On Tuesday Toyota announced more cuts for North American factories, now more cuts in Europe and China.
For Europe Toyota announced that they will cut production, after the already scheduled production halt for the end of this month. The reason is lack of electronic parts. Toyota’s Chinese factories will also see production cuts, in some cases production will be down to 30%. The production cuts, around the world, could last past May.
Robots from the Idaho National Laboratory have been searching through the damaged reactor buildings at Fukushima Daiichi.
They have discovered temperature and radiation levels too high for humans. Tokyo Electric Power Company officials say they will have to use air conditioners, and filtration systems, to bring heat and radiation levels down enough for workers to operate inside the buildings. Latest NHK video
A company that was going to build two reactors in Texas, abandoned the plan.
NRG Energy, in cooperation with Toshiba, was planning on building two reactors in Texas. The company now says the investment environment has become too risky to continue with the plans. They will now write off U.S.$ 481 million on their taxes, for the canceled project.
Toyota announced that it will have to continue cuts in production in its North American factories. Continued parts supply problems being blamed.
Factories in Mexico, Canada and the United States will now suspend operations on Mondays and Fridays. Production will be cut in half on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The latest cuts will continue until June 3.
Toyota expects the new cuts to directly affect North American car sales.
“We are one shock away from a full-blown crisis.” Robert Zoellick, World Bank President
The World bank is run by the United States, and if the current situation within the U.S. is any sign, then the world economy, influenced by the World Bank, is in trouble.
The International Monetary Fund is worried as well: “Especially because of youth unemployment… there is now a risk that this will be turned into a life sentence, and that there is a possibility of a lost generation.”-Dominique Strauss-Kahn, IMF chief
One analyst says fiscal and monetary policies might actually make things worse: “What they do is they very often pressure government to adopt what we call pro-cyclical policies. The economy’s weak and in recession, they want them to cut spending or raise taxes. And that can be very dangerous, I mean you can slip back into recession, you can make a recession worse.”- Mark Weisbrot, Center for Economic and Policy Research
Officials with the World Bank, and the IMF, say food prices, citizen security, justice and jobs, are the main issues for international economic stability. Yet history shows that the policies of the IMF and World Bank actually cause some of the problems: “The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank say that they are interested in reducing poverty. All their actions however said otherwise. Their actions have instead raised the poverty level and created under-development.”-Andrew Garvin Marshall, Center for Research on Globalization
The president of the World Bank has always been a United States citizen, since 1944.
“GDP that stems from new debt — mainly deficit spending — is phony: it is debt-financed consumption, not prosperity. Net of deficit spending, our prosperity is nearly unchanged from 1998, 13 years ago.”-Rob Arnott, Research Affiliates
Arnott says the Democrats and Republicans are to blame. They continue to play games with the voters/taxpayers. While tax revenues have steadily dropped since 1998, because of a bad economy, both major political parties just spend spend spend.
Yes, Arnott says the declining economy started back in 1998, it just didn’t impact the system until 2007, when the housing bubble burst. One reason the Federal Government is having a problem with its spending is that our elected officials think our incomes are up, and as a result, tax revenues should be as well. But they’re not; Arnott says tax revenues are at 1994 levels.
Arnott says part of the problem with the politicians is that current economic statistics are flat wrong. Economic stats, showing consumer spending and GDP, include deficit spending. In other words, credit cards and loans are being used to make it look like the average person has money. And this has been going on for a while.
By using purchases made with credit cards, or loans, it makes it look like people have money, and that the economy is good. These stats are used by our politicians to justify spending tax payer money.
When you throw out the debt spending by consumers, the real GDP figures show we’re stuck in the 1990s. Arnott calls GDP minus debt spending “structural GDP”. Also, he says government spending is another misleading factor used in GDP stats. He says that should be left out as well, only private sector GDP should be looked at, and it’s not pretty.
Another analyst, Max Fraad Wolff, says historically countries go down the drain when their government debt gets close to its GDP levels: “We are approaching national debt on par with the total GDP of the country. This is very serious because most economic research suggests that countries tend to decelerate in their growth and have more and more severe economic problems, once their debt-to-GDP ratio gets above about 90 per cent. And we’re about to go through that level.”
“Military buildup does not result in energy security, rather it causes instability in the energy market.”-Massoud Mir-Kazzemi, Iranian Oil Minister
Mir-Kazzemi says the West’s militant approach to world issues is the root cause of instability in the global energy market. The U.S. does not have an interest in creating “win-win” situations.
Iran suggests that the situation in Libya is all about driving up the price of oil, in the interests of Western oil companies. It is also true that non-western oil companies are benefiting as well.
Iran is the current President of OPEC. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries was created in September 1960. The members are Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela.
Toyota announced that they will reduce production in China, to 50%. Parts supply problems are blamed. The reduced production will last until June 3.
“I was in Tokyo when the earthquake hit, and everything stopped. Trains stopped, buses were in chaos and cars were jammed. Within that, you could just see bicycles swimming through. Some of our stores stayed open until 4 a.m. to meet the surge in demand.”-Susumu Shimoda, Asahi Co. President
Bicycle sales in Tokyo tripled thanks to the March 11 disasters. People needed a way to get home after all normal modes of transport got shut down.
For the retailer Asahi, sales surged 200%. It’s not just the disasters that are pedaling bike sales upward: “In addition to the disorder in the public transportation system, rising gasoline prices are also boosting the demand for bicycles.”-Akinori Sato, Daiwa Securities Capital Markets Company
Bike parts maker Shimano also reported increase in sales, as well as Taiwan bike maker Giant Manufacturing Company.
Tokyo Electric Power Company says high radiation levels, and high humidity, is slowing up robots being used to inspected the reactor buildings at Fukushima Daiichi.
In Reactor 2 building the humidity was so high it fogged the robot’s camera lens.
In Reactor 3, there is too much debris from the hydrogen gas explosion. They will use another robot that can clear the debris, some of which weighs 100kg (220 pounds).