AlterNet.org CounterPunch
By Michael Hudson
October 12, 2010
Finance is the new form of warfare -- without the expense of a military overhead and an occupation against unwilling hosts.
What is to stop U.S. banks and their customers from creating $1 trillion, $10 trillion or even $50 trillion on their computer keyboards to buy up all the bonds and stocks in the world, along with all the land and other assets for sale in the hope of making capital gains and pocketing the arbitrage spreads by debt leveraging at less than 1 per cent interest cost? This is the game that is being played today.
Finance is the new form of warfare - without the expense of a military overhead and an occupation against unwilling hosts. It is a competition in credit creation to buy foreign resources, real estate, public and privatized infrastructure, bonds and corporate stock ownership. Who needs an army when you can obtain the usual objective (monetary wealth and asset appropriation) simply by financial means? All that is required is for central banks to accept dollar credit of depreciating international value in payment for local assets. Victory promises to go to whatever economy's banking system can create the most credit, using an army of computer keyboards to appropriate the world's resources. The key is to persuade foreign central banks to accept this electronic credit.
U.S. officials demonize foreign countries as aggressive "currency manipulators" keeping their currencies weak. But they simply are trying to protect their currencies from being pushed up against the dollar by arbitrageurs and speculators flooding their financial markets with dollars. Foreign central banks find them obliged to choose between passively letting dollar inflows push up their exchange rates - thereby pricing their exports out of global markets - or recycling these dollar inflows into U.S. Treasury bills yielding only 1% and whose exchange value is declining. (Longer-term bonds risk a domestic dollar-price decline if U.S interest rates should rise.)
For more go to: http://www.alternet.org/story/148481/why_the_u.s._has_launched_a_new_financial_world_war_--_and_how_the_rest_of_the_world_will_fight_back_?page=entire
Sunday, October 17, 2010
WHY GERMANY HAS IT SO GOOD -- and Why America Is Going Down the Drain
AlterNet / By Terrence McNally
Germans have six weeks of federally mandated vacation, free university tuition, and nursing care. Why the US pales in comparison.
October 14, 2010|
While the bad news of the Euro crisis makes headlines in the US, we hear next to nothing about a quiet revolution in Europe. The European Union, 27 member nations with a half billion people, has become the largest, wealthiest trading bloc in the world, producing nearly a third of the world's economy -- nearly as large as the US and China combined. Europe has more Fortune 500 companies than either the US, China or Japan.
European nations spend far less than the United States for universal healthcare rated by the World Health Organization as the best in the world, even as U.S. health care is ranked 37th. Europe leads in confronting global climate change with renewable energy technologies, creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs in the process. Europe is twice as energy efficient as the US and their ecological "footprint" (the amount of the earth's capacity that a population consumes) is about half that of the United States for the same standard of living.
Unemployment in the US is widespread and becoming chronic, but when Americans have jobs, we work much longer hours than our peers in Europe. Before the recession, Americans were working 1,804 hours per year versus 1,436 hours for Germans -- the equivalent of nine extra 40-hour weeks per year.
In his new book, Were You Born on the Wrong Continent?, Thomas Geoghegan makes a strong case that European social democracies -- particularly Germany -- have some lessons and models that might make life a lot more livable.
For more information & the interview go to:http://www.alternet.org/story/148501/why_germany_has_it_so_good_--_and_why_america_is_going_down_the_drain?page=entire
Germans have six weeks of federally mandated vacation, free university tuition, and nursing care. Why the US pales in comparison.
October 14, 2010|
While the bad news of the Euro crisis makes headlines in the US, we hear next to nothing about a quiet revolution in Europe. The European Union, 27 member nations with a half billion people, has become the largest, wealthiest trading bloc in the world, producing nearly a third of the world's economy -- nearly as large as the US and China combined. Europe has more Fortune 500 companies than either the US, China or Japan.
European nations spend far less than the United States for universal healthcare rated by the World Health Organization as the best in the world, even as U.S. health care is ranked 37th. Europe leads in confronting global climate change with renewable energy technologies, creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs in the process. Europe is twice as energy efficient as the US and their ecological "footprint" (the amount of the earth's capacity that a population consumes) is about half that of the United States for the same standard of living.
Unemployment in the US is widespread and becoming chronic, but when Americans have jobs, we work much longer hours than our peers in Europe. Before the recession, Americans were working 1,804 hours per year versus 1,436 hours for Germans -- the equivalent of nine extra 40-hour weeks per year.
In his new book, Were You Born on the Wrong Continent?, Thomas Geoghegan makes a strong case that European social democracies -- particularly Germany -- have some lessons and models that might make life a lot more livable.
For more information & the interview go to:http://www.alternet.org/story/148501/why_germany_has_it_so_good_--_and_why_america_is_going_down_the_drain?page=entire
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Vitamin D Deficiency is a worldwide epidemic
(NaturalNews) A clinical review paper published in the British Medical Journal is warning the public that widespread vitamin D deficiency is resurrecting the once-obsolete disease called rickets. According to Professor Simon Pearce and Dr. Time Cheetham, authors of the paper, people are getting far too little sunlight exposure which is necessary for the body to produce adequate levels of vitamin D.
Nowadays, children spend most of their time indoors staring at computer and television screens rather than playing outside in the sunlight. On the rare occasion that they venture outside, zealous parents are quick to apply UV-blocking sunscreen that prevents the sun's useful UVB rays from penetrating their skin and producing vitamin D. The result is an epidemic of vitamin D deficiency that is leading to all sorts of illness and disease.
Rickets, a disease in which a person's bones do not properly develop and harden, results when a person is getting too little vitamin D and most likely not enough calcium. The U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for vitamin D is a mere 400 IU, an amount that is said to be adequate for preventing rickets.
To put this amount into perspective, however, exposure to the summer sun for about 20 minutes is enough to produce up to 20,000 IU of vitamin D in the body. At this level, far more optimal health can be achieved.
For more information go to:
Nowadays, children spend most of their time indoors staring at computer and television screens rather than playing outside in the sunlight. On the rare occasion that they venture outside, zealous parents are quick to apply UV-blocking sunscreen that prevents the sun's useful UVB rays from penetrating their skin and producing vitamin D. The result is an epidemic of vitamin D deficiency that is leading to all sorts of illness and disease.
Rickets, a disease in which a person's bones do not properly develop and harden, results when a person is getting too little vitamin D and most likely not enough calcium. The U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for vitamin D is a mere 400 IU, an amount that is said to be adequate for preventing rickets.
To put this amount into perspective, however, exposure to the summer sun for about 20 minutes is enough to produce up to 20,000 IU of vitamin D in the body. At this level, far more optimal health can be achieved.
For more information go to:
ADD YOUR VOICE.. HELP DEFEAT PROP 8 in CALIF
Justice Delayed in California
Tonight, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay on Judge Walker's historic decision ruling Prop 8 unconstitutional. This means the freedom to marry for same-sex couples will not be restored this week, as so many hoped.While the lawyers make the case for the freedom to marry in the courts of law, we must affirmatively make the case in the court of public opinion. Add your voice and tell the nation "I'm helping to defeat Prop 8, and I’m going to work to win the freedom to marry in the 45 states that still exclude loving and committed same-sex couples from marriage."
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freedomtomarry.org%2Fcontent%2Fadd-your-voice-now&h=cf5ce
Friday, October 15, 2010
VOTE for YOUR FAVORITE VILLAINS of FOOD
by Grist Oct 14, 2010 12:07 PM
Oh, America, have we got troubles with our tummies -- and with the industrial system that pumps junk into them. One in six kids is obese. Half a billion potentially tainted eggs were recalled after sickening thousands with salmonella this year. (On the bright side, it's a pleasant change from summer's usual E. coli alerts.) Giant hog factories make life unbearable not just for the pigs, but for their neighbors in Iowa and North Carolina (although some fight back).
Basically, if you're someone who tries to eat like you give a damn, you can quickly feel like it's all going to hell.
Sure, there are many ways to cheer yourself up. You can devour a pint of protest ice cream (one delicious gut reaction). You can seek out happy stories about New Activists and "game changers."
Or, you can get even. While we at Grist like to focus on the positive as much as possible, all the community gardens and organic farmers in the world can't stop the tsunami of 99-cent feedlot burgers and head-scratching political appointments. This is our attempt to root out who's currently keeping America sick, fat, and poisoned: a preliminary list of a Dirty Dozen rotten eggs spoiling our food system. Cast your vote, or write in your candidate in the comments below, and let's see who's food's Public Enemy No. 1 -- and plot what we can do to stop them.
http://www.grist.org/article/food-2010-10-14-vote-for-your-favorite-villains-of-food/
Oh, America, have we got troubles with our tummies -- and with the industrial system that pumps junk into them. One in six kids is obese. Half a billion potentially tainted eggs were recalled after sickening thousands with salmonella this year. (On the bright side, it's a pleasant change from summer's usual E. coli alerts.) Giant hog factories make life unbearable not just for the pigs, but for their neighbors in Iowa and North Carolina (although some fight back).
Basically, if you're someone who tries to eat like you give a damn, you can quickly feel like it's all going to hell.
Sure, there are many ways to cheer yourself up. You can devour a pint of protest ice cream (one delicious gut reaction). You can seek out happy stories about New Activists and "game changers."
Or, you can get even. While we at Grist like to focus on the positive as much as possible, all the community gardens and organic farmers in the world can't stop the tsunami of 99-cent feedlot burgers and head-scratching political appointments. This is our attempt to root out who's currently keeping America sick, fat, and poisoned: a preliminary list of a Dirty Dozen rotten eggs spoiling our food system. Cast your vote, or write in your candidate in the comments below, and let's see who's food's Public Enemy No. 1 -- and plot what we can do to stop them.
http://www.grist.org/article/food-2010-10-14-vote-for-your-favorite-villains-of-food/
Thursday, October 14, 2010
By karoli March 21, 2010 05:45 PM
Here are ten benefits which come online within six months of the President's signature on the health care bill:
- Adult children may remain as dependents on their parents’ policy until their 26th birthday
- Children under age 19 may not be excluded for pre-existing conditions
- No more lifetime or annual caps on coverage
- Free preventative care for all
- Adults with pre-existing conditions may buy into a national high-risk pool until the exchanges come online. While these will not be cheap, they’re still better than total exclusion and get some benefit from a wider pool of insureds.
- Small businesses will be entitled to a tax credit for 2009 and 2010, which could be as much as 50% of what they pay for employees’ health insurance.
- The “donut hole” closes for Medicare patients, making prescription medications more affordable for seniors.
- Requirement that all insurers must post their balance sheets on the Internet and fully disclose administrative costs, executive compensation packages, and benefit payments.
- Authorizes early funding of community health centers in all 50 states (Bernie Sanders’ amendment). Community health centers provide primary, dental and vision services to people in the community, based on a sliding scale for payment according to ability to pay.
- AND no more rescissions. Effective immediately, you can't lose your insurance because you get sick.
In our community - half-rural and half-suburb -- 50 community health centers will receive funding to provide health and preventive services to people with no access right now. And that's just one benefit. They're all valuable.
cross-posted at USHealthCrisis.com
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