Category Archives: Business/Economics

Business/Economics, International

Global Economic War: Europe increases tariffs on Chinese products, again

“A series of actions adopted by the EU this year suggests that tougher trade policies adopted towards China may increase the possibility of trade protectionism.”-Bai Ming, Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation

Last November, the European Union put together a five year plan to boost European production.  The plan targets China by imposing and raising tariffs.  The goal is to force Europeans to start buying more expensive European made products by slowing, or stopping the importation of Chinese products.

Earlier this year the EU already jacked up tariffs on Chinese ceramics by 70%!  Now, as part of the five year plan, tariffs will be raised on other inexpensive products coming from China.  Several EU member countries have also boycotted products made in China.

The five year EU plan is known as ‘protectionism’.  If you know your history, protectionism became the main economic policy of many countries, including the United States, prior to the First World War, and prior to the Second World War.

Also, protectionism is the result of bad economic times, like major recessions, or depressions.  The times we’re living in now look more and more like history repeating itself.  What’s next is another World War.  Right now it looks like Europe Union has drawn the line with China, who’s next?

 

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Idaho could become gun maker mecca, the competition is on, support your team!

Several pro-gun states, like Idaho, are hoping U.S. gun makers will settle in their state.

Idaho has even passed a law that exempts guns made in Idaho from Federal gun control laws (Idaho Firearms Freedom Act, aka; made in Idaho gun law).

Now the race is on, between other states that have passed similar laws (like Montana, Utah, Arizona, etc), to see who can woo the most gun makers.  Many of the U.S. gun makers are located in states that have passed strict anti-gun laws.

Humorously Idaho Department of Commerce’s Bibiana Nertney calls guns “recreational technology”.

Unfortunately Idaho officials are trying to claim the state has low or no taxes, uh, I live in Idaho and that’s a lie!  Unless they mean low or no taxes for big companies.  Officials are also pushing the fact that they’ve destroyed unions, which has been proven to be the cause of the drop in overall income in Idaho, which means a lot of people can’t really afford to buy those nice new guns.  That aside, I do agree with another lure officials are using to get gun makers to move here; the right to keep and bear arms!

Idahoans, do your research, help the local economy, contact those gun manufactures on the other side of the country and get them to move to Idaho!

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

British Bobbies pissed that U.K. Prime Minister is consulting with a U.S. Cop, all part of the plan to downsize and privatize British police force

Prime Minister David Cameron hired former Los Angeles cop, Bill Bratton, to advise him on how to handle the growing discontent of the people of the Britain.

London police are pissed off at the idea that they are not considered good enough for Cameron to consult with: “The Association of Chief Police Officers and the Federation understand U.K. legislation and are in a much better place to advise the PM than an American. Why won’t the Prime Minister consult us?”-The Met (Scotland Yard) Inspectors Branch Board statement

Part of the British government spending cuts hit the cops, not just the lower class.  Thousands of bobbies are to be laid off.  Many in Britain are wondering, as things get worse, who will be there for riot control and other civil disturbances?

The clue is in Bill Bratton. He runs a private security company, called Kroll Associates.  Could part of the “consulting” with the Prime Minister involve how to privatize law enforcement in the United Kingdom?  I wonder how the British bobbies will feel when they get laid off and join the ranks of all those unemployed young people they beat and shot (kinda like when a cop goes to prison)?

 

Business/Economics, International

Thousands of peaceful protestors hit the streets of North London, right wing media ignores it

“We shouldn’t be cutting services. We should be investing in young people, we should be investing in our society.”-protestor

August 13, thousands took to the streets in North London’s Hackney.  They were protesting all the cuts to social programs for the lower classes.  The main stream right wing media in the U.S. and U.K. ignored the protest.

The people were also protesting the police shooting of an unarmed man, and the beating of a 16 year old girl, which led to the violent rioting this past week.  However they said they didn’t support violence, even by the police: “We don’t condone damage, fires, threat to life and violence like that.  At the same time we understand why young people are angry.”-protestor

Most protestors agree that what’s needed is more jobs: “They should spend the money in this country, we need more jobs for our youngsters!”-retired man

 

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? World Bank says things are gonna get worse, public protestors are the new terrorists, China the new financial power house

“In the past couple of weeks, the world has moved from a troubled multi-speed recovery to a new and more dangerous phase.”-Robert Zoellick, World Bank president

In an interview with Australian media, the president of the World Bank says things are not getting better, and anyone who complains about the drastic cuts in their taxpayer funded social programs is a terrorist!

“We are in the early moments of a new and different storm, it’s not the same as [the] 2008 [financial crisis].”

Zoellick says the debt situation in Europe is much worse than what’s being reported.  He also says governments took too long to take action.  Because of the slow response, of Europe and the United States, to deal with economic and financial problems, the world’s financial power is rapidly moving in China’s favor.

Zoellick also said that public protests over drastic government cuts in social programs are a threat, and he agrees with government crack downs on protestors: “I believe what British Prime Minister David Cameron is doing in the U.K. is really necessary.”

So you see the new terrorists in the new global economic war, is you!  


Business/Economics, International

Iran encourages local neighborhood Farmer’s Markets, attemps to keep food prices down in Iran

During Ramadan the Iranian government is officially encouraging local Farmer’s Markets, called Direct Markets in Tehran.  This is in response to consumers demand for lower food prices.

However, comments from shoppers have been mixed.  Some Direct Market shoppers claim the prices are cheaper and they can find what they need, while an almost even number of people said the opposite.  One man said the price difference was only slight.  It just proves the saying that you need to “shop around” for the best price.

During Ramadan Muslims fast during the day, and eat after the sun goes down.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Israel to stock up on used U.S. military equipment, U.S. can’t afford to ship it all home from Iraq

Israeli media reporting that the Israeli government plans to expand their military equipment inventories by buying used U.S. equipment now in Iraq.

The report says the Israel purchase of U.S. military gear will help out the U.S. Department of Defense, because apparently the U.S. can’t afford to ship all that equipment back home from Iraq.

The equipment includes everything from vehicles to ammo.

It’s not just Israel that the U.S. will sell to, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are customers as well.  This is just another sign the United States is hurting for cash.

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

The Golden State lacks the Golden Rule: California finally admits high student drop out rate, as early as 8th Grade, all those decades of increased taxpayer funding wasted

California is now the first state in the Union, that admits that grade school students drop out of school as early as 8th grade.  In the latest survey it was revealed that more than 17,000 8th graders quit school in 2010.

Also, more than 94,000 California High School students dropped out in 2010.

Prior to this survey most drop out rate surveys were considered unreliable.  They varied greatly from 11% to 22%.  In 2009 California legislators actually passed a law dictating how the drop out rate survey would be conducted.

To many employment analysts the latest California drop out numbers prove what many employers have been complaining about; not enough high school graduates to fill open positions in California.  And to make it worse, the high drop out rates continued even though more and more taxpayer money was being spent on education year after year.

In fact, in the past the California Department of Education actually worked to keep drop out rates from being made public.

One result of the waste of taxpayer money, and degrading public education in California, was the creation of the Parent Empowerment Law, in 2010.  The law gives parents the right to convert a public school into a charter school, if 51% of the parents of children in that school sign a petition.  An elementary school in Compton will become the first school converted to a charter school under the Parent Empowerment Law.

One commentator in California said it’s ’bout time the Golden State learned the Golden Rule: “What America desperately needs is an educational system that cherishes each child as an individual, that recognizes each child has needs that must be met and gifts that deserve to be nurtured. When families have freely chosen the best school for their children, there is a sense of community, of belonging, even of family, that keeps our kids in school and gets them safely to graduation.”-Alan Bonsteel, San Francisco Chronical

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Global Hyperinflation, incouraged by the U.S. and Europe, China is the only one doing the right thing

“While the markets can operate on false scenarios for a significant period of time, reality always wins in the end. When it does, the situation can get quite ugly and all the profits gained from a belief in an unsupportable viewpoint can evaporate over night. At the moment, there is a lot of denial about inflation and investors should be paying attention to this.”-Daryl Montgomery, Independent Trader

People need to start studying up on basic economics.  What the G7 and the U.S. Federal Reserve are doing will lead to catastrophe, for the little guy.

After an emergency meeting on August 7, the Group of 7 most industrialized countries decided to deal with the growing debt crisis, of Europe and the United States, by flooding the markets with cash (liquidity).  One way to do that is to buy massive amounts of bonds, which is what the European Central Bank (ECB) did.

Following the G7 meeting the ECB began buying up Italian and Spanish bonds, even though the week before Germany was advising against such a move, because Italy and Spain were too bad off to be trusted to pay them back.

Injecting cash into markets, like buying up bond issues, can have the same result as overprinting money; hyperinflation.  The most recent case of hyperinflation took place in Zimbabwe.  It lasted from 2004-2009, and is considered the second worst case of hyperinflation in the world.  It happened after their economy crashed, and the government responded by overprinting money  (by the way the U.S. has been overprinting money for years now).

In a statement, the G7 (which includes the United States) tried to say their move to flood markets with cash will work as long as government fiscal policy remains “disciplined”.  There was no clarification what they meant by “disciplined”, but surely they mean that as long as governments, mainly European, continue to cut spending and increase taxes to pay their government debts, then hyperinflation should not be a concern.

Why would that be? Possibly because so many people are out of work, which reduces the flow of money in the consumer markets, and, increased taxes reduces the amount of spending money a consumer, who still has a job, has.  Also, cutting government spending is another way to reduce liquidity in the consumer markets.

But flooding markets with cash isn’t the only way to create hyperinflation, keeping interest rates low can do the same thing.  And keeping them artificially low for long periods of time will only make things worse.  That’s exactly what the U.S. Federal Reserve (a privately run central bank) is doing.

On August 9, the Federal Reserve (incorrectly referred to as The Fed, incorrect because it’s not a government agency. The Fed, or Feds, usually refers to a government agency, in fact it used to refer to the FBI), announced it would keep interest rates low, again.  Not only that but they would so so until 2013, with the possibility of lowering it even more.

The interest rate, that the mainstream media is always talking about but surely doesn’t understand, is the Federal Funds Rate.  This rate does NOT affect us little guys.  It is the interest that banks pay each other for borrowing money from each other.  Only in theory does it “trickle down” to us little people in the form of lower credit card and loan rates, and even supposedly on the interest rates the banks give us for putting our money into their so called “savings” accounts.

The past decade has proven that keeping the Federal Funds rate low does NOT “trickle down” to the little guy, working class, consumer level.

And that’s the point.  There is nothing being done to help the average John Q Public.  Everything is being done to help the big guys, the Man, the elites and their global corporations/governments.  Keeping interest rates low for the big guys, and flooding the markets with cash (only for the benefit of the big guys) are short term actions that will result in long term pain for the little guy (as if the little guy isn’t in pain now).

Even investment advisers are warning people of the dangers: “…governments that engage in this behavior frequently go to great lengths to ensure the public doesn’t make the connection and realize that inflation is caused by government actions.”–Daryl Montgomery, Independent Trader

Now, there are some officials with the Federal Reserve that are also sounding a warning.  Narayana Kocherlakota, the president of the Federal Reserve’s Minneapolis bank, has been arguing for an increase in interest rates: “Central bankers alone cannot solve the world’s economic problems.”

Kocherlakota wants to raise the Federal Funds Rate by at least a half a percent.  He says most of the economic problems in the U.S. are a result of mismatches between the labor market, and employers, and that is something the Federal Reserve can not influence.  It’s proof that what Central Banks are doing have nothing to do with solving the bad employment situation.

China seems to be the only country that’s following traditional economic policies regarding the prevention of inflation.  So far this year the inflation rate in China has hit 6.5%.  China is blaming the slow down in their economy partly on domestic inflation.

China is experiencing inflation because more people are making more money, which means more money available on the consumer market.  It’s being exacerbated by foreign banks loaning money to Chinese consumers.

China has instituted policies to restrict the money flow, by making it almost impossible for people to qualify for home loans, and even auto loans.  They’ve recently banned certain loans being issued by foreign banks.  The Bank of China is also raising their interest rates.

It hurts consumers, only in that it’s much harder to get a loan, but it restricts the amount of money in the consumer market, which is supposed to keep inflation down, which benefits consumers in the long run.  Also, if you’re a saver then you benefit by getting higher interest on your traditional savings account.

Bottom line: Low interest rates and flooding markets with cash only benefits the big guys, and only for the short run.  In the long run it will hurt everyone.