Category Archives: International

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Chinese manufacturing stalls, not enough orders to fill, blames bad economy in United States

“Manufacturers are struggling with multiple difficulties including increased lending costs and fewer international orders.”-Zhang Shiqing, Nankai University

Chinese economics professors are warning that the Chinese economy will stall.  China has become a major exporter of products to the world, but most of the world is in financial trouble.  That is resulting in less orders to be filled.

Also, the recent revelation that local governments, in China, are in debt to the tune of $1.65 trillion, is making it difficult for Chinese companies to get loans to continue operating.  It’s now obvious that the Chinese have been running their economy just like the United States.

Surprisingly from January to May 2011, U.S. exports to China actually went up, by 31%.   “China’s industrial production has notably declined in the previous month, which is a good opportunity for U.S. enterprises to boost production to fill the gap.”-Fan Jishe, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Many Chinese industry analyst are now doing what analysts in the U.S. are doing; hoping the economy will pick up by the end of the year.

 

Business/Economics, International

Communist China’s experiment with U.S. style capitalism a failure, only the rich got richer, created more poor

The Chinese government announced that they must revise their income tax laws, to account for the huge increase in poor people.  Their experiment with capitalism only created more poor people while a minority of people got rich.

Beginning in September the minimum income level for exemption from paying income tax will be raised, to the equivalent of $540.00 per month.  Currently it is $300.00 per month.  It will affect about 60 million workers.

Also, people making between $540.00 and $700.00 per month will see a decrease in the percentage they must pay; dropped to 3% from the current 5%.

This comes after riots by workers in several regions of China.  They are protesting low wages, no benefits, and they wanted to know where all the wealth was going, because after all these years most workers still aren’t seeing an improvement in their lives.

The Chinese government admits only a small portion of China’s people are benefiting from the U.S. style of doing business.

International, Opinion, U.S.

War on Terror will cost U.S. taxpayers $4 trillion, and that’s just for Iraq and Afghanistan

Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies “Costs of War” study says the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could hit $4.4 trillion and could last until 2020.

And for those that think war is good for the economy, the study said war spending makes up only a half a percent, per year of total GDP for the U.S.

The study also compared lives lost during the September 11, 2001 attacks, to the amount of lives lost in Iraq and Afghanistan.  2,995 people were killed on 9/11.   According to U.S. sources as many as 258,000 people have been killed, in the War on Terror, as a direct result of combat, even more have died indirectly, 365,000 have been wounded, 7.8 million people are refugees.

Realize that Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11, and that most Afghans didn’t even know about 9/11, and you really have to question the motives of our leaders.  Now President Obama wants to refocus the War on Terror onto the United States itself!

 

 

International

Evita Peron’s crown jewels recovered

Former First Lady of Argentina, Evita Peron, died in 1952.  The Dutch Royal family gave Evita the jewels as a gift.  They’re worth about $9 million.

In 2009 her ‘crown jewels’ were sent to a Spanish jeweler, but were stolen by a Serbian base criminal organization.

Spanish and Italian police found the jewels in a Milan hotel.  The hotel was being staked out because police believed it was being run by the crime gang.  So far seven people have been arrested.

Business/Economics, International

What Economic Recovery? Greece secretly defaults on bailout loans, on the verge of class war

“The measures that have been adopted are not to avoid the default, the default already took place, but it was not declared.”-Paolo Raffone, Secretary General of CIPI Foundation

Greece has cut even more social services and programs, and has jacked up taxes, in an effort to get more bailout loans approved.   The problem is that at least 16% of the Greek people are unemployed.

Analysts say most of the loans that Greece has gotten, have been going to pay previous loans.  Nothing is being used to try and build the Greek economy, like creating jobs.  The result is that the Greek government is just digging a deeper and deeper debt hole.

One analysts says what the Greek government is doing is called “virtual economics”, meaning the economy is based on loans, there is no true economy in Greece: “Economic specialists are trying to prop up an inherently unsustainable project, which is based on sometimes virtual economics.”-Sahara Ali, Green Party

Ali warns that continuing bailout loans will only make things worse for Greece, it’s really being done to save the European Union, and the Greek people know it: “That is what the general population has realized, that it’s increasing its indebtedness in order to prop up the Euro Zone.”

Ali suggested that part of the bailout loans require Greece to buy more products from other European countries, which actually works against building a Greek economy.

Paulo Raffone says the situation in Greece is heading towards a civil war based on class, rich vs poor: “The leadership in the country is always the same now for more than 40 years, and they’ve been profiteering on the People. There’re a few families that are sharing large shares of take in the national wealth.”

Raffone also says the control of Greece by the elites extends to the rest of Europe: “You have external European profiteers, which are the banks from Germany, France, Belgium and others, that have been profiteering on the Greek situation no matter what currency is there.” He says the elites don’t really want to change the current situation, because they’re making money off it.

Sahara Ali says the elites have revealed the “stupidity” of their economic reasoning: “Nobody’s actually able to eat the number of zeros, the negative zeros, in their bank balance.  What they actually are faced with, on a daily bases, is making ends meet.  Are we really thinking it’s reasonable to demand extra taxes from people in Greece who are on the minimum wage?”

Regarding the recent vote in the Greek Parliament, supporting their president’s latest efforts to get more loans,  analysts point out there is a huge gap growing between the People and their government officials.  The People do not want any more bailout loans.

More and more analysts are thinking that default, by many countries including the United States, is inevitable.  The problem is that the ruling elites of most countries are not being realistic, and are trying to pass the buck of responsibility of their bad choices onto the People/taxpayers.  This could result in class/civil wars on a global scale.

 

International, Opinion, U.S.

The U.S. IS a Police State: Obama refocuses U.S. War on Terror, the targets: Iran, Syria and…the people of the United States

“This is the first counter-terrorism strategy that designates the homeland as a primary area of emphasis in our counter-terrorism efforts.”-John Brennan, White House counter terrorism adviser

The Obama administration announced its new anti-terror policy.  Some confusing statements were made by Brennan, such as saying that the new policy will principally focus on “…al Qaeda, its affiliates and its adherents…”, but then went on to say that Iran and Syria “…remain leading state sponsors of terrorism.”, and that they will be targeted by the U.S.: “We will therefore continue to use the full range of our foreign policy tools to prevent these regimes and terrorist organizations from endangering our national security.”

The problem is that Iran and Syria are not partners with al Qaeda, in fact they are being targeted by al Qaeda.  Al Qaeda declared jihad against Syria because the government is secular.  And they declared jihad against Iran because most of the Iranians are Shia Muslims.  Al Qaeda members are mostly Wahhabi (aka Salafi) Muslims.

Brennan went on to say that the main focus of the new anti-terror policy will actually be…the people of the United States: “…the first counter-terrorism strategy that focuses on the ability of al Qaeda and its network to inspire people in the United States to attack us from within.”

Brennan believes al Qaeda is weakened, and that the greatest threat to the U.S. is domestic “lone wolf” terrorists.

Several countries worry that this means the U.S. will abandon them in the global War on Terror.  India considers its main threat a group called Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (aka Jamaat ud-dawa), not al Qaeda.

Is this new policy what Obama meant when he said he was going to refocus military/police action in the War on Terror?

 

 

Business/Economics, International, Technology

Mazda claims new Mazda 2 blows away hybrids in fuel economy

Mazda announced that their latest generation Demio (aka Mazda 2) gets much better fuel economy than hybrids.  That mean no more expensive batteries to replace.

The Demio’s engine has uniquely shaped pistons to increase combustion efficiency, and, it has a computer that will shut off the engine when it’s idling beyond a certain time limit.

The Idling Stop System will automatically start the engine when you’re ready to go.

Mazda’s Chief Executive, Takashi Yamanouchi, says how well the car sells will determine the future of car design for Mazda.  He hopes that all Mazda cars will be produced with similar technology within five years.  No word on if the new gas saving Demio (Mazda 2) will be sold in the United States.

International

Hezbollah preparing for downfall of Syrian government

“As far as we know, Hezbollah has now accumulated around 45,000 missiles of various ranges. There is one of them with a range which goes beyond 350 kilometers, which, according to them at least, can reach all of Israel till Eilat in the south of the country.”-Dr. Yoram Kahati, Israel’s International Institute for Counter-Terrorism

Intelligence analyst say Lebanon’s Hezbollah, are preparing for the possible fall of the Syrian government.  There is evidence that Hezbollah is moving advanced weapons stored in Syria, back into Lebanon.

Syria is an ally of Hezbollah, and has allowed Hezbollah to store its advanced weapons in Syria, out of reach of the Israeli military.

There is a fear that if the Syrian government falls, Hezbollah might go to war with Israel.

International

Israel threatens to assasinate Syrian president

A Kuwaiti newspaper reports that Israel has threatened to kill Syrian President Bashar Assad.  The threat was delivered via Turkish officials to Syria.

Israelis are concerned over the mass movements of Syrian military forces, including ballistic missiles aimed at Israel.  Israeli officials fear President Assad might attack Israel as a diversion for the internal fighting going on in Syria.  Israel said if Syria attacks them they will assassinate Assad.

International

France admits to violating UN resolutions, arming rebels in Libya

French military spokesman, Colonel Thierry Burkhard, admits France is violating the UN resolutions by arming Libyan rebels.  He says they’ve been airdropping weapons to the rebels.

In 2009 Nicolas Sarkozy made France a member of the U.S. led North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).  Four decades ago Charles de Gaulle pulled France out of NATO, citing sovereignty issues.

UN resolution 1973 allows NATO “to take all necessary measures, notwithstanding paragraph 9 of resolution 1970 (2011), to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas under threat of attack in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.” Paragraph 9 of UN resolution 1970 imposed an arms embargo on the Libya.  Therefore France has violated both UN resolutions.

There are also reports that France supplied rebels with tanks.