The Housing Bubble

I want to respond to some assertions made about my comments on healthcare being uninformed and the statements made by my doctor wife being lies.

First, of all :

http://www.sandiego6.com/news/local/story/Medication-Errors-at-Teaching-Hospitals-Spike-in/lG1Qh5ZYykCI-lxmg_yRkA.cspx

It is a studied fact that med students and residents, especially new ones cause errors, including fatal errors, and at a higher rate with the less experience they have. If you get to a really good institution, this can be negated, but as snopes says, it’s not just July that cause problems for teaching hospitals:

http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/july.asp

“at teaching institutions where oversight of new staff is less stringent, the “July effect” lasts not merely for the summer, but apparently for the rest of the calendar year. While risk-adjusted mortality rates may rise by roughly 4 percentin the July-August period, that increase remains at between 2 and 4 percent until the New Year, resulting in 8 to 14 additional deaths per annum at a typical teaching hospital.
”

Which in turn cites its sources.

So first off I’d like the apology for that plain ignorant rebuttal that med students don’t cause more errors. Plain common sense should tell you it’s the case, but simple research will confirm it for you.

Second, work on your basic reading comprehension:

Quoting me:

“The VA is one of the primary avenues for residency programs to send their students to for training.”

Can you possibly dispute this? Are you trying to say there are no med students in the San Diego VA? Long Beach VA? Los Angeles VA? Omaha Nebraska VA? For each of these locations, VA duty was one of the primary places my wife spent her time. Do you take offense at this simple fact for some reason?

The only inference I draw from this is that these hospitals (not just VA, in case you are still having reading comprehension probs) are benefiting from low priced medical labor.

Previous thread poster:
“Are you saying VA hospitsals use more residents than other hospitals? Prove it.”
Uh yes. Some hospitals use med students and residents. Some don’t. The ones that do are called teaching hospitals. Also, see above for statistics on teaching hospital mortality rates. I didn’t say the VA used more med students than other teaching hospitals… but they are getting cheaper labor than non-teaching hospitals… I don’t claim this accounts for the entire lower cost of the VA. Again.. reading comprehension.

And next:
“NCQA’s seal of approval is the gold standard in the health-care industry.”

well nice report from 2005 there buddy

The website that came from immediately follow that statement up with this:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2005/0501.longman.html

“Not convinced? Consider what vets themselves think. Sure, it’s not hard to find vets who complain about difficulties in establishing eligibility. Many are outraged that the Bush administration has decided to deny previously promised health-care benefits to veterans who don’t have service-related illnesses or who can’t meet a strict means test. ”

Hmm, so if you turn away a huge portion of the population you are supposed to serve, you can better serve the remaining people and save money? Who would have guessed!

By the way I applaud the VA for giving excellent care to those they do serve. If you get over your bias, you will see that I am pointing out rates of errors that are something like 8 in 10000 vs 16 in 10000. It’s not even my main point. The main point is, you can only BENEFIT from the cheap help of med students(it is a cost benefit IMHO) if they will put up with your pittance of pay in hopes of getting 5-10x as much when they get out.
Again quoting me:

“What happens if you take that away by making healthcare public? Nobody really knows, but I doubt the residents & med students would work for the same current pittance.”

So rather than quibbling over some of the simple things I laid out, why don’t you try to answer some of those hard questions:

1) Is the US subsidizing worldwide healthcare with our heavily regulated private system?

2) What happens to physician pay and motivation when the healthcare system is nationalized/ made public?

3) If medicare/universal care is so good, why is the VA doing a better job than medicare?

4) Are the costs of these public universal healthcare plans really sustainable?

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_28/b4042070.htm
Business week says France, rated #1 in healthcare in the WHO report is basically riding on the backs of the doctors making 55k per year. Unsurprisingly, they cite several factors in the rapidly rising costs of the system in large part due to doctors trying to find ways to make some money ( extra tests, high price “private” consults, etc).

Hmm lets look at some other stories about french docs:

Job Satisfaction Low Among French Docs

http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/GeneralProfessionalIssues/23720

Oh and I thought this was funny, Western Europe is getting a bunch more docs, only because the absolute failure of socialism in eastern europe is driving those docs west!

http://www.france24.com/en/20110401-frustrated-eastern-european-doctors-head-west#

More of the same:
http://www.cafebabel.co.uk/article/35721/may-2011-eu-health-summit-french-romania-migration.html

Which country can *we* rape of their doctors so that we can meet our health cost goals? Actually we already do this with docs from the Phillipenes. They come here and are NURSES!!! just to make some extra cash..

Here’s the thing though, we don’t need to be ideological enemies. I think reducing healthcare costs and improving outcomes is a “good thing”(TM). Could a national healthcare plan be *A* means of accomplishing this goal? Possibly….. Could reform also be implemented a different way so that we don’t put politicians in Washington in charge of another big slush fund like Social Security? Possibly… Is it reasonable to ask that people retain a choice in this supposedly “free” country on how they want to pay for their health care? Possibly…

Finally, one thing I noticed is this: Per capita patient costs are always compared in country A vs country B. for example, In France healthcare is

3k vs the US it is 6k

But in france GDP per capita is 34 k vs the US is 47K
using a different figure, median household income is
31,111 in the US vs 19,615 in france.

So except in the case of bankruptcy through medical bills, I am coming out 10k/year ahead on average in the US or 8.5k/yr using median income with our current systems…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_household_income

Lets look at Germany:
21,241 median income 3,171 cost per capita
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0934556.html

In other words, coming out 6.5k a year ahead in the US system.Why are we complaining again?

Of course, all this is just a bunch of BS when you are an individual and you need a liver transplant. However, I just checked at ehealthinsurance.com, and catastrophic healthcare insurance is
262/mo for my mom who is pretty overweight and was born in 1951. That comes out to 3144/yr with a $3500 deductible. (you can get a quote there yourself if you need the verification).

I don’t know why any of us is complaining, because that is pretty damn reasonable even for a 60 year old, and we have more money to pay for it than any other nation on earth. Maybe we should stop this whole healthcare debate and go back to housing debates and stopping the 3 current wars we are in.

Sorry, one more healthcare thing regarding the VA and then I’m done…

Did anyone ever stop to consider that perhaps the VA is also having better outcomes because they are treating a disciplined, trained, in shape fighting force with a high motivation level? Give me a platoon of maimed Iraq war vets and I bet I can run any CA DMV with double its current efficiency. And sorry if I offended any war vets by lowballing your efficiency there.

Damn you guys make me proud.. I just wish we did you all the service of not making you fight except in defense of our shores in the first place.

Fed May Signal Balance Sheet Will Stay at Record to Counter U.S. Slowdown. (Bloomberg)

Janet Yellen, vice chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, in a Tokyo speech released late yesterday in Washington, said that “the current accommodative stance of U.S. monetary policy continues to be appropriate because the unemployment rate remains elevated and inflation is expected to remain subdued over the medium run.”

A wave of surprisingly weak data on the U.S. economy may spur Federal Reserve policy makers to support growth by making it clear they’re in no hurry to shrink the central bank’s record balance sheet.

There’s a “strong possibility” that the Federal Open Market Committee will say following the June 21-22 meeting that it will keep reinvesting proceeds from maturing debt for a while, said Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) in New York. Previously, the FOMC has said it will keep the benchmark interest rate near zero for an “extended period” without a similar pledge about its balance sheet.

Yesterday’s reports showing manufacturing grew at the slowest pace in more than a year in May and employers added fewer jobs than forecast prompted Feroli to cut his estimate for second-quarter economic growth. The slowdown may push policy makers to consider what options are left after their second $600 billion round of asset purchases sparked a Republican backlash. Saying the balance sheet won’t shrink immediately could dispel any notion that the Fed is about to push up borrowing costs.

Banks Borrowed from U.S. Government and Loaned it Back at Higher Rates. ~ http://www.allgov.com

Banks have made a killing off the near-zero interest rate loans provided by the Federal Reserve during the 2008-2009 financial crisis—by taking the money and loaning it back to the U.S. Treasury at rates 12 times higher.

At the request of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), the Congressional Research Service examined Fed loans to some of the nation’s largest banks, such as JPMorgan Chase, Citibank and Bank of America, and what the institutions did in turn with their money.

By the second quarter of 2009, JPMorgan Chase had taken an average of $7.6 billion in outstanding Fed loans with an interest rate of 0.25% interest. At the same time, it held $34.6 billion in U.S. government securities with an average yield of 2.3%.

Similarly, Citigroup during the same time period had more than $23 billion in Fed loans with an interest rate of 0.5%, while holding $24.3 billion in U.S. government securities with an average yield of 2.3%.

Fed officials said in 2008 that the emergency loans were needed so banks could provide credit to small- and medium-sized businesses that desperately needed funds to create jobs or to prevent layoffs. “Instead of using this money to reinvest in the productive economy, however, it appears that JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Bank of America used a large portion of these near-zero-interest loans to buy U.S. government securities and earn a higher interest rate at the same time, providing free money to some of the largest financial institutions in this country,” Sanders said.

Are GM Dealerships Gaming Chevy Volt Tax Credit?

nlpc.org/stories/2011/04/25/taxpayer-rip-dealerships-taking-chevy-volt-tax-credit

I recently set out to determine how honest General Motors is being when it claims that demand for the Chevy Volt is exceeding supply. It was not hard to discover that this is not the case as retail sales remain dismal. A web search on vehicle locator sites such as Autotrader and Cars.com exhibit sufficient supply of the Volt, one dealership within 70 miles of my location had six new Volts available for sale.

But I discovered something far more disturbing during my search. Many Volts with practically no miles on them are being sold as “used” vehicles, enabling the dealerships to benefit from the $7,500 credit supplied by the American taxpayers on each car. The process of titling the Volts technically makes the dealerships the first owners of the vehicles, which gives them the ability to claim the subsidies. The cars are then offered to retail customers as “used” vehicles.

The practice of dealerships purchasing from one another is not uncommon. “Dealer trades” are done all the time in the industry. What is very unusual is for the receiving dealership to be able to maximize profits at the expense of taxpayers by claiming tax credits of $7,500. It is also very rare for dealerships to part with any model that has higher demand than supply, as GM claims is the case with the Volt. In addition to qualifying dealerships for a $7,500 tax subsidy, the titling process also allows GM to record Volt sales even if the cars are sitting on dealership lots.

While most of the dealerships offering “used” Chevy Volts for sale are Chevy dealers, I also found other manufacturers selling Volts with low mileage as “used” cars. A Kia dealership in California that I contacted seemed to suspect that they were doing something a bit underhanded when I called them to inquire about a “used” Volt for sale with only 30 miles on it. After I identified myself as being an associate with the National Legal and Policy Center, I was placed on hold. I was then told by a sales manager that the Volts offered at that dealership were rental cars with higher mileage on them. I later called the same dealership back posing as a potential customer and confirmed that a “used” Volt with only 30 miles on it was available. This also raises the question of why GM or Chevy dealerships would be selling Volts to other manufacturers’ dealerships when they claim that there are not enough of the cars to meet retail demand.

A Chevy dealer in Chicago was more upfront with the info given on a “used” Chevy Volt with only 10 miles on it. The vehicle was being offered at MSRP. When I asked if I was eligible for the $7500 tax credit, I was told that I probably wasn’t since the dealership was applying for the subsidy. This practice is one of the more egregious abuses to date purloined upon taxpayers as a result of the GM bailout. The intent (even if misguided) of the $7500 tax credit offered on the Chevy Volt is to encourage consumers to buy “green” vehicles, not to offer an opportunity for dealerships to game the system and maximize profits at the expense of the taxpayers. I also suspect many purchasers of “used” Volts will attempt to claim the $7500 tax credit for themselves, thus bringing the total tax subsidy on such transactions to $15,000 if not disallowed by the IRS.

“The American Dream” is a 30 minute animated film by Tad Lumpkin and Harold Uhl that attempts to show You The People how you’ve been scammed by the most basic elements of the Global Banking Cartel. Do you know how your money is created? Or how banking works? Why did housing prices skyrocket and then plunge? Do you really know what the Federal Reserve System is and how it affects you every single day?

http://mikephilbin.blogspot.com/2011/06/american-dream-animated-film-tad.html

Meanwhile, the housing slump has now wiped out 8 years of price increases.

Bloomberg is on the story:

Home prices in 20 US cities dropped in March to the lowest level since 2003, showing housing remains mired in a slump almost two years into the economic recovery.

The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 cities fell 3.6 percent from March 2010, the biggest year-over-year decline since November 2009, the group said today in New York. At 138.16, the gauge was the weakest since March 2003.

Other reports today showed consumer confidence unexpectedly declined in May to a six-month low, and business activity in the US cooled more than forecast.

Nineteen of the 20 cities in the index showed a year-over-year decline, led by a 10 percent slump in Minneapolis. The exception was Washington, where values climbed 4.3 percent.

Prices in 12 markets dropped to fresh lows in March from their 2006, 2007 peaks: Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Las Vegas, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Phoenix, Portland, Oregon, and Tampa.

Builders are gloomy and project demand will remain depressed into next year, Bill Wheat, chief financial officer of D.R. Horton Inc., told a housing conference in New York on May 11.

“We still see housing demand at very weak levels,” Wheat said. “It could still be a struggle in 2012.”

~~ Clipped from TDR

A couple of ideas, maybe some discussion topics for the weekend as well.

Some of these topics came up last weekend (I’ll post stuff tomorrow, as I was watching ‘Holmes Inspection):
First, if you were buying a used house, would you ask the seller to provide building permits. I understand that a home inspector can’t see behind walls etc… but if their was a major reno in the past couple of years, would you not like to see a sign off ? Watching Mike Holmes, clearly some people ignore major investments just done in the place they are buying!!
On the show they show some clear building code violations: some that should easily be caught, ie. improper venting, illegal draining. I’ve never bought a house, but do you guys look for these things? How can you avoid them. This links into Q #2:

Second, writing from my ‘parents house: Neighbour house sold for $479K in 2008. The new homeowners (although sold from Calgary = lots $$$) have had to put over $50K in basic repairs (roof, extension). The old neighbours were not flippers (they bought in 1989; one was an inner city teacher,the other a golf pro[who I curled with for 5 years]), generally stand up people (Ie. not Armando Montelongo or Casey Serin). House built at the same time as my parents, nor did seem bad the times I was in the house. So what should a new home buyer look for?

These people are completely delusional…

COLUMBUS Ohio | Thu Jun 2, 2011

(Reuters) - The high unemployment rate means the Fed’s ultra-easy money policies remain the right course of action, top Federal Reserve officials said on Wednesday.

High unemployment is not a “quickly resolvable problem,” but April’s job gains show that the economic recovery is on a firmer footing, Cleveland Fed President Sandra Pianalto said.

“We’ve got a long way to go before labor markets can be described as healthy again,” Pianalto told the Columbus Metropolitan Club.

Recent rises in food and energy prices mean inflation will likely be temporarily higher this year, she said. But both wages and the public’s long-term expectations of inflation remain subdued, she noted.

Given that backdrop, she said, current monetary policy is appropriate. Pianalto’s views tend to hew closely to those of Chairman Ben Bernanke and the center of the Fed’s policy-setting committee.

Fed Vice Chair Janet Yellen similarly endorsed the Fed’s stance of promising to hold rates near zero for an extended period as it completes $600 billion of bond purchases by the end of June.

“The current accommodative stance of U.S. monetary policy continues to be appropriate because the unemployment rate remains elevated and inflation is expected to remain subdued over the medium run,” she said in a speech on assessing potential financial imbalances to a conference in Tokyo.

Once complete, the U.S. central bank’s two rounds of asset purchases will boost GDP by about 3 percent and add about 3 million jobs by the second half of next year, San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank president John Williams said in a speech at the regional bank’s headquarters. They also probably kept the United States from falling into deflation, he said.

Naylor book review from Counterpunch:

Crass Struggle is about how the ultra-rich respond to the human condition, namely, separation, meaninglessness, powerlessness, and fear of death, as well as the devastating global social, economic, and environmental consequences of their behavior. For those in the top 1 percent of the world’s population who own 50 percent of the world’s wealth, life is all about having – owning, possessing, manipulating and controlling money, power, people, and things – very expensive things such as precious metals, gemstones, diamonds, art objects, historical artifacts, rare coins, fine wines, Cuban cigars, scarce fish, exotic birds, wild animals, and elephant tusks.

To cope with meaninglessness and fear of death many of the super-rich spend their entire lives pretending they are invincible. One of the ways in which they try to convince themselves that they will live forever is through conspicuous consumption. They think they can spend their way into a state of never-ending self-actualization without paying any psychological dues for a life of unrestrained pleasure. They live by the slogan, “I’ve got mine, Jack, and the rest of the world be damned.”

And damned it is, the world which supplies the super-affluent with their expensive toys, playthings, food, and drink. Naylor describes it as “the low side of the high life, the bad side of the good life, or, more poetically, the underbelly of the potbelly.” It’s all about the dark underworld which supports the world’s fat cats through debauchery, deceit, bribery, smuggling, fakery, forgery, tax evasion, and virtually every other known form of human criminal activity.

Dow 20k says Altucher:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/next-stop-dow-20000-2011-06-02?dist=beforebell

Article: Possible Double-dip Recession - By Robert Reich ~ FT.com

“American consumers, who constitute 70 per cent of the total economy, cannot and will not buy enough to get it moving. They justifiably worry that they will not be able to pay their bills, or afford to send their children to college, or to retire. Banks, with equal justification, are reluctant to lend to them. But as long as consumers hold back, companies remain reluctant to hire new workers or raise the wages of current ones, feeding the vicious cycle.”

~~Surely Dr. Reich provides a solution? Not really. He believes federal government is our ultimate salvation but the present “Washington paralysis in the face of a stalled economy is bad news.” This paralysis is the fault of the GOP, of course, and is postponing the beautiful day when the Gross Domestic Product is so huge a monster federal debt won’t matter.

Reich will soon be urging Quantitative Easing #3 by the Federal Reserve. Watch!

Thanks to the HBB, every time the S&P 500 passes 1300, and I expect it to happen quite a bit in both directions over the next decade, I’ll think of Eddie.

If his advice was to ride up and then sell out before the suckers catch on, then I suppose it was good advice for those who are willing to play that way.

If he actually thought that’s what stocks are worth given our long term economic situation and the years required to get out of it, he’s gonna get hosed.

O’ no one of the defenders of the former IMF Chief is in trouble:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1393078/Dominique-Strauss-Kahn-ally-Jack-Lang-accused-orgy-little-boys-Morocco.html#ixzz1O4omMH52

My only question is why is a bankster staying in a cut rate $900 a night hotel?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1393028/Egyptian-banker-Mahmoud-Abdel-Salam-Omar-denies-sex-attack-hotel-maid.html

Terrible storms in Massachusetts last night. My parents were a couple miles from one tornado, but they are okay. Sounds like a few insurance companies are going to take something of a hit. I hope all you MA HBBers out there are safe. My father reported in this morning:

“4 dead, 30 injured so far with many missing. The final toll is likely to change some but many of the missing are likely OK but just have not checked in with anyone. They have 1000 national guard, and local fire and police from all over New England helping with the search, and road clearing efforts.

They are reporting that there were 2 or 3 tornados that touched down a total of 6 or 7 times in different places. The cities and towns of Springfield, Munson, Sturbridge, and Southbridge suffered the most damage. The downtown area of Springfield has the most damage where two tornados touched down.

There are thousands of houses, commercial buildings, cars, and trees destroyed. They credit the low death and injury rate to both early warning by the media, and the fact that most New England homes have basements where people were able to hide. One person took a picture of a hail stone next to a baseball. Most hail reports were golf ball sized.

They have identified some debris 50 miles from its source. There are pictures of whole houses turned upside down and laying on their crushed roofs. They found the entire roof of a sports bar in Springfield 2 blocks from where the building was located. Several churches lost their steeples, and several schools suffered a lot of damage. One condo building has the entire brick front wall torn off while pictures remain on the wall on the opposite side of the exposed rooms. One car dealer lost his building and all his cars. There are many houses with either holes through the wall or debris sticking in the wall. 10s of thousands of windows were blown out or broken, and some houses have the siding peeled off and in some cases folded up over their roofs. Many roads remain closed this morning due to debris and downed trees.”

On a different note…

Our agent sent an email last night. She found another job and is exiting the real estate business. I had posted in the last week or two about how I felt she was trying to cut us loose. Well there you have it.

Not sure if we’ll work with another agent or try the strategy of working (duel agent) with the listing agents on properties of interest.

Mold doesn’t lie: Prices will fall:

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/112836/solution-housing-collapse-barrons?mod=bb-budgeting

“The American Dream is to own a home. Home prices are falling. And this is bad news? Now Keynesianism makes perfect sense to me!”

~Rev. H.R. Curtis

“Anti-Obesity” Housing Unveiled in Bronx
Thursday, Jun 2, 2011 | NBC New York

A new Bronx co-op apartment building is designed to help combat obesity.

The building, called the Melody, has a backyard with brightly colored exercise equipment for adults, and climbing equipment for children. It also has both indoor and outdoor fitness centers.

City officials say it’s the first in New York to be built with design elements aimed at countering obesity.

Two flights of stairs feature silhouettes of dancing women and jazz playing through speakers and motivational signs posted throughout the building tout the benefits of exercise.

The 63-unit building houses 63 units and is for families with incomes of $90,000 or less. Fourteen of the units will be owned by Habitat for Humanity’s New York City chapter families who helped build the project.

It was unveiled Wednesday by Blue Sea Development Company, Habitat for Humanity and city officials. It will be ready for occupancy this summer.

The housing complex in the Longwood section of the Bronx was named in honor of the neighborhood’s musical legacy, Mark Naison, co-director of the Urban Studies Program at Fordham University, told WFUV.org.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A high-level international commission declared the global “war on drugs” a failure and urged nations to consider legalizing cannabis and other drugs to undermine organized crime and protect their citizens’ health.

The Global Commission on Drug Policy called for a new approach to reducing drug abuse to replace the current strategy of strictly criminalizing drugs and incarcerating drug users while battling criminal cartels that control the drug trade.

“The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world,” said the report issued by the commission on Thursday.

Master’s of the obvious. It funds Taliban, It funds drug gangs taking over Mexico, it fills our jails and courts. It taxes the military.

PBS Shows Will No Longer Be Ad-Free
First commercial breaks set for this fall.
By Stephen Spencer Davis | The Slate

PBS will soon end its long-standing practice of airing entirely commercial-free programming, one of its largest selling points to both viewers and sponsors.

At the network’s annual meeting held this month in Orlando, executives told member stations that shows like Nature and Nova will feature four commercial breaks beginning this fall, with the longest uninterrupted stretch of programming coming in at just under 15 minutes, the New York Times reports.

The switch is intended to combat the problem of viewers “fleeing” to other stations during the network’s blocks of commercials between programs, which can last up to eight minutes. Under the new model, PBS will adopt a “hot switch,” with no break between programs. John F. Wilson, PBS’s chief programmer, told the Times that viewers will never be more than 100 seconds from actual content. (The Atlantic Wire, meanwhile, has a nifty graphic that shows the plan in detail.)

The change will present obstacles to writers accustom to producing content watched in uninterrupted blocks, the kind of viewing many say is vital for in-depth documentary work like Frontline and dramas like Masterpiece Theatre. PBS’s Wilson said that some programs may be spared from commercial breaks, but that many producers will be forced to adapt.

The change comes at a tumultuous time for the network. The Times recently reported that at least half a dozen member stations are considering leaving PBS, citing funding concerns. Orlando’s major public network says they are unable to pay their approximately $1 million in PBS dues and will end their contract with the network on June 30. A station in Los Angeles quit PBS on January 1, and a station in Waco, Texas, closed last year.

goldman subpoena?

I can not remember the last time I used one.

Phone-book delivery disappearing
By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY

Phone books, long a staple of U.S. life, are fading quickly as lawmakers and phone companies see green benefits in limiting their delivery.

Most targeted are the residential white pages that list home numbers. An increasing number of states are approving requests by phone companies, which want to stop delivering these unprofitable, generally ad-free books unless requested by land-line customers.

The result: Many customers in half of U.S. states will soon no longer hear that multipound thud at their doorstep.

•Verizon has received the OK to cease automatic delivery from 11 of 12 states where it has land-line customers and expects permission from California and the District of Columbia by the end of September.

•AT&T expects, by the end of this year, to stop unsolicited delivery in 14 other states where it does land-line business. “We give people the option,” company spokeswoman Dawn Benton says.

“We all know fewer and fewer people use the phone book every year.… It’s an antiquated industry,” says Scott Cassel of the Product Stewardship Institute, a non-profit that aims to limit the environmental impact of consumer products.

The ad-packed Yellow Pages that list businesses are also a target. To reduce paper waste and recycling costs, two U.S. cities recently passed ordinances restricting the delivery of Yellow Pages and at least five states are considering the same.

WHO: E. coli outbreak caused by new strain ~ Associated Press

LONDON – An entirely new super-toxic bug is causing the frightening food poisoning outbreak that has sickened at least 1,600 people and killed 18, researchers and global health officials said Thursday.

The DNA of the new E. coli strain, believed to have contaminated salad vegetables, was analyzed by Chinese and German scientists. It contains several genes that cause antibiotic resistance and is similar to a strain that causes serious diarrhea and is found in the Central African Republic, according to a statement from the Shenzhen, China-based laboratory, BGI. Those scientists were working together with the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf.

“This is a unique strain that has never been isolated from patients before,” Hilde Kruse, a food safety expert at the World Health Organization, told The Associated Press. The new strain has “various characteristics that make it more virulent and toxin-producing” than the many E. coli strains people naturally carry in their intestines.

Preliminary genetic sequencing suggests the strain is a never before seen combination of two different E. coli bacteria, with aggressive genes that could explain why the outbreak appears to be so massive and dangerous, the agency said.

Boy regrets selling his kidney to buy iPad
By Pan Zheng | 2011-6-2 | Shanghai Daily News ONLINE EDITION

A 17-year-old student in Anhui Province sold one of his kidneys for 20,000 yuan only to buy an iPad 2. Now, with his health getting worse, the boy is feeling regret but it is too late, the Global Times reported today.

“I wanted to buy an iPad 2 but could not afford it,” said the boy surnamed Zheng in Huaishan City. “A broker contacted me on the Internet and said he could help me sell one kidney for 20,000 yuan.”

On April 28 Zheng went to Chenzhou City in neighboring Hunan Province for the kidney removal surgery arranged by the broker. His parents knew nothing about it, Zheng said. He was paid 22,000 yuan after his right kidney was taken out at the Chenzhou No. 198 Hospital.

When he returned home, his mother found out and reported to the police immediately. But they could not locate the broker whose cell phone was always powered off, the report said.

It turned out that the Chenzhou No. 198 Hospital was not qualified to perform organ transplant. The hospital claimed they had no idea about Zheng’s surgery because the department that did the surgery had been contracted to a Fujian businessman.

The case is still under investigation, the report said.

States in crisis
States pour money into Medicaid

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — States are gearing up to spend nearly 19% more of their money on Medicaid as enrollment rises and federal stimulus funds dry up.

Governors have proposed spending $15.9 billion more on Medicaid in fiscal 2012, according to a survey released Thursday by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers.

At the same time, they are slashing spending on higher education by $5 billion, on public assistance by $3.5 billion and on K-12 education by $2.5 billion.

State officials have been wrestling with rising Medicaid costs since the Great Recession began driving more people to the government assistance program. Enrollment is projected to rise 3.8% in fiscal 2012, which would represent a 17.3% increase over a three-year period.

Since early 2009, federal stimulus money has helped states cope with the steep downturn in tax revenue. All told, states used $135 billion in emergency stimulus support.

But that funding is now ending, leaving states to shoulder their Medicaid burden alone. This is forcing states to cut provider payments, limit spending on prescription drugs and reduce benefits since the federal government is not allowing them to kick participants out of the program.

Scary Signs for Jobs

“You could call it a soft patch, but it’s the second or third soft patch we’ve seen in the recovery,” said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist with Capital Economics. “For a recovery that is less than two years old, it’s troubling to say the least.”

350+ comments

DEBT CEILING: Moody’s Just Threatened To Slash The US Credit Rating
Joe Weisenthal | Jun. 2, 2011 http://www.businessinsider.com

Finally, a logical warning on US credit.

Moody’s is out with a comment saying that if there’s no imminent progress on the debt ceiling fight, the US credit rating will be cut.

This makes total sense, and we applaud Moody’s for doing their job: Identifying an imminent (real) issue, and sensibly advising (ahead of time) about what could be a threat to US debt holders.

This should help put an end to this idea that a technical default would be just fine, and that somehow all this brinksmanship would be good for US credit somehow.

Back in January, we called on Moody’s to do exactly this: Threaten a ratings cut as a way of warning about the harmful effects of this fight.

They’ve done exactly that.

Speaking of the VA…….

Don’t know if it’s nationwide, but a lot of the vets that our local hospital sees don’t have a whole lot. Many have practically nothing, including a decent change of clothes. Some of these guys avoid seeing their families, because they don’t have anything decent to wear.

A lot of these guys have health “issues” that causes them to ruin their clothes. In many cases, clothes they can’t afford to replace.

Our local hospital runs a “clothing store” that tries to outfit these guys with essentials, and a few changes of clothes. All volunteer. No $100K/year “administrators.

Check into it.

The PPT will be kicking it tomorrow, like to close green on Friday. I am sure some “unexpected” good news will pop up very soon!

~ I don’t blame them one bit, a bunch of out of control thugs and punks. Been around that kind of crap once and once is enough!

Rally To Urge City Leaders To End Urban Beach Weekend

MIAMI BEACH (CBS4) – Saying ‘enough is enough’ several community activists are gathering forces for a rally Friday evening in front of Miami Beach City Hall to urge city leaders to end Urban Beach Weekend.

Herb Sosa, who publishes the online magazine Ambiente, is a leading figure to end the unofficial Memorial Day weekend event which draws hundreds of thousands of visitors to South Beach.

In an open letter to Miami Beach Mayor Matti Bower, Sosa writes that the Urban Beach weekend “shows our city as nothing short of a warzone – Filthy streets, a drive by shooting, multiple cars crashed in the process, and total chaos on the streets. This is unacceptable and must be controlled before we totally lose our city, tourism & residents. It is not limited to Ocean Drive or Collins – there isn’t a residential street in South Beach not affected by tons of garbage, crime to our vehicles, excessive noise 24 hours a day, and simply a lack of respect for our community, citizens & property.”

Peter Joseph Tapia has set up a Facebook page is support of the rally and ending the Urban Beach weekend. The page has more than 3,200 ‘Likes’.

On the page, Antero Blanco posted:

“Tomorrow we all gather to demand MIAMI BEACH remains well-preserved and a safe haven for all our residents and tourists! Unruly and unlawful visitors are NOT welcome in our city!”

Tapia said the rally, which will begin at 6 p.m., will hopefully send the message to city leaders that their neighborhoods should remain safe and respected, and not overrun by ‘Fear, Mobs & Filth’.

A passage from Sterling Hayden’s autobiography Wanderer published in 1963, as cited in Wikipedia:

To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise, you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen who play with their boats at sea… cruising, it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about. I’ve always wanted to sail to the south seas, but I can’t afford it.” What these men can’t afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of security. And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine - and before we know it our lives are gone. What does a man need - really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in - and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment.

That’s all - in the material sense, and we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention for the sheer idiocy of the charade. The years thunder by, The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed. Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?

It looks like we bailed out banks so they can run commodity prices up, so we all get to pay for the housing bust.

“Wall Street is tapping a real gusher in 2011, as heightened volatility and higher prices of oil and other raw materials boost banks’ profits.

A group of 10 large banks—including Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS - News) , Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS - News), J.P. Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM - News), Citigroup (NYSE: C - News), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC - News) and Barclays PLC (NYSE: BCS - News)—saw their commodities revenues increase by 55% in the first quarter, according to Coalition, a firm that analyzes the performance of investment banks. After a disappointing 2010, commodities was the fastest-growing segment in banks’ fixed-income businesses in the first three months of this year, even though it still accounts for just 7% of banks’ total fixed-income revenues, Coalition said.

Commodities trading is a bright spot for institutions that face new regulatory clampdowns on practices that previously fattened bank profit margins, such as trading with their own capital and slapping customers with hefty “overdraft” fees. Oil is up about 10% so far this year, settling at $100.29 a barrel Wednesday, and commodities such as gold and copper are close to all-time highs.

J.P. Morgan has emerged as one of the biggest beneficiaries of the commodities boom sweeping Wall Street. The bank’s commodities unit—which employs about 1,800 people, more than any of its rivals—made more money during the first quarter than through all of last year, according to people familiar with the matter. So far this year, the unit has earned roughly $750 million and is on course to beat its 2011 internal target of $1.2 billion, these people added. The J.P. Morgan unit earned just $514 million for all of 2010, falling far short of its goals.

We are top in spending but close to the bottom in Graduation rates.

Syracuse, NY — Once again, New York is tops in school spending.

School districts in New York an average of $18,126 per student in 2008-2009, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s 73 percent higher than the national average of $10,499. Schools raised $20,645 per student, also first among the states.

New York’s top position is driven by spending on salaries and benefits paid to instructional employees – primarily teachers. Benefits are more than double, and salaries are nearly double, the national average.

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2011/06/new_york_leads_all_states_in_s.html

Realtors Are Liars

Opinion Journal: Making a Mortgage Disaster
June 2, 2011

Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner, authors of Reckless Endangerment, explain the corrupt culture behind the housing crisis.

LMFAO. Love this guy:

“I fight like hell for people, but I’m also constantly telling my clients that at the end you’re probably going to lose it,” says Mark Stopa, a Tampa Bay defense lawyer.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/confusing-lawyer-fees-complicate-foreclosure-battles/1173271

A most excellent short video, between two electronic bears, discussing the Fed and quantitative easing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTUY16CkS-k

If it looks like a bubble and walks like a bubble…
By Dan Mitchell, contributor June 2, 2011: 6:25 PM ET

Tech luminaries who point to all the bubble talk as proof we know more this time around may need a history lesson.

FORTUNE — Marc Andreessen reportedly said this today at the AllThingsD conference: “A key characteristic of a bubble is that no one thinks its a bubble … If everybody’s upset, it’s a good sign . . . I hope there are lots of bubble stories.”

The trouble with his declaration is that it’s the precise opposite of the truth. Seconds after I read that quote in TechCrunch, I logged on to Facebook, where I saw this status update: “A universal rule of financial mania. If there’s widespread, worried speculation about whether there is a bubble — then it’s a bubble.”

That far more sensible, historically accurate statement came from Jason Pontin, editor and publisher of Technology Review.

Andreessen’s idea that “no one thinks it’s a bubble” is a persistent myth surrounding all bubbles. This myth is spread both during a bubble’s expansion and, especially, after it has popped. That’s when people start asking “How did we not see this coming?” and “Where were the watchdogs?” But in all cases, plenty of people saw it coming.
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