“The MetLife Study of Elder Financial Abuse: Crimes of Occasion, Desperation and Predation Against America’s Elders” also reports that crimes committed by strangers made up more than half of reported cases of elder financial abuse, but one-third of the crimes involved family, friends and neighbors as perpetrators.

“Our findings illustrate the dehumanization of victims that takes place in the process of financial abuse and further destruction of financial security that occurs,” states Sandra Timmermann, Ed.D., director of the MetLife Mature Market Institute. “In almost all instances, financial exploitation is achieved through deceit, threats and emotional manipulation of an elder.”

Produced in collaboration with the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse and the Center for Gerontology at Virginia Tech, the study looked at data collected through a media database of news articles reporting on crimes against older Americans. Results were compared to the institute’s first study on elder abuse, produced in 2008, “Broken Trust: Elders, Family and Finances.”

Dr. Timmermann presented the findings from the new study a U.S. Senate briefing on elder financial abuse on June 2.

“Elder financial abuse invariably results in losses of human rights and dignity,” adds Karen A. Roberto, Ph.D., director of the Center for Gerontology at Virginia Tech. “Despite growing public awareness from a parade of high-profile financial abuse victims, it remains underreported, under-recognized, and under-prosecuted.”

The report contains the stories of some of those targeted and the circumstances involving the crimes perpetrated against them. It is accompanied by a consumer guide, “The Essentials: Preventing Elder Abuse,” and tip sheets for older adults and family caregivers. The full study, consumer guide and tip sheets can be viewed at www.maturemarketinstitute.com

After adding 235,000 and 221,000 jobs in February and March, this should indicate the economy is finally accomplishing momentum; however, rising gas prices and sluggish consumer demand cloud the outlook. A surge in April first-time jobless claims indicate growth is stuck at depressed, first-quarter levels, and some businesses are growing more reluctant to hire.

The unemployment rate rose to 9%, as the Labor Department’s estimate of the working age population and labor force increased by some 146,000 and 15,000, respectively. Immigration may have played some role — warmer weather does encourage more border crossings to access work in the construction trade and agriculture

Gains from February through April were in sharp contrast to weaker jobs creation the previous 13 months, and largely resulted from stronger private sector jobs growth. 

The economy began adding jobs in January 2010, but gained only 78,000 jobs a month through January 2011. Too many of those jobs were created by stimulus spending, temporary business services, and health care and social services, which are heavily subsidized by government reimbursements. Job gains in the core private sector-private employment less temporary business services, and health care social services and temporary business services, averaged only 49,000 a month.

Core private sector jobs are so important because those have the potential to set off a virtuous cycle of hiring, consumer spending and more hiring. In February, March and April, this barometer of private sector vitality gained 222,000, 158,000 and 229,000 new positions, respectively.

Similarly strong core private sector gains will be needed to continue adding 200,000 or more new jobs each month going forward and that would still not be enough to push unemployment down to acceptable levels.

The economy must add 13 million private sector jobs over the next three years — 360,000 each month — to bring unemployment down to 6%. Core private sector jobs must increase at least 300,000 a month to accomplish that goal.

Since the recovery began, the economy has expanding at a 2.8% annual rate. This is hardly enough to hold unemployment steady, because the working age population increases 1% a year, and productivity advances about 2%. Coming out of a deep recession, growth in the range of 4% to 5% is needed to get unemployment down to 6% over the next several years.

Continued dependence on high-priced foreign oil, the growing trade deficit with China, and health care and tax policies that penalize the location of businesses in the United States are responsible for slower jobs creation than has been accomplished during past recoveries.

Simply, more jobs could be created by drilling for more domestic oil now, which would keep money here that American drivers send to the Middle East; taxing dollar-yuan conversion to offset China’s undervalued currency and 35% subsidy on its exports; genuine health-care reform that lowers drug, insurance, administration and tort burdens rather than subsidizing a system that costs 50% more than private systems in Germany and elsewhere; and replacing the corporate income tax and elements of the personal income and social security tax with a value-added tax.

By Peter Morici
Published May 06, 2011
FOXBusiness
www.foxnews.com

“Don’t follow leaders / Watch the parking meters”

Ah, the weather. In theory, it was largely to blame for the fact that far fewer of the unemployed in America put on their jackets and sought employment recently. Thus, our economy only produced 36,000 new jobs last month.

Further, when the people doing the unemployment phone survey called folks and asked if they were employed, more of those who said, “No,” also said they weren’t actually looking for a job at the moment. (Thus, by the logic of this survey, they don’t count. They got snowed out, it seems—or maybe they were already just plain discouraged.)

Meanwhile, the weather has been used to help explain weak housing starts and declining construction spending. The weather can even (perhaps) be blamed, in part, for a good thing—the 42,000 decline in the number of applications for unemployment (to 415,000) in the week ending January 29.

Maybe we can no longer deny it: Economic reports are now slightly less reliable than weather reports.

What cannot be denied is this: Difficult weather has driven the entire world into a terrible food shortage problem. I mentioned last week that Egypt imports 60% of the wheat it consumes. In all, it imports about 40% of its total food needs and, where that was paid for in the past largely by the income from the oil it produced (that is, for oil the country didn’t itself need), geologists are now talking about “peak oil” in Egypt, a term indicating that the country’s oil consumption just surpassed its oil production. Egypt is now a net importer of oil, too. And it no longer has oil money to cover the difference in the cost of the food it must import to feed its hungry population.

The same is true—though the oil component differs from country to country—throughout a great deal of the Middle East. Plainly, food costs are rising (and yes, part of this phenomenon can be attributed to the weather). The people can no longer afford to feed themselves well. They are angry. It isn’t just a laudable idealistic urge toward democracy that is motivating the protestors into the streets of many of the Middle East’s nations.

An official report: “Global food prices rose for the seventh month in a row to a historic record in January, the United Nations said Thursday. The U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization’s Food Price Index—a commodity basket that tracks monthly changes in food prices around the world—surged 3.4% from December, the highest since FAO started measuring food prices in 1990….. ‘The new figures clearly show that the upward pressure on world food prices is not abating,’ said Abdolreza Abbassian, an FAO economist and grains expert. ‘These high prices are likely to persist in the months to come. High food prices are of major concern especially for low-income food deficit countries that may face problems in financing food imports and for poor households which spend a large share of their income on food,’ he added.”

One of the most obvious concerns here—especially when we also consider how metals and other commodities have been gaining in price—is inflation. Food prices in Egypt have already climbed by 21% this year. The rate of inflation has been rising nearly everywhere. Oddly, much of the investment world remains blind to this. U.S. Treasury secretary Geithner recently commented that inflation is “not high on the list of concerns” of his staff. Increasingly, though, it should be very high on my list and yours, as interest rates continue their gradual and steady march north.

Watch for rates to climb this week by another small bunch of basis points. And so it is likely to go until someone trips the panic wire and 4%-4.25% mortgages quickly fade into the distant corners of our memories. As Bob Dylan wrote years ago, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”

by: Lou Barnes

“We’ve seen problems in foreclosure proceedings – mistakes that have led to disruptions in the housing markets.  This is only one more piece of evidence as to why Wall Street reform is so necessary, ” the president explained.

“This was a bill designed to rein in the secret deals and reckless gambling that nearly brought down the financial system,” he added.

Although the Obama administration stood against the national moratorium on foreclosures claiming that this would do more harm than good, this does not mean they are not actively seeking a way to rescue the real estate market. However, it is hard to know if any of these reforms being considered will actually make a difference in the market. This is something that will only become apparent with time.

“The Obama Administration has a comprehensive review of the situation underway and will respond with the full force of the law where problems are found, ” reports indicate.

Any action directed to the real estate market at this point will lead to major changes. Foreclosures are all around us, and are affecting all of America.  At this point in history, foreclosures are becoming a big indicator on the economic situation we are at. In addition, foreclosures have caused political intrigue, and scandals, and that is why even the government needs to get involved when the economy finds itself fighting against the recent foreclosure mess.  It is not only that foreclosure have been going on at increasingly higher rates, but we also need to consider the effect that the latest fiasco will have on the growing anxiety already present in the real estate market.

If the presidents reform of Wall Street is anything similar to the reform in the lending industry, then we’re all in for a world of hurt.  While certain regulations should be in place, the act of being 100% involved in the industry, as the government has done in the mortgage lending industry, will create utter chaos and add to the difficulty of investing.