EFTA01199587.pdf

From: Gregory Brown IMMElla To: undisclosed-recipients:; Bee: jecvacation@gmail.com Subject: Greg Brown's Weekend Reading and Other Things.... 10/19/2014 Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 08:02:24 +0000 Attachments: Foreign_nations?_proxy_war in_Syria_ercatc_s_chaos_David_Ignatius_TWP_10_02_2014.docx; SixYearsLater,WercStillLitigatingtheBailouts.HerelsWhatWeKnow_Neil IrwinNYT10.03.2014.docx; Gcorge_Benson_bio.docx; Bitcoin_prices_havc_droppcd_nearly_50_percent_influee_months_Andrca_Pacrson_TWP_10.06.2014.docx; Obama? s_Numbers_Octobcr_2014_Upd_ate_FactCheck.orgi0.07.2014.docx; Malala_Yeusafmi_and_Kailash_Satyarthi_Arc_Awardcd_Nobel_Peace_Prize_Allan_Cowell_Oct._10,_2014.docx; Ruth_Bader_Ginsburg_Pens_Scathing_Dissent_On_Texas_Votcr_ID_Law_Bmden_Gayettc_Huff Post_10.18.2014.docx Inline-Images: imagc.png; image(1).png; imagc(2).png; image(3).png; image(4).png; imagc(5).png; image(6).png; imagc(7).png; imagc(8).pnx image(9).png; image(10).png; image( 11 ).png; image( 12).png; image(13).png DEAR FRIEND Please Explain Why This 7 year-old Girl Was Shot to Death And it is nobody's fault. A judge dropped the felony charge leveled against Joseph Weeldey, the Detroit police officer who in 2010 shot 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones to death. The above is what the Wayne County prosecutor's office said in a statement that a week ago Friday when Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway dismissed the involuntary manslaughter charge, granting a motion submitted by Weeldey's attorney, Steve Fishman. Hathaway then granted the prosecution's request for a stay on her decision and adjourned court until Monday. The prosecution will file an emergency appeal with the Court of Appeals, according to the Detroit News. Fishman said that for involuntary manslaughter to be proved, the defense would need to demonstrate that his client acted in a "grossly negligent manner" in the circumstances leading to Stanley-Jones' death. There is absolutely no evidence, none, that's in the least bit credible, that Officer Weekley knowingly created a danger or, more importantly, intended to cause injury," Fishman said in court a week ago Friday. Weekley shot Stanley-Jones in zoto during a botched police raid in search of a murder suspect. The raid occurred after midnight, and Weekley was first through the door of the Stanley-Jones home on the east side of Detroit, as a film crew shadowing the officers filmed for a reality television show. A fellow officer is said to have thrown a flash-bang grenade, and Weekley fired his gun shortly after, killing the 7-year-old girl, who was sleeping on the couch. The prosecution and defense have offered contradictory depictions of the events leading up to Stanley-Jones' death. Weekley has said that the girl's grandmother, Mertilla Jones, who had also been asleep on the couch when police arrived, came up to him and grabbed his gun, causing him to shoot. According to ABC local affiliate WXYZ, evidence presented in court Thursday showed that neither Jones' fingerprints nor DNA were found on the officer's gun. Weeldey's fingerprints and DNA were also not found on the gun. Jones insists she never touched Weekley or his gun, and she testified that he put his gun to her granddaughter's head and pulled the trigger, MLive reports. Last week, she was escorted from the courtroom after an emotional outburst directed at Weekley during her testimony. Fishman attempted to discredit her while requesting dismissal of the manslaughter charge. "The only evidence that points to any kind of knowingly creating a danger or intending to cause injury, the only testimony is that of Mertilla Jones, which is by its nature and by comparison to the other testimony, including the medical examiner, is completely and totally unbelievable," Fishman told the judge on Friday. During the trial, the prosecution sought to show that it was against procedure for Weekley to have his finger on the trigger of the gun and that not following his training caused the girl's death. The trial for Weeldey, a white officer, in the death of a black child has caused some to draw parallels to the case of Michael Brown, the unarmed teen fatally shot by Police Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, in August. Brown's death, and the extreme tactics of police amid ensuing local protests, have sparked national conversations about police brutality and institutional racism in police forces across the country. Before Weeldey's trial, potential jurors were asked questions related to the Ferguson shooting and if they had seen reports that might influence their decision in the case EFTA01199587 Weekley is also charged with careless discharge of a weapon causing death, a misdemeanor that might not carry a jail sentence if he is convicted, according to the Detroit News. Weekley had been facing a maximum sentence of r.3 years in prison for the manslaughter charge. Weekley was first tried in Stanley-Jones' death last year; a hung jury caused a mistrial. Obviously in the heat of the moment anything can happen but we have to ask why are so many unarmed people of color dying at the hands of Police. And obviously this 7 year-old was not a threat, hence her death should be deemed a murder and someone should pay. Because ((no-one pays this same situation is destine to repeat itself. Foreign nations' proxy war in Syria creates chaos Wikipedia describes a Proxy War is a conflict between third parties fighting on the behalf of more powerful parties. Proxy wars have also been fought alongside full- scale conflicts. It is almost impossible to have a pure proxy war, as the groups fighting for a certain nation usually have their own interests, which can diverge from those of their patron. Typically proxy wars function best during cold wars, as they become a necessity in conducting armed conflict between at least two belligerents while continuing cold warfare. Proxy wars were common in the Cold War, because the two nuclear-armed superpowers (the Soviet Union and the United States, and to some extent, China) did not wish to fight each other directly, since that would have run the risk of escalation to a nuclear war (ie mutual assured destruction). Proxies were used in conflicts such as Afghanistan, Angola, Korea, Vietnam, the Middle East, and Latin America. Most Proxy Wars get messier with unintended consequences before they end. And no truer is this — as with the squabbling factions that make up the Syrian "moderate opposition" who for one reason or another refuse to get their act together. As well as the foreign nations — including the United States, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Jordan — that have been funding the chaotic mélange of fighters inside Syria. These foreign machinations helped open the door for the terrorist Islamic State/ISIS group to threaten the region. From the beginning of the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad in 2011, Syria has been the scene of a proxy war involving regional powers: Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar all wanted to topple Assad, but they competed with each other as regional rivals, too. At various points, all three nations provided Sunni rebel groups with money and weapons that ended up in the hands of extremists. Outside meddling in Syria worsened when the Shiite-ruled neighbors, Iran and Iraq, dispatched Hezbollah fighters and Iraqi militiamen to rescue Assad's army. This Sunni-Shiite feud added an extra burst of savagery. Saudi Arabia and Iran have been battling for regional supremacy — to the last Syrian. The United States, Saudi Arabia and Jordan joined forces in 2013 to train and arm moderate rebels at a CIA-backed camp in Jordan. But this program was never strong enough to unify the nearly 1,000 brigades scattered across the country. The resulting disorganization helped discredit the rebel alliance known as the Free Syrian Army. Syrian rebel commanders deserve some blame for this ragged structure. But the chaos was worsened by foreign powers that treated Syria as a playground for their intelligence services. This cynical intervention recalled similar meddling that helped ravage Lebanon, Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq and Libya during their civil wars. The United States has reduced the fratricide by organizing a broader coalition of nations to fight the Islamic State. But without strong U.S. leadership, and better partnership by such prickly nations as Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the coalition is likely to splinter and the fratricide will begin again. EFTA01199588 The story of how Syria became a petri dish for rival intelligence services can be explained when outside efforts to arm and train the Syrian rebels began more than two years ago in Istanbul, where a "military operations center" was created, first in a hotel near the airport. Working with the Qataris were senior figures representing Turkish and Saudi intelligence. But unity within the Istanbul operations room frayed when the Turks and Qataris began to support Islamist fighters they thought would be more aggressive. These jihadists did emerge as braver, bolder fighters — and their success was a magnet for more support. The Turks and Qataris insist they didn't intentionally support the extremist group Jabhat al-Nusra or the Islamic State. But weapons and money sent to more moderate Islamist brigades made their way to these terrorist groups, and the Turks and Qataris turned a blind eye. "The operations room was chaos,"recalls one Arab intelligence source. lie says he warned a Qatari officer, who answered: "I will send weapons to al-Qaeda lit will help"topple Assad. This determination to remove Assad by any means necessary proved dangerous. "The Islamist groups got bigger and stronger, and the FSA day by day got weaker,"recalls the Arab intelligence source. The Saudi effort was run until late 2013 by Prince Bandar bin Sultan, at that time head of Saudi intelligence. Bandar was enthusiastic but undisciplined, adding to the chaos. Pushed by the United States, the Saudis in February replaced Bandar and gave oversight of the Syria effort to Interior Minister Mohammed bin Nayef. The program was less chaotic but no more effective in checking the rise of Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State. Eloping to gain greater control of the northern front, Turkey created a new military operations center in Ankara known as the "MOM," based on its Turkish initials. Until now, the MOM has tried to coordinate rebel activities, but the command structure is weak. 'The Free Syrian Army is not ready yet to control the ground," says the Arab intelligence source bluntly. But the FSA's internal disarray reflects the larger disorganization of the outside powers that have been funding the opposition. Until they are truly working together — funneling money and weapons to a single rebel army — the mess in Syria will continue. And as long as the governments of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Jordan, Qatar, UAE, Russia, Iran and the US led coalition choose to pursue their separate agendas not only will this malaise continue it could and most likely will get worse.... WOW I guess the bloom is off the rose when it comes to the crypto-currency bitcoin — being that over the past three months prices has fallen nearly 5o percent — going from $630 per bitcoin to S320 per bitcoin, according to CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index, which averages the prices on major exchanges. Just a couple of months ago Bitcoin supporters were still lauding the possibility of at replacing dollars, euros and other currencies for the purchase of goods and services over the worldwide digital network. It was supposed to be a hedge against inflation as well as adding price stability. Obviously this was and is a dream and a myth as bitcoin trading prices have been notoriously volatile, sometimes making similar percentage drops in a matter of hours or days. The difference here is that it appears to be a slow, measured pattern of decline. There have been bits of major regulatory news in the past few months, including New York's proposed rules for virtual currencies and Russia's proposal to punish their use. But that doesn't seem to have produced the same type of seismic shifts as when China ordered local payment processors to stop transactions involving digital currencies such as bitcoin. Instead, Jerry Brito, the executive director of industry-backed think tank Coin Center, believes the downward trend may actually be related to the increased popularity of bitcoin among merchants in recent months. In September, became the first major online retailer to accept the ctyptocurrency globally. "It's hard to tell what exactly causes these price movements, but what I t ink ma es most sense is that as Bitcoin merchant adoption grows, there is increasing sell pressure in the market,"Brato says. "Because there are not yet very good hedging instrumentsfor bitcoin, merchants that accept bitcoinfor payment will immediately sell so as to not be exposed to any volatility." Basically, merchants don't want to hold on to the bitcoins they accept as payment. 2 Thus, he says, there's a constant sell pressure, which he believes may have snowballed into the current downward trend. However, Brito is an optimist about the future of the market, saying that "needed hedging instruments are coming along very shortly" and that long-term investors may actually buy in the current low. The $320 exchange rate the crypto-currency is currently floating around is a substantial drop from the highs of last year — when bitcoins reached more than $1,100 on some markets near the end of the year after dramatic surges. Looking even further back shows just how turbulent 2013 and 2014 were for the overall currency and payment system — experiencing major booms and busts at much more significant dollar levels than in its earlier year. Bitcoin received intense media coverage as it experienced some ;rowing pains, including regulatory turmoil, a bankruptcy scandal involving one of the most popular exchanges, and various attempts to unmask the crypto-currency s mysterious creator. But given all the hype the currency has received, it can be easy to forget that the system was launched only in 2009 and that the price stayed well below the current levels until the latter half of 2013. I am not saying that Bitcoin is akin to the pet rock, but due to its price instability and exposure to volatility the idea of accepting a form of currency that you have to immediately liquidate has a limited future. Like PayPal, I am sure that Bitcoin has a future but it is not the one whereby it will replace major government guaranteed currencies. EFTA01199589  Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi Are Awarded Nobel Peace Prize As NBC's Brian Williams said last week on the nightly news "it would be a crowning achievement at any age but for a seventeen year-old to win the Nobel Peace Prise that was completely unheard of exceptfor today, Malala Yousafzai who at agefourteen was nearly assassinated by the Talibanfor the crime of wanting to go to school to learn just made history on the world stage." Acknowledging her award, Malala Yousafzai had to stand on a box as podium was almost taller than she. At seventeen, she is the youngest Nobel winner in history. She dedicated her win to the voiceless, whose voices need to be heard. It was hard to believe that two years ago last week Malala was shot in the head by the Taliban simply for advocating the girls right for an education but she survived — the Taliban failed to silence her. As Malala said, "when you are speaking truth and when you are speakingforjustice no one can defeat you? Her ordeal gave her a global platform and she used it. As Malala said when she addressed the UN General Assembly at the young age of fifteen, "the terrorist thought that they could change my aims and stop my ambitions, but nothing changed in my life except this, weakness,fear and hopeless died."Malala was actually in school in a chemistry class when the teacher told her she had won and then she returned to her studies. Awarded with Malala was Kailash Satyarthi of India whose campaign against the exploitation of children has helped tens of thousands around the world. Mr. Satyarthi who is 6o and not nearly as well-known as Malala was a bit shy with a twinge of embarrassment of the celebrity of the award dedicated his efforts to all of the other people around the world fighting the scourge of child exploitation. if with my humble efforts the voice of tens of millions of children in the world who are living in servitude is being heard, congratulations to all," In India, Mr. Satyarthi, a former engineer, has long been associated with the struggle to free bonded laborers, some born into their condition and others lured into servitude. For decades, he has sought to rid India of child slavery and has liberated more than 75,000 bonded and child laborers in the country. Mr. Satyarthi began working for children's rights in zollo as the general secretary of the Bonded Labor Liberation Front, an organization dedicated to freeing bonded laborers forced to work to pay off debts, real or imagined. He also founded the Bachpan Bachao Andolan, or Save the Children Mission, an organization dedicated to ending bonded labor and saving children from trafficking. Ills is a very happy momentfor every Indian," he said in comments aired on Indian television on Friday, adding that his efforts are to help give voice to the plight of marginalized children. Ile emphasized that child labor "perpetuates poverty." "Poverty must not be used as an excuse to continue child labor and exploitation of childrenl'he said. "It's a triangular relationship between child labor, poverty and illiteracy, and I have been trying tofight all of these things together? But what should not be loss is that sharing this year's Nobel Peace Prize is a Moslem and a Hindu, a Pakistani and an Indian who are united in a common struggle for education and against extremism and as Malala says, "one child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world? To add to that it could be said that one person whether they be seventeen or sixty can and often does make a difference if only they try. Too Big to Jail? EFTA01199590 Every so often you will read or see something that is a real eye-opener and earlier this month I had one of these experiences. It was Bill Moyers interview with William K. Black titled: Too Big to Jail? Moyers sets the stage with this premise — "As you've heard, Eric I lolder has announced that he's resigning as Attorney General. He will leave behind a mixed scorecard: A for civil rights, C for civil liberties and F for failing to prosecute the banking executives who brought about the financial calamity of 2008. Holder let the bankers off the hook individually as he negotiated civil settlements with their institutions for issuing mortgage-backed securities tied to faulty subprime loans. The billions of dollars in penalties the banks are paying will largely be borne by shareholders and by taxpayers as the banks write off the fines as the cost of doing business. The executives get off scot free." Hey this just can't be. Remember it was these guys whose institutions' policies brought the world's financial system to the brink of collapse. From the open policy of 'Liars Loans' to admitting the rigging of LIBOR to or engaging in appraisal fraud) that actually generated losses were booked as if they produced enormous gains (and overstate their capital) during the expansion phase of the bubble. Executives at these institutions created fictional profits and minimized real losses, which massively overstated bank capital and allowed them to escape TARP limits on executive compensation which made the officers even wealthier because they made terrible loans and because they covered up the losses on those terrible loans. If the Mafia had done this every single federal prosecutor would be employing the RICO stature. So how come these Masters of the Universe on Wall Street are not doing hard time? And why these rogue financial institutions aren't labeled the criminal syndicates and cartels that their behavior suggests? For those of you who don't know of William IC Black he is an American lawyer, academic, author, and a former bank regulator. Black's expertise is in white-collar crime, public finance, regulation, and other topics in law and economics. He developed the concept of "controlfraud", in which a business or national executive uses the entity he or she controls as a "weapon" to commit fraud. Black was litigation director for the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FIILBB) from 1984 to 1986, deputy director of the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC) in 1987, and Senior VP and the General Counsel of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco from 1987 to 1989, which regulated some of the largest thrift banks in the U.S. Black came to prominence as a central figure in exposing Congressional corruption during the Savings and Loan Crisis. He took the notes during the Keating Five meeting that were later published in the press, and brought the event to national attention and a congressional investigation. Black is the former Director of the Institute for Fraud Prevention who now teaches Economics and Law at the University ofMissouri, Kansas City. During the savings and loan crisis, it was Black who accused then-house speaker Jim Wright and five US Senators, including John Glenn and John McCain, of doing favors for the S&L's in exchange for contributions and other perks. The senators got off with a slap on the wrist, but so enraged was one of those bankers, Charles Keating — after whom the senates so-called "Keating Five" were named — lie sent a memo that read, in part, 'get Black — kill ham dead.' Metaphorically, of course. Of course.' The 15 major banks have agreed to pay $128 billion in fines and although this may be an incomprehensible sum to most of us, it's worth considering just how monumental these banks are in comparison. While the American banking industry alone has racked up nearly $503 billion in profits, according to FDIC quarterly data through the first quarter of 2014. These fines have made occasional dents in some quarterly earnings, but they're effectively drops in the banks' buckets compared to their greater profits. In the meantime, Bank of America is one of the most active stocks on the Big Board, rising 4 times in price from a 2009 low of $3.87 to around 816 a share. You could have bought it at $5.00 a share at the close of 2011, when its fines were a negative market influence. JP Morgan Chase sold at $22.35 in early March 2009, the market bottom; today it is nearing $6o a share, which is very nearly a triple in 51/2 years. Citigroup has basically quintupled from a low of $so to $5o, after a reverse 1share for to shares split deep into the crisis. Obviously for these self-described 'too big to fail' financial intuitions, the fines are just the cost of doing business. And as Black says, "no one can claim with a straight face that if we prosecuted bankers, as opposed to banks, that it wouldhave any negative effect.It would have hugepositive effects in sending the right message of accountability and the right message o/ deterrence." Worse was the contention that the little guy was the culprit, when in fact it was the bank executives who had deliberately created the fraudulent loans to enrich themselves. They pulled off the classic shell game. Bait and switch. Take the money and run. Let ordinary people suffer the consequences. Let's remember that it was the lenders who deliberately made massive amounts of fraudulent loans and then sold these massive amounts of fraudulent loans through additional frauds to the secondary market and eventually brought down the global financial system. In a recent case in Sacramento, where a federal jury acquitted four mortgage holders charged with fraud after hearing testimony that bank executives had pulled out all the stops to seduce them into taking out those toxic loans. One of the key expert witnesses in that case is with me now. Bill Black's testimony helped blow up the prosecution's case And the testimony that came out in the case is that the agents, the FBI agents and the IRS agents simply assumed that the banks were the victims and the bankers were the victims and simply assumed that the little people, were the problem in all of this. So they never even investigated the banks and the bankers. I would think that mortgage fraud also includes banks such as JP Morgan, Wells Fargo and others who packaged loans that they knew did not pass its own stated due diligence test even though several whistleblowers say that when they expressed concerns about the strength of these mortgage-backed securities were told to shut up and their banks put them out there to the market and said that they were perfectly fine when in fact they were not.It was this conduct by JP Morgan, Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo and other banks doing similar kinds of things that led directly to the collapse of our economy in 2008 and in 2009. Both Moyers and Black agree that Eric Holder not bringing one criminal case against any executives in charge of the banks' lending was possibly one of the greatest strategic failure in the history of the Department of Justice. EFTA01199591 First of all, it was criminal as the activity was clearly illegal, it was a violation of a whole series of laws that make it felonies. And these are just the frauds that caused the crisis. In addition to the frauds that caused the crisis, which are massive and we could talk about, we have the largest cartel in world history. This was the bid rigging ofLIBOR, which is an international standard that sets the prices on over $300 trillion in contracts. A trillion is a thousand billion, right? And then we have the foreclosure frauds where we have false affidavits. Over too,000 felonies in that context. And then we have the bid rigging on bond prices where all the major banks, according to the Justice Department, were involved. And then we had the Federal Ilousing Finance Administration, a federal agency suing virtually every largest, of the largest 20 banks in the United States of America, saying they defrauded Fannie and Freddie through false sales. And it goes on and on. Again it isn't just the frauds that led to the crisis.It is all the frauds afterwards. IISBC knowingly launders over $1 billion in funds for the Sinaloa cartel, one of the most vicious drug cartels in the world that has caused the deaths of thousands of people. They weren't prosecuted and it was said that prosecutors had them dead to rights. If they were criminally prosecuted they would know, that you can't do business anymore. Instead there were no serious sanctions, just one of these silly fines again. Standard Chartered, one of the, again one of the largest banks in the world, not only evaded sanctions on funding terrorist groups and nations that we say are funding terror, but actually had training manuals on how to deceive the United States regulators. These are banks doing things that used to be in those really bad novels that you would read at an airport when you had only to percent of your brain functioning, right, about bankers, these awful conspiracies and they're funding terrorists and such. Well, today we know that they actually are the modern reality. Black likes to say that there's no threat to capitalism like capitalists. They are destroying the underpinnings. And when dishonest people gain a competitive advantage in markets, it creates something that in economics and criminology we call a Gresham's dynamic. And that means bad ethics drives good ethics out of the marketplace. And so the key is to have a real rule of law, to have real regulation. Because that not only protects the consumer, it protects the honest banker. BILL MOYERS: But you've just described a situation which has to discourage folks out there, you know that, that they understand what you're saying but you've also described why it can't be fixed, because of the relationship between Wall Street and Washington. WILLIAM K. BLACK: So first Citizens United has made this far worse, and that's an atrocious decision and it has to be overturned if we're going to restore our democracy and such. But beyond that, there's never going to be a decisive victory against power and money and finance. We have to fight. Every generation has to engage in this struggle. And ifit gives up and says it's hopeless, well, it'll give up and it will be hopeless. I don't know what you think but after watching this interview there is no question that you should come to the conclusion that the game is rigged in favor of the Masters of the Universe, who often command nine figure compensation because of their stewardship, while at the same time can claim total ignorance when the organizations that they run are caught doing major malfeasance. You try to run that same excuse by the IRS when you are next audited. The deregulation, de- supervision and de facto decriminalization over the last twenty years have destroyed regulation, supervision, and prosecutions combined with modern executive compensation have created an intensely criminogenic environment and generated waves of Gresham's dynamics that made control fraud pervasive. These institutions were "target-rich environment"in which clear evidence of fraud is common in many of their operations. And what needs to be done and now is to restore the regulatory cops on the beat that are essential to allowing honest businesses to prevail in the markets. Otherwise, how can we tell our children to not steal when dishonesty has become the culture of our business elite, as long as they don't get caught? And this is my rant ofthe week..... WEEK's READINGS PatFACTCHECK.ORG Obama's Numbers (July 2014 Update) Jobs, Profits, Guns & Health Insurance: Our Regular Update of the Statistical Record Summary Highlights from our latest update: • Millions of Americans have gained health insurance because of Obamacare, and the number signing up for Medicaid keeps rising. But the exact number of newly insured won't be known for some time. • Those signing up for private insurance in Obamacare marketplaces for 2015 will find 25 percent more insurance companies competing for their business. • Marketplace premiums for 2015 are averaging o.8 percent lower than this year, according to preliminary data. • Median household income declined 4.6 percent during Obama's first five years, and nearly 5.5 million more Americans were living in poverty last year than before he took office. • The federal debt owed to the public has more than doubled under Obama, rising by 103 percent. But federal spending has gone up only 7.9 percent. • This year the economy is adding jobs rapidly and paychecks are rising faster than inflation at last. Real weekly earnings for workers, adjusted for inflation, averaged 0.7 percent higher in August than when Obama entered office. EFTA01199592  • And the total number of jobs in September was nearly 5.5 million higher than when Obama was first sworn in. Four times more jobs have been added under Obama than were gained in George W. Bush's eight years in office. • Under Obama, U.S. crude oil production has increased by 70 percent, while oil imports have gone down by more than half. • New figures show annual handgun production has nearly tripled under Obama, rising by 184 percent as of last year. OBAMA'S NUMBERS 2014 THIRD QUARTER REPORT FROM FAclICIIR:1<41114 EXCHANGE SEN-LIPS I .8M NEW MEDIUM AFFORDABLE CARE ACT SIGN-UPS .7.9M AFFORDABLE CARE IISIMERSII IMAM ACT CHANGES IN 2015 BASIC PR AM INIETNACE -R U M I .25% 08% •00% I INONE FAHOUSEHOLD PERSCNSIN POVERTY F000 STAID RECIPIENTS -5.489.000 -45% I UNEMPIAYMUIT -4.6% LEWO•TEUI -5.459.000 5PA.91E%UNEMPLOYED •255.000 IIFERLY FAV PRICES CORPORATE I I •12t MS PRO E le lSETER SOP 503 DEBT HILO 'FEDERAL •144%•I:•;.:" SPENDING I BY FVEUC ANNUAL HAIMEXPORTS PICOUL1101 •184%• I SIM 6 OF GUANTANAMO GOODS SERVICES PRISONERS a l 6SOURU.S. CRUDE CIL PETROLEUM 38% -r54 POWER 1 •70% DAKRES PABULUM' •?Al% -.;.'c i 264 1713 I US MUM RUMS NOTE: ALL FIGURES OFREFLECT RECENT DATA NI 11011141.1 MOST AVAILABLE AS 10/ 3/ 2014. SINCE 1/20/2009. UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED IN OUR STORY. CAUTION: NO SINGLE NUMBER CAN TELL THE WHOLE STORY hup//wventfect&eckoq/2014/10/obernarnartersactotte.20Wwdate Analysis Every three months FactCheck.org offers a fresh update of selected statistical indicators of what has happened since Barack Obama first took the oath of office in January zoo.). Some are positive and some are not, but all are from sources we consider solid and reliable. And as usual, they caution that no single number or collection of numbers can tell the entire story. Affordable Care Act EFTA01199593 We again begin with the Affordable Care Act. It's still too early to know precisely how many previously uninsured people now have health coverage because of the ACA (also known as 'Obamacare," a term the administration has come to embrace). Some estimates put the figure at more than 10 million, or even up ton million. One recent indication comes from a quarterly survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which found that during the first three months of 2024 a total of 1.4 percent of all U.S. residents under age 65 had obtained private health insurance through the ACA's new exchanges. The survey also found that the number of uninsured had dropped to 13.1 percent of the population in early 2024, down from 14.4 percent last year. Both figures will change significantly in subsequent surveys, because the survey is conducted throughout the January to March period. A large number of people waited until the final days of March to sign up, and coverage did not become effective for many until later in the year. What we can say with confidence so far is that just over 8 million people signed up for private health insurance during the initial enrollment period, according to the administration's last tally. That number is unchanged from our previous update. The figure includes an unknown number of people who signed up but later failed to pay their premium, thus failing to obtain coverage. We also know that at least 7.9 million more people were covered by Medicaid as of July, compared with the July through September period last year, before the ACA's open enrollment period began. That number has grown significantly from the 6.1million we reported in our previous update. That number continues to grow because eligible people may sign up for Medicaid any time, with no closed enrollment period. An unknown number of those 7.9 million additional Medicaid enrollees would have gained coverage even without Obamacare, which expanded coverage to those with somewhat higher incomes than before in most states. But according to the most recent report from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the 7.9 million figure includes nearly 6.9 million in the 27 states (and District of Columbia) where Medicaid eligibility has been expanded, and just overt million in the 23 states that did not expand coverage. Since our last report, the U.S. Census Bureau has released its annual estimate of those who lack medical insurance, finding that 42 million people lacked health insurance in 2013. But Census won't have comparable figures for 2014 until late next year. So we'll have to wait until then to get the best measure of how effective the new law has been in reducing the uninsured population. Obamacare in 2015 Meanwhile, the insurance exchanges' second annual open enrollment period is approaching. It will run from Nov. 15 through Feb. 15. And we can report that those signing up for coverage for 2015 will have more choices, and in many cases will have lower premiums than in 2014. Compared with this year, there are 25 percent more insurance companies offering health plans through the exchanges for 2015, according to preliminary data released by the Department of Health and Human Services. That means more competition, and greater choice. Meanwhile, 2015 premiums may cost slightly less than in 2014, at least on average, according to a separate survey by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, which tracks trends in health insurance coverage. KFF reports that for the benchmark "silver plan," which is the second-lowest in cost of the standard options offered, the average premium will be o.8 percent lower than in 2024, based on an analysis covering the largest cities in 15 states and the District of Columbia where information from rate filings is available. That KFF finding on premiums is preliminary. It could change when comprehensive data from all 50 states are available. And it is only an average of premium changes that vary quite widely. For example, KFF found that in Nashville the silver plan will cost 8.7 percent more than in 2014, while in Denver the premium will be 15.6 percent less. The foundation advised consumers to shop around for the best deal in their market. One change that is nearly certain is that the law's basic penalty for failing to obtain coverage will double in 2015, going from t percent of household income for those who are uninsured this year (to be paid in 2015 when federal income taxes are due) to 2 percent of household income for those who don't get coverage next year. The minimum penalty, for those with very low income, will more than triple. It goes from $95 per adult this year to $325 in 2015. The penalty amounts have been part of the law since it passed in 2020, and will go into effect Jan. t unless the law is amended, which isn't likely. Income, Poverty and Food Stamps Also since our last report, the Census has released annual figures on income and poverty covering 2013. They provide a bleak picture of the economic well-being of most Americans during the first five years of Obama's tenure. Median household income rose just slightly to $52,939 in 2013, Census reported. In "real" income, adjusted for inflation, that was o. percent higher than in 2012, but still 4.6 percent below 2008, the year before Obama first took office, when the first effects of the worst recession since the Great Depression were just starting to be felt. And it is 8.7 percent below the peak year of 1999. EFTA01199594 The same Census report showed that although nearly 1.2 million fewer people were living in poverty in 2013 than the year before, the number still remains nearly 5.5 million higher than in 2008. The official poverty rate — meaning the percentage of the population living below the poverty line — dropped o.5 percent in 2013, but it still remained 1.3 percent higher than in 2008. Meanwhile, the number of people receiving benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as "food stamps," bounced back up by nearly 400,000 since the period covered in our previous update. As of June, the most recent period for which the government has released monthly figures, the total stood at 46.5 million people. That's 2.7 percent below the peak reached in December 2012, but it's still 14.5 million, or more than 45 percent, higher than the month before the president was first sworn in. .Jobs & Unemployment As of September, the U.S. had 5,459,000 more people employed than it did when Obama took office in 2009. And the official unemployment rate had dipped to 5.9 percent, which was 1.9 percentage points below where it was when he first took office. But scars from the great recession of 2007-2009 remain. There were still nearly 3 million people suffering from long-term unemployment — out of work for 27 weeks or longer — a figure that was 255,000 higher than it was when Obama entered office. And the average number of weeks that the unemployed have been without work was 31.5 weeks — which was 11.7 weeks longer than the average duration of joblessness for the month Obama entered the White House. Wages & Inflation One economic indicator is currently showing improvement for the economic well-being of workers. Real Weekly Earnings (which are adjusted for inflation) were 0.9 percent higher in August than they were last December, and 0.7 percent higher than when Obama first took office. So this year, workers' paychecks are finally keeping ahead of price increases. One reason is that inflation continues to be historically moderate. The Consumer Price Index as of August had risen just 12 percent since the start of Obama's first term. For comparison, the CPI rose 9.1percent during Obama's first four years compared with 10.6 percent during the previous four years. Profits & Markets The Obama years have brought dramatically better times for corporations and their stockholders. Corporate profits (after taxes) reached a record annual rate of more than $1.8 trillion in the second quarter of this year, the most recent figures available. That was 174 percent higher than the quarter before Obama first entered the White House. (The rise is somewhat lower than the 184 percent increase we reported in July. After we posted that report the Commerce Department issued annual revisions to its historical figures for gross domestic product and its components. These included reductions in estimates of corporate profits.) And stock prices have done very well under Obama. The Standard & Poor's 50o-stock index stood at 142 percent higher at the close on Oct. 2 than it did the day Obama took office, and just slightly below where it was at our last update. Other stock indexes show similarly robust gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has also more than doubled, rising ut percent during Obama's tenure, and the NASDAQ Composite index is up 208 percent, more than tripling during the same period. Debt & Deficits The federal debt held by the public, which had not quite doubled as of our last report, is now nearly 103 percent higher than it was the day he first took office. The '