September 29, according to the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, last month Texas fired 900 people from education related jobs.
It’s part of the U.S.$4 billion in cuts to Texas public schools, that Governor Rick Perry approved this year!
As an example of how bad it’s getting in Texas; near Austin, two newly built schools are empty this year because the Leander school district can’t afford to put teachers in them.
“This unemployment situation we have, the jobs situation, is really a national crisis. We’ve had close to 10% unemployment now for a number of years and, of the people who are unemployed, about 45% have been unemployed for six months or more. This is unheard of!”-Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Chairman
September 29, the man in charge of the central bank of the United States now admits that what is going on with the U.S. economy has never been dealt with before.
Bernanke also admitted that the U.S. is no longer a free trade nation, and that it no longer cares about the people, when he said that the U.S. must learn from fast developing nations, like China, which has adhered to discipline budget policies, embraced free trade, made public investments and supported education.
“The changes that have taken place in the Middle East sent oil prices up, and that gave a shock to the world economy.”-Barack Obama, President of the United States
First off, President Obama, oil prices are no where what they were a couple of years ago. What’s been driving up the price of gas (which is just as high as when oil was more than $100.00 per barrel) is not the current price of oil, but refineries that’re purposely keeping production of gas below the demand for gas (which makes the price go up).
Secondly, it was your attack on Libya, President Obama, that caused oil prices to go up!
President Obama also blamed the Europeans: “Some of the challenges that we’ve had over the last several months actually have to do with the fact that in Europe we haven’t seen them deal with their banking system and their financial system as effectively as they needed to.”
First off, if the U.S. banking system wasn’t so involved with the European banking system the U.S. wouldn’t be as affected by their problems.
Secondly, many of the actions taken by European banks, that got them into trouble, were the same mistakes that got U.S. banks into trouble. By the way, those banking troubles started here in the United States, and have yet to be resolved!
Stop passing the buck President Obama!
For those of you who think things are the same all over the world, think again.
Until the beginning of this year China did not have property tax. Now two regions/states have instituted property tax, officially it’s to try and curb inflation, and real estate speculation.
In Chongqing and Shanghai, a property tax has been imposed on high end real estate. The lowest price at which taxes are charged is for properties that sell for 9,941 yuan ($1,554) per square meter.
In Chongqing, the tax applies to existing residential properties, while in Shanghai it falls only on properties that were purchased after its adoption date.
The new taxes are due in October, and those who fail to pay will be subject to fines, restrictions on their ability to go abroad, or exposure in the media.
I stated in earlier postings that the U.S. Congress is behind the USPS crisis! Now postal workers, risking job loss, are protesting the actions of Congress in destroying the Postal Service.
Recently, PBS Newshour’s interviewed U.S. postmaster general, Patrick Donahoe, and Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers. They both pointed out that the U.S. Congress is holding back on money earned by the USPS, and that was a primary reason the Postal Service is in trouble.
Also, U.S. Congressman, and the main stream media, continue the false notion that the USPS gets money from taxpayers, and therefore cutting the USPS would help the government’s budget cuts. Many citizens still believe that the USPS is paid by tax money!
The United States Postal Service does not make money off taxpayers, they are solely funded by the postage they charge (prices are controlled by U.S. Congress, not the USPS), and other products they sell. The cuts being made to the USPS will have no affect on U.S. government debt!
Now members of all five unions representing postal workers will go on strike, violating their contracts (to be safe the postal unions are not calling them strikes, they’re calling them “rallies”). Why violate their contracts? Why not? It’s become obvious that the U.S. Congress wants to shut them down anyway!
Congress is demanding that USPS make another $5.5 billion in payments to Congress (supposedly to meet required Federal benefits). But this is what’s causing the problems. Last year Congress overcharged the USPS, then refused to give a refund!
One union official says the U.S. Congress has actually overcharged the USPS to the equivalent of 75 years worth of Federal retirement plan contributions. This leads me to believe the Congress is using the non-taxpayer Postal Service funds to pay for running a broke government!
The Daily Telegraph (aka Telegraph) reports that even though evil British Prince Charles made more than 4 million pounds (U.S.$6.3 million) from his A G Carrick company, he has donated zero to charity!
A G Carrick (a pseudonym for Prince Charles) sells artwork created by the the Prince, and his web site claims that they donate profits to charity.
Clarence House, spokesman for the Prince admitted “no charitable donations were made in the year”. House went on to trip over his own statements regarding the profits of the company: “A profit of £25,590 was made by A G Carrick and dispersed to charity.” Forty-five minutes later, House changed the statement to “No profit was made and therefore the accounts do not show a dispersion of profit to charity.” Then House confirmed “The profit was used to cover A G Carrick’s loss from the previous financial year as is standard procedure.”
Can you say; lies, lies and more lies?
The Telegraph article goes on to explain that most of the money goes to pay employees of the Prince, who’re involved with selling his paintings. It also says that financial statements from A G Carrick show the company is 1 million pounds (U.S.$1.6 million) in debt, and that debt is being passed on to the future King of England! So either they’re lying, or even elites are idiots when it comes to financial management!
September 27, Japan’s Finance Minister Jun Azumi, said Japan is ready to help Greece, possibly by buying more Greek government bonds.
However, Japan is a little cash strapped itself and is hoping the Europeans do something quick, to turn around the collapsing European economy. The reason; Japan’s car industry is relying on a European, as well as U.S., economic recovery.
Chairman Toshiyuki Shiga, of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, said that the falling value of the Euro, and the U.S. dollar, is driving up the value of the Japanese yen, which is making Japanese cars to expensive to sell.
Most of Japan’s national income is made by selling products to other countries (exports), and since the March 11 disasters the yen has been going up in value causing huge drops in demand for Japanese products.
Japan is hoping to see the Euro and U.S. dollar go up in value, which would make Japanese products more affordable on the world market.
27 September 2011, Japan’s National Tax Agency has just now realized that all alcoholic drinks coming from the Fukushima area are probably contaminated with radiation. Even so, testing on beer, wine/sake will not take place until next month!
Mandatory testing will be done at all beverage factories within 150 km (93 miles) of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Random testing will take place at factories outside the 150 kilometer radius.
Along with the national government, six major cities, including Tokyo, will test water meant for use in making beer and wine.
Rice and barely, used in beer and sake, have already tested positive for cesium contamination.
“It is an attack on the basic democratic rights of working people in this country.”-Patrick O’Regan, Workers’ Revolutionary Party
The British government has created a new law, under the guise of stopping militant right wing groups from demonstrating: No demonstrating.
Officially the law is in effect for only 30 days, and was requested by Scotland Yard. The police feared the militant right wing demonstrators would cause violence.
The problem is the law applies to everyone, not just militant groups. Anyone marching can be arrested, fined, or even imprisoned.
Activists say the new law covers more than demonstrating: “They are talking about area curfews, they are talking about shutting down Facebook [and other] social network sites. They are talking about dictatorial civil war measures because what they are doing in Britain is creating a historic change, in which inevitably the majority of Britain will oppose them.”-Patrick O’Regan, Workers’ Revolutionary Party
Other activists say this is part of the government’s tippy toeing towards total authoritarianism: “Just in terms of where we are at the moment with the process of austerity being pushed through by the government, trade unions are one of the major blocs opposed to that. Public order legislation does tend to be used against striking workers. That has been very clear and there have been some recent examples of that; people being pulled off the picket lines. And that obviously weakens any resistance to the cuts.”-Richard Seymour, Socialist Workers Party
“It’s all sunk costs, it’s money that we spent and we’re not going to recoup.”-Paul Eaton, retired U.S. Army Major General
The United States spent over U.S.$2.4 billion on building posts in Iraq, reports the Congressional Research Service. Major General Thomas Richardson told reporters last month that the U.S. had already given away equipment valued at a total of around $247 million, just last year. Another $157 million in materials were handed over in the time before President Obama’s withdrawal of troops officially began.
Apparently the U.S. turned down offers from Israel to buy the equipment.
Don’t think any further U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq will reduce U.S. government spending of taxpayer money on Iraq: The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations revealed that the U.S. State Department is looking to spend upwards of $30 billion on Iraq over the next five years. U.S. embassy in Baghdad already houses thousands of civilian officials and troops and contains 21 buildings in a space of over 100 acres. The U.S. military operates less than 40 bases in Iraq today.