To Cut Global Warming, Swedes Study Their Plates

(A few months ago, I was musing to a friend why if we had mandatory nutritional and calorie counts on product labels, why didn't we have carbon, energy and water footprint numbers to help us wade through the complexities of determining which products are, or are not, good for the planet, not just good or bad for our waistline.  Well, low and behold, along come the clever Swedes with just such a program to track CO2.  Read on...)


October 23, 2009

New York Times

By Elisabeth Rosenthal
[ Read original article ]

STOCKHOLM — Shopping for oatmeal, Helena Bergstrom, 37, admitted that she was flummoxed by the label on the blue box reading, “Climate declared: .87 kg CO2 per kg of product.”

“Right now, I don’t know what this means,” said Ms. Bergstrom, a pharmaceutical company employee.
But if a new experiment here succeeds, she and millions of other Swedes will soon find out. New labels listing the carbon dioxide emissions associated with the production of foods, from whole wheat pasta to fast food burgers, are appearing on some grocery items and restaurant menus around the country.

The Warning - Frontline Series on the Financial Crisis

This is a great series Frontline did on the end-to-end chronology of the current banking crisis which had it roots back in the 1980's. This chronology compiles all the Frontline clips on the financial and banking systems and then presents is as a slow walk to the abyss. It also tells the story of Brooksley born who warned early on about unregulated derivative trading as a source of instability. Great montage, great series. A must see if you want to understand the roots of the current crisis.

Link to the entire series of videos

PBS
Frontline

The Warning (introduction)
[ Read original article ]

"We didn't truly know the dangers of the market, because it was a dark market," says Brooksley Born, the head of an obscure federal regulatory agency -- the Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC] -- who not only warned of the potential for economic meltdown in the late 1990s, but also tried to convince the country's key economic powerbrokers to take actions that could have helped avert the crisis. "They were totally opposed to it," Born says. "That puzzled me. What was it that was in this market that had to be hidden?"

Government Debt Levels Rising as % of GDP

The trends are scary but I'm not sure if these numbers make me feel better or worse.  It is interesting to note that at least the U.S. is behind the EU on this one.  UK is not looking so good.

Rebranding America

October 18, 2009
New York Times
Op-Ed Guest Columnist
By Bono

[ Read original article ]
A FEW years ago, I accepted a Golden Globe award by barking out an expletive.
One imagines President Obama did the same when he heard about his Nobel, and not out of excitement.
When Mr. Obama takes the stage at Oslo City Hall this December, he won’t be the first sitting president to receive the peace prize, but he might be the most controversial.

So Easy for Others, So Hard For U.S.?

 So why is it that the U.S. has such a hard time offering health care for its residents when so many other countries offer care that is wider, better and less expensive?  What is it about us or our system that prevents us from doing what other civilized countries easily do?  Here is a review of some other systems.  I think the observation he makes are interesting.  It turns out, we do it all, but in such a messy way, it ends up being more costly and less effective.  Read on.....

5 Myths About Health Care Around the World
 Washington Post

By T.R. Reid
Sunday, August 23, 2009 
[ Read original article ]


As Americans search for the cure to what ails our health-care system, we've overlooked an invaluable
 source of ideas and solutions: the rest of the world. All the other industrialized democracies have faced problems like ours, yet they've found ways to cover everybody -- and still spend far less than we do.
I've traveled the world from Oslo to Osaka to see how other developed democracies provide health care. Instead of dismissing these models as "socialist," we could adapt their solutions to fix our problems. To do that, we first have to dispel a few myths about health care abroad:

Myth-1. It's all socialized medicine out there.
Not so. Some countries, such as Britain, New Zealand and Cuba, do provide health care in government hospitals, with the government paying the bills. Others -- for instance, Canada and Taiwan -- rely on private-sector providers, paid for by government-run insurance. But many wealthy countries ........

Big Insurance Fights Back

So just as a health care reform bill is poised to come out of the Senate Finance Committee, "Big Insurance" strikes back with the timely release (the day before the vote) of a bogus study that wildly inflates the costs of reform.  What a coincidence!  Ever wonder why the stock prices for the insurance companies goes up when reform seems most in doubt, and goes down when it seems that reform is imminent.  Hm...wonder why that is.....

Here is what the insurance companies are spending money on....

We have known for quite a while what they are are NOT spending money on ......

 

Exceptional Health Care Reform Primer

This clip by Keith Olberman is an exceptional commentary and summary of the need for health care reform.  This is a must see primer for anyone who wants to understand the issues at stake.

Yes, you need to watch all three parts


PART-1 of 3

Putting Obama's Nobel Into Perspective

For background and perspective, you may want to review the following clip announcing the recent Peace Prize:

Here is a perspective on the recent rantings of "boo America won" crowd:
----------------------------
Online Comment Posted By: generaljones (Oct 9, 2009)

By honoring the President of the U.S. with the Nobel Peace Prize it has, in effect, honored our nation. Those obamaphobics that can't see past their own hatred are unpatriotic at best. The U.S. is strongest when it is admired across the planet, not reviled. Get past your petty politics that pits your narrow-mindedness against our national interest.

This is nothing but good for the U.S. There is no down side. If you cannot find anything positive about the U.S. being so honored, then I have suggest you may want to examine why your hatred of Obama is stronger than you love your country?

The Health-Care Debate, From Up North

[ Read original article ]

Washington Post
September 15, 2009
By Jonathan Malloy

Canadians love American health-care debates because it means you notice us. Much like Tennessee or North Dakota, we like just being mentioned. But your debates allow us to replay our own debates about health care and their relationship to national myths.

Consider a lunchtime conversation I had a few years ago with some American political scientists. Academics incapable of small talk, we began discussing why our similar countries had different health-care systems. I talked about political culture and national identity, which mystified the Americans a bit. They were interested in iron triangles; veto points; and the power of congressional committees, lobbyists and campaign donations. Those are important, yes, but I argued that health care was ultimately determined more by national identity and myths.

It's Simple: Medicare for All

[ Read original article ]
 
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Washington Post  
By George S. McGovern  

For many years, a handful of American political leaders -- including the late senator Ted Kennedy and now President Obama -- have been trying to gain passage of comprehensive health care for all Americans. As far back as President Harry S. Truman, they have urged Congress to act on this national need. In a presentation before a joint session of Congress last week, Obama offered his view of the best way forward.

But what seems missing in the current battle is a single proposal that everyone can understand and that does not lend itself to demagoguery. If we want comprehensive health care for all our citizens, we can achieve it with a single sentence: Congress hereby extends Medicare to all Americans.

Sketches a On a One Party Meltdown

As the Supreme Court debates whether torturing animals is permissible, some may wonder if its a pulse or brainwave activity that determines whether or not something is alive.

As the "birthers" dominate the discussion...

....sensible climate change options are put off, ....

....honest health care reform debate pays the price....

...and as the march to party purity tests leaves less room for differences of opinion....

.......many wonder who is leading this parade and where they are leading to?

Supreme Court Gives Gore’s Oscar to Bush

Stunning Reversal for Former Veep

[ Read original Andy Borowitz article ]

Just days after former Vice President Al Gore received an Academy Award for his global warming documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” the United States Supreme Court handed Mr. Gore a stunning reversal, stripping him of his Oscar and awarding it to President George W. Bush instead.

After 6 Reports of Madoff Fraud to SEC......

Wow! America is cool

We are being admired by Swedes! We don't have to pretend we're Canadians. We elected Barack Obama!

Nov. 12, 2008
Salon Magazine
By Garrison Keillor
[ Read original article ]

Be happy, dear hearts, and allow yourselves a few more weeks of quiet exultation. It isn't gloating, it's satisfaction at a job well done. He was a superb candidate, serious, professorial but with a flashing grin and a buoyancy that comes from working out in the gym every morning. He spoke in a genuine voice, not senatorial at all. He relished campaigning. He accepted adulation gracefully. He brandished his sword against his opponents without mocking or belittling them. He was elegant, unaffected, utterly American, and now (Wow) suddenly America is cool. Chicago is cool. Chicago!!!

We threw the dice and we won the jackpot and elected a black guy with a Harvard degree, the middle name Hussein and a sense of humor -- he said, "I've got relatives who look like Bernie Mac, and I've got relatives who look like Margaret Thatcher." The French junior minister for human rights said, "On this morning, we all want to be American so we can take a bite of this dream unfolding before our eyes." When was the last time you heard someone from France say they wanted to be American and take a bite of something of ours? Ponder that for a moment.

A Biblical Seven Years

August 26, 2008 
New York Times
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

[ Read original article ]

Beijing
After attending the spectacular closing ceremony at the Beijing Olympics and feeling the vibrations from hundreds of Chinese drummers pulsating in my own chest, I was tempted to conclude two things: “Holy mackerel, the energy coming out of this country is unrivaled.” And, two: “We are so cooked. Start teaching your kids Mandarin.” 

However, I’ve learned over the years not to over-interpret any two-week event. Olympics don’t change history. They are mere snapshots ­ a country posing in its Sunday bests for all the world too see. But, as snapshots go, the one China presented through the Olympics was enormously powerful ­ and it’s one that Americans need to reflect upon this election season.

Waking from its sleep

Jul 23rd 2009
From The Economist print edition
 
[ Read original article ]

A quiet revolution has begun in the Arab world; it will be complete only when the last failed dictatorship is voted out


WHAT ails the Arabs? The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) this week published the fifth in a series of hard-hitting reports on the state of the Arab world. It makes depressing reading. The Arabs are a dynamic and inventive people whose long and proud history includes fabulous contributions to art, culture, science and, of course, religion. The score of modern Arab states, on the other hand, have been impressive mainly for their consistent record of failure. 

They have, for a start, failed to make their people free: six Arab countries have an outright ban on political parties and the rest restrict them slyly. They have failed to make their people rich: despite their oil, the UN reports that about two out of five people in the Arab world live on $2 or less a day. They have failed to keep their people safe: the report argues that overpowerful internal security forces often turn the Arab state into a menace to its own people. And they are about to fail their young people.

Schools Need Teachers Like Me. I Just Can't Stay

August 9, 2009 

Washington Post
By Sarah Fine
 

[Read original Article] 

My National Book Festival posters are gone, leaving behind tack marks and shreds of tape on the yellowing walls of Room 108 of the Cesar Chavez Public Charter School on Capitol Hill, where I spent the past four years teaching. The bookshelf where I kept my collection of young-adult novels holds nothing but a few outdated textbooks. The poems that my students added to our 10th-grade "slam wall" fill the trash can in the corner.

This will be the first time since I trooped off to kindergarten two decades ago that I will not celebrate the new year in September, and I find that hard to imagine. Somebody else will cover the holes in the classroom's walls with posters. Somebody else will pore over class rosters on a Metro commute from Dupont to Southeast. Somebody else will stand at the door and greet the students -- my students -- on the first day.

How Absurd Can it Get?

Just when you thought you'd seen it all and nothing could get more ridiculous, sure enough.....it does.   How do you explain supposedly educated people of supposedly good will acting as they did recently when they pulled their children out of school rather than allow them to listen to the President of the United States talk about personal responsibility?   What do you suppose causes this?  From "birthers" now to "brainwashers"......what will they come up with next?

How Child Well-being Compares Across 30 OECD Countries

This is a "child well-being" index created using recent OECD data to establish a composite number from the specific numeric measures of the following child well-being areas:

 * Material well-being
 * Housing and environment
 * Educational well-being
 * Health and safety
 * Risk behaviors
 * Quality of school life

And the winners are........

Is the U.S. really comfortable in 32nd place, between Poland and Portugal?  Is that really the best we can do?


[ The original data can be found here:   
Comparative Child Well-being across the OECD ]

Health Care Rationing Rhetoric Overlooks Reality

June 17, 2009
New York Times
Economic Scene
By DAVID LEONHARDT

Rationing.

More to the point: Rationing!

As in: Wait, are you talking about rationing medical care? Access to medical care is a fundamental right. And rationing sounds like something out of the Soviet Union. Or at least Canada.

The r-word has become a rejoinder to anyone who says that this country must reduce its runaway health spending, especially anyone who favors cutting back on treatments that don’t have scientific evidence behind them. You can expect......

Credit Card Debt Trends

The Prurient Trap

June 27, 2009
New York Times
By CHARLES M. BLOW

“Hiking the Appalachian Trail.” Is that what we’re calling it these days? That’s what Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina told his staff that he was going to do when he absconded to Argentina to be with his “sweetest” Maria of the “magnificently gentle kisses.”

I had no particular interest in rubbernecking this disaster. People make mistakes. The flesh is weak, the heart disobedient and marriages hard. According to the General Social Survey, about 10 percent of married people admit that they have cheated on their spouses. And, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll taken in March last year, 54 percent of Americans say that they know someone who has been unfaithful. ’Twas ever thus.

At the end of the day, aside from.........

Who Spends How Much Time Eating and Drinking?

From this data, it seems that the only the French spend more time sleeping that we do.  And only Mexicans spend less time eating.  Interesting, non?

.......or even better, how about this data that compares time spent eating vs. obesity rates. What do you make of this?

The Big Hate

June 12, 2009
New York Times
By PAUL KRUGMAN

Back in April, there was a huge fuss over an internal report by the Department of Homeland Security warning that current conditions resemble those in the early 1990s — a time marked by an upsurge of right-wing extremism that culminated in the Oklahoma City bombing.

Conservatives were outraged. The chairman of the Republican National Committee denounced the report as an attempt to “segment out conservatives in this country who have a different philosophy or view from this administration” and label them as terrorists.

But with the murder of

Why GDP is Wrong

[What follows is one of the most intelligent and articulate economic arguments for abandoning GDP as a measure for well being.  Essential reading if you want to truly understand how our economy is glued together and how the way we measure it is fatally flawed.  Its a long post but should be considered essential reading for anyone who wants to put forth any opinion on economics. - $0.02 - C ]

SOURCE:
Testimony of Jonathan Rowe Before the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Subcommittee on Interstate Commerce, on “Rethinking the Gross Domestic Product as a Measurement of National Strength,” March 12, 2008

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:

Let’s suppose that the head of a federal agency came before this committee and reported with pride that agency employees had burned 10% more calories in the workplace than they did the year before. Not only that – they had spent 10% more money too.

I have a feeling you would want to know more. What were these employees doing when they burnt those calories? What did they spend that money on? Most important, what were the results? Expenditure is a means not an end; and to assess the health of an agency, or system, or whatever, you need to know what it has accomplished, not just how much motion it has generated and money it has spent. 


The point seems obvious. Yet Congress does this very thing every day, and....

Charity Begins.......in My Church?

In the U.S. we often seem to pat ourselves on the back for how charitable and generous we are.  Well, it turns out that when we give what we call "charity", at home, we give mostly to organizations that benefit us (our church, our symphony, our schools, etc....), rather than organizations that help others we don't know.

The other major mis-perception is that when we give abroad, that we are very generous global aid donors.  In total dollars we are but in GDP terms we are one of the most misery of all western countries, as the graph below illustrates.

Additionally, what isn't factored into the number below is that much if not most of the "aid" we do give, is actually either military aid which comes right back to our defense contractors, or is development assistance that has strings on it that require that any aid dollars being spent, only be used to buy U.S. products. Sort of like giving the staving guy on the corner a dollar, but only if he agrees to buy his food from your store, often at a marked up price for items you don't need.  "Charity"?  Not by any definition Jesus would recognize.

No Laughing Matter

 A Recent Sample of Health Care Reform Cartoons

These would be funny if Congress actually took health care reform more seriously.

Change in Retail Sales Sectors 2003-2009

Interesting to note that of all retail sectors, only liquor stores, warehouse stores, restaurants, bars and computer stores have higher sales in 2009 than in 2003, everything else is down.

A Smarter (and Cost-Efficient) Way to Fight Crime

October 3, 2009
New York Times
Economic View
By ROBERT H. FRANK

LAW enforcement policy in the United States rests implicitly on the “rational actor” model of traditional economics, which holds that people take only those actions whose benefits exceed their costs.

This model says that crime will be deterred if the expected punishment is strong enough — a prediction that has not been borne out in practice. Although long sentences are now common and the incarceration rate is five times what it was during most of the 20th century, the crime rate is still two and a half times the average of 1950-62.

Mark Kleiman, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Los Angeles, says there is a better way. In a new book, “When Brute Force Fails,” he argues that instead of making punishments more severe, the authorities should increase the odds that lawbreakers will be apprehended and punished quickly.

READ MORE >>>

Percent College Educated Population

 

This graph is interesting in that while it appears to show that in the U.S., states with the lowest % of college educated residents are generally the least successful (and vice-versa), that does not appear to be the case when looking at education levels on a nation-to-nation level.  Note how Germany is only slightly above Mexico and how Spain, and Ireland rank way above Switzerland (who has one of the top 5 highest per capita GDP and standard of living in the world).  Interesting, non?

World Health Organization Global Health Care Rankings

Well, you were probably wondering exactly how "Number-1!" is the U.S. in health care.  With all the ranting, raving and foaming at the month and screeching caused by Fox-Beck-Limbaugh birthers and such at the August town hall meetings, you'd have to believe there is no problem in health care in the U.S..  Why?  ......because we are "NUMBER-1"!  Right?

Well, ...er.....uh, not quite.  Here are the actual global rankings by the folks who have the authoritative voice on these things.

The Narrative Version:

The World Health Organization has carried out the first ever analysis of the world’s health systems. Using five performance indicators to measure health systems in 191 member states, it finds that France provides the best overall health care followed among major countries by Italy, Spain, Oman, Austria and Japan.

The U. S. health system spends a higher portion of its gross domestic product than any other country but ranks 37 out of 191 countries according to its performance, the report finds. The United Kingdom, which spends just six percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on health services, ranks 18th . Several small countries – San Marino, Andorra, Malta and Singapore are rated close behind second- placed Italy.

 
[ Read original report ]

        The List Version:
                1         France
                2         Italy
                3         San Marino
                4         Andorra
                5         Malta
                6         Singapore
                7         Spain
                8         Oman
                9         Austria
                10        Japan
                11        Norway
                12        Portugal
                13        Monaco
                14        Greece
                15        Iceland
                16        Luxembourg
                17        Netherlands
                18        United  Kingdom
                19        Ireland
                20        Switzerland
                21        Belgium
                22        Colombia
                23        Sweden
                24        Cyprus
                25        Germany
                26        Saudi Arabia
                27        United  Arab  Emirates
                28        Israel
                29        Morocco
                30        Canada
                31        Finland
                32        Australia
                33        Chile
                34        Denmark
                35        Dominica
                36        Costa Rica
                37        United States of America
                38        Slovenia
                39        Cuba
                40        Brunei
                41        New Zealand
                42        Bahrain
                43        Croatia
                44        Qatar
                45        Kuwait
                46        Barbados
                47        Thailand
                48        Czech Republic
                49        Malaysia
                50        Poland
                51        Dominican Republic
                52        Tunisia
                53        Jamaica
                54        Venezuela
                55        Albania
                56        Seychelles
                57        Paraguay
                58        South     Korea
                59        Senegal
                60        Philippines
                61        Mexico
                62        Slovakia
                63        Egypt
                64        Kazakhstan

Top Lobbyist Spending 2009

Ever wonder why all the GOP and "yellow", "blue" and "red" Dems seems so dead-set against allowing for a public option in health care when "options!" seems to be their own battle cry on so many other areas (ie. school vouchers, campaign spending, civil rights, property rights, etc ......all except women's choice)

Seemed rather odd to me to build a party platform out of "freedom" and "liberty" and "options" in nearly all other areas but when an issue like health care comes up where it really, actually, truly would make sense to have healthy non-profit competition....... they are violently opposed.  Sorta makes you go "hmm...."

Well ponder no more.  Here are some interesting numbers that show the flow of lobbying dollars, just for Q1 and Q2 for this year.

.....and in case that left you in any doubt about who might win or lose if health care costs were actually brought down to anything close to what the rest of the civilized world pays, as Watergate's Deep Throat once said; "follow the money"

One item that is conspicuously ascent in the above chart is the vast amounts of money the insurance companies rake off the top of all the transactions.   Odd this is missing because by one account,  between 2000 and 2007 premiums of 10 largest insurers shot up 90% while profits shot up 428%.

Oddly enough, even the Democrats (yellow, blue, red and otherwise) seem opposed to a public option, even though recent polls show a majority of the American public supports a public option.  Hm... how could that be?  Read on.....

Then there is the small matter of choice.  Many in Congress feel a "free market" system is the best way to deliver heath care.  This despite the fact that nearly every one of the 36 countries in the world that ranks above us in health care uses some type of government insurance or delivery option, we seem stuck on the same old debate.  Here is a graph of how well the "free market" has worked for us in providing competition:

Average Time Spent Watching Television Around the World

Interesting non?   
The data speaks for itself and says volumes.  
Sorta makes ya go "huh", don't it?

Global Suicide Rates

 

ITIF Global Broadband Index Ranking

Here are the global ranking of an index of broadband measures (speed, cost, penetration, etc...)

Here is the U.S. 2001-2006 broadband penetration rank trend....

...but at least for speed, the U.S. is ahead of the Slovak Republic.

Obama’s Use of Complete Sentences Stirs Controversy 


Stunning Break with Last Eight Years

In the first two weeks since the election, President-elect Barack Obama has broken with a tradition established over the past eight years through his controversial use of complete sentences, political observers say.

Millions of Americans who watched Mr. Obama's appearance on CBS' "Sixty Minutes" on Sunday witnessed the president-elect's unorthodox verbal tic, which had Mr. Obama employing grammatically correct sentences virtually every time he opened his mouth.

But Mr. Obama's decision to use complete sentences in his public pronouncements carries with it certain risks, since after the last eight years many Americans may find his odd speaking style jarring.

According to presidential historian Davis Logsdon of the University of Minnesota, some Americans might find it "alienating" to have a President who speaks English as if it were his first language.

"Every time Obama opens his mouth, his subjects and verbs are in agreement," says Mr. Logsdon.  "If he keeps it up, he is running the risk of sounding like an elitist."

The historian said that if Mr. Obama insists on using complete sentences in his speeches, the public may find itself saying, "Okay, subject, predicate, subject predicate - we get it, stop showing off."

The President-elect's stubborn insistence on using complete sentences has already attracted a rebuke from one of his harshest critics, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.

"Talking with complete sentences there and also too talking in a way that ordinary Americans like Joe the Plumber and Tito the Builder can't really do there, I think needing to do that isn't tapping into what Americans are needing also," she said. 

(Andy Borowitz from www.borowitzreport.com, an oldie but goodie)