipment, physical therapy and infusions for H.I.V.

The doctor in Miami, Dr. Fred E. Dweck, along with 14 people with whom he worked, was accused in an indictment of running a scam to tap a Medicare program that pays high rates to care for the sickest patients.

Dr. Dweck referred about 1,250 Medicare beneficiaries for expensive and unnecessary home health and therapy services, the indictment said, and bribed the owners of two clinics in Miami to join the scam. He also faked medical certifications, according to the indictment.

A telephone listing for Dr. Dweck could not be found.

Also arrested in Miami was Yudel Cayro, owner of Courtesy Medical Group. He is accused of stealing millions of dollars from Medicare.

“No matter what type of fraud is committed, there is one common denominator and that denominator is greed,” said Lanny Breuer, an assistant attorney general. “Medicare fraud is not a victimless crime. It hurts every American taxpayer by raising the cost of health care.”

The raids came a week after a report that Miami-Dade County got more than half a billion dollars from Medicare in home health care payments intended for the sickest patients in 2008, more than the rest of the country combined, even though only 2 percent of those patients nationwide live there.

Forgiven

2009-12-16T08:04:00.002-05:00

A feel good story.

Finally many 'victims' of predatory lending are getting the relief they 'deserve'.

At the bottom of the article they discuss the case of Rosie Brooks.

She bout her house for $38,000 so the mortgage was originally less than this. She then used her house as an ATM, she ' ....had refinanced the loan a couple of times..' , so that eventually her mortgage had swelled to $42,000.

So what does she get for this behavior ? 'The bank forgave her entire debt in exchange for a one-time payment of just $3,000.'

So this is a feel good story?

Well , for these fortunate few no doubt.

Not so for the vast majority of mortgage holders who did not get involved with the re-mortgage-a-round ride of the last 10 years.

I have not re-mortgaged my house numerous times, but I would like some 'relief' from my mortgage payments also.

Fat chance.

They system rewards the abusers. And those who stay the straight-and-narrow actually pay for the abusers, i.e. the bank gets the money to 'forgive' from other depositers and honest loan keepers.

Extreme modifications: 2% mortgages

By Les Christie, staff writerDecember 16, 2009: 5:51 AM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- At 8 a.m., homeowner Rodney Wynn was drowning under his $1,800-per-month, 13.4% interest rate mortgage. But by 5 p.m., he had found some relief: a 4.7% loan with a $970 monthly payment.

Wynn, a program director for a youth home in North Carolina, is just one of a growing number of homeowners getting dream workouts on their mortgages. Some are even getting sweet 2% deals.

Rosie Brooks had her $48,000 mortgage forgiven in exchange for a one-time $3,000 payment.

Nearly 80% of all loan modifications resulted in lower payments in the second quarter (the latest figures available), according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Office of Thrift Supervision. That's up from just over 50% three months earlier. Still, just a paltry 4% of all homeowners in need of workouts are receiving them.

When loans are made affordable, borrowers are less likely to default. A year after modifications, according to the OCC report, just 34% of borrowers whose loan payments had been reduced 20% or more had redefaulted compared with 63% of borrowers whose payments had been left unchanged.

"We're hearing there's a lot more give from lenders," said Rick Sharga, a spokesman for RealtyTrac, the online marketer of foreclosed properties. "It often makes sense for the banks to take anything they can get."

Wynn was able to get his modification at a "Save the Dream" event offered by the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA) in New York City last Friday.

Lenders from nearly all the major banks and servicers were in attendance and promising to restructure loans based on what borrowers could afford. As a result, many homeowners walked in with their mortgage problems and walked out with solutions.

In fact, according to Bruce Marks, NACA's founder, 40% of attendees left with decisions the same day. About 80% are expected to receive workouts within weeks. His organization has already hosted about 400,000 borrowers at more than a dozen of these events.

5 who are contemplating walking away from their homes.

The most common restructuring seemed to be one that reduced interest rates to the minimum of 2% for the entire life of the loan. That's partially because NACA has agreements with all the top lenders to reduce interest rates to as low as 2% if that's what it takes to make loans affordable.

For example, Californians Steve and Elena Servi received a 2% fixed-rate loan from Wells Fargo that replaced the 6.75% adjustable rate mortgage on their Rowland Heights house.

"We had a jumbo loan and we thought no one would work with us," said Elena.

But it's in the bank's self interest to salvage deals -- even if it means slashing payments -- because the alternative, foreclosure, can cost them more.

"We're getting a lot of borrowers looking for a better interest rate," said Jason Ferebee, a Wells Fargo Community Relations exec who was supervising his company's operation at the NACA event.

He explained that his auditors send each applicant through a kind of flow chart, or "waterfall" as he called it, of possible fixes. It starts with seeing if they fit the guidelines for a Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) workout. If borrowers don't qualify, then the bank will go through a series of its own programs, ticking down the list to more radical cuts until they reach one that's affordable for the borrower.

At that point, the lender then decides whether it's more profitable to offer that workout or take the borrower to foreclosure. Most times these days, they try harder to make the modification work; foreclosures are simply too costly.

In the case of the Servis, their house had lost perhaps 40% of its value since they purchased it five years ago. Repossessing the home would have cost Wells Fargo more than $100,000 in lost value alone, plus the legal expenses, commissions, taxes and other expenses the bank would have incurred.

"I'd say we restructure loans for close to half the borrowers we see here," said Ferebee.

But wait, there's more

More severely stressed borrowers in many hard-hit areas have gotten even more radical deals. There are even some who are having their debts forgiven entirely.

"The interest rates they're offering [delinquent borrowers] are a lot lower than they used to be," said Tanya Davis, a foreclosure prevention counselor for Empowering and Strengthening Ohio's People (ESOP) in Cleveland. "They cut them to 0% for three years, then 2% for a year, then 4%, capping out at 5%. I have a case where they lowered the interest rate to zero for the entire life of the loan."

Lenders are very reluctant to repossess properties in the worst hit parts of cities such as Cleveland, according to Jim Rokakis, treasurer of Cuyahoga County, where Cleveland is located. "Rather than going to a sheriff's sale, some banks are just giving back the houses," he said.

Rosie Brooks, a retired hairdresser, has been paying off her house for more than 20 years, but it hasn't been easy since one of her daughters came down with leukemia 10 years ago.

"She was very sick and that cost me every dollar I had," she said. "I got behind."

She had paid $38,000 for the house and had refinanced the loan a couple of times. By last year, her mortgage balance was more than $42,000. She no longer works and is dependant on Social Security. The payments became impossible to afford.

She contacted ESOP, and her counselor, Scott Rose, knew her lender was unusually sympathetic. Three weeks later, Rose was able to tell Brooks that he had gotten her a workout -- and it was a real dream.

The bank forgave her entire debt in exchange for a one-time payment of just $3,000, which Rose was able to obtain through a loan from the county's foreclosure-prevention program.

Why was the bank so generous?

"To some extent, there an altruistic component to it," said Rose. "Mostly though, it's because it's in the bank's financial interest."

Foreign invasion

2009-11-17T08:25:00.003-05:00

... of US colleges.

A good news story in this harsh recession with millions out of work indefinitely.

Finally!

Reports like these implicitly assume that Americans who read them are nitwits.

Well, that's a bit harsh. They probably just assume that the readers are graduates of US colleges, and perhaps with no better reasoning or reading skills than the people who write these articles.

Take this quote from the story :

“International education is domestic economic development,” Mr. Goodman said. “International students shop at the local Wal-Mart, rent rooms and buy food. Foreign students bring $17.8 billion to this country

They spend almost $18Billion at Wal-Mart ? Or any significant amount of $18Billion there?

I don't think so. The vast majority of this 'domestic economic development' is tuition and college costs. This is a boon for colleges as these students typically pay full freight.

Again, this is another example of journalists not being required to take a math course in their own college educations.

$18 billion divided by 670,000 foreign students is just $27,000 each. Most of this is tuition that goes to colleges. Where do they 'rent rooms and buy food' ? Wow, what a coincidence, again at colleges mostly.

At State schools , collecting $27K a year from a student is a pretty good deal, much higher than what they can charge locals from their states. A good business model.

The old phrase, 'What's good for General Motors is good for the USA' for this article has morphed into 'What's good for American Colleges is good for the USA'. The former was untrue chutzpah as is the the latter now.

And this quote is also inadvertently funny ... more Chinese coming here and shopping at Wal-Mart , where they can buy virtually all Chinese-made goods. How's that for spurring the US economy!

By the way, haven't we been told that all US products are inferior to overseas ones without exception?

Why are US colleges deemed a better product than their foreign 'competitors'?

If they were better then wouldn't these US colleges also be producing some home-grown 'talent' , i.e. graduates ?

Then how come we have such an urgent need to take their graduates to fill our 'skilled' jobs here at home?

Many overseas Universities are 2nd rate ?

Then how come we have such an urgent need to take their graduates to fill our 'skilled' jobs here at home?

November 16, 2009

China Is Sending More Students to U.S.

By TAMAR LEWIN

American universities are enrolling a new wave of Chinese undergraduates, according to the annual Open Doors report.

While India was, for the eighth consecutive year, the leading country of origin for international students — sending 103,260 students, a 9 percent increase over the previous year — China is rapidly catching up, sending 98,510 last year, a 21 percent increase.

“I think we’re going to be seeing 100,000 students from each for years to come, with an increasing share of them being undergraduates,” said Peggy Blumenthal, executive vice president of the Institute of International Education, which publishes the report with support from the State Department.

Over all, the number of international students at colleges and universities in the United States increased by 8 percent to an all-time high of 671,616 in the 2008-9 academic year — the largest percentage increase in more than 25 years, according to the report.

With the current recession, the influx of international students has been especially important to the American economy, according to Allan E. Goodman, president of the institute.

“International education is domestic economic development,” Mr. Goodman said. “International students shop at the local Wal-Mart, rent rooms and buy food. Foreign students bring $17.8 billion to this country. A lot of campuses this year are increasing their international recruitment, trying to keep their programs whole by recruiting international students to fill their spaces.”

The number of international students exceeded the past peak enrollment year, 2002-3, by 14.5 percent. In 2008-9, undergraduate enrollment rose 11 percent, compared with only a 2 percent increase in graduate enrollment.

In China, that shift has been quite sharp. Last year, China sent 26,275 undergraduates and 57,451 graduate students to the United States — compared with 8,034 undergraduates and 50,976 graduate students five years earlier.

Ms. Blumenthal said the growing share of undergraduates would change the face of the Chinese students’ presence in the United States.

“It used to be that they were all in the graduate science departments, but now, with the one-child policy, more and more Chinese parents are taking their considerable wealth and investing it in that one child getting an American college education,” she said. “There’s a book getting huge play in China right now explaining liberal arts education.”

The book, “A True Liberal Arts Education,” by three Chinese undergraduates from Bowdoin College, Franklin & Marshall College and Bucknell University, describes the education available at small liberal arts colleges, and the concept of liberal arts, both relatively unknown in China.

Meanwhile, many large public universities are devoting new resources to building up their share of international undergraduates. The State University of New York, for example, recently made Mitch Leventhal the vice chancellor for global affairs. Mr. Leventhal, who at the University of Cincinnati helped build a network of ties abroad, expects to increase undergraduate recruiting, especially in India and China.

“There’s growing disposable income in China, and not enough good universities to meet the demand,” he said. “And in China, especially, studying in the United States is a great differentiator, because when students get home, they speak English.”

Although the report tracks only the 2008-9 numbers, a smaller survey by the institute last month found that over all, the increase in international students seems to be continuing, with China remaining strong. Of the institutions surveyed this fall, 60 percent reported an increase in Chinese students, and only 11 percent a decline. In contrast, the number of institutions reporting increases in their enrollment of Indian students equaled the number reporting declines.

The survey also found continuing growth this year in the number of students from the Middle East, and continuing declines in the numbers from Japan.

Another indication that ...

2009-11-12T08:31:00.003-05:00

... an elementary-level math course is not a requirement for a Journalism degree.

'Sergeant Todd, 42, is a native of California who spent most of his adult life as a military police officer in the Army. He left the military police after 25 years to join the civilian force at Fort Hood. Like most members of the military, he has moved around a lot, serving at four bases in the United States and two in Germany.'

Since he is working on the civilian force and had a 25 year career already we can assume that he has worked over 25 years.

Being 42 years old that would mean 42 -25 = 17. He joined the military at 17. If he has worked at least one year as a civilian then he would have had to join the military at 16.

It's not legal to join up before age 18.

What about his birth certificate? That would prove his age.

Well if his commander-in-chief doesn't have to produce one why would a former troop have to?

November 12, 2009

At Fort Hood, Witness Credits Second Officer

By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.

KILLEEN, Tex. — Sgt. Kimberly D. Munley has been applauded as a hero across the nation for shooting down Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan during the bloody rampage at Fort Hood last week. The account of heroism, given by the authorities, attracted the attention of newspapers, the networks and television talk shows.

But the story of how the petite police officer and the accused gunman went down in an exchange of gunfire does not agree with the account of an eyewitness who had gone to the base’s processing center, where the shooting occurred, to conduct business before being deployed.

The witness, who asked not to be identified, said Major Hasan wheeled on Sergeant Munley as she rounded the corner of a building and shot her, putting her on the ground. Then Major Hasan turned his back on her and started putting another magazine into his semiautomatic pistol.

It was at that moment that Senior Sgt. Mark Todd, a veteran police officer, rounded another corner of the building, found Major Hasan fumbling with his weapon and shot him.

How the authorities came to issue the original version of the story, which made Sergeant Munley a national hero for several days and obscured Sergeant Todd’s role, remains unclear. (Military officials also said for several hours after the shooting that Major Hasan had been killed, although he had survived.)

Six days after the deadly shooting rampage at a center where soldiers were preparing for deployment, the military has yet to put out a full account of what happened.

At a news conference outside the post on Wednesday, Lt. Col. John Rossi refused to take questions about who shot Major Hasan or why the initial reports said it had been Sergeant Munley rather than Sergeant Todd.

“These questions are specific to the investigation and I am not going to address that,” Colonel Rossi said.

Public affairs officials also declined to make Chuck Medley, the director of emergency services at the post, available for questions. It was Mr. Medley, who oversees the post’s civilian police and fire departments, who gave the first account of how Sergeant Munley stopped the gunman.

On Tuesday night, Lt. Col. Lee Packnett, of the Army’s Office of the Chief of Public Affairs at the Pentagon, declined to say whether it was Sergeant Todd who had shot Major Hasan. “It could have been, but the final outcome will be determined by the results of the ballistics tests.”

In an interview on Wednesday, Sergeant Todd’s wife, Lisa, said he had asked the Army to protect his identity in the immediate aftermath of the shootings. Her husband did not consider himself to be the real hero of the day, she said. “They were in this together,” she said.

Neither Sergeant Todd nor Sergeant Munley were made available by the military for this article, but on Wednesday on the “Oprah Winfrey Show,” they offered their first public comments on the shooting. They did not give a detailed chronology of what happened, nor did they say who had fired and hit the suspect.

Both are members of the civilian police force at Fort Hood. Sergeant Todd said on the talk show that he and Sergeant Munley had arrived at the Soldier Readiness Processing Center in separate squad vehicles about the same time.

Sergeant Todd acknowledged that he had played a major role in bringing the violence to an end. He said that he had fired at the suspect, kicked his weapon away and placed him in handcuffs. It was the first time in his 25 years in law enforcement and the military, Sergeant Todd said, that he had used his weapon.

“I just relied back on my training,” Sergeant Todd said. “We’re trained to shoot until there is no longer a threat. And once he was laying down on his back, his weapon just fell into his hand and I’m, like, ‘O.K., now’s the time to rush him and secure him.’ ”

The confusion over what happened and the quickness of the military to label someone a hero seemed reminiscent of the case of Pfc. Jessica Lynch in 2003, when the Army initially reported Private Lynch had been captured in Iraq after a Rambo-like performance in which she emptied her weapon and was wounded in battle. It was later learned she had been badly hurt in a vehicle accident during an ambush and was being well cared for by the Iraqis.

On Friday, the day after the Fort Hood shooting, Mr. Medley said Sergeant Munley had encountered Major Hasan, pistol in hand, chasing down a bleeding soldier. It was 1:27 p.m. She fired at him, he turned, they rushed at each other firing and both fell, Mr. Medley said.

“He turned and charged her rapidly firing, and she did what she was trained to do,” Mr. Medley said that day. He added, “She is absolutely a hero.”

Several hours later, at a late-night news conference on the post, Colonel Rossi expanded upon the story slightly in speaking to reporters. He said Sergeant Todd had arrived at the scene in the middle of the gunfight and had also fired his weapon.

The eyewitness, however, offered a different account. He said he was walking in a roadway between the main building, known as the Sportsdome, and five smaller buildings. Major Hasan was headed toward the main building, the witness said, when Sergeant Munley came around the corner of a smaller building. Major Hasan wheeled on her and shot her several times, the witness said. It was unclear whether she squeezed off a shot or not, but she fell over backward, disabled with wounds in her legs and one of her wrists, the witness said.

Major Hasan then turned his back on her and began to shove another magazine into his pistol. He did not appear wounded, the witness said. A few seconds later, Sergeant Todd came around another corner of the same building. He raised his weapon and fired several times at Major Hasan, who pitched over backward and stopped moving.

“He shot her, turned away from her and was reloading, when he was shot,” said the witness, who was nearby.

On the Winfrey show, Sergeant Munley, 35, said the incident was confusing and chaotic. “There were many people outside pointing to where this individual was apparently located,” she said. “When I got out of my vehicle and ran up the hill, that’s when it started getting bad and we started encountering fire.”

Sergeant Todd, 42, is a native of California who spent most of his adult life as a military police officer in the Army. He left the military police after 25 years to join the civilian force at Fort Hood. Like most members of the military, he has moved around a lot, serving at four bases in the United States and two in Germany.

Ms. Todd said her husband did not seem upset in the wake of shooting Major Hasan.

“He say’s he’s O.K.,” she said. “And I have to take him at his word.”

Good news for GM and America?

2009-11-12T08:06:00.002-05:00

Not Quite.

'The Buick Regals sold in the U.S. will be built in Opel's factory in Russelsheim, Germany.'

Well, ok, manufacturing is a dirty business we'll do the higher-end work.

Note Quite.

'In Europe, where most of the engineering work on the car was done, it's sold as the Opel Insignia. The Insignia car was named 2009 European Car of the Year.'

So they have re-badged an Opel designed and built car and will sell it here.

That should help our economy and American workers.

An 'American' car company, GM, getting back on it's feet!

Those Toyotas and Hondas on American streets, many of them are made in the USA.

But they are 'foreign' companies.

Labels, they're a funny thing. A Buick that's not an American car and a Honda that is .

GM brings back the Buick Regal

The new model, which is slated to be unveiled in the U.S. next month, is already a hit in Europe and China.

By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNNMoney.com senior writer

Last Updated: November 12, 2009: 3:59 AM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- General Motors will bring back the Regal name on a new Buick car set to be unveiled at the Los Angeles Auto Show next month.

The 2011 Buick Regal will be smaller and sportier than the new Buick LaCrosse that went on sale this year. The new Regal is expected to hit the market in the spring.

"The Regal is the next chapter in Buick's transformation, and will expand the portfolio to include a sport sedan." said Susan Docherty, general manager of Buick GMC. Docherty is also in charge of sales for GM.

To attract more fuel-conscious consumers, the Regal will be offered with only four-cylinder engines, either turbocharged or not. The base engine will be a 182-horsepower 2.4. liter engine. A 220-horsepower 2.0-liter engine will become available in late summer. The car is expected to get 20 mpg in city driving and 30 on the highway with the base engine, and 18 and 29 mpg, respectively, with the turbocharged engine.

Turbocharged versions will also have suspension settings that the driver can select, so that ride quality and handling can be tuned for either sportier driving or more comfort. The suspension system will also automatically adapt to driving style.

A proven winner

The Regal will be new to the American market but it's been on sale in Europe and China for more than a year.

In Europe, where most of the engineering work on the car was done, it's sold as the Opel Insignia. The Insignia car was named 2009 European Car of the Year.

In China, where it was introduced at the end of 2008, more than 64,000 have been sold, according to GM.

The Buick brand's enormous popularity in China was a major reason that GM cited when it decided to keep the brand even as it shut down or spun off brands like Hummer, Saturn and Pontiac.

GM recently back-tracked on a decision to sell off a major part of its European Opel division. Opel has become an important engineering and design center for small and mid-sized front-wheel-drive cars within GM.

The Buick Regals sold in the U.S. will be built in Opel's factory in Russelsheim, Germany.

We'll do the high-end stuff here

2009-10-31T08:48:00.004-04:00

This is another example that puts the lie to the idea that lower-end work would (and should) migrate to lower-cost countries.

“The Riviera concept made us realize how small the world was,” Mr. Welburn, the design vice president, said. “It’s not east; it’s not west. It’s Buick.”

It has an interior done by a Chinese design lab and an exterior adapted by Americans from a Chinese design, all riding on what Mr. Federico calls “a heavily European-influenced chassis system.”

If they are to get the production duties and now they are doing the design also, what is left?

The engineering and electronics? Also done 'there'.

Accounting, bookkeeping ? Moving 'there'?

Executive suite? Surely set to move 'there' should the bailout resuscitate the company.

Lastly, taxes paid here? Sure to move 'there' when the company moves it's headquarters and incorporates overseas.

November 1, 2009

Design | Buick LaCrosse

How New Buicks Took Shape in China

By CLIFFORD GHETTI

THE idea of creating a new Buick in a design studio in China, as General Motors has done with the 2010 LaCrosse, is not as loopy as it might sound. Buicks have a certain cachet in China, dating back some eight decades to when the emperor bought one.

But today’s commercial imperative is more compelling than nostalgia: sales of Buicks in China first outpaced sales in the United States in 2006, and the margin is considerable today. For the first nine months of 2009, for instance, Buick sold 312,798 vehicles in China; in the United States, it sold 72,389.

In 1997 General Motors established two joint ventures with the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation in China. One was for manufacturing. The other venture, for design and engineering, is the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center. The center has done the engineering to adapt various G.M. global models for the Chinese market.

It was logical, then, to expect that the Chinese designers and engineers would eventually take the lead in developing a new vehicle for both markets. That became a reality in July 2006 when Ed Welburn, G.M.’s vice president for global design, gave the Shanghai center an assignment to develop a design study for introduction at the 2007 Shanghai auto show.

The design study would be a modern-day version of the Riviera, which in its 1963 version was a trend-setting personal luxury coupe with crisply chiseled surfaces inspired by vintage Rolls-Royces. After the Shanghai debut, the 2007 Riviera concept was not forgotten; its design language, drawn from Buick history and Chinese culture, became the basis for another concept, the Invicta of 2008, as well as the production 2010 LaCrosse.

Under the guidance of Min Cao, lead exterior designer for the Riviera concept, the Pan Asia team looked to the Buick Y-Job concept of 1938, designed by Harley Earl, and to classic Buicks of the ’50s and ’60s. Three signature elements were distilled from those decades: the waterfall grille, the portholes and a “sweep-spear” design line along the side.

The low, wide grille of the Y-Job, a stark contrast to the tall, narrow radiator grilles of that era — probably influenced by the pioneering Lincoln Zephyr — set the stage for the 1942 Buick’s thick convex vertical bars just above the front bumper, a theme continued through 1954. When the vertical bar theme was revived in the 1990s, the previous semi-elliptical form became a full ellipse and moved up the car’s face. A 2004 concept, the Vélite, moved it farther up and wrapped it over the leading edge of the hood, creating a true waterfall form. It was this design that was applied to the Riviera concept.

Portholes appeared in 1949 and were part of Buick styling through 1957, appearing occasionally after that. Usually they were on the side of the fender and were called ventiports; in theory, at least, they vented warm air from under the hood. The Riviera concept moved them to the upper surface of the hood — an extension of the front light clusters.

The sweep-spear styling accent was both a body contour that provided emphasis above the front and rear wheels and a diving chrome accent line that followed those forms. It faded from favor after 1958 on the mainstream models but was resurrected with the 1963 Riviera.

Drawing from Chinese cultural history as well, exterior designers looked to the yuan bao, a gold ingot with convex and concave surfaces, which inspired them to develop similar forms on the car, especially where the roof joined the rear deck and spoiler lip.

Early design sketches by Nenghua Liu, lead interior designer of the Riviera concept, showed a wraparound treatment that had no discernible start or finish. It was an attempt to provide a sense of sanctuary, a place where occupants would feel relaxed and tranquil. A theme of earth and water was adopted for the colors and textures, and avoided hard, aggressive forms. A jadelike material on backlighted interior surfaces was included to signify the importance of that stone in Chinese culture.

“The Riviera concept made us realize how small the world was,” Mr. Welburn, the design vice president, said. “It’s not east; it’s not west. It’s Buick.”

Making clear what the future held for the Riviera’s design, Mr. Welburn continued, “The Riviera communicates the global design vocabulary of the Buick brand and sets the stage for General Motors’ design, engineering and manufacturing centers to work together on the next generation of Buick midsize luxury cars.”

That foretold the path from the Riviera concept to the 2010 LaCrosse. Joining the Pan Asia team in that project were designers at the Warren, Mich., technical center and chassis and body engineers in Rüsselsheim, Germany.

Using virtual reality technology that permitted 3-D visualization of proposed designs, the widely scattered designers took styling themes developed for the coupe body of the Riviera concept and applied them to a four-door sedan based on the new midsize car architecture developed for Opel’s flagship, the Insignia. The Riviera’s pair of gullwing doors gave way to four conventional doors.

The sedan was revealed at the Beijing auto show in 2008 as the Invicta concept. Other than a different front fascia, it was pretty much the 2010 LaCrosse that made its debut at the 2009 Detroit show.

The exterior of the LaCrosse clearly carries design themes drawn from the Riviera. It has a design line that runs along the top of the body side and around the car and is said to have been inspired by Chinese ribbon dancing. It also carries forward the sweep-spear tradition for Buick. Most of the Riviera’s exterior forms have been squared up slightly for a more efficient use of space.

November 1, 2009

Behind the Wheel | 2010 Buick LaCrosse

A Buick With Higher Aspirations

By CHRISTOPHER JENSEN

AS if the world needed more proof that General Motors’ stars were out of alignment, the company managed to introduce some of its best cars — true world-class competitors — just before it tumbled into the disgrace of Chapter 11 bankruptcy. G.M. finally found the magic formula just as the momentum from decades of mediocrity carried it over the edge.

The latest example of this belated excellence is the 2010 Buick LaCrosse, which joins other top-notch latecomers — like the Buick Enclave, the Cadillac CTS, the GMC Acadia and the Chevrolet Malibu and Traverse — in the newly shrunken universe of G.M. dealer showrooms.

If your forehead crinkles in mystification at the name LaCrosse, allow me to explain. It is Buick’s midsize front-drive sedan, now available with an all-wheel-drive option. But forget the old car, which was a vehicular nonentity. The new model is quite different, and for a good reason.

“LaCrosse plays a huge role in terms of changing the way people think of the Buick brand,” said Craig Bierley, Buick’s product marketing director.

The LaCrosse was an international effort with new mechanical underpinnings that G.M. calls its “midsize global platform.” Developed in Europe, it was first used for the Opel Insignia, voted the 2009 Car of the Year by European auto writers.

But Jim Federico, G.M.’s global vehicle line executive for midsize cars, says the LaCrosse is not a rebadged Insignia with a green card in the glovebox. It has an interior done by a Chinese design lab and an exterior adapted by Americans from a Chinese design, all riding on what Mr. Federico calls “a heavily European-influenced chassis system.”

The 2010 LaCrosse is about the same size as its predecessor, but the look is new. One interesting element is that Buick’s signature “portholes” are on the hood, facing up, rather than on the fenders. Mr. Federico said this was no manufacturing mistake, that putting them on the side would have disrupted the design. “It broke up the car,” he said. “It was not flowing. You had lost the harmony.”

The cabin has a lovely flowing theme that manages to look fresh but not quirky. Many surfaces and panels are soft. The front seats are comfortable, and the back seat has gained about three inches of legroom, a huge increase. There’s enough room for a six-foot passenger to be comfortably seated behind a six-foot driver. Since the LaCrosse is also being built and sold in China — where the big back seat is expected to make it a midsize limo for capitalistic Communists — G.M. had the interior done by the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center, a joint venture with the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation.

My biggest complaint about the interior: there are no trays on which something can be kept in view and easily retrieved.

The 13-cubic-foot trunk provides reasonable storage, although it is smaller — by three cubic feet — than the old model’s.

Buick has decided that one of its brand characteristics will be hushed motoring. Even on the highway there is almost no wind noise. The sound that does intrude tends to come up from the road.

The LaCrosse comes with all the important safety equipment, from electronic stability control to side-impact air bags. After crash-testing the LaCrosse, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety declared it a “top safety pick.”

Mr. Bierley, the marketing director, says the LaCrosse is aimed at buyers in their late 40s and 50s. “The people that we are hoping to attract do not want a soft, cushy ride,” he said. “They do not want to feel every bump in the road, but they want to be connected to the driving experience.”

The LaCrosse team managed that tricky compromise. On a rough surface, the suspension deflects all but the worst impacts. The body is also solid and shake-free. Upward body movements are well controlled, which keeps the LaCrosse from feeling floaty, like so many Buicks of yesteryear.

To my knowledge nobody has ever accurately used “agile” and “Buick” in the same sentence, and though the thought crossed my mind I am reluctant to do so here. But for a front-drive two-ton vehicle, the LaCrosse is surprisingly quick to respond and feels nicely connected to the driver, although the steering could use a little more feel.

Two months ago, Mark LaNeve, at the time G.M.’s vice president for United States sales, said quality issues at the assembly plant in Kansas City, Kan., were holding up delivery of the LaCrosse. In an e-mail message, Randal Fox, a Buick spokesman, said, “The issues are minor (mainly fit and finish), but we want to make sure the cars are right before they’re shipped.” Last week, Mr. Fox said full-speed production had resumed by the end of September.

The midgrade LaCrosse, the CXL, has a 255-horsepower, direct-injection 3-liter V-6 and a 6-speed automatic. The transmission’s gear ratios were well chosen, assuring a quick response and strong acceleration under all conditions. The transmission is also smart enough that midway through a slow turn, just when the driver is ready to accelerate, it immediately and smoothly slips down a couple of gears.

Cruising at 65 miles per hour in sixth gear, the engine works at a relaxed, quiet and fuel-efficient 1,400 r.p.m. The federal mileage rating is 17 miles per gallon city and 26 m.p.g. highway. That is less than the 2009 model, which got 17 m.p.g. in town and 28 on the highway with a 3.8-liter V-6 and a 4-speed automatic. But that engine had 55 less horsepower and was propelling a vehicle 500 pounds lighter.

The fanciest LaCrosse, the CSX, comes with a 280-horsepower 3.6-liter direct-injection V-6, also with the 6-speed automatic. Oddly, its 17/27 m.p.g. rating gives it a 1 m.p.g. highway fuel economy advantage over the smaller engine.

Late this year, in an unusual move for a near-luxury brand, Buick will offer a direct-injection 4-cylinder (2.4 liters, 182 horsepower) as the standard engine in the base-level CX. Mr. Federico says that version is expected to go from zero to 60 m.p.h. in 9.2 seconds and deliver 20/30 m.p.g. That car is expected to cost slightly less than the current CX, which has the 3-liter and a base price of $27,835.

The CXL starts at $30,395 and offers all-wheel drive for an additional $2,175. The CXS is $33,765 and up.

I tested a CXL, which is expected to account for half of LaCrosse sales. Options like a navigation system, heated and cooled front seats and a fancy stereo brought the sticker price to $35,915. What one gets for that money is a near-luxury sedan with a distinctive style that is also interesting to drive. It recognizes that while baby boomers are getting older, they still want a connection with their cars.

The LaCrosse also means good news for the bigger picture. Not only should it help to end Buick’s serial identity crisis, but its underlying structure will be used on a fistful of other G.M. vehicles, including a new Regal to be introduced next year. That bodes well for a company that just limped out of Chapter 11 and is hoping its next chapter will be a happier one.

Economics writers

2009-10-02T10:37:00.002-04:00

.... don't need to take any courses in logic obviously:

WASHINGTON – The unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent in September, the highest since June 1983, as employers cut far more jobs than expected.

The report is evidence that the worst recession since the 1930s .....

If this is the highest unemployment rate since 1983, which by implication is the last time it was this high or higher yet, then how come the current recession is then compared to the 1930's ?

Wouldn't this then be the worst recession since 1983 ? (unemployment in the 1930's peaked around 25%) .

By using this incorrect comparison the writer is being subtly sympathetic to the current Federal administration implying that it is struggling with an economic situation unseen since the great depression.

And therefore we should cut it some slack, not blame the current administration's effort and allow for more time for the economy to unwind.

But the very first two lines cited above put the lie to this comparison.

The writer uses false logic, but can the reader see through this ?

Usually not. People read 'trusted sources' with a low skepticism radar and accept the 'straight reporting'.

The straight reporting is then referenced elsewhere where it becomes more an 'accepted fact'.

Jobless rate reaches 9.8 percent in September

By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, AP Economics Writer Christopher S. Rugaber, Ap Economics Writer 17 mins ago

WASHINGTON – The unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent in September, the highest since June 1983, as employers cut far more jobs than expected.

The report is evidence that the worst recession since the 1930s is still inflicting widespread pain and underscores one of the biggest threats to the nascent economic recovery: that consumers, worried about job losses and stagnant wages, will restrain spending. Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the nation's economy.

The Labor Department said Friday that the economy lost a net total of 263,000 jobs last month, from a downwardly revised 201,000 in August. That's worse than Wall Street economists' expectations of 180,000 job losses, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.

The unemployment rate rose from 9.7 percent in August, matching expectations.

"The labor market is still going backwards," economist Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors, wrote in a note to clients.

The report also points to an uneven economic rebound, analysts said.

"We remain convinced that we are in the early stages of an economic recovery," said Michelle Meyer, an economist at Barclays Capital. But today's report "suggests the recovery will be bumpy in the beginning."

If laid-off workers who have settled for part-time work or have given up looking for new jobs are included, the unemployment rate rose to 17 percent, the highest on records dating from 1994.

According to a separate report Friday, U.S. factory orders fell in August by the largest amount in five months.

The Commerce Department said demand for manufactured goods dropped 0.8 percent, much worse than the 0.7 percent gain that economists had expected. The August decline reflected plunging demand for commercial aircraft, a category that surged in July.

The weak reports sent the stock market down in morning trading. The Dow Jones Industrial average fell 49 points, while broader indexes also declined.

More than a half-million unemployed people gave up looking for work last month. Had they continued searching, the official jobless rate would have been higher.

The number of people out of work for six months or longer jumped to a record 5.4 million, and they now make up almost 36 percent of the unemployed — also a record.

All told, 15.1 million Americans are now out of work, the department said. And more than 7.2 million jobs have been eliminated since the recession began in December 2007.

Many analysts expect the economy grew at a healthy clip in the July-September quarter, technically ending the recession, but few think the recovery will be strong enough to lower the jobless rate. Most economists expect the rate to top 10 percent and keep climbing.

The economy has received a boost from the Cash for Clunkers auto rebate program and other government stimulus efforts, but many economists believe that growth will slow in the current quarter and early next year as the impact of those programs fade.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Thursday that even if the economy were to grow at a 3 percent pace in the coming quarters, it would not be enough to quickly drive down the unemployment rate. Bernanke said the rate is likely to remain above 9 percent through the end of 2010.

Besides the sagging jobs market, other potential obstacles to a smooth recovery include wary consumers, the troubled commercial real estate market, and a tight lending environment for individuals and businesses, said Eric Rosengren, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

"These challenges will likely make the recovery rather restrained by historical standards, with subdued levels of spending and lending continuing to hold back a more rapid recovery," Rosengren said in a speech in Boston on Friday.

Against that backdrop, key monetary and fiscal policy supports will need to be keep in place to help foster a recovery, Rosengren said.

Hourly earnings rose by a penny last month, while weekly wages fell $1.54 to $616.11, according to the government data.

The average hourly work week fell back to a record low of 33 in September. That figure is important because economists are looking for companies to add more hours for current workers before they hire new ones.

The uncertainty that surrounds the recovery has made employers reluctant to hire. The Business Roundtable, a group of CEOs from large corporations, said earlier this week that only 13 percent of its members expect to increase hiring over the next six months.

While job losses have slowed since the first quarter of this year when they averaged 691,000 a month, the cuts actually worsened last month in many sectors compared with August.

Construction jobs fell by 64,000, more than the 60,000 eliminated in August. And service sector companies cut 147,000 jobs, more than double the 69,000 in the previous month. Retailers lost 38,500 jobs, compared to less than 9,000 in August.

Government jobs fell 53,000, the report said, with local governments cutting the most.

Temporary help agencies eliminated 1,700 jobs, down from the previous month, but still a sign of labor market weakness. Economists see temporary jobs as a leading indicator, as employers are likely to hire temp workers before permanent ones.

President Barack Obama said in a speech earlier this week that his $787 billion stimulus package and other efforts have "broken our economic freefall," though he acknowledged the labor market hasn't improved.

Republicans charge that continued job losses are evidence that the stimulus was an expensive failure.

Graduate Level bullying

2009-10-02T09:21:00.002-04:00

You need to the next to the last paragraph to determine what types of 'disability' are mostly targeted. This information should be at the beginning of the article.

I was curious what types of disabled are targeted. Are these cowardly criminals targeting paraplegics? Or perhaps the blind?

No, not those :

The study found that people with cognitive disabilities such as mental retardation, developmental disabilities and cerebral palsy represented the largest group of victims.

Bullying is preying on the weak and bullies in schools pick on those who they see as having an emotional makeup that will preclude them from standing up to the aggression. So the bully can get both his reward such as money or favors and also he can act out some level of physical aggression.

People who suffer from mental disabilities are also perceived as most likely not to resist. And as they become adults trying to live on their own or have some independence they are open to mor opportunities to become targets for these same predators.

A study should be done on the reverse side of this, i.e. who are the types of people who commit violent acts against mentally disabled people?

The profile that will undoubtedly emerge will be people who were bullies when they were young and have now graduated to more serious violent bullying as they got older.

Study: Disabled more likely to be victims of violent crime

Story Highlights
Study: Young, middle-age disabled people more likely to be victimized
Many of the crimes were committed by people who didn't know victims, study finds
Study: People with cognitive disabilities represented largest group of victims

By Terry Frieden
CNN Justice Producer

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- People with disabilities are 50 percent more likely to be victims of violent crimes than are people without disabilities, according to a government study released Thursday.

The first national study of its kind found that a wide range of disabled people -- including blind, deaf, developmentally disabled, and others with physical and mental limitations -- were victims of assaults, rapes and robberies in 716,000 cases in 2007.

The study by the U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics said instances of violence against disabled people occurred overall 1½ times the rate of those without disabilities, but the numbers varied by age group.

The most vulnerable groups were disabled people ages 12 to 19 and 35 to 49, for whom victimization occurred at nearly twice the rate of non-disabled persons.

Michael Rand, chief of victimization research for the Bureau of Justice Statistics, did not speculate on the reasons for the findings.

"It's hard to say," Rand said. "We didn't try to get at motivations."

Rand, a co-author of the study, said many of the crimes were committed by people who did not know their victims. Forty percent of the crimes against disabled male victims were committed by strangers versus 45 percent against those without disabilities.

The difference for females was greater: 34 percent of disabled females were victimized by strangers versus 24 percent for women without disabilities.

The study found that people with cognitive disabilities such as mental retardation, developmental disabilities and cerebral palsy represented the largest group of victims.

Simple assaults accounted for about two-thirds of the crimes against disabled people in the study, which tallied 476,000 simple assaults, 114,000 aggravated assaults, 79,000 robberies, and 47,000 rapes or sexual assaults.

2009-09-10T09:48:00.003-04:00

They are pitching this as a somewhat 'strong' positive development.

Now I wasn't a math major but I can figure out percentage changes, which obviously business reporters cannot.

The 'rolling 4-week average' of claims fell from 572,750 to 570,000 ... 'more than expected!!!!' .

This is less than 1/2 of 1% .

If Claims continue at this 'more than expected!!!!' rate :
- every 2 months it'll be 1% better
- it'll be 6% better within a year
- it'll take 4-8 years to cut the Claims rate in half

Assuming that there are always some number of Claims even during good times and maybe 280K Claims per week is 'normal', then this sounds like a pretty long recession ahead of us.

Granted this decrease should greatly accelerate over the course of the next 12-18 months based on historical records from previous recessions. Hopefully.

The news media slants this minimal change as a great positive rather than strictly reporting the numbers and letting the reader determine the significance.

Damn the objectivity, full speed ahead.

Jobless claims fall more than expected

Initial filings for unemployment insurance slip by 26,000 to 550,000. Continuing claims also drop.

By Julianne Pepitone, CNNMoney.com staff reporter

Last Updated: September 10, 2009: 9:12 AM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The number of Americans filing for initial unemployment insurance fell last week, and ongoing claims also dropped, the government said Thursday.

There were 550,000 initial jobless claims filed in the week ended Sept. 5, down 26,000 from a revised 576,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said in a weekly report.

A consensus estimate of economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected 560,000 new claims.

The 4-week moving average of initial claims was 570,000 down 2,750 from the previous week's revised average of 572,750.

"We're still talking about declining at a slower pace, not outright job growth," said Tim Quinlan, analyst at Wells Fargo, who noted initial claims were at their lowest level since July.

Quinlan added that claims levels are well off the highs seen earlier this year amid mass layoffs, but they remain "roughly double what they would be in an expansionary economic environment."

Continuing claims: The government said 6,088,000 people filed continuing claims in the week ended Aug. 29, the most recent data available. That's down 159,000 from the preceding week's revised 6,247,000 claims.

The 4-week moving average for ongoing claims fell by 37,750 to 6,182,500, down from the prior week's revised average of 6,220,250.

The initial claims number identifies those filing for their first week of unemployment benefits. Continuing claims reflect people filing each week after their initial claim until the end of their standard benefits, which usually last 26 weeks.

The figures do not include those who have moved to state or federal extensions, nor people whose benefits have expired.

State-by-state data: A total of six states reported a decline in initial claims of more than 1,000 for the week ended Aug. 29, the most recent data available. Claims in Michigan fell the most, by 1,915.

Conversely, five states said that claims increased by more than 1,000. New York reported the most new claims at 4,546, which a state-supplied comment said was due to more layoffs in the transportation and service sectors.

Outlook: "In the short term, [claims] may give up some ground, but we probably have turned a corner," Quinlan said.

Wells Fargo estimates the recession ended in July, he said, but the labor market will likely not recover until the second quarter of 2010. Even when some signs of recovery are evident, "it will take a ton" to improve the unemployment rate, he added.

"It doesn't mean the economy overall is [still] in greater trouble, but it lags overall recovery," Quinlan said.

Initial claims will probably fall within a range of 500,000 and 600,000 through the end of 2009, Quinlan said.

"[Filings] could even fall below the 500,000 mark," Quinlan said. "That's optimistic, but it's possible."

Volunteer

2009-09-07T08:54:00.003-04:00

The meaning of 'volunteer' must have changed lately, at least at the NYTimes, as evidenced by this paragraph :

His savings are gone. He lives with Ms. Olinger, who makes $10 an hour as a volunteer coordinator at a food pantry, Harvest Food and Outreach Center, where they also get groceries every week. It is her salary that pays their rent.

From this article :

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/07/us/07worker.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp

Am I a volunteer at my job? Well, I voluntarily go in most work days and I voluntarily collect my paycheck even though I have other options such as being out-of-work and and without any income.

Yes I am a volunteer worker!

Our partners in 'Free trade'

2009-07-14T08:12:00.002-04:00

China has built the world’s largest solar panel manufacturing industry by exporting over 95 percent of its output to the United States and Europe. But when China authorized its first solar power plant this spring, it required that at least 80 percent of the equipment be made in China.

The U.S. led the effort to bring China into the WTO because of their economic power but also supposedly because of their pledge to respect free and open trade.

Apparently 'free and open trade' only applies to the West's end of trade.

Globalization will bring the world together, but for economic warfare ?

July 14, 2009

Drawing Critics, China Seeks to Dominate in Renewable Energy

By KEITH BRADSHER

BEIJING — When the United States’ top energy and commerce officials arrive in China on Tuesday, they will land in the middle of a building storm over China’s protectionist tactics to become the world’s leader in renewable energy.

Calling renewable energy a strategic industry, China is trying hard to make sure that its companies dominate globally. Just as Japan and South Korea made it hard for Detroit automakers to compete in those countries — giving their own automakers time to amass economies of scale in sheltered domestic markets — China is shielding its clean energy sector while it grows to a point where it can take on the world.

Steven Chu, the American energy secretary, and Gary Locke, the commerce secretary, are coming here to discuss clean energy and global warming with Chinese leaders, and to see if progress can be made toward getting China to agree to specific targets for reductions in greenhouse gases. Agreement proved elusive during the Group of 8 summit meeting last week in Italy.

But Mr. Chu and Mr. Locke arrive as Western companies, especially Europeans, are complaining increasingly about Beijing’s green protectionism.

When the Chinese government took bids this spring for 25 large contracts to supply wind turbines, every contract was won by one of seven domestic companies. All six multinationals that submitted bids were disqualified on various technical grounds, like not providing sufficiently detailed data.

This spring, the Chinese government banned virtually any installation of wind turbines with a capacity of less than 1,000 kilowatts — excluding 850-kilowatt designs, a popular size for European manufacturers.

Lu Hong, the program officer for renewable energy in the Beijing office of the Energy Foundation, a nonprofit group seeking to support sustainable energy, said that China was willing to invest heavily in renewable energy industries precisely because it helps the Chinese economy.

“The Chinese government won’t consider such a big solar industry without considering the building up of the domestic industry,” she said, adding that China’s policies will also help address global warming.

Zhou Heliang, the president of the China Electrotechnical Society, a government entity that plays a broad role in national and provincial technology policy, predicted at the Wind Power Asia conference here on Friday that Chinese-owned companies would increase their share of the Chinese market by an additional 10 or 20 percentage points this year.

That would give them almost three-quarters of the domestic market, compared with a quarter for European and American companies — the reverse of the ratio four years ago.

This year, China passed the United States as the world’s largest market for wind energy. It is now building six wind farms with a capacity of 10,000 to 20,000 megawatts apiece, using extensive low-interest loans from state-owned banks.

By comparison, T. Boone Pickens delayed his plans to build a 4,000-megawatt wind farm in Texas, once promoted as the world’s largest.

Some foreign companies, particularly European businesses, are starting to express misgivings about China’s promotion of the local manufacturers.

European wind turbine makers have stopped even bidding for some Chinese contracts after concluding that their bids would not be seriously considered, said Jörg Wuttke, the president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China.

European turbine manufacturers are especially disappointed because they built factories in China in order to comply with the country’s requirement that turbines contain 70 percent local content, Mr. Wuttke said. Yet all the multinational manufacturers were disqualified on technical grounds within three days of bidding for wind farm contracts this spring, even as Chinese companies that had never built a turbine were approved, he said.

European solar power companies are also unhappy. “This is not a level playing field,” said Boris Klebensberger, the chief operating officer of SolarWorld AG, which is based in Bonn.

Mr. Wuttke said he was encouraged that Premier Wen Jiabao of China told Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany in a telephone call on June 25 that China would not discriminate against foreign enterprises, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

But no new Chinese renewable energy regulations have been issued since then on local content requirements or other rules.

American companies play a smaller role in the global renewable energy industry, but some of them are also growing exasperated with the Chinese market. “That has been a tough market for non-Chinese manufacturers,” said Victor Abate, General Electric’s vice president for wind energy.

Kevin Griffis, a Commerce Department spokesman, said that the agency had not heard from American companies about difficulties in the Chinese market for renewable energy.

“Generally speaking,” Mr. Griffis said, “we support a business environment that is open, transparent, and fair so that all companies are able to compete based on product performance, not country of origin.”

World Trade Organization rules ban countries from using local content requirements to force companies like the wind turbine manufacturers to set up factories in a country instead of exporting to it. But much of China’s power industry, although publicly traded, is majority owned by the government.

While China promised to sign the W.T.O. side agreement on government procurement “as soon as possible” when it joined the free trade group in 2001 and won low-tariff access to foreign markets, it has never actually signed the side agreement. So its huge state sector remains largely exempt from international trade rules.

Other rules are also making it hard for foreign manufacturers and investors to compete in China.

China’s renewable energy standard requires that renewable energy account for at least 3 percent of the generating capacity of each large power company, excluding hydroelectric power, by the end of next year. But the rules do not dictate how much electricity must actually be generated from that capacity.

So power companies have an incentive to buy the cheapest wind turbines available, so as to increase their renewable energy capacity — even if the turbines break down frequently and do not produce that much electricity.

Turbines from Chinese-owned companies tend to have slightly lower purchase prices than foreign-brand turbines, but have higher repair costs, so the life cycle costs are similar, according to Chinese experts. United Nations data from the trading of carbon credits shows that the Chinese-brand turbines produce less electricity because they are more frequently out of action.

Financial regulations for wind farms also make it harder for foreign-owned farms than domestic-owned farms to borrow money or to sell carbon credits. Even well-connected international funds like Nature Elements Capital have to look hard for projects, while less-connected funds have struggled to find any at all.

Mr. Zhou said that China was also working hard to develop its own capability to manufacture high-tech materials that can withstand the torque, humidity and other stresses that affect wind turbines.

Two American companies are leading suppliers of materials: PPG Industries of Pittsburgh, the leading maker of fiberglass and protective coatings for the wind turbine housings and blades, and the Zoltek Corporation of Bridgeton, Mo., the world’s dominant supplier of carbon fiber for the support struts inside the most high-tech blades.

A report last month by IHS, a global data company, concluded that Chinese wind turbine makers would soon start exporting. That is because Chinese wind farm installations could level off temporarily as the power grid struggles to install enough high-power lines to use all the electricity wind produces.

Asked whether European turbine manufacturers risked sharing Detroit’s overconfidence in the 1970s in the face of challenges from Japan, Mr. Wuttke said that European makers believed that their reputations for quality and reliability would protect them.

Merit Alone

2009-06-05T10:00:00.002-04:00

Looks like NYTimes reporters don't understand what the term 'merit alone' means which makes this article a very funny read.

Affirmative action is the single thread throughout her life. This is not 'merit alone'.

And with each new job that affirmative action got her , she gained a new 'Rabbi' or two.

Just check all the references to affirmative action and powerful personal recommendations in the article.

And look at how they portray Moynihan. A precursor of Obama; one of the first to use 'empathy' in decision making. A fellow Catholic and an Ivy Leaguer, how grand !

Just change the references a bit and it gets a bit more odious ... a fellow Jew and from the same school, who would think this good decision making?... or a gentleman from the 'right' type of family from the 'right' private schools and an Alumni of Princeton .

Merit Alone. Indeed !

June 5, 2009

Sotomayor Rose on Merit Alone, Her Allies Say

By MICHAEL POWELL and SERGE F. KOVALESKI

New York City in the 1980s was a place defined by party fiefs and political bosses, and high-profile public jobs were a coin of their realm.

But Sonia Sotomayor, a young woman from the Bronx projects with two Ivy League degrees, had no boss — no rabbi, as the New York saying goes — to guide her as she set out on her career.

Driven by her own ambitions, she worked as an assistant district attorney and a corporate lawyer, all the while building her public résumé: a seat on a city commission, another on a state board, which might allow her to take a bigger step in years to come.

The Manhattan district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, who recruited her from Yale Law School, said the comforts of corporate law held no great attraction for her. And Ms. Sotomayor’s lifelong struggle with diabetes lent a sense of urgency.

“It made her think, ‘I’m not going to be around forever, I have to keep moving,’ ” Mr. Morgenthau said. “I remember talking with her about how much time each day, about an hour, she spent giving herself shots of insulin.”

If one wants to understand Ms. Sotomayor’s journey from boutique corporate lawyer to strikingly young federal judge, the eight-year stretch from 1984 to 1992 offers the best window into her maturation as a public figure. Her service on the city’s Campaign Finance Board was vigorous, as she joined decisions that challenged three present or future mayors of both parties.

She rose with remarkably little help from the traditional arbiters of power. Party bosses recall nothing of her, and aides to Gov. Mario M. Cuomo and Mayor Edward I. Koch lay no claim to having discovered her.

Rather, she found an influential patron in Mr. Morgenthau. Even after she left his office in 1984 and entered private practice, he would make the phone calls that helped her gain a seat on the Campaign Finance Board and catch the eye of United States Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan as a candidate for federal judge at age 38.

Her generational timing, too, was fortuitous. She was an accomplished Latina lawyer at a time when officials sought to diversify the white power structure by promoting more blacks, Latinos and women.

“If you live in the end of the 20th century, there was nothing incompatible between diversity and excellence,” said Judah Gribetz, the lawyer who ran the judicial search committee for Senator Moynihan, who proposed Ms. Sotomayor for the federal bench. “Obviously we were looking for people who were representative, and with the right credentials.

“She,” he added, “fit the bill.”

Ms. Sotomayor put her foot in public waters in 1987, while she worked at the law firm of Pavia & Harcourt. A partner there, David Botwinik, and his childhood friend Mr. Gribetz mentioned her interest in public service to Governor Cuomo. She explored applying for the counsel’s job at the state’s Urban Development Corporation, where she talked with the departing counsel, Susan Heilbron.

“She blew my socks off,” recalled Ms. Heilbron, who said she told Ms. Sotomayor, “With all due respect, the kind of public service you ought to be doing is bigger than this.”

So the governor’s appointments secretary, Ellen E. Conovitz, recommended that Ms. Sotomayor serve as a board member of Sonyma, the state mortgage agency, which provided below-market-rate mortgages for the needy. After several years of lackluster leadership, the board needed a new direction. As well, Ms. Conovitz said, the Cuomo administration sought more blacks, Latinos and women.

Ms. Sotomayor, by the account of board members, was a dogged member, pushing to direct more funds to lower-income homeowners. “She was the youngest board member but extremely involved in the details,” recalled William B. Eimicke, then the state’s housing czar.

Ms. Sotomayor’s political persona hewed carefully to the contours of New York, liberal but not particularly ideological. And, unusual in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans five to one, she registered as an independent; her lack of a party label played a role in her next appointment, to the Campaign Finance Board in 1988.

Responding to the city’s corruption scandals, the mayor and City Council had created the board as an institutional sheriff, which regulated campaign spending and doled out matching funds.

Mayor Koch was given two appointments, a Democrat and an independent or Republican. Peter L. Zimroth, who was the mayor’s corporation counsel, wanted a board member with a prosecutorial background and called Mr. Morgenthau.

Mr. Morgenthau mentioned Ms. Sotomayor. She would be the only candidate interviewed by Mr. Zimroth.

“I remember when I finished the interview thinking that we had found a gem, that this was a straight shooter, a very serious lawyer who seemed absolutely independent,” he said.

In the next four years, the board ruled toughly in cases that chastised, fined or audited the campaigns of Mayor Koch, his successor, David N. Dinkins, and a future mayor, Rudolph W. Giuliani, and Ms. Sotomayor emerged as a demanding member. “She had no patience for candidates who tried the ‘dog ate my homework’ defense,” said Nicole A. Gordon, a former executive director of the board.

Nor was she inclined to cut herself physical slack.

“She was very tenacious,” a former board chairman, the Rev. Joseph A. O’Hare, recalled with a chuckle. “We would be in a tense interview with a candidate and she would be shooting herself with insulin in the back of the hand.”

In 1992, Ms. Sotomayor entered a prestigious sweepstakes, submitting an application for federal judge. In what is a recurring theme, two friends say it was an almost accidental elevation. “She didn’t talk about the next step being a judgeship,” said Dawn Cardi.

But familiar patrons made her case and her timing was good. Senator Moynihan had made it clear he wanted more female and minority candidates.

Mr. Gribetz and Mr. Botwinik again forwarded her name, this time to Senator Moynihan. Mr. Morgenthau called as well.

Mr. Gribetz is blunt. “Let’s talk about how judges are made,” he said. “Sonia had no political connections and did not come through the political process, but these were social friends of mine. I trusted them.”

Connections of a different sort aided her with the senator. They both hailed from Catholic working-class neighborhoods and had achieved academic honors: He had been a Harvard professor, and she had won the highest award given to undergraduates at Princeton.

“He told me he was absolutely convinced she would end up on the Supreme Court,” said a top former aide to the senator. “He got his bet in early on that one.”

Subtle subjectivity for sympathetic strugglers

2009-05-05T08:42:00.002-04:00

The choice of words or the choice of numbers/statistics is what makes writing more subjective than it has to be.

Here's an article from one Manny Fernandez in the NYTimes... I remember this guy wrote an article about the Binghamton shooter last month where he described Binghamton as a little backwater town with no experience dealing with immigrants (like they do in NYC), implying that it was an unwelcoming place for newcomers.

Of course this is the EXACT opposite of the truth.

Now he has this article and I was struck by this paragraph, where he tries to subtly manipulate the sympathies of the reader:

Kevin Brewster-Streeks, 29, and his partner, Greg Armstrong, 22, struggled to pay their $1,650 rent on Mr. Armstrong’s $18-an-hour salary as a medical assistant after Mr. Brewster-Streeks’s $36,450 job as a records clerk at a law firm was eliminated last year.

What's the problem with this paragraph?

It implies that one guy is a poorly paid hourly worker making less than the other person who has a more substantial job and salary. One guy is hourly and the other is salaried, and salaried is always a higher level, more prestigious position AND gets paid more right?

In actuality $18/hr = $36,000 a year, or the EXACT same amount that the other guy was earning. Most readers would not notice this fact but instead be led to have extra sympathy for these two who are struggling to get by on the salary of the 'lesser paid' guy .

May 5, 2009

Once ‘Very Good Rent Payers’ Now Facing Eviction

By MANNY FERNANDEZ

A registered nurse came close to losing her $1,550-a-month apartment on the Upper East Side after being let go from two jobs in three months. A woman found herself dipping into a 401(k) to keep her $3,375 unit in Peter Cooper Village after her husband was laid off in February from his six-figure marketing job. A father of two with an M.B.A. and a law degree owed $5,400 in back rent in Stuyvesant Town after he struggled to find steady work and lent money to his wife’s family.

Lawyers, judges and tenant advocates say the staggering economy has sent an increasing number of middle-class renters across New York City to the brink of eviction, straining the legal and financial services of city agencies and charities. Suddenly, residents of middle-class havens like Rego Park in Queens and Riverdale in the Bronx are crowding into the city’s already burdened housing courts, long known as poor people’s court.

Even some affluent people in high-end places are finding themselves facing off with landlords. One man, laid off by Merrill Lynch, was forced to move out of his $5,700 apartment in TriBeCa, owing $20,000 in back rent. Todd Nahins, a lawyer who represents owners of luxury residential buildings, has been busy negotiating payment plans for tenants in arrears.

“There’s definitely an uptick of people who were basically very good rent payers until the economic downturn,” Mr. Nahins said. “There’s so many of them. People who at one point had made money are now not earning enough to pay their rent.”

No one knows exactly how many of those kinds of tenants are facing eviction; the city’s five housing courts, and two smaller community courts that hear similar cases, do not keep data on the income level of litigants. Overall, court records show that the number of cases filed citywide for nonpayment of rent jumped about 19 percent in the first two months of 2009 from the same period last year, to 42,257 from 35,588.

“It’s cutting across all lines,” said Jaya K. Madhavan, supervising judge of Bronx Housing Court. “The economy is really taking a toll on everyone.”

While the downturn has certainly put plenty of lower-income people at risk of eviction, those involved in the housing court system say the growing numbers of accountants, salespeople, small business owners, construction project managers and other white-collar professionals being pursued for nonpayment is striking.

Lawyers for District Council 37, the city’s largest public employee union, provided free legal assistance to members on 2,572 housing court cases last year, up from 2,277 in 2006. “People who never had eviction cases before are coming through our doors now,” said Joan L. Beranbaum, director of the union’s Municipal Employees Legal Services.

On the Upper East Side, the nonprofit Eviction Intervention Services has seen a spike in phone calls and office visits from tenants in rent-stabilized or rent-controlled apartments. In Bronx Housing Court, Room 360, which handles cases concerning units in co-ops and condominiums — which are often more expensive than those in rental apartment buildings — had 10,205 cases last year, up from 7,818 in 2007.

Landlords typically start nonpayment proceedings in housing court after a few months of missed rent, depending in part on a tenant’s previous payment history; the goal is usually not eviction. “It’s not about, ‘If you don’t have the money, get the hell out,’ ” Mr. Nahins said. “It’s about, ‘Look, we want to work it out.’ Nobody wants vacancies in high-end apartments.”

Diane Scott, a single mother on Staten Island, lost her home to foreclosure in 2007 after she was laid off as a $72,000-a-year legal recruiter, only to be threatened with eviction from her $1,750 apartment when her $40,000-a-year bookkeeping job was eliminated in June. After appearing in housing court in February, Ms. Scott, 42, said she had been unable to tell her three sons they might again have to move.

Kevin Brewster-Streeks, 29, and his partner, Greg Armstrong, 22, struggled to pay their $1,650 rent on Mr. Armstrong’s $18-an-hour salary as a medical assistant after Mr. Brewster-Streeks’s $36,450 job as a records clerk at a law firm was eliminated last year.

They borrowed $2,000 from relatives and friends and racked up $8,000 in credit-card debt. Mr. Armstrong withdrew about $4,000 from two pension and retirement accounts, and Mr. Brewster-Streeks started working as a hospital clerk for less than half of his previous pay. But they could not keep up: after two bouts in housing court, they moved out in February, owing nearly $7,000 in back rent.

“It’s kind of dehumanizing,” Mr. Brewster-Streeks said of the experience. “They see you as a certain kind of person. We’ve never been that certain kind of person.”

Mr. Armstrong stopped attending classes at LaGuardia Community College for two semesters and took so much time off from work to deal with the court case that he earned a negative job review. Along with legal help from District Council 37, of which Mr. Armstrong is a member, the couple got an emergency loan from the city’s Human Resources Administration.

They moved from a two-bedroom unit with ample closet space near Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx to a one bedroom with two small closets at the edge of the Cross-Bronx Expressway. The rent is $500 less, but they still have to pay off what they owe on the previous place, along with the $5,650 loan.

“It’s going to take us a couple of years to get back from this,” Mr. Armstrong said.

For months, Christine A. Lewis, 46, has been living a kind of nomadic existence in her own apartment, using borrowed furniture, wearing borrowed clothing. Her own belongings — bed, clothes, computer, television set — were put in storage after a city marshal knocked on the door of her one-bedroom apartment in Co-Op City in the Bronx in June with an eviction order. She managed to quickly negotiate a return, but has been unable to raise $1,600 to pay off the storage company and get her possessions back.

So when her son died from bone cancer in December at age 18, Ms. Lewis had to borrow a suit to wear to the funeral.

Ms. Lewis said she lost her job as a $52,000-a-year hospital lab technologist because she was unable to concentrate during her son’s illness, and has been surviving since on unemployment benefits. She paid off $2,800 in back rent, but still worries about keeping up.

“It’s horrible and all, but I try to look at everything as if the glass is half full, as a learning experience,” she said.

When is $100 million a lot of money?

2009-04-20T08:26:00.004-04:00

The U.S. Federal budget for next year is over $3.5 trillion.

Obama campaigned on cutting the many wasteful programs within the gov't.

It appears his estimate of 'waste', now that he is in power, is that there is possibly $100 million not being used effectively, and he is 'challenging' his cabinet to find these poorly spent funds.

My calculator tells me that $100 million out of $3.5 trillion is .00003% .

Which means he now feels that $3.5 trillion is a very lean budget and that the gov't is performing at virtually 100% efficiency.

The budget passed had over 10,000 earmarks amounting to several tens of Billions of dollars and this was deemed insignificant in the context of the overall budget also.

When AIG executives gave themselves hundreds of millions in bonuses this was also deemed insignificant within the context of over $150 billion in bailout money.

If workers were given raises amounting to several hundred million dollars this would be seen as inflationary and causing American industries to be less competitive against workers elsewhere in the world. That is, several hundred million dollars suddenly becomes a very large amount, having a disproportionate effect on the whole world economy, not just the U.S.

If hundreds of thousands of workers get $10 more per week this upsets the economic apple-cart but if 100 execs get $1 million a year this makes economic sense to retain 'talent' , even in failed corporations.

Ridding a $3.5 trillion budget of $100 million is equivalent to buying one less coffee per year for the average worker.

Is $100 million a lot of money ?

Absolutely, at least to most people outside of the Washington beltway, large corporations and Ivy League Universities.

To this group it all depends..... on who is receiving it.

Obama to gather Cabinet, seeking $100 million in cuts

Story Highlights
Two top administration officials say president wants $100 million in expenses cut
Agencies would have to report how they saved on expenses after 90 days
House and Senate returns from recess this week to work on $3.67 trillion budget
Obama to also offer examples of how agencies are already planning to save

By Suzanne Malveaux
CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama returned to Washington on Sunday night with his eye back on his domestic agenda and a plan to save government money.

On Monday, Obama will gather his full Cabinet together for the first time as president and challenge it to cut a total of $100 million in the next 90 days, two senior administration officials said.

The officials spoke anonymously because the announcement had yet to come from the president, who returned Sunday from the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.

The agencies would have to report how they saved on expenses after 90 days, the officials said.

A senior administration official described the edict as part of Obama's "commitment to go line by line through the budget to cut spending" and "reform the government."

As House and Senate lawmakers return from recess this week, they are expected to start reconciling their versions of the fiscal 2010 budget resolution. The president's budget request is $3.67 trillion.

In context of the federal budget, $100 million in savings is a small amount, but the White House wants to demonstrate fiscal responsibility.

On Monday, Obama will offer examples of how various agencies have started cost-cutting measures, including:

• The Department of Homeland Security's plan to save an estimated $52 million over five years by purchasing office supplies in bulk.

• The Department of Agriculture's effort to consolidate 1,500 employees from seven locations into a single facility in 2011. It's estimated to save $62 million over a 15-year lease.

• The Veterans Affairs Department's move to cancel or delay 26 conferences, saving nearly $17.8 million. Veterans Affairs also will use video-conferencing to cut costs.

A corporate lemming ?

2009-04-16T08:18:00.002-04:00

This is similar to actions that Circuit City took which wound up greatly acceleraing it's downfall ...

Circuit City fired and replaced their experienced salespeople who were earning more, with new, less experienced people at minimum wage . Which turned out to be exactly the wrong thing to do at the time. Probably the wrong thing to do at ANY time.

Best Buy actually reported decent results , considering the world economy, the past quarter.

Now it's gonna fire 1000 assistant store managers? This is a typical corporate reaction, layoffs ... who knows what the effect will be, but probably not much for the future growth and health of the company. Just standard operating procedure.

But decreasing the salary of 'Senior Sales Associates' by 25-50% (YIKES!!) .... this is similar but MUCH worse than the Circuit City action ... they have decided not to fire their experienced people but instead keep them around at newbie wages ....

In today's economy it may be that those affected will have to grin and bear it as there are not many job alternatives out there. But, for the medium and long-term effects on Best Buy once the economy comes back, this has got to be a gigantic negative .

I would think that they will suffer the 'Circuit City effect' within the next year if this report is true.

April 16, 2009
Best Buy Cuts Wages, Jobs in Its Stores
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 7:31 a.m. ET
RICHFIELD, Minn. (AP) -- Thousands of Best Buy store employees will see pay cuts and others will lose their jobs as the consumer electronics chain reorganizes.

Best Buy Co. Inc. would not disclose the number of people affected. A spokesman said the move will put more sales people in front of customers. Many store managers and senior-level sales people will go to jobs where they'll interact more directly with shoppers.

New York investment firm Sanford Bernstein said in a research note Wednesday that as many as 1,000 assistant store managers would lose their jobs. Up to another 8,000 senior sales associates would be demoted to jobs paying 25 percent to 50 percent less.

The numbers are estimates by Sanford Bernstein. Best Buy won't confirm or deny them.

Disney hi-tech

2009-04-14T08:39:00.000-04:00

Disney employs a middle-aged woman to figure out what young teenage boys like?

...... and her background? :

The people on Ms. Peña’s team have anthropology and psychology backgrounds, but she majored in journalism and never saw herself working with children. Indeed, her training in consumer research came from working for a hotel operator of riverboat casinos.

And her methodology ? paying the kids family to rummage through his private things and talk to him ... the headline says '... Uses Science ...' .... that's a broad definition of science!

Who does she know to get a job like this for which she has absolutely no relevant experience or training?

And imagine if they employed a middle-aged man to figure out what 12-yr old girls like ... cries of sexism would echo in the press !!

It's also interesting that Disney, a company catering to children for 80 years suddenly doesn't know what children like?
Have kids changed that much in 80 years?
Their toys have, but have they ?

April 14, 2009

Disney Expert Uses Science to Draw Boy Viewers

By BROOKS BARNES

ENCINO, Calif. — Kelly Peña, or “the kid whisperer,” as some Hollywood producers call her, was digging through a 12-year-old boy’s dresser drawer here on a recent afternoon. Her undercover mission: to unearth what makes him tick and use the findings to help the Walt Disney Company reassert itself as a cultural force among boys.

Ms. Peña, a Disney researcher with a background in the casino industry, zeroed in on a ratty rock ’n’ roll T-shirt. Black Sabbath?

“Wearing it makes me feel like I’m going to an R-rated movie,” said Dean, a shy redhead whose parents asked that he be identified only by first name.

Jackpot.

Ms. Peña and her team of anthropologists have spent 18 months peering inside the heads of incommunicative boys in search of just that kind of psychological nugget. Disney is relying on her insights to create new entertainment for boys 6 to 14, a group that Disney used to own way back in the days of “Davy Crockett” but that has wandered in the age of more girl-friendly Disney fare like “Hannah Montana.”

Children can already see the results of Ms. Peña’s scrutiny on Disney XD, a new cable channel and Web site (disney.go.com/disneyxd). It’s no accident, for instance, that the central character on “Aaron Stone” is a mediocre basketball player. Ms. Peña, 45, told producers that boys identify with protagonists who try hard to grow. “Winning isn’t nearly as important to boys as Hollywood thinks,” she said.

Actors have been instructed to tote their skateboards around with the bottoms facing outward. (Boys in real life carry them that way to display the personalization, Ms. Peña found.) The games portion of the Disney XD Web site now features prominent trophy cases. (It’s less about the level reached in the game and more about sharing small achievements, research showed.)

Fearful of coming off as too manipulative, youth-centric media companies rarely discuss this kind of field research. Disney is so proud of its new “headquarters for boys,” however, that it has made an exception, offering a rare window onto the emotional hooks that are carefully embedded in children’s entertainment. The effort is as outsize as the potential payoff: boys 6 to 14 account for $50 billion in spending worldwide, according to market researchers.

Thus far, Disney’s initiative is limited to the XD channel. But Disney hopes that XD will produce a hit show that can follow the “High School Musical” model from cable to merchandise to live theater to feature film, and perhaps even to Disney World attraction.

With the exception of “Cars,” Disney — home to the “Princesses” merchandising line; the Jonas Brothers; and “Pixie Hollow,” a virtual world built around fairies — has been notably weak on hit entertainment franchises for boys. (“Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Toy Story” are in a type of hibernation, awaiting new big-screen installments.) Disney Channel’s audience is 40 percent male, but girls drive most of the related merchandising sales.

Rivals like Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network have made inroads with boys by serving up rough-edged animated series like “The Fairly Oddparents” and “Star Wars: The Clone Wars.” Nickelodeon, in particular, scoffs at Disney’s recent push.

“We wrote the book on all of this,” said Colleen Fahey Rush, executive vice president for research of MTV Networks, which includes Nickelodeon.

Even so, media companies over all have struggled to figure out the boys’ entertainment market. News Corporation infamously bet big on boys in the late 1990s with its Fox Kids Network and a digital offering, Boyz Channel. Both failed and drew criticism for segregating the sexes (there was also a Girlz Channel) and reinforcing stereotypes.

The guys are trickier to pin down for a host of reasons. They hop more quickly than their female counterparts from sporting activities to television to video games during leisure time. They can also be harder to understand: the cliché that girls are more willing to chitchat about their feelings is often true.

The people on Ms. Peña’s team have anthropology and psychology backgrounds, but she majored in journalism and never saw herself working with children. Indeed, her training in consumer research came from working for a hotel operator of riverboat casinos.

“Children seemed to open up to me,” said Ms. Peña, who does not have any of her own.

Sometimes the research is conducted in groups; sometimes it involves Ms. Peña’s going shopping with a teenage boy and his mother (and perhaps a videographer). The subjects, who are randomly selected by a market research company, are never told that Disney is the one studying them. The children are paid $75.

Walking through Dean’s house in this leafy Los Angeles suburb on the back side of the Hollywood Hills, Ms. Peña looked for unspoken clues about his likes and dislikes.

“What’s on the back of shelves that he hasn’t quite gotten rid of — that will be telling,” she said beforehand. “What’s on his walls? How does he interact with his siblings?”

One big takeaway from the two-hour visit: although Dean was trying to sound grown-up and nonchalant in his answers, he still had a lot of little kid in him. He had dinosaur sheets and stuffed animals at the bottom of his bed.

“I think he’s trying to push a lot of boundaries for the first time,” Ms. Peña said later.

This kind of intensive research has paid dividends for Disney before. Anne Sweeney, president of the Disney ABC Television Group, noted it in her approach to rebuilding Disney Channel a decade ago.

“You have to start with the kids themselves,” she said. “Ratings show what boys are watching today, but they don’t tell you what is missing in the marketplace.”

While Disney XD is aimed at boys and their fathers, it is also intended to include girls. “The days of the Honeycomb Hideout, where girls can’t come in, have long passed,” said Rich Ross, president of Disney Channels Worldwide.

In Ms. Peña’s research boys across markets and cultures described the television aimed at them as “purposeless fun” but expressed a strong desire for a new channel that was “fun with a purpose,” Mr. Ross said. Hollywood has been thinking of them too narrowly — offering all action or all animation — instead of a more nuanced combination, he added. So far results have been mixed.

Disney XD, which took over the struggling Toon Disney channel, has improved its predecessor’s prime-time audience by 27 percent among children 6 to 14, according to Nielsen Media Research. But the bulk of this increase has come from girls. Viewership among boys 6 to 14 is up about 10 percent.

“We’ve seen cultural resonance, and it doesn’t come overnight,” Mr. Ross said.

Which is one reason Ms. Peña is still out interviewing. At Dean’s house her team was quizzing him about what he meant when he used the word “crash.” Ben, a 12-year-old friend who had come over to hang out, responded, “After a long day of doing nothing, we do nothing.”

Growing self-conscious, Ben added, “Am I talking too much?”

Not even close.

Race to the bottom accelerates

2009-04-01T07:38:00.002-04:00

The most important part of the article is the very last paragraph:

The steps taken by Honda will have the effect of reducing hourly wage costs at its U.S. factories just as GM and Chrysler face pressure to bring their own compensation levels in line with the pay of workers at U.S. plants run by Honda, Toyota and Nissan.

This is an example of the lowering of wages in the West and the U.S. in particular, a trend that has been happening for a while and will now accelerate in this deep recession. Even after the recession 'ends' wages will continue to fall.

Economists are very worried about deflation. Falling wages drives deflation.

The flip side is that the excessive creation of dollars will also cause inflation.

What happens when wages decrease and the dollar in turn buys less? Loss of buying power deepens the recession and if this cycle is not stopped a severe and prolonged depression results.

Honda to cut North American output, pay

Japanese automaker to shut down six factories for nearly two weeks to cut production by 3.4%.

Last Updated: April 1, 2009: 6:21 AM ET

TOKYO (Reuters) -- Honda Motor Co., Japan's No. 2 automaker, said it would cut production in North America by temporarily shutting factories from next month and will reduce pay for workers as sales in the United States plunge to multi-decade lows.

Honda (HMC) will shut down six factories for 13 days, starting in May, to cut production by 62,000 vehicles. Honda does not provide a production forecast, but the reduction would be equivalent to 3.4% of what it built in the region in the year to March.

The decision by Honda comes amid a sharp downturn in auto sales that is threatening the survival of General Motors Corp. (GM, Fortune 500) and Chrysler.

Data due out later are likely to show U.S. auto sales at the weakest monthly rates in more than 27 years.

"U.S. sales look set to fall about 40% in March, and there's no signs of a recovery beyond April either," said Okasan Securities analyst Yasuaki Iwamoto.

"When sales are this bad, it's natural that production is going to be weak," he said, while adding that there was no change to his view that the worst was over for production cuts after Japanese automakers made deep reductions in January-March.

Japan, Korea sales slide

Sales in Asia are also suffering.

In Japan, industry-wide auto sales fell 25% in March from a year earlier to 546,098 vehicles.

Sales at South Korea's five automakers in March fell 19% to 402,563 vehicles, with exports down 20%.

Shares in Honda gained 6.7% in Tokyo on Wednesday along with jumps in other auto stocks.

Market participants cited reasons ranging from the dollar's gradual rise this week to hopes for some resolution for GM and Chrysler, which the New York Times reported might involve some form of controlled bankruptcy.

Honda said it would cut pay for salaried and factory workers and also offered buyouts and early retirement incentives to most of its 32,400 workers in the United States and Canada.

It is the most sweeping program to reduce payroll costs offered by Honda, a spokesman said.

Honda has trailed Japanese rivals Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) and Nissan Motor Co. in reacting to a buildup of unsold cars in the United States, and executives have said it would likely take until the summer to bring inventory back to appropriate levels.

The slow pace is also partly due to Honda's policy of limiting sales incentives, which erode cars' resale value as well as profits. According to research firm Autodata, Honda's average spending on incentives per vehicle in February was the lowest among mass-market brands, at just over $1,300 versus nearly $1,600 for Toyota and $2,900 at Nissan.

Nissan Chief Operating Officer Toshiyuki Shiga said earlier in Tokyo he expected global production at Japan's No. 3 automaker to be 10% higher in the first half of the new business year that started on Wednesday compared with the previous six months.

Honda has assembly plants in Indiana, Ohio and Alabama in the United States, as well as in Canada and Mexico. It also operates two engine plants and two transmission plants in North America.

Pay hit

Like Toyota, Honda previously paid its non-union hourly workers even when it shut down factories to reduce inventory. But Honda said this time hourly workers would not be paid for six of the 13 days, to be scattered between May 1 and July 31.

Salaried workers will also see compensation reduced this financial year, said spokesman Ed Miller.

Miller said Honda told employees it expected bonus payments for both hourly and salaried employees to be reduced or eliminated this year.

Chutzpah majors

2009-02-20T09:54:00.002-05:00

What other business requires it's customers to prove their merit before even being allowed for consideration to purchase their product, except the elite schools ? (maybe high-end co-ops also)

"If you're just hiding out from the dismal job market, you won't get in," says Rosemaria Martinelli, associate dean and head of admissions at the University of Chicago's B-school. "If you can't articulate why you want the degree, you're wasting our time, and your own time and money." Oh.

It's not enough just to competitively apply? You also have to provide proof of worthiness?

Imagine a car dealer asking for worthiness in addition to cash in order to buy the Chevy.

They can only get away with this because they have more applicants than they can accomodate, demand exceeds supply.

So they can ask all applicants to do anything superfluous to the immediate transaction, ridiculous or not .... why not require hula dancing or brownie baking competitions as part of their admission process ?

Skip the recession, get an MBA?

Many people think this is the perfect time to go back to school and hide out from the lousy job market. But don't say that on your application.

By Anne Fisher, contributor

February 19, 2009: 1:01 PM ET

(Fortune) -- Dear Annie: I lost my job at Lehman Brothers (LEHMQ) last September and have not succeeded in finding another finance position (for obvious reasons). But finance is all I know. While I was working at the firm, I completed almost one year of course work toward an MBA. I'm thinking of trying to transfer my credits to a full-time program and finishing the degree, which just seems like a more productive use of my time than job hunting right now. Do you agree? Also, will admissions people hold it against me that I worked at a failed firm, even though I had nothing to do with the problems? -Out in the Cold

Dear Out: Ah, it happens every time the economy hits the skids: Huge numbers of MBA wannabes line up to go back to the classroom. A record 264,641 people took the Graduate Management Admissions Test in 2008, and 77% of full-time graduate business programs say applications jumped late last year, the Graduate Management Admissions Council (www.gmac.com) reports.

Clearly, you face lots of competition. The good news is, B-schools are unlikely to hold your previous employer's mistakes against you. "There is no stigma attached," says Dawna Clarke, director of admissions at the Dartmouth's Tuck School.

"We're seeing really good applications from former investment bankers," she adds. Wall Street firms traditionally have set such stringent hiring standards, and train their people so thoroughly that, Clarke says, "we feel these applicants are in effect pre-screened for us."

Even so, beware: Your application must reflect a well-thought-out career strategy, including cogent reasons why you want an MBA, and why you have chosen the particular school you're trying to get into.

"If you're just hiding out from the dismal job market, you won't get in," says Rosemaria Martinelli, associate dean and head of admissions at the University of Chicago's B-school. "If you can't articulate why you want the degree, you're wasting our time, and your own time and money." Oh.

Keep that in mind, especially when interviewing. At New York University's Stern School, "each applicant meets with our admissions committee for 30 minutes," says executive director of MBA admissions Isser Gallogly. The school, which accepts 400 students a year, saw applications shoot up 20% in 2008.

"We're very selective," Gallogly says. "We look for people who can clearly convey their career goals and explain why Stern is the right 'fit' for them."

The written application also asks how you know you belong at Stern: "So, between that and the interview, you'd better have a good answer," Gallogly says. Writing "Because I'm tired of my fruitless job hunt" is not likely to wow anybody.

So, before you start filling out applications, think through what you want to do next, and specific ways an MBA will help you get there. And remember, MBA programs are not all alike.

"Don't rely on anybody's published ranking," says Gallogly. "You have to do enough research to make your own personal list of the best programs for you."

If possible, visit each school that interests you, take a tour, sit in on some classes, and chat with a few current students. The more you know, the more persuasive your application will be.

Then keep in mind these tips from Stacy Blackman (www.stacyblackman.com) , a Los Angeles consultant who specializes in helping people get admitted to B-school.

1. Emphasize ethics. Applicants with a Wall Street background should assure admissions committees that they personally have kept to the straight and narrow, Blackman says -- in other words, that they're "committed to more than short-term personal gain, and acting in the long-term best interests of the firm and its clients."

Be ready to give an example or two of ethical decisions you've made, perhaps when under pressure to do otherwise. You can even prompt your references to mention such moments when they write their recommendations: "Give anyone you're using as a reference a short list of bullet points, to remind them of your achievements," she says.

2. Don't overlook after-work activities. "A lot of people call me and say, 'I've been laid off, just like everybody else,' says Blackman. "But you aren't just like everybody else. Your application should mention outside activities, whether it's coaching your child's soccer team, serving on the board of a nonprofit, or hiking solo through Tibet. What you learned from those experiences will help you stand out."

3. Focus on the future. "Losing a job is such a terrible experience that people tend to dwell on it, and to think that it defines who they are," says Blackman. Instead of looking back, "focus your attention on how you're going to bounce back and what your plan is for getting past this rough spot," she suggests. "I've seen people turn this into a story that is much more impressive than if they had just stayed there in the same job."

4. Don't neglect the basics. "It sounds obvious, but be meticulous about details like making sure your application meets the school's deadline," Blackman says. "No matter how great your application is, if it's a day or two late, that reflects badly on your project-management skills - and you are, after all, applying to management school."

layoff or opportunity to offshore?

2009-01-23T08:02:00.002-05:00

Microsoft made over $4billion in profit in 1 quarter and therefore needs to layoff 5,000 workers?

Just last year Bill Gates and other execs were imploring Congress to allow foreign workers into the country because American college students weren't pursuing engineering and computer science degrees.

No mention of how many jobs they have open, going unfilled, in the USA.

No mention of their hiring numbers in the USA and in their overseas offices.

No mention of why they can't hire 1 or 2 thousand top students out of the 50,000 computer science major who do graduate every year.

But you have to read through this long, slow account of their results to get to a critical statement that goes unquestioned:

Microsoft said Thursday that it would replace some of the fired workers with new hires, many of them to handle search, as it tries to grow new businesses.

Some? how many?

Where are the fired workers located? Where are their 'replacements' located?

And how many of those inadequate 50,000 engineers and computer science grads will Microsoft hire in the US now?

Do we have too many grads now while just months ago we had too few?

Are they unemployable here while hiring continues overseas?

Is it a reasonable long to medium term career to pursue for large numbers of people given the hiring and layoff patterns of the past 10 years?

Or is it a mark of intelligence to not pursue such careers?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/technology/companies/23soft.html

The no-manufacturing economy

2009-01-20T08:08:00.002-05:00

.... aka The 'Service' economy, only works in the perfect world where everyone gets along well.

The current hard recession will severely test globalization.

Will countries try to protect their worker's jobs? Will they protect industries that are starting to fail? Will they start to impose tariffs and 'local content' provisions in laws and contracts?

Yes, yes and yes. They cannot politically do otherwise.

Even if just a few countries embark on protectionist paths, other countries will need to respond to these new rules or they will lose market-share, large parts of industries, and many jobs.

What is true for the pharmaceutical industry, below, i.e. offshoring manufacturing as well as most other attendant work including design, development and managing of manufactured products exposes countries to economic and political weakness and turmoil.

This process is affectinghas been ongoing and expose almost all other industries as well.

Computer technology .... aircraft manufacturing ... car and truck manufacturing ....clothing ... etc. What is made in the USA (or the West) anymore? Even in food production where the economic mantra has been the same , repeated ad nauseum, 'allow the lowest-cost producer to take over the industry. This will be good for the global economy'.

In a perfect world where all societies are in-sync politically, philosophically and religiously, this might work, but not in the fragmented world we currently live in.

While the effects of economic warfare may be critical in pharmaceuticals, what would the effect be if used with food?

We are already seeing this type of scenario played out with Russia which has Europe in a serious stanglehold because of it's control of a significant part of their energy needs.

Globalization has actually created , in our current severe economic downturn, greater instability with the promise of social upheavals and war.

January 20, 2009

Drug Making’s Move Abroad Stirs Concerns

By GARDINER HARRIS

WASHINGTON — In 2004, when Bristol-Myers Squibb said it would close its factory in East Syracuse, N.Y. — the last plant in the United States to manufacture the key ingredients for crucial antibiotics like penicillin — few people worried about the consequences for national security.

“The focus at the time was primarily on job losses in Syracuse,” said Rebecca Goldsmith, a company spokeswoman.

But now experts and lawmakers are growing more and more concerned that the nation is far too reliant on medicine from abroad, and they are calling for a law that would require that certain drugs be made or stockpiled in the United States.

“The lack of regulation around outsourcing is a blind spot that leaves room for supply disruptions, counterfeit medicines, even bioterrorism,” said Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, who has held hearings on the issue.

Decades ago, most pills consumed in the United States were made here. But like other manufacturing operations, drug plants have been moving to Asia because labor, construction, regulatory and environmental costs are lower there.

The critical ingredients for most antibiotics are now made almost exclusively in China and India. The same is true for dozens of other crucial medicines, including the popular allergy medicine prednisone; metformin, for diabetes; and amlodipine, for high blood pressure.

Of the 1,154 pharmaceutical plants mentioned in generic drug applications to the Food and Drug Administration in 2007, only 13 percent were in the United States. Forty-three percent were in China, and 39 percent were in India.

Some of these medicines are lifesaving, and health care in the United States depends on them. Half of all Americans take a prescription medicine every day.

Penicillin, a crucial building block for two classes of antibiotics, tells the story of the shifting pharmaceutical marketplace. Industrial-scale production of penicillin was developed by an American military research group in World War II, and nearly every major drug manufacturer once made it in plants scattered throughout the country.

But beginning in the 1980s, the Chinese government invested huge sums in penicillin fermenters, “disrupting prices around the globe and forcing most Western producers from the market,” said Enrico Polastro, a Belgian drug industry consultant who is an expert in antibiotics.

Part of the reason these plants went overseas is that the F.D.A. inspects domestic plants far more often than foreign ones, making production more expensive in the United States.

“U.S. companies are more regulated and are under more scrutiny than foreign producers, particularly those from emerging countries. And that’s just totally backwards,” said Joe Acker, president of the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association. “We need a level playing field.”

The Bush administration spent more than $50 billion after the 2001 anthrax attacks to protect the country from bioterrorism attacks and flu pandemics; some of that money went to increase domestic manufacturing capacity for flu vaccines.

Even so, officials have said that during a pandemic the United States would not be able to rely on vaccines manufactured largely in Europe because of possible border closures and supply shortages. And the situation is similar with antibiotics like penicillin; researchers have found that during the 1918 flu pandemic, most victims died of bacterial infections, not viral ones.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a stockpile of medicines with enough antibiotics to treat 40 million people. If more are needed, however, the nation lacks the plants to produce them. A penicillin fermenter would take two years to build from scratch, Mr. Polastro said.

Dr. Yusuf K. Hamied, chairman of Cipla, one of the world’s most important suppliers of pharmaceutical ingredients, says his company and others have grown increasingly dependent on Chinese suppliers. “If tomorrow China stopped supplying pharmaceutical ingredients, the worldwide pharmaceutical industry would collapse,” he said.

Since drug makers often view their supply chains as trade secrets, the true source of a drug’s ingredients can be difficult or impossible to discover. The F.D.A. has a public listing of drug suppliers, called drug master files. But the listing is neither up to date nor entirely reliable, because drug makers are not required to disclose supplier information.

One federal database lists nearly 3,000 overseas drug plants that export to the United States; the other lists 6,800 plants. Nobody knows which is right.

Drug labels often claim that the pills are manufactured in the United States, but the listed plants are often the sites where foreign-made drug powders are pounded into pills and packaged.

“Pharmaceutical companies do not like to reveal where their sources are,” for fear that competitors will steal their suppliers, Mr. Polastro said.

China’s position as the pre-eminent supplier of medicines is a result of government policy, said Guy Villax, the chief executive of Hovione, a maker of crucial drug ingredients with plants in Portugal and China.

The regional government in Shanghai has promised to pay local drug makers about $15,000 for any drug approval they garner from the F.D.A. and about $5,000 for any approval from European regulators, according to a document Mr. Villax provided.

“This shows that there has been a government plan in China to become a pharmaceutical industry leader,” Mr. Villax said.

The world’s growing dependence on Chinese drug manufacturers became apparent in the heparin scare. A year ago, Baxter International and APP Pharmaceuticals split the domestic market for heparin, an anticlotting drug needed for surgery and dialysis.

When federal drug regulators discovered that Baxter’s product had been contaminated by Chinese suppliers, the F.D.A. banned Baxter’s product and turned almost exclusively to the one from APP. But APP also got its product from China.

So for now, like it or not, China has the upper hand. As Mr. Polastro put it, “If China ever got very upset with President Obama, it could be a big problem.”

We are the change we have been waiting for

2008-12-21T08:39:00.001-05:00

Is there an 'official' poet at every inauguration ?

You might think so but there is no such tradition, read the article to find out it's occurred at just 3 other ones .

I wonder who Obama would pick ?

Some itinerant folk poet, still singing the blues down in Mississippi ?

Some poor poet living in a cold-water flat on the lower east side ?

Surprise, surprise ... it's a woman
a black woman
a black woman professor
a black woman professor at an Ivy League college.
a black woman professor at an Ivy League college who is the head of the Yale Afro-American dept.
a black woman professor at an Ivy League college who is the head of the Yale Afro-American dept AND attended the most exlusive private schools when growing up, such as Sidwell Friends in D.C. , same school that his daughters will attend , as did Chelsea Clinton.

What a coincidence, to find that the best candidate is a bff .

The audacity of change ! What a bold unexpected move!

And we all know that Ivy grads and Profs are the best. How do we know it ? Because they themselves tell us :

Asked if she thought that the friendship played a role in her being picked for the inauguration, she said no. The Obamas have many friends and know other poets, she said.

“One of the things we’ve seen with every choice he’s made is that it’s based on what he perceives as excellence,” Ms. Alexander said. “I don’t think you would let friendship determine who you chose to do something like this. You can do lots of things to be nice to your friends — you can invite them to an inaugural ball. But I don’t think friends have to do each other this kind of favor.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/us/politics/21poet.html

Bias attack?

2008-12-10T12:39:00.002-05:00

This write-up from the NYTimes.

I was curious about the ethnicity of the attackers. One brother survived OK so he would have known some characteristics of his attackers, if only their size and what they were wearing.

The modus-operandi of using baseball bats in the beating suggested to me that these were white guys.

Especially since the 3rd paragraph mentioned skin color as being the cause for the attack :

Speaking outside the hospital, Diego Sucuzhanay said his brother had been singled out for his “skin color” and sounded a warning to other immigrants. “Today my brother is the victim, but tomorrow it could be your brother, your mother, your father,” Mr. Sucuzhanay said.

They finally get around to describing the attackers way down in the 11th paragraph, just in passing :

One of the men hit Jose over the head with a bottle, and the driver of the car swung an aluminum baseball bat at his head, the police said. He fell to the floor as the three attackers, who were black, continued kicking and punching him, the police said. The beating ended only when Romel held up his cellphone and said he was calling the police.

So what precisely about the victim's skin color caused the attack? That he was lighter than the attackers ?

And if the attackers had indeed been white this would've been prominently mentioned in the headline and then throughout the article starting with the first paragraph.

Can it be a bias attack if blacks attack Latins who they suspected were gay, when there are no 'majority' groups here to pin this on ?

Even though they yelled gay slurs at them as they were beaten and the brother indicated skin color played a part in defining who would be a victim , ' ... the police have described as a possible bias attack ...' . Possible ?

December 10, 2008

Family Keeps Vigil for Beaten Brooklyn Man

By KAREEM FAHIM

An Ecuadorean immigrant who was brutally beaten in Brooklyn last weekend in what the police have described as a possible bias attack was declared brain-dead on Tuesday, a law enforcement official said. But the man was being kept on life support while his family decides whether to donate his organs, the official said.

There have been no arrests in the attack, which came four weeks after the fatal stabbing of an Ecuadorean immigrant on Long Island by a group of teenagers who had been looking for a Latino to attack. The attacks have jolted nerves in the city’s Latino communities and have drawn wide condemnation from city officials and Ecuadorean community leaders, many of whom joined relatives of the Brooklyn beating victim on Tuesday.

At a press conference outside Elmhurst Hospital Center, where the man, Jose O. Sucuzhanay, was being treated, his brother Diego Sucuzhanay said he was alive but in critical condition. Family members were waiting for Mr. Sucuzhanay’s parents to arrive from Ecuador before making any medical decisions.

Hospital officials refused to comment on the victim’s condition, citing the family’s wishes. The law enforcement official, however, said that a death certificate had been filed.

Speaking outside the hospital, Diego Sucuzhanay said his brother had been singled out for his “skin color” and sounded a warning to other immigrants. “Today my brother is the victim, but tomorrow it could be your brother, your mother, your father,” Mr. Sucuzhanay said.

His brother, the co-owner of a real estate company, had “always worked to contribute something,” he said.

On Tuesday afternoon, a police helicopter hovered over the patch of Bushwick, Brooklyn, where Mr. Sucuzhanay lived and worked with his relatives, operating a family business that friends said was thriving. At the firm, Open Realty International, a flier on the door advertised financial services, including advice on taxes and investing.

“Bring your problems,” the flier said, “and leave without them.”

Early Sunday, less than a mile from where Mr. Sucuzhanay worked, he and his brother Romel were set upon by men the police said they believed were strangers.

The brothers were walking home from a bar, arms around each other, the police said. At the corner of Bushwick Avenue and Kossuth Place, three men riding in what a witness described as a maroon or red sport utility vehicle spied the brothers and shouted anti-gay and anti-Hispanic slurs.

One of the men hit Jose over the head with a bottle, and the driver of the car swung an aluminum baseball bat at his head, the police said. He fell to the floor as the three attackers, who were black, continued kicking and punching him, the police said. The beating ended only when Romel held up his cellphone and said he was calling the police.

On Tuesday, the police released a description of one of the men, saying he is 6 feet tall and thin, and wore a black leather jacket, boots, dark jeans and a dark baseball cap during the attack. The authorities said they did not have the license number of the car. The reward for information was set at $22,000.

Julia Osman, who worked with Mr. Sucuzhanay, visited him at the hospital on Monday. His face was so swollen that she could not see his eyes, and his head was wrapped in bandages. “He was kind, and cared about everyone who worked with him,” she said.

In the decade he has in the United States, Mr. Sucuzhanay rose from waiter to business owner. He got his real estate sales license three years ago, according to state records, and later started two companies and became the owner of several buildings, according to friends and public records.

“He was happy to have his own business,” said Cesar Alvarado, who owns a metal shop in Bushwick. Mr. Sucuzhanay’s office was a tenant of his, Mr. Alvarado said. “It was going well for him.”

Mr. Sucuzhanay, 31, well known in the local community. Herbert Velez, who worked with him to find an affordable apartment, said: “He works with everybody around here. He found a lot of people homes. He does whatever it takes to help someone.”

It was a family business, and the family was large: Mr. Sucuzhanay was one of 12 siblings. Walter R. Sinche, the executive director of the International Ecuadorean Alliance, a cultural organization, went to Open Realty to buy a house. The Sucuzhanays, he said, had a passion for real estate.

“Most of our community is working in the construction businesses,” he said. “Now they’re bosses, and own their own businesses.”

Tony Garcia, the owner of a competing real estate company across the street from Open Realty, said Mr. Sucuzhanay worked for him for about two years. Mr. Sucuzhanay had been hard-working and efficient, Mr. Garcia said. “People trusted him,” he said. “He was aggressive. He was good.”

The Indian Miracle

2008-12-07T08:54:00.002-05:00

We rarely hear about this side of India. The intense proverty, stratification of society and endemic corruption.

No third world country can become a first world country without :

building an infrastructure. Electricity first, then sewage/drainage and transportation
have a strong legal system without patronage and bribery and corruption
breaking down their caste system

In the current worldwide recession it was thought that China and India would prevent the economic tsunami but it is now apparent that this view is a house of cards

December 7, 2008

Mumbai Attacks Politicize Long-Isolated Elite

By SOMINI SENGUPTA

MUMBAI, India — Last Wednesday, an extraordinary public interest lawsuit was filed in this city’s highest court. It charged that the government had lagged in its constitutional duty to protect its citizens’ right to life, and it pressed the state to modernize and upgrade its security forces.

The lawsuit was striking mainly for the people behind it: investment bankers, corporate lawyers and representatives of some of India’s largest companies, which have their headquarters here in the country’s financial capital, also known as Bombay. The Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the city’s largest business association, joined as a petitioner. It was the first time it had lent its name to litigation in the public interest.

The three-day siege of Mumbai, which ended a week ago, was a watershed for India’s prosperous classes. It prompted many of those who live in their own private Indias, largely insulated from the country’s dysfunction, to demand a vital public service: safety.

Since the attacks, which killed 163 people, plus nine gunmen, there has been an outpouring of anger from unlikely quarters. On Wednesday, tens of thousands of urban, English-speaking, tank-top-wearing citizens stormed the Gateway of India, a famed waterfront monument, venting anger at their elected leaders. There were similar protests in the capital, New Delhi, and the southern technology hubs, Bangalore and Hyderabad. All were organized spontaneously, with word spread through text messages and Facebook pages.

On Saturday, young people affiliated with a new political party, called Loksatta, or people’s power, gathered at the Gateway, calling for a variety of reforms, including banning criminals from running for political office. (Virtually every political party has convicts and suspects among its elected officials.)

Social networking sites were ablaze with memorials and citizens’ action groups, including one that advocated refraining from voting altogether as an act of civil disobedience. Never mind that in India, voter turnout among the rich is far lower than among the poor.

Another group advocated not paying taxes, as though that would improve the quality of public services. An e-mail campaign began Saturday called “I Am Clean,” urging citizens not to bribe police officers or drive through red lights.

And there were countless condemnations of how democracy had failed in this, the world’s largest democracy. Those condemnations led Vir Sanghvi, a columnist writing in the financial newspaper Mint, to remind his readers of 1975, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed emergency rule. Mr. Sanghvi wrote, “I am beginning to hear the same kind of middle-class murmurs and whines about the ineffectual nature of democracy and the need for authoritarian government.”

Perhaps the most striking development was the lawsuit because it represented a rare example of corporate India’s confronting the government outright rather than making back-room deals.

“It says in a nutshell, ‘Enough is enough,’ ” said Cyrus Guzder, who owns a logistics company. “More precisely, it tells us that citizens of all levels in the country believe their government has let them down and believe that it now needs to be held accountable.”

In India’s city of gold, the distinction between public and private can be bewildering. For members of the working class, who often cannot afford housing, public sidewalks become living rooms. In the morning, commuters from gated communities in the suburbs pass children brushing their teeth at the edge of the street. Women are forced to relieve themselves on the railway tracks, usually in the dark, for the sake of modesty. The poor sometimes sleep on highway medians, and it is not unheard of for drunken drivers to mow them down.

Mumbai has been roiled by government neglect for years. Its commuter trains are so overcrowded that 4,000 riders die every year on average, some pushed from trains in the fierce competition to get on and off. Monsoons in 2005 killed more than 400 people in Mumbai in one day alone; so clogged were the city’s ancient drains, so crowded its river plains with unauthorized construction that water had nowhere to go.

Rahul Bose, an actor, suggested setting aside such problems for the moment. In a plea published last week in The Hindustan Times, he laid out the desperation of this glistening, corroding place. “We overlook for now your neglect of the city,” he wrote. “Its floods, its traffic, its filth, its pollution. Just deliver to us a world-standard antiterrorism plan.”

None of the previous terrorist attacks, even in Mumbai, had so struck the cream of Bombay society. Bombs have been planted on commuter trains in the past, but few people who regularly dine at the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel, one of the worst-hit sites, travel by train. “It has touched a raw nerve,” said Amit Chandra, who runs a prominent investment firm. “People have lost friends. Everyone would visit these places.” In any event, public anger could not have come at a worse time for incumbent politicians, who were at their most contrite last week. National elections are due next spring, and security is likely to be one of the top issues in the vote, particularly among the urban middle class. It remains to be seen whether outrage will prompt them to turn out to vote in higher numbers or whether politicians will be compelled to pay greater attention to them than in the past.

“There’s a revulsion against the political class I have never seen before,” said Gerson D’Cunha, a former advertising executive whose civic group, A.G.N.I., presses for better governing. “The middle class that is laid back, lethargic, indolent, they’ve been galvanized.”

For how long? That is a question on everyone’s lips. At a memorial service on Thursday evening for a slain alumnus of the elite St. Xavier’s College here, a placard asked: “One month from now, will you care?”

“It’s helplessness, what do we do?” said Probir Roy, the owner of a technology company and an alumnus of St. Xavier’s. “All the various stakeholders — the police, politicians — you can’t count on them anyway. Now what do you do?”

Tops, a private security agency, has plenty to do. It is consulting schools, malls and “high net individuals” on how to protect themselves better. Security was a growth industry in India even before the latest attacks. Tops’s global chairman, Rahul Nanda, said the company employed 73,000 security guards today, compared with about 15,000 three years ago.

Mumbai is not the only place suffering from official neglect. Public services have deteriorated across India, all the more so in the countryside. Government schools are notoriously mismanaged. Doctors do not show up to work on public health projects. Corruption is endemic. In some of India’s booming cities, private developers drill for their own water and generate electricity for their own buildings.

Political interference often gets in the way of the woefully understaffed and poorly paid police force. Courts and commissions have called for law enforcement to be liberated from political control. Politicians have balked.

The three-day standoff with terrorists was neither the deadliest that India has seen, nor the most protracted; there have been other extended convulsions of violence, including mass killings of Sikhs in Delhi in 1984 and of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002.

Yet, the recent attacks, which Indian police say were the work of a Pakistan-based terrorist group called Lashkar-e-Taiba, were profoundly different. Two of the four main targets were luxury hotels frequented by the city’s wealthy elite: the Taj, facing the Gateway of India, and the twin Oberoi and Trident hotels, a few miles west on Nariman Point. They were the elite’s watering holes and business dinner destinations. And to lose them, said Alex Kuruvilla, who runs the Condé Nast publications in India, is like losing a limb.

“It’s like what I imagine an amputee would feel,” he said. “It’s so much part of our lives.”

Last Wednesday, on the night of the candlelight vigil, Mr. Kuruvilla’s driver made a wrong turn. A traffic policeman virtually pounced on the driver and then let him go with a bribe of 20 rupees, less than 50 cents. Mr. Kuruvilla is not optimistic about swift change. “Our cynicism is justified,” he said.

Ashok Pawar, a police constable from the police station nearest the Taj, entered the hotel the night the siege began. It was full of gunfire and smoke. He could not breathe, and he did not know his way around. “It was my first time inside the Taj,” he said. “How can a poor man go there?”

In The Indian Express newspaper on Friday, a columnist named Vinay Sitapati wrote a pointed open letter to “South Bombay,” shorthand for the city’s most wealthy enclave. The column first berated the rich for lecturing at Davos and failing in Hindi exams. “You refer to your part of the city simply as ‘town,’ ” he wrote, and then he begged: “Vote in person. But vote in spirit, too: use your clout to demand better politicians, not pliant ones.”

“In your hour of need today,” he added, “it is India that needs your help.”

Barriers broken

2008-11-19T08:34:00.002-05:00

A good new, bad news story for the modern era. More good or bad ? Well, if it's about an underrepresented group, always emphasize the good part.

The headlines proclaimed exultantly, 'First woman to lead a Spacewalk'. Another glass ceiling broken !

Then many initial news reports about one of the astronauts who had 'lost' a toolbag during the Spacewalk, threatening the success of the mission. No mention of gender. Or race. Or religion. Or country of origin.

Certainly don't want to associate any underrepresented group with anything negative.

Now the details emerge and we have another barrier broken. The first woman to lead a spacewalk is also the first astronaut to lose equipment during a spacewalk. And no mention of her country of origin, her religion or the color of her skin?

November 19, 2008

Lost Tool Bag Forces Changes to Planned Spacewalks

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 6:30 a.m. ET

HOUSTON (AP) -- Flight controllers were revamping plans Wednesday for the remaining spacewalks planned during space shuttle Endeavour's visit to the international space station, after a crucial tool bag floated out to space during a repair trip.

The briefcase-sized tool bag drifted away from astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper on Tuesday as she cleaned and lubed a gummed-up joint on a wing of solar panels on the space station. She and fellow astronaut Stephen Bowen were midway through the first of four spacewalks planned for the mission. The tool bag was one of the largest items ever lost by a spacewalker.

As Stefanyshyn-Piper cleaned up a large gob of grease that seeped from a gun used to lubricate the joint, the tool case somehow became untethered from a larger bag and floated away along with a pair of grease guns, wipes and a putty knife attached to it.

''What it boils down to is all it takes is one small mistake for a tether not to be hooked up quite correctly or to slip off, and that's what happened here,'' said lead spacewalk officer John Ray.

Stefanyshyn-Piper and Bowen finished the spacewalk in almost seven hours by sharing tools from Bowen's bag. Ray noted that Stefanyshyn-Piper showed ''real character and great discipline'' by continuing on. She was the first woman to be assigned as lead spacewalker for a shuttle flight.

''Despite my little hiccup, or major hiccup, I think we did a good job out there,'' Stefanyshyn-Piper said after returning to the space station.

Flight controllers are considering having the two spacewalkers share Bowen's pair of grease guns for the three remaining spacewalks on Thursday, Saturday and Monday. They could also use caulking guns meant for repairing the space shuttle. Another option is to have one spacewalker clean the joint while the other uses the grease gun to lubricate it.

For more than a year, the joint has been unable to automatically point the right-side solar wings toward the sun for maximum energy production.

Officials weren't worried the bag would hit the space station or the docked space shuttle because by late Tuesday it already was 2 1/2 miles in front of the orbiting complex, said flight director Ginger Kerrick.

''It is definitely moving away with every orbit,'' Kerrick said.

Inside the space station, crew members were so ahead of schedule in moving equipment delivered by Endeavour that shuttle flight planners were contemplating skipping an extra day at the outpost orbiting 220 miles above Earth.

The equipment includes a recycling system that converts urine into water, an extra bathroom, kitchenette, two bedrooms, an exercise machine and refrigerator that will allow space station residents to enjoy cold drinks for the first time. And the extra gear will allow the space station's crew to double to six next year.

The water recycling system was to be hooked up late Wednesday, and the first batch of urine would run through the system later in the week. Samples will be flown back to Earth for safety tests before astronauts can use it.

Job screening in the Obamanation

2008-11-13T08:19:00.003-05:00

Change! Here it comes ... I guess my >$50 parking fines in D.C. last year will prevent everyone in my family from ever getting any gov't related job ... no NASA work for the son ... goodbye Smithsonsian internship for the daughter ...

Sorry about that kids !

And if my brother had a bad tax audit 10 years back I guess that ends it for me . Mom's sister probably hasn't paid her taxes in years (due to that newly defined medical condition, 'tax avoidance syndrome') so mom is out.

You might think that associating with American terrorists and radical America-hating preachers would also prevent someone from getting a gov't job, but it appears these screenings are only for those who are not being considered for executive positions. One rule for the rich and powerful, another for the great unwashed. Change is here at last!

The same political platform that believes it is invasive to check criminal suspects to see if they are illegal immigrants is now requiring job applicants to give every detail of themeselves, their family and their associations with friends on their application.

Where's the ACLU when you need it? Probably busy defending those illegal immigrants

November 13, 2008

For a Washington Job, Be Prepared to Tell All

By JACKIE CALMES

WASHINGTON — Want a top job in the Obama administration? Only pack rats need apply, preferably those not packing controversy.

A seven-page questionnaire being sent by the office of President-elect Barack Obama to those seeking cabinet and other high-ranking posts may be the most extensive — some say invasive — application ever.

The questionnaire includes 63 requests for personal and professional records, some covering applicants’ spouses and grown children as well, that are forcing job-seekers to rummage from basements to attics, in shoe boxes, diaries and computer archives to document both their achievements and missteps.

Only the smallest details are excluded; traffic tickets carrying fines of less than $50 need not be reported, the application says. Applicants are asked whether they or anyone in their family owns a gun. They must include any e-mail that might embarrass the president-elect, along with any blog posts and links to their Facebook pages.

The application also asks applicants to “please list all aliases or ‘handles’ you have used to communicate on the Internet.”

The vetting process for executive branch jobs has been onerous for decades, with each incoming administration erecting new barriers in an effort to avoid the mistakes of the past, or the controversies of the present. It is typically updated to reflect technological change (there was no Facebook the last time a new president came to town).

But Mr. Obama has elevated the vetting even beyond what might have been expected, especially when it comes to applicants’ family members, in a reflection of his campaign rhetoric against lobbying and the back-scratching, self-serving ways of Washington.

“President-elect Obama made a commitment to change the way Washington does business, and the vetting process exemplifies that,” said Stephanie Cutter, chief spokeswoman for the Obama transition office.

Jobs with the mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have served as lucrative incubators for Democratic and Republican administration officials. But those affiliations have become potentially toxic since the government seized both companies after years of financial irregularities that have stoked the economic crisis.

Not surprisingly, then, Question 18 of the Obama application asks whether “you, your spouse or any member of your immediate family” have been affiliated with Fannie, Freddie, American International Group, Washington Mutual and any other institution getting a government bailout.

Under “Domestic Help,” the questionnaire asks the immigration status of applicants’ housekeepers, nannies, chauffeurs and yard-workers, and whether applicants have paid the required taxes for household employees. (Those questions reflect controversies that tripped up President Bill Clinton’s first two nominees for attorney general in 1993.)

“Every transition is cumulative,” said Michael Berman, a lawyer and lobbyist who worked in the transitions of both Mr. Clinton and President Jimmy Carter. After reviewing the Obama application, Mr. Berman added, “I am very happy I am not seeking a job in the federal government.”

A former Clinton White House official who insisted on anonymity said in an e-mail message, “I believe it is considerably more detailed than we had to fill out in ’93. Interesting that they want spouse information on everything — means lots of folks are going to have to list the very prominent — and controversial — companies that their spouses work/lobby for.”

The first question asks applicants not just for a résumé, but for every résumé and biographical statement issued by them or others for the past 10 years — a likely safeguard against résumé falsehoods, one Clinton administration veteran said.

Most information must cover at least the past decade, including the names of anyone applicants lived with; a chronological list of activities for which applicants were paid; real estate and loans over $10,000, and their terms, for applicants and spouses; net worth statements submitted for loans, and organization memberships — in particular, memberships in groups that have discriminated on the basis of race, sex, disability, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation.

There are no time limits for some information, including liens, tax audits, lawsuits, legal charges, bankruptcies or arrests. Applicants must report all businesses with which they and their spouses have been affiliated or in which they have had a financial stake of more than 5 percent. All gifts over $50 that they and their spouses have received from anyone other than close friends or relatives must be identified.

Just in case the previous 62 questions do not ferret out any potential controversy, the 63rd is all-encompassing: “Please provide any other information, including information about other members of your family, that could suggest a conflict of interest or be a possible source of embarrassment to you, your family, or the president-elect.”

The answer could duplicate the response to Question 8: “Briefly describe the most controversial matters you have been involved with during the course of your career.”

For those who clear all the hurdles, the reward could be the job they wanted. But first there will be more forms, for security and ethics clearances from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Office of Government Ethics.

Limited Imagination

2008-10-23T07:40:00.002-04:00

Interesting article until you get almost to the end.

You might've expected someone who is lamenting on out-of-control spending to suggest we either pay off the Federal debt or cut taxes after cutting grandma's benefits, but no, she suggests we shift those saved funds to pre-school programs.

Makes sense coming from someone at the Brookings Institute.

Great 'economic' take on pre-school ... ' It's like any investment that has a rate of return.'

But a good question from an interviewer should be ... 'Is it the Federal government's responsibility to pay for education, pre-school or otherwise?' ... and 'Where in the constitution does it say the Federal Gov't has this responsibility?' .

Why we need to cut seniors' benefits

Economist Isabel Sawhill says America's elderly are getting too big a slice of the taxpayers' money.

Interview by George Mannes, Money Magazine senior writer

October 23, 2008: 6:34 AM ET

(Money Magazine) -- Whether or not Congress or the Federal Reserve manages to solve the financial crisis, there will be an equally scary situation that has not yet made newspaper headlines.

The big three of entitlement programs - Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid - will wreak havoc on the country's finances (and yours) unless we scale them back, says Isabel Sawhill, an economist at the Brookings Institution and member of a bipartisan think tank trying to sound the alarm.

Question: You talk about fixing the unwritten agreement between younger and older generations - the "intergenerational contract." What's broken?

Answer: The existing contract assumes that the working-age population is going to be able to support the older population - the retired population - out into the future and should do so. And that's not a sustainable assumption.

Q. Why not?

A. Forty-two percent of federal spending now goes to three programs, with the major share to the elderly.

Two or three decades from now, those three programs will be as large as the federal government is today.

Let's say someone is now paying 25% of their income in taxes. To maintain the commitments we've made to the elderly, they would have to pay 50%.

Q. What's the solution?

A. We need those who can afford it to contribute more to their own retirement costs.

Take Social Security: Right now the benefit formula provides a pretty good retirement income to those who make more than $100,000 a year.

I don't think that the working-age population should continue to fund benefits for seniors who are so well off.

Q. And you want to spend this money instead on the younger generation?

A. Yes. We would reap enormous economic benefits from spending more on early childhood education. It's like any investment that has a rate of return.

If you do it when people are young, it's going to help make them more productive and enable them to earn a reasonable living.

Q. Wouldn't the AARP crowd scream bloody murder about benefit reductions?

A. I don't think all older Americans are opposed to investing in their children and grandchildren.

Q. So how do you sell this idea of spending less on the elderly and more on the young?

A. We have to change the debate, which has been focused on the idea that there's going to be generational warfare.

I'm trying to get away from that concept by talking about the fact that every individual, every generation, should expect more from their government when they're young and less from their government when they're old.

That's not generational warfare. That's common sense.

Misleading headlines

2008-10-16T08:43:00.002-04:00

From the very long headline you would think that U.S. firms owed Mexican laborers back pay.

That idea wouldn't be clarified in the article until you got to the 7th paragraph, if you persisted in reading that far into the article.

At that point it states that the Mexican gov't was at fault and had withheld the money from it's own citizens when they returned to Mexico.

The Mexican gov't mistreating it's own citizens? The same gov't that assists them in their quest to go to the U.S. illegally to work and send money back ? The gov't that fights for these worker's rights to live and work in the U.S. ?

Nah... couldn't be .

October 16, 2008

Settlement Will Allow Thousands of Mexican Laborers in U.S. to Collect Back Pay

By PAM BELLUCK

Tens of thousands of Mexicans who labored in the United States under a World War II-era guest worker program will be eligible to collect back pay under a settlement to a long-fought lawsuit.

From 200,000 to 300,000 laborers, called braceros, worked as farmhands or railroad workers from 1942 to 1946, and under the program, a portion of their pay was deducted and transferred to the Mexican government to be given to the workers when they returned to Mexico.

But many laborers said they never received the pay, and many never even knew that 10 percent of their salaries was deducted. In 2001, lawyers filed a class action lawsuit in California.

The lawsuit was dismissed twice, as courts considered whether too much time had passed and whether a lawsuit against the Mexican government could have standing in the United States. The American government and Wells Fargo Bank, initially named as defendants, were dismissed from the case.

Scores of elderly ex-braceros staged protests in Mexico, demanding compensation.

On Wednesday, lawyers for the braceros and the Mexican government said the Federal District Court in San Francisco had given preliminary approval to a settlement in the case.

Under the settlement, scheduled for a hearing on final approval in a few months, Mexico would give each bracero, or a surviving heir, $3,500.

“It’s an overdue redress for a very historic grievance,” said Joshua Karsh, a lawyer representing the braceros.

Joel Hernandez, the legal adviser for the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said: “We are happy that we were able to reach a settlement agreement with the plaintiffs. We think it’s very important to reach that stage in order to make it possible that any potential applicant may file an application for social support.”

Ramon Ibarra, now 86, said he did two stints as a bracero, laying track for railroads in Arizona and layering ice into trains carrying fruits and vegetables in Bakersfield, Calif. A widower who has lived in Chicago for 40 years, Mr. Ibarra said he would like to use the money “for my final rites and for my death that is very near” and called it “a victory of principles that allows me to be positive about continuing to live a little longer.”

The braceros, a name coined for people who worked with their arms (brazos), earned about 50 cents an hour, and advocates say many were unable to read their contracts to learn about payroll deductions or were too daunted to try to collect their money in Mexico. The Mexican government collected at least $32 million in deductions, but claims about how much was reimbursed vary.

In 2005, the Mexican government, without admitting liability, agreed to pay about $3,500 in compensation for braceros living in Mexico, but only 49,000 of the 212,000 applications received could provide documentation.

“It is very important to note that X number of people may claim” to be braceros, Mr. Hernandez said. But “many years have passed and they really have to prove that they belong to the braceros program.”

Since many braceros immigrated to the United States after returning to Mexico, an untold number of braceros and their descendants live in states like California, Illinois and Texas.

Mr. Karsh said that the plaintiffs lost their request for “much less stringent documentation requirements,” and that some braceros or their families may lack the paperwork or proof needed to collect in the settlement. Mr. Ibarra, for example, said he had no record of his employment.

But the family of Juan Castaneda Davila, who died in 1972, has documentation that he worked in farm fields and railroads in Kansas and Texas, said his daughter, Lourdes Ramos.

“I feel so-so” about the settlement, Ms. Ramos said. “They deserve more because they tried to help this country.”

Economic 'laws'

2008-10-16T08:32:00.002-04:00

If only the 'laws' of economics were more like the laws of physics or the axioms of math we wouldn't have boom and bust cycles.

Thank goodness the experts at Wharton help explain these 'laws' to us laymen:

“The No. 1 thing that drives housing values is incomes,” said Todd Sinai, an associate professor of real estate at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. “When incomes fall, demand for housing falls.”

How come this doesn't work in reverse, that housing prices cannot rise faster than income ?

How come this doesn't work with colleges, where costs have outpaced inflation AND income for over 25 years?

How come economic 'laws' don't work like the law of gravity ?

And how come economic 'experts' can be wrong so often but still have jobs along with rising incomes ?

October 16, 2008

Home Prices Seem Far From Bottom

By VIKAS BAJAJ

The American housing market, where the global economic crisis began, is far from hitting bottom.

Home prices across much of the country are likely to fall through late 2009, economists say, and in some markets the trend could last even longer depending on the severity of the anticipated recession.

In hard-hit areas like California, Florida and Arizona, the grim calculus is the same: More and more homes are going up for sale, but fewer and fewer people are willing or able to buy them.

Adding to the worries nationwide are rising unemployment, falling wages and escalating mortgage rates — all of which will reduce the already diminished pool of would-be buyers.

“The No. 1 thing that drives housing values is incomes,” said Todd Sinai, an associate professor of real estate at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. “When incomes fall, demand for housing falls.”

Despite the government’s move to bolster the banking industry, home loan rates rose again on Tuesday, reflecting concern that the Treasury will borrow heavily to finance the rescue.

On Wednesday, the average rate for 30-year fixed rate mortgages was 6.75 percent, up from 6.06 percent last week. While banks are moving aggressively to sell foreclosed properties, the number of empty homes is hovering near its highest level in more than half a century.

As of June, 2.8 percent of homes previously occupied by an owner were vacant. Nearly 1 in 10 rentals was without a tenant. Both numbers are near their highest levels since 1956, the earliest year for which the Census Bureau has such data.

At the same time, the number of people who are losing jobs or seeing their incomes decline is rising. The unemployment rate has climbed to 6.1 percent, from 4.4 percent at the end of 2007, and wages for those who still have a job have barely kept up with inflation.

In New York and other cities that rely heavily on the financial sector, economists expect that job losses will increase and that pay heavily tied to year-end bonuses will decline significantly.

One reliable proxy of housing values — the ratio of home prices to rents — indicates that in many cities prices are still too high relative to historical norms.

In Miami, for instance, home prices are about 22 times annual rents, according to analysis by Moody’s Economy.com. The average figure for the last 20 years is just 15 times annual rents. The difference between those two numbers suggests that a home valued at $500,000 today might be worth only $341,000 based on the long-term relationship between prices and rents.

The price-to-rent ratio, which provides one measure of how much of a premium home buyers place on owning rather than renting, spiked across the country earlier this decade.

It increased the most on the coasts and somewhat less in the middle of the country. Economy.com’s calculations show that while it remains elevated in many places, the ratio has fallen sharply to more normal levels in places like Sacramento, Dallas and Riverside, Calif.

The current housing downturn is much more national in scope and severe than any other in the postwar period, partly because of the proliferation of risky lending practices. Today, foreclosures are running ahead of the downturn in the economy, a reversal of previous housing slumps.

“We are in uncharted waters,” said Brian A. Bethune, an economist at Global Insight, a research firm.

Colleen Pestana, a real estate agent in Orange County in California, said many people losing their homes in Southern California used to work at mortgage and real estate companies. Many of them bet heavily on real estate by upgrading to bigger houses every few years. Now, many are losing their homes.

At the same time, Ms. Pestana said, her clients who are looking to buy are having a harder time lining up financing. One of her clients recently had to give up on a home after the lender that had offered a pre-approved loan changed its mind — a frequent occurrence, according to real estate agents and mortgage brokers.

“I am working harder than I have ever had to work to get a deal together and keep it together,” said Ms. Pestana, who has been a real estate agent for seven years.

To cushion themselves from potential losses if homes lose value, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance companies that the government took over in September, have increased fees on loans made to borrowers who have good but not excellent credit records, even those who are making down payments as big as 30 percent.

Those higher fees are generally invisible to borrowers because banks factor them into mortgage interest rates. While the national average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is now 6.75 percent, according to HSH Associates, mortgage brokers say the rates for many borrowers in the Southwest or Florida can be as high as 8 percent, especially for so-called jumbo loans that are too big to be sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (Those loan limits vary by area from $417,000 to roughly $650,000.)

Higher interest rates result in bigger monthly payments, pricing some potential buyers out of the market. For example, monthly payments are $2,700 on a 6 percent 30-year, fixed-rate loan of $450,000. If the interest rate rises to 7 percent, those monthly payments jump to $3,000. All things being equal, when rates rise prices generally fall.

This month, Fannie and Freddie canceled a fee increase that would have applied to markets where home prices are falling, but the companies still have many other fees in place. In an effort to help drive down rates, the Treasury Department has announced plans to buy mortgage-backed securities issued by Fannie and Freddie. The government also recently increased the amount of loans the companies can buy and hold.

Still, those efforts will take time to have an impact and it is not clear whether they will be sufficient to get banks to lend more freely, especially in areas where jumbo loans make up a bigger percentage of lending, like New York and parts of California and Florida. Economists say that prices in those places will probably fall further.

In some of those places, price declines are being driven by a sharp increase in sales of foreclosed homes.

Hudson & Marshall, a Dallas-based auctioneer that holds sales for lenders, reports that banks are accepting prices that they refused to consider just 12 months earlier. In a recent auction of 110 foreclosed homes in the Las Vegas area, for instance, the auctioneer’s clients accepted 90 percent of the bids submitted by buyers, up from 60 percent a year earlier, said David T. Webb, a co-owner of the company.

Single-family home prices in Las Vegas have already fallen 34 percent from their peak in the summer of 2006, according to the Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller home price index. Prices in San Diego have fallen 31 percent since late 2005.

While those declines have been painful to homeowners in those cities, economists said the quick decline might help the markets reach bottom faster than in previous housing cycles, said Edward E. Leamer, an economist at the University of California, Los Angeles. In a previous boom, home prices peaked in the Los Angeles area in 1990 but did not hit bottom until 1996. Prices remained near that low for more than a year before starting to climb again.

“In some areas of California, we are really at appropriate levels,” Mr. Leamer said of current home prices. But he added: “The risk is that we are going to get some overshooting, meaning that prices will be lower than they ought to be.”

In Florida, Jack McCabe, a real estate consultant, said that while some cities, like Fort Myers, are showing tentative signs of a rebound, others like Miami and Fort Lauderdale are still under pressure. Two homes on his street in Fort Lauderdale that sold for about $730,000 apiece in 2005 recently sold for $400,000 — a 44 percent decline.

“The rocket has run out of fuel, and now it’s plunged back down to earth,” he said.

Some corporate-speak

2008-10-14T08:27:00.002-04:00

Corporations make up words and terms to try to sound more serious and significant. College students are taught to do this also, come to think of it.

Take these sentences from the following article. Can we express this more succintly and simpler?

“We were adversely impacted by continued weakness in the U.S. liquid refreshment beverage category, which resulted in disappointing performance in our domestic beverage business. We are taking important steps to revitalize our beverage portfolio.”

How about .. " We sold less soda than we expected, but we hope to sell more soda next quarter".

And isn't there some redundancy in the term 'liquid refreshment beverage category' . Aren't liquid refreshments also beverages, and vice versa?

But would the board of directors pay this woman multi-millions to be the CEO if she spoke like this ?

October 14, 2008, 7:32 am

Pepsi cutting back

Pepsico (PEP) is cutting back. The Purchase, N.Y., drinks-and-snacks conglomerate posted softer-than-expected third-quarter earnings Tuesday and set plans to cut 3,300 jobs as the economic slowdown and changing consumer tastes hit soda sales. Pepsi made $1.56 billion, or 99 cents a share, for the quarter ended Sept. 30, down from the year-ago $1.74 billion, or $1.06 a share. Excluding certain costs, earnings were $1.06 a share in the latest quarter, 2 cents shy of the Thomson Financial analyst consensus estimate.

“In the third quarter, our worldwide snacks and international beverage businesses performed well once again,” said CEO Indra Nooyi. “We were adversely impacted by continued weakness in the U.S. liquid refreshment beverage category, which resulted in disappointing performance in our domestic beverage business. We are taking important steps to revitalize our beverage portfolio.”

Pepsi will close six plants and cut 2% of jobs worldwide in a plan that aims to produce pretax savings of $1.2 billion. The company said it expects to make $3.67 or $3.68 a share for 2008, 6 cents below the Thomson Financial target, due in part to the recent surge in the value of the dollar, which reduces the company’s overseas profits. But Pepsi said it wouldn’t offer any guidance for next year till it posts fourth-quarter numbers in January, citing “macro economic turbulence and volatility in the currency markets.”

Bad mortgage - whose fault?

2008-10-13T08:45:00.002-04:00

Sounds like she was mortgage-free in '97, when she was 78 years old. At this time she had lived in the same house for 26 years.

Then, for some reason she took out a mortgage . Who gives a 30 year mortgage to a 78 year old??? Obviously she was not working. Was she going to pay it back with her social security?

Why would she take it out in the first place? Was she hoodwinked into taking it by an unscrupulous mortgage broker? This might be the real story. What bank or mortgage company gave the loan?

Why would she refinance 'several times' since then ? Again, perhaps a high pressure mortgage salesperson was involved?

And what did she do with the tens of thousands of dollars she received?

She may be worthy of sympathy if she was badgered into these loans by unscrupulous salespeople. Then again perhaps she was a somewhat willing participant in the scam.

Widow puts face on home crisis

Shoots herself in foreclosure

Thomas J. Sheeran ASSOCIATED PRESS
Monday, October 13, 2008

Buzz up!

AKRON, Ohio | By the time deputies came to escort Addie Polk out of her home of 38 years, the 90-year-old had taken out her life insurance policy and placed it next to her pocketbook and keys in the neatly kept house.

She shot herself in the chest Oct. 1 before she could be taken away from the foreclosed house, which was worth less than its mortgage from the day she took out the loan.

A congressman called her the face of a national tragedy, the housing crisis that has affected millions of Americans. Neighbors were stunned and said they had no idea the widow had been about to lose her two-story home.

As she recovered, Mrs. Polk sounded a bit regretful. "She said that was a crazy thing to do," said neighbor Robert Dillon, 62, who visited her at the hospital.

Mrs. Polk's cause was taken up by Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, a Democrat, and fueled blogs on reckless lending practices rampant during the housing boom. Mortgage finance company Fannie Mae dropped the foreclosure, forgave her mortgage and said she could remain in the home.

"You have to shoot yourself to get help," said a neighbor, Hannah Garrett, 76.

The Summit County Sheriff's Department concluded that Mrs. Polk shot herself over the foreclosure, Lt. Kandy Fatheree said. A revolver was inches from her, and the house was locked.

Mr. Dillon heard the gunfire Oct. 1, climbed through Mrs. Polk's upstairs bathroom window and found her lying in bed bleeding.

Mrs. Polk was recovering at Akron General Medical Center, and did not respond to a mailed Associated Press request for an interview. The hospital would not release information about her condition.

Mr. Dillon hadn't been aware of Mrs. Polk's financial situation but said she had indicated she couldn't afford roof or porch repairs.

Mrs. Polk's blue-collar neighborhood, overlooking a duck pond and a noisy highway near Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.'s world headquarters, is a mix of renovated and worn-out houses. Unlike some hard-hit areas, no for-sale signs were dotted along the brick street on a recent day.

Neighbors said Mrs. Polk, who has no children, drives herself to church services and goes out to dinner with friends on Sundays.

"She didn't act like she was under stress," Mrs. Garrett said.

Mrs. Polk took out a mortgage in 1997 and refinanced several times after that, court and property records showed. She took out a 30-year, 6.375 percent mortgage for $45,620 four years ago when the house was appraised at $31,230. That move put her in a position that, according to Deutsche Bank, up to 40 percent of borrowers, or 20 million households nationwide, could face within 12 to 18 months: Suddenly Mrs. Polk owed more on her house than it was worth.

While many households ran into that problem when once-soaring house prices declined, there was no bubble on LaCroix Avenue, located in a city whose population dropped 4 percent since 2000 amid declining manufacturing.

Fannie Mae, which had assumed the Countrywide Home Loan mortgage on Mrs. Polk's home, thinks a reversal of the foreclosure was appropriate given the circumstances, a Fannie Mae spokesman said. Fannie Mae filed the foreclosure on Sept. 6, 2007.

Offshoring Airline maintnenance

2008-10-04T09:44:00.002-04:00

Look like there may be melamine in the jet fuel?

FAA Faulted for Lax Tracking of Airline Maintenance, Too Much Outsourcing

Saturday , October 04, 2008

WASHINGTON —

Nine U.S. airlines outsourced more than 70 percent of their major aircraft maintenance last year, and federal aviation officials' oversight of repair facilities is lagging, according to a government report.

One-fourth of the outsourced maintenance is being handled by contractors overseas.

The Transportation Department's inspector general said the outsourcing, which has more than doubled in four years, was of concern because the Federal Aviation Administration has failed to closely track how much maintenance is farmed out and where it is performed.

Although the FAA has taken steps to improve, "the agency still faces challenges in determining where the most critical maintenance occurs and ensuring sufficient oversight," investigators said in the report issued this week.

In their effort to lower costs, the report said, airlines continue to shift their heavy airframe maintenance from their own in-house mechanics and engineers to hundreds of repair companies in the United States, Canada, Mexico and countries in Central America and Asia.

Nine major airlines examined by the inspector general outsourced 71 percent of their heavy air frame maintenance — repairs and servicing to an aircraft's body, wings and tail — in 2007, up from 34 percent in 2003. More than a quarter of that maintenance — 27 percent — was performed at foreign repair facilities.

The airlines examined in the report were AirTran Airways, Alaska Airlines, America West Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue Airways, Northwest Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines. American Airlines, the nation's largest domestic carrier, was not included, the inspector general said, because it handles most maintenance in-house.

The FAA relies heavily on the airlines — and the repair facilities themselves — to make sure outsourced repairs meet the air safety standards and requirements of the individual airlines.

FAA requires each repair station to undergo a government inspection at least once a year, FAA spokesman Les Dorr said. The report says those inspections often are not being conducted by agency inspectors most familiar with standards and requirements of the airline whose planes are being repaired.

As much as five years lapsed between visits to some major maintenance facilities by inspectors assigned to individual airlines. Inspectors not assigned to a specific airline may not be familiar with the special maintenance requirements of that airline's planes, which are often customized.

The report cited a foreign facility, which repairs engines for an unidentified airline, that had not been inspected by an FAA inspector assigned to that airline in five years, a period in which the facility had repaired 39 of the air carrier's engines.

The report recommends FAA require airlines to provide more complete information on the extent and location of outsourced repairs, ensure air carriers and repair stations are better able to spot and correct problems, and improve the documentation of inspection results.

The FAA agreed it needs to do more. "We actually concur with all the inspector general's recommendations," Dorr said. "We have procedures in place that already address some of the recommendations, and we have some projects in progress that address others."

One safety expert, however, said the report underscores that FAA still has a long way to go toward resolving the outsourcing issue, which has been source of controversy for the agency for several years.

"What this report tells me is there is still a big problem with oversight — the FAA is not verifying that the oversight being provided by the air carriers is doing the job it's supposed to," said John Goglia, a former member of the National Transportation Safety Board.

Doctor - another job Americans won't do

2008-10-01T16:47:00.002-04:00

OK... some questions any journalist can ask, but none seem to do, when such articles are put together :

Why are so many foreign doctors interning in the U.S. ?
Do U.S. Med schools produce too few graduates to meet the yearly needs for interns/residents in U.S. hospitals?
Are a lot less U.S. students applying to Med school? How easy is it to get into a U.S. Med School?
Why are there too few doctors in the country ? If there are too many in desired areas such as NYC then it stands to reason that costs may go down or many would not be able to make a living.
If there are too few home-grown doctors why don't existing Med schools ramp up enrollment?
If there are too few home-grown doctors why don't States create more public Med Schools to fill the need?
How about creating Med schools in rural areas, drawing from local people who would be interested in working either locally or in other rural areas?

October 1, 2008
Towns Need Doctors, and the Doctors Need Visas
By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
Glossy chamber of commerce brochures from small towns and rural areas along Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River and in the Adirondack Mountains beckoned on tables in the Sheraton New York Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. But it was not the allure of hiking, fishing or wineries — or even the free cookies and coffee — that attracted scores of novice doctors to a job fair on Sunday.

It was the possibility of a green card.

Many of the doctors, residents at New York City hospitals, had come from abroad on visas, including the restrictive J-1 “exchange visa,” which requires them to return home for two years once they finish their studies unless they can get a waiver to work in a medically underserved area. New York State recommends about 30 doctors for J-1 visa waivers annually; typically half of the visas go to doctors working in neighborhoods like Washington Heights or the South Bronx and half to upstate communities that do not have enough physicians.

Getting such a waiver is akin to winning the lottery, and to apply for a ticket, doctors must have a signed employment contract, said Caleb C. Wistar, a State Health Department planner who was at the job fair to give advice. “This is the shining prize of working in underserved areas for people who are not citizens,” he said.

Visa politics helped turn the job fair into a matchmaking exercise. The 30 upstate hospitals that sent representatives, whose expenses were covered by the Greater New York Hospital Association, promoted their towns’ friendly neighbors and good schools. The immigrant doctors, willing to relocate for economic and professional opportunities, listened politely, then worked up the courage to ask what for many of them was the most pressing question: “Do you sponsor visas?”

Dr. Ranka Bulajic, a Serb, analyzed the job market by ethnicity: Eastern Europeans, she explained, were willing to work in colder climates like northern New York State or Oregon, while those from Africa or the Caribbean tended to prefer Alabama or Virginia. Dr. Jiwu Sun, who graduated from China’s prestigious Third Military Medical University, said that, at the age of 40 — and with a wife, two children and limited English — he was in no position to make demands of potential employers. Dr. Nadia Ferder, 34, who was born in the United States but grew up in Buenos Aires, said she did not want to return to Argentina because the economy was so bad that “lawyers, economists, doctors, architects, they are all driving cabs.”

Many studies show that newly trained American doctors, burdened with student loans and seeking status and challenges, gravitate toward urban centers. A 2007 study of physician recruitment by the Center for Health Workforce Studies at the State University of New York at Albany found that physicians practicing upstate were more likely to have come from outside New York than their downstate counterparts.

The study said that when doctors had trouble finding jobs, the main reason was their reluctance to look outside the most desirable locations, like New York City. While many American doctors aspire to work on Park Avenue, experts say, foreign-born doctors are willing to take more modest jobs as a way of establishing a toehold in the United States.

Dr. Romina Tollerutti, 31, who graduated from medical school at the University of Buenos Aires, said she learned English six years ago when she decided to come to the United States for her residency, and had struggled with the unfamiliar multiple-choice format of the medical-licensing exam. She and her husband, also a doctor, hope that fluency of Spanish will help make them more attractive to employers.

Dr. Tollerutti said that even as a third-year pediatric resident at Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens, she was doing better financially than she would as a fully trained doctor in Argentina. “We are not saving money,” Dr. Tollerutti said. “But we have a cellphone, we have cable, I pay rent, and we have money to go out.”

Like other foreign-born physicians, Dr. Tollerutti said that having gone to a government-run medical school, where her tuition was free, made her more flexible in her job possibilities than many of her American colleagues who had to pay off staggering student loans.

Dr. Bulajic, 35, who earned her medical degree from the University of Kragujevac in Serbia and has Canadian citizenship, is doing her residency at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway.

She said New York City hospitals have their pick among residents and would rather hire a doctor with a green card than sponsor someone for a visa waiver. To work in Canada, she said, she would need another year of training. Her husband is an electrician, and they would prefer to live in an area where construction jobs are plentiful. But Dr. Bulajic is pregnant and her mother lives in Toronto, so a job in upstate New York sounded appealing, she said.

One of her competitors for a waiver was Dr. André Phillips, 27, from Barbados, who said he had earned his medical degree at the University of the West Indies campus in Jamaica, tuition-free, before landing a residency in internal medicine at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn. Dr. Phillips is scheduled to finish his residency in 2010, on a J-1 visa.

Dr. Phillips said he had been solicited by hospitals in the Dakotas, but would rather stay on the East Coast, closer to his family in Barbados. His goal, he said, was not to be rich but to be comfortable. “Money is not the reason I went into medicine,” he said, adding that he would be satisfied with “a nice three-bedroom house and a sedan.”

A recruiter from the Finger Lakes region said her hospital could sponsor visas.

“How about the lawyer’s fee?” Dr. Phillips asked.

“We reimburse that,” the recruiter replied.

Nearby, Rich Duvall, a human resources administrator for Carthage Area Hospital in Carthage, N.Y., gave the hard sell to a doctor from India and his family. Carthage, a medically underserved area that calls itself “the gateway to the Adirondacks,” had it all, he said: snow sports, river sports, hiking and, thanks to the soldiers at nearby Fort Drum, diversity.

When is a cartel legal?

2008-10-01T07:57:00.001-04:00

Looks like the EU can fine companies headquarted outside Europe for cartel activities.

What about OPEC then ?

EU Fines Wax Producers EUR676 Million For Price Fixing

October 01, 2008: 05:45 AM EST

BRUSSELS -(Dow Jones)- The European Commission Wednesday fined nine wax producers a total of EUR676 million for participating in a paraffin wax cartel.

The nine producers are Sasol Ltd. (SOL.JO), ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM), ENI S.P.A (ENI.MI), Hansen & Rosenthal, Tudapetrol, MOL, Repsol, RWE and Total S.A. ( 12027.FR).

Sasol, a South African energy company, was the leader of the cartel and will have to pay EUR318 million, the commission said. Total will have to pay the second largest part of the fine at EUR128 million.

"There is probably not a household or company in Europe that hasn't bought products affected by this 'paraffin mafia' cartel," said Neelie Kroes, the commission's antitrust chief, in a statement.

The NYTimes - Belated Talk like a Pirate day

2008-09-30T08:20:00.002-04:00

A little late for this important holiday, but this is from the NYTimes today ....

Only a 'journalist' from the NYTimes, being sensitive to multiculturalism and diversity would call piracy a 'business' and an 'industry' ... just like terrorists are 'freedom fighters' or 'militants' ...

Words count, but at the NYTimes only with a spellchecker .

Perhaps the US Gov't has the fiscal and moral responsibility to bailout the pirates from their bad positions in Credit Default Swaps also ? After all the real pirates are on Wall Street.

Piracy in Somalia is a highly-organized, lucrative, ransom-driven business. Just this year, pirates have hijacked more than 25 ships, and in many cases, they were paid million dollar ransoms to release them. The juicy payoffs have attracted gunmen from across Somalia and the pirates are thought to now number in the thousands.

The piracy industry started about 10 to 15 years ago, Somali officials said, as a response to illegal fishing. Somalia’s central government imploded in 1991, casting the country into chaos. With no patrols along the shoreline, Somalia’s tuna-rich waters were soon plundered by commercial fishing fleets from around the world. Somali fishermen armed themselves and turned into vigilantes by confronting illegal fishing boats and demanding that they pay a tax.

October 1, 2008

Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re in It for the Money

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

NAIROBI, Kenya -- The Somali pirates who hijacked a Ukrainian freighter loaded with tanks, artillery, grenade launchers and ammunition said in an interview Tuesday that they had no idea that the ship was carrying arms when they seized it on the high seas.

“We just saw a big ship,” the pirates’ spokesman, Sugule Ali, told The New York Times. “So we stopped it.”

The pirates quickly learned, though, that their booty was an estimated $30 million worth of heavy weaponry, heading for Kenya or Sudan, depending on who you ask.

In a 45-minute-long interview, Mr. Sugule expounded on everything from what the pirates want — “just money” — to why they were doing this — “to stop illegal fishing and dumping in our waters” — to what they eat — rice, meat, bread, spaghetti, “you know, normal human being food.”

He said that so far, in the eyes of the world, the pirates had been misunderstood. “We don’t consider ourselves sea bandits,” he said. “We consider sea bandits those who illegally fish in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas. We are simply patrolling our seas. Think of us like a coast guard.”

The pirates who answered the phone call on Tuesday morning from The New York Times said they were speaking by satellite phone from the bridge of the Faina, the Ukrainian cargo ship that was hijacked about 200 miles off the coast of Somalia on Thursday. Several pirates talked, but they said that only Mr. Sugule was authorized to be quoted. Mr. Sugule acknowledged that they were now surrounded by American warships bristling with firepower but he did not sound afraid. “You only die once,” Mr. Sugule said.

He said that all was peaceful on the ship, despite unconfirmed reports from a maritime organization in Kenya that three pirates had been killed in a shoot-out among themselves on Monday night.

He insisted that the pirates were not interested in the weapons and had no plans to sell them to Islamist insurgents battling Somalia’s weak transitional government. “Somalia has suffered from many years of destruction because of all these weapons,” he said. “We don’t want that suffering and chaos to continue. We are not going to offload the weapons. We just want the money.”

He said that they were asking for $20 million in cash — “we don’t use any other system than cash.” But he added that they were willing to bargain. “That’s deal making,” he explained.

“From there, they got greedy” explained Mohamed Osman Aden, a Somali diplomat in Kenya. “They starting attacking everyone.”

By the early 2000s, many of the fishermen had traded in their nets for machine guns and were hijacking any vessel — sailboat, oil tanker, United Nations-chartered food ship — that they could catch.

“It’s true that the pirates started to defend the fishing business,” Mr. Mohamed said. “And illegal fishing is a real problem for us. But this does not justify these boys to now act like guardians. They are criminals. The world must help us crack down on them.”

The United States and several European countries, in particular France, have been talking about ways to patrol the waters together. The United Nations is even considering creating something like a maritime peacekeeping force. Because of all the hijackings, the waters off of Somalia’s 1,880-mile-long coast are now considered the most dangerous shipping lanes in the world.

On Tuesday, several American warships had the hijacked freighter cornered along the craggy Somali coastline. The American ships were allowing the pirates to bring food and water on board but not to take any weapons off. A Russian frigate is also on its way to the area.

Lt. Nathan Christensen, a Navy spokesman, said on Tuesday that he had heard the unconfirmed reports about the inter-pirate shootout but that the Navy had no more information. “To be honest, we’re not seeing a whole lot of activity” on the ship, he said.

Kenyan officials continued to maintain that the weapons aboard were part of a legitimate arms deal for the Kenyan military, even though several Western diplomats, Somali officials and the pirates themselves said the arms were part of a secret deal to funnel the weapons to southern Sudan.

Somali officials are urging the Western navies to storm the ship and arrest the pirates because they say that paying ransoms only fuels the problem. Western diplomats, however, have said that it would be a very difficult commando operation because the ship is full of explosives and the pirates could use the 20 crew members as human shields.

Mr. Sugule said that his men are treating the crew members well (the pirates would not let the crew members speak on the phone, saying it was against their rules). “Killing is not in our plans,” he said. “We only want money, so we can protect ourselves from hunger.”

When asked why the pirates needed $20 million to protect themselves from hunger, Mr. Sugule laughed over the phone and said: “Because we have a lot of men.”

$1 trillion bailout

2008-09-22T15:43:00.002-04:00

This would be a 'funny' story if it wasn't so $$painful$$ ...

Not only are we taxpayers and our progeny stuck with a humongous $1 trillion debt to clean up the Wall Street excess , but this 'bailout plan' is causing the oil market to 'stabilize' (interesting use of language - makes this sound like a positive thing!!) , thereby causing higher heating oil and gas prices for us lucky taxpayers ...

I say, fire all the politicians!

And they claim that 'speculation' is not the cause of high oil prices , that it is based strictly on supply and demand ... 'supply and demand' changed so rapidly in just 5 business days? .... causing oil to go from $92 to $130 a barrel, i.e. demand increased >50% !!

Or maybe it's the dollar going down 1 penny (<1%) that causes a 50% increase in oil?

I say, fire all the economists!

Oil prices had been trending lower on worries that demand was faltering but those concerns seem to be abating, according to one analyst.

"The fear has waned as far as the demand destruction" in the wake of the bailout news, said Neal Dingmann, senior energy analyst at Dahlman Rose. "The bailout has really stabilized this market."

Oil skyrockets, hits $130

Futures spike as much as $25 on the bailout plan, the falling dollar and as the October front-month contract expires.

By Catherine Clifford, CNNMoney.com staff writer
Last Updated: September 22, 2008: 3:02 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Oil prices jumped more than $25 a barrel Monday in biggest dollar jump ever as the dollar was punished by the government's $700 billion Wall Street bailout plan and big investors scrambled to fill obligations as the October contract expired.
Oil surged in afternoon trading, reaching as high as $130.00 - a $25 gain - but dropped back down to settle at $120.92 a barrel up $16.37 from Friday's close.

The rally reached a fevered pitch as the session neared its close, partly due to the fact that Monday is the last day of trading in the October oil futures contract, which typically results in volatile trading.

"A lot of the bullish factors that had been in this market that had been ignored are now coming home to roost," said Peter Beutel, oil analyst at Cameron Hanover.

Oil prices had been rallying throughout the day, but the late-day spike was due to investors covering their short positions as the October contract expired according to Ray Carbone, a broker and trader at Paramount Options.

"It goes to show that we need to have our arms around the speculation," said Beutel. The investors who pushed up the price of oil Monday were the same "people who pushed us from $79 to over $147."

"It is all big investors," added Buetel. "When stocks, dollar go under pressure, they jump into oil and they don't care who it hurts."

As of Tuesday, the front-month contract will be November, which settled up $6.62 to $109.37.
"The biggest news is that people are looking at the $700 billion plan as supportive of demand, supportive of the economy," said Beutel. "Everything we are looking at right now says demand has a chance to come back if the economy starts to strengthen."

In addition, a handful of supply disruptions jolted the oil market's late-afternoon rally. Refinery capacity in the Gulf Coast was still limited post- Hurricane Ike, violence in oil-rich Nigeria, and chatter of Saudi Arabia trimming production added fire to the rally, according to Andrew Lebow, a broker at MF Global.

As the price of oil is whipsawed by demand worries, Wall Street's flailing crisis, investors are having a hard time grasping oil's next move. "Traders are trying to catch knives people are throwing from the top of buildings," said Lebow.

Electronic trading of oil was halted for five minutes on Globex this afternoon following the $10 spike in oil, but trading has now resumed.

Fed bailout: On Saturday, President Bush asked Congress for the permission to spend as much as $700 billion to purchase bad mortgage assets from already struggling financial institutions in an effort to shore up further losses as the credit crisis works its way through Wall Street.
The details of the government's attempt to prop up the financial sector were still being negotiated, but the plan aims to stem any further losses on Wall Street and resume a flow of credit that has become frozen.

Oil prices had been trending lower on worries that demand was faltering but those concerns seem to be abating, according to one analyst.

"The fear has waned as far as the demand destruction" in the wake of the bailout news, said Neal Dingmann, senior energy analyst at Dahlman Rose. "The bailout has really stabilized this market."

The government plan "has put in some support levels in there," at least temporarily, said Dingmann. If the economy has a chance to recover, then the oil market hopes demand for energy would recover as well.

Weaker dollar: The Fed bailout "comes at a cost, the weaker dollar," said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Alaron Trading. Investors "will look to other currencies to park their money until this entire situation is defined."

The money that the government was planning on spending as part of the proposal "is very debasing to the value of the currency," said James Cordier, portfolio manager of OptionSellers.com.

Crude oil prices were rising as the value of the dollar fell, according to both Flynn and Cordier.Crude oil is traded in U.S. currency around the globe, so as the dollar weakens, oil becomes more expensive in dollar terms.

The plan "sounds very inflationary at first blush," said Cordier, and "it will be detrimental to the dollar while people sift through the intricacies of the bailout."

However, while the surge of liquidity would devalue the dollar in the short-term, if the money for the bailout were "approved and spent, then we think the dollar would firm up," said Cordier, as the bailout money helped restore confidence to the U.S. economy.

Demand: As the nation's economy softened and demand for energy fell off, oil prices have retreated from a record high of $147.27 a barrel, set on July 11. Oil prices have tended to decrease on signs of continued weakness for the economy and rally on signs of economic recovery.

The promise of increased liquidity in the nation's economy was supporting oil prices. "When the market was concerned that the economy was going to collapse, if nobody is lending anybody any money and there is no credit, there is not going to be a lot of energy demand," explained Flynn.
While the promise of the Fed's lifeline to the financial sector may prop up oil prices in the short term, Flynn and Cordier said oil prices were on a downward trend in the longer term.
"We have seen that these high prices are unsustainable," said Flynn. "People are going to be a lot more judicious with their energy use."

Analysts said the bailout plan provided much-needed confidence at a critical moment, preventing crude oil prices from sliding even further. However, "this knee-jerk reaction in commodities due to the U.S. dollar is short termed," said Cordier.

"Demand for energy in the U.S. continues to be weak; globally, demand is weak, too," said Cordier.

Wild week, big moves: As Wall Street was heaved around last week in a series of unprecedented shifts, so were oil prices. After Lehman Brothers (LEH, Fortune 500) announced bankruptcy, Merrill Lynch (MER, Fortune 500) agreed to be purchased by Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) and American International Group (AIG, Fortune 500) was resuscitated by a $85 billion loan from the government, oil prices decreased by more than $10.

However, by Friday, oil prices gained back all of those losses and then some on speculation that the government's proposed bailout plan for Wall Street would support the economy and bring demand for energy back to healthy levels.

On Sunday, federal regulators changed the status of Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) and Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500) to bank holding companies, a move that opens the banks up to greater involvement in retail banking and more funding from the Federal Reserve. The re-classification also means the investment firms will be under the Federal Reserve's supervision.

Hurricanes: The Gulf Coast was still working to get back to full operation after hurricanes Gustav and Ike slammed the production and refinery-rich region.

According to the most recent situation report from the Department of Energy, 89.2% of production in the region remained shut in and 75.4% of natural gas production was still shuttered. With 9 refineries in Texas still shut down, nearly 2.3 million barrels per day less oil have been processed in the region, according to the DOE.

As of Friday, personnel were still evacuated from 262 of 717 - or 36.5% - of manned production platforms, according to a report from the Minerals Management Service.

Both sides of the mouth

2008-09-22T10:14:00.002-04:00

In the same article no less ... actually the same sentence... so which is it , good news or bad?

While the industry trumpets IT opportunities for women, an outside job recruiter laments:

The industry needs more role models such as Carr, according to Ann Swain, chief executive of the Association of Technology Staffing Companies. She says: "Female representation among IT staff across the UK is only 18 per cent because the industry simply does not sell itself well enough.
"The good news is that there is no glass ceiling in IT. The bad news is that there are fewer entry-level jobs as many have been moved off-shore."

And maybe that is one more reason for women NOT to pursue an IT career, i.e. job opportunities are actually shrinking .

So instead of lamenting that women aren't pursuing IT careers, they should be trumpeting how smart women are, to not go into this field !

Women web wizards wooed by IT industry;Top 100 Companies for Graduates

Stephen Hoare
613 words
17 September 2008
The Times
Focus report - Top 100 Companies for Graduates 11
English
(c) 2008 Times Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved

You do not have to be a geek to make it to the top in the world of technology, reports Stephen Hoare

The information technology industry is shedding its geeky image in an attempt to attract more female graduates.

A report published this year by Crac, the career development organisation, indicated that only 7 per cent of women would choose a job in IT compared with 18 per cent of male graduates. The perception was that the sector was too technical.

However, IT companies value the skills that women bring, most notably team working, problem solving and communication, and they are making a big effort to attract them, according to the report. Job prospects are good and salaries high, it adds.

Web companies, IT services and specialist software houses offer plenty of non technical roles.
IBM, at number 23 in the top 100 list, prides itself on being an equal opportunities employer. Jenny Taylor, head of graduate recruitment, says: "We recruit equal numbers of male and female graduates with all degrees and from all backgrounds for roles in sales, business, finance, consulting and project management. We are looking for business and personal skills and a passion to want to come and work for us."

Taylor is less interested in an IT degree than in an enthusiasm for technology. She says: "Most university students, regardless of their degree subjects, surf the internet for their dissertations and network on Facebook.

"We try to capture this interest by holding recruitment fairs in second life - a virtual alternative world peopled by avatars. We get hundreds of students flying into our island in second life."
IBM fast-tracks graduates through a programme of mentoring and training. Taylor points to Hollie Carr, who was nominated for the BlackBerry Women & Technology Awards.

"Hollie works in our press office and has invented an e-mail management tool that translates messages written in different languages by IT consultants working in virtual teams across Europe. It's a brilliant invention," she says.

The industry needs more role models such as Carr, according to Ann Swain, chief executive of the Association of Technology Staffing Companies. She says: "Female representation among IT staff across the UK is only 18 per cent because the industry simply does not sell itself well enough.

"The good news is that there is no glass ceiling in IT. The bad news is that there are fewer entry-level jobs as many have been moved off-shore."

Maggie Berry, director of Women in Technology, a jobs and networking website, says: "There are a lot of openings in sales and marketing. The most popular vacancies on our site are for project managers for Java and business analysts and testers. We have 3,500 women in our network, including students and some geeky technocrats."

Companies wanting to attract and retain women graduates pay great attention to career planning.

Philippa Snare, 34, Windows employment commercial director, mentors 12 women graduates within Microsoft. She encourages them to aim high. "The younger generation of women graduates is scary, bright and going places," she says.

Victoria Yates, 25, who has a business degree, joined Microsoft, 31st on the list, three years ago as a technical sales specialist and is being encouraged to become a manager.

She predicts a rosy future for women in the industry: "When I see my 13-year old sister building her own website and chatting online while updating her Facebook profile, I think there's no stopping us. There is a pool of young people who are going to revolutionise this industry."

No longer cheaper, now just smarter

2008-09-22T08:12:00.002-04:00

A pretty extraordinary statement in here, which would be racist and xenophobic if turned around and stated as fact about the U.S. or any Western nation. Since they claim there is little difference in cost for the workers, they are now pursuing overseas workers because , although they cost about the same, they are better , smarter, faster ....

Being willing to match India’s low-cost model was essential, but Mr Cannon-Brookes insists that IBM’s enthusiasm for emerging markets is no longer mainly about cheap labour. Jeff Joerres, the chief executive of Manpower, an employment-services firm, also thinks the opportunities for savings are dwindling. “When you see Chinese companies moving in a big way into Vietnam, you think there is not much labour arbitrage left.”

Perhaps a bigger attraction now, according to IBM, are the highly skilled people it can find in emerging markets. “Ten years, even five years ago, we saw emerging markets as pools of low-priced, low-value labour. Now we see them as high-skills, high-value,” says Mr Cannon-Brookes. As for every big multinational, winning the “war for talent” is one of the most pressing issues, especially as hot labour markets in emerging markets are causing extremely high turnover rates.

The empire strikes back

Sep 18th 2008
From The Economist print edition

Illustration by James Fryer

Why rich-world multinationals think they can stay ahead of the newcomers

“YOU get very different thinking if you sit in Shanghai or São Paulo or Dubai than if you sit in New York,” says Michael Cannon-Brookes, just off the plane from Bangalore to Shanghai. “When you want to create a climate and culture of hyper-growth, you really need to live and breathe emerging markets.” Mr Cannon-Brookes is the head of strategy in IBM’s newly created “growth markets” organisation, which brings together all of Big Blue’s operations outside North America and western Europe. “This is the first line business in 97 years of our history to be run outside the US,” he says excitedly, noting that “Latin America now reports to Shanghai.”

IBM’s thinking about emerging markets, and indeed about what it means to be a truly global company, has changed radically in the past few years. In 2006 Sam Palmisano, the company’s chief executive, gave a speech at INSEAD, a business school in France, describing his vision for the “globally integrated enterprise”. The modern multinational company, he said, had passed through three phases. First came the 19th-century “international model”, with firms based in their home country and selling goods through overseas sales offices. This was followed by the classic multinational firm in which the parent company created smaller versions of itself in countries around the world. IBM worked liked that when he joined it in 1973.

The IBM he is now building aims to replace that model with a single integrated global entity in which the firm will move people and jobs anywhere in the world, “based on the right cost, the right skills and the right business environment. And it integrates those operations horizontally and globally.” This way, “work flows to the places where it will be done best.” The forces behind this had become irresistible, said Mr Palmisano.

This ambitious strategy was a response to fierce competition from the emerging markets. In the end, selling the personal-computer business to Lenovo was relatively painless: the business had become commoditised. But the assault on its services business led by a trio of Indian outsourcing upstarts, Tata Consulting Services, Infosys and Wipro, threatened to do serious damage to what Mr Palmisano expected to be one of his main sources of growth.

So in 2004 IBM bought Daksh, an Indian firm that was a smaller version of the big three, and has built it into a large business able to compete on cost and quality with its Indian rivals. Indeed, IBM believes that all in all it now has a significant edge over its Indian competitors.

IBM also says it can manage the risk of intellectual-property theft—a perennial worry for multinationals in emerging markets, especially China—well enough to have cutting-edge research labs in India and China. And it is starting to “localise” its senior management, including moving its chief procurement officer and the head of its emerging-markets business to China. But as yet it has no plan to move its headquarters from Armonk, New York, whereas Halliburton, an energy-services firm, shifted its headquarters to Dubai last year. One notable success has been the company’s partnership with AirTel in the Indian mobile-phone market, which it has already extended to other Indian phone companies and is likely to take to other countries. In this partnership IBM manages much of AirTel’s back-office operations and shares the financial risk with the phone company. “We grow as they grow,” says Mr Cannon-Brookes, noting that IBM is now the largest service provider to local customers in India.

Risk-sharing has worked well for other multinationals too. Vodafone, for example, is a big shareholder in Safaricom. In June Daiichi Sankyo, a Japanese pharmaceutical giant, bought a 51% stake in India’s Ranbaxy Laboratories. Such deals increasingly involve strategic partnerships rather than the joint ventures of old. Daiichi hopes the deal will add value to its research and development expertise and provide access to Japan’s fast-growing market to Ranbaxy, which in turn brings low-cost manufacturing and an understanding of the generics market.

In many emerging markets the most attractive potential customer is the government, thanks to an infrastructure boom that promises to span everything from mobile telephone networks to roads, airports and ports, energy and water supply. IBM is not alone in pitching directly to governments for this business, relying on its established brand and on the growing pressure on emerging-country governments—even those that are not strictly democratic—to deliver high-quality, value-for-money infrastructure. Instead of trying to sell specific products, they say, these firms aim to help governments draw up plans for improving their country—plans which invariably require substantial spending with the company concerned. Both Cisco and GE have recently started establishing long-term problem-solving relationships with governments in which the firms help to design an infrastructure programme as well as build some or all of it.

Buy my strategy

Three years ago Cisco combined all its emerging-markets activities into a single unit. Since then the share of its revenues coming from emerging markets has risen from 8% to 15%, accounting for 30% of its total revenue growth. “We identify the country’s most important industries and go to them with a blueprint for a strategy to improve them using our technology to beat global benchmarks; this is about revolutionary not incremental change,” says Paul Mountford, head of Cisco’s emerging-markets business.

In 2006 GE—which since launching its Ecomagination strategy in 2003 has bet big on a boom in green technologies—signed a “memorandum of understanding” with China’s National Development and Reform Commission to work jointly to safeguard the country’s environment. It also wants to forge relations with local government in 200 second-tier Chinese cities, each of which will soon have a population of at least 1m and will need everything from a power supply to an airport.

More recently, top GE executives have got together with Vietnam’s government to discuss the huge problems facing the country in water, oil, energy, aviation, rail and finance—all areas in which GE has products to sell. At one meeting GE’s president found himself in the same room with no fewer than three Vietnamese leaders who had taken part in a leadership programme at GE’s famous training facility in Crotonville, New York, recalls John Rice, the company’s head of technology and infrastructure. This programme of inviting groups of 30-40 senior government and business leaders from a particular emerging country to Crotonville for a week was launched more than a decade ago, starting with a group from China. “We transfer a lot of learnings between us, and we end up friends for life,” says Mr Rice.

Illustration by James Fryer

Today’s leading multinationals “are no longer the slow-moving creatures they used to be. They are not going to be beaten up like the big American companies were by the Japanese,” says Tom Hout, a former consultant at BCG who now teaches at Hong Kong Business School. With Pankaj Ghemawat, who last year published a well-received book, “Redefining Global Strategy”, Mr Hout has analysed the emerging market in which multinationals have competed longest against local champions: China. Whether the established multinationals or their local rivals are winning “depends on the segment you’re looking at”, says Mr Hout. Established Japanese and Western multinationals dominate in the high-tech sectors of the economy; the Chinese are strong at the low end. The main battleground is in the middle. This is quite different from the conventional wisdom, which is that established multinationals are getting pushed out by local companies, he concludes.

A 2007 study by Accenture of China’s top 200 publicly traded companies found that the best businesses in China are not yet on a par with the world’s foremost ones. Although their revenue growth increased on the back of China’s continued economic growth, their ability to create value was still only half that of their global peers. “It remains to be seen whether China’s best players have built the management practices and supporting business operating models that will allow them to generate profitable growth in more mature markets over the long term,” the study went on to say.

Their legacy thinking and cost structures notwithstanding, some established multinationals are increasingly trying to take on the frugal engineers of the emerging markets head-to-head, says Mr Ghemawat. “Smarter multinationals have all given up on the idea that they can simply deliver the same old products in the developing world,” he explains. “If they just focus on pricing high in mostly urban areas, they will miss out on the mass consumer markets that are emerging. And they have to be able to compete as cost-effectively as the local firms, which can mean fundamentally re-engineering their products and business model.”

A recent report by BCG, “The Next Billion Consumers”, highlighted many innovative business models and products offered by multinationals such as Nokia— still the biggest mobile-phone producer in China, despite frequent predictions that it will fall behind a local rival—and Procter & Gamble, as well as similar efforts by emerging-market firms.

In search of excellent managers

The decisive factor may turn out to be management. Although some emerging-market firms are very well managed, by and large established multinationals still seem to have the edge. Mr Hout reckons that the expatriate managers now deployed by multinationals in emerging markets are generally of a much higher quality than the “young bucks or retirement-posting types” they used to send. “They are aggressive, smart, at the heart of their careers. And they tend to be married to more worldly women than management wives used to be.”

That said, the multinationals’ management advantage is based more on training and experience of running a large business than on exposure to other countries. Indeed, leading multinationals are reducing their use of expats, and those they do send are often expected to train a local manager as their successor. There is still a striking lack of executives from emerging markets at the top of developed-country multinationals. Even at GE, which is wholeheartedly committed to emerging markets, around 180 of the top 200 managers are still Americans. “The single biggest challenge facing Western multinationals is the lack of emerging-market experience in their senior ranks,” says Mr Ghemawat.

Such companies’ boardrooms are even less globalised. According to Clarke Murphy of Russell Reynolds, a recruitment firm, American multinationals now have a “ferocious interest in attracting non-Americans to the board”, but as yet even Europeans are a rarity, let alone directors from emerging markets. The share of non-Americans on the boards of American multinationals is less than 5%.

The main problem “is attendance, especially if there is a crisis and the board needs to meet a lot at short notice”. Once again, Goldman Sachs seems to have found a clever compromise by appointing Lakshmi Mittal to its board. The Indian steel tycoon is based in London and often visits New York, where the investment bank has its headquarters.

Some European firms are doing slightly better than their American counterparts at internationalising their boards. Nokia recently appointed Lalita Gupte, an Indian banker who had just retired from ICICI bank, one of the world’s most innovative practitioners of bottom-of-the-pyramid finance. And leading British companies have lots of foreigners in their executive suites and boardrooms.

Moreover, multinationals have great trouble retaining the managers they do have in emerging markets, says Mr Hout. “Well-trained, good, honest people are scarce in emerging markets. Multinationals are better at training these people than emerging-market companies, which prefer to poach them once they are trained.”

The founders of emerging-market firms are often impressive, but such firms typically lack the depth of management talent of old multinationals, says Mr Hout. The best students he has taught on MBA courses in Hong Kong and Shanghai have typically worked for developed-country multinationals.

Part of the problem in China is that running a big company—even a giant such as China Telecom, with its 220m customers—still has a lower status than a political job such as governor of a province. And Chinese managers, being used to protected markets, often lack the skill to operate in more sophisticated markets overseas.

Anil Gupta, co-author with Haiyan Wang of a forthcoming book, “Getting China and India Right”, says that recognition of their lack of management capability may have been one reason why no Chinese steel firms joined their Indian and Brazilian peers in the bidding war for Corus, and why no Chinese carmakers entered the battle to buy Jaguar and Land Rover. “If one could create a Jack Welch index of leadership and assess companies on such a measure, the top 50 companies from India would come out way ahead of the top 50 companies from China,” says Mr Gupta, a professor of strategy at the University of Maryland.

Certainly some Indian firms are extremely well run. The senior ranks of Tata, for example, are full of professional managers. On the other hand, many Indian firms are in family ownership, and “it can be hard to find room for professional managers when you have several sons demanding jobs of similar high status,” says Mr Ghemawat.

Perhaps the best-known example of the problems of family ownership is the feud between the Ambani brothers, who after their father’s death divided the family’s huge conglomerate, Reliance, between them. The dispute still simmers on. In July a bid by Reliance Communications, run by Anil Ambani, to buy a South African mobile-phone company was thwarted by Mukesh Ambani, the boss of Reliance Industries. No wonder that the brothers, who live in the same opulent apartment building, have separate lifts to avoid chance meetings.

Another example of Free Trade

2008-09-17T11:59:00.002-04:00

They put melamine in baby food but won't buy 'Low-pathogen avian flu ' that ' poses no threat to human health' ....

Free trade ... what's not to like !

China to lift ban on U.S. poultry

YORBA LINDA, California (AP) -- China has agreed to partially lift a ban on poultry exports from several U.S. states.

The announcement came Tuesday after a day of talks between Chinese and U.S. trade officials at the Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda.

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan says his country will now accept poultry from six of the eight U.S. states that China had placed under a ban. Those include Connecticut, New York, West Virginia, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Nebraska. A ban still applies to Arkansas and Virginia.

The bans were put into place after low-pathogen avian flu was found in the states in recent years. Low-pathogen avian flu poses no threat to human health, unlike its more virulent cousin.

More Jobs Americans won't do

2008-08-28T08:24:00.002-04:00

Walking horses and cleaning stables for $5/hr and 4 to a room bedbug-ridden dormitories.

Employed by the wealthiest racehorse-owning Americans .

This snapshot is surely a microcosm of the plight of real American workers today also. Jobs moving to lower cost workers overseas by corporate managers earning lottery winning compensation each and every year .

August 28, 2008

Racetrack Workers Aren’t Paid Minimum Wage, State Agency Finds

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

With its stately beau monde setting, the Saratoga Race Course is the place to be in August for highbrow horse lovers. But a State Labor Department investigation has found a far less attractive picture for the track’s 1,200 backstretch workers.

The state labor commissioner, M. Patricia Smith, announced on Wednesday that 80 percent of the 110 backstretch workers investigators interviewed — grooms, hot walkers and night watchmen — were not paid minimum wage or time and a half for overtime.

The backstretch workers are employed by individual trainers, who typically train horses for several thoroughbred owners. Some workers told investigators that they were paid just $5.06 an hour, far less than the state minimum wage of $7.15 an hour, Ms. Smith said.

In addition, workers told of being bitten by bedbugs in the racetrack’s dormitories and of eating at soup kitchens because they could not afford the restaurants in Saratoga Springs.

“The violations we uncovered were extensive and significant,” Commissioner Smith said in a telephone interview. “With many workers forced to go to soup kitchens, one can only conclude that the work at the backstretch at Saratoga is a bad bet.”

She estimated that the 1,200 backstretch workers were cheated out of $70,000 in pay each week because of wage violations. Some workers said their pay had not risen in a decade.

Beginning in late July, when the track opened for the season and Saratoga Springs swelled with racetrack fans, 10 state investigators descended on the historic track and interviewed workers in the dorms and horse stalls, where track visitors rarely go.

The investigators found that most of the workers — more than 95 percent of whom are Hispanic — were required to work seven days a week, and often more than 360 days a year when their work included time at the two New York City-area tracks, Aqueduct and Belmont, the Labor Department said.

The hot walkers walk the horses to cool them down after they exercise, while the grooms brush and bathe the horses, rub them down and muck out their stalls.

Lauro Ventura, 61, a groom for 15 years, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday that living conditions at the track were bad. “Three or four of us sleep in a room that’s 10 by 10,” he said in Spanish. “Some guys sleep on air mattresses, some buy little cots, and some just sleep on the floor.”

Bedbugs are a big problem in the dorms, he added. “A lot of the workers bring their sleeping bags from Belmont, where the bedbug problems are much worse,” he said.

Ms. Smith said her department would hold seminars on labor laws for all horse trainers doing business in New York. She said she also wanted to work with the State Racing and Wagering Board to see whether labor law violations should be taken into account in licensing trainers.

Charles Hayward, chief executive of the New York Racing Association, which runs Saratoga, Belmont and Aqueduct, the state’s largest thoroughbred tracks, said the association was concerned about the findings of the investigation.

“N.Y.R.A. shares Commissioner Smith’s concern that workers who are employed by independent trainers on the backstretch are treated fairly and with dignity,” Mr. Hayward said, “both in respect to their living conditions and their ability to earn a living wage.”

The investigators interviewed 88 of the Saratoga track’s 115 trainers, and concluded that 77 of them had failed to keep legally required time and payroll records, Ms. Smith said. The trainers interviewed did not dispute the wage and hour figures that investigators found, she said.

The Labor Department computed that the hot walkers were underpaid by an average of $71.65 each week and the grooms by $82.31.

Mr. Ventura said he was paid $475 a week for about 55 hours of work, which comes to slightly more than $7.15 an hour when overtime is included. But he said that some friends who worked the same schedule were paid only $300 a week.

Jose Ramon Rivera, a hot walker, said in a telephone interview, “We’re fighting for all the grooms, hot walkers and night watchmen to get paid the minimum wage of $7.15 an hour, and overtime after they work 40 hours.”

Ms. Smith said the Labor Department would continue the investigation at Aqueduct and Belmont when the workers moved back there.

The racetrack investigation is part of a stepped-up effort by the department to uncover wage violations in low-wage industries. Two weeks ago, Ms. Smith announced that labor investigators had visited 84 carwashes across the state and found $6.5 million in wage violations involving 1,380 workers.

Mr. Ventura, the groom, discussed another issue that investigators found troubling: the conditions under which the backstretch workers travel when they accompany horses from track to track.

“The trainers want us to be inside the trailer with the horse because sometimes the horse goes crazy,” Mr. Ventura said. “They want us to calm him. The trailer is so small there is no chair for us to sit on. Sometimes we just sit on the floor and risk getting stepped on.”

On one trip, the driver slammed on the brakes, Mr. Ventura said, and he went flying under the horse. His hand and back were stepped on, and his eye was gashed open. He said a track doctor told him he should take a few days off from work, but when the trainer said he would not pay him for missed days, Mr. Ventura decided to work anyway.

“If we don’t work the days we’re injured, we don’t get paid,” he said.

Having Children - a 'phase of life'

2008-08-19T09:04:00.002-04:00

This is an interesting way of viewing the world and the researcher uses a subtle phrasing that actually displays a radical new view of the world, a feminist view that women are doing other things, perhaps more important , and need not consider having children.

“A lot of women are not having any children,” said Jane Lawler Dye, a Census Bureau researcher who did the report, which looked at women of childbearing age in 2006. “It used to be sort of expected that there was a phase of life where you had children, and a lot of women aren’t doing that now,” Ms. Dye said.

I remember that one of the tenets of biology, one that is still taught in High Schools, is that a 'living organism, i.e. LIFE' is defined as something that has movement, consumes resources AND reproduces. If it doesn't have all of these, it can't be defined as 'living'.

Now reproduction is viewed as merely a 'phase of life', one involving choice, and therefore having no children is a sensible, rational choice. Certainly there is much truth to this. Usually this choice meant 'when', not 'if' .

But, If everyone made this 'no children' choice then either:
- Human Life will cease to exist
- or biologists will need to redefine what a 'living entity' is

August 19, 2008

More Women Than Ever Are Childless, Census Finds

By KATIE ZEZIMA

Women are waiting longer to have children, and more women than ever are choosing not to have children at all, according to a new Census Bureau report.

Twenty percent of women ages 40 to 44 have no children, double the level of 30 years ago, the report said; and women in that age bracket who do have children have fewer than ever — an average of 1.9 children, compared with the median of 3.1 children in 1976.

“A lot of women are not having any children,” said Jane Lawler Dye, a Census Bureau researcher who did the report, which looked at women of childbearing age in 2006. “It used to be sort of expected that there was a phase of life where you had children, and a lot of women aren’t doing that now,” Ms. Dye said.

Women with advanced degrees are more likely to be childless, the study found. Of women 40 to 44 with graduate or professional degrees, 27 percent are childless, compared with 18 percent of women who did not continue their education beyond high school, the data show.

The numbers are consistent with a 2006 report Ms. Dye issued on the same subject. While year-by-year change is slow, Ms. Dye said, the data show that women of the baby boom generation are continuing to transform the American family.

Hispanic women are the only group bucking the trends found in the study, averaging 2.3 children each by their 40s. The number of children a Hispanic woman has decreases sharply, however, depending on how many generations her family has lived in the United States, the data show.

One in five new mothers in 2006 were foreign-born, the study found, with California having the highest number of foreign-born new mothers.

Of all the women who had children in 2006, nearly 60 percent worked, with the highest numbers of working mothers in the Midwest. That may be explained by another census study, which found that, for children under 5, the Midwest has more child care available than any other region. Researchers said the numbers seemed to be consistent with other demographic trends, including the rising age of women marrying and having children for the first time, as well as women with more education having fewer children later in life.

“Clearly women have competing alternatives for the use of their time, with the labor market and employment being one and delayed marriage, which has been another trend,” said Suzanne Bianchi, chairwoman of the sociology department at the University of Maryland. “The interesting question is, has it stopped? Is this it, or will we see even higher rates of childlessness among future generations?”

Of women who gave birth in 2006, 36 percent were separated, widowed, divorced or never married. Five percent were living with a partner.

The study also shows sharp geographic differences among children who were born into poverty in 2006. Nearly every Southern state had more children born into poverty than the national average of 25 percent.

Red Flag for US manufacturing

2008-08-18T08:18:00.002-04:00

In a world rife with political and social instability this is a major warning signal that is being ignored by corporations and the government alike, based on responses in the article below.

Even those industries that maintain some manufacturing here in the States do NOT plan on increasing that capacity.

They have blinders on and are hoping that the world continues the course, even in the face of rising fuel costs and deadly oil politics as evidenced by Russia's invasion of Georgia.

In the better than average chance that worldwide instabilities cause a significant negative impact on many of these off-shored manufacturing companies, there is a good chance that they may not survive another 5 years.

Not to mention the fact that the US no longer even has the ability to manufacture many products here anymore, leaving us vulnerable politically and economically to foreign manipulations ala OPEC.

The critical paragraph from this article :

Weakening demand abroad accounts for some of the decline. But the manufacturers themselves acknowledge that they gradually undercut their ability to export as they moved more and more production to factories overseas. Bringing that production back to this country, so that it could be exported, would dismantle global networks constructed relentlessly over the last 25 years.

And how about this little tidbit, just briefly noted in the article ?

Since when does a country insist on all manufacturing needing to be done in that country ? It sounds like they have a full-employment policy for their people and we have nothing similar, in law or custom, over here.

In addition, as American companies set up operations in, say, China, they insist that their suppliers locate nearby, for quick and efficient delivery — and that draws more manufacturers overseas.

What do they get if they move everything overseas:

“Our customers just love for us to make our stuff near their new operations,” Mr. Pistell said, “and if we do, they reward us with a lot of business.”

August 18, 2008

Export Boom Helps Farms, but Not American Factories

By LOUIS UCHITELLE

Exports are the bright spot this year in an otherwise bleak economy. But the world is not suddenly snapping up made-in-America goods like aircraft, machinery and staplers. The great attraction is decidedly low-luster commodities like corn, wheat, ore and scrap metal.

This helps explain why manufacturing jobs are continuing to disappear by the tens of thousands and factories are closing even during a miniboom in exports. While the surge in commodities is a welcome relief, it is an unreliable prop for an industrial power.

“The historical data tell us clearly: don’t get too used to commodity export booms; as any third world country will tell you, they tend to go away pretty quickly,” said L. Josh Bivens, a trade expert at the labor-oriented Economic Policy Institute.

His point was that while Boeing’s aircraft or Caterpillar’s tractors are distinctive and sought after, corn grown in Iowa is virtually interchangeable with corn grown in Argentina or any other bread-basket country. “Over a long period,” Mr. Bivens said, “commodities contribute right around zero to export growth.”

Commodity sales have been helped greatly this year by rising prices, particularly for grains, and also by the decline in the value of the dollar, which reduces the cost of American exports in other currencies. Both trends, however, have recently reversed, suggesting that the rise in commodity sales will not be sustained, and that exports might shrink, weakening the economy another notch.

“What amazes me,” said Robert L. Thompson, an agriculture specialist at the University of Illinois, “is that we have been able to greatly increase corn exports while also using it for ethanol. Only by increasing the acreage devoted to corn have we been able to do this, and by squeezing down the use of corn for domestic livestock feed.”

An analysis of trade data by the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis illustrates just how lopsided the gains have been between manufactured goods and unprocessed commodities.

All exports of goods and services in the first half of the year rose at a $52 billion annual rate, adjusted for inflation, up 7.1 percent. Commodities accounted for 41 percent of the increase and manufactured products contributed just 12 percent, the bureau reported. (The figures strip out such items as arms sales and exports to American territories, like Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.)

Such unevenness, favoring commodities, is unusual, given that manufactured products, even by this definition, account for 40 percent of the nation’s exports, while commodities make up only 26 percent and services 30 percent. Indeed, not since the bureau began compiling detailed trade data in 1977 have commodities outpaced manufactured exports for two consecutive quarters.

Weakening demand abroad accounts for some of the decline. But the manufacturers themselves acknowledge that they gradually undercut their ability to export as they moved more and more production to factories overseas. Bringing that production back to this country, so that it could be exported, would dismantle global networks constructed relentlessly over the last 25 years.

“We have achieved a worldwide manufacturing base, and we are not going to shut down our factories overseas,” said Franklin J. Vargo, vice president for international economics at the National Association of Manufacturers. “But on the margin, we will shift a little bit of manufacturing back to the United States.”

That has happened recently, in response mainly to soaring transportation costs and the weaker dollar. DESA LLC, for example, known for its heating devices, recently moved some production back to Bowling Green, Ky., from China.

The contrast with commodities, which cannot be shifted overseas, is striking. John Hardin Jr. and his son, David, focus their attention on growing as much grain as they can on 2,500 acres near Indianapolis, counting on exports to absorb their harvest. Meanwhile, Sarah Bovim, a Whirlpool Corporation executive, points to expanding global operations at her company, where production abroad has eclipsed its exports.

“We are looking to expand in emerging markets,” Ms. Bovim said, “which means we are looking to set up shop there.”

The Hardins have every acre of their mostly rented land planted with corn, soybeans and wheat — devoting more acreage to corn in anticipation of huge demand. The nation’s corn exports, measured in tons, have risen nearly 20 percent this year, outstripping the gains of nearly every other commodity. And farmers are on schedule to harvest the second-largest corn crop in the nation’s history, the Agriculture Department reported this week.

“We were in a situation where there wasn’t enough corn in the world to go around,” John Hardin said, noting that damaged harvests in other countries had pushed up the price. The weak dollar also made American corn more attractive.

But even with both of those props disappearing, the Hardins are betting heavily on corn again next year because of its use in ethanol and because of rising demand for livestock feed in India and China, where a rapidly growing middle class increasingly wants meat in its daily diet.

“It is my fondest hope that exports will stay strong,” Mr. Hardin said, “although I don’t think it is realistic to expect a percentage increase equal to what we are seeing this year.”

Whirlpool is proud of its exports but intent on manufacturing more abroad. Ms. Bovim, who is Whirlpool’s director of Congressional relations and trade policy, speaks with equal enthusiasm about sales from the company’s factories abroad and those in the United States. Both are up, she says, and she cites sales of washing machines and dryers to make her point.

Machines that load clothes from a door on top are made only in the United States, principally at a plant in Clyde, Ohio, and are exported to satisfy overseas demand. A newer and increasingly popular model, one that is loaded from a door in the front, is made only at factories in Germany and Mexico.

Whirlpool recently opened its Mexican plant, deciding to bypass the United States. It was a decision that shifted income, investment, employment and exports to Mexico that might otherwise have shown up in the Bureau of Economic Analysis’s accounts as economic growth in the United States.

“We have a supply chain that facilitates entry into new markets,” Ms. Bovim said. “Locating abroad puts us on an equal footing with domestic suppliers” in those countries.

Many American manufacturers argue that as factories spread across the globe, exporting is no longer an effective means of competing against sophisticated and ever more numerous local manufacturers. In addition, as American companies set up operations in, say, China, they insist that their suppliers locate nearby, for quick and efficient delivery — and that draws more manufacturers overseas.

It is certainly a reason that Parker-Hannifin, a Cleveland-based manufacturer of hydraulic pumps and industrial controls, is expanding overseas, said Tim Pistell, the chief financial officer. “Our customers just love for us to make our stuff near their new operations,” Mr. Pistell said, “and if we do, they reward us with a lot of business.”

Parker-Hannifin’s overseas sales have risen to 55 percent of its annual revenue, up from 33 percent in 2002, Mr. Pistell says. Exports, on the other hand, contribute no more than $400 million of its $12 billion in annual revenue, about half the percentage of a decade ago.

Currency fluctuations rarely alter these long-term commitments, and profits stay abroad. “Most of the money we make overseas, we keep there,” Mr. Pistell said, “and then plow it back into growing the business overseas.”

The Bureau of Economic Analysis, tracking this trend for all of America’s multinational companies, says 70 percent of the multinationals’ operations — measured in employment, investment and value added in turning metal into aircraft or wood into furniture or silicon into computer chips — take place in the United States.

That, however, is down from nearly 75 percent in 1999 and, as the shift overseas continues at many manufacturers, commodities inevitably jump to prominence from time to time.

“We have a tremendous capacity to grow corn and other crops in this country,” said Daryll E. Ray, an agricultural economist at the University of Tennessee, “and we are intent on doing so.”

Solid as a BRIC

2008-08-15T08:23:00.002-04:00

The current round in the latest surge in historical globalization, affecting the BRIC countries, seems to be hitting political , social , and even economic walls:

Brazil - Social-- Tremendous inequality and poverty with entrenched gang culture has lead to periods of open warfare in it's major cities. The middle-class live in armed enclaves and fear of kidnapping is high. Bulletproof cars are a booming business
Economic -- Lack of skilled workers is leading to higher wages.

Russia - Political -- after their invasion of Georgia they are becoming persona non grata in the world community. Their usage of their oil/gas monopoly with Europe and their readiness to turn off the spigot for political reasons is not winning any friends.
Social -- they have incredibly low birth rate and Muslim insurrections throughout their borders. The State controls most major industries. Gang activity is endemic and is reflected in the State model of governing.
Economic -- A culture lacking in intellectual property rights. The home of much of computer/internet illegal activities and hacking.

India - Political -- problems with their Muslim minority leading to bombings and with their Muslim neighbor Pakistan and the Kashmir question.
Social -- inequalities increasing. A strong intractable caste system. Terrorism.
Economic -- Rising wages. High tariffs for imports. Laws against open foreign investment. Subsidized goods/products such as oil and food.

China- Political -- problems with their Muslim minority . Lack of freedom leading to protests. Policy problems with Tibet, Taiwan and other neighbors including Japan.
Social -- inequalities increasing. Terrorism. Pollution of air and water.
Economic -- Rising wages. High tariffs for imports. Laws against open foreign investment. Subsidized goods/products such as oil and food.

It looks like we are entering the BBRIC age (Beyond BRIC, pronounced like a Scotsman would).
These 'new' developing countries - Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Philipines, etc. in the East, along with Africa now being targeted, with South Africa and Egypt the first of the African wave.

All the BBRIC nations have the same underlying problems that the BRIC nations have.

If this new globalization wave leaves BRIC behind, then those BRIC nations will have only partially risen politically/socially/economically, leaving them in a precarious social state and they will suffer tremendously by this incomplete metamorphosis.

Look for an acceleration of negative political and social forces in these societies.

Unintended consequences of this latest globalization phase -
- The prospect of War , not peace and greater prosperity, may be the outgrowth of unchecked globalization.
- Economic protectionism and global depression may be another result.
- The rise of religious fundamentalism in the face of serious social instability.

The issue is not whether globalization per se is needed or whether it is a good or bad thing. This process has been going on for millenium. The question is whether the rate of change now going on will stress existing political, social and economic systems, and the ability of humans to adapt quickly, so as to cause massive instability and unrest in the world.

August 15, 2008

India says peace talks with Pakistan under threat

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 7:30 a.m. ET

NEW DELHI (AP) -- India's prime minister said Friday that the peace process with Pakistan was in danger of failing because of attacks like last month's bombing of New Delhi's mission in Afghanistan.

India and Afghanistan say Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency orchestrated the attack, which killed 58 people. Islamabad denies playing any role but has promised to investigate the allegation.

''If this issue of terrorism is not addressed, all the good intentions that we have for our two peoples to live in peace and harmony will be negated,'' Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in an Independence Day speech. ''We will not be able to pursue the peace initiatives we want to take.''

Hindu-majority India and Muslim Pakistan were born during the bloody partition of the subcontinent at independence from Britain in 1947. The split sparked one of the most violent upheavals of the 20th century and created a rivalry that has led to three wars.

But relations between the nuclear-armed rivals have improved considerably since the start of a peace process in 2004, and India's leader has pledged to continue the talks despite the allegations of a Pakistani role in the embassy attack.

''I have personally conveyed my concern and disappointment to the government of Pakistan,'' said Singh, speaking from behind a bulletproof screen atop the ramparts of the historic Red Fort, the massive 17th-century sandstone palace built by the Muslim Mogul emperors who ruled much of India before the British arrived.

India also accuses Pakistan of playing a role in more than a dozen bombings that have hit India in the past three years, and the two sides have blamed each other for a surge in shootings across their heavily fortified de facto border in Kashmir, the divided Himalayan region at the center of their rivalry.

The latest reported shooting -- the 20th so far this year -- came Friday when India said its forces along the frontier, called the Line of Control, were fired on by Pakistani forces armed with rocket-propelled grenades.

No casualties were reported by the Indian side, and Pakistani officials were not immediately available for comment.

Kashmir, an overwhelmingly Muslim region, is claimed by both India and Pakistan and has been the focus of two of their three wars.

There were regular exchanges of gunfire along the Line of Control before the two sides signed a cease-fire in late 2003.

But the recent shootings have led to a familiar round of accusations, with Pakistan blaming India for violating the cease-fire and New Delhi accusing Islamabad of helping Islamic rebels sneak into its part of Kashmir.

Nearly a dozen Islamic rebel groups have been fighting for Kashmir's independence from India or its merger with Pakistan. More than 68,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict since 1989, and India routinely accuses Pakistan of assisting the insurgents, a charge Islamabad denies.