Grandma peddles fruit to cover medical bills

Grandmother Sells Fruit to Cover Medical Costs New American Media

Impulso, Profile, Miriam Reyes, Posted: Dec 05, 2009 Review it on NewsTrust

A 76-year-old fruit peddler works the streets of South Los Angeles to meet medical expenses, maintain a sense of purpose, and help her family through tough times. She's made some friends along the way, too.

Doña Blanca Alvarez, a courageous woman working through hard times, sells fruits and vegetables on the streets of South Los Angeles.

Neither the cold nor the economic crisis discourage 76-year-old Blanca Alvarez from going out each day to push her cart over the streets of South Los Angeles, selling fruits and vegetables to customers who have been acquaintances and friends.

Alvarez pushes the cart to make enough money to pay for the medicines and vitamins she needs more and more as she ages. Anything extra goes to the expenses of the household she shares with some of her children and grandchildren. There's more, too, because this immigrant from Michoacan, Mexico, says that her little business makes her feel like a productive person even though she lives with her children.

"I go around selling tomatoes, cilantro, onions, strawberries, mangos, bananas, melons — anything I can find when I go to the [wholesale produce] market at Olympic at Central," she says with a smile. "I do it to help myself a little bit, because I get sick frequently and I need the money to buy my medicines, because they're very expensive now and I only have emergency care."

Alvarez says that three years ago she had a gastric ulcer that burst, and soon needed $600 worth of medicines. Then she found it would cost more to stay on the diet suggested by doctors who treated the condition.

"With the money I earn from these fruits and vegetables I can buy myself the medicines and vitamins I need to take care of all my ailments like the pains in my back and legs, among others," she says. "In addition, I'm left with a little extra money to buy other personal items I need, and even to help a little bit with the household food expenses."

The doomsday scenario (again) from Roubini

Road to Riches: A new doomsday scenario - KC Star

As your holiday shopping spree morphs into a wrapping frenzy, wrap your brain around this obscure economic nugget – the carry trade.

Chances are, you’ll hear more and more about the carry trade in the new year.

Already it’s fueling serious economic debate.
Economist Nouriel Roubini, a.k.a. Dr. Doom, blames the carry trade for what he predicts will become the mother of all bubbles. Others cite the carry trade as a brewing speculative problem, though with less dramatic consequences.

Here’s how some believe the carry trade is inflating a new bubble.

It starts with super low interest rates in the United States.

Our Federal Reserve drove short-term rates to historically low levels as one of several moves to halt last winter’s financial crisis and reverse the now two-year-old recession. Cheap money helps businesses finance expansions, consumers buy cars, and the U. S. Treasury finance stimulus packages.

But cheap money is cheap for everyone, including the carry-trade speculator.
In a simple carry trade, an investor borrows dollars cheaply and converts them into another currency, let’s say euros, and then uses the euros to buy securities that earn higher interest rates.

The investor profits by earning higher rates in Europe while paying lower rates in the United States.

But that’s not the carry trade threat Roubini warns about. To get to his scenario, we have to ratchet up the game with a currency side bet, and leverage it more with a high-stakes payoff.

The side bet is that the U.S. dollar will itself get cheaper before the investor has to pay back the bucks he borrowed. As that happens, the investor needs fewer euros to pay back the U.S. dollar loan, turning some of his euros into increased profit.

This is exactly how it has played out since mid-February as the dollar has fallen sharply against other currencies.

By Roubini’s math, the declining value of the dollar more than offsets the low interest cost on the dollar loan. He argues that the carry trade funded with borrowed dollars generates it own substantial profit simply from the dollar’s weakness, even if the investments bought with euros don’t earn a thing.

But we’re still not to Roubini’s disruptive scenario.

To get there, the investor uses his euros to invest in a high-return asset.
Think gold, whose price has climbed 27 percent since mid-February, or Asian real estate stocks that have jumped 70 percent, or even U.S. stocks that have risen 30 percent higher since then.

Here’s Roubini’s hammer.

He basically argues that the dollar carry trade isn’t simply benefiting from these rapidly rising markets, it’s causing them. Not by itself, but certainly in a significant way by funneling buyers their way.

All’s well until the big payoffs stop, perhaps because U.S. interest rates begin to climb or the U.S. dollar strengthens.

If a Roubini-style carry trade bubble has inflated by then, we can expect a stampede to rival any Friday-after-Thanksgiving door-buster rush. These crowds, however, will be clamoring to get out of their carry-trade funded positions in gold, Asian real estate and Dow Jones stocks.

Pop! The bubble bursts, and we all know how that goes.

Certainly not everyone buys Roubini’s doomsday scenario. And some serious economists dismiss the idea.
But it’s an uncomforting thought that threatens to linger well past the holidays.

Road to Riches appears in Dollars & Sense every other week. To reach Mark Davis, call 816-234-4372 or send e-mail to mdavis@kcstar.com.

Dole Europe announces vp

Dole's new role for faithful Foukra - FreshInfo

Dole Food Company has appointed Fouad Foukra as vice president general manager for Dole Europe.

In the role for Dole Europe, which now covers more than 30 countries, Foukra is responsible for implementing Dole’s business strategy in the region. He will also be in charge of strengthening Dole’s network, which controls forward-integrated operations and offers retail customers a co-ordinated, centrally managed and efficient service.

Fouad Foukra graduated from a Paris Business School before joining the marketing department of Dole Europe in France in 1995. He was then promoted to general manager for the European Division, Dole Med, located in Istanbul, where he was in charge of developing business opportunities in the region.

In 2006, when Dole Europe acquired JP Fruit Distributors Ltd in the UK, Fouad Foukra endorsed the role of general manager of this new division, known today as Dole Fresh UK.

Foukra said: “It is a privilege to be granted the opportunity to work with my colleagues across the Dole network to lead Dole towards achieving its goals. The markets in which we operate are constantly evolving. I’m by the prospect of developing relationships with our customers and demonstrating that Dole understands their requirements, and that Dole is the right choice both from a product offering and from a service delivery perspective.’

Jean-Christophe Juilliard, president of Dole Europe, said: “I’ve been working with Fouad for 15 years now and I know that his knowledge of our network and of the specific markets in Europe will be a major asset in relaying, co-ordinating and implementing our development strategy, in even closer relationship with our retail partners.”

Banana dispute settled?

FACTBOX-Bananas dispute at the World Trade Organisation - Reuters

Dec 4 (Reuters) - The European Union and two groups of developing countries say they have settled a row about the European Union's import regime for bananas.

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The row is the longest-running world trade dispute, and could derail the Doha round talks at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on a new global trade pact.

Bananas are vital to the economies of several Latin American countries, such as Ecuador, the world's biggest exporter, and to other former European colonies in Africa, the Pacific, and the Caribbean (ACP) -- especially in the West Indies. In 2006 bananas made up 10 percent of Ecuador's and Costa Rica's export revenues, 21 percent for Dominica and 29 percent for St Vincent.

The Caribbean and African exports rely on preferential treatment in the EU -- the world's biggest importer -- because their growers are less efficient. The Latin Americans are increasing market share even under present arrangements, but say they are being held back from selling more of a crucial product.

The EU -- itself one of the world's top 20 banana producers -- covers one sixth of consumption from domestic consumption, one sixth from ACP countries and two thirds from Latin America. Other big markets are the United States, Japan and Russia.

Some ACP countries accept they must pull out of the banana trade -- with traumatic effects on small island communities.

But whether they quit or attempt to become more competitive, they want time and protection in that transition.

The United States does not grow or export bananas on a large scale, but several U.S. companies are major distributors of Latin American produce -- Chiquita Brands International (CQB.N), Del Monte Foods (DLM.N) and Dole Food (DOLE.N).

Within the EU, Ireland's Fyffes (FFY.I) is an important distributor of bananas.

THE DISPUTES

Latin American producers (including the Philippines) and U.S. distributors have mounted nearly a dozen successful challenges to EU import rules for bananas that favour imports from former European colonies in the ACP countries.

In the face of those challenges, the EU cut its tariff for bananas to 176 euros ($265.3) a tonne, while retaining a duty-free quota for the ACP countries of 775,000 tonnes. Previously Latin American exporters paid 75 euros a tonne within a quota of 2.2 mln tonnes but 680 euros a tonne in excess of the quotas.

Latin Americans say the new regime is still discriminatory.

The EU has negotiated new preferential arrangements, known as economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with ACP countries that are WTO-compliant, after a previous WTO waiver on special treatment for ACP states expired at the end of 2007.

But in November 2008 the WTO's top court ruled that the EU banana import regime remained in breach of trade rules as the EU was still obliged to offer Latin American exporters the higher quota and lower tariff under the previous system.

THE DEAL

During a meeting of trade ministers in July 2008 seeking a breakthrough in the Doha round, Brussels and the Latin Americans negotiated a deal that would cut the tariff to $114 a tonne by 2016, with an initial cut to $148.

Brussels walked away from that agreement when the overall Doha talks collapsed.

Diplomats said the new deal -- which has not yet been published -- would involve the same figures, but the final level would not be reached until later than 2016.

The ACP countries agreed to this because of an aid package from the EU of about 200 million euros (although there will be lively discussions within the group about how to divide that up) and concessions in broader talks about the treatment of other tropical products, such as sugar, rum, tobacco, arrowroot, cut flowers and fruit, exported by both groups.

The EU will also have to square its own growers in Spain's Canary Islands and France's Caribbean territories, as well as Portugal, Greece and Cyprus.

The EU gets a "peace clause" promising no further WTO litigation -- though whether this takes effect from when the deal is signed or when the EU formally registers its new tariffs at the WTO has been contentious.

The deal will be embedded in any future Doha agreement, and there will be arrangements for dealing with the possibility that Doha never comes off.

THE DOHA IMPACT

Bananas can block an overall Doha deal because the agriculture negotiating text includes two conflicting proposals -- one for countries enjoying preferential access to rich markets, like the ACP states, chaired by Mauritius, and one for the exporters of tropical products, coordinated by Costa Rica.

Tropical products would enjoy faster and steeper cuts in tariffs than the round would otherwise generate. But tariffs on products with preferences would be cut more slowly to alleviate the erosion of the developing countries' relative advantage.

Honduras estimates that under the WTO's current Doha round negotiations, the regular agriculture proposals would see the tariff on bananas fall to 76 euros a tonne over 5 years -- or to only 26 euros over four years if treated as a tropical product.

The ACP and tropical products countries are negotiating with each other to remove the overlaps from their lists.

But if the banana dispute is not resolved, both would be likely to add the fruit to their lists, making an agreement on that aspect of the talks impossible.

In the WTO's consensus-driven system, agreement is only possible if every member signs up to it. And under the Doha round's single undertaking, nothing is agreed unless everything is agreed. So a dispute about bananas could prevent agreement about liberalising trade in grain, cars and financial services.

Trucker group: suspend CARB regs

SPECIAL REPORT: OOIDA calls for suspension of CARB regs

Friday, Dec. 4, 2009 – OOIDA President Jim Johnston has called on the California Air Resources Board to suspend upcoming enforcement dates for two major emissions rules, which are about to be enforced.

In a letter sent to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and CARB Chairman Mary Nichols, Johnston said enforcement of the state’s drayage rule and Transport Refrigerated Unit rules should be delayed because of the ongoing economic recession combined with the air quality agency’s emerging scandal, which “calls into question the legitimacy of the regulatory process used.”

“Considering our nation’s deep economic recession and the havoc it is wreaking on owner-operators and small-business motor carriers both in California and outside the state, I respectfully request that you grant an extension of the enforcement dates. This would allow more time for owner-operators and small-business motor carriers to access federal funding opportunities that have yet to be disbursed,” Johnston wrote.

The CARB port drayage rule is scheduled to prohibit pre-1994 model year truck engines from being used on trucks at the port beginning on Jan. 1, 2010. The reefer, or TRU rule, requires trucks that haul reefers in California to meet the equipment portion of the state’s “In-Use Performance Standards” for 2001 and older reefers beginning on Dec. 31, 2009.

OOIDA’s request comes on the heels of a major scandal breaking this week in which it was shown that CARB’s project team leader for developing its most expensive rule to date – the truck and bus retrofit rule – falsely claimed his education credentials.

While Johnston referenced the scandal in his letter, the nation’s economic crisis and particularly California’s down economy make a delay in the rules’ enforcement necessary, he said.

CARB recently announced that many truck owners who obtained government grants to pay for emissions upgrades have been given a four-month extension to meet the port drayage rule. OOIDA believes that extension provides a particularly unfair advantage to some motor carriers.

“The deepest economic recession since the 1970s has placed the economic viability of many owner-operators and small-business truckers at significant risk,” Johnston wrote.

“The high failure rate of trucking companies in this economy is well documented, and those not fortunate enough to secure public grants to aid in the high cost of compliance are placed in an unfair disadvantage versus their competitors (many who are larger motor carriers) that have received various forms of government aid.”

Johnston pointed out that CARB granted an extension on the TRU rule in July out of concern for many truckers not being able to meet the original compliance date, and noted “that fact is still true.”

In addition, two CARB board members have publicly called for the suspension of the truck and bus rule to “re-establish the public trust,” Johnston wrote. “An extension would be viewed by many as a goodwill effort by the State of California while the Board sorts through the implications of the fraud.”

OOIDA has more than 157,000 members nationally and more than 5,500 members in California.

In e-mails sent between CARB board members, Nichols and a head of the California EPA, CARB researcher Hien Tran was revealed to not have a degree, though the agency and state officials defended him publicly.

CARB’s truck and bus retrofit rule was approved partly because of Tran’s research in the report, “Methodology for Estimating Premature Death Associated with Long-Term Exposure to Find Airborne Particulate matter in California.” In the report, Tran falsely claimed that he had a Ph.D. in statistics from The University of California at Davis.

Tran purportedly confessed on Dec. 10, one day before CARB’s December 2008 board meeting began, and two days before the board approved its most expensive rule yet – the truck and bus retrofit rule.

“I believe the legitimacy of the (truck and bus rule) vote to be in question,” wrote CARB Board member John Telles, a cardiologist, in a letter to CARB’s chief counsel.

Later, he said a “fundamental violation of procedure,” combined with the agency’s failure to reveal that information to the board before it voted to approve the truck and bus measure “not only casts doubt upon the legitimacy of the truck rule, but also upon the legitimacy of CARB itself.”

CARB’s Nichols apparently knew that the researcher lied but withheld that information from most of the board for nearly a year.

Two CARB board members have criticized the agency as a whole for the research scandal and apparent cover-up.

CARB is scheduled to hold its December meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 9.

To read a copy of Johnston’s letter, click here.

– By Charlie Morasch, staff writer
charlie_morasch@landlinemag.com

From tree branches to biofuel?

Govt: Some $600M to go to energy plants - AP

By JOHN SEEWER (AP)

TOLEDO, Ohio — The federal government is speeding up plans to produce more renewable fuels, announcing Friday it will spend nearly $600 million to help build plants that turn wood chips, cornstalks and algae into fuel.

The government will team up with private companies to create 19 biorefinery projects in 15 states. The government's $564 million share will come from stimulus funds and will be combined with $700 million in private investments.

The ideas range from scooping up algae from ponds in New Mexico and converting it to jet fuel to using wood waste from a wall panel company in Michigan to make ethanol.

In announcing the undertaking, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said President Barack Obama told his administration to speed up the timetable for creating renewable fuel projects and jobs.

Vilsack said he sees a time when these type of plants are found all over rural America. Most would be small operations unlike large oil refineries.

"It is really about bringing a sense of new prosperity to rural communities," Vilsack said. "This is going to make a big difference for America."

Most of the plants will use new technology and operate as demonstration or test factories. One goal is to show private investors that renewable energy projects can turn a profit.

The projects have the potential to create an entire new industry and thousands of jobs, especially in rural America where agriculture and forest waste is cheap and plentiful, said U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who attended the same news conference in Toledo, where a pilot plant will turn agriculture waste into diesel fuel.

"We tried to pick the most promising projects," Chu said.

Anything from poultry fat to tree branches and even grass clippings could be turned into fuel.

"Those are the ingredients," Chu said. "You're taking waste material and creating a high value fuel."

The 15 states involved are California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

How long it will take for privately owned plants to begin operating isn't clear. Administration officials hope to see it happen within the next few years.

Dennis Schuetzle, president of Renewable Energy Institute International, which is operating the Toledo project, said his company hopes its first commercial plant could be operating by the end of 2012.

Ohio is making a push to reshape itself into a renewable energy leader after being battered by auto and manufacturing job losses. There's a proposal for wind mills on Lake Erie off Cleveland, while Toledo is becoming a national hub for solar energy research and manufacturing.

U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, a Democrat from Toledo, said the new biodiesel plant, fits nicely with the area's solar industry. "The project being rolled out here, we hope, can be rolled out to the rest of the world," she said.

Health care horror

Democrats create health care horror - Detroit News
Robert Goldberg

The Senate health reform debate is well under way. Democrats have promised that this bill and its companion measure in the House will accomplish three major things: Extend health coverage to the uninsured; provide those who already have insurance with better health care choice; and cut health costs.

In truth, both bills fail on all these counts.

First, both bills would also burden middle-class Americans with billions of dollars in taxes and fees. The taxes and fees kick in next year. The health care coverage doesn't start until six years from now.

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Under the Senate version, individuals who fail to purchase health insurance would have to pony up $750 annually starting in 2016. The House bill would peg that new tax directly to one's annual salary -- charging those who fail to purchase insurance 2.5 percent of their modified adjusted gross income.

Both bills also feature a hefty hidden tax. Because they bar insurers from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions and require that everyone be charged similar premiums, the bills would send the price of insurance ever higher, especially for young people. It's estimated that these moves would end up increasing the cost of private health insurance by 300 percent for each individual or $100 billion over the next 10 years. Congress may not believe those price increases are taxes, but they'll have the exact same impact on the average family's bottom line.

Next, nearly 13 million seniors will be cut from Medicare Advantage, the most popular part of that program. At the same time, the fees doctors and other providers get paid under Medicare will be cut and many new technologies that extend the life of seniors will not be covered.

Then, the same group that came up with the "evidence" that led to the "just say no to mammogram" recommendation for women younger than 50 will churn out a laundry list of what medical tests, services and technologies should be covered and what care should not. That will be called quality by a Quality Commission or Quality Choices Commissioner. Your health plans will pay for what this group decides upon. And that is what is known as "choice" under healthcare reform.

Third, according to the chief actuary for Medicare and Medicaid, over half of the people getting new insurance -- about 18 million to 21 million -- would be enrolled into an expanded Medicaid program. That will require massive increases in state taxes since it will be state Medicaid programs that will be mandated to cover the cost of people who are barred from any other type of health insurance under either the House or Senate proposal.

Only between 8 million and 10 million people -- about 38 percent -- would get coverage through a new national insurance exchange, helped out by taxpayer subsidies.

When all is said and done, between 23 and 30 million Americans will still go without health insurance in 2019 under either version. Why? People, particularly the young, would rather pay $750 a year and then enroll in a health plan when they find out they are sick -- as they will be allowed and encouraged to under both plans -- rather than invest in and be rewarded for their health.

For this slight reduction in America's uninsured rate, the costs are enormous. The "sticker price" over the next 10 years for both bills is nearly $1 trillion. But neither counts what states have to pick up in Medicaid costs and a lot of line-item projects that add up to about $250 billion. Both presume that compliance with penalties and taxes will immediately hit 100 percent.

Meanwhile, the average cost of health insurance for most Americans will go up, not down. And in exchange for that privilege, they will pay higher taxes, face greater debt and encounter a healthcare system with fewer doctors, longer waiting lines and less innovation. If that's increasing health coverage, widening choice and making health care more affordable, I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.

Robert Goldberg is vice president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest.

Obama and the jobs question

Obama: efforts aimed at economy's long-term health - AP

By WILL LESTER (AP) – 1 hour ago

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Saturday sought to reassure Americans frustrated by high unemployment that he's concentrating on jobs, while defending his administration's efforts to strengthen the economy on several fronts.

"In the coming days, I'll be unveiling additional ideas aimed at accelerating job growth and hiring as we emerge from this economic storm," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address. "And so that we don't face another crisis like this again, I'm determined to meet our responsibility to do what we know will strengthen our economy in the long run."

Obama said he has no intention of backing off his administration's efforts to overhaul health care, improve education, invest in a clean energy economy and deal with mounting federal debts.
But he acknowledged the pain felt by millions of the unemployed.

Job losses in the U.S. have been the worst since the 1930s, but new statistics out Friday showed a relatively moderate loss of 11,000 jobs last month. The unemployment rate dipped from 10.2 percent in October to 10 percent in November.

Obama has faced criticism for tackling various problems simultaneously while the unemployment rate has been growing. He said the economy is turning around, even if slowly.

Americans "are in a very different place than we were when 2009 began," Obama said. He cited economic recovery efforts as part of the reason "we're no longer facing the potential collapse of our financial system or a second Great Depression. We're no longer losing jobs at a rate of 700,000 a month. And our economy's growing for the first time in a year."

"But for those who were laid off last month and the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs in this recession, a good trend isn't good enough," he said.

In a speech Tuesday, Obama plans to send Congress an initial list of ideas he supports for a jobs bill that could include new hiring incentives for business, home weatherization projects and the construction of roads and bridges.

Rising anger over joblessness threatens the president's agenda. Obama held a jobs forum at the White House on Thursday, made a trip Friday to visit business owners, workers and the unemployed in Allentown, Pa., and set the jobs-bill speech for next week. The president must connect with voters to boost the chances of his legislative efforts and for Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections and his own in 2012.

"The folks who have been looking for work without any luck for months and, in some cases, years, can't wait any longer," he said. "For them, I'm determined to do everything I can to accelerate our progress so we're actually adding jobs again."

While pledging to work hard on creating more jobs, Obama said he plans to continue his efforts to deal with the country's pressing long-term problems.

"I didn't run for president to pass emergency recovery programs or to bail out banks or to shore up auto companies," he said. "I didn't run for president simply to manage the crisis of the moment while kicking our most pressing problems down the road