Non functional Government

It is amazing to see how dysfunctional our government in DC has become. Seems that these morons only want to protect their seats and just their seats.. nothing more nothing less..

However, in doing so, they are literally making mockery of US as a whole. They need to understand why US is still super-power despite borrowing trillions of dollars from whole of the world.

1. Need less to say, it is technological advantage.. that to in defense which makes them still most strong army of the world despite billions or trillions of dollars of cut in defense budget. 
2.  After this, it is a simple world called "Trust".. This trust in USD which makes USD as world currency.. Which makes US treasury bond papers even better than gold.. and all the governments invests and keeps their forex reserves in these two things.. 

These morons need to understand that their monkey business is hurting image and in turn hurting this trust factor. Which is much more bigger damage to US and its entire population. These small small things about funding to social program is nothing to be worried about. One way or other, folks will be managed.. There might be some issues here and there.. but this is peanut..

Impact of loss of trust by world market will be much more devastating to US.. fortunately, all the other countries are in much more bad shape so we may be lucky that world may ignore this monkey business from these morons.. 

I simply don't understand their position.. 2012 elections were very clear verdict.. if US population didn't wanted Obama Care they would have got Romney into white house and also given republicans full control of Senate.. it was clear verdict that US population likes this concept of Obama care.. essentially, in my view something is better than nothing..This issue is over.. If they still want to fight about it.. they should do so in 2014/2016 elections and take full control of White house and Congress. There is no need to do this drama where they are going to loose any how and be registered in US history as Super Morons who tarnished US image in world market. STOP IT.. Get Over!!! What will you do with your seat/re-election if US itself will sink.. Come on wake up.. and think more than just your seat and re-election.. it is much more bigger than that.. 

DEADLOCK IN WASHINGTON

What if closure goes on longer?

Shutdown’s impact could widen, intensify for people needing help on food, housing, education, jobs

By Josh Richman and Steve Johnson

Staff writers

As the federal government shutdown creeps toward its first full week with no resolution in sight, experts say October could be a cold, dark month for many — but November could make that look like the good old days.

Millions of Americans are nervously watching their calendars, knowing that support for the basics of daily life — food, housing, education, jobs — have begun eroding and could vanish around the end of the month at the earliest, throwing lives into chaos and perhaps tripping up the nation’s fragile economic recovery.

“The longer this goes on, the greater uncertainty there will be for funding some of these programs,” said H.D. Palmer, deputy director of the California Department of Finance.

This not-so-rosy forecast assumes Congress will raise the nation’s debt ceiling by Oct. 17. If it does not, all federal borrowing stops and the government could halt billions of dollars in payouts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, military pay, veterans benefits and other areas that had survived the shutdown. 

However, on Thursday House Speaker John Boehner reportedly told GOP colleagues he won’t let the nation default. 

But that doesn’t mean the shutdown won’t continue. If it does, Thanksgiving could find many Americans with little to be thankful for. 

The cascading consequences would confront Americans at every level: The poor and elderly would lose access to food and housing, and the better- off would lose government contracts and agency supports for investment in companies and jobs. 

California’s food stamp program supporting nutrition for 1.9 million poor residents would run out in November, as would school programs serving about 4.5 million meals a day mostly to low-income students. 

Cutting off food aid has costly consequences. For example, about 350 elderly people in Fremont, Newark and Union City get one free hot meal a day from a Meals on Wheels program, said LIFE ElderCare Executive Director Patricia Osage. The closed federal Administration on Aging reimbursed the $1,575 daily cost; Osage said she can cut back other services and tap reserves to keep delivering meals for “six or seven weeks.” 

After that, she said, “you would see within six months that skilled nursing facilities would be packed,” as lack of nutrition undercut seniors’ health. Skilled nursing costs about $1,500 a day per person, she said — nearly as much as feeding 350 people. 

Elsewhere, confusion reigns: Closed federal offices have no one to answer questions or resolve conflicts. 

The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s shutdown plan suggests the nation’s 3,300 housing authorities will see public housing subsidy vouchers and operating costs cut off in mid-December — or maybe after October, said Oakland Housing Authority Executive Director Eric Johnson. Such a cutoff could affect rent payments for tens of thousands of Bay Area households. 

Nothing is certain after Nov. 1, agreed Katherine Harasz, deputy executive director of Santa Clara County’s housing authority. The two program administrators would love to discuss this with HUD, but “there’s nobody to call” now, Johnson said. 

The shutdown could clip the Bay Area housing market’s recovery. Mortgage lenders can’t verify applicants’ Social Security numbers or Internal Revenue Service tax transcripts. The Federal Housing Administration has only a skeleton crew, so closing some FHA-insured loans — about 15 percent of the market — might be delayed. And the U.S. Department of Agriculture won’t close new loans for rural borrowers until the shutdown ends. 

The shutdown also threatens the struggling job market. Federal money and oversight support private sector hiring, but when the money spigot for contracts and facilities twists shut, the economic effects ripple widely in surrounding communities. Locking up Yosemite National Park and the NASA Ames lab in Mountain View, for instance, empties small-business cash registers for miles around. 

Federal money also primes the job pump with oversight and support for innovation: Shutting down the Food and Drug Administration’s processing of new drug applications for longer than a month “could be frightening,” said Travis Blaschek-Miller, spokesman at Bay-Bio, Northern California’s biotech and life-science industry group. 

San Francisco-based Symic Biomedical, which is studying treatments for osteoarthritis and cardiovascular ailments, last month won two federal research grants worth a total of $409,000. It was a godsend for the struggling company, said co-founder John Paderi, but now he can’t get the money. 

“If (the shutdown) carries on for a while, this could be a very big problem,” he said. A prolonged closure of the Securities and Exchange Commission could affect initial public offerings, said Jeffrey Vetter, a partner and securities lawyer at Fenwick & West. 

Twitter, for example, plans to raise up to $1 billion in its IPO, and The Wall Street Journal reported concern that a lengthy shutdown could interfere with its schedule. 

Even the mechanics of hiring are broken: The Department of Homeland Security closed its E-Verify program, which companies use to check the immigration status of job candidates. And we won’t know much about the job market because the Labor Department can’t issue reports. 

The U.S. Department of Education says a shutdown of more than one week “would severely curtail (its) cash flow to school districts, colleges and universities.” 

It is uncertain when that money will run out in California. However, “child care services for poor families and grants benefiting children of military families could be affected within days,” said state Education Department spokeswoman Tina Jung. Even the military isn’t immune, although active duty men and women are still being paid. Travis Air Force Base near Fairfield closed its commissary, library, education center and heritage center, and its medical center is curtailing elective surgeries after furloughing more than 700 civilian employees — almost half of those regularly on the base. The Department of Veterans Affairs’ website says VA claims for compensation, pensions, education and vocational rehabilitation “will be suspended when funds are exhausted.” The shutdown might add a month to the current 12- to 18-month backlog at the Oakland VA office, said Nathan Johnson, director of the Contra Costa County Veteran Service Office. “They’re used to waiting at this point,” he said.

Staff writer Dan Nakaso contributed to this report. Josh Richman covers politics. Contact him at 510-208-6428. Follow him at Twitter.com/josh_ richman. Read the Political Blotter at IBAbuzz. com/politics. 

Is independent Internet possible?

By name itself, Internet in network of networks.. how can you make it independent? I guess, you can only do it by creating island and controlling gateways for inbound and outbound traffic from your country to another if there is any such well defined things..

I totally understand President Dilma's anger on US. Is she also angry at China (her biggest buyer of raw materials) and Russia and many other countries/nations who do it all the time? Instead of getting angry at US, she should focus on more emphasis on technological build up in Brazil... then she can launch her counter offensive against any country she would like to as most of the other countries do it to her country..

Build infrastructure in your country so Google/facebook like companies are created in your own country rather than relying on silicon valley for all such critical to time passing applications and infrastructures.. Attack at fundamentals.. don't try to dress up the fact that your country let go the golden time of minting money on your natural resources without fixing core issues like infrastructure and education.. Now that you are facing the anemic growth music again, you are creating issues out of almost non-sense issues..

Work on fundamentals.. rest nature will take care of you..

---

Angered over espionage, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is postponing a visit to Washington.


Brazil seeks online independence

President angered over revelations of U.S. spying

By Bradley Brooks and Frank Bajak

Associated Press

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil plans to divorce itself from the U.S.-centric Internet over Washington’s widespread online spying, a move that many experts fear will be a potentially dangerous first step toward fracturing a global network built with minimal interference by governments.

President Dilma Rousseff ordered a series of measures aimed at greater Brazilian online independence and security following revelations that the U.S. National Security Agency intercepted her communications, hacked into the state-owned Petrobras oil company’s network and spied on Brazilians who entrusted their personal data to U.S. tech companies such as Facebook and Google.

The leader is so angered by the espionage that on Tuesday she postponed next month’s scheduled trip to Washington.

Internet security and policy experts say the Brazilian government’s reaction to information leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden is understandable, but warn it could set the Internet on a course of Balkanization.“The global backlash is only beginning and will get far more severe in coming months,” said Sascha Meinrath of the Washington-based New America Foundation think tank. “This notion of national privacy sovereignty is going to be an increasingly salient issue around the globe.”

While Brazil isn’t proposing to bar its citizens from U.S.-based Web services, it wants their data to be stored locally as the nation assumes greater control over Brazilians’ Internet use to protect them from NSA snooping.

The danger of mandating that kind of geographic isolation, Meinrath said, is that it could render inoperable popular software applications and services and endanger the Internet’s open, interconnected structure.

The effort by Latin America’s biggest economy to digitally isolate itself from U.S. spying not only could be costly and difficult, it could encourage repressive governments to seek greater technical control over the Internet to crush free expression at home, experts say.

In December, countries advocating greater “cyber-sovereignty” pushed for such control at an International Telecommunications Union meeting in Dubai, with Western democracies led by the United States and the European Union in opposition.

U.S. digital security expert Bruce Schneier says that while Brazil’s response is a rational reaction to NSA spying, it is likely to embolden “some of the worst countries out there to seek more control over their citizens’ Internet. That’s Russia, China, Iran and Syria.”

Brazil is now pushing more aggressively than any other nation to end U.S. commercial hegemony on the Internet. More than 80 percent of online search, for example, is controlled by U.S.-based companies.

Most of Brazil’s global Internet traffic passes through the United States, so Rousseff’s government plans to lay underwater fiber optic cable directly to Europe and also link to all South American nations to create what it hopes will be a network free of U.S. eavesdropping.

Fix US Corporate Tax Laws

They are highest in developed countries.. it is no surprise.. why will you like to pay 3.5 billion in tax when you don't need rest of the money.. this is crazy.. US needs some leader/s who can fix this tax code.. there are tons of other issues with tax codes.. but this is a big bummer.. they have to fix it..


Part of Apple’s profit on sales is stashed in other countries

Like other multinationals, tech giant seeks to change tax law

By Peter Svensson

Associated Press

NEW YORK — On Tuesday, Apple is set to report financial results for the second quarter. Analysts are expecting net income of $9.8 billion. But whatever figure Apple reports won’t reflect its true profit, because the company hides some of it with an unusual tax maneuver. Cupertino-based Apple, already the world’s most valuable company, understates its profits compared with other multinationals. It’s building up an overlooked asset in the form of billions of dollars, tucked away for tax bills it may never pay.

Tax experts say the company could easily eliminate these phantom tax obligations. That would boost Apple’s profits for the past three years by as much $10.5 billion, according to calculations by The Associated Press.

While investors might rejoice if Apple suddenly added $10.5 billion to its profits, unilaterally erasing a massive U.S. tax obligation could tarnish its reputation as a relatively responsible payer of U.S. taxes. Instead, the company is lobbying to change U.S. law so that it can erase its liabilities in a less conspicuous fashion.

Like other companies, Apple typically keeps profits on overseas sales in overseas accounts. When someone buys an iPad in Paris or Sydney, for instance, the profit stays outside the United States.

Apple may pay some corporate income taxes on that profit to the country where it sells the iPad, but it minimizes these by using various accounting moves to shift profits to countries with low tax rates.

Is "Occupy Wall Street" movement a fraud?

Amazing news item in today's local San Jose Mercury News about definition of poverty in US and comparing it to rest of the world. Here are some striking facts about it:

 - As per US definition of "Poverty" family of four which makes less than $22K per year is poor
 - Fifteen percent of US population falls under this so called poverty line
 - This is all time high
 - Average income in Thailand is half of the poverty line definition of US
 - Poland's average income is almost same as US poverty line
 - India's average income is almost two third of US poverty line

Bottom line, Eighty (80) percent of world population lives below US poverty line standards. In US, anyone who can be qualified as "poor" as per US definition is eligible for safety net (Social Security, Medi-Care, food stamps etc..).

Doesn't this makes joke of this so called "Occupy Wall Street" movement.. These people better should spend their energy and resources to help rest of the world's eighty percent population. But why should they? that is not their problem.. and exactly that attitude makes them US a common target of hatred and animosity. Though this is general perception, I still feel it is more of jealousy. I know I am writing something which lot of people won't like.. but in my view that is the fact. US standard of living are higher than rest of the world and they have worked hard in past to build infrastructure and system for which they are reaping rewards. US has full right to define own standards of poverty.

Ultimately it is all relative.. Isn't it? I take India's example of poverty. Every time I visit standards of living are going up and so is definition of poverty. Which is exactly relative to progress made by the nation.. Though, I must admit that there must be many part or section of people who are still in same condition and progress hasn't reached them for a while. But it will percolate to all parts of society and population.

Having seen poverty standards of India .. Coming back to US. I feel all the charity work here is a joke. Personally I feel that there shouldn't be any need of charitable organizations in US. The level of progress and development makes it a joke out of charity here. In US focus should be to create jobs for these unemployed people. That will have much bigger impact than distributing wealth as charity. Jobs growth will enable government and other organizations to take care of so called poor and some really disadvantaged people.

But then, same is true for rest of the world.. Isn't it.. I am listening to slogan like "Gareebi hatao" (remove poverty) since my childhood in India.. Did it removed or made any progress. Instead it just created more corrupt society and enabled richer get even more richer by this social net. What if spending billions of dollars for this, we would have spent it on infrastructure to enable ease of business and creation of production facility.. that would have definitely made difference. Which is still true..

Well this discussion is endless.. but give it a thought and let me know your views..

====================

THE GLOBALIST QUIZ

Where do poor Americans rank globally?

The weekly quiz is provided by the Globalist, a daily online feature service that covers issues and trends in globalization. The nonpartisan organization provides commercial services and nonprofit educational features.

QUESTION


The Occupy Wall Street movement brought a fresh focus to poverty and income distribution in the United States. According to recent Census Bureau numbers, about 15 percent of Americans live below the poverty line, the highest percentage in 18 years. But how does U.S. poverty compare in a global context? We wonder: The Americans whose income is just low enough to be classified as poor, according to U.S. standards, are still better-off than …

ANSWER

A. About 22 percent of the world population

B. About half of the world population

C. About 65 percent of the world population

D. About 80 percent of the world population

A. About 22 percent of the world population is not correct.

Those among the poorest 22 percent of the world’s population are incredibly poor by U.S. standards.

They are the 1.3 billion people who, according to new World Bank data, have incomes below what the World Bank designates as the absolute poverty line: $1.25 per day — or roughly $450 per year. There are just no such poor people in the United States. Although U.S.

poverty thresholds are differentiated by gender, age, place of residence, and other criteria, the average poverty line for a “typical” household of four is $22,400 annually. This works out as a little over $15 per day per person — or 12 times higher than the World Bank absolute poverty line.

B. About half of the world population is

not correct.

People exactly in the middle of the global income distribution have incomes of less than $1,500 a year per person (adjusted for purchasing power), or just a bit over $4 per day. This is close to the average level of income in countries such as Cambodia and the Philippines.

Again, there are no such poor people in the United States or in the rest of the rich world.

C. About 65 percent of the world population is not correct.

People who are near the 65th percentile by income in the world make about $2,800 a year per person (also adjusted for purchasing power). This is the average income level of people in Thailand. There are indeed some among the very poor in the United States whose incomes are about that level.

They are considered “extra poor” by U.S.

standards.

D. About 80 percent of the world population is correct.

The income of those who are just sufficiently “bad off” to be considered poor in the United States is about $5,600 a year per person (or $22,400 for a fourperson household).

This is slightly less than the average income in Poland, and it makes these Americans better- off than about 80 percent of the world population, according to economist Branko Milanovic, author of a recent book on global income distribution, “The Haves and the Have-Nots.” The poorest Americans benefit from a social safety net that the vast majority of the world’s poor must do without.

West on the way to Japan??

Recent cover page of Economist compares US and Germany (and west in general) to Japan.. or at least saying that West is on the way to Japanese style of economy... as most of us know that Japanese economy is shrinking for last decade or so and is not able to jump start despite all the efforts by Japanese central bank or government.

Later on I realized that this article was becoming too long.. so I will do it in installments... In this part we will focus Just on Japanese problems and my magical solution for them :-)

Well.. first I would like to take "West" in General comparison to Japan.. I totally disagree with the comparison... May be end result is comparable but fundamental reasons are quite different.. They both are fundamentally different economies with different set of problems and needing different set of solution.. actually they are kind of complementary to each other..

Let us take Japanese economy in brief.. Japanese economy is burdened by extra hard work and extra savings by Japanese.. Surprised!!! excess of everything is bad.. but this is reality and fact.. Due to extra workaholic nature of Japanese they didn't had/have time for family and resulted in shrinking and aging native population.. Due to vastly unique and different culture and language very few immigrants are ready to move to Japan.. On top of it, Japanese have extremely thrifty and have great habit of saving and not spending.. All this literally killed Japanese growth engine which was mainly driven by exports... Exports are still there but kind of matured or facing threat from other emerging nations like BRICK.. On top of it, Manufacturing is like Sacred Cow for Japanese.. and as a result, Services (including Software Development) were totally left out by Japanese to be conquered by US and emerging economies...

So what could be possible solution for this mess in Japan... Easy.. at least on paper or in theory.. few very fundamental changes.. Make Over time illegal in Japan.. Any one who is caught working more than 40 hours (okay.. let us say 50 hours for Japan) a week.. they will be forced to do shopping and buying for double the time they did the overtime.. You should see that, I haven't included drinking and eating.. that Japanese men do any how.. Well.. this will force them to spend.. Whom on they will spend.. hopefully for their families or girl/boy-friends... When they will spend more time and money on families and friends.. they will automatically simulate economy by increased consumer spending and also hopefully by increasing population.. also.. as overtime will be illegal.. in immediate future.. Japanese companies will be forced to hire more workers and may be get immigrant workers.. and then further solving unemployment and aging and decreasing population.. I am open for other creative solutions if you have any.. I don't want to say it.. but I think this earthquake is also blessing in disguise for Japan.. I hope they will realize value of life and it will give them jolt to change their habits and start enjoying more.. apart from lot of spending to rebuild the great nation..

Is it too little and too late?

Glad to see some action by international community (aka US, France, Britain & Arab League) on Gaddafi Inc. Honestly, same action would have dramatic impact if our Dear Mrs. Clinton would have worked harder on getting coalition sooner. However, I am happy to see some action, for which I had lost all hopes after Japanese Earthquake/Sunami tragedy. I am happy to see some support, even though it is too little and too late and if it was taken earlier, it would have save lot of lives. but... never mind..

At the same time, I was ashamed to see India abstaining from voting for resolution on Libya. It just shows how much guts we have to face truth and do what is right and then we want permanent position on UN Security council. Shame on Indian government and diplomats. This totally exposes them. They need to accept the fact that world order is changing and there can't be neutral postion. You have to on the side of truth and people. You simply can't sit in a corner. If Gaddafi Inc. was that great friend then you are better off opposing resolution. But then you don't have guts to do that. As an Indian, my head goes down when these type of incidences happen.. We simply can't keep on supporting Dictatorships like Gaddafi Inc. and Myanmar Junta and such.. Come in open and support "Satyamev Jayate" which is more of symbolic icon of Indian government rather than anybody really following or understanding it. Hiding or running away from truth is only going to prolong these kind messes we are in. We need to understand that People are friends not rulers.. Rulers come and go but your image and reputation stays as a true friend with People. It doesn't make any difference, if you get couple of billion dollars worth oil services contracts or get lot of your gas/LNG (in case of Myanmar). You need to support truth and only truth.. truth is never easy to follow but rewards are equally greater if you follow path of truth and base your friendships and relationships on truth..

I hope people's revolution wil continue to spread and continue to become mature. Governments as a whole will become better and thus this whole world!!!

Entire World's inaction in Libya

Finally some action by Arab League.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/03/12/libya.civil.war/

Based on the reports from Libya, at this point this seems to be totally inadequate action. Damage is already done to most Of the rebel forces. Now ground offensive by Gaddafi's militia is going on to wipe them out. At this time it should have been complete warning to Gaddafi Inc to leave country immediately. But then 90% of Arab leaders have their own autocracy at stake. They simply can't let one of their brethren go off so easily.

However, they are better than US, who could have done a lot more, much more earlier at much lower cost to Libyans and even their own forces. That was total failure of Hilary Clinton and ultimately one of the biggest failure of Obama's presidency. They need to understand one simple fact of diplomacy. You want people to be your friend not just regimes. If people are friend, regimes will be ultimately your friend. American Diplomacy needs to change their policy and instead of playing politics they need to follow fundamental facts and abide by them.
Unfortunately, now with Japan's earthquake and Sunami disaster libyAn people and it's uprising will fade away from rest of the World's memory. Good example was the news of police firing directly on civilians. Everyone will take advantage of this situation in. Middle east and try to suppress people's revolution for the time being.

How Germany became China of Europe

A very interesting article in Times Magazine. Though I honestly don't like comparison with China. China's manufacturing capability is mostly based on cheap labor and poor working conditions. I am assuming that this is not the case with German workers who are much better paid off and work not just for making money but also for passion of making something really great.  Also, Chinese goods are for lower segment. Where as Germans target for high end premium quality products.

Even though, everywhere in US we see made in China or other countries, but the fact is that US is still world's biggest manufacturer in terms of dollar value. Still, 75% of all goods consumed in US are manufactured in US. Though most of the time, these goods are of extremely high value and are produced in highly automated manufacturing plants very much unlike China.

Despite all of the above it is very interesting article and must read. Though, later part of this article deals more on rest of the Europe's frustration with German manufacturing machinery. Which is more of simple envy as of now. However, rest of the Europe also knows it very well that it is their own actions and inactions which have led them to this state. Five years back when Germany was making very anemic growth rate of 2-3 percent and rest of the Europe was riding on Financial and Mortgage based boom, they were making fun of Germans for being old fashioned and traditional who don't understand new economy (or then new economy, of circulating money like ponzi schemes and feeling great about it).

Now, bottom line is, can US learn something out of it and fix state of economy by fixing passion and art of manufacturing with human touch. Definitely, there is lot to learn. I very strongly feel that Americans by their blood are very creative and can create wonders if they work on this field back. I think government needs to understand that and accept that it was gross mistake to encourage outsourcing in manufacturing base. They need to work hard to bootstrap manufacturing economy again. Provide right kind of tools and encourage manufacturing. They can think of creating some Special zones to encourage manufacturing back in US. I think there are enough experts to advise US on how and what to do, once they decide that they want to do it.

I think this is more than enough long.. Here is the link to original article.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2053595,00.html