Category Archives: International

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

China wants to move Cinese companies to U.S., but says U.S. blocking them

“As the U.S. government continues to request accessibility to the Chinese market for its firms, we now raise a similar request on behalf of Chinese firms.”-Zhu Guangyao, Vice Finance Minister

For decades U.S. companies have been shipping off factories, and jobs, to China.  Now China says the United States is blocking their attempts to bring factories and jobs to the U.S.

“We have received many complaints from Chinese companies that have met discrimination as they try to invest in the United States, even though the U.S. side has repeatedly stated that Chinese companies are welcome.”- Zhu Guangyao, Vice Finance Minister


International

UN admits Haiti cholera may have come from Peacekeepers, it’s not over

United Nations health investigators say the strain of cholera, that killed more than 4,000 people in Haiti, came from south Asia.

The UN officials say they traced the strain back to a river near a UN peacekeeper camp, that was occupied by troops from Nepal.  The UN admits that sanitation conditions at the camp were below standards.

The UN investigators refuse to blame the Nepalese, even though they say the evidence “overwhelmingly supports” that the Haiti cholera strain came from south Asia.

The cholera epidemic is not over for Haiti.  The United Nations predicts another 800,000 Haitians could become sick this year.

International

Iran & Cuba join forces to counter Hillary Clinton’s U.S. media war

“In line with the imperialistic interests of the U.S. and Europe, the American and European media outlets don’t reflect the exact reality of what happens in our nations.”-Ramin Mehman-Parast, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman

Recently Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked Congress to spend more money on increasing pro-U.S. international media organizations.  She said the U.S. was losing out to foreign media.

Now the Iranians, and Cubans, have joined the international media war, by joining forces.

Besides wanting to show their side of the story, in Latin America, the Iranians say they need a more trustworthy source of Latin American news than the U.S. media.  

International, U.S.

Iran claims U.S. and Israel smuggling Crack & Meth into Iran from Afghanistan

Iranian investigator Majid Abhari, says he has proof that drugs being brought into Iran, through Afghanistan, are being run by the CIA and Mossad.  He has some convincing evidence.

First, traditionally opium, and marijuana/hash, were the drugs that came through.  Now, Iranian drug police are confiscating morphine, crack and meth.  Those drugs are considered “western” drugs and are not normally used by addicts in the region.

Second, Iranian police have discovered that transactions connected to the “western” drugs are being made with credit cards.  Traditional drug dealers operate “cash only” businesses.

Iran claims to be the most active anti-drug enforcers in the world.  Last year they seized 85% of the world’s illegal opium.  In the past five years Iran has spent $50 million to fight drug trafficking from just Afghanistan.  Iran also claims thousands of their anti-drug police have been killed.

Iranian police say drug trafficking from Afghanistan has jumped 40 times higher after the U.S. invaded .  According to the UN, Afghan opium production was at 185 metric tons (204 U.S. tons) per year, before the U.S. invaded.  The United Nations says opium production is now at 3,400 tons (3748 U.S. tons) per year (in 2007 it hit a record of 8,200 metric tons [9039 U.S. tons]).

Iran should know how the CIA and Mossad operates, after all, during the reign of the pro-U.S. Shah the CIA, and Mossad, trained Iran’s intelligence agencies (especially the infamous SAVAK).

IRAN SAYS U.S. & ISRAEL BEHIND REGIONAL DRUG TRAFFICKING

International

Iranian clerics warning of European style Erhal Revolutions

“The European nations will certainly rise up against their politicians and leaders who made them submit to the cultural and economic policies of the U.S. and the Zionists.”-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei

The West has been referring to the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa as “popular uprisings”, but in locally they’re known as “Erhal” (Irhal).  Very loosely translated it means “throw the bums out!”.

For the past several days Iranian clerics have predicted that the Erhal movements will hit Europe.  It’s not because of religion, but because of social/economic injustice brought upon the common people by their own leaders.

One cleric predicts revolutions for all the world’s countries: “They (the revolutions) will slowly cross all boarders.”-Hojjatoleslam Kazzem Sediqi

International

Japan orders nuke plant shut down, expecting 8+ quake

Prime Minister Naoto Kan ordered the Hamaoka nuclear plant shut down, for fear of a major earthquake.

The Hamaoka plant is run by Chubu Electric Power company.  The plant has two reactors already decommissioned, one shut down for maintenance, and two still operating.  It’s located south west of Tokyo, in Shiuoka Prefecture.

Prime Minister Kan ordered the shut down because Japanese scientists believe an 8.0 quake will take place under the nuclear plants location, anytime in the next 30 years.  Kan says that Chubu Electric must come up with a plan to reinforce the reactors for an earthquake greater than 8.0, before they can resume operations.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Commodities crashing? More signs that there is no economic recovery

The cost of living in the U.S. rose at its fastest pace since December 2009 in the year ended in March, the same month when Chinese consumer prices rose by the most since 2008.-Bloomberg report

Rising commodity prices can bring inflation.  Commodity prices go up when there is an expected higher demand than supply (or speculators playing the market).  Today, May 5, commodity prices are falling.

Some people blame an increase in the value of the U.S. dollar, but has it really gone up that much? When the U.S. dollar is up, it makes commodities that much more expensive on the world market, because commodities are traded in U.S. dollars: “The common denominator for all the commodities selling today is the strength of the dollar.”-Bayram Dincer, LGT Capital Management Ltd

Others are pointing out that commodity traders are realizing that the world’s economy is still bad, and that the average person can’t afford to pay higher prices.  That means demand will go down.

If you buy commodities (oil, gas, metals, food stuffs, etc) why bid higher when there’s a good change you can’t sell it on the retail market?  Some analysts think this will be the crash of the commodities (which is a good thing for us little guys): “This could be one of the most severe corrections that we’ve seen over the last year. If things get really bad, we could possibly retrace half of the rally of the past six to nine months.”-Sean Corrigan, Diapason Commodities Management SA

How about the fact that a little known company, Glencore, who turns out to have a lot of say in the commodities market, has told their clients to be “underweight” when it came to commodities.  Glencore expects prices to actually go up in the next 12 months.  Being “underweight” means to sell off your investments, so maybe what we’re seeing is an intentional, and temporary, sell off.  A sell off would drive prices down.

 

Business/Economics, International, Opinion

Oil prices drop, suddenly there’s a new oil disaster, big pipeline leak in Canada

Ever since the supposed raid to kill bin Laden was announced, oil prices have been falling.  In fact, May 5, oil is about $99.00 per barrel for WTI.

Guess what, now there’s a huge leak in a big oil pipeline in Alberta, Canada.  How convenient.  Not only that, but officials who control the Plains Midstream pipeline claim the leak started on April 29!  So far, 4.5 million liters (1.2 million gallons) of oil has leaked out.