General Electric is moving its X-ray division headquarters from Wisconsin to China

GE Moving from Wisconsin.  Keep your eye on Waukesha, Wisconsin......Their biggest employer just moved out.  General Electric is planning to move its 115-year-old X-ray division from Waukesha, Wis., to Beijing.   In addition to moving the headquarters, the company will invest $2 billion in China and train more than 65 engineers and create six research centers.

This is the same GE that made $5.1 billion in the United States last year, but paid no taxes - the same company that employs more people overseas than it does in the United States.  So let me get this straight. President Obama appointed GE Chairman Jeff Immelt to head his commission on job creation (job czar).  Immelt is supposed to help create jobs. I guess the President forgot to tell him in which country he was supposed to be creating those jobs.

Thanks Jeff, you're a "real" American....give Barrack our Best!  If this doesn't show you the total lack of leadership of this President, I don't know what does. Please pass this information to others and think about it before you buy a GE product.

Read More:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/ge.asp

Lynn Parramore - News From George Soros' Berlin Conference - Economists Discover Human Beings

Economists are peculiar creatures. Last week a large posse of them descended on Berlin for the third annual conference of the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), a think-tank co-founded by investor and philanthropist George Soros in 2009 in the wake of the global financial crisis. 

As I roamed through the various sessions and gatherings, pointy-headed folk squinted at me and rattled off facts and figures that gave them the sort of thrill I get from seeing spring flowers in bloom. The field of economics is known for attracting Asperger’s-spectrum wonks better at formulating financial models than the flow of human interaction. But if the Berlin forum is any indication, the field is now fitfully reorienting itself: it wants to understand those fascinating and often irrational beings known as “people.”

Tellingly, the title of the conference was inspired by Milton. Not Milton Friedman, but John Milton: “Paradigm Lost: Rethinking Economics and Politics.” Intriguingly, the brochure opened with a passage from Book XII of Paradise Lost describing Adam and Eve’s expulsion from Eden -- the moment when they look back wistfully on their former paradise, but then, teary-eyed, forge ahead, knowing that “the world was all before them.” 

Read More:

http://www.alternet.org/story/155054/news_from_george_soros%27_berlin_conference_-_economists_discover_human_beings

Michael Hudson - Productivity, The Miracle of Compound Interest, and Poverty

From Hudson’s presentation at the Italian MMT Summit

Suppose you were alive back in 1945 and were told about all the new technology that would be invented between then and now: the computers and internet, mobile phones and other consumer electronics, faster and cheaper air travel, super trains and even outer space exploration, higher gas mileage on the ground, plastics, medical breakthroughs and science in general. You would have imagined what nearly all futurists expected: that we would be living in a life of leisure society by this time. Rising productivity would raise wages and living standards, enabling people to work shorter hours under more relaxed and less pressured workplace conditions.

Why hasn’t this occurred in recent years? In light of the enormous productivity gains since the end of World War II – and especially since 1980 – why isn’t everyone rich and enjoying the leisure economy that was promised? If the 99% is not getting the fruits of higher productivity, who is? Where has it gone?

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http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/04/michael-hudson-productivity-the-miracle-of-compound-interest-and-poverty.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

Oliver Stuenkel - Does Kim Signal World Bank Changes?

Editor's note: This roundup is a new monthly feature of the Council of Councils initiative, gathering opinions from global experts on major international developments.

The selection of Jim Yong Kim, the U.S. candidate, as the next president of the World Bank has stimulated debate over reform of the institution's governance. Four experts size up the succession process, some judging it a missed opportunity for meaningful change while others seeing a crucial injection of new expertise at the sixty-eight-year-old development body.

CFR's Stewart Patrick notes a flawed process that still marks a turning point for the Bank.Oliver Stuenkel of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation in Brazil laments the failure of the emerging powers to rally around Nigeria's Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Both Stuenkel and Daniel Bradlow of the University of Pretoria in South Africa warn that without reform at the World Bank, some of its largest borrowers could seek alternatives, such as the proposed BRICS bank. But the East Asia Institute's Sook Jong Lee welcomes Kim's selection, saying his public health background bodes well for tackling the complex problems of development work.

Read More:

http://www.cfr.org/world-bank/does-kim-signal-world-bank-changes/p27994?cid=emc-WorldBankPressNote-ExpertRoundup-04_20_12

Lila York - Future Headline - Sociopath Party Wins in Landslide

What is it exactly that our state and federal governments want from us? Do they want us all to commit suicide as 50,000 veterans of our empire wars did? Do they want us to exist, but in a state of relentless fear, ignorance, anxiety and financial desperation? I am beginning to think it is both of the above. Desperate people are powerless, and they want us forever powerless. I read constantly that CEO's are "sociopaths", even "psychopaths" - and since these are the people who control our federal government, we now have a sociopathic/ psychopathic government. Read the front page of this website on any day. It is an ongoing catalog of 'sociopathy'.

Here are some headlines from future issues of OpEd News: "Congress votes to repeal the entire US Constitution - replaces it with the "Corporate Bill of Rights" - Supreme Court expected to uphold"; "Goldman Sachs brass appointed to the presidencies of every nation on earth; JP Morgan retail brokers expected to take all US Congressional seats"; "Congress votes to destroy the ecosystem of the planet so that the Kochs can acquire another trillion in personal wealth"; " Twelve spy drones crash mid-air over Chicago's Sears Tower - debris kills 6, injures 57 "; "In a 5-4 decision Supreme Court rules that landlords can demand rent equivalent to 1000% of each tenant's gross income; 100 million evicted   now living under bridges"; "Congress passes 'Big Oil Rules the World' bill, eliminates all Federal regulatory agencies, exonerates BP from liability for its 140th Gulf oil spill"; "Supreme Court rules that all Federal judges can receive up to 1 billion dollars per year in corporate bribes"; "President Lloyd Blankfein announces that poor Americans and senior citizens are 'useless eaters' and should consider suicide";"Woman convicted of having an abortion, prosecution based on NSA email records; sentenced to life in prison" "Congress passes bill denying health insurance to any person who has ever had a cold"; "Supreme Court rules that government surveillance cameras in bedrooms are legal for all American citizens and legal residents with a net worth of less than 100 million dollars"; "Congress votes to allow fracking of Times Square"; "Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel authorizes use of depleted uranium bunker-buster bombs on NATO Summit protesters"; President Blankfein on vacation at Lake Como; Vice-President Lynn Cheney orders bombing of Norway, Canada, Venezuela and Brazil for harboring terrorists, Exxon Mobil stock price skyrockets 1000%"; "Congress outlaws all non-GMO foods, 80 year old grandmother arrested by Army swat team for gardening"; "Federal Reserve devalues the dollar by 80%, quintupling corporate profits; millions starve as the price of milk rises to $2000 per gallon"; "President Blankfein signs bill repealing suffrage for all females and ordering all women of child-bearing age into corporate sex slavery".

Read More:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Future-Headline-at-OpEdNew-by-lila-york-120421-506.html

Robert Alvarez - Why Fukushima Is a Greater Disaster than Chernobyl and a Warning Sign for the U.S.

In the aftermath of the world’s worst nuclear power disaster, the news media is just beginning to grasp that the dangers to Japan and the rest of the world posed by the Fukushima-Dai-Ichi site are far from over.   After repeated warnings by former senior Japanese officials, nuclear experts, and now a U.S. Senator, it is sinking in that the irradiated nuclear fuel stored in spent fuel pools amidst the reactor ruins may have far greater potential offsite consequences  than the molten cores

After visiting the site recently, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) wrote to Japan's ambassador to the U.S. stating that, "loss of containment in any of these pools could result in an even greater release than the initial accident."

This is why:

• Each pool contains irradiated fuel from several years of operation, making for an extremely large radioactive inventory without a strong containment structure that encloses the  reactor cores;
• Several  pools are now completely open to the atmosphere because the reactor buildings were  demolished by explosions; they are about 100 feet above ground and could possibly topple or collapse from structural damage coupled with another powerful earthquake; 
• The loss of water exposing the spent fuel will result in overheating can cause melting and ignite its zirconium metal cladding – resulting in a fire that could deposit large amounts of radioactive materials over hundreds of miles.

Read More:

http://www.ips-dc.org/blog/radioactive_risks_in_japan_from_spent_nuclear_fuel_storage

Yves Smith - The Hidden Bank Time Bomb: Interest Rate Risk

At the Atlantic Economy Summit in Washington last month, Sheila Bair fielded a question about the just-released results of the latest bank stress tests. The former FDIC chief took pains to point out that they were an improvement over earlier iterations by virtue of keying off a truly dire economic scenario, but then ticked off a number of ways in which they fell short. One was in that they focused solely on credit risk, when historically, adverse interest rate moves have proven very effective in decimating the banking sector. Witness phase one of the savings and loan crisis, in which hasty deregulation and gimmickry in the early 1980s set up the crisis later in the decade, or the derivatives wipeout of 1994, in which an unexpected 25 basis point Fed funds increase created bigger losses than the 1987 crash, or the losses on US bond portfolios in 1997 and 1998, which among other things nearly wiped out Lehman.

The perils of interest rate risk have largely receded from memory since the US has been in a long-term disinflationary trend since 1983. But with rates at zero, we have nowhere to go but up from here.

Read More:

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/04/the-hidden-bank-time-bomb-interest-rate-risk.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

Lawrence Wittner - The Shame of Nations: A New Record is Set for Spending on War

On April 17, 2012, as millions of Americans were filing their income tax returns, the highly-respected Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released its latest study of world military spending. In case Americans were wondering where most of their tax money -- and the tax money of other nations -- went in the previous year, the answer from SIPRI was clear: to war and preparations for war

World military spending reached a record $1,738 billion in 2011 -- an increase of $138 billion over the previous year. The United States accounted for 41 percent of that, or $711 billion. Some news reports have emphasized that, from the standpoint of reducing reliance on armed might, this actually represents progress. After all, the increase in “real” global military spending -- that is, expenditures after corrections for inflation and exchange rates -- was only 0.3 percent. And this contrasts with substantially larger increases in the preceding thirteen years.

But why are military expenditures continuing to increase -- indeed, why aren’t they substantially decreasing -- given the governmental austerity measures of recent years? Amid the economic crisis that began in late 2008 (and which continues to the present day), most governments have been cutting back their spending dramatically on education, health care, housing, parks, and other vital social services. However, there have not been corresponding cuts in their military budgets.

Read More:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/04/23-2

Thinking About Death Can Lead To A Good Life

Thinking about death can actually be a good thing. An awareness of mortality can improve physical health and help us re-prioritize our goals and values, according to a new analysis of recent scientific studies. Even non-conscious thinking about death - say walking by a cemetery - could prompt positive changes and promote helping others. 

Past research suggests that thinking about death is destructive and dangerous, fueling everything from prejudice and greed to violence. Such studies related to terror management theory (TMT), which posits that we uphold certain cultural beliefs to manage our feelings of mortality, have rarely explored the potential benefits of death awareness. 

"This tendency for TMT research to primarily deal with negative attitudes and harmful behaviors has become so deeply entrenched in our field that some have recently suggested that death awareness is simply a bleak force of social destruction," says Kenneth Vail of the University of Missouri, lead author of the new study in the online edition of Personality and Social Psychology Review this month. "There has been very little integrative understanding of how subtle, day-to-day, death awareness might be capable of motivating attitudes and behaviors that can minimize harm to oneself and others, and can promote well-being."

Read More:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/244364.php

Gary Younge - Abroad, as at home, Obama coasts on a wave of disappointment

In January 1903 the US signed a treaty with Colombia that would have provided unfettered access to the Panama canal. Unfortunately, the terms were not good enough for the Colombian senate, which refused to ratify it. At the time, Panama had been a region of Colombia for 80 years. Undeterred by the annoying matter of Colombian sovereignty the US encouraged, incited and facilitated Panama's secession from Colombia.

The newly independent Panama gave its American enablers all it wanted. In the face of considerable criticism, the US president, Theodore Roosevelt, looked to the closest members of his cabinet to help him justify his actions. Unable to articulate a principled defence they simply endorsed them with gallows humour. "You have shown that you were accused of seduction," said his secretary of war, Elihu Root. "And you have conclusively proved that you were guilty of rape."

This was not the last time Colombians would be screwed by the US. Earlier this month several secret service agents and military personnel were embroiled in a scandal with Colombian sex workers. More than 20 have so far been implicated in the scandal after local police intervened in a dispute between an agent and an escort. She said he'd agreed to pay her $800 for the night; he offered her only $30. She eventually left the hotel after being paid $225.

Read More:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/apr/22/abroad-obama-coasts-wave-disappointment