Update from the
Heartland
No.669
6.10.14 – 12.10.14
Blog version: http://heartlandupdate.blogspot.com/
To all,
The Ebola outbreak in the West African
countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone has been just beyond my comment
horizon until Sunday morning when the Texas Department of Health Services
announced that a health care provider at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital
involved in the treatment of Thomas Eric Duncan of Liberia has tested positive
for the Ebola virus. This was the
first infection outside West Africa.
What makes the Texas announcement far more serious and concerning is the
fact that the unnamed health care worker reportedly followed all of the Centers
for Disease Control (CDC) containment procedures during the quarantine phase of
Duncan’s treatment. The details
have not yet been made publicly available. Clearly, something either failed procedurally or was not
understood about the virus. The
dimensions of this outbreak have now changed dramatically.
The gears of justice continue to turn
inexorably toward freedom and justice for all. The U.S. Supreme Court issued a short statement that the
Court declined to hear the appeals of circuit court decisions brought by five
states – Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin – regarding
non-heterosexual marriage state laws.
The Court’s refusal to hear these appeals essentially confirms the unconstitutionality
of those affected state laws. The
question of applicability to other states within the three involved circuit
court of appeals jurisdictions should not be an issue, but apparently it
is. Kansas is in the 10th
Circuit Court of Appeals district with Oklahoma and Utah. The Kansas Attorney General filed a
request for an emergency injunction to prevent Johnson County from issuing
marriage licenses to two, female couples.
The Kansas Supreme Court issued that injunction for reasons not yet
known, and scheduled a hearing of the facts in the case in early November. Kansas Governor Brownback publicly
stated his administration’s intention to defend the state’s constitutional
amendment prohibition by all means available to the state. Progress by jerks, as the physicists
say.
Just because a citizen has dark skin
pigmentation does NOT give him the right to defy or insult law enforcement, or
disobey the law. Nor does skin
pigmentation give a citizen a right to riot, incite to riot, mob justice or any
other form of violence. No
reasonable, informed citizen can ignore the concerns of citizens with dark skin
pigmentation; they have endured centuries of oppression, abuse, and
discrimination simply due to the genetic pigmentation in their skin. Yet, if someone acts like a criminal,
they will and should be treated like a criminal – appearance is our first and
sometimes only clue. If someone
feels police or anyone else is discriminating against them, they should use the
legal system to seek remedy or redress, not the streets. Endangering the lives and property of
other citizens is not the answer and will only exacerbate the schism in race relations.
News from the economic front:
-- The U.S. Federal Reserve will continue to hold short-term
interest rates near zero, even as the U.S. economy improves, due to concerns about
disappointing growth in Europe, Japan and China, and the impact on U.S.
exports. On the plus side, the
stronger U.S. dollar could hold U.S. inflation below the Fed's 2% objective by
reducing the cost of imported goods and services.
London Inter-Bank Offered Rate (LIBOR)
Debacle [552]:
-- The Wall Street
Journal reported “a senior banker” from a “leading British bank” pleaded
guilty to attempted manipulation of the LIBOR benchmark interest rates, as a
consequence of the UK’s Serious Fraud Office multi-year investigation. The British court refused to allow
publication of the banker's identity.
According to the Journal, this
is the first defendant in the UK's LIBOR investigation to plead guilty. His punishment is not yet known.
-- So we don’t lose focus . . . the infamous 16, involved,
international banks are:
- · Barclays [UK] – US$454M fine [550]; Singapore sanctions [600]; three charged {Johnson, Mathew, Contogoulas} [636]
- · Bank of America [U.S.] – Singapore sanctions [600]
- · BTMU [Japan] – Singapore sanctions [600]
- · Citigroup [U.S.] – Singapore sanctions [600]
- · Credit Suisse [Switzerland] – Singapore sanctions [600]
- · Deutsche Bank [Germany] – US$654M LIBOR profit [578]; set aside €500M (US$641M) for LIBOR liability [589]; Singapore sanctions [600]
- · Lloyds TSB [UK] – fined US$370M [659]
- · HSBC [UK] – Singapore sanctions [600]
- · HBOS [UK]
- · JPMorgan Chase [U.S.] – Singapore sanctions [600]
- · Norinchuckin [Japan]
- · Rabobank [Netherlands] – fined €774M (£663M, US$1.06B); CEO resigned; 30 others censured [620]; three charged {Robson, Thompson, Motomura} [631]
- · RBC [Canada]
- · RBS [UK] – £390M (US$612.6M) in fines, 21 employees involved [582]; Singapore sanctions [600]
- · UBS [Switzerland] – US$1.5B fine, two charged {Hayes, Darin} [575]; Singapore sanctions [600]
- · West LB [Germany]
Added to the list by the Monetary Authority of Singapore [600]:
- · ING [Netherlands] – Singapore sanctions [600]
- · BNP Paribas [France] – Singapore sanctions [600]
- · Crédit Agricole [France] – Singapore sanctions [600]
- · DBS [Singapore] – Singapore sanctions [600]
- · Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation [Singapore] – Singapore sanctions [600]
- · Standard Chartered [UK] – Singapore sanctions [600]
- · United Overseas Bank [Singapore] – Singapore sanctions [600]
- · Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. [Australia] – Singapore sanctions [600]
- · Macquarie [Australia] – Singapore sanctions [600]
- · Commerzbank [Germany] – Singapore sanctions [600]
Others involved:
- · R.P. Martin Holdings Ltd. [UK] – two charged {Farr, Gilmour} [583]
- · ICAP [UK] – fined US$87M + three executives charged {Read, Wilkinson, Goodman} [615]
I trust none of us will lose sight of what these banks have
done. Lest we forget!
Comments
and contributions from Update no.668:
Comment to the Blog:
“I want to express my agreement with your position on the Texas
law restricting women's access to reproductive health care. The underhanded
spirit of attacking others to gain power has not abated since the Inquisition.
“The unemployment rate appears to be dropping at last. Of course,
real wages in those jobs have dropped rather far. Perhaps if Walmart and many
others paid their workers a living wage, those workers could buy enough things
to make the economy begin to work again. Of course, those employers do not pay
living wages, and I am one of those who resents having to support those workers
with food stamps, Medicaid, etc.”
My response to the Blog:
Re:
intrusive laws. Agreed. Yet, it is not just Texas that has
demonstrated a penchant to pass laws intruding deeply into our private lives
and affairs. Our method of change
is public debate and our votes.
Re:
living wage. As always, we return
to definitions. What exactly is a
living wage? How is it
determined? Who establishes what
that threshold should be?
My very best wishes to all. Take care of yourselves and each other.
Cheers,
Cap :-)
