Tag Archives: economy

Fukushima

Chubu Electric decides to shut down nuke plant, Japanese auto & electronics industries will be hit

After first saying no, CEPCo now says OK they will shut down their Hamaoka plant.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan asked Chubu Electric Power Company to shut down their Hamaoka nuke plant, because the plant sits on top of a convergence of fault lines, that could produce an 8+ quake.  The plant is not built to withstand such a quake, and the Japanese government wants the plant operators to reinforce the reactors.

The problem for CEPCo is that they have no way to replace the electric power that will be lost when they shut down the reactors.  The Japanese auto industry, and other manufacturers, are worried because they are already dealing with supply problems due to lack of electricity.  The shut down of Hamaoka nuclear plant will only make the supply situation worse.

CEPCo officials say that, so far, they can not come up with any practical alternative to replace the lost electrical power.

Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi and Suzuki have factories in the prefectures that will be affected by the nuke plant shut down.  Also, electronics makers Panasonic, Toshiba and Fujitsu have factories that will be affected by the shut down.

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

China continues to sell off U.S. bonds

China is the biggest buyer of U.S. sovereign debt (bonds), but has been selling off that debt at a steady pace. In February China sold off $1.15 trillion (yes, trillion) in U.S. bonds.

Chinese officials say the sell off of U.S. bonds could continue for another two months, or as long as the Federal Reserve continues with its quantitative easing (QE) policies.

According to the U.S. Treasury Department, China holds $4.47 trillion in U.S. sovereign debt.  China wants to cut it to less than $1 trillion.  Even then, Chinese officials say holding that much U.S. debt is only good for the short run.  I guess they don’t think the future looks very bright for the United States.

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

China refuses to pay U.S. debt

“The U.S. wants China to pay its economic bills by raising the value of the yuan. This is preposterous!”-Zhang Yansheng, Institute of Foreign Economics

Officials from China and the United States are meeting this week to discuss, what else, economic issues.  Many U.S. officials want the Chinese to raise the value of their money, the yuan, in order to help the U.S. dollar.  But the Chinese say bullsh*t!

Ma Xiaoye, of the China Foundation for International & Strategic Studies, says U.S. leaders created the economic problems, so “How can the U.S. count on a foreign currency to solve them?” Zhang Yansheng added “The U.S. should take responsibility for its own policies, instead of asking China to pay for it.”

The U.S. wants China to raise the value of their money, against the U.S. dollar, to help fight inflation in the United States.

Chinese analysts say the problem is that every time the Federal Reserve implements a quantitative easing (QE) policy, it sends “hot money” into the world economy creating “market bubbles”, which is what China does not want.

Maybe if the Federal Reserve stops issuing money that really isn’t there, the Chinese might decide to raise the value of their money.

Business/Economics, U.S.

Only 45.4% of U.S. workers employed, all time Historic low

Think the recent jobs data are a good sign of recovery?  Think again!

Since 2007 the United States has lost 7.25 million jobs.  According to a USA Today report, only 45.4% of workers, both men and women, were employed.  When you look at just men, only 66.8% of male workers had jobs in 2010.  That’s a record low!

Another way to look at it: The number of unemployed adults is surpassing the number of children in the U.S.

“No matter how wealthy you are, you have a problem if half the population are not working and depending on those who are.”- John Goodman, National Center for Policy Analysis

 

Fukushima

Chubu Electric refuses Prime Minister’s request to shut down nuke plant, for now

Prime Minister Naoto Kan had asked Chubu Electric Power Company to shut down their Hamaoka nuke plant, because it turns out that it is right over a convergence of fault lines, and scientists expect a magnitude 8+ quake.

Hamaoka is south west of Tokyo. Kan wants CEPCo to shut down the plant, and reinforce the reactors to withstand an 8+ quake.

CEPCo officials studied several options, including how to pay for the cost of reinforcing their nuclear plant.  They decided they don’t have the money to reinforce the plant, and it would not be feasible to raise electric rates high enough to pay for it (because customers would refuse to pay the higher rates).

CEPCo also decided that shutting down the plant would make the already bad situation, for Japanese industries dealing with lack of power, even worse.

CEPCo is not ruling out shutting down the Hamaoka plant, if they can do it with out reducing electrical power, and find money to pay for the reinforcing.

Business/Economics, U.S.

Proof the housing market is still crashing; Fannie Mae wants another $8.5 billion bailout

The top mortgage lender in the United States, Fannie Mae, wants another $8.5 billion dollars to save its butt.  This after reporting a loss of $6.5 billion during the first three months of 2011.

Fannie Mae blames the loss on credit expenses. They also blame falling home prices.  If Fannie Mae gets the new bailout money (at taxpayer’s expense) it will make it the costliest government bailout, of a single company, in U.S. history; $99.7 billion.

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

China wants to move Cinese companies to U.S., but says U.S. blocking them

“As the U.S. government continues to request accessibility to the Chinese market for its firms, we now raise a similar request on behalf of Chinese firms.”-Zhu Guangyao, Vice Finance Minister

For decades U.S. companies have been shipping off factories, and jobs, to China.  Now China says the United States is blocking their attempts to bring factories and jobs to the U.S.

“We have received many complaints from Chinese companies that have met discrimination as they try to invest in the United States, even though the U.S. side has repeatedly stated that Chinese companies are welcome.”- Zhu Guangyao, Vice Finance Minister


Fukushima

False Flag op? Japanese scientists knew major tsunami was going to hit Japan, at least one month prior!

A report discovered by Japan’s NHK news, shows that officials knew in February that a major tsunami could hit Japan soon.

The report was put together by the Earthquake Research Committee.  It looked at geographical evidence, and recent studies, and came up with a scenario that is exactly like what happened on 11 March.  It even named Miyagi and Fukushima Prefectures as being the hardest hit!

The conclusion of the report was that the prefectures of north east Honshu needed to make preparations.  Even though the report was finish in February, the officials weren’t planning on releasing it until April.   Apparently even the experts didn’t think it could actually happen.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Commodities crashing? More signs that there is no economic recovery

The cost of living in the U.S. rose at its fastest pace since December 2009 in the year ended in March, the same month when Chinese consumer prices rose by the most since 2008.-Bloomberg report

Rising commodity prices can bring inflation.  Commodity prices go up when there is an expected higher demand than supply (or speculators playing the market).  Today, May 5, commodity prices are falling.

Some people blame an increase in the value of the U.S. dollar, but has it really gone up that much? When the U.S. dollar is up, it makes commodities that much more expensive on the world market, because commodities are traded in U.S. dollars: “The common denominator for all the commodities selling today is the strength of the dollar.”-Bayram Dincer, LGT Capital Management Ltd

Others are pointing out that commodity traders are realizing that the world’s economy is still bad, and that the average person can’t afford to pay higher prices.  That means demand will go down.

If you buy commodities (oil, gas, metals, food stuffs, etc) why bid higher when there’s a good change you can’t sell it on the retail market?  Some analysts think this will be the crash of the commodities (which is a good thing for us little guys): “This could be one of the most severe corrections that we’ve seen over the last year. If things get really bad, we could possibly retrace half of the rally of the past six to nine months.”-Sean Corrigan, Diapason Commodities Management SA

How about the fact that a little known company, Glencore, who turns out to have a lot of say in the commodities market, has told their clients to be “underweight” when it came to commodities.  Glencore expects prices to actually go up in the next 12 months.  Being “underweight” means to sell off your investments, so maybe what we’re seeing is an intentional, and temporary, sell off.  A sell off would drive prices down.