SoCal Minds

*Cuba expert to speak twice in a week in LA

From Zocalo & the Milken Institute

While Haiti is the Caribbean hot spot right now, the always tempestuous relations between Cuba and the United States could flare anew at any moment, and because of the historic Havana-Washington ties and the way they seem to wax and wane so much in Americans' collective consciousness, it's always good to review what we all need to know. Which is exactly what foreign policy expert Julia Sweig has sought to do in a new book, which she will discuss along with her views on next steps for the U.S. and Cuba. She'll do this not once but twice next week in Southern California, with the Council on Foreign Relations scholar appearing in free forums in West Los Angeles (Wednesday night 2-24) and Beverly Hills (Thursday night 2-25). Seating is limited at both events and reservations are recommended.

*Corrected appearance dates: 2-24, 2-25

Click here to sign up as Skirball Center hosts Zocalo forum

Click here for information, registration at Milken Institute forum

Two takes on taking better care of youngsters

From RAND & the Milken Institute

Catching up on some worthwhile videos posted recently that address issues concering the health and welfare of children. Researchers in Santa Monica examine a mound of data to try to tell what's working and what's not in the area of child care, with some noteworthy findings on the array of offerings that are called teacher education or professional development and how these affect kids. Meantime, in Beverly Hills, baseball legend Joe Torre talks with moving frankness both about his own bout with cancer and how he and his wife decided to start the 'Safe at Home' foundation dedicated to ending the cycle of domestic abuse and violence that harms kids at home. Torre, the former Yankee manager and now the Dodgers' on-field boss, describes how growing up in a troubled home scarred him. Neither the RAND nor the Milken Institute sites allow others to embed the video so here are the links.

Photo: Ali and Joe Torre discuss 'Safe at Home' foundation / Milken Institute

A webinar on promising child care practices

Baseball great Joe Torre on 'Safe at Home'

To boost economy, a call for tax cuts, credits

From the Milken Institute

With President Obama's first State of the Union speech tackling head on both the economy and unemployment, the national conversation will re-focus on how to get the country back to work and back on track financially speaking. So toss into the mix of thinking on this big, crucial topic a set of researched proposals from the folks in Beverly Hills. They want to see the country cut taxes, increase tax credits and make specific infrastructure investments. They argue these would steps would create jobs, boost the economy and best position the country for a richer tomorrow -- arguments, of course, that almost everyone and anyone is going to make for their policy proposals on this tough, complicated issue, right?

Think tank offers it 'Jobs for America' proposals

What lessons for China from U.S. health care?

From the Milken Institute

What would a Martian make of the protracted, partisan clash under way over attempts to reform health care and health insurance in the U.S? More important, what lessons might the Chinese -- the largest holders of America's debt and one of the globe's hugest populations -- take from the American experience with health care? There's little explanation or extrapolation offered and little is needed when viewing a health policy expert's recent presentation to Chinese officials on the topic. Will the Chinese do better than Americans have in taking highly productive steps to boost kids' health, in reducing the obesity that is linked with an array of bad health conditions and outcomes and in dealing with the few chronic ailments that cause such havoc in lives and with costs?

Silent slides speak loudly about avoidable, actionable U.S. health woes

Calif. lags, Texas leads in top metros for jobs

From the Milken Institute

Yee-haw, metro areas blessed enough to be in areas where oil, gas or alternative energy are in abundance are whuppin' some tushy when it comes to creating jobs, sustaining their economies, seeing their residents salaries do well and avoiding the nightmares of declining housing and disappearing manufacturing and similar work due to globalization, researchers say. Their annual list of top performing metros has a top 10 list with four cities in Texas, two in North Carolina and one each in Alabama and Louisiana, with one in Utah and Washington rounding out the list. California? Gotta go to Bakersfield at No. 36 on the list before the Golden State gets a mention and it's San Diego at No. 83 of more than 300 spots ranked before any metro in Southern California gets a nod. Ummm, LA officially comes in at No. 139.

Oil, gas, energy and lack of housing woes affect annual rankings of top metros

Click here for website with data on top performing metros

For Israel, economic upgrade could be a downer

From the Milken Institute

While the Israelis deserve hearty economic congratulations for an impending international milestone, that accomplishment, if it is not managed well, could cause unhappy and reverse consequences, researchers say. They're looking at what happens next year when, by all indicators, key members of the international financial community will upgrade their regard of the Jewish state and declare it the newest member of the "developed" nations and no longer a "developing" country. Among the potential challenges that this improved status will cause is a switch in the types of investors and investments made in Israel by international investors, with temporary but potentially significant outflows of capital. The Israelis, among other steps they need to take, will need to widen their cultivation of investors beyond the U.S. and Britain, researchers say.

Designation of Israel as 'developed' nation may prompt investment shifts

Click here to read full Milken Institute report on effects of reclassifying Israel's markets

High-paid nonprofit execs, full State of State coverage, appointments at think tank ...

SoCal Minds hears via email:

After reading a post about a UCLA report on how nonprofits are faring in the current economic crisis, the folks at the Center for Public Accountability pointed out their web publication of their research on a half-dozen publicly funded nonprofits where the top exec gets paid more than $300,000 annually. The center is a project of the 80,000 city, county and other employees who are members of the Service Employees International Union 721.

Top execs at 6 publicly funded nonprofits paid more than $300,000, group says 

The folks at the Milken Institute kindly point out that they now have full coverage of their Oct. 20 State of the State Conference available online with videos of all sessions, panel summaries and photos. That program brought a bevy of business leaders, politicians, policy-makers and experts together to consider this year's theme, which is the state's road to recovery.

Click here to see full coverage of Milken Institute's 'State of the State' conference

At RAND, two folks get new gigs, the organization reports: economist James Dertouzos has been appointed director of the Santa Monica think tank's Institute for Civil Justice, which aims to make the nation's civil justice system more equitable and efficient; and Michael Greenberg, ascends from his associate spot to become the head of the Center for Corporate Ethics and Governance, a program within the civil justice institute.

Economist tapped to head RAND Institute for Civil Justice

New ideas to finance help for world's hungry

From the Milken Institute

Even as the United Nations' food organization offered a grim report on growing global hunger, finance experts offered new ideas about how donors can better use their resources to aid the world's starving. Among their recommended fiscal innovations: to allow aid groups to issue bonds based on their donations so they can leverage their money and reduce the unpredictability of their budgets; for aid groups to buy and store food in advance -- perhaps with locally held and public reserves -- rather than going to markets only in crises and when costs may be highest; for aid groups to be allowed to develop the right but not the obligation to buy foodstuffs, similar to what commercial brokers have with option calls; and for governments to develop tax credits to let humanitarian groups tap food supplies of private companies that would provide the materials at tax-free prices. These ideas, developed by the institute with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, all exist and work now in other financial markets, the researchers said.

Institute, Gates Foundation offer new ideas on financing for aid for world's hungry

NYT report on growing worry about huge global population of hungry

Figuring California's road to economic recovery

From the Milken Institute

At the annual state of the state conference, former governors, would-be governors, other top California officials, politicians, business executives and prominent personalities rolled through a range of topics, trying to answer the question whether the Golden State is on the road to an economic recovery, and, if not, what would aim it best that way. While scrutinizing the still-roiled real estate market and assessing how to fix the politically bankrupted state budget-making process, the assembled leaders also put a huge emphasis on higher education's role in California -- in providing personal and economic opportunities and a path for the future of the state and nation. With seven sessions during the day-long program, the hustling institute staff already have posted video on four panels and content summaries on several.

What's the state of the state? Click here to see blue-chip speakers at day-long forum

What if docs, patients just muscled out insurers?

From the Milken Institute

As the Obama Administration and Congress grind through proposals to reform health care and health insurance in this country, displeasing and dissatisfying parties on all sides, the spotlight continues to fall on other ways to improve care and reduce costs. The institute's quarterly magazine focuses on just such an alternative, a disruptive unbundling of usual practices that could reshape health care and insurance. It's all about a growing Seattle experiment with physicians providing care at direct cost to patients who prepay. At the high-end, it's dubbed concierge medicine, where the wealthy fork over, say, $25,000 annually for guaranteed, swift access and treatment from a highly skilled doc. A cousin of this plan, at lower cost and with more patients involved, is taking root in Seattle. The direct payment between provider and patient, advocates say, reduces cost, increases efficiencies and eliminates skyrocketing overhead caused by the untold number of hands involved now in medicine, with billing paperwork, bureaucracies and more. By the way, the magazine also casts a skeptical eye on the push for biofuels and asks just what it will mean that so much American debt is held overseas, especially in China.

In Institute Review: Seattle health care venture may offer needed, 'disruptive' reform