Why Mitt Romney used a Swiss bank account and off shore investments

January 28, 2012

By Steven Greer, MD   BatteryPark.TV

When Mitt Romney was booed during the South Carolina GOP debates for not releasing his tax returns, and then finally released just his 2010 results, the press focused on Mr. Romney’s low absolute tax rate near 14%. However, what interested me as a former hedge fund portfolio manager more was his exceptional rate of return on what he described as “mutual funds and bonds in a blinded trust fund”. That seems pretty like some “plain vanilla” investing, yet he earned approximately a 14% return on investment (ROI), depending on the estimate for “total assets under management” one uses. Many of the best hedge funds in the world did not do that well in 2010, so I became interested and analyzed it in more detail.

I used to run my own small hedge fund, and later became the global healthcare portfolio manager for Merrill Lynch’s internal $10 Billion hedge fund. Mr. Romney’s tax returns demonstrate the sophisticated tax minimizing techniques used by complex hedge funds. He posted five different tax forms from 2010 on his campaign web site. On his joint return with his wife, he reported $21,661,344 in Income. All of that was derived from investment returns, with the exception of $528,871 in publishing and speaking fees. The joint couple paid nearly $3 million in taxes, or less than 14% of their $21.6 million income.

Although Mr. Romney is wealthy, he does have something in common with millions of Americans struggling in this five-year-long depression: he too is unemployed it seems. Mr. Romney cannot call anywhere his place of employment other than his speaking engagement company.

In order to determine the return on investment (ROI) for Mr. Romney’s pool of assets, one needs to know the assets under management to use as the denominator. The tax forms do not list that number, but in an interview, Mr. Romney said that he owns, “Between $150 and about $200 some-odd million dollars, I think that’s what the estimates are.” Aside from the fact that his degree of error in estimating his net worth is far larger than most American’s entire lifetime of earnings, by factors of ten, this means that his 2010 ROI ranged from between 11% and 14%.

How well did Mr. Romney’s stock brokers at Goldman Sachs, where he “prime brokers” most of his equities, do at investing in his “blind trust”? In 2010, some of the smartest hedge fund managers earned well less than 10%, and the overall average was 10.2%. So, his Goldman Sachs money managers beat the hedge funds. However, the overall markets gained 12.8 percent (S&P 500 index). The average long-only mutual fund rose 17.48 percent, according to data from Lipper Inc and Reuters reports. So, Mr. Romney’s ROI was a bit inferior to many mutual funds.

The complex global network of accounts used by Mr. Romney has been criticized in the press since he released his tax documents. Some have also questioned whether he was truly “blinded” and unaware of the investments being made. I spoke with a tax expert at the Georgetown University Law Center, John Buckley, J.D.

I asked him what legitimate reasons an American citizen living in The United States would have for opening a Swiss bank account. He replied “U.S. citizens who do not live in Switzerland, typically have Swiss bank accounts for one reason: to hide assets and/or income.” Recall, in 2009, the Justice Department sued UBS, the largest Swiss bank, to obtain the names of 52,000 names kept secret from the IRS and suspected of tax evasion. Mr. Buckley said, “I do not know whether (Romney) had his account at UBS.” According to the LA times, Mr. Romney failed to report this Swiss bank account in his presidential financial disclosure forms. Even conservative commentator Lou Dobbs could not justify Mr. Romney’s Swiss bank account when asked about it by Bill O’Reilly.

The other complex financial tool used by Mr. Romney to reduce his tax burden was to shield investments in hedge funds from the IRS by using Cayman Island and other off shore funds. These are known as “blocker” accounts according to Mr. Buckley. He explained, “Normal IRA accounts in mutual funds or individual stocks have tax deductions. However, hedge funds that use borrowed margin, or leverage, are not considered tax deducted IRA accounts. Therefore, one can invest in Cayman Island accounts to avoid taxes.” Given that Mr. Romney only released his 2010 tax forms, Mr. Buckley speculated whether the infamous Swiss bank account was listed in previous years tax forms.

The legalities of Mitt Romney’s “blind trust” are also uncertain. Mr. Buckley said that since Romney’s personal lawyer is also the administrator of the blinded trust, it raises obvious questions of the strength of that Chinese wall.

One can imagine now some good zingers that the loquacious President Obama could use this fall on the campaign trial. For example, he might say, “Mitt Romney lives off of his trust fund and does not need to work. He knows nothing about job creation. His Bain capital days caused thousands of people to lose their jobs”. Or, he could say, “Mitt Romney is a Swiss bank account Cayman Island Wall Street loving fat cat. I am reforming Wall Street.”

Any of those comments will score well in Nevada, Ohio, California, and other swing states with double digit unemployment. Mitt Romney would be forced to stutter a defense, such as, “Uggh. Uggghh. President Obama wants to punish success. I earned my money.”

Yes. President Obama could pull a brilliant Jiu-Jitsu move and actually make the bad economy a positive campaign rally if he ran against Mitt Romney.

While all of this shell gaming of assets used by the wealthy to reduce tax burdens is mostly legal, it is very foreign to almost all Americans. Moreover, the use of Swiss bank accounts is flat out tax fraud and illegal in most cases.

The “establishment” Republican party to which Newt Gingrich refers is placing their best bets on Mitt Romney to defeat Barack Obama because the current polls indicate that the two match up evenly in a head-to-head race. Romney is their manifest destiny candidate. They are literally panicked now that Gingrich is viable.

However, the Obama campaign over the next ten months could effectively portray Mitt Romney as an unemployed, out of touch with America, Wall Street loving, trust fund living, tax evader. That could likely be an effective and lethal strategy. Newt Gingrich, on the other hand, being guilty only of taking a few millions (small potatoes) as a “lobbyist”, would possibly be able to portray himself as an anti-establishment Tea Party crusader with an unimportant series personal marriage disasters (with a popular Vice President female running mate).

The same old-school GOP voices supporting Mitt Romney so desperately now in 2012 are the very same ones who allowed Barack Obama to win the 2008 election, and the Democrats to take over the House and Senate. Will Karl Rove, Tom DeLay, John McCain, or Bob Dole come through again and help President Obama win a second term, despite high unemployment and an economic depression? Stay tuned.

(Dr. Greer is a former Wall Street financial “sell side” analyst at Donaldson Lufkin and Jenrette, Credit Suisse, and portfolio manager for Merrill Lynch. He is the founder of The Healthcare Channel, CurrentMedicine.TV, and BatteryPark.TV, and frequently contributes to NPR, The WSJ, CNBC, and Fox News)

Steven Greer, MD discusses with Bill O’Reilly the Japan radiation concern for the US?

April 2, 2011

Currently, the radioactive isotopes from the Fukushima meltdowns (plural) reaching the United States are of no concern. The levels are miniscule and of no medical harm. However, radiation exposure and subsequent risk to cancer is cumulative and the situation cannot be allowed to continue for months, ala the BP oil spill. What will the international community do next?

We discussed this with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly.

Polluting ferry boats to get new, less polluting, less noisy, engines

November 2, 2011

By Steven Greer, MD

The much anticipated BPC CB1 meeting to discuss the ongoing problem of noise and air pollution from the New York Waterway ferry boats yielded significant results for the first time in recent memory. The CEO of the BillyBey Ferry Company (DBA New York Waterway), Paul Goodman, announced that they will be using federal grants and “Nearly $1 Million of BillyBey money” to finally replace the outdated heavily-polluting diesel engines on nine of the worst offending vessels that dock often at WFC Vesey Street slip. The slip is controlled by the Port Authority.

The expected completion date will be mid-year 2012. That coincides with new regulations for marine vessels under the Clean Air Act.

Mr. Goodman elaborated, “Those 18 engines for 9 boats have been ordered. The program is fully funded…and installed over the first half of 2012.” He explained that the current engines, which so infamously now belch pure black diesel particulate smoke (see here) as they dock at the WFC Vesey Street slip fall under “Tier 0″ of the EPA classification of engines, according to Mr. Goodman. The new diesel engines with particulate filters will be “Tier 2″. (Note, our Google search of the EPA’s Tier system for engines revealed a system that did not coincide with what the BillyBey Ferry Company listed).

Given that no exhaust emission testings have ever been performed and made public, CB1 member Anthony Notaro tried to clarify whether BPC residents can expect to see, hear, and breath less pollution with the new engines promised. Goodman said, “You will see a significant reduction in pollution”. A spokesman for the DOT elaborated, “You can expect an 85% reduction in pollution (with the new engines).

Skeptics of these new promises from BillyBey Ferry Company have ample justification. The same NYSERD grant that will finally be used to convert the engines has been funded and made available to the company since at least 2006, and the only accomplishments to date from the grant money has been to install some exhaust particulate filters on a few boats and “perform tests”. Only now, after BatteryPark.TV coverage and the involvement of the NRDC, New York Times, EPA, and elected officials, is BillyBey promising to replace the outdated engines.

The Port Authority spokeswoman at the meeting said, “We were aware that the (NYSERD-funded emissions program) was ongoing, but it didn’t move as quickly as we would have liked.”

After more than 20 minutes of the BillyBey CEO and his entourage of supporting government officials speaking (i.e. NYSERD, DOT, consultant to NYSERD, and EPA), vocal residents spoke up requesting that the WFC Vesey Street slip be moved entirely away from the neighborhood. CB1 member Tom Goodkind echoed those views saying, “We should consider removing these boats (from the WFC Vesey Street slip) until these engine retrofits occur.” and received applause.

Recall, the BillyBey Ferry Company is a New Jersey company that exists almost exclusively to haul New Jersey residents to their Manhattan jobs. There is a reason one of the boats is named “U.S. Senate Frank R. Lautenberg“. For decades, this New Jersey-benefiting operation has polluted the air and disturbed the peace in Battery Park City. This might be the beginning of the beginning of a solution to this New Jersey-rooted problem. When new Caterpillar diesel engines are mounted in the boats, we will take our victory lap.

And the full unedited video of all of the different boats polluting equally from EPA Tier-0 “worst  category” engines

Big meeting tonight to discuss the fate of the polluting NY Waterway boats

November 1, 2011

By Steven Greer, MD

The CB1 Battery Park City subcommittee will meet tonight to discuss the fate of the BillyBey Ferry Company’s air and noise polluting ferry boats (6:00 PM, 1 World Financial Center, 24th floor). After several meetings leading up to this one, scheduled to be in attendance tonight are the CEO of BillyBey, representatives from Senator Gillibrand and Rep. Nadler’s offices, the EPA, the DOT, the non-profit environmental watchdog group the NRDC, and The New York Times.

Key issues to be determined will be:

• What did BillyBey do with the more than $7 Million in grants provided by an arcane grant from the State and City specifically meant for cleaning up ferry boat exhaust? “The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), in partnership with the New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), announces the Deployment Phase of the New York City Private Ferry Emission Reduction Program.”
• BillyBey claims that several of their boats have already been retrofitted with diesel particulate filters. However, per our filming and reporting, not a single New York Waterway ferry that docks at the Vesey Street slip seems to have any such filter.
• BillyBey also claims to be completely replacing older diesel engines with more modern “clean diesel”. When will this take place?
• What happened to the brand new super-clean and quiet Goldman Sachs ferry boats, seen briefly in April and reported by the New York Times? They seem to have disappeared and never made it into service. BillyBey CEO Goodman refused to answer that question in our previous call with him.
• What powers does the federal Clean Air Act give our local EPA to enforce pollution violations that appear to be committed by the BillyBey New York Waterway ferries? The well-funded non-profit environmental watchdog group, the NRDC, and the EPA, will shed some light onto that.
• What role will the Port Authority, operator of the Vesey Street slip and contractor with BillyBey, play in resolving this public health problem?
• What role will the city play now that the city is in contract with BillyBey for the East River new ferry services?

After decades of being subjected to noise and air pollution from the BillyBey New York Waterway ferries, our community seems to the most support ever for resolving this problem. Please attend the meeting tonight.

(unedited filming of ferry boat pollution)

Exclusive: Did Goldman Sachs buy ferry boats on TARP money and return them?

One of the ferry boats purchased by Goldman Sachs to provide less noisy less polluting service to Battery Park City, by The NY Times

October 18, 2011

By Steven Greer, MD

BatteryPark.TV received call today from a reporter at a national newspaper asking whether we knew the fate of the two new Goldman Sachs ferry boats purchased to carry employees between the Vesey Street slip in Manhattan, owned by the Port Authority, and other slips in New Jersey. Recall, after the new Goldman Sachs headquarters opened on West Street and Vesey Street, BillyBey Ferry Company, owner of the New York Waterway ferry boats, began new routes crossing from Jersey City at earlier times in the morning, and the noise was a source of complaints. For decades, noise and pollution from the boats have angered BPC residents on the Hudson River.

The New York Times reported in March that two new boats had arrived from a shipyard in Washington State, and were rumored to cost $5 Million dollars. They were supposed to have gone into commission in April, but never did.

Goldman Sachs, in customary fashion, will not comment on the fate of the new boats. We called Paul Goodman, the CEO of BillyBey Ferry Company, operator of the New York Waterway branded boats and the yet-to-be commissioned Goldman Sachs boats. He said, “I have no comment one way or the other…I will see you at the November 1st Community Board meeting.”

Given the lack of clarity provided by Goldman Sachs and BillyBey Ferry, we are forced to speculate on rumor. One leading theory on the fate of the Goldman Sachs luxury ferry boats is that they were purchased with TARP funds or other federal stimulus money and have now been sold or returned in order to avoid a scandal. We will learn more at the next CB1 meeting.

The next CB1 is schedule to have speakers including the CEO of BillyBey Ferry and representatives from the EPA, Senator Gillibrand, and Rep. Nadler. For all of our previous coverage of this topic, click here.

How the GOP’s addiction to Wall Street money will get Obama re-elected

October 11, 2011

By Steven Greer, MD

As we first predicted, The OccupyWallStreet protests have grown to a critical mass and are now a legitimate movement satirized on Saturday Night Live and seriously discussed in the media by elected officials. In fact, President Obama and the DNC seem to be effectively using the anti-Wall Street sentiment against the GOP who are caught flat footed trying to ignore the legitimacy of the protests and label them as irrelevant anarchists wanting.

The Republicans will lose this debate and allow the Wall Street issue to become a major scoring point for the Democrats in 2012 if the GOP does not quit its addiction to Wall Street money.

In the video below, top-advisor to the president, David Plouffe, regurgitates prepared talking points aiming to portray President Obama (POTUS) as a fierce Wall Street reformer. In fact, The POTUS is very vulnerable on this issue and the GOP could turn this around and make POTUS seem to be a man who has alienated his liberal base yet again in favor of special interest lobbyists. In reality, the Democrats are as corrupted by Wall Street influences as are the GOP.

However, The GOP cannot pounce on this opportunity because the Republican party is still run by the same imbeciles that led the GOP to defeat in the 2008 elections and created a total Democrat-run congress and White House. Wall Street bailouts under George Bush and the bad economy caused by Wall Street risky trading in mortgages led to McCain losing in 2008. The Wall Street issue will very likely allow President Obama to keep his job in 2012 despite high unemployment because the Republicans are hard-core junkies when it comes to Wall Street campaign donations and the promise of lucrative private sector jobs after public service.

If the GOP went to rehab and kicked the Wall Street addiction, and threw the bankers under the bus, they would be able to reply to the David Plouffe talking points in the following manner:

• In the GMA video, Plouffe claims that POTUS is a Wall Street reformer: In fact, the Dodd Frank law has been allowed to be stalled and very little of the law has been enacted. POTUS could have been vocal and challenged the GOP in congress on this matter but he has not.
• It has been Obama’s hand-chosen Secretary of the Treasury, Tim Giethner, who has been the biggest supporter of Wall Street banks, allowing them to remain “Too big to fail” and to not lend out billions of dollars they have sitting around.
• The “Volcker Rule” that would limit Wall Street banks from making risky trades, such as the ones that led to the market collapses of 2008, has been watered down and is delayed until July 2012, at the earliest.
• Plouffe mentioned that The Obama administration has championed consumer banking protection laws. In fact, POTUS did not support Elizabeth Warren, the champion of consumer finance protection laws.

The Republicans will not be able to use Jiu-Jitsu and turn the tables on the Democrats, using rage toward Wall Street against POTUS in 2012, because the party is still run by the old school led by Carl Rove and Reince Priebus. The Tea Party has been hijacked it seems. Look for more TV appearances by President Obama and his team, like the one in the video below, to effectively score points against the GOP, all because the Republicans are addicted to the revolving door to Wall Street.

CB 1 Meeting October 4

October 4, 2011

By Steven Greer

The Battery Park City division of Community Board 1 met tonight. Two Hudson river complaints were discussed. The first one dealt with the annual loud speed boat race. Then, the meeting turned to the topic of diesel exhaust air pollution from the New York Waterway ferry boats on the Vesey Street slip.

In attendance were staffers from Senator Gillibrand’s and Rep. Nadler’s offices. Surprisingly, the EPA ignored the invitation to attend, despite being the agency most empowered to do something about the problem (see our previous stories).

Steven Greer began with a video from BatteryPark.TV of medical doctor expert on air pollution and the effects to children’s lung development.  A 20-year study at USC has demonstrated that air pollution increases asthma, slows lung growth in children, and increases overall mortality rates. Several local residents expressed outrage over the ferry boat noise and pollution.

The committee decided to do the following:

• Have some entity, to be determined, test the levels of air pollution by the waterfall pond near the slip
• Request the Port Authority to deal with the New York Waterway company since the Authority controls the slip
• Continue to deal with the EPA and state DEC and invite those entities to the next meeting
• Continue to engage the federal representatives for lower Manhattan, namely Rep. Nadler and Senator Gillibrand, in order to use the enforcement powers of the federal EPA via the Clean Air Act. The state and city agencies have failed to act on this problem for decades.
• Look into any financial “green” incentives that might encourage the ferry boat operator to clean up their boats

The medical consequences of ferry boat diesel exhaust pollution to children’s lungs

October 4, 2011

(In full screen 1080iHD)

The Community Board 1, BPC division, will meet tonight to discuss the problem of diesel exhaust pollution damaging the eyes and lungs of nearby children in the parks by the Vesey Street ferry boat slip. Members of Rep. Nadler and Senators Schumer’s and Gillibrand’s staff have been invited.

In this video, the Chairman of Preventive Medicine at USC, who recently authored a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine on pollution and the Clean Air Act, discusses how engine exhaust causes asthma, delays lung growth, and increases mortality.

CB1 meeting discusses New York Waterway air pollution

September 6, 2011

By Steven Greer, MD

BatteryPark.TV was invited by CB1 BPC Chairwoman Linda Belfer to present the video of the New York Waterway ferry boat pollution and discuss the results of our investigation to date. During the meeting, Ms. Belfer and others announced that they will next invite Senators Schumer and Gillibrand (both D-NY), as well as Rep. Nadler (D-NY), to attend the next CB BPC meeting and discuss how the EPA might be recruited to help clean up the problem.

September 14, 2011

This is an unedited series of clips requested by the community board

Update: EPA’s response to our letter on NY Waterway ferry pollution

August 31, 2011

By Steven Greer, MD

CB1 Battery Park City committee Chairwoman Linda Belfer requested that BatteryPark.TV present our video of the NY Waterway ferries billowing black diesel particulate pollution at the Vesey Street slip on Tuesday, September 6th.

Updating our open-letter to the EPA, BatteryPark.TV spoke with a member of the enforcement staff of the EPA’s region 2. This person works for Kenneth Eng in the Clean Air division. He said, “Boy, you really caused a lot of fuss around here …numerous emails have been going back and forth…(based on your video and story)”.

This EPA official said that his office investigated the matter and concluded it was not enforceable by their offices because the pollution source is “Not stationary for more than six minutes”. This is an assertion that is disputable since, during rush hour, multiple ferries are docked, revving engines and stationary, for periods of time. longer than six minutes

The EPA official went on to say that this specific problem of ferry boat pollution was of great interest to more senior ranks within the EPA. It has been investigated in the past after complaints.

A second EPA official, also of the Region 2 enforcement office, explained that an update to the Clean Air Act, to start in June of 2012, would possibly govern marine vessels with diesel engines, possibly like the NY Waterway ferries in question. He referred us to this EPA document. He said that in June of 2012, the vehicles deemed to be regulated by this law will have to use cleaner diesel fuel and add diesel particulate filters.

The EPA also referred us to a different enforcement office run by the State of New York, the DEC and the staff of Mr. Sam Lieblich. The DEC did not return our messages, but the EPA and local CB1 members have told us that the DEC previously investigated various complaints about the boats (noise and pollution) several times but declined to enforce any law.

BatteryPark.TV reached out to the press offices of Governor Cuomo, Manhattan Borough President Stringer, Mayor Bloomberg, Assembly Speaker Silver, and U.S. Rep. Adler, but the Labor Day holiday has caused delays in responses.

To learn more about the health consequences of combustion engine pollution, and how the Clean Air Act has worked to reduce pollution, we refer you to this excellent discussion.

A letter to the EPA about the NY Waterway ferries polluting the children’s playgrounds

Kenneth Eng

Chief, Air Compliance Branch

US EPA, Region 2

Mr. Eng

I am a medical doctor and am reporting a serious air quality health hazard at the west end of Vesey Street where the New York Waterway ferries dock. They have old, unclean diesel engines in all of the boats. When they dock, the boats rev the engines and dark black exhaust spews out (see video). This happens every day.

The direct and acute health hazard comes from the fact that 60 yards away, on land, is a well-kept and popular series of children’s playgrounds. At certain times of the day when multiple ferries are docked at once, the fumes are so powerful that they burn the eyes and throat. These fumes contain benzene, ozone, and many other toxic compounds that the Clean Air Act would never find permissible.

Since these boats fall under interstate commerce, no single city or state seems able to do anything about this problem. I believe that your “Mobile source unit”, led by Mr. Michael Moltzen, might be able to deal with this and use new clean diesel regulations to deal with the problem.

We contacted the CEO of New York Waterway, Mr. Paul Goodman, and he refused to comment.

The EPA would certainly make thousands of friends down here if you can be the agency to finally solve this health hazard.

We filed a report at the EPA, # 987024

Steven Greer, MD

BatteryPark.TV

The GOP is tone deaf and clueless

September 29, 2011

By Steven Greer, MD

The current Republican (GOP) strategy for the 2012 elections will lead to President Obama being re-elected despite high unemployment and low job approval. Compared to the numerous GOP presidential candidates, most Americans will view President Obama as the sanest smartest person to lead the country.

Every GOP presidential candidate placed in the lead position so far has quickly been exposed as a either a nut job or incompetent. Why has the GOP bungled so badly?

The answer is simple and obvious: our political system is corrupted to the core and big-money special interests control the process. By definition, the leaders of these special interests are out of touch with the majority. The GOP is tone deaf and clueless right now.

How should the GOP change strategy and better appeal to the masses who will vote in November of 2012?

The first and foremost concept that the GOP strategists need to realize is that the voters are pissed off and either unemployed or in deep debt. The 13-day-long Wall Street protests that have taken root in Liberty Park near Wall Street are the manifestation of unemployed young people needing a sense of purpose. These protests will spread across the country. Look for Vietnam-era-style protests next year. The Tea Party of older Caucasians will expand to include younger more radical constituents. The young kids gathered on Wall Street do not realize it, but they are the same as the Tea Party.

None of these disgruntled masses want to hear GOP presidential candidates or conservative pundits defend millionaires against the “Warren Buffet plan” tax hikes. President Obama will win that battle. He is pulling off a brilliant Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu move and the old schoolers in the GOP like Carl Rove and Reince Priebus are falling for it.

The Republicans, however, can tap into this populace rage and win 2012 in a landslide if they change tack. (But don’t hold your breath)

Michele Bachmann rocketed to the lead in the polls (briefly, before she continued to open her mouth on HPV, etc) by simply stating in a debate that the Wall Street bailouts were a bad thing. However, like a bunch of Vicodin and crack addicts, the GOP is addicted to Wall Street campaign donation money and is perversely supporting the very same institutions that caused the 5-year-long-no-end-in-sight global depression that has created real unemployment in excess of 20%. Supporting tax loopholes that allow Connecticut billionaires to pay only 15% federal tax will not resonate very well with voters.

The GOP should throw Wall Street under a bus and leverage the populace rage into a winning strategy, stealing it from the Democrats. Former federal attorney Chris Christie, or Rick Perry, or whomever is the GOP candidate, should promise to make a “10 Most Wanted” list of people to arrest who caused the global depression. On that list would be Merrill Lynch’s Stan O’Neill who ignored internal council and loaded up on toxic debt that ruined the company (now Bank of America) yet walked away with almost $100 Million in severance pay. Others on the list who would make for good visual “perp walks” would be Angelo Mozilo who oversaw Countrywide Financial and all of the fraudulent predatory mortgages, Dick Fuld of Lehman Brothers, heads of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, etc.

The GOP should continue to attack the actions of Ben Bernanke’s Federal Reserve (which are blessed by President Obama) of printing money in QE1 and QE2 as nothing more than welfare to Wall Street traders. The various actions of the Fed have not helped the economy and have only devalued the dollar reducing the purchasing power of Americans (low dollar means higher gas, food, commodity prices). Rick Perry scored points by saying that if Bernanke created a QE3 it would be “Almost treasonous”.

The GOP should abandon this defense of low tax rates on millionaires as “Class warfare” by the Democrats. That is an ineffective strategy. Instead, the GOP should state that the problem with the federal budget lies in an addiction to spending, and one does not give an addict an ounce of the drug they seek until they have been rehabbed. Taxes on millionaires will be raised, but only after $4 Trillion in spending cuts.

The GOP should take the golden opportunity created by The White House proposals to cut Medicare and propose their own cuts to entitlements. When Paul Ryan hinted at Medicare cuts earlier in the year, he was demonized. Obama has now created cover with his own Medicare cuts. Cutting entitlement spending is the only way to truly solve the root cause of the depression and to spur confidence in the American economy.

The GOP should support the Elizabeth Warren Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It would resonate well on the campaign trail and eliminate her as a threat to Republican Senator Scott Brown if she were to head up that agency. Defending predatory credit and debit card practices by Too Big Too Fail banks will not be a winning strategy for the GOP.

If the GOP made these tactical changes now, not only would they win over the millions of outraged silent mobs in America, but the GOP would expand its base. The college kids, traditionally in the Democrats’ base, would be inclined to vote Republican given that they are unemployed an unhappy with the incumbents. The kids camped out on Wall Street (of all races) are not exactly chanting pro-Obama slogans. There are no pro-Obama signs at all. They are ripe for the taking if the GOP wised up.

If the GOP continues with its current strategies, and ignores the voters as they reject one presidential hopeful after another, then President Obama will be the first president to be re-elected with a job approval in the 40%-range and unemployment above 9%. The GOP ought to be very very concerned right now.

The deadly crossing

Construction on Route 9A, also known as The West Side Highway, and closure of the pedestrian bridge south of Albany Street have created a very dangerous situation. The ground-level crossing of The West Side Highway at Albany Street can be a death trap.

In February of 2009, Battery Park City resident Marilyn Feng was killed and her boyfriend seriously injured when a drunk driver struck the couple. Ms. Feng was an intern in Manhattan Borough president Scott Stringer’s office. In late September of 2009, another pedestrian was struck by a motorist, but he survived.

Funding for the permanent pedestrian overpass has been cancelled. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer discusses the problem.

NYPD 9/11 bagpipe parade 2007

Over 118,000 views and counting

(This is the file with the 100,00 views originally posted on YouTube at another location of ours)

How the FDA could rapidly generate 100,000 jobs in NJ and NY

By Steven Greer, MD

September 4, 2010

The Commissioner of the FDA, Margaret Hamburg, could become the single biggest job creator in the Obama administration and generate hundreds of thousands of  jobs in the New Jersey and New York areas. How?

FDA Commissioner Hamburg

Pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing, as well as clinical trial development, have been outsourced to China, India, Ireland, and other countries, taking with it the jobs required to do these functions. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 300,000 jobs involved in pharmaceutical manufacturing alone back in 2008. Data are not readily available on the number of people employed in non-U.S. drug and device plants, but the FDA tracks more than 100,000 international facilities. Therefore, the number of jobs that are outsourced to manufacture drugs and devices, which are then imported to the U.S., seems to be well into the hundreds of thousands.

Monitoring safety is the primary mandate for the drug and device divisions of the FDA. It has become increasingly more difficult for the FDA to properly monitor all of these overseas plants. We recently spoke with the Commissioner of the FDA and the Director of CDER about this.

The FDA recently added a fee to the drug industry to allow the FDA to hire more overseas inspectors in the wake of numerous drug safety horrors, such as counterfeit Chinese-made heparin that killed hundreds and resulted in the execution of the director of China’s equivalent of the FDA. However, the new number of FDA inspectors will still only inspect a small fraction of the overseas plants, according to the GAO.

A much more effective solution would be to mandate that the majority of drugs and devices be made right here in the United States. How many jobs could be rapidly created in the Tri-State area by such a decree? One can easily imagine 100,000. When Roche assimilated Genentech like a Star Trek Borg, it eliminated as many as 8,800 employees at just one plant in Vacaville, California when it outsourced the biologics manufacturing to Singapore. We also know that tens of thousands of jobs were lost after the Pfizer/Wyeth and Merck/Schering Plough mergers. Many of those jobs were replaced by China and India plants. It is reasonable to assume they would return if the FDA mandated U.S. drug and device manufacturing.

Making drugs meant for Americans in American plants is the only sensible thing to do from a safety standpoint, but the financial power on K Street of the drug industry has allowed the rules to become relaxed so much that we now have the vast majority of our pharmaceuticals being made in China and India. Never before would it have been conceivable to change this practice, but with the prolonged economic depression and 10% unemployment for the foreseeable future, the political climate might just allow such a bold regulatory change.

Of course, such a radical change by the FDA would require presidential and congressional support. This could be the most effective and bipartisan popular move the President can make. Governor’s Cuomo, Christie and the various Senators/congressmen of the states could also help out.

As predicted, we just got rain

Calm seas over NY Harbor as the storm passed

As BatteryPark.TV first predicted on Thursday the 25th, Hurricane Irene hit shore far more west than the models predicted, hitting the Carolinas and then dissipating into an eye-less tropical storm. Even after that occurred, however, New York Mayor Bloomberg and the TV stations reaping the rewards from hyped coverage, continued to scare tens of millions on the Eastern Seaboard. Bloomberg made the controversial move on Thursday to shut down the MTA subways and order the first-ever mandatory evacuation of the city.

The result of Bloomberg’s actions, copied by other leaders in the Northeast in a domino effect, has been the biggest man-made disaster in memory (aside from terrorism). As air travel, Amtrak, and the NYC subways have come to a halt during peak tourism season, and with hundreds of thousands forced from their homes due to evacuation, the cost of lost revenues will certainly be in the billions.

To protect their reputations, the TV stations, the MTA, and the city officials are hyping the alleged damage from the storm. As of 12:00 PM Sunday, the storm is far away from NYC, downgraded to a storm rather than a “hurricane”, yet officials still warn of deadly flooding from a “storm surge”, despite there never having been the wind to create such an epic flooding. The city is still a ghost town with no mass transit.

Manhattan can process massive amounts of rain water and high winds without significant flooding. What NYC received from “Hurricane” Irene would have been otherwise completely insignificant if it were not for the hyped status as “Deadly hurricane”.

As the weeks go by, the details of this scandal will unfold. Questions to ask will be:

1. Did Mayor Bloomberg simply overreact?
2. Was his absence during the winter blizzard a factor in this overreaction? Was he afraid of doing a George-Bush-Katrina misstep?
3. To boost ratings, did the TV stations report misleading images or stage any shots, such as making themselves wet when there was no rain, etc?
4. Did the TV weather producers use out-of-date older radar images of the hurricane to look more menacing than the reliable NOAA satellite images BatteryPark.TV relied on which clearly showed the storm breaking apart and losing the eye?
5. Did Con-Ed fabricate an excuse for warning that electricity might be cut in parts of NYC in order to scare people from their homes and comply with evacuations?
6. What role did President Obama and FEMA play. They were conspicuously absent from this process.

One of Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World”

July 25, 2011

Peter Pronovost MD PhD, gave us a tour of his work at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. His pioneering research has greatly reduced adverse outcomes, such as infections and OR, in hospitals around the world. For his work, Dr. Pronovost was named one of Time Magazine’s “Most Influential People in the World” and is a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” award.

Dr. Steven Greer took a tour of his ICU and discussed his advances.

(In full screen 1080iHD)

Is P90X a mental health risk to congressmen?

June 7, 2011

A growing number of 40-something congressmen are getting into the best shapes of their lives after joining an informal “P90X caucus“, whereby they religiously workout to the instructions of the infomercial P90X program. However, is this detrimental to their careers? Should never-before-in-shape dorky white men receive psychological counseling before getting buff?

Earlier this year, a 46-yo married member of the P90X caucus, Rep. Chris Lee (R-NY) was ejected from his congressional seat after being busted posting a shirtless photo on Craigslist (while seeking a prostitute). Now, another 46-yo member of the P90X gang, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), will likely lose his seat, one way or the other, after posting on Twitter his surprisingly in-shape shirtless thorax created by his workout regimen (who knew that below that pencil neck were any muscles greater than a 10-yo girl?).

Politics is often called the Hollywood for ugly people. Now, with better knowledge of diet and exercise, and some “Low-T” prescriptions thrown in, these men are adding the aesthetic aspect to the mix. But this added power seems to be too potent for them, and they snap, risking it all with risky ultra-stupid sexting.

Of course, P90X might not be to blame. The State of New York might be the epidemiological risk factor here, given the past relics of Eliott Spitzer, Eric Massa, David Paterson, etc.

Update: U.S. Radiation levels from Japan

May 1, 2011

The radiation fallout levels in the U.S. from the Japan Fukushima reactors remain low. The EPA runs a national RadNet system that collects radiation samples from air, water, milk and other sources. In addition, most states (e.g. Maryland) have independent collection systems, as do nuclear regulatory agencies.

We spoke with Clifford S. Mitchell, MD, MPH, of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

The data are collected by measuring the activity level of the disintegrating isotopes. Each isotope emits a unique spectrum of energy, so the type of radiation, as well as total energy is measurable in picocuries (pCi/m3). However, those measurements are not clinically relevant.

One needs to then estimate a clinical dosage, which depends on the length of exposure and route of ingestion (i.e. inhaled, drank, touched, etc). Sieverts (Sv), or millisieverts (mSv), are the units of dosage one needs in order to compare fallout to other types of radiation, such as CT scans or X-rays. We do not have estimates for the mSv dose data.

The encouraging aspects of the data collected so far are that:

A) The total activity is not accumulating significantly

B)  The long-half-life, most deadly, isotopes such as cesium and plutonium, are not yet detected, for the most part, in mainland U.S. Hawaii does have detectable levels of some of the more concerning isotopes, as does California rain water measurements (Te-132).

Given that I-131 has a short half-life of 8 days, one would not expect to see an accumulation of activity in pCi. However, a continued inhalation of low levels can translate into a greater dosage on terms of mSv.

Bernanke’s missing link of chainmail on his underbelly

April 27, 2011

As investors know, The Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, gave a first-of-its-kind press conference today, pulling the curtain away from the Wizard of Oz. Coinciding with the event, the Fed released discouraging updates that downgraded the estimates for first quarter GDP, increased inflation expectations for inflation, and decreased job growth expectations.

All of this is after the $600 Billion spent on “QE2″, which was the perverse purchasing by The Fed of the US treasuries. Most economists and analysts have assessed QE2 as a dismal failure. As a result of the lack of political will, The Fed officially announced that there would be no QE3.

The Fed had hoped to trigger job growth with the various forms of “printing money”. The tradeoffs to these actions are always a triggering of inflation, reduction in the spending power of the American citizen as the dollar depreciates, and rise in commodity prices that are pegged on the USD.

The most important increase in commodity prices has been oil.

Politically, the current economic scenario and series of actions by the Obama administration is starting to have an uncanny similarity to the stagflation (inflation coupled with slow economic growth and unemployment), high gas prices, and foreign policy unrest as the 1970′s and President Carter administration. True inflation, not the bogus number used by the government that back out the costs of food and gasoline, is a now a reality and will get worse.

Chairman Bernanke was asked by the Wall Street Journal what the Fed could do to lower the price of gas. He answered by attributing the rise to supply and demand, unrest in the Middle East and Africa, and to Wall Street speculators manipulating the futures markets.  He made no mention of the powerful role of the Fed’s quantitative easing and low value of the dollar, when by definition, a low dollar will mean a higher price for oil.

If President Obama’s own policy actions, and those of his appointed members of the Fed, were to be implicated in directly causing inflation and the high price of gas, that would be a serious blow to his re-election chances. Therefore, one might explain Ben Bernanke’s peculiar answer leaving out the powerful role of the Fed in oil and gas prices, seen in the video below, to politics. As gas prices get higher, the Fed’s role in causing it will be Bernanke’s weak spot: his missing link of chainmail on his underbelly.

(The video can be viewed in full screen 1080i HD)

April 28, 2011

One day later, the White House was on the defensive denying the relationship between the low dollar, casued by the Fed, and the high gas prices.