Sunday Reading

The con men are taking advantage of people's confusion regarding Obamacare. At least there are ways to educate yourself on the matter: read the 2500 pages of the ACA and the tacked on regulations; visit the website, later in the month. Can the Obamacare Website Really Be Fixed by the End of the Month?

Con Men Prey on Confusion Over Health Care Act 

To the list of problems plaguing President Obama’s health care law, add one more — fraud.

With millions of Americans frustrated and bewildered by the trouble-prone federal website for health insurance, con men and unscrupulous marketers are seizing their chance. State and federal authorities report a rising number of consumer complaints, ranging from deceptive sales practices to identity theft, linked to the Affordable Care Act.

Madeleine Mirzayans was fooled when a man posing as a government official knocked on her door.

Continue Con Men Prey on Confusion Over Health Care Act - NYTimes.com.

19 Unmistakable Signs That We're In Some Sort Of A Bubble

Bubbles. They arise, in part, from the maddeningly rational human feeling that it makes sense to overpay a little today because, whatever, I'll just sell tomorrow!

Or, put simply by Gawker's bubble-dabbler Hamilton Nolan, "Buy! Buy! Buy! Buy! High! High! High! High!"

"Tech startups with no revenue have billion-dollar valuations," writes our Jim Edwards. "And engineers are demanding Tesla sports cars just to show up at work."

Keep reading 19 Unmistakable Signs That We're In Some Sort Of A Bubble

Not only might the market be in a bubble, it might be at the top of that bubble. The bubble might be approaching the limits of maximum expansion (Chilling Signs of a Market Top).

What's worse, investors are not buying the warning signs. According to Citi's Panic/Euphoria model, a weighted average of nine market indicators is sending a "clear warning sign of substantial complacency." This no-crash conviction hasn't been higher since early 2007 ('The Stock Market Is Not About To Crash,' Say Way Too Many Investors).

No complacency in the Philippines. Reports describe abject horror in the wake of typhoon Haiyan.

Survivors are facing food and water shortages, loss of homes and missing loved ones. Buildings have been destroyed. Grocery stores, gas stations and malls have been looted. The streets are filled with scattered bodies. Corpses hang from trees. Over-crowded hospitals are running out of supplies.  ('Worse than hell' in typhoon-ravaged Philippines and Typhoon deaths climb into thousands in Philippines.)

An Estimated 10,000 Dead In The Philippines After Super Typhoon

TACLOBAN, Philippines (Reuters) - One of the most powerful storms recorded killed at least 10,000 people in the central Philippines, a senior police official said on Sunday, with huge waves sweeping away entire coastal villages and devastating the region's main city.

Super typhoon Haiyan destroyed about 70 to 80 percent of the area in its path as it tore through Leyte province on Friday, said police chief superintendent Elmer Soria.

As rescue workers struggled to reach ravaged villages along the coast, where the death toll is as yet unknown, survivors foraged for food as supplies dwindled or searched for lost loved ones.

"People are walking like zombies looking for food," said Jenny Chu, a medical student in Leyte. "It's like a movie."

Continue: An Estimated 10,000 Dead In The Philippines After Super Typhoon. 

The typhoon is headed to Vietnam and Laos.

Here are some discouraging numbers. The war on drugs is responsible for approximately half the incarcerations in the U.S.. Perhaps it's time to admit defeat and adopt a better strategy for dealing with drug abuse... Maybe we should look back 2500 years to Chinese military philosophy for answers.

Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.

There is no instance of a nation benefitting from prolonged warfare. 

~ Sun Tzu 

The United States has More People in Jail than High School Teachers and Engineers

America has become a gigantic gulag over the past few decades and most of its citizens don’t know, or just don’t care. One of the primary causes of the over incarceration in the U.S. is the absurd, tragic failure that is the “war on drugs”, and indeed nearly half of the folks in prison are there for drug related offenses. Making matters worse is a rapidly growing private prison system, which adds a profit motive to the equation. Recently, I wrote an extensive rant against the private prison system and provided details on how it works in:  A Deep Look into the Shady World of the Private Prison Industry.

Now here are some of the sad facts. There are 1.57 million people in federal and state prison (does not even include county and local jail) according to the Department of Justice. That’s above the nation’s 1.53 million engineers and 1.05 million high school teachers.

Continue reading The United States has More People in Jail than High School Teachers and Engineers. Chart below is from the Huffington Post's America Has More Prisoners Than High School Teachers.