Tag Archives: employment

Business/Economics, U.S.

North Dakota: Proof that fast oil money destroys Society, can you say Hyper Inflation?

“At first, we were excited about the prospect of bringing in new people and money … but it slammed us so hard, in such a little time that a lot of locals now are kind of resentful. Now we want our town back.”-Deone Lawlar, a 57 year old native of Watford City

North Dakota is viewed as an economic bright spot in the U.S. economy,  because oil companies have recently opened up their capped oil wells, and are pumping like mad.  At first the natives welcomed the money, but not anymore.  With the oil boom not only does fast money come in, but so do hundreds of thousands of job seekers, and North Dakota just isn’t ready.

The result is hyper inflation.  It’s hitting hard right now in the housing sector, specifically rents.  According to CNN: “One bedroom apartments can run around $1,500 a month, while two to three bedroom apartments are often around $3,000.” (Holy crap, I used to live there, and I thought about moving back?)

“People are getting greedy, and we’re losing people who have lived here their whole lives.  It’s hard to make ends meet, especially with two little kids.  How does a nursing home keep up with the oil fields?”-Kristen Pallacheck, Bethel Lutheran Nursing Home, Williston (I used to live in Williston and I can tell you the town was first destroyed by the super WalMart, now after recovering it’s being done in by hyper inflation no thanks to the oil boom)

The oil industry is also destroying the infrastructure; thousands of big rigs and heavy equipment are tearing up roads that were not designed for such loads: “I drive 15 miles to work everyday with my two children and we have about at least two to three near car accidents a week.  The traffic is horrible and our road infrastructure was not ready for the hundreds of oil field trucks that tear it up.  This week alone, there were four semi truck accidents in four days.”-Michelle Falcon-Nelson, who lives in Williston

According to the Williston Police Department, accidents jumped 30%, and traffic misdemeanors increased 30% from last year.  Also, theft, violence, abduction, sex crimes, domestic abuse, has tripled, with 16,495 reports of criminal activities in Williston last year.  This doesn’t sound like the Williston I lived in, back in the middle of the 1970s!  Even with the boom in jobs, and crime, the Williston Police Department still has only 22 officers!

Speaking of the super WalMart that destroyed Williston back in the 1990s, job seekers have turned the parking lot into a campground.  In the CNNMoney video many of those working are making as much as $25.00 per hour, but because there just isn’t enough homes, or apartments, they’re still living in their cars and trucks.  One man said it wasn’t worth it and was leaving.

The oil boom isn’t helping old timers keep their homes either: “I was talking to myself this morning, and I thought, ‘How am I gonna’ feel when I have to shut this door? I sold my house and have to be out by the first of November, and how is it gonna’ feel to walk out of that door?'”-Wanda Goetz, lived in Williston for 61 years

Many wish the oil boom never came: “While the majority of us appreciate the additional revenue the energy industry brings to our community, the problem for a lot of us is that it’s not just our community anymore. We liked it better when it was ‘the middle of nowhere’.”-David Rolfson, lifelong Watford City resident

 

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? East Idaho home sales suck, so sellers are turning vacant homes into temp rentals, boom for Home Tenders

“People don’t build a 5,000 square foot home to turn it into a rental, but we have a number of those in the community right now.”-Clint Collins, Idaho Falls Rentals

The home sales market is so bad in eastern Idaho that many sellers are turning to temporarily renting out their vacant houses.  To give you an idea of how bad; in October, 2010, Idaho Falls Rentals took on four houses for rent.  Then in July, 2011, eighteen homes, then in August another seventeen.  That’s just one east Idaho property management company!

The plus side for “Home Tender” renters is that they can get a big home for less than the usual rent, but the down side is they have to move out as soon as it sells.

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Occupy America! Police begin shutting down protests, arrests across the U.S.

“…handful of gigantic banks that have simply hijacked the economy and the populations of the world for their own interest.”-F. William Engdahl, economic researcher

Police in New York City have been busy arresting protestors today, the day before major international protests are to take place.  OWS personnel are planning a major march on Times Square.

Also, police in Denver, Colorado, have been dispersing protestors, who were camped out in front of the state’s capitol building.  In San Diego, California, police are busy arresting protestors there, as well as police arresting protestors in Austin, Texas.

October 13, police in Washington DC arrested at least six protesters, some of them elderly.  Many of the protestors in the country’s capitol are disgruntled elderly people, not just disgruntled youth.  According to the local NBC TV station, they were “…arrested for unlawful conduct – demonstrating.”

Economic analyst F. William Engdahl, says one answer is to nationalize the too big to fail banks: “…nationalize major banks and draw a fence around the problematic institutions until they can be sorted out.”

Engdahl says nationalization is not socialism, it is a way of admitting that a capitalist system has failed, and needs to be fixed!

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Occupy the World! Italian Protestors attack Goldman Sachs office, international protests to hit Idaho

Italian students stormed the central Milan office of one of the world’s leading investment banks, Goldman Sachs.  Police chased them off.

Protesters also threw eggs at the headquarters of UniCredit, Italy’s biggest bank.

The attack on the Goldman Sachs office comes a day before planned international protests.  October 15 will see coordinated international demonstrations against the finance industry.

People living in eastern Idaho get ready to take part: Occupy Idaho Falls and Pocatello (as well as smaller communities) are planning to take part.

Watch Occupy Pocatello’s march, from Wednesday October 13.

 

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? The truth is that Europe, not the U.S., is China’s biggest trading partner

As a matter of incompetence, or conspiracy, when the list of China’s top trading partners is presented, it shows the United States as the top dog.  But that’s misleading, because the European Union, as a whole, is not counted.

Instead, EU members are broken up into the individual member states.  If you look at the European Union as one trading unit, which it should be, then it’s Europe that is China’s number one trading partner.

Not only that, but the percent of trade between Europe and China has been going up.  This is more proof that China does not need the United States to be economically viable.

However, recently the Chinese General Administration of Customs announced a second straight month of decline in their trade surplus.  Lu Peijun, vice minister of the General Administration of Customs, said China’s trade conditions are deteriorating due to worldwide falls in demand, and rising domestic costs.

Fukushima

Government & Corporate Incompetence: More radiation in Yokohama, this time school lunches!

Shiitake mushrooms used in school lunches have tested positive for 350 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium.  That’s below the government limit of 500 becquerels, but Yokohama school officials are getting rid of them anyway.

Yokohama is about 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

At a Ibaraki Prefecture mushroom farm, 830 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium were found on the mushrooms there.  The farm is about 170 km (106 miles) from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Earlier in the week mushrooms in Chiba Prefecture were found to be contaminated with cesium, higher then the government safe limits.  Clearly, after almost seven months, radiation is still spreading from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Business/Economics, U.S.

Occupy America! Wall Street protestors refuse to leave Zuccotti Park, clean park themselves

“Seems likely that this is their attempt to shut down OWS for good. We know where the real dirt is: on Wall Street … We won’t allow Bloomberg and the NYPD to foreclose our occupation. This is an occupation, not a permitted picnic…”-OWS statement

“The cleanup is a pretext to remove us from the camp. And we can return only if we abide by the rules of Brookfield Properties.”-Justin Wedes, protestor

As a challenge to Mayor Bloomberg’s threat to use police to clear the protestors, ostensibly to clean the park, the OWS participants have begun cleaning up the park themselves.

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Economists say U.S. income to stagnate for at least 10 more years, young generations to struggle more than their parents

“People know that there is no real out. The children of the current adults are looking and realizing they are not likely to have as good a life as their parents. And their parents are distressed because they realize it’s true!”-Jeff Gates, former counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance

In an interview with Iranian media, former adviser to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, Jeff Gates, said there is no short term hope for the U.S. economy.  Gates joins a growing number of experts who’re doubting that any recovery will happen soon.  They’re also justifying the anger of the Occupy protests spreading across the United States.

Gates says the Occupy Wall Street movement is justified because as much as two thirds of the money being made in the U.S. is by Wall Street (stock markets, finance markets), not by main street!

Also, in a Wall Street Journal survey of 50 economists, the majority say not only have most incomes dropped after 2000, but they will not go back up to pre-2000 levels for at least ten more years!

“Standards of living in the U.S. will continue to decline as we de-leverage and emerging markets take over as the growth engine of the global economy.”-Julia Coronado, BNP Paribas.

What Julia Coronado is saying is that the United States is no longer the world economic leader, not even a driving force. This is more proof that China does not need the U.S. for it’s economic growth.

Economists say the average U.S. income fell 7% after 2000, but will grow by only 5% by 2021.  The Wall Street Journal article also warns college graduates, and current college students: The only way you might make more money is to get at least a Masters degree, and work all the time (no free/family time)!  With the cost of college, it’s just another reason why college ain’t worth it anymore.

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Overwhelming majority of people say the U.S. is doomed, Congress blocks Jobs Bill, Nobel Prize winning economists say we are screwed

On the night of October 11, the U.S. Senate blocked President Obama’s proposed Jobs creation bill.

In the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, 74% of people says the United States is going in the wrong direction.  32% said the economy will get worse.  45% said it will stay the same.

On October 11, the CBS Early Show interviewed two Noble prize winning U.S. economists.  They asked them what could be done to give the U.S. economy “a boost”.  There was a long pause before one tried to give an answer: “Ah, that’s a very difficult question to answer. There’s a lot of uncertainty now, both in Europe and the United States, about what future government policy is going to be. Um, and probably the best thing politicians can do is, um, quickly reach compromises, um, and have coherent plans going forward…”-Thomas Sergant, Nobel winning economist

Basically he said it’s completely, totally, up to our government!  Can you say we’re screwed?

The other Nobel prize winning economist, Christopher Sims, basically blamed the whole situation on the government.  Watch the CBS interview.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Occupy America! Protests to hit college campuses, janitors and security guards join Wall Street protest

October 13, there are protests planned for at least 90 college campuses across the United States today.

Also today, hundreds of janitors and security guards have joined the Wall Street protests in New York City.

Across the world, there have been anti-government, anti-corruption and anti-corporation protests in about 1,400 cities, so far.

The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that 82% of U.S. citizens are aware of the Occupy movement, and 38% support it.  35% are unsure, with only 24% opposed.