Stem cell tourism -- patients paying for treatment at illegal "guerrilla" clinics -- continues to be a lucrative racket. Police in Hungary last week arrested four individuals they suspect of running an illegal stem cell treatment clinic in Budapest.
Reuters reported the police saying that the treatments were unproven, based on stem cells taken from embryos or aborted fetuses, and cost as much as $25,000 per person.
Gabor Bucsek, leading the police investigation, was quoted as saying that the arrests were "on suspicion of a banned use of the human body".
The Health Ministry issued a brief statement saying that no institutions in the country have permission at present to carry out stem cell treatment, and only Hungary's Healthcare Scientific Council has authority to issue permission to conduct research. At least eight patients had been treated, although some bloggers report that there may have been as many as 100.
Stem cell tourism -- patients paying for treatment at illegal "guerrilla" clinics -- continues to be a lucrative racket. Police in Hungary last week arrested four individuals they suspect of running an illegal stem cell treatment clinic in Budapest.
Reuters reported the police saying that the treatments were unproven, based on stem cells taken from embryos or aborted fetuses, and cost as much as $25,000 per person.
Gabor Bucsek, leading the police investigation, was quoted as saying that the arrests were "on suspicion of a banned use of the human body".
The Health Ministry issued a brief statement saying that no institutions in the country have permission at present to carry out stem cell treatment, and only Hungary's Healthcare Scientific Council has authority to issue permission to conduct research. At least eight patients had been treated, although some bloggers report that there may have been as many as 100.
Theeeeere she is...
Misssssss Laaaand Mine!
[Straits Times] A BEAUTY pageant in which landmine victims were to compete to win a prosthetic limb has been cancelled after the Cambodian government said it was in bad taste, organisers said Monday. I'd prob'ly have to sit and think for a month and a half to think of anything in any worse taste.
In the 'Miss Landmine Cambodia' contest, competitors from around the country were due to appear in a photo exhibition opening on Friday in Phnom Penh, followed by an Internet voting campaign to select the best candidate. 'I'm not looking forward to breaking the news to the 20 candidates involved, as I know they will be very disappointed in the lack of support from Cambodian authorities,' Norwegian pageant director Morten Traavik told AFP. Look on the bright side: you can probably out-run them.
He said the exhibition will not take place after Cambodia's Ministry of Social Affairs demanded cancellation of the contest to protect 'the honour and dignity of people with disabilities'. Sense from a government functionary? When did that start?
However the contest, intended to raise awareness about landmines and empower the disabled, will continue with Internet voting at miss-landmine.org, Traavik said. "We may be in bad taste, but we're determined, by Gum!"
'The event as planned is cancelled... But the project moves squarely to website voting,' he said. 'I think it is regrettable that we were not able to show this project freely in Cambodia,' he added. Raises my level of respect and sympathy for the Cambodes... And so Miss Pho? What would you like to see in your lifetime?
World Peace. And a lot less landmines...
The first 'Miss Landmine' contest was held in Angola last year, drawing protests from rights activists who viewed it as exploitative and racist. I can't see the racist part, not being a trained racial observer, but I can see the exploitative part without even turning my head and squinting...
Cambodia remains one of the world's most heavily mined countries, along with Afghanistan and Angola. Hundreds of people are killed or maimed every year by the millions of landmines and other unexploded ordnance still littering the countryside after decades of conflict. That's probably going to an extreme, but Miss Wooden Leg is way the other end of the scale.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen cancelled a Miss Cambodia beauty pageant in 2006, saying he would not allow such a contest until poverty in the nation was reduced by more than half. I'm sorry to report that I was unable to find a graphic of a goat barfing to accompany this article.
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08/04/2009 00:00 ||
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Posted by: ed ||
08/04/2009 1:53 Comments ||
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No wonder the government cancelled it. It draws attention to the fact that they're not buying any artificial limbs. I'm sure there's some UN program somewhere funding it.
Tens of thousands with chronic back pain will be forced to live in agony after a decision to slash the number of painkilling injections issued on the NHS, doctors have warned.
The Government's drug rationing watchdog says "therapeutic" injections of steroids, such as cortisone, which are used to reduce inflammation, should no longer be offered to patients suffering from persistent lower back pain when the cause is not known.
Instead the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is ordering doctors to offer patients remedies like acupuncture and osteopathy.
The placebo affect does help some, for a while. How nice that the NHS has a standard payment plan in place.
Specialists fear tens of thousands of people, mainly the elderly and frail, will be left to suffer excruciating levels of pain or pay as much as £500 each for private treatment.
The NHS currently issues more than 60,000 treatments of steroid injections every year. NICE said in its guidance it wants to cut this to just 3,000 treatments a year, a move which would save the NHS £33 million. But the British Pain Society, which represents specialists in the field, has written to NICE calling for the guidelines to be withdrawn after its members warned that they would lead to many patients having to undergo unnecessary and high-risk spinal surgery.
I assume that would cost the NHS more than regular steroid jabs.
Dr Christopher Wells, a leading specialist in pain relief medicine and the founder of the NHS' first specialist pain clinic, said it was "entirely unacceptable" that conventional treatments used by thousands of patients would be stopped. "I don't mind whether some people want to try acupuncture, or osteopathy. What concerns me is that to pay for these treatments, specialist clinics which offer vital services are going to be forced to close, leaving patients in significant pain, with nowhere to go,"
The NICE guidelines admit that evidence was limited for many back pain treatments, including those it recommended. Where scientific proof was lacking, advice was instead taken from its expert group. But specialists are furious that while the group included practitioners of alternative therapies, there was no one with expertise in conventional pain relief medicine to argue against a decision to significantly restrict its use.
Magic has long been accepted as a standard adjunct to conventional medical treatment. I'm sure a couple of hedge witches can be found, if only the NICE people would look. Or NICE could actually fund the research necessary to determine whether the recommended alternative therapies actually, you know, work.
Dr Jonathan Richardson, a consultant pain specialist from Bradford Hospitals Trust, is among more than 50 medics who have written to NICE urging the body to reconsider its decision, which was taken in May. He said: "The consequences of the NICE decision will be devastating for thousands of patients. It will mean more people on opiates, which are addictive, and kill 2,000 a year. It will mean more people having spinal surgery, which is incredibly risky, and has a 50 per cent failure rate."
One in three people are estimated to suffer from lower back pain every year, while one in 15 consult their GP about it. Specialists say therapeutic injections using steroids to reduce inflammation and other injections which can deaden nerve endings, can provide months or even years of respite from pain.
Experts said that if funding was stopped for the injections, many clinics would also struggle to offer other vital services, such as pain management programmes and psychotherapy which is used to manage chronic pain.
Anger among medics has reached such levels that Dr Paul Watson, a physiotherapist who helped draft the guidelines, was last week forced to resign as President of the British Pain Society. Doctors said he had failed to represent their views when the guidelines were drawn up and refused to support the letter by more than 50 of the group's members which called for the guidelines to be withdrawn. In response, NICE chairman Professor Sir Michael Rawlins expressed outrage over the vote that forced Dr Watson from his position, describing the actions of the society as "shameful". He accused pain specialists of refusing to accept that there was insufficient scientific evidence to support their practices.
Perhaps the pain specialists should publish a few studies, too.
A spokesman for NICE said its guidance did not recommend that injections were stopped for all patients, but only for those who had been in pain for less than a year, where the cause was not known.
Wait -- NHS doctors are using steroid jabs instead of doing the tests necessary to determine the cause of the pain? Is this because the NHS won't pay for the tests, or because the doctors don't have the time to spend on their patients?
Iris Watkins, 80 from Appleton, in Cheshire said her life had been "transformed" by the use of therapeutic injections every two years. The pensioner began to suffer back pain in her 70s. Four years ago, despite physiotherapy treatment and the use of medication, she had reached a stage where she could barely walk.
Not useful but heart-wrenching patient's story follows:
"It was horrendous, I was spending hours lying on the sofa, or in bed, I couldn't spend a whole evening out. I was referred to a specialist, who decided to give me a set of injections. The difference was tremendous", Within days, she was able to return to her old life, gardening, caring for her husband Herbert, and enjoying social occasions. "I just felt fabulous -- almost immediately, there was not a twinge. I only had an injection every two years, but it really has transformed my life; if I couldn't have them I would be in despair".
#1
Leaving people in chronic pain is a great way to get them in the right frame of mind for those mandatory 'you don't have to live forever' counseling sessions.
MEN ogle up to TEN women every day, researchers have revealed.
They spend an average of 43 minutes admiring girls - which adds up to A YEAR in a lifetime. And a well-spent year at that. But of course they must be referring to the lifetime of a teenager only.
The study shows celebs like David Beckham, Barack Obama and Bruce Willis were only doing what comes naturally when they were pictured eyeing up beauties. I'm not convinced about Obama. Mirrors seem more his style.
"A year of your life is a long time to spend with your eyes fixed on the opposite sex." Not nearly long enough. But I'm still working on it.
Researchers assumed a person's life of ogling takes place between the ages of 18 and 50 - which will surprise a lot of randy 16 and 60-year-olds.
The poll of 3,000 Britons revealed supermarkets were the favourite ogling location for men, followed by pubs and nightclubs. Women listed bars as their top spot for eyeing male talent. Poor Brits don't have beaches like Florida.
Most women said it was a fella's sexy eyes that first drew their gaze. With men it was a girl's figure.
One in ten people admitted a roving eye had caused a split with a partner. But 35 per cent had started a relationship with someone they eyed up. And still married to her.
#8
David Attenborough: "Now we see the response of the group of younger males to the female's display of her bright plumage. And with the intensity of lions watching a lone gazelle, their unblinking gaze heralds the start of rutting season."
[Bangla Daily Star] A Dhaka court issued an arrest warrant against former BNP state minister Gayeswar Chandra Roy yesterday in a graft case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
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08/04/2009 00:00 ||
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[The News (Pak) Top Stories] The Guardian Media Group (GMG) is considering closing The Observer, the worldís oldest Sunday newspaper, as part of a cost-cutting drive triggered by a drastic plunge in the group's finances.
Right next to watching the NYT close, this would be a good one ...
Members of the Scott Trust, the charitable foundation that owns the GMG, discussed the plan on July 6. They were shown trial copies of an Observer-branded news magazine that would replace the paper and be published on a Thursday.
After opposition from some trust members, thought to include Larry Elliott, who represents journalists of both papers on the board, GMG executives agreed to put the scheme on hold while an alternative was worked out.
This would keep The Observer as a Sunday newspaper but heavily slimmed down. Insiders now expect a decision at a trust meeting next month. The GMG declined to comment, as did members of the Scott Trust approached by The Sunday Times, including Dame Liz Forgan, its chairwoman.
Sources at The Observer said that rumours about the newspaper's future had circulated for several weeks, as had stories of disagreements at the Scott Trust over the plan. "At the moment, I would say it is 50:50 whether we are headed for the magazine, or for job losses and cost-cuts but keeping the paper," said one senior source.
Closure of The Observer would bring an end to a 218-year publishing era. It was set up in 1791 by WS Bourne, and its editors have included David Astor and Donald Trelford. It reached a peak circulation of 1.3m copies in 1979, but now hovers at about 400,000 a week.
Although GMG does not disclose the results of individual newspapers, The Observer is thought to have lost £10m-£20m a year in recent years, and not to have made a profit since it was bought by The Guardian in 1993.
Reds and profits don't mix. Who would have thought ...
To cut costs in recent months it has reduced its bulk sales -- copies sold at a steep discount to airlines and hotels -- and trimmed the size of its sections, including ditching its stand-alone television guide. The plans reflect the financial pain at the GMG, which last week reported a sharp slump in trading.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
I don't read the Observer, apparently nobody else does either.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/04/2009 12:46 Comments ||
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#2
"It reached a peak circulation of 1.3m copies in 1979, but now hovers at about 400,000 a week."
Gee, who would have thought 400,000 people couldn't find a cheaper birdcage liner?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/04/2009 15:06 Comments ||
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A TEENAGER was allegedly beaten to death by trainers at a rehabilitation camp in southern China where his parents had sent him to cure his internet addiction.
The three supervisors who allegedly beat Deng Senshan, 16, were arrested after the boy's death early on Sunday, his father Deng Fei told the Global Times.
"We are investigating a case where a high school student was beaten to death by his camp supervisors. The case is still under investigation," a police officer in Nanning, Guangxi region, was quoted as saying.
Deng Fei said he paid 7000 yuan ($A1190) to give his son a month's training at the Guangxi Qihuang Survival Training Camp to rid him of his addiction to the internet.
But instead, he said, the boy was put in solitary confinement shortly after his arrival and then beaten to death by his trainers who scolded him for running too slowly.
"My son was very healthy and was not a criminal. He just had an internet addiction when I left him at the camp," Deng Fei told the paper.
"We can't believe our only son was beaten to death."
China has the world's largest number of internet users with 338 million - more than the entire population of the US.
More than 10 million of the country's 100 million teenage web surfers are internet addicts, the China Daily said, citing a survey by the China Youth internet Association last year.
There is controversy over the treatments for internet addiction and how it is diagnosed. The health ministry last month banned the use of electroshock therapy to treat internet addiction.
I wonder what we got for him?
Aug. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Former President Bill Clinton headed to North Korea to seek the release of two U.S. journalists who are serving a 12-year sentence in the communist nation, Yonhap News reported, without saying where it obtained the information. Oh. You mean he'll be back?
Andy Laine, a spokesman for the State Department in Washington, said on a conference call with reporters that he had "no information on those reports." Aaron Tarver, a U.S. embassy spokesman in Seoul, said he hadnt heard about a trip. The White House approved the mission, Politico reported. Any objections, Hillary?
Ummmmmmmm...nope.
Euna Lee and Laura Ling were sentenced to "reform through labor" in June for charges including an illegal border crossing from China. The two women were detained in March while reporting for San Francisco-based Current TV, co-founded by Clintons former vice president, Al Gore. Anyone who bitches about reform through labor...spends a night in the box.
The sentencing coincided with increased tension on the Korean peninsula. North Korea tested a nuclear weapon and more than a dozen missiles this year, prompting new United Nations sanctions against the regime. How's about y'all give us the chicks back and keep ya nukes and missiles?
Your government would approve this?
Wayull, it's a long flight back from Ko-rea. N' ah got a feelin thay'll be really grateful, if ya know whut ah mean...
Clinton had "likely arrived" in Pyongyang, Yonhap reported at 11:23 a.m. local time. North Korea had asked in unofficial contacts through its UN mission that Clinton or a high-ranking Obama administration official visit for such negotiations, the largest South Korean news agency said. Hey. How y'all doin?
Herro, Misser Crinton. And Dear Reader asks where is ravishing Miss Arrbright?
Sorry bout that. She won't be comin.
Pity. Dear Reader will be most upset.
South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Lim Jung Taek told Bloomberg News by telephone the ministry had no comment on the reports. Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong Joo also declined to comment. CRINTON!
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
08/04/2009 12:28 Comments ||
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#7
CNN
"Clinton expressed words of sincere apology to Kim Jong Il for the hostile acts committed by the two American journalists against the DPRK after illegally intruding into it," the news agency reported. "Clinton courteously conveyed to Kim Jong Il an earnest request of the U.S. government to leniently pardon them and send them back home from a humanitarian point of view.
"The meetings had candid and in-depth discussions on the pending issues between the DPRK and the U.S. in a sincere atmosphere and reached a consensus of views on seeking a negotiated settlement of them."
The report said Clinton then conveyed a message from U.S. President Obama "expressing profound thanks for this and reflecting views on ways of improving the relations between the two countries."
It added, "The measure taken to release the American journalists is a manifestation of the DPRK's humanitarian and peace-loving policy.
"The DPRK visit of Clinton and his party will contribute to deepening the understanding between the DPRK and the U.S. and building the bilateral confidence."
California is shedding manufacturing jobs faster than any other state thanks to heavy regulation and high taxes, according to a new study.
A report out of the Milken Institute found that California has shed nearly 80,000 manufacturing jobs over the past five years, as neighboring states gained 62,000 jobs in the same sector. The new numbers suggest that the federal government might want to think twice before following in California's footsteps and instituting sweeping regulations on the energy industry and elsewhere.
Otherwise the Golden State might not be the only one that's losing its luster.
"Without manufacturing, where is the wealth going to be produced to hire the accountants, to hire the attorneys, to pay the actors and actresses?" said Tim Strelitz, president of California Metal-X. Strelitz' company is one of the few heavy manufacturers left in California, and it's half the size it was seven months ago.
Strelitz said that while California's manufacturing jobs are moving to other states in North America, a lot of them are going straight to Asia, "where they have no pollution controls and no health controls."
Christopher Thornberg, with Beacon Economics in Los Angeles, suggested that efforts to rescue manufacturing jobs will have to wait as the state grapples with its budgetary crisis. "Can our business environment be improved? Absolutely. Would it be good for the state? Absolutely. Can manufacturing be fostered? Absolutely. Is this the time to be worrying about it, absolutely not," he said.
That makes no sense whatsoever ...
But American manufacturing has been on a steady decline for decades and some economists say they fear that if the trend is not addressed soon the U.S. industrial base will disappear for good. After World War II, manufacturing accounted for one in every three American jobs. Now it's one in 10 and falling.
The Milken report blamed California's exportation of manufacturing jobs on heavy regulation, a hostile legislature and the highest tax rate in the United States. Milken economist Perry Wong said the state lost about 25 percent of its employment base in manufacturing and about 33 percent in the high-tech sector.
The Milken report suggested that California streamline its regulatory procedures for manufacturers, launch a campaign to encourage state workers to pursue careers in the manufacturing field and create a network of training and research centers throughout the state for the sector.
#1
Christopher Thornberg, with Beacon Economics in Los Angeles, suggested that efforts to rescue manufacturing jobs will have to wait as the state grapples with its budgetary crisis.
Idiot! By then they are gone!
Solve the budget crisis by lining up the state senators and representatives and making them swim across the Salton Sea.
When the all die from the pollution and bacteria the budget crisis is easily solved.
#3
The arrogance and ignorance of the politicians in the California State Legislature is breathtaking. They pass 1600 new laws annually, and literally think that the measure of their job performance is the amount of micromanagement control they exert over every aspect of your life here. They cannot imagine that people are voting with their feet and bailing out, because there are so many people lined up to move here. BUT....those leaving are producers and wage earners, and those arriving are net non-producers who arrive with their hand out. How else do you explain that we have 12% of the US population but 30+ % of the welfare cases? This is the future for the nation with Zero running the country.......
#4
The next big blow to the California economy will be the expansion of port facilities on the west coast of Mexico, and the highways to link them directly to the American midwest and east. This will allow the lucrative Pacific trade to bypass California's extortionist pinko unions and power-freak legislators.
In 20 years there will be nothing left but entertainment and welfare, the latter most likely financed by federal handouts extorted with the votes of a massive deadbeat population.
The Hollywood of old is now gone as well. The once proud movie mecca is now run down, with gangs, the homeless and prostitution rampant on any given night. The only decent part of town is the unincorporated West Hollywood, know for its high concentration of gays. That part of town is not bad actually, although the traffic, like most of Los Angeles, is a nightmare.
California is losing hundreds of millions of dollars annually to these "runaway" productions. Runaway used to mean a film was over budget, or it was breaking box office records. Now it means they will film somewhere else.
#7
The environmentalists have been working to kill agriculture for years by restricting the water rights. They want to be sure that all of the rivers are pristine, and the water is not wasted on farms.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
08/04/2009 18:21 Comments ||
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#8
I'm sure Obama's Cap & Tax will help manufacturing (move overseas).
#9
#4 And in 2014 the expansion of the Panama Canal is supposed to be complete, which means a shipping lane from Shanghai to Houston.
"Governor Perry, I'm thinking about relocating my business to Texas. Can you tell me what regulations apply?
"Regu-what?"
Posted by: Matt ||
08/04/2009 20:12 Comments ||
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#10
CA's ag is being laid waste by the Endangered Species Act, wich has resulted in a manmade drought. Totally by design. As the judge noted, farmers have "junior" water rights. End of game. Sacramento has spoken.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
08/04/2009 20:49 Comments ||
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#11
The Governor should make up a NERO AWARD of a golden violin and present it to each Sacramento twit on TV.
Oh, and lead a mare into the state capital presenting it to the leadership saying: "your wife has come to visit"
#2
Oil imports are down 25% from their 2007 peak and US consumption is down 15%. That's a huge change in peoples' behavior from 2 years ago. But it will take another 10 years before US consumers' car buying habits toward smaller cars ripples though the fleet and by then I figure oil imports will have dropped to 5-6M barrels/day. By then Americans can say goodbye to the Middle Eastern and Venezuelan greasy shitholes. Much earlier if domestic and CTL production were undertaken.
Posted by: ed ||
08/04/2009 17:26 Comments ||
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#3
And to think, it all could have been avoided if, during the 80s, we had chosen to develop our domestic reserves instead of being reliant on Saudi oil. At the time, importing oil was a novelty, something that was temporarily useful.
#1
It's so bad one Michigan town is seeking to have Gitmo inmates moved there: "We'll take the most dangerous prisoners the world has to offer if we have to," corrections officer Paul Piche said Monday. "Anything that keeps the prison open is fine with me," said Perry Pelton, owner of Wheeler's Restaurant on Main Street.
Proposals to send Gitmo prisoners to Ft. Leavenworth KS have met with a much different response: "These people are a lot more dangerous than anybody we have here," said Leavenworth resident A.C. Byrd, a retired Army noncommissioned officer. "Their mission is to kill Americans and anyone who disagrees with them."
#2
And that doesn't include people who's unemployment have run out, unemployed self-employed (1099 contractors) people, or new graduates who can't find jobs. If the official rate is 15%, the actual rate is probably "Great Depression". With Obama's policies of having government debt saturate the credit market, increase in small business taxes, and potential taxes / cost increases from Obamacare and Cap & Tax - expect this to get even worse.
#3
Those NIMBY programs looking good now? Well, there's always that Yucca Mountain thingy hung up in Congress and the courts that could be moved if you really really wanted the jobs.
It's a familiar refrain of the skeptics: You can't cure a debt crisis with more debt. "The government's attempts to help' are actually prolonging the inevitable deleveraging this economy has to go through," says Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Milller Tabak. "Deleveraging is a freight train and anything the government does to try to slow that down pushes out the inevitable recovery.
Boockvar cites three "successful" programs as examples of what he calls the government's wrongheaded approach: ...
Boockvar's solution to what ails America's economy is simple in theory but highly complex to accomplish, and runs counter to the prevailing winds in Washington: "We have to start making things the rest of the world wants, incentivize businesses to make things here...and recalibrate so we're less dependent on consumer spending to [where we're] saving more, investing more and making things," he says.
Posted by: ed ||
08/04/2009 08:16 ||
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#1
"We have to start making things the rest of the world wants,...
When the Great Depression took hold, America was an industrial and exporting nation. When the data doesn't fit the theory, throw out the data.
#2
He's putting the cart before the horse. Right now, the US is so deeply in debt that we cannot make things the rest of the world wants, because they would demand it for free, in exchange for the US debt.
Instead, if the US followed in the footsteps of other nations and renounced its debt, it would help everyone, and faster, even those to whom we owed our debt.
That is, China's growth was based in underwriting US debt *with their profits*, not their core wealth. But now they are stuck with US paper they cannot cash in, trade, or otherwise dispose of, without sinking their own ship.
If the US renounces that paper, while the Chinese will bitterly protest, it will free them from the degenerate trade cycle with the US. Trade will halt, so China's growth will need to turn inward, to creating their own consumer society.
Since all import trade with the US will be over for a decade or more, except for cash on the barrel head, the US will have to rebuild its outsourced industries for its own needs. And this is the start of the US recovery.
And the US credit rating will be awful, so the US government cannot issue any more debt, and will have to have a balanced budget, which means scrapping largesse, such as Social Security and medical care, and recalling most US forces home, except for a few critical places.
So the US will no longer have to pay to be the world's policeman, except for the few really dangerous situations.
#3
"and will have to have a balanced budget, which means scrapping largesse, such as Social Security and medical care"
Good luck with that one, 'moose. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/04/2009 11:22 Comments ||
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'Moose, your remedy sounds most unlikely, however necessary it might be. The national debt cannot be repaid. I know, let's start a few more giga-enormous entitlement programs to go with the ones we can't fund now! That'll do the trick!
#5
When the Great Depression took hold, America was an industrial and exporting nation. When the data doesn't fit the theory, throw out the data.
While those observations are true it's important to remember that correlation doesn't imply causation.
The recession of the late 20s was all about deleveraing of over-leveraged US equities markets and deflating the corresponding bubble in US industrial capacity that resulted from said excess leverage. It was little more than a rather normal, albeit sharp, business cycle correction that was the result of abnormal leverage utilized to build the most profitable enterprises of the day, namely the means to produce physical goods.
The fact that the US was a net exporter at the time speaks mostly to the utter economic cluelessness of the Hoover Administration's attempt to sheild US workers from the downturn by signing the disasterous Smoot-Hawley Tariff / Trade War Act. The takeaway lesson there isn't that we should avoid building businesses that intend to export goods or that it's inherently dangerous to our economy to do so, it's that if one's economy depends in large measure on exports one should probably avoid firing the first shot in any global trade war.
The fact that the recession of the late 20s degenerated into the Great Depression was also not directly due to the industrial / exporting character of the US in that era. It was due to a long series of misguided government attempts to shield the average American from economic reality, many of which acted to compound the mistakes of those that came before. There are takeaways there as well but they also have little to do directly with the character of the US economy at the time as industrial / exporting. E.g., the government should resist the urge to meddle during recessionary times; the government should resist the urge to attempt to shield citizens from economic realities; the government, if it acts in times of economic crisis, should act *only* to lower the cost of doing business in the US and to lower the cost of living for private citizens; etc.
#7
He's putting the cart before the horse. Right now, the US is so deeply in debt that we cannot make things the rest of the world wants, because they would demand it for free, in exchange for the US debt.
First you have to stop the bleed out ($700B/year) before the patient can recover. That means, as a first step, producing our own energy and consumer goods. That means a tariff policy to encourage domestic production instead of continuing as the world's goods and services dumping ground. Manufactured goods prices may double, but people will have high wage jobs to afford them instead of the $8/hr Walmart jobs that last until the remaining money runs out.
Same for energy. Drill the most likely oil/gas bearing formations. If the coasties don't want to drill then let them walk everywhere. Put in place a floating tariff so that middle eastern monopoly producers can't crash prices to bankrupt domestic producers. Oddly enough, energy prices ($450B of last year's 700B deficit) will likely drop as easily accessible fields are tapped and cheap domestic coal and gas is turned into gasoline.
Then the American economy can rationalize its production and invest in new technology for greater productively and wealth. In the long term, you only consume as much as you produce.
Posted by: ed ||
08/04/2009 19:36 Comments ||
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#8
True and in addition the gold standard added to the extreme economic uncertainty of the 30s when, for a time, FDR lay in bed in the evening and decided at what price he would fix gold the next morning. That sort of wag-the-dog uncertainty is devastating to market economies.
#9
Drill the most likely oil/gas bearing formations.
That will cut the flow of capital out and create jobs and lower the cost of doing business by the reduction of price of the common commodity. Not going to happen while the Obama-Reid-Pelosi triumvirate have power. Their objective is power, not really solving problems.
#11
...and here all along I thought the Beltway Trunks(tm) were doing it themselves without much assistance interference by the Donks across the aisle.
The recession is starving the government of tax revenue, just as the president and Congress are piling a major expansion of health care and other programs on the nation's plate and struggling to find money to pay the tab.
The numbers could hardly be more stark: Tax receipts are on pace to drop 18 percent this year, the biggest single-year decline since the Great Depression, while the federal deficit balloons to a record $1.8 trillion.
Other figures in an Associated Press analysis underscore the recession's impact: Individual income tax receipts are down 22 percent from a year ago. Corporate income taxes are down 57 percent. Social Security tax receipts could drop for only the second time since 1940, and Medicare taxes are on pace to drop for only the third time ever.
The last time the government's revenues were this bleak, the year was 1932 in the midst of the Depression.
"Our tax system is already inadequate to support the promises our government has made," said Eugene Steuerle, a former Treasury Department official in the Reagan administration who is now vice president of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.
"This just adds to the problem."
While much of Washington is focused on how to pay for new programs such as overhauling health care -- at a cost of $1 trillion over the next decade -- existing programs are feeling the pinch, too.
Social Security is in danger of running out of money earlier than the government projected just a few month ago. Highway, mass transit and airport projects are at risk because fuel and industry taxes are declining.
The national debt already exceeds $11 trillion. And bills just completed by the House would boost domestic agencies' spending by 11 percent in 2010 and military spending by 4 percent.
For this report, the AP analyzed annual tax receipts dating back to the inception of the federal income tax in 1913. Tax receipts for the 2009 budget year were available through June. They were compared to the same period last year. The budget year runs from October to September, meaning there will be three more months of receipts this year.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
And it's going to stay down for many years. Just deducting the maximum capital gains losses will will take the rest of their lives for many top 10% earning taxpayers (who pay 70% of income taxes).
When you foist the costs of government and income redistribution onto a small minority then expect the government to catch pneumonia when those taxpayers catch a cold. The 25 year wild ride is over. Get used to walking in the slow lane G-man.
Posted by: ed ||
08/04/2009 1:40 Comments ||
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#2
The same thing is happening all over the developed world.
The only option is to rollback what governments do to the level of 30 or 40 years ago.
And BTW, the revenue problem is going to get an awful lot worse before it gets any better.
#3
Time to roll back the public sector to what they are supposed to be - servants of the private sector, not rulers of the private sector.
They broke the social contract, they have to make things right with sacrifice.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
08/04/2009 5:37 Comments ||
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#4
Such gloom and doom! $2 billion for clunkers is only $20 from each of 100 million taxpayers.
Or, if we can't raise taxes, like the One promised, then it'll be $100 from each of our children, or $1,000 from each of our grandchildren. Chump change.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/04/2009 6:12 Comments ||
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#5
All of this whilst Barry, his New York Amish inner cabal and the donks insist on spending huge additional amounts? Wake up soon America or we'll likely lose everything.
#6
Well, when you rely upon the top 1 percent to carry as much as 95 percent, then when they take a hit, everyone takes a hit. The Donk solution is class warfare and redistribution, i.e. to kill the goose that lays the golden egg.
#11
Why the last week of September, 'moose? What's going on then?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/04/2009 11:26 Comments ||
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#12
Miss Barbara,
The week after the last week in September is the first week in October - the beginning of the fiscal year. 'Moose may suspect - as do I - that some very, very bad news is lurking down the pike.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/04/2009 11:55 Comments ||
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#13
Ah. Thanks, Mike.
I'm not so sure it's actually lurking as just waiting idly for its cue, barely offstage....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/04/2009 12:02 Comments ||
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#14
might be a good time to get rid of some stock but the dollar will not be a good asset to put it in.... decisions decisions ....
#15
Highly progressive tax rates are guaranteed to produce this result.
In addition to top earners making less, keep in mind that many are enjoying inflated salaries during the bubble -- former hair dressers are making $300k annually selling houses. Unlike people who are accustomed to having money, the former hair dresser has not taken any steps to shield her income from taxes. She gets hit at the highest possible rates and government tax coffers swell. The problem, of course, is that when the bubble bursts she goes back to cutting hair and government looses a huge source of revenue.
Exasperating this problem, government budgets based on all this new revenue during the bubble years. They spend as if revenues will continue, and continue to grow, forever. When the bubble bursts they don't cut spending, they just push the tax burden down to the middle class.
#16
So lots of people are surprised by the revenue drop. I'm not. Me and everyone in my office has been on a 32 hour work-week since last November. I have no idea how many more businesses are doing the same and then there is the huge rise in unemployment and businesses closing. Raising taxes will only make it worse.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/04/2009 13:38 Comments ||
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#17
might be a good time to get rid of some stock I got rid of all mine 2 years, don't know where to turn now.
#18
I've been working a 30-hour week for months now (though occasionally I pick up more if a rush project pops up - especially if they need my particular expertise). I'm not complaining, though - at least I've still got a job (unlike others I know).
The gummint is getting less from each of my paychecks because I'm earning less, but I'll be paying the same in quarterly taxes (for my side business) until next April. Then, unless something improves, their total take from my pocket will drop drastically.
A friend of mine works for the State - she told me recently they're going to have an unpaid furlough day this year and next. At least it's just one day - so far. The State is letting people go, too.
I think federal AND state tax revenues are going to continue to go down. But we're not as bad off as we would be if the State 'Pubs hadn't refused to go along with the Dems and spend, spend, spend like they wanted to the last few years.
Pfui.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/04/2009 15:21 Comments ||
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Alabama's debt-ridden Jefferson County laid off about two-thirds of its 3,600 employees on Monday because of plummeting revenues, a move that will sharply curtail services in areas ranging from roads to courthouses. The cuts are just the latest blow to Jefferson, whose population of 660,000 includes Birmingham, the state's largest city and its economic powerhouse. They come after the county racked up around $4 billion in debt by using exotic financial instruments to fund a revamp of its sewer system.
The work force cuts will hit the roads and transportation, revenue and security departments, and cuts will also affect the courthouse and information technology department as well as laborers paid on a per-hour basis, according to a senior county official.
The county has been forced to make drastic cuts because of a lawsuit questioning the legality of a county occupational tax, which raised $78 million annually and was vital to the county's operation.
Although the revenue is still being collected, it is being held in escrow under orders by an Alabama Supreme Court justice pending a decision on the tax case. Some members of the state legislature hope to pass a new tax bill this month to raise revenue for Jefferson County.
County workers placed on administrative leave under the cuts will be entitled to unemployment and some health-care benefits and will be called back after 45 days, according to a senior county official.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Here's hoping states & localities across the nation ... and of course our federal leviathan ... follow suit quickly.
#2
How about having the county commissioners and Birmingham's mayor and council pick up roadside litter for the next 4 years on account of gross stupidity.
Posted by: ed ||
08/04/2009 1:44 Comments ||
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#3
The county has been forced to make drastic cuts because of a lawsuit questioning the legality of a county occupational tax, which raised $78 million annually and was vital to the county's operation.
Oh, lovely. They spent all their money like a crack mom on the 1st of the month, and then when they run out they pass an illegal new tax which quickly becomes 'vital'. Crap on that, stop spending so much freaking money.
#6
gromky, Birmingham has had an Occupational Tax since way back in the '80s. I'm surprised someone didn't challenge it sooner. It caused a lot of large businesses to leave the County.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/04/2009 7:53 Comments ||
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MUNICH, Germany An arms dealer extradited from Canada to Germany over his alleged role in a scandal that helped propel Chancellor Angela Merkel to power could face 15 years in jail, prosecutors said on Monday.
After losing a decade-long battle to avoid extradition, Karlheinz Schreiber, 75, touched down in Munich where German police were waiting to take him to a single cell in Augsburg prison to await trial. Schreiber faces charges of bribery, fraud and tax evasion, said Reinhard Nemetz, chief prosecutor. "The maximum sentence could be up to 15 years in prison," he told reporters.
Nemetz said the accused was in good shape physically and would appear at a closed-door hearing on Tuesday to have the charges against him read out. However, it was still not clear whether the politically sensitive case would be heard in court before the national elections on September 27.
Herbert Veh, chief justice on the regional court, said: "The date of the national election will not play a role in the decision."
Schreiber is accused of playing a key role in a sprawling slush-fund scandal that rocked the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party in the 1990s and tarnished the legacy of former chancellor Helmut Kohl. He is believed to have made an undeclared one-million-mark (500,000-euro, 712,000-dollar) donation to the CDU, prompting a political scandal that claimed the scalp of then head of the party, Wolfgang Schaeuble, now interior minister.
Kohl acknowledged that the CDU had received illegal donations under his leadership but refused to disclose who had made them.
During the affair, Merkel wrote an editorial in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily in 1999 calling for Kohl to come clean over the funding scandal and for the party to break with its murky past. Merkel's willingness to put her head over the parapet and challenge Kohl -- a legend within the party -- marked her out as a future leader and she was elected head of the CDU the following year.
Schreiber also stands accused of evading taxes on millions of euros in income from arms deals as well as offering bribes to ensure government approval for the sale of armoured cars to Saudi Arabia.
A Canadian court on Sunday rejected his final appeal to avoid extradition to Germany and he was flown out from Toronto later that night. "Over a 10-year period, Mr. Schreiber was given every reasonable opportunity to challenge his extradition," said Canadian Justice Minister Rob Nicholson.
"His surrender to Germany was in full accord with the law and consistent with the spirit and purpose of extradition."
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Schreiber, who holds dual Canadian and German nationalities, said his extradition was politically motivated, with a general election less than two months away.
"The Social Democrats won three elections with my case in the past," he said, referring to the junior partner in Merkel's coalition government. "If I come now that would be the greatest thing, it would start a huge investigation and... they would think they could win the next election."
The Social Democrats are currently trailing Merkel's conservative bloc by as much as 15 points in the polls.
However, one of Merkel's key allies dismissed the notion that Schreiber's return would have an impact on the forthcoming election. "It has no political relevance," said Horst Seehofer, head of Merkel's Bavarian sister party, the CSU.
Wolfgang Thierse, a senior Social Democrat, concurred, telling MDR Info radio: "Schreiber's extradition has nothing to do with the election battle."
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/04/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
And we in the Great White North are so happy to be rid of him. Schreiber became the darling of the liberal media up here because of his deals with conservative politicians. He was the Abramoff of Canadian politics.
Two Bangladeshis have been shot dead by Indian border guards, Bangladeshi officials say.
An official from the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) said they had lodged a protest with the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) over the incident. The process of returning the bodies is under way, a BDR spokesman said.
There was no immediate response from the Indian side. India and Bangladesh share a border spanning more than 4,000km (2,485 miles).
Indian border guards are often accused of shooting at illegal immigrants.
Tends to cut the recidivism rate ...
Correspondents say that border clashes between the two sides have taken place regularly over the past decade, despite government meetings attended by both sides to reduce the number of incidents
Posted by: john frum ||
08/04/2009 14:46 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The Government's drug rationing watchdog says "therapeutic" injections of steroids, such as cortisone, which are used to reduce inflammation, should no longer be offered to patients suffering from persistent lower back pain when the cause is not known. 
[The News (Pak) Top Stories] The Guardian Media Group (GMG) is considering closing The Observer, the worldís oldest Sunday newspaper, as part of a cost-cutting drive triggered by a drastic plunge in the group's finances. 
California is shedding manufacturing jobs faster than any other state thanks to heavy regulation and high taxes, according to a new study. 
The recession is starving the government of tax revenue, just as the president and Congress are piling a major expansion of health care and other programs on the nation's plate and struggling to find money to pay the tab.
Alabama's debt-ridden Jefferson County laid off about two-thirds of its 3,600 employees on Monday because of plummeting revenues, a move that will sharply curtail services in areas ranging from roads to courthouses. The cuts are just the latest blow to Jefferson, whose population of 660,000 includes Birmingham, the state's largest city and its economic powerhouse. They come after the county racked up around $4 billion in debt by using exotic financial instruments to fund a revamp of its sewer system.
Two Bangladeshis have been shot dead by Indian border guards, Bangladeshi officials say.
