7 Financial Facts That Will Blow Your Mind

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/7-financial-facts-will-blow-your-mind

***SNIP


1. How much does it cost to die? Dying is a pricey proposition. A paper by Samuel Marshall, Kathleen M. McGarry and Jonathan S. Skinner examined how much people spend on out-of-pocket healthcare costs in the last year of their lives. Average bill? $11,618. For the top one percent, who get top-of-line care, the figure is $94,310.

SNIP

2. Big banks are getting even bigger. As Bloomberg reports, the biggest U.S. banks have gotten even bigger since their risky and criminal behavior helped spark the financial crisis. The number of too-big-to-fail banks is projected to increase by 40 percent over the next 15 years. And consider this: When big banks get help from you and me, they behave worse. According to USA Today, banks that received federal assistance during the financial crisis “reduced lending more aggressively and gave bigger pay raises to employees than institutions that didn’t get aid.” Megabanks are undermining democracy, subverting the rule of law, rigging the world’s largest markets, and doing untold damage to the economy.

***SNIP

3. Offshore tax cheating v. stealing socks. U.S. courts are feeling very generous toward offshore tax evaders these days. Mary Estelle Curran, a wealthy 79-year-old Florida widow who failed to tell the IRS that she had $43 million stashed in offshore accounts, was sentenced to one year of probation by federal district court Judge Kenneth Ryskamp, who berated prosecutors for going after her in the first place. Then he revoked the probation altogether.

***SNIP

4. Wall Street family values. JPMorgan Chase honcho Jamie Dimon got a 19 percent pay cut in 2012 following revelations that $6 billion had gone missing from his company in the London Whale fiasco. We now know that Dimon and JPMorgan lied to investors, regulators and Congress about the bank’s risky activities. Several shareholder groups are fighting to demote Dimon by separating the CEO and chairman's job at JP Morgan.

[marmar]

1. k/r

[Octafish]

2. A nun who cut through a fence to protest nukes got 21 years.

She was trying to protect people, though, not turn a dollar.

[xchrom]

3. indeed. nt

[Octafish]

13. Remember all the hoopla about illegal domestic radiation experiments on US citizens?

I know you do, xchrom, but most Americans never heard of it.

Know Your BFEE: American Children Used in Radiation Experiments

The United States Government wasn’t always so concerned about human life -- not even kids'. During the Cold War, American children were used in radiation and other experiments.

http://www.qcc.cuny.edu/socialsciences/ppecorino/MEDICAL_ETHICS_TEXT/Chapter_7_Human_Experimentation/Case_Study_Radiation_Experiments.htm

http://www.radiationsurvivors.org/healtheffects.htm

When Dorothy Lagarreta, a California mother of nine, tried to do something about it, organizing the National Association of Radiation Surivors (NARS), she had a fatal single-car crash into a tree. No accident, reported the priest who said her funeral mass:

http://www.catholicvoiceoakland.org/Archives/Archive011204L.html

BFEE stands for Bush Family Evil Empire. To me, the term represents the secret government that serves the nation's most powerful and wealthy individuals, the military-industrial-intel complex, Wall Street, the mafia, the ultra-right wing, the KKK and racialists and the NAZIs -- in short the War Party. The BFEE has been involved in much of America's darkest chapters, from the killing of President Kennedy to installing one of its dimmest sons as president.

Remember, America: You're either with 'em or against 'em.

[xchrom]

14. The cold war was rough on our own citizens. Nt

[FBaggins]

7. "Cut through a fence" ?

She broke into a facility that has weapons-grade nuclear materials from countries all around the world.

21 Years? She's lucky that she wasn't shot (at the time of course... not as punishment).

There are plenty of ways to protest nuclear weapons... even many that can get you arrested so you get the press coverage you desire... without being that stupid.

[ljm2002]

8. So why aren't the facility managers going to jail?

They failed to protect "weapons-grade nuclear materials" from a nun with some wire cutters. That means any terrorist with a pair of wire cutters could have gotten in and absconded with some of that material.

With that level of security lapse, someone damned well ought to be paying a price.

But she's the "stupid" one for making her point and not trying to hide it but drawing attention to herself and being arrested.

Seems to me they ought to take that 21 years and spread it evenly among her and every manager of that facility, up to the highest level, who signed off on their severely deficient security measures.

But whoever said life was fair, eh? At least she'll be off the streets, unable to terrorize the rest of us. Meanwhile the idiot elites continue on their merry way, protecting the rest of us from ... knowing how piss-poor they really are at protecting anything.

[FBaggins]

9. Someone should be punished/fired

I don't know whether or not we would even know if this happened. Jail time would be silly... since incompetence is not a crime.

That means any terrorist with a pair of wire cutters could have gotten in and absconded with some of that material.

Nonsense. Getting to the outside of a secure building and spray painting it is quite a long way from getting in and removing nuclear materials.

But she's the "stupid" one for making her point and not trying to hide it but drawing attention to herself and being arrested.

Plenty of room for more than one stupid person in the story. But yes, she's clearly one of them. If I don't like what some musician says about my religion... I can complain about him online... or I can send letters to the editor... or I can write a song making fun of him... or I can picket his next concert... or I can break in the back door of the concery and punch him in the face.

All of these options are "making my point"... but only one of them is truly stupid. I'm lucky if his body guards don't break my nose... but assault charges should not surprise me.

[ljm2002]

10. Brilliant.

You say that "Getting to the outside of a secure building and spray painting it is quite a long way from getting in and removing nuclear materials". Okay then, how is 27 years behind bars a reasonable sentence for her infraction?

You say "If I don't like what some musician says about my religion... I can complain about him online..." (etc). So you are equating nuclear waste / weapons grade materials, with not liking what some random person says?

False equivalencies.

We have a long history of civil disobedience in this country. That nun engaged in civil disobedience and she knew there would be a price to pay. But the rest of us can certainly look at this and see that the punishment for her is draconian, while the punishment for other crimes that are done by the well-connected range from a slap on the wrist to nothing at all.

But you go on ahead and keep calling her "stupid". I know that it is "stupid" people like her who cause change in this world.

[FBaggins]

11. Ok.

You say that "Getting to the outside of a secure building and spray painting it is quite a long way from getting in and removing nuclear materials". Okay then, how is 27 years behind bars a reasonable sentence for her infraction?

I rather doubt that she'll spend anything like 27 years behind bars. That's just the maximum sentence for what the jury convicted her of. She'll probably end up on the low end of the range with much of it outside of prison (perhaps all of it). She may even be able to get the sabotage charge thrown out on appeal. But your point is pretty silly. Just as there are a whole range of options for the offense, there's a whole range of possible punishments. Sentencing guidelines account for this as well. There isn't any reason to believe that she'll get the maximum sentence for her offense. Actually stealing weapons-grade material is orders of magnitude worse and there isn't any reason to believe that her punishment will match that crime.

you are equating nuclear waste / weapons grade materials, with not liking what some random person says?

Nope... and it's pretty ridiculous of you to pretend otherwise. It was just another way of saying "you can make your point... and even break the law and get arrested... without stepping over clear lines."

We have a long history of civil disobedience in this country.

Yep... which does not make just any action that you want to call civil disobedience suddenly acceptable. Chaining yourself to the gatehouse is civil disobedience. Cutting through multiple layers of security fencing protecting nuclear weapons isn't. If the third fence had been high voltage and she died trying to cross it... the facility would have nothing to apologize for.

The fact that she couldn't come up with something more appropriate form of protest certainly leaves her in the "less than creative" camp if not stupid.

[Octafish]

12. You are the best.

Keep on defending the indefensible.

[abelenkpe]

4. K&R

[Mr. Blue Sky]

5. Two sides to every story... 3. Mary Estelle Curran

Ryskamp chastised the government for prosecuting the 79-year-old woman, when 38,000 other people in the same situation were given immunity.

“This is a tragic situation,” Ryskamp said. “It seems to me the government should have used more discretion.”

Curran inherited the accounts when her husband, Mortimer, died in 2000.

In January, Curran pleaded guilty to two charges of filing false tax returns for 2006 and 2007 and paid $21.6 million in penalty fees. The probation officer recommended probation and the government didn’t oppose it.

Curran’s husband, an investment banker, handled all their accounts, while his wife volunteered at hospitals, thrift stores, soup kitchens and, for 32 years, with the Rehabilitation Center for Children and Adults, where she worked with children, Black said.

“It was very hard work,” Black said. “Thirty-two years of not just making donations, but giving of herself.”

Ryskamp made it clear Curran never should have been charged.

http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/news/national/woman-free-after-seconds-on-probation/nXXtN/

[Psephos]

6. thank you n/t