Beginning this month, Royal Caribbean International, is halting all cruses to Japan.
The “Legend of the Seas” luxury liner will not stop at its usual nine ports of call, in Japan, because of concerns over the nuclear disaster.
Category Archives: Business/Economics
Nissan halting operations in North America
Nissan announced that it’ll shut down production in United States and Mexico, around mid-April.
Nissan, just like other Japanese car makers, blames parts shortage, caused by the March 11 disasters.
Nissan will close assembly plants in Tennessee and Mississippi for about one week, as well as two factories in Mexico.
Proof that Coffee prices are too high, 3 men lynched over truck load of Coffee
According to Guatemalan Police, 3,000 people took part in lynching three would be coffee thieves.
The police say the residents of La Democracia caught the men trying to take off with a truck load of coffee, then beat, hung and burned the men to death.
The police also say the townsfolk blocked them from stopping the lynching.
People are actually being killed for one of the most popular beverages. Something to think about the next time you sip on that cup o’ joe.
G20 meeting focusing on letting China in, kicking U.S. out
The current G20 meeting, in China, is discussing many issues, including the disasters in Japan. But, what seems to be the focus is how to bring China into the SDR, and, China’s desire to remove the U.S. dollar as the international reserve currency.
The G20 is made up of bankers and finance officials from 19 countries, and the European Union. Their objective is to come up with finance and banking systems for a global economy.
Because of China’s growing economic strength, the G20 would like to have the Chinese yuan brought into the SDR. That is the Special Drawing Rights fund, which is currently as close as you can get to an international money. It is meant to make huge international transactions easier for members. The SDR replaced gold and silver as standards for international trade in 1969.
China is worried about continued reliance on the U.S. dollar as THE reserve currency for international trade. Many Chinese economist, and other economist around the world, believe the U.S. dollar’s value is overrated, and is unstable. They call the use of the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency a “dollar trap”.
“Nations around the world have no way of restricting dollar issuance by the Federal Reserve. The current international monetary system lacks both stability and fairness.”- Xu Hongcai, deputy director at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges
Basically China wants a new international reserve currency, no more U.S. dollar. This will play into the hands of those who want a true international form of money.
McDonald’s, Subway & Starbucks struggle in Japan
McDonald’s fast food restaurants around the world rely on regional, or local, suppliers for their food products.
Thanks to the March 11 disasters, and radiation threat, Japanese McDonald’s lost many of their local sources. Now suppliers in the United States, and other parts of the world, are sending food to the Japanese McDonald’s.
There are more than 3,300 McDonald’s in Japan, and as many as 100 had to close down. Don’t think that what you eat in Japanese McDonald’s is the same as in the U.S. Many foreign McDonald’s tailor their menus to what local people want to eat.
So far McDonald’s supplies from U.S., and Asian countries, had to be flown in because the situation was serious. But once on the ground there was more problems getting the food from the airport to the restaurants. They faced the same problems everyone else in Japan is facing: Power outages and fuel shortages.
Subway and Starbucks are dealing with the same problems, they just don’t have the high number of restaurants that McDonald’s does.
Hayao Miyazaki’s latest Anime may be what’s needed for Japan
Famous Japanese animator, Hayao Miyazaki (Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, etc), says his latest anime should be right for the time.
The new movie, a co-production with his son, Goro Miyazaki, is called ”Kokurikozaka Kara”. It is based on a 30 year old comic book series (Manga) about teenagers trying to do well in Japan’s 1960s economy.
”The heroine’s desire and the boy’s will to live in the film are definitely needed in our time from now on,”-Hayao Miyazaki
The 1960s was when Japan’s economy finally started to take off, especially for their heavy industries, like cars. Prior to that Japan really was struggling, and believe it or not, Japan’s products were considered junk. Miyazaki believes Japan is facing a similar situation after the March 11 disasters.
The new movie is schedualed to be released in Japan July 16. (Expect a long delay for release in the U.S. thanks to the greedy control freaks at Disney)
Japan government tells Farmers to delay planting Rice
The Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, is asking farmers to delay planting rice, due to fears of radioactive contamination of the soil.
The officials want a few weeks to take soil samples, and determine if it’s OK to plant.
Chrysler joins Ford in cancelling color options
Thanks to the ongoing nuclear power plant disaster in Japan, Chrysler is now limiting color options on their cars.
Ford already announced the unavailability of Tuxedo Black, and three shades of red. They rely on pigments from Japan.
Chrysler is also doing the same thing, except they haven’t specified which colors are going to be affected, only that it will affect ten color options.
Effects of parts shortage in Japan will hit United States hard in April, the Dominoes are falling
“This is the biggest impact ever in the history of the automobile industry.”-Koji Endo, Advanced Research Japan
Parts, from electronics, to mechanical parts for cars, to paint pigments, are shipped by slow boat. That means that the U.S., Europe and other parts of Asia have NOT begun to feel the true impact of the Japanese shut down.
Warehouses in Japan are almost out of the parts they had on hand at the time of the March 11 earthquake/tsunami, and the ongoing nuclear power plant disaster. Since then, Japanese factories have had trouble after trouble trying to get their factories restarted.
The United States, Europe and the rest of Asia can expect the full impact of Japan’s shut down to begin in April.
Many factories in Japan are without power to operate. Some factories have lost employees to the disaster.
This disaster in Japan reveals the weakness of a truly global economy. If one part of the chain breaks, it’s in trouble. It should be viewed more like dominoes, if one domino falls, others will be brought down with it. Japan has become the trigger domino, because it has basically become the parts supplier to the world.
Here’s why this is so bad for the worldwide auto industry: About 3,000 parts can go into one car. Those parts come from dozens of factories, and most are in Japan. But it gets worse, some of the “parts” are made up of many tiny parts. And, you guessed it, those tiny parts also come from dozens of other factories. It’s a friggin’ logistical nightmare, it’s a wounder the auto industry didn’t collapse because of parts supply issue sooner!
It’s not just cars. Get ready to see shortages of computers, video game systems, printer ink and even batteries. So much for a global economy! Can you say idiot in Japanese? It’s Baka!
Foreigners leaving Japan skyrocket
Japanese immigration officials say more than 161,000 foreigners have left Japan, via the Narita airport, between March 11 and March 22.
Compare that to the same time last year, of only 20,000, and that’s an increase of eight times.
Also, the number of foreigners coming into Japan, through Narita, has dropped by 60%.