Category Archives: Business/Economics

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Class Warfare: More proof Fiscal Cliff is a done deal to screw over taxpayers! End of part one in the ongoing Fiscal Cliff Hanger saga!

“We Republicans need to be willing to tolerate a temporary, partial government shutdown, which is what that could mean.”-Pat Toomey, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania

“Go fuck yourself!”-John Boehner, Speaker of the House, reply to Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader

“More remains to be done to put U.S. public finances back on a sustainable path without harming the still fragile recovery.”-Gerry Rice, International Monetary Fund (IMF), commenting on the so called fiscal cliff deal in the United States

“As the IMF have said, anything short of a deep and wide reaching resolution will not be good enough this time around.”–Wayne Swan, Treasurer of Australia, commenting on the so called fiscal cliff deal in the United States

The so called budget agreement to avoid a fiscal cliff (austerity measures) is a total sham.  As I posted before, this fiscal cliff is a done deal.

Proof is the fact that there will be across the board 2% income/payroll tax increases for everyone, not just the wealthy!  So much for some of those states that recently raised their mandatory minimum wage levels (or maybe that’s why they raised it, they knew what was coming).

One small business owner said he can not afford to try and help his employees deal with the increased income tax by giving them a raise: “Any business that survived the recession did so by digging a big hole. We can’t dig any deeper.”-Mike Brey, Hobby Works

The 2% payroll tax increase comes as a temporary decrease on Social Security taxes ended with the first round of fiscal cliff BS.  That’s right, this is just first round.  Despite what the incompetent main stream U.S. TV media is reporting, there are more fiscal cliff hangers coming.

According to many economists, this latest deal does not cut spending enough, or at all, and the amount of increase in taxes is piddly, so the end result is deeper government debt.

Over the next two months there will be more fiscal cliff hangers, over the national debt ceiling, more taxes and government spending cuts.  Isn’t this what we’ve been seeing in several European countries in the past couple of years?

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

2013, there will be Martial Law in the United States! Source: Police

“Things are going down hill very quickly…..they’re [government forces] looking for it [martial law/civil collapse] to happen….they’re training to take us [U.S. citizens] down.”-Lt McCoy, police officer from North Carolina

On 28 December 2012, a Lieutenant McCoy claiming to be with a police department in the state of North Carolina called into a Christian radio show, called Call to Decision, and gave details of how martial law training is taking place in the Old North State/Tar Heel State.

McCoy believes a Martial (military) Law event will take place in the next two to three months, possibly directly related to economic collapse.  He stated that “…they’ll start to move and they’ll start picking out certain people, making confiscations and arrests…..be prepared, defend yourself and your family……from the information I’ve been able to gather, it’s [orchestrated economic collapse/Martial Law] kinda gonna come in altogether at one time, so they can’t blame the government but they can blame us [local police].”

McCoy says the info he’s relaying is not “hearsay” but information he was told directly.    You can hear the December radio program by clicking hear, the interview with McCoy is more than halfway through the show.

Butch Paugh, of the Call to Decision radio show, says he will do a full length interview with McCoy on 02 January 2013, and hopefully reveal more about what is happening in North Carolina, and the rest of the United States.

Business/Economics, Idaho, International, Technology, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Hewlett Packard on the ropes, and going down! Blames War on Terror!

“Terrorist acts, conflicts of wars (wherever located throughout the world) may cause damage or disruption to HP, our employees, facilities, partners, suppliers, distributors, resellers or customers or adversely affect our ability to manage logistics……..The potential for future attacks, the national and international responses……or wars, including ongoing military operations in Afghanistan, have created many economic and political uncertainties……actions against or by the United States may impact our business and employees.”-HP Form 10-K, Security & Exchange Commission report, 27 December 2012

Hewlett Packard filed a 10-K report with the U.S. SEC, and it’s full of what if scenarios, mostly bad scenarios.  Obviously the executives of HP are not positive about 2013.  Employees will continue to be shed: “The restructuring plan includes both voluntary early retirement programs and non-voluntary workforce reductions and is expected to result in 29,000 employees exiting the company by the end of the period [by the end of 2014].”   

HP is also dealing with trouble from competitors, dealers and divisions.

The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating HP’s claims that the executives of the British company Autonomy, lied about its financial situation. HP shelled out $11 billion USD for Autonomy in 2011!

After a challenge by IBM (International Business Machines) the U.S. Federal government will continue with a $543 million five year Department of Veterans Affairs contract with HP.

Despite Idaho voters rejecting a laptop for students proposition, HP was awarded a $180 million contract to provide the laptops, at least one week before the voting took place!!!

Skycom Tech, a business partner of Chinese company Huawei, tried to sell $1.72 million worth of HP communication equipment to an Iranian company, some say in violation of U.S./European sanctions.  The deal didn’t go through, but Huawei said: “Huawei’s business in Iran is in full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations including those of the UN, U.S. and EU….”

HP officials said: “HP’s distribution contract terms prohibit the sale of HP products into Iran…”

There are reports that HP is no longer directly selling printers on Amazon. Some analysts think it’s actually retaliation by Amazon, because HP’s new Cloud computing system is in direct competition with Amazon’s own computing system.

A report out of India says a state government is investigating HP’s claims of being able to supply 1,500,000 school laptops by a certain date.  If government officials don’t think HP can make the deadline they will split up the contract to other competitors:  “If HP is found to have insufficient capacity, then it could, accordingly, get a contract to supply a reduced quantity of laptops and the remaining quantity will be divided among the bidders ready to offer the quantity at the rate quoted by HP.”-Uttar Pradesh government statement

HP and General Motors (GM) are going after each other in court.  It involves GM’s recent decision to hire away from HP 3,000 employees, to start its own inhouse tech service. HP claims it’s more than coincidence that GM’s plans to dump HP (and IBM) as tech service providers come after GM hired several HP executives to run GM’s technology operations. HP said the initial 18 HP employees hired by GM resigned “en masse and without notice.”


Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? New Kmart & Sears closings for the start of 2013. Store leases worth more than the stores themselves! Stock analyst says it’s time to dump your Sears Holdings stocks!

On 31 December 2012, the 69 employees at a North Carolina Kmart were told they were unemployed.  The Peters Creek store in Winston-Salem had been in operation since 1978.

On 22 December 2012, employees at a franchised Sears Hometown store, in the U.S. territory of Guam, were told they were now unemployed.  The franchise owner refused to comment to local media as to why he was closing the store.  The store had been in operation since December 2010.

A retail property analyst, Britt Beemer (America’s Research Group), said there were still hundreds of Kmarts with leases that are “worth millions of dollars, much more than the profit of the store”.  Those store will most likely be closed.

A stock market analyst, David Zanoni (Seeking Alpha), recently said it was time to short sell shares of Sears Holdings.  Normally he advises to hold onto stocks for the long run, but he says this about dumping Sears: “Sears Holdings is a great candidate for this as it has declining fundamentals with no positive catalysts in sight.” 

Here’s the updated list:

Arizona: Scottsdale Sears/Great Indoors, Chandler Sears/Great Indoors.

Alabama: Gadsden Kmart (50 jobs lost), Mobile Sears (at least 40 jobs lost), Auburn Kmart (at least 40 jobs lost).

California:   El Monte Sears (at least 40 jobs lost. Damien Arrula, El Monte’s economic development director, said the store manager had lied about what was going on: “The general manager of the store had just indicated to me that they were remodeling.”), two San Diego Sears (at least 80 jobs lost), Pleasant Hill Kmart (more than 50 jobs lost).

Colorado:  Broomfield Kmart (at least 40 jobs lost), Glenwood Springs Kmart (at least 40 jobs lost), Lone Tree Sears/Great Indoors, Longmont Sears (at least 40 jobs lost), Pueblos’ South Side Kmart (52 jobs lost),  Denver Kmart (number of jobs lost have not been made public at this time, but could be at least 40).

Georgia: Macon Sears (at least 40 jobs lost), Buford Kmart (at least 40 jobs lost), Douglasville Kmart (at least 40 jobs lost), Atlanta Kmart (at least 40 jobs lost), Columbus Kmart (at least 40 jobs lost), Jonesboro Kmart (at least 40 jobs lost), Cartersville Kmart (74 jobs lost).

Guam: Recently revealed Sears Hometown Store.

Florida: Fernandina Beach Kmart (at least 40 jobs lost), Callaway Kmart (at least 40 jobs lost), Orange City Kmart (at least 40 jobs lost),  Deland Sears (at least 40 jobs lost), Stuart Sears (at least 40 jobs lost), West Palm Beach Sears (at least 40 jobs lost), Port St. Lucie Sears (at least 40 jobs lost), Crystal River Sears (at least 40 jobs lost), New Smyrna Beach Kmart (at least 40 jobs lost), Saint Augustine Kmart (at least 40 jobs lost), Pompano Beach Kmart (at least 40 jobs lost),  Jacksonville Kmart on 5751 Beach Boulevard (71 jobs lost), second Kmart in Jacksonville on 4645 Blanding Boulevard (83 jobs lost), Ocoee Sears (102 jobs lost), Pensacola Kmart on Airport Boulevard closed in 2011, Pensacola Kmart on Mobile Highway to be closed by 03 February 2013 (69 jobs lost), Hialeah Kmart (67 jobs lost).

Idaho: Lewiston Sears (at least 60 jobs lost).

Indiana:  Anderson Sears (at least 40 jobs lost), Saint John Kmart (at least 40 jobs lost), Indianapolis Kmart (at least 40 jobs lost).

Illinois:  Alton Sears (at least 40 jobs lost), Melrose Park Sears parts and repair center (50 jobs lost), Zion Kmart (at least 40 jobs lost), Oak Lawn Kmart (at least 40 jobs lost), McHenry Kmart (at least 40 jobs lost), Peru Kmart (at least 40 jobs lost), Lombard Sears/Great Indoors (at least 40 jobs lost), Fairview Heights Kmart (81 jobs lost), Freeport Kmart (45 jobs lost), Pontiac Kmart (more than 47 jobs lost), Homer Glen Kmart (82 jobs lost), Streator Kmart (45 jobs lost), Lombard Kmart (70 jobs lost).  By the way, Illinois elected officials gave Sears Holdings/Hoffman Estates a $150 million USD tax break to keep their headquarters in the state.  The tax break was not tied to any promise not to close stores.

Iowa:  Cedar Rapids Kmart (at least 40 jobs lost), Davenport Kmart (at least 40 jobs lost), Burlington Kmart (50 jobs lost), Coralville Sears (94 jobs lost, this is a store sold to GGP earlier in the year).

Kansas: Lawrence Sears (at least 40 jobs lost).

Kentucky: Middlesboro Sears (in September 2012 the Sears store re-opened under independent ownership, official grand re-opening scheduled for November), Winchester Kmart (back in May, Rankin Paynter bought out what was left of the inventory and gave it to charity), Hazard Kmart (at least 40 jobs lost).

Maine: Lewiston Sears (60 to 70 jobs lost).

Maryland: Ellicott Sears (at least 40 jobs lost), Gaithersburg Sears/Great Indoors.

Michigan: Novi Sears/Great Indoors, Brighton Sears Grand/Essentials,  Harper Woods Sears Full line, Monroe Sears Full line, Adrian Sears Full line, Washington Township Kmart, Chesterfield Kmart, Woodhaven Kmart, Flint Kmart (46 jobs lost).

Minnesota: Willmar Kmart, Duluth Kmart, New Hope Kmart, White Bear Lake Kmart.

Mississippi: Jackson Sears Full line, McComb Sears Full line, Columbus Sears Full line.

Missouri: Lee’s Summit Sears Grand/Essentials, Saint Louis Sears Full line.

Montana: Missoula Kmart (50 jobs lost).

New Hampshire: Nashau Sears Grand/Essentials, Keene Sears Grand/Essentials.

North Carolina: High Point Sears, Moorehead Sears, Rocky Mount Sears, Statesville Sears, Durham Kmart (79 jobs lost), Asheville Kmart (53 jobs lost),  West Smithfield Kmart (59 jobs lost), recently revealed Winston-Salem Kmart (69 jobs lost).

New Jersey:  Lawnside Kmart (about 80 jobs lost).

Ohio: Chagrin Falls Kmart, Springfield Kmart, two Toledo Kmarts, Medina Kmart, Columbus Kmart, Columbus Sears/Great Indoors, Zanesville Sears (67 jobs lost), Trotwood Kmart (71 jobs lost).   Also, Van Wert Sears franchise bought out by Kirk Berryman, owner of Computer & Networking Technologies (CNT), who plans on moving the store to a new location.

Oklahoma: Oklahoma City Sears (98 jobs lost, GGP owned).

Oregon: Roseburg Sears (at least 40 jobs lost), Tualatin Kmart Center (new property owner from California is tearing everything down for new shopping center, so far no indication the Kmart will be part of the new shopping center).

Pennsylvania: Upper Darby Sears Full line, Pottstown Sears Full line, Pittsburgh Kmart, Wilkins Sears.

South Carolina: Sumter Sears (at least 40 jobs lost), Orangeburg Sears (approximately 50 jobs lost).

Tennessee: Antioch Sears (at least 40 jobs lost), Cleveland Sears (at least 40 jobs lost), Oak Ridge Sears (at least 40 jobs lost), Hendersonville Kmart (at least 40 jobs lost), Morristown Sears (about 70 jobs lost).

Texas: Two Sears parts and repair centers closing in The Woodlands (117 jobs lost), rebuild center in Garland (58 jobs lost), Farmers Branch Sears/Great Indoors, Houston Sears Great/Indoors.

Virginia: Norfolk Sears (at least 40 jobs lost),  Midlothian Kmart (at least 40 jobs lost), Richmond Kmart (at least 40 jobs lost), Lynchburg Sears (84 jobs lost).

Washington: Walla Walla Sears Full line (in August 2012, it was reported that an independent owner of Sears Hometown stores will open a store in Walla Walla), Lacey Kmart (at least 40 jobs lost), Kelso Sears (47 jobs lost), Lakewood Kmart (59 jobs lost), Bellingham Sears (92 jobs lost).

West Virginia: Oak Hill Kmart (59 jobs lost).

Wisconsin: West Baraboo Sears (at least 40 jobs lost, local village officials say the store generated 3% of local tax collections), Rice Lake Kmart (about 71 jobs lost).

On top of that, Sears Holdings sold stores to General Growth Properties (GGP), of which it has been reported that most of those stores will be closed.

Here’s the list of 11 Sears stores now owned by GGP:

Iowa: Coral Ridge Mall (it’s official the Sears is closing, see above), and Mall of the Bluffs

Texas: The Woodlands Mall (this does not involve the two repair centers being closed by Sears)

Florida: West Oaks Mall

Utah: Fashion Place, and Provo Towne Centre (note the evil British empire way of spelling town & center. Due to a favorable lease agreement the GGP owned Provo Sears will continue to stay open under Sears Holdings management)

Oklahoma: Quail Springs Mall (it’s official, the Sears will be closed, see above)

Hawaii: Ala Moana Center

Washington: Bellis Fair Mall (Bellingham store, see above)

Minnesota: Apache Mall

Illinois: Market Place Shopping Center

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? U.S. Treasury preparing to take “extraordinary measures”!

December 26, 2012

The Honorable Harry Reid

Majority Leader

United States Senate

Washington, DC  20510

Dear Mr. Leader:

I am writing to inform you that the statutory debt limit will be reached on December 31, 2012, and to notify you that the Treasury Department will shortly begin taking certain extraordinary measures authorized by law to temporarily postpone the date that the United States would otherwise default on its legal obligations.

These extraordinary measures, which are explained in detail in an appendix​ to this letter, can create approximately $200 billion in headroom under the debt limit.  Under normal circumstances, that amount of headroom would last approximately two months.  However, given the significant uncertainty that now exists with regard to unresolved tax and spending policies for 2013, it is not possible to predict the effective duration of these measures.  At this time, the extent to which the upcoming tax filing season will be delayed as a result of these unresolved policy questions is also uncertain.  If left unresolved, the expiring tax provisions and automatic spending cuts, as well as the attendant delays in filing of tax returns, would have the effect of adding some additional time to the duration of the extraordinary measures.  Treasury will provide more guidance regarding the expected duration of these measures when the policy outlook becomes clearer.

Sincerely,

Timothy F. Geithner

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? United Nations says it ain’t gonna happen

A recent economic report from the UN says western economies (Europe, North America, Japan) will not see any recovery of the tens of millions of job losses since 2008, for at least five more years.

UN economists point to low projected GDP numbers as proof: “This pace of growth will be far from sufficient to overcome the continued jobs crisis that many countries are still facing.”-World Economic Situation and Prospects 2013

Business/Economics, International

Corporate Evil: Mitsubishi ripped off its biggest customer; taxpayers! More proof that Western Capitalist Corporations are welfare scammers!

21 December 2012, the government of Japan is hitting Mitsubishi Electric with hundreds of millions of dollars in fines, after an investigation revealed that the manufacturing giant ripped off taxpayers for at least ten years.

Japan’s Defense Ministry says Mitsubishi Electric overcharged taxpayers on military contracts, to the tune of $295 million USD.

Japan’s JAXA space agency announced that Mitsubishi Electric overcharged the taxpayers by around $74 million.

Mitsubishi must now pay back the overcharges, plus fines, but doesn’t have the money.  But at least the executives of the Japanese company are more responsible than their U.S. unAmerican Corporate America counterparts; Mitsubishi execs will cut their pay in half for at least six months to try and help the company pay the piper (so they say).

Mitsubishi is already in trouble as their sales in China are crashing, and they expect only half of the profits they were forecasting at the beginning of the year.

Business/Economics, Opinion, U.S.

Dumb ‘mericans & Incompetent Media! Fiscal Cliff done deal! Almost the exact same politicians trying to ‘stop’ fiscal cliff are the ones who created it!

21 December 2012, I wonder how many Dumb ‘mericans out there think the “fiscal cliff” is some kind-o-god sent law, like the ten commandments.  Well, it’s a done deal but not because of any divine power, it was created by almost the very same ‘elected’ republicans and democrats who now act like they’re trying to stop it.

Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, John Boehner, cancelled 21 December’s vote on a proposal designed to draw concessions from President Barack Obama.  But don’t blame Obama, that starts with President George W. Bush, and it was Congress who wrote the law!

The tax increases and government spending cuts can be traced back to the Bush tax cuts, aka Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001.  But it’s not that simple, as it involves successive Acts passed under the Bush and Obama administrations (Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003, Tax Relief American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 [aka Stimulus] Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 and finally Budget Control Act of 2011).

All those ‘Acts’ were intended to save the economy through tax reductions and government spending increases.  However, most of the tax reductions helped only the ultra-rich and the Too Big to Fails (it’s now clear they did not spend it on creating the millions of new jobs economists said were needed), and most spending increases (like the military) came with spending cuts elsewhere (like social programs).

So almost every elected official in the U.S. Congress, now, are the same people that created those Acts, and if not the same person it’s the very same political parties controlling the House and Senate, remember the recent ‘elections’?

In their wisdom they threw in massive ‘automatic’ austerity cuts if their previous efforts to save the U.S. economy failed.  They claim they’re ‘automatic’ because they can through up their hands and say “Oh, we can’t do anything about it, it’s the law!”  Yeah, the very law they created!

And then there’s the incompetent media, who’s giving us daily reports on the ‘progress’ being made to stop the fiscal cliff.  Idiots!  It’s a done deal!  Think about it, what is(are) the plan(s) our elected officials are coming up with?  Tax increases and spending cuts!  In other words what we’re facing is either massive austerity measures or tax increases and government spending cuts.  Austerity is austerity, but if you’ve been paying attention to what’s happening in many European countries then you should know this isn’t over.  Most Euro countries (especially Greece) have been passing austerity measures, only to have to turn around and pass more tax increases and government spending cuts just a few months later.

No matter how you look at it, the Fiscal Cliff is a done deal!

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Global Food Crisis: Hundreds of squid, and thousands of herring commit mass suicide!

“I’ve never seen anything like it!”-Hlynur Pétursson, Marine Research Institute of Iceland

15 December 2012, officials in Iceland reporting that tons of valuable herring committed mass suicide.

An estimated hundreds of tons of herring beached themselves over a one square kilometer area (0.62 square miles).  Preliminary investigation found no signs of disease.  A smaller mass suicide of herring, in Iceland, took place last December.

In Santa Cruz County, California, on 11 December 2012, hundreds of squid committed mass suicide.  Even attempts to put them back in the ocean failed, they just beached themselves again. The dead squid were spread out over 19 kilometers (12 miles) of beach, from Aptos to Watsonville.

Scientists said the squid were not full grown, and had just finished feeding (they had full stomachs).  Speculation is that anything from climate change to the accidental eating of poisonous algae is the cause.  Perhaps it was some kind of early warning of the 6.4 and 6.1 magnitude offshore earthquakes that occurred just a few days later?

For many people around the world, squid and herring are important food sources.

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Yet another U.S. company (based in Utah) spends big billions, but not in the U.S., in Japan

14 December 2012, Japan’s struggling Mitsubishi Aircraft just announced it has received its largest order ever, from a U.S. company.

Utah based Skywest is buying 100 Mitsubishi Regional Jets (MRJs), with an option to buy another 100 later.

The 100 MRJs will cost Skywest $4.2 billion USD.  The planes will be delivered at least one year late, as Mitsubishi says they’re having manufacturing problems.