Tag Archives: banks

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? It’s an official record, 6.3 million U.S. citizens left the United States. 40% of young adults want to leave!

“I don’t regret leaving the States one bit!”-Matt Landau, left the U.S. six years ago

The U.S. State Department is admitting that at least 6.3 million U.S. citizens have left the Untied States, officially to find jobs or go to cheaper universities!

“There’s a feeling among more entrepreneurial Americans that if you really want to get anything done, you have to get out of country and away from the depressing atmosphere. There’s a sense of lost direction, so more people are looking for locations that offer more hope about the future.”–Bob Adams, America Wave

Blame it on a bad economy, caused by outsourcing jobs: “We’ve pretty much outsourced everything else.”-Giovanni Pinzon, laidoff aerospace technician

The U.S. State Department said Russia, China and Latin American countries are the recipients of the brain drain from the United States.

“I connected the dots and decided that I should go somewhere different and learn something new, like Mandarin, to challenge myself. I picked China because it was growing so fast.”-Derek Capo, left Florida for China

According to Bob Adams, who’s been doing surveys of U.S. citizens leaving the country, 40% of 18 to 24 year olds now want to leave the U.S.! Adams says he’s been doing the surveys for the past nine years and said the latest numbers “…have shot through the ceiling…not something I anticipated.”

 

 

Fukushima

Government & Corporate Incompetence: Still no decontamination efforts in Fukushima!

Just days after the the 11 March 2011 earthquake and tsunamis, several Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors went critical, melted down, and some even exploded.  But to date (11 December 2011) no decontamination efforts have been carried out by the prefectural or national governments!

A couple of cities, and even neighborhood committees have attempted decontamination of their immediate surroundings, but nothing on the large scale that’s needed.  This is because no one in higher authority thought such a nuclear disaster would ever happen.

Testimony by many Japanese officials (and Tokyo Electric Power Company officials) say representatives from General Electric (and other U.S. nuclear power companies), and the U.S. government, had claimed the U.S. designed disaster reactors were the safest in the world.  Japanese officials thought there was no justification for such preparations as the U.S. designed nuke plants were so safe.

As a result of the March nuclear disaster (which is still ongoing) officials in the national and prefectural governments have been scrambling to learn everything they can about how to deal with the situation (that included a trip to Chernobyl, albeit very late in the game).

But learning everything they could in a short time wasn’t enough.  The Japanese national government had to pass a law ordering the large scale decontamination!

The Japanese Environment Ministry says they will begin decontamination of roads and other infrastructure in late January 2012.  They do not expect to be able to start decontaminating residences until March 2012!  And that’s for areas contaminated with less than 20 millisieverts of radiation. Japanese officials admit they still don’t know how to deal with areas contaminated with more than 20 millisieverts of radiation!

The Environment Ministry says they are conducting new studies to see how best to handle decontamination in areas with more than 20 millisieverts of radiation, with a focus on protecting the workers.

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Idaho Governor finally admits economy sucks, tax revenues continue to crash, not enough jobs

“This recent string of sub-par showings has raised concerns whether the sales tax will be able to recover enough to meet its targets during the important holiday shopping season.”-Derek Santos, Chief Economist for Idaho

After years of being ‘optimistic’ in his rhetoric regarding the local economy, Idaho’s Butch Otter is finally sounding more realistic: “…for both fiscal 2012 and fiscal 2013 to be years of limited growth that will require us to be very selective in the authorization of new general fund spending.”-Clement Leroy ‘Butch’ Otter, Governor of Idaho

If times were bad when he was being optimistic, what’s really gonna happen now?

The reason why Governor Otter is turning down his optimism is that month after month State tax revenues have been much lower than hoped for.  November was no different.  Derek Santos, Idaho’s Chief Economist, says November 2011’s tax returns were 4.1% lower than November 2010.  And last year’s tax returns were down as well.

In fact, sales tax revenues for the first half of fiscal 2012 are already $19 million below what was hoped for!  Income taxes are $6.7 million below expectations!

Idaho’s fiscal 2012 year runs from July 2011 to June 2012.

Economic analysts hope that Idaho will end fiscal 2012 with a surplus of $130 million.  But realize that the State has run through $395 million in reserves since 2009!  Now add to that the fact that analysts also expect tax revenues to continue to drop.  One report said that State leaders did not have a “plan B” for when they run out of surplus money.

The only way that tax revenues will go back up is if a lot of good paying jobs are created. I guess that would be part of any “plan B” that our exalted leaders have failed to come up with.

 

Fukushima, International

Japan Modern Day Atlantis round 4: Minamisanriku, hometown of Heroine Miki Endo is becoming the Atlantis I predicted

Video

On March 11, a massive tsunami hit Minamisanriku.  If it wasn’t for a young woman, Miki Endo, as well as her boss ordering the residents to escape, many thousands more would have been killed.

Endo and her boss did not survive. They stayed at their posts on the second floor of the town hall building.  The water reached the top of the third floor of the building.  Endo’s last words over the city’s loudspeaker system were: “Take care mom!”

On November 7, Independent Television News updated the situation of Minamisanriku, and it looks like my past posts, comparing it to a modern day Atlantis, might apply.  A city official says no rebuilding can take place, because the land is slowing sinking into the ocean: “…our plan is to move the entire town to higher ground, because the ground level here has dropped by 70 cm [27.5 inches]. When we get higher tides, they come in and this entire area is underwater.”-Jin Sato, Mayor

Who said southern California can’t drop off into the ocean?

ATLANTIS SYNDROME: OFFICIALS CONFIRM LAND SUNK AFTER 9.0 QUAKE

JAPAN MODERN DAY ATLANTIS ROUND 3: QUAKE UPGRADED 10,000+ DEAD

Business/Economics, U.S.

Occupy Los Angeles! OWS plans on shutting down biggest port in U.S., will rain on Rose Parade, homeless taking back their homes! Where’s the mainstream media coverage?

According to the Occupy LA website, on December 12, they will attempt to shut down the busiest port in the United States; the Port of Los Angeles, along with the Port of Long Beach.

The Port of Los Angeles is also known as America’s Port.

The OWSers will specifically target a shipping operation owned by Goldman Sachs; SSA Marine.

The attempted shut down is in conjunction with other OWS groups across the west coast, such as San Diego, Oakland, Portland and Anchorage.

In a report from the Los Angeles Times, OWSers will Occupy Pasadena’s 2012 Rose Parade.  Occupy Rose Parade organizers say they do not want to cause problems: “We want to make sure this is completely non-disruptive to the main parade.”– Peter Thottam, Occupy Rose Parade

On December 6, thousands of protestors from several different groups across the country, helped families who lost their homes take them back.  Occupy our Homes took place in Los Angeles, Riverside, South Gate, San Francisco, New York and other cities.

Big banks Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase were not happy.  One family said JP Morgan Chase had put their home up for auction without telling them, while they were still living in the home: “People started calling the house saying the house was going on auction, so I called the bank.”-Arturo de los Santos

De los Santos says he tried to work a loan modification deal, but JP Morgan Chase refused.  De los Santos says neighbors were told of Occupy our Homes, and support it: “On Sunday we went around the neighborhood and told neighbors we were doing this and they’re backing us up. All of them either know someone who’s going through a bad loan modification or know someone who’s out of their home because of a bad loan modification.”

According to the Washington Post, the Occupy Our Homes, or Occupied Real Estate (each movement had a different slogan), was huge.  They have lots of pics.  Where was the mainstream TV media coverage?

 

 

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

Government & Corporate incompetence: ECB to buy up European bonds but needs cash, EU to loan money…to the IMF, IMF will loan the money back to the ECB! The Elitist spiders are tangling their webs

“Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!”-Walter Scott, Marmion, Canto vi. Stanza 17

I just read several reports.  One said the European Central Bank (ECB) wants to buy up the sovereign debts of European countries that are in financial trouble.  But the ECB says it needs about U.S.$150 billion to do it (notice they don’t have the cash on hand).

In another report the European Union said it will loan about $266 billion…to the U.S. based International Monetary Fund (not to their own ECB).  The purpose of the loan to the IMF is so the IMF can turn around and loan it back to European banks!

You must realize that the IMF is broke, just last week the President of the IMF came away from South America with a huge loan.  It was precedent setting, because for the first time in South America’s history they loaned money to the IMF, instead of the other way ’round.  So what did the IMF do with that money?

And why can’t the European Union loan the $266 billion directly to it’s member banks?  Is this just another accounting shell game?

The 1% elitist spiders have trapped themselves in their own web.  There’s no more flies to catch, the spiders are starving and they’re turning on each other!  It’s called World War 3!

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Government, Corporate & Farmer Incompetence: MF Global scandal will destroy U.S. Agriculture! “Christmas is canceled.” Is it all about creating the Great Global Food Crisis?

“I simply do not know where the money is, or why the accounts have not been reconciled to date.”-Jon Corzine, former CEO of MF Global

On December 8, all those investors got their answer from the former boss of investment company MF Global.  Jon Corzine told the House Agriculture Committee that he doesn’t know what happened to the billions of investment dollars from clients, that include single moms and a lot of the country’s farmers.

“I can’t start my business at all because I have absolutely no capital…my twins’ birthday is December 9th, we can’t have a party now, Christmas is canceled.”-Jennifer DaRuzza, invested with MF Global in the hopes of raising enough money to start a business

The bigger concern is the fact that so many U.S. farmers were using investments with MF Global to fund their operations.  Historically farmers do not make enough money to “pay as you go”, they must deficit spend.

Senator Pat Roberts, who leads the Senate Agriculture Committee, told PBS’s Nightly Business Report that the MF Global scandal is bringing U.S. agriculture to a screeching halt: “…think of the farmer that was driving back to Kansas from Colorado, heard about this on the news, all of a sudden found out $30,000 of his assets were frozen. He was getting prepared to buy seed, fertilizer, was talking to a local realtor in regards to some land he might want to purchase or rent, that just stops it like that!”

Roberts also gave a dire warning for the country’s food supply in 2012: “…gonna have an impact on crops. This is gonna have an impact on our food prices. It is pretty broad across all the farm country and I’m hearing more about this than I am with what’s gonna happen in the farm bill!”

Try this:  Incompetent and greedy Corporate America just shot the United States in the Bread Basket!  Remember the Dust Bowl and Okies of the 1930s?  This time, instead of Mother Earth destroying U.S. agriculture it’s the hand of our divinely inspired leaders!

The destruction of the 1930s agriculture industry, in the bread basket of the U.S. (Midwest), is talked about as only one aspect of the Great Depression of the United States, but it should be discussed much more because people gotta eat!

(here’s a link to an interesting timeline of the Great Depression, where you should notice some ominous similarities between what happened then and what’s happening now)

It’s such a concern that United Nations officials have been warning of a coming Global Food Crisis for the past several years.  In 2008 UN officials called it “a silent tsunami” that was about to wash over the world.   This year the UN is stepping up preparations for long term famine relief (sinisterly involving the World Trade Organization): “My High Level Task Force is working to ensure that the UN system, international financial institutions and the WTO are ready to provide robust and consistent support to countries struggling to cope with food insecurity. This is a long term effort and it will require a comprehensive push to back solid partnerships, strong strategies and well financed actions that empower communities to become food secure.”-Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General

The strange thing about Ban Ki-moon’s statement; notice the emphasis is on “financed actions”.  What happened to growing food?  This is even more reason for individuals to try and grow their own, remember Victory Gardens? We’re at war people, and it’s not one country against another, as our 1% Elitist leaders claim, it’s the We the 99% against the 1%!

Here’s another scary part concerning the UN preparations, I don’t think the UN had taken into account the possibility that the Japanese would destroy their agriculture with radiation, or that the U.S. agriculture industry would be done in by their own financial system!  If the UN was predicting, back in 2008, that more than 100 million people are going to be starving to death, what about now?

Conspiracy theorists blame the coming Global Food Crisis on the Trilateral Commission, the Club of Rome, UN Article 21, and more.  Why?  Because all these organizations and proclamations are about one thing: Destroying existing systems for the purpose creating an all powerful one world government.

Oh, don’t worry, there will still be national and local governments, but they’ll answer to one single world government.  As the Russian Foreign Ministry recently said, regarding the formation of CELAC, it’s all part of “…the formation of a polycentric world and the strengthening of the role of regions in the system of global governance…”

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

The Beast Emerging? Russia says CELAC one more step to a one world government, wheat being sperated from the chaff

On December 3, all Latin American and Caribbean countries came together under CELAC (Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños, or Community of Latin American and Caribbean States).

The United States and Canada were intentionally left out.  China has expressed support for CELAC, and so has Russia.

However, in the official Russian statement there is an ominous mention of a one world government: “The rise of the new system-forming integration structure proceeds in line with the formation of a polycentric world and the strengthening of the role of regions in the system of global governance, which meets the interests of the entire international community.”

The push for global dominance is an ancient one, but it is not the goal of only one group. There are several elite groups in our global societies that are pushing to take over the world (why do you think there’s so many wars throughout history?).

Obviously the formation of a new economic order in the Americas, one that excludes the U.S. and Canada, is a sign of the ‘wheat being separated from the chaff’.  Do you know which camp you’re in (because for most of us powerless ‘commoners’ we really don’t have much choice)?

Business/Economics, U.S.

OWS, What Economic Recovery? Only 7% of people laid off in 2008 found equivilant paying new jobs, 33% have been downsized, no longer a white man’s world, some hope for getting a college degree

Rutgers’ Heldrich Center for Workforce Development has been following people who lost their jobs at the beginning of the Great Recession (2008-2010).  They found that the overwhelming majority have not recovered!

The ongoing study is called Categorizing the Unemployed by the Impact of the Recession.

They have five categories they ask people to describe their situation as: Made It Back. On Their Way Back. Downsized. Devastated. And Totally Wrecked.

After three years of job searching only 7% claim to have Made It Back.  23% say they’re On Their Way Back.  33% could only find jobs that forced them to be Downsized.  21% are Devastated, and 15% are Totally Wrecked.

Percentages don’t always give a good picture.  The study also gives you the number of people affected.  Made It Back: Up to 700,000 people.  On Their Way Back: Up to 2.3 million.  Downsized: Up to 3.4 million!  Devastated and Totally Wrecked combined: Up to 3.6 million!

The demographic composition (dc) of the study showed that the majority of people Devastated from their 2008 layoff, are people who do not have a college degree.

The dc of the study also showed that it’s no longer a “man’s world”, unless it refers to men being unemployed: 64% of men have been Devastated, compared to 34% of women. There was little difference in age groups being Devastated, between 20% to 30% range for most age groups.  And as far as ethnic groups being Devastated, 63% ‘white’ and 37% ‘other’ (a case of ‘the higher up you are the farther you have to fall’).

The study has other results, like 47% are still in poor financial shape, 58% suffered major economic impact, and 41% believe the economic changes are permanent.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Corporate Incompetence: Independent investigation into Olympus scandal over, major losses and cover ups

The independent commission investigating Olympus has submitted their report.  The optic company began losing money, and covering it up in 1998.

Losses totaled more than 100 billion yen (about U.S.$1 trillion by today’s exchange rate)!!!

Olympus accountants began covering up the losses after the Japanese government introduced stricter accounting rules.  The report also named Hideo Yamada and Hisami Mori as playing central roles in creating methods of transferring losses to overseas accounts.

From 2006 to 2008, Olympus conducted a series of corporate buyouts and raised 134.8 billion yen with the intention of making up for the losses. However the bookkeeping shell game is illegal.

Olympus has until December 14 to turn over their books to government auditors, or they will be de-listed from the Tokyo stock exchange.