Category Archives: U.S.

U.S.

Operation BART: U.S. Media says no transit shutdown, U.K. Media says 4 BART stations shut down, who’s right?

August 16, protestors shut down four of San Fransisco’s BART stations, according to media in the United Kingdom.  Yet the San Fransisco Chronicle says no such shutdown took place!

August 17, the San Fransisco Chronicle published an article titled “No BART protests”.  The article claims that BART service was not interrupted by any protestors: “Tuesday’s commutes were hassle free, despite rumors that more protests were planned.”

Yet, at the beginning of the article it clearly states: “…protesters disrupted yet another commute…” Which is it San Fransisco Chronicle, commutes were hassle free or not?

August 16, the British Daily Mail published an article which states: “Four San Francisco subway stations had to be shut down temporarily last night as the hacker group Anonymous continued its protest over free speech and police brutality.”

The U.K. Daily Mail even has pics.  Clearly, and as usual, the U.S. media can not be trusted.

 

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

Dumb Americans, like Frogs in a Boiling Pot: New study shows economic inequality in the U.S. as bad as some African countries, yet most U.S. citizens think everything is fine

Psychologist Dan Ariely designed a test, a test to see how much the average Joe in the United States knows about their own country’s income equality, or lack of.

Not surprisingly, to me anyway, the overwhelming majority (in the 90% range) of U.S. citizens still think the U.S. is equal when it comes to income distribution.  The reality is that income distribution is so unequal it’s as bad as many African countries: “…if we were to compare us with African countries, dictators in different places, you know, taking a lot of the wealth from normal people, we would be among the top half of the African countries of inequality.  So, the U.S. really has reached an extraordinary level of income inequality.”-Richard Freeman, Harvard economist

Here’s some facts about who holds the most income, and who doesn’t: “People don’t understand how much wealth the top 20% have.  They actually have 84% of the wealth.  And they think they have much less.  And more disturbingly, people don’t understand how little wealth the bottom of the distribution have.  The bottom 40% of the U.S. have about 0.3% of the wealth, basically zero.  And people think they have much more than that.”-Dan Ariely

This is what I call frogs in a economic boiling pot; by the time they realize they’re being screwed it could be too late to do anything about it!

But here’s a really interesting fact: “In the last 30 years or so, the share of national, of income that has gone to the upper 0.1%, not to the upper 1.0%, 0.1%, rose by 10 percentage points. That is one of the most astounding patterns I have ever seen in data.”-Richard Freeman

That’s right, the segment of society in the United States, that’s seen the most growth to their wealth, makes up only 0.1% of the population!

To see more on this important study, and WAKE UP AMERICA, go to PBS News Hour.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Government slight of hand & Media Incompetence: GDP numbers continue to get revised donward, after being publicly reported, U.S. no better off than EU

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis says the GDP for the second quarter of 2011 was a stagnant 1.3%.  But what some media outlets didn’t report was that the previous quarter was revised downward from 1.95% to 0.4%!

This kind of slight of hand has been going on for years now.  It turns out that real GDP has been much lower during this whole recession/recovery BS.  Don’t be surprised that the second quarter GDP numbers get revised downward when the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reports the 3rd quarter results.

The revision of the 1st quarter, down to 0.4%, shows that the United States is no better off than the European Union, which is in real big trouble.

Germany hit a surprising low of 0.1% GDP.  France, the second biggest EU economic powerhouse after Germany, flatlined at 0% GDP!  For the whole of the EU Gross Domestic Product was only 0.2% for the second quarter.

 

 

 

Technology, U.S.

Operation BART: Anonymous hacks San Fransisco Transit Police, retaliation for police cutting off cell service

“Anonymous demands that this activity revolving around censorship cease and desist and we know you are already planning to do this again.”-warning to BART police from Anonymous

In retaliation for the Bay Area Rapid Transit police cutting off cell service, to prevent a mass protest, Anonymous hacked them and took personal data of at least 2,000 BART users.

San Fransisco’s BART officials say the Anonymous hack will not stop them from cutting off cell service in the future: “It’s one of the tactics we have at our disposal. We may use it; we may not. And I’m not sure we would necessarily let anyone know in advance either way.”-Jim Allison, BART

Operation BART is now being investigated by the Department of Homeland Security.

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? U.S. home construction down again, no recovery in sight

“This range leaves us at the lowest levels since the series began in 1959. While monthly volatility is likely to continue, no real recovery looks to be on the horizon.”-Jill Brown, Credit Suisse

August 16, the United States Census Bureau reports housing starts fell 1.5% in July, and permits to build new homes fell by 3.2%.

The biggest drop came in what’s called “groundbreakings” of single family homes, down by 4.9%.

The Census Bureau blames the declines on too many existing homes on the market, no thanks to the big banks foreclosing on so many home buyers.

Just last week, Idaho officials downgraded their economic forecast, with one factor being a decline in construction jobs.

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? WalMart says the economy still sucks, 9th straight quarterly decline in sales, blames you!

August 16, WalMart reporting their sales have dropped for the 9th straight quarter!  And that’s with higher sales than the same time last year!

WalMart blames us shoppers!  Just like most of Corporte America, WalMart says we shoppers aren’t doing our job spending money we don’t have!

To be fair, WalMart execs realize the bad economy has something to do with us shoppers not spending money: “We remain concerned about the economic pressure on our customers and the uncertain impact it can have on their shopping behavior.”-Bill Simon, CEO

Bill Simon’s statement also shows ignorance when he says a bad economy has an “uncertain impact” on shopping.  Hello, mister Simon, bad economy means no money, no money means a no shoppin’ ina you store!

This past quarter includes the coveted Back to School sales.  Back to School sales are the second most important for retailers, after the November/December holiday season.  Guess what, their Back to School sales sucked!

 

 

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Revovery? Japanese companies report double dip decline in profits, predicts continued declines into next year, blames the crashing U.S. dollar

Major Japanese companies are reporting a second quarter of declining profits.  And that’s before taxes!

SMBC Nikko Securities has compiled the profit results of more than 1,200 companies.  Overall profits are down by 12%.  They also predict profits will continue to fall into next year, by at least 2%.

Business analysts in Japan blame the decline on lack of electricity, due to more than half of Japan’s nuclear plants being shut down, and the crashing U.S. dollar.

As the U.S. dollar falls, the yen is rising in value, making Japanese products more expensive for foreign customers to buy.  Most of Japan’s economy is based on exporting products to other countries.

Japan is also the second largest foreign holder of U.S. government debt.

 

International, U.S.

Turkey gives Syria ultimatum, threatens war, United States makes the usual statments that preceed military action

“If these operations do not stop, there will be nothing left to say about the steps that would be taken.  This is our final word to the Syrian authorities, our first expectation is that these operations stop immediately and unconditionally.”-Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkish Foreign Minister

August 15, Turkey gave Syria an ultimatum; stop military operations or face the consequences.  This follows the increase of Turkish troops along the border with Syria, and the recall of all military officers who retired within the last five years.

Also, on the the same day U.S. President Obama issued this statement, through his spokesman Jay Carney: “We are looking, together with a broad array of international partners, to increase pressure on President Assad.” Also: “By his actions he has demonstrated that he has lost legitimacy to lead, and the president has no doubt that Syria will be better off without him.”

The statements from the Obama administration are now stereotypical in signalling military action.  Turkey is a member of the U.S. led North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

 

Idaho, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Idaho economic forecast good on one hand, bad on the other, and completely dependent on a U.S. economic recovery

The Idaho Division of Financial Management revised its projected economic outlook, no thanks to the recent U.S. debt limit debacle.

Officials still project increased tax revenues, but now think employment will be down.

Some reasons they hope tax revenues are up; previous tax collections were higher than predicted, and they expect personal income to increase (somehow).

The drop in employment is expected in the construction industry.

These latest revisions are assuming the U.S. economy actually grows for the rest of the year!  If the U.S. economy continues to go south, forget it.

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Government & Corporate Incompetence: Idaho punishes California’s Molina for screwing up Medicaid payments, some health care providers went out of business

Idaho is still trying to get back $10 million in overpayments, that Molina screwed up when they took over Idaho’s Medicaid payment system in 2010.

Idaho officials say they turned over the payment system to California based Molina Medicaid Solutions, to comply with Federal regulations.

The move cost taxpayers big time, and it shut down a few health care providers.

What happened was that at the beginning of Molina’s take over providers weren’t getting paid, for as long as two months!  Many providers came close to bankruptcy, and a few went out of business.

The state made emergency payments, then Molina went and finally responded by paying the original claims.  The result was double payments!

The state of Idaho is punishing Molina by reducing the amount of money they were originally to be paid.  Also, Idaho is trying to recoup the money from the double payments.

Molina has made improvements to their customer service, but as of this year they still have 10,000 claims pending, with just under 5% being more than a month old.  One northern Idaho mental health provider says her payment claims still get delayed for no reason.