An astute commenter on "Yes, the Health-Care Mandate Is About Liberty" by Jonathan Cohn and David A. Strauss at Blooomberg.com here captured the Orwellian Newspeak with this pithy formulation:
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Mandatory Arbitration: Big Business' Latest Weapon Against The People
Susan Antilla has all the details for Bloomberg, here:
The McMahon decision was damaging enough for the impact it had on individual brokerage customers, who tell their stories about fraud, misrepresentation and churning behind closed doors where the public -- including reporters -- isn’t welcome. ...
“It means that all sorts of scams against individuals, however large, are very unlikely to come to the attention of the media and the public,” says F. Paul Bland Jr., a senior attorney at the public-interest law firm Public Justice in Washington.
Wall Street may have been first to catch on to the benefits of mandatory arbitration, but Bland worries that the closed-door trials are spreading to industries from retailing to homebuilding. “The silence and secrecy that surrounds arbitration is extremely harmful to the country,” he says.
These days, employers -- Manpower Inc. and Nordstrom Inc. among them -- require new hires to give up their rights to court before a fresh-faced recruit can check in for orientation. And consumers can forget about opening a Netflix account, signing a mobile-phone contract, or putting a loved one into most big-name nursing homes unless they are willing to give up their rights to go to court. Buying a Starbucks gift card? You are agreeing to mandatory arbitration of any fraud or misrepresentation by the company. ...
In April 2011, the court dealt a new blow to consumers and employees in a case known as AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion. AT&T had pitched a deal to woo new mobile-phone customers by offering free phones, but it turned out the freebie came with a $30.22 bill for “taxes.” Vincent and Liza Concepcion tried to bring a class-action lawsuit on behalf of all the other consumers who took AT&T’s deal. But the court said that when the couple signed the customer agreement, they gave up their right not only to sue, but also to a class action even in arbitration.
In the year since the Concepcion decision, lower courts have trashed dozens of cases in which consumers or employees were trying to sue as a group. The National Labor Relations Board pushed back against the impact the Concepcion decision might have on employment class actions, ruling in January that it’s a violation of federal labor law to make workers give up the right to pursue group claims. That decision probably will be challenged in court.
About 25 percent of U.S. employees are covered by mandatory-arbitration clauses, says Alexander J.S. Colvin, an associate professor of labor relations and conflict resolution at Cornell University. He figures the number will grow as a result of the Concepcion case.
Friday, May 4, 2012
UK Guardian None Too Happy Sarkozy Played Muslim Card
In an editorial, here, about the one and only debate between Sarkozy and Hollande:
At one point Mr Sarkozy plumbed new depths in a campaign which had already turned xenophobic to recapture ground from Marine Le Pen. This was where he explained that he was not bothered about Canadian or Norwegian immigrants getting the vote, but Algerian, Malian and Nigerian ones – the Muslim ones of course: "Community tensions come from whom and they come from where?" This was the Sarkozy of old, the former interior minister of raw political ambition who earned the loathing of his colleagues by calling delinquents rabble, and promising to cleanse minority suburbs with a Kärcher high-pressure water hose.
Michigan Public Libraries Prefer Liberal Bill Press to Conservative Deneen Borelli
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| ranks 6637 at amazon |
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| available from 8 libraries |
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| ranks 1994 at amazon |
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| available from 2 libraries |
Irrational Exuberance in French Real Estate, as in USA, Began in Late 1990s
And a long, steady slide back down is in the cards.
So Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in the UK Telegraph, here:
The price-income ratio was stable from the 1960s to the late 1990s, before exploding over the past 12 years as a perfect storm of demographics, state sweetners and cheap credit led to a 12-year blow-off.
There are parallels with Spain and America but Mr Sabatier said the French twist is a replay of the early 1930s when investors fled stocks after 1929 and rotated into "safe" property. Hence the paradox of rising prices during the Depression. The strange boom did not end until premier Pierre Laval cut rent ceilings in 1935, triggering a long slide.
"Laval's policy change was the catalyst. The same could happen now as austerity forces brutal measures," he said. An array of market props are eroding, including tax relief on some mortages and certain capital gains. ...
A housing slump would hammer the economy just as long-delayed austerity begins in earnest. Property makes up 65pc of French household wealth, compared with 57pc in Germany, 39pc in Japan and 27pc in the US.
Under Obama 5.4 Million New Americans Take SSDI, Doubling Total to 10.8 Million
For the full story by John Merline and all the data, go here at Investors.com.
Nothing is said about the cost of this exodus to dependency, which other stories have said is $200 billion annually, but Merline does mention that the funds designated for the purpose of disability benefits will run out in 2018, six years from now.
80 Percent of Unemployment Rate Decline Due to Persons Leaving Labor Force
“Some 80% of the reduction” in the unemployment rate from 10% hit in October 2009 to today’s 8.2% “has been from adults quitting the labor force,” says economist Peter Morici.
Morici adds the unemployment rate “rises to 14.5% if you factor back in those who’ve stopped looking for work but would re-enter if there were jobs, as well as part-time workers who would prefer full-time positions.” ...
The U.S. economy is creating jobs, but it is struggling, adding jobs at a rate of just 131,000 a month in 2011, which is not enough to reduce the unemployment rate.
Morici says the U.S. economy “must add 13 million jobs over the next three years -- 362,000 each month -- to bring unemployment down to 6%. GDP would have to increase at a 4% to 5% pace.”
So there you have it.
Since when does a nation’s labor force shrink during a recovery? It should not shrink, it should grow in a recovery.
Unemployment Falls to 8.1 Percent, 115K New Jobs
Consensus estimates had new jobs at 170K. Gee, they were off by only 55K this time.
Obama has been president for 39 full months, all of them with unemployment above 8 percent.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the anemic results for April 2012 here:
Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 115,000 in April, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 8.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment increased in professional and business services, retail trade, and health care, but declined in transportation and warehousing.
Unemployment in the US in the post-war period seems to get progressively worse only since America jettisoned strong dollar policy under Richard Nixon in 1971, as this graphic from The Wall Street Journal plainly illustrates.
And Obama wants us to go FORWARD with that, which means unemployment will only get worse over the long haul with the likes of him at the helm.
If only forward meant the past, like 1948-1968.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
The Euro Area is Walking into Depression
"The euro area is walking, eyes wide open, into depression. Led by its periphery, which is already there."
How's Your Health Insurance? Mine's Up 25 Percent Since ObamaCare Passed
ObamaCare passed in March 2010, and since then my costs for health insurance for my family have gone up, and up again.
My first increase was effective in May of 2011, a 6.7 percent increase in the premium.
The second increase was effective just a few days ago on May 1, 2012, a whopping 17.2 percent rise in the cost.
Overall, my rates are up 25.1 percent for a plan that discounted a recent doctor-ordered 4 hour emergency room visit and follow-up care less than 23 percent.
Owie!
Between October 2006 and October 2011, US Real Estate is Down $7 Trillion
See here for the data.
The decline measured by the Federal Reserve's Z.1 Flow of Funds Release, B.100, shows the peak value of US real estate in October 2006 at $25 trillion. As of October 2011 the metric has fallen to $18.1 trillion.
Note the dramatic new uptrend in valuation which began in the late 1990s coincident with tax law changes permitting tax-free capital gains up to $500K in some circumstances to owners who occupied their homes for two years. Prior to that the gains were tax-free only once in a lifetime.
Call it housing commoditization.
Can you imagine returning to the trend line status quo ante? Hell to pay: at least another $2 trillion in declines coming.
Total Private Employment Today is at April 2000 Level
For the data, go here.
Peak private employment in America was reached in January 2008 under George W. Bush at 115.65 million. As of March 2012 the level is 4.85 million fewer, at 110.8 million.
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Norway is Anti-Semitic Because it Singles Out Israel for Opprobrium
So says Michael Sharnoff here, where he provides numerous examples dating from 2006 to the present:
Oslo’s recent behavior reveals a proclivity toward singling out Israel among all other nations for international opprobrium.
Norwegian leaders and officials attempt to justify their anti-Israel actions based on the narrative that Israel occupies Palestinian land. They typically avoid specifically targeting Jews, for fear of being labeled anti-Semitic, but their actions nonetheless exhibit traits of “genteel anti-Semitism.” ...
I would like to remind the Norwegian government and corporate CEOs of the European Union’s examples of the ways in which anti-Semitism manifests itself: “Claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor, applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded by any other democratic nation; and drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”
Sarkozy v. Hollande: Their Only Difference (Small) Is Height
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| UMPS! |
As observed by a supporter of Le Pen, quoted here in The Christian Science Monitor:
In a fiery speech to thousands of supporters waving French flags, Le Pen slammed Sarkozy's rhetoric on the need to strengthen borders and maintain a clear national identity as pure theatrics and labelled him and Hollande as lackeys of the European Central Bank, IMF and European Commission.
"The French have started their emancipation," she said, scorning the mainstream parties, the UMP and PS, or Socialists, as an indistinguishable "UMPS" bloc.
"The UMPS will not succeed," she said. "All of their efforts cannot stop us growing and cannot block our path to power."
Mockery of the two remaining candidates was a common theme among Le Pen's supporters:
"Sarkozy and Hollande, they are exactly the same," said an 18-year-old who gave her name as Justine. "If there is a difference between the two it's their height."
Another Geezer Eruption From Climate Alarmist James Lovelock: 'Put Democracy On Hold For A While'
This one in, where else?, the UK Guardian in 2010, which I missed, but many others noticed:
We need a more authoritative world. We've become a sort of cheeky, egalitarian world where everyone can have their say. It's all very well, but there are certain circumstances – a war is a typical example – where you can't do that. You've got to have a few people with authority who you trust who are running it. And they should be very accountable too, of course.
But it can't happen in a modern democracy. This is one of the problems. What's the alternative to democracy? There isn't one. But even the best democracies agree that when a major war approaches, democracy must be put on hold for the time being. I have a feeling that climate change may be an issue as severe as a war. It may be necessary to put democracy on hold for a while.
James should have been more honest. What he really meant to say was, "We need a more authoritarian world."
Remind you of anyone?
Remind you of anyone?
Monday, April 30, 2012
Obama Was Dismissive Of The Financial Panic In March 2009
"I have more than enough to do without having to worry [about] the financial system."
-- Barack Obama, here, the day before the March 2009 stock market bottom
Flashback March 2009: It Really Bugged Obama to be Called 'Socialist'
So much so, the new president called back to The New York Times after he was interviewed on Air Force One.
From Joe Curl, here:
President Obama was so concerned that he had appeared to dismiss a question from New York Times reporters about whether he was a socialist that he called the newspaper from the Oval Office to clarify his policies.
"It was hard for me to believe that you were entirely serious about that socialist question," he told reporters, who had interviewed the president aboard Air Force One on Friday.
Presidents don't call newspapers. Newspapers call the president.
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