Category Archives: Business/Economics

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Editor says we were never in a Recession, we ARE in a Depression, big bank speculators to blame

“It is much worse than a recession, in fact it is even worse than a depression… The White House has told us we have been on a recovery…which is a complete lie.”-Edward Spannaus, Executive Intelligence Review

“…there will be no recovery…until we take steps to deal with the Wall Street gambling casino, the speculators, which is what is really killing our economy.”

“…shutting down the big speculator banks.  And the way to do that is by restoring Franklin Roosevelt’s law, the Glass Steagall law, which would shut down the gambling casino, wipe out the phoney debts, and that would enable us to get around to rebuilding our economy…”

“I question even the term ‘investors’ these days, because an investor is someone who invests for the long term.  And what you see today in these markets, is very short term speculation.”

“As long as these banks are sitting on huge piles of money, from bailouts, from the Federal Reserve giving them free money, and they’re just speculating with this, they’re not investing, not lending to businesses, they’re not doing anything to create jobs.”

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Main Street America in Depression, Child hunger and crime numbers prove it

“The State of America’s Children is absolutely horrific and what’s worst of all is that very few people in America know about this…added to this we’re going through what I call a Main Street Depression, it is worse than the 1930s…”-Stephen Lendman, commentator Chicago

The Annie E. Casey Foundation, a non-profit child advocacy group, revealed that 31 million children live in families that are one or two paychecks away from economic catastrophe.

The Casey Foundation’s study also found that between 2007 and 2009, 5.3 million children had to leave their homes due to foreclosure.

The Children’s Defense Fund echo’s the Casey Foundation’s report.  The CDF says the bad economy is driving up the number of children involved with dropping out of school, hunger, crime, etc, to record levels.

Many other organizations are coming up with corresponding data.

 

Business/Economics, International

Global Economic War: Germany Burning, a week of car fires in Berlin, now Hamburg is on fire

For the past couple of weeks Berlin has been plagued with car fires.  At first police thought it was the usual anti-elitists targeting the cars of wealthy people, but many cars were not owned by the rich.

Now, hundreds of Germans are rioting in Hamburg. It started during a street festival.  People began attacking and burning banks.

2,500 police are on the streets, using water cannons. Police don’t relate this to the increasing number of poor people in Germany. Police say these Hamburg riots happen every year.

Business/Economics, U.S.

Evil Bank of America secretly tells Rick Perry he’s their man, but it’s caught on a live microphone

“Bank of America, we will help you out.”-BofA official as he quickly brushed passed Texas Governor Rick Perry.

The BofA official thought no one heard, but a live CSPAN mic picked up the hushed comment.

The bank official was identified as James Mahoney, Bank of America’s director of public policy.  BofA claims they did nothing wrong, because Mahoney is a democrat, and Perry is a republican.


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

Maker of U.S. UAV hacked, documents made public by AntiSec

Vanguard Defense Industries was hacked by AntiSec.

Vangard Defense sells the UAV “ShadowHawk” to the military, police and even private companies.

The AntiSec hackers put Vangard documents online, they belong to Senior Vice President Richard T. Garcia. They contain internal meeting notes, contracts, schematics, non-disclosure agreements, employee’s personal information, and counter-terrorism documents.

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Government & Corporate Incompetence: Idaho man discovers you can hack into medical implants

“There’s no security around the devices which are a very active part of keeping me alive.”-Jay Radcliffe

Idahoan, Jay Radcliffe, discovered you can hack into and remotely control a person’s medical implants.

He recently demonstrated to government officials by hacking into his own implanted insulin pump.

The problem is that wireless implants are supposed to be regulated to prevent such a thing.  The U.S. Food and Drug administration recently warned implant makers of a similar problem.

Federal lawmakers asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate the Federal Communications Commission.  The FCC is responsible for making sure all radio communication devices are in compliance with regulations.

 

 

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

No Economic Recovery for the U.S.: Paramount & Warner Bros make big bucks, overseas

Paramount and Warner Brother’s have both made U.S.$2 billion in profits so far this year, but not here in the U.S.

The two movie studios made those profits overseas.  They’re the first U.S. movie companies to hit such a high overseas profit.

If anyone has been paying attention to where U.S. movies are first released, they’d notice that U.S. movie premiers have been taking place overseas first, before being released in the United States.

 

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Hundreds of thousands of U.S. Postal Workers to be laid off, Union talks are focusing on how to soften the impact on those who will keep their jobs

“If we do that, it means lower costs – career people leave, more non-careers come in.  Much of that will be attrition, but I don’t know if we can do that fast enough.”-Patrick Donahoe, Postmaster General

The U.S. Postal Service is being forced to lay off so many postal workers that it’s asking Congress to cancel current Union contracts.   220,000 postal workers will be laid off by 2014.

The reality of the situation is forcing the many different unions, involved with the Postal Service, to scramble to negotiations, not to save those jobs, but to soften the impact on those who will keep their jobs.

Those unions are the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), the National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU), and the American Postal Workers’ Union (APWU).

Not only does the USPS want to get rid of 220,000 employees, but they want to shut down as many as 3,700 post offices, close at least 300 processing facilities, and consolidate as many as 20,000 delivery routes.

All that will affect those people who’re “lucky” enough to still have their jobs.  If the negotiations with the unions fails, then it’s on to arbitration.  USPS workers can not legally go on strike, because they are considered Federal employees.

One reason the USPS is short on money, is because the U.S. Congress essentially stole $75 billion from the Postal Service.  Congress said it was to cover the Postal Service’s portion of the Federal Employees Retirement System.  The Postmaster General was able to prove that Congress overcharged the USPS.  The U.S. Congress refused to refund the money.

Another reason is that Congress has refused to raise Postal rates to reflect the increased cost of operation.  It’s almost as if the U.S. Congress wants the USPS to fail!

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.

What Economic Recovery? Obama orders a 5% reduction in government budgets

President Obama’s budget chief Jacob Lew has ordered government agencies to submit budgets that are at least 5% less than the past fiscal year’s budgets.

It was also suggested that the different government agencies find ways to cut another 10% through out the next fiscal year.  This is part of the Debt Limit Deal (Budget Control Act of 2011) passed a few weeks ago.

Business/Economics, U.S.

Dumb Americans: Most old people, on U.S. Medicare, don’t realize how much they actually pay out of their own pocket

A new survey shows that most U.S. citizens on Medicare don’t realize just how much they’re paying out of their own pocket.

The study looked at “specialty tier” drugs under the Part D prescription drug plan.  Specialty tier drugs are mainly expensive name brand drugs.

At least half the people surveyed thought only a co-pay was required. Specialty tier drugs require a co-insurance, not just a co-pay.  Also, most people greatly underestimated how much they would have to fork up out of their own pockets, even with the specialty tier coverage.

The study was conducted by NERA Economic Consulting.