More Haiti, this link.
We saw this type of Iraq-style disaster profiteering in New Orleans and you can expect to see a lot more of this in Haiti over the coming days, weeks and months. Private security companies are seeing big dollar signs in Haiti thanks in no small part to the media hype about “looters.” After Katrina, the number of private security companies registered (and unregistered) multiplied overnight. Banks, wealthy individuals, the US government all hired private security. I even encountered Israeli mercenaries operating an armed check-point outside of an elite gated community in New Orleans. They worked for a company called Instinctive Shooting International. (That is not a joke).
Now, it is kicking into full gear in Haiti. As we know, the member companies of the Orwellian-named mercenary trade association, the International Peace Operations Association, are offering their services in Haiti. But look for more stories like this one:
On January 15, a Florida based company called All Pro Legal Investigations registered the URL Haiti-Security.com. It is basically a copy of the company’s existing US website but is now targeted for business in Haiti, claiming the “purpose of this site is to act as a clearinghouse for information seekers on the state of security in Haiti.”
The company boasts that it has run “Thousands of successful missions in Iraq & Afghanistan.” As for its personnel, “Each and every member of our team is a former Law Enforcement Officer or former Military service member,” the site claims. “If Operator experience, training and qualifications matter, choose All Protection & Security for your high-threat Haiti security needs.”
Minnetonka, this link.
Managed care company UnitedHealth Group said Thursday its fourth-quarter profit jumped 30 percent on higher premium revenue compared to the final quarter of 2008, when the insurer incurred a hefty legal settlement charge.
The Minnetonka, Minn., insurer earned $944 million, or 81 cents per share, in the three months that ended Dec. 31. That's up from $726 million, or 60 cents per share, in the same period of 2008.
At the end of 2008, UnitedHealth incurred a charge of 18 cents per share to resolve a class-action lawsuit over out-of-network medical services. The insurer paid $350 million to settle litigation involving pricing databases operated by its Ingenix subsidiary.
For the final quarter of 2009, revenue rose 6.5 percent to $21.78 billion. A 6.2 percent jump in premium revenue to $19.7 billion accounted for most of that growth.
Wall Street, this link.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said Thursday it earned $4.79 billion in the fourth quarter as the bank's trading business again outdistanced the rest of the financial industry
The company rewarded its employees with $16.2 billion in salaries and bonuses for 2009, up 47 percent from the previous year but still lower than many had expected.
Goldman said Wednesday it earned $8.20 a share in the last three months of the year as fixed income, commodities and currency trading buoyed its profits for the third straight quarter. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters predicted Goldman would earn $5.20 a share.
But investors seemed most pleased by strong gains in Goldman's core investment banking unit, which benefited from an increase in equity and debt underwriting fees. The bank's stock rose $1.01, or 0.6 percent, to $168.80 in pre-opening trading.
Goldman, which has outperformed other financial companies for years, has been the strongest bank throughout the financial crisis.
Do you suppose that firm, All Protection & Security, might be able to police looters in Armani suits? Or would they lack interested sponsors for that?
Or would they be instead hired by the Armani suit looters? As riff raft control. Most likely.
And I guess they'll never all unite, these looters. Class barriers, the right prep schools, club memberships, all that. "Clubs" for the Armani crowd, "gangs" for the less privileged - do we say "clubsters" and "gangstas?"
Should we have a "Club Task Force?" Let the Ramsey County Sheriff set one up? Or could that degenerate into what, looting?