The nation’s banks will be bombarding customers with new fees and products in 2010 as they try to replace more than $50 billion in revenue wiped out by new rules that clamp down on certain business practices. So far, the changes are mostly concentrated in checking accounts and credit cards. In addition to attaching new fees to old products, banks are introducing new types of accounts that they hope will reel in new customers and reduce their funding costs. For plastic, the new rules go into effect in February as part of the Credit Card Act of 2009. The rules will limit some interest-rate increases, require more disclosure to customers and prohibit banks from raising interest rates on current balances unless a customer is at least 60 days behind in a payment. Bloomberg News SOMEONE WILL PAY: Carletta King, right, makes her purchase with a credit card at a J.C. Penney store at a mall in Aurora, Colo., last year. Credit-card issuers collected $22.9 billion in penalty fees-such as those assessed for late payments-in 2009, up from $19 billion in 2008, said Robert Hammer, who runs a credit-card consulting firm in Thousand Oaks, Calif. Credit-card […]
Of course, Congress comes through for their own postcards and receptions and consultants. Because their consultants have gotten them this far. But you want to be really outraged? How about their socialized medical program? This is beyond the fantastic health plan they all have, courtesy the American taxpayer, this is a perk they’ve kept largely secret through all this contentious debate about what Americans deserve for their healthcare. Via Matt, look at what they’ve provided themselves, their very own socialized medicine. Formally called the Office of the Attending Physician, the clinic - and at least six satellite offices - bills its mission as one of emergency preparedness and public health. Each day, it stands ready to handle medical emergencies, biological attacks and the occasional fainting tourist visiting Capitol Hill. Officially, the office acknowledges these types of services, including providing physicals to Capitol police officers and offering flu shots to congressional staffers. But what is rarely discussed outside the halls of Congress is the office’s other role - providing a wealth of primary care medical services to senators, representatives and Supreme Court justices…. Sources […]
Therapeutic Intent. The idea that consciousness can have a direct effect on a living organism is an ancient and culturally universal belief. The shamanic cave art of Altimira, Tres Freres, and Lascaux presents compelling testimony that our genetic forbearers had a complex view of spiritual and physical renewal, one that has survived to the present unchanged in at least one fundamental respect. The intent to heal, either oneself or another, whether expressed as God, a force, an energy, or one of many gods, has consistently been believed to be capable of producing a therapeutic result. Why? The answer must surely be that regardless of ideology or religion, culture, or race, the manifested result of Therapeutic Intent has compelled belief. It has survived and been used for thousands of years because people get better and the various practices seem worth preserving from generation to generation. This can be said, while still acknowledging that many people get well simply because of the self-correcting nature of Nature; or, to a more limited degree, from psychophysical self-regulation. And, from at least the third millennium BCE on, many more have regained their health because of the intervention of their civilization’s health system. The high […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
