Former MF Global CEO Jon Corzine testifies before a House Financial Services Committee Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing on the collapse of MF Global, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, December 15, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
Infants are much more vulnerable to radiation than adults. And see this.
However, radiation safety standards are set based on the assumption that everyone in the world is a healthy man in his 20s.
Now, a medical doctor (Janette D. Sherman, M. D.) and epidemiologist (Joseph Mangano) have released a study showing a 28% increase in thyroid problems in babies born in Hawaii and America"s West Coast after the Fukushima nuclear accident.
Janette Sherman, M.D. worked for the Atomic Energy Commission (forerunner of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission) at the University of California in Berkeley, and for the U.S. Navy Radiation Defense Laboratory in San Francisco. She served on the EPA’s advisory board for 6 years, and has been an advisor to the National Cancer Institute on breast cancer. Dr. Sherman specializes in internal medicine and toxicology with an emphasis on chemicals and nuclear radiation.
Joseph J. Mangano is a public health administrator and researcher who has studied the connection between low-dose radiation exposure and subsequent risk of diseases such as cancer and damage to newborns. He has published numerous articles and letters in medical and other journals in addition to books, including Low Level Radiation and Immune System Disorders: An Atomic Era Legacy.
Their new study – published in the Open Journal of Pediatrics – is entitled "Elevated airborne beta levels in Pacific/West Coast US States and trends in hypothyroidism among newborns after the Fukushima nuclear meltdown."
Common Dreams notes:
[The study found that] children born in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington between one week and 16 weeks after the meltdown began are 28 percent more likely to suffer from congenital hypothyroidism (CH) than were kids born in those states during the same period one year earlier.
CH results from a build up of radioactive iodine in our thyroids and can result in stunted growth, lowered intelligence, deafness, and neurological abnormalities—though can be treated if detected early.
According to researchers from the Radiation and Public Health Project who performed the study, “Fukushima fallout appeared to affect all areas of the US, and was especially large in some, mostly in the western part of the nation.” They add that CH can provide an early measure to "assess any potential changes in US fetal and infant health status after Fukushima because official data was available relatively promptly."
Health researcher Joe Mangano similarly cautioned, "Reports of rising numbers of West Coast infants with under-active thyroid glands after Fukushima suggest that Americans may have been harmed by Fukushima fallout. Studies, especially of the youngest, must proceed immediately."
Earlier this year, the Fukushima Prefecture Health Management Survey found that more than 40 percent of the Japanese children studied showed evidence of thyroid abnormalities, which Wasserman says signifies a "horrifying plague."
Sherman and Mangano published an essay in June 2011 claiming that the 35% spike in infant mortality in Northwest cities since the Fukushima meltdown might have been caused by radiation.
And they published a study in December 2011 in the peer-reviewed journal International Journal of Health Services, alleging that 14,000 people had already died in the United States due to Fukushima. A Scientific American blog post and Med Page Today slammed the study as being voodoo science. However, Scientific American does admit:
Certainly radiation from Fukushima is dangerous, and could very well lead to negative health effects—even across the Pacific.
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It’s going to be a big budget week in Washington. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) released his spending plan today, and the Democrats are set to unveil their federal budget sometime in the next few days.
Juli Niemann, analyst at Smith Moore and Company, joins Marketplace Morning Report host Jeremy Hobson to discuss whether Washington’s budget stalemate will be broken anytime soon.
Submitted by Mark J. Grant, author of Out of the Box,
“Depend upon it, Sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.”
-Samuel Johnson
The world today does not smell of lavender and lilacs these days but more like old grease that has gone rancid. Always a skeptic, I find myself these days looking with more of a jaundiced eye than usual as I stare out on the fiscal landscape. Yesterday a High Court Examining Magistrate opened a second investigation into the ruling party in Spain examining new corruption charges that include Prime Minister Rajoy. These focused on money paid by the construction industry but a second article by Reuters made me wonder. This story centered on Santander selling off $ 393 million in troubled assets to a hedge fund. What caught my eye here was that they were apparently sold at four cents on the Dollar; a 96% discount. You might think write-off but the bank is having serious difficulties so that doesn’t quite fly. You might think some other reason in the normal course of business but at four cents on the dollar there is scant benefit to be gained. I wonder if Santander wasn’t, given the two ongoing investigations, not removing consumer loans from their books, as reported, but questionable loans that they did not wish to be investigated. If the loans are not there then they cannot be found and if they can’t be found then perhaps it lessens the chance of implication and criminality. I look at it all and wonder.
“Every man serves a useful purpose. A Prime Minister who has been caught stealing, for example, may make a perfect scapegoat for the next man that assumes his office.”
-The Wizard
Meanwhile in Italy the spaghetti sauce continues to boil. It once simmered but the heat has been turned up and it is a full boil now. Every political leader on the Continent is hoping for a deal. I can almost visualize them wandering around, “Deal, deal where is the deal?” I can see Signore Grillo on the dais, “No Deal,” he proclaims to the audience as the contestants hem and haw in frustration and the crowd goes wild. What is worse for the people in Berlin and Brussels is that every indicator points to that if another election were held that Signore Grillo would emerge with even more votes and maybe a majority of votes. This is not politics as usual in Italy. The 5 Star Party does not wish to play by the old rules. They want to re-write the Rulebook.
It can be said with certainty that the yields for the periphery nations in Europe are lower but it can also be said with certainty that their economies are in worse shape. The Great Disconnect not only continues but worsens. We go back to the Great Singularity which is that the tide is still in as caused by the world’s central banks who have flooded the globe with little blue and green pieces of paper. When I was growing up there was a maxim that, “Money doesn’t grow on trees.” Now, by God, there are Money Trees in Washington and Frankfurt. It is a miracle of nature and something to behold. Even the price of gold, the alternative currency, is now manipulated by the central banks as they sell into any rally and control the Relative Value part of the equation. Currency skirmishes are underway and denied as the fiscal alchemists ponder how to devalue all of the currencies at once. The politicians have abandoned their posts and the central bankers have taken charge in their absence. The inmates are now in charge of the asylum. Officials elected by no one and accountable only to their green eye shades and private investors, shoved to the sidelines, are left to scratch out a meager living searching the garbage dump for scraps.
It is a peculiar time. The land is filled with fantasy once again. The Emperors are minimized by their inadequacy. The High Lords Bernanke and Draghi have assumed the Regency!
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The much-discussed sequestration went into effect today, meaning massive across-the-board cuts for a number of industries in the country — including defense, health care and education. How much will this affect our economy?
We’ll have The Guardian’s Heidi Moore and The Wall Street Journal’s Sudeep Reddy give more details of what’s to come, but in the meantime, here are their longreads picks for the weekend.
Sudeep Reddy suggests:
Heidi Moore writes: “In honor of the sequester and my recent obsession with “House of Cards,” the great political drama on Netflix, my best reads this week are all about the culture of Washington. The more you read (and see) about the way political operatives work, the more clear the reasons become for these manufactured crises: in Washington, it is better to be talked about than not talked about.”
Check back later to hear the Weekly Wrap.
The Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, testifyied on Capitol Hill Tuesday morning in his semi-annual report to Congress on monetary policy. Bernanke reaffirmed the Fed’s bond buying policy, but said monetary policy alone can’t prop up the economy.
Marketplace’s David Gura in Washington joined Morning Report host Jeremy Hobson to break down the latest remarks from the Fed chief.
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange at the opening of the trading session in New York October 5, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Mike Segar
NEW YORK |
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Investors face another Washington-imposed deadline on government spending cuts next week, but it’s not generating the same level of fear as two months ago when the “fiscal cliff” loomed large.
Investors in sectors most likely to be affected by the cuts, like defense, seem untroubled that the budget talks could send stocks tumbling.
Talks on the U.S. budget crisis began again this week leading up to the March 1 deadline for the so-called sequestration when $ 85 billion in automatic federal spending cuts are scheduled to take effect.
“It’s at this point a political hot button in Washington but a very low level investor concern,” said Fred Dickson, chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co. in Lake Oswego, Oregon. The fight pits President Barack Obama and fellow Democrats against congressional Republicans.
Stocks rallied in early January after a compromise temporarily avoided the fiscal cliff, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index .SPX has risen 6.3 percent since the start of the year.
But the benchmark index lost steam this week, posting its first week of losses since the start of the year. Minutes on Wednesday from the last Federal Reserve meeting, which suggested the central bank may slow or stop its stimulus policy sooner than expected, provided the catalyst.
National elections in Italy on Sunday and Monday could also add to investor concern. Most investors expect a government headed by Pier Luigi Bersani to win and continue with reforms to tackle Italy’s debt problems. However, a resurgence by former leader Silvio Berlusconi has raised doubts.
“Europe has been in the last six months less of a topic for the stock market, but the problems haven’t gone away. This may bring back investor attention to that,” said Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh.
OPTIONS BULLS TARGET GAINS
The spending cuts, if they go ahead, could hit the defense industry particularly hard.
Yet in the options market, bulls were targeting gains in Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N), the Pentagon’s biggest supplier.
Calls on the stock far outpaced puts, suggesting that many investors anticipate the stock to move higher. Overall options volume on the stock was 2.8 times the daily average with 17,000 calls and 3,360 puts traded, according to options analytics firm Trade Alert.
“The upside call buying in Lockheed solidifies the idea that option investors are not pricing in a lot of downside risk in most defense stocks from the likely impact of sequestration,” said Jared Woodard, a founder of research and advisory firm condoroptions.com in Forest, Virginia.
The stock ended up 0.6 percent at $ 88.12 on Friday.
If lawmakers fail to reach an agreement on reducing the U.S. budget deficit in the next few days, a sequester would include significant cuts in defense spending. Companies such as General Dynamics Corp (GD.N) and Smith & Wesson Holding Corp (SWHC.O) could be affected.
General Dynamics Corp shares rose 1.2 percent to $ 67.32 and Smith & Wesson added 4.6 percent to $ 9.18 on Friday.
EYES ON GDP DATA, APPLE
The latest data on fourth-quarter U.S. gross domestic product is expected on Thursday, and some analysts predict an upward revision following trade data that showed America’s deficit shrank in December to its narrowest in nearly three years.
U.S. GDP unexpectedly contracted in the fourth quarter, according to an earlier government estimate, but analysts said there was no reason for panic, given that consumer spending and business investment picked up.
Investors will be looking for any hints of changes in the Fed’s policy of monetary easing when Fed Chairman Ben Bernake speaks before congressional committees on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Shares of Apple (AAPL.O) will be watched closely next week when the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting is held.
On Friday, a U.S. judge handed outspoken hedge fund manager David Einhorn a victory in his battle with the iPhone maker, blocking the company from moving forward with a shareholder vote on a controversial proposal to limit the company’s ability to issue preferred stock.
(Additional reporting by Doris Frankel; Editing by Kenneth Barry)
Honoring past presidents by shopping is now American tradition, let’s face it. nd merchandisers aren’t shy about using Presidents Washington or Lincoln to hawk their wares. Which got us wondering about the legalities of plastering presidential images on everyday merchandise like coffee mugs or key chains.
Mitch Stein is a New York attorney who specializes in intellectual property. He says slapping a president’s face on an ad for discounted mattresses is — perfectly legal. Sort of.
This all stems from something called “the right of publicity.” These are laws granted by states that give an individual the right to control their own image. And the longevity of those rights — whether or not they last after death — depend on the state in which the individual was living in when they died.
In California, the heirs of an individual have rights to the image for 70 years after death. In New York, rights end after death. Lincoln and Washington had passed away long before the right of publicity was adopted as law so their images are considered fair game (even expected).
But President Regan? He passed away in 2004 as a resident of California. His family will own the rights until 2074. So that “Ronald Reagan is my homeboy t-shirt” you can find on the web? President Regan’s family probably didn’t license that.
Political statements (as the t-shirt could be considered) and art are protected under the First Amendment. But what about coffee mugs and bobble heads? That’s where it gets dicey.
“We know art on the one hand is protected. Probably coffee mugs are probably not protected but where that line falls in the middle is really something that the courts continue to try to sort out,” says Stein.
But Stein says you don’t often see the heirs of former presidents taking the makers of such items to court.
