Tag Archives: economy

Fukushima

Typhoon Talas hitting Japan with heavy rain, warnings issued, school hit by landslide

Typhoon Talas is coming ashore between Shikoku and Hiroshima.  Heavy rain, flooding and landslides being reported from Tokyo area, and several hundreds of miles north east to the island of Hokkaido.

Rain warnings for the hardest hit areas: Tokai (Nagoya) and Kinki (Osaka, Kobe, & Kyoto), may get drenched with 800mm (31 inches) of rain in the next 24 hours!!!

Landislide warnings for the following prefectures:  Tokushima, Wakayama, Nara, Mie, Shizuoka, Yamanashi, Saitama, Gunma, Tochigi, Iwate and Hokkaido.

There are reports that a school in Nabari, Mie, has been hit by a landslide.

Wind damage to buildings in Kobe, Osaka and Wakayama.

Air travel canceled, some roads closed.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Global Economic War: China slashes U.S. Agriculture imports

“A seasonal drop in exports to China was expected…But the magnitude of the fall has been greater than anticipated.”-U.S. Department of Agriculture

According to a September 1 report by Agrimoney, China has slashed its purchasing of U.S. farm products.  Not by a little, by a whole lot.

Up until three months ago China was spending a monthly average of $2.5 billion, yes, $2.5 billion per month.  But starting three months ago China slashed it to $800 million per month.

Historically the United States has been the biggest supplier of farm products to China, but, if current sales continue the U.S. will end the year tied with Canada.

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Corporate America says ‘If you’re unemployed don’t bother applying’, some States pass laws making it illegal for Corporate America to discriminate aginst the unemployed

“But we have seen instances in which employers are explicitly saying we don’t want to take a look at folks who’ve been unemployed. Well, that makes absolutely no sense, and I know there’s legislation that I’m supportive of that says you cannot discriminate against folks because they’ve been unemployed, particularly when you’ve seen so many folks who, through no fault of their own, ended up being laid off because of the difficulty of this recession.”-Barack Obama, President of the United States

What irony, Corporate America are deliberately discriminating against unemployed people.  Many want adds state “Must be currently employed”!

How’s that going to turn around the economy?  More proof the economic depression/recession is the fault of Corporate America!

A couple of months ago the National Employment Law Project found 150 online job adds that specifically discriminated against unemployed people.  Those discriminatory employers included Universities!

Some states, like New Jersey, are fighting back by making it illegal to require job applicants to be already employed.  The U.S. Congress is considering a bill that would do the same: Fair Employment Opportunity Act 2011, HR 2501.

Even Monster.com is being sued for posting help wanted adds that require current employment.  Monster.com says they’re just the messenger.

Fukushima

Pacific Ring of Fire: Japanese University says big quakes are coming for Tokyo

“If there is drastic plate movement, there is no guarantee that the scale of the quake will be in line with the government’s prediction of up to magnitude 7.3.”-Hirata Naoshi, Earthquake Research Committee

The University of Tokyo’s Earthquake Research Institute believes that major earthquakes are in the near future for Tokyo city, and Ibaraki Prefecture, no thanks to the 11 March 2011 9.0 quake.

Even though the 11 March earthquake was at least a hundred miles north of Tokyo, it was so powerful that the tectonic plate under Tokyo has changed so dramatically, that scientists think a massive quake caused by action on two or more areas of the plate is highly likely.  Since 11 March, the number of Tokyo quakes of magnitude 3 or greater has increased by fourfold.

Tokyo is subject to earthquakes that are located along plate boundaries, as well as quakes that happen along fault lines within a single plate.

Ibaraki Prefecture, just south of Fukushima Prefecture, is even worse off.  Since 11 March, quakes of magnitude 3 or greater have increased by 20 times!

The high tectonic activity is on the coastline, inland quake activity has not increased, but it has changed.

Japanese scientists say that recent inland quakes are much more shallower that past earthquakes.

Fukushima

Pacific Ring of Fire: 14 previously dormant fault lines now alive and threatening in Japan!

14 fault lines in Japan, which were thought to be ‘safe’ are now considered dangerous, potentially producing a 7.6 earthquake.

The other problem is that they all run near nuclear power plants.

A survey of the fault lines were undertaken by nuclear power plant operators, like Tokyo Electric Power Company.  They concluded that the fault lines are a real threat.

Nine fault lines are near Japan Atomic Power Company’s Tokai Number 2 power plant, and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency’s Tokai reprocessing plant in Ibaraki Prefecture.

The other five faults are near Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima Number 1 (Daiichi) and Number 2 (Daini) nuclear power plants in Fukushima Prefecture.

 

Fukushima

Government & Corporate Incompetence: Fukushima exceeds radiation levels at Chernobyl!

Six towns in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, have soil that is contaminated with Cesium levels far higher than those at Chernobyl.  The levels exceed that which forced mandatory evacuations around Chernobyl back in the 1980s.  Some areas around Chernobyl are still off limits.

Japan’s Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry put together a soil contamination map.  Six municipalities recorded more than 1.48 million becquerels per square meter of Cesium 137.

The Cesium hot spots are in no-entry and expanded evacuation zones around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was damaged by the 11 March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

 

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Global Economic War: British TESCO admits defeat, pulls out of Japan, the U.S. is next

“Having made considerable efforts in Japan, we have concluded we cannot build a sufficiently scaleable business. We have decided to sell our operations there and focus on our larger businesses in the region.”-Philip Clarke, TESCO

After eight years and 250 million pounds (U.S.$404.9 million), British retailer TESCO is quitting Japan.

The Japanese retail market proved to be too tough o’nut to crack.  TESCO has been successful almost everywhere else, especially other Asian countries.

Retail analysts say Japan’s retail culture is radically different than the U.S. or Europe: “The retail market is fragmented and there are many strong regional players, often family-owned. Convenience stores dominate, particularly in the city centers, and a culture of ‘immediacy’ supports large numbers of vending machines.”-Gavin Rothwell, retail analysts IGD

Another factor against foreign companies doing business in Japan is extremely high operating costs, and extremely demanding consumers.

However, TESCO is also losing money, big time, through its U.S. venture, Fresh & Easy.  The U.S. start up is based in Los Angeles, California.

TESCO’s Fresh & Easy operation has 176 stores in California, Nevada and Arizona.  Last year they lost $301 million, far more than what TESCO lost in Japan.

They’re spending even more money to remodel their Fresh & Easy stores, but if sales don’t pick up within the next two years, TESCO will pull out of the United States as well.

 

 

 

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? U.S. Postal Service will default, begs to stop Saturday delivery

USPS announced they will default on the upcoming Federal Employees Retirement System payment (this after Congress essentially stole $75 billion from the Postal Service, supposedly to pay the FERS last year!).

Also, postal officials are now begging the U.S. Congress to approve the ending of Saturday delivery.  USPS officials also want to use retirement money to run daily operations.

Officials also say they will unveil a plan on September 15,  which could save up to $3 billion per year.

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, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Latest survey shows there are less jobs now, than in 2008, study says Corporate America is Lieing when they use the excuse “they can’t find qualified workers”

“To fill the gap by mid-2014, three years from now, 400,000 jobs would need to be created each month.”-EPI study titled: Sustained, high joblessness causes lasting damage to wages, benefits, income, and wealth

The latest Economic Policy Insitute study shows there are 6.8 million fewer jobs now, than when the recession officially started in 2008.

The study also indicated that it was a pipe dream to some how create 400,000 new jobs every month.  So far, evil Corporate America has been hiring a paltry average of 144,000 jobs each month.  The EPI authors say at that rate it’ll take 15 more years to get the United States back to its pre-2008 glory.  And this study doesn’t take into account all those federal and state government jobs that will be lost due to budget cutting.

Another aspect of the study showed that Corporate America’s claim that there are no qualified workers to hire, is a lie!  That type of unemployment is called Structural Unemployment.

The study found that the ratio of job openings, to job seekers, is one opening for every four applicants.  It’s been that way for at least two years now.  With an average of four unemployed people applying for one job, how can Corporate America say they can’t find any qualified workers?

Here’s another reason: The unemployed include people from every education group, including college graduates with Masters degrees.  This means Corporate America has a vast pool of trained and educated people to pick from, yet Corporate America isn’t hiring!

 

 

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Idaho New & Used car sales drop nearly 20%

A survey by Cross Sell, and the Idaho Statesman, revealed that new and used car sales, in southwest Idaho, plunged in July 2011.

Southwest Idaho is supposedly doing better economically than eastern Idaho, yet new and used car sales declined.  When compared year to year, sales dropped 14%.  When you compare July 2011, to June 2011, the drop is 19%.