Daily Street Sheet

You got scammed By Jeffery McNeil I’m approaching middle age. Most of my relatives are senior citizens, ready for retirement. But a few bad decisions could ruin everything for them. Because of the age and deterioration of their mental and physical capacity due to age, seniors become prime targets for con artists. Many scams go under the radar and never get publicity, many go unreported due to embarrassment. According to the Investor Protection Trust ‘s Elder Investor Fraud Survey, one out of every five citizens over the age of 65 has been a victim of financial fraud. According to the Pew Research Center, seniors are better off than younger people. In 2009 the typical household headed by the older adult had $170,494 in net worth, compared with just $3,662 for the typical household headed by the younger adult. Folks usually accumulate wealth as they age, so it makes sense that there would be large gaps in wealth based on age. But this concentration of

 The Unholy Alliance The saying goes, “You cannot serve God and mammon.” However, the Republican Party has tried for decades to fuse the two. This alliance of capitalists, neo-cons and Christian evangelicals make strange bedfellows, but they have common agendas: creating unregulated free markets, spreading democracy around the globe, limiting the role of government, and restoring Christianity. This years Republican primary is a case history of the struggle to hold these interests together. Ronald Reagan began this strategy by speaking about a “morning in America”, spinning stories about welfare queens in Cadillacs and mourning the breakdown of the family. This would change, he promised, if you gave up your union membership, went to church and turned to capitalism. Preaching this good news throughout the Deep South and the Rust Belt, with the aid of neo-cons and Wall Street, Reagan built a doctrine of Jesus and capitalism that manipulated evangelicals and white blue-collar wor