2012 Republican Plan: Social Security COLA

House Republicans released a budget proposal for 2012 that does not contain specific provisions for modifying Social Security in 2012.

Social Security changes are becoming an inevitability, though unnecessary cuts are not part of the immediate plan, according to Obama during a recent statement regarding the national deficit. However, citing the intention to avoid slashing payments to citizens, the President stopped short of confirming there would be no reductions across the board.

Instead, Obama went on to state how the current situation required the country to lay all cards out on the table in order to construct an effective and workable plan to tackle mounting debt. Ultimately, the current target set by the governments is to reduce the deficit by no less than $4 trillion over the next twelve year. Of course, such a vast amount of capital has to be sourced from somewhere.

The statement comes as a number of Democrats have joined Republicans in their calls for modifications to the current program, despite their liberal base crying out for the full and total protection of social security.

Obama stated that a considerable number believe reforms to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid should not be made in fear that even discussing such changes would incite a radical response. While fully understanding the concerns, Obama also continued to indicate that if no changes were made at all, it would simply be impossible to continue caring for American seniors as life expectancy continues to grow alongside healthcare costs.

Liberty Mutual Move on Insurer

Liberty Mutual Group Inc. and Anglo Irish Bank Corp. may take over Quinn Insurance Ltd. as the lender ousted Sean Quinn and his family from a debt-laden empire that spanned real estate to financial services.

If the country’s regulator approves, Boston-based Liberty Mutual would take a majority stake and Anglo Irish a minority holding in Quinn Insurance, Ireland’s central bank said in a statement today. Anglo Irish also took control of the equity interest of the Quinn Group (ROI) Ltd., parent of a company whose interests include the Belfry golf club in the U.K.

“The bank is owed an enormous amount of money by Sean Quinn and his family, which they are not in a position to pay,” Anglo Irish Chief Executive OfficerMike Aynsley said in a statement.

The Quinns owe 2.8 billion euros ($4 billion) to Anglo Irish, the company said in a Jan. 11 statement. Once ranked by the Sunday Times as Ireland’s richest man, Sean Quinn and his family no longer have any role in the management, operations or ownership of the company, Finance Minister Michael Noonan said in a statement today.

A spokesman for the family declined to comment. Matthew Elderfield, Ireland’s head of financial regulation, installed administrators last year after Quinn Insurance posted a loss of 788 million euros for 2009.

Quinn Group Chairman Pat O’Neill said the company has reached a form of restructuring that “will permanently relieve” the company’s manufacturing unit of more than 500 million euros of debt. In a statement, he said the move was necessary for the survival of the company.

Debt Plan

Anglo Irish’s Aynsley said the lender has reached an agreement in principal on a five-year debt restructuring plan with Quinn Group (ROI) Ltd. bondholders owed 1.28 billion euros by the cement-to-insurance group. The lenders agreed to a “substantial” cut in the debt, they said in an e-mailed statement.

“The appointment of a share receiver to the Quinn family’s equity interest will have no impact on the day-to-day running of the businesses and there are absolutely no planned redundancies or expected job losses,” said Aynsley in a phone interview. “The bank will not assume any management role.”

Quinn’s problems began when he built a 25 percent interest in Anglo Irish, which was nationalized in 2009 as real estate loans soured. Quinn said last year his family lost 3 billion euros on equity investments following the collapse of shares on the Irish stock market in 2007.

Quinn began his business career in the 1970s by selling gravel from his family’s County Fermanagh farm. He went on to build Ireland’s second biggest cement maker before expanding into more than 20 businesses including insurance.

Quinn agreed to buy the Irish health insurance business of British United Provident Association Ltd. in 2007, adding almost 500,000 customers. Quinn resigned as chairman of Quinn Insurance in 2008 after the country’s financial regulator fined the company for making loans that breached regulations.

Japan Raises Nuclear Crisis to Same Level

Japan put its nuclear calamity on par with the world’s worst nuclear disaster, Chernobyl, on Tuesday after new data showed that more radiation had leaked from its earthquake-halting power plant in the early days of the crisis than first thought.

Officials said it had taken time to measure radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi facility after it was smashed by March 11′s monumental quake and tsunami, and the upgrade in its severity rating to the highest level on a globally recognised scale did not mean the situation had suddenly become more critical.

“Our preparations for how to measure (the radiation leakage) when such a tsunami and earthquake occurred were insufficient and, as a result, we were late in disseminating information internationally,” said a senior official in Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s office.

Hidehiko Nishiyama, a deputy director general of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), said the decision to raise the severity of the incident from level 5 to 7 the same as the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986 was based on cumulative quantities of radiation released.

“Even before this, we had considered this a very serious incident so, in that sense, there will be no big change in the way we deal with it just because it has been designated level 7,” an agency official said.

As another major aftershock rattled the earthquake-ravaged east of the country, a fire broke out at the plant, but engineers later extinguished the blaze.

However, the operator of the stricken facility appears to be no closer to restoring cooling systems at the reactors, critical to lowering the temperature of overheated nuclear fuel rods.

The official in Kan’s official said that, at a news conference expected later on Tuesday, the prime minister would instruct plant operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) to set target dates for when it would halt the radiation leakage as well as restore the cooling systems.

No radiation linked deaths have been reported since the earthquake struck, and only 21 plant workers have been affected by minor radiation sickness, according to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano.

“Nowhere near Chernobyl”

A level 7 incident means a major release of radiation with a widespread health and environmental impact, while a 5 level is a limited release of radioactive material, with several deaths, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Several experts said the new rating exaggerated the severity of the crisis, and that the Chernobyl disaster was far worse.

“It’s nowhere near that level. Chernobyl was terrible it blew and they had no containment, and they were stuck,” said nuclear industry specialist Murray Jennex, an associate professor at San Diego State University in California.

“Their (Japan’s) containment has been holding, the only thing that hasn’t is the fuel pool that caught fire.”

The blast at Chernobyl blew the roof off a reactor and sent large amounts of radiation wafting across Europe. The accident contaminated vast areas, particularly in Ukraine and neighbouring Belarus, led to the evacuation of well over 100,000 and affected livestock as far away as Scandinavia and Britain.

Nevertheless, the increase in the severity level heightens the risk of diplomatic tension with Japan’s neighbours over radioactive fallout. China and South Korea have already been critical of the operator’s decision to pump radioactive water into the sea, a process it has now stopped.

“Raising the level to a 7 has serious diplomatic implications. It is telling people that the accident has the potential to cause trouble to our neighbours,” said Kenji Sumita, a nuclear expert at Osaka University.

Huge economic damage

The March earthquake and tsunami killed up to 28,000 lives and the estimated cost stands at $300 billion, making it the world’s most expensive disaster.

Japan’s economics minister warned the economic damage was likely to be worse than first thought as power shortages will cut factory output and disrupt supply chains.

The Bank of Japan governor said the economy was in a “severe state”, while central bankers were uncertain when efforts to rebuild the northeast would boost growth, according to minutes from a meeting held three days after the earthquake struck.

NISA said the amount of radiation released into the atmosphere from the plant, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, was around 10 per cent that of Chernobyl.

“Radiation released into the atmosphere peaked from March 15 to 16. Radiation is still being released, but the amount now has fallen considerably,” said NISA’s Nishiyama.

Bullying Alters Brain Chemistry

Being low mouse on the totem pole is tough on murine self-esteem. It turns out it has measurable effects on brain chemistry, too, according to recent experiments at Rockefeller University. Researchers found that mice that were bullied persistently by dominant males grew unusually nervous around new company, and that the change in behavior was accompanied by heightened sensitivity to vasopressin, a hormone involved in a variety of social behaviors. The findings suggest how bullying could contribute to long-term social anxiety at the molecular level.

“We found that chronic social stress affects neuroendocrine systems that are paramount for adaptive mammalian social behaviors such as courtship, pair bonding and parental behaviors,” says Yoav Litvin, M. S. Stoffel Postdoctoral Fellow in Mind, Brain and Behavior. “Changes in components of these systems have been implicated in human disorders, such as social phobias, depression, schizophrenia and autism.”

Litvin and colleagues in Donald Pfaff’s Laboratory of Neurobiology and Behavior set up a rough-and-tumble school yard scenario in which a young mouse is placed in a cage with a series of larger older mice — a different one in each of 10 days. The mice, being territorial, fight it out in a contest that the new arrival invariably loses. Following the 10-minute battle, the mice were separated in the same cage by a partition that keeps them physically apart but allows them to see, smell and hear one another, a stressful experience for the loser.

Given a day to rest, the test mice are then put in the company of nonthreatening mice of comparable size and age. The biggest change in behavior was that the traumatized mice were more reluctant to socialize with their fellow mice, preferring to keep their distance compared to their unbullied counterparts. The mice that had lost their battles were also more likely to “freeze” in place for longer periods of time and to frequently display “risk assessment” behaviors toward their new cage mates, behaviors that have been shown to be valid indices of fear and anxiety in humans. The researchers also gave a group of mice a drug that blocked vasopressin receptors, which partly curbed some of the anxious behavior in the bullied mice.

The researchers then examined the brains of the mice, particularly sections in the middle of the forebrain known to be associated with emotion and social behavior. They found that mRNA expression for vasopressin receptors pecifically V1bRs had increased in the bullied mice, making them more sensitive to the hormone, which is found in high levels in rats with innate high anxiety. In humans, the hormone is associated with aggression, stress and anxiety disorders. The surge of vasopressin receptors was especially notable in the amygdala, Litvin and colleagues reported this month in Physiology & Behavior.

How long these effects last remains an open question. Other studies have found, for instance, that chronic stress can impair some cognitive functions in rodents and people, but that their brains can bounce back, given time to recuperate.

Still, many studies in rodents, primates and people have shown that early psychological trauma can have ill effects on health throughout life. Litvin says his study suggests that victims of bullying may have difficulty forming new relationships, and it identifies the possible role for a specific vasopressin receptor.

“The identification of brain neuroendocrine systems that are affected by stress opens the door for possible pharmacological interventions,” Litvin says. “Additionally, studies have shown that the formation and maintenance of positive social relationships may heal some of the damage of bullying. These dynamic neuroendocrine systems may be involved.”

Anderson Attending Funeral

Likely delaying the immediate clarification of Mizzou coach Mike Anderson's job status, Anderson on Tuesday afternoon was believed on his way to Tulsa, Okla., for a visitation and funeral service for a longtime friend.

Jim Pharr, whom Anderson has known since his days playing and assisting at Tulsa in the early 1980s, died Saturday - just two days after being with Mizzou for its NCAA Tournament game in Washington, D.C.

An obituary in the Tulsa World did not state the cause of Pharr's death. He was described as a longtime supporter of Tulsa athletics and lauded in the World by Anderson mentor and former Tulsa and Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson:

"There are people everywhere who treat you well because you're the coach. Jim wasn't like that. He was a genuine friend to me and my whole family. We watched many games and shared many laughs and tears. They just don't make Jim Pharrs any more."

Pharr's family was to visit with friends from 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, and the funeral is scheduled for Wednesday at 10 a.m.

MU has been working to extend Anderson's contract for weeks. Anderson is believed to be a potential target of Arkansas, where he worked for 17 years with Richardson and which has had an opening for nine days.

Wyclef Jean: Hand Shot

Rapper Wyclef Jean is "undeterred" with his "commitment" to his native Haiti after he was shot in the hand in the country on Saturday night, March 19. The former The Fugees star's car reportedly came under attack and was peppered with bullets as he was being driven through the city of Port-au-Prince with hip-hop pal Busta Rhymes and record executive Jimmy Rosemond.

Jean's hand was injured in the incident and he was taken to a local hospital for treatment. He was subsequently discharged from the facility and his spokeswoman Cindy Tanenbaum insists the star is still fully committed to his charity work in the country.

She tells E! Online, "I have confirmed from Wyclef that he was immediately taken to the hospital, treated for a minor graze to his hand and released. He is fine. Wyclef's commitment to his native country and to his people is unparalleled. He is therefore undeterred by this incident."

Jean, who lives in the U.S., was in the country to lend his support to presidential candidate Michel Martelly as he prepared for the final round of elections against former First Lady Mirlande Manigat on Sunday, March 20. The star was himself a presidential hopeful, but was ruled ineligible to run for office in 2010.

BB-T Dividend Raise

Citi Investment Research is out with a research on BB&T after it announced it would raise its dividend on Friday.

In a note to clients, Citi writes, "The announcement was fairly inline with our expectations, we did not anticipate BBT would increase the dividend substantially given their current payout ratio and would be weighing any share repurchase against potential M&A opportunities. Although earnings were compressed and BBT reduced their dividend as the cycle unfolded, the company was able to keep an elevated dividend vs. other regional peers. The bank has one of the highest regional bank dividend yields in our coverage at 2.2% currently."

Shares of BBT gained 14 cents on Friday to close at $27.01, a gain of just over 0.5%.

Swift Car Insurance

Many people refer to the internet when finding swift car insurance. They are looking to get insurance for their car in a hurry because of different reasons, but turning to the internet can really help people tremendously.

For one, the convenience of shopping for anything online is always favorable. Some people do not want to shop around with different insurance providers and they don’t want to spend the time to get on the phone with insurance provider after insurance provider. This is why the internet has become the number one place where people who are looking for swift car insurance will go for information as well as insurance quotes.

The fact that you are online right now means that you are already ahead of most people when it comes to attaining swift car insurance. You will be able to immediately go to different websites and get a number of quotes within minutes. This will allow you to look at all of the proposals and it will help you choose the best swift car insurance that is the most favorable to you.

Depending on what your driver’s license record looks like, your results may vary from others. A lot of people that want swift car insurance are unaware of how quotes are calculated; therefore you should try to understand that before you are expecting a ridiculously low quote.

For example, if you have accidents in your driving history that were due to your driving negligence, or whatever the case may be, but if it was determined by your police report and your insurance provider that you were at fault, it means that your insurance will be going up. The reason for this is because now you are considered a liability to the insurance company and in order for them to be on the safe side with your driving record, they will need to charge you a higher premium, just in case.

Another thing that affects the premium of your swift car insurance is the amount of points that you have on your driving record. The more points you have means that you received tickets and they were not settled in court. This lets them know that you are more vulnerable to get more speeding tickets or even have an accident because your history shows that you have several points on your license. If you received those points from speeding tickets, they will be able to see that because once they pull up all of your information for your swift car insurance quote it will show them why you received those points. If you are a speed demon in the streets then you are more apt to getting another ticket and even hitting someone in the street, so your insurance will reflect that.

Whether or not your driving record is clean, you should definitely check online for swift car insurance quotes and shop the best deal possible for yourself and for your family. There are so many companies online that are fighting for the next customer that they are willing to offer better deals online than they would to a regular person who would walk into their office.

Foreign Insurance

South Africa’s Discovery Holdings has reported a jump in net earnings for the six month period ending on 31st December 2010 to total ZAR 941 million (US$132 million), representing a 25 percent increase on the previous six monthly period.

Normalized operating earnings in the period increased by 28 percent to ZAR 1.33 billion (US$ 186 million), excluding the one-off cost of the take-over of UK’s Standard Life Healthcare which amounted to ZAR 6 billion rand (US$223.4 million).

There was a 15 percent growth in new business to reach ZAR 3.7 billion (US$ 519 million) with embedded value up by 15 percent to total ZAR 24 billion (US$ 3.3 billion).

Speaking on the insurer’s 6 months earnings, Adrian Gore, Discovery’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “While the period under review has been complex, impacted by both the lingering effects of the financial crisis and the considerable policy debates that affect the markets in which Discovery operates, we are satisfied with the overall performance and continue to focus on providing our customers with high quality, innovative and relevant products.”

Discovery performed well in its domestic market, South Africa, with new business growing by 10 percent helping operating profits to increase from ZAR 555 million (US$ 77 million) to ZAR 619 million (US$ 86 million), reflecting a 12 percent increase over the 6 month period.

The Discovery Health Insurance business in South Africa now has 2.5 million members enrolled in private medical schemes managed by the insurer, following a 12 percent increase in numbers between June and December 2010.

Membership of the largest scheme in South African medical insurance – the Discovery Healthy Medical Scheme – grew by 10 percent, with client renewals of health policies amounting to almost 98 percent.

The Discovery Health business is working on improving access to private healthcare in South Africa for low-income sectors of the population in a bid to increase overall membership in the country.

Also, within Discovery’s domestic market, the health insurer said it remains committed to working in unison with the National Health Insurance system in South Africa which is currently in a transition period with reform implementation expected next year. The South Africa planned National Health Insurance system is being set-up in order for the country to provide universal healthcare coverage for the core population.

The Johannesburg-based insurer’s life insurance business – Discovery Life – performed well, with an increase of 14 percent over the 6 month period to generate operating profits of ZAR 768 million (US$ 107 million) up from ZAR 675 million (US$ 94 million); the growth being due to improvements in mortality and morbidity policy rates.

Discovery’s joint venture in the UK with PruHealth was boosted in 2010 with the acquisition of Standard Life Healthcare, which helped leverage its position in the UK private health insurance market. The Discovery and PruHealth insurance business covers over 674,000 lives within the UK, and is one of the major players in the private medical insurance (PMI) market in Britain; the United Kingdom operating profit for Discovery was ZAR 35 million (US$ 4.9 million) during the last six month trading period.

“The quality of the Standard Life Healthcare business surpassed our expectations, with the loss ratio, levels of lapses and profitability levels exceeding our expectation. The combination of the management action undertaken within PruHealth, and the acquisition of Standard Life Healthcare, has created a business with strong fundamental drivers of value and one that represents significant prospects for Discovery.” Mr.Gore said on the PruHealth venture.

In China’s thriving insurance sector, Discovery’s Ping An Health business received local regulatory approval from the Chinese Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) to commence operating in a market which has becoming increasingly important for global health insurers. The Ping An Health venture was initiated in 2009, with the South African based insurer buying a 20 percent stake in the Chinese business.

Speaking on the Chinese health business Mr.Gore said: “From a product perspective, significant work has taken place to tailor Discovery’s capabilities to the Chinese market. We remain excited by the potential of the Chinese private health insurance market in the long-term.”

Discovery will be seeking other opportunities to enhance its global operations in the future in order to continue its planned growth and, following the announcement of Discovery’s last 6 month results, the insurer has reported that it has entered into an agreement with American insurer Humana to offer wellness and loyalty scheme programmes to 10 million of the US insurers customers. Discovery’s link will give Humama’s members the opportunity to purchase discounted gym memberships and other health incentive benefits.

Humana is the fourth largest health insurer in the USA and has agreed to invest ZAR 107 million (US$15 million) in Discovery’s Vitality Group subsidiary – a wellness programme provider. The deal means the South African group increases its exposure in the US health insurance sector, as the US health insurer seeks new opportunities for developing client incentives and the promotion of healthier living.

The Discovery and Humana partnership will see the South African insurer offering incentives for Humana’s 10 million clients to live healthier lifestyles, and comes at a time when concerns are growing about rising medical costs and the increase of chronic diseases among Americans; these factors having caused a hike in healthcare premiums within the USA health insurance market. The South African and US venture is designed to offer US clients incentives to take-up healthy activities such as regular gym work-outs to improve their long term health.

Discovery’s core health business in South Africa has been growing in recent years, mainly due to the buoyant economy driven by the burgeoning mining and agricultural sectors. With a significant proportion of the South African population enjoying middle to upper middle class status, private health insurance has expanded rapidly. Discovery offers a series of health plans under the branding of executive, comprehensive, priority, saver, core and keycare, which have helped the Johannesburg based insurer become the leading healthcare insurer in South Africa.