Category Archives: International

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

U.S. Dollar crashing against Japanese Yen

The U.S. dollar has fallen in value against the Japanese Yen.  This is because Japanese government and corporations are cashing in their chips. They are cashing in the foreign bonds they hold, in order to raise cash to help deal with the disasters. Corporations, including insurance companies which expect pay out huge claims, are trying to acquire as much Japanese Yen as they can. This is called “repatriation” in the financial markets.

The Bank of Japan will take advantage of the rising value of the Yen, by selling Yen to foreign buyers in order to bring in foreign cash to the national bank.

Japan has been one of the most prolific buyers of U.S. debt, in the form of U.S. bonds.  Japan itself is in huge debt, but until now was able to continue buying U.S. bonds, helping the U.S. government.  The disasters have forced Japan to sell back bonds in order to raise cash to help deal with ongoing crisis, and for rebuilding.  Japanese corporations have to raise cash due to the fact that most factories have shut down, which means they’re not making anything to sell.  So Japanese corporations have to sell the foreign bonds they hold.

This is the beginning of a possible economic dominoes affect on the World Economy.

Fukushima, International

Almost No Time to Escape Tsunami

After watching interviews of tsunami survivors it has become clear that there was very little time between the 9.0 quake and the first tsunami surge.

Most survivors say there was less than 15 minutes from the time of the quake to the tsunami impact.  An environmental activist from the United States, Brian Barnes, says where he was it was less than 7 minutes.  He says most of the people of Otsuchi, where he was, died. The city is wiped out. Barnes survived because he immediately drove to higher ground after the quake, with the tsunami showing up after he got to the top of the hill.

Most survivors say any emergency preparedness training they underwent in the past, did not prepare them for this.

Fukushima, International

Foreign Companies Evacuating from Northern Japan

Reuters reporting that several foreign companies, operating in Japan,  have started evacuating employees to the southern part of Japan.

Companies with evacuations underway are; German technology companies SAP and Infineon, German tire and auto parts maker Continental, and French car maker Peugeot.

Boeing has suspended business travel in Japan.

Companies standing by with evacuation plans are;  Volvo and several European banks.

IBM and CISCO Systems say their operations have not been affected and have no plans to evacuate.

 

International

Ring of Fire Seismic Events part 2 Volcanoes

Using Global Volcanism Program (GVP) website, monthly reports, I totaled the number of volcanic events, around the Pacific Ring of Fire, for the year 2010.  Then I averaged the number of events over the whole year.  The monthly average number of volcanic events, for 2010, came to 5.3.  Keep in mind that at least 90% of the world’s volcanic events took place on the Ring of Fire, in 2010.

The GVP weekly activity reports include “ongoing” activity, so I threw those out and counted the “new” activity only.  It is clear there is an increase.

For the reporting month of January 2011, I counted 16 new activity reports for the Ring of Fire.  For February it is 13.  The first week of March is 2 (I expect March will end up with a high number, due to what’s happening in Japan).

Maybe the GVP has differences in what they post for monthly vs weekly, but, the most monthly activity in 2010, was in February with 9 (remember I did an average for the whole year).  You can see, comparing February 2010 to February 2011, there is an increase of 4.

Is this cause for alarm? Maybe not. I went back to February 2001, and there was much more volcanic activity then (I counted 24).  Another issue is how the GVP gets it information. The website states that information comes from “…hundreds of correspondents, scientists, and other volcano observers that contribute information.”  GVP does list activity reports that they have determined to be “false”.