Allegheny Almanac

Hi-Jacking Healthcare

My Opinion:

Investment Banker Suggested Political Outcome Months Before

Raucous Town Hall Meetings on Health Care

by Chris Lareau, editor

It goes without saying that everybody wants to see lower health care costs. Unless, of course, you are a shareholder in a health industry stock.

Of which there are quite a few. At least 16 percent of our nation's economic output is attributable to health care. Because it is predicted that this will increase to 20 percent of our Gross Domestic Product in the near future, health care stocks would be expected to go up in value unless there is a glitch in the form of health care reform.

The nation's largest investment banking firm, Goldman Sachs, detailed this threat to investors in June of this year, laying out a roadmap to adverse consequences to health care reform. The report, according to NY Times blogger Duff Wilson, was called “A Road Map to the Final Outcome for Health Reform,” and was released privately to the brokerage firm's clients in late June.

The Goldman Sachs roadmap basically states that a watered-down health care reform bill would benefit investors, but not as much as a total rejection.

Duff writes: Goldman Sachs advised investors that a stalemate in Washington would be “very positive” news.

Since the roadmap was released, at least 26 lies have been promulgated on the internet about health care reform, lobbyist-inspired rabble rousers hi-jacked what used to be peaceful town hall meetings held by legislators, and health care stocks have gone up. I guess when the nation's largest investment banker speaks, people listen.

If health care reform does not pass this year, do not despair. At least the stock market will go up.

It is important to note that Goldman Sachs made no suggestions whatever as to how to manipulate congress this summer. The economic report is just that, a scientific analysis of what the best investments are. Science, as an objective pursuit, makes no moral judgements, and so far, the Goldman Sachs report has proved to be accurate. However, should Americans view health care as a moral question, many investors could lose their shirts. This might explain the origin of so much hysteria and paranoia about change. And perhaps why the pharmaceutical industry makes so much money on pills for the treatment of greed and fear, and their associated psychiatric disturbances.

Books About Hiking The Allegheny National Forest

Backpacking below the Rimrock Trail stairs.  See more photos of hiking in the Allegheny National Forest. photo by Chris Lareau, copyright 2009.

For the million hikers who come to our woods
every year, choosing a trail might be a
burdensome process, even if you grew up here
like I did. Instead of wandering around in the forest,
readers of Jeff Mitchell's new book can easily pick
and choose at their leisure, ahead of time.
Camera buffs can find out which trails have the
best views. Biologists can ponder over the four
trails with the most wildlife. Like waterfalls? If you
have read Hiking the Allegheny National Forest,
Exploring the Wilderness of Northwestern
Pennsylvania, you'd know there are five different
spots that have waterfalls or cascades. (And I
thought we only had three! I'm such a dope.)
Mitchell, an attorney from Tankhannock, breaks
down 201 miles of hiking trails for those of all
interests: for people who want to see old-growth
forests (we have some of the oldest in the East),
for parents with kids, even for hikers interested in
caves, rock outcrops, and large boulders or rock
cities. Mitchell even gives his opinion on which
places have the most to see.

In spite of its title, Hiking the ANF also includes
important descriptions of trails in contigous state
parks (including Cook Forest, the Akeley Swamp,
and Chapman State Park. For the first time,
someone has finally put all this in one book. The
state parks are a tremendous asset and so far
they have been grossly overlooked. Cook Forest is
highly developed for outdoor enthusiasts and
Chapman State Park, a long-time favorite of locals,
will be undergoing a big makeover this year including enhanced
amenities.

With this book, if you can find a town, you can find any trail you're
looking for. Every description gives easy-to-follow directions so
you won't get lost in the woods before you get to the woods. For
example, 19 different trails are easily accessible form Warren
(attention Dept. of Civic Pride: this is the largest number of any
town in the area). From the south, Mitchell leads you from
Interstate 80 to Cook Forest and from the east he take you from
Smethport and Bradford to the North Country Trail and Handsome
Lake.

Hiking the ANF features 64 different trail systems, starting with
Kinzua Bridge State Park and finishing with the well-established
Tanbark Trail south of Warren.

All a hiker needs now is to find Route 62, Route 59, Route 219,
or Route 6, some light gear (which Mitchell gives specific
recommendations on) and a day off. With this paperback you get
all the details you need to pick the day-trip you'll enjoy most. It's a
long drive up here and you don't want to waste it on the wrong trail.
The title of the book is much too long. It should have been
shortened to "Hiking Pennsylvania's Wilderness," because this is
the only place in the state where you can find it. At least you can
say that in one breath and, really, there are more woods up here
than just the ANF. An index should be added to the book so you
can read it in the car on the way to the trails. To really enjoy the
book the way it is now, you have to sit down in an easy chair in a
quiet room somewhere, something most hikers don't do, folks.

Despite its unwieldy title, this book is
the first of its kind--a monograph on all
our hiking trails in northwestern
Pennsylvania. I know it would have
taken me a lifetime to acquire all this
information first-hand, so I am grateful
that Mitchell has done it for me. It will
mean less time wasted on finding trails
and fewer days on trails that that don't
particularly interest me. I also found
there are quite a few trails I don't want
to miss.

According to Lisa Gensheimer, the
author of Pennsylvania Wilds, this
book is "...the most comprehensive
guide ever compiled on the forest." It's
also the first one a hiker can really use.

  For more info, see the Amazon.com listing at this link:

Hiking the Allegheny National Forest: Exploring the Wilderness of Northwestern Pennsylvania

Another book that gives specifics on local trails is depicted below. It's not as detailed because it is more broad-ranged: