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The publisher of the Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Co., is working to overturn a court injunction that prevents the public from seeing the Medicare billing records of individual doctors. Dow Jones & Co., filed court papers in January 2011, to overturn the court injunction. The American Medical Association has fought to keep secret the amounts of money individual doctors get paid by Medicare. The AMA filed a lawsuit against the government to keep secret these Medicare records, on the grounds of privacy rights, and won a court ruling in 1979. This court ruling still stands. The position of Dow Jones in its efforts to change this situation, is that giving the public access to the records is essential to the monitoring of so large a public expense as Medicare. These records would then be available to state medical boards, nonprofit organizations, universities and newspapers who can act as watchdogs over the $500 billion Medicare program. Such transparency and monitoring is an essential feature for the proper functioning of such programs and to prevent misuse of public money. For a program like Medicare, fraud and waste has enormous implications, as it adds to the spiralling cost of healthcare and to the unsustainable budget deficits. In one of the largest cases so far, the FBI, Justice Department, 700 state, federal and local agents, worked together to charge 114 defendents nationwide with Medicare fraud in February 2011. A senior law enforcemet official says Medicare fraud is so rampant, "there's no way in hell you can prosecute your way out of this problem, no way." He says the the answer is more effective monitoring of the money that goes out. And a key part of that is transparency and public access to how the money in Medicare is spent, what individual doctors and healthcare providers are getting paid by Medicare. The lack of this transparency for a program the size of Medicare can only lead to a lack of monitoring as the Dow Jones suit asserts, and make it difficult for the government to check abuses in the way money goes out. At a time when teachers and public workers and seniors are expected to make their share of the sacrifices to fix the budget deficits, it is incomprehensible that money should then be allowed to go out of the Medicare system through fraud and waste, because of a lack of transparency....

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In an effort to normalize trade relations Pakistan's government plans to move forward with a step by step approach that will end the restrictions on Indian imports by Jan 1, 2013. The first step is ending a system that allows a list of 2000 import items from India and replacing it with a list of 600 items from India that are banned, allowing the flow of all other goods. This negative list will be eliminated by the end of 2012 leaving in place restrictions on sensitive defense items and some staple goods. Ashfaque Khan, dean of Pakistan's National University of Sciences and Technology Business School advises the government on trade issues. The trade between India and Pakistan stands at $2.7 billion for the year ending March 2011. This is much smaller than the $60 billion in trade between India and China which is growing. The trade between India and Pakistan is likely to grow significantly in the next ten years as trade barriers are removed and normal trade is established.

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Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, explains his U.S. budget proposal to bring down the deficit. Ryan's Republican budget proposal is a bold effort to make a break from a status quo which is leading to higher levels of U.S. debt as a percentage of GDP. It envisions changes to Medicare, Medicaid, and the tax code. It is built on the idea that sustainable finances will lead to a better economic future for America, compared to small changes to the staus quo envisioned in Democratic proposals and the 2012 budge proposal of the Obama administration. It is also bold in its effort to tackle Medicare with a "premium-support" system, and Medicaid by turning it into a block grant system. It also incorporates the Bowles -Simpson President's Deficit Commission's ideas for simplifying the tax code.

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The art of storytelling is important to startup companies and to job candidates in any field. What makes you interesting or different and worth the commitment as a startup or job candidate is the silent question that is posed in encounters with the public or the interviewer. Alina Tugend touches on the personal narrative we all need to get right for advancement. The Freytag pyramid provides a structure for the storytelling- with the first part the scene, second the rising action, third the turning point, fourth the denouement or closing which gives the listener some sort of release. For it to be effective our narrative has to be about our unique experiences with detail, it has to be genuine, it does not have to be perfect, just make that connection and gain empathy, trust of the listener, hopefully a new fan. For it to be real it becomes important to not self-censor. Other people may have the same experience but it is not talked about much, that itself may add to its newness and claim to being something fresh, and it may take some courage overcoming fear of ridicule to tell the story. Telling stories also can work to bring an organization or different departments work better around shared perceptions, values and goals. In this sense stories and narrative are about everyday life and anywhere we are trying to achieve something worthwhile. ...

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Gazprom's Chairman, Alexei Miller, says Ukraine owes $1.89 billion for gas deliveries after missing a March 7 payment deadline for Feb. deliveries. Transit shipments through Ukraine to Europe will continue. Russia provides 30% of Europe's gas needs and 15% of all Europe's gas demand goes through Ukraine, particularly Germany, Italy and Britain's utility companies. Europe's dependence on Russian supplies of natural gas gives a new twist to the crisis in Ukraine. Russia also needs the revenue from the natural gas exports to finance its own development as growth has slowed down sharply in 2013-2014, making this a situation where both sides in Europe need to resolve the standoff in Ukraine wihout escalation.

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Major decisions about changing the economic structure- as advocated by the DRC and the PBOC- are expected from the Third Plenum party conference in China. This may compare to the Plenums in 1978 and 1993 which led to the setup of a market economy.

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The Economist points out (in this cover issue on India-Pakistan relations) several fundamental facts. The first is that the current state of relations betweeen India and Pakistan hurts Pakistan the most. It makes a much smaller country and smaller economy bear the burden of defense against a large neighbor- defense takes up much needed allocation of funds for infrastructure and development, education and healthcare. It also weakens democratic institutions and their development by an overdependence on the military for governance. Poor India-Pakistan relations have significant adverse effects on the U.S. In fighting the Taliban U.S. forces are fighting a force that Pakistan's military helped create and support from its early beginnings as a way to counter Indian influence. With an Indian-Pakistani peace settlement of issues in Kashmir and other outstanding issues the U.S. would be in a significantly better position to disengage from the region, especially when the entire Middle East is moving in a new direction in 2011. Consider the difficulties in establishing peace in Northern Ireland, and between Turkey and Greece, and the difficulties of establishing peace between India and Pakistan cannot be considered even more difficult. Pakistan and India muddle along- neither side is doing much to take the initiative. For the U.S. disengagement from South Asia can be best achieved by pushing for a settlement between the two countries. Pakistan and India have much to gain from a settlement. Considering the progress made in Ireland, such places as Yugoslavia, and in Turkish-Greek relations, there is a lot more that can be done and should be done to bring India and Pakistan together. In Ireland diplomatic efforts were made by U.S. envoy George Mitchell, and in Yugoslavia U.S. envoy Holbrooke made diplomatic efforts towards the Dayton accords. Greek-Turkish relations have advanced to the point where Erdogan and Papandreou, the Greek and Turkish prime ministers, discuss solutions to the Greek debt crisis. This includes options to reduce Greece's defense expenditures in the light of Turkey's new foreign policies. The lack of such efforts to break the deadlock between India and Pakistan by the U.S,. the U.K. and other countries involved in the NATO mission in Afghanistan, the emphasis on a military solution supported first by Gen. McChrystal, and then by by Gen. Petraeus, all show a lack of understanding of the real issues that need to be tackled- issues relating to a peace settlement between India and Pakistan....

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New information from the Mueller Report as it is revealed to the public on April 18, 2019, after a short report and defense from Attorney General Barr. Barr faces heavy criticism for his handling of the Mueller Report.