Tag Archives: economy

Business/Economics, Opinion, U.S.

U.S. Postal Service facing similar problems as Canada Post, why aren’t U.S. Postal Workers striking?

Canadian postal workers went on limited strike because Canada Post wanted to cut their retirement and wages.  The situation escalated when Canada Post locked out all urban postal workers, in effect laying off 48,000 employees.

Canada Post says they’ve been losing money and need to make drastic cuts in pay and benefits.

Here in the United States a similar situation is happening with the U.S. Postal Service.  The USPS 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.  The result is that the USPS is losing millions and billions of dollars every year. (it’s almost as if Congress wants to put the USPS out of business)

So far thousands of U.S. postal workers have been bought out of their contracts, and even laid off.  What can U.S. postal workers do?  Nothing, because their employment contracts say that if they try to do anything, like go on strike, they automatically lose their job  (no strike clause).   So much for “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”.

Business/Economics, Opinion

Global Great Depression: Manufacturing down Demand for oil down Looks like the Main Stream Media Experts Got it Wrong

I remember many main stream oil “experts” saying that oil prices would go up, because while demand in the United States might be down, global demand would be up, because of increased global manufacturing.

Well, it ain’t happening.  The latest economic data show that manufacturing is not only down in the U.S., but is way down in Europe (in fact it’s been falling sharply ever since January 2011).  Even China has cut back on manufacturing.

Why?  Consumer demand is way down, all over the world.  Why?  Consumers (people) don’t have money!  Why?  Because corporations have been cutting back on wages, benefits and even jobs!  Why?  Because the big money lenders have cut way back on the amount of credit they’re willing to give those corporations!

Why would lack of credit hurt those corporations?  Because the reality is that big business runs on credit, not cash.  In fact, in the United States even little businesses need credit just to survive.  Basically the Western Capitalist economy has become a false economy that is run by credit limits rather than actual revenues.

Now, oil speculators guessed wrong and overbid oil and fuel commodities.  Some studies show that there is a great disparity between what the petroleum speculators thought about consumer demand, and the reality of consumer demand.  One graph I saw indicated that oil should be at $70.00 per barrel, based solely on consumer demand.

The speculators thought consumer demand, on a global level, would continue to go up.  The reality is that it’s going down.  It’s going down because of reduced manufacturing, and because enough drivers have indeed cut way back on fuel usage.

The more optimistic analysts will say we’re heading for a “double dip recession”.  This is going to be a depression.  The recession is caused by credit companies cutting businesses off, and individuals off, in many cases for no good reason.  This depression will be because speculators and investors will realize that the capitalist economy is a house of credit cards, and too many credit cards have  been pulled.  Why invest your money into products that people can’t buy?

The amazing thing is that many speculators are operating on credit.  As more and more fail to pay back their short term loans, because they lost money on the stock and commodity markets, they’ll be another credit crisis, this time affecting the big market ‘players’.

The investment markets will dry up, because they’ll be a big drop in the number of ‘players’.  The result will be that not only will corporations be short on credit, they’ll be short on investment money.  Which will lead to more cuts in benefits, wages and jobs, which will lead to even less consumer demand.  In ‘nother words; this is a downward spiral that’s just starting to pick up steam.

Many “experts” have been calling for increased government spending.  They say it’s because corporations obviously don’t have enough money to pull us out of the recession.  These “experts” don’t seem to realize that most governments are broke.  Don’t let those quarterly profit statements fool you, many economists say the books are still being cooked, the reality is that lenders are broke, corporations are broke, and governments are broke.   It’s going to be a long drop to the bottom.

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: No standardized airborne radiation monitoring in Japan, radiation levels higher than officially reported

After many citizens complained of faulty radiation readings by local governments, Japan is now testing for airborne radiation at one meter (3.2 feet) high, and at more than one location per city/town.

What happened was that citizens groups were conducting radiation readings on their own (you see; never trust the government).  Their readings were much worse than many official readings by local governments.  The citizens were taking readings closer to the ground.  In Tokyo, air borne radiation readings were being taken at only one location, on top of a 19 meter (62 feet) tall building.  Many cities across Japan varied their testing height from 1.5 meters to as high as 80 meters off the ground.

Today, 15 June 2011, Japan’s science ministry started taking readings at one meter high, in 100 locations across Japan.  The results are important: Already they’ve found, in several prefectures, that radiation levels, taken at one meter in height, are twice the levels taken at higher sampling sites.

Citizen groups pointed out that air borne radiation testing should be done at a height where humans activity takes place.  Looks like the People are correct.

 

Fukushima

Plutonium in more soil samples!

Tokyo Electric Power Company announced that their May soil samples are positive for plutonium-238.

The sample was taken on the compound of the Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant, on 30 May 2011.  The samples were taken 500 meters away from Reactor 1 building.

This follows claims by university students who found plutonium as part of a class project.

Fukushima

Radiation spreading in Japan, thanks to Mother Nature

NHK (Nippon Housou Kyoukai/Japan Broadcasting Corporation) discovered, through random interviews with local officials throughout Japan, that cesium is showing up all over, thanks to rain.

22 of Japan’s 47 prefectures (states, or glorified counties) have been testing their soil.  16 found their soil is contaminated with cesium.  Some areas are as far south as Osaka, which is about 350 miles away from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Local officials believe the cesium is being spread by clouds that sweep through the Fukushima area then rain on other parts of Japan.

The area with the highest cesium levels, in their soil, is Fukushima, currently at 447,000 becquerels per kilogram.  Tokyo has 55,000 becquerels.

NHK reported that Japan has no guidelines for dealing with radiation contamination in soil.

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? The U.S. was lagging behind Europe even before the Credit Crisis

Before the 2007-08 Credit Crunch Crisis the United States was far behind the European Union, when it came to new job creation.

According to a Fortune article, from 1999 to 2008 the EU created 14 million new jobs, while the U.S. created 8 million.

On top of that, once the economy started down the drain the United States lost more jobs than were lost in the EU.  Percentage wise the EU and U.S. are around 9% unemployment (officially, unofficially the percentages are higher), but when you look at actual numbers the U.S. is leading the way down.  As of December 2010, the difference in job losses, between the EU and U.S., are about 7 million.

 

Business/Economics, Opinion, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Obama spouts the neccesity of higher education, but Middle Class is now officially unable to pay for it

“We’re seeing further differentiation in incomes, with the rich get richer and the poor getting poorer. Meanwhile, the middle class often claims they’re too wealthy to get student aid, yet too poor to afford college.”-Mark Kantrowitz,  FinAid.org and FastWeb.com

President Barack Obama is constantly stumping for higher education as a way to recover the U.S. economy, the problem is most people in the United States can’t afford to go.

According to a CNN/Money report (based on the findings of the College Board), tuition and fees have skyrocketed 130% in the past 20 years, while incomes for the majority of U.S. workers have stayed relatively the same.  By the way a recent IRS report says the same thing about U.S. incomes.

In 2008 median income was $33,000, when adjusted for inflation that means the average person was making $400.00 less than in 1988 (I knew I wasn’t crazy).

In 2008 tuition and fees averaged $6,500 per year, which is 130% more than what they were in 1988.

What happened to financial aid?  Obama ran for president partly on a promise to make more federal aid available.  Didn’t happen.  According to the College Group, the maximum federal aid (which includes loans, which should not be considered “aid” ’cause you have to pay it back) has remained stuck at 1992 levels; only $23,000  (by the way that “aid” is limited, so if you don’t get a ‘four year degree’ in ‘four’ years, which is actually the reality for many, you don’t get anymore federal “aid”).

Two trends have developed as a result: Families hell bent on their kids getting worthless degrees (I have one, from Idaho State University) are getting deeper into debt (isn’t that part of our country’s economic problems?).  The other bigger trend is that people are delaying entry into college, or just saying “forget it, it ain’t worth it”.

Here’s a sobering thought: According to Mark Kantrowitz, the cost of higher education is such that many of today’s college students will still be paying their student loans when their children are college age!  That is a sure sign that college is no longer “worth it”!

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Arby’s Sold

Wendy’s/Arby’s Group sold off its Arby’s restaurant, for $430 million.  The new owner is Atlanta based Roark Capital Group.

Earlier in the year it was announced that if Arby’s sales didn’t improve, the fast food restaurant would be sold.  The former Wendy’s/Arby’s Group still holds 15% of Arby’s stock.  The CEO, Roland Smith, says they can now focus solely on the better performing Wendy’s fast food chain.

Smith says that any closing of Arby’s stores will involve those already slated to be closed, which will happen as leases expire.  The deal with Roark Capital Group will result in changes for Arby’s, including a name change.

I can tell you that here in Chubbuck, Idaho, the Arby’s store has the lowest customer traffic of any of the national chain fast food restaurants.