Tag Archives: employment

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

Corporate Evil: Apple admits to slave labor conditions in their Chinese factories!

After several suicides in 2010, at Foxconn factories that made iPads and iPhones, Apple hired the Fair Labor Association (FLA) to investigate.

FLA discovered at least 50 cases where workers were not paid!  They also discovered many cases of employees being forced to work excessive overtime hours, in violation of Chinese labor laws!

Foxconn is an affiliate of Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry and is Apple’s largest partner.  With a name like Foxconn, you should be suspicious (as in sly/tricky like a Fox, and con artist).

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Class Warfare & What Economic Recovery? Two protesters set themselves on fire in Italy, out of economic desperation

For proof that the Elites are going after everyone below them, just look at what’s happening in Italy.  Two men; one a lowly migrant construction worker, the other a longtime local businessman, tried to kill themselves in protest over what the Trilateral Commission run Itlaian government is doing to their economy!

March 29, 2012, a 27 year old construction workers set himself on fire, because he has not been paid by his employer for months! Verona city police say he is recovering in the hospital.

“…[a] symptom of the utter exasperation felt by the weakest employees!”-Vincenzo Scudiere, CGIL trade union

On March 28, in the city of Bologna, a 58 year old businessman tried to set himself on fire in front of the local tax collections office.  He was angry with the new outrageous taxes Italians are being forced to pay! He is also recovering in a local hospital.

“The tragic tale of the businessman…should help people realize that the divisions between workers and businessmen are a fantasy of the past.”-Sandro Bondi, People of Freedom party

In other words, it’s the Elites versus everyone else (upper class, middle class and lower class)!

Business/Economics, International

Evil Elites & What Economic Recovery? Bank of England says Royal events bankrupting British taxpayers! Proof the Elites are the true Welfare bums!

March 27, 2012, the Bank of England’s governor, Mervyn King, warned the U.K. House of Lords that upcoming celebrations for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee could bankrupt the kingdom.

King said the celebrations come at the worst time, an economic recession. He also pointed out that it was the expense of last year’s Royal Wedding that actually killed any hope of economic recovery!

The anti-Royal Family group, Republic, revealed that every year it costs U.K. taxpayers 202 million pounds (about $326 million USD) to support the Evil Elite Royals, and that’s not counting their taxpayer funded Royal celebrations!

This proves that the Royal elites are an economic burden, not benefit, upon the people!!!  They are nothing but ultimate welfare parasites!

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Corporate Evil & What Economic Recovery? U.S. Alcoa to close factories worlwide, thousands of people to lose jobs. It’s all because Alcoa wants higher Aluminum prices

March 27, 2012, Sardinian workers are protesting the planned closing of Alcoa’s Portovesme aluminum smelter on the island of Sardinia.  The move could cost Italy the loss of at least 1,500 jobs.

U.S. media last reported that U.S. based Alcoa was making a deal with union workers to keep the factory open, however, European media says that ain’t so.

In fact three potential investors are now suing Alcoa.  The Italian government has been demanding Alcoa keep their factory open.  The Spanish government is also upset because Aloca has plans to reduce smelter operations there.

This is evidence that Corporate America is partly to blame for the continuing economic disaster in Europe!  But it’s not just Europeans losing their jobs, Alcoa is hitting Australians as well.

In Geelong, Australia, Alcoa says it’s closing down operations there, because it doesn’t want to pay its electricity bill!  Alcoa wants a deal from the Australian government, and utility suppliers, in order to keep its Point Henry smelter open.

Alcoa also blames the pending closing of their Australian smelter on the need for $100 million AUD (Australian Dollars) to upgrade the smelter to meet environmental regulations.  600 people could lose their jobs.

But the real reason for the closings of all these Aloca operations worldwide, is that the price of aluminum is not high enough for Alcoa executives.

Recently Alcoa officials said the recent drop in aluminum prices “…will result in a global aluminum industry deficit of 600,000 metric tons in 2012.” Why would that be?  Because the aluminum industry will cut back production until aluminum prices go back up. That means closing down factories, creating thousands more unemployed people.

Interestingly, despite aluminum prices being low, on March 1, 2012, Alcoa announced they were actually raising prices (by 5%) on some of their aluminum products!

Fukushima

One Year Later: Japan down to just 1 operating nuclear reactor. Domestic economy threatened by lack of electricity!

Since the March 11, 2011, natural disasters led to the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi, 53 of Japan’s 54 nuclear reactors are now off line.

On March 25, 2012, Reactor 6 in Niigata Prefecture was shut down for regular inspections.  The next, and last reactor to shut down will be Tomari in Hokkaido.

Reactor 3 at Tomari nuclear power plant was supposed to be shut down permanently in April, but the operator, Hokkaido Electric Power Company, decided to delay until May 5, 2012.

While the Tomari reactor is not scheduled for re-start, those that are have been blocked by local governments.  In Japan the local governments have the final word on reactor re-start, and because of the on going disaster reactors at Fukushima Daiichi, the majority of people in Japan are against re-starting any reactors.

For the summer of 2011 Japan’s domestic industries suffered greatly because of an electrical power shortage, even with only about 37 reactors operating.  Attempts were made at other sources of electricity, but it wasn’t enough with such short notice.

Individuals, as well as industries had to deal with power black outs.  This caused many industries to close up, since they needed at least eight continuous hours of electricity (or longer).   As an example, a bread factory needs at least eight hours of electricity to make bread on an industrial scale.  The power black outs took place about every six hours.

Some individuals say they handled the summer without air conditioning well, because it didn’t get that hot (what was that about global warming?).

Now Japan is heading into summer 2012, with not one nuclear reactor up and running.  Officials are scrambling to find ways to convince the local governments to re-start reactors, even bringing in international inspectors to reassure local leaders.

This is one reason the Obama Administration recently exempted Japan from the U.S. oil sanctions against Iran.  Japan will be using a lot more oil to run petroleum fired power generators.

There has been a push for wind power, but, just like here in the United States, there’s been a backlash of people who are against it because those windmills are “eyesores” and reduce property value.

It just doesn’t look good for Japan going into the summer of 2012.

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Oil & Gas Prices: Argentina raises prices, Quantas uses cooking oil to fuel planes, Sinopec looking to rival U.S. shale oil production

Daniel Cameron, Argentina’s Energy Secretary, is proposing to raise the price of Argentine oil exports to $63 per barrel.  Currently Argentina sells their oil at $42 per barrel.

Decades ago the Argentine government froze their export oil prices.  Now oil production is way down, because it’s not worth it to the Argentine oil companies.

To make the economic situation worse, Argentina imports most of its refined fuel, and that’s been going up, in price as well as volume.  Cameron wants to increase their export oil prices to offset the growing demand and cost of imported fuel, and to build up reserve funds in Argentina’s Central Bank.

The Australian airline Quantas, will be using a mix of kerosene based jet fuel, and used cooking oil.

Two of their airliners will be using the mixed fuel.  It’s being supplied by a Dutch company called SkyNRG.

Don’t be too concerned, the turbine (jet engine) is a glorified diesel engine.  In 1893 Rudolph Diesel designed the diesel engine specifically to run on peanut, or vegetable oil.  He succeed, however he was sued by Rockefeller’s Standard Oil.

Today’s diesel fuel is actually Petrodiesel, meaning fuel for diesel engines made from petroleum, not plant oils.

So, turbines and piston diesel engines should run fine on cooking oil, unless they were specifically made to run on Petrodiesel only (and don’t forget the bogus U.S. EPA rules that force you to use Petrodiesel in your diesel powered vehicle).

Virgin Airways Australia is also about to run their airliners on plant based fuels.  The fuel will be based on a type of Eucalyptus, called a Mallee tree in Western Australia.

China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) will increase oil production and natural gas extraction.  This is partly because their profits dropped by 23% in their fourth business quarter.

The drop in profits came as corporate officials tried to shift from producing fuel, to buying fuel from other refiners.  Officials said Sinopec refining operations were actually costing more than refiners in other countries.

Sinopec is also exploring possible shale oil in western China, which could rival shale oil production in the United States.

 

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Government Incompetence: More U.S. citizens renounce their citizenship, American exodus continues, if you leave you are now a terrorist

“What we have seen is a substantial change in mentality among the overseas community in the past two years. Before, no one would dare mention to other Americans that they were even thinking of renouncing their U.S. nationality. Now, it is an openly discussed issue.”-Jackie Bugnion, American Citizens Abroad 

Since 2008 the numbers of U.S. citizens rejecting their citizenship has only gone up.

2008: 235

2009: 743

2010: 1,500+

And these are the people who left the United States and officially rejected their citizenship.  The number of people who still have U.S. citizenship, after leaving,  are in the millions!

The exodus has got government leaders so riled up that they’ve passed tax laws (like FATCA & FBAR) that essentially makes anyone who leaves the United States a tax evading terrorist.

This is redundant because expatriates are already required to pay U.S. taxes even though they live in another country: “The U.S. is the only developed nation in the world that taxes its citizens on income they earn abroad.“-William McGurn, Wall Street Journal

By one count, 5.2 million U.S. citizens live outside the United States, and pay taxes to the United States!

Recently a U.S. citizen, who’s been living in Sweden for 25 years, got hit with a huge FBAR fine: “I was potentially looking at a seven figure fine.”-‘Pamela’

‘Pamela’ also explained how she was treated like a suspected terrorist: “I was treated like a criminal. I was told that even in the Voluntary Disclosure Program it would be assumed I was a ‘willful violator’ of the tax laws and would need to pay 25% of all my overseas assets, based on the highest balance in the sum total of all my bank accounts, retirement accounts, apartment, car, etc. over the last eight years.”

The U.S. government even puts pressure on other countries to go after the U.S. expats: “We have heard of banks calling in mortgages and refusing pension fund and insurance coverage for U.S. citizens.”-Mary Louise Serrato, American Citizens Abroad

Serrato says the U.S. government is even going after people who were born in the U.S., to foreign parents, but then left immediately afterwards never to return: “Many individuals are not even aware that they are American and should be filing, such as Green Card holders and ‘accidental’ Americans (born in the U.S., left when they were three and never returned), children of Americans now living overseas (even if U.S. citizenship was never claimed)!”

“I really can’t believe it! This nice country that I respect, have they gone mad?”-Peter Hallworth, U.K. citizen, who’s two adult sons (raised in Britain) are being forced to pay U.S. taxes because they were born in the United States

U.S. expats living abroad, yet paying U.S. taxes with little or no representation.  Isn’t that what the U.S. Revolution of 1776 was all about?

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

Class Warfare: Elitist Canada to increase the cost of college, again! This time by 75%! University is a “privilege”?

Provinces across Canada have been increasing the cost of college, just as their neighbors to the south (U.S.A.) are doing.

Currently the cheapest place for Canadians to go to college/university is Quebec. As of March 2012, the average yearly cost for attending college in Quebec is $2,519 CAD ($2,539.91 USD).  But provincial officials want a 75% increase over the next five years!

One student pointed out that college students in Quebec have less debt than other Canadians, and implied that forcing young Canadians into debt was the intent:  “Tuition fees are lower in Quebec than the rest of Canada, but so is the student debt, which is a good impact of low tuition fees.”-Hugo Bonin, attending Concordia

Many people are torn over whether college should be made more expensive, or free.  Many with an elitist attitude say it is a “privilege” not a “right”.  Well in actuality it’s neither!  If our business leaders, and government leaders, are constantly harping about the lack of “skilled” employees, and they are constantly pushing grade school students to “Go On” (higher education campaign slogan used by the state government of Idaho, U.S.A.) so that we can be more competitive in the global economy, then it is not a privilege or a right, it is a requirement!

Why should we pay for college (more like getting into massive debt for life) for the benefit of industry and government?  Unless our leaders are lying to us (would they?) it is obvious that higher education is now a requirement, which means if they want qualified workers then they need to pay for the education to create the qualified workers, goddam it!

So how much is the average price of a “privileged” higher education in the rest of Canada?  $5,366 CAD ($5,410.55 USD)!

Business/Economics, Technology, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Hewlett Packard going down, HP to cut even more jobs in Boise?

“We didn’t make the investments we should have during the past few years to stay ahead of customer expectations and market trends. As a result, we see eroding revenue and profits today.”-Meg Whitman, CEO of HP, February interview

There’s rumors that Hewlett Packard is considering merging its computer production, with its printer production.  Boise, Idaho, is home to a huge HP compound that includes  printer manufacturing.

Analysts say they don’t know what good will come from such a merger, but agree that people are going to lose their jobs: “HP has some massive structural fixes that they need to make, and this doesn’t come close. I don’t see how this changes anything apart from probably giving you an excuse to cut some heads and cut some costs.”-Rob Cihra, Evercore Partners

Business/Economics, International, Technology

Nissan to bring Datsun back to life

Up until the mid 1980s Nissans were sold in the U.S. under the Datsun name.  Now Nissan is reviving that brand, but not for the United States.

Nissan says Datsun vehicles became known as cheap but reliable cars.  They are reviving the brand name for the Indonesian, Indian and Russian car markets.

Datsun started in 1931 as DAT motors. Its smaller cars were called DAT-son, as in son of DAT.  In 1933, Nissan took over the company and changed the name to Datsun, because the Japanese Emperor is considered a descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu, and because ‘son’ means loss in Japanese.

The cars will be made in factories in those countries.  Indonesia is now the number one car market in South East Asia, 890,000 vehicles were sold there in 2011!