Tag Archives: banks

Business/Economics, Idaho, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? 4,000 people stranded when Australian airline is suddenly deleveraged by too big too fail creditors

The latest corporation to become a victim of global deleveraging, is Air Australia.

Deleveraging is when the too big too fail banks take away your line of credit, and demand full, and instant payment of all debts.  Here in Idaho Wells Fargo Bank deleveraged several businesses in the past few years, including a Pontiac dealer in Idaho Falls, and several Sportsman Warehouse stores (owners of both businesses say they were not in financial trouble).

On February 17 (Australia time), 2012, the executives of Air Australia were suddenly told their line of credit had been suspended.  The result was that Air Australia could not buy fuel for use on flights where passengers were about to board, or planes were waiting to take off.  That has left at least 4,000 people stranded!  Another 10,000, who bought tickets for future flights, will not get their money back.

Air Australia has been losing money, especially after it lost a 90 million Australian dollars contract with the Australian Department of Defense.

It looks like the Australian airline industry is run the way the U.S. airline industry is, and that has some people calling for an investigation: “It does say something about…the fact the aviation industry should be properly investigated in this country.”-Tony Sheldon, Transport Workers Union

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Majority of U.S. citizens say Corporate America is to blame for bad economy. The bell tolls for Bank of America and Fox News?

In the latest survey by Harris Interactive, 78% of people blame the bad economy on Corporate America (and Corporate Britain).

The annual Harris Interactive Reputation Quotient poll is a measure of how consumers view corporations.  So far the main stream media has only mentioned the good points of the poll, like Apple surging ahead of Google regarding a positive image among consumers.

What the main stream corporate controlled media isn’t reporting is that only 22% of those surveyed have a overall good impression of Corporate America!

Also, the survey is a warning sign for major banks.  According to reports, AIG, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America are on the Harris poll’s critical list, because they ranked as low as Enron, Adelphia and WorldCom, right before those later companies went out of business.

Other companies that scored poorly were BP (British Petroleum), JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and News Corp (owners of Fox News).

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

United Corrupt Police States of America: It’s official, major U.S. cities, and their police departments, are rife with corruption!

The Chicago Tribune has published a report by the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the University of Illinois’ Institute of Government and Public Affairs.

That report says the public officials, including the police, of major cities in the United States are corrupt!  The study is based on federal court cases.

Percentage wise, Louisiana had the most corrupt officials.  Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania took the next three highest per capita positions for corruption.

When looking just at the number of cases, New York state was number one, followed by California and Illinois.

The study did not break down the types of corruption, but ‘public corruption’ includes bogus contracts, bribes, out right theft, ghost payrolling and police brutality.   Remember, the study is based on corruption cases that actually made it to federal court, so you can imagine just how corrupt your public officials really are!

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Italy becomes second European country to officially hit Double Dip Recession, blame increased budget cuts and unemployment

“The budget cuts are weighing it down…The conditions for a recovery in consumption are not there since unemployment hit a new record.”-Chiara Corsa, UniCredit bank

February 16, 2012, for the second month in a row, Italy’s economy shrank.  Two months in a row of contraction, that’s the official sign of recession.

Belgium was the first European country to officially go into a double dip recession. Interestingly this happened after they finally agreed to a new government, following more than a year without one.

 

 

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

Corporate Crime: 40 years later, two former executives found guilty of the deaths of 2,000 of their Italian employees! Social health care found them out!

“This is the biggest trial in the world, and in history, as far as safety at work is concerned.”-Raffaele Guariniello, prosecutor

In a precedent setting trial in Italy, two former executives of a company that made fiber cement (cement made with asbestos), were found guilty in the deaths of more than 2,000 of their employees!

Another 1,000 employees, and people who lived near the factories, are now ill.  The Italian Health Ministry investigated due to the high rate of health cases hitting their social health care system, that were directly linked to the fiber cement factories.  The investigation revealed that employees were not given even basic safety gear for use around asbestos.  Things like masks and goggles.

One of the former executives is Belgian baron Jean Louis Marie Ghislain De Cartier De Marchienne, the other is Swiss billionaire tycoon Stephan Schmidheiny.

In his defense, Jean Louis Marie Ghislain De Cartier De Marchienne sent a written statement saying that at the time it was not known how deadly asbestos could be.

The factories were closed in 1986, six years before asbestos was banned in Italy.

The two wealthy one percenters face 16 years in prison, if they’re ever caught.  They were convicted in absentia.

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

Corporate Crime: Former officials of scandal ridden Olympus have been arrested

February 16, 2012, seven people connected to the scandal ridden Olympus have been arrested in Japan!

Those arrested include an adviser who instructed Olympus executives how to hide $1.2 billion in losses from investors and regulators, and it includes a former Olympus president, Tsuyoshi Kikukawa.

It also includes a former vice president, and a former auditor.  One of the charges is that Olympus filed false securities reports.  At least two of the arrested have already plead guilty!

The scandal at Olympus was revealed by a former executive of Olympus, who was fired for questioning suspicious bookkeeping.

Business/Economics, U.S.

Corporate Crime: Problems with Idaho’s Coldwater Creek include theft by company officials

Recently Idaho made it into the top ten for number of embezzlement cases.  The study was done by Marquet International of Wellesley, Massachusetts.

Idaho ranks 7th for business related crimes committed by employees: “Small businesses are the ones at greatest risk because, typically, they have very little infrastructure or controls. There’s no budget for it. Or no perceived need. The business owner ends up relying on a single bookkeeper for 15 years.”-Chris Marquet, Marquet International

In a recent case, former Coldwater Creek executive assistant Susan Alene Hopkins, plead guilty in November to stealing more than $250,000. Sentencing is set for March 20, 2012.

Business/Economics, International

What Economic Recovery? Bailout deal for Greece taking so long because Germany doesn’t think it will be paid back. Germany preparing for Greece to leave the EU

“We are ready to help. But once again: we have and want only to help if there is something in return from the Greek side.”-Philipp Roesler, German Economy Minister

Early morning February 13, the Greek Parliament approved the latest round of social cuts, despite members of Parliament threatening to quit. The move comes after German Economy Minister, Philipp Roesler, gave a TV interview in which he said it’s all about Greece being able to convince the rest of Europe that they can pay back future bailout loans.

Roesler also implied that Germany and France have been working to position the EU, so if Greece was to exit the European Union (and default) it would not have an adverse affect on the EU.  He said such a move is now “less and less scary”.

Fukushima

Government/Corporate Incompetence: General Electric designed Fukushima Daiichi Reactor 2 hits 96.4 Celsius on 13 February 2012!

Reactor 2, of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, continues to see increased temps, despite increased water injection.

At 10:00 hours on the morning of 13 February 2012 (Japan time) Tokyo Electric Power Company reported that the temperature hit 91.2 Celsius (196 Fahrenheit), by noon it was 96.4 C (205.5 F)!

TEPCo officials are hoping the thermometer is defective!  If the Reactor 2 hits 100 Celsius it will no longer be in cold shut down, and re-criticality is a possibility.

Two other thermometers are showing temps hovering between 30 to 35 Celsius.  However, TEPCo has just revealed there are three other thermometers, positioned about four feet lower down on the reactor, and they show temps dropping.  It sounds like all their thermometers are faulty!

TEPCo says all their eyes are on Reactor 2, and they’re working to get an accurate temp reading.  Reactor 2 is the only reactor, that went critical after the 11 March 2011 quake and tsunami, that did not explode.  Reactors 1, 3 and 4 exploded.

Fukushima

Government/Corporate Incompetence: Fukushima Daiichi Reactor 2 heats up, again, still don’t know why. Can you say Re-Criticality?

12 February 2012, Tokyo Electric Power Company (now effectively state owned due to running out of money) reporting that Fukushima Daiichi Reactor 2 is still heating up, despite efforts to cool it down.

Temps are now at 80 degrees Celsius (176 Fahrenheit).  TEPCo had increased cooling water injection to 14.6 tons per hour!

On 05 February, TEPCo reported temps up to 73.3 Celsius (163.9 Fahrenheit), and began injecting 10.6 tons of water per hour.  At first they thought the rise in temperature was due to recent plumbing work.

If the reactor exceeds 100 Celsius it will no longer be in “cold shut down”, and could experience re-criticality.

TEPCo is now revealing that the thermometers used on the reactors are not accurate, they have a margin of error of 20 degrees! Also, two other thermometers, on Reactor 2, are indicating temps of 35 Celsius (95 Fahrenheit), or lower.  So which thermometer is correct?

TEPCo has taken gas samples and said xenon levels are normal for the cooler temperatures, so they are now hoping that the thermometer reading the high temps is defective.  To be safe they plan to increase water injection to 18 tons per hour.