Tag Archives: economy

Business/Economics, International

What Economic Recovery? Spain officially in double dip recession, Britain on the verge

April 23, 2012, Spain’s Central Bank has declared the country officially in recession.

Gross domestic product (GDP) shrank 0.4% in the first quarter of 2012, following a 0.3% decline in the last quarter of 2011.   Decline for two quarters in a row makes an official recession.

The Spanish government says it will cut spending by $11 billion USD, and will increase taxes!

The United Kingdom is on the verge of double dip recession. Britain’s Office for National Statistics is expected to say on Wednesday that the economy grew(?) by a meager 0.1%.  

By the way, in order to be considered true growth your GDP needs to be at 3% or higher.  So Britain’s GDP is only 0.1%?  Close enough to call it double dip!

To make matters worse, the two “strong” European economies, Germany and France, are actually contracting!

Belgium and Italy have already crossed into double dip recession.

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

Corporate Evil: Mystery disease kills children, people can’t build immunity to it, military involved, entire district quarantined, mutant dogs killing pets. Kanup 480 SL. Quang Ngai Province is Cursed!

“The development of the disease at Ba Dien commune is really complicated and critical; the numbers of new cases and recurrence cases are increasing dramatically.”-Han Phong, People’s Committee in Ba To District

April 22, 2012, health officials in Vietnam are asking for help from the United Nations, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in trying to identify and treat a skin disease that’s already killed 27 people including 19 children.

More than 100 people are hospitalized.  At least 171 people are infected.  Many people are getting sick a second time (29 so far), which indicates that you can not build an immunity to it!

Last year the province recorded more than 150 people with similar symptoms.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Health says the virus spreads through direct contact with an infected person’s oral discharges or saliva, the fluid from burst blisters or the feces.

You end up with a high fever, loss of appetite and a rash that covers the hands and feet.  If treated right away people seem to get better, but those who wait too long end up with liver problems and eventually multi-organ failure.

Vietnam’s Military Chemical Institute is now investigating the Ba To District of Quang Ngai Province.  There are reports the district is now under quarantine: “We have to block the entrances here to stop patients from getting out and spreading the disease. Since we don’t know what caused the disease, we will have to rely on our rituals and prayers.”-Pham Van Tray, Reu village

Quang Ngai Province is that area where the infamous My Lai Massacre took place at the hands of U.S. Army soldiers.  The same province saw forced relocation of Vietnamese villagers, by the U.S. and its puppet government of South Vietnam, in the name of protecting them from the “commies”.

In May, 2011, another district in the same Province was harassed and terrorized by an unknown beast.  Roaring sounds and strange footprints were found at the base of the Dinh Mountain in Son Tra Commune.  At least 20 dogs were killed, most were found with their heads and internal organs missing.

In Lao Cai Province people claimed to have seen the beast that’s killing pet dogs, and other domesticated animals.  They said it is a mutant dog, tall with a fur coat varying in description from white spots to yellow stripes.

This year fires torn through two huge markets, in the provinces of Quang Ngai and Quang Binh, causing about $300,000 USD in damage.

Also this year, farmers on central Quang Ngai Province‘s Ly Son Island, known as the garlic kingdom, have suffered their biggest crop failure ever.  Farmers lost 80% of their garlic to unusually heavy rain!

(now you see why I say they’re cursed)

Back to the killer “virus”.  I say “virus” because there are reports that the reason the Military Chemical Institute is involved is because some officials think the “virus” is really an herbicide called Kanup 480 SL.

Another report said that most farmers in the area started using herbicides only two years ago, that’s when the symptoms began (and sightings of mutant feral dogs).

Many reports say the herbicide is made by the United States, however my research revealed that it is made by a Vietnamese company called Thang Bac Giang (Vithaco), not the other company that’s being named in most reports (there are several companies using the misreported name, one of which turns out to be a major textile manufacturer).

The primary ingredient in Kanup 480 SL is Glyphosate IPA Salt 480gr / l.   It was patented by U.S. corporation Monsanto in the 1970s.  It is widely used in the United States.  Lab tests on animals revealed mutations, which could explain the mutant dogs killing people’s pets in Vietnam.  U.S. lab studies were supposedly inconclusive as to what happens to humans who’re contaminated with it.

According to some poor translations of local Vietnamese news media, most people who are sick, or who died, had just finished spraying their fields with Kanup 480 SL.   From what I read, it seems like many did not mix the chemical properly and used it in concentrated form.

This might be another case of a corporation that tricked farmers who had never used chemicals in their life, into buying a new fangled contraption (Kanup 480 SL).  The local reports I read say the farmers in Quang Ngai Province only started using the herbicide in the past two years, and it really looks like they do not understand how to use it, or how harmful it could be.

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

Government & Corporate Evil: Ritual Animal Sacrifice under the guise of Michigan’s new Corporate created “feral” farm animal law. What do other state’s say about feral pigs?

“Does anyone know what it feels like to open fire on 20 baby piglets in one group which weigh between 5 lbs and 15 lbs? They are so adorable and cute.“-Dave Tuxbury, forced by the state to kill off his entire herd

Under the NAZI’s in Germany in the 1930s-40s, you could get thrown in a concentration camp just because of your physical features.  If you ‘looked’ Jewish, or Gypsyish, or ‘behaved’ like a homosexual, in you go.

Now the U.S. state of Michigan has created a law (with Corporate America’s help) that allows state officials to trespass on small farms and shoot to kill any pig that doesn’t ‘look’ right.

Farmers who do not comply will be charged with a felony crime!

“I’m one of two farmers in Michigan that has said we will not comply, and we have filed suit against the Michigan DNR [Department of Natural Resources] and we’ll probably go to court with them this summer.”-Mark Baker, Bakers’ Green Acres in Marion, Michigan

Corporate America farmers have convinced the Michigan government that small family hog farmers are a health threat.  That’s because many family run hog farms have bred their pigs in a way that produces better meat.

The Corporate America farmers can’t compete, because the pigs they use have been designed for their mass production style of operation, which means tasteless meat (that’s the real reason they call it “the other white meat”).

Anyone hunt wild boar?  The meat is red, not white.  The small family farms have bred hogs with red meat, they’re called Heritage Pigs.  Under Michigan’s new law they are now considered “Invasive Species”!

The irony is that these “invasive” or “feral” hogs are actually a better food source than what the Corporate America farmers can produce!  So how are they a threat?  They’re only a threat to the profits of Corporate America!

And the state of Michigan has already forced farmers to kill off their entire hog herd, under threat of prison time:  “I was served a search warrant yesterday at 7:45am.  After 8 guys, 3 four wheelers, and 4 hours, DNR decided I was correct. I have killed all my hogs. They gave me papers that say I do not have any hogs on my property. All they saw were dead hogs laying around from my mass slaughtering. It took 12 guys 4 times in there to kill all of them, sows with young, pregnant sows, dozens of piglets, and old mature boars. It has been a sad few weeks.    

Does anyone know what it feels like to open fire on 20 baby piglets in one group which weigh between 5 lbs and 15 lbs? They are so adorable and cute.

They commented to everyone that they never saw a fence built so tough and no way would a hog get out of this area. I trenched 2′ then installed chain link fencing, then a 10′ high tightlock fence on top of that. ( 200 acre area ) They never saw a fence like that.”-Dave Tuxbury, deer tracks ranch

This new law affects 2,000 farms and private hunting ranches!

Here’s an incomplete list of the types of pigs that Michigan now bans: Wild boar, wild hog, wild swine, feral pig, feral hog, feral swine, Old world swine, razorback, Eurasian wild boar, and Russian wild boar.  Basically the same list as used by the Federal USDA.

Michigan is not the only state with bans on pigs that do not meet the needs of Corporate America’s mass production facilities.  However, most of those states focus only on truly wild pigs, not the pigs that family hog farmers have bred for better meat.

The state of Washington says:  “It is unlawful to import, hold, possess, propagate, offer for sale, sell, transfer, or release feral swine.”

The state of New York says it’s hard to tell domesticated pigs from feral pigs: “Feral swine crossbreed readily with domestic pigs, which has resulted in a wide range of coat colors and body shapes.  Many look like typical wild boars, while others may be hard to distinguish from domestic pigs.”

While New York supports the eradication of feral pigs, they do allow “…anyone with a small game license may hunt and keep feral swine year round with no limit.”

In Texas wild pigs are so numerous that people are encouraged to hunt them and eat them.  But, keep in mind they’re talking about pigs running free in the wild, not some family farm operation!

Realize that Michigan is saying that they now consider certain farm raised pigs to be invasive, and therefore to be killed and not used for food!

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

U.S. Media Confuses: Home Construction actually dropped, blame the Too Big to Fail Banks

One U.S. media headline stated “…Housing Starts Remain Unchanged…”, yet when you read the article it actually admits that construction starts, for March 2012, have declined by 5.8%.

The overall decline was led by a 16.9% drop in construction of multifamily homes.

Construction reps blame the bad economy caused by the too big to fail banks not wanting to lend money to the working class: “…builders remain very cautious about starting new projects until they see more actual sales materializing. At the same time, in places where buyers are ready to go forward with a purchase, access to credit for both builders and buyers and difficulties in obtaining accurate appraisals are persistent challenges that continue to slow that process considerably.”-Barry Rutenberg, National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)

Another article pointed out that March is the second straight month with such a big drop in housing construction projects.  It was also not expected by the economic “experts”!

So what’s the real info?  According to the April 17, 2012, Joint Release U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development PDF, March 2012 housing starts are 5.8% down from February, yet up 10.3% from March 2011.  So; a drop from month prior, an increase from year prior.

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery: “Developed Country” status for Japan to end, could officially regress to “Less-Developed”

The Japan Business Federation’s 21st Century Public Policy Institute is warning of not only a collapse of the Japanese economy, but a regression to “less-developed” country status.

That would put Japan behind India, as India’s economy counties to boom.

Analysts blame Japan’s fall on an ongoing population exodus, and money exodus, both caused by the March 2011 natural and ongoing nuclear disasters (gee, maybe nuclear reactors are not good for the economy?).

The analysts say that even in the good scenario, Japan’s economy will shrink drastically and by 2050 will drop to 28th in world Gross Domestic Product rankings.

However, the analysts say one way the government can slow the fall, is to drastically increase taxes!  That seems counter productive, as I think it would cause even more people to leave Japan (as is happening in the United States).

By the way, Japan is a member of the Trilateral Commission (Europe, North America, Japan/Asia), whose goal is to establish a singular privatized government system that is seemingly created in response to severe economic and “natural” disasters.

Fukushima

One Year Later: Big Exodus continues; most number of people flee Japan since 1950!

April 17, 2012, Japan’s Internal Affairs Ministry reported a record drop in Japan’s population.  The exodus started as a result of the March 2011 nuclear disaster at the GE designed Fukushima Daiichi power plant.

As of October 2011, 259,000 people fled Japan.  Percentage wise it’s not much, only 0.2% of the total population of Japan, but still a record since 1950.

It’s not just people who live near the disabled nuclear power plant who’re leaving; 40 of the 47 prefectures are experiencing exodus.

Japan is also experiencing the biggest number of foreign residents leaving.  By October 2011, 51,000 more foreigners left, than those who were moving to Japan.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Government Incompetence: Yet again, Record number of people renounce U.S. citizenship. IRS blames elected officials. Where to get official advise for kicking the U.S. citizenship habit

“Americans abroad are terrified. We’ve had people pay tens of thousands of dollars in fines. We’ve had people … pay huge amounts of back taxes. Up to this point, we never heard of anyone renouncing, or if they did, they didn’t talk about it, now we’re seeing a lot of people speak openly about it and come to us for information.”-Marylouise Serrato,  American Citizens Abroad

April 17, 2012, according to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) National Taxpayer Advocate’s Office, 1,788 people renounced their United States citizenship in 2011.

That’s another record.  The National Taxpayer Advocate’s Office has been keeping track since 1998, and it’s been going up every year.

However, the U.S. Department of State keeps their own records of who gives up U.S. citizenship, and they say it’s been a steady average loss of 1,100 people every year.  Still not good if the United States is such a great place to live; 1,100 people give it up every year, that’s 11,000 people in the past ten years.

The number one reason for leaving the land that’s no longer of the free is taxes!  If you know your U.S. history, taxes were the number one reason for the 1776 Revolution that created the U.S. of A.

In fact one of the rallying cries for the Revolution was “No taxation without representation!”   We’ll that’s exactly what’s happening to the approximately 6.3 million U.S. citizens living in other countries, they’re being taxed and fined more than if they were living in the U.S., and they have no true representation in the U.S. government.

Another problem is that foreign banks say the U.S. government is interfering in their business so much that it’s not worth it to take on U.S. customers: “They’re going to drop Americans like hot potatoes. The foreign banks are upset enough about the regulations that they’re saying they just won’t keep American customers, and it’s giving (Americans living abroad) a lot of sleepless nights.”-Francisca N. Mordi, American Bankers Association

Even the IRS’s National Taxpayer Advocate’s Office blames the U.S. government: “The complexity of international tax law, combined with the administrative burden placed on these taxpayers, creates an environment where taxpayers who are trying their best to comply simply cannot. For some, this means paying more U.S. tax than is legally required, while others may be subject to steep civil and criminal penalties. For some U.S. taxpayers abroad, the tax requirements are so confusing and the compliance burden so great that they give up their U.S. citizenship.”

A major problem with the U.S. tax law is that not only does the U.S. citizen have to report their own income and assets, but they must report the income and assets of their non-U.S. citizen spouse: “When they decide to come clean and report everything, they have to go ask their husbands for all of their bank information, retirement funds, and investment accounts, everything. Your options are to ignore the IRS and stick your head in the sand; take your name off of all the accounts and live in a completely cash economy; divorce; or renounce U.S. citizenship.”-Lucy Stensland Laederich,  Bordeaux Women’s Club

“I grew up in a military family where patriotic feeling was very strong. I’m amazed at how terrible I felt renouncing. But it was the only way to get them off my back. It’s very distressing and time consuming to keep up with all the paperwork. But if it’s this bad when I’m 64, how bad will it be when I’m 74?”-Genette Eysselinck, renounced all ties with the United States

But don’t think renouncing your U.S. citizenship will solve your tax problems, in fact they could get worse: “First of all, there is over a 2 year wait in several countries. Secondly, you are still liable for taxes for the next 10 years. Finally, on the day that you renounce your citizenship, you are considered by the IRS to have made a fictive sale of all of your assets worldwide, and you will be taxed on that sale.”–American Women’s Club Düsseldorf

For an idea of what it takes to officially/legally renounce your citizenship, you can check out the U.S. embassy website in Germany here.

International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? IMF accepts Chinese Yuan policy against U.S. dollar, Japan loans IMF billions to bail out Europe, IMF says it’s not enough!

April 15, 2012, Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi, announced that Japan will lend $50 billion USD to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help bail out the European economies.

The IMF says at least $500 billion USD is now needed to bail out Europe!

On April 14, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde, said she welcomes the Chinese Yuan:  “I would like to welcome this important step by the People’s Bank of China to increase the flexibility of their currency. This underlines China’s commitment to re-balance its economy toward domestic consumption and allow market forces to play a greater role in determining the level of the exchange rate.”

The Bank of China said it will allow the value of the yuan to fluctuate by at least 1%, against the U.S. dollar, when international markets open on Monday.  Up ’till now the Chinese central bank has allowed only a half percent fluctuation.

However, some analysts say allowing the value of the Chinese yuan to fluctuate more could result in even more volatility/instability for world markets.

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Global Economic War: Israel sues Bank of America

Israel’s Bank Hapoalim has filed a $720 million USD lawsuit against BoA.

Officials with Bank Hapoalim says BoA lied about the mortgage securities it sold to Israel.  BoA is also accused of violating its contracts regarding the sale of those securities.

Bank Hapoalim suffered more than $1 billion USD in losses in the 2008/2009 mortgage/credit crunch fiasco.

 

Influenza

H1N1: More cases & deaths in India. British politicians cut health budget, the result is more deaths. Canada, Mexico & U.S. to create cross border Flu response

In a case of government incompetence, the Indian state of Karnataka has decided it was time for family doctors to start addressing the rising cases of swine flu.  This after confirmed cases hit 126 on April 12, 2012.

“The role of general practitioners is important now because treatment can be effective only if it is started on time. We have adequate stocks of Tamiflu, the only anti-viral drug for A(H1N1) and vaccines. But the medicines can be effective only if they are administered on time.”-Chandrashekar Malagi, State Health Department

Seven people have died in the state of Karnataka.

In another example of local government incompetence, state health officials have decided against H1N1 screenings at the Bengaluru International Airport!

Most airports in India are screening for the virus, that’s because the whole country is experiencing an epidemic of H1N1.

However, the government of India is trying to calm the public by saying the worst is over, at least in the district of Pune (state of Maharashtra): “It is true that the positive cases are lesser in past few days in Pune district. This is in line with reports that virologists and experts had arrived that the surge in cases is likely to abate in 2-3 weeks.”– Pradeep Awate, Central Health Ministry

The Indian state of Gujarat has just reported its 6th case of H1N1.

In the city of Nashik, state of Maharashtra, two people died.  City health officials are taking no chances there, opening six new H1N1 screening centers.

47 people have so far been screened in Nashik, 11 are now in the hospital.

In Mumbai, state of Maharashtra, a 23 year old woman died on April 13.

On April 5, 2012, it was reported that British health officials’ lax response to H1N1 outbreaks resulted in more deaths that during the 2009-2010 outbreak!

The report blamed British politicians who said public health funding was a waste of money and cut the budgets!  The result of the budget cutting is; 10% more hospital admissions, 30% more deaths, and 30% more ICU admissions.

On April 4, 2012, officials from United States, Canada and Mexico announced they are working together to create a cross border flu response system.

“…the three countries will work together and with international organizations to develop guidance for influenza surveillance systems for select animal species, as well as guidance on the characterization, case definition, and reporting of novel strains, and on triggers for public health response.”  also “…exploring new financing and procurement mechanisms, investments in new and more flexible technology and manufacturing platforms, and coordinating plans for preparedness exercises. The plan also touches on sharing best practices for stockpiling.” also “…identify legal and regulatory challenges for helping each other with personnel and medical countermeasures in a public health emergency.” -CIDRAP