On July 3, Indonesia’s Mount Soputan, on the Sulawesi island chain, erupted. An ash cloud went 5,000 meters (16,404 feet) high. An evacuation zone of 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) was ordered.
This is the second Indonesian volcano to erupt this year. In March, Mount Karangetang, also on the Sulawesi island chain, spewed lava and gas clouds, forcing thousands to evacuate.
The Chinese government is contemplating another increase for interest rates, in an attempt to fight off inflation.
On top of that, the Chinese government has ordered banks to tighten their hold on cash. Currently Chinese banks are required to hold back 21.5% of their cash. The increase in capital reserves, as it’s sometimes called, is intended to slowdown lending. Lending is another way to drive up inflation.
However, the Bank of China issued a report that says increasing interest rates, and forcing banks to cut back on lending by increasing their capital reserves, is not having any immediate affect on inflation. That’s because Chinese banks went on a huge lending spree, which flooded the economy with so much money that it will take some time before inflation is brought under control.
In a previous report, it was estimated by a Chinese government audit, that local governments (just local governments) are now in debt by $1.65 trillion.
Estee Lauder Group announced they will be raising prices on their various makeup brands by 8% to 10%.
Corporate officials are blaming the price rise on the increased cost of labor, and resources.
Estee Lauder Group is not the first cosmetics company to raise their prices. Earlier in the year Christian Dior, Lancome, Biotherm, Chanel and others announced prices increases.
“We will continue to monitor the situation and evaluate whether this bodes a further slowdown for business activity and economic growth.”-Cai Jin, China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing
China continues to see evidence of economic slowdown, as the non-manufacturing sector shows slowed growth for second month in a row.
The slowdown in non-manufacturing (things like basic resources for bigger companies) is blamed on declining orders from the manufacturing sector. Manufacturers are cutting back because of declining orders from their international customers.
China is the world’s second largest economy. If the slowdown in their economy continues, it could be a sign that there is no global economic recovery.
“People think jobs create wealth, they don’t, they don’t. It is being done by capital instruments [loans].”-Rodney Shakespeare, Trisakti University
A British economist with Trisakti University, in London, U.K., says ‘wealth’ is now actually created by big banks, and the big banks totally control the U.S.
The ‘wealth’ is created by the interest and fees the banks charge on their loans (capital instruments), and their money is fake: “The banks do not lend existing money. They create money out of nothing. They add administration costs and they add interest and then they lend it for anything. And that is where you’ve gone horribly wrong.”
The real money, the ‘wealth’, comes from individuals, governments and corporations paying back the loans the got from the big banks. Essentially the banks are making big money for themselves, from nothing (why else do they keep reporting huge profits in a bad economy).
Over the past few decades, big western banks have been gaining control by making as many people, governments and corporations addicted to living off of their loans. A tiny elite of people are benefiting: “Of course the banks and financial elites think this is a marvelous idea, because it effectually means that all the time they can ‘cream off’ what is essentially a ‘tax’…”
There are two answers Professor Shakespeare suggested; share the ‘wealth’ by spreading the benefits of capital instruments (bank loans) amongst the people, or: “…an uprising against what could be summarized as ‘banker occupation’. Until that happens there’s no chance of new thinking coming into being.”
I can only think of mass default on loans to be the most destructive way to rise up against “banker occupation”. This would involve not only individuals, but governments and corporations as well.
According to the Idaho Department of Labor, corporate executives based in Idaho, used unemployment benefits to float their companies (because of the bad economy).
The executives, who own their companies, would apply for unemployment benefits claiming they had lost their executive position. They would then use the money to float the company that they held controlling stock in. It was all legal.
As of now they can’t do that anymore. Idaho lawmakers created a new law that says corporate executives applying for unemployment benefits must prove they have no ownership in the company they had worked for. The new law affects about 30,000 executives in Idaho.
However, the new law allows corporate executives to stop paying into the corporate unemployment system. In Idaho unemployment taxes are paid by employers, not employees, but employers can be eligible for a refund.
“We still have quite a few cherries (in this year’s crop), but it’s down from what I normally see. Maybe two-thirds of what we had last year.”-Paul Pinard, cherry farmer Emmett, Idaho
Because of a lack of global warming in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, there are going to be a lot fewer cherries, and a lot later. The cooler than normal weather is affecting the $573 million cherry market.
Chubbuck, Idaho, July 2, 2011
Last year, in Washington, Idaho, Montana and Utah, as many as 7 million boxes of cherries were packed. This year the commercial cherry farmers will be lucky to get 2 million.
On top of that, cherry picking season ends in June, but not this year, many cherries aren’t even ready.
I can vouch for that. I have a cherry tree, and I’ve been wondering what the heck is going on. Not only have the cherries not fully developed, but they’re shriveling and dying. Normally, by the end of May I’m swamped with too many cherries for me and my kids to eat, but this year…it looks like nothing.
Chubbuck, Idaho, July 2, 2011
Another factor in driving up prices for cherries, is that demand is up.
But it’s not just Cherries that are being negatively affected. The asparagus picking started late, and northwest growers associations are reporting delays in melons, peaches and corn.
So even if you try to grow your own, to keep from paying higher prices at he store, Mother Earth just won’t let it happen.
The Idaho State Police released the 2010 crime stats, and surprisingly the number of most types of crimes, statewide, went down, including violent crime.
But there was an increase in “crimes against society”, of which drug and prostitution crimes made up the most. Crimes Against Society include drug crimes, prostitution, pornography crimes, weapons crimes and gambling crimes.
There was a 7.3% increase in overall Crimes Against Society in 2010, with drug crimes seeing a 8% increase, and prostitution seeing a 54.5% increase.
The top three drug crimes in Idaho are: Possessing/Concealing, Using/Consuming and Distributing/Selling, in that order.
Idaho saw not only an increase in adults being arrested for drug crimes, but juveniles as well. There doesn’t seem to be a favorite drug, based on confiscation numbers. Some numbers went down while others went up.
The ISP report doesn’t give much more information on prostitution crimes, other than demographic information (more men arrested than women).
I’m wondering if the increase in drug crimes, and prostitution, are a reflection of the bad economic situation in Idaho? Crime reports don’t normally deal with the “why” of a crime, the Law doesn’t usually care about that.
For a detailed PDF of the report go to the Idaho State Police web site.
In May, International Monetary Fund boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn was arrested just after he got on a plane for France. He was charged with raping a hotel maid, and humiliated by the U.S. mainstream media who basically convicted him without waiting for a trial to be held.
Strauss-Kahn ended up resigning as IMF boss, and even had his hopes of running for President of France destroyed. Now New York police and prosecutors say they were wrong!
When this first went down I speculated that this whole thing had something to do with his running for President of France.
Prosecutors are now working with Strauss-Kahn over the possibility of dropping all charges. It turns out that the hotel worker is involved in drug running and money laundering. Police investigators admit she constantly changed her story about what happened. They also have a tape recording of the woman talking to a man in prison about how to fabricate a rape claim against Strauss-Kahn.
Isn’t it convenient that all this comes out after Strauss-Kahn’s career and political ambitions have been destroyed? He must’ve been a threat to someone powerful.
“We are considering quitting the European market because the import duty is far beyond our ability to withstand.”-Wu Jianfeng, Hongyu Ceramics
Chinese media reporting that many small Chinese manufactures are in trouble, because they can no longer afford to send products to Europe.
In March the European Union jacked up its import duties on Chinese ceramics from just 3% to 73%! If you study the world wide depression of the 1920-30s you’ll find that protectionist measures, like outrageous import duties, helped turn a recession into a depression.