The inspector general of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reports that five SEC exams and investigations of Bernie Madoff were incompetently done.   I can believe one screwup happened, but five?  Five is agency policy to not look too hard.

Both Markopolos and an SEC staff accountant testified that it was clear the Boston office’s ( Read more... )

A different perspective, as pig farmers are finding out that the swine flu may not kill them, but it’s doing a lot of damage to their pigs…or rather, that people are scared to buy pork and catch That Really Big Disease.

“We’re heading for a wreck,” said Simon Goodwin, a pig farmer in Alberta, where a herd infected with the new influenza AH1N1 ( Read more... )

• Downtown Chicago italian beef joint is facing foreclosure; the owner’s partner’s daughter’s illness sucked up the partner’s money. 
  Chicago newly-built suburban house was discovered by the local village to be partially in a flood plain.  The village’s suggestion?  Tear down the half of the house just over the line.
• Chicken distributor starts ( Read more... )

The new Secretary of Agriculture is calling for changing the focus of USDA away from ‘anything the regulated community wants’ to serving the consumer of the food.  I’ll believe it when I see it, considering USDA’s past track record on meat and poultry inspection in particular (my mom was a very conscientious inspector for 30 years and retired out ( Read more... )

My experience, after 30 years of my mom being in food safety for the USDA and 25 years with the EPA, is that a lot of outfits that violate the rules and end up ‘pizening’ the public one way or another don’t suddenly do so overnight or by oversight.  They do it because they’re cheap and they don’t give a damn about the long view on things if they ( Read more... )

…not as easy as the water one.   A worldwide high demand for milk products grew along with a worldwide boom, and producers went nuts trying to keep up with it.  In places like China, they turned to all sorts of ugly gimmicks to stretch the milk, and fed cattle contaminated feed to produce more and cheaper milk.

And then, as the boom turns to bust, ( Read more... )

Zimbabwe is a complex subject, and the complexities have gotten a whole lot rougher on the inhabitants as time passes by.   Europeans under Cecil Rhodes marched in in the ned of the 1800s and took control of the land from the local chiefs, and passed out all sorts of claims to white settlers, who set up solid and profitable ranches and farms all ( Read more... )

Kosher meat production in the US has been hit - 65% drop in supply of beef.  Part is due to a fire, most is due  to a big processor in Iowa’s problems with raids on the plant by the Feds for employing tons of illegal immigrants, etc.

The skyrocketing IT presence in Bangalore, India is honking off the old-school residents to tighten the rules.  Such ( Read more... )

Canada has had a tobacco industry.  But it’s coughing up blood.