Monday Reading
By Barry Ritholtz - July 20th, 2009, 4:15PM
Monday afternoon — first linkfest of the week!
• More toxic loans could haunt banks (Associated Press)
• Joseph Stiglitz: The Most Misunderstood Man in America (Newsweek)
• The Real Story of Trading Software Espionage (Advanced Trading)
• Subprime Brokers Resurface as Dubious Loan Fixers (NYT)
• James Altucher has departed the Street.com for Dow Jones, and it shows in his initial column: The Internet Is Dead (As An Investment) (WSJ)
• Fed’s Lending Ebbs as Crisis Subsides (WSJ)
• Rescued Banks Post Big Profits, Drawing Ire (Washington Post)
• Want a good laugh? Read this July 2008 WSJ article: Ten Reasons to Buy Stocks Now
Anything else fresh and linkworthy?
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July 20th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
http://www.minyanville.com/articles/GS-CS-jpm-UBS-bcs/index/a/23621/p/1
European Banks on the Brink
John Mauldin Jul 20, 2009 8:55 am
“And here’s the problem: Europe’s banking system is in far worse shape than that of the US. The losses may be bigger, and their capital to meet those losses is certainly less. Let’s look at some charts. (Pour yourself an adult beverage.)”
..I believe he wrote part 1 and we read some of that in TBP recently…
July 20th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Stiglitz is probably one of the most important and influential rock-throwers we have. Add Simon Johnson, Ron Paul and Barry. It’s an odd mix of people, but everyone involved is trying to keep an eye on the truth.
The lack of dissent and protest, let alone organized resistance, to the Quiet Coup has been truly shocking. Before this is over the American people are really going to have to throw some metaphorical rocks at 85 Broad.
It was interesting to see the Vietnam protests on TV this weekend. 1968 was probably the last time that Congress, academia and the mainstream media were as out of touch with everyday Americans as they are today. Pitchforks.
July 20th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
If the Glen Greenwald piece on Cronkite’s legacy doesn’t get your blood pumping, Bruce in Tn needs to take the jumper-cable paddles to your chest.
What I regret is that adversarial journalism morphed into left-wing ideology in many people’s minds. It became shrill and quixotic and pandered to entitlement attitudes, investigating violations of “fundamental rights” never written or intended in the Constitution springing up everywhere, etc.
I think it’s safe to say that most of us are now convinced that, regardless of whether the DEMs or GOPs control, it’s just SSDD. Journalists have an ethical obligation to be skeptical and demand facts behind gov’t assertions — or anyone’s assertions, really, not just gov’t. But that just isn’t how things developed.
July 20th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
I was listening to NPR on the way home from the salt mine…you can probably bring it up on the NPR website if you are interested. They were interviewing the new leader of the US governors’ council that was meeting in Biloxi over the weekend. I posted something earlier about the Democratic governor of Montana announcing he would oppose the healthcare legislation if it is anything similar to what is in congress now. Old news.
Anyway the newly elected head, Jim Douglas of Vermont says that more than 50% of the uninsured in Vermont are proably eligible for medicaid, but haven’t applied. Of course, medicaid is free to the needy, but they aren’t automatically signed up just because of a lack of income…they have to apply.
And this today..
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/20/obama-administration-sets-health-care-reform-blitz/
Obama Rejects Claim That Health Care Defeat Could Mark His ‘Waterloo’
…This kind of thinking by both parties is stupid…it is another reason, politics, that I cannot favor national health planning…a smart man said that the reason we don’t have national health services yet was that those who have good private care realize what they’d give up, and they aren’t willing to make the sacrifice of their good care for those who don’t have coverage. The degree of animosity now being shown kind of reinforces that line of thinking…
July 20th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
@Barry: Link this post by Yves. I haven’t seen that much fire on Naked Capitalism in a while:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/07/denninger-savages-wapo-defense-of.html
@Bruce: I really like my private health insurance, and it doesn’t cost very much (probably because my employer, one of the big 4 is using all of that easy money to pick up the tab). The Obama thing makes me nervous. I don’t know what the answer is to health costs rising faster than GDP, but I do know that the Soviet Style plan isn’t the answer.
July 20th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
CA budget is almost finished -
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-budget21-2009jul21,0,5521044.story
Yay! This should keep things going until at LEAST the fall :-)
July 20th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
“…Well, actually, no. Madoff has certainly reserved a special place in financial ‘hell’ for his fraud, but make no mistake, the single greatest fraud ever perpetrated on investors is the collective Wall Street enterprise that marketed and distributed Auction-Rate Securities. The ARS market at its peak was a $330 BILLION market. Of that initial size, those on Wall Street tracking developments within the ARS market project that $165 BILLION held by thousands of retail and institutional investors remain frozen.
The Wall Street Journal highlights the next in what could be a long running series of ARS investigations in writing this morning, Cuomo Says Schwab Faces Fraud Suit:
In an official notice sent to Charles Schwab & Co. Friday, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo warned that his office plans to sue the largest online brokerage firm for civil fraud over its marketing and sales of auction-rate securities to clients…”
http://www.senseoncents.com/2009/07/wall-streets-greatest-fraud/
“…The invasion of Afghanistan by the United States took place at a time of high fever (September 11, 2001 attacks) and no one thought much of the long-term agenda of Americans at the time of Afghan invasion. Hence, Afghanistan never gained the kind of front end importance which Iraq immediately achieved with the Anti-War Movement. But now the Anti-War Movement is in total disarray over the continuous occupation of Afghanistan and the expanding military operations.
This has given a free hand to the three main governments which lead Afghan operations to do whatever they wish to do in Afghanistan without any fear of homegrown opposition. Thus President Obama had no one to oppose him when he decided to send more troops into Afghanistan. He did this to make his first term as “successful” as that of his predecessors, assuming that the time-tested American definition of success still holds good: America must be engaged in a war to be successful.
The insatiable American thirst for blood is now in full bloom in this killing season as its drones continue to take the lives of men, women, and children in various parts of Pakistani FATA and its soldiers continue to dig deeper and deeper into Afghanistan. Although it is moving its soldiers out Iraqi towns, it is simply redeploying them. This continuous lust for blood is something that now defines America. Its war machine has become so blood thirsty that there is no end in sight of American occupation of Afghanistan, even though there is absolutely no moral or legal justification for its continuous operations in that war-ravaged land.
Yet neither the increased troops, nor the huge monetary resources being pumped into Afghan war indicate anything but failure. Just two weeks into July, 46 foreign troops have already been killed, making July 2009 a record month. But for the NATO spokesman Rear Admiral Greg Smith, these deaths were “something we did anticipate occurring as we extend our influence in the south.” He also touted the “pretty intensive set of objectives being met in terms of routing the insurgents.” Blood and death is simply what is expected, there is absolutely no shame, no regret, no qualms about loss of human lives; it is all expected and that, somehow justifies it! …”
http://www.opinion-maker.org/navigation.do?mode=showArticles&id=719
July 20th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Does this mean I don’t have to listen to Altucher pimp for Cramer anymore? Hallelujah!!!!!
When he was at theStreet.com, Altucher’s sole two functions seemed to be (1) to get readers pumped up about stocks, e.g. his utterly useless “Rocket Stocks!” and (2) to run interference anytime anyone criticized Cramer. Whenever one of his Rocket Stocks subsequently did well (a statistical inevitability given how many stocks he wrote about), he’d tout it as if it was somehow related to skill. If he ever wrote something that was in the reader’s best interest and not just his own, it was purely serendipity.
Though I will give him credit for being forthright enough to admit, “I’m no journalist.” Which means he’ll fit right in with so many other of Rupert Murdoch’s employees.
July 20th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
note date: “(OMNS, March 19, 2008) Vitamins fight the flu by boosting the body’s own immune response and by accelerating healing. Individuals can be better prepared for an influenza epidemic by learning how to use vitamin supplements to fight off ordinary respiratory infections. The most important vitamins are vitamins C, D, niacin, and thiamine.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D has known anti-viral properties [1] and has been directly associated with fighting influenza in a recent scientific review. [2] Extensive evidence now shows that vitamin D serves as an important regulator of immune system responses. [3] The most dramatic evidence is a recent double-blind trial proving that vitamin D prevents cancers [4], supported by two recent epidemiological studies. [5,6] Vitamin D has been part of a supplement combination proven effective against HIV in a recent double-blind trial. [7]
During a viral infection, the body can draw on vitamin D stored in the body to supply the increased needs of the immune system. The withdrawn supplies of vitamin D are quickly replenished with 4,000 to 10,000 IU/day doses for a few days. Due to biochemical individuality, we recommend vitamin D blood testing as a routine part of a yearly physical exam.
Niacin
Niacin has known anti-viral properties. The most persuasive evidence comes from recent work with HIV patients.[8-12] Niacin is required for cells to generate the energy they use to perform virtually all biological functions.
Niacin’s effectiveness fighting viruses may have to do with accelerating wound healing as well as improving immunity. Accelerating tissue repair limits collateral damage and minimizes the risk of secondary infection. Niacin has been proven to promote healing of damaged skin in double-blind trials. [13] Other recent findings (niacin reduces injury to the brain after strokes and reduces inflammation in general) also provide evidence of healing. [14,15] …”
http://www.orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v04n04.shtml
“President Obama urged Congress today to push past growing doubts and pass comprehensive health-care reform package this year, saying that a better opportunity to remake the nation’s health care system may not arise for generations.
The president urged lawmakers Friday to take bolder steps to achieve health-care reform, and today in his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama called reform essential not only to expanding health care coverage to the 46 million Americans who lack it but also to restoring the nation’s economic stability.
“This is an issue that affects the health and financial well-being of every single American and the stability of our entire economy,” Obama said.
With the cost of health-care coverage rising at three times the rate of wages in recent decades, Obama called the status quo in health care unsustainable.
That fast-increasing cost of health insurance is crippling businesses, which are finding it difficult to afford to provide coverage. It is also placing a difficult burden on state and federal governments, who find increasing shares of their budgets consumed by Medicaid and Medicare costs. In addition, individuals who lack coverage frequently find themselves at risk of being thrown deep into debt by just one medical emergency.
As bills to expand health-care coverage take shape in both houses of Congress, criticism has intensified because of their potential costs. The Congressional Budget Office has said that the proposals fall short of Obama’s promise to slow the increase in health-care costs, leading critics to charge that those bills would only add to the nation’s already soaring budget deficits…”
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/07/18/obama_urges_congress_to_pass_h.html?hpid=moreheadlines
July 20th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
If you haven’t seen this, don’t watch it if you’ve already eaten supper:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo77x4VeoQE
Jim Cramer praises Lenny Dykstra as a stock pocker on HBO.
If you have seen it, no, Lenny Dykstra ….if the two words are taken apart do NOT spell LEFTBACK when reassembled….
July 20th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Bruce:
Anyway the newly elected head, Jim Douglas of Vermont says that more than 50% of the uninsured in Vermont are proably eligible for medicaid, but haven’t applied. Of course, medicaid is free to the needy, but they aren’t automatically signed up just because of a lack of income…they have to apply.
Jim Douglas is the Republican governor of Vermont. When you say Vermont, you make it seem like he is a Democrat or “Independent” like Bernard Sanders.
The Republicans (and Libertarians, like yourself) have been trying to spread the meme that people are uninsured just because they don’t want to be.
I don’t believe it for a second.
Aren’t you a medical doctor? (I mean, you don’t work in a literal salt mine, right?) Don’t you think every American should receive health care as a right of citizenship?
@Matt:
Regarding your “great” private health insurance plan: just wait until you get a serious illness or injury You will fin.
July 20th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
Stupid laptop mouse.
@Matt:
Regarding your “great” private health insurance plan: just wait until you get a serious illness or injury. You will find that the insurance carrier will punish your employer (OK, maybe not your employer, but most others — especially small employers) by raising their rates until they get rid of you; then you will find what it is like to be on your own.
July 20th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Okie:
I hope you are being sarcastic. No I certainly do not think health care is a right of citizenship. Nor is home ownership. Nor are lots of other things a “right”…I know you argued these things in law school…and as I wrote earlier, the democratic head of this same assembly, from Montana, opposes this too and said so before he handed the reins over to the governor of Vermont. I think the big 3, life, liberty,persuit of happiness are about all that should be guaranteed just because you are born.
July 20th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
pursuit he tried to type..
July 20th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
Bruce:
No, I am not being sarcastic about health care as a right of citizenship.
By the way, in regards to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” it is kind of hard to maintain “life” when you don’t have access to adequate health care. It seems to me that you have some “cognitive dissonance” in that area.
July 20th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
There are so many problems with health care as a right:
How do you pay the hospitals enough that state of the art care is delivered to all? If you determine this is too expensive, who gets their care cut? The elderly? Is that you criteria? What about the 60 year old professor or the 25 year old cocaine addict who both need a liver, and there is only one?
If health care is a right, how do you pay the providers enough that they choose the profession? Or are you willing to open up the medical schools to anyone who wants to be a doctor? Does YOUR doctor have to be sharp, or is it enough that they just care about you?
Why not make legal care available to all at no cost? No, I mean for everyone at no cost?
Will you pay for everything? Common colds? Headaches? PMS? Just don’t feel good?
Make the states pay for it? Pass a law and say it is in your court? Make the rich pay for it?
If indeed, medicare patients spend the majority of their medicare costs in the last year of life, what do we do? If you are 80 and seriously ill, do you automatically not qualify for the ICU?
Why not?
July 20th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Okie Lawyer:
Gotta go, but you see the problems. Frankly I would expect more thought from a lawyer about rights as differentiated from wants.
July 20th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Bruce – Just listened to the interview on NPR. The Vermont Governor said that they have about 7% uninsured in Vermont and that of that 7% they estimate that about half are eligible for Medicaid. I got the impression from listening to the interview that this was because many of these people were not aware that they qualified for Medicaid, not that they were choosing to opt out . . . . Link is below if anyone wants to put in their two cents.
http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=106824862&m=106824834
July 20th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
By the way, before signing off, I assume you mean rights cannot be abrogated? Correct? So if all of us have a right to medical care, and then when you are 80 a decision is made not to treat you in the ICU because of age and costs, that this isn’t an abrogation of rights, nor is it age discrimination…when you reach a certain age you give up your rights? Is that right?
Can you spell hypocr…….itical?
July 20th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
Exactly Thor…nothing like someone confusing wants and rights. Most of our “rights” are either in the constitution or bill of rights. The new idea that health care is a right of citizenship is one of those feel good ideas that come along now and then, but when put to the test of practicality…have huge holes in the thought processes that created them.
Health care for all would be wonderful. But a right of citizenship just because you are born in the USA?
Some have not considered just what this means…it sounds noble, but is not.
July 20th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
I’m still amazed by this…
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/business/19floyd.html?_r=1&ref=business&pagewanted=all
Making an argument about the First Amendment, to begin with. Mr. Abrams will contend that S.& P.’s ratings deserve exactly the sort of free-speech protections afforded to journalists, on the theory that a bond rating is like an editorial — an opinion based on an educated guess about the future. And for the same reason you can’t sue editorial writers, Mr. Abrams will argue that you can’t sue a bond rater because the economy went into a free fall that few saw coming.
“It shouldn’t change the legal dynamics that rating agencies are more important, or play a greater role, or are looked to by this or that element of the marketplace,” he says. “The major similarity here is that both the newspaper and S.& P. are offering opinions on matters that people can and do disagree about.”
July 20th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Wow. Re: that WSJ article from ’08 on buying stocks now.
Brett Arends sure looks like a fool for having written that thing, eh? Of course he’s got a lot of company. I wonder what he’d say in his defense now. I’m sure it would be something along the lines of, “nobody saw this coming.”
quote: “A respectable news service just referred to “America’s teetering financial system.” Teetering. Omygadomygadomygad. History suggests this is a great buy signal. Think: 1998 or 2002.”
Yeah, the idea that the financial system could have been teetering. Absurd, right? What an ass.
I’ll stick to listening to wise ones like Richard Russell and Dr. John Hussman. Not ignorant fools like Arends.
July 20th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
@Bruce:
How do you pay the hospitals enough that state of the art care is delivered to all? If you determine this is too expensive, who gets their care cut? The elderly? Is that you criteria? What about the 60 year old professor or the 25 year old cocaine addict who both need a liver, and there is only one?
If health care is a right, how do you pay the providers enough that they choose the profession? Or are you willing to open up the medical schools to anyone who wants to be a doctor? Does YOUR doctor have to be sharp, or is it enough that they just care about you?
The question of health care as a right is different from the question of how much we can afford. (We can afford a lot!) And “triage” is already a consideration in who to provide health care to. That would not change under a taxpayer-funded system. But it is a lot easier to provide quality care when you have a single risk-pool. As the risk pool gets larger, it gets cheaper for each person within that risk pool.
Private health insurers already use “risk pools.” They take their 20-35% out as profit for the CEO and top management and “shareholders” (which are often the same parties) who now benefit from denying payment for necessary medical treatment. This is its own “moral hazard.”
A taxpayer-funded system would not be based on profit. So its overhead costs would almost automatically be lower.
Regarding payment to the medical professionals, that’s really the crux for you, isn’t it? You might make less.
Why not make legal care available to all at no cost? No, I mean for everyone at no cost?
Legal representation in criminal defense cases where a person can be deprived of their liberty is already a constitutional right.
Amendment VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
And in civil cases, we have Legal Aid for the poor.
There have been many attempts to expand affordability of legal representation (contingency fees, for one). The Republicans, by the way, are the ones who have been trying to make it more expensive to access the courts. I can give you an example of that in bankruptcy court.
(Which is another good reason why a national healthcare system would be good for the country. More than half of all consumer bankruptcies are primarily caused by medical debt. I saw that with my own eyes.)
From there you could save innumerable amounts from the simplification of personal injury lawsuits. Because the medical bills are no longer an issue, you don’t have to fight about whether they are legitimate or not. In simple “cervical sprain” cases, you could settle those quickly and efficiently (assuming no real doubt as to fault). For the others, you could set up arbitration courts that would far cheaper than clogging our regular courts.
Health care costs and private health insurance have ramifications far beyond health insurance itself.
July 20th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
Stupid Question of the Night. I just did a reformat and reinstall and had to get a new password sent to me. . . does anyone know how to change pw on TBP (or is it wordpress in general?)
July 20th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
When I went to look at the workplace videos, ran across a classic from the Conan show:
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=3363303
On the health insurance issue, a good private plan like we have is great as long as you have it. Just don’t get hurt too badly to work or get laid off. You won’t be able to afford the COBRA premiums. Then, if you don’t live in a backward state like Louisiana that still has a Charity Hospital system established by the Kingfish, you are screwed.
I remember a couple of years ago a story on the front page of the Chronicle about an EMT who was riding with her sister when they were attacked by a crazyman with a shotgun. The sister was killed and the EMT almost lost her arm. Then she lost her job. Was on unemployment. Needed therapy on the arm to keep from losing it. Texas has almost no health care for the poor. That’s how they keep taxes down. To get therapy, she had to drive like 4-5 hours each way to the closest free place. After the story ran, someone volunteered to give her therapy close to her home, but most people aren’t lucky enough to make the front page.
Social Security Disability, along with Medicare, if you’ve contributed enough takes 18 months last time I looked. You have to be incapable of working at all. And they usually deny you the first time. The EMT probably wouldn’t have qualified because she could theoretically do some work, even though she probably couldn’t hold a job because of her need for taking time for treatment. Eligibility for medicaid varies from state to state, but you generally have to be almost dirt poor. Last I remember seeing in La., you couldn’t have more than about 2k in your possession and an couldn’t have an income of more than $600 or so. Not even enough to live on.
Another story told to me by a nurse at a clinic for the poor run by some charity. Unskilled laborer had what the nurse suspected was a tumor and told him to get an MRI. He only had a few hundred bucks. Went to an MD to see about getting the MRI. MD charged him just about all the cash for a thorough physical and then told him to come back with another $400 or 500 for the MRI.
To quote one of my favorite writers:
“O God ! to hear the insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his hungry brothers in the
dust ! “
July 20th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Re:
toxic loans, S&P fair value, politics in Washington.
“extend and pretend” pretty much sums it up at this point.
July 20th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Since so much of this thread seems to be dedicated to HC (and ostensibly – the “right” vs. “want” aspect of it).
Does anybody historian on TBP know how former great civilizations (whether they be Greek, Roman, Chinese, persian) handled the issue in an economic sense?
That might provide a roadmap that would be more useful than what I see being discussed by special interests today.
July 20th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
deadonarrival:
Since mcuh medicine was ineffectual and based on magic, I suspect it was sometimes better to be too poor to be bled.
July 20th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
Quote of the day from Rosie. Without knowing any of the technicals he referred to, I was thinking that the market has a 2007-ish quality too it: obvious huge looming problems, all ignored:
There is an interesting little tidbit in this week’s Barron’s (on page M4 in the “The Trader” column) to the effect that nearly 70% of the stocks on the NYSE that are piercing their 200-day moving averages — stating that this is the highest level “since the summer of 2007”.
Our only comment to that, which is not addressed in the article, is: was the summer of 2007 really the best time to have been loading up on equities? That 70% number only tells us how overdone this bear market rally is.
July 20th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
@Mike in NOLA
Personally, I’d offer that it might actually be better to be “dead” than bled. (then or now)
But that’s just me.
Likely, we’re in for a lot of bleeding and dying. In many different ways.
re: s&p, I’m more a follower of instinct than anything else, but it sure seemed to me that the Goldman 1,060 call was perfectly manufactured to take out the 956 high of ’09 to the upside. I don’t think they’ll end up getting as much mileage out of it as they’d like (maybe 989 or 1007, or so), but it served its purpose.
I tend to agree with the 2007 scenario, but these things seems to make zealous traders broke before they make them wise.
July 20th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
OkieLawyer @ 9:02
For everyone to be covered, money has to be taken from those who are insured and, in effect, given to those who are not. I would be far less opposed to this if we were to impose caps on jury awards in medical malpractice cases. If we are to offer inexpensive health insurance to everyone, there has to be a lot of “cutting of corners”, which means, in some cases, substandard care. Under the current system, that would precipitate a lot of lawsuits. There are many aspects to reducing health care costs; but reducing the threat of lawsuits would move us a significant distance in that direction.
July 20th, 2009 at 10:38 pm
DL:
Letting people cut corners is not good policy. It should just be just what it is today: whether the physician followed the standard of care. The governement can just set the standard of care at whatever level it wants and provide safer harbors for physicians who follow whatever standards are set. I think somehting like that was contemplated.
July 20th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Mike,
I’m not really an expert on this, but my impression is that there are a few states that do provide something approaching a “safe harbor”. But most states do not.
The trial lawyers are a constituency which is at least as important to Obama as the UAW, so I don’t expect to see anything that will reduce THEIR wages.
July 20th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
CA has a budget agreement. Bankruptcy averted (for now).
July 20th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Chart porn on worldwide internet usage of the biggest players. My how China has grown:
http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/archive/2706/27062201.jpg
And @ MEH re Vitamins http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/07/monday-reading/#comment-195591
Zinc: When zinc gets ‘discovered’ it will be the bigger than vitamin C and D. It is the ultimate immune booster and has saved me from numerous contagions over the years
http://www.puritan.com/pages/healthnotes.asp?languri=eng&org=nbty&ContentID=2934002
July 21st, 2009 at 12:08 am
DL,
This article by an MD really seems to get to the core of what the problem is. It compares the substantial difference in per patient costs to medicare between two Texas towns with substantially the same demographics, and same malpractice law.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/06/01/090601fa_fact_gawande?currentPage=all
Probably the most effective way to reduce claims is giving MD’s a course in manners and empathy.
http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/970220/malpractice.shtml
Although I’m not keen on malpractice myself, people who consulted me about it were just about all pissed at a doctor who had been a jerk.
My former dentist, who’s father was a pediatrician, spent her own money to pursue a claim for her father’s death. (I was not involved.) Looked like someone had screwed up in the icu. Can’t remember exactly, but the father was on dialysis and the doctor said that it was probably better that the father had died because people on dialysis have no quality of life. What an idiot.
July 21st, 2009 at 1:14 am
HTCMSI,
see: http://orthomolecular.org/nutrients/micronutrients.shtml
re: Zinc
past the Fact that it has been, well, discovered, if you remember, from a few+ years ago, “Zinc Lozenges” were the ‘next great thing’– so sayeth Mad Ave. — for ‘combatting cold/flu’..
http://clusty.com/search?input-form=clusty-simple&v%3Asources=webplus&query=%22zinc+lozenge%22
though, past that, to put the point it, my post, yon’ Congress y 44, are squawking about ‘controlling HC costs’–they are, patently, FOS.
pat·ent·ly (ptnt-l, pt-)
adv.
In a patent manner; openly, plainly, or clearly: a patently false statement.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Towit, if ‘they’ GAS about HC costs, they’d appreciate, and Trumpet, the, proven/provable, Fact that “Nutrition is the Key to Health.”
And, with that, I’ll thank my Uncle, Abram — to 93 he hoofed that, unbelievably, solitary, Trail of Truth.
~~
BR,
Thank you, again, for what you have done for “thefreedictionary.com” ‘s SER, if they haven’t sent you a “Box of Clams”, let me know, I’ll take care of their, inadvertent, Oversight.
in·ad·ver·tent (nd-vûrtnt)
adj.
1. Not duly attentive.
2. Marked by unintentional lack of care. See Synonyms at careless.
July 21st, 2009 at 1:25 am
I hate arguing about whether HC is a “right” – it’s a Republican talking point designed to muddy the waters. Here’s what I’d like to ask Bruce in TN – are you ok with this:
1. We spend too much of our GDP on health care – the most of any country in the world, 17% last time I checked. 17%. And 1/3 of the population is uninsured. And we’re approximately 37 on the life expectancy list among all nations. Morocco is ahead of us.
2. 50,000 bankruptcies per year due to HC issues. 2/3 of these people are insured.
3. The uninsured use the ER as their primary source of health care – the most expensive kind possible.
Are you ok with the status quo? I’m not – it’s not only inhumane (like many doctors I’ve know, empathy doesn’t seem to be one of your strong points), but counterproductive and bad for business.
And never mind whether it’s a “right” available to all citizens – basic, minimal health care should be available to ANYBODY who needs it. Of course we don’t want illegal aliens sneaking into the country for liver transplants – but isn’t it obvious that we should give say, flu vaccine to anybody who wants it? Or treat anybody who has Syphilis, regardless of their nationality, or their ability to pay for the care?
This is obviously a complicated problem, but you don’t seem to have any desire to see it solved – or even to see that there’s a problem.
July 21st, 2009 at 8:46 am
@ MEH,
I classify ‘discovered’ as going up to the man on the street and asking him if we should be taking zinc daily. If he answers the same way the media has taught him to answer about vitamin C & D then I will consider it ‘discovered’. Until then it is an insider’s secret known only to the vitamin junkies of the world. Regarding zinc today, most would only consider it something you take(as a lozenge) when you have a sore throat.
July 21st, 2009 at 9:20 am
HTCMSI,
I see, check this: “The hot nutrition and wellness issues coming in 2009 and beyond start with the very youngest members of the family. Growing awareness of the equation of “unhealthy food + children = future unhealthy adults,” coupled with advances in food and ingredient processing are influencing how parents feed infants and toddlers in the 21st century.
There is increasing emphasis on the sanctity of these products. “Natural,” “organic” and “no additives/preservatives” became top positioning claims, accounting for more than 50 percent of total product launches in 2007, according to Mintel International Group (www.mintel.com), Chicago.
Nutrition and convenience are of utmost importance to 73 percent of 10,000 mothers surveyed, according to Zero To Three (www.zerotothree.org), a national nonprofit organization that “informs, trains and supports professionals, policymakers and parents in their efforts to improve the lives of infants and toddlers.”…”
http://www.foodprocessing.com/articles/2008/437.html
and, in general: http://clusty.com/search?input-form=clusty-simple&v%3Asources=webplus&query=nutraceuticals+food+trends #4, from Food Product Design, is, another good one..
though, if I were you, I wouldn’t be taking my cues from ‘the man on the street’, you, just, might wind up eating KGC while watching the next UFC throw-down at a Octogon near you..
July 21st, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Altucher is only ten years too late on that article.