Tag Archives: employment

Business/Economics, U.S.

Government Incompetence, What Economic Recovery? Reports say Congress will let Postal Service default on December 16

“It feels like Helena and Cosby are caught in the cross hairs. There is a big battle going on and we are the ones that are going to suffer.”-Marianne Price, Montana resident who relies on the U.S. Postal Service

Recently, the President of the National Association of Letter Carriers, Fred Rolando, said certain actions by Congress, or lack of action, could put the USPS into a “…death spiral…”.

A CNN Money report says political analysts have reason to believe the U.S. Congress will not consider any more bills to save the U.S. Postal Service, until after the 2012 elections.  That guarantees the USPS will default.

The U.S. Postal Service, which does not use taxpayer money to operate, employes 557,000 people directly.  Several companies, like FedEx, also provide service under contract.  South eastern Idaho postal workers told me that if the USPS defaults, at least 200,000 postal workers will immediately lose their jobs!  It will also mean cut backs for those contractors working for the Postal Service.

The USPS is actually a contractor itself.  Under President Richard Nixon today’s Postal Service was created (it was the Postal Department before then).  The Postal Service operates on money that comes from you and me buying postal products (not taxes).  Under President Ronald Reagan stamps were added to the list of products the Postal Service could make money from (before that the government got the money from stamp sales).  The only tax money used for postal services are for mail for the blind, for mail in election ballots sent from U.S. citizens living overseas, and, for providing address information to state and local child support enforcement agencies.

For reasons not publicly known, some elected officials, and the main stream media, are misleading the public into thinking that cuts to the USPS would save taxpayer money. It won’t!

A Cornell University professor says the U.S. Congress is fully to blame (as I’ve stated in past postings): “A lot of these decisions are fundamental business decisions about quality and frequency of service, and they should be in the hands of the executives running the Postal Service. But Congress won’t let them do that!”-Richard Geddes, Cornell University associate professor

While many officials blame the Postal Service management and the unions, the fact is that USPS management and unions have been working together to make drastic cuts. Their latest agreement could cut $20 billion in postal worker health care benefits, but Congress has to sign off on it.

Just a couple of weeks ago, President Barack Obama extended the deadline for default by the U.S. Postal Service.  The new deadline is December 16.  If the CNN Money sources are right, then bye bye USPS (unless Obama just keeps extending the deadline)!

Business/Economics, U.S.

Occupy America, What Economic Recovery? Forget percentages, unemployment numbers already worse than 1930s Great Depression. Federal Reserve quietly preps banks for worse to come!

At the peak of the Great Depression, in 1933, 12.8 million people were officially unemployed in the United States.  According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics we’re already past that; 13.9 million officially unemployed!

Now take into account that some sources are saying that the Bureau of Labor is intentionally under reporting the numbers; they should read 17 million unemployed!  Then there are those that say if older unemployment counting methods were used, we’re actually double the officially reported numbers!

Now enter the Federal Reserve (the privately run central bank of the United States).  On November 22, Ben Bernanke quietly asked 19 top banks/financial institutions to conduct a stress test, for the third time since 2009.

The second stress test was completed in March 2011, and several banks failed, including Bank of America!  It was not publicly reported!

Reports say this latest “comprehensive capital analysis and review” would include scenarios like a 6.9% to 8% drop in the U.S. economy, a 21% drop in housing prices, and the potential for 23.2 million people out of work!

Bernanke also asked the six top banks (JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley) to predict how much money they would lose in such scenarios.

The results are due on January 9, 2012.

 

Business/Economics, International

No Economic Recovery for Japan. Blame Europe

The head of Bank of Japan announced that as long as Europe struggles with a credit crisis, the value of the Japanese yen will keep going up.  That’s bad when Japan’s economy is based on exports. The more their yen is worth, the more their products will cost.

Masaaki Shirakawa said the result is that more and more Japanese companies will move their operations to other countries.  That means unemployment in Japan will only go up.

The Japanese Labor Ministry reported that there are now, officially, 2.88 million Japanese who can not find jobs.  They also said that while unemployment has been going up, the number of jobs available are unchanged.

Fukushima

Company Hero? Manager of Fukushima Daiichi resigns, major health problems!

The manager of Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was forced to resign, because of major health problems.

Yoshida Masao has been directly dealing with the situation at the nuclear plant since the 11 March 2011 disasters.  Yoshida said a major health problem was discovered during a medical check up.  TEPCo officials refused to give any information, or to confirm if was the result of long term exposure to high levels of radiation.

Yoshida said there were three times he, and the workers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, thought they were going to die: The explosions of reactors 1 and 3, and the coolant pump failures on Reactor 2.

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: Tokyo Electric can’t explain the high levels of radiation from Reactor 2!

During the week that followed the March 11 earthquakes and tsunamis that hit Japan, reactors 1, 3 and 4 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant exploded.  Yet Reactor 2 spewed the most radiation.

Contract workers at the plant say they heard an explosion inside Reactor 2, but TEPCo officials swear no explosion took place.  Independent researchers claim that Reactor 2 has emitted more radiation than the reactors that exploded!

Scientists (not working for TEPCo) say the most probable reason is that the containment vessel around the core was breached.  TEPCo also denies that.

TEPCo officials simply state that “somehow” radioactive gas escaped Reactor 2.

Fukushima

Government & Farmer Incompetence: More cesium contaminated rice, new farms affected!

Three farms in the city of Date, Japan, harvested rice that was found to be contaminated with cesium, up to 1,050 becquerels per kilogram.

Earlier in November as many as six farms in Oonami district were found with contaminated rice.  Those farms did not sell their rice, but the farms in Date did.

Now officials are trying to track down who bought the cesium contaminated rice.

Date, and Oonami are in Fukushima Prefecture, where the Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant continues to emit high levels of radiation.  Originally officials were testing rice just from the 154 farms in Oonami, but will now test more than 2,300 farms in the prefecture.

Business/Economics, U.S.

Occupy America, What Economic Recovery? The truth is finally told about how much the Federal Reserve spent to bail out the too big to fail banks; nearly $8 Trillion! Ron Paul is right!!!

“This is an issue that can unite the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street.”-Sherrod Brown, U.S. Senator from Ohio

Lies, scandals, cover ups, all part of the “too big to fail’s” plan to squeeze the United States dry.  Now there’s proof!

Bloomberg Markets magazine has gotten a hold of a 29,000(!) page document, that shows just how much the big banks lied and cheated to the tune of U.S.$7.77 trillion, and that’s not counting the taxpayer funded bailouts!

The bottom line is everybody close to the process lied like crazy.”-Naked Capitalism

Ever since 2007, when the Federal Reserve (a privately run bank) began bailing out the “too big to fail” banks, like Bank of America, the exact amount of the bail outs had been kept secret.  Ben Bernanke even said it was because if the public knew how much it really cost it would cause more problems.  He’s right!

While the average American in the United States lost their credit, lost their home, and lost their job, Corporate America got a $7.77 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve. That’s a record!  And that doesn’t even count the taxpayer funded bail outs!!!

By the way, average Americans in the United States are still losing their credit, their homes and their jobs, because of bailed out Corporate America!!!

Here’s some more interesting facts about the Federal Reserve bailouts:

1; On December 5, 2008, a record $1.2 trillion was issued on one day!!! 

2; The Federal Reserve actually set up the supposed bail out “loans” so that some members of Corporate America made a profit off of paying back those loans!  How would you like to be paid for paying back your loans?  Corporate America made an estimated $13 billion off some of the bail out loans!

3; Citigroup made the most money off of the Federal Reserve loans, to the tune of $1.8 billion!

4; In fact the top U.S. banks (JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley) used the bail out loans to increase their power. By September 2011, their combined assets had increased to $9.5 trillion!!!

5; Most of these bail out loans were issued when the “too big to fail” banks (case in point Bank of  America and JP Morgan Chase & Company) were telling their stockholders that they were in no trouble at all!

6; Most of these bail out loans were issued at the same time that the government was giving away taxpayer dollars to save Corporate America!  Treasury Department boss Timothy Geithner was well aware of how much money the Federal Reserve was loaning to the “too big to fail’s”!

7; The U.S. Treasury Department’s taxpayer funded TARP program cost a record $700 billion, but that is now dwarfed by the newly revealed Federal Reserve bail outs.

8; The six biggest U.S. banks, got $160 billion of taxpayer TARP funds, and, as much as $460 billion from the Federal Reserve!

Bloomberg got the 29,000 page document after winning a lawsuit (amazingly) against the Federal Reserve, and the country’s biggest group of banks, know as the Clearing House Association.

What this proves is that Corporate America is one big ass FAIL!!!  Either they were in the financial hole and really did need the bail outs, which means they had already failed as Capitalist Captains of Industry, or, they were not in the hole, as they repeatedly told their stockholders, and they just pulled off the biggest scam in world history!!!

The result is that the Untied States is now toast: “…we’re absolutely, totally, 100% not prepared for another financial crisis.”-Ted Kaufman, former U.S. Senator from Delaware

Ron Paul is right!!!

 

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Global Economic War: Get ready for stocks to go up. China just said they’re willing to invest big time in Europe, wants to take over European companies, but the price has to be right

“Some European countries are facing a debt crisis and hope to convert their assets to cash and would like foreign capital to acquire their enterprises. We will be closely watching and pushing forward the progress.”-Chen Deming, Commerce Minister of China

The Commerce Minister of China just told a group of Chinese businessmen that the Europeans are desperate for cash, and they’re willing to sell their companies for it.

Chinese officials say they are more than willing to bailout European companies by buying them out. However, they warn that if European governments continue their harsh anti-Chinese policies then no deal!

Recently Spain sent a delegation to China, hoping to get financial help.

Business/Economics, International

Corporate Incompetence: Another Japanese company loses millions in cash, this time in Casinos! Call it a family affair?

The Japanese paper company, Daio Paper, is in financial trouble after it was discovered that a, now former, executive borrowed millions of company dollars to gamble in overseas casinos!

Tokyo prosecutors are investigating Mototaka Ikawa.  They say Ikawa borrowed more than U.S.$128 million from seven subsidiary companies between May 2010 and September of this year.  They believe he spent the money in casinos in Macao and Singapore.

Unnamed sources claim that Ikawa actually borrowed much more, all from subsidiary companies that are run by his relatives!  In a specific case, a Kagawa Prefecture golf club owned by the company, says $6.8 million of their money is missing.

Prosecutors say Ikawa thought it was a safe bet to borrow from his own company, because he didn’t think the missing cash would be reported!  Some gambler!

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

Corporate Hypocrisy: FMC spends money to take over companies that clean up pollution, yet refuses to clean up Idaho Super Fund site? FMC issues millions in debt notes, to join the growing trend of stock buybacks by Corporate America.

From 1949 to 2001, U.S. based FMC operated a phosphorus processing plant in southeastern Idaho, just west of Pocatello and Chubbuck.  Ten years later that plant is now an EPA Superfund site, and locals are still waiting for FMC to clean it up!

The hypocrisy is that FMC has been going around spending money buying up companies that specialize in environmental clean up!  The most recent purchase was Canada’s Adventus Intellectual Property: “Adventus presents an exceptional opportunity for FMC to broaden its growing portfolio of advanced specialty solutions serving the global site remediation market.”-Mark Douglas, FMC Industrial Chemicals

FMC site, west of Pocatello and Chubbuck, south of Fort Hall Reservation

So if FMC can buy up companies that specialize in environmental clean up, why can’t FMC clean up it’s old phosphorus plant in southeastern Idaho?

FMC claims to have annual sales of approximately $3.1 billion!  Yet FMC has just completed the sale of U.S.$300 million worth of debt notes.  Why does it need to do that?  According to FMC officials they’re jumping on the new trend of Corporate America buying back their stocks.  FMC wants to buy back at least $200 million of their own shares!  Instead, shouldn’t they spend that on cleaning up their Idaho Superfund site?

Recently the Environmental Protection Agency held public meetings in southeastern Idaho, to discuss ways to clean up the old FMC site.  Capped ponds at the site are emitting toxic phosphine gas.  There was also decades of dumping before the EPA was created. There is concern that contamination is leaking into the ground water, and nearby rivers.