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August 18th, 2014

8/18/2014

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NEO-LIBERALISM AND NEO-CONSERVATISM HAVE DECLARED WAR ON WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN THE US AND AROUND THE WORLD.  CLINTON AND OBAMA ARE THE FACE OF NEO-LIBERALISM AND CONGRESS IS CONTROLLED BY NEO-LIBERALS.  TAKE BACK THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY!


I will talk a few days about neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism and women.  Yesterday I shared a piece from an International Women's meeting in Europe--- for openDemocracy 5050  from the Nobel Women's Initiative conference.  I also want to remind people that Maryland League of Women Voters leaders knew all the candidates in Maryland's race for Governor ----Brown, Gansler, and Mizeur -----were neo-liberals.  It is critical to take back these organizations tasked with protecting labor and justice. 

If you listened to Tom Friedman and other neo-liberal economists over these few decades after Reagan/Clinton neo-liberalism joined the Bush neo-conservatives you would have heard that US sweat shops in developing worlds were good for those poor peasants.  Now that US corporations are being pushed out of these developing worlds and coming back to the US under the guise of job creation----they will bring these same conditions.  Do you know that many low-wage workers in the US both domestic and immigrant do not bring home much more than the developing world's $10 a day after wage theft and fraudulent independent contractor status is laid on them?  Indeed-----and Maryland leads in these policies.


THIS IS NEO-LIBERALISM AND NEO-CONSERVATISM.....IT IS NOT DEMOCRATIC OR REPUBLICAN AND IT KILLS WOMEN, CHILDREN, AND FAMILIES.


If you are going to push women back into poverty and out of the workforce in a meaningful way the first thing to do in a formerly first world where women gained freedom and independence because they were able to work and graduate to high positions is pretend they are winning in the race to the bottom.  Women paid more in part time jobs as women become the majority of part time workers.  As job creation becomes service industry this means poverty jobs.  Just a quick look locally I have noticed a change in banks in Baltimore---it seems that the once abundance of women bank management behind desks now looks to be all men.  I seriously have seen no women in my M and T banks except as tellers.  When jobs are made scarce you will see that mentality that men need the jobs because they are the breadwinner come back and that is what is happening.  Is it bad to remove financial freedom from women in the US?  Well, let's look at the rate of domestic violence, rape, and sexual harassment growing in the US -----the growing sex traffic of women in the US to see abusing women comes with neo-liberalism.

  IF NO RULES/RULE OF LAW AND NO PUBLIC JUSTICE EXIST-----WOMEN LOSE.


This Is The One Area Where Women Earn More Than Men
  • Alison Griswold

  • Nov. 7, 2013, 9:28 AM


There's one area where the gender wage gap is irrelevant and even reversed. Women consistently earn more than men in part-time jobs, which women are also more likely to have.


_______________________________________________


Look below at the article written by Korean women rights groups to see the history of subjugation of women in that country to see where neo-liberalism is taking the US.  We are pummeled with news that women are graduating from college in higher numbers than men but we do not get the big picture.  First, college grads represent a large percentage of the 36% unemployed in the US and women more so than men.  So, women may be graduating in larger numbers but they represent those students with large student loan debts as well.

What we see is a gender change in careers that have been mostly female and paying the most to that of men.  Nursing and teaching are two careers that have paid well for women and these jobs are being taken more and more by men.  Then there comes the pay inequity within the same job categories.....women paid less.  What this all represents is the movement of women out of the workforce and into what will be increasingly part time or unemployed status....just as the Korean women state in the article below.  That is what neo-liberalism does----it marginalizes women and creates the poverty for women that dis-empowers.
  Now, Republicans have always pushed policy for women in the home----the problem is that with neo-liberals pushing 80% and more of Americans into poverty------women become trapped and abused----as in all third world countries. 
So, when neo-liberals place women pay equity on their policy stance as they knowingly push everyone into poverty with a loss of Rule of Law and Equal Protection and Trans Pacific Trade Pact moving US citizens to third world status----THEY ARE HANDING YOU PROPAGANDA. 


THAT IS WHERE NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS ARE TAKING WOMEN AND THEY ARE SIMPLY PROVIDING STATS THAT MAKE IT SOUND LIKE WOMEN ARE DOING GREAT.


ALL OF MARYLAND POLS ARE NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS.



Graduating to a Pay Gap: The Earnings of Women and Men One Year after College Graduation

(2012) AAUW

Foreword
Women are paid significantly less than men are in nearly every occupation.



Because pay equity affects
women and their families in all walks of life, it is not surprising that many women consider the issue
important. Many business leaders also believe that pay equity is “good business,” because it improves
morale and productivity. Yet progress in closing the gap between men’s and women’s pay has been slow
and, in recent years, has stagnated.
For more than 130 years, the American Association of University Women (AAUW) has advocated
for gender equity in education and the workplace. During this time, women have gone from a small
minority on college campuses to a majority of the student body. Today, women make up half the workforce,
but they continue to earn less than men do throughout their careers.

Why does this gender pay gap persist? This question is a focal point of AAUW’s research and advocacy
work. Graduating to a Pay Gap finds that women working full time already earn less than their
male counterparts do just one year after college graduation. Taking a closer look at the data, we find
that women’s choices—college major, occupation, hours at work—do account for part of the pay gap.
But about one-third of the gap remains unexplained, suggesting that bias and discrimination are still
problems in the workplace.
At AAUW, research informs action. As an organization of college-educated women, we believe that
the pay gap among college-educated workers and its ramifications—starting with higher student loan
debt burden immediately after college graduation—are of great importance. AAUW is proud to share
research that you can trust. We hope this report will inspire you to join us in taking action to eliminate
the pay gap.
_________________________________________

Keep in mind that the media presenting all of this news knows what the goal of neo-liberalism is---they know women will be targeted for impoverishment.  Yet, they pretend it is just that nasty stagnant economy!!!!  Neo-liberals pretend Republicans cause the stagnant economy ----Republicans pretend its the Democrats---when it is neo-liberals working with neo-cons deliberately creating the stagnant economy because they want US citizens to overwhelmingly become impoverished....third world.


Student Debt Weighs Down Women More. Blame The Wage Gap

by Jessica Glazer

April 06, 2014 5:18 AM ET NPR


When Kristine Leighton graduated from a private college five years ago with a degree in hospitality, she owed $75,000 in student loans. Each month, she paid the minimum amount of $450 and lived at home with her parents on Long Island, N.Y.

At first, she was working at a hotel for $10 an hour; money was tight. Even after she got a job in Manhattan making $75,000 a year, she still couldn't afford to move out. She funneled her earnings into car payments, credit card bills and debt, and a monthly commuter train pass. The loan payments left little extra money for things like an emergency fund.


______________________________________

Women are not choosing to stay home----they are being pushed out of the workforce and marginized into poverty careers and part time.


Global markets allow corporations to profit from a small number of very rich in nations around the world while keeping the majority of people in each nation in poverty.  That is what the Clinton Foundation has worked to do after his pushing of NAFTA and breaking Glass Steagall to grow global corporations and empire-colonialization.


You do not create an environment of suspended Rule of Law, corporate rule, and pervasive fraud and corruption, war and violence from poverty if you have good intentions.



The Mythical ‘Choice’ of the Stay-at-Home Mom

The fact that so much anger erupts at any perceived slight tells us many women are not truly choosing to be home with the kids



By Judith Warner @judithwarner  Time

The mood has shifted considerably on last week’s Ann Romney–Hilary Rosen fracas, with poll results showing that most women don’t really care about what Washington insiders have to say about Rosen’s word choice or, for that matter, how Romney chose to spend her time once she had children. Women are shrugging off political attempts to rekindle the tired old “mommy wars” debate, and are getting on with their busy and complicated lives.

I was shocked, nonetheless, by the degree of rage contained in some of the e-mails I received in response to my column last week. I was also deeply surprised this week when a readers’ panel I participated in on NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show on the 1899 Kate Chopin novel, The Awakening, devolved, very quickly, back to Rosen-and-Romney talk once again.



The proximate cause: disagreement over the character of Edna Pontellier, a wealthy young New Orleans woman stifling within her loveless marriage and unstimulating, toil-free life (I believe I can say “toil-free” without unduly again stirring the pot: Edna’s children and home are cared for by ample domestic help), who, after experiencing an emotional and sensual “awakening” through infatuation, escapes her husband and children by taking her own life.

Some readers around the country, and I, distanced ourselves from Edna’s “selfishness” in abandoning her children. Others felt we owed much greater compassion to a woman who had such a stark lack of choices. All of which somehow looped back to Rosen and Romney, and maternal stay-at-home loneliness and despair. Diane Rehm, the radio talk-show host, and Jane Holmes Dixon, suffragan bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, recalled the stifling isolation they’d felt as mothers 50 odd years earlier; they could strongly relate to Edna, as could a number of listeners.

It quickly became clear that the link between this more-than-a-century-old fictional character and these moms writing or calling in to express their solidarity with Edna was simple: misery. It was feelings, current or remembered, of depression, of the sense of a vital loss of self and of a deep maroonedness. Rehm and Dixon, who have known each other for many decades, remembered how important it had been to be able to get together way back then and talk their way through all these feelings. It is still a great unifier of stay-at-home mothers today.

This reality, I think, fuels much of the anger, the desire for recognition, the demand for respect we’ve heard so often of late from this minority of mothers — only 30% of whom, in the U.S., are home full-time with children under 18. Recent research has shown that this group is considerably less happy than working mothers, and less contented than part-time working mothers in particular. Working moms are healthier and less depressed, the American Psychological Association reported late last year. Why they feel this way isn’t hard to imagine. Stay-at-home mothers give up their financial freedom, and with it many feel their sense of agency slip away. Their position of equality with their husbands is by necessity somewhat eroded. They lose the sense of strength that comes from knowing that, come what may, they can keep themselves and their children afloat economically. They lose intellectual stimulation (assuming that they were lucky enough to have it in their jobs anyway), the easy companionship and structure of the workplace, and recognition from the outside world. And if they don’t have the money to outsource domestic jobs, their freedom from paid work comes at the cost of repetitive thankless tasks — laundry, cleaning and the like — that test their patience and can chip away at their self-worth. The pleasure in this life of course is time with the children, but school-age kids leave a void that many find hard to meaningfully fill.


In the past, women lived constricted lives because society didn’t afford them much by way of choice. Today, our society in theory offers them a plethora of choices — so many, “that they’re overwhelmed by the stress of so many choices,” as Maureen Dowd said in her New York Times column this week — but in practice, far too many of these choices are false. A woman who ends up staying home with her kids because her work pays so badly that she can’t afford decent child care really has no choice. Ditto for a woman who has a special-needs child requiring constant medical visits and attention and whose husband earns more than she does, making her the natural, if not necessary, primary parent. The woman whose 55-hour-a-week job combines with her husband’s equally demanding career to produce a level of busyness that makes having a connected family life all but impossible unless one of them (the lower-paid one, of course) stays home isn’t really free in her choices either. How many women, after all — or men, for that matter — are in the enviable position of being able, like Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, to leave work at 5:30 p.m. in order to make it home for a nice dinner with their kids? If more could, we’d probably see women’s workforce participation sharply increase — economy permitting.


If women were truly choosing to be home full-time, I think there would probably be a whole lot less emphasis on the hard work involved in doing so and a lot more talk about the privilege that choice would then clearly be. The fact that so much anger — masking so much unhappiness — erupts at any perceived slight to stay-at-home mothers’ efforts should tell us that the condition of full-time motherhood is one we should talk about a great deal more — not through Hallmark-worthy platitudes, but with concern and an eye toward change.

____________________
This is why neo-liberals and neo-cons are working hard to privatize all public agencies charged with oversight and accountability.  No data is being generated from US universities that now dismantle sociology and humanities that created this data.  In Maryland, all of our data is questionable as we find time and again that stats reported one year are found to be skewed and/or false a few years later.  Create the headline with faulty data say neo-liberals and then bury the fact that the data was found false.

Whether women in the military, women on college campuses, women in marriages, women being used in sex traffic----these are US women being attacked and it all has to do with increasing poverty and suspension of Rule of Law, Equal Protection, and Bill of Rights by neo-liberals and neo-cons.
When neo-liberals in Congress pretend to try to fund these programs but it is the 'republicans' that keep them from doing it ----tell them

TENS OF TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN CORPORATE FRAUD FROM LAST DECADE WOULD PAY OFF THE ENTIRE NATIONAL DEBT AND MAKE GOVERNMENT COFFERS FLUSH WITH MONEY-----JUST RECOVER THE FRAUD!



US: Soaring Rates of Rape and Violence Against Women
More Accurate Methodology Shows Urgent Need for Preventive Action December 18, 2008


The National Crime Victimization Survey, based on projections from a national sample survey, says that at least 248,300 individuals were raped or sexually assaulted in 2007, up from 190,600 in 2005, the last year the survey was conducted. The study surveyed 73,600 individuals in 41,500 households. Among all violent crimes, domestic violence, rape, and sexual assault showed the largest increases. Except for simple assault, which increased by 3 percent, the incidence of every other crime surveyed decreased.

"The numbers in this survey show an alarmingly high rate of sexual violence in this country,"
said Sarah Tofte, researcher for the US Program at Human Rights Watch. "This should serve as a wake-up call that more must be done to address the problem in the US."

The projected number of violent crimes committed by intimate partners against women increased from 389,100 in 2005 to 554,260 in the 2007 report. By comparison, the number of violent crimes against men by intimate partners went down.

"Domestic violence is often a hidden crime, and these numbers are a stark reminder of how serious and widespread this problem is," said Tofte. "The Obama-Biden administration should make prevention and protection against all forms of domestic and sexual violence a top priority."

The National Crime Victimization Survey is conducted every two years, with data gathered in phone calls made to a sample of households across the United States. Due to criticism from experts in the subject, the survey's methodology was adjusted in 2007 to capture more accurately the incidence of gender-based violence. The authors say in the report that the higher numbers may reflect the new, more accurate methodology rather than an actual increase. Two major shifts were to describe types of sexual assault to those being interviewed, and to replace "computer-assisted telephone interviews conducted from two telephone centers" nationwide with interviews "by field representatives either by telephone or in person."

"The new numbers
indicate that previously, the government significantly underestimated the number of individuals affected by domestic and sexual violence in this country,"
said Tofte. "Authorities should urgently adjust public policies, law enforcement, and provision of support services accordingly."

Human Rights Watch is currently investigating and monitoring the criminal justice response to sexual violence. The organization's recent work includes investigating the backlog in untested DNA evidence collected in rape cases in the US. In Los Angeles City and County alone, there is a combined total of at least 13,000 untested sets of evidence, known as rape kits, sitting in storage.

Human Rights Watch's national recommendations include:

  • The Obama administration should appoint a special adviser on violence against women in the US;
  • Congress should restore full funding to the Office on Violence Against Women;
  • The Department of Justice, through the National Institute of Justice, should authorize comprehensive studies that more accurately track sexual and domestic violence in the US, especially among individuals who are least likely to be surveyed by the National Crime Victimization Survey;
  • Congress should increase funding for sexual and domestic violence prevention, intervention, and treatment programs;
  • Congress should amend the federal Debbie Smith Act, a grant program designed to eliminate the rape kit backlog, but that states can and have used for other kinds of DNA backlogs;
  • The US should ratify the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which obligates states to prevent, protect against, and punish violence against women.
________________

Below you can see what is coming to the US----Korea was taken neo-liberal after the Korean War in the late 1950s and shows the progression as it hit full-scale in the 1990s---Reagan/Clinton.  Koreans use the term 'irregular worker' for part time. This is long but please glance through because you will read in this history of Korea's takeover by neo-liberals exactly what is happening today.  It is women and children who's wealth fell the most in the last decade of corporate fraud---women are the majority of job losses----and the majority working part time in the US.  Indeed, women now make up a majority of the poor.  Given that women in the US make up a little over 50% of the population----the numbers in poverty are very high.

This is why you have women hitting the political races who are neo-liberals pretending to feel the pain of women driven into poverty by neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism.

HILLARY AND OBAMA REPRESENT THE TWO GROUPS KILLED BY NEO-LIBERALISM AND THAT IS WHY NEO-LIBERALS ARE PUTTING BLACK, HISPANIC, AND FEMALE FACES ON THEIR CANDIDATES.


Remember, less than 10% will be allowed to escape poverty as administrators of this global corporate mess.  Don't vote for a candidate because of race or gender!  Your chances of remaining in that 10% is slim to nothing.

NEOLIBERALISM THRHOUGH THE EYES OF WOMEN
Joo-Yeon Jeong & Seung-Min Choi, PICIS*


There is no place on Earth where neo-liberalism has not poisoned. It has allowed a handful of private interests to control as much as possible of social life in order to maximize personal profit. It has poisonous effects especially in the Third World, where imperial powers continue to pirate natural and human resources to fill the pockets of transnational capitalists. Initiated by Reagan and Thatcher, for the last two decades, neo-liberalism has become the dominant economic and political trend for much of the leftist (so they identify themselves) governments as well as the right.

However, as women fighting against global capitalism and its new phase, as women yearning for a better world where we will not be exploited and abused, we must go a step further into looking into this 'neo-liberalism' through the experiences of women. And it is not just about how women linearly experience it - we must go into the depths to manifest how neo-liberalism operates in a very gender-biased way.

WOMEN WORKERS AS SCAPEGOATS


In Korea, the process of being absorbed into global capitalism began earlier than the economic crisis, during the economic 'hyper '-development era of military dictatorship of Park Jung-Hee, with quite a bit of help from the US. Fluctuating together with global economic crises, the Korean economy started to show signs of a recession from the early 90s, as rate of profit decreased. Thus, capitalists started to adopt policies of introducing flexibility to the labour market. It was 'experimented' on women workers first before taking full force on the entire working class at the end of the millennium.

Jobs where women were predominant started to be transformed in the 1980s, beginning in the form of dispatch labour and eventually expanding to generalisation of irregular labour. However, this process was mainly targeted at women workers and the male-oriented labour movement did not give much importance to it, even though women worker's movement consistently called for the address of the issue.

Although the incorporation of Korean economy into the global capitalist system had already started around a decade ago, Korean people came to experience its destructive nature during and after the economic crisis of 1997. The structural adjustment program of the IMF shook the labour market and massive lay-offs were implemented. In particular, women workers were laid off first, and the working conditions of women workers fell to the ground.

The methods that the management used was subcontracting or abolishing those production lines and business sectors where women were predominant. Women in these places were usually typists or clerical assistants, who were considered not important and cumbersome, and thus provided the logic and justification for the lay-offs. Many companies would lay-off these women, and instead employ workers from dispatch companies - thus providing the management with ways in which to decrease labour costs and evade provision of insurances and benefits. Or in the case of banks, the same worker would be reemployed, but on a contract basis as irregular workers, again to decrease labour costs. Another method of laying off women workers or transforming them into irregular workers, was targeting foremost women who were married to someone in the same workplace, and also those who were pregnant or were on their maternal leave. They provided the management with strong justifications based on patriarchal values of 'women's place is at home'. This process of unjust and discriminatory lay-offs at the onset of the economic crisis saw the deterioration of maternal protection and women worker's rights in general. The achievements that the women worker's movement had accomplished over the last couple of decades were undermined.

"FLEXIBILITY" OF WOMEN WORKERS


The massive lay-offs that occurred after 1997 was obviously not 'inevitable' on the part of the management,
but was a calculated process of increasing the rate of profit through flexibility of the labour market. Because the need for lay-offs did not come simply from decrease in production, workers who were laid off were re-employed, but as irregular workers. And because flexibility measures were implemented foremost on women, women were also absorbed again in masses into the labour market, but this time as irregular workers with low wages and low protection.

Attaining flexibility of women workers was backed up by the patriarchal ideology of 'male as breadwinner'1 . Through this ideology, women workers are considered not really as workers, but as 'assistant income providers', the ideology that contributes to devaluation of women's work. And this in turn provided the justification for the primary lay-offs of women and transforming women's jobs into irregular jobs - a justification that quelled the possibility of resistance from the working class. Recently, capitalist institutions and mainstream media elaborate that the rate of women's employment is increasing faster that the rate of men. On one hand, this is due to the increase in absolute number of jobs-irregular jobs for women, but also due to the fact that women do not have much choice than take up highly unstable jobs without any hesitation to earn a living, whereas men can afford to be more 'selective'.

Now, the percentage of irregular workers is risen to higher levels than regular workers. In analyzing a census on the economically-active workforce implemented by the Korean Statistical Office in August 2001, the Korea Labor & Society Institute (www.klsi.org) estimated the number of irregular workers to be 7.37 million, constituting 55.7% of the total workforce2.According to studies made in 2000, out of entire irregular workers, the percentage of women is higher than that of men at 53%, and within the entire women workforce irregular workers take up 70%. These official statistics exclude specially employed labour (for example, the type of jobs that capitalists characterise as self-employment) such as private tutors, insurance sales, golf caddies etc., so if these jobs are included, the rate of irregular women workers will definitely rocket.

Irregular work pertaining to capital's flexibility measures has brought deterioration of working conditions and impoverishment for workers of both genders. But it has affected women workers more severely. At the moment, most of irregular women workers are employed in small enterprises of less than 10 employees. It has driven women's work into the ditches and has also increased mental stress from lack of self-confidence and the fear of losing their jobs. One feminist scholar was interviewing irregular women workers and told of how the interviewees were in constant fear of being seen throughout the interview. Many social psychologists point out that the increase of irregular work and the mental stress that comes from it is becoming a serious social problem that is bound to affect the whole society.

Moreover, with the automation of production lines and transfer of factories in capital's constant search for cheaper labour, many women workers who had originally constituted a large proportion of the workforce in the manufacturing sector are now being absorbed into the service sector - in areas such as the so-called 'entertainment' businesses and as domestic workers. The service sector has rapidly expanded over the last few years in Korea, and many women are being employed as narrator models, telemarketers, and as servers and entertainers in bars. These jobs are not only unstable, low waged and physically strenuous, but they also enforce the use of 'femininity' and sexuality to raise sales, making women more vulnerable to possibilities of sexual abuse and exploitation. Also, because the service sector has always shared a very thin borderline with the sex industry, it is not very surprising that more and more women workers, both young and aged, are being drawn into the sex industry. For example, many married women in their 30's and 40's are employed in the so-called 'telephone rooms (jeon-hwa-bang)' and are forced to have phone sex with men. Many other married women were employed as 'pager women', who are paged to come to bars to 'entertain' men. This became a very heated issue when Daewoo Motors unionists went to a bar, paged women, and came face to face with familiar faces. When Daewoo workers were laid-off, the wives had to find jobs to sustain their families and the only ones available were as 'pager women'. The ruling elite and the conservative media are enthusiastically deploring the moral collapse of Korean women, but the reality is that it is the capitalist system that is corrupting the people.

The situation is not much different on the international arena. Neo-liberal globalisation has paved the way for increase in migrant women workers, international trafficking and enforced sex work in the Third World. In Korea, many women from the Philippines and Russia come to Korea as domestic workers and 'entertainers', and then are tricked into providing sexual services to Korean men and the US military.

WIDENING GAP BETWEEN WOMEN


Neo-liberal globalisation has also impeded the widening of gap between different classes of women. The living standard between women in the developed countries and those in the Third World is now incomparable, as is the situation inside Korea. Rich women of the bourgeoisie can afford to wear fur coats that cost tens of million won, shop in department stores in their imported cars, buy US produced baby food, send their children to expensive private English language schools so that they are reproduced as the minority elite who rule the world of globalisation, and employ women from South-east Asia as housemaids. This is how the minority of women in Korea live, and furthermore, they are not living on the wealth that they had accumulated themselves, but on the wealth accumulated by their husbands. And this in turn is the wealth accumulated from exploiting women workers in Korea and elsewhere in the Third World. In contrast to the minority of women who enjoy the outcome of neo-liberal domination in a good part of the world, majority of women cannot find a proper job no matter how hard they try, and when they do find a job, it is an unstable job in slave-like conditions that can get snatched away from them. They cannot afford domestic help or a nanny - they work for long tiring hours outside and then come home to find piles of dishes to be washed and children to be fed. Also, studies by women's organizations have found that domestic abuse has increased, as husbands and fathers who have lost jobs turn to expressing their anger at their daughters and wives, and resort to violence.

CULTURAL AND IDEOLOGICAL BACKLASH


To quell mass resistance against economic globalisation that has brought about increase in unemployment, decrement of public services, downfall in wages and deterioration of quality of life, the ruling elite has manipulated cultural conservatism to solidify its dominance over society.
Cultural conservatism in Korea is represented by Confucian patriarchy. The economic crisis of 1997 saw the rise of this ideology that came together with the capitalist form of 'male as breadwinner' model, and acted to cover up the oppression of women while highlighting the need for women to make more sacrifices for the sake of saving the crumbling economy. In the meanwhile, unemployment of men was highlighted as a serious social problem. Thus the role of women was limited to that of 'comforting' the suffering man in the family, while the sufferings of women both as wage workers and non-wage workers were ignored. The Korean mainstream media and the conservative ruling elite alike have neglected the seriousness of women suffering from sexual abuse on the basis that women should have perseverance, but has spotlighted those desperate women who left home after losing all hopes as destructors of family values. Women who had replaced their husbands as the breadwinners end up in the sex industry, after being rejected from any other type of work, but then are stigmatised as being morally corrupt. The severity of unemployment of male youths appear in the news everyday, whereas female students are not only ignored but are blocked altogether from the labour market. Many right-wing sociologists and economists actually suggested that marriage for women should be more emphasized by the government so as to block women from entering the labour market - and thus lowering the official unemployment rate. The media focuses evermore on the fantasies of marriage, and the 'marriage business' is now enjoying its 'Belle Epoque'.

A CRITIQUE OF KIM DAE-JUNG'S POLICIES ON WOMEN


Kim Dae-Jung's government has been portrayed as being democratic and pro-feminist in and outside of Korea. There were high hopes for this president with his long history of fighting for democracy, and from the beginning, many civil and women's organizations decided to give him 'critical' support. However, his promise of establishing a ministry specific on women's issues was replaced by the Special Committee On Women's Affairs with no legislative powers, much to the disappointment of women's groups. As his presidential term is coming to an end, he did launch the Ministry of Gender Equality during the first half of this year, with a prominent figure from a major women NGO seated as the Minister. However, the policies that the Ministry is adopting are those that will hardly benefit majority of women suffering at grassroot levels.

This was recently manifested in the revisions that were made to the maternity clauses in the Standard Labour Laws in June. The Ministry had announced that it will expand public childcare so as to decrease the burden on working women. With support from major women NGOs3, the Ministry proposed revisions to maternity-related clauses in the Standard Labour Laws, and the clauses were changed for the first time since 1953. There were basically two major improvements - maternity leave was increased from the present 60 days to 90 days, and prohibition on employment of women in hazardous workplaces was expanded. This may seem like a big step, but the fact of the matter is, these laws came in exchange for further flexibility of women's labour. In exchange for increase of maternal leave, the Ministry also agreed to abolish the clauses restricting overtime work and night work, paid familycare leave and menstruation leave.

In a situation where 70% (or perhaps even higher and ever increasing) of women workers are irregular workers, how many women workers will actually benefit from the revision? The majority of working class women are outside legal boundaries. The Ministry and women NGOs argue that they will fight for the application of the laws to irregular workers, but without questioning the neo-liberal characteristics behind the legislation, there is really no chance that this will actually take place. Many women activists had fought hard for these laws for the last decade and they are congratulating themselves in finally achieving their objective, but in the meantime, a vast majority of women workers have fallen into the ditches of irregular work and the demands of the majority have been neglected to benefit a few. Capitalists have learnt to 'sacrifice' a few laws for the sake of obtaining further flexibility. Despite the argument that these revisions will open new opportunities for women, without questioning the essence of Kim's government and its support for neo-liberalism, the revisions that were recently made will only expedite the flexible usage of women workers and thus further deteriorate the working conditions of irregular women workers. The Ministry and the NGOs do not realize that the laws, along with others that were made during the recent years4 , are all in compliance with neo-liberalism.

It has only been one year since the Ministry of Gender Equality took off, but those benefiting from it are middle-class, elite women, and only the minority of women workers who are lucky enough to be in a regular job. The presidential elections take place next year. Despite that the Ministry is conforming to neo-liberal policies and trying to confuse the workers about the essence of its policies, it does have some significance amidst the severely patriarchal political scene of Korea - which may well be undermined by any of the major right-wing political parties that take office - including the ruling New Millenium Democratic Party of Kim Dae-Jung, which still receive a lot of support from NGOs. This will merely lead to more lack of hope for state-led labour policies.

FIGHTING AND ORGANISING


Neo-liberalism was not something that hit Korea suddenly in 1997, but is a historical development of capitalism that has gradually taken form during the last few decades. It had been women workers who had felt the effects of globalisation first and thus were the first ones to resist. It was the women workers of Korea, who fought militantly during the 70s and early 80s for a democratic union and worker's rights. Women workers formed the foundation for the modern labour movement, although this fact often tends to be forgotten. During the late 80's, the Korean economy reconstructed itself into focusing on export-oriented heavy industries, whose workers were predominantly men, and women workers were left behind.

The onslaught of neo-liberal globalisation and the impoverishment that came with it was also felt first by women workers. Just after the economic crisis, the women worker's movement moved a big step forward when independent women's trade unions began to beformed5 . The unions came out of the need to address the specific issues of women workers that could not be properly dealt with in a general union -organising irregular workers, the unemployed, domestic workers and those women who worked in small companies where there are no unions. The percentage of women participating in unions still remain at a meagre 5%, due to the fact that general unions do not accommodate workers who are not regular workers. It was only in 1997, when the IMF enforced austerity measures and structural adjustment programs also affected male workers, that the people's movement in Korea fully realised the destructive nature of neo-liberalism. From then on, flexibility of labour has become the main target of struggle for the working class. Spotlight was finally thrown on the fact that neo-liberalism attack women workers foremost, but unfortunately the longtime demands and struggles of women workers are being put aside, as the struggles against 'irregular labour' is again being organised in a male-oriented fashion.

The establishments of these unions are very significant in the history of the Korean labour movement and also in the women's movement. Just as the strategies of capitalists change, the organisation of the working class also much change to resist effectively. The essence of neo-liberalism and its gender-bias cannot be resisted through the traditional method of organization concentrating on male, regular workers from big enterprises.

However, these newly formed women's unions still have further developments to make and many obstacles to overcome, in their struggles against national and international capital. The unions must question the role of neo-liberal globalisation and its strategy of incorporating flexibility measures into the labour market, for a full understanding of the situation of women workers and organizing of more radical struggles that go into the fundamental core. And at the same time, the worker's movement of Korea must go through structural changes to accommodate the ever increasing irregular workers, and must also make more effort into overcoming the patriarchal values that are still prevalent inside people's movement. Many women activists and unionists have started to address the issues of gender discrimination and sexual violence inside the people's movement, which up until now had been covered up. Over the years, many fervent and militant women activists have had to leave the movement because of discrimination and violence. It was always considered women's fault, or victimized women were forced to 'forgive' for the 'greater cause'. Many women activists, workers and unionists are uniting themselves and are calling upon the movement to tackle the problem of hierarchy, discrimination and violence.

TOWARDS ORGANIZING GLOBAL RESISTANCE OF WOMEN


As we have seen, neo-liberal globalisation affects all areas of society, to attain flexibility of the labour market solely for the interests of transnational capital. In the case of Korea, this process of enforcing structural adjustment and flexibility has devastated the lives of the people, especially women. Capitalist industrialisation has brought about the rise of the women's proletariat and neo-liberal globalisation has further feminised the proletariat while at the same time impoverishing the proletariat into the verge of slavery.

This is not a matter of women merely being affected 'more' - we must look at the mechanisms of neo-liberalism that operate in a gender-biased way. Indeed, neo-liberal globalisation itself feed upon gender discrimination and effectively use traditional patriarchal values to exploit women further. Patriarchal ideologies act to crush any attempts of women to politicize and form resistance.

However, the essence of neo-liberalism is slowly being manifested and women have begun to fight back. Feminisation of labour and feminisation of poverty signify increased exploitation of women, but precisely because of that, provide the possibility for organization and resistance, nationally and internationally. Women must now go forth as subjects in uniting the people in our fight against neo-liberal globalisation. Instead of being incorporated into a ready-made movement of men or middle-class elite women, instead of taking the problems of discrimination for granted, women workers, farmers, indigenous peoples, migrants and other grassroot peoples of the Third World must form a broad solidarity. We must analyse globalisation from women's perspective, plan strategies that conform with the particular needs of women, propose alternatives that include women as equal subjects, keep to the principle of internationalism, and unite with other oppressed groups in the mass resistance in the fight against neo-liberalism - and go beyond in creating a world based on equality.

* Joo-Yeon Jeong & Seung-Min Choi are with the Policy & Information Center for International Solidarity (PICIS), Korea. This paper was presented at the International South Group Network (ISGN) Asian Workshop on Women and Globalisation, 22-24 November, Manila.

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August 06th, 2014

8/6/2014

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We need to remember it was Reagan/Clinton that started the privatization of all that is public----neo-liberalism.  Clinton did as much damage to the state of our democracy than any President and that comes from the fact that he ran as a Democrat as he was embracing a Republican policy of global and free markets.  The Democratic Platform protects labor and justice and free and global markets kill labor and justice.  Reagan was a Republican pushing Republican policies for wealth and profit.....so, it is Clinton who created this political deceit for Democratic voters of telling them what they want to hear and then do what you want.  It was George Bush who then did that to the Republican voters by adopting neo-liberal policies of corporate welfare/cronyism/corruption.  This is what the Tea Party fights on the Republican side

and it is what labor and justice should be fighting on the Democratic side.


I want to revisit health care policy and look at what deregulation and dismantling the public sector oversight and accountability of health care is looking like.  Clinton was the culprit in starting the move of public universities as corporate research facilities.  Patenting products using taxpayer money takes the public university from public interest and holding power accountable to creating data that supports that university-patented product.

RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU KNOW THIS IS BAD PUBLIC POLICY?  IT LITERALLY KILLS PEOPLE.
  THAT'S A NEO-LIBERAL/NEO-CON FOR YOU-----ANYTHING FOR PROFIT!

The Clintons have a major shareholder stake and spent their time in office pushing Monsanto all over the world.......industrialized patented food.  Below you see one of the products that resulted-----for Monsanto it was EQUAL sugar substitute.  There is no problem creating new food products----the problem is that none of these biotech food products goes through the clinical trial research that finds how these new products not only effect people, but in the case of food----the food chain.

The point I take from the article below is that we are finding over and over that much of the obesity and diabetes in society today is created by these products released with little to no research.  This is important because the same neo-liberals who worked to dismantle regulations and oversight of health research are the ones passing Affordable Care Act which seeks to move the working and middle-class out of full health coverage and into preventative health only.  They scorn those low-income people who are obese and suffering from diabetes as careless!  Actually all Americans are victims of these biotech advancements and our health will show it!


ALL OF MARYLAND POLS ARE NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS CREATING THESE POLICIES.


Just as Clinton ended Welfare as he pushed NAFTA and global markets knowing millions of Americans would be impoverished and unemployed-----creating the deepest poverty in US history---we are having a health crisis in America at the same time Obama and today's neo-liberals are working to end access to the health care for those Americans subjected to food that should have never passed FDA approval.
  Note that this professor was a Perdue University academic.......the ability to get money and do research that proves corporate accountability in harm is drying up and Trans Pacific Trade Pact allows corporations to sue for these kinds of studies as hurting profits.
  So, the intent is to harass and eliminate any attempts to hold corporations accountable at universities across the US.

These are Republican policies of small government with free markets so don't vote Republican to rebuild public protections!


The Center for Public Integrity


Meet Susan Swithers, a Purdue University professor who conducts studies about the health effects of artificial sweeteners.

As The Center for Public Integrity reporter Chris Young writes today, trade groups representing diet- and low-calorie food companies will go to great lengths — and often use questionable public relations tactics — to protect its interests by blasting the work of academics such as Swithers.

Read our investigation here:


Critic of artificial sweeteners pilloried by industry-backed scientists


Critic of artificial sweeteners pilloried by industry-backed scienConflicts abound among industry's defenders, even on national TV
Susan Swithers is no stranger to food industry criticism.

In fact, the Purdue University professor anticipates a swift public relations blitz from trade groups representing diet- and low-calorie food companies every time she publishes a study about the health effects of artificial sweeteners.

“They reflexively put out a press release that spins it as, ‘Here’s what’s wrong with the study,’” says Swithers, a professor of behavioral neuroscience who has been researching artificial sweeteners for the past decade. “I’m sure I’m on somebody’s Google Alert at this point.”

Still, even Swithers was surprised by the way in which the diet food industry attacked a paper she published last summer that raised health concerns about popular sugar substitutes used in snack foods and diet drinks. In her widely publicized work, published as an opinion article in the journal Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism, Swithers reviewed recent studies on artificial sweeteners and concluded that people who frequently consume sugar substitutes “may … be at increased risk of excessive weight gain, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.”

Seizing on the “opinion” tag, the food and beverage industry responded quickly. The American Beverage Association, for example, dismissed the paper’s findings, arguing that it was “not a scientific study.”

But perhaps the strongest, most wide-ranging attacks came from the Calorie Control Council, a lesser-known industry group with an innocuous-sounding name, a long history and a penchant for stealthy public relations tactics. The organization, which is run by an account executive with a global management and public relations firm, represents the low- and reduced-calorie food and beverage industry. But it functions more like an industry front group than a trade association.

In criticizing Swithers, the Council relied on industry-funded scientists, bloggers and dietitians — it even wrote a letter to the professor’s university demanding that the school stop promoting “biased science.”

“The intimidation tactics, going to somebody’s employer, it just seems to go beyond the realm of what’s reasonable,” says Swithers, who disputes the “opinion” critiques by noting that her paper was peer-reviewed and based on her assessment of recent scientific studies conducted about artificial sweeteners. “But I guess that’s par for the course in their world.”

Indeed, tracking the Calorie Control Council’s efforts to discredit Swithers’ paper on artificial sweeteners provides a lesson in how the food and beverage industry will go to great lengths — and often use questionable tactics — to protect its interests. With a brand new artificial sweetener about to hit the market, and with the science still unclear about the safety of sugar substitutes, industry’s efforts to discredit science unfavorable to their interests are unlikely to end anytime soon.

“This isn’t personal,” Swithers acknowledges. “This is about somebody’s bottom line."

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I'm highlighting today common products that are now connected to one major disease vector----diabetes.  Children are now getting early-stage diabetes and it is less about family genetics and pre-disposition and more about the dismantling of public protections in our Federal agencies for food and drugs.  Over and again you will see that women are being hit the hardest in this failure to adequately test because when shortcuts are allowed to maximize profits it is women and children that are dropped in clinical testing.

Lipitor is a great product....we would not want to lose the benefits it provides.  The point is that all of these side effects may have been mitigated by simple reformulation.  That is what clinical trial data forces product designers to do.  Is ten years of clinical trials and reformulation worth creating a product people can trust?  IN A FIRST WORLD DEMOCRACY THAT IS A GREAT BIG YES.

NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS SAY-----TAKE YOUR CHANCES---WE'RE IN IT FOR THE PROFIT!



Lipitor Lawsuits Claim Drug Causes Diabetes, Seek Damages for Suffering  

The attorneys at Morgan & Morgan are actively filing lawsuits on behalf of women who were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes after using Lipitor. Several studies have linked Lipitor and other cholesterol-lowering statin drugs to an increased risk of diabetes, particularly in middle-aged and older women. Our attorneys believe that the maker of Lipitor, Pfizer, Inc., failed to properly warn consumers of this risk and is therefore legally responsible for the medical bills, pain and suffering and lost wages of women who developed diabetes as a result of taking Lipitor.

If you or a loved one was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes after using Lipitor, you may be able to sue the drug’s manufacturer and recover compensation for your injuries. If you have questions about your legal rights or would like more information on filing a lawsuit, complete our free case review form today. The attorneys at Morgan & Morgan are offering this online consultation with no cost and no obligation.

Why Are Lawsuits Being Filed?

Typically, lawsuits involving pharmaceuticals allege that a drug is unreasonably dangerous and/or that the manufacturer failed to provide adequate warnings for side effects associated with the drug. Women filing lawsuits against Pfizer allege:

  • Patients and doctors were not adequately warned about the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes with use of Lipitor
  • Pfizer promoted Lipitor as safe and effective, despite knowing that it could elevate blood sugar levels and/or cause Type 2 diabetes
  • Lipitor’s label never carried a warning that it could cause changes in blood sugar levels and/or Type 2 diabetes until the FDA requested a label change in February 2012
  • Even after the label change, Lipitor’s label still does not adequately warn patients about the risk of Type 2 diabetes
  • Patients who developed diabetes due to Lipitor use now have to undergo regular testing of their blood glucose levels, adhere to a strict diets and take medication for the remainder of their lives and are at an increased risk for kidney disease, blindness, heart disease and other complications of diabetes
These lawsuits are seeking to reimburse patients for physical and emotional suffering, and the cost of past and future medical care.

Is This a Class Action?

This is not a class action lawsuit. Our attorneys are helping women who have used Lipitor and developed Type 2 diabetes file individual lawsuits to recover compensation for their specific injuries.

To help conserve judicial resources and ensure a consistent and efficient resolution to the growing litigation, a multidistrict litigation (MDL) has been formed to handle these lawsuits. This means that all federally-filed lawsuits, as well as any future cases filed in federal courts, will be transferred to the U.S. District Court District of South Carolina to be overseen by the Honorable Judge Richard M. Gergel. Judge Gergel will manage the lawsuits and oversee the pretrial and discovery process, which includes taking witness testimony and reviewing relevant documents. While one judge is overseeing the litigation, each plaintiff will retain his or her own lawsuit, attorney and right to an individual award.

How is Lipitor Causing Diabetes?

Several studies have uncovered a link between Lipitor and Type 2 diabetes, a life-long condition that causes a patient to develop high blood sugar levels. To understand the potential link between Lipitor and Type 2 diabetes, it is important to understand the science behind the disease.

In the body, food is broken down into sugar (glucose), which travels through the bloodstream. In a normal patient, the pancreas will release insulin in response to a meal to reduce blood sugar levels and allow glucose to enter the body’s cells, providing them with the energy needed to function. Patients with Type 2 diabetes, however, cannot produce enough insulin or cannot use the insulin well enough. As a result, glucose cannot enter the body’s cells and instead builds up in the blood, causing a spike in blood sugar levels. High levels of sugar in the blood can result in a number of serious health problems, including organ damage and heart attack.


Researchers suspect that Lipitor can inhibit the function of the pancreatic cells responsible for storing and releasing insulin, and may also decrease the body’s sensitivity to the hormone.


Studies on Lipitor

Highlight Diabetes Risk for Women, Statin Users

Patients on a high-dose Lipitor regimen may have an increased risk of developing diabetes A number of studies have linked use of Lipitor and cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins to diabetes. In 2013, researchers in Canada found that patients taking Lipitor had a 22 percent increased risk of developing diabetes compared to those taking Pravachol, another drug used to lower cholesterol. Two years earlier, a study based on data from three large clinical trials also suggested that patients on a high-dose Lipitor regimen may have an increased risk of developing diabetes, especially if they have other risk factors for the disease. The trial included nearly 4,000 adults who did not have diabetes, but had a history of stroke. It is believed that women, including those with a healthy body mass index (BMI), are at the highest risk of developing diabetes from statin use.

FDA Warning Highlights Increased Diabetes Risk

In February 2012, the FDA released a statement on Lipitor and statins. The agency warned that patients taking these drugs may have an increased risk of developing high blood sugar levels and type 2 diabetes, and announced that changes will be made to the drugs’ labeling to reflect this concern. According to an FDA spokesperson, prescribing doctors should assess patients’ blood sugar levels after they have started treatment with Lipitor or another statin.

The FDA warning also commented on the potential risk for liver injury, memory loss and muscle damage; however, the current litigation surrounding Lipitor pertains only to the manufacturer’s alleged failure to warn about the type 2 diabetes risk.

At Morgan & Morgan, our attorneys have been assigned leadership roles in some of the largest defective drug litigations across the country and have recovered millions on behalf of injured patients. We believe that the maker of Lipitor put profits before patient safety and are committed to helping patients recover the compensation they deserve. For more information on how we may be able to help, do not hesitate to contact us today. There is no cost or obligation.


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Below you see the kind of advocate for eliminating the FDA and public protections because of the costs and limits to profit.  Remember, public universities are the ones that do these clinical trials and taxpayer money funds them.  Ten year clinical trials are expensive but the product rarely harmed the public.  If this is too costly for private industry they should not be in the PHARMA business.  What Clinton, Bush, and Obama are doing with universities as research corporations is placing what this article below suggests on steroids.  Universities like Johns Hopkins has a BioTech building attached just to rifle these biotech products through with patents ------with absolutely no value to humanity for the most part.  Most of these 'innovations' are simply are reshuffling of compound configuration and this rifling is what is causing class action lawsuits to soar.  The solution say neo-liberals and neo-cons-----take away the ability of the public to sue for health damages.

Neo-liberals and neo-cons say----TAKE YOUR CHANCES-----IF YOU ARE INJURED YOU ARE A LOSER/VICTIM.


BASIC RESEARCH ON THE CHEMISTRY OF THESE 'INNOVATIONS' IS WHAT PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES DO.  ONCE WE KNOW THE SCIENCE THEN WE GO TO MARKET AND 'INNOVATE'.

The excuse of harming people by delaying new product is bogus.  So few people are in need of these new products and exceptions are made for those needing these products as a last resort. 


Paying for Permissionless Innovation
  • by Adam Gurri
  • August 4, 2014


Here at The Ümlaut we’re big fans of permissionless innovation—the concept and Adam Thierer’s excellent book. The biggest, most consequential enemy of permissionless innovation in the US is undoubtedly the FDA. Its long, expensive approval process delays access to life-saving drugs and other innovations for years, dramatically increases the price of such things once they reach the market, and skews the investment incentives for the health industry.
Many economists would like to see the FDA radically reformed, some would like to abolish it entirely. In the spirit of the sort of political compromises that Milton Friedman was famous for proposing, I’d like to suggest an intermediate solution: a permissionless premium. Here’s how it would work: there would be some specified amount (either an absolute amount per unit or a percentage of the revenue) that patients would have to pay in order to get a given drug or access to a medical device before it was FDA approved. The patient should be made well aware that the risks are at this point unknown (not that they’re thoroughly understood just after FDA approval anyway). The revenue would bolster the FDA’s budget, thus in theory helping to investigate the risks associated with the drug and drugs like it in the future.

Moreover, this would allow pharmaceutical companies to start getting revenue before FDA approval, lowering the burden of their overhead. As things currently stand, they spend billions on drug development and by the time the FDA process is complete they have a very short window before their patent expires. As Alex Tabarrok documents well, the result is that pharma companies have almost no incentive to develop drugs that treat diseases that are anything other that very broadly experienced. The pharma dream in this scenario is not to find an effective treatment for rare but aggressive cancers, but to find the next Lipitor.

However, if they could develop experimental new drugs for rare diseases that could be bring in revenue immediately, that might just change the cost-benefit analysis sufficiently to see some real progress on that front. The premium will act as a Pigovian tax rather than an outright ban on the consumption of such still largely untested drugs, and will help fund both pharmaceutical companies and the FDA’s efforts to increase our stock of medical knowledge. It seems, from a number of perspectives, to be a win-win.



_____________________________________________________________________

The hype for the ACA was having insurance would create better health results.  As we know, requiring people to buy insurance and then having people unable to afford co-pays and deductibles to access that care are two different things.  Neo-liberals never expected access to health care----they are pushing everyone to preventative health.  Counseling on better eating habits and blood tests will control diabetes.  Except, that is not true.  The environmental exposures as we saw in the articles above will not be mitigated by preventative care.  The huge numbers of people aging into these policies already having diabetes will not be helped because most people can only afford Bronze and/or Medicaid coverage.

The US was already  at the bottom in the developed world for health outcomes.....the ACA will take the US to third world status.....



'A widely cited experiment in Oregon offered an early look at what happens when people suddenly get Medicaid coverage. Researchers found that physical health, like obesity and the prevalence of diabetes, did not change much'.




Affordable Care Act to provide preventive health care coverage to millions with diabetes

  • July 22, 2010
The Obama Administration has announced implementation of the Affordable Care Act, which will require new insurance plans to provide preventive care without cost-sharing to millions of Americans.

With expanded access to preventive services, individuals may obtain the information they need to make health care decisions that are right for them.



Plan LevelInsurance

                            Company Pays                                
Bronze        60% of health care costs

                                You Pay   
                    40% of health care costs


Silver              Company pays
                    70% of health care costs


                              You pay

                       30% of health care costs


___________________________________________

Access to preventative health care will do nothing with widespread health disease and infection vectors brought from deregulation and global markets.  We are already back to the age of The Jungle-----US food is as contaminated as before US advanced to the first world society.  Now we are being assaulted by biotech industry food and health care products that create pre-conditions.  All of the promotion of access to insurance is simply hype.

We must remove corporate structures from our public universities and rebuild our public health system being dismantled with deregulation and neo-liberalism.  We must demand Expanded and Improved Medicare for All to allow all citizens access to basic medical procedures and treatments. 

WE PAID TAXES FOR DECADES TO HAVE THE COVERAGE WE NEED ------THESE TAXES ARE PAYROLL TAXES INTO MEDICARE TRUSTS AND INCOME TAXES THAT FUND NIH AND NCA RESEARCH.  YOU PAID FOR YOUR ACCESS TO QUALITY CARE.  CORPORATE FRAUD AND CORRUPTION EMPTIED GOVERNMENT COFFERS.



NYT Covers Food Safety Deregulation the US Beef Export Crisis
  • Bad Cow Disease
    By Paul Krugman
    The New York Times, June 13, 2008
    Straight to the Source

"Mary had a little lamb / And when she saw it sicken / She shipped it off to Packingtown / And now it's labeled chicken."

That little ditty famously summarized the message of "The Jungle," Upton Sinclair's 1906 exposé of conditions in America's meat-packing industry. Sinclair's muckraking helped Theodore Roosevelt pass the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act - and for most of the next century, Americans trusted government inspectors to keep their food safe.

Lately, however, there always seems to be at least one food-safety crisis in the headlines - tainted spinach, poisonous peanut butter and, currently, the attack of the killer tomatoes. The declining credibility of U.S. food regulation has even led to a foreign-policy crisis: there have been mass demonstrations in South Korea protesting the pro-American prime minister's decision to allow imports of U.S. beef, banned after mad cow disease was detected in 2003.

How did America find itself back in The Jungle?

It started with ideology. Hard-core American conservatives have long idealized the Gilded Age, regarding everything that followed - not just the New Deal, but even the Progressive Era - as a great diversion from the true path of capitalism.

Thus, when Grover Norquist, the anti-tax advocate, was asked about his ultimate goal, he replied that he wanted a restoration of the way America was "up until Teddy Roosevelt, when the socialists took over. The income tax, the death tax, regulation, all that."

The late Milton Friedman agreed, calling for the abolition of the Food and Drug Administration. It was unnecessary, he argued: private companies would avoid taking risks with public health to safeguard their reputations and to avoid damaging class-action lawsuits. (Friedman, unlike almost every other conservative I can think of, viewed lawyers as the guardians of free-market capitalism.)

Such hard-core opponents of regulation were once part of the political fringe, but with the rise of modern movement conservatism they moved into the corridors of power. They never had enough votes to abolish the F.D.A. or eliminate meat inspections, but they could and did set about making the agencies charged with ensuring food safety ineffective.

They did this in part by simply denying these agencies enough resources to do the job.
For example, the work of the F.D.A. has become vastly more complex over time thanks to the combination of scientific advances and globalization. Yet the agency has a substantially smaller work force now than it did in 1994, the year Republicans took over Congress.

Perhaps even more important, however, was the systematic appointment of foxes to guard henhouses.

Thus, when mad cow disease was detected in the U.S. in 2003, the Department of Agriculture was headed by Ann M. Veneman, a former food-industry lobbyist...

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June 12th, 2014

6/12/2014

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NEO-LIBERALISM IS A WAR AGAINST WOMEN AND CHILDREN AS POVERTY DEEPENS AND BROADENS AND OUR US CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS AND EQUAL PROTECTION ARE SUSPENDED.



I will talk about elections in Maryland today and Friday and then return to the policy issues.  Maryland can easily have free and fair elections but it must have leadership that creates this environment.  Whether republican or democrat if all candidates in a race cannot get name recognition and their platform to the public through 501c3 to balance the onslaught of private media ads and coverage----there will be no elections.  I hear Sarbanes, Cardin, Cummings, and Mikulski all of Baltimore pushing for early voting, for getting out the vote, and for campaign finance reform and all of them are the face of the democratic system in Maryland that allows such blatant censure of candidates-----   AND THIS HARMS ELECTIONS THE MOST.  THESE ARE NEO-LIBERALS FOLKS---NOT DEMOCRATS!

Let's look at Maryland political organizations and how they work within this captured system.  First, let's look at neo-liberalism and how it moves towards third world society and how women and people of color are harmed most in third world poverty and then ask----why are these organizations saying they support women and people of color supporting neo-liberals and allowing captured elections?




________________________________________________

The Maryland State office of the League of Women Voters controls all of the branches and they have partnered throughout this primary with events they know break the election laws.  They themselves use this poll number guideline and break it whenever necessary.  The League allows this arbitrary election process.

It has as its mission protecting elections and advocating for women in the election process but has told Cindy Walsh---we accept all of the republican candidates and neo-liberals.

THIS IS A CAPTURE OF A VITAL ORGANIZATION WITH LEADERSHIP WORKING FOR NEO-LIBERALS AND NOT PUBLIC JUSTICE.  WE NEED TO SHAKE UP LEADERSHIP ALIGNED WITH GLOBAL CORPORATIONS.



Mission:

The League of Women Voters,

a nonpartisan political organization, encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy.

Watch the MPT/LWVMD Republican and Democratic Gubernatorial Debates On-Line

The one-hour debates between Republicans Ron George, Larry Hogan, Charles Lollar, David Craig and Democrats Anthony Brown, Doug Gansler, Heather Mizeur can be seen at http://www.mpt.org/debate/

___________________________________________

Below you see what the most pressing issue in Maryland is-----fraud and corruption and not one political organization, justice organization, or candidate mentions it-----and if that candidate does----they are censured.  Remember, these frauds hit women and children the hardest----people of color as well so if an advocacy group is not making this their top issue in selecting a candidate to endorse----THEY HAVE LEADERS WORKING WITH NEO-LIBERALS.


THIS IS WHAT NEO-LIBERALISM HAS DONE TO GOVERNMENT AND CORPORATIONS:

Maryland Corruption Risk Report Card Center for Public Integrity

Rank among 50 states: 40th  

Overall grade: D-

Click a category to see detailed scores and notes.

Public Access to Information F

Political Financing C

Executive Accountability F

Legislative Accountability F

Judicial Accountability D+

  State Budget Processes C-

State Civil Service Management D-

Procurement D-

Internal Auditing C+

Lobbying Disclosure D-

  State Pension Fund Management F
 Ethics Enforcement Agencies D

State Insurance Commissions F

Redistricting D-
 

Click here to share this report card on your site The story behind the score

In Maryland’s “clubby” Capitol, there’s little transparency, procurement policies are byzantine, and audit results are often ignored. Read more from SII State Reporter Christian Bourge

__________________________________________________

Maryland ranked fifth nationally in mortgage fraud incidents ...
Maryland Among Top States with Most Fraud Complaints ...

***********************************************************
Top States in Internet Fraud Complaints
Complainants per 100,000 People
(rank state per 100,000 people)
Maryland 121.67     is #7.

****************************************************************

America's 10 Worst States for Fraud - DailyFinancewww.dailyfinance.com/.../americas-10-worst-states-for-fraud 


Maryland has the fifth highest rate of fraud regarding debt collection at 56.2 complaints per 100,000 population. In the identity theft category, ...

***********************************************************************

THE CANDIDATES IN MARYLAND MAKING OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY AND PUBLIC JUSTICE CENTRAL---WHO SHOUT OUT AGAINST GLOBAL CORPORATIONS IN THEIR PLATFORM ARE THE ONES NOT INCLUDED IN THESE ELECTION EVENTS.


It's important to know that neo-conservatives are the same as neo-liberals and this is why the right has created the Tea Party.  Labor and justice are still at opposites with Tea Party in many ways, but we both know that global corporations are killing our democracy and US Constitutional rights.  Here in Maryland all pols are working for global corporations------ and we are taking the democratic party back to the people.  The reason republican voters are just as mad at neo-cons is that the economy of today is not free-market----is is naked/crony capitalism---- the opposite of free-market and George Bush is equally responsible for it as Clinton and now Obama.

For those thinking Heather Mizeur is not a neo-liberal----why is she in every forum and not speaking to any of the issues my campaign brings forward?  She has talking points.

No matter your political stance everyone knows that the corporate and government systems are full of fraud and corruption and this is the crony of naked capitalism-----no regulation---no oversight or accountability.  The US Constitution is built on Rule of Law and Equal Protection so none of what is happening is legal.

Below you see the goal of neo-liberalism-----third world status for even the formerly first world Western nations.
  Neo-cons/neo-libs = third world society.  Clinton is the face of neo-liberalism as he dismantled all of the protections against corporate power knowing it would end democracy and our rights as citizens.  Bush ran with it----and Obama is now protecting the massive movement of wealth to the top mostly through systemic corporate fraud. 

'WE SEE NO FRAUD' SAY NEO-CONS AND NEO-LIBERALS BECAUSE PEOPLE HAVE NO RIGHTS OF PROTECTION.


Global Capitalism, Third World Development:

Is the Sweat Shop the Destination or
the start of a Take Off into Self-Sustained Growth?


In a deregulated world, the sweat shop is not a step on the road to 'economic development', it is the destination of most Third World people who aspire to Western-style economic development.

Western economic forces, given free rein, lead to people living lives of borderline starvation, of endemic poverty, with the few who control access to finance and resources, or who can become involved in international corporate activity, able to maintain wealthy lifestyles 43.




Neo-liberalism is dead as people realise markets need regulation

Date May 6, 2009

Chris Bowen

'It's very clear we're in the middle of a paradigm shift. We are witnessing the end of the neo-liberal project."


Remind Me Again How Neo-Cons Are ''Conservatives''

... by Josh Robinson Posted September 03, 2012

_________________________________________________

CINDY WALSH CREATED CITIZENS OVERSIGHT MARYLAND-----MARYLAND PROGRESSIVES SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE I SAW MARYLAND PROGRESSIVE AND OTHER PROGRESSIVE GROUPS WERE CONTROLLED BY NEO-LIBERALS.

THERE IS NOTHING PROGRESSIVE ABOUT NEO-LIBERALISM.

Each election since I moved to Maryland I have had to watch as groups calling themselves 'progressive' all back the most neo-liberal of candidates.  There is not a person in Maryland that does not know Anthony Brown is O'Malley and O'Malley is Clinton and all are neo-liberals.  EVERYONE KNOWS THIS.  There is nothing progressive about neo-liberalism----it is autocratic and repressive so when people try to call a neo-liberal progressive----THEY KNOW THEY ARE NOT SPEAKING TRUE. 

THE REASON BROWN, GANSLER, AND MIZEUR POLLED AT NEAR 10% THROUGHOUT THESE PRIMARIES IS THAT EVERYONE KNOWS THEY ARE NEO-LIBERALS.  IT TOOK A BOGUS POLL TO MOVE THOSE POLLING NUMBERS UP----AND THESE GROUPS KNOW THAT.


Every year Progressive Maryland chooses neo-liberals as their choice and never mention the main problems in Maryland----dismantled public justice, no oversight and accountability, and global corporate control of our economy----and never shout against an election system rife with violations.

NEO-LIBERALISM IS NEVER PROGRESSIVE FOLKS!


PROGRESSIVE MARYLAND & ELECTIONS

Progressive Maryland exists to advocate for and improve the lives of working families in Maryland and reduce income inequality. In order to accomplish our goal of turning progressive legislation into progressive laws, we need legislators who share our values. This means Progressive Maryland must actively engage in the political process to ensure the most effective, most progressive legislators are sworn in. For more than a decade, our organization has worked hard to achieve electoral success. We examine closely the records of candidates for office, get to know them, educate them on our issues, and obtain their commitment through candidate questionnaires to support measures we intend to push for in the upcoming legislative sessions. We endorse candidates who are authentically supportive of working families, promote their candidacies, and aggressively work to get them elected. In some cases, we go door-to-door in priority races, and we work the polls on Election Day. Engaging in the process in this fashion ensures that elected officials will be accessible to us and allow us every opportunity to present our perspective on priorities. It also helps to guarantee the votes we need to make Maryland a leader among progressive states. Our track record speaks for itself.In 2010, 90 percent of candidates we endorsed won election. In 2006, we helped elect over 90 endorsed candidates.

OUR ENDORSEMENT PROCESS

All candidates registered with the Board of Elections are emailed at the address listed with the State Board of Elections an invitation to seek Progressive Maryland’s endorsement, with a link to our electronic questionnaire. Completed questionnaires for all candidates are made available to Progressive Maryland Board members prior to recommendations being made, and copies of the completed questionnaires for all candidates are posted online on the Progressive Maryland website. Before ProgressiveMaryland employs our organizational resources to support candidates, we apply rigorous standards for our endorsement process based on more than a decade of on-the-ground electoral experience. An endorsement requires supermajority 2/3 support of our board of directors. We take into account the level of support for ProgressiveMaryland's full range of priority issues and how they have translated their support with action in their communities.
For incumbents, we consider an individual's voting record and their leadership on passing legislation and advancing key policies that improve the lives of working families. We also weigh viability by examining objective metrics of public support for a candidate.Progressive Maryland’s final candidate recommendations are posted online, as soon as the recommendation process is completed. To view the completed questionnaires for every candidate who applied for our endorsement, visit: http://progressivemaryland.org/endorsements/2014/Have any other questions about Progressive Maryland’s endorsement process?  

Please do not hesitate to contact Kate Planco Waybright at kate@progressivemaryland.org


_______________________________________________
As I said----neo-liberals know they are killing all of the public justice and equal protection and that largely hits people of color and women so they are deliberately giving this push the face of the very people hurt most by it.  This is why we had Obama and now they are gearing up for Hillary.  Hillary will be sold as the woman's candidate----the glass ceiling breaker as Obama was but we know both Obama and Hillary are the face of neo-liberalism and Trans Pacific Trade Pact (TPP).

Remember, in Maryland it was Cummings, Sarbanes (Sr), Cardin, and Hoyer that voted with Clinton for NAFTA and breaking the Glass Steagall wall to create this global market and corporations.  They did it knowing these corporations would become unaccountable and take over our democracy.  Well, this next Presidential election is about bringing neo-liberalism full circle with Hillary bringing in TPP.

Note the long list of women in Congress supporting Hillary and neo-liberalism.  That is what is reflected by Maryland's women and justice organizations doing the same.

IF YOUR JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS ARE PRETENDING HILLARY IS ABOUT SENDING A WOMAN TO BREAK A GLASS CEILING ------THEY NEED TO GO!


The politicians below are not progressives-----they are neo-liberals!

January 28, 2014, 06:00 am


Dems' 2016 endorsement list starts here
By Jasmine Sachar and Bob Cusack

  The following congressional Democrats have endorsed Hillary Clinton’s possible presidential bid in 2016:

CLINTON BACKERS

Senators who have endorsed Clinton (19)

Tammy Baldwin (Wis.)

Barbara Boxer (Calif.)

Maria Cantwell (Wash.)

ADVERTISEMENTDianne Feinstein (Calif.)Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.)

Kay Hagan (N.C.)

Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.)

Mazie Hirono (Hawaii)

Tim Kaine (Va.)

Amy Klobuchar (Minn.)

Mary Landrieu (La.)

Claire McCaskill (Mo.)

Barbara Mikulski (Md.)

Patty Murray (Wash.)

Charles Schumer (N.Y.)

Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.)

Debbie Stabenow (Mich.)

Elizabeth Warren (Mass.)

Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.)

House members who back Clinton  (41)

Robert Andrews (N.J.)

Tim Bishop (N.Y.)

Joaquín Castro (Texas)

David Cicilline (R.I.)

Joseph Crowley (N.Y.)

Danny Davis (Ill.)

John Delaney (Md.)

Lois Frankel (Fla.)

Gene Green (Texas)

Raúl Grijalva (Ariz.)

Luis Gutiérrez (Ill.)

Janice Hahn (Calif.)

Colleen Hanabusa (Hawaii)

Alcee Hastings (Fla.)

Brian Higgins (N.Y.)

Mike Honda (Calif.)

Steny Hoyer (Md.)


Sheila Jackson Lee (Texas)

Hank Johnson (Ga.)

Jim Langevin (R.I.)

Sandy Levin (Mich.)

John Lewis (Ga.)

Nita Lowey (N.Y.)

Stephen Lynch (Mass.)

Carolyn Maloney (N.Y.)

Doris Matsui (Calif.)

Gregory Meeks (N.Y.)

Grace Meng (N.Y.)

Jim Moran (Va.)

Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.)

Richard Neal (Mass.)

Chellie Pingree (Maine)

Cedric Richmond (La.)

Tim Ryan (Ohio)

Jan Schakowsky (Ill.)

Allyson Schwartz (Pa.)

David Scott (Ga.)

Terri Sewell (Ala.)

Louise Slaughter (N.Y.)

Dina Titus (Nev.)

Frederica Wilson (Fla.)

This list was last updated at 12:30 p.m on 5/6/14




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June 02nd, 2014

6/2/2014

0 Comments

 
PRIVATIZATION OF PUBLIC HEALTH IS DRIVEN BY THE US AND IT IS ALL WRITTEN INTO THESE TRANS PACIFIC TRADE PACTS. THIS PACT WAS INITIATED BY BUSH AND CLINTON AND NOW OBAMA AND THE CLINTONS ARE OVERSEAS WITH US NEO-LIBERALS TRYING TO FORCE NATIONS ALL OVER THE WORLD TO SIGN A PACT THAT IS REALLY, REALLY, REALLY BAD FOR ALL CITIZENS INVOLVED.  WE HAVE A DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONTROLLED BY NEO-LIBERALS AND SO DOES MARYLAND.  ALL THE CANDIDATES FOR GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND WILL EMBRACE TRANS PACIFIC TRADE PACT AND THE DISMANTLING OF THE PUBLIC SECTOR IS PART OF THIS.

For those that believe the hype about bringing jobs, remember what NAFTA did----it decimated our economy and TPP be worse!


The You Tube video below shows a good view of the concerns for public health in the US.  You can see that Affordable Care Act is an extension of what this TPP requires of all nations.  I will take this week to look at all public sectors to see what TPP will do to our rights as citizens and how it moves the US from second world now to third world after TPP is installed.
  Keep in mind that protests like this are happening all over the world and in the US but in Maryland------

NO ONE KNOWS WHAT IS HAPPENING BECAUSE THE MEDIA AND POLITICIANS ARE ALL CAPTURED AND WORKING FOR GLOBAL CORPORATIONS.



TPP protests hit Utah
www.youtube.com


Published on Nov 19, 2013

The lead negotiators for 12 countries involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership began meeting today in Salt Lake City, Utah. The TPP is a potential new trade deal that would open up markets among nations along the Pacific Rim. The negotiations have largely been secretive so far, but the agreement is expected to impact jobs, the environment, consumer safety and more. Last week, transparency organization WikiLeaks published leaked chapters of the TPP covering intellectual patents, and the organization's co-founder, Julian Assange, slammed the deal. Ameera David speaks with RT's Ramon Galindo, who is in Salt Lake City and attended demonstrations today against the TPP agreement.



This video is from 6 months ago.....Obama is traveling overseas to firm up this deal. If you think all of this buzz is hyperbole you need to learn about what TPP does. It sets US law in a way that gives corporations all the power of profit in all nations involved and the laws written and signed into affect by this treaty can only be changed by a global corporate tribunal.

IT ENDS OUR STATUS AS CITIZEN, OUR EQUAL PROTECTION UNDER LAW, OUR BILL OF RIGHTS AND THIS IS WHY WE ARE SEEING OUR WEALTH STOLEN, OUR CIVIL LIBERTIES AND RIGHTS OPENLY ABUSED....TPP IS ILLEGAL AND A COUP AGAINST THE US CONSTITUTION AS IT ASSAULTS OUR RIGHTS AS CITIZENS.

If your pol is not shouting this-----they are neo-liberals who intend on embracing TPP. Cindy Walsh for Governor of Maryland is the only candidate in the race that will use the governor's office to fight back and stop the TPP structures already being built in Maryland. We must return to a domestic economy. CONGRESS AND STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING....THIS IS WHY THEY ARE PRIVATIZING ALL THAT IS PUBLIC GIVING GLOBAL CORPORATIONS COMPLETE CONTROL IN OUR STATE AND CITY.

It's important to think about the fact that all of these TPP negotiations have taken place during all of Obama's terms in office and Congress knew these terms on health care because I KNEW THESE TERMS ON HEALTH CARE.....I AM JUST AN AVERAGE CITIZEN THAT DOES RESEARCH.  DO NOT LISTEN TO YOUR POLS AT STATE AND NATIONAL LEVELS TELL YOU THEY WERE IN THE DARK.



TPP would make health care even more expensive, less accountable, less accessible

June 21, 2013 Green Party

Health Council of the General Welfare Branch

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a deal that is being secretly negotiated by the White House, with help from more than 600 corporate advisors, and Pacific Rim nations including Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Chile, Peru, Australia and New Zealand. While the TPP is being called a trade agreement, the United States already has trade agreements covering 90 percent of the GDP of the countries involved in the talks. Instead, the TPP is a major power grab by large corporations.

The text of the TPP includes 29 chapters, only five of which concern trade. The remaining chapters are focused on changes that multinational corporations have not been able to pass in Congress such as restrictions on internet privacy, increased patent protections, greater access to litigation and further financial deregulation.

So far, all that is known about the contents of the TPP is from documents that have been leaked and reports from non-governmental organizations and industry meetings. Unlike other trade deals, the White House refuses to make the text available to the public. In fact, the negotiators refuse to publish the text until four years after it is signed into law.

From the information available, one thing is clear about the impacts of the TPP on health care. The intention of the TPP is to enhance and protect the profits of medical and pharmaceutical corporations without regard for the harmful effects their policies will have on human health.

We know that the TPP will extend pharmaceutical and medical device patents and provide other tools to keep the prices of these necessities high. This will make medications and treatments unaffordable for millions of people and raise the costs of national health programs, including public health systems in the U.S.. At its worst, the TPP will provide a pathway to infect the world’s health systems with the deadly parasite of for-profit health corporations that plague the United States.

The major health threats posed by the TPP include:

  • Extensive patent protections. Through the TPP, pharmaceutical and medical device corporations are seeking extensive patent protections using a process known as ‘Evergreening.’ The TPP gives twenty years of patent protection for pharmaceuticals and medical devices; however, patents can be renewed for another twenty years each time there is a change in an indication or delivery. 
    • Doctors without Borders criticized this practice, stating that patent protections in previous trade agreements raised the price of life-saving medications and made them unavailable to people in poorer countries. Patents prevent the production of low cost generic forms of medications. 
    • Because of the negative impact on public health from patent protections in previous trade agreements, such as the Korea Free Trade Agreement, former President Bush rolled some of these practices back. Unfortunately, the TPP will move them forward again. In fact, the TPP goes farther to require patents on surgical techniques, medical tests and treatments.
  • Prevention of necessary innovation. Doctors without Borders also expressed concern that patent protections encourage innovation based on profit instead of on the needs of people, particularly those in poor nations. Corporations do not see it as in their financial interest to address health conditions more prevalent in poor nations which do not have the financial resources to buy their products. But it is often in these situations where treatment can have the greatest impact on quality of life.
  • Attack on public health systems. An area of great concern is language within the TPP concerning State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs). These are institutions that are fully or partially owned by governments, which could include public health systems.
    • Corporate lobbyists are concerned that SOEs have ‘unfair advantages’ over private industry. These advantages include government subsidies, preferred tax status, low finance rates and access to capital. According to a leaked chapter, corporate lobbyists believe that there is a conflict of interest because SOEs have political considerations such as functioning to provide basic goods and services for their population and believe that instead SOEs should operate strictly as commercial entities.
    • The TPP requires SOEs to disclose any special advantages they receive and the government to give the same advantages to corporations. It also provides methods for corporations to sue governments if they believe that they are not being treated fairly.
    • Text from a section of the TPP called “Annex on Transparency and Procedural Fairness for Healthcare Technologies” was leaked in June, 2011. It reveals that medical industries are pushing on all fronts to keep their prices and prevent public health systems from negotiating to keep prices affordable. To medical industries, price negotiation is one of the ‘unfair advantages’ of public health systems. When a public health system negotiates a lower price, it is said to be exerting its market power. On the flip side, when a government extends patent protections to medical industries, this is not considered to be a use of market power by the industry.
  • Greater control over reimbursement. Medical industries are pushing for other concessions within the TPP to ‘level the playing field,” also known as forcing public entities to operate as market-based entities, such as factoring the cost of not just research, development and production of drugs and medical devices but also the cost of marketing them into what is considered to be a fair market price. And they only view prices negotiated without any government influence as fair. These provisions are significant because the TPP allows pharmaceutical corporations and others to challenge the legitimacy of any reimbursement decisions made by public health systems through the courts.
    • Patent and price protections for multinational pharmaceutical and medical device corporations based in the U.S. will benefit their bottom line and their investor’s pockets, but may bounce back and undermine public health systems in the U.S.. The leaked text indicates that the above provisions only apply to health authorities under the jurisdiction of the federal government. However, the loop holes are large enough that all of the U.S. public health systems, which include Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare and the Veterans Health Administration, can arguably be considered to be federal.
To solve the health crisis in the U.S., we must move away from privatization of health care and towards a public health system with a mission to improve and protect the health of the public.

Therefore, the Health Council of the Green Shadow Cabinet opposes provisions within the TransPacific Partnership that make profit more important than public health. We oppose all provisions that restrict access to necessary medications, medical tests and treatments. Rather than the expansion of patent protections, there should be increased sharing of medical knowledge to promote improved global public health.

~ The Health Council is led by Secretary of Health Dr. Margaret Flowers, serving within the General Welfare Branch of the Green Shadow Cabinet.  This statement is one of over a dozen issued in support of the Green Shadow Cabinet's June 17th call for action against the TPP.

____________________________________________

Let's look locally to see how TPP drives Maryland health care reform.  Maryland is the only state in the nation that seeks exemption from Medicare and is given it.  This means that there is no Federal oversight or requirements that have to be met.  This is why Medicare is handled in Maryland as all health care----it is tiered rather than universal as the Federal program requires.  Maryland has spent these two terms under O'Malley dismantling public health and building private non-profit and corporate structures to handle public sector health care and it is building what is a clinic system for the lower/middle class that is modeled on third world clinic care.  Mind you, the working class and middle class that were driven into poverty from this massive fraud and now the capture of our economy with deliberate high unemployment has moved over 70% and rising of US citizens into or near poverty and they plan to keep pushing more into poverty.  So, this clinic care overage that is mostly preventative care will pertain to almost all US citizens.  Remember, public and private health plans are going to be sent to these state health systems as are Medicare and Medicaid and you will only received the amount of care your income category places you.  Medicare gives equal levels of care to all citizens because people pay their whole lives into Social Security and Medicare. 

TO PROTECT AGAINST THIS DISMANTLING OF OUR FEDERAL HEALTH PROGRAMS WE MUST MOVE FROM THIS PRIVATE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM TO EXPANDED AND IMPROVED MEDICARE FOR ALL.  OTHER STATES HAVE ALREADY MOVED THIS WAY AND MARYLAND NEEDS TO AS WELL.

No matter how much they tell you all of this clinic care is going to make things easier and offer more access-----THEY ARE LYING.



The TPP’s Threats
to Public Health



The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is an international trade and investment pact currently under
negotiation between the United States, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico,
New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. It is also specifically intended as a “docking agreement”
that other countries would join over time, with Japan, Korea, China and others already expressing some
interest.
U.S. negotiators are pushing to complete the TPP as soon as possible.
NEGOTIATIONS ARE HEADED IN THE WRONG DIRECTION ON PUBLIC HEALTH


A roll back from the Bush administration. Leaked U.S. proposals for several chapters in the Trans-
Pacific Partnership reveal that U.S. trade negotiators have reversed hard-won reforms designed to
enhance access to affordable medicines that were made during the George W. Bush administration. In
addition to pushing for increased monopoly rights for drug companies,
the U.S. is also demanding new
rights for pharmaceutical firms to challenge pricing and other drug formulary policies used by many
countries to keep down health care costs.
PACT WOULD REDUCE ACCESS TO GENERIC MEDICATION BY EXTENDING DRUG PATENTS

Access to generic medicine is critical to saving lives. The first generation of HIV drugs has come
down in price from roughly $10,000 per patient per year to just $120 thanks to increased access to
generic medications. This reduction in price has helped to dramatically scale up the number of people
throughout the world who are now receiving treatment. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis
and Malaria, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, UNITAID and UNICEF all rely heavily on
access to quality generic medications. For millions of people throughout the globe, delaying access to
generic medications means delaying access to treatment.

The U.S. proposal would grant new monopoly patent rights, reducing access to generic
medicine.
If finalized and implemented, the leaked U.S. intellectual property proposal would roll back
access to generic medicine for people in
developing countries and throughout the
world. Specifically,
the U.S. proposal would
broaden the scope of patentability by making
it easier for pharmaceutical companies to
patent new uses and minor variations of old
medicines; slow the production of new
generics when patents expire by expanding
“data exclusivity” over clinical trials forcing
either the timely and costly replication of such
trials or an additional three-year delay
(beyond the current five) before such
“exclusivity” ends; constrict safeguards
against patent abuse by making it harder for
public health advocates to challenge
unjustified new patents; require new forms of
drug patent policing; and mandate that
countries allow patents on plants, animals
Trade Policy & Access to Medicine

and surgical methods. The U.S. is expected to also request extensions beyond existing 20-year drug
patents to “compensate” drug companies for time spent in regulatory approval processes.
International public health advocates are speaking out. According to Doctors Without
Borders/Medecins San Frontieres: “Access to affordable lifesaving medicines will be threatened where
they are needed most — in parts of the developing world — if the U.S. insists on implementing
restrictive intellectual property policies in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement... The leaked
USTR position paper, now available to the public, reveals that the U.S. is pushing its trade partners,
including developing countries, to effectively lower the bar for granting patents, limit the capacity to
challenge patents, and impose new forms of intellectual property enforcement — all measures that
delay the introduction of more affordable generic drugs.”
EMPOWERING DRUG COMPANIES TO ATTACK COST-SAVING DRUG FORMULARIES
Governments use cost-saving drug formularies keep drug prices in check. Governments use
formularies to control health costs by listing medicines approved for government purchase or
reimbursement, and negotiating with drug firms to obtain the lowest prices. Among the current TPP
countries, such formularies are most associated with New Zealand’s Pharmaceutical Management
Agency (PHARMAC) and Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), but they are also used by
other governments, including a number of federal and state-based programs in the United States.
The U.S. proposal seeks to restrict cost-saving drug formularies. The leaked U.S. proposal for a pharmaceutical pricing chapter restricts the use of such formularies, by requiring that countries set up
new administrative and judicial appeal systems to help determine whether government programs
“appropriately recognize the value” of drug patents in their reimbursement proposals.
In Australia, the only country yet to implement such systems under a trade agreement, the result has been higher drug
prices.


NEGOTIATIONS HAVE BEEN TAKING PLACE IN THE
SHADOWS

The Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations have not
been transparent. Access to medicine has received the
attention it has because the U.S. proposals for
intellectual property and pharmaceutical pricing chapters
for the pact have been leaked. Neither of these, nor any
other negotiating texts, has been officially released. This
is completely undemocratic, and also outside the norm
for many international negotiations, including those at the
World Trade Organization, where draft negotiating texts
are regularly published. This excessive secrecy makes it
extremely difficult for civil society to comment on the
negotiations in a productive way while the pact is still
under negotiation and such comments could be valuable.



Learn more & get involved: www.citizenstrade.org


_________________________________________

The Affordable Care Act specifically states that Medicare PHARMA will now be generic in many cases and as we read above TPP seeks to greatly limit generics.  So, if policy pushes seniors towards using generics at the same time policy works to protect Brand names from generics-----

YOU SEE WHERE THIS WILL LEAD.  MOST PEOPLE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO AFFORD NAME BRAND AND THE NUMBER OF GENERICS WILL BE VERY LIMITED AND RESTRICTED TO THE OLDEST OF FORMULAS.


Below you see what ACA promises as all over the world we know the opposite is planned with TPP.  I have a friend already affectived negatively by having to leave a brand name drug for a generic that does not work as well.  This will be wide-spread and people will die from simple lack of access to common drugs.

SELLING THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

 Thousands in Savings by Providing Discounts in the Medicare “Donut Hole”
o More than 8 million seniors in 2007 hit the “donut hole,” or gap in prescription drug coverage in Medicare Part D. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will provide low and middle-income seniors a 50 percent discount on brand-name drug and biologic prices in the donut hole. It will also shrink the gap by $500 per senior for 2010.
 More Affordable Generic Drugs
o Some cutting edge drugs are simply too expensive for many seniors. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will create a pathway for the approval of generic biologic drugs to improve affordability of medications for seniors and all Americans.


Better preventative care for seniors and the poor!  Well, if all these groups will be able to access is preventative care -----will this be better?

OF COURSE NOT----THEY ARE SIMPLY BUILDING A STRUCTURE THAT A SUPER-MAJORITY OF AMERICANS WILL BE PUSHED TO.

Aren't neo-liberals just great allowing the American people the chance to buy yet another health insurance policy directed at long-term care?  The Social Security Disability program is being allowed to be gutted and emptied through fraud in the trillions of dollars and it will end.  Where will all those people with disabilities go?  Well, if you cannot afford yet another insurance policy you will see longevity fall steeply in America in just one generation.

IT TAKES A SPECIAL KING OF PERSON TO PUSH THIS AS POLICY ALL BECAUSE MEDICARE AND MEDICAID WAS GUTTED WITH FRAUD AND PROFITEERING AND NOW THESE HEALTH INSTITUTIONS NEED MORE PROFITS.


In Maryland the driver of these policies and in fact the institution writing these policies is Johns Hopkins University.  Mind you, they have made themselves a global health system through these massive frauds.


Preventive Care for Better Health

o Today, seniors must pay 20 percent of the cost of many preventive services. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will eliminate deductibles, copayments, and other cost-sharing for preventive care, and provide free annual wellness check-ups.

 Affordable Long-Term Care

o Sixty-five percent of seniors need long-term services at home, at an average cost of $18,000 each year. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will create a voluntary long-term care insurance program, which will provide a cash benefit to help seniors and people with disabilities obtain services and supports that will enable them to remain in their homes and communities.



_______________________________________________
The idea of the Affordable Care Act is to deregulate and dismantle all the public oversight of health care so that the industry can act with impunity just as banks do.  So, health care once controlled within the confines of medical professionals are now handed to private corporations acting as clinic care and of course this will be the only access for the middle-working class families not able to afford the Silver or  higher health plans.

That goal of deregulation takes the form of placing health care everywhere-----at the same time public justice and oversight and accountability is dismantled meaning the public never knows if care is happening or where the money went. I further devolves the US into this third world systemic fraud and corruption this time with our health care.  People will die because tons of money is misappropriated and stolen and people will not have equal access rights as people will be denied for any reason.  THAT'S WHAT LOSING EQUAL PROTECTION IS ALL ABOUT!


When you read that 30 million people will be entering the system it is mostly the people mandated to buy insurance with no protections on how high those insurance rates will go----and they will go high.

MANDATED TO BUY INSURANCE THAT ONLY ALLOWS YOU ACCESS TO PREVENTATIVE CARE AND THEN THOSE RATES CAN SOAR.....


PEOPLE WILL BE BANKRUPTED IN NO TIME AND LIVE IN POVERTY IF THEY TRY TO ACCESS ORDINARY MEDICAL PROCEDURES.

The Affordable Care Act Will Drive Retail Pharmacies To Higher Profits

Nov. 14, 2013 6:23 PM ET  |  Includes: ABC, CVS, ESRX, RAD, WAG Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. (More...)

It's been a good year for the three major retail pharmacy chains: YTD CVS Caremark (CVS) is up 31%, Walgreen Co. (WAG) is up 61%, and Rite Aid (RAD) has soared 286%. With more generic drugs coming to market and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) less than two months away, retail pharmacy chains are gearing up to welcome what is expected to be an onslaught of newly insured Americans. With the changes in healthcare, pharmacy chains are expanding their reach to become a one-stop healthcare shop for not just prescriptions, but for other medical needs such as flu shots and minor injuries. Soon these retail pharmacies will further encroach on an area where physicians once had the monopoly: managing chronic diseases such as diabetes and asthma. This strategy should add to more revenue for the pharmacy chains with both CVS and Walgreen leading the way.

Adam J. Fein, a healthcare industry consultant who runs the Drug Channels blog, sees changes coming to the way people are currently treated. "Retail competition is coming to healthcare, and pharmacies are on the leading edge." According to the Congressional Budget Office, healthcare spending in America will balloon to 22% of gross domestic product in 2038, from 16.4% in 2011. That means that healthcare spending will account for more than a fifth of the economy, and retail pharmacies are looking for a larger piece of the pie as they move beyond filling prescriptions.

ACA -- Making Pharmacies A One Stop Shop


The government's ACA will bring in approximately 30 million newly insured customers into the healthcare system. Walgreen, CVS, and Rite aid recognize that the millions of people who stand to gain health insurance represent an opportunity for increased pharmacy business in all aspects of the store from drugs to personal products to acute medical needs. To insure a share of the new found customer base, the pharmacy companies have been working closely with the government in promoting uninsured customers to sign up for health insurance with the goal of having them visit the pharmacy clinic and load their baskets with front end merchandise.

____________________________________________
Raise your hand if you understand that policy with a goal of consolidating and deregulating the health industry combined with mandated purchase of insurance would lead to insurance industry capture of the American people!  EVERYONE

THESE POLS ARE NOT FIGHTING IT----THEY VOTED THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT INTO PLACE KNOWING THAT THIS WOULD HAPPEN.

It is just as when neo-liberals with Clinton broke the Glass Steagall wall and passed NAFTA killing the middle-class and creating unaccountable global corporations. 


THE SAME POLS IN OFFICE NOW DID THAT THEN AND WE KEEP VOTING THEM BACK INTO OFFICE!

In Maryland that is Cardin, Sarbanes, Cummings, Hoyer still in office from moving the US from first world to second world and now working to send the US to third world.


Remember, the Trans Pacific Trade Pact specifically states that any national law that interferes with corporate profit will be ignored by global corporations.  So, any law passed that supposedly controls cost will not legally stand when TPP is passed.
  A deregulated insurance industry will soak Americans for all they are worth.




'Powerful corporate interests want to use the TPP to:


- Offshore good-paying jobs to low-wage nations and undercut working conditions globally and further reducing wages in the United States

- Create new tools for attacking environmental, health, labor and consumer safety standards

- Expand the deregulation of banks, hedge funds and insurance companies


- Further concentrate global food supplies, displacing family farmers and subjecting consumers to wild price fluctuations

- Institute longer patents that restrict access to affordable, generic medications'


Health Insurance Premiums Are Soaring as Industry Profits Continue to Rise - Sen. Feinstein, Rep. Schakowsky, Maine Insurance Superintendent and State Insurance Experts Say Regulation Works to Hold Down Rate Increases

Wednesday, May 11, 2011 General News  MED INDIA

Who: Sen. Dianne Feinstein

Rep. Jan Schakowsky

Mila Kofman - Maine Insurance Superintendent

Harvey Rosenfield and Carmen Balber - Consumer Watchdog

What: Newsmaker Briefing: "How Health Insurance Rate Regulation Can Lower Premiums and Save Health Reform"

When: 2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m., Wednesday, May 11.

Sen. Feinstein and Rep. Schakowsky will open the briefing

Where: 116 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Constitution Ave and 1st St NE, Washington, D.C.

Join Sen. Feinstein and Rep. Schakowsky, Maine's top insurance regulator and state insurance experts to discuss spiraling health insurance rate increases and how regulation can hold down costs for consumers at a Consumer Watchdog briefing Wednesday afternoon on Capitol Hill.

Consumer Watchdog will also release a new report that examines health insurance rate regulation in the states, and finds that states that are instituting or strengthening laws requiring rate review and approval, including New York, Massachusetts and Maine, are seeing cost-control results.

Sen. Feinstein and Rep. Schakowsky introduced legislation in the 112th Congress to require HHS or the states to reject excessive or unjustified health insurance rates.

Maine Insurance Superintendent Mila Kofman has used that state's law to conduct comprehensive reviews of rate increases -- including public hearings, consumer intervenors and transparency requirements -- to protect consumers from millions in unnecessary rate increases.

Consumer Watchdog founder Harvey Rosenfield wrote California's model law for review and prior approval of property casualty insurance rates that has saved drivers $62 billion.

Consumer Watchdog Washington, DDCD director Carmen Balber will outline HHS regulations from the federal health reform law requiring review of unreasonable rate increases, and highlight regulatory successes and failures in other states.

Health insurance premiums increased 138% in the last decade while medical inflation rose just 31%. 1st quarter 2011 financial reports show health insurance industry profits are on track to beat last year's huge results. Consumer Watchdog's report finds that, if premium increases continue unchecked, health reform will fail in its primary goal of expanding access to health insurance.

CONTACT: Carmen Balber, +1-202-629-3043, cell: +1-310-403-0284, Judy Dugan, cell +1-213-280-0175

/PRNewswire-USNewswire -- May 10, 2011/

SOURCE Consumer Watchdog






0 Comments

April 15th, 2014

4/15/2014

0 Comments

 
THE SAME CORPORATIONS RECEIVING MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN CORPORATE TAX BREAKS FROM NEO-LIBERALS IN MARYLAND ARE THE SAME ONES MOST GUILTY OF PAYROLL AND WORKPLACE FRAUDS THAT COST ALL MARYLAND CITIZENS THEIR SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICARE, PUBLIC SERVICES, AND MANY PEOPLE THE ABILITY TO SIMPLY EARN A LIVING.




Have you noticed that corporate NPR/APM says nothing about the Affordable Care Act ending Medicare and Medicaid as Federal programs and having a goal of creating global health institutions that will operate like Wall Street banks?  It is their job to make sure the public receives what is called DIS-INFORMATION or what NPR likes to call TRUTHINESS/SPIN.  Our public media was the source of real public interest information but was taken corporate and now simply uses taxpayer money as a corporate subsidy.

Today, NPR did the same with Social Security and again they used airtime to promote the privatization of Social Security with the policy of myRA.  Employers contributing matching funds to a private payroll deduction that goes into a 401k plan?  REALLY?????  Do you know there is a shortfall in Social Security and private pensions not only from fraud but from the fact that corporations have failed to make their contributions.  With no Federal oversight of payroll payments retirement plans have been left without legally required contributions.  See why the 1% are telling us the American people have no retirement savings?
The face of this report was another person of color telling what are largely workers of color to do something that is really, really bad for them.....placing your money in a 401k plan and allow what will become mandatory payroll deductions.  The people depending on Social Security the most....are low-wage earners and it is this same group that will lose the most as this social safety net is ended by corporate neo-liberals like Hillary and Obama.  Although the low-wage earners are the ones who will suffer most, all Americans know and love Social Security whether democrat or republican so this move to end all social programs including Medicare and Social Security by neo-liberals will not stand. Keep in mind as well that corporate NPR/APM has gone from being a voice of the people to telling the people what will happen.  This is state media not public media.

The Reagan Administration tripled the amount of payroll taxes taken from our wages back in the 1980s just so there would be plenty for the baby boomers when they retired......the Social Security Trust is flush with money so ignore the spin as we get corporate pols out of office to secure these funds.

Let's take a look at where all those Trust funds went to see how we are going to recover money to those Trusts! 

I've spoken earlier about pension fraud and the need to recover this.....with Wall Street systemically criminal you do not want your retirement in 401k plans.  Wall Street uses these plans as fodder and their value is lost every several years and with economic implosions you never increase the value/or lose money in these market plans.

Social Security Chief: Women Live Longer, So They Should Save Early


April 15, 2014 3:21 AM ET 6 min 28 sec NPR


Acting Social Security Commissioner Carolyn Colvin at a news conference last year. She says women need to start saving for retirement early in their careers.

Charles Dharapak/AP The Social Security Administration distributes retirement benefits to nearly 60 million Americans. And of those beneficiaries, nearly 60 percent are women.

The SSA is led by a woman, too. Carolyn Colvin was once retired herself, collecting benefits from the agency she now serves. A call from President Obama brought her back in 2010, and she recently took over as acting commissioner. As part of Morning Edition's look at the , Colvin spoke with Kelly McEvers about how women plan for financial security.

Colvin points out two realities she hopes women consider when planning for retirement. First, women make less money than men on average; when they stop working, their monthly Social Security checks are smaller, too.

Also, women tend to live longer than men. Colvin encourages women to estimate their own life expectancy with the , and find out more . Doing so, she says, often makes women realize they can outlive their savings — and that retirement benefits alone won't be enough.

Interview Highlights On men's vs. women's retirement benefits

The average amount (in 2014) is a little over $17,000 per year for men and a little over $13,000 per year for women. One of the reasons that women are likely to have lower lifetime benefits is because they often have lower lifetime earnings than men. They are more likely than men to take time out of the workforce to care for family members. And of course we still have the issue of gender inequality [in wages].

“ Many women will say they don't have the ability to save, and what I say is that they cannot afford not to save.

On the importance of personal savings

Social Security was never intended to be the primary source of retirement.
It was to be one of three legs on a stool, we always say. ... And then, of course, private pension and savings. And we know now that many of the private pensions have been reduced. Some women work in jobs where they really don't have a private pension, and of course many women — particularly low-income wage earners — find themselves just not saving as much as they should in order to ensure that they are able to have a decent income during retirement.

On ways women can plan for the future

One of the things we try to focus on is encouraging women, even at very young ages, to begin to save. ... Many women will say they don't have the ability to save, and what I say is that they cannot afford not to save.

For me, I had to find a way of saving where I would not in fact use that money later. And so I found, for me, real estate was the key. I also found that it did not make sense to leave money on the table, so for every job I've worked where there has been an opportunity for the employer match, I've maximized that.

The most important thing is you need to spend below your means. Maybe it's giving up soda, or giving up cigarettes. ... And then each time they get a raise, don't take that raise. Put it into a 401(k). They haven't gotten used to spending it. It's there. And it will grow.
___________________
You can tell the quality of media programming if everything they report has the words 'scam' attached to it.  As this article shows, between outright fraud, fees, and mismanagement----there are no benefits to placing your money in 401k plans.  Corporate media is selling this for Wall Street because Wall Street has lost all of its overseas business because it is known worldwide as being criminal.  Corporate pols now need more domestic money coming into the stock market.

So, why is Obama creating myRA as the replacement for Social Security------a republican plan to end all social programs?  Neo-liberals and neo-cons are global corporate pols working for wealth and profit.....they do not care about quality of life.

Below you see a recommendation of pensions over 401k, but with no oversight in pension management by government even this once safe investment plan is constantly defrauded.


The 401k Scam
Author: Nathaniel Downes July 7, 2012 2:31 pm


The Demos report is an eye opener as to the hidden costs which cause 401k programs to not only fail to keep up with inflation, but to fall behind even the base amount invested into these funds.

What they found was that, for the projected samples that the 401k would lose over $155k for its entire lifetime. Since the entire sample fund at the time of retirement would be $320k, that means a full third of the money which was put into the system was taken by the 401k itself in the guise of fees.

How does this work you may ask? The report goes into detail, but we shall give a simplified example here.

First, your 401k funds are typically put into mutual funds, so let us first address those.

If you put $10,000 into a mutual fund which lists a 3% return, it sounds good, yes? But that is after the fees are deducted. These fees are listed as a percentage of your total investment, but they are deducted from the revenue generated. You get $300 added to the $10,000, but that was after the $150 in “expense ratio,” mutual fund fees such as marketing fees, management fees, and administration feeds, as well as $150 in direct transaction fees have been removed. Your $10,000 had earned $600, but half of that was eaten up in fees. And it does this each and every year. $300 every year for 40 years gives you $12,000 in total fees deducted, more than your original investment.


Then there is the 401k itself, which has its own fees associated with the program. These fund ratio fees are typically around 1%, but over the life of the 401k this adds up to a substantial lump sum.


That original $10,000 over the 40 years of the fund ended up at just over $22,000. Without those fees, it would have been just over $102,000. That is a huge shortfall. Even if you invest an additional $10,000 every year, you are not catching up to this shortfall, as the $1.7 million the fund should have is reduced to $640k, a loss of over a million dollars. And that is if there has been no economic slowdown during the intervening 40 years, which an reduce the principal even further while not reducing the fees associated with that. In a downturn, the fees make the losses even more pronounced than they were before as a result.


Now, I used a high fee rate, typically double the average large mutual fund but not the highest fee currently in the market (which as of the time of writing is 1.53%, held by the HDGE Active Bear ETF Profile Fund according to my research), to best demonstrate the amount lost to these fees.

By comparison, a pension plan is a form of insurance, similar to what you would find for your automobile or your healthcare. Money taken in is used to pay out for those who have met the qualifications for payment. Many of these systems use surplus funds to invest in stable, fixed investments, such as treasury bonds. Social Security works in this manner, surplus funds paid in go into a special trust fund filled with US Treasury Notes, pre-paid cash in effect. The trade-off for this is that the amounts paid out are not directly owned by the individual, they are a large pool that all tap into.

A US Treasury Note, similar to one used by the Social Security Trust

By doing this, the overhead fees are minimal, typically under 1%, and as the amount is not accruing nor are large numbers of transactions being handled, this is not reapplied to the same funds repeatedly as with a mutual fund. As a result, a funded pension plan is far more likely to weather economic hardships without difficulty.

When planning ones retirement, risk is the last word you want to hear.

___________________________________________
Make no mistake, the groups proposing the idea of expanding Social Security are sometimes not as progressive as they seem, but this is in fact the way to recover all the losses to the Social Security Trusts and the pension that were raided.  The assumption is this-----

YOU HAVE TAKEN ALL OF OUR PENSIONS, HOUSES, AND SAVINGS SO WE WILL NOW USE SOCIAL SECURITY AS OUR PRIMARY RETIREMENT SUPPORT.


The reason I am not comfortable with some of the groups putting forward these ideas is they never mention the recovery of fraud and public malfeasance in rebuilding these Trusts.  Do you know how much money is lost to the SS Trust just from payroll fraud-----corporations categorizing employees as independent contractors when they are not?  Over 20 million Americans fell into this category and this has happened for a decade or more.  Trillions of dollars have been lost to SS Trust with this one fraud.  So, not mentioning it in the solution-----just as not mentioning Medicare and Medicaid fraud in the solution of Expanded and Improved Medicare for All falls short as a solution.



Wednesday, Jul 24, 2013 12:12 PM EST

Growing consensus on Social Security: Expand it After staving off Obama's plan to cut benefits, progressives are fighting to boost checks to seniors

Alex Seitz-Wald




Back when “grand bargain” fever was gripping Washington earlier this year, progressive activists mounted an uphill campaign against their allies in the White House and the Capitol, warning there would be hell to pay if President Obama went forward with his plan to trim Social Security benefits.

Thanks in part to their effort, along with Republican recalcitrance and changing economic realities, Democrats have abandoned any plans to mess with the social safety net, at least for the moment. The federal deficit has fallen precipitously this year  – Treasury actually ran a surplus in June — and with it, the impetus for a “grand bargain” trading safety net cuts for increased tax revenue has evaporated. (This may have been the White House’s plan all along.)

Now, as Obama prepares to deliver a major speech on the economy today, the scrappy activists who were until recently playing defense against cuts are turning around and pushing to increase Social Security benefits.

“Social Security is the most effective anti-poverty program in history. Forget cutting it — we need to double down on success and make it even stronger,” Jim Dean, the chair of Democracy for America, will say in an email to supporters today.


The coalition of leading progressive groups, including the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Democracy for America, Credo Action, MoveOn.org, Progressives United and Social Security Works, are joining together to back a plan introduced by Democratic Sens. Tom Harkin and Mark Begich to boost benefits and shore up Social Security’s finances for the better part of the next century.

These kinds of economic justice issues are Harkin’s bread and butter, but Begich, who is up for reelection this year in deep-red Alaska, is an interesting addition. In May, he made a splash by breaking with Obama on Social Security cuts. His leadership on this issue suggests he thinks expanding the social safety net will not only not hurt him, but actually help him politically, even in one of the most Republican states in the union.

And there’s reason to believe he’s right — Social Security is overwhelmingly popular. A new PPP poll commissioned by DFA and the PCCC found that 51 percent of Kentucky voters support the Harkin-Begich framework, which would boost benefits for 75-year-old workers by $452 per year and by $807 per year for 85-year-olds. Twenty-four percent said they didn’t support the plan, and another 24 said they weren’t sure.

Obama’s budget called for changing the way inflation is calculated for Social Security by switching to the “chained CPI” (consumer price index) formula, which would have the effect of reducing benefits. Begich and Harkin have each introduced slightly different plans, but both would also change the inflation formula. Their change, however, to the “CPI-E,” better accounts for the fact that seniors spend disproportionate amounts of their income on health care, the price of which grows faster than the price of goods overall.

To pay for this expansion, and to ensure the solvency of all of Social Security for decades into the future, the plan would eliminate the income cap on Social Security FICA taxes. Currently, income above $113,700 is exempt from the tax, meaning someone who makes $1 million a year pays the tax on only about a tenth of their income. The new poll commissioned by the groups found that 62 percent of Kentuckians support removing the cap, while 20 percent oppose it and another 18 percent are unsure.

Some liberals have criticized the idea of removing the cap, arguing that it would undermine the political strength of Social Security by making the plan more of a redistributional welfare system than a social insurance scheme. But others point out that the cap means the current Social Security tax is regressive, charging poor and middle-class Americans a larger portion of their income than millionaires and billionaires.

_______________________________________

When people hear the words 'underground economy' they think drugs and prostitution or selling of stolen goods.  It's always the poor who are placed into this category.  Yet, it is the global corporations who are now the biggest 'underground economies' in the US.  Make no mistake, the entire Gulf of Mexico economy is cash only just to avoid paying things like payroll tax and yet, these southern states take the most in social services in the country.  These citizens have been left by their politicians paid so poorly through life with no Social Security payments because of this cash economy.  The same is happening to immigrants as they and low-wage domestic workers are categorized as independent contractors illegally forced to take responsibility for the corporation's tax and insurance costs.  THIS IS HAPPENING AT AN EPIDEMIC PACE AND IT HAPPENS BECAUSE THERE IS NO GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT OF WAGES----

YOU KNOW----DEPARTMENT OF LICENSING AND REGULATION.
People being paid almost nothing don't say anything about these frauds because they cannot afford the cost of these taxes.  Yet, it is these same people not able to claim Social Security benefits when they need them.  The poor are being duped into participating and/or are being forced to pay that which is not required because of third world government malfeasance.

If you think this is only the shrimp boat operator or the waste removal small business person-----I have spoken often that it is Johns Hopkins who outsources the jobs to corporate Human Resources businesses they know are operating illegally.  Large property management corporations are also doing this.  It is going main stream and all of this is what drives the losses to Social Security.


SEE WHY NEO-LIBERALS ARE TELLING YOU THAT SOCIAL SECURITY IS GOING BUST?  IF THOSE POSING PROGRESSIVE SOLUTIONS LIKE EXPANDED SOCIAL SECURITY ARE NOT SHOUTING THIS----THEY ARE NOT WORKING FOR REAL SOLUTIONS.


Underground Economy Operations
  • Report Payroll Tax Fraud
  • Definition of "Underground Economy"
  • What Does It Cost You?
  • EDD’s Underground Economy Operations
  • Significant UEO Program Efforts
    • Employment Enforcement Task Force
    • Labor Enforcement Task Force
    • Construction Enforcement Project
  • Joint Enforcement Strike Force
  • Annual Fraud Reports
Report Payroll Tax Fraud The Employment Development Department (EDD) has a charge to investigate businesses that avoid paying payroll taxes, many of which are part of the underground economy. If you would like to help us protect workers and create a level playing field for business competition, the EDD offers several methods for reporting such businesses:

  • Call our toll-free hotline: 1-800-528-1783
  • Fax: 916-227-2772
  • Submit a Fraud Reporting Form online
  • Mail us a UEO Lead Referral/Complaint Form, available in English (DE 660) and Spanish (DE 660/S/).
  • Help Us Fight Fraud, DE 2370
Definition of "Underground Economy" "Underground economy" is a term that refers to those individuals and businesses that deal in cash and/or use other schemes to conceal their activities and their true tax liability from government licensing, regulatory, and taxing agencies. Underground economy is also referred to as tax evasion, tax fraud, cash pay, tax gap, payments under-the-table, and off-the-books.

What Does It Cost You? A February 2005 report, California’s Tax Gap, prepared by California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office, estimates California’s income tax gap to be $6.5 billion. Reports on the underground economy indicate it imposes significant burdens on: (1) the State of California, (2) businesses that comply with the law, and (3) workers who lose benefits and other protections provided by state law when the businesses they work for operate in the underground economy.

Business: When businesses operate in the underground economy, they illegally reduce the amount of money expensed for insurance, payroll taxes, licenses, employee benefits, safety equipment, and safety conditions. These types of employers then gain an unfair competitive advantage over businesses that comply with the various business laws. This causes unfair competition in the marketplace and forces law-abiding businesses to pay higher taxes and expenses.

Workers: Employees of the businesses that do not comply are also affected. Their working conditions may not meet the legal requirements, which can put them in danger. Their wage earnings may also be less than those required by law, and benefits they are entitled to can be denied or delayed because their wages are not properly reported.

Consumers: Consumers can also be affected when contracting with unlicensed businesses. Licensing provisions are designed to ensure minimum levels of skill and knowledge to protect the consumer.

The ultimate impact is erosion of the economic stability and working conditions in this State. Our pamphlet Paying Cash Wages "Under the Table"...Is It Really Worth the Risk? outlines some of the costs and effects of cash pay on your business, your employees, and taxpayers in general. It is available in both English (DE 573CA) and Spanish (DE 573CA/S/).

EDD’s Underground Economy Operations The EDD is concerned about workers who lose benefits and other protections provided by state law when the businesses that they work for operate in the underground economy. When businesses operate in the underground economy, they gain an unfair competitive advantage over businesses that comply with the law. This causes unfair competition in the marketplace and forces law-abiding businesses and every citizen in California to pay higher taxes. EDD’s Underground Economy Operations (UEO) organization was established in 1993 to implement and administer the activities of the Joint Enforcement Strike Force. The mission of UEO is to reduce unfair business competition and protect the rights of workers by:

  • Coordinating the joint enforcement of tax, labor, and licensing laws.
  • Detecting and deterring payroll tax violations in the underground economy. This includes unreported cash pay, wages reported on Forms 1099, and unreported/unpaid payroll tax deductions.
  • Conducting research to identify strategies to increase compliance with payroll tax laws.
  • Educating customers on UEO programs to increase compliance with payroll tax laws.
Significant UEO Program Efforts The UEO has three significant UEO program focus areas: the Employment Enforcement Task Force, the

Labor Enforcement Task Force, and the Construction Enforcement Project.

Employment Enforcement Task Force (EETF) Participating agencies in the EETF include:

  • Employment Development Department (EDD)
  • Department of Industrial Relations (DIR)
  • Contractors State License Board (CSLB)
The goal of EETF is to identify and bring into compliance those individuals and businesses in the underground economy who are in violation of payroll tax, labor, and licensing laws.

The EETF agents from each agency jointly conduct on-site inspections of businesses by interviewing owners, managers, and workers to determine if businesses are in compliance with payroll tax, labor, and licensing laws. To minimize the disruption of compliant businesses, the EETF conducts investigations only if there is a reasonable belief of violations of the Unemployment Insurance Code, Labor Code, and/or the Business and Professions Code.

Employment Enforcement Task Force Program Results Result 2008 2009 Joint Inspections 504 389 Previously Unreported Employees 4,638 4,092 Unreported Wages $187,059,631 $116,249,769 Payroll Tax Audits 422 357 Payroll Tax Assessments $29,344,488 $17,915,081 Labor Code Citation Amounts $5,575,312 $4,106,894 To learn more about the EETF program, see our Information Sheet: Employment Enforcement Task Force, available in both English (DE 631) and Spanish (DE 631/S/).



Labor Enforcement Task Force (LETF) The LETF was initially formed in 2005 as the Economic and Employment Enforcement Coalition and began operating as the Labor Enforcement Task Force in January of 2012. The LETF was formed to: ensure California workers receive proper payment of wages and are provided a safe work environment; ensure California receives all employment taxes, fees, and penalties due from employers; eliminate unfair business competition by leveling the playing field; make efficient use of state and federal resources in carrying out the mission of the LETF. They focus on industries that traditionally employ low wage workers. Agriculture, construction, automotive, carwash, courier, warehouse, garment, and restaurants are the program’s current targeted industries. The LETF members include: the Department of Industrial Relation’s (DIR) Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (Labor Commissioner) and Cal/OSHA; the EDD; the Board of Equalization (BOE); and the Department of Consumer Affairs’ (DCA) Contractor’s State Licensing Board (CSLB) and Bureau of Automotive Repair (BAR).



Construction Enforcement Project (CEP) The EDD recognizes that the vast majority of construction contractors are honest business people who operate legitimately within the law and properly report payroll taxes. However, there are some contractors who do not properly report, and this impacts both workers and law-abiding contractors. The CEP was developed because usual techniques for identifying tax and employment fraud were not as effective in the construction industry. Unlike other industries that have permanent business locations, construction businesses have constantly changing job sites. By the time information is developed that a contractor is probably operating in the underground economy, work at the job site has often been completed and an on-site inspection would not discover any labor law violations.

The CEP uses a variety of investigative techniques to identify contractors who avoid payroll taxes. When a CEP investigator develops evidence of underground economy activities, a payroll tax audit referral is made to the EDD Audit Program. The CEP goal is to develop techniques that will maximize the detection of construction industry employers operating in the underground economy.

Construction Enforcement Project Program Results Result 2008 2009 Previously Unreported Employees 1,777 4,965 Unreported Wages $65,646,628 $56,554,550 Payroll Tax Audits 125 115 Payroll Tax Assessments $8,834,006 $7,565,798 Joint Enforcement Strike Force On October 26, 1993, the Governor signed Executive Order W-66-93, which created the Joint Enforcement Strike Force on the Underground Economy. The Governor subsequently signed Senate Bill 1490, which placed the provisions of the Executive Order into law as Section 329 of the California Unemployment Insurance Code, effective January 1, 1995.

The EDD is the lead agency for the Strike Force, and the Director of EDD is the chairperson. The Strike Force is responsible for enhancing the development and sharing of information necessary to combat the underground economy, to improve the coordination of enforcement activities, and to develop methods to pool, focus, and target enforcement resources. The Strike Force is empowered and authorized to form joint enforcement teams when appropriate to utilize the collective investigative and enforcement capabilities of the Strike Force members. For more information, visit the Joint Enforcement Strike Force (JESF) page.

In addition to EDD, the other Strike Force members are:

  • Department of Consumer Affairs 1-800-952-5210
  • Department of Industrial Relations
    Minimum Wage, Safety, and Work Violations 1-888-275-9243
  • Department of Insurance 1-800-927-HELP (4357)
  • Franchise Tax Board Tax Informant Hotline: 1-800-540-3453
  • Board of Equalization 1-888-334-3300
  • Department of Justice 1-800-952-5225

    _________________________________________


    IMAGINE THAT THE ABOVE POLICY WAS WRITTEN
    ALMOST A DECADE AGO AND SINCE THEN, ALL OF THESE CORPORATE FRAUDS AGAINST OUR RETIREMENT TRUSTS AND AGAINST THOSE EARNING THE LOWEST WAGES IS SOARING.  It hurts all Americans when systemic fraud allows our Trusts to be depleted and this money must come back and not from the low-wage earner burdened unfairly.

    Maryland is ground zero for these frauds and it is the DLLR-----State agency charged with oversight of these industries.  See why the election for Governor of Maryland can only have candidates known to continue to turn their heads to Maryland's massive and systemic frauds?  See why it was Maryland's DLLR head-----Tom Perez -----that was Obama's Labor Department choice?  This is the person charged with ignoring massive wage and tax thefts by corporations operating in Maryland.

    Now, immigrant workers are sometime scapegoated for taking work from domestic workers but these immigrant workers are being used and exploited while simply trying to earn a living so it is our duty to fight for justice for all workers to bring an end to these practices.  Enforcing workplace laws helps everyone.


    IT IS DISGUSTING AND THIS IS WHY GLOBAL CORPORATE MEDIA AND POLS ARE PRETENDING THERE ARE SHORTFALLS IN OUR SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE TRUSTS.


    This is a Texas article but Maryland is just as bad....neo-liberal/neo-con means massive systemic fraud and corruption.


  • Employee or Independent Contractor? Employer Fraud Costs Workers 

  • September 30, 2013 / Chris Wagner 

  •  Wrongly classifying workers as independent contractors gets around laws like workers' compensation and family and medical leave. It's costing Texas construction workers millions, according to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 520 in Austin. Photo: Workers Defense Project.

    Misclassification of employees as independent contractors is a serious problem in the Texas construction industry—so serious that my local decided to do an undercover investigation, using covert workers to infiltrate job sites.

    The conditions they found were severe.

    “The workers sometimes wouldn’t even get paid that week. They were scared to report the violations to anyone. They feared their boss and the government due to deportation,” said Philip Lawhon, assistant business manager/organizer for Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 520.

    “One of our members said that it reminded him of working in Mexico. He said, ‘I came to America to get away from these types of issues.’”

    More than 40 percent of construction employees are misclassified as independent contractors, according to the Build a Better Texas report, released earlier this year by the Workers Defense Project.

    It’s a problem for the workers who get misclassified: many labor laws do not cover them, exposing them to abuse. It’s a problem for legitimate employers, who are undercut by the unscrupulous ones.

    And it’s a problem for all Texas residents, as cities and the state lose out on tax revenue, and social safety nets—already stretched thin—are forced to help out the cheated workers.

    As business manager of Local 520, I instructed my organizing department to investigate these illegal employment practices and to act on their findings.

    Going Undercover Twelve high-rise projects, 17 to 50 stories, in and around downtown Austin are in some stage of construction, from planning to near completion. My organizers found that, of the eight that have started construction, six are using electrical contractors that misclassify their employees as independent contractors.

    Four of them are using the same contractor, Power Design Inc., from Florida. Managers at Power Design, we found, had attempted to insulate themselves from charges of payroll fraud by subcontracting out most of the labor to still other contractors, ESP Electric and ES&R, both owned by brothers Rigar and Alex Espinosa.

    What Is an Employee? According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), whether someone is an employee or an independent contractor depends on the degree of control the person has over the work.

    Three categories of evidence are used to determine the degree of control and independence:

    Behavioral: Does the company control, or have the right to control, what the worker does and how the worker does his or her job?
    Is the worker told when and where to do the work, what tools or equipment to use, where to buy supplies and services, what order to follow when doing the work? Does the worker get more detailed instructions or less detailed? The type of evaluation system also helps determine behavioral control: an employee would be evaluated on how the work is performed, while an independent contractor might only be evaluated on the end product.

    Financial: Are the business aspects of the worker’s job controlled by the payer? (These include things like how the worker is paid, whether expenses are reimbursed, who provides tools/supplies, etc.) What level of investment has the worker made in the necessary tools of the trade? Does the worker incur substantial unreimbursed expenses? Does the worker have opportunity for profit or loss? What is the method of compensation? Someone paid an hourly wage is usually an employee.

    Type of Relationship: Are there written contracts or employee type benefits (i.e., pension plan, insurance, vacation pay, etc.)? Will the relationship continue, and is the work performed a key aspect of the business?

    The IRS provides Form SS-8 to help employers and workers determine who is an employee and who is an independent contractor.

    We got three of our members hired on with these two companies during the summer of 2012, all of them Mexican citizens fluent in Spanish.

    These members found that “90 percent of the installers were undocumented immigrant workers,” Lawhon said. “These workers’ skills were very limited. The workers were trained to do basically one task and that was predominantly all they did.”

    How Workers Are Abused Independent contractors are sometimes called “1099ers,” because of the IRS tax form 1099 that employers must give them at the end of the year, rather than the W-2 required for employees.

    These workers are mostly unprotected by labor and employment law. They are not covered by minimum-wage and overtime requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

    They are not entitled to the protection from discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin afforded by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act does not protect them, nor do the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, or the National Labor Relations Act.

    The Build a Better Texas survey of five cities found that 81 percent of Texas construction workers are Latino, and that 73 percent are foreign-born—making them especially ripe for abuse because of their lack of knowledge of U.S. labor and tax laws. The fact that many are undocumented means they are less likely to report abuses.

    Shells As far as we can tell, ESP and ES&R exist only to provide manpower to other unscrupulous electrical contractors. We can find no records of either company contracting with any general contractors or pulling any electrical construction permits.

    ESP and ES&R both pay their workers as independent contractors, anywhere from $8 to $14 an hour, with no deductions, no unemployment, no workers' comp, and no overtime pay.


    Workers are hired by word of mouth and paid by check. Many frankly prefer being paid under the table—but they get upset at the working conditions and getting shorted on their pay, getting paid late, or not getting paid at all.

    The workers did not even receive 1099 forms at the end of the year.

    Honest Businesses Pay the Price A fair marketplace for labor assumes that all employers follow the law. Honest contractors are at a disadvantage when competing with those who misclassify their workers.

    Companies that operate illegally by not paying payroll taxes, unemployment insurance taxes, and overtime compensation are able to underbid legitimate contractors by 15 to 25 percent, according to Michael White, Vice President for Government Affairs for the Texas Contractors Association.

    Responsible businesses are also burdened by increased unemployment insurance tax rates, caused by the recession, when others fail to make their required payments.

    Misclassified employees, cheated out of pay, also have less money to purchase goods and services, so the state loses out on sales tax revenue—creating another burden on an already cash-strapped state. Texas has no income tax.


    Lost unemployment taxes due to this kind of payroll fraud total around $54.5 million a year—meaning that much less money for unemployment benefits for those who need them.

    And workers misclassified as independent contractors get neither health insurance nor worker’s comp. When they are injured on the job, or when they or a family member are sick, they must rely on the charity of public hospitals, driving up the costs of health care for all.


    Widening Investigation After gathering information for several weeks, in November last year Local 520 filed complaints on behalf of the workers with the U.S. Department of Labor Wage & Hour Division, the Texas Workforce Commission (for failure to pay unemployment taxes), and the IRS.

    The wheels of justice move incredibly slowly and quietly in these cases, and as a third party complainant, Local 520 gets very little information on their progress.

    We have heard nothing from the IRS.

    The most encouraging correspondence has come from the Department of Labor. A representative called Local 520 in May and said that, since ESP and ES&R had kept such poor records, the DOL was expanding the complaint to include Power Design Inc. The DOL was opening an investigation into 147 Power Design projects all along the South from Texas to Florida.

    Changing Texas Law While Texas has long been a business-friendly state, with elected officials loath to restrict enterprise, legitimate businesses have recently made a push to pass stiffer penalties for misclassifying employees as independent contractors.

    Bills introduced in the Texas House of Representatives and Senate would increase the penalties for payroll fraud. Many legitimate subcontractors support such laws--though one group very much against stopping payroll fraud is the Homebuilders Association.

    The City of Austin recently passed an ordinance to make it harder to misclassify electricians. Its language was developed by a coalition of union electricians, union and non-union electrical contractors, and the City of Austin Electrical Inspection Department.

    The ordinance requires that electricians working as “independent contractors” have a Texas electrical contractor’s license.

    Most of the workers being exploited have only an electrical apprentice license, which just requires paying a small fee to the state licensing department. The contractor’s license is, of course, much more difficult to obtain, with electrical experience and knowledge requirements involved.


    The only way to stop the illegal practices of unscrupulous construction contractors is for organized labor and legitimate business owners to join forces, to work toward stiffer penalties and enforcement and to demand that the government entities charged with enforcing existing labor law do their jobs.


    Chris Wagner is business manager of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 520 in Austin, Texas.

    - See more at: http://www.labornotes.org/2013/09/employee-or-independent-contractor-employer-fraud-costs-workers#sthash.8jLE1Cxr.dpuf


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April 09th, 2014

4/9/2014

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Raise your hands if you think giving the government authority to force American citizens to take PHARMA under the guise of mental illness is a good idea-------NO ONE!!!!!!  Remember, your incumbent in Maryland voted for the NDAA national security law that allows the government to hold American citizens without charge for as long as they want.

  This is what they do in Iran and China to dissidents. 


What we are seeing is yet another money vehicle to build corporate infrastructure with taxpayer money that will end up helping almost none of the people it is directed to help.  Longevity in the US will drop in one generation from lack of access to health care for 80% of Americans.


Today, I'd like to speak to Medicare and health industry fraud that is already soaring with deregulated/consolidated health markets.  There will be no controlling global health industry just as our government says it cannot control banks.


Remember when we were told the idea of state health exchanges were to give consumers more access to information and that would increase competition? SURPRISE----THAT WAS NOT THE GOAL AT ALL.

MANDATING INSURANCE AND CONSOLIDATION AND DEREGULATION ARE THE GOALS OF ACA-----THAT'S A CORPORATE POL FOR YOU-----ALWAYS WORKING FOR WEALTH AND PROFIT.

As we watch Dr. Sharfstein of Maryland's health exchange debacle testify to Congress about the mess that is Maryland's health exchange please remember that throughout this process Sharfstein was arrogant in making the process behind closed doors......NO TRANSPARENCY ....and came out of public meetings conducted behind closed doors to tell those gathered that the details of how health institutions would be monitored for meeting Federal requirements and for oversight of the entire process would be developed at a later time.  He did not look to care about the descriptions of the tiered plans.  As the article below shows, Maryland is ranked again at the bottom in transparency in its health exchange.  Sharfstein told me-----THERE IS NO FRAUD IN HEALTH CARE.

With Medicare being folded into this Maryland private health system
as if this Federal program did not exist-------THIS IS CRITICAL FOR SENIORS.  We have lost 1/2 of Medicare/Medicaid spending for these few decades and this pace will soar under these Affordable Care Act conditions.

MARYLAND DOES NOT RECOGNIZE MEDICARE AS A PROGRAM....IT HAS INTEGRATED IT INTO THE TIERED ACCESS GIVEN ALL MARYLAND CITIZENS.





Below you see a good report on the state of transparency in health system exchanges.  Please Google it.  Remember, we were told the point of these exchanges was transparency for the consumer......MARYLAND AS ALWAYS IS SHOWN WITH AN 'F'.

States Fail the Grade on Health Care Price

Transparencywww.governing.com

Despite the growing number of laws that require publicly available health care pricing for consumers, most states fail the test of transparency, according to a new report from the Health Care..


______________________________________________

Seniors know the most expensive costs to health care can be PHARMA and as I showed in my last blog neo-liberals and Obama are pushing hard to make sure PHARMA maximizes profits all over the world, so you can bet here in America citizens will not be able to access ordinary drugs with the Affordable Care Act.  Medicare Part D was created by George Bush to end the Federal program  Medicare by making Americans have to leave the Federal program in order to afford PHARMA.  Policies like Medicare Advantage are private health plans designed to end Medicare.  You can bet once they get most people onto these private PHARMA plans----these plans will disappear.

MEDICARE ADVANTAGE AND MEDICARE PART D ARE ONLY MEANT TO END THE FEDERAL PROGRAM MEDICARE.

This is why neo-liberals doubled-down on funding Medicare Part D as they work hard to make PHARMA as expensive as possible.  This is bad for you and me, not good.


Don't worry that Maryland politicians and the people they appoint to manage Maryland Department of Health cannot see entitlement fraud -----CHINA IS DOING THIS FOR THE WORLD.

T
HIS IS HOW RIDICULOUS THE LEVEL OF FRAUD AND CORRUPTION IN AMERICAN CORPORATIONS HAS GOTTEN.  THE CITIZENS OF AMERICA ARE REDUCED TO BEING PROTECTED BY ONE NATION WANTING TO CORNER PROFIT OVER ANOTHER.



All of the candidates for Governor of Maryland will continue to work for this global corporate mess except CINDY WALSH FOR GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND.

I WILL REBUILD ALL WHITE COLLAR CRIMINAL AGENCIES IN MARYLAND AND SHOUT FOR THE FEDERAL JUSTICE AGENCIES TO DO THE SAME!

You know if US corporations are acting this fraudulently overseas.....and importing their products from overseas.....WE THE PEOPLE IN THE US ARE VICTIMS OF ABSOLUTELY NO OVERSIGHT!



Investing 7/29/2013 @ 4:13PM   Forbes

Is Big Pharma Addicted To Fraud?


Recent news out of China raises the question once again of whether any aspect of the pharmaceutical business can be trusted.

First, Chinese authorities announced they were investigating GlaxoSmithKline GSK +1.24% and other pharma companies for bribing doctors, hospitals and government officials to buy and prescribe their drugs. Glaxo is accused of using a Shanghai travel agency to funnel at least $489 million in bribes.

Then the New York Times revealed last week the alarming news that an internal Glaxo audit found serious problems with the way research was conducted at the company’s Shanghai research and development center.

Last year Glaxo paid $3 billion to resolve civil and criminal allegations of, among other things, marketing widely used prescription drugs for unapproved treatments and using kickbacks to promote sales.

And in 2009, Glaxo paid $750 million to resolve civil and criminal charges that quality failures led to serious contamination of drug products at its manufacturing operations in Puerto Rico.

Glaxo is a leader in pharma fraud and wrongdoing, with other industry heavyweights close behind. Over the past decade, whistleblowers and government investigations in the US have exposed a never-ending series of problems by numerous pharma companies in all facets of the industry, starting with fraudulent “research” papers used to bolster marketing and continuing through to the manufacture of contaminated and defective products, the marketing of drugs for unapproved and life-threatening uses and the mispricing of prescription drugs.

But the combination of pharma’s noncompliant corporate culture and the prevalence of corrupt business practices in China and other emerging economies could have a lethal impact on many more consumers as pharma shifts more research and development functions, manufacturing operations and marketing efforts to those growing markets.

In China, Glaxo allegedly used the travel agency to hand out inducements by claiming the payments were for travel and meeting expenses. Glaxo issued a statement by Abbas Hussain, Glaxo’s president international, that acknowledged some of its executives may have “acted outside of our processes and controls which breaches Chinese law.”

Chinese officials say they are investigating other foreign companies for similar charges. Merck & Co MRK -0.27%., Roche Holding and Sanofi SNY +1.31% SA confirm they used the same travel agency as Glaxo, but they haven’t been accused of wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, AstraZeneca AZN -0.86% — which previously reported that it is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department — said last week that police in Shanghai questioned two company sales managers, but “we have no reason to believe it is related to the other investigations.”

If the bribery accusations are true, the pharma companies could face charges in the US for violating the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, an anti-bribery law, as well as charges by Chinese authorities. Last year, Pfizer paid $60.2 million and Eli Lilly & Co. paid $29.4 million to the US to settle allegations they had bribed government officials, including hospital administrators and government doctors, in China and other countries to approve and prescribe their products.

But having to deal with a new cop on the bribery beat – China – should scare all pharma companies and their employees who have engaged in bribery. Four Chinese-born senior executives in China were originally detained, and last week Chinese media reported that police have detained 18 more Glaxo employees and some medical personnel. A British consultant to Glaxo in China also reportedly is being held. Chinese authorities may hold all of them in custody as long as the police feels it’s necessary – putting additional pressure on Glaxo and other pharma companies to resolve this matter.

Though Big Pharma’s practices in China are grabbing headlines, not much about them is truly new. Those tactics – the use of payments disguised as speaking and consulting fees, luxury travel, sex and numerous other inducements to expand sales of prescription drugs — are marketing techniques homegrown in the U.S.  They simply have been exported to emerging markets.

Now it’s China’s turn to express the same outrage that U.S. prosecutors did when faced with a recalcitrant industry that uses illegal inducements as a core business strategy for selling its prescription drugs.

“I need to remind foreign pharmaceutical companies that, because they occupy a leading position in the industry and reap huge amounts of commercial profits, they should also bear a great responsibility to society and the public,” Gao Feng, a Public Security Ministry official said at a July 15 briefing. “While we don’t expect them to set a moral example, we expect them to obey the law.”

That may be too much to expect from pharma, which has paid more than $30.2 billion in civil and criminal penalties to the US and state governments and continues to face more allegations of wrongdoing.

Big pharma’s woes in China underscore that the industry – despite huge penalties and a long string of public mea culpas – has a fraud habit that is just too profitable to kick. Finding a cure should be a top priority of regulators worldwide.

___________________________________


As corporate NPR/APM was proud to state, no worries about fraud and penalties because these fines are so low that fraud settlements are simply worked into operational costs for US corporations now.  They are so low because neo-liberals in Congress and Maryland pass laws that cap awards and eliminate damage awards.  Remember, this is your Medicare Trust being eaten with fraud and then they tell you there are not enough funds in these Trusts.

NEO-LIBERALS IN CONGRESS AND MARYLAND WORK TO PASS LAWS THAT PROTECT CORPORATIONS FROM PUBLIC JUSTICE.


If you wonder why Maryland is never in the news for the same problems I describe across the country it is because Maryland does not have a public sector health department -----all has been privatized to non-profits like Johns Hopkins which in turn are the source of much of the malfeasance.  Add to that a captured media that does no investigations to hold power accountable and you have no news in Maryland.  Autocratic societies do not allow bad press to escape, only propaganda.

MARYLAND IS RANKED AT THE BOTTOM IN THE NATION FOR FRAUD, CORRUPTION, AND LACK OF TRANSPARENCY SO YOU KNOW THAT WHAT HAPPENS ACROSS AMERICA IS SOARING IN MARYLAND.


Below is just an isolated picture of what happens in specialties throughout health care.  It happens because there is no oversight and no public justice so all these health institutions assume they will get away with it.  It is fraud and profiteering that creates high costs in US health care and the Affordable Care Act does nothing for this.  Simply rebuilding oversight structures in Medicare and Medicaid cuts costs in half.  Why is Maryland not doing this??????

IF YOUR CANDIDATE IS NOT SHOUTING TO REBUILD RULE OF LAW IN YOUR STATE AND IN AMERICA----THEY ARE A NEO-LIBERAL WORKING FOR WEALTH AND PROFIT.


If you watch TV you are seeing more and more advertizing of trial lawyers and class action lawsuits for medical procedures, PHARMA, and devices placed onto market without proper clinical study using you and I as test subjects.  WHOOPS, THAT DIDN'T WORK THEY SAY.
  Neo-liberal answer to this increasing legal environment------END CLASS ACTION LAWSUITS.


'Even the most jaded experts in fraud enforcement see a new level of callousness as some in the healthcare industry forget basic right and wrong in their quest for profits at any cost, including human suffering'.

Investing 9/12/2013 @ 4:36PM

Medicare Blood Money: The Healthcare Industry's Misalignment of Profits and Humane Medical Treatment Recent stories out of Chicago and Detroit give an unusually cruel meaning to “for-profit” medicine.

Authorities say a doctor at Sacred Heart Hospital in Chicago directed that his patients be heavily sedated, so that it was difficult for them to breathe. Then he would perform tracheotomies, cutting holes in their necks and windpipes, so they could breathe more easily.

The cost to Medicare for each tracheotomy: $160,000.


The cost to the patients – needless suffering. In some cases, death.

A Detroit oncologist is said to have administered unnecessary chemotherapy to patients who were in remission and ordered chemotherapy for end-of-life patients, rather than let the patients die in peace. The government said he even gave chemotherapy to people who didn’t have cancer. He allegedly made those treatment decisions simply to increase his Medicare payments.

Chemotherapy drugs are among the most toxic. Side effects from chemotherapy include nausea and vomiting, hair loss, diarrhea, extreme fatigue, swelling and pain.

Payments by Medicare to Michigan Hematology Oncology Clinics, the chain of clinics owned by the oncologist: $35 million over two years, $25 million of which was attributable to the oncologist, Dr. Farid Fata, according to the US Department of Justice.

The price patients paid: needless and extensive suffering up to their deaths.

In April, the government arrested the owner of Sacred Heart Hospital – where the tracheotomies were performed – as well as a senior executive at the hospital and four physicians affiliated with the hospital and charged them with conspiring to pay and receive illegal kickbacks in return for referring Medicare and Medicaid patients to the hospital. The Justice Department also said it was investigating alleged Medicare and Medicaid fraud schemes involving unnecessary sedation, intubation and tracheotomy procedures.

Meanwhile, the Detroit doctor, who entered a not guilty plea, is being held on $9 million bond.

These appalling allegations, if proven, remind us that Medicare fraud is not just about money; it often is about human life and dignity.
It is blindingly obvious that no one should have to endure a tracheotomy, unnecessary intubation or chemotherapy unless it is absolutely necessary. Unfortunately, horrifying conduct by medical providers is not limited to individual physicians.

Big hospital chains (such as Tenet Healthcare ) have been accused of padding their bottom lines with money made from subjecting patients to unnecessary cardiology procedures.
Big pharma has been known to sell vulnerable patients drugs contaminated with impurities, such as bacteria, glass and other substances (as happened with some GlaxoSmithKline and Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals drugs). Medical device companies (most recently Johnson & Johnson ) continued to sell hip implant devices despite thousands of complaints about pain, metal debris from the devices and the need for additional surgery.

Even the most jaded experts in fraud enforcement see a new level of callousness as some in the healthcare industry forget basic right and wrong in their quest for profits at any cost, including human suffering.

An oncologist who worked for Dr. Fata told the FBI that he had been “living with this hell” by working for the Detroit doctor, according to the criminal complaint.

At least the doctor lived through his hell.  Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for many of these patients.

____________________________________________
Citizens of Maryland know neo-liberals are using Maryland as a model for opting out of the Federal Medicare program.  Johns Hopkins has partnered with Humana in their consolidation scheme and if you want to go to Hopkins for treatment you must join this insurer.  Humana is Medicare Advantage....a private Medicare insurer.  So, the system is being built such that a hospital can partner with insurers that will force you off of Federal programs and into private.  Do you really think the next step will not be to have these private Medicare plans in these state health systems?

THE ENTIRE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT CAME FROM THE SAME CONSERVATIVE THINK TANKS AS PAUL RYAN USES TO CREATE THE POLICY BELOW!!!!  THIS IS THE PLAN FOR ENDING MEDICARE.


As you see below Ryan's plan is what Maryland is moving to do now.  Neo-liberals and neo-cons will not leave any public asset or service in this race to send all wealth to the top.
 

Do you really think Medicare and Medicaid Trusts are really going bust if trillions of dollars in entitlement fraud is recovered and future fraud and profiteering is stopped?  SHOUT OUT FOR NEO-LIBERALS TO STOP THE FRAUD.


Aug 2012 •


Paul Ryan's "Medicare Exchange"  

Paul Ryan is Romney's choice. Conservatives remember with glee how Ryan shredded Obamacare at the President's health care summit. Ryan said the bill was "full of smoke and mirrors." He looked right into the President's eyes. Six minutes later, Obama could barely respond.   Ryan's Medicare proposal now takes center stage. In March, Paul Ryan created shock waves with the Medicare reform proposed in his 2013 budget called "The Path to Prosperity."  His bold step changed the debate forever. Mr. Ryan's Medicare proposal "begins with a commitment to keep the promises made to those who now are in or near retirement. Consequently, for those 55 and older, the Medicare program and its benefits will remain as they are, without change." Thus he acknowledges the dependent situation of some of the elderly.    I'd like to report that Mr. Ryan, who brings all his Midwestern niceness into seemingly every encounter, proposes to completely obliterate Obamacare-like policies and give Americans a non-Medicare option in their sunset years. However, here are a few details:   First, I'm pleased to tell you that Ryan's plan repeals Obamacare (p. 94). But then his plan "would set up a carefully monitored exchange for Medicare plans" (p. 97), which would act much like the ACA's federal Exchange, with the government deciding which plans are available to seniors. He would also extend it to "non-retirees by giving certain employers the option to offer their employees a free choice option, smoothing the transition from their working years to when seniors become Medicare-eligible" (p. 97). This portends the possibility of the Medicare Exchange becoming a National Exchange.   Mr. Ryan's plan does move Medicare to a defined contribution program which he calls "premium support" (p. 96). However, it's not a voucher given to the individual, and just like the ACA, these government subsidies would be directly distributed to health plans through the Exchange (p. 97).    Also, like the ACA, a cap on the growth rate of spending would be implemented (p. 53). And finally, like the ACA, his plan includes "risk adjustment," which is done through profiling of patients. Higher payments go to health plans that enroll high-risk recipients (p. 219). Means-testing of seniors would also be required (p. 98), the age of eligibility would increase in 2023 (p. 97), and medical liability lawsuits would be limited (p. 98). Thus, Medicare would stay in place with various government intrusions and controls on choice, access and price.   Will Ryan's plan end Medicare as we know it? Medicare-as-we-know-it is already ending. The $38 trillion unfunded liability is three times the national debt, with bankruptcy possible as early as 2016. Medicare can't be saved in its present form. This is what scares politicians of all stripes who could soon be in the line of fire from 77 million babyboomers whose "retirement security" program is going bust.

  While Paul Ryan's current plan contains some troubling provisions and does not create a needed escape hatch for seniors, it does recognize the crisis ahead and begin the critical "What next?" discussion.

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April 02nd, 2014

4/2/2014

0 Comments

 
FOLKS, PUBLIC JUSTICE IS GUARANTEED UNDER THE US CONSTITUTION AND AMERICA HAS ONE OF THE BEST WRITTEN LAW PROTECTING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AS CITIZENS.  RULE OF LAW AND EQUAL PROTECTION ARE THE CORNERSTONE OF OUR DEMOCRACY AND NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS ARE DISMANTLING THIS BECAUSE THEY NOW SEE THE US AS CONTROLLED BY GLOBAL CORPORATE TRIBUNALS AND NOT FEDERAL LAW.

IF WE DO NOT TAKE A STAND NOW BY VOTING FOR A GOVERNOR AND MAYOR/COUNTY EXECUTIVE WHO WILL SHOUT OUT FOR OUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS WE WILL BECOME A TOTALITARIAN NATION.  AS NOAM CHOMSKY SAYS----A NATION RUN BY CORPORATIONS CAN ONLY BECOME TOTALITARIAN.

Anthony Brown, Doug Gansler, and Heather Mizeur all expect to continue this dismantling of public justice.  Do you hear Heather, the supposedly progressive candidate shouting about Maryland's dismantling of public justice? Stop electing the same people killing democracy and Rule of Law.

I spoke yesterday about the systematic dismantling of our legal system including the decline of law school grads and hiring of lawyers in the US.  Today I want to look at how the public justice system is being made the step-child of corporate law firms designated as providing  the public 'PRO BONO' JUSTICE. 



Regarding rebuilding Rule of Law in Maryland:

As WYPR's Basu tries to convince people that the US did rise out of recession and that all the economic data was not just the FED's crony policies moving massive corporate fraud out of the country through merger and acquisition overseas and part two of the massive subprime mortgage fraud called the bundled foreclosures fraud that drove the housing market boom......NO ONE BELIEVES IT!  A recovery based on the wealthy of the world sending the money looted from their nations Treasuries over to the US in real estate purchases is not a recovery and is why these several years showed only growth in wealth at the top.  It is also why most academic and financial analysts call all of this activity crony and criminal and the Wall Street/FED connection now a cartel.  It is acting separately from the American economy and acting under no Rule of Law.  All of this is reflected down the government chain at state and local levels.  Ergo, wealth inequity.  Corporate NPR/APM feels our pain as it states 1 in 7 Americans are on Food Stamps all just waiting for Rule of Law to bring back tens of trillions of corporate fraud with government watchdogs stating each citizen in America will receive a few hundreds of thousands of dollars from fraud recovery.  

SIMPLY REINSTATING RULE OF LAW AND RECOVERING CORPORATE FRAUD TAKES MUCH OF THE NEED FOR FOOD STAMPS AND IMPOVERISHMENT GOES AWAY.  EASY PEASY!!!

I spoke last time about rebuilding public justice in Maryland by using committee appointments and using the governor's bully pulpit to get state agencies to DO THE JOB OF SERVING IN THE PUBLIC'S INTEREST.  Outsourcing for lawyers and creating grants for law schools to expedite law grads steeped in white collar crime and public justice will have new public justice employees in just a few years.  It is easy for the governor to do with no help from the corporate Maryland Assembly.  

Let's look at the other structures of public justice that have been deliberately 'broken' so as to eliminate the people's ability to access justice.  Now, remember, public justice is not only the poor, working and middle-class people can no longer afford legal representation for most crimes so this issue is about all citizens of Maryland seeking justice for corporate crime and government corruption.

Below you see an article from Ireland that speaks to the same thing happening in the US.  We know law school tuition is rising to create exclusivity and we know law firms are raising their fees to a point that the average person cannot afford to litigate.  THIS IS DELIBERATE.  This places most Americans into the hands of public justice and when the State and City Attorney have no white collar criminal agencies or government corruption agencies-----you go to legal aid or public non-profit legal teams like the National Lawyer's Guild or Maryland ACLU.  If you live in Maryland you know that the Maryland ACLU is silent on most civil liberties and civil rights violations and the system of funding legal aid and public justice --------pro bono volunteering of private law firms to help the public----is crony and not intended to provide EQUAL PROTECTION UNDER LAW.


THE MONEY SENT BY THE STATE TO FUND PUBLIC JUSTICE IS A JOKE.  HAVING CORPORATE LAWYERS DECIDE WHICH CASES THEY ACCEPT AS PRO-BONO AS PUBLIC JUSTICE??????   REALLY????

This is the problem and it is a joke.  So, first we rebuild the State and City Attorney's Office white collar crime and criminal justice offices so that pro-bono work by private law firms will rarely be needed.




Law fees rise despite lawyers’ protests
Tynwald buildings

Tynwald buildings

Published on the 27 June
2013
11:45


Legislation to increase various fees for litigants in the island has been approved by Tynwald despite a formal letter of objection from many of the island’s advocates.

The change will see big price hikes in the cost of, for example, taking out a small claim.

Speaking in Tynwald, Douglas East MHK Brenda Cannell said the points raised in the advocates’ letter were valid and the motion was being proposed without a full appreciation of the likely impact.

Onchan MHK Zac Hall said the advocates’ letter had been sent with the blessing of the Law Society. It was endorsed by 12 firms and ran into eight pages.

‘This will create a society where unscrupulous people will believe they can get away with it and the most vulnerable sections of society will be affected by this,’ he said.

Alex Downie MLC said three quarters of small claims were under £1,000 and the fee increase for these was £10 to £20. But Mr Hall said for small claims in the higher band the cost would rise from around £649 to £7,500.

‘That’s an outrageous increase,’ he said.


An amendment proposed by Onchan MHK Peter Karran to refer the matter back to the Social Affairs Committee was defeated 14 to 10 in Keys and seven to one in Legislative Council.

Treasury Minister Eddie Teare said the points in the advocates’ letter had been raised ‘at the 11th hour’ and added: ‘Access to justice is determined not just by court fees but also by fees charged by legal advisors and I feel they need to have a look in the mirror. I have done what I said I would do in May and I’m sticking to my guns. This fees order is still very reasonable and competitive compared with other jurisdictions.’

The increases were approved by 15 votes to nine in Keys and by seven votes to one in Legislative Council.

Law Society president Kevin O’Riordan told the Independent he felt access to justice for many was being jeopardised by cuts in legal aid and increases in court fees.

‘It’s not something lawyers are championing, except on behalf of their clients,’ he said.

‘Sadly, there has been an unfortunate lack of consultation with the legal profession on this issue as well as others of relevance to us. I understand the need to control spending, but not the apparent reluctance of the government to recognise that lawyers may have a useful contribution to make to the debate.

‘It is the client who has to pay court fees, which go to the Treasury rather than to the lawyers, so that we are not directly affected. Those who feel the impact of these increases will be the growing number of people who do not qualify for legal aid but are still of relatively modest means.

‘I also have to register disappointment at the Minister beating that tired old drum about excessive lawyers’ fees. He seems to be unaware of how much legal work is done by many advocates pro bono or at significantly discounted rates.’

____________________________________________


Now, I do not want to insinuate that these pro-bono groups do not have the intent to serve the people.  Why would we have such a huge private non-profit system of public justice unless we had no public justice in our State and City Attorney General's office?  This is the problem.  When you have individuals deciding which cases to take as pro-bono instead of an Attorney General's office pursuing all laws broken as is the duties of this office......you have lost Rule of Law and public justice.  So, in Maryland you will see no pro-bono work involving government corruption, white collar fraud, or corporate and wealth tax evasions----the major problems for the public.  Have a landlord problem?  You may get help.



The Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland, Inc..,

(PBRC) is the statewide coordinator of volunteer legal services. Our mission is to promote equal access to justice in Maryland by coordinating and supporting volunteer civil legal services, providing resources and support for legal advocates for the poor, and promoting cooperation within the legal community.

About Us

PBRC is a separate non-profit organization which serves as the designated “pro bono arm” of the Maryland State Bar Association (MSBA). PBRC works closely with legal services providers and local bar association pro bono projects throughout the state to help recruit, train, recognize and support pro bono lawyers. PBRC also provides support services (click HERE) to volunteers and programs in the way of free or discounted training, a Pro Bono and Judicare Litigation Fund, mentors and technical assistance.


We have compiled a list of pro bono programs offering a wide range of opportunities for attorneys interested in providing free civil legal services to the disadvantaged. In addition to direct client representation, several programs operate advice clinics and mentoring and training opportunities for volunteer lawyers. Most programs provide malpractice insurance.

___________________________________________



So, Maryland has a network of lawyers working for private businesses doing the public's legal work because the Federal,  State, and local justice offices are no longer doing that. 
Below you see the duties of all levels of public justice.

SEE WHERE EQUAL PROTECTION UNDER LAW HAS GONE?



What Are the Duties of the United States Attorney General?
By Angela M. Wheeland


Protecting the Public


    The primary duty of the United States attorney general is to serve the best interests of the public within the United States jurisdiction. He is responsible for enforcing civil rights, preventing unfair consumer practices and improving the lives of United States citizens by proposing environmental protection laws and changes in criminal procedures.

*********************************

Now, Maryland's lawyers where ground zero for much of the subprime mortgage fraud and are indeed quite wealthy because none of the massive fraud has been recovered.  So, when lawyers 'donate' time for public justice, especially for subprime mortgage fraud and the foreclosures caused by these crimes.....there is a conflict here don't you think?  If I wanted to take to court the fact that these cases are not being pursued do I really contact these lawyers?  Of course not, that is the job of Maryland and Baltimore City Attorney.  IT IS THE DUTY OF THE STATE TO PROVIDE EQUAL PROTECTION UNDER LAW!

Do you think these law firms get tax write-offs for 'donating' this time?  YOU BETCHA!!!!!


The problem with foreclosure law is that the Maryland Attorney General signed off on settlements that were parking tickets and then sent the money to the state coffers where the money is now sent back to the banks for Enterprise Zone corporate development all creating profits for the banks committing the frauds.  Are these lawyers being trained to address this?  ABSOLUTELY NOT!

THIS IS THE JOB OF THE US ATTORNEY, STATE ATTORNEY, AND BALTIMORE CITY ATTORNEY----ERGO----PUBLIC JUSTICE.

The parking ticket settlements made these few years came with the requirement to rebuild white collar criminal justice agencies with these funds and Doug Gansler famously said 'I'll hire a lawyer to oversee the foreclosure process'.



 "Pro bono lawyers may be the only hope for many vulnerable or disadvantaged people throughout our state, many of whom have never before faced such dire circumstances."


IF NOT FOR THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS AMERICANS WOULD HAVE NO PUBLIC JUSTICE-----ONLY ALL THIS IS ILLEGAL AS THE US CONSTITUTION GUARANTEES EQUAL PROTECTION AND RULE OF LAW.  THE PUBLIC JUSTICE SYSTEM CANNOT BE DISMANTLED.





Maryland Bar Bulletin
Publications : Bar Bulletin : March 2010     

|
Maryland Attorneys Donate 1.9 Million Pro Bono Hours to Help the State's Poor


~ Give close to $3 million in financial support ~

By Janet Stidman Eveleth

Despite the recession and our harsh economic times, Maryland lawyers donated close to 2 million volunteer hours in pro bono service in 2008, helping the state's poor with their legal needs. In addition, they contributed close to $3 million in financial support to increase legal services funding for the indigent. Traditionally, Maryland volunteer lawyers strongly support legal services to the poor and, when times are tough and people need help, lawyers step up to the plate and volunteer, giving their time, expertise and money to assist the needy.

One shining example of this is the state's Foreclosure Prevention Pro Bono Project where, in the six months this program was operational in 2008, 918 lawyers volunteered to first, undergo foreclosure training then help hundreds of Maryland homeowners in danger of losing homes to foreclosure. In 2008, these volunteers gave 13,737 hours in pro bono service to the Foreclosure Project and many accepted multiple homeowner cases.

According to the recently released 2008 Current Status of Pro Bono Service Among Maryland Lawyers Report (Report), Maryland-certified lawyers rendered 1,109,686 pro bono hours in 2008, an increase of 40,020 hours from 2007's 1,069,666 hours.  It also reports that 59.7 percent of Maryland's full-time lawyers volunteered for pro bono activity in 2008.  Over 22 percent gave 50 hours or more of pro bono service.

As always, lawyers hailing from rural regions like the Eastern Shore and Western Maryland rendered the most pro bono hours in the state while those in metropolitan areas tended to give the fewest. The Eastern Shore led the way with 80 percent of its attorneys giving pro bono service, followed by Western Maryland with 78 percent. The highest percentage of lawyers rendering 50+ hours also hailed from these two regions.

Somerset County captured the lead with 50 percent of its lawyers giving 50 hours or more of pro bono service, followed by Dorchester County with 45 hours and Queen Anne's and Talbot running neck and neck with respectively, 43.5 and 43.2.  "We are encouraged by the participation in these counties,"states Sharon E. Goldsmith, Executive Director of the Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland, "becauseaccess to legal services is especially challenging in them."

Holding with tradition, the 2008 Report indicates that practitioners in Family/Domestic Law, Trusts/Estates/Wills, Bankruptcy, Personal Injury, and Elder Law give the most pro bono service and solo and small practitioners donate the most hours.  77.7 percent of Maryland's solo practitioners, and 71.4 percent of its small firm practitioners engaged in pro bono service in 2008, and about 17 percent of these practitioners volunteered for the Foreclosure Project.

Goldsmith, who oversees the Foreclosure Project, is delighted with its success. "The initial response of Maryland lawyers to the foreclosure crisis was unprecedented,"she exclaims. "These numbers indicate more than one third of the increase in pro bono hours in 2008 can be attributed to the Foreclosure Project."

"The Foreclosure Project continues to train and utilize volunteers in efforts to modify loans and identify creative solutions for sustainable homeownership,"she continues, "so we expect an even higher number of hours dedicated to the Project in the 2009 reporting cycle."

The Court of Appeals of Maryland has tracked attorney volunteerism across the state since 2002, reporting its findings each year in the Current Status of Pro Bono Service Among Maryland Lawyers Report. It is now in the process of compiling the 2009 results. All Maryland attorneys are required to file annual pro bono reports to the Court of Appeals. The 2009 forms were due February 15, 2010.

Attorney pro bono service is still voluntary in the state, but revisions to Rule 6.1 of the Maryland Rules of Professional Conduct, which took effect July 1, 2002, require all Maryland attorneys to file an annual Pro Bono Service Report with the Court. The form documents the number of hours of pro bono service the attorney rendered during the previous year. This pro bono summary gives the Court of Appeals a "snapshot"of the legal services landscape in the state.

Right now that landscape is very bumpy, given the bad economy, severe legal services funding shortages, the high unemployment rate and the soaring number of foreclosures. "In our current economic climate, legal services providers are being inundated with requests for help and have fewer resources with which to respond,"reports Goldsmith. "Pro bono lawyers may be the only hope for many vulnerable or disadvantaged people throughout our state, many of whom have never before faced such dire circumstances."

______________________________________


Those poor people losing their retirements, houses, savings, and forced into debt all because of massive corporate fraud and no justice to recover it-----THAT IS WHAT TRANS PACIFIC TRADE PACT (TPP) IS ALL ABOUT---- there is no public justice with global corporate tribunals say Ivy League schools behind the 1%!


If you audited the money Maryland sends for this pro-bono work and for legal aid you will see that nothing is done with money that either ends up in other projects or are simply pocketed by people offering little or no help.  I went to legal aid in Baltimore and found them handing my instruction forms telling me what I could do for myself because they do not go to court with you.  Now, I am a pretty sharp cookie and often go to court as my own legal representative but I know the courts are not friendly to people seeking to represent themselves.  So, having an agency that simply informs people how the system works do nothing for these people.  ANOTHER DEAD END!  WHAT PUBLIC JUSTICE YOU SAY!!!


The reason formerly middle-class people are clients of these private firms is that public justice that should have protected them is silent.  DOUG GANSLER IS THAT FACE AND HE NOW HAS A WAR CHEST FOR GOVERNOR FROM THE VERY PEOPLE FLEECING MARYLAND CITIZENS.  He should be up for aiding and abetting crime and he is running for governor!
  The lawyers colluding with the banks and corporations committing these frauds are now deciding which pro-bono cases to take.

THIS IS WHAT THIRD WORLD SOCIETY LOOKS LIKE-----AFGHANISTAN HAS NOTHING ON MARYLAND FOR FRAUD AND CORRUPTION.


Clients are up, funding is down for free legal aid

October 24, 2011 at 7:23 am
By Barbara Pash
Barbara@MarylandReporter.com

As the economy has slowed, the demand for free civil legal services has risen, but funding for those services has not increased.

Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland logo“The situation is dire,” said Sharon Goldsmith, executive director of the Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland. “The programs are feeling stretched beyond their limits. The funding is not there.”

The center — the pro bono arm of the Maryland Bar Association serving as a clearinghouse for lawyers’ volunteer services — is a statewide nonprofit entity. Nowadays, Goldsmith said, center volunteers are seeing “a lot” of formerly middle-income people who would not have qualified for free legal help before. This is “a whole new group of people” asking for help, she said, in addition to the low-income people already being served.

Demand rising

The center Groups providing free legal assistance served nearly 140,000 clients in fiscal 2011, 9% more than 2010. But during that same period, over 44,000 people seeking legal help were turned away for a variety of reasons like being a criminal, rather than a civil, case; over the income eligibility limit;  and not enough staff people and resources.

The Pro Bono Resource Center spearheaded coordination of volunteer legal services for the foreclosure prevention project, a 2008 state-wide initiative to deal with the home mortgage crisis. In 2010, the project was expanded to include mediation but the center continued to play a role in training attorneys and coordinating public workshops around the state.

In fiscal 2010, state and federal grants to the Maryland foreclosure mediation program amounted to $700,000; in fiscal 2011, the figure was $509,000 because of funding drops.

Although the number of foreclosure filings in court subsequently slowed down., since January 2011 they have begun to increase. “I doubt we will see an increase in funding,” said Goldsmith, who credits lawyers with stepping up their pro bono activity to compensate.

3,000 attorneys volunteer


Maryland Volunteer lawyer Services logoAt Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service, the demand for legal services rose 6% from fiscal 2010 to 2011, straining the approximately 3,000 attorneys who donate their time there.

Many of the lawyers who work with MVLS are in solo practices or small firms. Their ability to volunteer is being limited by their need to earn billable hours, said Richard Chambers, deputy director. Many are also changing careers, Chambers said. In the last three years, the number of attorneys taking cases has decreased 20%, although other volunteers have picked up the slack, he said.

MVLS has boosted its private fundraising among corporations and law firms, whose support now accounts for 40% of its budget.

“We’d love to expand our phone intake. We’d love to have more outreach to the lower Eastern Shore, to St. Mary’s and Frederick counties. We can’t do it. We are at capacity” for clients, said Chambers. “We know there are probably thousands of people who qualify for our services.”

Too many clients, too few chairs

Maryland legal aid logoAt Maryland Legal Aid, the jump in clients is apparent “in our lobby any morning,” said Wilhelm Joseph, executive director.

“We used to add chairs as the room got full,” Joseph said. “Now, we don’t have enough chairs for all the people looking for help.”

The private nonprofit law firm saw nearly 70,000 clients in 2011, versus 62,000 in 2010 and 42,000 in 2006.  Legal Aid also now has a broader client demographic, which now includes “the former working class and the middle-class,” Joseph characterized. “They’ve been out of jobs for several months and are facing issues like getting unemployment and food stamps, and mortgage foreclosure.”

Since 2008, Legal Aid has seen default on debt and wage garnishment cases rise 30%. Unemployment insurance cases are up 153%. Public assistance cases are up 156%, and food stamp cases have increased 72%. In the same time period, the number of cases where Legal Aid just gave advice to clients they could not represent — often because Legal Aid was operating at capacity — has risen 28%.

Legal Aid’s annual budget is almost $25 million, with funds from federal and state grants, contracts with local jurisdictions through state agencies, and private sources. While funding has risen steadily over the years, the situation overall “is getting worse,” said Joseph.

“There is increased demand, funding is getting much more difficult, and operating costs go up,” he said.

Maryland Legal Services Corporation logoSusan Erlichman is executive director of Maryland Legal Services Corporation, whose annual budget of about $16 million is distributed to 35 programs around the state.

The corporation’s major funding sources are, by statue, interest on lawyer trust accounts and court filing fee surcharges. It also receives a small amount from the state abandoned property fund.

Though the corporation’s major funding sources are set by statute, its funds have decreased with the economy. From 2009 to 2011, trust account interest revenue fell from $7 million to $2 million — about 70%, Erlichman said.

In 2010, the General Assembly increased the court fee surcharge at MLSC’s request. The new income filled the interest funding hole.

“Without the increased surcharge, the whole legal services delivery system in the state would be in danger of collapse,” said Erlichman.

Nonetheless, the increased surcharge is scheduled to sunset in 2013, and she and others in the legal services community are doing what they can to ensure it continues. “It would leave us in a devastating situation,” said Erlichman.

__________________________________________________


Now, I have spoken about Barbara Mikulski and her role on the Senate Appropriations Committee in funding or not the budgets of justice agencies and as I have said the budget at the Federal level has never been smaller at a time of extreme corporate fraud against the US Treasury and American people.  She manages to get plenty of corporate welfare to the rich in Maryland but cannot get that funding for public justice even when democrats had a super-majority in 2009.

Below you see the same in Maryland.  As billions of dollars in Maryland are lost to fraud we just cannot seem to fund the agencies of public justice to recover that fraud.


SHEILA PUGH IS THE FACE OF THIS CRONYISM AND YET SHE IS NEVER CHALLENGED IN BALTIMORE.  SEE WHY MIKE MILLER LET'S HER PLAY THESE REINDEER GAMES!!!!

This is where all law that protects corporations from public justice happen as well.


Appointed by Senate President:
Thomas M. Middleton, Chair (410) 841-3616, (301) 858-3616
John C. Astle, Vice-Chair (410) 841-3578, (301) 858-3578

David R. Brinkley
Brian J. Feldman
Barry Glassman
Delores G. Kelley
Allan H. Kittleman
Katherine A. Klausmeier
James N. Mathias, Jr.
Catherine E. Pugh
Victor R. Ramirez

SENATE STANDING COMMITTEES FINANCE COMMITTEE

ORIGIN & FUNCTIONS The Finance Committee started in December 1831. Originally, it bore responsibility for reviewing all bills concerned with fiscal matters. In 1975, the review of budgetary and tax matters was assigned to a separate committee - the Budget and Taxation Committee.
Miller Senate Office Building, 11 Bladen St., Annapolis, Maryland, December 2003. Photo by Diane F. Evartt.


Legislation relating to banks and other financial institutions; commercial law, including consumer protection; credit regulation and consumer financing; economic and community development; and health and welfare matters is considered by the Committee. Bills concerned with horse racing and lotteries; insurance; labor and employment; State personnel issues; social programs; transportation; unemployment insurance; utility regulation; and workers' compensation also are reviewed by the Committee. The Committee has eleven members (Senate Rules 18; Code State Government Article, secs. 2-1103 through 2-1105).




Below you see why McFadden being challenged was a big deal for Mike Miller in keeping public justice out of the loop in Maryland Assembly.  He and Jones-Rodwell are on this committee because they are dedicated to keeping public justice away.  I'm not sure McFadden's challenger will be much better sadly as he is as crony.

It is the combination of Washington suburbs pols and the Baltimore City pols where most of the fraud and wealth from fraud go that give the state this completely third world crony system.


A governor can shout that these committees are not working in the public interest in funding and writing laws.  A government that protects wealth and profit are not working in the public interest and defunding public justice violates the US Constitution.
____________________________________________

Below you see Heather Mizeur on the Appropriations Committee where all of the policy that sends money to corporate welfare start.  This is why she supports public private partnerships and Wall Street credit bond leverage deals----she works for corporate welfare.  She was placed on this committee because she will tow the line.  At the same time this is where defunding of public justice occurs and is replaced by this idea of private pro-bono as public justice.  Note that Mary Washington------Johns Hopkins pol where all of state funding ends-----is on the Appropriations Committee too!

Now, the citizens of Maryland will have a hard time shaking all of the neo-liberal bugs from the rug at once, but the governor is the one that should be shouting that these committees and agencies are not working in the public interest and in fact much of these funding bills could be challenged in courts as not in the public interest.  This is how a first world democracy works.

When I asked Mary Washington to define fraud in the Maryland Assembly after the economic crash in 2008 caused by massive corporate fraud of which her employer, Johns Hopkins was a major recipient----she said-----OH, I DON'T THINK THEY WOULD WANT THAT!  OH, REALLY????? WHO ARE 'THEY' MARY?


THESE NEO-LIBERALS ARE NOT WARM AND FUZZY-----RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE IN ALL PRIMARIES!

Appointed by House Speaker:
Norman H. Conway, Chair (410) 841-3407, (301) 858-3407
James E. Proctor, Jr., Vice-Chair (410) 841-3083, (301) 858-3083 Steven J. Arentz
Gail H. Bates
Wendell R. Beitzel
John L. Bohanan, Jr.
Steven J. DeBoy, Sr.
Adelaide C. Eckardt
Tawanna P. Gaines
Melony G. Griffith
Ana Sol Gutierrez
Guy J. Guzzone
Keith E. Haynes
Mary-Dulany James
Adrienne A. Jones
Tony McConkey
Heather R. Mizeur
Barbara A. Robinson
Theodore J. Sophocleus
Nancy R. Stocksdale
Kathy Szeliga
Mary L. Washington
John F. Wood, Jr.
Craig J. Zucker



__________________________________________________


SENATE STANDING COMMITTEES BUDGET & TAXATION COMMITTEE
Origin & Functions

Subcommittees

Miller Senate Office Building entrance, 11 Bladen St., Annapolis, Maryland, January 2014. Photo by Diane F. Evartt.


Appointed by Senate President:
Edward J. Kasemeyer, Chair (410) 841-3653, (301) 858-3653
Nathaniel J. McFadden, Vice-Chair (410) 841-3165, (301) 858-3165

Richard F. Colburn
Ulysses Currie
James E. DeGrange, Sr.
George C. Edwards
Joseph M. Getty
Verna L. Jones-Rodwell
Nancy J. King
Richard S. Madaleno, Jr.
Roger Manno
Douglas J. J. Peters
James N. Robey
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March 27th, 2014

3/27/2014

0 Comments

 
REMEMBER, THE GOAL OF NEO-LIBERALISM IS TAKING THE US FROM A FIRST WORLD SOCIAL DEMOCRACY TO A THIRD WORLD AUTOCRATIC PLUTOCRACY.  THAT MEANS INSTEAD OF MODERN DAY AMERICA THEY LOOK TO MEDIEVAL EUROPE----THE DARK AGES ----FOR THEIR SOCIAL MODEL.  THE MASSES IMPOVERISHED, HEAVILY TAXED WAITING FOR THE GENTRY TO SPONSOR PUBLIC PROJECTS WHILE THE CHURCH HANDLES THE POOR---AND NOT SO WELL!

Today's blog looks at billionaires as benevolent philanthropist.

This is indeed where neo-liberals are going.  The next phase after -'we have all the money and will do as we please' - is building the image of billionaire as benevolent philanthropist----you know----THE MEDICIs.  You could feel sorry for the delusions of grandeur from a moneyed-class equal to mafia-cartels, but this is life and death and fighting for democracy in America.  We are seeing in US media a build-up of image of billionaires for social good.  As they starve public coffers by fraud and tax evasion they are being allowed to 'donate' for the common good and corporate tax deductions.

Meanwhile, you and I have moved back to the vision of the US as first world social democracy. HMMMMM...did I see 900,000 registered democrats in Maryland?  Do you really think they want to go with neo-liberalism and Medicis?

I DON'T THINK SO!!!  SEE WHY IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO KEEP CINDY WALSH FOR GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND OUT OF ELECTION COVERAGE AND OFF THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL!

What I am seeing and hoping to build with my candidacy is a structure around crony democratic politics in Maryland and the US.  We do not need party machines and media money for campaigns.  We need labor unions and justice organizations, churches and university political groups to network for the candidate working for labor and justice.  Simple community networking and education about the need to ignore the onslaught of media campaign advertising by neo-liberal candidates with corporate war chests.


ALL OF MARYLAND CANDIDATES FOR GOVERNOR ARE NEO-LIBERALS EXCEPT CINDY WALSH.  SHAKE THE BUGS FROM THE RUG------GET RID OF CORPORATE CONTROL OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

Regarding Basu's singing of praises for US billionaires and funding of basic research:

NEO-LIBERALS MAKING BILLIONAIRES LOOK WARM AND FUZZY AS THEY PUSH AMERICAN CITIZENS TO CHARITY!  

Who doesn't like a billionaire made rich from the massive corporate frauds of last decade exploding shareholder wealth from looting the US Treasury and American people.  A billionaire that parks hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue off-shore to avoid paying taxes and who is guilty of more hundreds of billions of dollars in tax fraud and tax evasion.  A billionaire that backs basic research that will earn his corporation trillions of dollars in profit at the expense of public health and interest.  God bless those billionaires say Basu and corporate public media.  Who needs those trillions of dollars stolen from the public that funded basic research in public universities and gave the development benefits to the public rather than private patenting to soak the public as consumer.  WHAT AMERICAN PATRIOTS THESE BILLIONAIRES ARE!  Sound like the North Korean Great Leader propaganda?  YOU BETCHA!

Let's look at the tax policies at the Federal, state, and local level that that allow this fleecing of the US Treasury beyond an IRS that has been gutted of employees to keep from doing investigations of hundreds of billions of dollars in corporate tax fraud that when recovered will make state and local universities flush with cash in education Trusts and grants and public research funding.

YOU SEE, IT IS THE MONEY THAT MADE THESE BILLIONAIRES RICH THAT IS NOW MISSING FROM THE ECONOMY BRINGING DEBT AND DISMANTLING OF PUBLIC SECTOR SERVICES AND PROGRAMS.  UNIVERSITY TUITION TOO HIGH----BLAME THAT BILLIONAIRE.

Do you get a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach when a corporate CEO from the likes Starbucks receives all kinds of media coverage for 'donating' to veterans charities because he is upset with the conditions for veterans at VA hospitals around the country?  Let's see how Starbucks evades paying corporate taxes and bring that back to fund all the public VA hospitals.



Starbucks wakes up and smells the stench of tax avoidance controversy


Cafe chain executive to face questions from MPs, while protesters plan to turn branches into creches and refuges

    Simon Neville and Shiv Malik    
    The Guardian, Sunday 11 November 2012    

Starbucks
Police protect a Starbucks branch during an anti-cuts march last month after the company's low tax bill was revealed. Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters

On an average day its outlets are a hive of social activity, hosting everything from business meetings to reading groups looking for that all-important appointment with a morning caffeine rush, approvingly overlooked by a branded community bulletin board. But Starbucks should be careful what it wishes for.

The direct action group UK Uncut plans to turn dozens of the coffee empire's UK branches into creches, refuges and homeless shelters to highlight the chain's tax avoidance tactics.

The announcement of the action comes on the day a Starbucks executive faces questions from the House of Commons public accounts committee over why the company paid no corporation tax in the UK during the past three years, despite senior US management trumpeting the company's profitable operations in Britain.

MPs will also question management representatives from Google and Amazon, both of which have faced criticism for basing their European operations in countries that have lower tax rates such as Ireland and Luxembourg.

In his appearance before the committee, Starbucks' chief financial officer, Troy Alstead, will attempt to repair the company's reputation, which, according to research by YouGov, continues to suffer because of the controversy.

In a similar session last week, MPs accused HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) officials of having cosy relationships with big businesses. Speaking about the arrangements with Starbucks, the Conservative MP Richard Bacon said: "It smells – and it doesn't smell of coffee. It smells bad."

UK Uncut has said it will start targeting Starbucks on the Saturday following the autumn statement by the chancellor, George Osborne, on 8 December. The campaign group is attempting to draw a link between government cuts, in particular those that affect women, and tax avoidance by multinational businesses.

Sarah Greene, a UK Uncut activist, said funding for refuges and rape crisis centres faced cuts unless companies paid their fair share of tax. HMRC estimates around £32bn was lost to tax avoidance last year.

Greene said the government could easily bring in billions that could fund vital services by clamping down on tax avoidance, but was instead "making cuts that are forcing women to choose between motherhood and work, and trapping them in abusive relationships".

The group, which rose to prominence after staging a sit-in at Vodafone stores, Sir Philip Green's Topshop and Fortnum & Mason, turned its attentions to Starbucks last month after an investigation by Reuters discovered the company had paid only £8.6m in corporation tax since launching in the UK 14 years ago, despite cumulative sales of £3bn.

Longstanding Uncut campaigner Anna Walker said the group wanted to "galvanise the anger" that women were feeling: "We've chosen to really highlight the impact of the cuts on women this time. So there is going to be a real focus on transforming Starbucks into those services that are being cut by the government … [such as] refuges and creches," she said.

Walker said the campaign group had been in touch with women's groups across the country in the lead-up to the direct action event and believed that, along with a pre-established network of activists, dozens of the company's coffee shops were likely to be targeted.

"Starbucks is a really great target because it is on every high street across the country and that's what UK Uncut finds really important: people can take action in their local areas," she said. "We're really hoping that women who are impacted by the cuts, who are seeing their Sure Start centres where their kids go being reduced in services, and people who use refuges, [will] be involved."

Several international organisations have faced criticism over their UK accounts, with Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Google and Ikea all paying little or no corporation tax despite large British operations.

However, according to pollsters at YouGov's BrandIndex, Starbucks has suffered the deepest damage to its image.

The organisation, which records the strength of companies' brand identities, revealed Starbucks' cachet plummeted following the tax revelations and continues to languish at near-record lows.

Its "buzz" score, which measures the number of negative and positive comments customers have heard, hit -16.7. That is only slightly higher than the lowest levels it hit during the most heated point of the controversy last month, at -28.6. A year ago its rating was at +3.1.

By comparison, Google and Amazon – both due at the select committee – have seen their ratings seemingly unaffected.

UK BrandIndex director Sarah Murphy said: "A brand's buzz score typically recovers quite quickly following a spate of bad press, but we aren't seeing that with Starbucks, which is quite unusual. Its scores started to level out around the end of last month, but whatever modest recovery Starbucks has made could well be in jeopardy if this story flares up again in the media."

The coffee store chain insists it pays the correct level of taxes. The group chief executive, Howard Schultz, has said in a statement: "Starbucks has always paid taxes in the UK despite recent suggestions to the contrary.

"Over the last three years alone, our company has paid more than £160m in various taxes, including national insurance contributions, VAT and business rates."

However, MPs will no doubt point out that VAT is paid by the customers at point of sale and collected by Starbucks.

Margaret Hodge, who chairs the public accounts committee, told parliament last month that Apple, eBay, Facebook, Google and Starbucks had avoided nearly £900m of tax. The prime minister, David Cameron responded to the claim by saying: "I'm not happy with the current situation. I think [HMRC] needs to look at it very carefully. We do need to make sure we are encouraging these businesses to invest in our country as they are but they should be paying fair taxes as well."

A spokeswoman for Starbucks said on Sunday: "While the subject of tax law can be extremely complex, Starbucks respects and complies with tax laws and accounting rules" in each of the 61 countries where we do business, including the UK – a market that we remain committed to for the long term. We've posted the facts about our tax practices in the UK on our website .

"Starbucks' economic impact in the UK spans far beyond our stores and partners (employees). We spend hundreds of millions of pounds with local suppliers on milk, cakes and sandwiches, and on store design and renovations. When you take into account the indirect employment created by Starbucks' investments in the UK, the company's extended economic impact to the UK economy exceeds £80m annually.

"We hope that UK Uncut will respect the wellbeing of our partners and customers, and recognise the value that we add to the economy, creating jobs and apprenticeships, as well as paying our fair share of taxes in the UK."

________________________________________

How does a US global corporation go from being called a tax cheat and immoral in overseas press.....which is far more free and fair than a US state-run corporate media......to being the good guys in America donating all that money for tax write-offs instead of paying US taxes that would flood government coffers with revenue?

 NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS CONTROL US MEDIA AND HAVE MADE IT US CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ALL THE TIME.  THE US MEDIA IS NOW EQUAL TO ROMANIA AS FREE PRESS.  ERGO, BASU'S LOVEFEST.


We all know that as all US commerce becomes consolidated and owned by the same few people at the top we will not be able to police US global corporations overseas and while they stagnate our US economy for growing profits overseas, all that wealth generated overseas does nothing for US yet we have the global headquarters ruling over all government and public policies and taxpayers subsidizing corporate wealth.  The article above on the state of US corporations doing business in the UK paying no taxes is mirrored in America.  The difference, the American people are electing the very neo-liberals turning their heads to this massive fraud and allowing media to ignore all of this.

EUROPE IS SEEING MORE ACCOUNTABILITY BECAUSE ITS CITIZENS HIT THE STREETS AND VOTE BAD POLS OUT OF OFFICE.




Starbucks, Google, Amazon accused of 'immoral' tax avoidance ...


www.csmonitor.com/.../1203/Starbucks...immoral-tax-avoidance   

Starbucks, Google, and Amazon were among the major multinational corporations accused by lawyers of exploiting British tax laws to move UK-made profits ...

__________________________________________

Sending money stolen through tax fraud and shareholder wealth created by massive corporate fraud of US Treasury to charity just to write the donation off future taxes-----WHAT A GUY-----HOWARD SCHULTZ!  Mind you, I have a history of Starbucks and its beginning in Seattle even having a Starbuck's green Jeep in my enthusiasm for fair trade coffee.  THOSE DAYS ARE LONG GONE.

Do you know the entire GI Bill would be flush with money if Starbucks paid its corporate taxes and shouted to end massive corporate fraud?


THE LEVEL OF DISGRACE IN PUSHING AMERICAN VETERANS TO HAWKING FOR CHARITY IS UNMEASURABLE.


Starbucks CEO To Donate $30 Million To Support PTSD Research For Veterans


The Huffington Post  | by  Melissa McGlensey

Posted: 03/21/2014 6:18 pm EDT Updated: 03/21/2014 6:59 pm EDT

Starbucks Starbucks Coffee Howard Schultz Charity Military Veterans Veterans Video Impact News

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is making a large donation to help U.S. veterans.

Schultz spoke to CBS Evening News on Wednesday and announced his plan to allocate most of the $30 million donation toward researching solutions to brain trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder.

PTSD affects between 11 and 20 percent of military members who served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Schultz told CBS that veterans often don't get the treatment or understanding they need and deserve.

"The truth of the matter is, and I say this with respect, more often than not, the government does a very -- a much better job of sending people to war than they do bringing them home, " he stated. "They're coming home to an American public that really doesn't understand and never embraced, what these people have done."

Schultz has shown support for troops in the past. Last year, Starbucks announced its initiative to hire 10,000 veterans and spouses of active military in five years.

The unemployment rate among post-9/11 veterans dropped to 9.0 percent last year, down from 9.9 percent the year before, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This number is about 1.6 percentage points above the civilian population.

____________________________________________

Bill Gates was given the 'good billionaire' logo by neo-liberals trying to push the Buffett 'billionaires need to pay what their secretary pays in taxes' at a time when the US needs billionaires to pay what they paid before the Reagan/Clinton era-----60-70% tax rate -----to bring back the massive frauds and swing the pendulum back to flush government coffers and a first world society.  This is not targeted tax policy-----

IT IS SIMPLY RULE OF LAW AND JUSTICE BRINGING TENS OF TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN CORPORATE FRAUD BACK TO US TREASURY AND PUBLIC TRUSTS.

As Basu pretends that Bill Gates created the Gates Global Health Initiative for the good of mankind the first thing that comes to mind is that African and Asian PHARMA developed and patented by the Gates foundation has Bill Gates, Obama, and Clinton lobbying hardest this past decade to dismantle all of public health and protections of generic manufacturing and subsidy of PHARMA around the world with the Trans Pacific Trade Pact.  It is Bill Gates building a PHARMA corporation that seeks to maximize profits by gutting all public health protections for medicine around the world.  WHAT A GUY-----BILL GATES THAT GOOD BILLIONAIRE!

While in Washington State I attended Microsoft shareholder meetings that had stockholders angry that Bill was moving all Microsoft money to a trust that was then spending billions of dollars in Pharma and health care products in Africa and Asia.  Warren Buffett moved his billions to this new economy as well.  WHILE BEING TOUTED AS PHILANTHROPISTS THEY WERE SIMPLY GUARDING MONEY FROM TAXATION UNDER THE GUISE OF PRIVATE NON-PROFITS WHILE THEY BUILT WHAT THEY KNEW WAS THE NEXT ECONOMIC ENGINE-----HEALTH AND EDUCATION.  This was at the end of Reagan and the beginning of Clinton when the transition to privatization of public health and education to create the next Wall Street markets were made.

RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU THINK A BILLIONAIRE USING PRIVATE NON-PROFITS AND THE GUISE OF PUBLIC HEALTH TO SHIELD MONEY FROM TAXATION ALL TO CREATE AND PATENT PHARMA TARGETING A DEVELOPING WORLD THEY WANT TO MAKE A MARKET IS A GOOD GUY------NO ONE!!!!

Bill Gates is the face of Race to the Top and education privatization for the same reason-----creating private education businesses centered online and developed by Microsoft and other tech institutions.  The Industrial Philanthropists built the public structures of public universities, libraries, and K-12 and Bill Gates Foundation seeks to tear them down for profit.  WHAT A GUY-----BILL GATES!


Keep in mind that all these excuses of republicans defunding the IRS or Wall Street regulatory agencies made by neo-liberals are a farce.  Look to neo-liberal Maryland where fraud and corruption is king to see a dismantled and unfunded oversight.

RECOVERING CORPORATE FRAUD PAYS FOR ITSELF, NO REPUBLICANS OR TAXPAYER MONEY NEEDED.  THAT FIRST BILLION IN RECOVERY PAYS FOR THE NEXT TRILLION DOLLARS IN RECOVERY!




Microsoft, HP skirted taxes via offshore units: U.S. Senate panel

By Kim Dixon

WASHINGTON Thu Sep 20, 2012 7:12pm EDT


A variety of logos hover above the Microsoft booth on the opening day of the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas January 10, 2012. REUTERS/Rick Wilking

A variety of logos hover above the Microsoft booth on the opening day of the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas January 10, 2012.




(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co pushed back against claims by a U.S. Senate panel on Thursday that they used offshore units and loopholes to shield billions of dollars in profits from U.S. taxes.

Calling tax avoidance rampant in the technology sector, the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said tech companies used intellectual property, royalties and license fees in overseas tax havens to skirt taxes.

The panel subpoenaed internal documents from the companies and interviewed Microsoft and HP officials to compile its report, which uses the companies as case studies.

"The tax practices and gimmicks range from egregious to dubious validity," Democratic Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the panel, said at a news conference.

Officials at HP and Microsoft strongly denied any wrongdoing, noted tax officials had not objected to the structures and said there were valid reasons for tax planning.

Senator Tom Coburn, the top Republican on the panel, signed onto the new report but blamed Congress.

"Tax avoidance is not illegal. Congress has created this situation," Coburn said, criticizing the complex tax code and the 35 percent corporate tax rate, among of the world's highest, though few companies pay that statutory rate.

The subcommittee said that from 2009 to 2011, Microsoft shifted $21 billion offshore, almost half its U.S. retail sales revenue, saving up to $4.5 billion in taxes on goods sold in the United States.

This was accomplished, the report said, by aggressive transfer pricing, where companies value intra-company movement of assets. Corporate units must use a fair market price to value transfers, but critics say they are manipulated to minimize tax.

The report also said the software giant shifts royalty revenue to units in low-tax nations, such as Singapore and Ireland, avoiding billions of dollars of U.S. tax.

Levin said one Microsoft Singapore unit was legally headquartered in Bermuda and had no employees. Levin asked Microsoft's tax vice president, William Sample, if the reason was to cut its tax bill. "Yes, that is correct," Sample said.

Sample also said several offshore units employ hundreds of workers, which Levin noted was a tiny fraction of its workforce.

IRS CITES CHALLENGE

Internal Revenue Service officials are not allowed to comment on specific taxpayers, but Chief Counsel William Wilkins said enforcing transfer pricing law "has been the IRS's most significant international enforcement challenge."

U.S. companies have at least $1.5 trillion in profits sitting offshore. Most say they are keeping them there to avoid U.S. tax. Of the top 10 companies with the biggest offshore cash balances, five are in the technology sector.

"The high-tech industry is probably the No. 1 user of these offshore entities to transfer intellectual property," Levin said.

The panel said Hewlett-Packard funded U.S. operations with a stream of intra-company loans, using an exception in the law for short-term loans, to avoid billions of dollars in taxes.

Levin said more than 90 percent of HP's cash was sitting offshore, as opposed to about 65 percent of revenue coming from countries outside the United States.

An HP spokesman said in a statement that the hearing was a politically motivated attack.

"We are disappointed to see what appears to be a politically motivated attack on one of America's largest employers," HP spokesman Michael Thacker said before the hearing.

Lester Ezrati, an HP tax vice president, said HP used cash faster in the United States for valid reasons including that certain payments like pensions must be made with U.S. cash.

"HP has an overall strategy to minimize expenses and that is what generates where the cash is located," and "one of those expenses is taxes," Ezrati said.

REPATRIATED PROFITS TAXABLE

Under tax law, foreign profits are subject to U.S. tax when they are "repatriated," or brought into the United States, usually in the form of a dividend.

One internal document released by the panel suggested that HP routinely brought money into the U.S. without paying U.S. tax. An HP presentation noted that "without planning, repatriation of foreign earnings could lead to tax payments."


Loans by the foreign units to a related U.S. entity are considered a dividend for tax purposes but there is an exception for loans that are repaid within 30 days, according to the committee's tax experts.

HP set up a complicated series of short-term loans starting in 2008 to these businesses that were continuous without gaps, to get around that provision, the panel found.

Big companies have lobbied for a tax holiday to let them bring offshore profits into the United States at a reduced tax rate, arguing that the profits are trapped offshore. That effort has fallen flat amid reports suggesting such a program would cost the government significant revenue and not produce U.S. jobs.

The report on transfer pricing "mocks the notion that profits of U.S. multinationals are 'locked-up' or 'trapped' offshore," Levin said.

The subcommittee also criticized accounting giant Ernst & Young for blessing HP's practices.

Ernst & Young partner Beth Carr said that the firm stands firmly behind its auditing for HP.

_________________________________________

Below you see from 2002-2005 Bill Gates was positioning himself for the coming Affordable Care Act health legislation and privatization and making of global health corporations.  Keep in mind that mental health pharma was just given a boost in rewriting the Psychiatric definition of what constitutes depression. increasing government subsidy of more depression PHARMA as Gates moves to Prozac.  Medicare and Medicaid will now pay for depression medicine for what we all know is common sadness.

Bill Gates was simply moving his wealth to what he knew would be the new markets created by privatization of public health and education-----AFFORDABLE CARE ACT AND RACE TO THE TOP.

ALWAYS WORKING FOR THE PUBLIC'S INTERESTS THOSE GOOD BILLIONAIRES!  NEO-LIBERALS----WORKING FOR WEALTH AND PROFIT AND THIRD WORLD QUALITY OF LIFE.  HOW DO THEY RUN AS DEMOCRATS?

Below you see a blogger that obviously attended the same Microsoft shareholder meetings I did.

created 04/07/2005 - 07:35, updated 31/08/2006 - 14:01 by cybe


Bill Gates is [alledgedly] giving 95% of his wealth for africa .....
.


I wonder if he is diversifying his investments and has bought shares in the pharmaceutical industry so he is just transferring his money into a new business venture whilst "looking" as though he is giving it away.

The Real Way to Health is a completely different one:- "Healing in His Wings"

Three articles below:

Bill Gates sells MSFT, takes Prozac
Bill Gates and Big Pharma
Bush's bogus AIDS offer, and why Bill Gates is making it worse.
The Gates And Buffet Foundation Shell Game

 


Bill Gates sells MSFT, takes Prozac

By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco
http://forms.theregister.co.uk/mail_author/?story_url=/2002/09/09/bill_gates_sells_msft_takes/

Published Monday 9th September 2002 19:48 GMT

Bill Gates has sold almost half a billion dollar's worth of Microsoft stock this year, and begun to invest heavily in big pharma. In the second half of this year he bought 2.5 million shares in Eli Lilly, manufacturer of Prozac, and also made major investments in Merck and Pfizer, notes /Information Week/.

The 9 million shares Gates relinquished represent only a tiny proportion of Chairman Bill's MSFT holdings, or about 1.36 per cent.

Eli Lily's patent on Prozac expired a year ago, but the company has sought to widen its appeal, combining its with other drugs and marketing it as a kind of MSG of anti-depressants.

"Companies are getting a lot more creative in ways to sustain the product lifespan of drugs," a J.P. Morgan told The Street.

In sickness and in wealth, big pharma remains the most profitable industry in America. No doubt Gates took comfort in the Bush administration's indulgent attitude towards the inflated prices charged by the pharmaceutical industry. Although nine out of ten drugs fail clinical tests, the industry - which argues that high prices are needed to justify R&D - spends two and half times as much on marketing than on research, according to Families USA .

(I'll defer to our very own Thomas C Greene, who covered the industry in detail).

A crack about anxiety-inducing computer software would simply be too cheap, so we won't dream of making it here.


_______________________________________________
We must be very careful to follow where these last few years of US global corporation has led under Obama and neo-liberals in Congress.  Remember, between the FED policy and trillions in fake job stimulus money that was just used to expand US global corporations overseas, the US has allowed global corporations to create a global network of empire that looks just like this one below.  IT IS HORRENDOUS.

So, as Basu tells us on corporate 'public' media WYPR that billionaires are doing good in their bequests to basic research, the entire world knows what kind of empire Bill Gates is building!



'Blackwater, Monsanto and Gates are three sides of the same figure: the war machine on the planet and most people who inhabit it, are peasants, indigenous communities, people who want to share information and knowledge or any other who does not want to be in the aegis of profit and the destructiveness of capitalism'.

A Link Between Monsanto, Blackwater & Bill Gates?

By majestic on January 3, 2011 in News

There’s an unlikely story circulating on various underground news sites claiming that the controversial biotech company Monsanto has acquired infamous mercenary outfit Blackwater (now trading as Xe Services). The report apparently first appeared in La Jornada, one of Mexico City’s leading daily newspapers, described by Noam Chomsky as “the one independent newspaper in the whole hemisphere.” Pravda has translated the original Spanish text written by Silvia Ribeiro into English. From my reading of the Jeremy Scahill article that seems to form the basis of the report, the most you can deduce is that Monsanto hired the creeps at Blackwater to do dirty work for them, but the rumor keeps circulating, so could there be a grain of truth somewhere in this story?:

A report by Jeremy Scahill in The Nation (Blackwater’s Black Ops, 9/15/2010) revealed that the largest mercenary army in the world, Blackwater (now called Xe Services) clandestine intelligence services was sold to the multinational Monsanto. Blackwater was renamed in 2009 after becoming famous in the world with numerous reports of abuses in Iraq, including massacres of civilians. It remains the largest private contractor of the U.S. Department of State “security services,” that practices state terrorism by giving the government the opportunity to deny it.

Many military and former CIA officers work for Blackwater or related companies created to divert attention from their bad reputation and make more profit selling their nefarious services-ranging from information and intelligence to infiltration, political lobbying and paramilitary training – for other governments, banks and multinational corporations. According to Scahill, business with multinationals, like Monsanto, Chevron, and financial giants such as Barclays and Deutsche Bank, are channeled through two companies owned by Erik Prince, owner of Blackwater: Total Intelligence Solutions and Terrorism Research Center. These officers and directors share Blackwater.

One of them, Cofer Black, known for his brutality as one of the directors of the CIA, was the one who made contact with Monsanto in 2008 as director of Total Intelligence, entering into the contract with the company to spy on and infiltrate organizations of animal rights activists, anti-GM and other dirty activities of the biotech giant.

Contacted by Scahill, the Monsanto executive Kevin Wilson declined to comment, but later confirmed to The Nation that they had hired Total Intelligence in 2008 and 2009, according to Monsanto only to keep track of “public disclosure” of its opponents. He also said that Total Intelligence was a “totally separate entity from Blackwater.”

However, Scahill has copies of emails from Cofer Black after the meeting with Wilson for Monsanto, where he explains to other former CIA agents, using their Blackwater e-mails, that the discussion with Wilson was that Total Intelligence had become “Monsanto’s intelligence arm,” spying on activists and other actions, including “our people to legally integrate these groups.” Total Intelligence Monsanto paid $ 127,000 in 2008 and $ 105,000 in 2009.

No wonder that a company engaged in the “science of death” as Monsanto, which has been dedicated from the outset to produce toxic poisons spilling from Agent Orange to PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), pesticides, hormones and genetically modified seeds, is associated with another company of thugs.

Almost simultaneously with the publication of this article in The Nation, the Via Campesina reported the purchase of 500,000 shares of Monsanto, for more than $23 million by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which with this action completed the outing of the mask of “philanthropy.” Another association that is not surprising.


It is a marriage between the two most brutal monopolies in the history of industrialism: Bill Gates controls more than 90 percent of the market share of proprietary computing and Monsanto about 90 percent of the global transgenic seed market and most global commercial seed. There does not exist in any other industrial sector monopolies so vast, whose very existence is a negation of the vaunted principle of “market competition” of capitalism. Both Gates and Monsanto are very aggressive in defending their ill-gotten monopolies.

Although Bill Gates might try to say that the Foundation is not linked to his business, all it proves is the opposite: most of their donations end up favoring the commercial investments of the tycoon, not really “donating” anything, but instead of paying taxes to the state coffers, he invests his profits in where it is favorable to him economically, including propaganda from their supposed good intentions. On the contrary, their “donations” finance projects as destructive as geoengineering or replacement of natural community medicines for high-tech patented medicines in the poorest areas of the world. What a coincidence, former Secretary of Health Julio Frenk and Ernesto Zedillo are advisers of the Foundation.

Like Monsanto, Gates is also engaged in trying to destroy rural farming worldwide, mainly through the “Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa” (AGRA). It works as a Trojan horse to deprive poor African farmers of their traditional seeds, replacing them with the seeds of their companies first, finally by genetically modified (GM). To this end, the Foundation hired Robert Horsch in 2006, the director of Monsanto. Now Gates, airing major profits, went straight to the source.

Blackwater, Monsanto and Gates are three sides of the same figure: the war machine on the planet and most people who inhabit it, are peasants, indigenous communities, people who want to share information and knowledge or any other who does not want to be in the aegis of profit and the destructiveness of capitalism.


* The author is a researcher at ETC Group



__________________________________________

I watched a TV commercial that had UnderArmour CEO standing on an African mountaintop stating that he wants to use his billions to help the poor worldwide.  This is the same CEO who demands his UnderArmour headquarters in Baltimore be given tax-free status starving Baltimore City government coffers of money that would go to underserved communities and public schools.  

IF THAT ISN'T OBSCENE ENOUGH-----UNDERARMOUR USES THE FACT THAT THE VETERANS ADMINISTRATION HAS BEEN DISMANTLED AND NEO-LIBERALS ARE PUSHING VET CHARITY TO SUPPORT VETS.


So, rather than paying taxes that would support a strong, public supported VA, he is making profits off of his athletic brand and 'donating' money to vet charities for corporate tax write-offs.  WHAT A GUY-------BILLIONAIRE PROFITS OFF OF VETS FORCED TO SEEK CHARITY IN LIEU OF VETERAN'S BENEFITS!

Below you see yet another corporation that is ground zero for making the American people impoverished and yet finding time to 'donate' to help the poor.

THIS IS NEO-LIBERALISM WHERE WEALTH AND PROFIT CREATE AN AUTOCRATIC SYSTEM MODELED ON MEDIEVAL EUROPE-----THEY CALLED IT THE DARK AGES.



UNDERARMOUR---GlassDoor

 “Employee survey results were poor”
Director (Former Employee)
Baltimore, MD

I worked at Under Armour full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Successful brand w/ currently valuable stock

Cons – Don't just go by these anonymous reviews. In a recent survey of all employees, findings were that an overwhelming majority feel "disengaged", "overworked" , "underpaid", and "under appreciated". What was the founder's response when he pulled Directors into a room? Instead of saying "here's what we're going to do", he said "it's your problem. You fix it." Needless to say there's extremely high turnover. Those that do stay wish they were somewhere else.

Advice to Senior Management – Listen to employee issues and do something about. Currently you're doing neither.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

__________________________________________

TAX CREDITS FOR HIRING VETS IS LIKE ENTERPRISE ZONE TAX CREDITS FOR HIRING THE UNDERSERVED ------AS IN BALTIMORE'S INNER HARBOR THESE CONTRACTS ARE ALL IGNORED AND THE JOBS ARE FILLED WITH FRAUD AND WORKPLACE ABUSE.

All across the country veterans are being hired into the worst of jobs and working conditions as corporations get tax credits for simply hiring.  Those fighting to keep public military positions are being harassed and denied civil liberties and workplace safety.  Remember, the Bush Administration made military service contracts NULL and VOID requiring national guard and military to serve extended service tours knowing these troops would be battle weary and did while dismantling Va facilities.  AS Obama does the same, O'Malley travels overseas to recruit Veterans to substandard online degrees and career colleges.




UNDERARMOUR
Shop the Wounded Warrior project


Between August 2012 and December 2014, Under Armour® will make a donation of over $1 Million to Wounded Warrior Project™ benefitting injured service members and their families.

__________________________________________

The neo-liberals spent all last decade shouting against the abuses of the US troops by neo-conservatives and now neo-conservatives are blaming neo-liberals for the outrageous move to dismantle all that is public veterans administration.

TAG TEAM OF GLOBAL CORPORATE POLS----STOP ALLOWING A NEO-LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP CHOOSE YOUR CANDIDATES---RUN LABOR AND JUSTICE IN ALL PRIMARIES!


Below you see the same labor and justice conditions that existed under Bush are now super-sized under Obama and neo-liberals in Congress.  Do you hear your incumbent shouting out against the deliberate attack of public sector workers in order to get them to quit and be replaced by private contractors and to protect yet more people breaking the US laws from prosecution?


General News 3/1/2014 at 17:57:53
    
Veterans Speak Out Against a Debilitating Federal Workplace Harming the Health of America's Returning Military

By Ward Jordan

opednews.com


(WASHINGTON, DC)   --  In a recently released statement veterans, members of The Coalition For Change, Inc. (C4C), called for the U.S. Congress and the Obama administration to stop the political power play and to mandate that federal supervisory and management officials face discipline for willfully breaking civil rights and whistleblower-protection laws.

"The unrestrained retaliatory actions the VA supervisors take against subordinate employees cripples the agency's healthcare system and stifles many employees from exposing unfair customs, unsafe conditions and unlawful practices," said Oliver Mitchell, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and a former employee with the Veterans Affairs' Greater West Los Angeles Medical Center Imaging Service, Radiology Section. While serving as a Patient Services Assistant, Mitchell received "excellent" performance ratings.   "Things changed rapidly after I refused an order to purge patient documents," Mitchell explained.   "The harassment started and VA officials detailed me repeatedly after I filed a whistleblower complaint with the Office of Special Counsel (OSC)."

According to Mitchell, both the VA's Office of Inspector General and the OSC failed to properly pursue the matter even after hearing Mitchell's submitted audio tape of employees discussing how to destroy veteran patients' records.   "Although I declined to purge patient records, VA officials hired another employee to delete valid MRI requests from the system as a means of reducing the backlog," said Mitchell, now homeless after being constructively removed from the U.S. Veterans Affairs pursuant to terms put in a settlement agreement.

"The constructive discharge is a popular tactic used in discharging complaining parties," said Janel Smith, a disabled Air Force veteran and the Vice President of the Coalition For Change, Inc. (C4C).

Ralph Saunders, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and a former employee with the VA's New Orleans Medical Center, agreed that reprisal against employees who file complaints is a daunting problem.   According to Saunders, VA personnel once destroyed his medical documents and subjected him to endless reprisal after he filed an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) complaint against a manager who had denied him requested time off from work to accommodate his wife's heart-surgery operation. Saunders prevailed in his discrimination complaint (Saunders v Shinseki, Case Number 200L-0629-2004-100828).

Unequivocally, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) found managers (Cassandra Holiday, Jeanette Butler, and Linda Cosey) guilty of "abusing the rules" and "retaliating against Saunders for his protected EEO activity."   The EEOC also found "evidence that officials retaliated against other employees who filed EEO complaints."   Saunders, who had worked sixteen years with the VA before officials targeted him for removal from federal service, is presently challenging the VA on a settlement-breach issue.


"Retaliation by rogue VA managers is destroying the lives of men and women who served honorably on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces," said Isaac Decatur, a U.S. Navy veteran, who after eighteen years with the department was fired from Veterans Affairs' Durham, North Carolina, office after filing an EEO complaint (Decatur v Shinseki, 0120073404).

"I wrote to President Obama about the VA's failure to take discipline against the supervisors who engaged in the blacklisting of employees and who the EEOC found guilty of discrimination," said Decatur. "My letter to the President spurred a reply letter from the EEOC in which the federal agency, charged with enforcing federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination, openly asserted: While EEOC orders agencies to consider; we have no authority to issue discipline."

"Some of these VA managers need to face conspiracy criminal charges for destroying veterans' records and engaging in various illegal activities," said Chauncey L. Robinson, who served in the Persian Gulf War.
Robinson reported that he has been waiting twenty-one years for the VA to process his claim for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and a heart condition. "VA officials destroyed my records," said Robinson, who joined other veterans in a class-action lawsuit that asserts the VA has been systematically violating veterans' due process for decades (Gary Kendall v Eric A. Shinseki, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Case No. CV07-103-S-EJL).

"The ill-treatment of VA's workforce harms the well-being of VA's employees as well as the veterans deserving of timely health care and benefits," said Al Hunt, III, a Gulf War veteran and a former VA supervisor with the New Orleans Medical Center.
Hunt explained that he was forced to resign from the VA due to discriminatory practices and harassment. "I refused to be complicit in a managerial scheme to write-up and fire black veterans who bravely served our country solely because they had exposed civil rights abuses in the VA workplace," Hunt said.

"Internal federal workplace dysfunction will continue to adversely impact public programs and services until supervisors and managers are held accountable for violating civil rights and whistleblower-protection laws."  said Tanya Ward Jordan, the President and Founder of the volunteer support and advocacy group, C4C.


-------------------------------------------------------
About The Coalition For Change, Inc. (C4C)
The Coalition For Change, Inc. (C4C) is a Washington, DC-based volunteer organization comprised of present and former federal employees who have been injured or ill-treated due to workplace race discrimination and /or reprisal.  C4C recently produced a YouTube video to expose how an internal broken workplace system harms the public. The video is entitled -- Veterans Affairs Dishonoring America's Veterans and Civil Servants.


__________________________________________________



Below is possibly more than you want to know about Bill Gates as US corporate lobby to end public health and capture health patents and curb generics but it is one of the best overviews.  Keep in mind this was written in 2011 and we now know TPP is worse than this article shows.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett placed hundreds of billions of dollars into trusts under the guise of private non-profits and health care that are now these very patents and intellectual rights protections sought for the PHARMA and health industry.  So, rather than paying taxes and allowing the public do the research to produce these PHARMA results as it always has, these billionaires privatized the research and seeks patents and protections on what would be a trillion-dollar PHARMA industry in developing worlds.

AS BILL GATES SAID AT THE 1990s SHAREHOLDER MEETING QUESTIONING HIS MOVING OF ALL THAT MONEY INTO TRUSTS RATHER THAN REINVESTING IT IN TECH INNOVATION-----'WE ARE MOVING TO AFRICA AS THE NEXT MARKET AND WE HAVE TO MAKE IT LIVABLE FOR US EMPLOYEES BEING SENT THERE TO WORK.  Meanwhile, all of the African citizens that were helped by these research and development activities are now seeing funding disappear and are not feeling to advantages of all that patented research.
 



Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines
TPP Issue Brief
- September 2011


How the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement Threatens Access to Medicines


The eighth round of closed-door negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement will be held in
Chicago from September 6-15, 2011. Negotiations during this round are expected to be substantial, as the
current nine negotiating countries, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United
States and Vietnam, plan to present the outlines of an agreement at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC) Leaders’ meeting in Honolulu, November 8-13 2011.1
According to the United States Trade Representative (USTR), “U.S. involvement in the TPP is predicated on the
expansion of the agreement to include more economies across the Asia-Pacific region,”2 and should “set the
standard for 21st-century trade agreements going forward.”3 It is therefore expected that the norms that emerge
from these negotiations will serve as a baseline for future trade agreements, potentially impacting a much wider
group of countries, including developing countries where MSF has medical operations and beyond. For
example, Japan and South Korea are reportedly currently considering joining the TPP.
TPP negotiating parties are under no obligation to subject their negotiating positions to public scrutiny; only the
final agreed-upon text will be made publicly available. However, a leaked draft of the U.S. position, now
available to the public,4 indicates that the U.S. is demanding aggressive intellectual property provisions that go
beyond what international trade law requires. Furthermore, the U.S. position represents a major retreat from
previous U.S. commitments to global health, including the 2007 bipartisan New Trade Policy, in which
Congress and the Bush administration agreed to abide by important public health safeguards in future trade
agreements.


1. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND ACCESS TO MEDICINES
Vital Importance of Affordable Medicines
Affordable, quality generic medicines are a critical component of treatment programs. About 80% of the HIV
medicines that MSF uses are generics, and MSF routinely relies on generic drugs to treat TB, malaria, and a
wide range of infectious diseases. In fact, all the major donors and leading international treatment providers,
including the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, The U.S. President's Emergency Plan for
AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), UNITAID and UNICEF, rely on quality affordable generic drugs for the programs they
support. PEPFAR, which purchases 80-90 percent of its ARVs drugs from generic suppliers, has reported
significant savings through the purchase of generic medicines.5
The first generation of HIV drugs have come down in price by 99 percent over the last decade, from
U.S.$10,000 per person per year in 2000 to roughly $60 today, thanks to generic production in India, Brazil and
Thailand, where these drugs were not patented. This dramatic price drop has been instrumental in helping scale
up HIV/AIDS treatment for more than six million people in developing countries. About 80 percent of donorfunded
anti-AIDS drugs and 92 percent of drugs to treat children with AIDS across the developing world comes
from generic manufacturers.


1 http://www.ustr.gov/tpp
2 http://www.ustr.gov/about-us/press-office/press-releases/2010/june/ustr-ron-kirk-comments-trans-pacific-partnership-talk
3 http://www.ustr.gov/about-us/press-office/press-releases/2009/november/ustr-news-kirk-comments-trans-pacific-partnership
4 Leaked TPP IPR chapter (http://keionline.org/sites/default/files/tpp-10feb2011-us-text-ipr-chapter.pdf)
5 http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/304/3/313.short



Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines
TPP Issue Brief - September 2011

Public Health Safeguards Threatened
Since the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the conclusion of the Agreement on Trade
Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) in 1995, the most comprehensive multilateral
agreement on intellectual property to date, developing countries have struggled to strike a balance between
protecting public health and making their patent laws TRIPS compliant. Patents and other intellectual property
(IP) regulations pose significant barriers to access to life-saving medicines, and flexibilities in patent systems are
recognized as important public policy tools in the fight to protect public health interests. Even developed
countries like the U.S. have utilized TRIPS-compliant legal flexibilities to protect public health and other
national interests.
The WTO 2001 Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health was signed to reaffirm that the TRIPS
Agreement does not and should not prevent members from taking measures to protect public health, and that it
can and should be interpreted and implemented in a manner supportive of WTO members' right to protect public
health and, in particular, to promote access to medicines for all.

 These commitments were reaffirmed and
strengthened in the 2008 World Health Organization (WHO) Global Strategy and Plan of Action on Public
Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property.
However, over the last decade, many developing countries have come under pressure in trade negotiations not to
use TRIPS flexibilities and to implement even tougher rules than those set out in TRIPS – these are known as
“TRIPS plus.” The U.S. and the European Union routinely use bilateral and regional trade agreements to limit
or circumvent developing countries’ abilities to implement the Doha Declaration and safeguard public health.
The U.S. and the E.U. both have large pharmaceutical industries lobbying for stricter patent regulations, and
these interests not only tip the balance away from public health protections and threaten access to medicines, but
also work to counter the efforts of global health programs.


In fact, studies have shown that U.S. bilateral and regional free trade agreements (FTAs) have already
undermined access to medicines in developing countries. For example, Oxfam found in a 2007 study6 that
during the five-year period since Jordan implemented TRIPS plus measures included in the U.S.-Jordan FTA,
medicines prices rose 20 percent, without any corresponding benefit in terms of domestic innovation or access
to new products. In addition, the Center for Policy Analysis on Trade and Health (CPATH) found in a 2009
study7 that once Guatemala enacted data exclusivity, on the basis of the Dominican Republic-Central America-
United States (CAFTA-DR) FTA, prices for some medicines rose significantly – even though just a handful of
medicines were under patent protection.
Recognizing the damaging effects that trade agreements have had on public health, the Bush administration and
the U.S. Congress signed a bipartisan agreement on May 10th, 2007, known as the 2007 New Trade Policy to
scale-back the harshest IP protections in order to strike a better balance between protection of IP and public
health needs. The agreement specifies that the USTR should modify its intellectual property demands in trade
agreement negotiations so that important public health safeguards are included. Yet in several meetings with
U.S. civil society, the USTR has stated on the record that they are considering options in the TPP that would
shift U.S. policy away from the 2007 New Trade Policy.
MSF is concerned that the U.S. demands for the TPP negotiations threaten to roll back vitally important public
health safeguards in developing countries, creating a fundamental contradiction between U.S. trade policy and
U.S. commitments and priorities on global health.
Medical Innovation Threatened
MSF is also concerned about the effects that intellectual property norms have on innovation for essential
medical technologies. The USTR presents its efforts to demand stronger regimes for intellectual property
protection in developing countries as a tool to protect innovation. MSF recognizes the importance of innovation

6 http://www.oxfam.org/en/policy/bp102_jordan_us_fta
7 http://www.cpath.org/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/cpathhaonline8-25-09.pdf
8 http://waysandmeans.house.gov/media/enewsletter/5-11-07/07%2005%2010%20New%20Trade%20Policy%20Outline.pdf


Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines
TPP Issue Brief - September 2011

and the need to finance research and development. We are a humanitarian medical organization that needs and
welcomes biomedical innovation to better treat our patients. However, the reality is that intellectual property
protection in the medical field keeps prices high and limits access to treatment, and furthermore does not
stimulate innovation for many of the diseases affecting people in developing countries, where patients have
limited purchasing power. By seeking greater and higher intellectual property norms in developing countries,
the U.S. government is perpetuating a failed business model that links innovation costs to high prices, and does
not address the innovation needs of developing countries.


2. THE TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP AND ACCESS TO MEDICINES

The TPP negotiations are being conducted in secret, so MSF other interested stakeholders don’t have access to
the U.S. or other countries’ demands. However, according to a leaked draft of the U.S. position, now available
to the public at http://keionline.org/node/1091, as well as correspondence and discussions between Congress and
the USTR, the U.S. is expected to demand the following TRIPS plus measures to be included in the

Intellectual Property Chapter of the TPP:


a) Broadening the scope of patentability: the U.S. wants to make it easier to patent new forms of old
medicines that offer no added therapeutic efficacy for patients
The TRIPS agreement includes important flexibilities for governments to decide what type of “innovation”
deserves to be protected by patents in a given country. Essential terms such as ‘novelty,’ ‘inventive step,’ and
‘industrial applicability’ are left undefined as standards to be best determined by individual governments within
the context of existing national legislation and circumstances.
However, the U.S. is seeking to erode this flexibility by requesting that TPP partners introduce new rules that
would severely limit the ability of each country to define what is ‘patentable.’

For example, the U.S. proposal for the TPP requests the patenting of a “new form, use, or method of using” an
existing product - even if there is no increase in efficacy. This technique, known as “evergreening,” allows
pharmaceutical companies to obtain or extend monopoly protection for old drugs simply by making minor
modifications to existing formulas. Evergreening significantly delays the arrival of more affordable generic
medicines onto the market.
Novartis has been battling the Indian government on its implementation of this flexibility since 2006, when its
patent for the cancer drug imatinib mesylate (Gleevec) was rejected on the grounds it was based on a drug
compound that already existed. Having lost its case in 2007 and the patent appeal in 2009, Novartis is now
attempting to ensure the words ‘therapeutic efficacy’ are interpreted in a way that allows even small changes to
an old medicine – such as imatinib mesylate – to be patentable10.
Additionally, the US seeks to require that parties make patents available on plants and animals, as well as
diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical methods for the treatment of humans or animals despite the fact that Article
27 of the TRIPS Agreement explicitly allows for the exclusion of these inventions from patent protection11.
Aside from the serious ethical concerns for surgeons performing procedures on patients, this text is not even
compatible with the U.S. policy not to enforce patents against medical professionals.

b) Restrictions on pre-grant patent oppositions: the U.S. wants to make it harder to challenge unjustified
patents
The TRIPS agreement allows countries and third parties (including generic companies and civil society organizations such as patient groups) to file an opposition to the granting of a patent - either before it has been


 Article 8.1, Leaked TPP IPR chapter (http://keionline.org/sites/default/files/tpp-10feb2011-us-text-ipr-chapter.pdf)
http://www.msfaccess.org/about-us/media-room/press-releases/drug-company-novartis-tries-weaken-indian-patent-law-protects
 Article 8.2, Leaked TPP IPR chapter (http://keionline.org/sites/default/files/tpp-10feb2011-us-text-ipr-chapter.pdf)
 http://keionline.org/node/1216


Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines
TPP Issue Brief - September 2011

granted (pre-grant opposition) or after (post-grant opposition). Patent opposition procedures have been
successfully used in several countries to prevent patents being granted undeservedly.
For example, in June 2008 the Indian patent office rejected a patent for the hemihydrate (syrup) form of
Nevirapine (NVP), a widely-used antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, based on pre-grant oppositions by civil society
groups. The price of NVP has decreased dramatically over the past years as a result of generic competition.
Similarly, the Indian patent office rejected the patent application for Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate (TDF), an
important HIV drug highly recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), and Darunavir (DRV), a
third-line ARV, based on pre-grant oppositions.
Patent oppositions are an essential public health safeguard that can accelerate the entry of generic competition,
improve the patent system through public participation, and help reduce over-patenting.
However, the U.S. government is now seeking to clamp down on this flexibility and prevent pre-grant oppositions in TPP partner countries,13 making it more costly and cumbersome to oppose a patent. In addition, patent offices will not have the benefit of the expertise of opponents/competitors to the applicant who may be
able to identify inaccuracies in the application before a patent is approved.


c) Imposing new forms of IP enforcement: the U.S. wants to allow customs officials to seize shipments of drugs on mere suspicion of IP infringement and to increase damages for IP infringement
The TRIPS agreement allows for governments to have a great amount of flexibility when designing the mechanisms that the country will allow for the enforcement of IP rights. However, the U.S., through the TPP and other tools (e.g. ACTA14), is demanding that countries enforce IP rights with new forms of enforcement beyond what TRIPS requires.
For example, the U.S. is requesting that TPP countries grant customs officials the ex officio right to detain
shipments of medicines at the border, even in transit, if the goods are suspected of being counterfeits or if they
are considered “confusingly similar” to trademarked goods.
Under TRIPS, “counterfeit” products are defined as those resulting from criminal – and not civil – trademark
infringement, which occurs knowingly and on a commercial scale. The U.S.’s proposed TPP IP chapter allows border officials to rely on a different, more lenient standard - “confusingly similar” – in order to seize consignments. This standard conflates pure commercial trademark disputes, which do not represent a threat to
public health or patent rights, with criminal offenses, such as production of counterfeit, falsified or substandard
medicines.

In fact, customs and border officials are often not fully trained or equipped to make accurate assessments with
regard to intellectual property infringement and may be overzealous in the protection of brand name companies.
For example, during 2008 and 2009, at least 19 shipments of generic medicines from India to other countries
were impounded while in transit in Europe on grounds that the shipments were suspected of infringing patent
rights. In one instance, German customs authorities wrongfully seized a drug shipment of “Amoxicillin” on the
suspicion that it infringed the brand name “Amoxil” – the cargo was detained for four weeks while further
investigation took place, eventually revealing that there was no trademark infringement. In another instance,
the Dutch customs authorities seized a shipment of the AIDS drug abacavir sulfate while it was en route (via
Europe) from India to a Clinton Foundation project in Nigeria.

 Article 8.7, Leaked TPP IPR chapter (http://keionline.org/sites/default/files/tpp-10feb2011-us-text-ipr-chapter.pdf)
The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) would impose limits on price-reducing generic competition and jeopardize the free flow of legitimate medicines across borders.


 Article 14.4, Leaked TPP IPR chapter (http://keionline.org/sites/default/files/tpp-10feb2011-us-text-ipr-chapter.pdf)
16 http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/publications/reports/2011/2011Special301MSF_Final.pdf
17 http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/publications/reports/2011/2011Special301MSF_Final.pdf
18 http://www.bmj.com/content/340/bmj.c2672.extract
19 http://www.twnside.org.sg/title2/IPR/pdf/ipr13.pdf
20 http://www.safemedicines.org/nigeriabound-hivaids-drugs-seized-in-netherlands.html


Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines
TPP Issue Brief - September 2011

In addition, under the U.S.’s proposed TPP regulations, shipments that are legitimate in the country of origin
and the country of ultimate destination would still be subject to detention in the transit country. Unwarranted
interception of legitimate in-transit pharmaceutical supplies can undermine legitimate trade in generic
medicines.

Furthermore, the U.S. is requesting TPP countries to mandate that judicial authorities consider valuing damages
based on “the suggested retail price or other legitimate measure of value submitted by the right holder” in cases
of infringement of intellectual property rights,” a mechanism that strongly favors the rights holder and
increases damage amounts. Each country should have the flexibility to individually determine the appropriate
measure for damages for IP infringement.

d) Expanding data exclusivity: the U.S. is seeking to expand a backdoor way to grant monopoly status
Data exclusivity is a TRIPS plus provision that restricts access to essential clinical trial data pertaining to the
safety and efficacy of drugs. Data exclusivity measures prevent generic manufacturers from using existing
clinical research to gain regulatory approval of their medicines, forcing them to perform duplicate clinical trials
or wait for the “data monopoly” period to end.
In the absence of data exclusivity measures, when a generic manufacturer applies to register and sell a version of
a previously-registered medicine, they only have to provide data showing that their product is equivalent to the
original. The drug regulatory authority relies on the clinical trial data provided by the original manufacturer to
evaluate the safety and efficacy of the generic drug.
The introduction of data exclusivity provisions essentially creates a new system for granting monopolies by
blocking registration of generic medicines until the data exclusivity period ends, even if the patent monopoly
has already ended or been overcome, for example with the use of a compulsory license. Under these terms,
generic competition is stifled not only for old medicines no longer under patent protection, but also for new
medicines that don’t warrant patent protection.
Data exclusivity prevents the registration of generic versions of a medicine for many years (the U.S. is asking
for up to 12 years of data exclusivity for some classes of drugs), unless the generic manufacturer repeats the
necessary clinical trials. This is not only extremely costly, but also arguably unethical, as it forces duplication
of clinical trials for patients and animals in order to prove something that is already known.
In addition, while there are clear methods and procedures by which patents can be challenged and overcome –
such as patent oppositions and compulsory licenses – rules governing data exclusivity for pharmaceutical test
data do not always provide the same public health safeguards.
Although it is not yet clear what the U.S. demands for data exclusivity will be for the TPP, the U.S. has
traditionally pressed for a minimum term of five years, similar to U.S. law for certain products. However,
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) has been aggressively lobbying for the TPP
to require 12 years of data exclusivity for a subset of pharmaceutical drugs, called biologic (also called
biosimilar or biopharmaceutical) drugs.

In August 2011, several members of the House of Representatives,
led by Rep. Henry Waxman, urged president Obama to refrain from negotiating any provisions on exclusivity
for biologics in the TPP, noting that a 12-year exclusivity period would impede the ability of Congress to
achieve the administration's proposal that the exclusivity period for biologics be reduced to seven years, as
reflected in the FY2012 budget proposal, without running afoul of U.S. trade obligations. It is also unclear if
the U.S will allow the public health safeguards for data exclusivity specified in the 2007 New Trade Policy.


 Article 12.3 (b), Leaked TPP IPR chapter (http://keionline.org/sites/default/files/tpp-10feb2011-us-text-ipr-chapter.pdf)
 http://www.who.int/medicines/services/expertcommittees/pharmprep/QAS04_093Rev4_final.pdf
 http://www.pharmalot.com/2011/05/phrma-wants-12-years-data-protection-in-tpp-talks
 http://www.waxman.house.gov/UploadedFiles/TPP_Biologics_Letter_08-04-11.pdf
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines
TPP Issue Brief - September 2011


e) Requesting patent term extensions: the U.S. is seeking to keep generic competitors out of the market,
for longer
The TRIPS Agreement requires patents to last 20 years. Although it is not yet clear what the U.S. demands for
patent term extensions in the TPP will be, the U.S. is expected to seek to extend the monopoly patent period in
order to compensate for administrative delays in the regulatory process, even though the 2007 New Trade Policy
made patent extensions optional for countries negotiating trade agreements with the U.S. Such extensions delay
the entry of generic medicines, punishing patients for bureaucratic delays.

f) Requesting patent linkage: the U.S. is seeking to turn drug regulatory authorities into ‘patent police’
Patent linkage provisions prevent drug regulatory authorities from approving new drugs if they could potentially
infringe existing patents. Such provisions effectively require drug regulatory authorities, which are responsible
for evaluating the safety, quality, and efficacy of medicines, to take on the responsibility of policing patents, an
area normally under the purview of separate patent authorities. Linking drug registration and patent status can
delay generic entry into the market and is an aggressive TRIPS plus measure.
The 2007 New Trade Policy made patent linkage optional for countries negotiating trade agreements with the
U.S. Most countries in Europe do not impose linkage between patent status and drug registration. If a linkage
obligation is included in the TPP, it will impose on developing countries more restrictive conditions for the
registration of generic medicines than are found in Europe3. OBAMA ADMINISTRATION BACKTRACKING ON U.S. COMMITMENTS TO ACCESS TO
MEDICINES

The TPP is the first trade agreement negotiated under the Obama administration. Leaked U.S. positions and
correspondence and discussions between Congress and the USTR indicate that the U.S. is prepared to walk
away from its previous public health commitments, including the 2007 New Trade Policy.


The bipartisan May 10th, 2007 New Trade Policy,25 signed by the Bush administration and U.S. Congress,
specified that the USTR should modify its intellectual property demands in trade agreement negotiations so that
important public health safeguards are included. The 2007 New Trade Policy aims to scale-back the harshest IP
protections for developing countries in order to strike a better balance between protection of IP and public health
needs. Although it did not go far enough, it was a step in the right direction. In particular:26
 Patent linkage provisions were made voluntary (whereas they had been mandatory in previous US trade
agreements).
 Patent term extension provisions were made voluntary (whereas they had been mandatory in previous
US trade agreements).
 Data exclusivity was limited to five years for new chemical entities; concurrent periods of exclusivity
were mandated, and public health exceptions were allowed to ensure governments could still implement
public health safeguards such as compulsory licenses.
When the 2007 New Trade Policy was announced, the House Ways and Means Committee called it “a
fundamental shift in U.S. trade policy.”27 However, the U.S. pharmaceutical industry has been aggressively
lobbying against the 2007 New Trade Policy being applied to the TPP negotiation countries.

USTR has stated
that they are considering options in the TPP that would shift U.S. policy away from the 2007 New Trade Policy
and toward greater protection of intellectual property rights for brand-name pharmaceutical companies in the
25 http://waysandmeans.house.gov/media/enewsletter/5-11-07/07%2005%2010%20New%20Trade%20Policy%20Outline.pdf
26

 For an analysis of the May 10 agreement, see: Fabiana Jorge. New U.S. trade policy: A turning point?. Journal of Generic Medicines
(2007) 5, 5–8. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jgm.4950093. Available at: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jgm/journal/v5/n1/abs/4950093a.html
27 http://waysandmeans.house.gov/media/enewsletter/5-11-07/07%2005%2010%20New%20Trade%20Policy%20Outline.pdf

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines
TPP Issue Brief - September 2011


Several Members of US Congress have also warned against this possibility and written to the
Obama administration to demand that it uphold the 2007 New Trade Policy28.
0 Comments

March 24th, 2014

3/24/2014

0 Comments

 
THIS 2014 ELECTION FOR GOVERNOR AND 2016 ELECTION FOR PRESIDENT ARE CRITICAL. IF WE DO NOT HAVE A PEOPLE'S PERSON IN OFFICE RATHER THAN THE NEO-LIBERALS WE HAVE NOW, ALL THAT IS PUBLIC WILL GO TO THE RICH AND ANY WEALTH WE HAVE WILL DISAPPEAR. 

SHAKE THE BUGS FROM THE RUG AND GET RID OF CORPORATE NEO-LIBERALS!


Gansler, Brown, and Mizeur are all ready to protect wealth and profit.  DO YOU HEAR THEM SHOUTING EVER???


People always doubt when I give them the 35-45% unemployment number, but think to yourself, if over 175,000 new jobs must be created every month just to stay even.....the US has had very few of these weeks in years....each month unemployment numbers grow even as people fall off unemployment payments.  This is huge.  The FED gives the US Federal agencies these rates of 6.7%.

Remember, a third world country must impoverish 90% of people in order to control the population.  You see massive poverty with politicians promising hand-outs of basic human needs to get elected.  SOUND FAMILIAR? 

CONGRESS AND OBAMA IS BLEEDING THE PUBLIC DRY OF WEALTH WHILE PRETENDING TO ADVANCE SURVIVAL POLICY.  RULE OF LAW WOULD PAY THE NATIONAL DEBT WITH RECOVERY OF CORPORATE FRAUD MAKING FLUSH ALL PUBLIC TRUSTS AND GOVERNMENT COFFERS!

I spoke last time of Yellen and the FED policy meant to super-size wealth and keep unemployment high with the intent to bankrupt the public sector entirely with leveraged government debt and continuous fleecing of billions from government coffers.  All of this advances the neo-liberal goal of third world conditions here in America.  I use the leveraging of Baltimore City schools as an example, but all public projects in Maryland are leveraged and tied to Wall Street financial deals that will have the public sector fleeced just as people were of their homes and students were of their education/careers.

STILL, ALL YOU CAN HEAR ON MARYLAND MEDIA ARE 3 NEO-LIBERALS ALL SHOUTING TO LEVERAGE MORE, GIVE MORE TAX CREDITS, AND MARYLAND'S ECONOMY IS DOING FINE!


'The ultimate kicker is how closely the U.S. stock market is mirroring the market in 1929 (right before the Great Depression)'.


Actual U.S. unemployment is 37.2%, not "6.7%", record number of households on food stamps in 2013
RT
Wed, 22 Jan 2014 12:04 CST © Andrew Burton/Getty Images/AFP


A girl pays for her mother's groceries using Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) tokens, more commonly known as Food Stamps, at the GrowNYC Greenmarket in Union Square on September 18, 2013 in New York City. As the White House proclaims a recovery is occurring, and the stock market has a head of steam, millions of Americans and their dependents are being left out of the recovery, according to a set of economic indicators.

Perhaps the most worrying yet least reported aspect of the so-called US recovery involves the national labor picture. Although the official US unemployment rate is 6.7 percent, this figure obscures the reality, according to an influential Wall Street adviser.

In a leaked memo to clients, David John Marotta calculates the actual unemployment rate of Americans out of work at an astronomic 37.2 percent, as opposed to the 6.7 percent claimed by the Federal Reserve.

"The unemployment rate only describes people who are currently working or looking for work," he said.

"Unemployment in its truest definition, meaning the portion of people who do not have any job, is 37.2 percent. This number obviously includes some people who are not or never plan to seek employment. But it does describe how many people are not able to, do not want to or cannot find a way to work," he and colleague Megan Russell reveal in their client report, which was leaked to the Washington Examiner.

Contrary to expectations, a drop in the unemployment rate, Marotta argues, is presently a sign that the unemployed are simply dropping out of the job market.

The "officially-reported unemployment numbers decrease when enough time passes to discourage the unemployed from looking for work," said Marotta andRussel. "A decrease is not necessarily beneficial; an increase is clearly detrimental."

The authors then take aim at the so-called Misery Index, which provides something of a pulse rate of American prosperity, based on unemployment and inflation. The Wall Street adviser said the Index, which he maintains is actually over 14, as opposed to the 8 advertised by Washington, fails to address how the US economy is being hugely subsidized by various schemes, including monthly bond purchases by the Federal Reserve.

"Today, the Misery Index would be 7.54 using official numbers," the two analysts wrote. However, taking into consideration the full unemployment picture, including workers who have given up the job search, which is 10.2 percent, together with the historical method of calculating inflation, which is now 4.5 percent, 'the current misery index is closer to 14.7."

© Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
Protesters hold replicas of food stamps during a rally in support of higher pay for low-wage earners outside the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, December 5, 2013.In food stamps we trust

Marotta's findings, which put the actual US unemployment rate at over 37 percent, seem more credible when viewed alongside other indicators, including the number of Americans who now rely on government assistance to make ends meet.

It has just been reported that a record 20 percent of American households were receiving food stamps in 2013, according to data from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The USDA data shows there were 23,052,388 households on food stamps in an average month of fiscal 2013, a jump of 722,675 from fiscal year 2012, when there were 22,329,713 households on food stamps per month on average.

Last year, according to data from the Census Bureau, there were 115,013,000 households. With 23,052,388 households - or 20 percent of the total number of households - now dependent on food stamps.

In just half a decade, the number of American households on food stamps has significantly increased. In fiscal year 2009, for example, the number of households receiving the government assistance program was 15,232,115. Five years later, in 2013, that number had surged by 51.3 percent to hit 23,052,388 households.

Meanwhile, the monthly average for individuals on food stamps hit an all-time-high of 47,636,084, according to the USDA. This is an increase of 1,027,012 over the 46,609,072 people who were getting food stamps in 2012.

In 2009, the number of individuals relying on the government program stood at 33,489,975. In 2013, the number was 47,636,084, an increase of 42.2 percent.

It should come as no surprise that spending on the US government's food stamp program, officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), has reached an all-time high.

Last year, SNAP cost $79,641,880,000 - a 164 percent increase over the past decade.

During the last five years, the SNAP program exploded by 36.8 percent, from $58,223,790,000 in 2009 to $79,641,880,000 in 2013.


_________________________________________
Your media pundit and politicians, labor and justice leaders will say they never saw this coming.....but they did.  I have shouted it for years and it is obvious to all.  So, all of O'Malley/Brown's credit bond leveraging and TIFs were designed to suck all public wealth and leave governments controlled by corporations.  That is what O'Malley's terms have been about and indeed, all governors across the country have been getting ready for this next collapse.  Sadly for you and me neo-liberals control most state and city executive offices like O'Malley and Rawlings-Blake in Maryland.  The City and State are so mortaged and taxes so high on the working and middle class now, that when the crash comes there will be nothing to tap.  There will be great defaults.

Now, if you elect for
Governor of Maryland  someone who will work to make the corporations and rich pay down these debts.....we the people will be OK.  If you elect a neo-liberal like Gansler, Brown, and Mizeur......everything will go the the rich.




Safety First: Strapping on Your Seat Belt Before the Coming Economic Crash

February 23rd, 2014   Investment Watch


It has been a while since the Global Economic Crisis has been the headline in the news. That doesn’t mean that it has ended. In fact, the world is moving further into a Global Economic Crisis daily, but people’s senses are dulled by the other new headlines such as Justin Beiber’s recent arrest and the Winter Olympics. Although it may seem irrelevant right now, global economic problems are brewing to levels that we have never seen before. These problems will begin to affect the U.S. soon.

Part of the problem is the federal reserves reckless money printing. This money was being used to fuel emerging markets and economies and to keep other economies afloat:

The Fed essentially is printing $85 Billion per month, out of thin air, using that digital money to buy bonds up, and trade them out with cash reserves or ultra-short term notes. Banks and hedge funds that owned the original bonds are then supposed to pump that money into the economy, creating a virtuous cycle.

Now, that they have slowed this process. Investors are taking this as a cue that the fun is over. They are beginning to pull their money from the markets:

Emerging market stocks, bonds and currencies—long coveted by investors attracted by the prospects of faster economic growth and access to young consumers—had a rocky start to 2013 as expectations of reduced U.S. monetary stimulus spurred capital outflows. Economic activity in many regions has slowed and faster inflation has eaten into savings.

This is causing massive financial instability in markets all over the globe.

In the past when nations were having trouble they could turn to financial powerhouses like

China for help. This will not be an option this time around with problems in Europe and Asia continuing to grow. XI Jinping of China has decided to stop letting the market run wild and has a plan for deflation. Deflation would be horrible for many economies because:

-Price deflation results in a real increase in the value of debt and a nominal decline in asset values. Debt can no longer be serviced.

-Price deflation would lead to massive tax revenue declines for the government due to a declining taxable base.

-Deflation would have fatal consequences for large parts of the banking system.

-Central banks also have the mandate to ensure ‘financial market stability‘

With unemployment statistics hitting all time highs in Greece and France and businesses failing at an alarming rate it is easy to see why the people there are in a state of unrest. In developing countries like Venezuela it has gotten so bad that armed military groups roam the streets. Topping this list of economic woes is Ghana who is on the cusp of economic collapse with a prominent economist from the country predicting that the country’s financial market will collapse by June if something is not done.

What messes everyone up is that these crises are not isolated incidents. When these crises strike one nation they affect everyone because all nations are connected. Although popular media would like you to believe that all nations are against each other, it is not that clear cut. All nations are connected through investments they’ve made in each other. So, when one fails all nations feel a little pain that they would like to avoid, so in most cases they band together to help whoever is struggling. This can easily be seen in the relationship between the US and China. The two nations compete in many subjects from sports, education systems, and even in their economies. However, when the US was having some major economic problems China was there to bail the US out. This came with some benefits for China, but it also made China even more invested in the well-being of the US since it has put more assets into the US’s economy. Investment Officer Alexander Friedman explains it perfectly:

The twenty-first-century economy has thus far been shaped by capital flows from China to the United States – a pattern that has suppressed global interest rates, helped to reflate the developed world’s leverage bubble, and, through its impact on the currency market, fueled China’s meteoric rise. But these were no ordinary capital flows. Rather than being driven by direct or portfolio investment, they came primarily from the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), as it amassed $3.US Treasury securities…But selling off US Treasury securities, it was argued, was not in China’s interest, given that it would drive up the renminbi’s exchange rate against the dollar, diminishing the domestic value of China’s reserves and undermining the export sector’s competitiveness

A wise man once said that, “those who don’t learn from the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them in the present. This statement rings very true. Especially, since all of these problems are being caused because the problems from the financial crisis of 2008 were never fixed. This is true everywhere considering the economist from Ghana was touching on the same principle when predicting why Ghana’s economy would crash:

The government is facing liquidity problems and if we don’t get the appropriate remedies to address the issues at hand the situation may worsen and by June the economy may crash…I said if they don’t address the fundamental problems facing the economy, by June the country’s economy will crash because the government has not even paid University Lecturers since last year among other pressing issues which needs to be address

The ultimate kicker is how closely the U.S. stock market is mirroring the market in 1929 (right before the Great Depression).

Remember Von Mises’s wise words:

There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved

The first step in preparing for any crisis is awareness, so at least the readers of this article will know to hold on and to buckle their seat belts before this economic crash.

_____________________________________

Obama, neo-liberals in Congress, and the FED have spent these years since the economic collapse in 2008 making sure those richest had all the money they could to expand overseas.  Global corporations getting bigger and global markets expanding into developing worlds.  They need to build another middle-class to consume now that they fleeced Americans of all their wealth.

All those trillions of dollars in corporate tax breaks, job stimulus money, and all of the tens of trillions of dollars in corporate fraud never recovered have gone to these developing world markets.  Over $600 trillion in derivatives leverage just as in 2007.  All of this done knowing this massive collapse would come and all done so that those at the top would be shielded.  This is why Yellen comforted everyone with the idea that the US global banks will not be harmed by this next crash.



So, WYPR exposed you and I to corporate NPR/APM and Basu telling us that nothing was wrong with policies, that the economy was growing, that jobs were being created AND NONE OF IT WAS TRUE AND THEY KNEW IT!


 6 Signs That 2014 Will Be The Year Of The Super Crash

6 Signs That 2014 Will Be The Year Of The Super Crash Gold Silver Worlds | January 30, 2014

As we have finally arrived in the magic year 2014, in which almost every economic and business cycle is trending down, it seems that things are perfectly lining up for a melt down. If it would have been true that the debt crisis was contained (like our political leaders try to make us believe), then there is a huge divergence with recent trends.

Are we pessimistic? No. Are we optimistic? We do our best. Above all, we aim to be unbiased and neutral. In any case, this article is not an attempt to predict prices or to time any market. That is useless and serves only marketing purposes. This article looks at six different trends which are lining up for an historic sell off in the markets. As readers observe, we stay as factual as possible.

Trend 1:


Market distortions because of QE appearing in emerging markets Up until now, the vast majority of economic and financial pundits have been praising the Western central banks for their monetary miracles. The last two weeks, however, were extremely important as we got evidence of the direct destructive effects of monetary easing. In particular, the carnage in emerging markets and their respective currencies revealed that things can get out of hand and have the ability to spiral out of control (much faster than governments can intervene).

Bloomberg says this is the worst selloff in emerging-market currencies in five years, revealing the impact from the Federal Reserve’s tapering of monetary stimulus. “Investors are losing confidence in some of the biggest developing nations, extending the currency-market rout triggered last year when the Fed first signaled it would scale back stimulus. While Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa were the engines of global growth following the financial crisis in 2008, emerging markets now pose a threat to world financial stability.”

Once the destructive power of this monetary experiment starts manifesting itself, it is likely to see spill over effects to all markets. Monetary easing could still look like innocent and constructive, but the side effects are unknown at present, as this is the first monetary experiment at this scale. The most concerning fact is that nodoby has an idea about how exactly the markets will react on each slice of tapering, and the precise timing of all effects (including the unintended consequences).

Trend 2:


There are almost no buyers left in equities Equity markets have shown exceptional yields in 2013. In a world with no yields, investors are chasing assets which yield more than nothing.

It has been thought that quantitative easing would create bubbles, but as it looks now it is resulting in bubbles in specific asset classes, as Marc Faber correctly predicted a while ago. The problem is that sentiment in the stock market has become far too optimistic. It’s not surprising, nor are investors or traders to blame, in a zero-yield world. The first chart shows the extreme optimism based on a bull/bear ratio.



 Another red flag is related to margin debt, see next chart. It shows the level of leverage in the equity market. We are well past the previous peaks.



However, there are reasons to believe that a crash is not imminent. Equities have surged but the margin debt to equities growth ratio is not as extreme as in the 2000 and 2007 peaks. This metric suggests there is some room for more upside.



We all know what happens when there is nobody left to buy. That point could be very close.


Trend 3:


 Manipulation is entering the public debate Currency markets, LIBOR, base metals, energy, … almost every single market has been manipulated. That is no news, of course, but the fact that it has become widely accepted is an important trend. Consider these headlines in the last few weeks:

  • Federal Reserve Said to Probe Banks Over Forex Fixing (Bloomberg)
  • Deutsche, Citi feel the heat of widening FX investigation (Reuters)
  • HSBC, Citi suspend traders as FX probe deepens (Reuters)
Even the precious metals manipulation debate is going mainstream. Up until now it remained in the “dark corners” of the internet, in the “blogosphere” and “gold bull” sites. Now it is the German financial regulator Bafin who says that “Metals, Currency Rigging Is Worse Than Libor” (via Bloomberg).

The key is that it has the potential to undermine trust. As readers know by now, trust is the pillar on which the current financial system is built. Once there was a tangible asset backing up the monetary and financial system; it was called gold. Not so anymore. A large scale loss in trust will have disastrous effects.

Trend 4:


Banks are once again reporting losses Several mega banks have been reporting losses in the last weeks. Is this a repeat of the 2008 scenario?

Consider Royal Bank of Scotland, who faces £8bn in full year losses. BBC writes: “RBS may face full-year losses of up to £8bn, after the bank said it needed another £3.1bn for claims relating to the financial crisis. RBS boss Ross McEwan said: “The scale of the bad decisions during that period [the financial crisis] means that some problems are still just emerging.”

Another giant, Deutsche Bank, posted EU1.2 billion losses in the fourth quarter. Via Bloomberg: “Deutsche Bank AG, Germany’s biggest bank, said this year will be challenging after a surge in legal costs and lower debt trading revenue spurred a surprise fourth-quarter loss. The shares slumped. Depressed interest rates in Europe and declining demand for banking services are also among the headwinds the bank is confronting in 2014, Co-Chief Executive Officer Anshu Jain said on a conference call with analysts from Frankfurt today.”

Wait a minute. The central banks of this world have injected close to $10 trillions in the banking system since March 2009, in order to prevent a melt down. They have reported happily that, by doing so, they not only saved the world but also generated economic growth. But at the time of victory, mega banks are reporting losses. Something does not add up here.

Trend 5:


The alarms of financial repression are deafening It is getting really ugly with financial repression.

Reuters reported this week that Germany’s Bundesbank publicly commented that countries about to go bankrupt should draw on the private wealth of their citizens through a one-off capital levy before asking other states for help. The Bundesbank’s tough stance comes after years of euro zone crisis that saw five government bailouts. There have also bond market interventions by the European Central Bank in, for example, Italy where households’ average net wealth is higher than in Germany.

“(A capital levy) corresponds to the principle of national responsibility, according to which tax payers are responsible for their government’s obligations before solidarity of other states is required,” the Bundesbank said in its monthly report. It warned that such a levy carried significant risks and its implementation would not be easy, adding it should only be considered in absolute exceptional cases, for example to avert a looming sovereign insolvency.”

The annoying part here is that the bail-ins debate is becoming mainstream. So it was no mistake from Dijselbloem a year ago when he said bail-ins will become the template for the future.

Moreover, some HSBC customers have been prevented from withdrawing large amounts of cash because they could not provide evidence of why they wanted it. The BBC writes: “Listeners have told Radio 4′s Money Box they were stopped from withdrawing amounts ranging from £5,000 to £10,000. HSBC admitted it has not informed customers of the change in policy, which was implemented in November. The bank says it has now changed its guidance to staff.”

Over to Russia, where, according to Zerohedge, the bank Lender has introduced complete ban on cash withdrawals until end of week, news agency reports, citing unidentified person in call center.

The subject is also going mainstream in the literature. A recent IMF working paper from Reinhart and Rogoff says: “The endgame to the global financial crisis is likely to require some combination of financial repression (an opaque tax on savers), outright restructuring of public and private debt, conversions, somewhat higher inflation, and a variety of capital controls under the umbrella of macroprudential regulation. Although austerity in varying degrees is necessary, in many cases it is not sufficient to cope with the sheer magnitude of public and private debt overhangs.”

The annoying part is that the financial repression story is intensifying. It is being accepted in the literature, among politicians and now we see an increasing number of initiatives being rolled out. Not good.

Trend 6:


Complexity theory points to a collapse Jim Rickards recently suggested that the world has become so interconnected that it has the looks of an extremely complex system. His research points out that complexity theory can be useful as an analogy to determine what comes next. Prior experiments in complexity theory suggest there is a point of no return: when things become too complex and interconnected, they can only come down.

Rickards sees a similar situation in the markets today. In fact, he saw something similar in 2006 and 2007. We all know what happened afterwards.

But what has the central bank noticed? Apparently nothing, as evidenced by their systemic risk model on the next chart. It is at an all-time high.



Should we be concerned when there is nothing to be concerned?

A valid question to ask is why Jim Rickars can detect things that the central bankers cannot. Rickards himself explains it in a very simple and short way: the Fed is using the wrong economic models. Their models could be fine theoretically, but they do not reflect reality.

Protect yourself Are six red flags enough to start protecting yourself? When things get out of hand, our world will become very selfish. The most likely outcome is that everything will come down initially, comparable to what happened in 2008. Chances are high that precious metals will recover fast.

The point in all this is that asset prices will be of secondary importance. Avoiding a total catastrophe could be far more important. There really is a reason why we advocate holding physical precious metals outside the banking system or open an offshore bank account with a debit card in gold or silver at a reserve bank.

_________________________________________

THIS IS WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO HAVE ELECTED OFFICIALS IN TOP OFFICES THAT WILL LOOK OUT FOR THE PEOPLE AND NOT CORPORATIONS AND PROFITS.  BERNIE SANDERS MAY BE THAT PERSON FOR PRESIDENT AND CINDY WALSH IS THAT PERSON HERE IN MARYLAND!

'He believes that the next financial crash will result in society realizing that “modern financial institutions cannot in general be trusted with either individuals’ money or the provision of financial services to viable economies”
'


2014: Renewed Economic Growth or Financial Crash? DEVELOPMENT & SOCIETY : Business, Economics, Energy, Risk 2014•01•17 Brendan Barrett United Nations University

Your instincts may be telling you otherwise, but the global economy will be strengthening in 2014, according to two major reports released in recent weeks.

In an improvement over 2013’s global economic growth of 2.1 percent, we will see a 3 percent rise this year and a bump up to 3.3 percent in 2015, predicts the United Nations’ World Economic Situation and Prospects 2014 report.

This positive news is echoed in the slightly more optimistic Global Economic Prospects report issued by the World Bank this week that states:

“Global GDP is projected to grow from 2.4 percent in 2013 to 3.2 percent this year, stabilizing at 3.4 percent and 3.5 percent in 2015 and 2016, respectively, with much of the initial acceleration reflecting a pick-up in high-income economies.”

At the same time, the World Bank projects that developing country growth will rise above 5 percent in 2014, with China’s economy growing by 7.7 percent, India’s by 6.2 percent, Mexico’s 3.4 and Brazil’s 2.4 percent.

Global economy: the patient shows signs of recovery The UN report reads very much like the medical examination results for a sick patient who has had to take some pretty strong medicine, but while still looking rather pale and tired, is showing some signs of recovery.

Inflation (like high blood pressure) remains benign worldwide, the report states. It has decelerated in the United States and euro-zone, dropping to 2 percent in the former, and 1 percent in the latter. This is causing concerns from the International Monetary Fund that we could be entering a period of deflation (overly low blood pressure) and that could undermine the global recovery.

In the developing world, inflation rates are above “10 percent in only about a dozen countries scattered throughout different regions”, according to the UN report, and that is arguably a good thing.

High unemployment is part of the explanation for the lower inflation figures and unemployment rates remain a serious challenge, particularly for the euro zone where they reached record levels at 12.2 percent in 2013, but as high as 27 percent in Greece and Spain. Renewed GDP growth in 2014 is projected to bring reductions in these rates in both Europe and the US, with the latter dropping below 7 percent. Again, a very good development, if it happens.

There are, however, major concerns for developing and emerging economies highlighted in the UN report. First, there has been a measurable decline in private capital inflows to “emerging markets, a sub-group of developing countries”. Second, volatility in these markets has increased with equity market sell-offs and local currency depreciation.

Risk and uncertainties: It could all go very badly wrong While delivering these positive forecasts, the UN and the World Bank devote half of their respective press releases to the risks and uncertainties facing the global economy.

The Chief Economist at the World Bank, Kaushik Basu, suggests that “one does not have to be especially astute to see that there are dangers that lurk beneath the surface”. Over at the UN, Shamshad Akhtar, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development, claims that “uncertainties and risk coming from possible policy missteps as well as non-economic factors … could stymie economic growth”. By non-economic factors she is referring to the situation in Syria and the Middle East.

By far the biggest concern is the potential impact of the US Federal Reserve’s exit from the quantitative easing programmes. The aim of these programmes is to “inject money into the economy in order to review nominal spending”. This involves “purchasing financial assets from the private sector” using “new central bank money, in addition to boosting the amount of central bank money held by banks…”.

The problem is one of weaning the economy off these programmes with one danger being that the medicine itself could become a form of poison for the global economy. Rather than using the term weaning, the Federal Reserve talks about “tapering”, with the goal being to reduce the monthly amount of quantitative easing in the US, to gradually wind it down and to conclude their programme at the end of 2014.

The authors of the UN report are concerned, however, that tapering could lead to “a sell-off in global equity markets, a sharp decline in capital inflows to emerging economies and a spike in the risk premium for external financing in emerging economies”.

Andrew Burns at the World Bank argues that this decline in capital inflows to developing countries could fall by as much as 50 percent for several months “provoking a crisis in some of the more vulnerable economies”, specifically Brazil, Turkey, India and Indonesia.

Meanwhile, the UN report points to other risks including “fragility in the banking system and the real economy in the euro area and the continued political wrangling in the US on the debt ceiling and the budget”.

Neither the World Bank nor the UN consider that a crisis is inevitable but they do call for strengthened international policy coordination, renewed reform of the financial system and in some instances the tightening of fiscal policies.

Déjà vu – Feels like 2007/8 all over again Reading these reports, I am reminded of the situation back in 2007/8 when we first began work on the Our World magazine. At that time, I became aware of signals among noise about the state of the global economy when the era of cheap energy is over and decided that the magazine should focus on some of the major issues facing the world. One of those issues was the peaking of global conventional oil production.

So in 2007 we began working on the magazine and successfully launched at the beginning of July 2008, just before oil prices peaked at around US$147 per barrel. At the same time, the financial system was just beginning to unravel and a serious collapse looked imminent. Fortunately for us, the global leaders managed to rally around the problem and prevent the world from slipping into depression.

Now, I have that 2007/8 feeling all over again and you probably share it. Particularly, I am struck by a number of signals from financial commentators like Peter Schiff, author of The Real Crash, and Robert Wiedemer, author of Aftershock, who are warning that a second financial crash is just around the corner for the US.

They made similar predictions before the 2008 financial crash and you could argue that they are in the “economic collapse prediction business”, since they also offer their services as investment advisors. Their basic message is that you should try to save yourself and your money in difficult economic times, and if you buy their books you will know what to invest in and what to avoid.

It would be all too easy to dismiss these pundits were it not for the fact that the UN and World Bank reports mentioned above appear so cautious about their growth projections and about the fragile nature of the economic recovery. It is almost as if they are covering their options so that they can say, if things go wrong, “we did try to warn you about the risks we are currently facing”.

The question is whether our leaders are aware of these risks or blind to them.

Risk Blindness and the Road to Renaissance Coincidentally, I have just finished reading the most recent book from Jeremy Leggett – The Energy of Nations: Risk Blindness and the Road to Renaissance. Leggett describes himself as a “social entrepreneur” and is the founder of a renewable energy company, SolarCentury. He maintains a blog called the Triple Crunch Log that covers the interaction between energy, climate and the financial crisis.

Using the log, which tracks events as far back as 2006, Leggett’s book presents a blow-by-blow chronological account of how these three factors have played out in the past seven years.

In the United Kingdom he appears to be viewed by politicians, government officials and the major energy companies as the acceptable face of the environment, climate and/or peak oil community. As he puts it, he is a pinstripe suited, Financial Times carrying, climate change and peak oil concerned capitalist.

In his book, he describes numerous meetings where he interacts with the British government and Big Energy, often behind closed doors. In some instances, his accounts of those interactions read like episodes from Armando Iannucci’s dark political comedy, The Thick of It shown on the BBC.

Here is one example. A group of concerned business leaders representing the UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security (that Leggett helped set up) meet with the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. Together they agree on a proposal for the government to work with the Taskforce to develop an oil shock emergency response plan. Subsequently, the business leaders issue a press release to announce the collaboration, only to find limited media coverage. They then discover that the civil servants in the Ministry had been informing the press that no such agreement was ever made. It would be a hilarious episode of The Thick of It, were it not actually true (check it out in the book).

What Leggett describes in his dealings with our leaders in government and the energy sector is a tendency towards “risk blindness” around climate, energy and the financial concerns. He suggests that this tendency will push us towards a financial collapse in the next few years. On the energy front, he sticks to his earlier prediction of an energy crash by 2015.

Leggett points out that many financial commentators believe a second financial crash is imminent. “The weight of debt that we have allowed to accumulate around the world will prove just too heavy for the financial system,” he writes in his book. “As things stand, a seemingly small event holds the potential to trigger the mass failure of banks.”

One such event could be the private equity decline mentioned in the above reports. We have to acknowledge the important role the UN and the World Bank are playing in outlining the risks so clearly and can only hope that the leaders of the world are not blind to them. Leggett, however, suggests that the problems are more profound than even the UN and World Bank officials are willing to admit.

He believes that the next financial crash will result in society realizing that “modern financial institutions cannot in general be trusted with either individuals’ money or the provision of financial services to viable economies”
. He further argues that “light touch regulation” of the financial system no longer works. To get us through the next crisis, we are going to need, he explains, a critical mass of “presidents and prime ministers keen to sit constructively in a multilateral emergency room”.

But Leggett is an optimist. With crisis comes opportunity and Leggett would like to see that the road forward takes us to a renaissance based on people power, community interests and the explosive growth of clean energy. In this context, The Energy of Nations is essential reading for those concerned with the interaction of the pressing global issues of today.

If the caution expressed in the UN and World Bank reports is correct then we find ourselves in a time of great risks and uncertainty. If the financial pundits are right then an economic catastrophe lies just ahead. If risk aware business leaders like Jeremy Leggett are making reliable observations then we have “arrived irredeemably in a time of consequences”.




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March 21st, 2014

3/21/2014

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Corporate NPR/APM made the news of the day surround new Federal Reserve Chief Yellen and her taking of the FED baton from Bernanke at a time that the US economy is ready to collapse for the same reasons as in 2007.  So, her concern lies with protecting bank wealth and she states that Bernanke's FED policies have made sure the banks are so well capitalized and removed from the US economy that any domestic downturn or collapse will not be felt by banks!  You see her concerns.

MEANWHILE THE FED POLICY IS DESTROYING THE PEOPLE'S WEALTH FROM ALL DIRECTIONS.  THINK YOU MADE SOME GAINS ON YOUR 401K THIS BULL MARKET---WELL, IT'S GETTING READY TO CRASH AND PENSIONS AND 401Ks will lose most of those gains.

Unemployment nationally is 35-45%, banks leveraged above $600 trillion involving the bond market this time with the FED unable to contain another crash.  Now, it is the FED's mission to keep unemployment low and the economy stable.

THIS IS MALFEASANCE.


Regarding FED Chair Yellen's first policy statement:

This is my interpretation with paraphrase:


'I AM THROUGH PRETENDING THIS FED POLICY IS ABOUT ADDRESSING HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT AND MARKET STABILITY-----WE ARE PROUD TO BE A CRONY AND CORRUPT BRANCH OF WALL STREET WORKING ONLY TO ENRICH THE RICHEST'! 

This was Yellen's announcement and it even made the most corporate of mainstream anchors----Scott Pelley of CBS hang his head in shame.

We all have known the FED's policies had nothing to do with its stated mission of controlling unemployment and stabilizing the US economy, but after several years of the Obama's term and policy that created economic stagnation and an unemployment rate of 35-45% across the country with an economy ready to implode from a bond market bubble-----Yellen said, heck, we can no longer hide it.

 IT IS IMPORTANT TO SHOUT AND DOCUMENT THAT IT IS ILLEGAL FOR THE FED TO MOVE AWAY FROM ITS STATED MISSION.  IT CANNOT JUST ARBITRARILY CHOOSE TO EMBRACE POLICY THAT HARMS THE PEOPLE IT IS SUPPOSED TO PROTECT.


So, where Greenspan shouted 'LET THE MASSIVE SUBPRIME MORTGAGE FRAUD CONTINUE AT RECORD SPEED', Bernanke served saying THE CRONY WALL STREET MARKET SERVES TO MAKE A FEW THE RICHEST IN WORLD HISTORY AND THAT IS WHAT THE FED IS ALL ABOUT UNDER ME!  Yellen is posturing that she will super-size wealth inequity by using the FED in crony finance just as Bernanke did.  What the heck, US has no public justice system right now they say!  You know, Trans Pacific Trade Pact makes US law enforcement against corporations NULL and VOID and Wall Street considers TPP already in place!

Let's take a look at what Yellen is telling you and I.  After all we are peasants waiting to have law and policy pushed upon us and not citizens who write law the works in the public interest.

Manipulating inflation rates and interest rates to zero are near zero works to give corporations free money while keeping the public impoverished.  So, zero interest rates make it impossible for people to place their money in a savings account -----the goal is to force everyone back into a stock market we all know is criminal and corrupt.  If you lose money to inflation unless you place it in the stock market-----you are being fleeced.  So, for several years now the American people have lost millions of dollars to manipulated interest rates of zero.  Meanwhile, corporations are being paid by the FED not to work.....hire.....by giving them free money to invest in the stock market and expand overseas instead of growing the domestic economy.  WAIT UNTIL THESE CORPORATIONS GET RICH ENOUGH AND THEY WILL ALLOW IT TO TRICKLE DOWN WALL STREET SAYS.  Remember when Obama ran in 2007 saying he did not believe in trickle-down and yet-----that is the entire enchilada of his administration.


ZERO PERCENT INTEREST MAKES FOR PUBLIC LOSS OF MONEY IF TRYING TO SAVE IN A SAVINGS ACCOUNT.  IT IS MEANT TO FORCE YOU BACK INTO THE STOCK MARKET AND REMEMBER.....IT IS READY TO IMPLODE!

The next important issue regarding deliberately claiming low inflation when inflation is not low is that when the FED is forced to stop these manipulations inflation will soar.  Now, moderate inflation around 5% has always been a goal and is good for public wealth and the economy.  What is coming will be much higher inflation and that is really bad for the public.  Don't worry says the FED, the big banks are prepared to weather the next recession!



'Negative effects of inflation include an increase in the opportunity cost of holding money, uncertainty over future inflation which may discourage investment and savings, and if inflation were rapid enough, shortages of goods as consumers begin hoarding out of concern that prices will increase in the future.

Is the Fed Waging War on Bank Savers?

By: Brian O'Connell

NEW YORK (BankingMyWay) — A new white paper on Federal Reserve economic policy draws the sharp conclusion that the Fed is waging a three-pronged war on bank savers.

Obviously, the Fed, led by chairman Ben Bernanke, has held fast to its low interest rate policy since the Great Recession began in 2008, and hasn’t let up since. According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the national average savings account rate is in the basement, at 0.14% , and the BankingMyWay Weekly Savings Rate tracker mirrors that number closely, at 0.15%.

If there’s any upside to the story, it’s that the Fed has decided to end the latest round of its monetary easing program and will likely no longer use artificial means to tamp down U.S. interest rates. But for bank savers, the damage is already done, and it’s not all just about interest rates.


Here’s a look at what one research outfit is calling Ben Bernanke’s “war on bank deposit savers” and the three ways it’s already under way:

Paltry savings rates at big banks. Big banks like Bank of America (Stock Quote: BAC) and JP Morgan Chase (Stock Quote: JPM) are offering savings rates at below 0.05%, points out FedUpUSA.org, a consumer financial advocacy organization. Since the 1960s the Fed has gone out of its way to give Americans a viable investment and savings alternative to the stock market, often keeping the key Fed Funds rate above 5%. But those days are long gone and bank deposit investors are paying the price.

Inflation is crushing bank deposit yields. In its April 2011 white paper, “Federal Reserve Punishes Savers By Subsidizing Big Banking Bailouts,” FedUSA.org argues that the Fed is trying to steer U.S. investors into the stock market, in large part by keeping interest rates so low that it isn’t worth it for investors to place their money in bank savings vehicles like certificates of deposits and money market accounts.

"The Federal Reserve is doing everything within its power to get people to spend or speculate in the stock market and hopefully over time create enough inflation to devalue our current debts,"
the FedUSA paper says. "This is why mortgage lending has gotten tougher (aside from government backed loans), getting a credit card is now for credit worthy customers and getting a small business loan is much more stringent. The purpose is to work through the current banking led fiasco by pushing on the debt to working and middle class Americans through lower savings rates and a push for higher inflation."

When inflation rises, as it has so far this year, bank CDs and money market accounts can’t keep up and thus are significantly reduced in value.

A smaller choice of consumer banking programs. Big banks and the Fed are currently entangled in a vicious wrestling match over bank fees. Front and center in that war are swipe fees that banks charge merchants who accept debit cards. The Federal Reserve is dropping those fees, from 44 cents per transaction to 12 cents per transaction, and in response, banks with $10 billion or more in assets are cutting bank credit card reward programs and are amping up bank deposit and ATM fees. The Fed just hasn’t learned a lesson that consumers already know too well – never get between a banker and his fee revenues.

Going forward, can consumers look forward to a break on the so-called ‘war on bank savers”? Probably. As rates rise, which they eventually will now that the Fed has taken its foot off the low-rate pedal, bank depositors will earn more on their savings and investments. But it won’t happen overnight. It’s going to take a while for things to wind down.

—For more ways to save, spend, invest and borrow, visit MainStreet.com.

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EVERYONE KNOWS INFLATION HAS RISEN THESE SEVERAL YEARS AS PRODUCTS COST MORE ----YET, THE FED HAS STATED INFLATION IS ZERO OR 1%.

Whether you are a supporter of CPI-E which changes the way COLA are calculated to address the Cost of Living today or if you are someone who knows inflation today is far greater than even CPI-E would calculate, the point is that the manipulation of inflation and COLA has gotten too far out of hand.  As we watch cereal boxes shrink considerably while prices rise....when my cat litter jumps from $6 to $10....we have considerable inflation.  Health care costs are of course the biggest inflation cost for Americans and it is not even included in the current CPI.

AS WE REBUILD THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE WE NEED TO REMEMBER THESE LOSES TO SOCIAL PROGRAMS LIKE SOCIAL SECURITY AND VETERAN'S BENEFITS!


Do not think it is hyperbole when economists predict US inflation will soar when the FED is forced to change these manipulations.  Inflation may indeed hit 10-15% or higher.





 Manipulated inflation rates by government leading to lower COLA on Social Security for 2013


10:50 AM  John Williams, Shadowstats,

With the Federal Reserve and Federal government blatently manipulating the true rate of inflation in the economy, the results for 2013 are going to be a 1 or 2% COLA increase for Social Security recipients next year.



Charts courtesy of Shadowstats

Social Security recipients shouldn't expect a big increase in monthly benefits come January.

Preliminary figures show the annual benefit boost will be between 1 percent and 2 percent, which would be among the lowest since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975. Monthly benefits for retired workers now average $1,237, meaning the typical retiree can expect a raise of between $12 and $24 a month.

The size of the increase will be made official Tuesday, when the government releases inflation figures for September. The announcement is unlikely to please a big block of voters _ 56 million people get benefits _ just three weeks before elections for president and Congress.

According to John Williams and Shadowstats, true inflation for 2012 is between 5 and 9%, dependent upon which model (1980 or 1990) one chooses to reference.  The government has manipulated real price inflation for more than two decades to ensure COLA increases are not in line with real inflation, to both save 10's of billion of dollars in benefit payouts, and to hide the fact that their deficit spending is causing massive inflation on essentials people need like food, energy, and rents.

Going into the 2012 election, the current administration doesn't want you to see the 30-80 rise in food prices over the past four years, and are making sure their media propagandists lie to you on what the real inflation rate is in the economy.


___________________________________________________________________

Bernanke and neo-liberals in Congress along with Obama have tried to pretend inflation is at zero or close when everyone knew it wasn't.  Inflation has been at 3-5% just as always with the inflation rate ready to explode as soon as the FED ponzi scheme of QE has maximized the FED's debt ratio to its limit, which is coming now.  This is why Yellen is having to back out of QE----the FED is maxed with debt.  When Yellen does this the manipulation of inflation rate will end and they will not be able to hide the fact that inflation has been higher than stated and will grow to a very high rate when QE ends and interest rates rise to normal.

Remember, inflation was manipulated to zero to make it look as though the FED policy was not hurting the economy.  At the same time these manipulated inflation rates did a number on the public's wealth yet again!  THOSE NEO-LIBERALS TRYING TO SUCK ALL THE WEALTH THE PUBLIC CAN AMASS ANY WAY POSSIBLE.  That is what FED policy has been about since the 2008 crash.  So, the zero COLA for several years lowered senior's Social Security payments by on average a hundred dollars a month as did the Veteran's payments.  This is big money for a class already teetering below the poverty line.  It is why the national debt fell during Obama's term---a success to Wall Street.  National debt paid by falling social safety net cuts while Wall Street fraud stays with the looters.

ARTIFICIALLY MANIPULATED INFLATION RATES OF ZERO CREATED THE LARGEST CUTS TO SOCIAL SECURITY IN THE PROGRAM'S HISTORY COURTESY OF NEO-LIBERALS IN CONGRESS AND OBAMA.

This is no surprise.....Obama laid out these plans in 2009.....the question is why have no democrats shouted out against all of this.  If your incumbent has not sounded the alarm these few years....THEY ARE NEO-LIBERALS AND GET RID OF THEM.



Keep in mind these inflation rates of zero are fake.....all articles on the subject show everyone knows inflation was the normal 3-5% yet the FED listed it at zero and the Federal government under Obama allowed this fake inflation rate be used for SS and Vet COLAs. 

IT WAS DELIBERATE TO IMPOVERISH FURTHER PEOPLE RECEIVING MONEY FROM A PUBLIC TRUST.

So, we need labor and justice politicians to keep in mind seniors and Vets will need these several years of losses to monthly payments replaced with higher COLAs for several years.  We may need 7% COLAs for example over a decade to make up for losses these several years.  This actually fits with progressive policy that sees Social Security increases by larger amounts as we replace all the stolen pensions and retirements with Social Security
.



Social Security COLA Doesn't Match Inflation

Retirees are falling further behind each year as medical costs rise by more than overall inflation.


By Philip Moeller Aug. 9, 2010

Last week's annual trustees' report on the financial health of Social Security showed the program did not suffer serious erosion during the past year. Current Social Security resources are sufficient to pay all benefits for the next 27 years. That's hardly the self-sustaining funding model that we'd like to see but it's good news nonetheless. However, it won't stop efforts to "fix" the program. And it won't halt the discussion over the adequacy of the annual cost of living adjustment (COLA) with which Social Security tries to keep retirees' benefits from being eroded by inflation.

Low rates of inflation in the year ended last fall caused the COLA to be zero for the first time in the 25-year history of these annual adjustments. Recipients received a one-time $250 payment, which helped compensate for that and was also pitched as an economic stimulus program.


Now, we're coming up on a second year with little if any inflation, as measured by a version of the Consumer Price Index used to determine the Social Security COLA. The index measures price changes for working people. Legislation has been introduced for another $250 payment, and AARP and other groups are lobbying for its approval.

However, the fiscal picture is much darker than it was even a year ago. And while Social Security's finances may have held up, the same is not true of the government's budget. We are awash in red ink with no end in sight to deficits. With mid-term elections this fall, just about everyone has found religion when it comes to government spending. So, the argument for another round of make-good Social Security payments is a tougher sell in 2010 than it was last year.

However, according to a recent academic study, the fairness of such a payment is beyond dispute. The study reviewed Social Security payments over many years, backed out spending on basic Medicare premiums (for part B physician and outpatient services) and other out-of-pocket medical spending, and then compared the remaining amounts with money that recipients paid for other goods. Researchers studied a group of older retirees who turned 65 in 1983 (the year the COLA began), and a second group of persons born in 1928. The authors -- Gopi Shan Goda and John B. Shoven at Stanford and Sita Nataraj Slavov at Occidental College -- found the value of recipients' benefits for non-healthcare spending had eroded by about 20 percent for men and nearly 27 percent for women. Those are big cuts: one out of every five dollars in benefits is effectively gone for men; one of every four dollars for women.

And their findings probably understate the actual ground lost, because the study did not include the cost of other health insurance premiums when considering out-of-pocket healthcare spending. Besides Part B premiums, other insurance includes Medicare Supplement, Medicare Advantage, Part D prescription drug coverage, and other private coverages. To the extent that the rise in premiums for such insurance has exceeded the overall rate of inflation, the study's findings would need to be adjusted to show further erosion in the effective non-medical buying power of Social Security benefits. And by all accounts, health insurance price inflation has far outpaced the rise in overall prices.


"Of course, these results assume no other income besides Social Security," the researchers say, "but a sizable fraction of the elderly depend on Social Security for the majority of their income: 64 percent of beneficiaries rely on Social Security for 50 percent or more of their income, and 35 percent of beneficiaries rely on Social Security for 90 percent or more of their income."

Even if funds were available, fixing this situation is no easy matter. This is because there are two root causes for how healthcare expenses erode the true value of Social Security benefits. The first is the rate of inflation for such expenses. The second is the fact that people simply use more healthcare as they age. "Even if medical costs did not rise faster than the prices of other goods," the study says, "as retirees aged, their medical spending would still tend to increase as a share of income."

There is an experimental government price index called CPI-E that is designed to measure the actual spending of retirees. It thus includes more weighting for medical costs. "The CPI-E has increased faster than the CPI-W over the past 20 years," the study says, "due primarily to the relative rise in health costs, and the fact that the elderly spend more on health care than the non-elderly, even after taking into account the availability of Medicare." Using the CPI-E to determine the annual COLAs for the study's subjects would have narrowed the gap, with men falling only 11 short of maintaining their effective buying power for non-medical items, and women falling 18 percent short.

But the financial consequences of even this seemingly simply shift are huge. Remember that 27-year estimate for Social Security sufficiency? According to one study, using the CPI-E to set annual COLAs would slice five years from that cushion all by itself. Further, like all measures of price change, the CPI-E does not even try to factor in changes in product quality. The $1,000 television set you buy today is vastly superior to the $1,000 set you could have bought 20 years ago. Such qualitative improvements have been enormous in healthcare.

With all the talk about changing Social Security, it would seem to make great common sense to take a careful look at the COLA mechanism. What good is it to put the program on a sound 75-year trajectory again if the interests of seniors aren't appropriately considered and protected in the process?

______________________________________________

You will not hear corporate media explain to you that Obama's myRA is Social Security privatization -----a republican plan to end yet another public Trust only a politician running as a democrat is doing it.  You will hear corporate NPR advertise this policy as a good thing for the impoverished masses who just cannot seem to save money themselves.

THAT'S A NEO-LIBERAL FOR YOU AND ALL MARYLAND POLS ARE NEO-LIBERALS!

Wall Street wants all of the Social Security and Medicare Trusts back in the stock market where Wall Street can use the money to maximize profit with leveraging that always sends public money out to act as fodder in investments with huge losses over and over and over.  Who wouldn't want Social Security tosses into the stock market?  EVERYONE!!!!!



'The same plan may be in the works for Social Security. In his speech, the President announced a new retirement savings program, MyRA. Although the details of MyRa are not clear, it is based on creating individual retirement accounts (IRAs) for workers who don’t currently have them'.



Obama Lays Groundwork to Destroy another Social Insurance


by MFlowers   

By Margaret Flowers

Originally published in GreenShadowCabinet.us

President Obama’s comments about the health law in his State of the Union speech lacked substance and were primarily focused on selling his law, and more insurance, to the public. He avoided discussing the root causes of our ongoing healthcare crisis and set the ball in motion to destroy another pillar of our social infrastructure, Social Security.

The bottom line of President Obama’s comments on the health law was that more people have health insurance and insurance companies can’t deny people based on pre-existing conditions. He urged everyone to make their friends and family buy insurance.

What he didn’t say is that people with health insurance in the United States still can’t afford the care they need and face bankruptcy if they have a serious health problem. And although insurance companies cannot deny policies to people with pre-existing conditions, they have a number of ways to avoid paying for peoples care.


The health law perpetuates a health system that treats health care as a commodity so that people only receive the amount of health care they can afford rather than treating it as a public good, as does every other industrialized nation. This is the root cause of the health crisis in the US. Any system that leaves healthcare in the marketplace, because it is based on generating profits for investors, will result in inequalities of access to care and rising healthcare costs.

Using a market-based model for social insurances sets a dangerous precedent. Traditional social insurances are provided by the government and are paid for through taxes. They are designed to meet the needs of the public rather than to provide a profit and so they guarantee a universal set of benefits for everyone. Each pays in according to their means.

The health law is doing the opposite. It is driving our entire health system to one that is provided by private entities and is paid for by individuals. Each person gets the amount of coverage they can afford. Those who cannot afford what they need are left to suffer. Since the health law was signed, there has been greater privatization of Medicaid and Medicare and billions of taxpayer dollars have been used to sell and subsidize private insurance. If we continue on this path, down the road Medicaid and Medicare will be rolled into the health exchanges and only private insurance will be available.

The same plan may be in the works for Social Security. In his speech, the President announced a new retirement savings program, MyRA. Although the details of MyRa are not clear, it is based on creating individual retirement accounts (IRAs) for workers who don’t currently have them.

What we do know is that Social Security has been under attack throughout the President’s time in office. Rather than doing what is needed, raising the cap, or going beyond that and raising benefits, there have been attempts to cut benefits and raise the age of eligibility. The public is being told that Social Security is in a crisis but is not being told that this ‘crisis’ is intentional. Unlike Social Security, IRAs are managed by financial institutions that profit from them. MyRa is another gift to Wall Street by President Obama.

We are living in an era of big finance capitalism, a predatory capitalism, based on the neoliberal economic model. It is being applied to every aspect of our society through dismantling of our public programs and privatization of our resources and services. Under this system, the basic necessities of each person are not guaranteed. Instead, it is designed to funnel wealth to the top by making everything into a commodity, a profit center for investors.

This path will continue until we rise up to challenge it. We must understand what is happening and that the destruction of our public programs is intentional, but not inevitable. There are solutions to the crises we face. For example, a health care system based on a non-profit Medicare for all model and a retirement system based on a stronger Social Security. These are obvious solutions, supported by a majority of Americans and logistically easy to put in place – if the government actually represented the people.

The President closed his remarks on health care by saying, “So again, if you have specific plans to cut costs, cover more people, increase choice, tell America what you’d do differently.” The last time he said that in a State of the Union speech, I tried to respond and was arrested. This time we must respond together by working to build a mass social movement that has the power to make our demands a reality.

~ Margaret Flowers MD, Serves as Secretary of Health in the General Welfare Branch of the Green Shadow Cabinet.


____________________________________________

It has been a sad state of affairs to watch the neo-liberal media and economists send out all kinds of propaganda on Social Security and threats to its future.  Keep in mind, neo-liberals are committed to ending all War on Poverty and New Deal programs----that has to happen for Trans Pacific Trade Pact to become enacted.  So, neo-liberals are creating drama around Social Security to hide the ultimate goal----myRA.  As we are fighting Chain CPI and fake inflation rates and direct cuts to how much Social Security payments will be, the policy neo-liberals are pushing simply ends Social Security as a Federal program.  You do not hear one neo-liberal economist saying anything about how myRA will end Social Security-----they are saying we won the fight to protect Social Security from Chain CPI.  Chain CPI was not good but myRA ends SS for goodness sake!


IF YOUR PUNDIT OR POLITICIAN IS NOT SHOUTING THAT myRA FROM OBAMA IS ABOUT ENDING SOCIAL SECURITY-----THEY ARE NEO-LIBERALS!

Baker, Reich, Krugman are all neo-liberal economists feeling the American people's pain yet never quite able to shout that neo-liberalism is the killer.
  They never speak to the Social Security and Medicare Trusts being raided either.  I have shown often that payroll taxes diverted to the US Treasury to the tune of almost $4 trillion dollars has been spent building the Homeland Security network and private military.



Social Security COLA to increase by 1.5 Percent in 2014
   
Written by Dean Baker  
Wednesday, 30 October 2013 10:00


Changing the basis of the COLA to the chained CPI would cut an already modest cost-of-living-adjustment.

The Social Security Administration has announced the Social Security cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) will be 1.5 percent in 2014. Beneficiaries will begin seeing the increase in their checks in January.

It is worth noting that this COLA based on the consumer price index for wage and clerical workers (CPI-W) is likely to be lower than the rate of inflation shown by the BLS experimental elderly index (CPI-E), which is designed to reflect the purchasing patterns of the elderly. The biggest differences between the two indices are the weights assigned to health care and housing, with both components accounting for a much larger share of the CPI-E than the CPI-W.

The price of medical care services was up 3.1 percent in August from its year-ago level. The price of the CPI’s shelter component was up 2.4 percent from its year-ago level. As a result of the more rapid price increases in these components, the CPI-E would likely show a rate of inflation that 0.1-0.2 percentage points higher than the CPI-W. This would suggest that the rate of inflation seen by seniors is somewhat higher than the COLA they are now getting for Social Security.

However, this gap would increase if the COLA indexation switched to the chained CPI (CCPI-U). This index typically shows a rate of inflation that is 0.2-0.3 percentage points lower than the CPI-W. The reason for the difference is that CCPI-U incorporates the impact of substitution on consumption costs. If the price of apples rises less rapidly than the price of oranges, and people switch from consuming oranges to apples, then the CCPI would lower the weight it assigns to oranges and increases the weight it assigns to apples. This leads it to show a lower measured rate of inflation, which arguably reflects actual patterns in consumption.

While the CCPI-U may be picking up substitution patterns for the population as a whole, it is not clear that it accurately reflects substitution patterns among seniors. The goods disproportionately consumed by seniors, health care and housing, don’t lend themselves to easy substitution. Furthermore, it is not clear that seniors can substitute for other goods with the same ease as the rest of the population.

Unfortunately, neither BLS or the proponents of adopting the chained CPI for the COLA have done research on this topic.

In short, there is some reason to believe that the current COLA already does not adequately compensate seniors for the rate of inflation they experience. This problem would be worse if the basis for the COLA is changed to the chained CPI.


__________________________________________


ISN'T THIS LOL----IT IS THE FED'S REFUSAL TO SEEK JUSTICE AND RECOVER FRAUD THAT HAS SUPER-SIZED THE BANKS WITH SO MUCH WEALTH AND EXPANSION THAT WALL STREET IS NO LONGER CONNECTED TO THE US ECONOMY OTHER THAN CONTINUING TO IMPLODE IT WITH BOOM AND BURST BUBBLES.



Well, the FED policy was all about feeding free money at zero percent so corporations could do nothing for the last several years but merge and acquire and expand overseas. The FED policy was crony and corrupt by every measure and professionals have shouted for years that the FED's actions are no longer matching the goals of its mission. The banks, rather than be nationalized so as to complete investigations, recover tens of trillions of dollars in fraud, and prosecute the criminals that are systemic in the financial industry so as to start to rebuild a healthy economy were instead simply allowed to keep the loot, use it as investments in a BULL market all of which made them extraordinarily rich with other people's money! How crony is that?

The reason the FED notes that banks and corporations will not be effected by the next recessions is just that.....the FED and Obama/Congressional neo-liberals have allowed the banks to grow separate from the US economy and while still working to implode the US economy from fraud and corruption, a collapse for you and me will see Wall Street simply move its money elsewhere until it is over. The FED, Obama, and Congressional neo-liberals have indeed allowed the banks to get to just the same place as 2007 as regards collapse by super-sized leverage and fraud and corruption, this time in the bond market.

The good news for WE THE PEOPLE is that since the banks still have those tens of trillion in massive fraud and made a killing investing our money.....we get all that fraud and the gains Wall Street made from the BULL market back as soon as Rule of Law is reinstated and fraud recovered to government coffers and individual's pockets.

When we do nationalize the Wall Street banks to do this, they will become the regional banks they are meant to be. So, they may weather the coming recession caused by the implosion of the bond market, but they will not weather justice delayed! Remember, when a government suspends Rule of Law, it suspends Statutes of Limitation!



Nearly all top U.S. banks could withstand severe recession, Fed says

WASHINGTON -- Only one of the nation's 30 largest banks would not be able to withstand a severe recession and the firms collectively are in better financial position to handle economic shocks than five years ago, according to Federal Reserve stress test results released Thursday

Under the most extreme of three economic scenarios, Zions Bancorporation of Salt Lake City would be the only large bank at risk of failure because a key measure of financial strength would fall below the Fed's standard.

The Fed conducts two rounds of stress tests and next week will give what amounts to pass/fail grades for the banks after factoring in each firm's plans for dividend payments or stock buybacks this year.



“The annual stress test is one of the Federal Reserve’s most important tools to gauge the resiliency of the financial sector and to help ensure that the largest firms have strong capital positions,” said Fed. Gov. Daniel K. Tarullo, who oversees the central bank's regulatory functions.

“Each year we are making substantial improvements, which have helped make the process even stronger than when we first conducted the stress tests in the midst of the financial crisis five years ago,” he said.

The banks have a combined $13.5 trillion in assets, nearly 80% of the U.S. industry.

Under the Fed's severely adverse economic scenario, those 30 firms would lose about $501 billion over 27 months.

That scenario, designed to replicate a downturn similar to the 2008 financial crisis and Great Recession, involves a sharp rise in the unemployment rate to 11.25%, a 25% decline in home prices and a nearly 50% drop in the stock market.

Under such conditions, Zions would fall below a Fed gauge of bank health. The firm's ratio of capital to its risk-weighted assets would fall to 3.5% from the 10.5% level as of Sept. 30.

Banks are supposed to stay above 5%.

The next weakest bank was M&T Bank Corp., with a ratio of 5.9%. The nation's two largest banks fared only slightly better: Bank of America Corp.'s ratio was 6% and JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s was 6.3%.

The best performers under the scenario were State Street Corp, at 13.3% and the Bank of New York Mellon Corp. and Discover Financial Services, both at 13.1%

Overall, the combined ratio for the 30 largest banks would fall to 7.6% from 11.5%. Those same banks had a ratio of 5.5% at the beginning of 2009, the Fed said.

The Fed's two stress tests are designed to determine the strength of the nation’s largest financial institutions.

The first, whose results were released Thursday, were required by the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law and measure the firms in three economic scenarios -- normal conditions, a moderate recession and a severe economic downturn.

This year, as required by the Dodd-Frank law, the Fed expanded the tests to the 30 largest bank holding companies.

Previous stress tests, which began after the crisis, looked at the top 18 banks.

The second test looks at each bank's plans to pay dividends or buy back stock. The results of the first stress test will be applied to those plans.

On Wednesday, the Fed will announce which banks will be allowed to proceed with their plans and which would first have to raise more capital. The Fed also will determine if the planning processes of the banks, which include how they project revenue and losses, are sufficient.

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    Cindy Walsh is a lifelong political activist and academic living in Baltimore, Maryland.

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