Tag Archives: economy

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? & Government Incompetence: U.S. to cut trillions in government spending, except for the billions going to Israel

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a debt limit bill that would see more than $2 trillion cut from government spending over ten years.  But those cuts won’t affect the billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars Israel gets.

U.S. politicians said hands off U.S. taxpayer money going to Israel.  Hypocritically, the United States is cutting aid to Palestinians.

It’s being reported that when the Republican party took control of the House of Representatives, they told AIPAC (formerly known as Jewish Defense League) that financial aid to Israeli would not be affected by spending cuts.

Israel gets tens of billions every year from the United States.  That includes money for Israeli companies, the Israeli military, money that’s not officially reported, and interest on some of the money.

Can you believe that, Israel actually gets interest payments on the free money from U.S. taxpayers!  The way that works is that some of the money is held back, and interest is accrued on the funds that have yet to be paid.   One report said that between 2006 and 2008, $2.089 billion in interest was paid to Israel.

Isn’t obvious who really controls the United States government?

 

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: More cesium contaminated beef!

The Japanese government has made it official, and banned beef from Iwate Prefecture.  Iwate is the third prefecture to have its cattle banned from market.  Fukushima and Miyagi are the other two prefectures.  Iwate normally ships out 36,000 head of beef cattle every year.

The ban doesn’t affect all cattle from Iwate, just those from farms in two areas that have already tested positive for cesium contamination.  Other cattle farms, in Iwate, are being asked to step up cesium inspections.

The problem with the Japanese government’s response to the contaminated cattle, is that it is reactive.  They only take action after contaminated beef has made it to market.

It’s so obvious that massive cesium contamination has spread over a large area of Honshu.  It’s time to become pro-active and stop all agriculture shipments now!  Do contamination inspections on everything coming from farms.

I know for most agriculture products time is important because they can spoil, but spoiled food is better than letting highly contaminated food make it to market.  Again, it is so obvious that massive radioactive contamination has occurred.

 

 

 

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: TEPCo thinks there are more radiactive Hot Spots, can kill a person within one week!

On 01 August 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company detected a massive radiation leak from a pipe between reactors 1 and 2.  It’s emitting 10 sieverts (10,000 millisieverts) per hour.  The Japanese Science Ministry says anyone who is exposed to such levels can die in one to two weeks!

Now TEPCo says it’s possible there are other radioactive hot spots within the Fukushima Daiichi compound.  They claim they will check for more hot spots.  The amazing thing is that time after time, whenever a massive amount of radiation is detected, TEPCo says they will conduct better monitoring, yet it’s starting to look like they lie about it.

This latest radiation hot spot was found by a gamma ray camera, but apparently the pipe has been emitting the deadly levels for months.  TEPCo now speculates that the pipe is full of material from melted active nuclear fuel rods from Reactor 1.  Reactor 1 melted down just hours after the 11 March 2011 quake and tsunami.  TEPCo says the pipe was used to vent the reactor after the melt down.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Russia says the United States is to blame, Putin calls the U.S. a parasite, the world should stop using the U.S. dollar

“The country is living in debt. It is not living within its means, shifting the weight of responsibility on other countries and in a way acting as a parasite.”-Vladimir Putin, Russian Prime Minister

Russia says the United States is dragging the world down with it, because of its control over the world finance system, and because most of the world uses the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency.

If the U.S. dollar continues to lose value then it can bring down international trade.  Russia, and other countries like China, are pushing for a new form of reserve currency.


Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: Highest radiation levels yet coming from Fukushima Daiichi, higher than what instruments can read!

01 August 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company reporting that they’ve recorded the highest radiation levels yet at their damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

A pipe located between reactors 1 and 2, is emitting more than ten sieverts (not millisieverts but the larger measurement of sieverts) per hour of radiation!

Most measurements have been given in the much smaller millisieverts range.  One millisievert equals 0.001 sievert.   One microsievert equals 0.000001 sievert.  So you can see a reading of ten sieverts is huge!  It is so huge, that the Geiger counters used to take the measurements max out at ten sieverts, which means the level of radiation being emitted could be higher.

As usual, TEPCo officials don’t understand why they’re getting such high radiation readings!  TEPCo sent workers to inspect the pipe, after a gamma camera detected extreme radiation.  The workers could not stay long, leaving after being exposed to 4 millisieverts per hour of radiation.  TEPCo says the area around the pipe is now a No Go area.

 

 

Business/Economics, Opinion, U.S.

U.S. government debt limit increase will NOT save economy, will only provide corporations will cheap loans, perpetuate downward spiral

Claims by the main stream media, and politicians at the Federal level, that raising the government debt limit is necessary to save the economy, is a lie.

We’re being told that people will lose jobs.  People ARE losing jobs.  Since the beginning of the year dozens of companies have announced job layoffs.  The latest is British company HSBC, which says it will layoff 25,000 employees around the world, by 2013.  Raising the U.S. government debt limit will not stop that.

By raising the debt limit, the U.S. Treasury can issue more bonds (which means taking on more loans/debt).  The Treasury can then loan that money at ridiculously cheap rates to U.S. corporations.  Those corporations are not using that money to hire more people, they’re using it to pay their own debts!

We’re also being told that without a debt limit increase interest rates on our loans will go up.  So what!  Many of us little people lost our credit back in 2007/2008!  Many of us little people that still have credit saw our rates skyrocket already!  What our leaders really mean is that U.S. corporations, and the government, will finally have to pay higher rates on their loans!

The latest reports are that the debt limit increase will come with the slashing of $2.1 trillion in government spending.  That can only happen with thousands of government employee layoffs!  So how does raising the debt limit prevent job layoffs?

A debt limit increase will not stop cuts to government programs!  We’ve already seen huge cuts to social programs, and we’re going to see more cuts to government services, because you can’t cut $2.1 trillion in spending without drastically cutting funding for programs!

And don’t think you’re not going to be paying more taxes.  It’s the only way the government can pay down its increasing debt.  But our leaders are ignorant of the fact that as more people lose their jobs, that’s less people that can pay the higher taxes!

The bottom line is that a debt increase will not save the economy.  We are seeing people continue to lose jobs, and it’s clear that people will continue to lose jobs even with a debt limit increase.  There can be no economic recovery with such huge and continuing job loses!   We’re just picking up speed in our economic downward spiral.

 

 

Business/Economics, International

What Economic Recovery? China economic data down for 4th straight month, inflation to blame, again

August 1, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing says purchases of manufactured products is down for the 4th month in a row.

The main reason is the continuing inflation in prices of basic resources, which is causing prices for manufactured goods to go up.   Despite efforts by the Chinese government to control inflation, the inflation rate is exceeding their expectations.

Currently the purchase of manufactured goods (PMI) is stagnating at 50.7.  Anything below 50 is bad.  In previous years China’s PMI was well above 50, but this year it’s been falling.


Fukushima

Farmer Incompetence: Japanese planted rice in radioactive fields

In several postings (back in March) I warned that Japanese farmers should not plant their crops because of the radiation contamination…they planted their crops anyway, now it’s a mess.

Prefectural governments, and the national government of Japan, are now telling farmers not to ship their upcoming rice harvest, because of cesium contamination.

It’s not just rice that’s contaminated.  For months now tea crops have been coming up with radiation, and what’s amazing is that the Japanese tea industry has spent money promoting their tea around the world, even holding tea drinking demonstrations.  Many vegetables are contaminated, and even compost is proving to be contaminated.  And, they’re still dealing with the massive beef cesium contamination.

Did anybody learn anything from Chernobyl?

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: TEPCo announces reduction in contamination, then finds more contamination!

01 August 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company announced a drop in cesium and iodine flooding into the Pacific Ocean, from Fukushima Daiichi.

TEPCo claims cesium 134 and 137, in water leaking from reactor 3, have remained steady since Friday.  Iodine 131, in water leaking from reactor 2, has stopped.

At the height of contaminated water emission, cesium 134 hit 20,000 becquerels per cubic centimeter, while cesium 137 was 17 times the official safe limit.

Iodine 131, from reactor 2, had hit 7.5 million times the official safe limit.

But along with TEPCo’s announcment that radioactive water was dropping, they discovered a building flooded with highly radioactive water.

A storage building was found to be flooded with 700 tons of water.  That water contains 19,000 becquerels of cesium 134 per cubic centimeter, and 22,000 becquerels of cesium 137.  And, not surprisingly, TEPCo officials say they’re trying to figure out where it came from.

Business/Economics, Opinion, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? U.S. GDP continues to stagnate, leaders continue to sell it as “growth”

U.S. GDP for the second quarter of 2011 is stagnating at 1.3%.   U.S. leaders and main stream media continue to call it “growth”.  What’s really sad is that the “experts” expected the GDP to be higher.

On top of that, the first quarter results were revised, no surprise, downward from 1.9% to 0.4%!  It’s amazing how for the past few years economic reports have been revised downward a month or more after they’ve been released.  So is the second quarter GDP of 1.3% going to be revised downward?  I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s revised downward to a negative percent.