Category Archives: National Vanguard

Some Democrats in Washington are seizing on the recent frenetic trading in GameStop Corp. to push the financial transaction tax long favored by progressives, setting up a battle with Wall Street firms that bitterly oppose the idea.

After a House hearing Thursday to examine the GameStop issue, Representative Maxine Waters, the California Democrat who chairs the committee, said she is considering such a tax, which came up several times during testimony.

Investment firms and stock exchanges are lining up lobbyists and public-relations firms in hopes of stopping the tax, which could decrease trading activity and lower earnings. They see it as harmful to the average American trying to save for retirement.

Maxine Waters

Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

Robinhood Markets Inc., whose popular, commission-free trading app helped ignite the stock frenzy, this month registered its first in-house lobbyists and said the proposed tax is one of the issues they will tackle. At Thursdays Financial Services Committee hearing, Robinhood Chief Executive Officer Vlad Tenev said the tax would be a bad idea but wasnt given a chance to explain why.

Exacting a tiny sum from every securities trade is a concept that liberal Democrats, including Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, have pushed for years. They see it as a way to curb the kind of speculative betting that led to last months chaotic swings in the market and to fund Democratic priorities such as increased public-works spending.

A financial transaction tax hasnt garnered support from some top Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, who has been wary to back an idea targeting a key industry in his state. To become law, bills that include a financial transaction tax would likely need united support from Democratic lawmakers, making the effort an uphill climb.

The tax failed to gain steam a decade ago because of uncertainty over how it would affect the returns of retail investors and markets recovering from the financial crisis.

Wall Street lobbyists and Republican lawmakers also opposed the idea, often pointing out that some European countries that imposed transaction taxes later withdrew them. The tax mostly failed to raise the amounts proponents promised; it also drove securities trading and jobs to other countries.

Chuck Schumer

Photographer: Graeme Jennings/Washington Examiner/Bloomberg

Efforts to adopt an EU-wide levy also foundered, though some European Union member countries are again floating the tax as a way to raise funds to bolster economies hit by the pandemic.

One measure now gaining traction, by Oregon Democrat Peter DeFazio, proposes a levy on trading firms of 10 cents for every $100 of securities traded, though other proposals have gone as low as 5 cents and as high as 50 cents.

In January, South Carolina Representative James Clyburn, the No. 3 Democrat in the House, threw his support behind the tax. Clyburn noted that the DeFazio proposal was projected to raise $777 billion over 10 years, money that could be used to fund spending on job-creation initiatives and health care.

The speculation that weve seen in the market, not just around GameStop but in all of the casino that is Wall Street, has raised the attention, said Susan Harley, a lobbyist and managing director of the Congress Watch division of Public Citizen, a progressive advocacy organization. Those dollars are very attractive.

Waters said she hadnt come to a conclusion on whether to support a transactions tax. Im very interested and I do think it portends possibilities for revenue that may be desperately needed, she said.

A smaller financial transaction tax, such as one targeted to certain securities or with an extended phase-in period, is a very real possibility, said Compass Point Research & Trading analyst Isaac Boltansky, noting that it could generate revenue to pay for Democrats policy priorities.

As a candidate in 2019, President Joe Biden expressed support for the tax but he never released a detailed proposal. The White House didnt respond to a request for comment.

Peter DeFazio

Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

During Thursdays hearing, Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib sparred with Citadel founder Ken Griffin over the tax, which she framed as a way to address inequality. She called it one way to ensure that this enormous wealth generated on Wall Street actually reaches the real economy. Griffin argued that it will injure Americans hoping to save for retirement.

A financial transaction tax would eat into the returns of Griffins Citadel businesses -- a hedge fund and a market maker -- that would be dinged every time they make a trade. Investment funds and firms that trade the most, such as high-frequency traders, could face the highest costs.

Public Citizen and other groups are circulating a letter in support of DeFazios bill. The levy is an important step toward having Wall Street pay its fair share of taxes, says the letter, whose signatories so far include the liberal Economic Policy Institute and unions such as the AFL-CIO and International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

In addition to efforts in Congress, lawmakers in New York, New Jersey and Illinois have proposed local taxes on financial transactions. In response, exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange and market makers including Virtu Financial Inc. have threatened to move operations out of those states to avoid the tax. A national tax would undercut those threats.

Wall Street firms are girding for battle. Investment giants and trade groups including Vanguard Group, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association and the Investment Company Institute said theyre lobbying on the issue.

Financial transaction taxes at the federal or state level unfairly target Americas mom-and-pop investors and working families saving for retirement, said Chris Iacovella, chief executive of the American Securities Association, a trade association for regional financial services firms.

Rashida Tlaib

Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

The U.S. had a stock transactions tax between 1914 and 1965. Today, a small fee is still levied against stock transactions to help fund oversight by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A group of nonprofits in the U.K. in 2010 organized to support a financial transaction tax, even dubbing it the Robin Hood tax, with the idea that it would take from the rich to help the less fortunate. It caught on in the U.S. as Democratic lawmakers proposed their own bills, which never moved forward once Republicans regained control of the House in 2010.

A financial transaction tax also took the stage during the 2020 Democratic primaries. As a candidate, Vermont Senator Sanders, who now helms the Senate Budget Committee, proposed a levy on all trades as a way to finance his plan for tuition-free college.

Michael Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, also offered aversion during his presidential primary effort.

At the time, lobbyists circulated research by Vanguard that claimed a measure similar to DeFazios would reduce investor returns by more than one percentage point per year. Vanguard came under fire for its assumptions, such as basing its calculation on the high turnover rate of an actively managed small-cap stock fund. The company later released estimates for more typical types of mutual funds and said in many cases the tax would hurt returns by less than 0.3 percentage point.

Vanguard spokesman Charles Kurtz said a broad financial transaction tax would do unintended damage to everyday families saving for retirement or higher education.

One advocacy group, the Partnership to Protect Our Retirement Future, planted paid consultants at candidates town hall-style meetings to frame the tax concept as an affront to retirees, the public relations firm that formed the group acknowledged to Reuters. Locust Street Group, the PR firm, didnt respond to a request for comment.

North Carolina Representative Patrick McHenry, the lead Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, in October introduced his own bill, the Protecting Retirement Savers and Everyday Investors Act. It would prohibit states from imposing taxes on transactions.

(Updates with analyst quote in 14th paragraph)

--With assistance from Laura Davison, Ben Bain, Saleha Mohsin and Sam Mamudi.

To contact the reporter on this story:Joe Light in Washington at jlight8@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net

Paula Dwyer

2021 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Read more from the original source:

Wall Street Transaction Tax Wins Backers on GameStop Furor (1) - Bloomberg Tax

The CEA also calls on state lawmakers to confront the shortage using three strategies. Colorado has struggled for more than a decade to fund public schools at the level of the national average. The union is asking state lawmakers to pay down some of the billion-dollar school budget shortfalls, called the budget stabilization factor. It is a legislative maneuver that allowed lawmakers to dip into school funding in order to balance the state budget. All told, schools have missed out on more than $10 billion dollars since 2008.

The union also wants health safety equipment and vaccines for teachers and students, as well as to postpone high-stakes exams.

The growing dissatisfaction among existing educators, however, isnt deterring hundreds of students across the nation from considering a career in education in the Centennial State.

The University of Northern Colorado, the states largest producer of teachers, hopes to inspire hundreds of students to enter the profession. High school and community college students from as far away as Arkansas, Pakistan and the Philippines attended the colleges most recent annual Future Teacher Conference.

Keynote speaker Gov. Jared Polis told attendees one silver lining of the pandemic is that it has forced leaders to take a critical look at how education systems operate. He said districts are thinking creatively about how to develop new and more effective learning environments.

You will be on the vanguard of making sure that opportunity reaches every child in the state no matter where they live, their race, their gender, their geography, their income, he said. I am so thrilled that you are interested in becoming teachers. You're needed now more than ever."

Founded as a teachers college in 1889, UNC produces about 40 percent of Colorados teachers. The state as a whole only produces half of the 4,000 teachers it needs annually.

Were an importer of teachers, said Charles Warren, an administrator in the universitys Office of Professional Licensure who meets monthly with school human resource directors from across the state. These HR directors are going to job fairs to find teachers all over the country, to beat the bushes and find these new teachers.

See the article here:

As Colorado Teachers Consider Leaving Their Jobs, UNC Fights To Keep The Ranks Full - Colorado Public Radio

The somber procession of ashes was led by a new generation of the Black Panther Party movement, a final farewell fit for a Panther from a different era.

In black berets, they raised clenched fists in the air, saluting the velvet-encased urn topped with a matching beret.

Trunnell Levett Price was among the last of San Diegos original Black Panthers. He was memorialized Saturday not only for the fight he embarked on some 50 years earlier, but for mentoring a crop of young activists who are carrying on the iconic movements legacy today.

Price died Jan. 26 at the age of 71 after a long battle with lung disease.

He was proud of his place in history as part of a complicated movement that often suffers from oversimplification in its retelling.

The Black power movement marked in pop-culture by its militant edge and Marxist-tinged philosophy called for self-defense against police abuse and the uplifting of marginalized communities. It defined his life in many ways.

He was very concerned for the community, for poor people in general, especially Black people, Pastor Buddy Hauser, who served in the Panthers with Price as a youth, told mourners at the Spring Valley memorial service. He stood for us when a lot of people werent even thinking about us.

Price rode waves of vilification and lionization as a member beginning at the age of 17, finding a sense of purpose for providing for Black people what White society wouldnt, while at times facing the consequences of crossing lines to accomplish that goal. Like many Panthers of the era, he also bounced in and out of the criminal justice system.

His death comes at a time of renewed public interest in the Panthers. In 2016, the party celebrated its 50th anniversary and sparked an urgency to preserve the histories of original members. Two recently released films Judas and The Messiah, a biopic of Panther leader Fred Hampton showing on HBO Max, and Netflixs The Trial of the Chicago 7" offer Hollywood-style retrospectives of the extremes government went to to neutralize the movement.

A Black Panther beret tops the vessel holding the ashes of Trunnell Price during Saturdays memorial service.

(Nelvin C. Cepeda/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Even late in life, Price saw a roadmap in the Panther ideology that he believed could be used to fight todays social and racial injustices. He helped reactivate the movement with a new group, the Black Panther Party of San Diego, which puts the original tenant of community service into practice with programs that include homeless outreach, food assistance and resume-writing classes.

Im really excited about this generation coming up, Price said in 2017 in an oral history recorded at San Diego State University. Theyre the ones who are going to decide whether we continue to suffer for the next 10 or 15 years ... to do what it is thats in their hearts. They know the difference between right and wrong.

I give them 20 years. Thats a lot. A lot can happen in 20 years.

The fourth of nine children, Price was born in Coronado, where his father worked for the Navy. The family lived in modest housing for blue-collar military workers.

As a child, he learned about systemic and institutionalized racism by seeing White landlords demand sex for rent from women of color, he said in an interview with The Activated Podcast last summer.

His family later moved to Stockton, one of several southeastern San Diego neighborhoods settled in the 1950s and 60s by Black residents who faced worse housing discrimination in other parts of the city.

There, police abuse was rampant, according to residents. From humiliating traffic stops to beatings at a downtown lumberyard, Black youth have recalled how officers doled out their own version of justice to exert dominance and extract street intelligence.

They were sending a signal to the neighborhood: They were in control, Henry Lee Wallace, who served in the Black Panther Party as a teen with Price, recalled of the police. They were the slave masters and they were keeping us in line.

It was 1967 when Price heard that the founding chapter of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, born a year earlier in Oakland, was going to be in San Diego. Local universities and colleges had been resisting some Black students trying to enroll, and the Panthers wanted to advocate for greater access to higher education.

Price attended the Panther protest on the campus of San Diego State College, meeting party co-founder Bobby Seale and leader David Hilliard.

Kenny Denmon, left, and Eldridge Cleaver, center, during Cleavers visit to San Diego in 1968. Denmon was the founder of the San Diego chapter of the Black Panthers. He died in 2018. He was 78.

(San Diego History Center )

I was convinced that their program, which included education, was something I thought I could get involved with and would help uplift oppressed people and people of color, Price said in his interview with SDSU.

Price was soon recruited into the newly formed San Diego chapter of the Panthers by its first chairman, SDSU student Kenny Denmon. He died in 2018 at the age of 78.

The young Price was intent on soaking up the lessons the Panthers had to offer everything from Black history to the 10-Point Plan that defined the partys agenda to social capitalist ideology.

The education the Black Panthers offered to young recruits was different from the education we were getting at school, said Wallace, who was also brought into the party by Denmon, his brother-in-law. All we saw was George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. We didnt see anything representing Blacks in history books.

Price was soon given the role of deputy minister of education and was put in charge of running classes for members, teaching social and economic survival.

He was very studious, he didnt show the militancy part of it, Wallace said.

But as Price later recalled in interviews, the partys focus on self-defense from abusive police was also a major draw for him.

Wearing the groups signature leather jackets, members openly carried guns, which was legal at the time, and saw themselves as protectors of their community. They often patrolled neighborhood streets for police activity, stopping nearby with their weapons visible to monitor for civil rights abuses.

Their interactions with police were guided by one rule: We wont instigate anything, but we will certainly defend ourselves, Price said in an interview.

The anti-police stance took on more radical undertones, with cartoons in the national Panther Party newspaper that depicted officers as pigs including one that read: The only good pig is a dead pig fueling the partys image as violent and criminal. A former party newspaper editor later testified before Congress that the cartoon was political satire.

The militant persona was softened with a number of social programs the Black Panthers brought into communities, from food and clothing distributions to medical clinics to providing children regular free breakfasts before school.

In 1969, a Black Panther in San Diego serves children as part of the partys free breakfast program, one of many social programs aimed at serving and uplifting the Black community.

(San Diego History Center/For The San Diego Union-Tribune)

In San Diego, the breakfast program operated out of Christ the King church, then a small Catholic parish just blocks from Prices family home.

The specter of armed Black revolutionaries put the Panthers in the crosshairs of J. Edgar Hoover, the longtime FBI director who used the agencys clout to investigate and intimidate those he viewed as politically radical. But it was the breakfast program that he viewed as especially dangerous. He saw the goodwill the Panthers were eliciting from the community as a tool of indoctrination.

In 1969, Hoover declared to Congress, the Black Panther Party, without question, represents the greatest threat to internal security of the country.

The FBIs weapon of choice against the Black Panthers was COINTELPRO, a counter-intelligence program that had already been in use for several years against other groups. The goal, according to FBI records later made public, was to neutralize Black militant groups to prevent the rise of a messiah-type leader, to pinpoint potential troublemakers and neutralize them before they exercise their potential for violence and to widely discredit the movement.

To do that, the FBI infiltrated the party, sowed distrust among its members and used local police to harass and arrest members. The FBI also instigated deadly rivalries with Organization US, another Black nationalist militant group, by planting fake threats and insults. The disinformation sparked tit-for-tat violence in San Diego, with two Panthers dying in shootings in 1969.

The agency hoped the Panthers would rip themselves apart.

Price was at the forefront of that war as member of the Vanguard, the unit assigned to protect Panther leadership and sniff out opposition throughout the state.

On Nov. 22, 1968, students at UC San Diego protest a ruling against a UC Berkeley course taught by Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver. The ruling was issued by California Gov. Ronald Reagan and the University of California Regents. At left, activist Angela Davis, then a graduate student, is seated on a barrier.

(U-T file photo)

In an interview with The Activated Podcast, he described one Thanksgiving night in San Francisco being on bodyguard duty for Eldridge Cleaver, the party spokesman who had skipped bail and was wanted by law enforcement for provoking an ambush that wounded two Oakland police officers.

On Saturday, friends from the old neighborhood recalled the greatest escape, when law enforcement in San Diego tracked Price to a friends home and he walked away under their noses disguised as a woman.

Jail was a familiar place to most Panthers, whether the charges were legitimate, cooked-up, or both. Price was no exception.

In 1969 he was charged in a sniping incident in which a bullet fired at a San Diego police car narrowly missed two officers inside, according to reports in the San Diego Union. The charges apparently didnt stick. Wallace recalled the incident and said Price had possibly been with the shooter in a case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

In 1971, Price was convicted by an all-White federal jury for being the getaway driver in an armed robbery of the downtown postal office. Price testified that the men had flagged him down randomly for a ride and that he didnt know they had robbed the office.

Price made headlines for his theatrics during the trial and sentencing hearing, including trying to leave the courtroom at one point while still in the custody of U.S. Marshals Service and later proclaiming: Im not an American citizen. Im a slave. My slave name is Trunnell Price. We are the revolutionaries and you will have your day in court.

Prices 25-year sentence was later reduced to 15 years after a federal appeals court found issues with the trial. At the resentencing hearing, Prices mother, attorney and minister argued that hed reformed during his time at the Leavenworth penitentiary in Kansas.

Price was apparently released early, although he would rack up other federal and state charges over the years, including a six-month stint in federal prison for misdemeanor drug possession in 1979.

The Black Panther Party officially dissolved in 1982, although it had lost much of its influence long before that.

Its original members were left disillusioned with signs of post-traumatic stress disorder and criminal records as they saw the status quo return in many ways, said Renee Walton, who came to know Price as a member of the revitalized party. They were left feeling, like, What was that all about?

The era was populated with its share of White left-wing radicals, too, many of whom went to prison. But many of those adherents were able to shed the stigma and offered the resources to move forward, unlike their Black counterparts.

We got jailed, shot, beat up, and now I have a criminal record, Walton said, putting voice to the Panthers angst. What about employment?

A lot of members turned to drugs and alcohol, which resulted in more arrests.

Theres a lot of glory associated with the party, but you know, what those guys went through, Walton said. Their accomplishments were huge, but they didnt feel like it. They ended up not really with anything tangible.

Some original members from the San Diego chapter of the Black Panther Party have made an effort to record oral histories of the era. Left to right, Ben Waddell and Henry Wallace, members since they was 15 years old, and Patrick J. Germany, who joined when he was only 10.

(NelvinC. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

The Black Panther Party has since been recognized as one of the more influential albeit controversial political and civil rights movements in modern history, helping to lay a foundation for todays Black Lives Matter movement.

In 2016, Alfred Olongo, a Black man suffering from a psychiatric episode, was fatally shot by an El Cajon police officer after he pointed a device at the officer that turned out to be a vaping pen. The shooting opened familiar wounds in the community and thrust San Diego once again into the national debate over use of force.

That same year, some of San Diegos original members including Price, Wallace and Hauser reconnected to share their oral histories.

They had the attention of a new generation of activists who saw an opportunity to build on the Panther legacy.

The Black Panther Party of San Diego was born. Price, who had gone on to have a career in transportation and construction, easily slipped back into his role as educator and historian, along with a new one: mentor.

Price served as chairman of the new group for a few years until his lung condition worsened in 2018.

He taught that youth need to make sure they are more than just protesting, that they are completely educating themselves on the political process, said current chairman Robert War Williams. Its not about the protest lifestyle, its about the lifestyle of empowerment.

The groups 10-Point Program closely follows the original, but is updated for the current times. It still demands equal access to land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace.

Robert War Williams, chairman for the Black Panther Party of San Diego, a new iteration of younger activists carrying on the Panther legacy, honors mentor Trunnell Price at his memorial service.

(Nelvin C. Cepeda/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

The literal paramilitary image of the 60s has also been swapped for a more figurative paramilitary-like discipline necessary to defend a cause.

Youre not going to see us carrying AK-47s and marching. We dont agree with that, Walton said. Our approach today is trying to reach people and encourage and empower them.

The group is among several autonomous organizations flying the Panther banner around the country; an official national umbrella no longer exists. Wallace reactivated his own version, the San Diego Original Black Panther Party for Community Empowerment, a nonprofit focused on distribution and education programs. The Panther name also has also been used by at least one group to espouse racist and anti-Semitic views, which are denounced by both original and modern Panthers, including those in San Diego.

The Black Panthers of the 60s are what the 60s needed, Walton said. We are the Black Panthers of 2020, and we want to be whats needed now, or at least be part of it.

Price is survived by mother, Ruby Vryes-Price; wife, Michele Geiger; son, Leonard Price; and stepdaughter, Nicole Ventura, as well as two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Excerpt from:

An original Black Panther departs having bridged San Diego's eras of racial struggle - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Eric Webb|Austin 360

I cant stop thinking about Fern in the snow.

Played by Frances McDormand in Chlo Zhaosstunning Nomadland, the character is living out of her van, travelingthecountryafter both an economic bust in her industrialcommunity and her husbands death have left her adrift.In a scene that stuck in my head even before Austin was blanketed in white and its worn-out residents were left to freeze, Fern finds herself somewhere out in empty America, the vistas searing, blank and frigid. A woman approachesthe van and tries to get Fern to seek shelter at a Baptist church from an oncoming blizzard.

Fern says shell be fine.

More: Ross Ulbricht's path from Westlake teen to drug ring mastermind now 'Silk Road' biopic

Shes taking care of herself, but whether shes really fine in a world of loss and loneliness is one of the quiet questions nestled insideNomadland. After a few screenings last year it made Austin360s Top 25 Movies of 2020 its officially in theaters and on Hulu on Friday.

If youre reading this in Texas,you might have to wait a little longer to watch, what with our own winter storm andthe catastrophic failure of our infrastructure. (As of this writing, and after a night spent watching my breath bloom intovapor inside a tent in my apartment, my powers been out for about 65 hours, and Im living out of the American-Statesman newsroom.)But when you do get the chance to watch this film at the heart of which beats the thrum of a humanity that capitalism can bruise,but not destroy I hope youre able to see it with a new empathy.

Nomadland introduces us to Fern as she takes a few things out of a storage locker some dishes, a mans coat she holds like its aliveand hits the open road.She sings What Child Is This? to herself in the van (named Vanguard) around Christmas; she checks into an RV park and looks like shes afraid of a blow;she takes abarely litNew Years Eve meal by herself, party hat and all.Through conversations with people Fern meets along the way, we gather she and her husband lived in a company-run Nevada town, before the jobs dried up and her husband passed away.Now, she goes where she can to get any fleeting foothold.

In one moving scene, she runs intosome familiar faceswho offer to let them stay with her. Bing Crosby sings about the holidays over a store PA system. A young girl whom Fern used to tutor asks if shes homeless. Fern replies, Im not homeless, Im just houseless. Not the same thing, right?

More: 5 films to watch this Black History Month, according to UT film professor Ya'ke Smith

Thats really Nomadland in a nutshell, a movie that's all scenic route and also all destination. Zhaoembeds us ina loose-knit community of wandererswhose home is wherever they find a fire to sit around and a gig to keep things going.The film was inspired by Jessica Bruders post-recession nonfiction book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century, and the cast includes several real-life nomads, playing fictionalized versions of themselves.Two viewings in,Imstill not sure exactly what to make ofthe films use of real lives in the service of entertainment.Is it condescending? Anthropological? I think Ifeelrespect come off the screen, witha romantic tint.

But if youre thinking about it after, its probably worth watching, and all credit due to Zhao for this lyrical journey.Sometimes Nomadland feels documentary, as when Fern and two nomad friends, Swankie and Linda May (real nomads playing versions of themselves), take in the thrills of an RV show.Its almost voyeurism, as whenwe peer at Fernfloating naked in a stream, driving through an impossibly tight canyon, surveying an abandoned building in her nightdress, shouting on a mountain, holding a baby she doesnt know what to do with. For allthe miles on this road trip, every exit feels worth the stop.

McDormand, who can knock any ball out of the park even if Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri was a roadside car fire, she was great is Nomadland, though. The camera is rarely far from her. Among ancient rock formations in a national park, she strikes an imposing figure. Mending a broken dish, shes heartbreaking. This isone of thoseits all in the face performances for which it would be hard to begrudge her another Oscar.

Most movies have suffered for being released in the past year, fragmented across drive-ins, limitedpandemictheatrical runs, VOD drops and streaming exile. A few, though, are the better for it, andthats whereNomadlandstands. It is quiet; weve grown to knowquieta little bettersince March.Were apart, and were together, and so are the nomads in the film.Zhaos storyhangs dignity on the shoulders of Americans gutted by profit-thirsty systems, whereweveoftenbeen taught to see shame.Loss of love, loss of job, loss of place you, like Fern, are more than these things, Nomadland tells us softly.

Especiallynow, when weve been sotreacherouslyleft in the cold bythe systems we were supposed to trust, its only the people we travel with who give us shelter.And sometimes, even for just a little bit, youve got to travel alone.

Grade: A-

Starring: Frances McDormand, David Strathairn, Linda May, Swankie

Director:Chlo Zhao

Rated: R for some nudity

Running time: 1 hour, 48 minutes

Watch: In theaters and available on Hulu on Friday

Go here to read the rest:

Review: 'Nomadland' is a film for all of us left out in the cold - austin360

TipRanks

Weve got a full month of 2021 behind us now, and a few trends are coming clearer. The coronavirus crisis may still be with us, but as vaccination programs expand, the end is in sight. With President Trump out of the picture, and the Democrats holding both Houses of Congress and the White House, politics is looking more predictable. And both of those developments bode well for an economic recovery this year. Looking back, at the year that was, we can also see some trends that stayed firm despite the pandemic, the shutdowns, and the supercharged election season. One of the most important is the ongoing rollout of 5G networking technology. These new networks bring with them a fuller realization of the promises inherent in the digital world. Faster connections, lower latency, higher online capacity, clearer signals all will strongly enhance the capabilities of the networked world. And it wont just be mundane things like telecommuting or remote offices that will benefit 5G will allow Internet of Things and autonomous vehicles to further develop their potential. There is even talk of medical applications, of remotely located doctors performing surgery via digitally controlled microsurgical tools. And these are just the possibilities that we can see from now. Who know what the future will really bring? To this end, we pulled up TipRanks database to learn more about three exciting plays in the 5G space. According to the Street, we are likely to see further interesting developments in the next few years as this technology takes over. Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) The first 5G name were looking at, Skyworks, is a semiconductor chip manufacturer that brought in $3.4 billion in total revenues for FY2020. Skyworks, which is a prime supplier of chips for Apples iPhone series, saw a massive 68% year-over-year increase in 1QFY21 revenues the top line reached $1.51 billion, a company record, and also much higher than analysts had forecast. Much of Skyworks fiscal Q1 sales success came after Apple launched the 5G-capable iPhone 12 line. Strong sales in the popular handset device meant that profits trickled down the supply line and Skyworks channels a disproportionate share of its business to Apple. In fact, Apple orders accounted for 70% of Skyworks revenue in the recent quarter. iPhone wasnt the only 5G handset on the receiving end of Skyworks chips, however the company is also an important supplier to Koreas Samsung and Chinas Xiaomi, and has seen demand rise as these companies also launch 5G-capable smartphones. Finally, Skyworks supplies semiconductor chip components to the wireless infrastructure sector, specifically to the small cell transmission units which are important in the propagation network of wireless signals. As the wireless providers switch to 5G transmission, Skyworks has seen orders for its products increase. In his note on Skyworks for Benchmark, 5-star analyst Ruben Roy writes: SWKS significantly beat consensus estimates and provided March quarter guidance that is also well ahead of consensus estimates as 5G related mobile revenue and broad-based segment revenue continued to accelerate In addition to continued strength of design win momentum and customer activity, we are encouraged with SWKS confident tone relative to the overall demand environment and content increase opportunities. In line with his comments, Roy rates SWKS a Buy along with a $215 price target. At current levels, this implies an upside of 20% for the coming year. (To watch Roys track record, click here) Roy is broadly in line with the rest of Wall Street, which has assigned SWKS 13 Buy ratings and 7 Holds over the past three month -- and sees the stock growing about 15% over the next 12 months, to a target price of $205.69.(See SWKS stock analysis on TipRanks) Qorvo, Inc. (QRVO) Qorvos chief products are chipsets used in the construction of radio frequency transmission systems that power wifi and broadband communication networks. The connection of this niche to 5G is clear as network providers upgrade their RF hardware to 5G, they also upgrade the semiconductor chips that control the systems. This chip maker has a solid niche, but it is not resting on its laurels. Qorvo is actively developing a range of new products specifically for 5G systems and deployment. This 5G radio frequency product portfolio includes phase shifters, switches, and integrated modules, and contains both infrastructure and mobile products. Qorvo posted $3.24 billion in total revenues for fiscal 2020. That revenue represents a 4.8% year-over-year increase and the companys sales have been accelerating in fiscal 2021. The most recent quarterly report, for the second fiscal quarter, showed $1.06 billion in revenues, a 31% yoy increase. Rajvindra Gill, 5-star analyst with Needham, is bullish on Qorvos prospects, noting: Qorvo reported strong sales and gross margins as 5G momentum rolls into CY21 on atypical seasonality... The company is planning for 500M 5G handsets to be manufactured in 2021, with an incremental $5-7 of content/unit from 4G to 5G. Management believes that ultra-wideband adoption will be a key growth driver in for smartphones going forward..." To this end, Gill puts a $220 price target on QRVO shares, suggesting room for 31% upside in 2021. Accordingly, he rates the stock a Buy. (To watch Gills track record, click here) What do other analysts have to say? 13 Buys and and 6 Holds add up to a Moderate Buy analyst consensus. Given the $192.28 average price target, shares could climb ~15% from current levels. (See QRVO stock analysis on TipRanks) Telefonakiebolaget LM Ericsson (ERIC) From chipsets, well move on to handsets. Ericsson, the Swedish telecom giant has long been a leader in mobile tech, and is well known for its infrastructure and software that make possible IP networking, broadband, cable TV, and other telecom services. Ericsson is the largest European telecom company, and the largest 2G/3G/4G infrastructure provider outside of China. But that is all in the background. Ericsson is also a leader in the rollout of Europes growing 5G networks. Ericsson is involved in 5G rollout in 17 countries in Europe, the Americas, and Asia, and its product line includes infrastructure base units and handsets, giving the company an interest in all aspects of the new 5G networks. Ericssons revenue performance in 2020 was not notably distressed by the corona crisis. Yes, the top line dipped in Q1, but that was in line with the companys historical pattern of rising revenue from Q1 through Q4. While the companys 1H20 revenues showed small yoy declines, the 2H20 gains were higher. In Q3, the $6.48 billion top line was up 8.7% yoy, and Q4s $8.08 billion revenue was up 17% from the prior year. The companys shares have also performed well during the corona year, and show a 12 month gain of 64%. Raymond James 5-star analyst Simon Leopold bluntly assigns Ericssons recent gains to its participation in 5G rollouts. Japan's awaited 5G roll-out has started. Share gains continue as Ericsson benefits from challenges facing its biggest competitors and more operators embrace 5G it seems obvious that Ericsson should be gaining market share... Competitor Nokia shunned the Chinese 5G projects, citing profitability challenges, yet Ericsson appears to be profiting in the challenging region. Leopold rates this stock an Outperform (i.e. Buy), and his $15 price target implies an upside potential of ~14% for the year ahead. (To watch Leopolds track record, click here) The Raymond James analyst, while bullish on ERIC, is actually less so than the Wall Street consensus. The stock has a Strong Buy consensus rating, based on a unanimous 5 reviews, and the $16.50 average price target indicates 25% growth potential from the share price of $13.19. (See ERIC stock analysis on TipRanks) To find good ideas for 5G stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.

Here is the original post:

CORRECTED-Middle East to be focus of Biden National Security Council meeting - Psaki - Yahoo Finance

The Trial of the Chicago 7 director Aaron Sorkin and the films cast will receive the Vanguard Award from the Palm Springs International Film Awards.

The Trial of the Chicago 7 is a thrilling court-room drama that chronicles the highlights of the historic trial that sought to punish activists for inciting riots outside of the 1968 Democratic National Convention, Harold Matzner, the festival chairman, said. Writer and director Aaron Sorkin has created a thought-provoking film featuring outstanding performances from a powerhouse cast that includes Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Sacha Baron Cohen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Keaton, Frank Langella, Eddie Redmayne, Mark Rylance, Jeremy Strong and more.

Past recipients of the ensemble award include Academy Award winners for best picture, such as Peter Farrellys Green Book and Guillermo del Toros The Shape of Water. The Vanguard Award is a group honor distinguishing a films cast and director in recognition of their work on a superb film project.

The Trial of the Chicago 7 joins this years previously announced honorees Riz Ahmed (Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actor), Carey Mulligan (International Star Award), Gary Oldman (Chairmans Award) and Chlo Zhao (Director of the Year Award).

The drama follows the fallout and the infamous trial after what was intended to be a peaceful protest at the 1968 Democratic National Convention turned into a violent clash with police and the National Guard.

Though the Palm Springs Film Festival and gala ceremony will not return until 2022, the festival will honor excellence in film this year at a tribute airing on Entertainment Tonight Feb. 11 and Feb. 25. The festival also plans to move ahead with the Palm Springs ShortFest in June.

Follow this link:

The Trial of the Chicago 7 Honored by Palm Springs International Film Awards (EXCLUSIVE) - Variety

At the time of its passage, many in the retirement industry were concerned that the CARES Act would open the floodgates to a large percentage of workers cashing out years of retirement savings.

Fortunately, that did not happen, according to an analysis by Vanguard of its DC recordkeeping data.

Incorporated within the wide-ranging CARES Act relief package were several provisions that provided flexibility for retirement savers, including Coronavirus-related distributions (CRDs), allowing individuals affected by the Coronavirus to withdraw up to $100,000 from their retirement plan penalty-free until Dec. 30, 2020. Additional relief came in the form of allowing the income tax due on these distributions to be spread over a three-year period, as well as providing investors three years to return the funds to their account.

The Vanguard analysis shows that a modest portion of workers did access their retirement savings in 2020, but that the vast majority of participants remained steadfast on their retirement journey.

As for the option of permitting CRDs throughout 2020, 73% of Vanguards plan sponsor clients permitted their participants to access retirement funds if needed. Of the participants offered the option to withdraw assets, only 5.7% accessed a portion of their savings. And of those who initiated a withdrawal, 69% took one distribution, while 31% initiated multiple distributions over the nine months.

According to the firms data, the average distribution was $15,700 and the median was $6,500. However, since nearly one-third of participants who initiated a withdrawal took multiple distributions, the average participant distribution was approximately $24,600, with a median of $13,300.

And while those are not insignificant amounts, nearly one in four participant distributions were for less than $5,000 and 60% of all withdrawals were for less than $20,000. Vanguard also reports that withdrawals of more than $30,000 were less common, and only 4% of participants who initiated a CRD withdrew the maximum amount of $100,000.

Diving Deeper

On a less positive note, it appears that many of those who initiated withdrawals already had relatively low balances to begin with. When examining the distribution amounts based on the percentage of a participants balance, Vanguard found that the average distribution represented 55% of a participants total balance. About one in four distributions were for nearly all or 100% of the account balance, while one-half of withdrawals were for less than 50% of their balance.

Not surprisingly, participant adoption rates also varied by demographics. According to the data, participants between the ages of 35 and 54 were the most likely to initiate a CRD, while younger and older participants were less likely. Participants with an income between $30,000 and $75,000 were also more likely to request a CRD, while participants with a lower or higher income were less likely.

Visit our Coronavirus resource center!

Plan Design

Interestingly, when segmenting the participants by plan design, Vanguard found that 6.4% of participants in automatic enrollment plans initiated a CRD, compared with 4.5% in voluntary enrollment plans.

With automatic enrollment being a proven plan design feature that improves employee saving and investment behaviors, it may have also provided participants with an additional last-resort emergency resource. Vanguard notes that, while a small fraction have accessed their retirement savings, those participants, who may have faced a financial shock, are better off than those who did not have any retirement savings cushion during this period.

The Impact

As one might expect, participants who accessed their retirement assets early may experience a shortfall upon reaching retirement. The report offers a hypothetical illustration based on the median participant distribution amount of $13,300, the median age of 42, and the median income of about $61,400. Assuming a real investment return of 4%, the median participant distribution would grow to approximately $35,000 over the next 25 years. For the typical participant, this return would represent the future financial impact at retirement, Vanguard notes.

As affected participants consider how to close this shortfall, the amount by which they may need to increase their savings depends on various factors, such as distribution amount, time until retirement, and earnings, the report explains. Based on the median amounts, Vanguard notes that many of them could cover this potential shortfall simply by increasing their deferral rate by one percentage point when their financial situation improves.

In addition, highlighting the power of smart plan design, the firm suggests that plan sponsors should consider leveraging various types of automatic solutionssuch as automatic annual increases and undersaver sweepsto help participants.

Original post:

How Much Did the CARES Act Impact Retirement Savings? - National Association of Plan Advisors

A Facebook post suggesting that pharmaceutical companies, global investment groups and billionaire philanthropists conspired to bring about the COVID-19 pandemic has been shared online.

Reuters Fact Check. REUTERS

The post claims there are links between the organisations and invites readers to consider that they are proof of a conspiracy. It ends with the sentence: Now you understand how a dead bat sold in a wet market in China infected the ENTIRE PLANET (here, here, here, here).

Many of the claims have appeared in similar posts debunked by Reuters (here) and other fact checkers (here and here) in December 2020.

The claims can be roughly split into two themes, the first focussing on the pandemics origins in Wuhan and the second highlighting spurious links between global organisations.

The Wuhan laboratory

The virus started in the biological laboratory in Wuhan

No evidence. Unverified theories have suggested the virus that causes COVID-19 was synthesised by the Wuhan Institute of Virology (here). However, at the time of publication, the majority of virologists and infectious disease experts say the new virus most likely evolved naturally. A more extensive Reuters report examining origins of COVID-19 can be read here .

Winterthur built the Chinese laboratory in Wuhan

False. Winterthur is a Swiss insurance company bought by AXA, a French insurance company, in 2006 (here). It is not a construction company and there is nothing to link it to the building of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which was originally founded in 1956 as a Chinese national institution (here).

The Chinese biological laboratory in Wuhan is funded by Glaxosmithkline

False. The Wuhan Institute of Virology is not funded by the British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). The institute is part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) (here), which is governed by the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China (here). In 2019, a CAS member wrote an open letter (here) maintaining that the academys funding was split equally between the Chinese government and competitive funding or technology transfer. The Institutes partners are listed on its website (here).

The biological laboratory in Wuhan was funded by Dr. Fauci

Misleading. Anthony Fauci has been Director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since 1984 (here). The NIAID is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the US health department (here).

The NIH confirmed to Reuters by email that it granted $3.4million to the non-profit organisation EcoHealth Alliance Inc over 6 years to fund research into understanding bat coronavirus emergence. The non-profit then awarded that money to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, alongside East China Normal University (Shanghai), the Institute of Pathogen Biology (Beijing), and Duke-NUS Medical School (Singapore).

US government websites show that the Wuhan institute received $814,608 between 2015 and 2019 (here, switch from Prime Awards to Sub-Awards in the upper right corner). A spokesperson added that the grant to EcoHealth Alliance was terminated on April 24, 2020 and reinstated on July 8, 2020.

A decision by the Trump administration to cut EcoHealth Alliance funding was reported by Politico in April after obtaining emails between EcoHealth Alliance and the NIH (here).

The NIH website shows that the reinstated budget will run until June 2021 (here), but EcoHealth Alliance wrote in August that the NIH had imposed impossible and irrelevant conditions that will effectively block us from continuing this critical work.

It is not just the US government that funds the Wuhan institute: the European Union stated on Jan. 26, 2021 that it had awarded grants to the laboratory since 2015. It added that the institute: delivered the first SARS-Cov2 genome sequence, which enabled partners of the European Virus Archive to design the widely used polymerase chain reaction ( PCR) diagnostic test for COVID-19 (here).

Pharmaceutical companies, investment groups and philanthropists

Pfizer

Glaxosmithkline own Pfizer!

False. While GSK has embarked on joint ventures with Pfizer, the two are separate companies (here and here). In fact, Pfizer does not have one owner, but is owned by members of the public and a range of institutions, with the top shareholder being the Vanguard Group (here)

Bill Gates is a shareholder of Pfizer

True, at the time of publication. As outlined above, Pfizer has many shareholders. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has owned Pfizer stocks since 2002 (here here) and a 2019 tax return from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust lists Pfizer among its corporate investments (here , see see Foundation Trust annual tax return 2019). The foundation has also provided research grants to the company (here).

BlackRock

GlaxoSmithKline is managed by Black Rock finances

Misleading. BlackRock, the worlds largest asset management firm, owns 7.5% of GSK (fintel.io/so/us/gsk/blackrock) at the time of publication and is their largest shareholder (here). This does not mean GSK is managed by BlackRock, as GSK has 1553 institutional owners and shareholders (fintel.io/so/us/gsk).

Black Rock is also a major share-holder of MICROSOFT, the property of Bill Gates

Misleading. BlackRock is the second largest shareholder of Microsoft at the time of publication (here) but Microsoft is not property of Bill Gates. In 2014, media outlets reported that Gates was eclipsed as Microsofts largest individual shareholder by the companys other former CEO, Steve Ballmer (here).

When Gates stepped down from Microsofts board in 2020, news reports said he owned 1.3% of the companys shares (here and here).

Vanguard is a shareholder of Black Rock

True. Vanguard, another global investment company, is the top shareholder of BlackRock at the time of publication (here).

Black Rock controls the central banks

False. The US central bank hired BlackRock in March 2020 to manage commercial mortgage-backed securities in an effort to shore up the economy (here). This means BlackRock assists the Federal Reserve, it does not control it.

George Soros and Winterthur

Black Rock manage the finances of the Open Foundation Company (SorosFoundation)

False. Open Society Foundations is the worlds largest private funder of charities and non-governmental organisation (here) owned and funded by billionaire George Soros (here). The foundation has no connection to BlackRock.

Soros Fund Management, however, is an investment fund run by Soros that had shares in BlackRock (here), but sold them in 2020 (here).

The SorosFoundation serves the French AXA

False. There is no evidence of a connection between Open Society Foundations and the French insurance company AXA (here). However, financial research website Fintel recorded last year that Soros Fund Management disclosed ownership of more than 450,000 shares of AXA Equitable Holdings (here), a US-based company (here) partially owned by French AXA (here).

Soros owns the German company Winterthur

False. Winterthur is a Swiss insurer (here) bought by AXA in 2006 (here).

Winterthur was built by the German Allianz

False. Winterthur and Allianz are both insurance companies, but the only connection between them is the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance (ICHEIC), a non-profit association founded in 1998 by US insurance regulators and representatives of Israel to settle outstanding life insurance policies from the Nazi era.

The ICHEICs website states that negotiations led to settlements with AXA of France and Winterthur of Switzerland (here) and Allianzs website says that the German industry accepted responsibility for the involvement of German companies during the Nazi regime (here). This connection may explain why Allianz, AXA and Winterthur are mentioned in this social media post.

Vanguard is a shareholder of German Allianz

True. Vanguard is the second largest shareholder of Allianz (here).

False. This post claims to reveal links between the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, pharmaceutical companies involved in COVID-19 vaccine research, global investment groups and billionaire philanthropists George Soros and Bill Gates. It implies these connections, many of which are fabricated or misleading, are evidence that the pandemic was deliberately orchestrated. There is no evidence to support this, nor that the virus was created in a laboratory.

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here .

Excerpt from:

Fact check: The COVID-19 pandemic was not orchestrated by pharmaceutical companies, investment groups and philanthropists - Reuters

Dr Leonard P, a Delaware-based facial plastic surgeon, was shocked to discover a scathing 1-star Google review from a patient he had operated on 6 months earlier.

" Terrible Doctor!

Choosing Dr P for my nose job a few months ago was the biggest mistake I ever made in my entire life. My nose is RUINED and my sister says it looks like someone punched me in the face. I went to the doctor's office. I was literally crying. I told him I hated how I looked but the doctor said he couldn't do anything for me. Run, don't walk, in the other direction!"

"Negative reviews go with the territory, and I usually take them in stride, but I was stunned by this one," said Dr P. "I recognized who the patient was, and I knew she had been happy with the results of the rhinoplasty."

Then Dr P realized what went wrong. "She had begun to inundate me with messages through the patient portal, long after she had healed. Some seemed far-fetched and even flirtatious. I eventually stopped responding. This quickly turned to deep and inconsolable dissatisfaction, despite an excellent outcome, and she wrote this review."

Jeff Segal MD, JD, founder and CEO of Medical Justice, a Greensboro, North Carolinabased company that helps physicians manage their online reputations, worked with Dr P to turn the situation around. Segal suggested a way to mitigate the ill effects of the online attack and to actually use them to his benefit. Dr P described Segal's approach as "turning lemons into lemonade."

According to Segal, the new approach to dealing with bad online reviews is to "see them as an inexpensive form of 'marketing,' if handled correctly." Segal said. "A carefully crafted online response can enhance your image."

Online reviews of physicians have been around for close to 15 years, and their use and centrality have been dramatically increasing. A 2020 survey of over 16,000 US adults showed that in choosing a physician, patients are using search engines and patient reviews twice as much as traditional referrals and that the use of referrals declined by 44% in the previous year. Another survey of over 1000 patients found that almost three quarters used online reviews as their first step in finding a physician, and 43% said they would even go out of their insurance network for a provider who had favorable reviews.

"If we go back a decade, relatively few doctors had any online reviews, but today's patients are more comfortable writing reviews, so the number of reviews of a single doctor have proliferated," Segal said.

Although most physicians resent the review process, many have become resigned to it and regard negative reviews as an "unpleasant fact of life in this day and age," Segal said.

But physicians don't need to dread negative reviews as much as they used to, says Segal. "Doctors are beginning to understand that if you take care of 2000 patients each year, you won't make everyone happy, so no doctor needs to freak out about an occasional negative review. It's not the 'death knell' it used to be."

Some doctors are even beginning to wonder whether there may be a silver lining behind the cloud of negative reviews. Segal thinks there is and that even negative reviews can be leveraged to improve online image and shore up one's practice.

For starters, "negative reviews aren't all bad," Segal said. On the contrary, if the negative reviews are rare, "they make physicians look more trustworthy and believable. If there are hundreds of glowing 5-star reviews, patients begin to get suspicious and wonder if the reviews are fake."

No response should contain information that might violate HIPAA regulations. "Never make any statement acknowledging that the reviewer is your patient, and always use generic terminology to refer to the concerns raised in the review, so the patient's identity will not be apparent," Segal advised. Nor should specific billing information be posted online, although general billing policies can be posted.

Brad Bowman, MD, chief medical officer of Healthgrades, agreed that a negative review is an "opportunity to put out a positive message," but this can happen only if the patient does not feel dismissed or contradicted.

To that end, he warned against "canned cut-and-paste responses, because that will be offensive and feel dismissive to patients."

Additionally, "the worst thing you can do is to debate facts and make your response a truth-finding mission to prove the reviewer wrong," Bowman said.

Don't adopt an adversarial tone. Instead, "respond in a caring and empathetic way that acknowledges the reviewer's feelings and frustration and conveys the message that their experience is important to you," said Bowman.

Because crafting responses can be onerous, it might be helpful for physicians to have a staff member, such as an office manager, take on the task and serve as the "point person" for patients to contact with their feedback.

As upsetting as it is to receive a negative review, the feedback can also highlight areas that need improvement.

Lawrence F, a California-based internist, is an example of a physician who used negative reviews as constructive criticism. "I was called on the carpet by my hospital administration for getting too many 3-star ratings, most focusing on poor communication and bedside manner," he said.

Although the experience was jarring, Dr F realized the feedback was also valuable. "I took it to heart, and once I had learned to communicate more clearly and compassionately, my reviews improved," he said.

The pressure to please patients and generate positive reviews is a double-edged sword that can potentially compromise good medical care if a patient insists on a particular treatment or procedure, Dr F pointed out. Such problems can also be mitigated by better communication.

"I address the review issue head-on," Dr F said. "For example, I'll explain why antibiotics are contraindicated for the common cold, and if the patient remains adamant in demanding an antibiotic, I'll say, 'I'm sorry you're upset with my decision. I want my patients to be happy with the care I provide. But I'm even willing to risk getting a bad review because my first commitment is to your health.' Patients have been very responsive, and my ratings remain high."

"If you know who the reviewer is, the first step is to speak to him or her offline to see how the problem might be resolved," Segal said.

Bowman encouraged physicians not to respond in the heat of the moment but to "just wait, think, step back, and acknowledge your anger, emotions, and hurt feelings. Then organize your thoughts and appreciate some of the 'up sides' that your response might convey."

But don't wait too long, Bowman cautioned. He noted that a delayed response allows more prospective patients to read the review. Ideally, it is best to respond within 24 hours.

Taking responsibility for any errors is the first step to resolving the issue, according to Michael Sacopulos, JD, CEO of Medical Risk Institute and partner with Sacopulos, Johnson & Sacopulos, in Terre Haute, Indiana. Patients tend to view apologies positively and are willing to go back to a provider who honestly acknowledges an error and seeks to rectify it.

Experts disagree, however, on whether to ask patients to take down the review once the matter has been resolved.

"If the patient feels the issue has been resolved to their satisfaction, you can request not demand, but request that they take down the review. If you couch it that way, and people have felt heard, they will likely reciprocate and remove the review," Segal said.

By contrast, Ron Harman King, MS, CEO of Vanguard Communications, a reputation management company designed to grow medical practices and increase online ratings, discourages physicians from asking patients to remove the review. Rather, "be an open listener, and by being receptive to the patient's input and attempting to address complaints as much as possible offline, in many cases if not most the patient will remove the review themselves and may even say the practice was great and called me to resolve my complaint."

According to Segal, responses should consist of three components.

Acknowledge and validate the patient's concerns and express empathy.

We are distressed if any of our patients experience prolonged pain following surgery. Our patients' health and comfort are our no. 1 concern.

We respect our patients' time and life commitments and know that a long wait is a major inconvenience.

Explain why the problem might have taken place, which is an opportunity to highlight the positive features of your practice.

We take pride in the clinical expertise of our board-certified orthopedic surgeons. Studies show that a quarter of patients might continue to feel pain for extended times following knee replacement, and the percentage of prolonged pain our patients report is considerably lower.

We try to maintain a high level of punctuality, but sometimes a physician is unexpectedly delayed, owing to an emergency involving another patient. In urgent situations, all of our patients receive the same level of attentive care and prioritization.

Describe how the problem is being addressed.

We encourage patients to follow up with us if they experience pain. Some patients may be candidates for further interventions, such as newer minimally invasive procedures.

We are instituting a system where we will text patients if we anticipate a wait time of longer than 15 minutes.

Dr P contacted the disgruntled reviewer offline. He explained why he had not responded to her messages and offered to perform a revision surgery without a fee or to provide a refund of the first surgery, in hopes that she would agree to take down the review. She declined.

He then posted a response.

We are unable offer detailed comments because of patient confidentiality issues, but I can speak generally about the concerns raised in this review.

We are dedicated to the well-being and satisfaction of our patients. While the vast majority are pleased with their appearance following our procedures, on rare occasions, a patient might not be happy with the result. In these unusual circumstances, our policy is to waive our fee and offer a revision procedure to demonstrate our commitment to our patients' happiness. We counsel all recipients of rhinoplasty to be patient following the procedure. The final result will not be apparent during the first months because the healing process takes up to a year, and sometimes longer in certain patients.

Dr P said highlighting the positives of his practice was beneficial. Additionally, "since the majority of our patients are thrilled with their rhinoplasties, subsequent positive reviews from others served to dilute her vitriol, which eventually became old news."

The online review climate, like everything else, has been affected by COVID-19.

"From about mid-March through May/early June 2020, we noticed that the number of online reviews dropped dramatically," King said. "We can speculate why, but my best guess is that a lot of practices were closed, so people were not seeing the doctor as often or reviewing medical practices as much."

Practices began reopening in June, and reviews picked up and have been "growing ever since" in fact, there has been a higher number in the last quarter of 2020, King said.

"Not only were there more reviews, but they were more critical," he said. He offered several "speculative theories" as to why this might be the case.

"Practices might have been hindered by the COVID-19 restrictions and procedures," he suggested, and "people may also be grumpy from social isolation and unemployment and everything else that goes along with the pandemic and they're spending more time at home or working remotely at their computers, giving them more time to write online reviews."

Interestingly, there have been fewer complaints about telemedicine than about in-office encounters with providers and staff, King noted.

Segal suggested featuring COVID-19 procedures and protections on the practice's website and on online rating sites. "Proactively address issues such as longer wait times caused by limiting the number of patients due to optimal virus-related safety measures," he said. Also, indicate what other measures are being taken to keep patients safe, such as providing face masks and hand sanitizers and texting patients when it is their turn so as to minimize in-office wait times.

Additionally, Segal recommended empathizing with patients about how challenging the pandemic can be and how the practice is trying to meet the new needs with flexibility and a blend of telemedicine and in-person visits.

"Most negative online reviews are typically a result of mismanaged expectations," Segal said. These include misunderstandings about finances or billing, whether the patient understood potential risks or complications of a procedure or treatment, or misunderstandings about the process, such as recovery time.

King concurred. He cited a national internet survey of close to 35,000 reviews conducted by Vanguard that encompassed all specialties and hospitals. It found that customer service was the most common cause of negative online reviews.

"Too many doctors think of themselves as 'scientists for hire,' but I would encourage them to think of themselves as caregivers. Yes, patients want medical science, but they want it enveloped in an atmosphere of receptive, open, two-way communication," King said.

Every aspect of the patient's experience should reflect a welcoming environment, from parking to punctuality to cleanliness of the facilities to the behavior of the administrators, billing personnel, receptionists, and medical assistants.

According to the Vanguard survey, the no. 1 driver of negative reviews was poor communication, with over 53% of 1- and 2-star reviews related to calls that were not returned, portal questions not addressed, or logistical problems (such as problems involving scheduling and parking).

The better the communication and the more respected a patient feels, the better the chances of a positive review. Of the laudatory reviews analyzed in the Vanguard study, 40% were related to bedside manner, and 24% were related to communication.

King called communication a "team sport" that begins with the patient's very first phone call. "Getting an automated 'phone tree' when you call or having a receptionist answer the phone saying, 'Dr Smith's office, please hold,' is off-putting to patients."

Bowman reported that an analysis of close to 85 million medical provider reviews conducted in 2020 by Healthgrades and the Medical Group Management Association found that 59% of negative reviews mentioned communication and that 43% mentioned negative experiences with practice staff.

"Physicians, especially those in private practice, should realize they are the head of an organization with a certain culture. How their representatives behave is ultimately their responsibility, and their ratings will reflect that," King said.

One thing is clear: online reviews are here to stay, and their use continues to expand, according to Sacopulos, who is the coauthor of Tweets, Likes, and Liabilities: Online and Electronic Risks to the Healthcare Professional (Greenbranch Publishing, 2018).

"Online reputation encompasses far more than attracting and keeping patients, also impacting credentialing and employment. Online reviews are becoming increasingly of interest to malpractice carriers," said Sacopulos, who is also general counsel at medical justice. "Physicians need to keep pace with the rapidly changing review landscape and take charge of their online presence."

King agreed. "You'll always have dissatisfied customers, so you need to live with the reality that someone will complain about you publicly. You can't control or eliminate that. The name of the game is getting, for every complaint, 10 or more reviews singing your praises."

Bowman added that he hopes medical schools will begin to include education about online reviews and similar topics related to digital technology in their curriculum.

For more news, follow Medscape on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

Excerpt from:

Trashed on the Internet? The Newer Way to Deal With It - Medscape

The facility is now supported by the states $5 million commitment, matching Flinders Universitys investment into theaccelerator, which is embedded within SA'sTonsley Innovation District.

It began with a temporary pilot pop up factory developed in collaboration with BAE Systems Maritime Australia. The $10m co-funding enables a permanent Factory of the Future to now be built.

The Line Zero Factory of the Future is a crucial element in our research translation; taking research out of the lab and applying it in the real world,"Flinders University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Colin Stirling said. Flinders Universitys new Factory of the Future at Line Zero will help accelerate the growth of advanced manufacturing necessary to support the Federal Governments $90 billion naval shipbuilding program in SA.

We welcome the state governments $5m investment, matching Flinders Universitys own commitment to this important initiative that will position SA at the national vanguard of the Industry 4.0 agenda for advanced manufacturing technologies.

Our initial focus will be on collaborative research and training designed to maximise the engagement of South Australian companies and workers with the shipbuilding industry. However, future stages of the Factory of the Future will support a broad range of industries, enabling their trialling and adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies, thus contributing to durable jobs growth across the SA economy.

Digital shipbuilding is all about connectivity not just within the physical and digital shipyard but with our supply chain and customer and the partnership between BAE Systems Maritime Australia and Flinders University at Tonsley is creating a digital and advanced manufacturing test environment to improve productivity, quality and safety outcomes at Osborne,"BAE Systems Maritime Australia Managing Director, Craig Lockhart, said.

The Line Zero Factory of the Future facility provides a controlled space where we can collaborate with industry and researchers to trial new manufacturing techniques and processes that may be used by BAE Systems Maritime Australia to build the nine Hunter class frigates.

It is our ambition that the digital and technological advancements demonstrated by the supply chain will lead to improved productivity, safety and quality outcomes, equipping our highly-skilled workforce with Industry 4.0 technologies that support activities undertaken in a modern digital shipyard.

But we cant do it alone and just last month we announced that four Australian companies had been selected as part of our inaugural Innovation Challenge to showcase their track and trace technologies, and we are now calling on businesses to lodge expressions of interest for the second challenge focusing on digital safety technologies.

Read the rest here:

SA commits to building Factory of the Future - Australian Defence Magazine