Category Archives: International

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

Some Economic Recovery, for U.S.? Apple reverses outsourcing

07 December 2012, Apple CEO, Tim Cook, revealed that some computer manufacturing will be brought back to the United States.

However, the actual assembly of a specific line of Macs will still be contracted out.  Cook says they’re still figuring out where in the U.S. to assemble the computers.

Analysts say the move amounts to about a $100 million USD investment into the U.S. economy, which is tiny when you realize Apple has at least $1 billion in cash and other investments.  So, don’t expect this insourcing of a new Mac to be the cure all for the U.S. unemployment blues.

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Yet another U.S. company invests big, but not in the U.S., in Korea

06 December 2012, for awhile now U.S. President Barack Obama has been touting his desire that U.S. corporations start investing into research right here in the United States.  Yet, a failing U.S. company has decided to spend money it supposedly doesn’t have outside the U.S.

Sears Holdings announced that they are bringing back their old Roadhandler tire brand.  You might think that’s good news, but the new Roadhandler tire is simply a Korean Hankook tire with the Roadhandler name on it.

Hankook tires have good reputation, but in these bad economic times when more and more U.S. citizens are losing their jobs, why couldn’t Sears (a company supposedly going broke) spend their big bucks investing in a quality U.S. made tire?

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Government Incompetence & What Economic Recovery? U.S. made aircraft parts being ripped off by Israeli military and scrap metal dealers, army vehicles and ammo disapearing!

06 December 2012, possibly because of the bad economy in Israel, but investigators now believe that Israeli Defense Force (IDF) personnel are involved in the theft of engines for F-15 and F-16 aircraft.  The engines might have been sold to scrap metal dealers.

The theft of engines took place at Tel Nof air base, near Rehovot, last year.

This is not the only time parts for U.S. made aircraft were stolen.  Last year police raided a scrap metal warehouse in Tel Aviv. It was full of new parts for U.S. made F-15 and F-16 aircraft.

Also, IDF ground forces have revealed that in the past few months several vehicles and at least 1,500 tank rounds went missing from an army base in southern Israel.

The economy is really bad in Israel, and has led to numerous strikes and protests.  The most recent strike involved nurses who said Israeli hospitals are full of sick people who are not being treated due to the fact that there is no money to hire more staff.

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

What Economic Recovery? Yet another U.S. company invests big, but not in the U.S., in Japan

05 December 2012, for awhile now U.S. President Barack Obama has been touting his desire that U.S. corporations start investing into research right here in the United States.  Yet, U.S. companies continue to spend that money outside the U.S.

The latest is Qualcomm, who announced they will spend up to $120 million USD, by March 2013, on the failing Japanese company Sharp.

Sharp is now predicting it will lose a record $5.5 billion by the end of March 2013!

Sharp was hoping to be saved by a Taiwanese company, but that deal went south, partly because Sharp’s stock prices are crashing and burning (falling by 75%).

Qualcomm says it’ll use half the $120 million buying up Sharp stocks now, and the other half will be used when Sharp starts showing a profit.  Obviously the California based company has more faith in the Japanese economy than in the U.S. economy.

This could be a money maker for Qualcomm, if Sharp recovers, but if Sharp fails…..

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Global Economic War: Japan & India sign deal to use U.S. dollars only!

05 December 2012, Japan and India have signed a currency exchange deal that could prop up the U.S. dollar.

Banking officials from the two Asian countries have been working on the plan for about a year.  It involves the central banks of Japan and India exchanging up to $15 billion USD per year for the next three years.

They say the exchanges done in U.S. dollars will stabilize their own currencies.  It could prop up the value of the U.S. dollar, which would hurt U.S. factories (who’re still operating in the U.S.) who want to export their products. Japan has been blaming the rising value of their yen on the falling value of the U.S. dollar.

India is blaming the value of the European Union’s euro, for the rupee’s problems.

When a country’s money becomes more valuable it actually hurts their exports because it makes their products more expensive to foreign buyers. The only way for any country to achieve high economic growth is to have strong exports, a strong domestic economy can only achieve stagnation at best (relative to the size of the country).

Business/Economics, International

Trilateral Commission’s dream of one centralized European Bank dashed, for now

05 December 2012, European Union finance ministers shelved any plans to create a single centralized bank for the EU.

Last month things looked good for a central bank of Europe when 6,000 banks were put under EU “supervision”.  It was hoped an official EU central bank would be in place for 2013.

Some of the reasons for the collapse of such plans was that most EU member countries could not agree on the limits of power for a EU central bank. Also, France wanted immediate implementation while Germany wanted a gradual phase in.

EU finance ministers will resume central bank creation discussions next week.

International, U.S.

World War 3: Iranian officials remind the U.S. of their threat of action over U.S. spy drones

“Americans were warned that if they violate our borders we would take action to protect our sovereignty.”-Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran’s Foreign Minister, rough translation from Iranian news source

04 December 2012, Salehi said Iran formally protested to the United States, and reminded the Obama administration that they will defend their country “by any means”.

Salehi said it is the U.S. that is repeatedly violating Iran’s sovereignty.  The latest drone capture is more proof. However, Salehi made it sound like capturing U.S. drones is part of legal ‘action’ Iran will take against the U.S., as they will use the captured drones as evidence against the U.S. in international courts.

International, Technology, U.S.

World War 3: Iran displays drone that U.S. media says isn’t missing. U.S. Navy did not say it isn’t missing, USN said “all accounted for” which is not the same thing.

“The new U.S. failure in spying operation by this drone demonstrated that the U.S. government, despite its high military and economic power and its dominance on the world political order, is not capable of confronting the Islamic Iran…”-Brigadier General Hossein Salami, Islamic Revolution Guards Corps

04 December 2012, despite the USN insisting that it is not missing any ScanEagle drones (specifically saying all drones were “accounted for” but that doesn’t mean they have them in their possesion, it simply means they know where they are), Iran has put on display something that looks exactly like a ScanEagle.

Earlier U.S. media reports said the Iranian video didn’t allow anyone to see any clear markings. However, the ScanEagle is the only drone that looks the way it does, and most operational drones don’t carry obvious markings anyway.

I watched some U.S. posted videos of the captured ScanEagle and noticed some edited out the parts that showed the sophisticated optical system in the nose of the drone.  The Iranian video clearly shows it, and even shows members of the IRCG gawking at it. However, it is interesting that the IRCG managed to get the just captured drone put on public display so fast.

If the Iranians did not capture a Scan Eagle then they’ve made a detailed mock up of the drone, so detailed that they must have access to data about the Boeing/Insitu drone.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

World War 3: India deploys navy to counter China in South China Sea, Vietnam accuses China of violating its territory & attacking its ships!

“Now, are we preparing for it? Are we having exercises of that nature? The short answer is yes.”-Admiral D.K Joshi, Indian navy

04 December 2012, India announces it is sending a naval fleet to the South China Sea, to counter the growing presence of the Chinese navy, and possible for war.

Vietnam is also ramping up anti-Chinese sentiments: “The blatant violation of Vietnamese waters by Chinese fishing vessels not only violates the sovereignty…of Vietnam but also interferes in the normal operations of Vietnamese fishermen and affects the maritime activities of Petrovietnam.”-Pham Viet Dung, Petrovietnam

Petrovietnam officials say Chinese ships recently cut cables being towed behind  company research ships.

The South China Sea has become an international hot zone because of huge oil and gas reserves.  Many countries claim the area, including Vietnam, Japan, Korea, Philippines, China and others.

Taiwan, a U.S. ally, has recently taken up sides with mainland communist China over disputes with Japan.

Officials with the Obama administration recently told Japan that they would honor their Cold War agreements which basically say the U.S. supports Japanese territorial claims.

Indian officials said their naval deployment was not just about oil: “It is one of the most important international waterways and freedom of navigation there is an issue of utmost concern to India because a large portion of India’s trade is through the South China Sea.”-Brahma Chellaney, Centre for Policy Research

 

International, Technology, U.S.

Breaking news: Iran uses electronic warfare to capture yet another U.S. drone!

04 December 2012, Iranian media reports that Islamic Revolution Guards Corps have captured a U.S. Navy ScanEagle drone, which flew into Iranian airspace over the Persian Gulf.

The ScanEagle is a small recon unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).  The recon drone had been flown over the same area for several days.  Iranian IRCG officials claim they captured the drone by taking electronic control away from U.S. naval forces.

Last year Iran captured a more expensive stealth drone.  At that time, one Iranian parliament member said war would be on if another drone was captured violating Iranian airspace.