While we see blame the person, in things like "hey you're fat" to "you did not follow my orders and that's why you're sick"! sort of stuff...
The report also outlines some real statistics in terms of inefficiencies.
Our research found that wasteful spending in the health system has been calculated at up to $1.2 trillion of the $2.2 trillion spent in the United States, more than half of all health spending.
From an obscure newsletter on Emerging Markets comes this report:
Infosys and Wipro Set Up Units to Bag Government IT Outsourcing Contracts
10/08/2009
Infosys Technology and Wipro Technologies, two of the most prominent Indian IT firms, are setting up centers to tap growing opportunities in the USD 100 billion government IT outsourcing market. Both the companies have not only started investing in marketing campaigns to attract more clients globally, but have also began recruiting consultants and experts from government companies for placing them in the markets of India, the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia.
Wow. Consumer (note they do not even use the word individual, families, households anymore, we're all just consumers) Bankruptcies are May Hit 1.4 Million:
Consumer bankruptcies show no sign of abating after rising more than a third this year and may hit 1.4 million by Dec. 31 as jobs are lost and loans are harder to get, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute.
More than 126,000 consumers filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. last month, 34 percent more than in July 2008, the ABI said in its latest report on Aug. 4. The increase came after a 36.5 percent rise in personal bankruptcies nationwide in the first six months, to 675,351, according to the ABI research group, which interprets data collected by the National Bankruptcy Research Center.
Most commentary has therefore focused on market failure in the housing and credit markets. But what if the house price bubble developed because the economy needed a bubble to ensure continued growth? In that case the real cause of the crisis would be the economy’s underlying macroeconomic structure. A focus on the housing and credit markets would miss that.
Such as Wall Street bonuses. The Guaranteed Bonuses are back. You know the bonuses that traders and other get regardless of performance.
Kenneth Feinberg, Obama Administration's "Pay Czar" is supposedly on the case. He is reviewing the compensation plans of seven companies that received two or more federal bailouts. Good luck with that.
Here is an idea: Ban the Practice of Guaranteed Bonuses. Financial conglomerates operate in a regulated industry (despite the incompetence/ignorance of the regulators). If we are going to do nothing to stop "too big to fail" financial conglomerates from getting even bigger than taxpayers need protections and banning the practice of guaranteed bonuses is one of them.
This what an a pay consultant said about the practice:
Next Time someone screams social security must be privatized, refer to this.
Without changes in law, CBO expects that the Social Security trust funds will be exhausted in 2043. If that point is reached, the Social Security Administration will not have the legal authority to pay full benefits and the amounts that could be paid would be about 17 percent less than those scheduled under current law.
I've been waiting for this one. The Financial Times, in Crisis and climate force supply chain shift, reports increasing energy costs will cause more regional sourcing for parts and supplies.
Supply chain experts agreed, with Ernst & Young underlining how as much as 70 per cent of a manufacturing company’s carbon footprint can come from transport and other costs in its supply chain.
What kills me is the article mentions the closest cheap labor market as the location...not the country where the final product is planned for sale.
If supply chain analysts could figure this out, one would expect there are some numbers that might show one could actually create jobs and source domestically (God Forbid!)
The New York Times has a detailed account of former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and phone calls to Goldman Sachs during the financial crisis.
During the week of the A.I.G. bailout alone, Mr. Paulson and Mr. Blankfein spoke two dozen times, the calendars show, far more frequently than Mr. Paulson did with other Wall Street executives.
On Sept. 17, the day Mr. Paulson secured his waivers, he and Mr. Blankfein spoke five times. Two of the calls occurred before Mr. Paulson’s waivers were granted.
With paying jobs so hard to get in this weak market, a lot of college graduates would gladly settle for a nonpaying internship. But even then, they are competing with laid-off employees with far more experience.
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