Category Archives: Business/Economics

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Global Economic War: Increase in Japanese Corporate Bankruptcies, they blame the falling U.S. dollar

Corporate bankruptcies in Japan have risen for the second month in a row, they blame the rising value of their yen, which is being pushed up by the falling U.S. dollar.

Credit research firm Teikoku Databank says 969 companies failed in August!

The strong yen is causing a drop in orders and exports, and causing trading losses in currency derivatives.

The research firm warns of a vicious spiral, with more companies shifting production overseas to escape the high yen, in turn cutting even more orders to Japanese firms and putting them at risk of bankruptcy.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Global Economic Class War: Australia’s economy is good, yet thousands of workers are losing their jobs! They blame it on the falling U.S. dollar. Australian workers ready to tear down their government, what’s wrong with the slaves of Corporate America?

Australia’s economy is doing much better that the U.S. economy, thanks to their deals with China, yet the state government of New South Wales is going to layoff 5,000 government employees, and cap government wages!

Also, Australia’s biggest steel maker, BlueScopeSteel, is laying off 1,000 workers!  Back in July solar power companies announced they were losing 73 jobs per day in New South Wales!

September 8 saw 30,000 protestors hit the streets in Sydney.

The latest economic news out of Australia says consumer spending is up, 1%, and their export economy hit 1.2% growth.  Household savings is at 10.5%.  Analysts expect overall economic growth to expand by 4.3% by the end of the year.  Much better than the U.S.

So why are Australians still losing their jobs?

BlueScopeSteel claims they’ve been losing money, no thanks to the rising Australian dollar!  Company officials says most of their sales are overseas, and the high Australian dollar makes their products too expensive for international customers.

Workers and union officials say it’s really because company management is financially incompetent.

As the U.S. dollar falls, other currencies, like the Australian dollar is rising.

The Australian Solar Energy Society (AuSES) and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) says because the New South Wales (NSW) government has failed to adopt the ‘Fair & Equal Price for Solar Solution’ plan, at least 73 solar power jobs are being lost per day.

NSW officials want a four month delay before adopting the plan, but company officials say that by then their companies could be shut down.  The plan would allow residents to put affordable solar power on their own homes, then sell excess power back to the grid.  The plan would not cost anything to the state government.

This brings us to the strange announcement that NSW is going to lay off 5,000 of its own employees, and cap wages for the rest.

From what I could find, the only reason for the government layoffs are because the elites of Australia want to privatize everything.  NSW’s Premier Barry O’Farrell claims it’s a necessary step in preparing for a much more competitive world (the overall bad global economy caused by the United States, like the falling U.S. dollar driving up the Australian dollar).

Residents of NSW aren’t taking this laying down, not like most people in the United Police States of Corporate America.  Here’s what some of the September 8 protestors had to say: “IR laws, stick it up your barrell O’Farrell.”

“Our message to Barry O’Farrell is you are a horrible bastard. You’re a liar and we’re going to fight you every inch of the way.”-Matt, prison guard

The protestors also sang the old Twisted Sister song “Were not gonna take it.”

NSW firefighters also protested, at least 500 firefighters with dozens of fire trucks arrived in Sydney, and union bosses told the firefighters to be ready “to drag this government into the gutter…”!

“O’Farrell doesn’t give a stuff how hard we work, how smart we work, all he wants us to be is cheaper. We have to say no.”-Jim Casey, Fire Brigade Employees’ Union

When will the slaves of the United Police States of Corporate America say no?

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

War on Terror cover for Global Economic War: Invasion of Afghanistan IS about oil, Afghanistan has 80 million barrels of oil, now it all goes to China

State-owned China National Petroleum Corporation won the first oil and natural gas exploration contracts in Afghanistan since the U.S. led invasion in 2001.

It’s estimated that there are 1.6 billion barrels of crude oil in Afghanistan.  The oil fields of Bazarkhami, Kashkari and Zamarudsay (areas under contract with CNPC) contain an estimated 80 million barrels.

In 2007 China got the rights to mine copper in Afghanistan.  Isn’t nice that the U.S. led War on Terror is allowing other countries to get contracts to mine minerals and oil?

Business/Economics, International

Class War: Israelis arrested protesting Israeli government, attack Tel Aviv city hall

September 8, Reuters reporting at least 40 Israelis being arrested after blocking traffic, and breaking into the Tel Aviv city hall.

This after the biggest anti-regime rallies in Israel’s short history, on Saturday.

Anti-regime protests erupted in Israel in mid-July as activists began setting up tents in Tel Aviv to protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s economic and social policies.

The protestors are also opposed to Israel’s illegal settlement expansions in the occupied Palestinian territories.

 

Business/Economics, International

Class War: Israeli Doctors & Nurses walk out of hospitals, protest Israeli government

“We want to make a decent living as doctors in Israel….We have a great public health system and you have to invest money and funds and the government is just letting the health system collapse.”-Doctor Shuli Swetitzki,  Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv

She said a lot of doctors sought to leave either Israel or their profession “because it is so hard to get by.”

Israelis have been protesting the high costs of living and social injustice over the recent months. The largest anti government protest by Israelis took place on September 3, when around one million Israelis held protest rallies in at least 50 cities.

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Is the U.S. Congress stealing U.S. Postal Service 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.

Remember, the money made by the USPS does not come from taxes, and yet they’re being forced to over pay into federal funds.

Postmaster Donahoe has asked Congress to refund the over payments and they refused!  Congress is also refusing to allow the USPS access to it’s own money in the other funds.  Why?  Can it be that the U.S. Congress is using the non taxpayer Postal funds to pay for the day to day operations of the Congress?  Afterall, the U.S. government is broke, and they sure haven’t had any problems stealing from the taxpayer funded Social Security accounts!!!

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? U.S. Congress wants to shut down U.S. Postal Service, why else are they restricting USPS access to their hard earned money? 9 million jobs lost?

September 6, PBS Newshour’s Gwen Ifill interviewed U.S. postmaster general, Patrick Donahoe, and Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers.  They both pointed out that the U.S. Congress is holding back on money earned by the USPS, and that was a primary reason the Postal Service is in trouble.

FREDRIC ROLANDO: “I’m here to tell you that the Postal Service is not broke. The Postal Service just needs access to its own money. And Congress needs to get busy and give them that access.”

“The $20 billion-plus dollars that you read about in losses is nothing more than a congressional mandate that requires the Postal Service, required the Postal Service to take all of their cash and put it into a pre-funding account.”

“The Postal Service actually has somewhere between $50 billion and $125 billion in their other funds that is not taxpayer money. They haven’t used a dime of taxpayer money in over 30 years! And the Congress just needs to act responsibly and quickly to give them access to that — those funds.”

PATRICK DONAHOE: “Fred is exactly right around the issues that we have faced in the last few years.”

“In that same time, we have been required [by Congress] to prepay employee retirement funding.”

GWEN IFILL: “What does Congress have to do with that? When you say that Congress needs to make changes to get you access to this cash, what can Congress do?”

PATRICK DONAHOE: “There are two proposals on the table, the one Fred referred to, where we would get money back. The other proposal is the Postal Service taking over our own retirement system, operate it just like a private business. And we would no longer need that pre-funding.”

“…we have overpaid [forced by Congress] into our other retirement fund $6.9 billion. We want all that money back right now.”

FREDRIC ROLANDO: “What Congress needs to do is give the Postal Service access to, like I said, between $50 billion and $125 billion…”

“There’s $50 billion to $75 billion in surplus pension funds. There’s about $42 billion in the future retiree health benefit funds, again, all postal funds, no taxpayer money involved.”

“…this is just cash money that the Postal Service needs access to. We’re not looking to in any way diminish what needs to be done for future pensions or future retirees.  It’s just that you don’t have to do 75 years worth of pre-funding in a 10-year period. You could re-amortize what needs to be done.”

“…because any business wouldn’t put $20 billion of cash into future pre-funding, nor would they leave $50 billion to $75 billion of pension surplus in that account, when they’re going through the transition that the Postal Service is going through right now.”

“If Congress doesn’t act, the postal industry, about nine million jobs are in danger…”

PATRICK DONAHOE: “We will be out of cash next August. That’s the issue.”

 

The United States Postal Service does not make money off taxpayers, they are solely funded by the postage they charge (prices are controlled by Congress, not the USPS), and other products they sell.  The cuts being made to the USPS will have no affect on U.S. government debt.

Business/Economics, U.S.

United Police States of Corporate America: People with mental problems thrown in prison, unwritten crime of being mentally ill, big money maker for Corporate Prisons

“When I became a judge I had no idea that I was becoming a gatekeeper to the largest psychiatric facility in the state of Florida – the Miami-Dade Jail.”–Steve Leifman, Miami-Dade County judge

Not only does the United States have the most people in prison, in the whole world, but it also has the most people with mental problems in prison.

A National Public Radio report says that the University of South Florida looked at who was the most frequently jailed people in the Miami-Dade County prison system.  It turns out that people with mental problems are the most frequently jailed people: “Over a five-year period, these 97 individuals were arrested almost 2,200 times and spent 27,000 days in the Miami-Dade Jail. It cost the taxpayers $13 million.”-Steve Leifman, Miami-Dade County judge

Most states don’t use mental health facilities, no thanks to former President Ronald Reagan’s decision to cut funding in the 1980s, so most people who commit crimes because of their mental problems end up abused in prisons.

“It seems to me that we have criminalized being mentally ill.”-Greg Hamilton, Travis County Sheriff, Texas

Sheriff Hamilton says because there is little funding for hospitals to care for mental patients, the prison system becomes the default ‘treatment’ center.

The amount of time a person with mental problems stays in a Travis county jail is between 50 and 258 days.

According to a 2009 Corrections Today interview with Judge Leifman, 90% of U.S. hospital beds for mental health patients have been closed, and there’s been a 400% increase in the mentally ill offenders entering prison!

According to a May 2011 Daily Kos posting: “There are three times as many men and women with mental illness in U.S. prisons as in mental health hospitals.”

“The costs of keeping a mentally ill individual in a penitentiary are three to six time what it costs to treat them at an outpatient mental health center.”

“The U.S. prison system had become the largest mental health provider in the country – with nearly 50% of inmates reporting mental health problems.”

“According to the most recent survey by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 81% of mentally ill inmates currently in state prison, 76% of mentally ill inmates in federal prison, and 79% of mentally ill inmates in local jails have prior convictions.”

“Mentally ill prisoners are more likely than others to end up housed in especially harsh conditions, such as isolation, that can push them over the edge into acute psychosis.”

“…there are powerful economic drivers to keep locking more and more of them up. In fact incarceration and detention has turned into a multibillion dollar growth industry.”

“…the [privately run Corporate] prison industrial complex is primarily motivated by economics, such that a formidable amount of prison industry capital is devoted to creating prisoners…”

In other words the exploding growth of Corporate run prisons demands more prisoners, so that the Corporate run prisons can make the money to pay back investors.  Mentally ill people are easy targets.