Category Archives: Business/Economics

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Surprise Postal Service announcement, will close distribution centers not mentioned on public Post Office closing list. Poctello, Idaho, targeted

September 15, Pocatello, Idaho, to be hit by latest USPS closings.  Local postal workers told me that the Gateway distribution center, on Flandro Road in Pocatello, could be part of the surprise announcement made by U.S. Postal Service officials today.

This would mean all east Idaho mail would be shipped off to Salt Lake City, Utah, to be sorted.

I checked the USPS mail processing facilities list of closings, and the Pocatello distribution center is the only facility in Idaho on the list!

Postal officials say it will result in much slower delivery times.  That’s not all, the USPS is considering ending First Class letter service altogether!

Local postal workers told me they were notified yesterday, September 14.  This latest announcement of closings are for as many as 252 mail processing facilities (distribution centers), cutting 35,000 jobs, across the country.  They were not listed on the recent Post Office closing list!

Local postal workers also told me that they suspect the U.S. Congress is conspiring to fully privatize the Postal Service.  There is no reason for that, since the USPS does not get any taxpayer money!!!

The United States Postal Service does not make money off taxpayers, they are solely funded by the postage they charge.  The U.S. Congress controls what the USPS can charge, and, according to testimonies by the U.S. postmaster general, Patrick Donahoe, and Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, the U.S. Congress has forced the USPS to over pay into several federal funds.

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Government Incompetence: Once again, Idaho property values down, yet government raises the property tax, blame those damn levys people keep voting for!

“Even if the budget stays the same, the levy is going to go up to compensate for the decline in value of your property.”– Chris Rich, Ada County Clerk

Ada County, Idaho, just raised their property tax rates, even though property values are down.

In fact property values dropped 42% since 2006.  But county officials say the rates are going up because people keep passing levys.  The levys are paid for by increasing property taxes, despite what many of those who trick you into passing those levys say.

Some good news for property owners; under Idaho law levys can only affect your taxes so much, until they ‘max out’. As a sign of our bad economy, many officials say the levys are very close to being maxed out.

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Drug companies pay Idaho doctors big bucks

A ProPublica report shows more than 1,000 Idaho doctors were paid by 12 drug companies, to the tune of more than $2 million within the last year.  The Idaho Board of Medicine sees no harm in it.

Some of those payments were in the form of free meals (a Boise doctor got $607 worth) in exchange for attending seminars that pushed new drugs.  Others made money giving the talks at those seminars.  A Sun Valley psychiatrist made more than $100,000 for giving such talks.

The ProPublica.org report is part of their ongoing investigation into how Corporate America, and possibly your doctor, are ripping everyone off. Many people, who’ve left comments on the ProPublica story, expressed surprise to learn their personal doctor was on the list.

Beginning in 2013, drug companies are supposed to publicly report who they gave money to.

 

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

Corporate Incompetence: Netflix says internet speeds in the United States sucks!

Earlier this year Netflix tested internet connection speeds in several countries, the United States sucked!

Apparently Netflix ranked the U.S. at 32.  Countries like Canada did much better.

The thing is that much faster connection speeds are available in the United States, it’s just that most people can’t pay the outrageous fees.  Also, most internet service providers don’t guarantee a faster connection rate, their fine print misleadingly says “speeds up to”.  This means they aren’t able to consistently provide faster connection speeds.

 

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

Corporate Incompetence: Idaho Internet providers blame the weather and animals for slow internet service, thank Allstate & Education reforms for a much needed upgrade

“We have a guy here who was dropped into remote, isolated areas of Iraq to set up their telecommunications systems. He told me, ‘We had better communications in Iraq than you have in Central Idaho.’ ”-Christine L. Frei, Clearwater Economic Development Association

A recent survey listed Idaho with the slowest internet service.  Now a new survey lists the Pocatello area (in southeastern Idaho) as the place with the slowest internet service in the whole state.

Some internet service providers use only line of sight broadcasts, which is extremely slow.  They blame snow, rain, clouds, fog and even bears rubbing on their transmission towers for internet disruptions.

The Federal government is spending $25 million to upgrade Idaho’s internet services. Part of the reason is that Allstate is building a big call center in Chubbuck, within the extremely slow Pocatello internet service area.

The other reason for the Federally funded upgrades is that Idaho has been pushing an at home internet school program for its High Schools: “Without broadband, especially in rural areas, kids might not reach their full potential. And we can’t expect to be competitive in a global economy.”-Jonathan Adelstein, Rural Utilities Service

One of the reasons Idaho has such slow internet service is also one of the reasons people like living in Idaho; only 19 people per square mile!

This makes it difficult for companies to make money providing internet service: “It’s not the lack of availability. It’s the lack of demand and what people are willing to pay.”-Bibiana Nertney, Idaho Department of Commerce

Most big businesses in Idaho actually get high speed internet service, but only because they can afford the outrageous fees.  Even Idaho’s public schools have high speed internet on campus.

 

 

Business/Economics, International

What Economic Recovery? Spanish teachers and students protesting in the thousands

“Since the democratic transition in Spain, we have not seen such a hard attack on social services and essential public services. This is an attack by Madrid’s regional government against employment and public education.”-Cayo Lara

Spain’s attempts to pay down its debt has seen huge cuts to education spending, at least 13,000 temporary teachers will lose their jobs.

The public school system in Spain has never had a good track record: One of Europe’s highest dropout rates with nearly 30% of students under the age of 16.

More education strikes are planned for September 20 & 21.

Business/Economics, International

What Economic Recovery? Italians fighting with police, going down the debt tubes with Greece

September 15, scores of protesters hurled smoke bombs and other objects, even a cow’s lung, at the police.

The riots took place outside the Italian Parliament.  Italian politicians are trying to come up with a new debt reduction plan.  The plan will be similar to the Greek plan, meaning Italian taxpayers, and the unemployed are going to suffer.

The Italian government is trillions in debt. The latest debt reduction plan hopes to have the debt paid off by 2013.  It can only be done with drastic tax increases and cuts to taxpayer funded government services (which will mean more people getting laid off).

Business/Economics, International

No Economic Recovery with Government Incompetence: Greek tax collectors join anti-government protests

“The participation rate in the strike is over 90%. The workers are striking to protest the looting of their income.”-Yiannis Grivas, head of the tax collectors’ union

You know things are bad when the government’s own tax collectors join the protestors.  Not just tax collectors, but Customs officers joined the latest protests of the Greek government’s debt repayment plan.

The plan places the burden on the taxpayers of Greece, many are unemployed.  The government’s plan will add to the unemployment by cutting government jobs, and cutting government pay: “We are talking about cuts to our income of 60% over the past one and a half years, 30% last year and 30% this year with the new wage structure. Of course we are obliged to protest.”-Yiannis Grivas, head of the tax collectors’ union

If you think about it, the Greek plan isn’t about building a good economy, but totally about paying down government debt by raising taxes on those few who still have jobs, and cutting services for everyone!

“The biggest single concern is that we may face a outright tax revolt. Those who have been paying taxes are now being asked to pay again, and there is a fear they won’t be able to pay any more.”-Unnamed Greek official

Business/Economics, U.S.

Corporate Incompetence: Eldery woman loses home after selling everything to pay it off, a 101 year old woman gets foreclosed on, despite getting a reverse mortgage

“I had one year left on my mortgage, and it would have been paid off, I wanted to live here for as long as possible.”-Linda Hatchel

Linda Hatchel spent decades, and tens of thousands of dollars renovating her Chicago home.

What makes it all the more terrible is that more than twenty years ago she paid about one dollar for the home.  It was a demolition sale.  She took out loans to renovate the house, but her cancer treatment, and the loss of her job left her unable to make the final payment (she had one payment left), now she’s about to become homeless.

In Texas, 101 year old Texana Hollis was evicted from her home this week. In 2003, her son asked her to sign it over to a reverse mortgage company for $32,000 to help with home repairs.  Despite claims that reverse mortgages can keep you in your home, the bank kicked her to the curb.

 

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Not everyone in China is doing well economically, restaurants forced to use ‘gutter’ oil for cooking, blame inflation

At least 32 people are on trial in China, for collecting used cooking oil from street gutters, then selling it back to restaurants.

A company that was supposed to be creating biodiesel from used oil, instead found it cheaper to simply strain the used cooking oil and sell it back to restaurants.

Also, according to local police, the company was using a “white substance” to remove the nasty smell from the used cooking oil.  Some local media speculate that it causes cancer.

China’s fast booming economy is causing rapid inflation, many individuals, and mom & pop businesses can’t keep up.  Buying recycled cooking oil is a cheap alternative.  One report said the price of new cooking oil in China is about 10,000 yuan, or $1,560 a ton, while ‘gutter’ oil sells for around 8,000 yuan to 9,000 yuan.

This is not the first scandal relating to food safety in China.  Scandals have included melamine tainted infant formula, and pork tainted with the chemical clenbuterol.   Melamine gives false increased protein levels in dairy products.  Clenbuterol helps make meat leaner.  The Chinese government says both can be harmful to humans.

Here in the United States the FDA has approved the use of clenbuterol in animals, but not in humans.  However, the FDA is out on melamine.  Their latest studies showed that melamine was dangerous only when combined with other chemicals.  One study showed cats had kidney failure after eating 32 parts per million of cyanuric acid and 32 parts per million of melamine.