MY RECENT COMMENTS ON ECONOMIST'S VIEW

TODAY'S COMMENT ON ECONOMIST'S VIEW

RE: As Jobs Vanish, Forgetting What Government Is For -- Eduardo Porter

We could probably get a pretty good consensus together on how to turn our economy away from financialization and back toward higher end manufacturing a la Germany.

But don't bother until we take back the political and economic high ground a la Germany -- a la rebuilding union density -- to make possible doing it. SIMPLE AS THAT.

DO THAT OR DO NOTHING -- talk and talk as much as you want about everything else, you'll never do anything.
*********************
[snip]
It is unnatural and a pathological condition -- ipso facto -- not to have collective bargaining. This unnatural state is itself a result of missing checks and balances. There are no consequences at all for muscling workers in the American labor market.

Solution (to all this): (simply) make union busting a felony -- necessarily backed by RICO so employers cannot play at union busting for a while after laws are passed to see what they can get away with (thereby building up the "continuing" part of the indictment).

Easiest place to start -- the progressive states: WA, OR, CA, NV, IL, NY, MD.
[snip]
**********************
Manufacturing isn't the be-all and end-all for non-college people (2/3 of workforce!). Anyone ever hear of working for Walmart -- for $20 an hour. Probably push Walmart prices up 4-5% -- but everybody else who buys there will be getting an income shift from higher income people when their union can extract the max (might reduce employment where higher income people shop proportionately more than lower ;-O).

The Wage That Meant Middle Class
By LOUIS UCHITELLE APRIL 20, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/weekinreview/20uchitelle.html?_r=0

No reason Walgreens can't pay what supermarkets used to pay before Walmart (end the two-tier contracts!). No reason Chicago taxi drivers have to make half what they used to make (before Uber) -- no reason not to add one dollar a mile to the meter which is now fifty cents below what it was in 1981 (fifty percent higher per capita income later!); that's a purely government decision if ever there was one, made in a climate where low skill working people are expected to live in peonery to make life a little cheaper for everyone else.*

Where there is no political power there is no political will and will be no way. Rebuild union density first -- don't run with the ball before you catch it -- all this other conversation is putting the cart before the horse.

* After I explained the American labor market to my late brother John he came back with: "Martin Luther King got his people on the up escalator just in time for it to start going down for everybody."

****************************************
YESTERDAY'S COMMENT ON ECONOMIST'S VIEW 

Re: The Economist as...?: The Public Square and Economists - Brad DeLong

" But you have nearly no ability to evaluate what you hear. "

But you can listen to your union leaders if you only had them. They are your advocates (as in an advocacy system) -- and they usually know enough economics to know what to do next.
It's usually all about checks and balances anyway (advocacy economics?).

It is unnatural and a pathological condition -- ipso facto -- not to have collective bargaining. This unnatural state is itself a result of missing checks and balances. There are no consequences at all for muscling workers in the American labor market.

Solution (to all this): (simply) make union busting a felony -- necessarily backed by RICO so employers cannot play at union busting for a while after laws are passed to see what they can get away with (thereby building up the "continuing" part of the indictment).

Easiest place to start -- the progressive states: WA, OR, CA, NV, IL, NY, MD.

More people might listen to economists if economist were pushing this simple solution to most all of our economic and political troubles (think Germany).
*************
Re: "The end of American meritocracy - FT.com "

Again, not a problem in Germany with 16% college -- but where auto manufacturing workers earn $60 an hour because they are (have themselves trained because they have so much market power) trained and retrained to be more and more productive -- not in Germany which manufactures ten times as many vehicles per person as the US and sells nine of them abroad.

Meanwhile Boeing is building its 787 Dreamliner wings and fuselage in Italy and Japan. A German level-unionized economy would never allow that to happen here.

Crazy problem: the US has an enormous immigrant population (have 5 Irish grandparents counting my mother's stepmother myself) which is to naturally willing to work for less. Throw that into our labor market malestorm and minimum wage jobs have been effectively outsourced to Mexico and India and my old taxi job (28 years in NYC, Chi, SF) has been outsourced all over the world.

Meantime, back at American born worker homes 100,000 out of (my guesstimate) 200,000 Chicago gang age males are in street gangs because they wont work for SECOND-WORLD WAGES. Chicago has 60% minority population (40% white, 40% black, 20% Hispanic). That makes for 30% of gang age Chicago males stuck at the bottom. Saw the statement that half of Chicago black males are out of work the other day (I think in Crain's Chicago business) -- fits this.

Nothing is being done. Simple solution: rebuild a healthy labor market (and healthy politics) where workers can test to see how much the consumer will pay. Wont put immigrants out of work -- the economy expands to fit new workers -- ask any economist -- oops; that's where we came into this movie.

.

HERE COME DA DRUG MONOPOLIES

Sovaldi: Hepatitis C can be wiped out for $300 billion (that's a "b") -- the same amount we now pay for all other prescriptions. Cost to manufacture: half a billion dollars.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/280635.php

Now comes: "Amgen scores a victory for PCSK9, halving cardio risks after one year"  " ... new [cholesterol] drugs could eventually add as much as $150 billion to the national health-care bill."   
http://www.fiercebiotech.com/story/amgen-scores-victory-pcsk9-halving-cardio-risks-after-one-year/2015-03-15  
http://www.wsj.com/articles/new-type-of-cholesterol-drug-could-prove-costly-1426817085 

[how much will we be willing to pay to cure the incurable?]

"Of the 2,644 patients, eight exhibited signs of dementia. Two were younger than 65, five were aged from 65-74 and one was aged between 75-84."
"for the first time in human subjects, our notion that calcineurin inhibition has a protective effect on the development and possible progression and even reversal of Alzheimer's disease," 
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/295047.php

C-Pulse - a cuff that wraps around the aorta and pumps blood from the heart around the body - has proved effective in reversing [formerly incurable] heart failure, even in some patients with severe cases. 
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/283566.php

[the list of potential pharma rent collectors grows by day]

"And they also found that azoramide greatly improved blood glucose levels in obese mice and mice with type 2 diabetes. They showed this improvement was the result of two things: better functioning of insulin-producing beta cells and greater insulin sensitivity in tissues."
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/295623.php 

My $500 Pill Revealed -- Revlimid -- by Kevin Drum 
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/07/my-500-pill-revealed

[just a sample of monopoly possibilities; more -- surely -- to come] 

Potential target for future Huntington's disease treatment discovered
"... MNT reported on a study that confirmed an activating protein called Rhes plays a pivotal role in Huntington's disease. This protein could become a drug target in future treatments. 
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/297489.php  

PLEKHA7 -- puts brakes on cancer -- better get ready to sell the Statue of Liberty back to France
"He notes this is like a speeding car that has a lot of gas (E-cadherin and p120) but no brakes (the PLEKHA7 complex), and concludes:"By administering the affected miRNAs in cancer cells to restore their normal levels, we should be able to re-establish the brakes and restore normal cell function. Initial experiments in some aggressive types of cancer are indeed very promising."
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/298513.php 

[just another day for potential new drug monopolies -- we will all owe our souls to the corner drug store]

Why Insulin Costs So Much
July 19th, 2015 by David Mendosa
"Dr. Hirsch reviewed the cost of insulin from 1921 when Drs. Frederick Banting and Charles Best discovered it. “In a generous gesture that unfortunately didn’t start a trend, they sold the patent for $1 so that cheap insulin would quickly become available.
"By 2005, people worldwide were spending more than $7.3 billion for insulin. “But no one could have predicted what would happen over the next decade,” Dr. Hirsch said. By 2013 we were spending $21 billion for it.
"Between 2005 and 2015 the cost of a lispro vial went up 264 percent, while a vial of insulin glargine went up 348 percent, and a vial of NPH went up 364 percent. That’s a lot, but other insulins went up even more.
"The cost of an aspart pen rose in this 10-year period by 389 percent. And the cost of a vial of U-500 regular insulin jumped a staggering 508 percent.
Price Fixing?
"Dr. Hirsch noted that one year ago Sanofi increased the price insulin glargine 16.1 percent. “And literally the next day, Novo Nordisk increased the price of insulin detemir (Levemir) 16.1 percent. In fact, this pattern repeated six months later, and this has actually happened 13 times for these two products that have total U.S. sales of $11 billion.”
http://www.mendosa.com/blog/?p=3529 

[Such an collection of greed-driven price bleeding that I cannot encapsulate it -- yet.]

Drug Goes From $13.50 a Tablet to $750, Overnight
Andrew Pollack   The New York Times

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/09/21/drug-goes-from-1350-a-tablet-to-750-overnight.html?__source=yahoo|finance|headline|headline|story&par=yahoo&doc=103012076&ref=yfp 

That Guy Who Is Price-Gouging AIDS Patients (see just above) Also Did It to Kids with Kidney Disease

"The former hedge fund manager whose pharmaceutical company has come under withering attack for allegations of  egregious price-gouging on life-saving medication (just above) ... and it turns out he once tried a similar price hike scheme ... During Martin Shkreli's tenure as CEO of Retrophin ... the company increased prices on a decades-old kidney medication by about 20 times its original cost ... ."
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/09/22/martin_shkreli_price_gouging_the_hedge_fund_bro_pulled_drug_price_hike_scheme.html
"Drugonomics is not Adam Smith’s invisible hand. It is Gordon Gekko’s visible middle finger."
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2015/10/blame-system-not-martin-shkreli.html

[One Washington Post story]

The drug industry wants us to think Martin Shkreli is a [unique] rogue CEO. He isn’t [unique at all].

Plant used for gout 3,000 years -- in pill form since 1800s.  Pharma somehow got exclusive rights (normal apparently) -- price shot up from 9 cents a tablet to $4.85.
2013 increase in price of brand name drugs (higher every year): 12.9%.  That approaches 200% added (300%) every 10 years.
Tetracycline, 1948 drug: 5 cents a capsule until 2013 -- now $11.
Clomipramine, 1960s antidepressent, 22 cents a pill up to 2012 -- now $8.17.
In Australia, 2010, Amedra Pharmaceuticals bought the rights to abendazole, off patent, intestinal parasite drug selling for $6 a day -- raised to $120.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/09/25/the-drug-industry-wants-us-to-think-martin-shkreli-is-a-rogue-ceo-he-isnt/

[Another day, another drug]

Nitropress, generic blood pressure drug went for $44 a vial way, way back in the year 2013.  Now sold by Valeant Pharaceuticals for $806. 

According to a spokesman, no one will ever be denied this medication: “These are drugs that are only used by hospitals — they are not sold in pharmacies — in accordance with specific surgical procedures. This means that whenever the protocol calls for use of these drugs, they are used.” 
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/09/its-really-hard-not-hate-pharmaceutical-industry

[$2,000 in far away Canada -- $20,000 for us in the US]

"The price of a 30-milligram injection of the drug, according to the bill, was $19,827.90. Because at least four shots would be needed, they were looking at pharmacy charges approaching $80,000 and nearly $16,000 in copays.

"A 30-mg dose of Lupron Depot is available from Canadian pharmacies for under $2,000, according to the website PharmacyChecker.com."
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus-20151002-column.html

 Ever elongating list grows from here.

[$250,000 a year breakthrough cystic fibrosis drug -- and more]

"A breakthrough new drug, Orkambi, for patients [with cystic fibrosis, a life-threatening genetic condition that causes severe damage to lungs] — along with sticker shock, at an annual price tag of more than a quarter million dollars. 

"[A]t more than $300,000 a year, Kalydeco costs even more than Orkambi ...  Both Orkambi and Kalydeco are made by Vertex, a Boston-based pharmaceutical firm ... "
http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/they-put-price-my-life-cost-cystic-fibrosis-drugs-sky-n440321
http://www.king5.com/story/news/health/childrens-healthlink/2015/05/19/cystic-fibrosis-cf-kalydeco-lumacaftor-orkambi-ramsey/27610791/

[Post Script]

Is it too late to recount the tale off a sleeping pill whose name I forget, but which cost $10 a month in 10mg dose -- and $200 a month in a lower 5mg dose: a "new drug"; trials having shown that some patients do better on the half dose.  That's how today's law is written. 

***********************
ADDENDUM
***********************
 How the US Congress Hands US Corporate Taxes To Europe
02/08/2016     Jeffrey Sachs
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-sachs/how-the-us-congress-hands_b_9185988.html

" The present case of Gilead is even more absurd. The company owns the patent on blockbuster drug Sofosbuvir, the cure for Hepatitis C. The company bought the drug from the drug developer Pharmasett, which did all of its R&D in the United States. Yet the intellectual property on Sofosbuvir is claimed by Gilead to be in Ireland for tax purposes. When Gilead fleeces the U.S. government by charging $1,000 for a pill that costs $1 to manufacture, and the money is paid by the U.S. government to pay for treatment of a U.S. citizen in the U.S., Gilead has the chutzpah to book the U.S. profits in Ireland. And they get away with it.

" You can't make this stuff up.

" But here's the further twist. The European Governments are seeing how the U.S. companies are getting off without paying taxes. So now the European tax authorities are stepping forward to collect taxes on the profits earned by U.S. tech companies in Europe. And the companies are indeed settling with the European tax authorities for billions of dollars in tax payments -- taxes that should be paid, not to Europe, but to the U.S. Treasury.

"As I said, you can't make this stuff up.

" So the bottom line is as follows. In their interest to garner favor with U.S. companies (mainly in search of campaign funds), the U.S. Congress has allowed these companies to escape U.S. corporate taxes by magically declaring that their IP is located in some foreign tax haven. Yet instead of the money remaining with the U.S. companies, as Congress intended, it is increasingly going into the European tax coffers. "

My $15 an hour minimum wage/centralized bargaining "Magnum Opus" :-)

If average Walmart nonsupervisory pay were raised to $100 an hour, the price of $10 items would only rise to $15.  Walmart labor costs are 7%.  Nonsupervisory workers average $12 an hour. $12 X 8 = almost $100. One of the $12s is there already.  7x7% = 49%.

Double current Walmart nonsupervisory pay to $24 hourly, throw on 25% for benefits to make it $30 and prices rise about 10%.

Somebody challenged me that raising Walmart prices 10% (at $30 -- only 3.5% at $15 min wage) would charge low income consumers $26 billion more a year ($260 billion sales).  I pointed out they could take it out of the $560 billion raise they would get from a $15 minimum wage.  

A $15 minimum wage would shift about 3.5% of income from the 55 percent of the workforce who garner 90% of income to the 45% who scratch only 10%.  $8,000 average raise X 70 million (45% of 140 million + 5% at minimum now) = $560 billion out of $16,000 billion GDP.  BTW, 45% of workforce not going to be sent home over a 3 1/2 percent shift in income share.

100,000 out of (my estimate) 200,000 gang age, Chicago males are in street gangs – I say because they wont work for a minimum wage several dollars below LBJ’s 1968 minimum wage ($10.95) after per capita income about doubled.  A $15 an hour minimum wage might actually put American born workers back to work at America’s McDonald’s.
 * * * * * * * * * *

 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/28/business/international/living-wages-served-in-denmark-fast-food-restaurants.html?_r=0
”Denmark has no minimum-wage law. But Mr. Elofsson’s $20 an hour is the lowest the fast-food industry can pay under an agreement between Denmark’s 3F union, the nation’s largest, and the Danish employers group Horesta, which includes Burger King, McDonald’s, Starbucks and other restaurant and hotel companies.”

What Denmark does have – along with most of continental Europe and French Canada and Argentina and Indonesia -- is a labor market setup called centralized bargaining where every employee doing similar work (e.g., retail clerk) negotiates one common labor contract with all employers doing similar business (e.g., Safeway, Best Buy, Walmart).

$20 an hour + benefits: it’s the centralized bargaining/truly-free market!  Supemarket workers (think Walmart gutted two-tier contracts) and airline employees (think regional pilots making $500 a week) would kill for centralized bargaining.  The only practicable way to re-unionize -- by law.  Only way to reconstitute political democracy as well. 

Check out Only One Thing Can Save Us by Chicago labor lawyer Tom Ghegeogan.
 * * * * * * * * *
FROM A CONVERSATION I HAD ON "OPEN THREAD" AT ANGRY BEAR:

I am not talking about collective bargaining alone — you understand I am talking about every employee doing the same kind of work negotiating one common contract with every employer doing the same kind of business (in the same geographic locale unless nationwide is appropriate). I’m not sure that is we are both talking about the same.
Well, imagine you are running for Congress and you want to support putting some real teeth into the right to organize. Whatever that would mean has got to be real complicated and unfortunately in a country that has forgotten about collective bargaining not a real hot topic.
OTH, centralized bargaining promises to improve so many employees lot (everybody’s lot?) so simply and quickly that it would make a very exciting — and very novel (as in big fun) — issue. Come to think of it polls show 50% want to unionize so maybe its just a matter of the right kind of union issue — and this might be the real killer app. Democrats taking a pasting because they aren’t making anything any better as our world goes down the drain — might be just what they need.
- See more at: http://angrybearblog.com/2014/11/open-thread-nov-7-2014.html#comments

I am not talking about collective bargaining alone — I am talking about every employee doing the same kind of work negotiating one common contract with every employer doing the same kind of business (in the same geographic locale unless nationwide is more appropriate).

Imagine running for Congress and you want to put some real teeth into the right to organize.  Modifying current labor law could be off-putting complicated -- unfortunately in a country where collective bargaining has become a forgotten topic. 

OTH, legally mandated, centralized bargaining promises to improve so many employees lot (everybody’s lot?) so simply and quickly that it would make a very exciting — and very novel (as in big fun) — issue.  The political "killer app."  As I always say supermarket workers and airline employees would kill for centralize bargaining. 

We have socialists, we have Austrian economists and every flavor of economic/political opinion in between.  Where are America's "centralized bargain-ists" (should be a movement all over the world even in labor organized countries) -- pushing the one labor market system that, world-wide for three-quarters of a century (starting with the Teamsters Union in Detroit in the 1930s), has consistently delivered fair and balanced economies and societies?

Everybody better get together to come up with something real soon -- or else:
If the top 1% income continues to receive all the economic growth, then, by the time the output per person expands 50% (25-30 years?) the top 1% income will “earn” half of a half-larger economy (25% + 50% = 75% of 150%). By the time output per person doubles (typically 40-50 years) the equation will read 25% + 100% out of 200% = 62.5% of a twice-as-large economy.


ADDENDUM

double-indexed is for inflation and per capita income growth:   

yr  per capita    real     nominal  dbl-index   %-of
(2013 dollars)

68    15,473    10.74      (1.60)        10.74      100%
69-70-71-72-73     [real, low point- 8.41]
74    18,284      9.47      (2.00)        12.61          
75    18,313      9.11      (2.10)        12.61
76    18,945      9.44      (2.30)        13.04        72%
77                                                    [8.86]
78     20,422     9.49      (2.65)        14.11
79     20,696     9.33      (2.90)        14.32
80     20,236     8.78      (3.10)        14.00     
81     20,112     8.61      (3.35)        13.89        62%
82-83-84-85-86-87-88-89               [6.31]
90     24,000     6.79      (3.80)        16.56  
91     23,540     7.29      (4.25)        16.24        44%
92-93-94-95                                    [6.51]
96     25,887     7.07      (4.75)        17.85
97     26,884     7.49      (5.15)        19.02        39%
98-99-00-01-02-03-04-05-06          [5.97]
07     29,075     6.59       (5.85)       20.09
08     28,166     7.10       (6.55)       19.45
09     27,819     7.89       (7.25)         9.42        40%
10-11-12                                          [7.37]  
13     28,829     7.25       (7.25)       19.32        38%

OUTDATED My minimum wage worksheet NEW VERSION ABOVE

 OUTDATED -- SEE LATEST VERSION ABOVE


double-indexed is for inflation and per capita income growth

yr  per capita    real     nominal  dbl-index   %-of
(2013 dollars)

68    15,473    10.74      (1.60)        10.74      100%
69-70-71-72-73     [real, low point- 8.41]
74    18,284      9.47      (2.00)        12.61          
75    18,313      9.11      (2.10)        12.61
76    18,945      9.44      (2.30)        13.04        72%
77                                                    [8.86]
78     20,422     9.49      (2.65)        14.11
79     20,696     9.33      (2.90)        14.32
80     20,236     8.78      (3.10)        14.00     
81     20,112     8.61      (3.35)        13.89        62%
82-83-84-85-86-87-88-89               [6.31]
90     24,000     6.79      (3.80)        16.56  
91     23,540     7.29      (4.25)        16.24        44%
92-93-94-95                                    [6.51]
96     25,887     7.07      (4.75)        17.85
97     26,884     7.49      (5.15)        19.02        39%
98-99-00-01-02-03-04-05-06          [5.97]
07     29,075     6.59       (5.85)       20.09
08     28,166     7.10       (6.55)       19.45
09     27,819     7.89       (7.25)         9.42        40%
10-11-12                                          [7.37]  
13     28,829     7.25       (7.25)       19.32        38%

 * * * * * *  

An added thought: By the year 2013 some could speculate that a $20.20/hr minimum wage might not be a realistic expectation evidenced by double indexing alone because the fabric of the economy might have changed so radically over 45 years.  Might be an outside possibility, but, LBJ's 1968 minimum wage would have morphed to more than $14/hr with double indexing by only 1978.  Can anyone explain how the economic fabric might have changed so radically in a mere 10 years?

DIRECT AID TO ISRAEL SINCE 1970 (millions of dollars)

DIRECT AID TO ISRAEL SINCE 1970 (millions of dollars)
Year------ Nominal------- Adjusted-------------------- Total

1970---------- 93.6--------- 530.00

1971--------- 643.3------- 3,489.70

1972--------- 430.9------- 2,264.00

1973--------- 492.8------- 2,438.47

1974------- 2,621.3----- 11,681.53

1975--------- 778.0------- 3,177.07

1976------- 2,337.7------- 9,026.23

1977------- 1,762.5------- 6,389.79

1978------- 1,822.6------- 6,141.49

1979------- 4,888.0------ 14,791.92-------------- 59,930.02

*****************************************

1980------- 2,121.0------- 5,655.14

1981------- 2,413.4------- 5,833.05

1982------- 2,250.5------- 5,123.66

1983------- 2,505.6------- 5,526.91

1984------- 2,631.6------- 5,564.61

1985------- 3,376.7 ------ 6,894.62

1986------- 3,663.5------- 7,343.71

1987------- 3040.2-------- 5,879.68

1988------- 3,043.4------- 5,885.87

1989------- 3,045.6------- 5,656.11-------------- 59,363.36

*****************************************

1990------- 3,034.9------- 5,377.16

1991------- 3,712.3------- 5,988.20

1992------- 3,100.0------- 4,854.38

1993------- 3,103.4------- 4,178.46

1994------- 3,097.2------- 4,591.46

1995------- 3,102.4------- 4,472.42

1996------- 3,144.0------- 4,402.40

1997------- 3,132.1------- 4,287.37

1998------- 3,080.0------- 4,050.36

1999------- 3,010.0------- 3,969.37-------------- 46,171.58

*****************************************

2000------ 4,131.85------- 5,144.00

2001------ 2,876.05------- 3,569.88

2002------ 2,850.65------- 3,481.31

2003------ 3,745.15------- 4,471.79

2004------ 2,867.25------- 3,334.75

2005------ 2,612.15------- 2,938.50

2006------ 2,534.5--------- 2,762.05

2007------ 2,500.2--------- 2,649.75

2008------ 2,423.9--------- 2,474.59

2009------ 2,550.0--------- 2,611.82-------------- 33,438.44

*****************************************

198,903.40

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL33222.pdf

http://www.minneapolisfed.org/

TSA opposite gender pat-down: mandatory sexual assault to fly -- must complete process once begun!

http://www.airsafe.com/issues/security/tsa-sop-not-redacted.pdf

****************************************
****************************************

2.2.3. HHMD OR PAT-DOWN SCREENING OF INDIVIDUALS
The HHMD TSO is responsible for HHMD screening and pat-down inspections in accordance with the Screening Checkpoint SOP. All HHMD and pat-down searches must be conducted by TSOs of the same gender as the individual presents him or herself to be. Extraordinary circumstances may occur where a TSO of the same gender is not available, including staffing shortage emergencies at any airport or limited staffing at category II, III, and IV airports. Under these circumstances, TSOs of the opposite gender may be allowed to screen individuals in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 4.3.14 of this SOP. During opposite gender screening an STSO or LTSO, if possible, should be present. This rule applies to all references of same gender screening in the Screening Checkpoint SOP.

*******************************************
*******************************************

Revision: 3
Date: May 28, 2008
Implementation Date: June 30, 2008 Screening Management SOP

4.3.14. OPPOSITE GENDER SCREENING
Extraordinary circumstances may occur where a TSO of the same gender as the individual being screened (the gender of an individual is determined by who he or she presents themselves to be) is not available to complete HHMD and/or pat-down screening procedures (for example, staffing shortage emergencies at any airport or limited staffing at Category II, III, and IV airports). Under these staffing shortage emergencies, screening procedures for individuals of the opposite gender, as provided for in this Section, are authorized and STSOs must apply the following procedures.

A. The following notifications must be made within 24 hours of each new staffing shortage event:
1) The STSO must notify the FSD, specifying the anticipated duration of the staffing shortage. The STSO must provide subsequent updates to the FSD if the reported duration is exceeded.
2) The STSO must maintain a count of the number of passengers affected during the staffing shortage and report these numbers to the FSD after the shortage is resolved. No personal or identifying information must be taken from the passenger for purposes of this report. For example, “three female passengers underwent opposite gender screening at Airport X” is an adequate count; however, including the names of the three female passengers in the count would be inappropriate. [my note: Do Touch; Don't Tell]
3) The FSD must in turn notify the Area Director, who must monitor such reports and consider how the patterns of staffing shortages, if any, can be addressed. The Area Director or his or her designee must notify the Office of Civil Rights of the staffing shortage and provide a copy of the report indicating the number of passengers subjected to opposite gender screening at each affected airport.

B. The STSO must ensure that the following notice is provided to an individual of the opposite gender before the individual enters the WTMD:
1) A TSO of the same gender as the individual presents him or herself to be is not available.
2) A TSO of the opposite gender will be required to complete the screening process, which may include physical contact between the TSO and the individual.
3) An LTSO or STSO, if possible, will be present.
4) Once the individual enters the WTMD, the individual must complete the screening process.

[I repeat: "4) Once the individual enters the WTMD, the individual must complete the screening process." Sorry high school girl!]

LINKS to Best Inequality (GREAT WAGE DEPRESSION!) Graphs I Have Seen

Links to the best (so-called) "inequality" (try "Great Wage Depression" to be catch the catastrophic depth) graphs I've ever seen.
 
http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p60-243.pdf     (go to p.5)
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=djN
http://delong.typepad.com/delongslides/2008/08/income-gains-19.html

And keep in mind that MEDIAN household income grew 14% from 1968 to present -- as per capita GDP doubled – ONLY because more persons worked more hours per household.


Distribution of Average Income Growth During Expansions

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Screen-shot-2014-09-25-at-12.35.01-AM.jpg