Weekday NEWS to Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.
Tues 03.31.2009
Russia backs return to Gold Standard to solve financial crisis Russia has become the first major country to call for a partial restoration of the Gold Standard to uphold discipline in the world financial system. Arkady Dvorkevich, the Kremlin's chief economic adviser, said Russia would favour the inclusion of gold bullion in the basket-weighting of a new world currency based on Special Drawing Rights issued by the International Monetary Fund. Chinese and Russian leaders both plan to open debate on an SDR-based reserve currency as an alternative to the US dollar at the G20 summit in London this week, although the world may not yet be ready for such a radical proposal. Mr Dvorkevich said it was "logical" that the new currency should include the rouble and the yuan, adding that "we could also think about more effective use of gold in this system"
The Dollar's Days are Numbered The dollar’s days are numbered. We are beginning to feel sorry for it…as we do all lost causes. Trouble is, we don’t know whether it’s a big number or a little number that marks the dollar’s last days. Last week, a decimal point seemed to move to the left. A UN advisory panel had suggested that maybe it was time to figure it out a better way to run the world’s monetary system. Better, that is, than using the U.S. dollar as the reference currency for the whole world. As you’ll recall, almost every price on the planet ultimately relates to dollars. You can buy an orange here in Granada for euros. But the global market in oranges is priced in dollars. So when people figure out how much something is worth – in global terms – they typically refer to dollars. And when countries want to make sure they have enough money on hand to settle up their debts with other countries…or enough money to buy Florida oranges…or enough to purchase oil to run their factories – they lay in a supply of dollars.
Peter Schiff The Dollar is Gonna Drop Like a Stone
Silver and Gold ARE Money (PART 1/2) While gold trades as a currency (or "medium of exchange") and also is a "store of value," and even a "unit of account" for some, and very little is actually consumed. Economically speaking, gold trades even in the modern world as money. Gold is a luxury good with insignificant industrial usage. Its major market as a luxury good is Indian women's jewelry, but to these women gold is their money or insurance if their mate leaves, dies, or is disabled so the metal is not consumed – it can be easily recovered.
Will the world run out of gold? Heard about the recent Fed Reserve’s decision to buy back toxic debts worth $300 billion? If you are wondering where is the money coming from to pump in so much dollars into the economy, the answer is the US Fed is just printing it. In fact the printing press of the US treasury is working overtime now. So, even as the Fed is churning out dollar notes without proper support of gold stock, investors across the globe are now getting jittery. Because, they have now started wondering whether the gold which they are trading in the Futures market really exists. If you go by the details and the trade volumes, it is just a fiction and the game of a piece of paper called contracts.
Gold: Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Silver Is Quietly Flashing a Buy Signal, But Buyer Beware Anyone who follows the silver market knows that the fundamentals of silver are incredibly strong, long term. Since most silver is mined as a byproduct of base metal mining, and base metal prices are currently depressed by the global recession, inventories of base metals are high, and silver supply is shrinking. Many less profitable mines are closing down. Silver recently went into backwardation, which could indicate delivery problems are imminent in the physical silver market. The US government currently holds no silver bullion at all, down from five billion ounces immediately after WWII. Above ground silver supplies are currently estimated to be one billion ounces, compared to five billion ounces of gold. This includes silver in tableware, jewelry, and other sources that will never be available on the open market.
Zhou Xiaochuan: We Need An International Currency China wants to divorce the dollar. Good move. The dollar is on the brink of considerable depreciation. Premier Wen Jiabao is concerned looming inflationary pressures will sharply decrease the value of American debt held in Chinese banks. In order to encourage create greater monetary stability, Zhou Xiaochuan wants to create an international currency unit that can be used in trade as well as a standard against which other currencies can be pegged. Zhou, an economist who is currently the Governor of the Peoples Bank of China, is absolutely right. We do have a global economy. To facilitate trade, we need an international currency. I mean, how can we have a global economy unless we also have a global currency? The dollar, which used to provide the functions of a reserve currency, has been decimated by Congressional ineptitude, administrative failure, and ideological ignorance. Few believe it will recover any time soon.
Contango's Gold Standard Investors in commodity exchange-traded funds have been dealing with the vexation of the oil market's contango for months. You know about contango, right? If you can get your oil, your gold or any other storable commodity immediately delivered for less than it costs to wait a month or more, you've got yourself a contango. Now, why should something you must wait for cost more? After all, in retail transactions, purchasers often pay a premium for express, rather than regular, shipment. Futures are a different kettle of fish (or oil, or gold). Once you've contracted to take possession of the commodity - as you do in a futures contract - you pick up the carrying costs until its actual delivery. That includes financing, storage and insurance charges.
Gold Remains Resilient Despite Sell-Off in Commodities Growing negative sentiment is causing investors to move out of commodity markets, which is also helping to drag down gold prices. Gold prices are modestly weaker Monday afternoon, trading in the mid-$951 per ounce level. There was an increase in volatility early in the North American session. Prices dropped to session lows of $908.60 just ahead of the open. Following the open, prices spiked higher to $932.50. However, the gains were short lived as risk aversion sentiment dragged prices into negative territory. According to some commodity strategists, grim news from the U.S. auto sector is helping to weaken all commodity prices, including those for gold.
G20 Could Surprise Currency, Gold and Bond Markets Don't write off the London G20 meeting. It could lay the foundations for fundamental global change, impacting currencies, gold and bond markets. Understandably, most commentators are cynical about the April 2 meeting in London achieving anything major and British newspapers mostly enjoy mocking Gordon Brown‚s hopes for the meeting. But take two of the expected outcomes from the meeting and then look at some other developments afoot and we could be facing a momentous shift. The two expected outcomes to note are:
Beefing up the IMF, with more funds and extra seats on the board for developing economies, notably China.
Agreement to regulate global financial markets and institutions more closely.
Not exactly Bretton Woods II (the original 1948 Bretton Woods conference gave birth to the post WWII financial system) but these two outcomes are building blocks.
Jim Rogers: Britain is Bankrupt
G-20 Targets Hedge Funds as Leaders Near Consensus Leaders of advanced and emerging economies are closing ranks behind plans for tougher rules on financial markets to prevent another collapse like the one that wiped out much of Wall Street. A global approach to regulation has been gaining momentum ahead of the Group of 20 summit April 2 in London. U.S. President Barack Obama, U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and their G-20 counterparts aim to merge their national blueprints for strengthened regulation into a united front to rein in hedge funds, derivatives trading, executive pay and excessive risk- taking by financial firms.
Gold Falls, Dollar Gains on G20 Jitters; Investment Demand "Overwhelmed" by Asian Scrap Supplies THE PRICE OF GOLD fell hard Monday lunchtime in London, dropping nearly 2% against the US Dollar to hit an 8-session low as world stock markets tumbled and the "risk averse" US Dollar and Japanese Yen both rose on the forex market. Crude oil fell hard towards $50 per barrel - down 7% from last week's four-month high - while government bonds rose sharply but stayed on track for their worst Jan. to March performance since 1996. The move in Gold Prices also wiped out an earlier 1.6% gain for UK and European investors. "Trying to call the bottom for the [stock] market is impossible," said one Edinburgh fund manager to Bloomberg as the MSCI index lost 1.7% ahead of the US opening.
Merkel Is Set to Greet, and Then Resist, Obama Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, an avowed friend of the United States and the leader of the European Union's biggest economy, is diplomatic about the coming visit by President Obama. But she is clear that she is not about to give ground on new stimulus spending, stressing the need to maintain fiscal discipline even as she professes to want to work closely with the new American president. Speaking in her modern concrete-and-glass Chancellery building last week, she underscored the points of drama that may well delineate the three summit meetings during Mr. Obama's first trans-Atlantic trip since he was elected.
Rising Powers Challenge U.S. on Role in I.M.F. Barely six months ago, the International Monetary Fund emerged from years of declining relevance, hurriedly cobbling together emergency loans for countries from Iceland to Pakistan, as the first wave of the financial crisis hit. Now, with world leaders gathering this week in London to plot a response to the gravest global economic downturn since World War II, the fund is becoming a chip in a contest to reshape the postcrisis landscape.
Cash is Trash You have probably been taught that the responsible way to handle your economic affairs was to work hard, be thrifty and invest safely. This is what the old timers did, and it worked for them. When they reached 65, they were able to retire. However, the old timers lived in a country on the gold standard. They went to work at age 16, saved 15% of their income each year and put it in the local savings bank at 5% interest per year. Let us do a little 8th grade math. Assume an average wage of 30 oz. of gold per year. Saving 15% of that means saving 4? oz. per year. At the end of a 49-year working lifetime, you have saved 220? oz. of gold.
Global Meltdown Part 3 This is the point at which the global economy falls the rest of the way off of the cliff. The false hope raised by the illusion of decisive action on the part of the Obama administration is giving way to Democratic party in-fighting and an increasing public perception that Obama and Geithner are out of their league. A number of events on the macro economic and political fronts threaten to converge simultaneously to force another major contraction in global markets.
TURBO TIMMY'S SNEAKY SCAM On close inspection, there are only two possibilities for the Geithner “Rescue Plan”: It’s an honest effort doomed to fail... or a blatant scam that just might work. Treasury Secretary Geithner,, we hereby dub thee “Turbo Timmy.” As a number of you have informed me, the “turbo” moniker - as in, “doesn’t know how to use Turbo Tax” - has been around for a while now. With my many sources and ears on the street, I’m surprised I hadn’t heard it prior. (Or maybe it just went in one ear and out the other.) Other honorable mentions in the SecTreas nickname contest include:
“Tycoon Tim” (for serving his rich masters)
“Torpedo Tim” (for threatening to sink the economy)
“Little Timmy Geithner” (after a hapless cartoon character with wish-granting fairy godparents)
“Lollypop Guild” Geithner (after the obscure Wizard of Oz character)
Tim “The Beaver” Geithner (because his earnest, goofy manner has a “Leave It to Beaver” feel)
The Boys From Brazil As postured on these pages for some time now, seasonal inversions in trading patterns of markets tend to occur in mature markets due to sentiment / structural irregularities. In the case of the US stock market, what has essentially occurred is because the general investing population has been dumbed down‚ due to excessively good economic conditions over an extended period, along with powerful mind-numbing corporate propaganda, their aversion to risk has been dangerously tempered. This has caused them to adopt a casual attitude towards risk, and explains why such a large percentage of small speculators, who have proven themselves to be the dumb money‚ once again by increasing long exposures to historic extremes set against falling prices, remain stubbornly bullish to this day. In essence then, they are simply too dumb to respect risk evidenced in their persistence to game the market, which is why stocks have fallen in correspondingly record fashion as well. As Mark Lundeen points out in his latest, only the crash of 1929 to 1932 saw greater volatility than the present sequence. As he goes on to point out however, this of course does not mean total losses in stocks will not match the extremes witnessed in the 30's, which is supported in knowing just how complacent investors are in the face of stark reality.
Under a Flourescent Moon Mr. Obama heads to Europe now where official hostility is rising against the Anglo-American method of pounding monetary sand down the rat-holes of “non-performing” debt, bankrupt enterprise, and bubble-levitated bonds. Our poised and charming Prez may escape personal obloquy from the quaint old-world street folk, but most of the other G-20 policy playerz take a dim view of the shell-and-pea games being played by the custodians of the world’s reserve currency, including front-end-loader bank bail-outs, the shuffling of worthless securities under TARPS and TARFS, the desperate efforts to prevent the sane re-pricing of real estate, the cannibalizing of treasuries by the Federal Reserve, the now-notorious hijacking of public “liquidity” injections by third parties like Goldman Sachs, and most generally the perceived sacrifice of everybody else’s greater good for the sake of maintaining Lloyd Blankfein’s cappuccino machine.
Peter Schiff 3/25/09 - MSNBC Morning Joe
$100+ Oil, Not “If” But “When”? While it seems like ages ago, it was a just a year or so ago when oil was rising sharply and experts were knocking one another over to be the first to scream for $100, $150 even $200 oil around the corner. The public outcry grew with each rise in gas prices. The crowd in Washington, who has been passing the buck for years rather than address the growing energy crisis, hauled the oil industry executives in front of Congress for the cameras in hopes of the public not realizing they had already kicked the can down the road versus having to actually do something about it.
Mr. Roach, is an ‘Economic Armageddon’ still on the Horizon? . . . . . The world stopped in 2008 – and it was a full stop for the era of excess. Belatedly, the authorities have been extraordinarily aggressive in coming to the rescue of a system in crisis. But as in the case of Humpty Dumpty, they will not be able to put all the pieces back together again. The next era will be very different from the one we have just left behind. Up until recently there had been a symbiotic relationship between China (the saver and producer) and America (the borrower and consumer) with a belief that these disparities could be finessed indefinitely, as could record debt burdens and currency misalignments. Some day, went the argument, the world would have to face up to its imbalances, but the day of reckoning was always assumed to be some far-off, distant future. That was the fatal mistake made by the world in denial. But that game is now over. Our unbalanced world is now in the midst of a painful but necessary rebalancing what with the U.S. consumer most likely in the early stages of a multi-year contraction and the fact that there is no other consumer group to fill the void. As such, a post crisis global economy is likely to struggle for years to come.
Paul Revere & Gold .... And gold where art thou? ......... How bad are things going to get? It seems now to be up to the United States government. Can the government create enough money before the US and global economies plummet off the horizon? Unemployment is predicted by many analysts to reach double digits. These days are worse than the days of FDR. The only master plan seems to be the creation of trillions of more paper dollars. Will capitalism survive ten years from now? Certainly more inflation is in the works as this new money enters the system. Where are all the jobs today? In the service sector. The government and health system primarily. And what maintains the service sectors? Without productivity and manufacturing the service sector has no legs to stand on. All eyes are on the US dollar. If the rest of the world begins to lose faith in our paper dollars then the financial world sinks period.
Geithner’s ‘Dirty Little Secret’ US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has unveiled his long-awaited plan to put the US banking system back in order. In doing so, he has refused to tell the ‘dirty little secret’ of the present financial crisis. By refusing to do so, he is trying to save de facto bankrupt US banks that threaten to bring the entire global system down in a new more devastating phase of wealth destruction. The Geithner Plan, his so-called Public-Private Partnership Investment Program or PPPIP, as we have noted previously (Obamas Rettungsplan für die Banken: keine Lösung, sondern legaler Diebstahl), is designed not to restore a healthy lending system which would funnel credit to business and consumers. Rather it is yet another intricate scheme to pour even more hundreds of billions directly to the leading banks and Wall Street firms responsible for the current mess in world credit markets without demanding they change their business model. Yet, one might say, won’t this eventually help the problem by getting the banks back to health?
Geithner Says Free Market Will Not Solve Current Economic Problems Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner defended his approach to fixing the country's economic mess Sunday, saying "the market will not solve this" while disclosing a bailout fund for battered banks has $135 billion left and might need more. Geithner used his first Sunday talk show appearances to promote President Barack Obama's massive government spending plan to ease credit, help borrowers and inject billions of dollars into the financial sector. Long kept behind the scenes, the treasury secretary has emerged as the administration's champion of a plan that fueled an uptick in Wall Street markets.
George Soros, the man who broke the Bank, sees a global meltdown George Soros was 13 when the Nazis invaded his homeland of Hungary. As a Jew, he was forced to adopt a false identity and live separately from his parents in Budapest. Instead of being traumatised by the experience, though, he found the danger exhilarating. “It was high adventure,” he says, “like living through Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Sixty-five years later, he still thrives on danger. He famously made $1 billion on Black Wednesday by shorting the pound, earning him the label of “the man who broke the Bank of England”. Last year, as the world tipped into financial chaos, Mr Soros pocketed another $1.1 billion by correctly predicting the downturn. “I’m an expert in crises,” he says.
Experts On Third World Banana Republics: The U.S. has Become a Third World Banana Republic Who are the leading experts on third world banana republics? Probably those at the International Monetary Fund with years of experience lending money to corrupt regimes after their excess became so out of hand that they needed emergency assistance. Today, two top IMF officials said that the U.S. has become a third world banana republic. First, Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the IMF, says recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform, and calls the U.S. a banana republic. In his essay "The Quiet Coup" (which includes sections like "Becoming a Banana Republic"), Johnson writes: Typically, these countries are in a desperate economic situation for one simple reason—the powerful elites within them overreached in good times and took too many risks. Emerging-market governments and their private-sector allies commonly form a tight-knit—and, most of the time, genteel—oligarchy, running the country rather like a profit-seeking company in which they are the controlling shareholders. When a country like Indonesia or South Korea or Russia grows, so do the ambitions of its captains of industry. As masters of their mini-universe, these people make some investments that clearly benefit the broader economy, but they also start making bigger and riskier bets. They reckon—correctly, in most cases—that their political connections will allow them to push onto the government any substantial problems that arise. . . . The downward spiral that follows is remarkably steep. Enormous companies teeter on the brink of default, and the local banks that have lent to them collapse....
Conservative "Talkers" Will Soon Be Gone! Democrat/Socialists going after “Talk Radio” with a vengeance Speaking as an old, veteran broadcaster, I can tell you, I see the handwriting on the wall. Forget what the socialists in Congress are telling you as well as the press. The Socialists intend to pass a law that will force radio stations to get those conservatives talkers off the air, or lose their licenses to operate their stations… and, if I am correct, those stations’ licenses will be up for grabs. The truth is, as I see it, minorities filing for those licenses will get preferential treatment by the FCC and eventually be awarded those same licenses…........Look, for those who don’t know …........the Federal Communications Commission is GOD in the broadcasting Industry. They have the power of life and death for a broadcast station in America. You probably don’t know this (unless you are a broadcaster) but broadcasting is one of the most highly regulated industries in the country. The government has its nose into every cussed thing you do as a broadcaster. Oh, the FCC will play humble and swear they don’t involve themselves in the daily grind of broadcast stations but that is unadulterated bovine scatology! Every broadcaster knows they do. Max Keiser on Bankers' Bonuses - 27 March 2009 (1 of 2) Part one of Max Keiser on France 24's Face Off talking about Bankers Bonuses.
The Bubble That Must Burst The bubble that must burst is a very, very large bubble. It is worldwide. It is co-existent with most nations of the world. Like all bubbles, for a time it appears rational. It even seems to work. The bubble seems to bring all gains and no losses, and all at very low cost. The returns seem very high and never-ending. They attract the resources and allegiance of many because the yield seems so high. But like all bubbles it cannot go on forever, because it is based on greed and gain extracted from other persons against their wills. It is a bubble based on extrapolative expectations that eventually cannot be sustained by reality. What is this bubble? It is the bubble of constitutional and representative democracies that lack the consent of all of those being governed. It is the bubble of states that promise more and more social gains and cannot deliver upon these promises. It is a bubble of governments that are chain letters and Ponzi schemes. It is a bubble built upon robbing some to pay others.
How Bailouts Can Butcher Capitalism We have a new F word: failure. One unhappy hallmark of the Great Recession is a dramatic spike in financial distress. Moody's predicts that the default rate on corporate debt--which helps foretell bankruptcies--will be three times higher this year than in 2008. Home foreclosures are already at record highs, and going higher. Defaults on credit cards and other consumer debt will crest right behind mortgages. The Obama administration is on the case, bailing out banks and homeowners and aiding dozens of industries either directly, through a financial-rescue scheme that could top $2 trillion, or indirectly, through the $787 billion stimulus bill. Automakers, furniture companies, real estate developers, and even porn magnates have their hands out.
Housing slump frays economy of 'carpet capital' DALTON, Ga. Inside a cavernous factory, massive machines that churn out carpeting for Home Depot and Lowe's were idled on a recent Friday as workers took a forced day off without pay. Across Dalton, the self-proclaimed "Carpet Capital of the World," storefronts stood vacant, once bustling restaurants were virtually empty and police battled a rising methamphetamine problem. This city in the foothills of the Appalachians, which makes nearly 75 percent of the country's floor coverings, has felt a mountain of economic troubles since the country's real estate boom went bust. Plummeting demand for flooring has led to a near doubling of Dalton's unemployment rate. Foreclosures are on the rise. And there are signs that the population may be shrinking. There are doubts that Dalton's economy will ever look the same again _ even after the nation's financial crisis ends.
Max Keiser on Bankers' Bonuses - 27 March 2009 (2 of 2) Second half of Face Off with guest Max Keiser. Discussion concludes with agreement that there should be a return to gold standard to avoid a repeat of counterfeiting operations of Central Banks.
THE MARGINAL PRODUCTIVITY OF DEBT Why Obama's Stimulus Package Is Doomed to Failure The paper mill on the Potomac is furiously spewing up new money. According to the manager of the mill, as indeed according to the Quantity Theory of Money, this should stop prices from falling and the economy from contracting. In this article I present an argument why this conclusion is not valid. On the contrary, I shall show that new money created on the strength of a flood of new debt, is tantamount to pouring gasoline on the fire, making prices fall and the economy contract even more. The Obama administration has missed its historic opportunity to stop the deflation and depression inherited from the Bush administration because it entrusted the same people with the task of damage-control who had caused the disaster in the first place: the Keynesian and Friedmanite money doctors in the Fed and the Treasury.
Brown snubbed over tax Germans wreck ‘global new deal’ GORDON BROWN’S carefully laid plans for a G20 deal on worldwide tax cuts have been scuppered by an eve-of-summit ambush by European leaders. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, last night led the assault on the prime minister’s “global new deal” for a $2 trillion-plus fiscal stimulus to end the recession. “I will not let anyone tell me that we must spend more money,” she said. The Spanish finance minister, Pedro Solbes, also dismissed new cash being pledged at Thursday’s London summit. “In these conditions I and the rest of my colleagues from the eurozone believe there is no room for new fiscal stimulus plans,” he said.
Obama Issues Ultimatum to Carmakers President Obama announced what amounts to a do-or-die ultimatum for the struggling automobile industry on Monday, laying out strict standards that the carmakers must meet to get more government aid and declaring that the industry must survive because it is “like no other, an emblem of the American spirit.”
U.S. Lays Down Terms for Auto Bailout The White House on Sunday pushed out the chairman of General Motors and instructed Chrysler to form a partnership with the Italian automaker Fiat within 30 days as conditions for receiving another much-needed round of government aid. The decision to ask G.M.’s chairman and chief executive, Rick Wagoner, to resign caught Detroit and Washington by surprise, and it underscored the Obama administration’s determination to keep a tight rein on the companies it is bailing out - a level of government involvement in business perhaps not seen since the Great Depression.
Chrysler agrees on framework of alliance with Fiat Chrysler LLC has reached an agreement on a framework of a global alliance with Italian automaker Fiat SpA that has the support of the U.S. Treasury, Chrysler's CEO Bob Nardelli said on Monday. "We appreciate the willingness of the (autos) Task Force, along with industry and financial experts, to consult closely with us in order to achieve this significant step," Nardelli said in a statement. Chrysler, owned by private equity Cerberus Capital Management, was deemed by the task force to be not viable as a stand-alone company and was given 30 days to complete an alliance with Fiat or be cut off from U.S. government funding. If Chrysler can complete an alliance with Fiat and cost-saving arrangements with creditors and its major union, the U.S. Treasury would consider investing up to another $6 billion.
The Obama Deception Extras: Interviews with, George Humphrey, Gerald Celente, Webster Tarpley
White House Mends Fences With Wall Street President Barack Obama convened a “who’s who” of executives from the nation’s largest banks Friday to mend fences with Wall Street and drum up support for his plans to stabilize the financial system. The meeting appeared to clear the air as bankers said afterward they knew their companies are vital to a potential economic recovery and they want to work with the government. “The basic message is we’re all in this together,” John Stumpf, the Chief Executive Officer of Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), told reporters outside the White House after meeting with Obama. “We’re trying to do the right thing for America.”
[They are moving very quickly; when will Americans wake up?] Now They're Coming For Your KIDS! The so-called Mandatory Youth Service Bill, or GIVE ACT, is nothing more than Obama’s troops ordering your children to go into training to become good little socialist boys and girls. For those of us who got an education even in the public education system in America… before the unions took over… the very thought of a mandatory youth service act, of any kind, sends shivers up our spines. We remember, all too well, the youth movements in Germany, especially the Hitler Youth and the Brownshirts.
Homestead, Fla., once leveled by Hurricane Andrew, now struck by foreclosures Seventeen years after Hurricane Andrew leveled much of southern Miami-Dade County, a different kind of storm is devastating households here: foreclosures. In certain ZIP codes in places like Homestead and Florida City, around 25 percent of the homes are in one stage of foreclosure or another. Countless others were built by developers and sit vacant in ghostly subdivisions, with not a buyer in sight. In the days after Andrew, then-Dade County Emergency Management Director Kate Hale famously said on national TV: "Where the hell is the cavalry on this one?" The same could be asked now, in this new disaster. People in south Miami-Dade - just like people in foreclosure-strewn cities across the nation - are wondering: How did we get here?
Insurers shun those taking certain meds How health insurers secretly blacklist those with certain ailments. Trying to buy health insurance on your own and have gallstones? You'll automatically be denied coverage. Rheumatoid arthritis? Automatic denial. Severe acne? Probably denied. Do you take metformin, a popular drug for diabetes? Denied. Use the anti-clotting drug Plavix or Seroquel, prescribed for anti-psychotic or sleep problems? Forget about it. This confidential information on some insurers' practices is available on the Web -- if you know where to look. What's more, you can discover that if you lie to an insurer about your medical history and drug use, you will be rejected because data-mining companies sell information to insurers about your health, including detailed usage of prescription drugs. These issues are moving to the forefront as the Obama administration and Congress gear up for discussions about how to reform the healthcare system so that Americans won't be rejected for insurance.
More senior citizens forced to declare bankruptcy Hit hard by the slumping economy and surviving on fixed incomes, senior citizens have experienced the sharpest increase in bankruptcy filings. Jose Abrahantes has been working for about half a century -- in construction, landscaping, even as a janitor cleaning offices on the night shift. He figured he would eventually enjoy a relaxing retirement. But at 66, with medical bills piling up after an emergency surgery, Abrahantes has filed for bankruptcy. Retirement isn't even in the picture. Instead, he's working part-time at a Publix bakery. ''I had no choice,'' said Abrahantes, who rents a modest Little Havana apartment with his wife, Carmen. "If I'm making $8 an hour and trying to live off that, there's no way I'm going to pay down all my bills.''
Skype, the Web Phone Giant, Brings Cheap Calls to Cellular Skype, the Internet calling service that has more than 400 million users around the world, is aggressively moving onto mobile phones. The Luxembourg-based company, a division of eBay, plans to announce on Tuesday that it will make its free software available immediately for Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch and, beginning in May, for various BlackBerry phones, made by Research in Motion. Other companies have already made software for those phones that works with Skype, but it does not offer all of the service‚s features. As with Skype on the computer, users of Skype on mobile phones can make calls and send instant messages to other Skype users free, and they pay lower rates than the phone companies would charge when they use Skype to call landlines or other mobile phones.
CRUDE OIL IN ISRAEL !!! light sweet high quality crude oil with the color of HONEY !!!
World Bank Sees Slump in Russia Worsening The World Bank released a grim report on Russia on Monday, projecting a 4.5 percent contraction in the economy in 2009 and warning that the financial crisis would push 5.8 million Russians into poverty unless the government shifted more spending to poor families. The report was a sharp revision of the World Bank's November forecast, which predicted an increase of 3 percent in gross domestic product in 2009. World Bank analysts also took a more pessimistic view than the Russian government, whose experts are predicting a 2.2 percent contraction. The report praised the government‚s $85 billion anticrisis program, which stabilized Russia's banks and prevented financial panic. But it said too little had gone to households - a hazard in a society where 37 million people, a quarter of the population, lives near the poverty line.
Mexico's Version of La Cosa Nostra Spreads Like Wildfire The Castorena Family Organization is a large-scale criminal organization with more than 100 key members who oversee cells of 10 to 20 individuals in cities across the United States, according to public court documents filed by the US government in Colorado and in other judicial districts around the country… Several of the senior leaders of the organization are believed to be based in Mexico, although they enter the US occasionally to oversee the operations of lieutenants of the crime family. The organization is alleged to be involved in the manufacture and distribution of high-quality counterfeit identity documents, including social security cards, birth certificates, marriage certificates, US and Mexican driver licenses, Matricula Consular ID cards, resident alien cards, work authorization documents, proof of vehicle insurance cards, temporary vehicle registration documents, and utility bills (many states require driver license applicants to show utility bills as proof of residence).
Chinese find opportunity in U.S. real estate slump BEIJING -- Amid a downturn in real estate prices, some wealthy Chinese are signing up for home-buying tours to the U.S., and Chinese media tout the trend as another sign of the strength of what's now the world's third-largest economy behind the U.S. and Japan. "The real estate prices in America have gone down drastically," said Yin Guohua, a partner in a law firm who recently returned from an 11-day U.S. tour with a group of Chinese elite. "It's a good option for Chinese people who want to buy for investment." In prime time last week, China Central Television's popular Oriental Horizon program dedicated half an hour to the topic of house-hunting tours to the U.S. The tours also have been the subject of numerous newspaper articles, some of them suggesting that the buying power of newly rich Chinese might help salvage U.S. real estate woes.
China Cracks Down in Muslim West An overseas rights activist said Monday that authorities in China's predominantly Muslim far west are closing unregistered Islamic schools and conducting house-to-house searches in a new security crackdown in the restive region. The campaign under way for five weeks in the city of Hotan underscores Beijing's persisting concerns about separatist movements in its Central Asian border province of Xinjiang. While anti-government protests and a security clampdown in Tibetan areas have grabbed attention over the past year, China has also been battling unrest in Xinjiang, with a flare-up in violence last year that killed 33 people. Like the Tibetans, many of Xinjiang's ethnic minority Uighurs have chafed under Beijing's rule and restrictions on the practice of religion.
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