Senior citizens have been hit pretty hard in recent months, as those invested in stocks feel the sharpest pain in retirement accounts and those living on fixed incomes have dealt with spiraling inflation costs, but today it looks like they may have gotten a small break.

As part of its annual review of Social Security benefits, the government said more than 55 million Americans will see a 5.8% boost in their benefits in 2009, the largest jump in 27-years. The increase is tied to the consumer price index increases from July through September from one year to the next. Read more »

Introduction

A number of studies has addressed the possible association between patent foramen ovale (PFO) and stroke. However, the role of PFO in the pathogenesis of cerebral ischemia has remained controversial and most studies did not analyze patient subgroups stratified for gender, age and origin of stroke.

Methods

To address the role of PFO for the occurrence of cerebral ischemia, we investigated the prevalence of right-to-left shunt in a large group of patients with acute stroke or TIA. 763 consecutive patients admitted to our hospital with cerebral ischemia were analyzed. All patients were screened for the presence of PFO by contrast-enhanced transcranial Doppler sonography at rest and during Valsalva maneuver. Subgroup analyses were performed in patients stratified for gender, age and origin of stroke.

Results Read more »

U.S. Treasury Secretary Paulson said he and his Group of Seven counterparts had agreed to an “aggressive” plan to deal with a financial turmoil that has quickly ballooned into a “global event.” While the U.S. has come up with its own bank rescue plan, Paulson said other countries are considering options appropriate to their own situations. The $700 billion U.S. rescue plan will be used not only to buy and insure mortgage assets, but to buy equity in financial institutions, he said. “We are working to develop a standardized program that is open to a broad array of financial institutions,” Paulson said. Here is the text of his statment:

Statement by Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr.

Following Meeting of the G-7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors

Washington, DC– At today’s meeting of the G-7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, we finalized an aggressive action plan to address the turmoil in global financial markets and the stresses on our financial institutions. This action plan provides a coherent framework that will direct our individual and collective policy steps to provide liquidity to markets, strengthen financial institutions, protect savers, and enforce investor protections. Read more »

There has been a heated debate over suspending mark-to-market accounting rules that require a bank to report financial instruments on its balance sheet at the price they would fetch on an open market. But is the whole debate just a waste of time?

Critics of the rules say that they cause banks to undervalue assets that have a real value based on fire-sale prices in a frozen market. “A vast majority of mortgages, corporate bonds, and structured debts are still performing. But because the market is frozen, the prices of these assets have fallen below their true value. Firms that are otherwise solvent must price assets to fire-sale values. Not only does this make them ripe for forced liquidation, but it chases away capital and leads to a further decline in asset values,” wrote Brian Wesbury of First Trust Portfolios L.P. on the Journal’s editorial pages.

Read more »

The children’s game, “Where’s Waldo?” was a big hit with my kids a few years back. Here is a link to Waldo Wiki for some fun.

Otherwise, it appears from New Zealand’s One NEWS that the Blue Chip founder is somewhere in Australia (Blue Chip hope sparked by frozen funds).

Hundreds of Blue Chip investors across New Zealand have been given fresh hope that they might be able to recover millions of dollars worth of deposits for apartments they never wanted to buy.

The High Court has frozen funds in solicitors trust accounts until a full hearing takes place later this year…

We’ll wait and see if any cash actually surfaces from freezing the lawyer’s escrow accounts for the 2,000 seniors (mostly) who have lost over $84-million.

It does seem that Mr. Mark Bryers is keeping a pretty low profile these days. It appears that lawyers are having a hard time tracking him down in Australia to serve him with bankruptcy papers. Read more »

Efficient human resources development is vital for facilitating tuberculosis control in developing countries, and appropriate training of front-line staff is an important component of this process. Africa and Central Asia are over-represented in global tuberculosis statistics. Although the African region contributes only about 11% of the world population, it accounts for at least 25% of annual TB notifications, a proportion that continues to increase due to poor case management and the adverse impact of HIV/AIDS.

Central Asia’s estimated current average tuberculosis prevalence rate of 240/100 000 is significantly higher than the global average of 217/100 000. With increased resources currently becoming available for countries in Africa and Central Asia to improve tuberculosis control, it is important to highlight context-specific training benchmarks, and propose how human resources deficiencies may be addressed, in part, through efficient (re)training of frontline tuberculosis workers.

Training of front-line health workers for tuberculosis control: lessons from Nigeria and Kyrgyzstan

That article compares the quality, quantity and distribution of tuberculosis physicians, laboratory staff, community health workers and nurses in Nigeria and Kyrgyzstan, and highlights implications for (re)training tuberculosis workers in developing countries.