Month: December 2008

Over The Top

What I am going to say today is not likely to make me many friends. 

Not only are there no “good guys” in the Israel vs. Gaza thing, not only is the Israeli reaction way over the top, but I am sick and tired of anybody who says anything bad about Israel being called an anti-semite!

FIne, I concede that it was not a good thing for whatever party is responsible to fire rockets into Israel. 

You know what else was not a good thing? A blockade for a year against the legally and democratically elected government, preventing goods such as medical supplies from getting in. Oh, you didn’t know that Hamas was elected to power? I guess we’re only for democracy when we like the outcome!  

And what else was not a good thing?  “We don’t think you are keeping enough law and order so we’re going to bomb your civilian police and your prisons and completely take away your ability to provide law and order! Yeah, let’s take out the TV station and a place of worship too. We’ll even take out the private residences of some of the people we consider to be in charge. And if a few hundred innocent men and women and little kids get hurt, that’s show-biz.” Never mind that when you do things like that, you give the survivors a perfectly good reason to hate your guts.  What, you think the citizenry are going to turn around and say “Oh, well I guess it’s a good thing that we’ve been bombed back to bricks! Truly the Isrealis are our friends for showing us the error of our ways!” 

Frankly, the only way Israel’s actions make sense is if the actual goal is genocide. 

But you know what else is not a good thing? Calling everyone who doesn’t automatically think everything Israel does is wonderful an “anti-semite.”  We can’t even have a discussion of right and wrong when every attempt to bring it up is effectively Godwinned. Heck, when Ezra Klien is accused of being an anti-semite, things have gotten way, way out of control!

Hamas are no saints.  But Israel isn’t blameless either. That’s not anti-semitism; that’s a fact.

Update: Firedoglake translates AP coverage; Ezra speaks out on the false binary of “Israel can do no wrong or you are anti-Israel” (and remember, therefore anti-Semite and maybe even a Nazi too); and the ArchCrone on remembering the humanity.  These are truly must-read items.

In closing:  21 dumbest moments in business for 2008;  virginity pledges still don’t work, they just make young people less likely to use contraceptives; an African priest in America; counterfieting on the rise (so much for John Snow’s “strong currency” theory); our economy is so bad that fewer people are sneaking into the country than at any time since 1976; cheap and nutritious; the WaMu empire was built on shaky loans; and the “Case” Against Christopher Handley is based entirely on a few drawings in books of fiction. If this man is convicted, anybody with a copy of “Lolita” on their bookshelf might be convicted too.

An Innocuous Sounding Rule

Some people want to give President Bush an “attaboy” for increasing the budget for medical clinics in underserved areas. Ok, fine. 

There is a new rule that sounds innocuous, but may result in you or someone you love being unable to get needed medical care. The rule sounds like a good thing on its surface: people who work in medical facilities don’t have to do things that they find morally reprehensible, and they can’t be punished for refusing.

The reality is that under this rule, absolutely anybody who works in a hospital, clinic, doctor’s office, or pharmacy can effectively prevent somebody from getting some kinds of care at all. Furthermore, they don’t even have to tell you about treatment options or other providers who are willing to help you. 

Of course, the first and obvious target is abortion. It’s an emotionally charged issue. This rule doesn’t just say that doctors don’t have to do them and nurses don’t have to assist. It means that receptionists don’t have to schedule you, and the janitorial staff doesn’t have to make sure the room is clean. 

The next obvious target is contraceptives, both traditional and emergency. Even sterilization. Never you mind that the Supreme Court said we could have The Pill all the way back in the 60s, never mind that hormonally based contraceptives have other legitimate medical uses, never mind that there are times when a hysterectomy is a life-saving intervention. Under this rule — assuming you have a doctor who has given you a prescription — you can only get hormonal contraceptives if the pharmacist and the cashier both think it’s acceptable. 

Finally, and more frightening, “its scope could be much wider, including those opposed to assisted suicide, sex-change operations or even vaccinations….”  That’s from the Salt Lake Tribune, not some Ultra-Liberal Blue State Latte Sipping Sushi Eating Volvo Driving rag. When Salt Lake is worried about this stuff, it’s worth worrying about. Can the clinic decide not to see someone who is gay? How about a woman wearing a headscarf?

I’m going to explain this for what I hope is one last time. Try to keep up.

If someone is disciplined or fired for not doing what their job requires, none of us need feel sorry for them. We are not talking about some new breakthrough drug or proceedure with murky ethical implications.  We are talking about medications and medical interventions that have been with us for decades. These people of “conscience” knew what was involved when they took the job. If they don’t like it, they need to find employment elsewhere. To do less is to say their morals aren’t worth inconveniencing themselves, only others. 

If a vegetarian gets a job in a steakhouse, she knows her job involves serving meat. Hospitals, clinics, doctor’s offices, and pharmacies exist for the purpose of helping people who need medical assistance. The people who work in these facilites need to provide it.

 

Retro-Posts, The Economy Is Same As It Ever Was edition: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007. As a Bonus, Advice for Holiday Programs and New Bloggers. 

In Closing: ending forced marriage is harder than Making A Law; Top 10 New Organisms of the Year; The Real Von Trapps; Lowest Mortgage Rates in 37 years… if you can qualify; Japanese teachers are against the use of English… in English class!; why our system of paying for health care sucks; a Starry Night in Death Valley; How to Tell if Someone is a Bigot; and Jobless Claims hit yet another high (check out the chart comparing it to the S&P 500), but remember that those figures are seasonally adjusted.  Really, a half million people didn’t file for unemployment for the first time. Nope. It’s more like 715,496. Department of Labor puts up new figures there each week (wouldn’t want anybody knowing about old data, would they?), so check it out while you can.

A Few Last Thoughts on Auto Manufacturing

By now, many words have been typed about the Big Three Bailout, also known as the “screw the UAW plan” or alternatively, the “Help Cerberus Make it’s Numbers plan“. Seriously, if a “competitive wage” meant “we’re going to give you the same pay they get in the Toyota plant”, nobody would have an issue with it, but it’s clear that what is meant is a more drastic slashing of wages and benefits.  

Alas, it looks to me (and many others) like the only “plan” Ford, Chrysler, and GM have for becoming profitable in the future is to “spend less money“:  cut wages, cut employment rolls, renegotiate with suppliers, cut expenses in everything but the executive suite.  Nothing as innovative as making cars people want to buy and selling them for a reasonable sum of money, nothing like trying to lobby for Medicare For All and instantly — using their own numbers — cut $1500 from the price of making a car. 

I think it says a lot that Ford is just saying “No, thanks.  We don’t need money on those terms.”

In an interesting wrinkle, Honda is threatening to pull out of Japan! The CEO is frustrated with a government that isn’t doing anything to help exporters. The way things are still headed, I bet they can buy some nice, idle car plants near Detroit.

The auto industry is not the only American manufacturing interest, merely one of the biggest.  Manufacturing as a whole in this nation is “tanking hard.” Some might say that is because we can’t compete globally.  And when they do, they imply that either wages are too high or taxes and other regulations are too onerous. However, the bottom line is that without manufacturing, we won’t have the basis for a sound economy. We can’t run a country on selling one another lattes and cheap goods from overseas. The “service economy” is a giant pyramid scheme built on the idea that, well, we don’t have to build anything. The truth is that if we can’t create anything of value, all our money will eventually go the the countries that can.

Maybe we can start by selling more efficient busses to the world.

In closing: How does electronic voting compare to, say, a Vegas slot machine?; Drillers have close encounter with molten magma, find novel way for scientists to study volcanism; and sadly, Christmas tree thefts are on the rise. I still personally don’t get the charm of having a “real” Christmas tree sitting in your home.  It’s messy, it requires care, it’s flamable, some people are allergic to them, and then you have to figure out how to get rid of the thing after Christmas. I’d rather plant one outside!  Oh, and yes, I have planted multiple trees. 

Happy Solstice. It’s gonna be a long night.

SNOW DAY!

Yes, it’s snowing in Vegas.  Actually, snowing for the second time this week. But this time they have actually cancelled school.  Yay, I guess. 

Elsewhere tomorrow, the Feds are meeting to talk about reining in some of the abuses controvertial practices that credit card companies have used to bilk it’s most strapped customers. These include but are surely not limited to “practices like raising the interest rates on pre-existing credit card balances unless a payment is over 30 days late, and applying payments in a way that maximizes interest penalties.”  It’s about freaking time.

In closing (yes, already): if we can’t agree that the death penalty is wrong, can we at least agree that it costs too much money?; Carrie brings us a dose of JapanFilter and the lack of safety net for workers who lose their jobs; some fscinating charts on what has happened to the American consumer; Maha on the middle class, wages, and the UAW; the head of the SEC admits they had warnings about what Madoff was up to and he has no good explanation for why they didn’t do anything about it; a Month Without Chryslers; and some renters who took matters into their own hands.

Economy Rodeo

Well, actually it’s more like bullfighting. The kind where they slaughter the bull at the end?

Just to get us in the proper mood, Harper’s reminds us that everything is worse than it at first appears, thanks to pollyannaish manipulation of the actual data. Really, most of this stuff you already know if you’ve been reading ShortWoman for long enough, but this article traces each tweak to its roots. 

The Economic Policy Institute was on yesterday about how the number of job applicants is surging while the number of actual jobs to apply for is plummeting.  Today we found out that the number of first time jobless claims is higher than it has been in the last 26 years.  The 4 week moving average is up over 500,000, which would tend to indicate that 2 million people have applied for unemployment for the first time in the last month alone.  Why do I say “tend to indicate”?  Because that number is seasonally adjusted. Nevertheless, Ouch!

Nor are things tough all over only for individuals.  It so happens that 43 of our 50 states are in financial trouble, too.  

As crazy as the stock market has been, there is some chart-based evidence to support (heh, support. a stock charting joke) the idea that even now, the S&P 500 is going to drop at least another 10% just to “revert to the mean,” or the average growth it has had not just since the Great Depression, but since 1870. 

There is some good news.  Or is it bad news?  For the first time since they started measuring it, household debt has declined!  People are paying cash, using “lay-a-way” plans, anything but running up more debt. Even if they wanted more debt, American families are having a tough time finding someone who wants to lend. The “bad” part of this is it means a drop in spending. 

A site that is only recently added to my list of Things To Read is Calculated Risk. Two recommended items are on net worth and home equity. 

Yeah I know, I don’t go linking Kos very often, but “how we crashed the economy” is a good read. 

A UCLA economist says that as bad as things are right now, 2009 is going to be worse. 

And finally, some recommendations on public works that will do the public good in the long run.

Let’s hope it really is darkest before the dawn. 

In closing:  Enquiring minds really do want to know, What on earth was the Governor of Illinois thinking??; somebody spells out what actual Biblically based marriage would look like (hint, it isn’t pretty);  Can Steve Jobs save GM?; a bunch of guys whose jobs depend on high college enrollment rates say that a college degree is vital (nope, no enlightened self-interest there); it may be that a Big Three bailout would primarily benefit former Treasury Secretary John Snow! (You remember, Mr. “A strong currency is hard to counterfeit“?); and cathouse.

It’s worse than that, really

A lot has been said today over the fact that the United States economy lost over half a million jobs in November, the job “creation” numbers since 1974.  This brings the 2008 job loss figures to 1,900,000 and counting, almost 2/3 of that in the last 3 months. As alarming as these figures are, they don’t tell the whole story. First, as Dave Johnson points out, all those people who were classified as “contractors” didn’t count when the work went away.  A couple more very sobering figures are pointed out by Robert Reich:  the typical workweek has shrunk to 33.5 hours, the shortest since all those baby boomers got part time after school jobs; and the economy still needs 125,000 new jobs every month just to keep up with newcomers. Economists disagree on this exact figure — some say 150,000 and some even insist it’s more like 200,000. 

So the actual unemployment number is a lot worse than will be reported. Not only are more people working fewer hours than since the Johnson Administration, more people are [not] working as “independent contractors”, and people who didn’t have a job won’t be getting one.

When you add the people who never were employed (125,000 x 11 = 1,375,000, I’ll use Mr. Reich’s conservative number) to the people whose jobs evaporated (1,900,000), our economy is short a minimum of 3.27 million jobs.  This year alone.  Not including December.  Not counting the contractors. Not accounting for the people who are working part time who would like to be working full time. 

No wonder 10% of homeowners are behind on the mortgage.  

Here’s some bonus automotive items:  the unions will give up the 85% pay they currently get while laid off (wouldn’t that be nice); Firedoglake on subsidies; maybe they can fix too big to fail by merging and being even bigger (aw gee, 3 failing companies made into one big failing company? How can it lose?); Carrie on modern electric cars; BradBlog asks about the EV-1; and I really wish I could find online yesterday’s interview of Mr. Nardelli by Maria Bartiromo. She verbally eviscerates him and his company. 

In closing: maybe it’s a good idea to find out what real people want out of health care [insurance] reform; and In-laws in the [White] House!

Nail Gun Shorties

Just Say No….  to inferior drug tests that yield false positives.  Yet another reason that random drug testing is a Bad Idea.

Back to the Future:  As the economy continues to suck so badly we can no longer pretend it’s not already a recession, if not worse, some companies are reaching for the way-back machine to see if tried-and-true methods from the past might be the way to go right now.

Truckers don’t need sleep:  at least thats what new proposed Federal regulations (that courts have struck down multiple times) say.

How many times do I have to say this?  Insurance is not an investment!  Your insurance agent is not a financial advisor!  If he tells you he wants to sell you an “investment,” make him talk to your financial advisor (or toss him out of your living room). His job is to sell you insurance.  When you buy something from an insurance agent, you should get regular statements telling you what you owe and/or how much what you have is worth.  If you don’t get this regular statement, you should suspect that your insurance agent is a fraud. 

Speaking of things that are not investments:  Don’t buy stock in bankrupt companies.  It’s a sucker’s game. 

That’s not God talking:  Listen, if “God” is telling you to ram another vehicle at 100 MPH, you need medication.  Oh, and to get out from behind the wheel. 

At a complete loss for Christmas ideas?  You can donate farm animals to people in poor countries.  It may not be fun to play with, but you might be doing good for an entire village. 

A Prediction for GM’s Future: So, according to a colleague over at TMV,  “Mulally is coming by car from Detroit. Wagoner will drive a Chevrolet Malibu hybrid sedan for the 520-mile trek. Nardelli won’t travel by corporate jet, but a spokeswoman declined to elaborate on his travel plans, citing security reasons.”  First, Mulally and Wagoner never heard of car-pooling?  They are going to and from almost identical places at exactly the same time!  I bet they would save a seat for Nardelli, too!  But in any event, I hereby predict that after Mr. Wagoner has driven a Malibu hybrid on a  520 mile roadtrip, there will be a lot of tweaks if not a complete re-design next model year.

What Maha Said:  The “conscience” rule is trying to rise from the dead.  Never mind reality. I am totally with her on that last line: “There is a simple solution to health-care workers with a ‘conscience’ problem — find another line of work.” 

Speaking of Health Care:  yet more proposals to “reform” medical residencies are too little too late. The problem is not residency.  The problem is the $140,000 in student debt they have on average before they ever get to residency. Remember, internship and residency have been “employment” since the original Bush Administration.  You regulate those with the Department of Labor. 

And this person works at a university:  I was reading along when I found something mind-blowingly stupid.  Emphasis mine: 

“We’re having to cut classes and professors,” says [Patricia] Hurley [financial aid director at Glendale Community College in California]. “Tuition will go up. And our outreach efforts to high schools and into the community are being hampered because we no longer have the financial resources. All this is happening at a time when it’s critical to get the word out that college is still affordable.”

So let me get this straight, services are going down, tuition is going up, financial aid is getting harder to come by, but we need to make sure everybody knows they can still afford college. Riiiiight. 

Happy December, everybody!