Published: October 9 2008 19:32 | Last updated: October 9 2008 19:32

Blame greedy bankers. Blame Alan Greenspan’s careless stewardship of the US Federal Reserve. Blame feckless homeowners who took out loans they could never expect to repay. Blame politicians and regulators everywhere for closing their eyes to the approaching tempest.

EDITOR’S CHOICE
Comment on this column – Jun-23More from this columnist – Aug-23All of the above are culpable. I am sure there are even more villains lurking out there. Sometimes, though, it is worth looking through the other end of the telescope. The wreckage of the financial system holds up a mirror to the changing geopolitical balance. It offers advice, and a warning, as to what the west should make of the emerging global order.

Until quite recently, the talk was about the humbling of America’s laisser faire capitalism. The US government’s $700bn bail-out was the price to be paid for past hubris. For reasons that still elude me, one or two European politicians seemed to delight in the troubles of an ally that still guarantees their security.

Schadenfreude comes before a fall. Solid, conservative Germany has been among the European nations forced to shore up its banks. Angela Merkel, the chancellor, has been driven to assure German voters publicly that their savings are safe.

Belgium and the Netherlands have rescued Fortis. Ireland and Greece have issued blanket guarantees to bank depositors. Others have done something similar. Most dramatically, Gordon Brown’s British government has part-nationalised all of its leading banks in a desperate bid to crack the ice of the credit freeze.

If the toxic mortgage securities and opaque credit swaps that infected the world’s financial system came with a made-in-the-US stamp, European banks were eager buyers. For the humbling of America, we should substitute the humbling of the west.

Asia, as we have seen in the markets this week, is not immune from the shocks and stresses. Japan, which has only quite recently emerged from the long twilight of its 1990s banking collapse, has now been hit anew by the global storm. China felt compelled this week to follow western central banks in cutting interest rates. So did a host of smaller Asian countries. Recession in the US and Europe will slow the growth of Asia’s rising economies.

Standing back, though, two things mark out this crisis as unique. First, is its sheer ferocity. I am not sure how useful it is to make comparisons with the 1930s. History never travels in a straight line. What is evident is that governments and central banks have had no previous experience of coping with shocks and stresses of the intensity and ubiquity we have seen during the past year.

The second difference is one of geography. For the first time, the epicentre has been in the west. Viewed from Washington, London or Paris, financial crises used to be things that happened to someone else – to Latin America, to Asia, to Russia.

The shock waves would sometimes lap at western shores, usually in the form of demands that the rich nations rescue their own imprudent banks. But these crises drew a line between north and south, between the industrialised and developing world. Emerging nations got into a mess; the west told them sternly what they must do to get out of it.

The instructions came in the form of the aptly-named Washington consensus: the painful prescriptions, including market liberalisation and fiscal consolidation, imposed as the price of financial support from the International Monetary Fund.

This time the crisis started on Wall Street, triggered by the steep decline in US house prices. The emerging nations have been the victims rather than the culprit. And the reason for this reversal of roles? They had supped enough of the west’s medicine.

A decade ago, after the crisis of 1997-98 wrought devastation on some of its most vibrant economies, Asia said never again. There would be no more going cap in hand when the going got rough. To avoid the IMF’s ruinous rules, governments would build their own defences against adversity by accumulating reserves of foreign currency.

Those reserves – more than $4,000bn-worth at the present count – financed credit in the US and Europe. There were other sources of liquidity, of course, notably the Fed and the reserves accumulated by energy producers. It also took financial chicanery to turn reckless mortgage lending in to triple A rated securities. But as a Chinese official told my FT colleague David Pilling the other day: “America drowned itself in Asian liquidity.”

Owning up to the geopolitical implications will be as painful for the rich nations as paying the domestic price for the profligacy. The erosion of the west’s moral authority that began with the Iraq war has been greatly accelerated. The west’s debtors cannot any longer expect their creditors to listen t

I am a top contributor on Yahoo! Answers, too embarrassed to use my real account to post this. My life is in a downward tailspin and I don’t know what to do. Any ideas, suggestions, advice or kind words will be appreciated.

The scoop: I’m a 38 year old woman, married for the second time and I have an autistic 15 year old son. My husband and I eloped last year after dating for 6 years. He is a war veteran who suffers from PTSD and refuses to seek help. His anxiety level is so high, he can’t hold a job. Until two months ago, I was making just over $200,000/year. We had reversed roles – I worked and he was the stay at home parent. Life was good.

I got fired from my business development position so my employer could get out of paying me a $300,000 commission. (I know I need to sue them but have no money to hire an attorney right now. There’s plenty of time before the statute of limitations runs out and I will get to it.) Three weeks later, a major competitor offered me a job, which I accepted. They moved us to another state where we were in temp living while searching for a house to lease. We found one and moved in. My autistic son was having tons of trouble with all the changes. We went from home, to hotel, to temp living to new home. Things were supposed to level out and be okay but three days after moving into the new house, I got laid off. I’ve sent my resume to tons of companies and worked with a few recruiters. I came close to getting a job offer three weeks ago, but they passed on me, deciding that I make too much and wouldn’t stay with them long. (They were wrong. I loved this company and really wanted to be a part of it.)

I have filed for unemployment and they are going through red tape as my previous employer who fired me, didn’t report my wages to the state. Initially denied benefits, I have filed an appeal and shown proof of wages earned. Now it’s a waiting game.

Our relatives are not in a position to help. In fact, when I was making good money, we were helping them make ends meet each month.

I have also applied for food stamps. With zero income and our savings all dried up, I was told we qualified for expedited food stamps. It’s been almost a month and I still don’t have an award letter from my caseworker. I’ve left her two messages in the last week, but she hasn’t returned my calls.

We live up north and have family down south we can stay with if we can get there. My employer who laid me off did pay to break the lease we signed in good faith. We now have until April 15 to be out. We have no money (the bank account just dipped below $100.) no money coming in and no jobs on the horizon.

I’m doing my best to hold it together but it’s getting scarier and harder every day. I’m slipping into depression and have no means of getting in to see a doctor, let alone fill a prescription.

Where will we go? Will we get to keep our belongings? Our pets? How will my autistic son fare with another move? How am I going to feed him next week? How do I end my depression so I don’t get worse when he needs me to be at my best in this low time?

1. _________ is not a type of term insurance.
a. limited pay
b. decreasing
c. convertible
d. renewable
e. straight

2. The largest portion of health care costs pay for
a. hospital expenses
b. prescription drugs
c. physicians services
d. nursing home costs
e. medical equipment

3. Dennis purchased a policy with an initial premium of $3,000 and may elect how much he desires to pay in premiums from now on. He has purchased a face value of $100,000 and can accumulate cash value. What type of life insurance has Dennis purchased?
a. universal life
b. whole life
c. variable life
d. term life
e. adjustable whole life

4. If you needed a loan to buy furniture, the lowest interest rate would usually be available from a
a. savings and loan association
b. pawn shop
c. captive finance company
d. consumer finance company
e. credit union

5. The probability of a loss occurring can be reduced by
a. rish ovservance
b. loss prevention
c. rish assumption
d. underwriting
e. insurance

6. The ________ legally binds the borrower and lender to all items and conditions of an installment contract.
a. note
b. contract
c. security agreement
d. sales contract
e. bond

7. Major medical plans are characterized by deductibles, internal limits, and
a. benefit levels
b. participation or coinsurance
c. illness or injury frequency limits
d. maximum surgical medical benefits
e. sliding or decreasing premiums

The next ones are complete the sentence. (A for the first one, B for the second one, and C if neither) This is where I got really confused.

1. Health care currently represents about (10.5 – 13.5) percent of US gross domestic product.

2. Medicare would pay (the entire – part of the) hospital bill for a covered person.

3. (Special purpose policies – Deferred premium life insurance) is highly recommended for college students.

4. (The government – Individuals) pay(s) a larger share of personal health care expenses than private health insurance.

5. The number one consumer complaint is now (identity theft – credit care fraud) according to the Federal Trade Commission.

sorry for all the work.. it was just too confusing for me to do my own.. you dont have to answer them all or any at all, i just want a little help so i dont end up failing. thanks
yeah apparently you dont know this class.. none of this is what we go over in class so we are on our own tryin to answer these…

Pro Health Care Reform

There has been so much buzz about health care recently and as you may know Obama is the leader of it, we are here today to convince you to be pro health care
First we have two true stories about people who’s problems could have been fixed by health care:

The first is about a woman named Lori Hitchcock. Lori is currently self-employed and trying to start a business, but she has hepatitis C, she cannot find an insurance company that will cover her.
The second is about a man who lost his health coverage in the middle of chemotherapy because the insurance company discovered that he had gallstones, which he hadn’t known about when he applied for his policy. Because his treatment was delayed, he died.

This is happening to more and more people every day, so that is why we need to pass health care reform know.

There are four main ways the reform will provide more stability and security to every American.
1.If people don’t have health insurance, the reform will give them a choice of high-quality, affordable coverage for people and there families. This will be high quality coverage that will stay with users if they move, change jobs, or lose there job.
2.Reform will finally bring sky high healthcare cost under control, which means real savings for families, businesses and our government.
3.The reform will make Medicare more efficient, so the government will be able to ensure that more tax dollars go directly to caring for seniors, instead of just putting the money into the insurance’s pocketbooks.
4.The Health Care plan will also reduce the amount our seniors pay for their prescription drugs.

Some of the statistics of Health Insurance are:

1.nearly 50 million Americans don’t have health insurance
2.25 million are under insured
3.that number has grown nearly 60% over the past four years
4.the amount people pay for health insurance increased 30% from 2001 to 2005
5.the income only increased 3%
6. almost 50% of personal bankruptcies are due to medical expenses
7.25% of people choose employment based on better health benefits
8.it cost an estimated $635,000to cover healthcare cost in retirement
9.insurance cost are outpacing income by 8 folds
10.the cost of healthcare causes bankruptcy every 30 seconds
11.1/3 of the U.S. Population has no insurance
12.health insurance is the fastest growing expense cost component for employers
13.health insurance premiums have grown four times faster than wages

If we maintain the rate , we will continue to see 14,000 Americans lose there health insurance every day
Premiums will continue to skyrocket
our deficit will continue to grow
insurance companies will continue to profit by discriminating against sick people
The presidents plan is to create a government-sponsored health insurance program that would be an for all Americans
Millions of people who don’t get insurance through their employer try to get insurance on their own and are turned down because they have a pre-existing condition.

(show map of health insurance coverage status)

The health care reform will preserve the employer-based health care system, meaning an estimated 200 million Americans will continue to get their coverage through their employers
It will also allow people to choose their own doctors and hospitals
Health care reform will not give the government the power to make life or death decisions for anyone
Health care reform will help ensure doctors are paid fairly so they will continue to treat Medicare patients
The health care reform will help lower prescription drug costs for people in the Medicare Part D coverage gap so they can better afford the drugs they need
The health care reform will also strengthen the financial status of the Medicare program
The president and congress have committed to producing legislation that will be paid for so it won’t saddle our children and grandchildren with debt
If we do nothing the share of your income spent on health care will nearly double in the seven years

IN THE END

In the end. When one in three Americans say someone in their family skipped pills, postponed or cut back on needed medical care due to the cost; when countless bankruptcies are related to medical expenses; when the number of uninsured approaches 50 million; when government spending on health programs rises so rapidly that it jeopardizes other priorities; and when employers struggle to pay for the cost of health care, the fact is we can’t afford not to fix health care.

ok thats it please comment and keep in mind i have to debate about it, and yes i did make it myself, please help by giving ways to improve or tell me the weaknesses too.

THANKS!!!!!

Full Coverage POS with no Rx Self-Employed People and Small Business Owners

Atlantis Health Plan AM Best Rating: NR-5 Plan Type Deductible Coinsurance Office Visit
POS $0 0% $20

$558.24
Monthly Premium

No Application FeeElectronic SignatureNo Prescription Drug CoverageMaternity Coverage AvailableNot Eligible for Health Savings Account (HSA)

Does it seemtobe a good plan?