Category Archives: International

Business/Economics, International, Technology

What Economic Recovery? For the first time in 62 years, TV maker Sharp will layoff 5,000 workers! Despite profits Panasonic will let go 7,000 workers! Sony 10,000!

01 August 2012, Sharp announced that it will layoff 5,000 employees between now and March 2013, then, on 02 August reported a record loss of $1.6 billion USD for the quarter April-June!  That’s three times its loss from the same quarter last year!

The layoffs will affect workers in Japan, and in other countries.  Sharp hopes most of the layoffs will come from convincing older workers to retire early.

Sharp now expects to lose $3.2 billion for the year 2012!

Sharp has reported record losses, but, Panasonic recently reported profits and still plans to layoff 7,000 employees!

On 30 July 2012, Panasonic revealed that it plans to reduce its headquarter staffing by 7,000, leaving only 150 HQ staff employed!

Panasonic reported profits for the past quarter, but they (just like Sharp) suffered huge losses in 2011, and they expect sales to drop for the rest of 2012.

Panasonic executives say they hope to find other jobs for the 7,000 HQ staffers in Japan.

Back in April 2012, Sony revealed they will layoff 10,000 employees, both in Japan and in other countries.  On 02 August 2012, Sony reported a loss of $315 million for the quarter Arpil-June.

Sony officials revised their expected losses for this year, almost doubling it!

All three of these companies are losing big money in one sector of their industry: Televisions with LCD screens!  They say people around the world just aren’t buying enough LCD TVs.

Or is it that company execs messed up and ordered the production of way too many TVs with liquid crystal displays?

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

Where do the too big to fail Bankers get the death penalty? Iran!

While the U.S. crony capitalist system loves white collar crooks, allowing them to run corporations into the ground, and lose investor money to the tunes of billions of dollars, while still making millions of dollars in bonuses, the country of Iran issues true justice; they kill them!

On 30 July 2012, sentences were handed out for what turned out to be the biggest case of bank fraud in Iran’s history: “Of 39 defendants, whose charges were heard, the court’s judge has sentenced four to death and two others to life imprisonment. The remaining defendants received prison terms of 25 years, 20 years, 10 years, and less.”-Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, Judiciary spokesman

The convicted worked for a company called Aria Investment Development Company.  They used fake credit documents, and bribes, to steal $2.6 billion USD!  The stolen money was then used to take over government owned businesses.

But the investigation is not over; at least seven Iranian banks were involved!

China also executes white collar criminals!  Why not the U.S.?  After all when white collar crooks destroy companies and basically steal investor money they are destroying lives!  During the time of the Khans in Mongolia it was rare that a person would be executed for killing another human, however, execution was automatic for those who stole.

The reason was simple; someone who’s been killed has no more worries, but, someone who spent more than half their life building their lives, and their family’s lives, who then loses it all because of a thief, will spend the rest of their life struggling to rebuild, and in those times it was not likely that you could rebuild your life.  Therefore, a thief is worse than a killer because a thief will cause you to spend the rest of your life struggling to get out of poverty!

But don’t kid yourself by saying ‘oh that only happened in medieval times’.  Studies have shown that for most people in the United States, those who lose their life savings, or a good paying job, are not able to rebuild their lives to the point they were at before the loss, even after 20 years!!!

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

World War 3: Qatar joins Saudi Arabia in buying hundreds of German Leopard tanks

29 July 2012, Germany’s Der Spiegel reporting that the Arabian Peninsula country of Qatar offered Germany’s Krauss-Maffei Wegmann $2.46 billion USD for 200 of their latest Leopard main battle tanks (MBT).

A month ago it was revealed that Saudi Arabia was buying 800 Leopard 2A7 tanks, despite many German politicians pointing out that the sale violated Germany’s constitution.  Angela Merkel’s government dismissed such claims, and some politicians said the sale was needed to support Germany’s shrinking economy.

The latest Der Spiegel article says Qatari officials made the offer weeks ago.  Qatar is supporting the invasion of Syria, and was one of the main Arab supporters of the western backed insurgency in Libya.

Angela Merkel’s secretive Federal Security Council has final say regarding such a sale to Qatar, and Der Spiegel says it’s likely it will be approved.

 

 

International, U.S.

World War 3: Prince Bandar orchestrating war on Syria, U.S. leaders know of his connections to Al Qaeda and approve!

“…Saudi Arabia is left to draw up the Middle East’s new map.”-Haaretz, 25 July 2012

Recently an Israeli newspaper (Haaretz) published an article on Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s new intelligence boss; Bandar bin Sultan.

The following quotes from the article show that the so called revolution in Syria is actually an outside invasion, and that the United States is in bed with al Qaeda (after all it was the U.S. that came up with the name al Qaeda).

“…the main reason for his appointment now is that Saudi Arabia is preparing for the next stage in Syria, after President Bashar Assad leaves the political stage one way or another and Syria becomes a battleground for influence.”

“…his [Bandar’s] wife was investigated by [U.S.] Congress a decade ago about her connections to Al-Qaida…”-Saudi Arabia is ruled by royalists who are Salafi/Wahhabi Muslims, the same Islamic group that Osama bin Laden was part of, the same Islamic group that most of the members of the U.S. named al Qaeda belong to, the same Islamic group that the 9/11 attackers belonged to.  15 of the 19 hijackers on 11 September 2001, came from Saudi Arabia, not from Afghanistan, not from Iraq, not from Libya, not from Syria and not from Iran.  In fact none of the 9/11 attackers were from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Libya or Syria!

“…Bandar is considered the CIA’s man in Riyadh.”

“Bandar is a member of the part of the royal family that opposes the revolutions in the Arab states….”-This is proof that what happened in Libya, and what is happening in Syria are not revolutions

“…Bandar supported sending troops to the small kingdom of Bahrain next door to quell the Shi’ite revolt…”-Bahrain is also the HQ of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet

“…also moved fast to support the new [military] regime in Cairo, depositing more than $3 billion as a guarantee at the Egyptian central bank.”-An attempt to stop the Egyptian Revolution from succeeding.

“…Bandar was the one behind the decision to give money to the Syrian rebels, and even to buy weapons for them. They say the Saudi demand that Assad step down is part of Bandar’s strategy, which guides the kingdom far more than the positions of the 88-year-old king, whose health is failing.”

“…Saudi policy on Syria is being closely coordinated with the United States…”

 

International

World War 3: Russia to establish new naval bases in Vietnam & Cuba!

“It is true, we are working on the deployment of Russian naval bases outside Russian territory.”-Vice Admiral Viktor Chirkov, Russian navy

27 July 2012, the Russian navy announced they will re-open Soviet era naval bases around the world, including bases in Vietnam, Cuba (the “backyard” of the U.S.) and Seychelles.

The bases are needed for creating material and technical supply centers for the Russian navy.  The official reason for the expansion of the Russia navy is to fight piracy!

International, U.S.

World War 3: Turkey establishes command & control base for the invasion of Syria, Poland closes embassy!

27 July 2012, among warmongering reports from U.S. mainstream media, Poland announces that it has closed its embassy in Syria and is evacuating all Polish nationals!

Up to this point it was the Polish embassy that was acting as the diplomatic representative for the United States.

Reuters is reporting that an unnamed source in Qatar claims that Turkey, a member of U.S. led NATO, has established a command and control base for the invasion of Syria.

The base is located 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of the Syrian border: “It’s the Turks who are militarily controlling it. Turkey is the main coordinator/facilitator. Think of a triangle, with Turkey at the top and Saudi Arabia and Qatar at the bottom.”-unnamed official from Doha, Qatar

The unnamed official also said: “Three governments are supplying weapons: Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.” And added: “All weapons are from the black market.”

Qatar played a major role in the western war against Libya.

On 24 July 2012, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: “I have to say that we are also increasing our efforts to assist the opposition.”

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

LIBOR: EU to make rate fixing a crime. Rate fixing scandal an excuse to create One World Bank! New CIBOR scandal!

26 July 2012, the European Union’s European Commission is asking its members to pass a new law making currency and interest rate manipulation a crime.

The scandal involves mainly U.S. and British Too Big to Fail banks and the British based LIBOR, Belgium based EURIBOR and Japan based TIBOR systems.  Recently it was revealed that such systems are also being used to help elites hide $20 trillion USD worth of wealth from tax collectors.

In Denmark, the Danish government is wrapping up their investigation into their own CIBOR system.  Officials running the Copenhagen Interbank Offered Rate are suspected of setting rates unjustifiably higher than the EURIBOR.

The Wall Street Journal recently said the scandal “…could lead to a new system of calculating a benchmark…”

Too Big to Fail Morgan Stanley is asking British officials to put the Bank of England in direct control of LIBOR.

Also, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, stated he will be reviewing the proposed introduction of a new global rate system that will replace current LIBOR like systems.

The rate fixing scandal involves banks in North America, Europe and Japan (the regional members of the Trilateral Commission).

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

What Economic Recovery? Hoku Corporation voluntarily de-lists, chapter 11 coming soon, “Liquidate Hoku Materials”

“How much longer can Hoku Corp keep the tsunami of debt, liabilities, liens, foreclosures and material breaches of contract at bay? What’s the delay in filing for bankruptcy protection? I believe that it may be driven by their energetic attempts to sell their solar subsidiary before the much tighter restrictions on selling assets that would come under bankruptcy.”-Marco Mangelsdorf, ProVision Solar

Hoku Corporation, parent company of failed Hoku Materials in Pocatello, Idaho, voluntarily de-listed itself from NASDAQ, and will probably file chapter 11 bankruptcy.

On 29 June it was reported that Hoku Corp had enough cash for only nine weeks of operation!

“If Hoku is unable to secure additional financing, it believes it will need to seek protection in bankruptcy from its creditors and to liquidate and wind-down Hoku and Hoku Materials. “-Hoku SEC statement, 25 June 2012

Officials also said they were unable to complete required financial reports and would miss the filing deadline for the end of the fiscal year.

At the beginning of July 2012, Hoku Corp announced it would voluntarily de-list from NASDAQ.  This after NASDAQ stopped trading of Hoku stocks, after share price fell to below $1.00 back in December 2011.  Hoku said their de-listing would take place on 10 July.

Now, Hoku has been trading as a penny stock, and as of 17 July was worth only 4 cents per share!

HOKU CORP GOING BUST! POCATELLO WASTED HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS ON TAX BREAKS!  WHO’S GONNA BUY ALL THOSE NEW HOMES NOW MR MAYOR?

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Sales up, yet profits down for Nissan. Sales & profits down for Ford!

26 July 2012, Japan’s Nissan Motor has reported an increase in sales for the April to June quarter, but decreased profits.

Nissan officials said sales were up in China and North America, but, because of the rising value of the Japanese yen, and increasingly stiff competition, the overall profits fell 19.7%.  Their profit was still a hefty $1.5 billion USD (oh those greedy stockholders)!

Nissan said the only way they can keep profits up is to send more of their Japanese production to other countries, and use parts made in countries where the money is worth less than the yen.  Of course, this means more job losses in Japan!

U.S. based Ford also reported down profits, by 57%!  Ford, a much bigger company than Nissan, made about the same profit as their Japanese competitor, but Ford’s profit loss is tied directly to decreased sales worldwide.

Officials with Ford said they lost money big time in Europe, where the iconic car company saw a 15% drop in sales, losing more than $400 million USD.  They also lost sales in Asia, and profits were down in South America.

Ford expects that by the end of the year they will lose more than $1 billion USD because of the European crisis!

Business/Economics, International

What Economic Recovery? Britain in worst double dip recession ever, blame the Queen!

“It is clear that Britain is in the midst of the most prolonged period of stagnation it has faced in decades.”-John Longworth, British Chambers of Commerce

25 July 2012, Office for National Statistics announced another drop in GDP, for the third month in a row, officially putting the United Kingdom back into a recession.

U.K. economic performance data started being recorded in 1955, and the current situation is worse than anything on official record!

Officials with the Office for National Statistics are still adding up the costs of celebrating the queen’s Diamond Jubilee, but are already calling it a “significant hit” to the British economy.  Any public event involving the Royals is paid for by the government/taxpayers.

Some analysts say the Diamond Jubilee celebration actually stopped any economic recovery in Britain.

“They [government leaders] need to change course as their policies are causing permanent damage to our economy.”-Brendan Barber, Trades Union Congress