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Home > News and Events > Speeches |
Speech |
Some Lessons from the Crisis |
October 13, 2009 | |
William C. Dudley, President and Chief Executive Officer Remarks at the Institute of International Bankers Membership Luncheon, New York City Thank you for having me here to speak today. It is a real pleasure to have this opportunity to discuss the challenges ahead in making our banking and financial system more resilient and robust. We have learned a great deal over the past two years about our financial system and its vulnerabilities. The challenge ahead is to put these lessons to good use.
As always, my remarks reflect my own views and opinions and not necessarily those of the Federal Open Market Committee or the Federal Reserve System.
Although some of these practices might appear sensible from the narrow perspective of an individual firm or market, this crisis has shown us that when all firms or market participants simultaneously take an action that appears to be in their immediate, narrow interest, the collective impact on the system as a whole can be disastrous. We need to find ways to weaken or eliminate these reinforcing mechanisms and we need to introduce new dampening mechanisms into the financial system. Transparency
Regulatory Reform
The recent financial crisis has shown that parts of the regulatory capital framework were not calibrated properly to account for the most complex instruments. Our efforts to revise the capital rules should emphasize the need to include these and other risks that were not appropriately captured in recent years. In many circumstances, an emphasis on improved risk-capture may be superior to simply raising the capital requirements across the board. There are two reasons for this. First, it may better tie capital to the risks being undertaken. This, in turn, would create more appropriate incentives for risk-taking. Second, it may reduce the risk of regulatory arbitrage. If the risks of some activities are not captured properly, then banks will have incentives to shift their business toward those particular activities. The Basel Committee has made very good progress in revising the capital treatment of trading book positions and for structured credit products—two areas where the crisis revealed critical weaknesses in the regulatory capital regime. Revisions to the capital requirements for over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives exposures as proposed by the Obama administration also strike me as appropriate. Not only would this more effectively capture the risks that banks are taking, but it also would create incentives to move the trading and settlement of such instruments more rapidly to central clearing parties (CCPs) and to exchanges. The greater use of CCPs and exchanges should have several benefits, including reduction of risk through the multilateral netting of exposures and improved transparency with respect to the structure and pricing for such instruments. Capital Conservation More explicit supervisory standards regarding capital conservation would also be an important element of an efficient capital regime. During the crisis, some banks continued to pay out dividends even though their condition and market valuation metrics had sharply deteriorated. Banks did this to try to convince investors that their bank was "sound." But by depleting capital, these actions made banks and the financial system weaker. To mitigate these dynamics, regulators could require the reduction and possibly the cessation of dividend payments and share buybacks during adverse market environments when particular triggers were breached. For example, limits on dividend payments and share repurchases as a share of earnings could be mandated to occur when common equity ratios fell below certain levels (recognizing that credit and mark-to-market losses deplete the capital structure from below) or when market-based measures hit certain trigger values. Taking away the discretion of banks to deplete capital would strengthen the banks' ability to withstand adverse environments. In principle, such constraints could conceivably be extended to compensation and bonus payments. Some of the firms that encountered difficulties in 2008 paid out large bonuses early in 2008 despite the deterioration in market conditions and in their own financial performance. There is an opportunity to rethink capital preservation policies to ensure that banks' incentives are consistent with the supervisory objectives of a safe and sound banking system. Such capital conservation rules could operate on both sides of an economic downturn—conserving capital going into the downturn and rebuilding capital coming out. One example would be the imposition of constraints on the ability of banks to reinstate or increase dividends prematurely or to undertake share buybacks during a downturn or during the early stages of an economic recovery. Higher Capital Requirement for Systemically Important Institutions Currently, some large systemically important institutions may have a competitive advantage because they are perceived to be "too big to fail." Unless we address this disparity, we will have an ongoing moral hazard problem and inevitable market structure distortions as institutions take steps to become systemically important in order to gain a competitive advantage. The regulatory regime could lean against this in two ways. First, we could improve the resolution mechanisms for large, complex institutions and thereby reduce the costs associated with failure. A more robust resolution regime would make it more feasible to allow the failure of a large financial institution without that failure threatening the stability of the entire financial system. Second, we could impose higher capital requirements on large, systemically important institutions to offset the advantages such as lower funding costs that these institutions may garner by their perceived "too big to fail" status. This would recognize the interconnectedness of the financial system and the fact that the failure of a systemically important institution generates significant externalities, which are not, at present, borne fully by the equity and debt holders of such institutions. Increasing the size of the capital buffer would make the system more stable by reducing the incentive for firms to get big just to capture the perceived benefits from achieving "too big to fail" status. The first change—an improved resolution mechanism—would presumably reduce the number of institutions that—at any point in time—would be systemically important. The second change—the imposition of higher capital requirements on large, systemically important institutions—would reduce the likelihood of failure of such institutions. However, in assessing the efficacy of such changes, we need to be realistic about the difficulties in building a resolution regime that would be sufficiently robust to allow the failure of any institution under any circumstance and in designing a capital regime that imposes differential requirements on large, systemically important institutions. On the resolution regime side of the ledger, it is particularly difficult to build resolution regimes that can operate effectively across different geographic jurisdictions. Legal regimes are different; national authorities have different incentives; and coordinating resolution across multiple geographies in a way that treated counterparties in different jurisdictions equivalently would be a daunting mission. Similarly, designing an effective capital surcharge for systemically important institutions will be very challenging. Broadly, there are two approaches. We could either require a set of firms identified to be systemically important to hold additional capital or we could introduce a capital surcharge for firms linked to measures of systemic risk. In broad terms, the factors that could be used to identify systemically important financial institutions would be related to a firm's interdependence with the financial system and the impact on market confidence should the firm become distressed. Measures of size, leverage, liability structure and importance in credit formation and liquidity provision could all be indicators of systemic importance. Developing a consistent, objective set of measures either to size a capital surcharge or to identify such firms is particularly difficult. For example, introducing a single measure to size a capital surcharge such as firm size, may create arbitrage opportunities and will almost certainly not capture the full extent that an individual firm may contribute to systemic risk. Moreover, identifying a set of systemically important institutions may reinforce concerns about moral hazard. We also have the difficulty that the particular metrics used to determine which firms are systemically important are likely to change over time with changes in market structure and in the evolution of particular financial institutions. Contingent Capital An ideal capital requirement regime should be efficient and should create the proper incentives for banking organizations to internalize the costs of their actions on the broader financial system and macroeconomy. Efficiency, which I'll define here as minimizing the amount and cost of capital needed to ensure solvency under adverse conditions, is important because an inefficient system will inevitably encourage growth in activity outside the regulatory regime, and will likely drive up the overall cost of intermediation. Proper incentives are needed to control risk and better align the interests of management and shareholders with those of the public. In both respects, the introduction of a contingent capital instrument seems likely to hold real promise. Relative to simply raising capital requirements, contingent capital has the potential to be more efficient because the capital arrives as equity only in the bad states of the world when it is needed. It also has the benefit of improving incentives by creating two-way risk for bank managements and shareholders. If the bank encounters difficulties, triggering conversion, shareholders would be automatically and immediately diluted. This would create strong incentives for bank managements to manage not only for good outcomes on the upside of the boom, but also against bad outcomes on the downside. Conceptually, contingent capital instruments would be debt instruments in "good" states of the world, but would convert into common equity at pre-specified trigger levels in "bad" states of the world. In principle, these triggers could be tied to deterioration in the condition of the specific banking institution and/or to the banking system as a whole. There are many issues that would need to be worked out regarding how best to design such instruments, including how to determine their share of total capital as well as how to configure and publicly disclose the conversion terms and trigger. But, in my view, allowing firms to issue contingent capital instruments that could be used to augment their common equity capital during a downturn may be a more straightforward and efficient way to achieve a countercyclical regulatory capital regime compared to trying to structure minimum regulatory capital requirements (or capital buffers above those requirements) that decline as conditions in the financial sector worsen. So what might such a contingent capital instrument look like? One possibility is a debt instrument that is convertible into common shares if and only if the performance of the bank deteriorates sharply. While, in principal, this could be tied solely to regulatory measures of capital, it might work better tied to market-based measures because market-based measures tend to lead regulatory-based measures. Also, if tied to market-based measures, there would be greater scope for adjustment of the conversion terms in a way to make the instruments more attractive to investors and, hence, lower cost capital instruments to the issuer. The conversion terms could be generous to the holder of the contingent capital instrument. For example, one might want to set the conversion terms so that the debt holders could expect to get out at or close to whole—at par value. This is important because it would reduce the cost of the contingent instrument, making it a considerably cheaper form of capital than common equity. Consider the advantages that such an instrument would have had during this crisis. Rather than banks clumsily evaluating whether to cut dividends, raise common equity and/or conduct exchanges of common equity for preferred shares and market participants uncertain about the willingness and ability of firms to complete such transactions and successfully raise new capital, contingent capital would have been converted automatically into common equity when market triggers were hit. If these contingent capital buffers were large, which they could be because the cost of these instruments should not differ much from straight debt, then the worst aspects of the banking crisis might have been averted. If shareholders had faced the potential of automatic and substantial dilution, they may have demanded better risk management and disclosure during the boom. If common equity had been automatically bolstered during the early part of crisis, investors would have been much less concerned about the risk of insolvency. Counterparty risk concerns would have been much less significant—potentially short-circuiting one of the important amplifying mechanisms of the crisis. Such instruments could have reduced the likelihood of failure of large, systemically important institutions, reducing the significance of the "too big to fail" problem and its associated moral hazard problems. Harmonized Standards The Financial Stability Board and the Basel Committee are working hard and are making important progress on all these issues. But for these efforts to bear fruit, it is critical that the requirements that are imposed in terms of capital adequacy, liquidity and compensation be harmonized across regulatory regimes and applied in a consistent fashion. The absence of a level playing field would be a recipe for disaster. A lack of harmonized standards would inevitably lead to balkanization and protectionism as different countries took steps to protect their particular banking champions. Potentially, this could lead to countries requiring capital and liquidity to be segregated locally. This would have a number of negative consequences. First and foremost, it could disrupt the ability for capital to flow freely across borders, interfering and inhibiting globalization in terms of financial intermediation. Second, it would reduce the diversification benefits that stem from banks that operate in different geographic locations. Third, it could undermine the safety and soundness of the financial system. In particular, the lack of harmonization in terms of regulatory regimes could lead to a "race to the bottom" as firms and businesses migrated to the most lax regulatory regime. So what does this mean for my audience today—foreign banks operating in the United States? First, these institutions should not expect a return to "business as usual." We are committed to implementing the reforms that will prevent a recurrence of the recent financial crisis. Second, as most of the current reform agenda of the Financial Stability Board and the Basel Committee relates to the regulatory framework as applied by your home country, we expect that foreign banks' operations in the United States will fully comply with these structures as they are put in place in their home country as well. Third, we support the continued international banking presence of global banking institutions. National implementation must not jeopardize the economic benefits derived from cross-border banking. We need to be wary about nationalistic approaches to supervision. Fourth, financial firms that operate in our markets should continue to be vigilant in meeting the expectations we have for strong risk management and compliance practices. It wasn't too long ago that some foreign banking organizations faced supervisory discipline for failing to meet those standards. Given the lessons of the crisis, I would expect that our focus and attention on these areas would only intensify going forward. Fifth, we will be particularly focused on how the new supervisory framework will apply to the U.S. personnel associated with the operations of foreign banks in the United States. In particular, we will have substantial concern if these firms' compensation practices are contrary to the text or spirit of the international agreements on compensation practices that are in the process of being hammered out. For example, multi-year guaranteed bonus payments would raise a red flag for us as not likely being consistent with the evolving consensus on sound compensation practices. Thank you for your kind attention. I would be happy to take a few questions. |


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Chrome Grille Decanters by Nicholas Brawer
There's one in every family: someone who loves cars and alcohol...often in equal measure. And while we wouldn't condone driving under the influence, we do have what could very well be the ultimate gift for that special someone.
This set of chrome and glass decanters are crafted in England by Nicholas Brawer. Each of the five replicates the radiator grille from a classic Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Bugatti, Mercedes-Benz or Jaguar motor car. Price is available from the retailer upon request.
[Source: Nicholas Brawer via Luxury Launches]

subset: commoncrawl


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Looking ahead at the first of two epic match-ups between the Bobcats and the Wizards, I took the opportunity to interview Kyle Weidie of the fantastic TruthAboutIt.net a phenomenally entertaining Washington Wizards blog.
Below are his thoughts on the Wizards.
Ziggy: What was the main reason Flip Saunders was fired?
Kyle: When major change must happen else the franchise finds itself going in reverse (a case could be made that Washington's already in that state), the coach is the first who's gotta go. Why? Because he's the easiest to get rid of (GMs come with more tentacles and players, not a chance). The Wizards curiously did retain the rest of Flip's staff, promoting top assistant Randy Wittman, perhaps to save money. One thing that's widely believed is that this is not a solution to the problem, far from it. Washington needs more change, you just gotta wonder who's next.
Ziggy: How many seasons away is John Wall from performing at an All-Star level? What does he need to improve on in order to take that next step?
Kyle: It will be predicated on the Wizards' ability to win. Seeing as they are likely a 2013 lottery team as well, I'm going to call 2014 for Wall's first All-Star season… so his fourth year in the league.
Ziggy: 6'11″ Andray Blatche is shooting a horrid 38% from the field. What are the reasons behind Blatche's poor shooting percentage this season
Kyle: He's losing confidence by the day. A lot of the shots he's taking aren't that bad… I mean, they are open and from a distance where he's shown the ability to make them. Problem is, he relies on his jump shot too much, and seems almost ashamed to go in the post. Blatche can hit the J, but he really should be a catch-and-shoot player, not the dribble around stuff he pulls. So yea, confidence, and choices. Both are to the point of unrecoverable.
Ziggy: What is your take on Javale McGee? Is he a knucklehead, or is he just misunderstood by the media?
Kyle: McGee is a knuckhead, but that doesn't mean he isn't a good kid. He just has a lot of growing up to do. It seems evident his mom was grooming him for basketball from day one, a "Little League parent," the Washington Post's Mike Wise called Pamela McGee, and entering the NBA after just two seasons at Nevada, JaVale has major issues with maturity. He's an incomparable athlete, and maybe that causes him to be too into himself, but you hope that he eventually grows as a basketball player. He's not untouchable, but I do say the Wizards should keep him and put the right players around him.
Ziggy: What were your expectations for the Wizards entering this season? Did your foresee this type of start?
Kyle: I'm pretty embarrassed to say. At one point I thought they might creep near the 30 win mark if lucky, then after the preseason I bumped myself down to about 21-23 wins, but now? They'll be lucky to get nine. I just hope all of this leads to a more significant assessment of the changes owner Ted Leonsis needs to make.


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ANTH2006 - Theoretical Perspectives in Social Anthropology and Material Culture
Term 1 only
An introduction to social theory including functionalist models, Marxism, structuralist approaches to social structure/kinship and to conceptual organisation/communication; phenomenological theory in anthropology, agency and structure, post-modernism and post-structuralism, post-colonialism, globalisation and cognitive approaches within the discipline.
Taught by: | Dr Charles Stewart, Prof Chris Tilley |
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email@example.com, email@example.com |
Assessment: | 2.5 hour unseen written exam (100%) + non-assessed essay |
Student Contact Hours: |
2 x 1 hr lecture and 1 hr tutorial per week |
Prerequisites: | Core course for Anthropology 2nd year students and joint degree BA Archaeology/Anthropology students. Open to term one affiliate students. Subsidiary students should have completed ANTH1005: Introduction to Social Anthropology or ANTH1001: Introduction to Material and Visual Culture. |
Option Type: |
Social Anthropology / Material Culture |
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Anthropology, 14 Taviton Street, London, WC1H 0BW Tel: +44 (0)20 7679 8633


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PLYMOUTH — Just days ago, the Marshall County Neighborhood Center was scrambling to find funds and other donations to fill the last 111 of the more than 500 applications it received for help for Christmas. Due to the generosity of the community, they were able to complete the daunting task. According to the center's director Sarah Hendrix, almost all of the applicants were asking for food and other basic needs.
Mary Edith Craig Dec. 21, 2010 WAKARUSA — Mary Edith Craig, 97, of Wakarusa, formerly of Bremen, died Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010 at Miller's Merry Manor in Wakarusa following a lengthy illness. She is survived by sisters: Esther Craig of South Bend, Alice Newsom of Fort Myers, Fla., Edna Gibboney of Elgin, Ill., and Wilma Rolston of South Bend. A memorial service will take place at a later date with burial at the Mt. Pleasant Cemetery in Bourbon. Memorial contributions may be made to Heifer International Project (1 World Ave, Little Rock, AR, 72202).
The Pilot News and Martin's Super Markets asked the residents of Marshall County to send in photographs of their homes all decked out with holiday lights. Out of all the submissions, the finalist were Rhonda and DJ Frost; Jon and Carrie Weir; and Dan and Genie Marohn. After careful consideration, Frost's candy-cane themed home was declared the winner, and the family received a $100 gift certificate to Martin's.
PLYMOUTH — It's possible that Marshall County — and Plymouth in particular — will be showing off its singular place in history. An application nominating the Michigan Road between Madison and Michigan City for historic byway status was submitted to the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) Tuesday, Dec. 21. The nomination was submitted by a steering committee composed of individuals from the counties through which the historic route passes. Co-chair of the committee Kurt Garner hopes that the designation will bring other benefits to the area.
PLYMOUTH — Oliver Ford has started a new Christmas tradition that it has entitled "20 Days of Giving." The Oliver Ford service team of Cody Rhodes, Barry Grosselin and Gayle Lemler — as well as the ladies in the office: Gracie Fonseca, Wendy Tapia and Della Egger — have been collecting new and gently-used toys for the children of the Marshall County Neighborhood Center and the Heminger House in Plymouth. In return, Oliver Ford gave each person that donated a toy or a monetary donation 50 percent off an oil change, including a spot-free vehicle wash.
May 18, 1917 — Dec. 20, 2010 WESTVILLE — Lewis J. Duwelius, 93, of 310 Ash Parkway, Westville, Ind., formerly of Plymouth, passed away at 8:40 a.m., Monday, Dec. 20, 2010, at the Hospice House, in South Bend. Lewis was born May 18, 1917, in Plymouth, to Harry J. and Loretta A. (Richard) Duwelius. Lewis married former Helen L. Zumbaugh Oct. 6, 1951 and enjoyed 31 years of marriage together.
Jacob 'Jake' Borkholder Dec. 21, 2010 NEW PARIS — Jacob "Jake" Borkholder, 66, of New Paris, died at 8:16 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010 at his residence.
Santa and Mrs. Claus (with helpers William and Carolyn Cassell) visited Garden Court West apartments recently, spending time with residents and their families.
ARGOS — While a much needed drainage project is being contested, it isn't coming to a stop. While Thomas Crowell, a property owner continues to contest the assessment of the project, crews are set to begin work on the south side of Argos. The project will give some much needed relief from storm water to that side of the town.
Dec. 2, 1924 — Dec. 20, 2010 PLYMOUTH — Audrie Mae (Hensley) Wright, 86, Oakhill Avenue, Plymouth, formerly of Argos, died at 6:25 p.m. Monday, Dec. 20, 2010 at Miller's Merry Manor, Plymouth, following a lengthy illness. She was born Dec. 2, 1924 in Breathitt County, Ky. to Shelton and Zilla (Dyer) Hensley. She had lived in the Argos community since 1950 coming from Breathitt County, Ky. She married Samuel Wright Oct. 30, 1943 in Breathitt County, Ky. and was a homemaker. She was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ, Argos.


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Iglesia Mayor Prioral de El Puerto de Santa María
Contact details
Plaza de España, s/n.
Puerto de Santa María, El, Cadiz
Tel.:+34 956851716
The patronage of the Dukes of Medinaceli.
Built on the highest point of the town in sandstone. It was built under the auspices of the Dukes of Medinaceli, nobles of the town.
Building work began in the 13th century but was not finished until the 17th century. There are three naves covered with groin vaults and side chapels. There is a Baroque entrance, called Forgiveness, that started as a reredos but was never finished, and another Baroque doorway called Sol which is the main entrance to the temple. The reredos of the high altar was replaced by a Renaissance baldachin and a staircase with balustrade. Inside there are images of great value such as that of patron saint Virgen de los Milagros from the 13th century, and the Nazarene by Pedro Roldán. In the chapel of Sagrario there is an altarpiece made of Mexican silver.
- Construction:
- Church
- Artistic period:
- Gothic
- Historic period:
- 13th century
- Setting:
- Church of San Francisco, Church of Concepcionistas, Convent of the Capuchins, Town Hall, Castle of San Marcos.
Practical information
From Monday to Friday
From 08:30 to 13:00
From 18:00 to 21:00
From 08:30 to 12:30
From 18:00 to 21:00
From 08:30 to 14:00
From 18:30 to 21:00
Admission free
Own publications
Specialist shop
Guided tours by prior appointment


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A last-minute deal that took shape Wednesday to reopen the government and avoid a Treasury default did little to allay the long-term concerns of those in the Mahoning Valley's business community.
As congressional leaders raced toward an agreement on the 16th day of a government shutdown, the theatrics were undoubtedly wearing thin on Valley business leaders as the deal once again called for a temporary solution — setting the stage for further gridlock early next year.
Congressional talks are barely touching the underlying causes of debt-and-spending stalemates that pushed the country close to economic crises in 2011, last December and again this month.
The latest deal extends current spending levels until Jan. 15 and stretches the federal debt ceiling until Feb. 7. The deal also calls for Congress to establish a conference committee of members of both houses to try to devise a spending plan by Dec. 13.
But one Valley legislator voted against the deal.
U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson of Marietta, R-6th, still has issues with the Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare.
"I cannot support this latest resolution because it does not treat the American people fairly," he said in a statement. "It fails to offer those in Eastern and Southeastern Ohio any protection from the abuses, expenses and overreach of Obamacare. And what's worse, this bill gives a special pass out of Obamacare for Washington politicians and big business, sticking hard-working Americans with the bill."
Johnson said he's also concerned about the country's spending.
"I'm also deeply troubled that this legislation increases America's debt limit, but does nothing to address the main driver of the debt – Washington's out-of-control spending," he said. "The American people have had to tighten their belts in this weak economy, and Washington should be forced to do the same. The fact that there are no spending cuts in this legislation means that Washington continues to demand more from the American taxpayers, but refuses to put itself on any kind of budget. And that is not fair."
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-13th, supported the measure.
"While I would prefer that these issues be settled in a more comprehensive way, this is better than keeping the government closed, with 800,000 of federal workers off the job, and our country's citizens not being able to access their government," Ryan said in a statement. "This senseless shutdown has cost taxpayers $24 billion and I am pleased that with this deal the bleeding can finally stop. I hope that the damage this crisis caused has taught the Republican Tea Party that radical behavior like shutting down the government and bring our nation to the brink of default is no way to govern — and the American people will not stand for it. There are serious issues that must be addressed in a bipartisan fashion, and hopefully Speaker [John] Boehner and his Republican colleagues will now work with Democrats on legislation to end the sequester, reinvest in our infrastructure and put Americans back to work."
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Avon, said in a statement that the "bipartisan plan will end the shutdown and prevent the catastrophic consequences associated with the U.S. failing to pay its bills."
U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Terrace Park, called the deal a win for the American people, saying he was glad to see both parties working together to reach agreement to ensure the country doesn't default on its debts.
"Lurching from crisis to crisis is no way to rejuvenate America's economy, and unfortunately, we do not have a long-term fix that will prevent another shutdown in January," Portman said in a statement. "In order to provide more certainty for our economy and government agencies and the families across the nation who rely on them, I will continue to fight for passage of my End Government Shutdowns Act, bipartisan legislation to ensure that Americans do not have the threat of a government shutdown hanging over their heads.
"Now that Congress has temporarily avoided this economic crisis, I am hopeful that President Obama will stick to his promise and come to the table. We've done our part, and now he must do his to negotiate on a path forward to deal with Washington's underlying problem of overpromising and overspending that brought our nation to this boiling point in the first place," he said. "My colleagues and I are here, ready and willing to negotiate on how to rein in Washington's out-of-control spending on autopilot so that we not only prevent a future debt limit crisis in February, but also avoid putting a debt crisis on the backs of our children and grandchildren."
The prospect of yet another short-term fix had business leaders and others here grimacing with frustration on Wednesday. Even though the shutdown and political stalemate has done little to unsettle the local economy, there was widespread agreement that business would be much better without the constant political wrangling of an intractable Congress.
"From our perspective, what we're seeing from businesses that want to spend and raise capital is the uncertainty of the long-term economy," said Michael Conway, executive director of the Mahoning Valley Economic Development Corp. "They are delaying certain projects until they get some certainty that there's going to be more than just a short-term fix."
Regardless of any deal, Conway added that such uncertainty will likely remain for at least more days.
MVEDC is a partnership of public and private interests focused on the revitalization of the Mahoning Valley. Conway said the shutdown has halted about six projects because funding through its U.S. Small Business Administration loan program was put on hold when the government closed its doors.
He said all types of businesses across a variety of industries have expressed a reluctance and uncertainty over the politicking in Washington.
"I can't say any one industry has been impacted more adversely than another," he said. "Equipment isn't getting purchased, building and construction projects are on hold, which means jobs weren't created. It's a trickle-down effect for sure."
Investors have stayed largely calm throughout the twists in the current fiscal drama in Washington. Even before Wednesday's news, the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up for the month.
On Wednesday, financial markets flirted with major gains on word that lawmakers were nearing a deal. The Standard & Poor's 500 index, for example, pushed close to a record high.
"Believe it or not, it hasn't really come up in conversation or affected anything that I can see in terms of job demand," said Vic Ing, president of the Alliance Solutions Group of the Mahoning Valley, which works with a wide array of employers to provide staffing services. "It's absolutely frustrating and it's embarrassing, though. I console myself by saying it's just politics being played out in a very public arena."
"We're probably going to have to go through this a few more times," said Bob Bixby of the bipartisan Concord Coalition, which advocates budget reforms. Even if a compromise plan this month wins House, Senate and White House approval, Bixby said, it will leave fundamental problems that "they haven't done anything to address."
Jeff Byce, an auctioneer, appraiser and real estate broker at Byce Auction & Realty in Youngstown, said prolonged stalemates can create unforeseen problems for business owners.
"I feel that another week or two of something like this would send ripples that even as a business owner I wouldn't have planned on or imagined," he said. "People trying to get SBA or FHA loans are already feeling the pinch and as an owner I think I'd realize very quickly how a long-term shutdown could affect aspects of our business that we couldn't imagine."
The feeling among stock traders in recent days was that panicking and pulling money out of stocks could leave them missing out on a rally after Washington finally came to an agreement. Investors are also becoming inured to Washington's habit of reaching budget and debt deals at the last minute.
"Investors have become, unfortunately, accustomed to some of the dysfunction," said Eric Wiegand, a senior portfolio manager at U.S. Bank. "It's become more the norm than the exception."
The Associated Press contributed to this story
Hey Tea-Baggers!! Obama beat you like a rented mule!! He sunk you like a three foot putt!!! You don't get it, do you? The black guy is smarter than you. Obama can't lose. History will rank him near the top. The final straw for you "Baggers" will be when you all start signing up to save money with Obamacare!!! LOL!!
Jimmy Kimmel pointed out that politicians trying to spin this sorry debacle as a victory would claim as much for picking up a gun without shooting themselves. He got it right. There were no winners in the needless expense and pain caused by opposing sides digging in their heels and throwing tantrums better suited to a kindergarten recess than the halls of political power. We can start stepping back from the cliff DC brought us to by recognizing that there are fools enough on both the liberal and conservative sides of every issue to return us to the brink in January.
That said, let's stop calling names, pointing fingers and doing nothing. Instead, let's turn to a couple basic positions that are complicated, but which don't need to be diametrically opposed. For instance: government spends too much of our money for foolish things; accessing quality healthcare without personal bankruptcy is not a foolish thing.
Okay? Now let's talk, but if you have nothing more than Nyah Nyah or name calling to say, take a moment to consider why you have so little success initiating change before commenting.
Thanks, very well said. Here's to hoping that we can all start acting like adults.
The following has occurred under Obama's "reign":
-Many trillions of dollars added to the federal debt
-IRS targeting conservative PAC's
-Electronic eavesdropping and wire-taps on Americans
-Middle-East foreign policy in a shambles
-The Benghazi Massacre with 4 dead Americans
-Fast and Furious gun-running operation
-Massive leaks of intelligence operations by low-level workers
-The least transparent presidency since Nixon in spite of that "hope and change" thing
-The failed roll-out of the ObamaCare program
The following has occurred on John Boehner's watch
-allowing a faction of conservatives to throw a temper-tantrum that makes the American people forget about all of the massive screw-up's of the Obama administration noted above so that the Republicans are now to blame for everything. This is what happens to a rudderless ship. Sooner or later it crashes and sinks. Congratulations Mr. Speaker!
It is real simple folks, you can not continue to spend money that you do not have. Those of you out there over your heads in credit card debt should understand that. Apparently this clown "parlayhenry" does not.
"Signing up to save money with obowsercare" Who is gonna pay for that dingleberry? Wait till this whole deal kicks in, there will be some surprises. Hate to say it but America has seen it's best days.
"Congress forges another last-minute deal to avert default"
More properly entitled:
"Kongress Kicks the Kan Down the Road Again."
Those that want to increase spending and increase taxes won out over those that want to reduce spending and reduce taxes. The freeloaders won out over the workers.
Easy, young fellow, you're over exposing yourself.
Walt, good points. Actually $6 trillion in his first term vs $4.9 trillion in the 8 years under Bush. This from a President who told the country he would cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term, bring our troops home and close Gitmo. Well???? How'd those promises work out?
@Sparky. Insstead of wasting your time worrying about the nations debt, you should focus on developing a method that you can convert from a worker to a freeloader. As we get more and more freeloaders, we will have the political power to demand more and more free stuff from the people who go to work everyday.
evio you are correct. There in lies the problem. Underachieving has now become the norm and this president wants the lazy and unproductive rewarded for it. We all hear about the unemployment problem, especially in this area, and that is very misleading. What we have is an unemployable problem. There are many local companies that can not find people that want to go to work. If they happen to show up for the interview it quickly becomes apparent they lack basic skills to hold a job, not to mention a large majority can't pass, or won't show up for their drug test. These are jobs that will pay $17-$20 per hour, with benefits after 90 days, not minimum wage jobs without benefits. But why would they want to work when they can have the tax payers continue to support them?
Sparky and Walt...the economy is still better off after 4 years of President Obama then we were after 8 years of President Bush... get over it, you lost.
Your opinion and I don't have to agree but if you want to feel like you've won go ahead. Congratulations.
As long as welfare pays more than minimum wage there is no incentive to work.
Here's an offer for you: $38,004 per year, tax free.No work required.Apply at your local welfare office.
One of the most important steps toward avoiding or getting out of poverty is a job.Only 2.6 percent of full-time workers are poor, vs. 23.9 percent of adults who don't work. And, while many anti-poverty activists decry low-wage jobs, even starting at a minimum-wage job can be a springboard out of poverty.
You are right Sparky. "But why would they want to work when they can have the tax payers continue to support them?" It is much easier to just stick your hand out for some more free stuff and vote out any politician who dares to refuse you more free stuff.
Sneaky...McConnell threw in his sweet deal but wouldn't budge on what the American public wanted! Was this even the time or the place for such a deal?
Buried inside the new stopgap spending bill are several goodies, including nearly quadrupling the maximum price of a dam project on the Ohio River that is turning into a boondoggle — up to nearly $3 billion.
We were led to believe the business at hand was ending the partial government shutdown and requiring proof of income in order to get subsidies. What? That wasn't in the original ACA?
Did Bill Johnson forget he is in the House of Representatives? Did he further forget that all spending bills originate in the House? If he wants less spending, he appears to be in the right place to accomplish his goal.
Why do people keep electing him?
First order of business,Obama must go.
Bill Johnson is an idiot. The bottom line is that EVERY politician knows exactly how to fix this country, but what it takes to fix this country will not get them votes, or re-elected. It also will not fill their pockets with easy money from the big corporations. Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Tea Baggers, are ALL CORRUPT. It is the system that is broken. The bad news is that the only ones who can fix the broken system is the corrupt politicians who don't want it fixed. A few answers to start.... FAIR TRADE POLICIES, THE CONTROL OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, GOOD JOBS, TERM LIMITS, NO LOBBYIST, STOP BEING THE WORLD POLICE, CONTROL SPENDING, AND RID NEEDED ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS OF LEACHES AND ABUSERS. PROGRAMS SHOULD BE A TEMPORARY THING.
WASHINGTON—After Republican lawmakers reached a last-minute agreement Wednesday night to end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling, sources confirmed today that the GOP yielded its fight against Obamacare mere moments before the president was about to cave and repeal the entire law. "Whew! That was a close one," President Obama told reporters, admitting that literally seconds before he would have put pen to paper on an executive order to fully defund and eliminate the Affordable Care Act, he received a phone call informing him that House Speaker John Boehner had agreed to back down from the shutdown stalemate. "The GOP really had our backs up against the wall on this one, and to be honest I was definitely about to blink first. I sure as hell didn't want to be the president who oversaw the first default in our country's history, and I thought the Republicans knew that. If they would have just held out a little longer—I'm talking two, three seconds—they would have gotten everything they wanted. They seriously held all the cards here." The president said that if House Republicans threaten to use the same tactics with the debt ceiling this February, he'll probably just repeal Obamacare immediately.
Hey, I see all the regular right-wing nutcases posting again about our "debt" and how terrible "Obamacare" is and how Obama is this or that and is running up our debt. Laughable. Every single "argument", if you can call it that, is so far removed from reality that it staggers the mind. You extremists live in some other dimension. As far as Obama and your rabid reaction to him, it is very well explained in a quote from Jonathan Swift:
"When a great genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign; that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."
@parlahenry.... I SERIOUSLY DOUBT THAT. DON'T BELIEVE IT FOR A SECOND. What news source was that from? The Enquirer?
and I like how Repubs cried that Obama wouldn't "negotiate" on a LAW that already passed Congress, Senate, and the Supreme court. Didn't Boehner last time refuse any talks that had any form of tax increase in it? I don't want tax increases, let me be clear on that, just making a comparison about negotiating.
dontbe--I guessed it immediately! theonion is where parlay stole that...he is not intelligent enough to make up his own stuff so he steals stuff from others and gives no credit. Kind of like how he lives life...as a taker, not a producer.
lol.... anyone who believed that article is a nut.
Hey kk80586...here's what you need to do; put down the video game controller, sign off of the internet porn site, bring your milk glass upstairs and rinse it in the sink, yell up to your mom and wish her goodnight and go to bed. Maybe you can get up early in the morning and try to get a job.
On a more serious note, using code words like "taker" reveals your racist leanings.
kk80586, you use more government services than anyone...you just don't admit to it...you righties think you're all self-made, real pioneers, never got a bit of help from anyone...the biggest lie ever...so sanctimonious...but keep hoping...maybe next month Obama will give in...hahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!
@ dontbeafool and kk80856,
Yes that's where parlayhenry gets it, from The Onion.
It's actually funny, if you realize where it originates....
Parlay, you really should give credit, so we can all enjoy the joke!
What I think that we should all be enraged about is the pork spending that was attached to this deal, that "no one knew about".
Give me a break, someone knew about it. It didn't magically appear in the bill. I watched the debate and not one representative who was against this bill mentioned the pork spending.
You have to sign it to find out what's in it.
WASHINGTON—After a 16-day-long government shutdown and a nearly averted financial crisis that left them with their lowest poll numbers in recent memory, Speaker of the House John Boehner told reporters Thursday that he hopes to remain the leader of the Republican Parties up until the 2014 midterm election and beyond. "It is my strong belief that the Republican Parties will remain the majority, especially in the House, for quite some time," said Boehner, adding that it is an honor to serve as his parties' standard-bearer. "In fact, I expect the GOPs to come back from this stronger and even more unified, and I hope to be at the forefront of that charge." Boehner said his job would not be complete until a Republican from either Republican Party is once again in the White House.
Meanwhile, China is chomping on the bit.....
parlay, this comment is for YOUR comments and opinions. If I wanted to read an article from the Onion, I would go to that site and read it. I really can care less what Boehner's beliefs are.
parlay- can't tell you how many times that line is used on the internet and how long it's been around....not very original are ya?
"On a more serious note, using code words like "taker" reveals your racist leanings."
LOL@U on a serious note?!?!? that is racist to you?? It has NOTHING to do with race (which makes YOU the racist & stoo-pid).
I don't use any govt. services other than those required by law (dmv, etc.). I use highways but I pay taxes to build those. You think you can lie about me and make me believe it?? Maybe you want other people to believe it but you have PROVEN yourself to be a liar as well as a plagiarizer so anyone that would believe you don't count with me anyway....how ya like them apples?
@ parlayhenry:
Easy, young fellow, you're over exposing yourself, again.
First, the debt ceiling wasn't raised. It was eliminated! Read the bill, the President has the authority to spend whatever he wants, without limit until February. And it promises to be at least another trillion Federal Reserve Notes. But that is fine, because the Fed can just raise their buying to $100billion a month, and they have got it done in a year. Second, his whole ObamaCare mess could be eliminated by just opening Medicare to everyone. How many Seniors do you hear complaining about it? Then the insurance companies would stop being a healthcare problem. Third, if the Capitalists like Google and The NatGas Industries were allowed to do their thing within smart regulations, the National Debt would be gone in 5 years. But, wait, smart regulations? Sorry that's a DC Moron!
Hey kk80586!!! I know you're more than just a number..that you have feelings, too. But buddy, it is a scientific fact that anyone who uses the code word, "takers", is, in fact a racist. Look it up.
The only person who loves Ted Cruz more than Ted Cruz is Barack Obama. It is the White House and Democrats, not Republicans, who have advanced the idea that Cruz is the face of the GOP. Remember when the White House insisted that Rush Limbaugh was the leader of the GOP? These narratives are useful to Democrats because they loonify the GOP, driving voters away from their fiery rhetoric just as intense heat repels any sensible mammal.
Is the word "givers" racist?
"takers" is
Hey wingnuts...I find the following dialogue from "Caddyshack" is appropriate to the RepubliKKKan right-wing shutdown disaster; just substitute Obama for Judge Smails and Ted KKKruz for his nephew;
Spalding Smails: I want a hamburger. No, cheeseburger. I want a hot dog. I want a milkshake. I want potato chips
[gets cut off by Judge Smails]
Judge Smails: You'll get nothing, and like it!
"Uh, senator -- you can have my answer now if you like. My offer is this -- nothing."
Who said this?
A) Michael Corleone to Senator Geary in The Godfather Part 2.
B) Barack Obama to Senator Cruz in The President's 2nd Term of Office.
C) All the above.
"it is a scientific fact that anyone who uses the code word, "takers", is, in fact a racist"
A scientific fact?? Science has proven this??? Actually, it is YOU who are the racist since YOU seem to want to associate the word 'taker' with some specific ethnic group. I associate the word with dumboKKKrats....the ones who bilk the system as well as those who vote to take my money to give to those who bilk the system. I don't use 'codewords'. I am not p.c. so I will use words according to their definition and meaning, not as something made up in your little mind.
To be clear, there are people out there who truly need help and I have no problem with aid for them. But when a third of the country is on some form of govt. assistance, something is very wrong.
From urban dictionary:
1. Taker
Someone who always takes from other people and never gives back.
Jason always comes in my room to play FIFA, always loses, and never says thank you for letting him play. He is such a taker.
Jason always takes my chicken nuggets, that I took the time out to make. What a taker.
2. Taker
One who is always taking from others, similar to a mooch or chiseler. In most cases takers aren't stealing, they are just taking advantage of the hospitality of others without reciprocating or saying thanks.
James: Kirk's a taker, he just took the last beer and now he's leaving.
Kirk: James is a chiseler, he's always trying to get something for nothing.
3. Taker
noun - someone who likes it in the backdoor usually very often
Henry is a taker, he loves getting it in the butt
Now, YOU go look it up in a bonafide dictionary and post me back what it says.
next time don't pay the House or the Senate and watch what happens...ha ha ha
debt now over $17,039,000,000,000
kk, did you look it up on The Onion though? That is where parlay had to get the info. On another note, don't lump all Dems as moochers or takers. I'm a Dem and haven't had a break in employment since age 16 (30 years), and never received an ounce of any kind of aid. Mooching is an individual choice. I agree, that Dems need to come to terms with the abuse going on of assistance programs. At some point u become enablers rather than helpers. Help those in need get back on their feet, not make it a lifestyle. I still feel the Repub officials today are totally out of touch with the average Joe. I would like to see a few of them live on welfare for a month with no other assistance, give them a little taste of life without a Country Club in it.
dontbe-yes, I guessed it was there because it was so outrageous and low and behold when I punched a sentence from it into google, there it was. I recognize there are good dems and there are bad repubs (as far as regular folks go). But the ruling elite of both parties have totally lost sight of what this Country was founded on. They have driven the people into unsustainable debt and have taken or are taking most of our freedoms. It is all about power and money to them. It is is not about patriotism and honor. They are ALL out of touch with the average Joe. Some might try to call me a repub because of my arguments against dem policies but I lean more libertarian which probably aligns more with the "tea-party" as far as smaller govt, lower taxes and self-responsibility go. That is the problem I have with the dem party which is leading us down a very dark path as far as the Country is concerned.
As far as your last sentence, think of this... the millionaires are republican, the billionaires are democrats. Heard that a while backand realized that is (for the most part) true.
I know a woman who runs a non-profit and told her I was surprised she was repub. She said she used to be dem, dems (some) have a lot of money. But they did not donate whereas the repubs do.So remember that just because repubs do not want taxes raised (on anyone) does not mean that they are not charitable.And it's always better for those in need when the govt is not between the giver and the recipient to scrape off all the gravy (and most of the potatoes). Remember, those ruling elite dems belong to the same country clubs as the repubs. It's not really about helping the truly poor anymore. It's about buying votes with easy qualification for benefits they don't deserve. You seem very reasonable....fair minded, intelligent conversation, no name calling.... you sure you're a dem? :)
dontbeafool: Wouldn't you rather have a hand up rather than a hand out? In the past, immigrants flocked to our country for opportunity, now for the assistance. As we lower the standards and encourage people to get food stamps, subsidies for health care and all sorts of government programs, we're seeing employers cutting hours, benefits and jobs. Republicans want employers to create jobs to move people up and out of poverty and the Democratic party is becoming the enablers. The opportunity to become wealthy lies more within your will to do something with your life than what the government can do for you. There will always be people in our country who need our help. There's nothing wrong with helping those in need. The issue is whether we are at a point where people are better off on welfare than work.
If you can't beat them, join them. Find a way to become a taker and then demand more and more and more. When I become a taker, any politician that won't give me more free stuff gets voted out.
Yep, and if your the politician that says our country is broke and we need to find a way to stop spending then you're the the idiot bad guy.
Its every man for himself. I an going to demand higher social security payments, lower medicare deductibles, home heating assistance for seniors, home air conditioning assistance for seniors, gasoline prices to be reduced for retirees, and food stamps, I am going to try to "take" faster than the other takes.
Just a modest suggestion:
Since parlayhenry acts like a troll and writes like a troll, howabout we all just decide that he is a troll and ignore his trollish ways.
SeriouslyNow!! That isn't nice. It isn't being a troll pointing out the truth in both a pointed and humorous manner. The term "taker" is racist code. Of course none of the right-wingnuts ever "took" anything they didn't earn. LOL! You extremists think that the "takers" are bankrupting the country; and by "takers" you mean the folks on welfare. If the U.S. got rid of EVERY entitlement program except Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid (where the biggest outlays pay for all of your parents in nursing homes) the debt would still be increasing. But in your racist minds, you see some black welfare queen driving a Cadillac full of kids as the reason for our debt. It ain't so Archie Bunkers of the world. The debt is caused by you righteous patriots and your parents getting exponentially more out of Medicare and Social Security than any of you put into it. But none of you are "takers"; no!
No, I'm not a troll. Just someone who assails the group-think from right-wing extremists as the nonsense that it is. Want to decrease the debt? Go pick up mom and dad from the nursing home and YOU take care of them with YOUR money! Give me a welfare queen any day over over the mentally blind on this page.
In Internet slang, a troll (/ˈtroʊl/, /ˈtrɒl/) is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a forum, chat room, or blog), either accidentally or with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.
Experienced participants in online forums know that the most effective way to discourage a troll is usually to ignore it because responding tends to encourage trolls to continue disruptive posts – hence the often-seen warning: "Please do not feed the trolls".
- Credit Wikipedia
The spending Democrats wanted Boehner to eliminate the 'sequester' which provides automatic cuts in government spending. Boehner did not cave, the seqester is still in force.. It was Obama and Reid against Boehner.. I'd say Ohio's John Boehner did very well and did not personally demonize the other side. John Boehner was the only adult in the room
Check your references, the "clean CR" offered to Boehner BEFORE October 1 INCLUDED the sequester level spending that the dems don't like.
Boehner refused to allow the House to vote on that because of the mythical Hastert rule. To my mind, he was preventing democracy from functioning. Would an up or down vote (before the shut down) been harmful to the country in anyway?
Hardly what I would term being an adult.
boehner.....adult? doesn't even sound right. Spin master maybe. Crybaby, definitely. He is more worried about losing his Speaker of the House title than anything else, to include his own party or country. He didn't have the balls to lead his party out of a disastrous plan orchestrated by Cruz, just because he didn't want to lose his title. Even when he knew that the plan would fail and would hurt the country. typical career politician.
I don't think that Henry gets it. The black welfare queen in a Cadillac full of kids can get everything she wants. More power to her. But when he starts on Social Security and Medicare, HANDS OFF. Not only do I want those programs, I will demand more and more and more. I don't care where the money comes from so long as I get mine. If someone else has to pay more taxes to support me, tough luck. And if there is a politician that doesn't want to give me more and more and more, then I will vote him out of office.
In the recent debates in the Senate and House of Representatives about food stamps — received by one out of six Americans, about two-thirds of them children, disabled or elderly — Republicans made their case for slashing food subsidies largely about fairness. As Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama, said in his speech, "This is more than just a financial issue. It is a moral issue as well."
In the United States there are legal prohibitions on what people can sell, a safety net to help those who suffer from really bad luck, and a civic ethos that prevents us from letting people drown. The first answer is, of course, that the material reality is being rapidly shaped by the ideology, as recent debates about welfare in the United States demonstrate.
People might be legally prohibited from selling their organs, but that doesn't remedy the desperate circumstances that might compel them to do so. The law does not stop people from falling into poverty traps of borrowing and debt, from being exploited by debt settlement companies promising to help them escape those traps, or losing their homes after buying mortgages they can't afford to pay back. And there is certainly no prohibition against the mind-numbing and often humiliating menial work that poor people do in exchange for paltry wages from hugely rich companies. A swiftly eroding welfare state might offer the thinnest of safety nets to those who fall on hard times, but it does nothing to address the lack of social mobility caused by the dramatic rise in inequality. And while it might be thought poor form to walk by a drowning man, letting children go hungry is considered not only permissible, but as Senator Sessions said, "a moral issue." These facts might be not quite as ethically outraging as walking past a drowning man, but they, too, grate against our commonsense notions of fairness.
@ parlayhenry:
What is the definition of "inequality?"
In addition to the drowning man, the poor kid going hungry and, the poor people working humiliating jobs, what about the seniors that have to choose between eating and their prescription medication. I think anyone over the age of 65 should be given free prescriptions and free food.
Parlayhenry's comment is plagiarized from New York Times blogger Amia Srinvasan.
@parlay, you should give credit where the work is not yours.
eivo, Medicare Part D was implemented so people are not in the position of choosing food or medications. Some pharmacies will waive the co-pays or charge only $4 for certain generic drugs even for non-medicare plans.
Hey right-wing loons!! Guess what?? Your Republican Governor just approved an expansion of Medicaid. Even Kasich love Obamacare...and you nuts will, too!!!
To eivo:...you want more for senior citizens??? They're the ones who are running the debt to the upper limits with all of the free Medicare and Medicaid services they use...I think we should give them back every dollar, plus interest that they contributed to SS and Medicare and let them fend for themselves. After all, they're the so-called, "Greatest Generation" and, as they are awlays saying about the debt, they sure don't want to bankrupt the country for their grandkids. Seniors are worse than any welfare queen; but they don't see it. Just like the rest of you mentally blind on the right.
To Henry: I don't care how much I contributed to SS or medicare or how much it costs so long as I get more, more more. If someone else has to pay more taxes thats tough luck for them. And I will vote against any politician that denies me anything at all while I am sitting home watching TV. Now that I am on that subject, I think seniors should have their cable TV bills paid by the government too.
eivo...I think all rational citizens hope that you do get everything that you have coming to you...
I don't care what happens so long as I get loads and loads of free stuff for sitting at home on my rear end doing absolutely nothing.


text:
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Take a hike, hit the road or simply set up a table or blanket in your backyard and take in a beautiful sunrise with the sounds of nature while savoring a nice hot cup of coffee. The Carry-Beaner Coffee Backpack for Two provides you with everything necessary to savor a cup of fresh ground brew. It comes with a 24 ounce thermos, 2 mugs, 2 spoons, a creamer and sugar container, and 2 cloth napkins. All of the metal is made from stainless steel and there are even poly-resin handles on the mugs to help prevent burns. There's even an insulated cooler pouch if you feel like bringing some morning goodies to your tranquil spot of choice.
Features:- 24 oz stainless steel thermos
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Flexible gooseneck extends to 26-1/2" (15"H in 90-degree position). Base measures 8" x 6-1/4".
6' power cord.
4.75 lbs.
Select color.$39.95


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Via Boscovich 57 / 59, Milan, Italy star
Check Rates for SerenaChecking Rates for SerenaNo availability
Reviewed by EuroCheapo.com Editors
It seems like every time we visit the Hotel Serena it has something snazzy and new to offer. The two-star property may reside in a four-story palazzo, but inside time speeds up full force. A massive, curved staircase makes for a stunning first impression, and white walls and a minimalist reception area make the hotel seem a bit like a museum.
Upstairs, the Hotel Serena's 44 guestrooms are well-proportioned and bright, with sun pouring in from all sides. While the décor is spare and basic (with none of the lobby's flair), the rooms are freshly painted in rich, creamy colors, complemented by shiny maroon bedding and marble floors. Many boast views of the expansive courtyard below. The latest renovation also added 12 swanky loft-style suites with sleek, modern furniture in shades of gray and charcoal.
All rooms are equipped with air conditioning, soundproof windows, a TV and telephone. The private bathrooms are pristine with sand-colored tiles.
We loved the Hotel Serena's top-floor breakfast room, with its floor-to-ceiling windows and magnificent views over area rooftops. The owners informed us that this room may disappear during upcoming renovations, but we're sure the new summit will be even better than ever.
Breakfast is included in the room rate. Free Wi-Fi is available throughout.
Reviewed by: Annie Shapero, EuroCheapo Staff Writer
Note: This hotel was visited by a EuroCheapo editor and is recommended based on cleanliness, location, price and overall quality. EuroCheapo did not charge this hotel to be listed.
- Babysitting
- Bar/Lounge
- Breakfast Extra Charge
- Breakfast Included
- Car Rental
- City tour
- Concierge/Booking Services
- Credit Cards Accepted
- Elevator
- Fax Machine
- Groups welcome
- Laundry Service
- Luggage Storage
- Non-Smoking Hotel
- Parking
- Pet Friendly
- Reception: 24-Hour
- Room Service
- Safe at reception
- Shuttle service
- TV Lounge
- Wake-Up Service
- Wi-Fi Connection
- Wi-Fi: Free
- Air conditioning
- Balconies/Terraces Available
- Bathroom: Private
- Cable TV
- Hair Dryer
- Heat
- Internet Access
- Mini fridge
- Rooms with view
- Safe
- Soundproofed Windows
- Telephone
- Toiletries
- TV – flat screen
Via Boscovich 57 / 59
Central station and Buenos Aires, Milan, Italy
Phone: 0229404483
Website: http://www.hotelserenamilan.com/
About the Serena neighborhood
Milan's main train station is not located in the prettiest part of town, and you may spot a few (or several) unsavory characters around here. That said, the area between the station and Corso Buenos Aires is plenty safe, and it's home to several perfectly adequate hotels—many with rock-bottom rates. You're also, of course, well situated for getting around the city, and Corso Buenos Airesis home to some of the city's best shopping.


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Do you know of an interesting, little-known location in Hardin County you think our readers would like to know about? An out-of-the-way relic, a place with an unusual purpose or past, a little-known attraction or best-kept secret? Staff writer Becca Owsley and photographer Jill Pickett are looking for hidden, unusual or just plain interesting places to explore, photograph and write about for their summer series, Where in Hardin County: The mini adventures of Becca and Jill.
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Virtual public school serving students in grades K-12 statewide hosts in-person and online information sessions across Wisconsin. Families interested in enrolling must complete state application before April 30.
Appleton, Wisconsin (PRWEB) February 12, 2014
Enrollment for the 2014-2015 school year is officially underway at Wisconsin Connections Academy, the virtual public school serving students from across the state in grades K-12. Parents and students who are interested in learning more about virtual education are encouraged to attend one of the upcoming in-person or online information sessions. For students to be eligible for the upcoming school year, parents must complete the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction application before April 30.
Wisconsin Connections Academy is an online public school that students attend from home. The school provides an individualized approach to learning with public school teachers licensed through the Appleton Area School District. The program provides a quality education that includes a proven curriculum, technology tools, and active educational experiences, both online and in-person, creating an environment that supports children who want to learn at their own pace and have a flexible, personalized learning schedule.
Nationwide, a record number of K-12 students are getting their public educations virtually: more than 300,000 K-12 students in the U.S. attended school virtually during the 201213 school year, according to the latest Keeping Pace with K-12 Online and Blended Learning report. In Wisconsin, online charter schools served 6,146 students in the 2012-13 school year, a 37 percent increase from the prior year according to the report.
Information Sessions
Wisconsin Connections Academy is hosting free information sessions for parents to learn more about the high-quality online program. At the information sessions, parents and students will have an opportunity to learn about the schools curriculum, interact with faculty and with other families interested in online learning. For those unable to attend an in-person information session, real-time interactive online sessions with a school representative are available, as well as an on-demand session available 24/7. Interested families may also attend Parent-to-Parent meetings for the opportunity to speak with current Wisconsin Connections Academy families in a more casual setting. A complete list of upcoming information sessions and a link to the on-demand session are available on the schools website: http://www.ConnectionsAcademy.com/WCAevents.
Principal of Wisconsin Connections Academy Michelle Mueller encourages families who are interested in virtual school to attend an information session to learn if online schooling is the best fit for their students.
Our goal is to allow parents and students to gain information about virtual schooling, learn what they can expect and how they can help support their students educational success, Mueller said. Fully-online schools require parents to make a dedicated commitment to be involved in their childs education and are an excellent option for many students who are looking for an enriching and fulfilling education beyond the traditional brick and mortar options.
Wisconsin Connections Academy meets rigorous state standards for academic excellence. According to the 2013 Connections Academy Parent Satisfaction Survey, 97 percent of parents agree that the curriculum is high quality and 93 percent would recommend the school to other families.
For more information about Wisconsin Connections Academy, visit http://www.WisconsinConnectionsAcademy.com.
About Wisconsin Connections Academy
Wisconsin Connections Academy (WCA) is a tuition-free, high-quality, highly accountable statewide online charter school that serves students in grades K12. The school is authorized by the Appleton Area School District, and all Wisconsin Connections Academy students participate in the award-winning national Connections Academy program that combines high-quality resources from leading publishers with cutting-edge yet easy-to-use technology and hands-on materials. Wisconsin Connections Academy provides students with the flexibility to learn from anywhere there is an Internet connection and with an innovative online school curriculum that meets rigorous state education standards. The combination of state-certified teachers, a proven curriculum, unique electives such as the Juilliard eLearning program, technology tools, and community experiences creates a supportive and successful online learning opportunity for families and children who want an individualized approach to education. Wisconsin Connections Academy is accredited by the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement (NCA CASI), an accrediting division of AdvancED. For more information, call 920-993-7076 or visit http://www.WisconsinConnectionsAcademy.com.
For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/wisconsin_virtual_school/enrollment_2014/prweb11574689.htm
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Freelance Graphic Designer & Graffiti writer. @igersfvg admin, blogger, bike and sup lover from North East of Italy.
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Dr. Roberta Kato, a longtime Bee Rescuer in Los Angeles, Master Gardener, Chicken-keeper and all-around great human being, spoke at the Advanced Beekeeper meeting on November 24 at HoneyLove HQ. Her topic was "Making the World Better, One Beekeeper at a Time," and Roberta walks the walk. She recommends volunteering, paying it forward, building good karma (no matter what your beliefs are), inspiring others and developing altruism. Her suggested methods for achieving this are doing rescues, mentoring, talking to schools and classes, garden clubs and the public (email email@example.com to get involved with outreach!). Her last suggested method is to be a little unapologetically eccentric.
Roberta told the group how she got started doing bee rescues, how it quickly grew out of hand and what she learned by "diving in." It wasn't long before she found herself picking up swarms and doing cutouts at 5a.m. before work and in the evenings after a long day. Working at night was how Roberta first learned that bees crawl when it's dark. Climbing 25-foot ladders never helped her get over her fear of heights but it saved dozens of swarms. So why does she still do it, with gardening and chickens and dogs and rabbits and pediatric pulmonary research to keep her busy? Because she doesn't want other new beekeepers to make the same mistakes she did, to help reduce the number of times chemicals are used to exterminate a colony, to deepen her appreciation of nature and to make feral bees and beekeeping not such a big deal. There was a time when having a hive in one's yard was not uncommon.
And while it's satisfying to introduce hundreds of new people to bees and beekeeping, a mentor also has to understand when to say "No." Roberta had to turn away more than one overly enthusiastic rogue beekeeper in tulle and crew socks.
Listen to the latest Focus On Food interview with renowned biodynamic beekeeper Gunther Hauk via instituteofurbanecology.org
On August 17th HoneyLovers, beekeepers and honey bee enthusiasts across the country celebrated National Honey Bee Day to honor nature's hardest working insect, and HoneyLove decided to celebrate with a Waggle Dance Flash Mob. We choreographed a routine and invited everyone to participate in person or by uploading a video. Special THANK YOU goes out to LUSH Cosmetics and all who joined in the festivities to help make it the best National Honey Bee Day EVER!!!
MUSIC: "When You're Smiling" by the Leftover Cuties: http://goo.gl/eiGBR
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel HERE: http://full.sc/MRAY21
THIS WEEK IN NEWS via James Rojas
National Honey Bee Day, 2013, Santa Monica. August 17th is National Honey Bee Day & a local non-profit organization, HoneyLove, celebrated in Santa Monica to help spread the message of how important it is to help bees.
By: Christina Sarich, Natural Society.
Many pesticides have been found to cause grave danger to our bees, and with the recent colony collapses in Oregon, it's time to take a hard look at what we would be missing without bee pollination.
In just the last ten years, over 40% of the bee colonies in the US have suffered Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Bees either become so disoriented they can't find their way back to their hives and die away from home, or fly back poison-drunk and die at the foot of their queen. There are many arguments as to what is causing CCD, but the most logical and likely culprit is the increased usage of pesticides by the likes of Monsanto and others.
A study by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has labeled one pesticide, called clothianidin, as completely unacceptable for use, and banned it from use entirely. Meanwhile, the U.S. uses the same pesticide on more than a third of its crops – nearly 143 million acres. Two more pesticides linked to bee death are imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam. These are also used extensively in the US, while elsewhere, they have been taken out of circulation.
Recently, the FDA also seized Terrence Ingram's bees, a naturalist who had been studying bees for over 30 years, and had a colony that was resistant to Monsanto's Round Up. Ingram's prized hives, along with their queens, were destroyed by the FDA, and Ingram was given no warning that his bees would be demolished.
While we don't need bees to pollinate every single crop, here is just a brief list of some of the foods we would lose if all our bees continue to perish:
If one of your favorites is on this list, you should consider becoming a bee activist.
[read original post via realnews24.com]
by Bryan Walsh via science.time.com
The beepocalypse is on the cover of TIME, but it looks like managed honeybees will still pull through. Wild bees—and wild species in general—won't be so lucky in a human-dominated planet.
I've written this week's cover story for the magazine, on the growing threat to honeybees. You can read it (with a subscription) over here. The short version: beginning nearly a decade ago, honeybees started dying off at unusually and mysteriously high rates—this past winter, nearly one-third of U.S. honeybee colonies died or disappeared. At first this appeared due to something called colony collapse disorder (CCD); hives would be abandoned without warning, with bees seemingly leaving honey and intact wax behind. The apocalyptic nature of CCD—some people really thought the disappearance of the bees indicated that the Rapture was nigh—grabbed the public's attention. More recently, beekeepers have been seeing fewer cases of CCD proper, but honeybees keep dying and bees keep collapsing. That's bad for our food system—bees add at least $15 billion in crop value through pollination in the U.S. alone, and if colony losses keep up, those pollination demands may not be met and valuable crops like almonds could wither.
More than the bottom line for grocery stores, though, the honeybee's plight alarms us because a species that we have tended and depended on for thousands of years is dying—and we don't really know why. Tom Theobald, a beekeeper and blogger who has raised the alarm about CCD, put that fear this way: "The bees are just the beginning."
But while we don't now we exactly what causes CCD or why honeybees are dying in larger numbers, we do know the suspects: pesticides, including the newer class of neonicotinoids that seem to affect bees even at very low levels; biological threats like the vampiric Varroa mite; and the lack of nutrition thanks to monocultures of commodity crops like wheat and corn, which offer honeybees little in the way of the pollen they need to survive. Most likely, bee deaths are due to a mix of all of those menaces acting together—pesticides and lack of food might weaken honeybees, and pests like Varroa could finish them off, spreading diseases the bees don't have the strength to resist. Unfortunately, that means there's no simple way to save the honeybees either. Simply banning, say, neonicotinoids might take some of the pressure off honeybees, but most scientists agree it wouldn't solve the problem. (And getting rid of neonicotinoids would have unpredictable consequences for agriculture—the pesticides were adopted in part because they are considered safer for mammals, including human beings.) Honeybees are suffering because we've created a world that is increasingly inhospitable to them.
Still, for all the alarm, honeybees are likely to pull through. As I point out in the magazine piece, beekeepers have mostly managed to replace lost colonies, though at a cost high enough that some long-time beekeepers are getting out of the business altogether. Beekeepers are buying new queens and splitting their hives, which cuts into productivity and honey production, but keeps their colony numbers high enough to so far meet pollination demands. They're adding supplemental feed—often sugar or corn syrup—to compensate for the lack of wild forage. The scientific and agricultural community is engaged—see Monsanto's recent honeybee summit, and the company's work on a genetic weapon against the Varroa mite. Randy Oliver, a beekeeper and independent researcher, told me that he could see honeybees becoming a feedlot animal like pigs or chickens, bred and kept for one purpose and having their food brought to them, rather than foraging in the semi-wild way they live now. That sounds alarming—and it's not something anyone in the beekeeping industry would like to see—but it's also important to remember that honeybees themselves aren't exactly natural, especially in North America, where they were imported by European settlers in the 17th century. As Hannah Nordhaus, the author of the great book A Beekeeper's Lament, has written, honeybees have always been much more dependent on human beings than the other way around.
(MORE: Behind the Bee's Knees: The Origins of Nine Bee-Inspired Sayings)
The reality is that honeybees are very useful to human beings, and species that are very useful to us—think domesticated animals and pets—tend to do OK in the increasingly human-dominated world we call the Anthropocene. But other wild species aren't so lucky—and that includes the thousands of species of wild bees and other non-domesticated pollinators. Bumblebees have experienced recent and rapid population loss in the U.S., punctuated by a mass pesticide poisoning in Oregon this past June that led to the deaths of some 50,000 bumblebees. A 2006 report by the National Academies of Science concluded that the populations of many other wild pollinators—especially wild bees—was trending "demonstrably downward." The threats are much the same ones faced by managed honeybees: pesticides, lack of wild forage, parasites and disease. The difference is that there are thousands of human beings who make it their business to care for and prop up the populations of honeybees. No one is doing the same thing for wild bees. The supposed beepocalypse is on the cover of TIME magazine, but "you don't hear about the decline of hundreds of species of wild bees," says Jennifer Sass, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
That's meant almost literally—we don't hear them anymore. The plight of the bees illustrates our outsized influence on the this planet as we reshape it—consciously and not—to meet our immediate needs. But just because we have this power doesn't mean we fully understand it, or our impact on our own world. We are a species that increasingly has omnipotence without omniscience. That's a dangerous combination for the animals and plants that share this planet with us. And eventually, it will be dangerous for us, too.
[Read original post via science.time.com]
Learn the WAGGLE DANCE and send it to us to bee in our compilation video!!
In Kentucky, Project Pollinator is replacing grass with native flowers—and the early results for bees have been very promising.
The prairies, sloughs and forests of the great North American continent are home to a dazzling array of flowering plants that nourish pollinators from bees to butterflies and hummingbirds (like a green beauty, probably a ruby-throated hummingbird, I saw feeding from a purple coneflower this weekend in my relative's otherwise grass-dominated backyard in Indianapolis).
But in case you hadn't noticed, humans have the unfortunate habit of replacing these environs with crop fields and lawns. Perfect, manicured, American lawns.
Both cornfields and lawns are examples of monocultures, swaths of land made up of identical species that provide little food and habitat for native pollinators. They are, in a way, wastelands for pollinators, as pointed out in a story at Scientific American.
These beds of ubiquitous green blades, especially when sprayed with herbicides, offer virtually nothing to bees and other creatures on the hunt for food. Even when grasses are allowed to flower—which isn't often, since unruly lawns are frowned upon and can decrease property values—most grasses are wind-pollinated and don't need these animals to carry on their sessile lives.
However, many people are beginning to question the wisdom of the all-encompassing green lawn, and turf is increasingly being replaced by flowering native plants to help pollinators and for aesthetic value. (They also require less maintenance.)
One initiative, called Project Pollinator, is replacing grass with native flowers in Kentucky. Emily Dobbs, a graduate student at the University of Kentucky, and colleagues have planted swaths of indigenous blooms at five golf courses in the state. The project, in its second year, is already having an impact, Dobbs said.
When they began the surveys on turf-dominated ground, the researchers mostly came across a single species of honeybee, besides bumblebees and sweat bees. But now, after introducing eight to 16 native species, Dobbs has found about eight bumblebee species, two dozen species of small solitary species like miner and diggers bees, and butterflies, she said. In the fall they will finalize their recommendation as to what mixture of native plants brings in the most indigenous insects.
"We've seen much more diversity on samples we've taken from the Operation Pollinator plot than in surveys of turf," Dobbs added.
Thanks to the project, the Marriot, which owns many golf courses, has decided to place native flowers on half of its East Coast courses, according to Scientific American.
For people who want to replace their grass lawns with native plants, "two of the most useful online resources are the websites of The Xerces Society, a nonprofit organization devoted to the conservation of invertebrates, and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, a research unit of the University of Austin Texas dedicated to native plants,"Scientific American reports.
Most states also have extension offices, run by their land grant universities, which can recommend native plants to buy.
About one-third of the major industrial crops are also pollinated by bees and other insects. (Such is not the case with wheat and corn, which are mostly wind-pollinated.) Besides flowers cropping up along plots of turf, demand for native crops, pollinated by indigenous insects, has grown, Dobbs said. These include native squash, alfalfa, cranberries and blueberries, Dobbs said.
Supporting locally-grown foods also helps conserve native pollinators.
One contributor to the recent decline of honeybees may be the lack of diversity found in monocultures, research suggests. But this decline also highlights the importance of maintaining populations of local pollinators, many of which are indeed important for engaging in the dance of pollination that allows farmers to put bread (or cranberries) on the table.
So what are you waiting for? Add some flowers to that lawn. The bees will thank you.
[read original post via takepart.com]
[via time.com]
Mass deaths in bee colonies may mean disaster for farmers–and your favorite foods
You can thank the Apis mellifera, better known as the Western honeybee, for 1 in every 3 mouthfuls you'll eat today. Honeybees — which pollinate crops like apples, blueberries and cucumbers — are the "glue that holds our agricultural system together," as the journalist Hannah Nordhaus put it in her 2011 book The Beekeeper's Lament. But that glue is failing. Bee hives are dying off or disappearing thanks to a still-unsolved malady called colony collapse disorder (CCD), so much so that commercial beekeepers are being pushed out of the business.
So what's killing the honeybees? Pesticides — including a new class called neonicotinoids — seem to be harming bees even at what should be safe levels. Biological threats like the Varroa mite are killing off colonies directly and spreading deadly diseases. As our farms become monocultures of commodity crops like wheat and corn — plants that provide little pollen for foraging bees — honeybees are literally starving to death. If we don't do something, there may not be enough honeybees to meet the pollination demands for valuable crops. But more than that, in a world where up to 100,000 species go extinct each year, the vanishing honeybee could be the herald of a permanently diminished planet.
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