Tag Archives: economy

Business/Economics, U.S.

Government Incompetence & No Economic Recovery for U.S.: Congress screws over the Postal Service, 3,600 offices to close

The USPS lost $8.5 billion in 2010.  It lost $3.8 billion in 2009.  So far this year the USPS has lost $2.2 billion.  The result; the United States Postal Service will make public a list of post offices that could be closed this year, as many as 3,653.

The United States Postal Service does not make money off taxpayers, they are solely funded by the postage they charge.  The problem is that Congress controls the postage they are allowed to charge, and so far Congress has refused to allow postal rates to reflect the actual operating cost of the USPS.

On top of that, Congress overcharged the USPS $75 billion for the Federal Employees Retirement System plan.  The Postmaster General asked for that money to be returned, but Congress refused (you think they already spent it?).

As a result of incompetence (or is it on purpose?) by our elected officials in Congress,  thousands more USPS employees will lose their jobs.

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: Fukushima Daiichi power outage due to incorrect wiring, TEPCo putting blame on Yakuza?

On 22 July 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant lost external electrical power to reactors 3 and 4.  This affected cooling operations, but they were able to get back up generators working.

Tokyo Electric Power Company announced that the power loss was due to an incorrectly wired circuit breaker.  They say the circuit breaker was set up to handle only one third the amount of electricity that was actually needed to run the reactor’s cooling systems.

This comes after TEPCo officials held a conference claiming that Yakuza (organized crime; aka gokudō, aka bōryokudan or aka ninkyō dantai) could be infiltrating the ranks of employees at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.  TEPCo also says they think Yakuza are taking over rebuilding efforts in the quake and tsunami damaged parts of Japan.  TEPCo offered no proof.  They implied that Yakuza were causing the delays in controlling the damaged nuke plant, and other problems.   Again, Tokyo Electric offered no proof of their claim, and it sounds more like they’re trying to use Yakuza as scape goats for their own incompetence.

Business/Economics, International

No Economic Recovery for U.S.: Brazil lowest unemployment rate since 2002

Brazil’s unemployment rate in June hit a low of 6.2%.  Compare that to June of 2002 when Brazil’s unemployment rate was 11.6%.

Officials credit the drop in unemployment to new job creation.  Last year alone half a million (512,000) new jobs were created in Brazil.  Also, the average wage went up 4% since last year.

Take into account that Brazil counts employment only in the six largest cities, officials admit there are still at least 1.5 million Brazilians out of work.

 

Business/Economics, Idaho

What Economic Recovery: Idaho unemployment edged up, still at 9.4%, almost no new jobs created in June

Even though Idaho’s unemployment rate is still 9.4% (for several months now) it actually edged up by 500 newly unemployed, for the month of June.

To make matters worse, the Idaho Department of Labor says most of the 15,000 people who found jobs in June, are filling existing positions.  In other words almost no new jobs were created.

Sadly the 15,000 who found work is the highest number since October 2010, yet still far below the average hirings before the 2007/8 credit crisis.

Idaho officials also said that 1,800 unemployed people stopped looking for work in June.

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: Major grocery store chain admits to selling cesium contaminated beef

Grocery chain operator Ito-Yokado says it sold over 2,600 kilograms (5,732 pounds) of beef contaminated with cesium.  The beef was sold at 94 outlets in Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, as well as on the northern island of Hokkaido, between April and July.

Ito-Yokado is not the only store that has admitted to selling the contaminated beef.  Two other grocery/department store operators, Seiyu and Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings, have admitted to selling the meat.

Consumers are being asked to bring the meat back, but many analysts think that too much time has gone by and that most of the beef has been eaten.

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: Cesium contaminated beef served to children at elementary schools

Japan’s Education Minister Yoshiaki Takaki is demanding action after it was discovered that three elementary schools served children beef contaminated with cesium.  The schools are located in Chiba, east of Tokyo.

Takaki has ordered local schools to check the source of the food they serve.

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: Professor demands that Japanese government check for cesium even hundreds of miles from Fukushima Daiichi!

22 July 2011, the Japanese government is only conducting radiation checks in the Fukushima area, but one professor says they need to check the whole of Japan.  Especially after it’s become clear that cows and cattle feed are contaminated with extremely high levels of cesium.

Niigata University Professor Nonaka Masanori, says radiation levels were never checked in farmland, especially those areas that produce rice straw for cattle feed.

Nonaka says the cesium is spread by snow and rain, which is being absorbed into the soil and taken up by plants.  The government needs to check for contamination no matter how far away from Fukushima Daiichi.

 

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: Electric power to damaged Fukushima Daiichi has been cut!

22 July 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company says external power, needed to support efforts to control the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant, has been cut.

There was a sudden surge of electricity which tripped a breaker controlling power to reactors 3 and 4.  They are now using back up generators, and they are trying to find out why external electric power failed.

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Weekly first time unemployment claims go up, “experts” surprised (again), unemployment really at 20%

The U.S. Department of Labor reported that first time state unemployment claims jumped by 10,000, to 418,000.  The numbers are for the week ending July 16.

The previous week’s drop in first time claims is due to the shortened work week (July 4 holiday).  That means it’s very likely that the first week of July could have seen an increase in unemployment as well.

Once again, many “expert” employment annalists did not expect such a large increase in unemployment claims, for the week ending July 16.

The latest weekly first time unemployment claims numbers, continues a trend, now 15 weeks on.  15 weeks in a row that first time unemployment claims is above 400,000.

The current official unemployment rate is 9.2%.  If our government was using the same unemployment rating system that was used during the time Bill Clinton was President, then official unemployment would be at 20%!