Tag Archives: economy

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: Heavy rain from Typhoons & Tropical Storms are flooding Fukushima Daiichi

Nine months later, and the radiation just keeps pouring from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.  Now its Mother Earth who’s to blame.

Tokyo Electric Power Company admitted that the heavy rains from typhoons and tropical storms are flooding reactor buildings, greatly increasing the chance of massive flooding of highly contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean.

The nuclear plant is already flooding the ocean with radiation, but this would be on a massive scale.

Here’s why it’s so bad: TEPCo is already pumping 550 tons of water per day to cool three of its damaged reactors. About 80,000 tons of highly radioactive water has already accumulated in the buildings.  Now add the flooding from the storms. TEPCo says it has found 200 to 500 tons of rainwater entering every day into the basements of reactor buildings.

Business/Economics, U.S.

Class War: Wall Street protesters still at it, people from all over the U.S. are there, wearing a mask can get you arrested

“There’s a major divide between the rich and the poor in this country. One in 10 people are unemployed and my vote is nullified by corporate lobbyists.”-Alexander Holmes, from Oakland, California

People from main street U.S.A. are protesting on corporate America’s Wall Street. They started on September 17, and they’re still going!

New York Times reported at least six arrests by September 19.  Two men and a woman were arrested for wearing ski masks.  It is illegal in New York city for two or more people to wear masks in public, I wounder what’s gonna happen at Halloween?

Another man was arrested after he told police that he was having trouble walking.  Another woman was arrested after she wrote something on the sidewalk with chalk.

The New York Times confirmed that people are coming from all over the U.S. such as Massachusetts, Michigan, Virginia, New Jersey and Washington State.

Protesters say they’ve been inspired by the Arab Spring uprisings, and they hope to continue protesting just as long as their Arab peers have.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Class War, What Economic Recovery? Yet another former U.S. Treasury Secretary says no way, because Corporate America is causing the problem, yes it is a Class War

“Wall Street is energized about its profits, and it makes its profits by arbitraging labor. So if you lay off an American worker who makes $20.00 an hour, and you hire a Chinese or Indian worker who earns $1.00 and hour, you can put $19.00 an hour in your profit pocket!  And that is what has been going on for 15 years.” -Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of U.S. Treasury

Roberts says there is nothing that the President, or Congress can do to stop the fall of the United States, unless they can stop U.S. corporations from moving jobs overseas: “Interest rates are near zero. There are no home buyers because between 1/4th and 1/5th of the work force is unemployed!  And millions of Americans have been dispossessed of their homes…And the Middle Class jobs, millions of Middle Class jobs have been moved, by the corporations, abroad.”

Roberts says Corporate America is actually screwing over the U.S. government in the long run: “As the jobs move off, what moves with it is the tax base, the consumer income that formerly supported the American consumer demand, and the Gross Domestic Product of the economy.”

Roberts sees no hope for the U.S. main street economy as long as Wall Street gets its way: “So as long as Wall Street and the corporations profit by moving American jobs to countries where labor costs are substantially lower, there can be no recovery of the American economy!”

Paul Craig Roberts is the second former U.S. Treasury official to come out and make such statements.  Recently, former U.S. Treasury Secretary, Lawrence Summers, said the United States is “collapsing”.

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Occupy America Corporate Rip Off: Gas prices in Idaho go up despite most of the U.S. seeing prices go down, blame decreased production

September 19, gas prices in Idaho are about 70 cents above the national average.  One local TV station tried to give the usual explanation by saying it’s a mix of regional demand and state taxes.  FAIL!

I just checked on demand, and according to the latest numbers from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, demand for gasoline across the country is still below last year’s numbers.  On August 26, 2011, the four week average demand for gasoline was at 9.169 million barrels per day.  Compare that to the four week average of a year ago at 9.261 million barrels.  So there is a slight decrease in demand.

Regarding fuel taxes; there has been no increase in Idaho fuel taxes since 1996!

What is happening is that production of fuels has been dropping.  In other words, production is falling faster than demand, and that has the same effect as demand going up; prices go up (when there is less of something, in relation to demand, it becomes more valuable).

According to U.S. Energy Information Administration, PADD 4 gasoline production is down from last year. PADD 4 includes Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming.  The four week average for “finished gas” production, for August 2011 was 0.273 million barrels per day.  Compared to last year’s production of 0.296.

In other words, fuel producers are deliberately keeping production just under ‘demand’ in order to keep prices high.

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Major East Idaho Employer makes surprise layoff announcement

September 19, a change of contractors with the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) resulted in a surprise announcement; 204 employees will be let go at the end of the month.

On September 30, the existing contract with AMWTP (Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project) ends.  A new contract with Idaho Treatment Group begins on October 1.  The new contractor says they can do the same job with 204 less employees.

The contract involves preparing transuranic nuclear weapons waste stored at the INL, for shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico.

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

False christian Rick Perry a Poverty Miser?

“There are parts of Texas that are doing well. And there is a tremendous number of Texans, more than Perry has ever wanted to acknowledge, that are doing very, very poorly.”-Miguel Ferguson, University of Texas

Texas Governor Rick Perry likes to claim having created jobs for Texans, but he’s also to blame for increasing the poverty rate!

In the past two years Texas has created 40% of new U.S. jobs, but also has the fastest growing poverty rate in the whole country. That means most of those new jobs are not paying enough to cover the basic cost of living.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics about 550,000 workers last year were paid at, or even below, the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour!

According to the U.S. Census Bureau the national average poverty rate is 15.1%, and as of 2010 the poverty rate in Texas is 18.4%.

The main reason for the poverty; Perry’s so called job creation isn’t happening fast enough: “The middle class are losing their jobs and are not able to replace them fast enough. That’s driving them straight into poverty.”-Bradley Manning, Texas Neighborhood Services

To make matters worse, Texas has one of the worst social service programs in the country: “We don’t have the support system in place to provide economic support or economic opportunity to help families lift themselves out of poverty.” said Frances Deviney, Center for Public Policy Priorities

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? New G20 meeting will reveal how bad the situation is, the United States is now a beggar thy neighbor nation

September 19, later this week the Group of 20 developed and developing economies will meet in Washington DC.  The main issue, as always, the collapsing global economy.

Actually the main stream western media wants you to think the “global” economy is collapsing, in reality it’s just the ‘western/capitalist’ economies that are going down the toilet.

Demands from the European Union, United States and Japan are revealing how bad the situation is: “The consolidation plans to be undertaken in most EU countries, in the U.S. and in Japan need to be accompanied by appropriate policies in other regions of the world so as to avoid an undesired compression of global demand.”-European Union statement

What this means is that the economies that are going down the toilet need more help from the economies that are actually booming (the “other regions”).  Basically the EU, U.S. and Japan have become beggar they neighbor nations; needing to borrow from the wealthier BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), just to survive.

In order to get the much needed cash, expect the EU, U.S. and Japan to make some huge concessions at this weeks G20 meeting.  One thing China and Russia would like to see is a new currency to replace the U.S. dollar as the World’s reserve money.   It’s unlikely the U.S. would support that, ’cause it could make the economic situation in the U.S. even worse.

However, the latest European Union statement indicates that if the EU, U.S. and Japan don’t get financial help from the BRICS, then it could be lights out for the ‘West’.

Business/Economics, U.S.

United Police States of Incompetent America: 28 TSA guards fired in Hawaii, proof that the TSA is a waste of tax dollars

September 19, three TSA guards quit, and the Transportation Security Administration fired 28 other guards, as well as suspending another 15.

This after an investigation was started back in 2010.  TSA guards assigned to the morning shift allowed checked bags to be loaded onto flights without being screened for explosives, at Hawaii’s Honolulu International Airport.

This proves that the government is not only incompetent, but that the people of the U.S. don’t need the tax money sucking TSA!!!

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

World War 3: Russia acusses the U.S. led NATO of recruiting al Qaeda to invade Syria

“We have information that NATO headquarters in Brussels and the Turkish High Command are in fact drawing up plans for the first military step into Syria.  And we also know that NATO is in fact recruiting mujahedeen and jihadists to assist them in their campaign in these various countries.”-Michel Chossudovsky, Center for Research on Globalization

Members of Russia’s upper house of Parliament are currently on a fact-finding mission to Syria.

Russian officials believe outside forces (U.S., Europe, anti-Ba’athists al Qaeda, etc) are trying to destabilize Syria by funding and supporting an armed insurrection, which does not represent the majority of Syrian society.

Many Russian officials believe that any outside military intervention in Syria would immediately lead to escalation involving Israel, Lebanon and Iran.  Israel has already threatened as much. Russian companies have lost tens of billions due to U.S. led invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? China invests billions into America’s backyard, the U.S. is no longer a beacon of Hope

“China represents hope for the poorest nations of the world and its impressive development springs from its own resources…not exploiting or pillaging other nations.”-Orlando Hernandez Guillen, Cuban Vice Minister of Trade and Investment

China is fast replacing the influence of the United States on Caribbean countries.

“China has become an important source of foreign direct investment for us.”–  Edmund Bartlett, Jamaica’s Tourism Minister

The China Development Bank will issue U.S.$1 billion in loans to countries like Cuba, Jamaica, Barbados and the Bahamas.  China has already invested billions in Caribbean countries in recent years.

China buys nickel, sugar and other products from Cuba, and Cubans buy Chinese made cars.

China is planning to invest more than U.S.$400 million to revive a beachfront resort project in the Dominican Republic.

The Chinese are helping Jamaica build new ports, a conference center, highway projects and a cricket stadium.

If anybody remembers the Cold War, or knows that history, they would know that there was a time when the U.S. government would not tolerate Chinese involvement in “America’s backyard”.