Florida County Spends Tens Of Thousands On Ambulance For Obese Patients « CBS Tampa

Florida County Spends Tens Of Thousands On Ambulance For Obese Patients « CBS Tampa

EXCERPTS:

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. (CBS Tampa) —

"Central Florida News 13 reports that the ambulance was purchased after emergency responders had to transport at least two dozen patients who weighed more than 500 pounds last year.

“With some of these morbidly obese patients, we have to send more firefighters just to lift and to move the patient. So once they’re in and we get them to the hospital, someone has to be at the hospital to unload them,” one Orange County fire official told News 13. “That’s pulling a lot of resources from emergency calls just to do that.”

"Orange County paid $23,000 alone for the lift gate and stretcher and the stretcher is 10 inches wider than the average one.

“In the past you’d have to get five, six, seven firefighters to physically lift the patient in. It increases the chance that something could happen to the patient,” a fire official told News 13. “It also greatly increases the chance that something could happen with back injuries within fire services.”

Desperate Postal Service tries to find its cool factor | Reuters

Desperate Postal Service tries to find its cool factor | Reuters

EXCERPTS:


"The federal government's mail transport and delivery agency this week said it will roll out a line of apparel and accessories it plans to sell in department and specialty stores.

"The "Rain Heat & Snow" brand of clothing, named after the Postal Service's motto trumpeting its carriers' determination to overcome whatever Mother Nature can throw at them, would put USPS in the "cutting edge of functional fashion," it said.

"The idea is to blend in with the younger audiences as well as the more educated consumer," said Roy Betts, a spokesman for the Postal Service.

***

"The mail carrier lost about $16 billion last year and expects to run out of money by October if legislation isn't passed soon. 

"Because of its dire financial situation, Geddes said, lawmakers need to free the Postal Service to operate more like a commercial business, with the leeway to try out innovative new ways to create revenue and stay relevant.
 
QUESTIONS:

1.  I think it would be a good idea to have the Postal Service operate like a commercial business.What does a commercial business do when it loses money year after year with no end in sight?
2. When a private business decides to provide a new product it is because its owners believe this will be profitable. They willingly risk their own money, knowing that if they are wrong the company will lose money and their own wealth will suffer. When the Postal Service, whose area of expertise is in delivering mail, decides to add a new product line (apparel and accessories), whose money are they risking? Who will bear the cost if it turns out that the people who deliver mail don't have any special expertise in designing clothing?

One of a market economy's greatest flaws.... silence

From Donald Boudreaux:

EXCERPTS:

"One of the market economy's greatest flaws is the silence it maintains when it is working relatively flawlessly. When the market stumbles, though — or when it's tripped up by unwise government interventions — a great clamor is heard. Unemployment rises, stock prices and exchange rates plummet, and tales abound of this hardship and that lost dream. Pundits proclaim loudly that the unreliable market must be “corrected” or “tamed” by the wisdom and prudence of politicians. 

But when the market works smoothly — as it typically does — hardly anyone notices. We take its successes for granted. 

That's the thing about a steady stream of relatively small, almost daily improvements in our standard of living. We acclimate to them. 

Recall the first time you saw someone unlock or lock an automobile by using a remote-keyless-entry device. When I first saw someone point a plastic nodule at his car to unlock it from a distance, I marveled. “One day I'll earn enough money to drive a car with that feature!” I told myself. 

***

"That was 1994. I do indeed now drive a car with keyless entry. And so do most Americans. Keyless entry is standard on even low-end automobiles today. Seeing someone unlock or lock a car using a keyless-entry device is as remarkable to us now as seeing a pigeon in Central Park. It's just part of our world.

Yet who invented this device? Do you know? Even if you do know the names of the people whose creativity was key (!) to this invention, those people are likely complete strangers to you. And yet those strangers pondered and experimented and spent time on efforts that resulted in affordable and reliable keyless-entry systems that benefit you . 

Why did they perform these tasks? What mechanisms and institutions bring together all the workers, materials and financing required for the continual production (and improvement) of these handy little devices? 

The answer is “the market.” 

The market is a vast and complex pattern of voluntary choices and exchanges — including the taking of financial risks — that emerge when each individual is free to produce, to sell and to buy according to his or her own individual lights. The only constraints upon such exchanges are the rules of private property and of freedom of contract. If I want your pet frog or your productive factory, I can get it only if I agree to give you something that you voluntarily accept in exchange. 

Unlike in politics, market participants do not confiscate the property of others. Unlike in politics, where those with the most votes get to take unilaterally from those with the fewest votes, in markets, even those with the most money are prevented from unilaterally taking even from those with the least money.

Read more: http://triblive.com/opinion/donaldboudreaux/3429514-74/market-entry-keyless#ixzz2KvKT9bTn
Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on Facebook

A Simple Rule for a Complex World

 From Don Boudreaux:

EXCERPTS:

"Saying “Let the market handle it” is to reject a one-size-fits-all, centralized rule of experts. It is to endorse an unfathomably complex arrangement for dealing with the issue at hand. Recommending the market over government intervention is to recognize that neither he who recommends the market nor anyone else possesses sufficient information and knowledge to determine, or even to foresee, what particular methods are best for dealing with the problem.

"To recommend the market, in fact, is to recommend letting millions of creative people, each with different perspectives and different bits of knowledge and insights, each voluntarily contribute his own ideas and efforts toward dealing with the problem. It is to recommend not a single solution but, instead, a decentralized process that calls forth many competing experiments and, then, discovers the solutions that work best under the circumstances.

***
"This process is flexible and it encourages creativity. It also denies to anyone the power to unilaterally impose his own vision on others.

"In brief, to advise “Let the market handle it” is a shorthand way of saying, “I have no simplistic plan for dealing with this problem; indeed, I reject all simplistic plans. Only a competitive, decentralized institution interlaced with dependable feedback loops — the market — can be relied upon to discover and implement a sufficiently detailed way to handle the problem in question.”

"None of this is to say that getting the government out of the way is sufficient to create peace and prosperity. Markets require a rule of law to ensure that, among other blessings, property rights are secure and exchangeable. At their best, governments can help to protect our rights. Markets also require a culture in which commerce flourishes.

***
"While declaring “Let the government handle it” comes across as a solution, it’s no such thing. Instead, it is merely a sign of a simple and baseless faith — a simple and baseless faith that people invested with power will not abuse that power; that political appointees possess or will find better answers than will millions of people pursuing solutions in their own ways, and staking their own resources and reputations on their efforts; that only those ‘solutions’ that are spelled out in statutes and regulations and that have officials paid to implement them are true solutions.

"So yes, show me a problem and I’ll likely respond “Let the market handle it.” I’ll respond this way because I know that not only is my own meager knowledge and effort never up to the task of solving big problems but that not even the Einsteins or Krugmans or Bushes amongst us can know the best solution to any social problem.

Politics Without Romance - James Buchanan

Review & Outlook: Politics Without Romance - WSJ.com:

EXCERPTS:

With Gordon Tullock, Buchanan developed what became known as "public choice theory." Buchanan described it as the application of the profit motive to government: "It presupposes that if there is value to be gained through politics, persons will invest resources in efforts to capture this value.... in the early 1960s, the notion that politicians were anything but unselfish public servants was, well, under-appreciated. Public choice, he wrote, was nothing new but "incorporates an understanding of human nature" that prevailed in the 18th century.

In our own times "market failures were set against an idealized politics," Buchanan wrote in 2003. Public choice provided "a set of theories of governmental failures," or as Buchanan called it, "politics without romance."

So, for example, he could explain why bureaucracies had an incentive to expand their turf in order to increase their financial resources and power. Or why politicians keep tax rates high so they can dole out special credits and exemptions for those who would reward those same politicians. Or why pork-barrel politics is the abiding concern of legislators.

In Appreciation—James M. Buchanan

Donald Boudreaux: In Appreciation—James M. Buchanan - WSJ.com:

EXCERPTS:

James M. Buchanan, who died Wednesday at age 93, was one of history's greatest economists. Though he won the Nobel Prize in 1986, Jim at heart was always a farm boy from Tennessee—an old-fashioned, hardworking American who disdained unearned privileges as well as deeply distrusting the promises of politicians and the passions of collectives.

The theme of his life's work is best summarized in the title of his 1997 article "Politics Without Romance." With longtime colleague Gordon Tullock, Jim launched a research program—public-choice economics—that challenged the widespread notion that politicians in democratic societies are more nobly motivated and trustworthy than are business people and other private-sector actors. In a wide river of books and papers, Jim warned against the foolishness of romanticizing government.

Jim regarded his work as simply extending and applying the insights of America's founding generation, especially those of James Madison. Unlike too many pundits and professors over the past century—but like America's founders—Jim understood that politicians' lovely proclamations of their desires to improve society too often camouflage unlovely venal motives that prompt politicians to disregard the general welfare in order to transfer wealth and privilege to powerful interest groups.

***

His deep skepticism of government, combined with his expert understanding of free markets, led Jim to describe himself as a "classical liberal." But it wasn't always so. Like many of his generation, the young Jim Buchanan was a socialist. His socialism was cured, though, by his studies in economics at the University of Chicago. While there, Jim polished his keen instincts for detecting nonsense.

***

Not that Jim held much hope that his speaking out against unwise government policy would do much good. He sought to prevent harmful policies by tying politicians' hands rather than by pleading with politicians to be more public-spirited. And to tie politicians' hands Jim championed constitutional reform. He believed that only binding, enforceable constitutional rules can prevent Leviathan from eventually suffocating private markets and stamping out human freedom.

Ironically, the constitutional reform that Jim advocated practically requires the cooperation of the politicians whom he so distrusted. Yet it is a mark of greatness in Jim Buchanan that he held out hope, until his dying day, that clear-eyed scholarship would eventually persuade people of the dangers of unconstrained government and of the need to somehow rein it in.

Mr. Boudreaux is professor of economics at George Mason University and chair for the study of free market capitalism at the Mercatus Center.

A version of this article appeared January 9, 2013, on page A17 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: In Appreciation: James M. Buchanan.

Huge crowds line up for free gas trucked in by government; Public told to stay away, make room for first responders

Huge crowds line up for free gas trucked in by government; Public told to stay away, make room for first responders

EXCERPTS:

"More New Yorkers got power Saturday for the first time since Superstorm Sandy struck the region, but frustrations mounted over gasoline shortages as refueling sites turned into traffic jams of horn-honking confusion.

Gas rationing went into effect in northern New Jersey, while crowds lined up at free fuel distribution sites in New York's boroughs, where a limit of 10 gallons per person was imposed. New York officials then said emergency vehicles had the priority over the public.

"It's chaos, pandemonium out here," said Chris Damon, whose family was displaced from his home in the Queens neighborhood of Far Rockaway and are staying with relatives in Brooklyn. He circled the block for 3½ hours at the Brooklyn Armory, where the National Guard was directing traffic.
"It's ridiculous. No one knows what's going on," he said.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had announced that the 5,000-gallon trucks from the Defense Department would set up the emergency mobile gas stations at five locations around the New York City metropolitan area.
"Do not panic. I know there is anxiety about fuel," he said.

The scene was more orderly in hard-hit Staten Island, where a line of cars stretched for two miles under the supervision of police and National Guard troops. Another 400 people were on foot, carrying gas cans.
As gas rationing went into effect at noon in northern New Jersey, police began enforcing rules to allow only motorists with odd-numbered license plates to refuel. Those with even-numbered plates must wait until Sunday.


Jessica Tisdale of Totowa waited in her Mercedes SUV for 40 minutes at a gas station in Jersey City, but didn't quite understand the rules and was ordered to pull away because of her even-numbered plate.
"Is it the number or the letter?" she asked around 12:10 p.m. "I don't think it's fair. I've been in the line since before noon. I don't think it's fair. There's no clarity."

The officer who waved her out of line threw up his hands and shrugged.

At an Exxon station in Wall, N.J., Kathryn Davidson was unaware of the start of rationing but beat the noon deadline despite a 45-minute wait in line and an even-numbered plate.

"How are people supposed to know?" said Davidson, 53, who said it reminded her of the 1970s, when a similar plan was in place.

"There were fistfights and everything. It got nasty," she said. "Everyone seems pretty pleasant as of right now."

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/department_of_defense_setting_up_XK9Cli2PXUEFWZC0d8abMM#ixzz2BCWFaiSh

No Horses, But Detroit Water Department Employs 'Horseshoer' [Michigan Capitol Confidential]

No Horses, But Detroit Water Department Employs 'Horseshoer' [Michigan Capitol Confidential]

EXCERPTS:

"Despite having no horses, the water and sewerage department for the city of Detroit employs a horseshoer.

Yet even with a department so bloated that it has a horseshoer and no horses, the local union president said it is "not possible" to eliminate positions.

Union rules have turned the department into a government jobs program, some critics say.
The horseshoer’s job description is "to shoe horses and to do general blacksmith work … and to perform related work as required." The description was last updated in 1967.

The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) has a large debt, rising water prices and inefficient services — using almost twice the number of employees per gallon as other cities like Chicago.

Obama: Let's repeat auto industry success - POLITICO.com

Obama: Let's repeat auto industry success - POLITICO.com



PUEBLO, Colo. – President Obama, while villifying Mitt Romney for opposing the auto industry bailout, bragged about the success of his decision to provide government assistance and said he now wants to see every manufacturing industry come roaring back. “I said, I believe in American workers, I believe in this American industry, and now the American auto industry has come roaring back,” he said.

“Now I want to do the same thing with manufacturing jobs, not just in the auto industry, but in every industry. “I don’t want those jobs taking root in places like China, I want those jobs taking root in places like Pueblo,” Obama told a crowd gathered for a campaign rally at the Palace of Agriculture at the Colorado State Fairgrounds here.

QUESTIONS:

1. If the government tries to provide assistance to every industry, will there be any unintended consequences?
2. If every industry is supported by the government, who's going to bear the cost of providing this assistance?
3.  President Obama says he doesn't want manufacturing jobs to "take root" in China. If you agree, which jobs do you think should take root in China? If no jobs take root in China, and China doesn't produce anything, would that make people in the U.S. better off or worse off? (Before you answer, check your television to see where it was produced.)

Milton Friedman, A Centennial Appreciation | Donald J. Boudreaux | Cato Institute: Commentary

Milton Friedman, A Centennial Appreciation | Donald J. Boudreaux | Cato Institute: Commentary

EXCERPTS:

"But at least as important as Friedman's scholarship was his lucid and energetic public advocacy of limited government and free markets. He explained with unmatched clarity how a modern economy's complexities, nuances, and dynamism almost always thwart even the best-intentioned efforts by government officials to intervene into markets.

In a scene from the opening episode of his successful 10-part 1980 PBS series "Free to Choose," Friedman held in his hand an ordinary pencil. Looking into the camera, and speaking without a script, he explained that a pencil — so seemingly simple — requires for its production the knowledge and labors of millions of people from around the world.

Some workers cut down the trees; other workers make the chainsaws used to cut down the trees; yet other workers make the steel used to manufacture the chainsaws; and yet other workers specialize in mining the iron ore used to make the steel. Still other workers mine the graphite to make the "lead" for the pencil, while many others work in factories to make the yellow paint that commonly adorns pencils, while still other workers perform the many tasks required to produce the rubber for each pencil's eraser.

Just to list the number of different, highly specialized jobs that must be performed to produce a commonplace pencil would take volumes. Few of these workers know each other, and none of them knows how to do any more than one or two of the countless jobs that must be done if we are to be well-supplied with pencils.
Friedman explained how free-market prices, along with the lure of profit and the fear of loss, guide entrepreneurs, firms, and workers from across the globe to produce just the right amounts of wood, graphite, paint, erasers, and the many other parts of pencils.

No government commissars are involved. There's no central plan for the production of pencils. Yet we have high-quality pencils in abundance and for sale at low prices. What's true for pencils, of course, is true also for more complex items such as automobiles, electric lighting, MRI machines, and on and on — that is, for nearly every good commonly found in modern industrial society.

"The Improprieties of the Pretense of Knowledge" - Cato lecture by Daniel B. Klein

Daniel B. Klein \

Government-subsidized green light bulb carries costly price tag - The Washington Post

Government-subsidized green light bulb carries costly price tag - The Washington Post

The U.S. government last year announced a $10 million award, dubbed the “L Prize,” for any manufacturer that could create a “green” but affordable light bulb.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the prize would spur industry to offer the costly bulbs, known as LEDs, at prices “affordable for American families.” There was also a “Buy America” component. Portions of the bulb would have to be made in the United States.
Now the winning bulb is on the market.
The price is $50.
Retailers said the bulb, made by Philips, is likely to be too pricey to have broad appeal. Similar LED bulbs are less than half the cost.
“I don’t want to say it’s exorbitant, but if a customer is only looking at the price, they could come to that conclusion,” said Brad Paulsen, merchant for the light-bulb category at Home Depot, the largest U.S. seller of light bulbs. “This is a Cadillac product, and that’s why you have a premium on it.”
How the expensive bulb won a $10 million government prize meant to foster energy-efficient affordability is one of the curiosities that arise as the country undergoes a massive, mandated turnover from traditional incandescent lamps to more energy-
efficient ones.
Energy legislation signed by President George W. Bush in 2007 introduced a ban on inefficient incandescent light bulbs, covering traditional 100-watt bulbs this year. Sales of traditional 75-watt incandescents will be prohibited next year, and 60-watt incandescents will go after that.
When replacing a bulb, consumers must now go out and buy energy-efficient incandescent, compact fluorescent and LED (light-emitting diode) bulbs, in a compulsory transition that has prompted some conservatives to characterize the law as an unfair burden on consumers and an “issue of freedom,” as Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) put it.
The L Prize was meant to ease this transition by enticing manufacturers to create affordable bulbs to replace the most common type, the traditional 60-watt.
A Philips spokesman declined to talk in detail about the bulb or its price because the product has yet to be formally launched. It is expected to hit stores within weeks and is available online. But the spokesman said the L Prize bulb costs more because, as the contest required, it is even more energy-efficient, running on 10 watts instead of 12.5 watts. It is also brighter, renders colors better and lasts longer.
Still, the contest set price goals. According to the L Prize guidelines, manufacturers were “strong­ly encouraged to offer products at prices that prove cost-effective and attractive to buyers, and therefore more successful in the market.” The target retail price, including rebates from utilities, was to be $22 in the first year, $15 in the second year and $8 in the third year.
Energy Department officials defended the award, saying that they expect the cost of the L Prize bulbs to drop over time. “The L Prize competition played a critical role in driving manufacturing and engineering innovations in the U.S. lighting industry and helping to make the next generation of energy-saving LED lighting options more affordable for con­sumers,” said department spokes­woman Niketa Kumar.
Officials added that they are working with utilities to provide rebates for consumers. That could lower the price of the L Prize bulbs. But existing rebates, which max out around $10, are too small to take a big slice out of the $50 price tag. By comparison, the typical 60-watt bulb that it would replace, an old-fashioned energy hog, can cost as little as $1.
Some utilities are not offering anything yet. Pepco offers Maryland customers $10 incentive per bulb. In Virginia, Dominion Power has proposed to give consumers a discount of $1.41 per bulb.
“Are there many consumers who will say a $50 bulb is affordable? I don’t think so,” said one retailer familiar with the new bulbs, who like others. Many retailers said they were reluctant to speak on the record for fear of endangering their relationship with Philips, a major supplier.
Two other manufacturers, General Electric and Lighting Science Group, announced last year that they were developing entrants to the competition. But before they could submit, the prize was awarded and the competition closed. The contest also required that at least some of the manufacturing be done in the United States, where costs can be higher. The Philips bulb will be assembled in Wisconsin, and the chips will be made at a Philips plant in San Jose, the company said.
In many ways, however, the
L Prize may have been irrelevant. According to retailers, consumers are embracing LEDs, which were the focus of the prize, and CFLs, or compact fluorescent lights, faster than many in the industry expected. The new bulbs can cut energy costs by more than 75 percent.
CFLs already outsell incandescents in terms of dollars, Paulsen said. And he predicted that the percentage of LED bulbs sold would rise from 5 percent to 35 percent over the next three years. “The adoption wave has already begun,” Paulsen said.
In part, that’s because manufacturers are offering LED bulbs for far less than the L Prize bulb.
For example, at Home Depot, one can find LED bulbs to replace the 60-watt incandescent for much less than $50. Lighting Science Group, under the EcoSmart label, offers another for $23.97. It is assembled in Mexico. And another Philips LED bulb on sale costs $24.97. It was made in China.
“This is a very interesting time in light bulbs, believe it or not,” Paulsen said.

Doctors Question Disability Decisions As Agency Moves To Speed Up Process - WSJ.com

EXCERPTS:

"Earlier this year, senior managers at the Social Security Administration in Baltimore, frustrated by a growing backlog of applications for federal disability benefits, called meetings with 140 of the agency's doctors.

The message was blunt: The number of people seeking benefits had soared. Doctors had to work faster to move cases. Instead of earning $90 an hour, as they had previously, they would receive about $80 per case—a pay cut for many cases which can take 60 to 90 minutes to review—unless the doctors worked faster. Most notably, it no longer mattered if doctors strayed far from their areas of expertise when taking a case.

"The implication there was that you really didn't have to be that careful and study the whole thing," said Rodrigo Toro, a neurologist who analyzed cases for the Social Security Administration for more than 10 years. Some doctors, including Dr. Toro, quit following the changes. Others were fired. In all, 45 of the 140 left within months, the agency said.

//

In February 2010, the inspector general, as part of a probe investigating complaints by a doctor, discovered a doctor in the Alabama disability determination office who approved between 80 and 100 decisions a day. Another Alabama doctor signed off on 30 cases an hour after performing only a "cursory review of each case." The investigation said several doctors complained of pressure from superiors to approve a higher number of applications to meet statistical goals.

//

The federal disability system is designed to help people who can no longer work. For many, it represents the social safety net of last resort. Successful applicants receive a monthly stipend and access to federal health-care programs, often for life.

QUESTIONS:

Politics vs. Economics - Thomas Sowell

EXCERPTS:

"They say "all politics is local." But economic decisions impact the whole economy and reverberate internationally. That is why politicians' meddling with the economy creates so many disasters.

The time horizon of politics seldom reaches beyond the next election. But, in economics, when an oil company invests in oil explorations today, the oil they eventually find and process may not make its way to market and earn a profit until it is sold as gasoline a decade from now.

In short, the focus of politicians is extremely limited in both space and time -- and all the repercussions that lie beyond those limits carry little, if any, weight in political decisions.

RealClearPolitics - Why U.S. Health Care Leads the Way

RealClearPolitics - Why U.S. Health Care Leads the Way

EXCERPT:

"In [the vision that prevails widely among the intelligentsia], people can draw on the available resources only to the extent that the government considers appropriate, in the light of other claims on those resources. This treats what the people have produced as if it automatically belongs to the government -- and as if politicians and bureaucrats have both the right and the wisdom to override the personal decisions that the people want to make for themselves.

"This issue involves a difference between a world in which people can make their own decisions with their own money and a world in which decisions -- including life and death medical decisions -- are taken out of the hands of millions of people across the country and put into the hands of politicians and bureaucrats in Washington.

"One of the big claims for government-run medical systems is that they can "bring down the cost of medical care." But anyone can bring down the cost of anything by simply buying a smaller quantity or a lower quality.

Government Spending Doesn't Create Jobs | Cato Video | Cato Institute

Government Spending Doesn't Create Jobs | Cato Video | Cato Institute

Social Security: Is It a Ponzi Scheme? | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary

Yes, It Is a Ponzi Scheme | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary
This short article provides a useful overview of the Social Security System.

Good Things - Thomas Sowell

EXCERPTS:

"Life has many good things. The problem is that most of these good things can be gotten only by sacrificing other good things. We all recognize this in our daily lives. It is only in politics that this simple, common sense fact is routinely ignored.

In politics, there are not simply good things but some special Good Things -- with a capital G and capital T -- which are considered always better to have more of.

Many of the things advocated by environmental extremists, for example, are things that most of us might think of as good things. But, in politics, they become Good Things whose repercussions and costs are brushed aside as unworthy considerations.

Nobody wants to breathe dirty air or drink dirty water. But, if either becomes 98 percent pure, 99 percent pure or 99.9 percent pure, there is some point beyond which the costs skyrocket and the benefits become meager or non-existent.

*****

"Higher miles per gallon for cars is a Good Thing in politics, even if it leads to cars too lightly built to protect occupants when there is a crash. More students going to college is another Good Thing, even if lowering standards to get them admitted results in lower educational quality for others.
Too much of a Good Thing is bad.

Freshly Sworn In, Peru President Raises Wages - WSJ.com

EXCERPTS:

"LIMA, Peru—Peru's new president, Ollanta Humala, took the oath of office Thursday, pledging to guarantee the "social inclusion" of the poor and immediately making good on campaign promises to raise the minimum wage and pensions.

The leftist president announced a two-stage 25% increase in the monthly minimum wage to 750 soles, or about $275, and unveiled pension increases for those older than 65.

While he repeated a campaign pledge that social benefits would be funded in part by higher taxes on mining companies, he didn't spell out what form these tax increases would take. The issue is expected to be the subject of intense negotiations between miners and the government.

In China, some new cities are ghost towns

EXCERPTS:

"In China's Inner Mongolia, Kangbashi district offers residents "new modern" living, with tree-lined streets, shiny apartment buildings, vast parklands, restaurants and even a motor racing track.

But seven years after construction workers broke ground on the arid plateau, most of the apartments appear empty and the wide streets are almost deserted -- earning Kangbashi the tag of "ghost city".

The new section of Ordos city on the edge of the Gobi desert was designed to accommodate about 300,000 people but residents say fewer than one-tenth of that number live in Kangbashi. Estate agents insist the number is much higher.

New districts like Kangbashi are springing up across China as the world's second-largest economy undergoes an unprecedented urbanisation process with hundreds of millions of people heading to fast-growing metropolitan areas.

Ordos is part of a nationwide building boom that has been fuelled by a massive credit binge, raising fears of a real estate bubble and a potential explosion in bad debts, especially among local government investment vehicles.

/

Near the southwestern city of Kunming, authorities started developing a new district for nearly one million people in 2003 but the area is reportedly still largely empty.

"These sorts of towns raise the question -- does the government have some amazing vision for filling these cities... or are they just great white elephants that are wasting public funds?" Rupert Hoogewerf, founder and compiler of the Hurun rich list, told AFP.

Public servant Qiao Xiufeng, who moved to Kangbashi three years ago after the Ordos government relocated its departments to the new district, says she likes the open space and relaxed lifestyle of the sparsely populated town.

"Everything is really good," Qiao told AFP as she strolled along a street lined with near-empty restaurants and shops selling cakes and bridal outfits.

"Life is easy and comfortable."

Kangbashi -- located 30 kilometres (20 miles) from Ordos' main district of Dongsheng -- boasts a potato-shaped history museum, a tilted library, expansive parks decorated with modern sculptures, cinemas, schools and a university.

/

Scores of cranes and half-finished high-rise concrete buildings are visible across the district and, despite the vast number of apparently vacant flats, more land is being cleared for construction.

In nearby Yijinghuoluoqi, another district getting a facelift, taxi driver Liu Zhiqing said the Ordos government paid him 300,000 yuan ($46,170) in compensation when his 200-square-metre (2,153-square-feet) house was knocked down to make way for a forest of high-rise apartment buildings.

Liu said he and his family will also receive two apartments when the construction is finished.

Resource-rich Ordos, whose population of 1.5 million has the highest GDP per capita in China at more than $20,500, built Kangbashi to cope with the city's growing population.

/

"Ordos is extremely unique in that it boasts rich resources and has the highest GDP per capita in China," said Lu, noting the region's huge natural resources and thriving cashmere industry helped the local economy expand by 19.2 percent last year -- nearly twice the national growth rate.