Over at Bloomberg, they are reporting about a clash between the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Treasury Department about which parts of the now infamous 'Stress Tests' to be publicized, and by whom...a stress test that is intended by design to be impossible to fail.
While they hire accounting contortionists to obfuscate the reality of their predicament, and by extension ours as well, I would like to add my own metric for the assessment of the state of the nation, one that hopefully is based on FACTS, and not the re-inflation of some illusory bubble of prosperity...
Please, join me across the fold for my recent economic 'stress test' results.
I was over at the Huffington Post this morning, and saw the Bloomberg article about Geithner and his panties in a wad over the stress test, directly above an article about the latest family murder-suicide....and I snapped inside. It occurred to me that this juxtaposition of these two articles was an expression of the dichotomy of our situation.... We have Wall Street bitching about how much of the truth about their insolvency they will be forced to admit to, while Main Street is struggling with the repercussions of their denial... As if this is STILL a fucking game to these people. Do they really have no clue what they are doing to the rest of us? Or do they not really care?
5 People Found Dead In Maryland Home: Police
MIDDLETOWN, Md. — An accountant for a railroad operator killed his wife and their three children before fatally shooting himself in a northwest Maryland home, leaving a gruesome scene that was discovered Saturday by the youngsters' grandfather, authorities said.
Authorities didn't specify a motive but said there was evidence the man faced psychiatric and financial problems.
And anyone who has been paying attention can see that this is not an isolated occurrence...with the downturn in the economy comes an uptick in stress...and as Revelations says "and hell followed with him..."
Shootings, murder-suicide raise broader question: Is violence linked to recession?
Atlanta (3/30/09)- Four Oakland, Calif., police officers shot down. An Alabama man strolling a small town with a rifle, looking for victims. Seven elderly people shot dead at a North Carolina nursing home. And on Sunday, six people, including four kids, died in an apparent murder-suicide in an upscale neighborhood in Santa Clara, Calif.
<snip...>
The details in all these cases are still emerging. In most, the exact motive has yet to be determined – or may never be fully understood.
On a broader level, however, such incidents may be happening more often because an increasing number of Americans feel desperate pressure from job losses and other economic hardship, criminologists say.
I quickly discovered, that it is not only the occurance of this crime of desperation that is increasing, but in violent crimes across the board....
Is recession fueling family violence in area?
By Jeremy Kohler and Nancy Cambria
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
04/17/2009
The police say domestic violence and child abuse are soaring in the city of St. Louis.
Children's hospitals say they're seeing more — and more severely — shaken and beaten children from both sides of the river.
A crisis nursery says it has a record caseload and had to turn away more than 200 children in March for lack of bed space.
Police and other family violence professionals say these could be signs that the recession is fueling violence in St. Louis-area homes.
The magnitude is difficult to assess. Some agencies are reporting recent spikes in domestic violence and child abuse, and attributing them to the economy.
While I was gathering some research, I realized the wider scope of this issue. It is one thing to think of people loosing their jobs, but for me at least it took another leap to realize that even those who still have a job are unsure that they will keep it.
I was also reminded that death, as tragic as it is, ends pain for its victims. Meanwhile, for the others, pain is left to linger for the next generation...
U.S. Recession Causing Increase In Child Abuse Reports
Posted on: Thursday, 16 April 2009, 15:50 CDT
U.S. hospitals are reporting a spike in child abuse during a recession that has driven some families to the brink and overwhelmed cash-strapped child-protection agencies, Reuters reported.
Allison Scobie, program director of the Child Protection Team at Boston's Children's Hospital, said in the last three months they had twice as many severe inflicted injury cases as they did in the three months the previous year.
She said her hospital typically handles about 1,500 such cases a year, but last year it rose to 1,800, adding that they have found the rise is directly attributable to what is happening economically.
"Many of the hospitals around here report an increase of 20 to 30 percent of requests for consultation regarding suspected child maltreatment," she said.
I had realized that the more vulnerable among us suffer during times like these, but here were the numbers...and for me at least (being a scientist perhaps) the numbers hit like a brick whereas anecdotal evidence is only a slap to the face...
So, while the Robber-barons on Wall Street whine about paying for their multi-million dollar penthouses, and private school tuition, at attempts to claw back non-performance bonuses paid by tax dollars, and even straining credulity to give retention bonuses to people who are no longer even employees....many of our children are in very real pain. Pain that is, as it turns out, in effect directly related to the economic downturn. Pain that has at its roots, therefore, their very code of ethos.
And yet they still demand their bonuses, and still maintain that they have done nothing wrong. They were just trying to make money...just as a vampire needs blood or a zombie needs brains, they deserve to live too, right? Only the zombies and vampires are satisfied with their meal, and don't expect a bonus for feeding on the damned.
Don't get me wrong....I am not saying the reason that people beat their kids is because of the economy, what I am saying is that it can lead these tragedies to occur more frequently and with far worse effect when the stress on the abuser is increased.
Children, of course, aren't the only ones who are suffering physically because of this mess....
AP Analysis: In recession, diabetics risk life and limb by cutting back on insulin, treatment
Diabetics are increasingly risking life and limb by cutting back on — or even going without — doctor visits, insulin, medicines and blood-sugar testing as they lose income and health insurance in the recession, an Associated Press analysis has found.
Doctors have seen a drop in regular appointments with diabetic patients, if they come back at all. Patients more often seek tax-subsidized or charity care. And they end up in emergency rooms more often, patients and physicians said in interviews.
Diabetes is a devastating disease if not treated properly...all because of glucose. Sweet as it may taste, if left unchecked in your blood, it oxidizes rapidly, becoming very reactive chemically. All the 'anti-oxidants' in the world won't save you if you have high blood sugar....the radicals formed will attack your eyes (causing blindness), and worse things too...
But even when there is no direct physical illness, there is the lack of hope. After falling through all existing safety nets, the ones that social conservatives haven't already gutted in order to prevent welfare queens from driving Cadillacs, what happens then?
Sacramento moving homeless from tent city
04/13/2009 04:12:15 PM PDT
Sacramento moving homeless from tent city
Associated Press
Posted: 04/13/2009 04:12:15 PM PDT
Updated: 04/13/2009 04:15:36 PM PDT
SACRAMENTO — Sacramento officials are giving residents of a homeless camp until Wednesday to move and are providing shelter for those who want it.
Police officers were handing notices to the roughly 150 people who live in the so-called tent city about one mile northeast of the state Capitol.
More homeless seeking food and shelter in Berkeley
The number of first-time homeless people looking for free food and a place to sleep is way up this year.
And as more people lose their jobs, run through their savings and max out unemployment benefits, those numbers will continue to grow, Berkeley outreach workers say.
The number of first-timers coming to the Berkeley Food and Housing Project, which runs men's and women's shelters, increased by 30 percent from September through March compared to the year before, said Executive Director Terry Light.
And in March, the project had to turn away 500 people asking for a place to stay; an increase of 63 percent over the same period last year, Light said.
And this crisis is spreading, it isn't just in densely populated California. This cancer is spreading to the heartland, and Montana is no exception to the rule...
Flathead Co. (Montana) suicide rate climbing
The depressed economy in Flathead County is adding to the area's already high suicide rate as people struggle to deal with the recession.
Flathead County Sheriff Mike Meehan says that the county's 2009 suicide statistics show an alarming trend.
"Typically, we usually average a suicide about one every month. However in the first three months of 2009, we've had six thus far, so it's definitely on the increase."
Meehan noted that a current increase in addiction and mental health issues could be related to job loss and financial struggles.
"I'm sure the economic situation does play a part in it plus depression, drugs, alcohol abuse, which kind of comes with poor economic times."
Their stress tests are supposed to tell us whether the various financial institutions are capable of surviving a prolonged recession. My stress test was designed to see how many of us can survive their continued contempt of all that is not profitable to them in particular.
My point is simple. The stakes in all this are far greater that what can be placed on a balance sheet. Many here are fond of calling the health insurance industry 'murder by spreadsheet.' I am just saying that Wall Street is no different, their lag between cause and effect is just a little longer.