All posts by Hutchins AAron

Born in Deutschland 1965, hometown was Bütthart, parents were not U.S. government employees. However, when father was tricked into joining the U.S. Air Force Civil Service, in 1969, with the promise that we could remain in Germany, we were promptly shipped off to Iran. Due to one of my Iranian educators being disappeared, along with her husband, by the U.S. ally Shah of Iran's Israeli & U.S. created Savak (for the then official terrorist act of promoting the idea that women can vote), and due to my U.S. citizen mother being placed on Savak's Terrorist Arrest List (for supporting the idea that women should vote, at that time the U.S. ally Shah of Iran did not allow women to vote, now they can) we left Iran for the United States in 1973, literally in the middle of the night. At the U.S. Embassy airbase the CIA operated Gooney Bird (C-47) was so packed with other U.S. citizens fleeing our ally Iran (because the Shah gave the OK to arrest any U.S. citizen for such terrorist acts as promoting the concept of voting) that we were turned away by the Loadmaster and had to take a chance on a civilian flight out of Tehran's airport. My father told me he and my mother had three culture shocks; first when they arrived in Germany as civilians, then after being shipped off to Iran as U.S. government employees, then again returning to the United States as unemployed civilians (because so much had changed in the U.S. while they were gone, their only news source was the U.S. Armed Forces Radio & Television Service which heavily censored information about the home front). Since I graduated high school in 1982 I've worked for U.S. government contractors and state & local government agencies (in California), convenience store manager in California, retail/property management in Georgia, California and Idaho. Spent the 1990s in the TV news business producing number one rated local news programs in California, Arizona and Idaho. 14+ years with California and Idaho Army National Guard and the U.S. Air Force. Obtained a BA degree in International Studies from Idaho State University at the age of 42. Unemployed since 2015, so don't tell me the economy has recovered.
International, U.S.

Taliban on the Run? Taliban shoot down 2nd U.S. CH-47 since Saturday, a 3rd makes emergency landing

On Saturday, August 6, a CH-47 Chinook helicopter was shot down in Wardak Province, Afghanistan, killing all on board, including members of the elite SEAL team.  Now the Taliban claim they’ve shot down a 2nd Chinook.

Monday, August 8, a Chinook with 33 personnel onboard was shot down near Zarmat city, in Paktia Province in eastern Afghanistan.  It’s believed all 33 were killed.  The Taliban say they shot it down.

On Sunday, August 7, another Chinook made a crash landing in the same province.  The area has been secured by NATO troops and an investigation is underway.

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

After being taken over by the U.S. taxpayers, and constantly being bailed out, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac finally get downgraded

When the credit crisis hit in 2007/2008 the biggest mortgage lenders in the U.S., Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, suddenly became too big to fail and were taken over by the U.S. government.  The move had U.S. taxpayers providing the mortgage giants with almost consistent quarterly bailouts.

Now Standard & Poor’s has downgraded their credit rating, from triple A, to double A+.  ‘Bout time!

The two mortgage companies, along with a third called Ginnie Mae, guarantee 80% of the mortgages in the United States.  Fannie and Freddie have received $141 billion in taxpayer bailouts, so far.

Standard & Poor’s is also downgrading U.S. Federal Home Loan banks.  Federal Home Loan banks support consumer credit by providing money to other banks, in the form of bank to bank loans.

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Group of 7 decide to answer the U.S. debt problem by flooding markets with liquidity, won’t that create Hyperinflation?

The European Central Bank, and the Group of 7 top industrialized countries, decided to deal with the credit rating downgrade of the United States by flooding international markets with liquidity.

Liquidity=cash and bank deposits.

One of the problems with this recession is that banks, and other financial institutions as well as big corporations, have been money hording.  Lending has not taken place as President Obama had hoped (at least to small businesses and individuals).  The result is that the ‘big guys’ have a lot of liquidity sitting around doing nothing (by the way something like this happened right before the Great Depression).

Now the international community has decided to flood the international markets with that liquidity.

So far we’ve seen inflation, albeit a mild inflation for most of the world, but get ready to see inflation like you’ve never seen before when all that money hits the markets.  You see, when there is a lot of money available to buy a lot of things, it automatically drives up prices.

Some people might think the stories of Germans using wheelbarrows full of cash to buy a loaf of bread, during their Hyperinflation of the 1920s (which helped lead to the Great Depression in the United States), is just an exaggeration.  It is not.  I’ve read the accounts, and I’ve even seen silent newsreels showing people lining up with wheelbarrows full of worthless Deutschmarks at bakeries.

This happened because the Weimar government thought by printing more money, in essence flooding the public with liquidity, that people would be able to buy the products they needed, products that were already experiencing inflation.  The flooding of money into the German consumer market made the situation worse, creating hyperinflation.

The following is from Wikipedia, on hyperinflation: Hyperinflation becomes visible when there is an unchecked increase in the money supply… also… Hyperinflation is often associated with wars (or their aftermath), currency meltdowns, political or social upheavals, or aggressive bidding on currency exchanges. Mmmm, sound familiar?

 

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Japanese economist predict negative GDP for Japan, blames the United States

Several private economic research firms, in Japan, are predicting GDP for Japan will go south for the 3rd quarter.

As many as ten research firms say Japan’s GDP could contract by as much 4.7% for the next economic quarter.  They blame the decline on a huge reduction in consumer spending, both in Japan, and in other countries, made worse by the U.S. debt.

A few economist predict positive GDP for Japan, but that is totally dependent upon the debt problems of the United States.  It’s the international concern over the debt of the U.S. that has most Japanese economists warning of a crash in Japan’s economy.

Opinion, U.S.

Mitt’s Mystery Money NOT explained by latest admissions, Romney is just more Washington DC BS

Once upon a time, very recently, candidate for U.S. president Mitt Romney got three donations from three companies that were created solely to give Mitt Romney money.

The main stream media is focusing on a now defunct company named W Spann LLC.  The property owner, where the company was supposedly located in New York, says no such company ever took up residence.

Now a man named Ed Conard comes forward and says he created W Spann LLC for the sole purpose of giving Mitt Romney money.  Conrad “closed” down his company immediately after giving Romney the money.  Why would you need to create a fake company to give someone money?

But this is just the tip of the iceberg, and the mainstream media seems to be ignoring the rest of the iceberg.  The fact is that one of Romney’s super PACs called “Restore our Future” (an oxymoron of a title) got three, not one, but three mysterious million dollar contributions from three mysterious companies.

Ed Conrad claims he’s the creator of one of those companies, W Spann LLC.  The other two are in Provo, Utah.

Interestingly the two companies in Utah have the same address.  One company is known as Eli Publishing L.C., the other company is called F8 LLC.

Eli Publishing L.C. was founded by Steven J Lund.  The address is 86 N University Ave Suite 420 Provo, Utah 84601.  A local Fox news affiliate (Fox 13), in Provo, caught up with Lund and asked him why he created a company to give Mitt Romney money.  Lund said there were accounting advantages in donating money to politicians through a corporation.

F8 LLC was founded by Jeremy S Blickenstaff. The address is 86 N University Ave Suite 420 Provo, Utah 84601.  Blickenstaff is refusing to talk to the media.

Fox 13 news says they went to the address and found an accounting company at Suite 420, who’s employees claim to have no connection to Eli Publishing L.C., or F8 LLC.   What Fox news didn’t point out is that the address, 86 N University Ave, is also the location of one of several Wells Fargo banks in Provo.

The corporate info on the companies can be found at utah.gov.  There are other companies using the name Eli Publishing, so don’t confuse them.

The real issue here is that a politician named Mitt Romney wants to be elected president, on the grounds that there needs to be change in Washington DC (the usual reason), and that his experience with business finance makes him the right choice.  But the problem in Washington DC is money, how it’s used, how it’s acquired, the corruption and shady deals.  That’s why this country is facing financial disaster.  Yet Mitt Romney has no problem with supporters setting up fake shady corporations for the sole purpose of donating shady mystery money to his campaign?

Sounds like with Mitt Romney you get the same ol’ Washington DC BS.

Official complaints have been filed with the Federal Election Commission, and the U.S. Department of Justice.

Fukushima, Technology

Corporate Incompetence: Fukushima Daiichi water decontamination system crashes!

Ever since Tokyo Electric Power Company  installed a water decontamination and recirculation system, they’ve had problems after problems.  Now the entire system has crashed.

The system includes filters and pumps designed in the United States and France.  The idea is to decontaminate the massive amount of radioactive water flooding into the basements of the reactor buildings, then re-use that water to cool the unstable reactors.

The most common problem, in the many weeks since it’s installation, has been the fact that the decontamination part is not working well, the radiation levels are not being reduced to a level TEPCo would like (this is another proof that radiation levels coming out of the reactors are much higher than TEPCo would like to admit).

The next most common problem is that pumps keep failing.  This time all the pumps have failed, including the back up pumps.

Beginning Thursday, 04 August 2011, pumps began failing.  By Saturday, 06 August, all the pumps were down.  As usual TEPCo does not know why, and is investigation to find out why!!!

TEPCo is planning on hooking up a Japanese designed filters and pumps to the system, as if that’s the solution.

International

Mexico reports success fighting Dengue Fever

In the state of Oaxaca, cases of Dengue have been reduced by 80%, compared to 2010.  Last year, at the same time, there were more than 1,000 cases, this year 255 so far.

How’d they do it?  Oaxaca officials are praising various efforts, including mosquito eradication.

State officials are not only overseeing vector control in cities, but individual homes as well.  They’ve also had a special focus on tourist areas.

Vector (pests that spread disease) control, includes keeping properties cleaned up and organized, especially getting rid of standing water, and keeping necessary water sources covered.

International, U.S.

U.S. citizen arrested for smuggling ammo into Mexico

The Mexican government says Mexican police arrested a woman after they discovered her shopping cart filled with 3,500 rounds of ammo.

The woman, a U.S. citizen, was heading from El Paso, Texas, to Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua.  Police say she admitted to being part of the gun running from the United States: “The woman said she was traveling to the downtown area of ​​Ciudad Juarez, where some people deliver military equipment.”-Mexican Attorney General’s Office

Mexican officials says the ammunition was made in Russia, Korea, Brazil, United States and even Mexico.

Business/Economics, International

What Economic Recovery? Germany says no more bailout money for Italy

Der Spiegel is reporting that German government officials doubt any more bailout money can save Italy, even if the current European Financial Stability Fund was tripled in size.

German officials have consistently said government finance reforms must come through spending cuts, and tax reform, not taking on more loans.

Currently the European Financial Stability Fund has $627 billion (440 billion Euros), and Germany says even if that was somehow tripled it wouldn’t be enough to save Italy.

Earlier in the week the European Central Bank started buying more government bonds from smaller European countries, but refused to buy any bonds from Italy and Spain (an indication that the bank has little confidence in those countries paying them back).

 

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Emergency World meeting over U.S. credit downgrade, China says no more U.S. dollar, Germany says finally the U.S. gets what it deserves

“The U.S. government has to come to terms with the painful fact that the good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its own making are finally gone.”-Chinese government/media commentary

The European Central Bank will hold an emergency meeting on Sunday, August 7.  The issue; the credit rating downgrade for the United States.

Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 7 major industrialized nations will meet by telephone on Sunday.  The broader Group of 20 were due to hold a conference call Saturday evening.

China and Japan are calling for coordinated action to avoid a new worldwide financial crisis.  One issue that’s being looked at is whether the world can continue to use the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency: “International supervision over the issue of U.S. dollars should be introduced and a new, stable and secured global reserve currency may also be an option to avert a catastrophe caused by any single country.”-Chinese government/media commentary

Another issue to be discussed is the amount of secure debt versus risky debt: “It will weigh on secure assets. The bigger reaction will be on risky assets, including equities and on agencies and states backed directly by the federal government. U.S. Treasuries will remain a benchmark. This is a ship which takes a long time to turn around.”-Ciaran  O’Hagan, Societe Generale in Paris.

Germany, the economic powerhouse of Europe, says it’s about time the U.S. got what it deserves: “I’m not surprised about the U.S. rating downgrade, rather I am astonished that, for weeks, international rating agencies have focused their attention on the European debt situation but not the American one. For a while, there have been clear worries about America’s economic woes but also the fact the U.S. is heavily indebted.”-Norbert Barthle, a budget expert for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative party