S&P Fires Warning Shot on US Fiscal Health

Marketwatch

Standard & Poor’s cut its ratings outlook on the U.S. to negative from stable on Monday, lighting a fire under Washington’s deficit-reduction debate and sending stock markets sharply lower. The rating agency effectively gave Washington a two-year deadline to enact meaningful change, just days after House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and President Barack Obama each outlined their plans for slashing debt.

Finally some news to send a JOLT to the markets (As if World War, Japanese Environmental Holocaust, European debt default, US budget insanity wasn't bearish enough) , this morning the reaction in the markets took the form of giant dumping.

As the Economy Dies, Suicides Rise

 Bloomberg

Suicide rates in the U.S. tend to rise during recessions and fall amid economic booms, according to study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Suicides reached a record high of 22 people per 100,000 in 1932 during the Great Depression, CDC officials said in a report published online today in the American Journal of Public Health. That was double the rates seen in 2000, when 10 people per 100,000 took their lives as the economy prospered, the study found.

The study is the first to link business cycles and suicide rates among specific age groups, according to the Atlanta-based CDC. People in their “prime working ages” of 25 to 64 years old are the most likely to commit suicide during recessions, the study found. 

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25 Facts that Prove US Health System = A Scam!

End of the American Dream- Blog

• The chairman of Aetna, the third largest health insurance company in the United States, brought in a staggering $68.7 million during 2010. Ron Williams exercised stock options that were worth approximately $50.3 million and he raked in an additional $18.4 million in wages and other forms of compensation.  The funny thing is that he left the company and didn't even work the whole year.
• The top executives at the five largest for-profit health insurance companies in the United States combined to receive nearly $200 million in total compensation in 2009.
• One study found that approximately 41 percent of working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt.
• Over the last decade, the number of Americans without health insurance has risen from about 38 million to about 52 million.
• According to one survey, approximately 1 out of every 4 Californians under the age of 65 has absolutely no health insurance
• According to a report published in The American Journal of Medicine, medical bills are a major factor in more than 60 percent of the personal bankruptcies in the United States.  Of those bankruptcies that were caused by medical bills, approximately 75 percent of them involved individuals that actually did have health insurance.
• Profits at U.S. health insurance companies increased by 56 percent during 2009.
• According to a report by Health Care for America Now, America's five biggest for-profit health insurance companies ended 2009 with a combined profit of $12.2 billion.
• Health insurance rate increases are getting out of control.  According to the Los Angeles Times, Blue Shield of California plans to raise rates an average of 30% to 35%, and some individual policy holders could see their health insurance premiums rise by a whopping 59 percent this year alone.
• According to an article on the Mother Jones website, health insurance premiums for small employers in the U.S. increased 180% between 1999 and 2009.

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