Tag Archives: economy

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.

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Closer to a one world government: Super Sovereign Credit Agency to be created

“We hope that the agency will gain a leading position in the global rating market within the next five years. We’re fully aware that a globally recognized organization can never be propped up by one agency, so we will bring in more countries.”-Guan Jianzhong, CEO of Dagong Global Credit Ratings

China’s Dagong Global Credit Ratings will play a key role in the new global super-sovereign credit rating agency.

It will be established by Europe, the United States and the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).  Its headquarters will probably be based in Europe.  Details will be finalized in Frankfurt later this year.

Initial plans include representatives from National Information & Credit Evaluation in South Korea, the Scope Group from Germany, and RusRating from Russia.

There are currently 152 rating agencies worldwide, but recent actions by the “big three” credit raters (downgrading governments, like the United States) has led many governments to decide to create one single credit rating agency.

Ahmed Sule, a strategist for Diadem Capital in United Kingdom, said any new credit rating agency would have to prove itself: “The agency would have to be independent and autonomous; this could be a challenge but the agency would have to work toward this independence if it is to be accepted by the international capital market.”

In July, a French magazine, Capital, revealed that a single European credit rating agency was in the works.

 

International, U.S.

World War 3: Kurdish rebels in Iran admit they are being armed by the United States

In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation’s Iranian channel, BBC Persian, Abdul Rahman Haji Ahmadi admitted they are conducting military action against Iran with the help of the United States.

Abdul Rahman Haji Ahmadi is the boss of the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK) terrorist group.

He said the PJAK had built tunnels into Iran from Iraq.  They also received new weapons and equipment, including 120mm mortars, from the U.S. consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil.

Currently Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) is in battle with the PJAK.  This follows attempts by Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to mediate between the Iranian Kurdish rebels (PJAK) and Iranian government.  The mediation failed after PJAK forces killed two Kurds: “But the PJAK terrorist group paid no heed to the KRG’s appeals and mediation (and) martyred two local Kurdish forces… and this proved to the KRG that the terrorists had ignored its requests.”-Hamid Ahmadi, IRGC Colonel

 

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: TEPCo to build giant 2,625 feet long Iron Wall around Fukushima Daiichi?

05 September 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company says it is growing concerned (finally) about the amount of radioactive water still building up in the basements of the reactor buildings.

TEPCo officials say even if they keep it from running off into the Pacific Ocean, it will eventually soak into the groundwater, which eventually runs into the Pacific Ocean.

To try and stop anymore contamination from hitting the ocean, TEPCo proposes to build a 800 meter (2,625 feet) long wall!  The wall will be made of huge iron pipes.

Each pipe, 22-meters (72 feet) long and 10 centimeters (4 inches) wide, will be installed deep below the sea bed to stop the flow of groundwater.

TEPCo says they will also attempt to use pumps to pump out contaminated water.  They hope to start building the wall by the end of the year, and think it will take two years to complete.