Melamine is an industrial chemical that gives the appearance of higher protein levels in food.  The ubiquitous connection between China and melamine began with the pet food scandal of early 2007.  The melamine in milk story broke just after the Beijing Olympics, and I believe it is widely accepted that government authorities knew about it before the Olympics, but hid the information for fear of embarrassment. 

China may be substituting the "perp-walk" for actual food safety change.  Put nine guys on trial, but don't do much systemically. 

The following is another piece by CPA Director, Charles Blum, also the founder of the International Advisory Services Group, Ltd.

THE THREE R’S

Those of us educated in the dark ages of the last century at least benefited from an unwavering emphasis on the “three R’s.”  We learned not only to read, write and do our sums, but also to spell creatively, thereby facilitating modern marketing.
 
In dealing with the economic crisis, the new administration is not likely to have the same freedom.  It’s got to get its own set of three R’s – relief, recovery, and restructuring – right and right from the start.  Larry Summers’ op ed piece in yesterday’s Washington Post (“Obama’s Down Payment”) suggested a promising direction.  The incoming economic point man touted Obama’s program in the works, the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan,” as a way of supporting the “jobs and incomes essential for recovery while also making a down-payment on our nation’s long-term financial health.”

Milt Heft is a CPA member from Colorado.  He is the president of Petrogen, Inc. in Colorado Springs.  These are his thoughts on trade, the economy, government oversight, and the proposed auto industry bailout.

 The automobile industry is not in trouble; it is our country that is in trouble.  GM is simply shutting down its least profitable unit. GM has factories in 35 countries; if GM closed its Indian or Chinese operations it is quite possible that not a single American news agency would report it in any meaningful way.
 
Ford just opened the world’s most modern automobile production facility in the world, in Brasil.
 
Chrysler may be the one auto company in real trouble: they sold the New York Chrysler building to the Sultan of Dubai.  Daimler, the German company who first bought Chrysler, dropped it like a hot potato after only a very, very short time.  Daimler sold it to Cerebrus, an American ”private equity” company which now employs Dan Quayle, John Snow, and several other ex-high-officials of former administrations.  You would be surprised at the other holdings of Cerebrus, like Mervyns, GMAC, Air Canada, Albertsons, and many others in many countries.  They took a risk and now want a bail-out.