Government and Taxes

Wednesday, April 09, 2014

Pork Barrel 9: Are PH Government Institutions Ready for Cleansing?

A friend, Vince Lazatin, convenor of the Transparency and Accountability Network (TAN), posted some provocative questions in his fb wall yesterday. Vince asked,

Are our government institutions ready to handle the PDAF cases against some of the country's most powerful personalities? Are our government lawyers up to the task of facing the most expensive defense attorneys that money can buy? Will the chips be allowed to fall where they may?

These PDAF cases will put everyone to the test, including non-government actors such as the media, the citizens, and NGOs/CSOs. There will be people who will rise as beacons of hope, while others will spiral into a vortex of infamy.

People, are we ready to see this to the very end? Or will we recede into the anonymity of our daily lives and concede the future of this country to apathy and indifference? Our future rests squarely in what we are willing to accept and what we are willing to fight for.

In short, are Philippine government institutions and the public ready for social and political cleansing? Good and direct question, but I doubt if people are ready to hear the likely answers to those questions.

Are our government institutions ready to handle the PDAF cases against some of the country's most powerful personalities?
NO.

Are our government lawyers up to the task of facing the most expensive defense attorneys that money can buy?
NO.

Will the chips be allowed to fall where they may?
NO.

People, are we ready to see this to the very end?

NO.

All stealing by some (or many) legislators will not be possible without the participation of all Executive agencies where the money is supposed to be spent. Also with participation by some (or many) COA auditors as this crime has been happening not just a few years ago, but several decades ago.

Many in the public themselves -- NGOs, CSOs, people's organizations (POs), media, consultants -- are indirect beneficiaries of this crime. Some or many of them were the conduits, or the "I see nothing wrong in exchange for money", of this large-scale money laundering and plunder.

I suggested a campaign for a back to P2 trillion budget. It’s nearly P2.3 trillion this year, and likely to reach P2.6 trillion next year. There is no reason to keep the budget rising by around P300 billion a year and borrowing the same amount yearly, while the public debt stock keep rising by P400-450 billion a year, even if many of this money is wasted, if not outrightly stolen.
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Rule of Law 22: IAF Seminar in Germany

The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF) is calling for nomination and participants to this seminar, deadline of application on April 11, this Friday.

Target participants for this seminar are young politicians, journalists, civil society activists and academics.

The application and elimination process before one can be accepted to the actual seminar in Gummersbach (near Cologne), Germany is two-stage. First, FNF Philippine Office will shortlist from among the many applicants, get only about five or so, and the selected ones will participate in an online discussion involving perhaps a hundred people from different countries and continents, to be moderated by German liberal facilitators. After about three weeks of online discussion, the facilitators will choose only 24. These guys will travel to Germany for a one-week intensive (morning till evening sometimes) seminar, including a field trip to Cologne, visit several offices and political leaders there. At least that's how it was done six years ago. I think it's the same process until now.

During the online discussion, the participants are from Asia, Africa, S. America and E. Europe. It is a good learning process itself, so that even if one is not accepted in the actual seminar in Germany, one has learned a lot already from the reading materials given by the facilitators, and from the actual discourse with fellow participants.

I attended the seminar on "Local Government and Civil Society" in October 2008. I was lucky to be admitted to the actual seminar in Gummersbach, 8 days including 1-day field trip in Cologne. There are participants from all 4 continents. The Latinos could not speak English, there is a translator (English-Spanish) throughout the course. My experience in that seminar with photos,

IAF Seminar 2008, Gummersbach, Germany, January 21, 2011

IAF Seminar, Gummersbach, Germany, Part 2, October 13, 2013.

Stefan Melnik, a former FNF officer, suggested that good introductions to the concept of rule of law and its necessity are (1) Hayek's The Constitution of Liberty, and( 2) Tom Bingham's Rule of Law.

It's a good suggestion. Here is a portion of what Hayek wrote about the rule of law:

Law in its ideal form might be described as a ‘once-and-for-all’ command that is directed to unknown people and that is abstracted from all particular circumstances of time and place and refers only to such conditions as may occur anywhere and at any time…. “By ‘law’ we mean the general rules that apply equally to everybody… As a true law should not name any particulars, so it should especially not single out any specific persons or group of persons. -- F. Hayek, Chapter 10, "Law, Commands and Order", The Constitution of Liberty (1960). See: Hayek 7: Rule of law means no exception.

There is a suggestion that the PNoy government has violated the rule of law in the impeachment of former SC Chief Justice Renato Corona.

I think ALL government administrations in the PH, many other countries, selectively violate the rule of law. "general rules that apply equally to everybody", no one is exempted and no one can grant an exemption. Stealing is stealing, whether the theft is the King or President or Prime Minister or the Mayor or the poorest man on Earth. The fact that stealing and plunder happening in all administrations means that in most cases, rule of men, not rule of law, is the norm.

Stefan further suggested that “the FNF focuses on the term rule of law as internationally understood- because the term Rechtsstaat has a slightly broader meaning. To use the latter in a foreign domestic context would confuse people, given the legal environments in which they live. Briefly, the German concept includes basic rights whereas "rule of law" implies and protects such rights but does not include them. For instance, equality under the law implies a right to equal treatment and demands that this is what the legal system does.”

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See also:
Rule of Law 18: Damaso and Carlos Celdran Conviction, February 04, 2013
Rule of Law 19: How to Strengthen RoL?, March 25, 2013
Rule of Law 20: PNP and Rule of Men, April 21, 2013
Rule of Law 21: Violating Simple Parking Rules, September 17, 2013

Monday, April 07, 2014

Tax Cut 19: BIR Regulations for the Self Employed and POHTA

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) produced a new regulation last month. Here's the news from BusinessWorld last March 21, 2014:

Posted on March 21, 2014 07:30:38 PM

New rules for self-employed professionals

SELF-EMPLOYED professionals will now be required to submit a list of their service fees as part of registering with the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), which is spearheading the government’s efforts to improve monitoring of the sector’s tax compliance.

Revenue Regulations 4-2014 (RR), dated March 3 and published in a newspaper Friday, imposes new requirements for the registration of professionals with bureau, meant to "aid ... in conducting tax audit and boost revenue collections in such sectors".

"In line with the BIR’s campaign to promote transparency and to eradicate tax evasion among self-employed professionals, the BIR has consistently enjoined them to comply with the BIR’s requirements on registration...," the regulations state. "In order to complement these efforts, there is a pressing need to monitor the service fees charged by self-employed professionals."

"In addition to the requirements for annual registration, all self-employed professionals shall submit an affidavit indicating the rates, manner of billings, and the factors they consider in determining their service fees upon registration and every year thereafter on or before January 31," it noted.

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Comments from some friends of this new BIR regulation in facebook:

1. The BIR is making it more complicated. Make it simple so it's easier to comply! There are a few things where harder is better and this is not one of those.

2. They are asking for a revolt. And how am I supposed to give them a schedule of standard costs? Bawat proect ko iba-iba ang presyo. Tell them how I compute my price? There is no equation. It's mostly gut feel. So paano na?

3. They don't even understand how the industry works. How rates vary with a professional's skill level in relation to a project's time frame. etc etc ang dami e.

4. They are asking for peripheral evidence of business operations beyond receipts and tax declarations. This will give them a separate metric to compute your taxes. Or how much taxes they think you should be paying. If they see a lot of appointments in your book of appointments, but you tendered few ORs, they will tag you as a tax-evader. Freelancers know that only a small percentage of meetings become income sources. And it becomes the freelancer's burden to prove that they paid the correct amount of tax.

This is tantamount to being witnesses against ourselves. Even as a non-lawyer, I know that that is not legal. This is nothing but oppression.

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Another friend suggested to create a new group, the Professionals Opposed to Harassment by the Tax Authority (POHTA). It's a joke of course, the acronym is simply funny. (For non-Filipino readers, "puta" or "pota" is Filipino word for bitch).

Government is getting more tax hungry. There should be a Civil Service Commission (CSC) regulation, or perhaps a law, mandating that government work, local and national agencies combined, elected and appointed combined, should be max 10 years, Peole in government should learn to work in the private sector and be net taxpayers, be subjected to the same rules, laws and prohibitions that they have created and/or implemented, instead of being bureaucrats forever.

One problem here is that ALL agencies in the government are begging, pleading and crying, "we need more money". From agri to public works to police to LGUs to military and its "new $524 M jet fighters procurement" and various "save the planet" spending like the $400 M (P17.2 B) ADB loan for e-tricycles and so on. BIR is under pressure by all those agencies and Congress, so BIR is now pressuring the professionals in the private sector. It's the whole philosophy of ever-expanding government ever-expanding taxes and tax harassment.

A citizens revolt, active or passive, against endless expansion of government and their endless wastes and corruption, against endless taxation and harassment, should build soon. A policy of tax cut not tax hike, tax simplification not complication, should be advanced.

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See also:
Tax Cut 15: Some Resistance to Reducing Personal Income Tax, May 04, 2013
Tax Cut 16: Conserving Fishery Resources by Taxing Demersal Fish Catch?, May 27, 2013
Tax Cut 17: BIR vs. Physicians, March 06, 2014
Tax Cut 18: On 10% Flat Tax, Greco Belgica and GDP Growth, March 27, 2014

Nepal, Maoist Government and Samriddhi, Part 2

A friend in Kathmandu, Nepal, Robin Sitoula, co-founder and President of a free market think tank there, Samriddhi, the Prosperity Foundation, sends me some updates about their work there. Below are two updates from Robin. Somehow they give readers some idea how it is to live under a Maoist government, the ruling coalition in Nepal.

There is also a Maoist movement in the Philippines, led by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed unit, the NPA. But it is a lost and ideologically hopeless movement, formed in 1968 or 46 years ago. It exists only because of opportunism and desire for money. Their above-ground leaders winning as Party-list Congressmen and getting huge money in pork barrel fund every year, and the extortion activities known as "revolutionary tax" by the NPA, netting huge money too, victimizing some medium and big companies in the provinces. While the Maoists in the Philippines are forever losers, the Maoists in Nepal are the ruling party in power.

Robin and his buddies in Samriddhi, also my friend Charu Chadha of Business 360 and her team, and other brave and independent-minded individuals in Nepal, are doing their work. Asserting the philosophy of entrepreneurship, citizen self-reliance and rule of law. Good work my friends, keep the drums rolling.
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March 05, 2014

Since turning into a Federal Democratic Republic in 2008, Nepal had its seventh Prime Minister last month in Nepali Congress leader, Sushil Koirala. However, we had another reason to celebrate the month of love here at Samriddhi – getting commitment from the government to embrace “second generation of economic reforms”.

With the declaration “A Commitment to Economic Reform”, the government has pledgedto improve entry and exit procedures, improve its performance in the Doing Business indicators and eliminate unnecessary regulatory processes (starting with agriculture, tourism and energy sector) following the Nepal Economic Summit, which took place Feb 26 -28, 2014. Samriddhi, being the knowledge partner of the summit, had been working with the government in preparing the reform agendas months before the summit and a major win from the discourse was solidifying the understanding between the government and private sector to liberalize the energy sector to help Nepal come out of the acute electricity shortages resulting into the current twelve hours a day power outage situation. The summit was organized by the Government of Nepal and the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Known to many as an important person in the movement for promoting liberty around the world, Mr. Rainer Hufeurs of SIAP Solutions (Singapore), was also one of the key speakers in the opening session of the Nepal Economic Summit and he shared examples from his work in East Asian nations to make a strong case for policy reforms in the direction of free markets. Right after the summit, Mr. Hufeurs also spent three days facilitating Samriddhi’s strategic planning workshop and we will be happy to share our strategic direction with you for the year 2014-15 after we process and put the information together this month.

April 03, 2014

The month of March became special for Nepal when its cricket team debuted at the ICC World Twenty20 cricket and gave a performance which many consider harbinger of Nepali cricket’s bright future. Although with outlook not as optimistic as Nepali cricket, the Constituent Assembly (CA) made progress in the past month by starting the process of taking ownership of the work accomplished by the erstwhile CA. Also the coalition Government of Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal –United Marxists Leninist launched their 13-page Common Minimum Program which, among other things, vows to frame a new constitution within a year. What we are now wondering about is the exact baseline date for the much talked about one year deadline.

For us here at Samriddhi Foundation, March was the month to step out and learn about the economic aspirations of Nepalese living in different parts of Nepal to identify policy priorities. Samriddhi team held consultations in five economics hubs (Biratnagar, Birgunj, Pokhara, Nepalgunj and Kathmandu) and spoke with over two hundred fifty local leaders to come up with a discussion paper that informs the current leadership about the economic aspirations of people and highlights policy priorities. Preliminary findings have shown an overwhelming support for a more open economy with government's role as a facilitator and the policy priorities to be focused on land usage, reforming labour laws and curbing corruption. These findings were shared with more than two dozen Constituent Assembly members in Kathmandu last week and we will be sharing the final discussion paper on economic aspirations and policy priorities with you in our next email.

On another high note, 24 young minds joined over 400 Arthalaya graduates last month adding vigor to the movement young people have been creating in Nepal through their entrepreneurial moves. Arthalaya (School of Economics and Entrepreneurship) has been an award winning program of Samriddhi and has inspired more than two dozen young graduates of the program to start their own enterprises and promote entrepreneurship by forming entrepreneurship clubs in their colleges, writing blogs and articles and encouraging discussion among their friends on the virtues of markets. And the innovative music industry entrepreneurs from Nepal, Kutumba, wrapped up March for us on a sweet note by sharing their story of success in “Last Thursdays with an Entrepreneur”.
Some of things we wrote about in the past month and were published in the national dailies:

· Response to the recent Oxfam report on wealth gap pointing out 85 of the wealthiest people in the world owning as much wealth as the poorest half of the world

· Problem of transmission adding to Nepal’s electricity crisis

· Small businesses like Kirana Pasals struggling with the complicated process ofbeing formal

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See also:
Nepal and its Maoist Government, December 05, 2013
Business 360 8: TPP, RCEP, SAARC and Free Trade, June 17, 2013

Friday, April 04, 2014

Inequality 17: The Koch Brothers and Their Critics

I have read several times various attacks against the Koch brothers, mostly coming from the left, and sometimes coming from the libertarians too. Like the controversy in Cato Institute a few years ago. Charles Koch, Chairman of the Koch Industries, wrote a rebuttal to his critics yesterday. The article was reposted with comments in townhall, and hockeyschtick blog.

I have devoted most of my life to understanding the principles that enable people to improve their lives. It is those principles—the principles of a free society—that have shaped my life, my family, our company and America itself.

Unfortunately, the fundamental concepts of dignity, respect, equality before the law and personal freedom are under attack by the nation's own government. That's why, if we want to restore a free society and create greater well-being and opportunity for all Americans, we have no choice but to fight for those principles. I have been doing so for more than 50 years, primarily through educational efforts. It was only in the past decade that I realized the need to also engage in the political process.

A truly free society is based on a vision of respect for people and what they value. In a truly free society, any business that disrespects its customers will fail, and deserves to do so. The same should be true of any government that disrespects its citizens. The central belief and fatal conceit of the current administration is that you are incapable of running your own life, but those in power are capable of running it for you. This is the essence of big government and collectivism.

More than 200 years ago, Thomas Jefferson warned that this could happen. "The natural progress of things," Jefferson wrote, "is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." He knew that no government could possibly run citizens' lives for the better. The more government tries to control, the greater the disaster, as shown by the current health-care debacle. Collectivists (those who stand for government control of the means of production and how people live their lives) promise heaven but deliver hell. For them, the promised end justifies the means.

Instead of encouraging free and open debate, collectivists strive to discredit and intimidate opponents. They engage in character assassination. (I should know, as the almost daily target of their attacks.) This is the approach that Arthur Schopenhauer described in the 19th century, that Saul Alinsky famously advocated in the 20th, and that so many despots have infamously practiced. Such tactics are the antithesis of what is required for a free society—and a telltale sign that the collectivists do not have good answers.

Rather than try to understand my vision for a free society or accurately report the facts about Koch Industries, our critics would have you believe we're "un-American" and trying to "rig the system," that we're against "environmental protection" or eager to "end workplace safety standards." These falsehoods remind me of the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan's observation, "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts." Here are some facts about my philosophy and our company:

Koch companies employ 60,000 Americans, who make many thousands of products that Americans want and need. According to government figures, our employees and the 143,000 additional American jobs they support generate nearly $11.7 billion in compensation and benefits. About one-third of our U.S.-based employees are union members….

Koch Industries was the only major producer in the ethanol industry to argue for the demise of the ethanol tax credit in 2011. That government handout (which cost taxpayers billions) needlessly drove up food and fuel prices as well as other costs for consumers—many of whom were poor or otherwise disadvantaged. Now the mandate needs to go, so that consumers and the marketplace are the ones who decide the future of ethanol.

Instead of fostering a system that enables people to help themselves, America is now saddled with a system that destroys value, raises costs, hinders innovation and relegates millions of citizens to a life of poverty, dependency and hopelessness. This is what happens when elected officials believe that people's lives are better run by politicians and regulators than by the people themselves. Those in power fail to see that more government means less liberty, and liberty is the essence of what it means to be American. Love of liberty is the American ideal.

If more businesses (and elected officials) were to embrace a vision of creating real value for people in a principled way, our nation would be far better off—not just today, but for generations to come. I'm dedicated to fighting for that vision. I'm convinced most Americans believe it's worth fighting for, too.

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See also::
Inequality 13: Nomad Billionaire, Burger King and Pretty Women, July 17, 2012

Inequality 14: 99 Percent to Support the 1 Percent, October 20, 2012

Inequality 15: SM, Henry Sy and Class Envy, October 20, 2013

Inequality 16: Inclusive Growth and Central Planning, October 21, 2013

The Pope and Capitalism, December 03, 2013
Are Markets Moral?, January 05, 2014
Globalization, Mobility and Inequality, February 18, 2014

Wednesday, April 02, 2014

UHC 24: Corruption in Government Purchase of Medicines

An old article by Rappler got circulated by some friends in fb. Portions of the paper said,

…Sharing his experience with Rappler, the 26-year-old doctor said he was shocked by the steep prices of purchased medicines and medical supply. He had requested for the drugs for his RHU some time in December 2012.

"Even test tube brushes, which cost around P10-P20 perhaps, cost P350! Gloves which cost P120-P150 pesos are priced P550 in that receipt. Amoxicillin syrup which costs P15-P20 is priced P115," he said in an interview. The receipt was dated Jan 13, 2013.

The system is simple, based on what the doctor deduced from his experience: the supplier and mayor "agree on a certain jacked-up price" where both get to have their share from the extra amount added on top of the medicine's real price.

"If I did the purchase myself and not thru the Bids and Awards Committee, the amount would just have been around P60,000-P80,000," he said, adding that it could have saved the municipality some P320,000….

The same doctor sees around 20 patients a day. As in Casuga's case, medicines are dispensed to residents at the Office of the Mayor and not at the rural health unit (RHU).

"All patients who need medicines as per my prescription have to go to his (mayor's) office to get the medicines themselves... Even this much jacked-up medicines are used as political tools," he said.

Casuga said this set-up affects the "continuity of care" delivered to the town residents.

I hope I can also see they are getting the right medicines. Those who dispense the drugs are waiters of the mayor with no health background..

Casuga narrated an instance when a patient came back to him with the wrong medicine and said “that's what they gave upstairs [in the mayor's office.]"

A mother with her 5-year-old suffering from pneumonia was also hesitant to go to the mayor's office to ask for the prescribed medicine, as she was not a voter….

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Another case of local government corruption. This largely explains why medicines constitute a big portion of government health spending, both national and local agencies. What could be a P2 million medicines procurement can become P5 million or P10 million or even higher. Then some sectors complain why "medicine prices are high... and thus government should intervene more in pricing." Very often we are talking about government failure and blame or call it as market failure.

In one MeTA-Philippines forum at the AIM in Makati last year, the DOH showed some tables, procurement of medicines by some government hospitals, DOH and LGUs owned. Same medicines from the same supplier, PharmaWealth (owned by former Cong. Ferjenel Biron) have different prices, the price range sometimes 10x among government hospitals.

Transparency, DOH itself is hiding this and other data. NCPAM presented it before MeTA, they said they will verify the numbers further, and that was the last news I or we heard from them. I have several friends at NCPAM, I think they are not allowed to release such data without clearance from the DOH Secretary or Undersecretary.

I remember also a few years back, the WB-funded survey done by ANSA-EAP, or of Ateneo School of Government, of medicines procurement by different government hospitals, from UP-PGH to AFP Medical Center to some DOH and LGU hospitals. Same medicines and prices range up to nearly 100x, with the AFP hospital having the highest procurement prices. The WB itself hide that data, then WB talks about transparency and "good governance". Double talk can happen anywhere.

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Tuesday, April 01, 2014

ETHIKOS 2: Pharma Companies and Patients

During the launching of Ethikos Movement last week, among the colorful speeches were those from two patient groups, the Kythe Foundation and the Philippine Alliance of Patient Organizations (PAPO) headed by Fatima "Girlie" Lorenzo, and the Psoriasis Philippines headed by Mr. Josefino de Guzman, photo below. Both Girlie and Josefino detailed how difficult, even draining -- financially and emotionally -- it is to help patients with difficult cases. The issues can range from helping poor patients with costly treatment and medications to dealing with social ostracism.

The two other colorful speeches were from the pharma federations, the Philippine Chamber of Pharmaceutical Industry (PCPI) represented by Dave Escalona, and the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines (PHAP) headed by Ted Padilla.

Dave emphasized that strict intellectual property rights (IPR) of newly-invented drug molecules via longer data exclusivity and frivolous patents is in effect unethical and not serving the patients. He added that many local pharma companies are small and hence, have lesser-known brands compared to products by the big multinational pharma companies. Ted on the other hand emphasized the importance of innovator or newly-invented drugs in saving more lives.

As I have argued in many papers in this blog, I believe that IPR is a good tool to encourage the research and development of new medicines against old or new diseases. If a firm is to spend $1+ billion to develop just one drug and such invention is not protected so that other pharma companies can jump in later and demand that they can also manufacture that drug molecule and sell it even if they did not spend money for its discovery, conducting several clinical trials involving hundreds or even thousands of people, that practice is not fair nor ethical.

Besides, Dave is from Unilab, the biggest pharma company in this country cornering one fourth (25 percent) of the total national pharma market. Their products are well known, from outdoor billboards to tv and radio to physicians and pharmacists.

What patients need are more choices, more options. More medicine brands for each molecule with different brands, different prices. If the rich want the more known but more expensive drugs, so be it. If the poor want the lesser known but cheaper drugs, so be it. So long as those medicines are guaranteed to be safe and effective. More options among medical professionals, among hospitals, among diagnostic centers, among health insurance providers.

Finally, FDA Director Kenneth H. Go also gave a colorful discussion how they as food and drugs regulators, would deal with frequent lobbying by senior government officials (legislators, Cabinet Secretaries, Malacanang officials, etc.) in behalf of certain companies, or pressuring them to give information about the status of products by competing companies.

During the open forum, I briefly spoke and emphasized that a movement to emphasize business and professional ethics is indeed a civil society movement. There are existing government laws that regulate business practices and avoid unethical ones but these are often not followed. It is another case of government failure that was meant to correct any perceived market failure. Thus, people are moving on their own to have certain codes to guide their business behavior, and they are instituting their own set of rewards and punishment for violation of such code of ethics, outside of penalties and fines that are contained in government laws that are not properly enforced anyway.

What are truly unethical are government high or multiple taxation of health products and services like medicines, laboratory and hospital services. And government price control and forced discount policies that affect the financial condition of many small entrepreneurs like small drugstores.

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See also:
ETHIKOS 1: MeTA-PH, PCPI, PHAP and FDA on launching, March 30, 2014

Drug Price Control 39: Presentation at USC, Cebu, March 2014., March 25, 2014

MeTA 17: CHAT General Assembly, March 2014, March 31, 2014

Climate Tricks 27: More Risks and Danger Ahead, Send More Money to the UN

Less rain or more rain, less flood or more flood, less snow or more snow, less dogs or more dogs, it does not matter. They are ALL proof of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming (AGW) or anthropogenic climate change (ACC). To "fight climate change" and AGW, we taxpayers and energy consumers should send more money to the United Nations.
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YOKOHAMA - Leading scientists and officials completed a fresh climate report Sunday expected to lay bare the grim impact of climate change, with warnings that global food shortages could spark violence in vulnerable areas.

Part of a massive overview by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) set for release on Monday, the report is likely to shape international policy on climate for years to come, and will announce that the impact of global warming is already being felt.

Some 500 scientists and government officials have been gathered since Tuesday in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, to hammer out its wording..

From WUWT,

The IPCC WGII report is out – now the screaming begins anew

March 30, 2014

Also from WUWT,

"Here is the IPCC’s predicted global warming trend since January 2005, taken from Fig. 11.25 of the Fifth Assessment Report, compared with the trend on the dataset of datasets since then. At present, the overshoot is equivalent to 2 Cº/century.

From NTZ,

IPCC Ignores Its Own Data…Attempts To Incite Global GreenCoup d’Etat Led By Alarmist Scientists

By P Gosselin on 31. März 2014

The IPCC’s tone, amplified by the media, speaks volumes: With its latest report, the UN organization is attempting to incite and lead a global coup d’état – with the main focus on Europe and North America...

From Roy Spencer,

Now, I can understand using terms like “possibilities” when it comes to anthropogenic global warming (AGW). It’s theoretically possible that the average warming of the last 50+ years was mostly human-caused, and it’spossible that the slight sea level rise over this time was more human-caused than natural (sea level was rising naturally anyway). But we really don’t know.

And the idea that severe weather, snowstorms, droughts, or floods have gotten worse due to the atmosphere now having 4 parts per 10,000 CO2, rather than 3 parts per 10,000, is even more sketchy. Mostly because there is little or no objective evidence that these events have experienced any long-term increase that is commensurate with warming. (It’s possible they are worse with globally cool conditions…we really don’t know).

But the main point of my article is that the IPCC has bastardized the use of the term “risk”. Talking “possibilities” is one thing, because just about anything is possible in science. But “risk” refers to the known tendency of bad things to happen as a result of some causal mechanism.

From Hockeyschtick,