Tag Archives: banks

Business/Economics, U.S.

Occupy America! 07:00 hours, November 17, Wall Street will be attacked by thousands of protestors

“Enough of this economy that exploits and divides us. It’s time we put an end to Wall Street’s reign of terror and begin building an economy that works for all.”-occupywallst.org

At 07:00 hours, New York time, on November 17 the OWS movement claims they will launch a human wave attack on Wall Street.

Organizers say events will take place in Europe as well, it’s being called “International Day of Action”.

Despite some U.S. media reports calling an end to the OWS movement, after a weekend of brutal police crack downs across the country, it’s clear the OWS movement is alive and well.

New York City officials say they’re ready: “Our plan is to be prepared. Our goal is to ensure this city continues to run.”-Cas Holloway, Deputy Mayor  

 

Fukushima

Government & Corporate Incompetence: More Rice contaminated with Cesium!

The Fukushima Prefectural government says rice from a field in the Oonami district, in Fukushima City, are contaminated with 630 becquerels per kilogram of cesium.

The rice came from one farm.  There are 154 farms in the Oonami district in Fukushima City, they will now test all the farms.

Officials claim the contaminated rice is still in the warehouse and none was shipped to market.

Until now most contaminated rice, in Japan, was just under the government limit of 500 becquerels per kilogram of cesium.  This is the first time rice was found over the limit, and national government officials are now considering banning the sale of rice which comes from Oonami district.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Corporate Incompetence: Olympus now under investigation by the British, FBI also invloved. Olympus officials beg banks for more money

Scandal with Japan’s Olympus only gets deeper.  Now the United Kingdom’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) confirmed they are investigating.

The SFO, located in a building known as Elm House, says they’re getting help from a former Olympus CEO, Michael Woodford.  He’s already turned over corporate documents he kept after he was fired from Olympus last month.  The SFO also confirmed that the U.S. FBI is involved.

This comes as Olympus held an emergency meeting with 40 banks, to  essentially beg them for more money.

According to NHK, Olympus officials swear they’re actually going to make money this year, however overall sales are slightly down from last year.  Olympus stated they will release their accounting books by the government ordered date of December 14.  They will also reveal who’s responsible for the huge losses from securities investments, as well as buyouts of other companies.

NHK gave no indication of how the bank officials reacted to the emergency meeting with Olympus.

Fukushima

Government & Corporate Incompetence: Radiation levels increasing in Japanese Rivers!

Japan’s Environment Ministry reports that radiation levels in rivers, downstream of the radiation spewing Fukushima Daiichi, are only increasing.

The latest official readings come from samples taken back in September.

In northern Fukushima Prefecture, the cesium levels were 3,200 becquerels per kilogram in the upstream Niida River.  The cesium levels in the downstream side of the same river were 13,000 becquerels!  That’s triple the levels reported in May!

Cesium levels in the Mano River have doubled!

Kinki University Professor Yamazaki Hideo says the government should step up radiation monitoring in all rivers.

Business/Economics, Fukushima

Global Economic War: Japanese industry moving to China

Since the 11 March 2011 disasters, Japanese industries moving to China has increased 65%.  That’s according to the Chinese Commerce Ministry.

There are two big factors why Japanese industries are moving to a mortal enemy’s territory: Money and Electrical Power.

Since the March disasters, including the ongoing Fukushima Daiichi meltdown, about half of Japan’s nuclear power plants are shut down.  The problem is that Japan built it’s current industries around nuclear power.  There just isn’t enough alternative electricity sources to power Japan’s factories.

Also since March, the Japanese yen has been going up in value.  This makes it more expensive to build things in Japan; Japan has no significant resources so it must import everything.

Japanese media are finally getting concerned about the growing unemployment there, mainly because so many factories have shut down and moved out of the country.

I wounder how this will affect the plans to create a TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership), especially since one of its goals is to block out China.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Global Economic Class War: Proof the banks are taking over Europe; the new Prime Ministers were not elected! New governments will not be elected either!

Who elected the new Italian Prime Minister, Mario Monti?  Not the people of Italy, but one man, the Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.

Here’s the thing, in Italy the position of President is not one of much power.  The Prime Minister is the top dog.  It’s like John Boehner appointing Barack Obama’s successor (some people would like that).

Italy’s new national government will not be elected either, it will be hand picked by the new hand picked Mario Monti.   Italian officials are using the excuse that Italy can’t wait for elections.

The same can be said about the new Greek Prime Minister, Lucas Papademos.  He was hand picked, not elected.

Some opponents of Papademos said he’s planning on delaying the scheduled Greek national elections, that are supposed to be held on February 19, 2012.  When Papademos was asked about such a rumor, he simply said that as far as he was concerned, no specific time frame had been set for national elections!

According to the opposition Greek Socialist Party, Lucas Papademos asked for a promise of no political interference in his plans for Greece, and he got it.

This sure looks like the big banks have taken control of Italy and Greece: Both Monti and Papademos have a long history working in the banking/finance industry. Both have gone to university in the U.S., or taught in U.S. universities.  Both men are members of the European chapter of the Rockefeller founded Trilateral Commission!

 

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? U.S. Home foreclosures on their way back up, Idaho makes top ten list (again)

After several months of what looked like a downward trend in home foreclosures, October had a 7% increase from the month before.

The reason for what looked like a downward trend was because the big banks and mortgage companies had been holding back, mainly due to red tape and just too many cases to go after: “The October foreclosure numbers continue to show strong signs that foreclosure activity is coming out of the rain delay we’ve been in for the past year as lenders corrected foreclosure paperwork and processing problems.”-James Saccacio, RealtyTrac

Nevada is still the number one state for foreclosures, although Las Vegas dropped to 5th place for cities.  Stockton, California, is now the number city in the U.S. for foreclosures.

Nevada, California, Arizona, Florida and Michigan are the top five losing states, making up 53% of the country’s home foreclosures.

The next five most losing states are Georgia, Illinois, Idaho, Oregon and Colorado.

 

Business/Economics, International

What Economic Recovery? Japanese needing welfare help hits record levels: 2.05 million

The number of people in Japan, who need help with basic needs keeps going up month after month.  The Japanese Welfare Ministry reports that in July welfare recipients hit a record 2.05 million.

A big jump is in ‘working age households’ (people who’re less than 65 years of age).  That category receiving welfare is now four times higher than 10 years ago.

The Welfare Ministry says since 1995 more people are needing welfare help. However, current increases in welfare recipients are due directly to the 2007/08 credit crisis.  Japanese officials say for the past three years welfare rolls have been increasing by an average of 10,000 people per month!

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Occupy America: November 5, Operation Bank Transfer Day a success, $4.5 billion pulled from U.S. banks!

“The 99% movement is all about finding ways for people to change the economy that is benefiting only the 1%. Bank Transfer Day is about the power of individuals to take their money out of institutions whose profits go almost entirely to Wall Street and keep that money in our community, where we can control it.”-Courtney Yax

The main stream media has their head in a hole.  Occupy Wall Street has some power!

On November 5, operation Bank Transfer Day took place.  So many people have moved money from banks into credit unions, that by November 5 U.S.$4.6 billion had been taken out of the big for profit banks!

ABC News did report that credit unions have gained 650,000 new members, just in the month of October!

“Regardless of how many people joined credit unions Saturday, there is a big new awareness of credit unions as not for profit financial cooperatives owned by their members. That is the credit union difference we’ve worked to let people know about all along.”- Mary Beth King, Credit Union Association of New Mexico

Credit unions in California gained around 90,000 new members, and $624 million in new accounts.

Here in Idaho (with only a fraction of the population of California), credit unions gained 3,400 new accounts!  Alan Cameron, Idaho Credit Union League president, says one credit union gained $1.2 million in new deposits!  Corporate bank Wells Fargo (which dominates Idaho banking, with 23% of the market), denies that Idahoans have fled the big banks.  Wells Fargo representative Amy McDevitt, says withdrawals were “…very minimal.”

The big banks tried to stop such acts: In New York City last month, dozens were arrested for trying to close their accounts, en masse, at a CitiBank branch.

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: TEPCo retracts Fukushima melt down claim!

On 02 November 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company said Reactor 2 at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was in melt down, again. Now they changed their mind!

TEPCo now says the level of xenon radiation they detected is too low to be from spontaneous fission.  Can these guys get anything right?