August 21, 2015

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Business August 21, 2015

A Brutal Week For Investors; Will There Be More Zigs Than Zags?

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Friday. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 531 points, or more than 3 percent. Spencer Platt/Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Wow. That was ugly.

For investors, a brutal week ended Friday with prices plunging for stocks and commodities. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 531 to 16,460, a 3.12 percent drop.

Oil’s tumble was especially notable. For a while, West Texas crude was trading below $40 a barrel — the first time that happened since March 2009. It finished at $40.45, marking an eight-week stretch of price declines — the longest losing streak since 1986.

Want to play it safe and just earn interest on your savings? Sorry. The yield on a 10-year Treasury note also fell, down to just 2.05 percent, the lowest level since April.

So what’s an investor supposed to do?

Experts are mixed about the outlook. Some say not to worry too much: This downturn was an inevitable “correction,” following one of the longest bull runs in U.S. history.

For example, the S&P 500 index of stocks has risen five out of the past six years. On Friday, it fell 3.19 percent to 1,971. But that’s just a hair below where it was last year at this time. So if you have been invested for six years, you’re still ahead of the game.

From this viewpoint, the August rout is just part of the typical “sawtooth” pattern that characterizes the stock market. Prices can zigzag up and down, up and down. Over time, you make money because you are patient, and assume the “down” zigs are smaller than the “up” zags.

Instead of fretting, investors should be looking for opportunities to buy shares at low prices before they resume their climb. “Historically, market downturns present some of the best opportunities to buy stocks,” Azzad Asset Management told clients in its analysis of Friday’s selloff.

But wait.

Maybe this stock plunge signals something much worse than a simple correction. Maybe prices are plunging because a new global recession is taking hold, making any rebound impossible for a long time.

So which is it, a buying opportunity or hunker-down time?

Here’s a case for optimism:

— U.S. investors had been too upbeat for too long, shaking off the Greek debt crisis and the Chinese economic slowdown. But now, they are more clearly seeing the bad news and pulling back. So nothing is actually worse; we’re just resting after having partied too hard earlier.

— Consumers and homebuyers are still in a good mood, and they are driving an expansion that will keep the U.S. economy going in the fall. This is just a summer squall that will pass.

Here’s a case for pessimism:

— When China unexpectedly devalued its currency last week, it was sending the world a frightening message: Its economy is a mess. If China is no longer going to need massive amounts of oil, coal, corn, copper and other commodities, then huge numbers of miners, drillers and farmers are going to be out of work, triggering a global downturn.

— European shares are also sending a strong signal that the Continent’s growth is in trouble again. Despite cheaper energy, more central-bank stimulus and favorable currency rates, Europeans still can’t get their markets moving.

In September, policymakers at the Federal Reserve will meet to decide whether to raise interest rates for the first time in nine years. Savers wishing for safety may root for an uptick in the interest payouts on their bank deposits.

But stock investors may hope the Fed holds off for a while longer. Low interest rates can help companies expand at a lower cost — and expanding businesses tend to help stock prices.

Tough decision in these complicated times.

Health August 21, 2015

Kansas Town Takes Dental Care To School

To make dental care more accessible, some schools are bringing dentists to students. iStockphoto hide caption

itoggle caption iStockphoto

Weeks before school started in Olathe, Kan., earlier this month, the town’s school district began its annual effort to get low-income students signed up for dental checkups.

When parents register at the elementary schools that serve the district’s poorest students, they are asked whether their children have a dentist. “And if they say no, we say, ‘We have a program in our school — a dentist is coming to our school this year,’ ” says health services director Cynthia Galemore.

The goal is to make dental care more accessible for low-income families. The obstacles to care aren’t limited to cost.

“A lot of times in these families dental care is not a priority,” says Galemore. “It’s not that the parents wouldn’t want to provide it, but they maybe can’t miss work to take their child to the dentist, [or] they may not have transportation.”

A lack of preventive dental care for poor children is a national problem. Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which cover children from low-income families, both pay for dental services. But fewer than half of children and teens enrolled in those programs received a preventive dental service last year, according to Stacey Chazin, a public health specialist with the Center for Health Care Strategies.

The participating schools in Olathe, a suburb of Kansas City, Mo., are among a few hundred across the country that offer oral health care. “What’s nice about the schools is [they’re] a place where students already go on a regular basis, whether it’s back to school night, or it’s a meet-the-teacher, or to pick up or drop off their kids,” says Chazin. In some schools, dentists provide care. In others, dental hygienists perform preventive services.

In a recent policy brief, Chazin recommends school-based oral health care as an important children’s health strategy. And, as it turns out, the federal government set goals to increase the proportion of children enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program receiving any preventive dental service by 10 percent between 2011 and 2015.

Tooth decay is the most common chronic disease among American children, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Some 25 percent of children ages 5 to 19 who live at or below the federal poverty level had untreated tooth decay, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Only 12 percent of children with family incomes double that of poverty level had untreated tooth decay.

According to Chazin most school-based oral health programs focus on preventive services like cleanings, fluoride varnish and sealants – protective coatings placed over molars to prevent cavities. “The hope in all of it is that they’re referred to, and begin to get care from a dentist, where they would subsequently go for regular preventive visits and any needed treatment,” says Chazin. Medicaid and CHIP keep tallies of services performed at schools, when they are billed.

But it’s difficult to know if parents are scheduling those follow-up dentist visits. That data are hard to track, and to Chazin’s knowledge, no insurers or state health departments are taking the time to do it.

Olathe however, does have data on follow-ups. And that helped push the district to take the idea of in-school dental care one step further than most schools. At the start in 2009, the district tracked the number of follow-up appointments scheduled with dentists. The results weren’t good. Of the 339 children treated in school by dental hygiene students from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, 63 percent had tooth decay and were referred to a dentist. By the end of the school year, only 11 percent of those referred had had their parents contact a dentist’s office to schedule an appointment.

But when a clinic in town became a federally qualified health center in 2013, it opened up a new opportunity. The district now works with the clinic—which receives federal funds to provide free or low-cost care to the underserved— to bring dentists to the schools. These dentists perform the full array of services on site. It’s a win-win for the school district: Nurses no longer have to worry about parents scheduling follow-up visits, because they are scheduled at school. And the clinic provides a steady source of funding for the district’s growing number of immigrant students, some of whom don’t qualify for insurance because of their undocumented status. If a student has no insurance, the service is free.

“We used to think, ‘Oh, schools shouldn’t do this.’ We thought our job was to provide the education for the kids,” Galemore says. “We didn’t used to feed breakfast to kids at school either. Funding has been cut and cut and cut for schools, but it’s part of focusing on the whole child. We know if we have better health for that child there’s better learning.”

For this school year, the oral health program in Olathe is expanding from 10 to 12 elementary schools, and adding two high schools.

This piece comes from Side Effects Public Media, a public radio reporting collaborative that explores the impacts of place, policy and economics on health. Follow Side Effects on social media here.

Sports August 21, 2015

Bumgarner Leads Trend: Big League Pitchers Who Can Hit

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Major League Baseball is dominated by specialists but San Francisco’s Madison Bumgarner upsets convention. David Greene talks to Giants’ broadcaster Jon Miller about Bumgarner and pitchers with bats.

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

If you are watching or listening to a Major League Baseball game, the best moment to grab something from the fridge or run to the bathroom might be when a pitcher comes up to bat. Pitchers just aren’t good hitters – or so we thought. Madison Bumgarner of the San Francisco Giants did this last weekend against the Washington Nationals.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Bumgarner hits a high drive left field. This one is gone.

(CHEERING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Well that’s an exclamation point for a great game for Bumgarner, his fourth home run of the year. Yeah, he’s the best hitting pitcher. That was a shot.

GREENE: This could be part of a trend. Big league pitchers are hitting more home runs than in the past, especially in the National League, the only league that forces pitchers to bat. San Francisco Giants’ play-by-play announcer and all around baseball guru John Miller said this isn’t all that surprising.

JOHN MILLER: All the guys who are pitchers, when they played Little League and maybe even in high school, they were excellent athletes and not only could pitch but they played the field. And they were, in many cases, the best hitter on their teams there as well.

GREENE: This changes, though, when pitchers become pros and work their way through the minor leagues. They become specialists fine tuning their craft. If you’re a starting pitcher, you’re actually only throwing in a game once every five days or so. But there’s a lot to worry about in between, leaving little time to practice swinging the bat.

MILLER: Pitching, you think of the arm, and that’s very true. But the big aspect of pitching that is so critical are the legs, the base for the pitcher. And they run every day. They do a lot of calisthenics and starting and stopping and wind sprints and that sort of thing. They will throw on the side. They do their bullpen session in between. So they do a lot of work in between starts. And then there’s Madison Bumgarner, with the Giants, who actually is one of those guys who can hit a little bit, who has also been getting some calls here lately to hit as a pinch hitter for the Giants. So he’s been especially working hard, even when he’s not pitching.

GREENE: Why is this happening this year? Why do we see Madison Bumgarner and some other National League pitchers who seem to be hitting more home runs these days? I mean, is National League pitching getting worse? Are there some pitchers now who are just sort of showing their athleticism more?

MILLER: Well, I wouldn’t say that it’s really become a huge trend. Bumgarner’s for four home runs, and he hit five last year. He’s the best hitting pitcher I think in baseball, especially when it comes to power. But Zack Greinke of the Dodgers has hit a couple of home runs lately. And I think when you look at the batting averages for these guys, then you realize we’re still talking about a different class of hitter than the guys who are the regular, everyday players.

GREENE: You know, I was at a Pirates game in Pittsburgh a couple weeks ago. And the Pirates were down. Their pitcher, A.J. Burnett, came up, hit a home run. And it really sparked a comeback. I mean, the Pirates came back, beat the Cardinals. The team seemed to really rally around Burnett when they saw him hit that home run. Does it do something emotionally to a team when they watch their pitcher do something like that?

MILLER: Yeah, I think so. The whole Giants crowd was energized the other day when Bumgarner pitched in San Francisco. And he hit a home run. He also hit a double and knocked in a run. And he pitched just an incredible game, a shutout, with 14 strikeouts. And it turned out he was the second pitcher in the history of Major League Baseball – Juan Marichal, another Giant, was the only other ever to have hit a home run in a game, have 10 or more strikeouts and pitcher shout-outs. So I think his teammates were energized by him. And the fans love it. He came in as a pinch hitter in St. Louis a couple of days later. And that’s not the norm. And they brought him in with two down in the ninth inning, down by a run. And his manager, Bruce Bochy, just said, well, I looked at what I had left on the bench, and the one guy who had the best chance of hitting a home run to tie the game up for us was Madison Bumgarner. And that’s what we needed, and that’s why I put him out there.

GREENE: And what happened?

MILLER: Trevor Rosenthal.

GREENE: Cardinals closer.

MILLER: Struck him out. There was no joy in San Francisco.

GREENE: John Miller, I hope you enjoy the series between the Giants and Pirates in Pittsburgh.

MILLER: All right, all the best.

GREENE: John Miller, the voice of the San Francisco Giants. He is in Pittsburgh, where Madison Bumgarner will pitch tonight against the Pirates, hopefully giving up home runs and not hitting them.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

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August 21, 2015

Best of the Week: First Looks at Rogue One and Star Wars Land, New 'Victor Frankenstein' Trailer and More

A Brutal Week For Investors; Will There Be More Zigs Than Zags?

Kansas Town Takes Dental Care To School

Bumgarner Leads Trend: Big League Pitchers Who Can Hit

Transcript