Too much corporate power is driving fiscal inequality, Fed says

SOCIALIST REVOLUTIONARIES 

AT THE AMERICAN FEDERAL RESERVE

By

Don Jacobson

Activists march in Oak Brook, Ill., to demand a minimum wage increase to $15 per hour on May 20, 2015. The Federal Reserve says in a study that income inequality in the United States has been a side effect of growing monopolistic corporate power. File Photo by Brian Kersey/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 19 (UPI) -- The U.S. central bank has found in a recent study that the rising monopolistic market power of dominant American companies is leading to an array of economic ills, such as income and wealth inequality.

In a 41-page report titled "Market Power, Inequality, and Financial Instability," the Federal Reserve said concentration of market power by the largest U.S. companies directly correlates to six "undesirable" economic trends that have endured for four decades.

Federal Reserve Board economists Isabel Cairo and Jae Sim said in the analysis those trends include things like stagnating wage growth, a "dramatic increase" in corporate profits, rising disparities in income and wealth, rising household debt and greater risk of large-scale financial instability.

"The fact that the six secular trends have realized over a time period in which the investment-to-output ratio has steadily declined suggests that the rise of market power of the firms may have been the driving force of the six secular trends," they wrote.

RELATED Study: Climate change crisis requires less growth-oriented global economy

The study says the inequality trend has risen as owners of assets like stocks and property have largely benefited from the concentration of monopolistic power.

To keep up, some workers who have seen smaller economic benefit are borrowing more money than they once did, thus making the entire financial system more fragile and vulnerable to large-scale shocks similar to the financial crisis a decade ago, the authors said.

To address the imbalances, Cairo and Sim recommend new government policies that redistribute wealth to poorer Americans through higher taxes and more social safety net spending, which they say would be "non-distortionary" for markets.

RELATED Pandemic exposes vulnerability of U.S. economy

Both U.S. political parties have shown concerns over the issue of market concentration, particularly in technology.

President Donald Trump has sought increased scrutiny for "big tech" firms and the Justice Department started an investigation last year into various tech platforms amid criticism that they had become too large and too powerful.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has been critical of Facebook and argued that the government should consider breaking up large tech firms, although he acknowledged it was "premature" to make any definitive judgment.

RELATED Joe Biden unveils 'Build Back Better' economic relief plan

Mozambique firm says it bought ammonium nitrate at center of Beirut blast

A Mozambican explosives manufacturing company said it purchased the ammonium nitrate at the center of the deadly blast in Beirut to be used for mining but it never arrived after being detained in Lebanon. Photo by Mustafa Jamaleddine/UPI | License Photo


Aug. 18 (UPI) -- An explosives manufacturing company from Mozambique said Tuesday that it purchased the ammonium nitrate that sparked the devastating blast in Beirut's port.

Fabrica de Explosivos Mocambique told CNN it originally ordered the 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate to be used for mining, but the order never made it to Mozambique but rather remained in a container at Beirut's port for more than six years before the Aug. 4 blast that killed 154 people.

"This is not common. It's absolutely not common," a representative for the company said. "Usually, when you place an order for whatever it is that you're buying, it's not common that you don't get the goods. This is a vessel, it's not like one thing that was lost in the mail, it's a big quantity."

The representative said FEM worked with an outside trading company to facilitate the transfer of the ammonium nitrate, which originated in Georgia before being transported on the Russian ship, Rhosus. The ship was detained and later impounded by Lebanese officials.

RELATED Lebanon judge to open inquiry into deadly Beirut explosions

A pair of explosions rocked Beirut's port on Aug. 4 with a smaller explosion stemming from a fire that started inside a warehouse and a larger secondary blast that sent a shockwave miles throughout the city registering a magnitude-3.3 earthquake.

Last week, Lebanon's Chemical Biological Radio Nuclear Events Preparedness reported materials including flammable liquids and unsafe combinations of fuels and oxidizers were safely removed from the area.

Fabien Tarably, director of security consulting and intelligence firm NIGMA Conseil, described the impact of the blast and its effects on recovery efforts.

"The first and main technical difficulty is the magnitude of the explosion -- everything has been pulverized," Tarably said. "It's going to be very hard, because everything that is of interest has probably disappeared."

A Lebanese civil defense officer said they are still looking for firefighters dispatched to the scene despite fears of heavily damaged silos collapsing.

"We're still searching, but we've brought in engineers to assess their structural integrity and see if we can continue," the officer said. "We're still looking for a 30-ton fire truck we can't find. It's like it was vaporized."

BIG PHARMA & MEDICINE INC.

Psychiatric meds may pose risk to dementia patients, experts say

By Serena Gordon, HealthDay News

As many as 3 in 4 older adults with dementia have been prescribed drugs that may pose a risk to them, researchers report.

The drugs in the study included commonly prescribed medications that can affect the brain or nervous system, such as sedatives, painkillers and antidepressants.

"There just is not a lot of evidence that these medications are helpful in people with dementia," said study author Dr. Donovan Maust.

When I think about somebody who has dementia and the way the brain is changing, it seems like it's not a great thing to be exposing their brain to these drugs when the brain is already having trouble dealing with the changes going on from the dementia," said Maust, a geriatric psychiatrist from the University of Michigan and VA Ann Arbor Health System.

"Medications we use in patients of other ages work different in brains with dementia," he added.

Behavior changes are common in people with dementia. They may include irritability, anger or aggression, anxiety, depression or emotional distress, restlessness, delusions or hallucinations, and difficulty sleeping.

These behaviors are primarily caused by progressive damage to brain cells. Other possible triggers of behavior issues include medications, environmental factors and other medical conditions, according to the Alzheimer's Association.

Maust said that prescribing practices have been studied in patients with dementia in nursing homes, but there was a lack of information on what types of drugs people with dementia are prescribed if they don't live in a nursing home.
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The study included almost 740,000 people with dementia. They were all over 65 -- average age was 82 -- and on Medicare. About 81% were white, 9% were black and 7% Hispanic. Most lived in urban areas.

The researchers found that 73.5% of them were prescribed a central nervous system-active medication, including opioids, antidepressants, antipsychotics, sedatives and anti-epileptic drugs -- can be prescribed for pain or in place of an antipsychotic.

Researchers found that half were given an antidepressant -- a rate that's about triple what it is for older adults in the general population, the researchers noted.

Maust said doctors may prescribe these when someone shows signs of withdrawal or apathy, but in dementia patients, those signs may be due to dementia, not depression.

"Initiation of activity and enjoyment of the activity isn't the same in someone with dementia, but it's easy to look at those symptoms and think they're depressed," Maust said.

These drugs increase fall risk

The concern in taking an antidepressant is that they may make someone with dementia feel jittery. But patients also may have trouble telling a caregiver how they're feeling, which may make them seem agitated or angry. And that, Maust said, may then lead to another prescription to calm them down.

Someone who took antidepressants for depression prior to developing dementia may still benefit from the drug, Maust pointed out.

Thirty percent of the group was given an opioid prescription, though the researchers said these tended to be short-term prescriptions that were probably for acute pain.
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Twenty-seven percent were given sedatives, 22% were given anti-epileptics and 22% were given prescriptions for antipsychotics.

In addition to potentially not helping someone with dementia, many of these medications come with a risk of falls, a common concern for all older adults.

So, why are these medications still being prescribed?

"I think it really speaks to how challenging dementia is to take care of. Many clinicians haven't had a lot of training specifically in dementia. Doctors are just trying to provide good care, and sometimes it feels as if we're not prescribing something, we're not helping. But doctors can help with listening, supporting and helping people get psychosocial support," Maust explained.

Rebecca Edelmayer is director of scientific engagement for the Alzheimer's Association. "There is an urgent need for more options. Behavioral and psychological symptoms can be very frustrating. Physicians are using what they have available to treat these symptoms," she said.

"It's not that physicians aren't well-intentioned, but not all psychoactive medications may be beneficial, and the risks may outweigh the benefits," said Edelmayer, who wasn't part of the study.

She said "person-centered care" is crucial. Before prescribing medications, it's important to do a thorough evaluation to see what might be causing someone's symptoms. If possible, try to solve their concerns without medications, but "if medications are the right solution, they should be on the table as a possibility," she said.

Edelmayer said there are a number of ongoing clinical trials for treatments of the psychological and behavioral symptoms of dementia. "There a lot of promise in the therapeutic pipeline," she said.
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In the meantime, Maust said, "Caregivers should look at the list of medications that a loved one is taking and review it with the doctor. Think about whether something is helpful or not, and whether the drug could be used at a lower dose, or if someone should be tapered off it. Any kind of simplifying you can do to minimize medications for older adults is almost certainly safer."

The findings were published as a letter in the Aug. 18 Journal of the American Medical Association.

More information

Learn more about treatments for behavioral symptoms of dementia from the Alzheimer's Association.

Copyright 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
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Study suggests 'horrifying' rise in domestic violence during pandemic
An analysis at a hospital in Massachusetts suggests domestic violence has increased during the pandemic. Photo by Counselling/Pixabay

X-ray evidence points to pandemic lockdowns triggering a surge in cases of domestic violence.
Data from a major Massachusetts hospital found a significant year-over-year jump in intimate partner violence cases among patients -- nearly all women -- who sought emergency care during the COVID-19 pandemic's first few weeks.

"This data confirms what we suspected," said study co-author Mardi Chadwick Balcom. "Being confined to home for a period of time would increase the possibility for violence between intimate partners."

And the new study probably exposes "only the tip of the iceberg," said co-author Dr. Bharti Khurana, as it focused only on patients who sought emergency care at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and reported being a victim of domestic abuse.

RELATED Domestic violence may have risen under stay-at-home rules

Balcom is senior director of community health intervention and prevention programs at the hospital. Khurana is head of its trauma imaging research and innovation center.

The study focused on results of radiology scans at the hospital between March 11 and May 3 -- the nine-week period after Massachusetts Gov. Charles Baker declared a state of emergency and closed schools in response to COVID-19.

The scans identified 26 patients with injuries consistent with either superficial wounds or serious abuse.

RELATED Nearly half of patients keep information about sexual assault, depression from doctors

That number was nearly equal to the 27 identified at the hospital during the same weeks in 2018 and 2019 combined. It also exceeded the 15 cases of physical abuse treated in 2017.

During spring 2020, the hospital treated 28 serious domestic abuse injuries -- with some patients sustaining more than one. Such "deep" injuries resulted from strangulation, stabbing, burns or the use of knives or guns, the study reported.
Five victims of severe abuse were identified in 2020, compared to one in each of the three previous years. The study was published Aug. 13 in the journal Radiology.

RELATED U.N. report predicts COVID-19 pandemic will be disastrous for women

While deeply troubling, Khurana acknowledged that the findings are from one institution and might not apply more broadly. Still, Balcom noted they are concerning.

"Isolation is a big risk factor in [intimate partner violence and] COVID-19 has increased isolation both physically and socially for so many people," she said.

The findings dovetail with concerns about pandemic-related domestic abuse expressed in April by the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.

"We know lockdowns and quarantines are essential to suppressing COVID-19, but they can trap women with abusive partners," Guterres said at the time. "Over the past weeks, as the economic and social pressures and fear have grown, we have seen a horrifying surge in domestic violence.

"For many women and girls," he added, "the threat looms largest where they should be safest, in their own homes."

Barbara Paradiso, director of the Center on Domestic Violence at the University of Colorado, Denver, echoed that thought.

"When a victim is required to stay in a home without access to the usual outlets that help to reduce tension [such as] time apart when at work, opportunities to visit friends or family, a private place to reach out for help -- the opportunity for violence naturally rises," noted Paradiso, who wasn't part of the study.

Stress stemming from the pandemic itself probably contributes as well, she added.

"The person choosing to use violence -- the perpetrator -- employs violence as a tool to establish and maintain power and control over their partner," Paradiso explained. "That need for power is, in part, a reflection of the lack of power they feel over their environment. COVID has brought with it just about every uncertainty any of us can imagine: Will we lose our jobs? Be furloughed? When will be allowed to go back to work or school? Can I make my rent payment? And on and on."

The uncertainty is likely to hit abusers hard, Paradiso said. "That lack of control each of us are feeling is likely to be amplified for the abuser, and so they amplify their violence," she said.

Many shelters and safe homes have had to move people into hotels to comply with COVID-19 guidelines, so space for domestic abuse victims can be limited. But help is available, Balcom said.

"Hotlines and domestic violence programs are operating," she said. Those who need help should contact their local program for support or reach out to the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233. Its website -- thehotline.org -- also has information about local resources.

"Even if leaving home and going to a shelter is not what a survivor wants to do, the staff at safe home programs are great to talk with," Paradiso said. "They can provide support, help you to develop a plan to better keep yourself and your children safe, and connect you to lots of valuable resources in the community."

More information There's more about support for people experiencing abuse at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Copyright 2020 HealthDay

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Study: Black, White COVID-19 patients with access to care die at similar rates

Black and White patients hospitalized with COVID-19 die at similar rates, a new study has found. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 18 (UPI) -- White Americans hospitalized with COVID-19 are just as likely to die from the disease as Black Americans, according to a study published Tuesday by JAMA Network Open.

Just over 23% of White patients with COVID-19 being treated in the hospital ultimately died after getting infected, compared to 19% of Black patients, the data showed.

Researchers have previously found that Black and Hispanic Americans are hospitalized for the new coronavirus at a rate up to three times their share of the general population, but with access to care the death rates appear to even out.
"These findings suggest that while Black U.S. residents might be at higher risk of contracting COVID-19 and represent a disproportionate share of COVID-19 deaths, mortality for those able to access hospital care does not differ from White patients," researchers wrote in the study.

RELATED COVID-19 hospitalization rate for minorities far beyond share of population

For the new analysis, researchers at Ascension, a network of Catholic hospitals across the country, reviewed data on COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths from 92 hospitals in 12 states between Feb. 19 and May 31.

The 12 states represented in the study were Alabama, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin. The number of hospitals contributing data from each state ranged from one in Maryland to 18 in Wisconsin.

More than 11,000 patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection were treated at the 92 hospitals during the study period -- roughly 4,200 were Black and 5,500 were White, according to the authors.

RELATED Racial disparities in death rates widen in U.S. rural areas, study says

The patients ranged in age from 46 to 74, although Black patients tended to be younger -- in their early 60s -- compared to White patients, who were typically in their mid-60s. Twenty-five percent of the Black patients were Medicaid beneficiaries, compared to 13% of White patients.

Twenty percent of the patients hospitalized with COVID-19 died in the hospital, including 38% of those who required mechanical ventilation.

Black patients in the study were more likely to have underlying health conditions like asthma, cancer, COPD, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and obesity than their White counterparts, the researchers said.

RELATED CDC data highlight racial disparities in spread, scope of COVID-19 pandemic

Most research suggests "that people of color are more highly impacted by COVID-19 compared to their white counterparts," Brandon Brown, an associate professor of social medicine, population and public health at the University of California-Riverside, told UPI.

However, despite the apparent discrepancy, the study fills in an important gap in available research on the impact of COVID-19: the "transition from hospitalization to death, by race," said Brown, who was not involved in the new study.

"We know that because of systematic racism ... that people of color are more likely to be essential workers during the pandemic and less likely to be able to shelter in place," he said.

"This is a major reason for the increased hospitalizations due to COVID-19 among Black, Indigenous, and Latinx people."

Justice Department seeks forfeiture of property from Ukrainian bank owners


Aug. 6 (UPI) -- The Justice Department on Thursday moved to seize property from the owners of one of the largest banks in Ukraine for alleged money laundering.

The Department of Justice filed two civil forfeiture complaints against the owners of PrivatBank, Ihor Kollomoisky and Gennadiy Boholiubov, alleging they obtained fraudulent loans and lines of credit from 2008 through 2016 and laundered the illegally obtained funds through a series of shell companies' bank accounts before transferring the money to the United States.

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The complaints seek the seizure of an office park in Dallas and an office tower in Louisville, Ky., which the Justice Department estimates are worth a combined $70 million.

According to the complaint, Mordechai Korf and Uriel Laber, accomplices of Kollomoisky and Boholiubov, created a web of entities -- usually under some variation of the name "Optima" -- to launder the funds.

The pair then allegedly purchased millions of dollars of real estate throughout the country, including the two properties designated for seizure.

In 2016, the scheme was discovered and the Ukrainian government seized control of PrivatBank.

Largest sovereign wealth fund lost $21B in 1st half of 2020

Aug. 18 (UPI) -- The world's largest sovereign wealth fund on Tuesday reported a $21 billion loss over the first six months of 2020, due to "major fluctuations in the equity market."

Norges Bank Investment Management said Norway's Government Pension Fund declined nearly 7% in value over the period.

The report said the loss was dramatic because equity investments, which have been heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, make up nearly 70% of the fund. The fund's total value is $1.18 trillion.

"The year began optimistically, thanks partly to expectations of healthy growth in the real economy," the report said. "The bull market came to an abrupt end as the coronavirus began to spread globally and countries around the world took drastic action to limit contagion.

"Financial markets were hit by a series of liquidity shocks due to substantial demand for cash both in the real economy and among investors. The collapse in share prices was counteracted by a massive monetary and fiscal response."

Norges said economic support packages by various governments have helped relax some economic fears, however.

"Together with a gradual relaxation of the lockdown measures in many developed markets, this made investors more optimistic again," it states.

The Government Pension Fund was created to protect Norway from harmful fluctuations in its oil sector, which accounts for much of the nation's economic productivity.

Reporters Without Borders calls for release of South Korean  journalist

NOT NORTH KOREA!


Former Justice Minister Cho Kuk is the plaintiff in a defamation case against a South Korean journalist who made claims about Cho in a 2018 YouTube video. File Photo by Yonhap

Aug. 18 (UPI) -- Reporters Without Borders is calling for the immediate release of a South Korean journalist who was sentenced to eight months in prison on charges of defamation.

The Paris-based global journalism watchdog said in statement Tuesday Woo Jong-chang, the journalist who has been charged by former Justice Minister Cho Kuk, is being punished under an "archaic law" after Woo refused to disclose the identity of a source he quoted in a YouTube video.
The sentence, which was delivered to Woo on July 17, came after Cho took action in response to a video uploaded in March 2018.

In the video, Woo alleged Cho met with Judge Kim Se-yoon at an upscale Korean restaurant near the presidential Blue House, according to South Korean news service Newsis. Cho was President Moon Jae-in's senior presidential secretary at the time. Kim was the judge who convicted former President Park Geun-hye on multiple counts of abuse and sentenced her to 24 years in prison in April 2018 

According to Woo, Cho's meeting with Kim occurred in January or early February of that year, ahead of Park's conviction. This year, Cho sued Woo on charges of defamation while denying meeting Kim.

"The plaintiff, a former minister of justice who served as a senior presidential secretary at the time of the alleged conspiracy, recently posted a message on his Twitter account threatening the same prosecution on any journalist willing to continue the research that Woo Jong-chang began," Reporters Without Borders said Tuesday.

In July, Judge Ma Seong-yeong said Woo did "not even go through the process of confirming even the minimal number of facts" as a journalist.

RELATED South Korea police to handle spy cases, report says

The remarks Woo made in his YouTube video "have very serious implications" because they suggest the president's office interfered in Park's trial, Ma said.

South Korean conservatives have said Moon should pardon Park, who was convicted of colluding with a friend, Choi Soon-sil, so Choi could receive millions of dollars from major South Korean corporations.

RELATED South Korea struggles to contain surging COVID-19 cases tied to churches

Supernova could explain extinctions at the end of the Devonian period

Researchers suggest radiation from a supernova located 65 light-years away could have caused a series of extinction events some 360 million years ago. Photo by Jesse Miller

Aug. 18 (UPI) -- New research suggests harmful cosmic rays from a nearby supernova might have caused the extinction events that form the boundary between the Devonian-Carboniferous periods.

Around 360 million years ago, a lengthy period of biodiversity declines culminated in a series of extinction events that saw 19 percent of all families and 50 percent of all genera disappear.
Scientists have previously unearthed a diversity of Late Devonian plant spores that show evidence of being burnt by ultraviolet light, signs of a prolonged ozone-depletion event.

"Earth-based catastrophes such as large-scale volcanism and global warming can destroy the ozone layer, too, but evidence for those is inconclusive for the time interval in question," lead researcher Brian Fields said in a news release.

"Instead, we propose that one or more supernova explosions, about 65 light-years away from Earth, could have been responsible for the protracted loss of ozone," said Fields, professor of astronomy and physics at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Today, the closest supernova threat is the star Betelgeuse, located 600 light-years away. Scientists estimate a supernova would have to occur within 25 light-years to present a significant threat to life on Earth.

Millions of years ago, however, a variety of closer stars may have presented a graver threat, researchers contend.

RELATED Earth, moon were bombarded by asteroid shower 800 million years ago


Scientists determined that other cosmic threats, like a gamma-ray burst, solar eruption or meteorite explosion, are too short-lived to account for Devonian-Carboniferous extinctions. Some researchers estimate consisted of a half-dozen different events spread out over thousands, even millions, of years.

According to the new study, published Tuesday in the journal PNAS, a supernova could have delivered a one-two punch of electromagnetic energy.

After an initial blast of UV, X-rays and gamma rays, a barrage of supernova debris can sustain a constant supply of irradiation. The effects of a single supernova, scientists estimated, could affect Earth for up 100,000 years.

RELATED Life in ocean abyss recovered quickly after end-Cretaceous mass extinction event

The researchers suggest a series of supernovas might have poisoned Earth with ultraviolet rays for a few hundred thousands years.

"This is entirely possible," said grad student Jesse Miller. "Massive stars usually occur in clusters with other massive stars, and other supernovae are likely to occur soon after the first explosion."

Currently, the possibility that supernova radiation triggered the Devonian-Carboniferous extinctions is only a theory. But researchers claim it's a theory that could be confirmed by the discovery of radioactive isotopes plutonium-244 and samarium-146 in rocks from the period.

"When you see green bananas in Illinois, you know they are fresh, and you know they did not grow here. Like bananas, Pu-244 and Sm-146 decay over time," Fields said. "So if we find these radioisotopes on Earth today, we know they are fresh and not from here -- the green bananas of the isotope world -- and thus the smoking guns of a nearby supernova."

Fields and his colleagues are currently working out what Pu-244 or Sm-146 isotope concentrations might look like in Devonian-Carboniferous era rocks, so that scientists will know what to look for if and when they go prospecting.

"The overarching message of our study is that life on Earth does not exist in isolation," Fields said. "We are citizens of a larger cosmos, and the cosmos intervenes in our lives -- often imperceptibly, but sometimes ferociously."

Farmers should share burden of cultivating wild bees, researchers say


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California's Central Valley hosts some of the most fertile agricultural land in the United States. Photo by NeedPix/Pixabay

Aug. 18 (UPI) -- To save money and avoid burdensome debt, farmers often share expensive equipment with their neighbors. Whether they know it or not, new research suggests farmers also often share a much lighter asset -- wild bees.

Too often, researchers argue in a new paper, farmers who cultivate habitat for bees go unrewarded, while their neighbors receive pollination services for free. After all, bees don't pay attention to fences or land boundaries.

Authors of the new paper, published Tuesday in the journal People and Nature, argue farmers who make life easier for wild bee populations should be compensated.

"Understandably, farmers with highly valuable crops don't always want to give up plantable space to create habitats for wild bees, especially if their crops could be pollinated by a neighbor's bees for free," lead study author Eric Londsorf said in a news release.

RELATED U.S. beekeepers saw unusually high summertime colony losses in 2019

"What we're proposing is that those farmers providing bee habitat could be rewarded for doing so, to the benefit of all," said Londsorf, a researcher at the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment.

To better understand the value created by farmers who cultivate habitat for bees, researchers looked at wild bee ecology, crop values and land ownership patterns in Yolo County, California.

Many of the farmers in the fertile Central Valley country grow bee-dependent crops like berries and nuts, which are worth thousands of dollars per acre.

RELATED Grooming bees help boost colony immunity

It's the opportunity costs, not the startup costs, that keep farmers from cultivating habitat for wild bees, researchers say.

Attracting wild bees is often as simple is letting a patch of land grow wild -- bees benefit from a patch of wild grasses and flowers amidst the rows of commercial crops.

According to the calculations of Londsorf and his colleagues, if 40 percent of farmers in Yolo County grew wild bee habitat, they would miss out on roughly $1 million of revenue, but would generate almost $2.5 million for their neighbors.

RELATED Pesticides harm honeybee nursing behavior, larval development, video shows

Researchers suggest the USDA and other federal agencies take the lead in organizing programs to help farmers coordinate their pollination efforts, ensuring the costs and benefits of cultivating wild bee habitat is shared.

"This is about tackling the tragedy of the commons, the idea that what's good for society isn't always what's good for a particular individual," said study co-author Taylor Ricketts.

"This research shows how and where working together can really increase the benefits for everyone, and just as important: where it won't," said Ricketts, director of the Gund Institute for Environment at the University of Vermont.

RELATED Iowa farm group restoring habitat for bees, fish

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