Tag Archives: banks

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: Hokkaido Nuclear Plant fails to pass new safety tests!

On 29 February 2012, Japan’s Nuclear Industrial and Safety Agency said Hokkaido Electric Power Company (HEPCo) failed to comply with new nuclear plant stress test rules.

Japan’s government officials have even more reason to get tough on nuclear safety, as an investigation into the Fukushima disaster revealed gross government incompetence.

The new stress tests are designed to force nuclear power plant operators to take into consideration major natural disasters regarding the reactor’s safety.  The  Nuclear Industrial and Safety Agency said HEPCo failed to consider fault lines running under and around their Tomari nuclear power plant.

HEPCo only considered fault lines that were 40km (24.8 miles) away!  Government officials also say the new stress tests require consideration of fault lines as far out as 150km (93 miles).

 

International, U.S.

World War 3: People of Yemen demand the U.S. get out! Proof of U.S. hypocrisy!

February 29, 2012, several thousand Yemenis have taken to the streets in the southern city of Taizz, demanding the U.S. ambassador leave.

Since 2011 Yemenis have been protesting against their authoritarian government.  Have you heard anything from the U.S. government about forcing regime change, as they did in Libya, and as they are in Syria?  Of course not, that’s because the criminal Yemen government is pro-U.S.

Recently the president of 20 years stepped down, to be replaced by the only candidate in an almost instantly held election!  The people of Yemen say the United States and Saudi Arabia were behind the farce of an election.

However, the former president, and his sons, still hold onto key government positions.

 

 

 

Business/Economics, International

World War 3: 26% of English support Scottish Independence! Spain supports Scotland! Argentina will back Scotland’s fight for Independence!

A survey by NatCen Social Research British Social Attitudes, shows that 26% of the English support the separation of Scotland from the United Kingdom!

But that doesn’t mean the English like Scotts, no, it shows there is growing hatred of them!

31% say Scotland should no longer be allowed to vote on English policies.  44% say Scotland gets too much taxpayer money.

Scotland’s Humza Yousaf, a SNP (Scottish national Party) MSP (Member Scottish Parliament) for Glasgow, says the English are Incompetent: “The idea that Scotland gets more than its fair share of U.K. Government spending is…factually wrong…”

However, Yousaf says: “Independence for Scotland makes sense for all the people of Scotland and England.”

Over to mainland Europe: Spanish Foreign Minister, Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, has confirmed that his country will vote for an independent Scotland to become a member of the European Union!

Then way down South America way, Argentina has voiced support for Scotland’s independence. President Cristina Kirchner might send an official delegation to help Scotland celebrate the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn, marking the victory of Robert the Bruce over the English in 1314.

Some analysts say the move is a way for Argentina to cause trouble in England’s backyard, if war were to break out over the Falklands/Malvinas Islands.

Business/Economics, International

What Economic Recovery? & Corporate Evil: Nearly 1 million retirement plans destroyed, small companies could go bust

An investigation has revealed that investment firm, AIJ Investment Advisors Company, has lost most, or all, the money in retirement plans that affect more than 880,000 people!

More than half those plans are for people who’re still working.  The loss could actually force the companies they work for out of business!

Japan’s Labor Ministry says the Tokyo based investment firm lost the money belonging to 84 corporate retirement plans!  The majority of those plans  actually belong to medium and small businesses.

AIJ has been ordered to pay back those companies.  However, the Labor Ministry says if it can not, then under Japanese law those companies would have to come up with the retirement money on their own, and that could shut down some of the medium and small sized companies.

 

Fukushima

Experts say you can’t rely on Federal Government or Coporations in times of Nuclear Disasters!

A panel of experts, in Japan, have released recommendations for future nuclear disaster, and one of those recommendations is: Do not rely on corporations or national governments for help!

After investigating disaster response, regarding the ongoing General Electric designed Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster, experts say local governments should have full control of things like evacuations, and radiation monitoring, among other things.

An existing off site (off nuclear plant property) disaster response center failed, because it was overwhelmed with radiation contamination! The expert panel say in the future off site nuclear disaster response centers must be hardened against radiation contamination (you would’ve thought that was a no brainer).

The panel also recommends two radiation response centers; one located some distance from any nuclear plants, to act as a command & control center, and one near nuclear plants to act as a front line radiation monitor and to direct evacuations.

The panel says the response centers should be under control of local governments, not national/federal governments!  Also, local governments should have total authority, and not be reliant on nuclear power corporations for disaster response advice!  Months of investigations have revealed that corporations are grossly incompetent in that regard!

Already the national government of Japan, and Tokyo Electric Power Company, are downplaying the advice from experts.

 

Fukushima

Official Independent Investigation proves Gross Government & Corporate Incompetence regarding Nuclear Safety in Japan!

“The direct causes of the nuclear accident were the unpreparedness of Tokyo Electric Power…and the government’s lack of a sense of responsibility.”-Kitazawa Koichi, lead investigator

A Japanese government sanctioned independent investigation has revealed gross incompetence in the wake of the March, 2011, nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi.  It also says that Tokyo Electric Power Company made the situation worse!

Six investigators interviewed more than 300 people, including Japanese and U.S. government officials.  However, officials at TEPCo refused to co-operate with the investigators! They have just published their findings, 28 February 2012.

The report calls government response “off the cuff”, and “too late” (as I was posting last year)!

The nuclear power plant operator, TEPCo, was ill prepared for a nuclear disaster, despite decades of telling locals they were prepared (as I posted last year).

The Japanese government, especially the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, failed to ensure the proper training for nuclear disaster response (as I posted last year).

The report also blames Japan’s complicated system of delegating authority and responsibility.  No one knew who was supposed to do what regarding the disaster; from top national government officials down to sub-contractors working for TEPCo (again, as I posted last year).

Things were so bad that local governments have been taking the initiative to try and deal with things like relocating residents, and decontamination efforts, with little help from the national government (again, I posted).

Also, many of the discoveries of radiation contamination came as a result of individuals and private groups, who took it upon themselves to pay for testing things like dirt, water, and even food, like beef, sold in grocery stores (again, I).

It was local governments who discovered farm crops to be contaminated (posted last year).

The report also says that information coming from the private sector to government officials was insufficient to make proper decisions. TEPCo officials simply dragged their feet when it came to dealing with specific issues, like cooling systems being shut down, and vents not being opened.

Not only did TEPCo drag their feet, but the investigators found that there was a back up cooling system that was functional, but TEPCo never used it!!!

Although Japan’s government has a crisis management policy, the investigators said it is totally useless!

 

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: Japanese leaders unaware of their own Nuclear Disaster prediction RadNet system!

An investigation by an independent panel discovered that there is indeed a nuclear disaster plan already in place at the national government level in Japan.  But, the Prime Minister’s administration was not aware of it!

Of course, former Prime Minister Kan Naoto and four other politicians blame the Science Ministry officials for not telling them about a computer program/radiation detection sites called SPEEDI (System Prediction Environmental Emergency Dose Information).

The system is similar to the U.S. EPA’s RadNet system (which mysteriously stopped working iimmediately after March 11, 2011).

Former Cabinet Secretary Edano Yukio said he found out about it from the Japanese media.  By then, the Fukushima Daiichi reactor 2 was already spewing radiation.

Edano said when he questioned the Science Ministry politicians about it, they told him SPEEDI was not accurate.

The investigators discovered that SPEEDI is being used to convince local governments the nuclear plants were safe!  So why, when determining plans to deal with a nuclear disaster, SPEEDI is considered inaccurate?

 

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? S&P’s declares Greece in default of debt! Proof that re-negotiating your debt won’t save you!

February 27, 2012, Standard & Poor’s declares Greece to be in default!  S&P’s blamed it on the debt restructuring deal currently being negotiated.

Greek officials say they were expecting it. Other credit rating agencies are expected to do the same thing.  This makes Greece the first European Union member to default.

S&P’s explained that loan contracts state that loan restructuring is condition for default status: “As we have previously stated, we may view an issuer’s unilateral change of the original terms and conditions of an obligation as a de facto restructuring and thus a default by Standard & Poor’s published definition.”

Business/Economics, International

What Economic Recovery: British officials admit there is no more money!

Chancellor George Osborne admits: “The British government has run out of money because all the money was spent in the good years, the money and the investment and the jobs need to come from the private sector.”

“Any tax cut would have to be paid for. In other words there would have to be a tax rise somewhere else or a spending reduction.  In other words what we are not going to do in this budget is borrow more money to either increase spending or cut taxes.”

Foreign Minister Jeremy Browne said: “Britain’s market share in the world used to be dominant but is now in freefall compared with the soaring economies of Asia and South America. This situation has been becoming more acute for years. It is now staring us in the face. So we need to take action”

Business/Economics, International

What Economic Recovery: G20 says no more money for the IMF, until Greece makes even more draconian cuts! Wants U.S. to end Volcker Rules!

27 February 2012

The Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank chiefs, meeting in Mexico, said they will not provide the International Monetary Fund anymore money until Europe, specifically Greece, makes more even drastic government cuts.

This follows reports that the World Bank will issue a report warning China to privatize its remaning government held businesses.  Many analysts believe what the G20 really wants is total privatization of governments.

Yesterday I speculated that the problems of Greece are actually related to its lack of participation in the developing of the Leviathan gas and oil fields. Greece is also being pushed to privatize many government services.

The G20 also demanded that the United States back off of its Volcker banking rule, which was created to tighten the regulation of runaway too big to fail banks!  The Volcker rule is supposed to stop banks from using customer deposits to make investments strictly for the banks own profit! G20 officials claim the Volcker rule are interfering with international banking!

The Volcker rule doesn’t even go into effect until July, 2012!