USLife
USLife
BP commissions film on BP oil disaster By Brett Michael Dykes brett Michael Dykes – film on the Michael Bay scale, but BP is in the process of assembling a feature-length chronicle of the environmental catastrophe that will be all but synonymous with the oil giant's brand for many years to come: the great Gulf oil spill of 2010. The New York Times' Brian Stelter reports today that BP will provide funding for the project. However, in Stelter's words, the oil giant insists that the film "is not intended to scrub its reputation clean." The filmmakers involved "are making a film of the spill primarily for an internal audience as an archive of a momentous event in the company's history (not to mention those impacted by the tragedy and its aftermath)," BP spokesman Robert Wine told the Times. Stelter notes that the BP-backed crew has already interviewed several journalists -- but one can't help wonder whether the journalists in question are the "BP reporters" the company employs for its in-house glossy magazine. That publication, Planet BP, sparked a minor uproar over the relentlessly upbeat spin its reporters brought to the task of chronicling the spill disaster. And the film will be produced by World Television -- the same production company behind numerous ads touting BP's efforts to deal with the spill and mitigate its effects on Gulf Coast residents. Despite this rather extensive track record of company-sponsored damage control, former BP CEO Tony Hayward recently insisted that his corporation never sought to shape the media narrative of the spill. Rather, Hayward insisted that BP was victimized by a press corps hell-bent on tarnishing the company image. "We tried to be open and transparent, we gave access to the operation," Hayward told the BBC. "But the reality is we were completely…
America—The Grim Truth Americans, I have some bad news for you: You have the worst quality of life in the developed world—by a wide margin. If you had any idea of how people really lived in Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and many parts of Asia, you’d be rioting in the streets calling for a better life. In fact, the average Australian or Singaporean taxi driver has a much better standard of living than the typical American white-collar worker. I know this because I am an American, and I escaped from the prison you call home. I have lived all around the world, in wealthy countries and poor ones, and there is only one country I would never consider living in again: The United States of America. The mere thought of it fills me with dread. Consider this: you are the only people in the developed world without a single-payer health system. Everyone in Western Europe, Japan, Canada, Australia, Singapore and New Zealand has a single-payer system. If they get sick, they can devote all their energies to getting well. If you get sick, you have to battle two things at once: your illness and the fear of financial ruin. Millions of Americans go bankrupt every year due to medical bills, and tens of thousands die each year because they have no insurance or insufficient insurance. And don’t believe for a second that rot about America having the world’s best medical care or the shortest waiting lists: I’ve been to hospitals in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Singapore, and Thailand, and every one was better than the “good” hospital I used to go to back home. The waits were shorter, the facilities more comfortable, and the doctors just as good. This is ironic, because you need a good health system…
The man who writes your students' papers tells his story Jonathan Barkat for The Chronicle Review Jonathan Barkat for The Chronicle Review By Ed Dante Editor's note: Ed Dante is a pseudonym for a writer who lives on the East Coast. Through a literary agent, he approached The Chronicle wanting to tell the story of how he makes a living writing papers for a custom-essay company and to describe the extent of student cheating he has observed. In the course of editing his article, The Chronicle reviewed correspondence Dante had with clients and some of the papers he had been paid to write. In the article published here, some details of the assignment he describes have been altered to protect the identity of the student. The request came in by e-mail around 2 in the afternoon. It was from a previous customer, and she had urgent business. I quote her message here verbatim (if I had to put up with it, so should you): "You did me business ethics propsal for me I need propsal got approved pls can you will write me paper?" I've gotten pretty good at interpreting this kind of correspondence. The client had attached a document from her professor with details about the paper. She needed the first section in a week. Seventy-five pages. I told her no problem. It truly was no problem. In the past year, I've written roughly 5,000 pages of scholarly literature, most on very tight deadlines. But you won't find my name on a single paper. I've written toward a master's degree in cognitive psychology, a Ph.D. in sociology, and a handful of postgraduate credits in international diplomacy. I've worked on bachelor's degrees in hospitality, business administration, and accounting. I've written for courses in history, cinema, labor relations, pharmacology, theology, sports…
With just over a week left to the QE2 announcement, discussion over the amount, implications and effectiveness of QE2 are almost as prevalent (and moot) as those over the imminent collapse of the MBS system. Although whereas the latter is exclusively the provenance of legal interpretation of various contractual terms, and as such most who opine either way will soon be proven wrong to quite wrong, as in America contracts no longer are enforced (did nobody learn anything from the GM/Chrysler fiasco for pete's sake), when it comes to printing money the ultimate outcome will certainly have an impact. And the more the printing, the better. One of the amusing debates on the topic has been how much debt will the Fed print. Those who continue to refuse to acknowledge that the economy is in a near-comatose state, of course, hold on to the hope that the amount will be negligible: something like $500 billion (there was a time when half a trillion was a lot of money). A month ago we stated that the full amount will be much larger, and that the Fed will be a marginal buyer of up to $3 trillion. Turns out, even we were optimistic. A brand new analysis by Jan Hatzius, which performs a top down look at how much monetary stimulus is needed to fill the estimated 300 bps hole between the -7% Taylor Implied Funds Rate (of which, Hatzius believes, various other Federal interventions have already filled roughly 400 bps of differential) and the existing 0.2% FF rate. Using some back of the envelope math, the Goldman strategist concludes that every $1 trillion in new LSAP (large scale asset purchases) is the equivalent of a 75 bps rate cut (much less than comparable estimates by Dudley, 100-150bps, and Rudebusch, 130bps). In…
Tracking a new kind of civil disobedience “What is the worst wrong here?’’ asks BC professor Lisa Dodson: managers aiding workers or an unjust economy. (Joanne Rathe/Globe Staff) By Kathleen Burge Globe Staff As Newton resident Lisa Dodson, a Boston College sociology professor in the thick of a research project, was interviewing a grocery story manager in the Midwest about the difficulties of the low-income workers he supervised, he asked her a curious question: “Don’t you want to know what this does to me too?’’ She did. And so the manager talked about the sense of unfairness he felt as a supervisor, making enough to live comfortably while overseeing workers who couldn’t feed their families on the money they earned. That inequality, he told her, tainted his job, making him feel complicit in an unfair system that paid hard workers too little to cover basic needs. The interview changed the way Dodson talked with other supervisors and managers of low-income workers, and she began to find that many of them felt the same discomfort as the grocery store manager. And many went a step further, finding ways to undermine the system and slip their workers extra money, food, or time needed to care for sick children. She was surprised how widespread these acts were. In her new book, “The Moral Underground: How Ordinary Americans Subvert an Unfair Economy,’’ she called such behavior “economic disobedience.’’ As Dodson’s questions grew more pointed, she began to hear fascinating stories. Andrew, a manager in a large Midwest food business, said he put extra money in the paychecks of those earning a “poverty wage,’’ punched out their time cards at the usual quitting time when they had to leave early for a doctor’s appointment, and gave them food. Andrew had decided that by supervising workers…
Utah Proposes Scrapping 12th Grade; Nevada Rations Diapers; Harrisburg Heads For Bankruptcy; NBA Lockouts Loom Here is a quick roundup with a general theme of "Hard Times".12th Grade OptionalUtah considers cutting 12th grade -- altogether At Utah's West Jordan High School, the halls have swirled lately with debate over the merits of 12th grade. The sudden buzz over the relative value of senior year stems from a recent proposal by state Sen. Chris Buttars that Utah make a dent in its budget gap by eliminating the 12th grade.Buttars has since toned down the idea, suggesting instead that senior year become optional for students who complete their required credits early. He estimated the move could save up to $60 million, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.The proposal comes as the state faces a $700-million shortfall and reflects the creativity -- or desperation -- of lawmakers all over."You're looking at these budget gaps where lawmakers have to use everything and anything to try to resolve them," said Todd Haggerty, a policy associate with the National Conference of State Legislatures. "It's left lawmakers with very unpopular decisions.""The bottom line is saving taxpayer dollars while improving options for students," said state Sen. Howard A. Stephenson, a Republican and co-chairman of the Public Education Appropriations Subcommittee. "The more options we give to students to accelerate, the more beneficial it is to students and taxpayers." Jordan Utah School District To Lay Off 500Jordan District to lay off 500 employees because of $30M shortfall The Jordan School District will lay off 500 employees by July 1 as part of an effort to make up for a $30 million shortfall.By a 6-1 vote, the Jordan Board of Education approved options to reduce the 2010-11 budget, which include personnel cuts, programs and services cuts, transfer of expenditures to other programs,…
U.S. Report Details Money Laundering provided by A suitcase containing $1 million in shrink-wrapped bills, hand-carried into New York by the former president of Gabon for his daughter to buy a Manhattan apartment. Purchases of a stretch Hummer H2 armored limousine and C-130 Hercules military transport planes for a civil war in Angola. And a shell company named Sweet Pink used to funnel millions of dollars into the United States from Equatorial Guinea. These and other deals and money transfers took place in recent years because of inadequate controls on money laundering at large American banks and unregulated American lawyers, real estate agents and lobbyists, according to a Senate report released late Wednesday. The 325-page report by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which will conduct a hearing on Thursday, sheds new light on how banks like Citigroup, Wachovia and Bank of America unwittingly shifted hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of African politicians, their relatives and associates. The banks ended up closing or restricting the accounts and cooperated with the subcommittee, offering comments on individual transactions. In all cases, the Senate report says, the banks ignored controls intended to prevent money laundering and related screens on PEP, meaning politically exposed persons — high-risk clients from corrupt countries. The report recommends strengthening regulations against money laundering at banks and revoking exemptions for lawyers and other third parties from restrictions on money laundering in the USA Patriot Act. It recommends that Congress pass laws requiring people who form corporations to disclose the true owners. The report, brimming with bank statements and internal e-mail messages, contains four case studies. “Together, these four case histories demonstrate the need for the United States to strengthen its PEP controls to prevent corrupt foreign officials, their relatives and close associates from using U.S. professionals and financial…
Jim Grant On California And Greece With Greece getting all the imminent default attention, have we forgotten California? Jim Grant chimes in. Greece: 3% of Eurozone GDP California: 13% of USA GDP Rate Curves: Greece 3 year: 3.45% 30 year: 6.26% 5 Year CDS: 400+ California 3 year: 1.89% 30 year: 5.59% 5 Year CDS: 333 Grant points out Trichet's Jan 14 commentary: "belonging to the euro area, you have an easy means of financing your current account deficit. You share a currency that is credible, so that you have a quality of financing that corresponds to that of a credible currency." Further: "this should be borne in mind, compared with the share of CALIFORNIA, FOR INSTANCE, in the overall GDP of the USA." Grants reviews CA's Baa1/A- rating as the worst in the US, the S&P downgrade and the structural not cyclical problem of California. State Revenue up 22% in decade debt service cost +143%. Interest expense to consume 10% of revenues by 2013. Howerver Grant's notes that Californida's debt / gdp ratio of "perhaps 25% is dwarfed by Greece 113%"Yet as Zero Hedge has pointed out how much does a standalone credit metric such as a state's GDP truly matter? We know CA's trust fund when it comes to funding unemployment benefits is now empty and every month sees greater borrowings from the Treasury. Case in point, we present State Unemployment Benefits as seen from the Treasury's (outflow) perspective ($MM): Jan-08 3966Feb-08 3572Mar-08 3673Apr-08 3664May-08 3123Jun-08 3053Jul-08 3885Aug-08 4650Sep-08 5146Oct-08 4951Nov-08 4341Dec-08 7384Jan-09 8513Feb-09 8808Mar-09 10607Apr-09 10883May-09 9998Jun-09 11982Jul-09 11979Aug-09 11454Sep-09 12102Oct-09 10749Nov-09 10869Dec-09 14065 We expect once the rumored cabal of Goldman and Soros finish their toying with Greece, they will look into the US. Then again, for fears of retribution by the President once it…
College Endowments Suffer Huge Declines By AP / ERIC GORSKI Students walk through the Harvard Law School area on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. The global economic crisis shrunk the ranks of billion-dollar endowments from 77 to 54 in a year's time. Elite schools such as Harvard, Yale and Stanford absorbed some of the deepest losses. CHITOSE SUZUKI / AP College and university endowments suffered huge losses in the fiscal year that ended last June, a new report finds, but stronger investment returns in recent months point to a rebound. The global economic crisis shrunk the ranks of billion-dollar endowments from 77 to 54 in a year's time, according to a report Thursday that provides the fullest picture yet of endowment performance in the 2008-2009 fiscal year. (See TIME's special report on paying for college.) The value of university and college endowments fell almost 19 percent on average during that period in what report authors described as the worst decline since the Great Depression. While the downturn hit all types of universities, elite schools such as Harvard, Yale and Stanford absorbed some of the deepest losses. Some of the richest private schools, which rely heavily on endowments to operate and flourished in boom times, have resorted to cutting staff and shelving construction projects. "What last year demonstrated is that what goes up does come down — and that's what happened to college and university endowments," said Terry Hartle, senior vice president of government and public affairs for the American Council on Education. Things appear to be headed up again, mirroring trends in the stock market and most other investments. In the 2009 calendar year, Duke's endowment grew 8.5 percent and Georgetown's grew 8 percent, school officials said, and other colleges and universities have reported similar gains. The…
Better Off Deadbeat: Craig Cunningham Has a Simple Solution for Getting Bill Collectors Off His Back. He Sues Them. By Kimberly Thorpe Unlike his neighbors' homes, Craig Cunningham's house in Northeast Dallas looks abandoned. The grass is dried out. The concrete slab under the front door is lopsided and cracked. The green exterior has faded to a toxic-looking shade. Yellow Pages pile up near the front door, and the black mailbox is stuffed full. Maybe the home has been foreclosed on. That wouldn't be a surprise in this economy. But no, that's not the case. Inside, the 29-year-old Cunningham hunkers his 6-foot-2-inch frame on a dumpy couch. His heavy arms extend from his sides, palms up, so two Chihuahuas, Angel and Chuay, can curl under them. Although it's 10 a.m. on a weekday, he's wearing slippers. He leans forward to lift some paperwork out of a plastic tub on the coffee table. The phone rings, and he answers with a soft voice. It's just a friend, and soon he hangs up. He's waiting for a particular type of phone call—one from a representative of a debt collection agency or a credit card company, whom he'll try to ensnare like a Venus fly trap. It's not unlikely that Cunningham's next call will be from a bill collector, since he's between jobs—except for being in the Army Reserve—and owes $100,000 in debts. While most Americans with unpaid bills dread the collector's call, Cunningham sees them as lucrative opportunities. Many collection and credit card companies, intentionally or not, violate little-known consumer rights laws, and Cunningham's favorite pastime is catching them doing so and then suing them. In fact, it's a profitable side job. Call it ironic, but the only house on the block that appears to be the foreclosed end to some sad…
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