Tag Archives: employment

Fukushima

One Year Later: Workers at Fukushima Daiichi exceed 5 year radiation limit, in just one year!

24 August 2012, the Japanese Labor Ministry is sounding a warning; Japan is running out of qualified employees for the ongoing nuclear disaster at the GE designed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Since 11 March 2011, at least 3,000 people have been working (unsuccessfully) to bring Fukushima Daiichi under control.  As of March 2012, 167 workers were dismissed because they had exceeded radiation exposure limits equal to five years of contamination!!!

In Japan a nuclear industry worker can not exceed 50 millisieverts of radiation per year and 100 millisieverts in 5 years.  The 167 employees dismissed in March of this year, were exposed to more than 100 millisieverts in one year!

But wait, there’s more!  For the three months following April 2012, 79 workers were exposed to more than 20 millisieverts!

The numerous contractors working for Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCo) say they can not find enough new workers to replace the volume of workers leaving due to contamination.

But some contractors have set their own stricter radiation exposure standards, they are concerned with their employees health and maintaining their employability.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Class Warfare: Quantitative Easing benefits top 5% of the rich, neutral or negative effect for everyone else! More proof it’s the fault of the Too Big to Fails!

23 August 2012, the Bank of England tried to make it look as though flooding the markets with cash is benefiting everyone. But their own words revealed the truth: “…asset purchases have boosted the value of households’ financial wealth held outside pension funds, although holdings are heavily skewed, with the top 5% of households holding 40% of these assets.”

Quantitative easing is a monetary policy that tries to stimulate the economy by buying up privately held financial assets.  But as the Bank of England (BoE) pointed out, 40% of those assets are owned by only 5% of the people in the United Kingdom!  You can be sure it’s a similar situation in the United States.

The BoE also admitted that traditional ‘savers’ are the ones who’re losing, as interest rates on traditional savings accounts are at record lows.  So much for trying to get people to put money away for a rainy day.

One British company, that offers financial services for people over 50 years of age, pointed out that retirees are the big losers in all this quantitative easing (QE): “…the 21 million over 50s…have been negatively impacted……It is asserted, but not proven, that pension savers are no worse off due to QE gilt buying [gilt is a British term for government bonds], because the value of their pension savings has gone up to offset the fall in the annuity income they will receive when converting their pension fund into a pension income. This assertion is simply not correct and the reality is very different for those recently or soon to be retired.”-Ros Altmann, Saga

The BoE tried to smooth things over by saying the worst that could happen to retirement funds is nothing: “….QE is estimated to have had a broadly neutral impact on the value of the annuity income that can be purchased from a typical personal pension pot invested in a mixture of bonds and equities.”

The British National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) responded by pointing out that if pension funds were already in trouble before the QE started in 2009, and the QE has a neutral impact, then nothing has been improved (except for the rich).  The NAPF states that what has actually happened is that retirement funds are worse off as a result of QE: “…schemes that were already in substantial deficit before the financial crisis are likely to have seen those deficits increased.”

Essentially; quantitative easing only helps the 5% of the people (elites) holding financial assets (such as bonds), it is doing nothing, or actually making things worse, for 95% of the people!!!

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Australia’s Quantas reports first loss ever! Will hurt U.S. economy; no more Boeing orders!

23 August 2012, Australia’s Quantas Airways reported its first yearly loss since it was privatized 17 years ago.

Quantas lost $250 million USD from June 2011 to June 2012.  The airline blames the high cost of fuel, coupled with flight cancellations and employee strikes.

The loss means that Quantas will now put on hold a huge order (35 aircraft) for the latest 787 airliners made by U.S. company Boeing.

 

Business/Economics, International, Technology

What Economic Recovery? Sony cuts 1,000 jobs in cell phone division!

23 August 2012, after buying back control of its Swedish cell phone operation, Sony announced it will lay off 15% of the employees.

Sony will also move most of the Mobile Communication division back to Japan.

Until Sony’s buyback, the Mobil Communication division was a joint venture with Sweden’s Ericsson.  The cuts are on top of planned lay offs in Sony’s television division.

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

Economic Recovery? No food crisis in Idaho, farmers see 15% increase in exports! Thank Canada and Mexico!

“With 96% of the world’s population and 80% of the world’s wealth being outside of the United States, the international market opportunities for agricultural products are great.”-Idaho Department of Agriculture

According to the Idaho Department of Agriculture, farm exports are up 15% compared to 2011, and 2011 was a record setting year!

“Canada and Mexico are Idaho’s largest agricultural export markets, with Japan and China following closely behind.”-Idaho Department of Agriculture

South Korea has also become a top importer of Idaho ag products, seeing a 98% increase since 2011!

Dairy has become Idaho’s number one ag product, making up 35% of Idaho’s exports! Compared to other U.S. states, Idaho’s exports rank 3rd for vegetables and 4th for dairy products (2011 stats).

For the first six months of 2012, total ag exports hit $2.7 billion USD for Idaho!  State officials thank currency exchange rates, strong commodity markets, trade agreements and growing international consumer demand.

It also doesn’t hurt that Idaho’s agricultural industry produces far more than what the state’s population of 1.5 million people can eat.

Unfortunately most of the employees of the Idaho ag industry are migrants.  Idaho employment laws allows farm workers to be paid less than minimum wage.

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, International, Technology, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Hoku continues downward spiral. Pocatello plant mothballed! Micron dead! Emmett fails! Idaho State government conspiracy?

Famous last words: “Sustainable, renewable energy is going to play a big role in Idaho’s future.”-Butch Otter, current Governor of Idaho, 2011 statement

Reality check: “New projects are non-existent. There’s no support for renewables in this state.”-Peter Richardson, Boise attorney

As of 21 August 2012, Hoku Corporation stock was worth only 9 cents per share!

According to a recent Associated Press (AP) report, all of the promises of support for renewable energy related companies in Idaho, were false.

Pocatello’s Hoku Materials polysilicon factory for solar power panels is now officially mothballed. Boise’s Micron Technology’s energy venture is dead, and Emmett’s biomass power project failed.

Large scale wind power in Idaho is also being targeted.

The AP says the reasons range from federal tax breaks ending for the alternative energy industry, to economic war between China and the United States, to the fact that electricity rates in Idaho are already the second lowest in the country.

But what happened to all those promises of support from the State?  The bottom line is that the government of Idaho does not want to throw money at new alternative energy companies, state officials are all talk, no walk (but they love to take the credit for companies moving to Idaho, Butch Otter did with Hoku in his 2007 State of the State speech).  After all, Idaho’s main source of electricity already comes from decades old renewable and reliable hydroelectric dams (maybe that’s what Governor Otter was referring to in his 2011 statement).

Another thing, state lawmakers have not required local utility companies to buy into these new energy companies, as have the states of Oregon and Washington.  In fact many of these new companies were required to buy their electricity from Idaho Power, Rocky Mountain Power and Avista!

“LIQUIDATE HOKU MATERIALS”

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

What Economic Recovery? Hewlett Packard to report record loss, gives half a million dollars worth of stuff to Idaho university!

“…HP carries so much weight in the area, when they do something, when HP sneezes, you know, there is a ripple effect.”-Matt Rissell, Idaho Technology Council’s Software Alliance, interview with Boise State Public Radio

22 August 2012, Hewlett Packard (HP) is expected to report a record quarterly loss of almost $9 billion USD.  It’s the largest loss for HP ever!

HP is already in the process of laying off 27,000 employees.  People in Idaho are worried because HP has a huge campus in Boise, and any layoffs there will definitely hit other Boise area businesses: “For every hundred workers you lose, you’re going to lose at least another fifty.”-Don Holley, economics professor Boise State University

But despite all this doom and gloom, HP is actually benefiting Boise State University, in fact it’s benefiting another chip/computer maker, Idaho’s own Micron.

On 21 August 2012, it was announced that Hewlett Packard donated half a million U.S. dollars worth of equipment to the new Micron Business and Economics Building, located on the Boise State campus.

“We are working with Boise State to provide key technology that will enhance the student experience and help build future business and community leaders.”-Von Hansen, HP Boise

Notice Hansen didn’t say anything about employment, the focus is on “business and community leaders”.  Most leaders actually have a poor history of new job creation.

 

 

Fukushima

One Year Later: Nuclear waste estimates from Fukushima Daiichi revised…upward!

21 August 2012, the Environment Ministry of Japan has revised upward the estimated amount of radioactive waste in nine prefectures around Fukushima Daiichi.

As of now, there is 42,575 tons of waste, containing radioactive cesium levels of more than 8,000 becquerels per kilogram, in storage.  Officials originally estimated that only 50,000 tons of debris would be contaminated with that much radiation, but it’s now obvious there is much more.

A newly passed law makes the national government of Japan responsible for disposal of all nuclear waste.  Recently it was decided that four or five prefectures will be designated as permanent nuclear waste disposal sites.  However, there is great concern over the fact that Japan is crisscrossed by seismic faults.  Officials stated that any new waste site must not be built near a fault line.

Not surprisingly at least 75% of the contaminated waste is being collected in Fukushima Prefecture.

Fukushima

One Year Later: Fish contaminated with 380 times safe limit of radiation! More proof the GE designed disaster reactors are still spewing!

21 August 2012, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCo) announced it has caught fish near the failed Fukushima Daiichi reactors that have as much as 38,000 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium!

TEPCo says they’ve caught 20 kinds of fish and shellfish from 5 locations along the Pacific coast, just 1 kilometer (0.62 mile) off Minamisoma City, from mid July to the beginning of August.

A type of trout was contaminated with the most cesium, 38,000 becquerels.  That’s 380 times the safe limit set by the Japanese government!  To top that, the last time TEPCo tested local fish the amount of contamination was 18.8 times the safe limit!

Fishing was allowed to resume about 50 kilometers northeast of Fukushima Daiichi, on a trial bases, but not for rock trout or other fish that are showing up highly contaminated in TEPCo’s surveys.

ONE YEAR LATER: DOGS & CATS STILL ABANDONED IN RADIATION ZONES, GOVERNMENT NOW SEARCHING FOR OWNERS. OTHER PETS FORCED INTO SHELTERS BECAUSE OWNERS CAN’T KEEP THEM.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

LIBOR: Japan orders investigation

17 August 2012, the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) ordered an investigation into TIBOR, or Tokyo Inter-Bank Offered Rate.

It’s a system similar to Britain’s LIBOR, and tries to regulate interest and currency rates.

18 financial institutions in Japan have been ordered to reveal their TIBOR operations. Specifically the FSA is looking for evidence that bank employees unfairly manipulated rates.  FSA is concerned about the credibility of the TIBOR system.

The Japanese Bankers Association gave an immediate response to the order, saying their were no TIBOR irregularities, despite the European and U.S. investigations into TIBOR.