Month: April 2009

Consequences Of A Recession

Massive lay-offs, uncertainity of employment and all around money problems has raised the concern a growing problem of violence.

Indeed, stories of workplace violence are filling headlines of late — the San Diego bus mechanic who killed two co-workers or the unemployed man in upstate New York whose 12 shooting victims included a receptionist and a teacher.

With such jarring tragedies, fears of violence fueled by financial worries are growing as the recession puts strain and stress on anxious workers, experts say.

Statistics on workplace violence in this recession will take years to compile and analyze, experts say. From 1997 to 2007, the most recent year for which data is available, there were more than 7,000 occupational homicides nationwide, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

While most involved robberies, more than 1,000 involved work associates, the government agency said.

Whether or not the numbers will show a spike in economic-related violence, the fear is valid and significant, said Joel Shults, head of public safety at Adams State College in Alamosa, Colorado and an expert in safety awareness.

Elevating the fear is the fact that so many perpetrators in recent workplace shootings seemed normal, he said.

Violence is a by-product of the recession…..I fear that the worse is yet to come.

Pakistan Becomes More Ify

The Taleban has taken over an area of Pakistan just 70 miles from the capital.  Pakistan is sending troops, but not to take on the Taleban but rather as guards.

Officials say the forces will protect government buildings in Buner district, where insurgents have begun patrolling the streets and mounting checkpoints.

As the troops moved into the region, insurgents launched an attack on their convoy, killing at least one soldier.

The Taleban are reported to have moved several hundred men into Buner from the Swat Valley.

The government sent six platoons – up to 300 men – to deal with the insurgents.

The confrontation in Buner comes just weeks after a peace deal was signed by President Asif Ali Zardari allowing the introduction of Islamic law in Swat.

The deal was designed to end a bloody 18-month conflict with the Taleban in Swat by yielding to some of their demands.

But critics say that the militants can now use Swat as a springboard to take over new areas of the country.

The militants’ move into Buner district northwest of the capital comes after Islamabad ceded control of the scenic Swat valley, allowing the Taliban to enforce traditional Islamic law, or sharia, in what was once the jewel of Pakistan’s tourism industry.

But analysts said the deal in Swat, reached after a bloody two-year insurgency, has simply allowed the Taliban to re-group, consolidate and expand control into other regions.

The Taliban takeover in Buner is evidence that the group’s strategy of intimidating police and officials is working because of the fundamental weakness of President Asif Ali Zardari’s government, the analysts said.

Looks as if the Taleban is getting a free ride in Pakistan, the troops are not there to check the advance of the Taleban, but rather to protect government buildings……does that sound at all promising for the US effort against the Taleban?

Ron Paul On Bailouts

Ron Paul was question on CNN about the bank bailouts and he had some interesting responses:

“If a gangster steals money and he’s successful, you don’t celebrate. Yeah they might be. This is just going to make the people angrier. They ripped us off, took all of this money, and now they’re making bundles? It’s just an unfair system to penalize average people, inflate the currency and bring on another crisis and undermine the whole system.

So I would say a bank’s success here and there is not necessarily something to celebrate. It’s still pretty early. I don’t think we’re out of the woods yet to celebrate banks’ successes. What we have to realize is a lot of people stashed away a lot of money and took care of their bonuses and what not. You’re not going to erase the anger that’s come from that just because the bank made a profit. Like I say, it might make things worse.”

Paul has his rabid supporters and maybe they should go after the leadership of the GOP….at least they have some pretty solid ideas, even if I do not agree wioth them, they are ideas.   A lot more than the present leadership can say.

Is There A Light On Or Not?

The global economy is expected to lurch into reverse this year for the first time since World War II with appalling consequences for nations large and small — trillions of dollars in lost business, millions of people thrust into hunger and homelessness and crime on the rise.

And the pain won’t stop this year, the International Monetary Fund declared Wednesday, for what it said was “by far the deepest global recesssion since the Great Depression.” To cushion the blow and head off further damage next year, the IMF is calling for more stimulus projects from the word’s governments, including major spending for public works projects.

Okay, Obama and Geithner are saying there is a light at the end of the tunnel…..that they see signs of the recession beginning to recover and yet the IMF does not see tha same light.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner struck an upbeat tone on the global economy in a speech Wednesday, saying he’s already starting to see “some signs of stabilization of declines in output and trade.”

While the world economy is going through “the most severe crisis in generations,” recent actions taken by the Group of 20 leading nations during a recent London summit should make way for a sustainable recovery, said Geithner.

GM has announced that he will close most of its US operations for 9 weeks this summer, that alone will push the recession into a deeper hole.  Workers will have little cash to buy trhe goods that are not being made.

So why the difference in opinions?  Is the IMF right or is it Geithner?   Optimism is a wonderful thing, but is it false optimism or is there truly a light on in the tunnel?  None of the indicators I look at show any promise for the next 6 months….but then I did not win a Nobel Prize for economics…..I work.

Things Are Not As Bad As They Seem

Are things at Freddie Mac that bad?

David Kellermann was recently promoted to the chief finanacial officer of Freddie Mac.  Mr. Kellermann, 41, began working nonstop, sometimes returning home only to change clothes, colleagues say. He was losing weight and telling friends that it seemed impossible to appease everyone — regulators, lawmakers, investors and other executives — given their competing demands. Someone was always angry with him, he told one friend. And no matter how many hours everyone worked, it seemed as if the economy and homeowners were still slipping farther into the abyss.

Early on Wednesday, Mr. Kellermann went to the basement of his brick home and hanged himself, according to people familiar with the situation who were not authorized to speak. His body was removed five hours later, through a throng of neighbors, television crews and others.

The roots and causes of suicide are often unclear. It is not known if Mr. Kellermann succumbed to the pressures of his job. But in the aftermath of his death, it is plain that at Freddie Mac, as at many of the companies in the center of this economic storm, there are forces so strong they can overwhelm almost anyone.

I have the feeling that when this crisis is over, there will most likely be even more such stories.

Volunteers In Service To America

Calling on Americans to volunteer, Pres. Obama signed a $5.7 billion national service bill Tuesday that triples the size of the AmeriCorps service program over the next eight years and expands ways for students to earn money for college. “What this legislation does, then, is to help harness this patriotism and connect deeds to needs,” said Obama, a former community organizer in Chicago.

The law dedicates $5.7 billion over five years to encourage volunteerism, including providing $500 summer scholarships to middle school and high school students and granting $1,000 educational stipends to older volunteers, who could pass the cash on to their children, grandchildren, or another young person.

Further, the law vastly expands AmeriCorps, putting the 16-year-old domestic volunteer program on track to increase from its current level of 75,000 volunteers to 250,000. Those volunteers – who receive a living allowance of about $12,000 for 10 to 12 months of work – would staff programs for poor people, veterans, the environment, healthcare, and education.

I will wait and see just how far the Right will go to condemn this effort.  I recall months ago when this was first brought up, there was a wealth of criticism on the Right and even accusations that the President was attempting to organize an army similar to the Brown Shirts of old.

How far will the Right go to bad mouth the efforts of the President?  Watch and learn.

Oops! There Goes Another Primary Promise!

At the height of his primary-season contest against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, Obama said the United States should use the “hammer” of threatening to withdraw from NAFTA if Canada and Mexico did not agree to change the pact.  To that I wrote that there would be no renegotiation of NAFTA.  I said that it was a primary promise that would go nowhere.  Damn!  I do so enjoy being a seer!

Pres. Obama wants to work with the leaders of Canada and Mexico to strengthen the North American Free Trade Agreement without renegotiating it, his top trade envoy said.

Obama promised last year to add “enforceable” labor and environmental provisions to the core of the text agreement and change investment provisions that critics say give business too much leeway to flout government regulations.

“The three leaders are all of the mind that we should look for ways to strengthen NAFTA,” U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said Monday. “I think they can be addressed without reopening the agreement.”

Obama pledged during the presidential election campaign that he would use the threat of opting out of NAFTA to force the Canadians and Mexicans to accept new standards for labor and the environment.

The partial reform miscalled free trade, which consists in the mere abolition of protection — the mere substitution of a revenue tariff for a protective tariff — cannot help the laboring classes, because it does not touch the fundamental cause of that unjust and unequal distribution which, as we see today, makes “labour a drug and population a nuisance” in the midst of such a plethora of wealth that we talk of over-production. True free trade, on the contrary, leads not only to the largest production of wealth, but to the fairest distribution. It is the easy and obvious way of bringing about that change by which alone justice in distribution can be secured, and the great inventions and discoveries which the human mind is now grasping can be converted into agencies for the elevation of society from its very foundations.

Agreements like NAFTA, CAFTA, etc are not promoting free trade.  They are however, destroying the manufacturing sector in the US.  It did however promote the spread of globalization which in turn out sourced thousands of American jobs to overseas locations.

State’s Saddled With Growing Budget Problems

New reports have begun to reveal the ways in which the economic crisis has led to further hardships for poor and working class people across the United States. To cope with extreme shortfalls in their budgets, state governments have begun to dismantle essential social programs, placing the burden of the economic crisis squarely on the shoulders of workers.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) reported last month that 47 states are facing budget shortfalls. The CBPP has called it “a fiscal crisis of historic proportions.”

The CBPP has estimated that “Combined budget gaps for the remainder of the current fiscal year and the next two years are estimated to total more than $350 billion.

The list of cuts is staggering, The CBPP writes that “At least 18 states have enacted or implemented cuts that will affect low-income families’ eligibility for health insurance or reduce their access to health care; at least 18 states and Washington, D.C. are cutting medical, rehabilitative, home care, or other services needed by low-income people who are elderly or have disabilities; at least 21 states are cutting K-12 and early education; and at least 28 states have implemented cuts to public colleges and universities. Also, at least 37 states and Washington, D.C. have proposed or implemented cuts to their state workforce.”

In an effort to balance budgets, state governments have started laying off state workers, including those responsible for evaluating and approving disability claims. Social Security Commissioner Michael J. Astrue acknowledged that the decision to lay off state workers responsible for disability claims was “completely illogical,” pointing out that states ultimately do not save any money. The federal government, he said, reimburses states for the cost of any disability benefits paid out as well as the salaries of those workers overseeing such decisions. The decision to dismiss workers in this field is particularly destructive due to a recent increase in requests for disability benefits.

Leaders in state government continually point to federal stimulus money as a means of coping with such difficulties. However, the funding guaranteed by the federal government is woefully inadequate for confronting the crisis at hand. The CBPP estimates that only 40 percent of the shortfall in state budgets across the US could be filled by federal aid.

Yes, everyone is having economic problems.  Things could not be more clear. While no expense can be spared to bail out the Wall Street elite and financial speculators who have contributed to the crisis currently leading the world into an economic catastrophe, the working class is being forced to accept the most drastic assaults on their living standards and basic necessities.

How long will the American people continue to allow this assault on the middle class, the working class, the bill payers of the country?

OMG! He Shook Chavez’s Hand!

Is there anything that the Repubs will not jump on to find a hook to the American people?  The airways are full of the political whining and accusations.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich tore into Pres. Obama Monday for his friendly greeting off Hugo Chavez, saying Obama is bolstering the “enemies of America.”

Gingrich appeared on a number of morning talk shows comparing Obama to President Jimmy Carter for the smiling, hearty handshake he offered Chavez, one of the harshest critics of the United States, during the Summit of the Americas.

I would like to point out a few facts about Venezuela….before the hate starts…..I am speaking of what has been done for the people, not the political posturing that is going on.

Chavez is in a unique position as the democratically elected populist president of 6th largest country in Latin America (and the first in regards to natural resources), to reject the neo-liberal policies of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the U.S. Treasury department and he has the financial ability to do so. This makes him extremely unpopular with the Washington Consensus and the global interests that they advance.

This alone is not enough. The average citizen in the Western world has no idea how the IMF works, who the World Bank is, or what the U.S. Treasury department actually does. If they are lucky enough to have a Union job they may have a vague idea of what the World Trade Organization is about. (Mostly regarding the relocation of their jobs overseas.)

Hugo Chavez is unpopular because the media portrays him as either, a) a charismatic demagogue, or b) a would-be dictator. Rarely is he portrayed as a popularly elected leader and social reformer despite the overwhelming evidence in support of that conclusion. This is because newspaper editors generally defer to stories which support and protect U.S. interests.

For instance, the program that brought 14,000 Cuban doctors who in turn established 11,000 neighborhood clinics in some of the poorest districts in Venezuela has largely gone unnoticed in the Western media. The same oversight applies to the literacy programs that have taught over a million adults how to read and write throughout the country. Where are the stories on the new schools and universities that have been built, most in the poorest districts? Where are the positive reports on the offer to sell discounted fuel for heating after the oil shortages during Hurricane Katrina?

Chavez is openly anti-American. But what exactly does that mean? He doesn’t like American foreign policy and the naked self-interests that it protects. But is the media really that patriotic? Doubtful.

I am not saying that the man is a fine example of how to win friends and influence people, most times he would be more effective if he would just shut up.

Keep in mind, while you are hating, that Chavez was popularly elected, whether you like his politics or not, the people of Venezuela elected him as their president.

How Safe Is Your Water?

US manufacturers, including major drugmakers, have legally released at least 271 million pounds of pharmaceuticals into waterways that often provide —drinking water contamination the federal government has consistently overlooked, according to an Associated Press investigation.

Hundreds of active ingredients are used in a variety of manufacturing, including drugmaking: For example, lithium is used to make ceramics and treat bipolar disorder; nitroglycerin is a heart drug and also used in explosives; copper shows up in everything from pipes to contraceptives.

Federal and industry officials say they don’t know the extent to which pharmaceuticals are released by U.S. manufacturers because no one tracks them — as drugs. But a close analysis of 20 years of federal records found that, in fact, the government unintentionally keeps data on a few, allowing a glimpse of the pharmaceuticals coming from factories.

Last year, the AP reported that trace amounts of a wide range of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in American drinking water supplies. Including recent findings in Dallas, Cleveland and Maryland’s Prince George’s and Montgomery counties, pharmaceuticals have been detected in the drinking water of at least 51 million Americans.

Consumers are considered the biggest contributors to the contamination. We consume drugs, then excrete what our bodies don’t absorb. Other times, we flush unused drugs down toilets. The AP also found that an estimated 250 million pounds of pharmaceuticals and contaminated packaging are thrown away each year by hospitals and long term care facilities.

Researchers have found that even extremely diluted concentrations of drugs harm fish, frogs and other aquatic species. Also, researchers report that human cells fail to grow normally in the laboratory when exposed to trace concentrations of certain drugs. Some scientists say they are increasingly concerned that the consumption of combinations of many drugs, even in small amounts, could harm humans over decades.

Utilities say the water is safe. Scientists, doctors and the EPA say there are no confirmed human risks associated with consuming minute concentrations of drugs. But those experts also agree that dangers cannot be ruled out, especially given the emerging research.

Is your water safe?  Keep in mind that the new light bulbvs that are all the rage, contain mercury.  How long before discarded mercury makes it to the water table?