Tag Archives: economy

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: TEPCo continues to screw up, workers still not being checked for radiation exposure!

According to NHK, to date only 40% of workers at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, have been given radiation check ups.

Tokyo Electric Power Company didn’t start testing until 11 days after the 11 March disasters.

Japanese standard safe limits for radiation exposure is 100 millisieverts.  So far two workers have been exposed to more than 250 millisieverts.  Another 30 have been exposed to more than 100 millisieverts.

TEPCo is trying to shift blame by saying workers are not taking their iodide pills properly.  But even that is TEPCo’s fault; radiology experts are questioning whether the timing and level of iodide dosage was appropriate.

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Bank failures continue, now it’s local banks going down

Already for 2011, 43 banks have failed.  According to the FDIC, 157 banks failed in 2010, 140 failed in 2009, 25 in 2008 and only 3 in 2007.  Notice a trend?

According to Forbes, the U.S. banking industry has, for the first time in 27 years, reported a drop in revenue.  Down 3.2% for the first quarter of 2011.

It’s interesting that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation claims no banks failed in 2005, or 2006.  U.S. media have incorrectly stated that until 2006 there were no failures (Washington Post), but the FDIC list shows there were several bank failures every year from 2000 to 2004.  For some reason 2005 & 2006 had none.

The concern for 2011 is that the bank failures are hitting local community banks harder, instead of the larger regional and national banks.  One reason could be that the bigger banks got bailout money from the Federal Reserve, and U.S. taxpayers.  The local banks did not.

However, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that 98 banks that got bailout money are on the verge of failing.

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? U.S. home foreclosures hit record levels year after year

Reality Trac says U.S. property foreclosures hit 3.82 million in 2010.  A record.

It’s a continuing trend since 2006. The percentage of foreclosure filings just keeps going up: 2.23% of all U.S. housing units received at least one foreclosure filing during 2010.  2.21% in 2009.  1.84% in 2008.  1.03% in 2007.  0.58% in 2006.

The top five states for foreclosures in 2010 are: California, Florida, Arizona, Illinois and Michigan.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Surprise; China does not own the United States

“China’s hold or ownership is only 8 percent of our outstanding debt and in no way does China’s position influence U.S. foreign policy.”-Gary Locke, U.S. Commerce Secretary

The United States Commerce Secretary made the statement while being interviewed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, for the job of U.S. ambassador to China.

Locke says the majority of U.S. government debt is held by…U.S. domestic investors.  Find out who they are and you’ll know who the real shadow government is.

Fukushima

TEPCo discovers radiactive waste water storage leaking also

In another example of corporate leadership not thinking things through, Tokyo Electric Power Company has discovered that the buildings it’s been using to store highly contaminated water in are leaking.

TEPCo was using the buildings to store contaminated water that leaked into the basements of the reactor buildings, and contaminated water from reactor cooling systems.  Even though TEPCo claimed it has stopped the massive leaks from the reactor buildings, contaminated water continues to pour into the Pacific Ocean.

On Friday, 27 May 2011, TEPCo discovered that the buildings used to store contaminated water are leaking.  They will now stop transferring contaminated water and try and plug the leaks.

TEPCo admits they know the buildings are damaged, and they failed to plug any leaks before transferring the contaminated water!

International

Britain joins Romania & Bulgaria as worst place for families

A study called “Family Pressure Gauge” says the United Kingdom is Europe’s third worst place for families to live, after Bulgaria and Romania.

Some points of the study: Almost 25% of the average British family income goes to childcare, which is double the percentage spent by French families and three times that for German families.

One in seven U.K. families spend more than 40% of their income on rent or a mortgage, compared to only  1.8% of French families.

One in 20 British families live in “severe housing deprivation”, 12 times more than the Netherlands.

The survey also revealed Britons work the longest hours in Europe, and that the U.K. ranks as the second worst country in Europe for maternity and paternity leave.

 

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Sign that U.S. & China at odds: U.S. suddenly inspecting Chinese products for fair trade violations

According to Chinese media, the United States has investigated Chinese products for “Section 337” violations, at least 56 times since 2006.  That’s more times than all the previous 20 years prior to 2006.

Section 337 investigates claims of unfair trade and competition, as well as possible U.S. copyright violations.

 

Fukushima

24 May 2011, Fukushima Daiichi still flooding Pacific Ocean with radiation!

Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency is reminding Tokyo Electric Power Company that it must stop the flood of contamination that is still pouring into the ocean.

According to NHK, TEPCo is still trying to figure out how to stop leaks of contaminated water.  The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency gave TEPCo until 01 June 2011 to figure out a way to plug the leaks.

Fukushima

TEPCo backtracks on blaming employees for Reactor 1 meltdown

Recently Tokyo Electric Power Company tried to blame the metldown of reactor 1 on an employee turning off the cooling system.  Turns out the employee was following TEPCo’s own operating manual!

TEPCo now says the employee was following procedure because coolants temps had actually dropped, so much that their manual called for the shut down of the cooling system.

They also revealed that data recorded immediately after 11 March 2011 does not show any cooling problems, for at least 30 minutes after the 11 March quake/tsunami.  A week ago TEPCo said reactor 1 began meltdown in the early hours of 12 March.  Reactor 3 melted down on 13 March and reactor 2 on 15 March.   I have to think that TEPCo’s instrumentation is faulty, or TEPCo officials are inept at reading the data collected, why else are they just now figuring this out?