KOLAHUN

Direct "Cash" Transfers For the Very Poor

At the very bottom of the income ladder of humanity, are the very poor.  They live at the ends of the rural earth.  Or in the slums of the cities.  We can speak of investment or microfinance and microsavings and all that.  But first, they need a chance to live.  They need direct cash transfers.

Or, as shown below, this type of program in Sierra Leone (where former UK slaves repatriated in the 19th century).  It gives women and children FREE access to health care.  And initial reports are that outcomes are improved:

"The results have been "nothing short of spectacular", said Robert Yates, a senior health economist in from the UK's Department for International Development, which is paying for almost 40 per cent of the £21 million programme, with most of the rest coming from donors such as the World Bank. Since waiving the fees, Sierra Leone has seen a 214 per cent increase in the number of children under five receiving care at health facilities, a 61 per cent decrease in mortality rates in difficult pregnancy cases at health clinics, and an 85 per cent drop in the malaria fatality rate for children treated in hospitals."

Once their survival isn't threatened, then comes the time for investment and education and so forth.  

 

Real World Consequences of The Debt Ceiling Fight

Companies, funds, etc. use money markets as short term investments to park cash.  Money markets, in turn lend this money out and so forth.  If a company needs to withdraw cash and the money market doesn't have cash-on-hand because it's lent out the money elsewhere, the money market borrows from the Treasury.  

However, with the debt ceiling threatening money market liquidity, companies are withdrawing funds. 

There is one faction unwilling to raise the debt ceiling - the Tea Party-ers.  Everyone else does, but is trying to leverage the threat of default to extract parochial goals.  John Boehner wants it raised.  Mitch McConnel wants it raised.  Obama, Pelosi and Reid do.  In a sane world, we'd just marginalize the Tea Party raise the debt ceiling.  

All Politics is Local - The Refugee Problem

In 2003, the US attacked and deposed the leader of Iraq.  This led to a massive sectarian civil war between 2006-08.  As the US was trying to maintain peace and find WMDs, many Iraqis aided the 'invading army' at great personal peril.  In 2011, as the civil war burns much quieter, many of these Iraqis want out.  It's very dangerous for them.  They'd also like to partake in the opportunities in America.  The US government response:

Terrorism fears in the United States are all but halting visas for Iraqis, even those who risked their lives aiding the American war effort, making them especially vulnerable ahead of the planned American military withdrawal.  The Obama administration has required new background checks for visa applicants, reacting to a case in Kentucky in which two Iraqi immigrants were arrested on suspicion of ties to an insurgent group, according to American officials in Baghdad.

Advocates say that the administration is ignoring a directive from Congress to draft a contingency plan to expedite visas should those Iraqis who worked for the United States government, especially interpreters for the military, come under increased threat after American forces are drawn down at the end of the year.

America is in a bad state economically.  We've left the memory of Iraq at the end of the 2008 elections.  So, who's the constituency for these Iraqis?  Why do we want more of 'these people' - especially if they could be terrorists - even though they've shown allegiance through heroic actions?  

In the same way, this newsgroup exemplifies the trans-national problem that the Somali's who seek refuge from both war and drought in Kenya:

very true...and may i add that i find the manufactured crocodile tears of western aid workers and NGO's in daadab who are busy advocating for the setting up of permanent structures for the refugees in kenya completely ridiculous and hypocritical...i have not once heard any of them, or any of their parent countries sitting at the UN request to have any of the refugees re-directed to their own home countries...i would like to see these people sending planes and ships to kenya to scoop up some of the refugees for resettlement in the west...it is always other people that they expect to bear the burden...

Fair point.  While we discuss the problem in Somalia in isolation - i.e. life is unsustainable there (which it is!) - it is an imposition on the Kenyans to cater for refugees.  Much in the same way that we here in the US need to protect the Iraqis who aided us and are in danger, we need to aid those Somali's who're close to death.  

We also need to find a way to respect and support Kenya's independent identity.  

Map of the Day - Horn of Africa Drought

Chart of the Day - Not Getting Our Money's Worth

Note that this is in the Bush II years, pre-Obamacare.  So did we really have the BEST healthcare in the world that a radical-socialist-muslim will soon destroy?

Hydrokinetics on the Mississippi?

On a day of rain and floods in NOLA, it's a good time to ask about the power of the big river to produce more than sewage - electricity:

FFP is focusing on obtaining federal permits for 25 hydrokinetic projects along the lower Mississippi River between Kentucky and Louisiana. Sites were chosen based on flow volume, flow velocity and the proximity to transmission facilities and potential customers. At each site, hundreds of turbines on pylons at the bottom of the river would spin like propellers and transmit energy to the riverbank.

Each turbine would produce about 40 kw of power, comparable to gasoline and diesel-powered home generators. By comparison, small wind turbines used to power homes and small businesses typically have capacities of 100 kilowatts or less.

The technology seems primitive - producing very little energy right now.  But as nuclear powered electricity loses it's luster and as we adopt greater machines based on electricity (Chevy Volt!), we'll perhaps need new forms of electricity generating energy.  The obvious unanswered questions - what are the macro effects of geo-engineering? 

THUNDERBIRDS

ARE

GO!

The Ministry of Information

“more power to the misinformed”

A Surprise Recommendation from the AMA

The American Medical Association represents the welfare of doctors.  Doctors benefit when they care for sick patients.  So the more sick patients, the more a doctor can earn.  It follows that parodoxically, in the peverse financial incentive of the US health care system, it's not in the fiduciary interest of the AMA to promote 'curing' any patient, even as the ethics of medical care promote this outcome.

So it comes as a surprise that the AMA has endorsed the following (h/t WSJ health blog):

In addition to resolutions backing the individual mandate to purchase health insurance and to adopt a bill of rights for medical residents, delegates to the AMA’s annual meeting have approved a resolution recognizing “competitive speed eating as an unhealthy eating practice with potential adverse consequences.”

Wouldn't it be more responsible for the AMA (as a lobbying organization for doctors) to sponsor the Nathan's Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest?  It can have ER docs sitting by to pump stomachs.  And GI doctors doing EGDs to pull out some stuck hot dogs?  Or general surgeons taking those with stomach ruptures to the OR?  

Happy 4th of July, AMA.