Obama plan would ‘cut number of regulators,’ empower Fed to supervise firms
June 16, 2009
Raw Story (with AFP)
President Barack Obama will announce Wednesday the White House’s proposal for reforming the U.S. financial system. The plan will call for the closure of the U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), the creation of a new consumer credit protection agency and greater powers for the Federal Reserve to supervise major financial firms.
Reuters characterized the plan as cutting the number of U.S. bank regulators.
The administration would merge the OTS with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, an administration official said Tuesday. The proposal also calls for creating the Consumer Federal Protection Agency (CFPA) to police credit, savings and other payment markets, the official added.
It will be guided by five principles, the official said on condition of anonymity, including “transparency, simplicity, fairness, accountability, and access.”
The agency is one of a number of reforms which Obama is expected to lay out in his latest attempt to shield consumers from the ravages of an out-of-control finance industry blamed for pitching the US and global economy into crisis.
“We are going to put forward a very strong set of regulatory measures that we think can prevent this type of crisis from happening again,” Obama said, after meeting South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak at the White House.
The official said the administration had concluded that previous reforms of the subprime mortgage market and the credit card industry had not yet ensured sufficient protection to consumers and that more measures were needed.
The new agency will be designed to promote concise and clear information for consumers and protect them from “unfair and deceptive practices,” the official said.
The agency will also have the power to reform US mortgage laws to ensure customers get simple mortgage disclosures, and are full aware of risks and benefits of various mortgage products, the official said.
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and chief White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers gave a broad outline of their plan to better regulate the finance industry in an op-ed piece in The Washington Post on Monday.
The government is set to impose stringent capital and liquidity requirements for the largest and most “interconnected” financial firms, they wrote.
All large financial institutions whose failure could threaten the stability of the system will be subject to supervision by the Federal Reserve.
The government will also establish “a council of regulators” with broader coordinating responsibility across the system.
Geithner and Summers further argued that the dramatic growth in financial activity outside the traditional banking system, such as the spread of asset-backed securities, has led to “an erosion of lending standards” which deepened the bust in the housing sector.
CLICK HERE FOR THE RAW STORY ARTICLE
ACLU lawyer: On torture, Obama breaking transparency promises
June 17, 2009 by mike
Filed under Government
June 16, 2009
Raw Story
by David Edwards and Stephen Webster
The Obama administration, as evidenced by the court-ordered release of CIA documents on Monday, is breaking campaign promises for increased transparency, ACLU attorney Ben Wizner said Monday night. Instead, he analogized, Obama is merely continuing Bush-era secrecy surrounding the prior administration’s torture program.
Holding up two documents before cameras on the set of MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show, Wizner attributed one, almost completely censored in black ink, to the Bush administration. The other, which appeared to be nearly identical, he attributed to the Obama administration’s disclosures Monday. The only difference between the two, he noted, was a single sentence that had been unredacted.
“You see this little line here?” he asked Maddow. “It makes you want to say, ‘Keep the change,’ right?”
“I think what’s going on here is very, very clear,” Wizner said. “This is information, the release of which would increase calls for criminal accountability. And that is something that the Obama administration has been fighting to avoid.”
The documents released Monday highlight testimony given by alleged terrorists during their military tribunals.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, allegedly a 9/11 plotter and “arch terrorist,” according to the Bush administration, said he made up stories to appease his interrogators.
”I make up stories,” Mohammed is quoted as saying in his 2007 Gitmo hearing. He also claimed to have taken part in at least 29 terrorist plots.
Mohammed says he told his questioners he didn’t know the location of Osama Bin Laden, and was tortured as a result.
The newly released information, Wizner said, proves that not only was the Bush administration’s torture program illegal and immoral, it was “useless” as well.
CLICK HERE FOR THE RAW STORY ARTICLE AND VIDEO OF THE INTERVIEW REFERENCED
Emory Psychiatrist Draws Fire for Payments From Glaxo
‘Researcher’ found antidepressants like Paxil safe for pregnant & breast-feeding women
June 10, 2009
Wall Street Journal
by David Armstrong
More details are coming out about the relationship between Emory University psychiatrist Zachary Stowe and GlaxoSmithKline, which made payments to Stowe at the same time he was conducting federal research about the use of antipressants, such as Glaxo’s Paxil, in pregnant women.
Emory has reprimanded Stowe, who was instructed to immediately eliminate conflicts related to current federal grants. In a statement, the school said Stowe had informed it of “previously unreported activities and has disclosed his failure to abide by Emory policies.” Stowe, through the university, declined an interview request.
In a letter this month to Emory, Sen. Charles Grassley said records he obtained from Glaxo indicated Stowe was paid $154,400 by the drug company in 2007 and $99,300 during the first 10 months of 2008. Stowe is listed as the primary investigator on at least three National Institutes of Health grants, beginning in 2003 and continuing through last year, that involve antidepressant use in pregnant women and the effects on children delivered by those women.
Meanwhile, Stowe outlined some dealings with Glaxo in a deposition last year taken as part of a lawsuit claiming that Paxil isn’t safe for pregnant women. Stowe was questioned in detail about a 2000 email from an outside public-relations firm to a marketing executive at Glaxo about a planned press release for a new study. The study, conducted by Stowe, found Paxil is safe for breast-feeding mothers. The PR firm’s email to Glaxo reads:
Please review the attached press release and forward me any comments/edits. As you may know, Dr. Stowe is on board for publicity efforts and Sherri and I are coordinating time to meet with him next week to arm him with key messages for this announcement, which is slated for early February. We are sending the release for his review at the same time in efforts to secure distribution on Emory letterhead (as you know, would provide further credibility to data for the media).
In the deposition, Stowe said the quotes in the press release were his own. “They wrote it, we said it,” Stowe said of the involvement of the public-relations agency. As for the assertion by the PR official that Stowe was being provided with “key messages,” the psychiatrist called that “just typical public relations crap” and he said in the deposition he never received help from the PR officials.
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE WSJ STORY
The FULL interview of Kevin with Tom from HempUSA.org
Kevin spoke with Thomas James from HempUSA.org. The discussion included why the US government chooses to remain the last industrialized country IN THE WORLD to allow hemp to be legally grown, the nutritional benefits of hemp seeds, oil, and powder; the benefits of using hemp for paper and clothing; PLUS a whole lot more. You can hear the interview, commercial-free and in its entirety, by clicking HERE and downloading it from iTunes.
The Kevin Trudeau Show: 06-16-09
June 16, 2009 by mike
Filed under Archives, Kevin's Blog
Kevin is back from Europe, and he’s baffled at what passes as news in the US. Celebrity cellulite? Recaping The View? Parents of 8 divorcing? Sylvester Stallone’s pinky?!? Despite the MSM’s best effort to dumb us down, KT is here to fill you in on what’s really going on. Today that includes:
Why you can’t sue the FTC
Tom James from HempUSA.org explains wide-ranging benefits of hemp
The hypocrisy of the US govt limiting CEO pay…
AND the solution…A POLITICIAN PAY CZAR
Restless Leg Syndrome–an absurd medical ‘ailment’
Organic bakeries
How YOU are in charge of your own reality
Take Trudeau on the Go! Click here to download this show to your ipod, mp3 player, or PC at Itunes! Don’t forget to subscribe to the RSS feed to get The Kevin Trudeau Show automatically sent to your player of choice and never miss a must-hear Kevin Trudeau Show!
Click below to hear The Kevin Trudeau Show!
FDA warns against using 3 popular Zicam cold meds
June 16, 2009
CNN
By Saundra Young
WASHINGTON – The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday warned consumers to stop using certain Zicam nasal cold remedy products, saying they can cause users to lose their sense of smell permanently.
The agency says that since 1999, it has received more than 130 reports of loss of smell associated with Zicam Cold Remedy Nasal Gel; Zicam Cold Remedy Nasal Swabs; and Zicam Cold Remedy Swabs, kids size. The products have been linked to long-lasting or permanent loss of smell called anosmia. In some cases, the loss of smell occurred after the first dose.
“Loss of sense of smell is a serious risk for people who use these products for relief from cold symptoms,” said Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “We are concerned that consumers may unknowingly use a product that could cause serious harm, and therefore we are advising them not to use these products for any reason.”
The popular homeopathic medications are sold over the counter and aimed at reducing the severity and duration of cold symptoms.
The FDA says consumers should stop using the products immediately. The agency has sent Matrixx Initiatives, which makes Zicam, a warning letter telling it the products can no longer be marketed without FDA approval.
The FDA says consumers experiencing any loss of smell or taste after using nasal products that contain zinc should contact their physician.
CLICK HERE FOR THE ARTICLE FROM CNN
ABC TURNS PROGRAMMING OVER TO OBAMA
June 16, 2009 by mike
Filed under Government
ABC NEWS TO BE ANCHORED FROM INSIDE WHITE HOUSE
June 16, 2009
Drudge Report
On the night of June 24, the media and government become one, when ABC turns its programming over to President Obama and White House officials to push government run health care — a move that has ignited an ethical firestorm!
Highlights on the agenda:
ABCNEWS anchor Charlie Gibson will deliver WORLD NEWS from the Blue Room of the White House.
The network plans a primetime special — ‘Prescription for America’ — originating from the East Room, exclude opposing voices on the debate.
MORE
Late Monday night, Republican National Committee Chief of Staff Ken McKay fired off a complaint to the head of ABCNEWS:
Dear Mr. Westin:
As the national debate on health care reform intensifies, I am deeply concerned and disappointed with ABC’s astonishing decision to exclude opposing voices on this critical issue on June 24, 2009. Next Wednesday, ABC News will air a primetime health care reform “town hall” at the White House with President Barack Obama. In addition, according to an ABC News report, GOOD MORNING AMERICA, WORLD NEWS, NIGHTLINE and ABC’s web news “will all feature special programming on the president’s health care agenda.” This does not include the promotion, over the next 9 days, the president’s health care agenda will receive on ABC News programming.
Today, the Republican National Committee requested an opportunity to add our Party’s views to those of the President’s to ensure that all sides of the health care reform debate are presented. Our request was rejected. I believe that the President should have the ability to speak directly to the America people. However, I find it outrageous that ABC would prohibit our Party’s opposing thoughts and ideas from this national debate, which affects millions of ABC viewers.
In the absence of opposition, I am concerned this event will become a glorified infomercial to promote the Democrat agenda. If that is the case, this primetime infomercial should be paid for out of the DNC coffers. President Obama does not hold a monopoly on health care reform ideas or on free airtime. The President has stated time and time again that he wants a bipartisan debate. Therefore, the Republican Party should be included in this primetime event, or the DNC should pay for your airtime.
Respectfully,
Ken McKay
Republican National Committee
Chief of Staff
MORE
ABCNEWS Senior Vice President Kerry Smith on Tuesday responded to the RNC complaint, saying it contained ‘false premises’:
“ABCNEWS prides itself on covering all sides of important issues and asking direct questions of all newsmakers — of all political persuasions — even when others have taken a more partisan approach and even in the face of criticism from extremes on both ends of the political spectrum. ABCNEWS is looking for the most thoughtful and diverse voices on this issue.
“ABCNEWS alone will select those who will be in the audience asking questions of the president. Like any programs we broadcast, ABC News will have complete editorial control. To suggest otherwise is quite unfair to both our journalists and our audience.”
CLICK HERE FOR THE STORY ON DRUDGE
Major Countries May Buy Each Other’s Bonds in Shift From Dollar
Brazil, Russia, India and China looking to shift dependence from weakening US currency
June 16, 2009
Bloomberg
By Lyubov Pronina and Alex Nicholson
Brazil, Russia, India and China are considering buying each other’s bonds and swapping currencies to lessen dependence on the U.S. dollar, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s top economic adviser said.
The leaders of the so-called BRIC countries will discuss measures to promote regional currencies when they meet later today, Arkady Dvorkovich told reporters in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg before the first BRIC summit.
“There will be talk about increasing the share of mutual trade in national currencies, possibly placing part of reserves in the financial instruments of partner countries,” Dvorkovich said.
Medvedev is hosting back-to-back summits of developing economies in Yekaterinburg as he seeks to lessen the world economy’s dependence on the U.S. dollar. Medvedev will hold talks later today with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Medvedev and Hu earlier today attended a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which also includes the four former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
The Russian leader reiterated his intention to push for the creation of a “supranational currency” to challenge the U.S. dollar and encouraged China and the other Shanghai group members to use each other’s currencies for trade.
“There can be no successful global currency system if the financial instruments that are used are denominated in only one currency,” Medvedev said. “Today this is the case and the currency is the dollar.”
The meetings “show a very strong desire of developing countries to play a bigger role in world finance, especially given the growing insecurity related to the current crisis,” said Masha Lipman, a political analyst at the Carnegie Center in Moscow, in an interview with Bloomberg Television today.
Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on June 13 that the dollar’s “fundamental indicators” are “fine” and that he was confident in the currency’s strength. A week earlier, Medvedev said the dollar isn’t in “a spectacular position” and questioned its future as a global reserve currency.
Dvorkovich said the positions of Medvedev and Kudrin aren’t contradictory and that the Russian government is united on its dollar policy.
“In the long term, it is beneficial for all and all agree that the world needs a few strong currencies,” Dvorkovich said. “It cannot happen quickly.”
FULL BLOOMBERG ARTICLE FOUND HERE
Anti-depressants Can Damage Men’s Sperm
SSRI use weakens the sperm of 50% of men taking it
June 11, 2009
Chicago Tribune
Add anti-depressants to the list of substances that can damage men’s sperm and potentially impair their fertility.
In a new study, New York researchers report that as many as half of men taking the anti-depressant paroxetine (brand names, Seroxat and Paxil) have higher levels of sperm fragmentation.
The study was published online today by the journal Fertility & Sterility.
“It’s fairly well known that SSRI anti-depressants negatively impact erectile function and ejaculation. This study goes on step further, demonstrating that they can cause a major increase in genetic damage to sperm,” said Dr. Peter Schlegel, the study’s senior author and professor of reproductive medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York.
“Although this study doesn’t look directly at fertility, we can infer that as many as half of men taking SSRIs have a reduced ability to conceive. These men should talk with their physicians about their treatment options,” he added.
The study followed 35 healthy men who took paroxetine for five weeks. Tests were used to examine DNA fragmentation, which occurs when sperm DNA is missing pieces of the genetic code. The results showed that 50 percent of men had signs of abnormal DNA fragmentation while taking the drug, compared with less than 10 percent at the start of the trial.
The men’s sperm returned to normal after discontinuing the drug.
Dr. Cigdem Tanrikut speculated that the anti-depressant caused mens’ sperm to slow down as it makes its way through the male reproductive tract. Sperm gets “hung up,” she said in a statement, allowing it to age and become damaged.
The amount, concentration and motility of sperm were not significantly changed by the medication.
Though men may not know it, sperm can be damaged by various substances, including smoking, alcohol, heat, anabolic steroids, drug abuse, sexually transmitted diseases and some environmental exposures.
CLICK HERE FOR THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE STORY
Eli Lily ‘Ghostwrote’ Articles to Market Drug, Files Say
June 11, 2009
Bloomberg
by Elizabeth Lopatto, Jef Feeley and Margaret Cronin Fisk
Eli Lilly & Co. officials wrote medical journal studies about the antipsychotic Zyprexa and then asked doctors to put their names on the articles, a practice called “ghostwriting,” according to unsealed company files.
Lilly employees also compiled a guide to hiring scientists to write favorable articles, complained to journal editors when publication was delayed and submitted rejected articles to other outlets, according to documents filed in drug-overpricing suits against the Indianapolis-based company, the largest manufacturer of psychiatric medicines.
Drugmakers’ use of ghostwriters has created “a huge body of medical literature that society can’t trust,” said Carl Elliott, a University of Minnesota bioethicist who has written about the practice.
Lilly sought to make Zyprexa “the number one selling psychotropic in history,” according to a 2000 plan distributed to its product team. The memo was among more than 10,000 pages of internal documents unsealed last month in lawsuits by insurers and pension funds seeking to recoup money spent on the drug. They allege Lilly exaggerated Zyprexa’s effectiveness.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn’t have a guidance document or regulations specific to ghostwriting, said Karen Riley, an FDA spokeswoman.
Lemons declined to answer specific questions about ghostwriting. There is no evidence in the unsealed documents that doctors were paid to sign off on the ghostwritten items.
“We believe these documents describe the marketing of a widely promoted and powerfully dangerous psychotropic medication,” said Thomas Sobol, lead attorney for the insurance plans. “Transparency is critically important.”
Lilly isn’t the only drugmaker to use ghostwriters to win favorable play in medical journals. Merck & Co. and Pfizer Inc. also have faced claims they used ghostwriters as part of their marketing plans.
In May 2008, Whitehouse Station, New Jersey-based Merck agreed to pay $58 million to 29 states and to stop ghostwriting articles to resolve claims that its advertisements for the withdrawn painkiller Vioxx hid the drug’s health risks.
Pfizer paid $60 million to 33 states in October to settle claims it improperly marketed its Bextra and Celebrex pain relievers. New York-based Pfizer agreed to halt off-label marketing of the medicines and stop ghostwriting about them. It withdrew Bextra in April 2005. Celebrex is still on the market.
Antipsychotics have become the U.S.’s best-selling class of drugs, with 2008 sales of $14.6 billion, according to IMS Health, a health-care consulting firm.
The insurers suing Lilly contend it should pay as much as $6.8 billion in damages for downplaying Zyprexa’s health risks and marketing the drug for unapproved uses to increase profits.
The antipsychotic is Lilly’s top-selling drug, with $4.7 billion in sales last year, accounting for almost a quarter of the company’s revenue. Lilly officials said in 2002 they sought to boost Zyprexa sales to $6 billion within four years, according to a document unsealed in the insurers’ case.
Lilly agreed in January to pay $1.42 billion to the U.S. government and more than 30 states to settle off-label marketing allegations over Zyprexa. The agreement included a $615 million penalty for a federal criminal charge of illegally marketing the drug to elderly patients for off-label uses.
The company also faces suits from 12 states over its Zyprexa marketing practices. Cases brought by South Carolina and Connecticut officials are set for trial later this year.
LINK TO THE FULL BLOOMBERG ARTICLE HERE
