Category Archives: Business/Economics

Business/Economics, U.S.

Class War: Protesters continue to pound the pavement in front of Wall Street, main stream media criticizes, youth unemployment higher in U.S. than in Egypt

September 23, I have to admit that most of the pics coming out of Wall Street show what look like young hippie wannabes (there are pics of old women wearing yellow ponchos that read “Granny Peace Brigade”) but what else are they gonna do?

When a society has such a high unemployment rate for young people this is bound to happen.  The U.S. Census Bureau says unemployment for young adults is 44.7%!!!

Young people led the revolution in Egypt.  What’s the unemployment rate for young people in Egypt?  According to a February 2011 report by the International Monetary Fund, 25% of Egyptian youth are unemployed.  Mmmm, and there’s 44.7% of U.S. young adults unemployed?

Yet the main stream (corporate controlled) U.S. media continues to ignore the Wall Street protesters, most likely hoping they’ll just go away.  Some newspapers are criticizing the protesters.

On September 21, an Indiana University newspaper called the Wall Street protests the “Ultimate fail”, and accused the protests of being instigated by Canada.

Also on September 21, the Associated Press wrote “What, exactly, they are protesting is somewhat unclear.”, then went on to list the ‘demands’.

On September 22, the Post Chronicle even blamed Barack Obama!  “With millions of Americans unemployed, and millions of others losing their home and their savings, the almost constant anti-capitalist rhetoric — about Wall Street and corporate “fat cats” and “billionaires and millionaires not paying their fair share” — by elected leaders such as President Barack Obama, Senator Harry Reid, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi and others is starting to take it’s toll.”

So this writer at the Post Chronicle blames politicians, who’re actually very Wall Street friendly, for the Wall Street protests, despite the fact that the very same writer mentions the true reasons for the protests: “…millions of Americans unemployed, and millions of others losing their home and their savings…”

Classic case of not seeing the forest because of the trees.

Yahoo even blocked protester’s emails from getting through: “People trying to email information about the Wall Street protests on Monday using Yahoo mail, found themselves on the receiving end of messages from Yahoo claiming ‘suspicious activity’.”

My son admitted to me that if it wasn’t for the fact that he finally got a job, after more than a year of looking for one, he’d be on his way to join the protesters on Wall Street.  If corporate America doesn’t want people protesting in front of their Mecca, the answer is very simple, give them jobs!!! 

 

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Census Bureau shows the United States is no longer the prefered destination for immigrants

September 23, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of legal immigrants moving to the United States dropped off after the year 2000.

According to the American Community Survey (ACS) the percentage of “Foreign Born: Entered before 2000” immigrants who responded to the survey (includes those who became U.S. citizens and those who still aren’t) was 65.3%.

The percentage of “Foreign Born: Entered 2000 or later” immigrants drops to 34.7%.

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? No Xmas cheer at Toys R Us

September 22, Toys R Us announced they will not hire as many holiday employees as in the past.

“It looks to me like they are preparing for lowered spending and will be very cautious about hiring people until they really know they need them.”-John Challenger, analyst

Last end of year holiday season, Toys R Us hired about 45,000 temporary employees. This year Toys R Us will be hard pressed to hire 40,000.

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

Class War: Wall Street protesters still at it, people from all over the U.S. are there, wearing a mask can get you arrested

“There’s a major divide between the rich and the poor in this country. One in 10 people are unemployed and my vote is nullified by corporate lobbyists.”-Alexander Holmes, from Oakland, California

People from main street U.S.A. are protesting on corporate America’s Wall Street. They started on September 17, and they’re still going!

New York Times reported at least six arrests by September 19.  Two men and a woman were arrested for wearing ski masks.  It is illegal in New York city for two or more people to wear masks in public, I wounder what’s gonna happen at Halloween?

Another man was arrested after he told police that he was having trouble walking.  Another woman was arrested after she wrote something on the sidewalk with chalk.

The New York Times confirmed that people are coming from all over the U.S. such as Massachusetts, Michigan, Virginia, New Jersey and Washington State.

Protesters say they’ve been inspired by the Arab Spring uprisings, and they hope to continue protesting just as long as their Arab peers have.

Business/Economics, International

Proof that India’s economy is booming: World’s first Gold plated car

The Indian car maker, Tata, unveiled what it claims is the world’s first Jewelry car.

It has about 80 kg (176 pounds) of 22 karat gold, approximately 15 kg (33 pounds) of silver and 10,000 gemstones.  Gold is about U.S. $1,700 per ounce!  Silver is about U.S. $40.00 per ounce. 16 ounces in one pound.  That means that the little Tata Nano car is worth, in just the value of the gold and silver, $4.8 million!

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Class War, What Economic Recovery? Yet another former U.S. Treasury Secretary says no way, because Corporate America is causing the problem, yes it is a Class War

“Wall Street is energized about its profits, and it makes its profits by arbitraging labor. So if you lay off an American worker who makes $20.00 an hour, and you hire a Chinese or Indian worker who earns $1.00 and hour, you can put $19.00 an hour in your profit pocket!  And that is what has been going on for 15 years.” -Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of U.S. Treasury

Roberts says there is nothing that the President, or Congress can do to stop the fall of the United States, unless they can stop U.S. corporations from moving jobs overseas: “Interest rates are near zero. There are no home buyers because between 1/4th and 1/5th of the work force is unemployed!  And millions of Americans have been dispossessed of their homes…And the Middle Class jobs, millions of Middle Class jobs have been moved, by the corporations, abroad.”

Roberts says Corporate America is actually screwing over the U.S. government in the long run: “As the jobs move off, what moves with it is the tax base, the consumer income that formerly supported the American consumer demand, and the Gross Domestic Product of the economy.”

Roberts sees no hope for the U.S. main street economy as long as Wall Street gets its way: “So as long as Wall Street and the corporations profit by moving American jobs to countries where labor costs are substantially lower, there can be no recovery of the American economy!”

Paul Craig Roberts is the second former U.S. Treasury official to come out and make such statements.  Recently, former U.S. Treasury Secretary, Lawrence Summers, said the United States is “collapsing”.

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

World War 3: French lawyers to charge Sarkozy with War Crimes, French technology helped Gaddafi to escape

Lawyers in France accuse President Nicolas Sarkozy, of committing crimes against humanity.  The attorneys say they witnessed it with their own eyes in Libya: “They are using missiles with depleted uranium, which cause cancer. In Tripoli I saw people crippled by NATO attacks, office workers who have nothing to do with the fighting. That is why we are suing President Sarkozy for crimes against humanity.”-Jacques Verges, attorney

The attorneys say the NATO air strikes were against civilians to begin with, there were no military targets, only “Books, videos, Spiderman toys, cultural books, nothing military.”

One French attorney said the bombing of Libyan civilians by NATO is a tactic in the strategy to overthrow Gaddafi: “After five months of daily NATO bombs and thousands of deaths, people will stop supporting the [Gaddafi] regime, because they just can’t take it anymore.”-Marcel Ceccaldi, attorney

By the way such a policy of attacking the civilian population to undermine their support for their government, was created by Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman, during the War Between the States (U.S. Civil War 1861-1865).  It’s still official U.S. military policy, it’s justified by using the term “dual use” targets.

Another French lawyer is so convinced of a conspiracy against Gaddafi, by France, that he’s willing to defend Gaddafi in court, if he’s ever caught:“If they find him they’ll kill him. Like Bin Laden. Some states are now claiming the right to kill, against all international law.”-Roland Dumas, former French Foreign Minister

To further complicate matters, new captured documents reveal that Gaddafi was sold a French modified armored German Mercedes 4×4, that has the capability to act as a military command & control center, and avoid tracking by NATO: “It’s a huge embarrassment for the French government, as it emerges that President Sarkozy sold, in 2008, a 3.5 million pound (U.S. $5.5 million) car to Colonel Gaddafi which has allowed him to escape. It is a state of the art armored vehicle. It’s equipped with a commander system which allows Colonel Gaddafi to keep in touch with his forces. But it is also equipped with an anti-tracking system which makes it impossible for NATO surveillance to pick up any signals, and indeed to locate and target the car.”-Nabila Ramdani, journalist/political analyst

It’s also becoming clear that part of the French desire to get rid of Gaddafi is partly because he backed out of military deals with France, in favor of deals with Russia: President Sarkozy was hoping to sell Colonel Gaddafi fighter jets, Rafale jets at that time, but the deal fell through when Colonel Gaddafi was able to buy those jets from Russia instead.”-Nabila Ramdani

International Criminal Court:  EUROPEAN UNION NOW ADMITS TO HELPING THE UNITED STATES COMMIT WAR CRIMES

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

World War 3: India & Vietnam to join forces against China, fight over South China Sea oil fields

Since the beginning of the year, tensions have grown over territorial rights to oil fields in the South China Sea.  Now Vietnam is making a deal with India, to counter China’s military might.

India and Vietnam agreed in Hanoi, on September 16, to strengthen security ties and jointly develop oil fields in the South China Sea.  China claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea.

Recently the new Prime Minister of Japan, Yoshihiko Noda, indicated that his national security plan would involve taking territories that Japan believes is theirs. That includes islands in the South China Sea.

The South China Sea has potentially the largest oil reserves in the world (it’s the real reason the U.S. was at war in Vietnam).  China, Japan, Philippines and Vietnam (now along with India) have been rushing to develop the oil fields for their own use.

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Occupy America Corporate Rip Off: Gas prices in Idaho go up despite most of the U.S. seeing prices go down, blame decreased production

September 19, gas prices in Idaho are about 70 cents above the national average.  One local TV station tried to give the usual explanation by saying it’s a mix of regional demand and state taxes.  FAIL!

I just checked on demand, and according to the latest numbers from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, demand for gasoline across the country is still below last year’s numbers.  On August 26, 2011, the four week average demand for gasoline was at 9.169 million barrels per day.  Compare that to the four week average of a year ago at 9.261 million barrels.  So there is a slight decrease in demand.

Regarding fuel taxes; there has been no increase in Idaho fuel taxes since 1996!

What is happening is that production of fuels has been dropping.  In other words, production is falling faster than demand, and that has the same effect as demand going up; prices go up (when there is less of something, in relation to demand, it becomes more valuable).

According to U.S. Energy Information Administration, PADD 4 gasoline production is down from last year. PADD 4 includes Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming.  The four week average for “finished gas” production, for August 2011 was 0.273 million barrels per day.  Compared to last year’s production of 0.296.

In other words, fuel producers are deliberately keeping production just under ‘demand’ in order to keep prices high.