Tag Archives: economy

International, U.S.

World War 3: Japan wants to start selling weapons to other countries, let their peacekeepers carry weapons & fight alongside U.S. troops

Currently the Japanese constitution does not allow the sale of Japanese made weapons to other countries.  It does not allow Japanese troops to be used outside Japan, although the government got around this by ordering their troops not to carry weapons on ‘peacekeeping’ missions.

Japan’s new policy chief Seiji Maehara, is recommending changing the constitution to relax criteria for weapons use by Japanese Self-Defense Forces taking part in UN peacekeeping operations.  He says Japanese troops could help the U.S. by being able to actually fight alongside U.S. forces.

Also, Maehara claims that without letting the Japanese military industry sell weapons to other countries, and take part in advanced weapons development with countries like the United States, Japan’s military defenses could become technologically outdated.

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Global Economic War: Increase in Japanese Corporate Bankruptcies, they blame the falling U.S. dollar

Corporate bankruptcies in Japan have risen for the second month in a row, they blame the rising value of their yen, which is being pushed up by the falling U.S. dollar.

Credit research firm Teikoku Databank says 969 companies failed in August!

The strong yen is causing a drop in orders and exports, and causing trading losses in currency derivatives.

The research firm warns of a vicious spiral, with more companies shifting production overseas to escape the high yen, in turn cutting even more orders to Japanese firms and putting them at risk of bankruptcy.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Global Economic Class War: Australia’s economy is good, yet thousands of workers are losing their jobs! They blame it on the falling U.S. dollar. Australian workers ready to tear down their government, what’s wrong with the slaves of Corporate America?

Australia’s economy is doing much better that the U.S. economy, thanks to their deals with China, yet the state government of New South Wales is going to layoff 5,000 government employees, and cap government wages!

Also, Australia’s biggest steel maker, BlueScopeSteel, is laying off 1,000 workers!  Back in July solar power companies announced they were losing 73 jobs per day in New South Wales!

September 8 saw 30,000 protestors hit the streets in Sydney.

The latest economic news out of Australia says consumer spending is up, 1%, and their export economy hit 1.2% growth.  Household savings is at 10.5%.  Analysts expect overall economic growth to expand by 4.3% by the end of the year.  Much better than the U.S.

So why are Australians still losing their jobs?

BlueScopeSteel claims they’ve been losing money, no thanks to the rising Australian dollar!  Company officials says most of their sales are overseas, and the high Australian dollar makes their products too expensive for international customers.

Workers and union officials say it’s really because company management is financially incompetent.

As the U.S. dollar falls, other currencies, like the Australian dollar is rising.

The Australian Solar Energy Society (AuSES) and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) says because the New South Wales (NSW) government has failed to adopt the ‘Fair & Equal Price for Solar Solution’ plan, at least 73 solar power jobs are being lost per day.

NSW officials want a four month delay before adopting the plan, but company officials say that by then their companies could be shut down.  The plan would allow residents to put affordable solar power on their own homes, then sell excess power back to the grid.  The plan would not cost anything to the state government.

This brings us to the strange announcement that NSW is going to lay off 5,000 of its own employees, and cap wages for the rest.

From what I could find, the only reason for the government layoffs are because the elites of Australia want to privatize everything.  NSW’s Premier Barry O’Farrell claims it’s a necessary step in preparing for a much more competitive world (the overall bad global economy caused by the United States, like the falling U.S. dollar driving up the Australian dollar).

Residents of NSW aren’t taking this laying down, not like most people in the United Police States of Corporate America.  Here’s what some of the September 8 protestors had to say: “IR laws, stick it up your barrell O’Farrell.”

“Our message to Barry O’Farrell is you are a horrible bastard. You’re a liar and we’re going to fight you every inch of the way.”-Matt, prison guard

The protestors also sang the old Twisted Sister song “Were not gonna take it.”

NSW firefighters also protested, at least 500 firefighters with dozens of fire trucks arrived in Sydney, and union bosses told the firefighters to be ready “to drag this government into the gutter…”!

“O’Farrell doesn’t give a stuff how hard we work, how smart we work, all he wants us to be is cheaper. We have to say no.”-Jim Casey, Fire Brigade Employees’ Union

When will the slaves of the United Police States of Corporate America say no?

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

War on Terror cover for Global Economic War: Invasion of Afghanistan IS about oil, Afghanistan has 80 million barrels of oil, now it all goes to China

State-owned China National Petroleum Corporation won the first oil and natural gas exploration contracts in Afghanistan since the U.S. led invasion in 2001.

It’s estimated that there are 1.6 billion barrels of crude oil in Afghanistan.  The oil fields of Bazarkhami, Kashkari and Zamarudsay (areas under contract with CNPC) contain an estimated 80 million barrels.

In 2007 China got the rights to mine copper in Afghanistan.  Isn’t nice that the U.S. led War on Terror is allowing other countries to get contracts to mine minerals and oil?

Business/Economics, International

Class War: Israelis arrested protesting Israeli government, attack Tel Aviv city hall

September 8, Reuters reporting at least 40 Israelis being arrested after blocking traffic, and breaking into the Tel Aviv city hall.

This after the biggest anti-regime rallies in Israel’s short history, on Saturday.

Anti-regime protests erupted in Israel in mid-July as activists began setting up tents in Tel Aviv to protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s economic and social policies.

The protestors are also opposed to Israel’s illegal settlement expansions in the occupied Palestinian territories.

 

Business/Economics, International

Class War: Israeli Doctors & Nurses walk out of hospitals, protest Israeli government

“We want to make a decent living as doctors in Israel….We have a great public health system and you have to invest money and funds and the government is just letting the health system collapse.”-Doctor Shuli Swetitzki,  Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv

She said a lot of doctors sought to leave either Israel or their profession “because it is so hard to get by.”

Israelis have been protesting the high costs of living and social injustice over the recent months. The largest anti government protest by Israelis took place on September 3, when around one million Israelis held protest rallies in at least 50 cities.

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Is the U.S. Congress stealing U.S. Postal Service money?

The United States Postal Service does not make money off taxpayers, they are solely funded by the postage they charge.  The U.S. Congress controls what the USPS can charge, and, according to testimonies by the U.S. postmaster general, Patrick Donahoe, and Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, the U.S. Congress has forced the USPS to over pay into several federal funds.

Remember, the money made by the USPS does not come from taxes, and yet they’re being forced to over pay into federal funds.

Postmaster Donahoe has asked Congress to refund the over payments and they refused!  Congress is also refusing to allow the USPS access to it’s own money in the other funds.  Why?  Can it be that the U.S. Congress is using the non taxpayer Postal funds to pay for the day to day operations of the Congress?  Afterall, the U.S. government is broke, and they sure haven’t had any problems stealing from the taxpayer funded Social Security accounts!!!

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? U.S. Congress wants to shut down U.S. Postal Service, why else are they restricting USPS access to their hard earned money? 9 million jobs lost?

September 6, PBS Newshour’s Gwen Ifill 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.

FREDRIC ROLANDO: “I’m here to tell you that the Postal Service is not broke. The Postal Service just needs access to its own money. And Congress needs to get busy and give them that access.”

“The $20 billion-plus dollars that you read about in losses is nothing more than a congressional mandate that requires the Postal Service, required the Postal Service to take all of their cash and put it into a pre-funding account.”

“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.”

PATRICK DONAHOE: “Fred is exactly right around the issues that we have faced in the last few years.”

“In that same time, we have been required [by Congress] to prepay employee retirement funding.”

GWEN IFILL: “What does Congress have to do with that? When you say that Congress needs to make changes to get you access to this cash, what can Congress do?”

PATRICK DONAHOE: “There are two proposals on the table, the one Fred referred to, where we would get money back. The other proposal is the Postal Service taking over our own retirement system, operate it just like a private business. And we would no longer need that pre-funding.”

“…we have overpaid [forced by Congress] into our other retirement fund $6.9 billion. We want all that money back right now.”

FREDRIC ROLANDO: “What Congress needs to do is give the Postal Service access to, like I said, between $50 billion and $125 billion…”

“There’s $50 billion to $75 billion in surplus pension funds. There’s about $42 billion in the future retiree health benefit funds, again, all postal funds, no taxpayer money involved.”

“…this is just cash money that the Postal Service needs access to. We’re not looking to in any way diminish what needs to be done for future pensions or future retirees.  It’s just that you don’t have to do 75 years worth of pre-funding in a 10-year period. You could re-amortize what needs to be done.”

“…because any business wouldn’t put $20 billion of cash into future pre-funding, nor would they leave $50 billion to $75 billion of pension surplus in that account, when they’re going through the transition that the Postal Service is going through right now.”

“If Congress doesn’t act, the postal industry, about nine million jobs are in danger…”

PATRICK DONAHOE: “We will be out of cash next August. That’s the issue.”

 

The United States Postal Service does not make money off taxpayers, they are solely funded by the postage they charge (prices are controlled by 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.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? U.S. Postal Service problems having domino effect on Corporate America

Some people don’t think much of the USPS (United States Postal Service), many people, including main stream journalists, don’t know that the USPS does not get any taxpayer money!  How about the fact that dozens of U.S. and European corporations rely on the USPS for business?

I’m not talking about shipping their products.  Corporations actually have major contracts to provide the USPS with products or services.  Now they’re feeling the pinch of the collapsing USPS budget.

Here’s a list of major companies being directly affected by the problems at the USPS: Fed Ex, Siemens, Northrop Grumman, Pat Salmon & Sons and Campbell-Ewald, to name a few.

Fed Ex is the biggest contractor with the USPS, in 2010 they were paid $1.4 billion for their service to the USPS (that’s only 3.5% of Fed Ex’s total revenue): “FedEx values its alliance relationship with USPS, both as a supplier and a customer.”-Maury Donahue, FedEx spokeswoman

Northrop Grumman made $495 million off their USPS contract.

The German company Siemens made $135 million in 2010: “We’re affected by their budget and their spending, It causes us to react and adjust.”-Daryl Dulaney, CEO of the Siemens Industry division New York

Siemens was involved with mail processing equipment, until this recent announcement by the USPS: “…will not be buying mail processing equipment, period.”-Sue Brennan, USPS spokeswoman

Privately held Pat Salmon & Sons trucking made $143 million in 2010.

Shipping contractors, like Fed Ex and Pat Salmon, have been hit hardest by the USPS budget crisis.  According to David Hendel, with postal contracting specialist Husch Blackwell LLP, the USPS is asking truckers to essentially work for half pay: “If the contractor will not agree to this, the Postal Service is threatening to terminate their contract.”

The only company that seems to be making more money off the USPS budget crisis, is advertiser Campbell-Ewald. The USPS has poured money into an advertising campaign trying to promote their service.

Basically the U.S. Postal Service wants to end Saturday mail delivery, cut 220,000 jobs by 2015 and close at least 3,700 post offices.  As you can see the cuts will affect far more than just Postal employees and customers.

The United States Postal Service does not make money off taxpayers, they are solely funded by the postage they charge (prices are controlled by 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.