Tag Archives: economy

Fukushima

Japan Modern Day Atlantis round 7 & What Economic Recovery? People fleeing Nuclear disaster in Japan destroying the local economy and local governments

The Japanese National Police Agency have released the latest numbers regarding people leaving the disaster hit areas of Miyagi, Iwate, and Fukushima prefectures.

At this point more than 150,000 people have left the Tohoku region (where the affected prefectures are).  Just a few weeks ago, in January, is was reported that 31,381 people left Fukushima Prefecture alone.  But now, February 11, that number has jumped to 53,000!

Local officials are now saying if people keep leaving at that rate the local economy will be destroyed, along with tax revenues.

Earlier in the week, the Japanese national government reported that reconstruction efforts are not taking place because contractors can not find enough workers who are willing to work in the nuclear disaster area.  This too will destroy the local economies.

And it’s not just people fleeing the Tohoku Region, back in October, 2011, the Japanese Foreign Ministry reported that a record 1.1 million people left the entire country of Japan, just seven months after the March 11 disasters!

At this point the Japanese National Police say 15,787 people have been confirmed dead, and 3,302 are still missing, from the March 11, 2011 disasters.

JAPAN MODERN DAY ATLANTIS ROUND 6: NE HONSHU TO BE HIT BY ANOTHER MAGNITUDE 8+ QUAKE

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

World War 3: Iran builds two more attack submarines, will target U.S. aircraft carriers

“…if an ordinary submarine can sit in the Persian Gulf’s bed it would be the worst threat to the enemy. That is one of the U.S. concerns since Iranian submarines are noiseless and can easily evade detection as they are equipped with the sonar evading technology…When the submarine sits on the seabed it can easily target and hit an aircraft carrier traversing in the nearby region.”-Rear Admiral Farhad Amiri

February 9, 2012, Iran announced it has completed two more high tech attack mini submarines, designed to patrol the Persian Gulf.  They claim the submarines are 100% built in Iran.

The Ghadir class mini submarines are small (some say they look like a submarine made by North Korea), and can fire Hoot supercavitating rocket powered torpedoes, which are far too fast for a ship to avoid.  Those torpedoes could be based on the Soviet rocket torpedoes developed during the Cold War.

The latest subs will join at least three other subs that were completed in 2009.  Here’s pics of them.  Iran has not revealed how many of the mini subs they have, but USAToday estimates they have 12 mini subs (and three big Russian designed submarines).

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Red & White Horse: Iran says Western sources behind lies about Iran sending troops to Syria. Russia says Syrian people caught in the middle of game of conquest by the West. Gingrich behind the curve, Western forces already in Syria!

Russian media claim a Chinese newspaper has published an article that says Iran is sending 15,000 troops to Syria.

The Russians asked several Iranian university and media officials about this: “As far as I know there is not and will not be any program to dispatch Iranian military troops to Syria.”- Reza Moghadasi, Mehr News

“Iran has no troops in the country. Iran has never had troops involved in the problems within Syria. Someone in the Chinese media has been receiving information that is completely false.”-Seyed Mohammad Marandi, University of Tehran

But, so far, there has been no comment from Iranian government leaders.

Despite some U.S. Republican pining over covert military action in Syria, an Israeli military intelligence source (called DEBKAfile) a has already confirmed that indeed, Western and Qatari military forces are already in Syria, helping the Free Syrian Army.

Russian government leaders are accusing the U.S. and Europe of using the Syrian people as pawns in their game of world conquest: “This is a global game; this is about geo-political and geo-economic interests and unfortunately countries like Syria are being held hostage for the geo-political and geo-economic interests of Western countries.”-Konstantin Kosachev, State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee

Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other.

I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.

Business/Economics, International

Occupy Belgium! Firefighters attack riot police! So much for the new government in Belgium!

Belgium went more than a year without a government, 2010-2011, and there was little civil strife.  Now that Belgium has a government almost everyone is striking, including firefighters.

Firefighters went on strike because the new government wants to destroy their retirement program.  Riot police were called out, but the firefighters had planned ahead.  On February 10, they had their pumper trucks ready to go and hit the police with high pressure water, and even fire extinguishers.

Watch the fun video on RT.  The firefighters broke through police barricades and soaked the Belgian Prime Minister’s office!  Belgium is the first European country to officially go into a double dip recession.

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

What Economic Recovery? The maker of the world’s first digital camera, Kodak, will make cameras no more

Eastman Kodak, a U.S. pioneer in camera and film production since 1880, and the first company to make a digital camera, will no longer make cameras of any kind.

Kodak went bankrupt in January 2012.  At least 400 employees in New York will lose their jobs.  The company will focus on its lagging printer brand (ranked sixth place in the U.S. market).

Kodak officials say they will still sell cameras, they just won’t be the ones making them.

Business/Economics, International

What Economic Recovery? Forget Greece, Japan in deeper debt, analysts call for action now. Things to get worse in 3 to 4 years!

Forget the European Union crisis, Japan’s sovereign debt (such as government bonds) is now almost double that of Italy, and more than Greece.  Some analysts say there is not enough money in Japan to pay the debt.

NHK interviewed two Japanese economic/finance analysts.  One, Hiromichi Shirakawa, of Credit Suisse, said Japan’s economic problems are not cyclic, but structural.  This means there is something inherently wrong with Japan’s economic/finance system, and if not dealt with now things will get even worse in three to four years.

The other analyst, Yasunari Ueno, of Mizuho Securities, said Japan’s government needs to implement “total fiscal reforms” now!

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic recovery, What Holiday Mailing Rush? U.S. Postal Services sees huge drop in Xmas mailings, loses $3.3 billion in revenue!

Normally the end of year holiday mailing rush generates the most revenue for the USPS, but not in 2011.   Postal officials revealed that people in the U.S. cut back so much, because of bad economic times, that it even affected the shipping of holiday packages.

The huge drop in mailings cut expected revenues for the USPS by $3.3 billion! Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe, said the unexpected loss of revenue will mean that the USPS will run out of cash sooner.  He expects the postal service to be broke by October 2012. 

This news comes after the USPS won an international competition for most efficient postal service.  Each U.S. letter carrier handles more than 200,000 letters per year.  That’s about double what letter carriers from the second place winner, Japan, handle!  The study was done by United Kingdom’s Oxford Strategic Consulting, and released at the beginning of February 2012.

The loss in revenue could affect the planned closings of post offices and distribution centers.  Earlier, in December, postal officials decided to delay such action until May 2012.  But who knows what will happen, now?

By the way, don’t think closing down the USPS is going to save taxpayers money, it wont. The Postal Service operates on money that comes from you and me buying postal products, not taxes!

In fact the U.S. Congress is stealing money from the non-taxpayer funded Postal Service (just like taxpayer funded Social Security and Medicare): “The Postal Service actually has somewhere between $50 billion and $125 billion in their other funds that is not taxpayer money. They haven’t used a dime of taxpayer money in over 30 years! And the Congress just needs to act responsibly and quickly to give them access to that — those funds.”- Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, during PBS interview on September 6, 2011

 

Business/Economics, International, Technology

Corporate Incompetence: EU calls for saftey checks on Super Jumbo A380 airliner, cracks appearing in wing brackets

The European Aviation Safety Agency is concerned about the strength of wing brackets in the superjumbo A380 airliner.  This after routine inspections revealed that after numerous landings cracks have appeared in some of the 4,000 brackets used on the giant wings.

Safety checks have been ordered for the 68 superjumbos in use out of Europe.  Airbus officials say there is nothing to worry about, but those are famous last words if you know the history of passenger airliners.

The A380 (A for Airbus) can hold 500 to 600 people.

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

Some Economic Recovery? Toyota will fight rising Yen, by moving Highlander production to the United States

After announcing a 75% drop in profits, due to the rising value of the Japanese Yen, Toyota announced it will move all Highlander production to the United States!

This is because the value of the dollar is so low that it’s now cheaper to make their SUV in the U.S., than in Japan.  Those U.S. made Highlanders will then be sold in the growing Russian and Australian car markets.

Toyota hopes production will begin in their Indiana factory by the middle of 2013.  It will include gasoline engined, and hybrid powered Highlanders.

 

 

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

Red Horse: Yet another study proves that stupid people become Right Wing Religious Republican NAZI Fascists, bad news considering how many people have been dumbed down in the U.S.

“Reality is complicated and messy…Ideologies get rid of the messiness and impose a simpler solution. So, it may not be surprising that people with less cognitive capacity will be attracted to simplifying ideologies.”-Brian Nosek, University of Virginia

Researchers at the Canadian Brock University confirm what past studies have implied; that a society with an overall low intelligence results in the rise of simplistic religio-fascist idealism!

“…research has revealed that individuals who more strongly endorse social conservatism have greater cognitive rigidity, less cognitive flexibility and lower integrative complexity [complicated way of saying they are mentally retarded!]. Socially conservative individuals also perform less well than liberals on standardized ability tests.”-Gordon Hodson, lead researcher

The Canadian researchers looked at two detailed studies done in the United Kingdom. Those studies followed children into adulthood, one study began in 1958, the other in 1970.  They tested verbal and nonverbal intelligence, and four cognitive abilities.  The results showed that children with low IQs leaned towards right wing religio-fascism in adulthood.

The Canadian researchers concluded that right wing extremism is the result of low intelligence, not just bad economies.

Right wing dummies also self-segregate themselves adding to their downward spiral into extremism: “This finding is consistent with recent research demonstrating that intergroup contact is mentally challenging and cognitively draining…[another complicated/academic way to say right wingers are mentally retarded]“-Gordon Hodson, lead researcher

Another study was done in the United States, and showed that people with low levels of abstract reasoning tended to be racists and homophobics.

The researchers admit their conclusions are not conclusive, as they are looking at averages: “There are multiple examples of very bright conservatives and not-so-bright liberals, and many examples of very principled conservatives and very intolerant liberals.”-Gordon Hodson, lead researcher

But it’s clear, on average the people with low intelligence make up the most intolerant part of a society.

Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other.