Tag Archives: economy

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Bannock County, Idaho, jacks up property taxes on farmers, by 90%

“We’re trying desperately to hold to these farms and we are paying our share. And if we haven’t been paying our share, it’s because assessors haven’t been doing their job.”-Grant Olson, wheat farmer

In a surprise announcement, Bannock County officials said they messed up and failed to properly assess farmland.  They will now hit farmers with a property tax bill that’s at least 90% higher than last year!

Grant Olsen, a farmer in Robin, Idaho, says his tax bill has gone up year after year.  Olsen is highly suspicious of the county’s reasons: “They say the reassessment hasn’t been done for 10 years, and now they have to obey the law. Why haven’t they been obeying the law?”

As a resident in Bannock County I can say that property taxes have gone up yearly, even with the decline in residential property prices.  When I’ve complained to the assessor they’ve blamed increased fees due to the passage of school levees.  That’s part of the problem, but the specific “property” tax has gone up as well.

County officials told the public that they would provide a better explanation of why they have to increase farmland property tax so much.  Bannock County has a reputation for having higher than average property taxes.


Business/Economics, Idaho, Opinion, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Idaho can’t comply with No Child Left Behind, no money

Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Luna says No Child Left Behind (aka Adequate Yearly Progress, AYP) is actually stopping states from improving student’s academic performance: “The law has become a stumbling block to continued improvement in raising student achievement.”

The main reason that AYP is a stumbling block is that states are required to pay for efforts to comply with higher standards set by the Federal program.  Luna officially told the U.S. Department of Education that Idaho will not comply with AYP standards, until it is revised to help states do so.  Idaho, among many other states, does not have the funding to meet AYP standards: “We don’t have the luxury of time and resources to continue on with the federal law that should have been rewritten four years ago.”

The problem is that Idaho’s education system is already lagging behind most of the United States, in performance and funding.  So even if AYP is revised it’s highly unlikely that Idaho can comply.

Business/Economics, Opinion, U.S.

Despite bad economy 1 in 3 U.S. workers hate their job so much they want to quit, careers offer diminishing returns

“From the employee viewpoint, not only has the deal been redefined, in many cases, the new deal is not being delivered as promised.”-Mercer

In a report from human resource company Mercer, one in three workers in the United States hate their job so much they would rather quit and take their chances being unemployed.

One of my daughters works for a local Home Depot store, and they have employees quitting almost weekly.  And the local job market really sucks.  By the way, she really likes working at the local Home Depot and thinks there are other issues regarding those employees who quit.

But I’ve been amazed at how many people quit their jobs in these bad times, and the times are getting worse.

According to Mercer, the main reason for employees hating their jobs, is actually part of our economic problem; decreasing pay/benefits, cuts in work hours and the realization that their jobs are dead end careers.  When adjusted for inflation, the average U.S. worker is making $400 a year less than in 1988.  Why bust your butt for diminishing returns?

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? United Nations says government cut backs making things worse

“Austerity measures in response to high government debt in some advanced economies, such as Greece and Spain, are not only threatening public sector employment and social expenditure, but also making the recovery more uncertain and fragile.”-UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs

The UN is warning that cuts in government spending will only make the global economy worse.  This comes a week after the International Monetary Fund said the economic crisis was now in the political phase, meaning the private sector had failed.

Interestingly the UN is also blaming the bad economy on global lenders like the IMF.

 

Fukushima

Government & Corporate Incompetence: 6 out of 10 towns got no Nuclear evacuation order after 11 March!

10 cities around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant were supposed to get evacuation orders immediately after the nuclear disaster, following the 11 March 2011 natural disasters.  Only four of those cities got the evacuation order.

The national government of Japan, and the prefectural government of Fukushima have apologized for the break down in communication.

Also, Tokyo Electric Power Company was responsible for notifying five nearby cities/towns of the nuclear disaster, but evidence shows that was a major ‘F’ up.  One town got 80 faxes of the notification, while another town got zero notification!

This major breakdown in communication, by TEPCo and government,  resulted in massive confusion about what people were supposed to do.

 

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: Radiation decontamination fails for the third time, reactor temperatures rising!

For the third time Tokyo Electric Power Company stopped decontamination of radioactive water at Fukushima Daiichi.  This time radiation levels on the outflow side of the massive water filter skyrocketed, instead of going down.

The idea is that water coming out of the decontamination unit would have less radiation.  The opposite is happening.  When TEPCo re-started the operation on Tuesday radiation levels were at 3 millisieverts per hour, by Wednesday, 22 June 2011, the levels hit 15 millisieverts per hour.

The result is that not only has decontamination efforts stopped, but TEPCo says it can not inject anymore water to cool reactors, for fear of massive flooding of contaminated water out of the reactors (even more than what is leaking out now).  Already the temperatures in Reactor 3 are rising.

Japanese media says the water decontamination unit was designed in the United States.  Could it be possible that the decontamination chambers are backwards?  Don’t laugh, here in Idaho in the late 1990s, on the Shoshone-Bannock Reservation boil order after boil order were being issued.  Finally, after tribal officials investigated their new water treatment system, it was discovered that all the filters were in backwards.

Business/Economics, International, Opinion

What Economic Recovery? Britain wants the European Union to collapse

Discussions within the U.K. Parliament reveal that British leaders are hoping for a quick end to the European Union via a Greek collapse.

Former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said, concerning the Euro: “…is going to collapse…” and “Is it not better that this happens quickly rather than a slow death?”

Current Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Mark Hoban said: “I am not going to comment on whether the eurozone will remain intact or not. Clearly, this crisis demonstrates the huge strain the eurozone in under. That is why it was right for us to stay out of the eurozone.”

Current Prime Minister, David Cameron said: “We were not involved in the first bailout of Greece; we don’t believe the European financial mechanism should be used in any way.”

Conservative Member of Parliament, Anne Main said Greece “…should be allowed to depart peacefully from the eurozone.”

Current Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, said the U.K. would not help Greece:  “The package for Greece that is already in place is a eurozone package with the IMF.  It’s the eurozone that is taking forward discussions now about the next stage of dealing with Greece’s substantial problems.  There’s simply no proposition on the table for the U.K. to contribute beyond that IMF involvement and I don’t expect there to be one.”

When you take what the British leaders are saying, along with the International Monetary Fund’s warnings that the default of Greece will lead to a collapse of European Union, then it definitely looks like the British want Greece to default.  Historically the British never really liked the concept of the European Union.

 

 

Fukushima, U.S.

Government & Corporate Incompetence: Radioactive Tritium leaking from U.S. nuclear reactors

A year long study of U.S. government documents, by the Associated Press, has revealed that radioactive tritium is leaking into groundwater.

Documents show that at least 48 nuclear plants in the U.S. have, or are, leaking tritium.  Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen.  The report comes from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

At least 37 of those leaks exceeded government safe levels for drinking water.

It’s not just tritium that’s leaking from U.S. nuclear reactors; cesium and strontium are also leaking.

Strontium 90 was found leaking at Indian Point nuke plant north of New york City.

Cesium 137 leaked from Fort Calhoun nuke plant in Nebraska.  By the way, that reactor was just shut down because the Missouri River is flooding it.

There’s much more about the leaks from U.S. nuke plants in the AP report.  Maybe this explains the increase in cancer rates over the past decades?

Like I said before: Everyone living near nuclear reactors in the United States should make plans to get away.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Global Great Depression: IMF warns of global collaspe if Europe goes down the economic toilet

“Given the euro area’s role in the global economy, success in addressing the sovereign debt crisis and raising growth has a significant impact elsewhere.”-IMF report

June 21, a new report by the International Monetary Fund says European economic collapse could bring on a Global Great Depression.

All international finance eyes are focused on what happens with Greece.  There could be a domino effect if Greece defaults.  A check of history will show that a similar situation happened prior to the U.S. Stock Market Crash of 1929, which eventually led to the Great Depression in the U.S.

Here’s a little reminder: Germany was forced to pay the United Kingdom and France (and some other countries) huge reperations after losing the First World War.  The U.K. and France owed the United States big time money for saving their butts during the war.  U.S. corporations were banking on that money from U.K. and France, and actually ran their businesses on debt thinking ‘no problem the French and British will pay up’  (it was called “The Roaring Twenties”).  Well, the victors of the First World War made things so bad for Germany there was no way they could make the reparations payments, so they defaulted.  As a result, the U.K. and France defaulted on their payments to the United States.  As a result, U.S. corporations defaulted leading to the Crash of ’29.

Basically the IMF is saying we are in a similar situation with the current debt crisis in Europe.

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: Once again, TEPCo stops radiation decontamination

For the second time Tokyo Electric Power Company has stopped decontamination of water at it’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, this time they broke a water pump.

The first time was because the radiation levels were much higher than first thought, and the water decontamination system wasn’t set up to handle it.  This time TEPCo officials think it’s because they tried to force too much water through, and broke a water pump.