Where have our clever bankers invested bank assets?
According to the latest Bank of England Financial Stability Report, around 51 percent of UK bank investments were in the domestic economy. A further 15 percent was invested in Europe and the United States, with the remainder being invested in the rest of the world.
The big question on the mind of the Bank of England is how much money did UK banks place in the weak southern European economies. Taken together, investments in Ireland, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece amount to just less than five percent of total bank assets. Of that amount, very little was invested in Southern European government paper.
Overall, the Bank of England seem fairly comfortable with UK banking system exposure to Southern European governments. The Financial Stability Report says:
"Against that backdrop, concerns about the ability of some European economies to meet sovereign debt obligations have re-emerged. Direct UK bank exposure to European sovereign debt is relatively low".
I know that as I write this, parts of the world are already welcoming the first hours of 2011, but I still wanted to take the opportunity to wish everyone a Happy New Year. 2010 has been one fantastic adventure after another, and while I'm sad to see it come to an end, I'm looking forward to a new year and new opportunities. I'll be starting it out with a couple of adventures of my own early on and I hope that you are planning some too.
I also wanted to thank the readers of the Adventure Blog once again, because despite few updates this past week, and a relatively quiet last month of the year, December set a new record for the number of visitors to the site. It also capped the best year of traffic as well, which has been extremely gratifying for me personally. This little project of mine has grown much larger than I ever imagined, and opened a number of doors unforeseen, and it is all thanks to you. I appreciate every one of you.
So, with 2011 upon us, lets reflect a bit on all the wonderful things that went down in the last 12 months and start planning for new adventures in the months ahead. I'll be sharing mine very soon, and as usual, I enjoy hearing about yours as well.
As the clock nears midnight, and the curtain drops on 2010, one of the year's big adventures comes to a successful conclusion today as Backcountry Athlete Greg Hill has completed his quest to ski and climb 2 million vertical feet in a single calendar year.
According to this post over at The Goat Blog, Greg finished up earlier today at Revelstoke Mountain Resort in British Columbia, where a group of friends and family were on hand to salute his accomplishment. Hill's Backcountry Bio Page now marks his total at 2,000,716 feet.
To put this accomplishment in perspective, in order to achieve 2 million vertical feet in a 12 month period, Greg had to average 5480 feet of climbing and skiing each and every day of the year. That is some serious dedication and a very impressive feat athletic feat.
Congratulations to Greg on achieving this spectacular goal. Now take a day off and head to the beach or something.
In 1975, there were six Chinese children for every pensioner. By 2035, there will be two Chinese pensioners for every child.
I pity that poor baby. When she grows up, either she will be burdened by an oppressive tax regime providing transfers for her older relatives, or she will be surrounded by an army of hungry poverty-stricken old people.
This grim vista is an inevitable consequence of the one child policy. The Chinese call it the 1-2-4 problem; in the future one child will have to look after two parents and four grandparents.
Yet from the perspective of today, China appears to be a very threatening prospect. It has grown at a fantastic rate, and now dominates world export markets. This future chinese demographic crisis is obscured by its astounding economic transformation.
Scratch the surface and China's success seems far from sustainable. It rests on three principles; and undervalued exchange rate, huge foreign direct investment inflows with its parallel inflow of technological know-how, and a huge pool of cheap labour arriving from the countryside and into the cities.
These three principles have produced economic benefits for ordinary Chinese. However, an even greater wave of benefits has flown out of China and into the West.
This economic success is also a huge subsidy from the Chinese people to the consumer-debt-serfs of North America and Europe. Chinese factory workers work long hours, for low pay, producing huge quantities of cheap goods. The Chinese ship them out at ridiculously low export prices, in return they receive dollars, euros, and sterling. The Chinese then lend this cash back to us in order to supply the necessary cash to buy yet more cheap Chinese goods.
It is hard to see how that kind of scheme could keep the world economy ticking over for another 20 years. At some point, the Chinese will want more than nice colourful pieces of paper for their products. The continuation of this generous subsidy scheme is all the more improbable when one considers Chinese population dynamics.
Still, it was great while it lasted. For my part, I received a cheap iPod, a laptop, and a flatscreen TV. The thing I can't understand is what the Chinese child of 2035 is going to get out of it.
Thanks to a busier than anticipated holiday season, it has been more than a week and a half since I posted an update on our intrepid Antarctic explorers. During that time, they have continued to steam their way south, with several now approaching the Pole.
For some, that will be the finish line, but for British explorer Chris Foot, the Pole is just the half-way point. Over the past week or so, Chris has struggled not only with extremely bad whiteout conditions but also steep, and energy sapping, sastrugi. On top of that, he's also had issues with his gear. The solar lead that he uses to recharge his communication equipment has been acting up, which has made for sporadic updates from the field. But, there is some good news for Chris and his hometeam. While it hasn't been confirmed in his posts yet, Chris should reach the Pole today, where he'll likely take a very brief rest before turning around and heading back to Union Glacier.
Willem ter Horst and Hannah McKeand continue their march to the Pole as well. Yesterday they passed the 87º mark in what sounds like absolutely horrible conditions. The pair have been dealing with bad sastrugi as well, and it seems to have taken its toll on them. Willem reports that they fell down on several occasions and that Hannah's pulk turned over twice along the way. Throw in more whiteout conditions, and it was one of the worst days in the Antarctic for the south bound team since their arrival 36 days ago. The snow was blowing so bad that they couldn't see more than a meter in any direction, which takes a mental toll on them to go along with the physical one. They still have roughly 170 nautical miles to go before they reach the end, and if these conditions continue, it'll be a real struggle.
Further back, but cooking right along, is Christian Eide, who is just 11 days into his journey to the South Pole and has now crossed the 84ºS latitudinal line. Christian is hoping to set a new solo, unsupported speed record to the Pole, and so far he's setting a good pace, knocking off in excess of 20+ nautical miles per day. He has experienced the poor weather conditions as well however, and has had to deal with plenty of whiteouts too. In order to break the record, Christian must reach the Pole in less time than Todd Carmichael did back in 2008, when he made the same journey in 39 days, 7 hours, and 49 minutes.
It should also be noted that Christian has offered to help Chris Foot by offering him a replacement lead for the one that has been giving him problems. This shows how incredibly tight knit the adventure community can be, as it is remarkable that Christian even knows about Chris' problems, let alone is thinking about how he can help. If the two were to cross paths, it would be on Foot's return journey, and it would remove the "unsupported" tag from his expedition. Still, it would provide a measure of security for Chris, which everyone back home would appreciate I'm sure.
Finally, there continues to be no word from the Indian Army team that is also making it's way to the Pole. They set off at about the same time as Foot and ter Horst, but they have not sent back any updates since their departure. We can only trust that all is going well and that they are enjoying their stroll across the Antarctic continent.
Polar explorer and climber Lonnie Dupre has set off for Alaska, where he hope to make a solo climb of Denali in January. If successful, it'll be the first solo ascent of the mountain during it's coldest and darkest month ever.
Standing 20,320 ft (6193 meters) in height, Denali is the tallest mountain in North America. Generally it is climbed in June and July each year, but there are occasional attempts during other months of the year, including the winter. Over the years there have been nine successful winter expeditions on the mountain, putting 16 people on the summit. Only one of those was completed in January, when a team of three Russians topped out back in 1998. Winter expeditions have also led to six deaths on Denali as well.
Climbing in January means that the cold temps and howling winds will be at their fiercest, but that isn't a major concern for Dupre, who has made numerous arctic expeditions over the years. For example, he has circumnavigated Greenland by dogsled and kayak, made a 3000 mile crossing of the Northeast Passage, also by dogsled, and he has made the challenging journey to the North Pole alongside Eric Larsen.
Clearly the extreme cold and the dark won't deter him, although the weather just might. According to his latest blog post, Dupre is now in Talkeetna, where his flight out has been grounded due to a powerful weather front moving through. He hopes to be in base camp soon, and start the climb in earnest.
And what a climb he has planned. Going up solo, Dupre has left his tent at home and will instead seek shelter in ice caves that he'll dig along the way. That is the same tactic that the Russians used on their successful climb a dozen years ago, and he hopes it'll allow him to repeat their success.
One must always be sceptical about assessments of wealth ownership. People are notoriously dishonest about declaring how much they have. Nevertheless, the number has a ring of plausibility about it. Assuming that it is true, it raises a troubling issue - intergenerational inequality.
If one respects property rights, one can only grumble quietly about the fact that a disproportionate share of wealth is concentrated in the hands of a minority of ageing hippies. Nevertheless, this group has a claim on the nation's income that goes beyond property, shares and bonds. This group is also making a pitch for a disproportionate share of future government expenditure.
Over the next 20 years, health and pensions expenditure will take up an increasing proportion of the government's budget. Both these items are essentially expenditures on the over 65s. As the UK ages, pensions and health expenditure, as a proportion of GDP, will reach astronomical levels. Based on our current system of free health care and comprehensive pension entitlements, this would imply a further intergenerational transfer from the young to the old.
Somehow, I can't see that happening. Sooner or later, taxpayers and by that I mean the young, will demand comprehensive reform of social expenditure. In fact, this process has already begun. By international standards, the UK pension system isn't terribly generous.
However, the NHS has managed to escape any substantive adjustment. For practical purposes, healthcare remains free at the point of delivery. Successive governments have tried to restrain expenditure by rationing and cost control efforts. These efforts have reached a logical limit. A horde of grey-haired chronically patients are about to swamp the nation's hospitals demanding free healthcare.
The demand for intergenerational equality will inevitably lead to the demise of the NHS in its current form. There is something rather ironic about that. It was an institution created on the promise of delivering equality. It will be also destroyed by the demand for greater equality.
As the year comes to a close, I wanted to share a few thoughts with you about the past 4.5 yrs (when, under severe pressure from agent and editor, I agreed to start this blog) and the next few. I'm glad, in retrospect, that I knuckled under to pressure from these folks, as the evolution of this blog has taught me a lot; and it's been great getting to know you guys, if only virtually. It took a while to shake out, as I recently explained: the self-advertising and the severely neurotic have (thank god) departed for greener pastures, and what is left is a group of thoughtful people who want to reflect on what's happening to the US and where we are collectively going. Art, Dave, Susan, Tim, Joe, El Juero, Mike (et al.)--thank you for being there, and for contributing as much as you have.
I suspect the next 2-3 years are going to be quite fateful for the US, and not in a good way. I very much doubt there is anything substantive any of us can do to derail America from its destructive, self-defeating course. But we can attend to our souls a bit; at least there's that. With that in mind, here is a quote from Marilynne Robinson's recent book, Absence of Mind. She writes of
"...that haunting I who wakes us in the night wondering where time has gone, the I we waken to, sharply aware that we have been unfaithful to ourselves, that a life lived otherwise would have acknowledged a yearning more our own than any of the daylit motives whose behests we answer so diligently....I am hungry, I am comfortable, I am a singer, I am a cook. The abrupt descent into particularity in every statement of this kind, Being itself made an auxiliary to some momentary accident of being, may only startle in the dark of the night, when the intuition comes that there is no proportion [i.e., relationship] between the great given of existence and the narrow vessel of circumstance into which it is inevitably forced [Heidegger: thrown]...The soul [is simply] a name for an aspect of deep experience...."
What a difference a few months can make. The last time I was snowboarding in Aspen, only 8 months ago, the hamburger options were grim. It seemed as though no one between Glenwood Springs and Aspen really gave a crap about burgers. Then Edible Aspen magazine ran a piece on a tiny burger joint in Carbondale named Fatbelly Burgers and burger awareness in the valley was suddenly realized. The joint, which has no seating and a flattop griddle in view, serves simple 1/4 pound 'fast food' style burgers in the spirit of In-N-Out and Shake Shack. To me it is hamburger nirvana - no frills, no bullshit, great burgers.
I returned this year to find that not only is Fatbelly going strong, owner Shane Vetter has opened a second location even closer to Aspen in downtown Basalt. The Basalt location (named Fatbelly Eats) has an expanded menu that includes a handful of new signature burgers, a grilled Ahi plate, even salads. Most notable however is the long bar and bartender as you walk in on the right. The incredible beer selection trumps the wine and that's fine with me. Shane told me, "We are building a stage for live music back there." All of this fueled by burger money. Tasty, greasy, burger money. I was in awe of Shane's hamburger achievements over just one short year.
I arrived in Aspen to discover that the bleak burgerscape of this upscale ski town had given birth to a new burger concept, right at the base of Ajax. CP Burger, only open since October, is excellent. How excellent? I ate a burger there with my brother-in-law, left, then circled back 20 mins later for another.
CP Burger has taken a unique approach to dealing with the apres ski rush. I was shocked when my burger appeared in about 60 seconds, just about the time it would take to bun, load, and wrap a burger. Were the patties pre-cooked? The fresh-beef burgers at CP Burger are cooked on a flattop then transferred to a CVap to stay warm. Are you skeptical? Well don't be. Someone calling the orders explained to me that the CVap suspends the temperature of the patty for up to a half hour keeping the burger moist. It seemed to work because the burger was still very moist and tasty. I had a burger with blue cheese, bacon, and sauteed onions and 20 mins later had another. CP also serves my favorite Shiner Bock in cans, gotta love it. They've also taken a page out of the Bobby Flay playbook and are offering milkshakes spiked with booze, an idea worth drinking.
What a difference a few months can make. The last time I was snowboarding in Aspen, only 8 months ago, the hamburger options were grim. It seemed as though no one between Glenwood Springs and Aspen really gave a crap about burgers. Then Edible Aspen magazine ran a piece on a tiny burger joint in Carbondale named Fatbelly Burgers and burger awareness in the valley was suddenly realized. The joint, which has no seating and a flattop griddle in view, serves simple 1/4 pound 'fast food' style burgers in the spirit of In-N-Out and Shake Shack. To me it is hamburger nirvana - no frills, no bullshit, great burgers.
I returned this year to find that not only is Fatbelly going strong, owner Shane Vetter has opened a second location even closer to Aspen in downtown Basalt. The Basalt location (named Fatbelly Eats) has an expanded menu that includes a handful of new signature burgers, a grilled Ahi plate, even salads. Most notable however is the long bar and bartender as you walk in on the right. The incredible beer selection trumps the wine and that's fine with me. Shane told me, "We are building a stage for live music back there." All of this fueled by burger money. Tasty, greasy, burger money. I was in awe of Shane's hamburger achievements over just one short year.
I arrived in Aspen to discover that the bleak burgerscape of this upscale ski town had given birth to a new burger concept, right at the base of Ajax. CP Burger, only open since October, is excellent. How excellent? I ate a burger there with my brother-in-law, left, then circled back 20 mins later for another.
CP Burger has taken a unique approach to dealing with the apres ski rush. I was shocked when my burger appeared in about 60 seconds, just about the time it would take to bun, load, and wrap a burger. Were the patties pre-cooked? The fresh-beef burgers at CP Burger are cooked on a flattop then transferred to a CVap to stay warm. Are you skeptical? Well don't be. Someone calling the orders explained to me that the CVap suspends the temperature of the patty for up to a half hour keeping the burger moist. It seemed to work because the burger was still very moist and tasty. I had a burger with blue cheese, bacon, and sauteed onions and 20 mins later had another. CP also serves my favorite Shiner Bock in cans, gotta love it. They've also taken a page out of the Bobby Flay playbook and are offering milkshakes spiked with booze, an idea worth drinking.
The New York Post reports an alarming turn of events in the slow cleanup and apparent incompetence on the part of New York Officials regarding the slow cleanup and chaos resulting from the holiday blizzard.
The blame game has started with city officials pointing the finger elsewhere and reports of miscalculations and mistakes being made all around, but the Post piece indicates that deliberate orders were given by sanitation officials and supervisors to deliberately slow down the cleanup effort.
Selfish Sanitation Department bosses from the snow-slammed outer boroughs ordered their drivers to snarl the blizzard cleanup to protest budget cuts -- a disastrous move that turned streets into a minefield for emergency-services vehicles, The Post has learned.
Miles of roads stretching from as north as Whitestone, Queens, to the south shore of Staten Island still remained treacherously unplowed last night because of the shameless job action, several sources and a city lawmaker said, which was over a raft of demotions, attrition and budget cuts.
"They sent a message to the rest of the city that these particular labor issues are more important," said City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Queens), who was visited yesterday by a group of guilt-ridden sanitation workers who confessed the shameless plot.
Halloran said he met with three plow workers from the Sanitation Department -- and two Department of Transportation supervisors who were on loan -- at his office after he was flooded with irate calls from constituents.
The snitches "didn't want to be identified because they were afraid of retaliation," Halloran said. "They were told [by supervisors] to take off routes [and] not do the plowing of some of the major arteries in a timely manner. They were told to make the mayor pay for the layoffs, the reductions in rank for the supervisors, shrinking the rolls of the rank-and-file."
New York's Strongest used a variety of tactics to drag out the plowing process -- and pad overtime checks -- which included keeping plows slightly higher than the roadways and skipping over streets along their routes, the sources said.
The snow-removal snitches said they were told to keep their plows off most streets and to wait for orders before attacking the accumulating piles of snow.
Two page piece and much more information if you go read the entire thing but it has brought about some very serious questions.
First and foremost, is it true?
No doubt the quotes from Halloran are true and possibly even his word that this was the information given to him from those fearing reprisal.
Did officials/supervisors from the Sanitation Department give orders to slow the snow removal? That needs to be investigated.
If an investigation proves those assertions true, then another larger question comes into play, as asked by Aaron Worthing at Patterico's Pontifications, in regards to a baby that died after child birth when the mother was forced to deliver in a Brooklyn building and not having any help arrive to her for nine hours after the 911 call went out for help because "no one could get to her"?.
Worthing asks "If True, How is This Not Criminally Negligent Homicide?"
A three page New York Times' article describes the timeline of events and from it many will see mistakes made on the part of city officials as well as transit and sanitation officials, but mistakes happen and sometimes they do have tragic results.
If any of those so-called mistakes were made deliberately though, then the whole basis for the negligent homicide question comes into play.
This should not be investigated internally nor by the state, this should definitely be investigated by objective outside parties not looking to lay blame elsewhere so it will not reflect on them.
A federal investigation is in order.
A five minute video below of citizens dealing with the cleanup and aftereffects of the blizzard. This doesn't deal with the questions asked above but the video does show a great visual of the massive mess Mother Nature left behind for New Yorkers.
TPM reports that Fox News host Megyn Kelly compares calling an Illegal Alien an "Undocumented immigrant" to changing the word rapist to "non-consensual sex partners".
She is right. It is not the job of journalists to refrain from using an accurate descriptor because a small segment of the population doesn't like the term.
Video below:
"You could say that a burglar is an unauthorized visitor. You know, you could say that a rapist is a non-consensual sex partner which, obviously, would be considered offensive to the victims of those crimes," Kelly said. "So how far could you take this?"
"What if there was a push by the criminal defense... bar to re-brand the use of the word rapist to nonconsensual sex partner?" Kelly asks her guest. Jehmu Greene, the former president of the Women's Media Center, said that was like comparing "apples and oranges."
Kelly also expressed frustration over the politically correct language dominating American culture.
–noun 1. a foreigner who has entered or resides in a country unlawfully or without the country's authorization.
2. a foreigner who enters the U.S. without an entry or immigrant visa, esp. a person who crosses the border by avoiding inspection or who overstays the period of time allowed as a visitor, tourist, or businessperson.
Illegal aliens are not just undocumented, they are here illegally and changing the descriptors does not make that any less true.
Kudos to Megyn Kelly.
[Update]Big Government gets the quote of the day in their article on this issue:
Megyn Kelly picked up on the topic at Fox News. Now, TPM is taking out after her. Given that so many self-professed journalists so routinely perform journalistic malpractice of the JournoList variety today, in the spirit of being certain, I propose we stop calling all of them journalists. We can just call them something fun, like typing monkeys, until we’re absolutely convinced they are capable of producing something akin to objective journalism, as opposed to the usual liberal spew they regularly regurgitate on cue.
The Wrap reports that Fox dominated cable news according to the 2010 Nielsen numbers taking the title of most watched for the ninth year in a row.
In fact, Fox not only beat CNN, MSNBC and HLN in average primetime and total viewers, but Fox had more than all of them combined for total viewers.
The ratings released show that Fox News averaged 2 million viewers in prime time and far outdistanced MSNBC (764,000), CNN (591,000) and HLN (444,000). (Total rounded- 1,799,000)
Fox owned the top 12 cable news shows in average total viewers and swept the top 10 among 25-54-year-olds (MSNBC's "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" came in 13th and 11th, respectively). Even the nightly repeat of the “O’Reilly Factor” averaged more viewers than MSNBC and CNN shows.
(Screen shot from TV Newser, who has the full document up here)
According to Nielsen, the top five cable news programs in terms of total viewers and viewers 25-54 (the metric used by advertisers and considered the most important by networks) were all on Fox: The O’Reilly Factor (781,000 viewers 25-54); Hannity (585,000); Glenn Beck (572,000); On the Record (481,000); and The O’Reilly Factor repeat (447,000).
In terms of total viewers, Special Report joins the top five cable news shows, as host Bret Baier has taken the show to its highest ratings ever.
Fox’s dominance is demonstrated by its ranking across all of cable–coming in as the fourth highest-rated network in primetime (total viewers), right behind USA, ESPN, and TNT. MSNBC is ranked #28 in primetime, CNN came in at #32 and HLN was #37.
As Fox remains the power player in cable news, CNN’s year has been one of notable declines–Nielsen marking this CNN’s lowest-rated year in primetime (for both total viewers and viewers 25-54) in 14 years. For the full day, 2010 marks a tie for CNN’s worst year ever (viewers 25-54).
The numbers truly do speak for themselves about where more Americans prefer to get their news and their commentary from.
Due to financial difficulties during these hard times, the decision has been made that this will be the final print edition of IH. But we still anticipate an annual print publication to report on our work and views. Since printing and mailing costs have skyrocketed in recent years, we especially need your help for this purpose. Only you can keep us going!
If you are progressive, pro-peace and pro-Israel, please give generously to Meretz USA (contributions are tax-deductible and may be made via our website or in the mail). Also consider joining us on the coming “Israel Symposium,” March 26-April 2, 2011. Call us at 212.242.4500 for more information.
The contents of this final print issue of IH are outlined below. Click on the Web links for earlier online versions of these articles and features, which were updated and refined for the print edition of IH: Column Left Are Jews NOT a 'People'? Ralph Seliger
I personally would want to disagree with his choice of books for publication, but his importance for theology in the United Kingdom cannot be denied. Read The Telegraph obituary here.
Yuengling Bock Beer is returning to the marketplace for a limited time beginning in February 2011! This much anticipated seasonal offering from Yuengling was initially brought back in honor of our 180th Anniversary and has been a great success since it was introduced in 2009.
Yuengling's Facebook Fan page (D.G. Yuengling & Son, Inc.) is currently at 47,000 'Likes' and we would like to see that number grow this January. We know that there are Yuengling fans all over Facebook that would love to help, and to reward fans we are going to give away a Yuengling Bock Beer prize pack once the Facebook page reaches 50,000. All you need to do is 'Like' our page on Facebook and once we reach our goal, one of our fans will be randomly selected and awarded the Bock Prize Pack. Just in time for Yuengling Bock Season! You can also suggest the page to your friends to help spread the word. The prize pack will contain a Bock Tee, a Bock Hat, and 4 Bock glasses so you can enjoy the brew with your friends! Fans of the page must be 21 or older and will be contacted through Facebook once a winner is selected. The winner will be required to send in proof of age.
Thanks for your support and help spread the word and get us to 50,000 Facebook Fans!
************************ Update ************************** Congratulations to Pat Isennock of Perry Hall, MD on winning the Bock Prize Pack!
The great engine of the British economy has slipped into reverse. Before the financial crisis, homeowners were pulling out about £12 billion a quarter in home equity loans. They used this cash to fuel a massive consumption boom that kept the economy growing at around 3 percent. Since the summer of 2008, homeowners have been paying down their loans by around £6 billion a quarter. So far, homeowners have paid off around £50 billion.
In terms of their economic impact, these numbers are very large. In the third quarter of 2010, these home equity repayments amounted to about 2.4 percent of post-tax personal income. Prior to the crisis, home equity withdrawals were equivalent to about 6-7 percent. In pure cash terms, this represents a net turn-around of £20 billion - almost 10 percent of post tax income.
This isn't how it is supposed to be. The Bank of England cut interest rates to discourage savings, and make it cheaper to homeowners to borrow money so that they could continue spending. So what went wrong? At least three things didn't go according to the script:
First, home prices fell. This ate into home equity and limited the extent to which homeowners could use their homes as collateral.
Second, banks were feeling vulnerable. They had too much exposure to potentially delinquent homeowners. They have cut credit lines and made it harder to obtain home equity loans.
Finally, borrowers have become more worried about the future path of the economy. Even the most extravagent consumer-addled debt serf knows that it isn't a good idea to mortgage the house when the probability of losing your job has increased.
Taken together, these factors driven home equity withdrawal flows into reverse. One final dismal fact; home equity withdrawal has been negative for 10 straight quarters. This is the longest continuous period of negative numbers since records began in 1970.
As I fly back from Atlanta to Los Angeles, I now know how it would sound if Barack Obama lamented his failures by singing them to Susan Boyle's "I Dreamed a Dream."
Before the financial crisis, the UK banking system offered around 750 self certified mortgage products. By the beginning of 2010, all those products had disappeared. The self certified mortgage is no more.
UK banks seem to learn something about lending. It was a simple lesson, but costly one. When writing out a loan, it's usually worthwhile to check out the documentation offered by the borrower.
As the red line illustrates, the yield on a UK twenty-year government bond is around four percent. This means that private investors are prepared to accept a promise that the government will repay a loan in 20 years time in exchange for a four percent return a year.
At the same time, the government promised to pay generous pensions to the public sector. It will also maintain a comprehensive pension system for the rest of us. It has agreed to sustain a social safety net for the unemployed and those suffering from long-term illnesses.
It insists that it will keep a fully comprehensive and free National Health Service. It has also committed to honouring a mountain of PFI agreements under which the private sector built public sector infrastructure in return for long-term service contracts.
I could go on, but the key point is that previous governments have promised away decades of tax revenues.
It's impossible to see how all these commitments can be honoured at the same time. The yield on government bonds reveals no such doubts. The UK bond market doesn't appear to be worried by all those years of extravagant promises.
There can be only one way of reconciling that contradiction. Bondholders are convinced that they will be repaid, which means they also believes that the government will renege on all those other commitments. For future generations, there will be no generous pensions, unemployment benefits, or free health services.
The government is going to default, but it won't be on its outstanding stock of bonds. It is going to default on the commitments it gave to us.
While emphasizing that he only represents his personal perspective with this post, I am pleased to share this commentary by the independent foreign relations analyst, Dr. Thomas Mitchell:
The international mediation theorist I. William Zartman has written that most attempts at international mediation fail because the moment is not ripe for negotiations. Ripeness, according to Zartman consists of three elements: a hurting stalemate, legitimate representatives, and a formula that offers a way out. Just as an exercise, let’s compare these three elements with the present situation before the peace process industry shoves us into another round of negotiations.
A hurting stalemate is a situation that is not comfortable for either side and often involves a threat to the existing balance-of-power with the stronger power usually losing position to the weaker power but at great cost to the weaker power. Hamas is quite comfortable with the status quo because it believes that time is on its side and that it is better to wait for better terms that will allow it to destroy Israel in the future. The Israeli government is quite comfortable with the status quo because it believes that it has America in its pocket. In fact, stalemate is the glue that holds this governing coalition together. Legitimate representatives refers to parties that actually represent the two sides in conflict. By this definition, the Israeli government is legitimate but the legitimacy of the Palestinian Authority is questionable. This is because most of the fighting or terrorism from the Palestinian side is carried out either by Hamas or by the Al-Aksa Martyrs’ Brigades, who are not fully answerable to the leadership of Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas’s legitimacy is also questionable because his term as elected president has expired and Hamas refuses to recognize his leadership, and he rules only in the West Bank.
A formula is a compromise that will give both sides what they really need to live with, solving the major problems. There is yet to be a formula for Palestinian refugees that is acceptable to both sides. This holds true for Jerusalem as well. A theoretical compromise formula is only a way out if the mediator can get the two sides to accept it as such.
In the Arab-Israeli conflict it is generally understood that readiness―"ripeness" in a powerful mediator―is also important. Obama just suffered the worst midterm election defeat in sixty years and Congress is determined to support the Israeli government. Thus, Washington is as unready for mediation as Jerusalem and Ramallah are unripe.
So what should the Obama administration do in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? It could produce a compromise formula, as J Street is proposing, and offer it to the two sides. This might work with borders. But it should not expect immediate results. It should then sit back and wait for the situation to grow worse. Much of the history of successful diplomacy in the conflict has come about as a result of waiting for a ripe moment and then taking advantage of it.
One such ripe moment was during the Yom Kippur War when Israel feared losing its military superiority and Egypt feared losing its Third Army. Kissinger exploited this to negotiate the Egyptian-Israeli Disengagement Agreement. Several months later he repeated the exercise between Israel and Syria. He then used the momentum to negotiate a second interim agreement in the Sinai a year later.
Jim Baker took advantage of the collapse of the Iraqi threat in January 1991 to force Yitzhak Shamir to go to Madrid. This led to the Washington talks and eventually to the Oslo process.
Carter’s attempt at a general comprehensive solution to the conflict in 1977 failed because neither the Arabs nor the Israelis were ready for that. But Sadat was ready for a separate peace with Israel, although he would not admit this publicly. The Camp David Accords and autonomy were devised as a thin cover to disguise this ripeness.
Modern diplomacy has not progressed much beyond the state of 18th-century medicine. Then a common cure for most serious ailments was bleeding. It is the same in diplomacy. First one must bleed the patients until they are too weak to resist. Then they can be cured.
If the Northern Ireland conflict or the history of the PLO is any measure this might take twenty years. It took the IRA some thirty-five years from its creation until it was ready to do what was necessary for a stable peace in the province. It took (depending on whether one is measuring from the creation of Fatah in 1958 or the PLO in 1964) about 40-45 years for the PLO to be willing to do what was necessary for a two-state solution. Unfortunately, however, by that time Sharon was in power in Israel and Israel was no longer ripe.
Hamas was founded in early 1988―at this rate it has anywhere between 13 and 23 more years before it will be ready for a negotiated compromise solution with Israel. It might take longer because of its religious zeal―the Arabic meaning of Hamas. That time is necessary for the insurgents to realize that the other side is not going anywhere and for that other side to realize that it must compromise with terrorists. If the PA can rid itself of corruption (this is like asking most Arab regimes to do the same), it might make itself a suitable substitute for Hamas in the intereem.
Let the bleeding begin and carefully monitor it so that neither patient dies. In the meantime Peace Now can continue to monitor the settlements and J Street can build its capacity as a counter to AIPAC. Both will be needed to deal with Israel when the Palestinians finally are ready.
Insanity was defined by Albert Einstein as repeatedly doing the same thing and expecting different results. We can choose insanity or ripeness.
Another miracle from our decadence.(and on Christmas Day) Sir Elton John, sires a pup. EXCUSE ME! I am not anti-gay, but, when it comes to children, his choice, seems to leave them no choice.
Levon will grow up wondering. It gets to a point where we allow kids to be exploited, to parental thinking. Whether it is right, or wrong, the kid has no chance here. Raised in a household of.....(way too graphic for me to go further).
You want to be Gay? Cool. Be Gay, Hell, join the Military! You are apparently welcome. Leave the kids out of it. Give them a real choice.
It seems the majority of Americans, or to phrase it more accurately, the majority of Independents and Conservatives (Which equals the majority of Americans) feel that way, but a plurality of liberals feel differently and think the government should regulate the Internet.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 21% of Likely U.S. Voters want the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to regulate the Internet as it does radio and television. Fifty-four percent (54%) are opposed to such regulation, and 25% are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
More:
By a 52% to 27% margin, voters believe that more free market competition is better than more regulation for protecting Internet users. Republicans and unaffiliated voters overwhelmingly share this view, but a plurality of Democrats (46%) think more regulation is the better approach.
Fifty-six percent (56%) of voters believe that the FCC would use its regulatory authority to promote a political agenda. Half that number (28%) disagree and believe the commission would regulate in an unbiased manner. The partisan divide is the same on this question as the others. A plurality of Democrats sees an unbiased regulatory approach, while most Republicans and unaffiliated voters fear a political agenda.
It seems almost every controversial issue has liberals (the 21 percent group) on one side and the majority of Americans on the other side of the issue.
Liberals claim it is because they are "progressive", they arrogantly believe it is because they are smarter, more moral, whatever rhetoric they tell themselves to help them sleep at night because they are scared of the one question they should be asking themselves in the mirror... "could I be wrong?"
Generally speaking, when a liberal answers yes to that question, they become conservatives.. and yes, I speak from experience there.
Once again Obamacare news and it isn't good. Wapo soft pedals it in their usual fashion and added together with all the other Obamacare busts, shows the public's opposition originally was well founded and their continued opposition grounded in reality over hype.
An early feature of the new health-care law that allows people who are already sick to get insurance to cover their medical costs isn't attracting as many customers as expected.
In the meantime, in at least a few states, claims for medical care covered by the "high-risk pools" are proving very costly, and it is an open question whether the $5 billion allotted by Congress to start up the plans will be sufficient.
Federal health officials contend the new insurance plans, designed solely for people who already are sick, are merely experiencing growing pains. It will take time to spread the word that they exist and to adjust prices and benefits so that the plans are as attractive as possible, the officials say.
A two-page piece from Wapo which leaves gaping questions about one of the more popular aspects of the Obamacare aka health care law in which the writer doesn't even bother to address the variety of other failures that have already shown themselves in the massive bill which Democratic politicians pushed through both house's of Congress and Barack Obama signed into law.
Following the link, Ed points out over at Hot Air:
The failure of ObamaCare’s Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan has been known for weeks, at least to readers of the Wall Street Journal and Hot Air. The Washington Post catches up to the WSJ a mere 45 days later with this report from Amy Goldstein on the failure of PECIP to attract the 375,000 people the White House and Congress claimed needed the help of subsidies to get health-care coverage. Even with the program falling 97% short of its stated goal, it’s still going to cost more than Congress allocated anyway
This, on top of other Obamacare failures, along with the most recent news that Obama has used regulation to impose the end-of-life planning portion of Obamacare which was dropped from the health care bill when a firestorm was created after Sarah Palin pointed out the likelihood of "Death Panels", shows a bill, a piece of law passed with only Democratic support by a Democratically controlled Congress and a Democratic president against the continued opposition of the majority of Americans...is a failure already.
The House of Representatives will be controlled by the GOP starting in January and they will control the purse strings and since repeal of the entire obamacare bill is impossible as long as the Senate is run by Harry Reid and Democrats (although much less control now after the midterm elections) and the White House is controlled by Barack Obama who would veto any such total repeal, the GOP in the House must defund every portion of Obamacare they can until the political situation changes to the point where we can undo Obamacare totally.
Choke it, starve it, defund it GOP... we expect it, we demand it and we are watching to make sure you make it happen.
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act is a law that subsidizes and regulates the menu of federally funded programs that feed children primarily at school, whether it be breakfast, lunch, dinner or summer time schooling.
The law increases spending on school nutrition programs by $4.5 billion over ten years and encompasses a range of provisions, including offering qualified children breakfast, lunch and dinner at school, as well as meals during the summer. It also includes a pilot program for “organic foods.”
President Obama said at the signing ceremony—held at the Harriet Tubman Elementary School in Washington. D.C.--that he was following in the tradition of President Harry S. Truman, who signed the first federal school lunch program into law, and President Lyndon B. Johnson, who signed the Childhood Nutrition Act of 1966.
Obama said that if the bill had not reached his desk for his signature, “I would be sleeping on the couch.”
Obama would be sleeping on the couch because this law has been championed by his wife, Michelle Obama in her cause to battle obesity.
There is the background.. now for the most recent headline news in relation to this law, Michelle Obama gave a speech in where she included the phrase "We can’t just leave it up to the parents."
“Everywhere I go, fortunately, I meet parents who are working very hard to make sure that their kids are healthy,” said Mrs. Obama. “They’re doing things like cutting down on desserts and trying to increase fruits and vegetables. They’re trying to teach their kids the kind of healthy habits that will stay with them for a lifetime.
“But when our kids spend so much of their time each day in school, and when many children get up to half their daily calories from school meals, it’s clear that we as a nation have a responsibility to meet as well,” Mrs. Obama said. “We can’t just leave it up to the parents. I think that parents have a right to expect that their efforts at home won’t be undone each day in the school cafeteria or in the vending machine in the hallway. I think that our parents have a right to expect that their kids will be served fresh, healthy food that meets high nutritional standards.”
So, we have Michelle Obama's full point.
Now to Sarah Palin, who on her show cooked up some s’mores and stated "This is in honor of Michelle Obama, who said the other day we should not have dessert."
Once again, that particular comment is all that we see in the headlines about Sarah Palin and Michelle Obama's "food fight". In the name of the same fairness as showing Michelle's full statement, here is Palin's expanded view:
"Instead of a government thinking that they need to take over and make decisions for us, according to some politician’s — or politician’s wife’s — priorities, just leave us alone, get off our back, and allow us, as individuals, to exercise our own God-given rights to make our own decisions.”
Funny thing is, Sarah Palin and Michelle Obama actually agree to a point, as Palin has previously stated "Health-care reform on an individual basis is often just this simple: we could save a lot of money and a lot of grief by making smarter choices. It starts by ending destructive habits and beginning healthy habits in eating and exercise."
The difference between Michelle Obama's interference and Sarah Palin's previous statements is one prefers to help educate and the other is trying to impose her will on Americans by regulation and federal laws.
Palin's latest statements is what has the far left in such a tizzy for publicly criticizing Michelle Obama's "obvious" good intentions.
Just because the cause is good, does not mean the actions taken are good actions.
A little clarity here and some background puts Palin's statements into context, like the recent war against sweet treats that many have not even heard about.
States regulating bake sales and what can be sold and even banning them in New York. California- "officials are now having to ensure than any food sold in conjunction with a school event comply with strict dietary standards. In Connecticut, classroom birthday parties are a thing of the past, as schools there no longer allow parents to bring celebratory sugary goods."
Those are just a couple examples from a state level.
In fact, the new law authorizes, in fact, mandates the Agriculture Department to write guidelines for all foods sold in schools during regular class hours, including in the cafeteria line, vending machines and at fundraisers.
Contrary to Michelle Obama's assertions that she is doing this for the parents to respect their desires to expect the schools to feed children what the parents want, bake sales and fundraisers are often run and food is supplied by those very parents that this law is demanding the right to tell them what to sell and what food they can raise money for the school with.
The evidence is, in fact, to the contrary, suggesting that well-intentioned government policies will make the problem worse: To the extent that political action has thus far affected American obesity, it has been a thumb on the wrong side of the scales, subsidizing the worst kinds of foods through the farm-subsidy and school-lunch programs, and often giving out precisely the wrong kind of dietary advice.
Obesity is, in truth, among our least tractable public-health problems. It is an absolute Gordian knot of nutrition, behavior, genetics, child-rearing environments, hormonal biology, economics, and other factors too numerous and too subtle to catalog. As New York University obesity-policy scholar Rogan Kersh has noted, the problem “has proved impervious to clinical treatment or public-health exhortation,” and it is by no means clear what, if anything, public policy can accomplish, or what the best avenue for reform is, if indeed there is one. For an administration prone to smug castigation of its predecessors for their allegedly insufficient deference to scientific expertise, the Obama team is here shockingly cavalier about a scientific question of substantial depth and complexity. If Mrs. Obama, between her undergraduate major in sociology, her minor in African-American studies, and her law degree somehow managed also to acquire a great deal of expertise regarding a medical issue that has proved remarkably difficult for actual scholars and learned authorities, she has not seen fit to share how and where she acquired it.
FACT- Parents, if not satisfied with a school's menu, are allowed to pack a lunch and feed the children something more to their desires.
The $4.5 billion could have been spent creating free gyms, providing low income families with the means to pack their child's lunches... any variety of things that would not encroach on a parents right to feed their children as they see fit and put the government in charge of a right, a responsibility and obligation that belongs solely to a parent, not an overreaching government that wants to stick their nose into every aspect of American's lives.
Sarah Palin's point is valid and she is right. The government continues to expand their power into our lives and that is the point she has been trying to make.
Poll after poll after poll show that Americans favor a smaller government with fewer services over a larger government with more services.
A solid majority of voters (67%) prefer a smaller government with fewer services and lower taxes over a larger, more active government with more services and higher taxes. Just one-in-four (25%) prefer the larger, more active government, a sentiment that has changed little since polling on the question began.
It is a food fight today between Sarah Palin and Michelle Obama, but that is one small battle in a much larger war. The main fight is about preventing government from empowering themselves to the point where they control every aspect of our free lives.
In that war, in that fight, Sarah Palin is on the side of the parents, the people, Americans.
Michelle Obama is on the side of bigger government interference.
In the late 1990s Ireland was one of the most fiscally prudent countries in Europe. It regularly recorded budget surpluses.
However, no one was watching over the banks. Throughout the last decade, Ireland's financial sector made appalling loans to property speculators and other folk of an unsavoury nature. Now, those loans can not be paid back.
Rather than passing losses onto the bank's creditors, who foolishly financed this farrago, the Irish Government decided to place the burden for paying for this disgraceful speculation on the poor taxpayer. While the government is raising taxes, cutting services and reducing the public sector salaries, it is also taking on defaulted loans so that French and German banks don't have to reduce their dividends to their shareholders. If a government runs that kind of economic policy, it will quickly accumulate a 32 percent of GDP budget deficit.
Ironically, Ireland's mortgage holders continue to service their debts. Arrears are running at about 5 percent. That is a little higher than the UK, but given that the Irish economy has imploded, it is surprising that the default rate hasn't risen higher.
2010 was a very interesting year. But aren't they all? This one though, had some very interesting moments.
January included my participation in the Black Enterprise Energy Forum. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson could not attend because she was attending the funeral of Vice President Joe Biden's mother. Deputy Associate EPA Administrator Stephanie Owens substituted for her.
In February, I presented testimony at the EPA Ozone hearing. I also met with the White House Office of Management and Budget on the fly ash issue.
In April, I presented testimony at the EPA hearing on on natural gas hydraulic fracturing. I also traveled to South Africa from April 4-April13. I attended a White House Great Outdoors Conference at the U.S. Department of the Interior. President Obama spoke at the conference. I participated in an environmental justice listening session sponsored by EPA and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
In May, I was a panelist at the American Association of Blacks in Energy (AABE) annual conference in Columbus, Ohio. I met Exelon CEO John Rowe and discussed the future of nuclear energy with him. I presented a statement at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) public meeting in Buchanan, New York on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the license renewal for the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant. I present a statement at President Obama's Blue Ribbon Commission on Nuclear Power. I presented a presentation entitled, "Converting CO2 into Fuel" at the Environmental Justice in America 2010 Conference.
In June, I met with Florizelle Liser, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative, Executive Office of the President.
In July, I gave a statement at the New York Department of Environmental Conservation Cooling Tower Hearing in Buchanan, New York.
In August, I presented a statement at the EPA fly ash hearing. I presented testimony before the National Commission on the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling.
In September, I visited Port Gibson, Mississippi on the 1st scoping visit for the biomass-to-energy project. I presented at statement at the EPA greenhouse gas hearing.
In October, I visited Port Gibson, Mississippi on the 2nd scoping visit for the biomass-to-energy project.
In November, I visited Santa Catalina Island no the 1st scoping visit for a biomass-to-energy project. I participate as a panelist at the National Black Chamber of Commerce Fall Summit. We celebrated the Center's 25th anniversary on November 20th.
In December, I visited Port Gibson, Mississippi on the 3rd scoping visit for the biomass-to-energy project. I participated in a Green DMV home weatherization project in Alexandria, Virginia.
Reason One: Average Time on the Market is increasing
Housing inventory is taking longer to sell. The average time taken to shift a home increased over the month to 10 weeks, the longest period since April 2009.
The time on the market is now over 3 months for three regions - East Midlands, North West and Wales.
Reason 2: Settlement Prices are falling relative to asking prices
Sellers are offering sizable discounts on property. Settlement prices as a proportion of asking prices fell to 92.1 percent. This is a 16 month low.
The recent weakening was driven by declining demand. Hometrack estimate that in December demand fell by 4.8 percent, the sixth monthly decline in a row. Supply also contracted slightly, falling 1.5 percent.
Looking beyond December, 2010 was marked by a sharp increase in inventory. Hometrack estimates that the supply of homes for sale grew by 24 percent. In the final 6 months of the year, demand fell by 18 percent.
Reason 3: Prices are falling in around a third of the country
At the beginning of the year, hardly any post codes were registering price declines. Markets were either standing still or moving upwards. Things began to change rapidly over the late summer months.
Reason 4: The number of post codes registering a price increase has fallen to zero.
According to Hometrack, there are no "hot" markets.
Hometrack also presented an unusually pessimistic projection for next year. They expect house prices to fall by two percent.
We need many more people like this woman in our country. Congratulations Ms. Krouse. - - Donna Poisl
BY EARL HOLLAND • STAFF WRITER
SALISBURY -- It was 35 years ago when Leila Borrero Krouse came to the U.S. from her native Puerto Rico to study social work.
While getting her degree was one of her achievements, she had another goal in mind that she wanted to complete.
"I wanted to enhance my ability to communicate in English," she said. "Believe it or not, while English is taught in the schools in Puerto Rico, some people do not speak it and it is not practiced much." Click on the headline above to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.
States that have a large enough population increase to get more seats in Congress have to redraw their districts. These districts have many immigrants who are not happy with the GOP. This may affect the next election. - - Donna Poisl
By Edward Schumacher-Matos
Some Republicans are crowing over the 2010 Census, but any red-state gains they make will depend on two big ifs: whether the party undergoes a virtual religious conversion and supports immigrants, or it gerrymanders like mad.
Most news reports this week on the new population figures understated the size of the immigrant impact. If you add their American-born children, immigrants accounted for fully three-fourths of the nation's population growth over the past decade, and not the slightly less than half that was widely reported, based on counting the foreign-born only in the Census Bureau's parallel 2009 American Community Survey. Click on the headline above to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.
These next two years will be difficult for immigration reform, but there is always a chance. And another election. - - Donna Poisl
By Shankar Vedantam, Washington Post Staff Writer
Congressional Republicans are pronouncing President Obama's proposal that the next Congress overhaul the country's immigration laws as dead before arrival.
In his year-end news conference Wednesday, Obama said his biggest regret about the recent lame-duck session of Congress was the defeat of the DREAM Act, a measure that offered a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children. Click on the headline above to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.
The Census results are starting to come out, and the immigrant population is having a big impact. - - Donna Poisl
By Elizabeth Llorente
States where Hispanics have settled in large numbers saw some of the highest percent changes in population growth and gained congressional seats, according to the first set of Census 2010 results, released Tuesday.
Many states in the South and West that have been magnets for Latinos saw double-digit percentage growths. The growth in those areas far outpaced the nation’s, which saw a population increase of 9.7 percent over the 2000 Census count of 281 million residents.
The new national population is 308.7 million. Click on the headline above to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.
With the change in the Congress, immigration reform will be even more difficult. But there are bright spots. - - Donna Poisl
by Carl Shusterman
Immigration legislation in Congress ended on a sour note in 2010. The DREAM Act, after narrowly passing in the House of Representatives, failed to get the necessary 60 votes in the Senate required to overcome a threatened GOP filibuster. Comprehensive immigration reform never even came to a vote in the last Congress.
What will the outlook be for immigration legislation in the 112th Congress which convenes beginning on January 3, 2011? Click on the headline above to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.
This very interesting article tells how immigrants from Thailand, Iraq and Haiti are celebrating Christmas in their new country. - - Donna Poisl
BY MATTHEW T. HALL AND MORGAN LEE
Christmas means many things to many people in many parts of the world. It is a glorious time, a gathering time, a gorging time. It is a spiritual and secular time.
In countries as far-flung as Thailand and Iraq and Haiti, friends and relatives will come together on Dec. 25 to celebrate the birth of Jesus — and each other.
And in the United States, people who have immigrated here from countries the world over will do the same, bringing tastes of their homelands to new homes while embracing American culture and customs. Click on the headline above to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.
Are you a Canadian military spouse, or do you know one? If so, this message is for you:
... I`m a producer with Radio-Canada in Montreal. I`m doing some research for a story that I`m working on about support for military families.
I`m wondering if you can help me with my research…
I know that the Canadian Forces has done a lot the last few years through the Military Family Resources Centres to support spouses and women in particular. But I`m trying to get a sense of how the Canadian Forces treats spouses in general now that their partners are coming back from one or more deployments to Afghanistan. I know that this puts a lot more stress on families, when they`re already very stressed. So far, I`ve talked with a lot of women who are feeling quite isolated.
I`m wondering, if you have an insights on this topic, could you give me a call? We could chat off-the-record and totally confidentially. I`m free any time and you can reach me on my cell at 514-895-0341 or email me at lysanne.louter@radio-canada.ca
The world is run by a shadowy cabal of Powerful Bald White Guys (PBWGs). Here is the list of the Top 10 PBWGs of the last decade, with the 2010 list tomorrow.
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