The memoir irritating Manhattan's uber-rich

It's a mommy memoir causing a rumpus in New York: how pill-popping, wine-quaffing, uber-rich mothers on Manhattan's Upper East Side get year-end bonuses from their husbands and hire tutors for toddlers.

"Primates of Park Avenue" is the latest in a long line of books devoted to the unimaginable wealth of the one percent in a city where some estimate that more than 20 percent of children live in homes without enough to eat.

Author Wednesday Martin seeks to distinguish the book from the jungle of other literature about extravagant excesses by mixing anecdote with anthropology.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-memoir-irritating-manhattans-uber-rich/ar-BBkW30b

sorry for the lack of posts. It was also stinking hot. Our first brush with 90F.

It's Euchre Night Friday...Is anyone interested in starting the Weekend for us? Otherwise, it probably won't be up until Saturday morning...and I have no idea of a topic, either.

Demeter

defending the attacks on their "charity".

It's at Financial Times...and I can't see it, just the blurb.

I SINCERELY DOUBT THE ENTIRE IMPLICATION OF THIS. RUSSIANS MAY BE CROWD-FUNDING THE SURVIVAL OF THEIR FAMILY AND FRIENDS. IT'S EXTREMELY UNLIKELY THAT THEY ARE FUNDING A WAR ANYWHERE. PEOPLE DON'T DO THAT....ESPECIALLY THE WAR-WEARY RUSSIANS, WHO KNOW BETTER THAN ANYONE...


http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/12/world/europe/russian-groups-crowdfund-the-war-in-ukraine.html?_r=0

The Novorossiya Humanitarian Battalion boasts on its website that it provided funds to buy a pair of binoculars used by rebels in eastern Ukraine to spot and destroy an armored vehicle. Another group, Save the Donbass, solicits donations using a photograph of a mortar shell inscribed with its web address and the names of donors. Yet another, Veche, states that its mission is to “create modern, combat-ready” military units fighting Ukraine’s central government.

These organizations are part of an online campaign that is brazenly raising money for the war in eastern Ukraine, using common tactics that have at least tacit support from the government of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Although they often portray their mission as humanitarian, most of the groups explicitly endorse the armed insurgency and vow to help equip forces in the two regions at the center of the fighting, Donetsk and Luhansk.

An examination by The New York Times of the groups’ websites, social media postings and other records found more than a dozen groups in Russia that are raising money for the separatists, aiding a conflict that has killed more than 6,400 people and plunged Russia’s relations with the West to depths not seen since the Cold War....

OH, IT'S ON THE INTERNET...THEREFORE IT'S LEGIT....RIIGHT....AND THEY ARE ALL SEPARATISTS, TOO. CAN'T FIND A BROADER BRUSH ANYWHERE?

All share a common cause: establishment of a region loyal to Russia that is sometimes called the Donbass or Novorossiya. They make similar appeals to ethnic and political solidarity with the fighters opposing the central government in Kiev, and they share methods for raising money for illicit activities that the Internet has made vastly more efficient, according to experts and officials monitoring financial flows of criminal and terrorist groups.

“Violent groups operating in war zones and their supporters abroad are exploiting advancements in communications and financial services technologies to more efficiently increase popular support and raise funds for their cause,” said Howard Mendelsohn, a former deputy assistant Treasury secretary and now the managing director of Camstoll Group, an advisory firm in Washington.

According to their own online appeals, the organizations have directed that donations be made via state-owned or state-controlled banks in Russia, including the country’s largest, Sberbank, or credit cards issued by those banks, some branded with MasterCard and Visa logos. Mr. Putin’s government, which strictly regulates nongovernmental organizations to monitor opposition political activity, has done little to stop the fund-raising...

YELLOW JOURNALISM AT ITS FINEST

Last edited Thu Jun 11, 2015, 11:52 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration

Read More: http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/eta20151138.pdf

News Release

TRANSMISSION OF MATERIALS IN THIS RELEASE IS EMBARGOED UNTIL 8:30 A.M. (Eastern) Thursday, June 11, 2015

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending June 6, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 279,000, an increase of 2,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 276,000 to 277,000. The 4-week moving average was 278,750, an increase of 3,750 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 250 from 274,750 to 275,000.

There were no special factors impacting this week's initial claims.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.7 percent for the week ending May 30, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the previous week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending May 30 was 2,265,000, an increase of 61,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up 8,000 from 2,196,000 to 2,204,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,226,750, an increase of 10,500 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 2,000 from 2,214,250 to 2,216,250.
....

UNADJUSTED DATA

....
The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending May 23 was 2,062,171, a decrease of 64,979 from the previous week. There were 2,447,338 persons claiming benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2014.

6/11/15 Big Pharma Revealed As Puppetmaster Behind TPP Secrecy

It is no secret that US healthcare corporations have been among, if not the biggest beneficiaries of Obamacare: by "socializing" costs and spreading the reimbursement pool over the entire population in the form of a tax, pharmaceutical companies have been able to boost medical product and service costs to unprecedented levels with the help of complicit insurance companies who have subsequently passed through these costs to the consumer, in the process sending the price of biotech and pharma stocks to levels not seen since the dot com bubble.

But when it came to the highly confidential TPP, it was unclear just which corporations were dominant in pulling the strings.

Now thanks to more documents published by Wikileaks, and analyzed by the NYT, it appears that "big pharma" is once again pulling the strings, this time of the Trans Pacific Partnership, which if passed will "empower big pharmaceutical firms to command higher reimbursement rates in the United States and abroad, at the expense of consumers" according to "public health professionals, generic-drug makers and activists opposed to the trade deal."

In other words, just like the narrowly-passed Obamacare was a gift for big Pharma, so America's legal drug dealers are now trying to go for another price boosting catalyst, one which however will involve not just the US but some 12 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Worst of all, the negotiations for the next price increase is taking place in utmost secrecy where "American negotiators are still pressing participating governments to open the process that sets reimbursement rates for drugs and medical devices."

As RT notes, the latest disclosure links the Healthcare Annex to the secret draft of the quite aptly-named "Transparency" Chapter of the TPP, along with each country's negotiating position. The leaked "Annex on transparency and procedural fairness for pharmaceutical products and medical devices" is dated from December 2014, with the draft being restricted from release for four years after the passage of the TPP into law.

more...
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-10/profits-over-public-health-big-pharma-revealed-puppetmaster-behind-tpp-secrecy

6/11/15 So Now The TPP's Real Purpose Is Revealed

The "TPP" has been "negotiated" in secret; our government refuses to release what's in it and both Congress and President Rob-you-blindBama loves the complicity of both Congress and you.

Now Wikileaks has gotten their hands on the health care component. Well, it's not called that, but it clearly is that. Yes, this "trade agreement" is meant to, and will, prevent you from doing things like going to Mexico to get a medicine made there that sells for $100 instead of paying $30,000 for it here.

And how will it do that? It will make the price $30,000 everywhere.

Ok, maybe that's a bit unfair. Maybe it won't be $30,000. But you can bet it won't be $100 either or anything close to it.

I've spent so much digital ink on this since 2009 because it was clear that unless stopped the medical and pharmaceutical industries, in concert with the so-called "insurance" business, was going to ruin federal, state and local budgets -- and you, personally.

I'll just stop here, because you're still in your chair and still making excuses, and my keyboard is well-worn.


https://market-ticker.org/cgi-ticker/akcs-www?post=230230

Take the new Hep C drugs on the market now. They cost $1,000 per pill now, or $80,000 for the 6 month treatment. The same drug treatment can be had in Egypt, or Costa Rica for $900 for the 6 month treatment.

If ever some executives should be hanging from telephone poles, it's them.

I think what is going to happen is that if we can't afford $80,000 in America, the TPP won't let Americans afford it in any country! More and more will die sooner because more of us won't be able to afford anything to keep us well. Unless we revolt, but that's not gonna happen, people have other priorities.

Margaret Thatcher’s policies of privatisation, light-touch regulation and low income tax failed to boost growth, according to a new study that casts doubt on the merits of free market economies.

NEOLIBERAL ECONOMICS DON'T WORK? WHO'D HAVE THUNK? THE LAST 30 YEARS HAVE BEEN A FAILURE FOR THE AVERAGE PERSON.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/economics-blog/2015/jun/10/growth-what-growth-thatcherism-fails-to-produce-the-goods

It worked great for the wealthy.

That's all that matters, right?

Last edited Thu Jun 11, 2015, 12:36 PM - Edit history (1)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017271358

At about the l:20 point he touches upon austerity, Podemos, Spain, Italy and Greece. His updates are always current and informative, a perspective I have come to rely upon.

TY to Prof. Wolff.

just because they can, I guess.