Tag Archives: unemployment

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? United Kingdom in Double Dip mode, “strong” Netherlands economy falling apart

Just two days after Spain went Double Dip, Britain is now officially in double dip recession.

On April 23, it was reported that the “experts” expected U.K.’s quarterly GDP report to show 0.1% “growth”, which would have kept it officially out of a Double Dip (I said “close enough”).

April 25, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Britain’s GDP actually dropped 0.2%. Aww, that means two quarters in a row of negative GDP, welcome to the Double Dip club!

Here’s the tally, so far: United Kingdom, Spain, Italy and Belgium are officially Double Dippers.

To add to the European Union woes, France and Germany (considered the strongest economies in Europe) are seeing GDP contractions.

Then there’s Netherlands, which was considered to have a strong economy as well.  However, the government has fallen apart, over arguments concerning cutting government spending and raising taxes.  The Prime Minister resigned and new elections are to be held in September.  The Queen of Netherlands (yes, they are an evil elitist monarchy just like the U.K.) has ordered the Prime Minister to stay on until after the new elections.  (this is just more Trilateral Commission operations to create a singular privatized government system)

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? No jobs for one & a half million U.S. College Graduates!

I thought that me having a biology degree was a gold ticket for me getting into places, but every other job wants you to have previous history in the field. Everyone is always telling you, ‘Go to college’. But when you graduate, it’s kind of an empty cliff.”-Kelman Edwards Jr,  recent college graduate

A report by Northeastern University’s Center for Labor Market Studies, says 53.6% of college graduates with bachelor’s degree, and under the age of 25, are unemployed or grossly underemployed.

To give you a better idea of the size of the problem, 53.6% is about 1.5 million graduates!

The report was done on behalf of the Associated Press, and used official U.S. government data.

“Simply put, we’re failing kids coming out of college. We’re going to need a lot better job growth and connections to the labor market, otherwise college debt will grow.”-Andrew Sum, Center for Labor Market Studies

Here are college degrees to stay away from: Zoology, anthropology, philosophy, art history and humanities.

The degrees with the best employment chances are nursing, teaching, accounting or computer science.

Some advise from a college professor: “If you’re not sure what you’re going to be doing, it probably bodes well to take some job, if you can get one, and get a sense first of what you want from college.”-Richard Freeman, Harvard economist

Business/Economics, International

What Economic Recovery? Spain officially in double dip recession, Britain on the verge

April 23, 2012, Spain’s Central Bank has declared the country officially in recession.

Gross domestic product (GDP) shrank 0.4% in the first quarter of 2012, following a 0.3% decline in the last quarter of 2011.   Decline for two quarters in a row makes an official recession.

The Spanish government says it will cut spending by $11 billion USD, and will increase taxes!

The United Kingdom is on the verge of double dip recession. Britain’s Office for National Statistics is expected to say on Wednesday that the economy grew(?) by a meager 0.1%.  

By the way, in order to be considered true growth your GDP needs to be at 3% or higher.  So Britain’s GDP is only 0.1%?  Close enough to call it double dip!

To make matters worse, the two “strong” European economies, Germany and France, are actually contracting!

Belgium and Italy have already crossed into double dip recession.

International, U.S.

World War 3: U.S. admits its personnel are drug addicts. More U.S. led NATO deaths. Fuel depot burning.

April 23, 2012, a fuel depot near Kabul is burning.  The only info available, currently, is that there are casualties and that it’s not clear how the fire started.

April 23, International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) announced that two U.S./NATO/ISAF personnel were killed by an explosion the day before.

As is ISAF SOP, no details were given.  The number of confirmed (ie; officially admitted) dead for occupying forces is now 120 for the year. That’s 79 U.S. troops, 15 British troops and 26 soldiers from the other NATO member/ally countries.

More claims of “leaders” being captured.  Afghan government forces claim they’ve captured a “Taliban leader”, and a “Haqqani leader”.  The operations took place in Helmand and Khost provinces.

In Logar Province, Afghan officials claim they’ve captured several Mujahideen.  They say one of those captured belongs to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

Legal action by an activist group has forced the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command to admit that many U.S. personnel are drug addicts.

Documents released show at least 56 personnel were investigated in 2010 and 2011.  At least eight military personnel died from opiate use in Afghanistan during the same time.  That included prescription drugs, as well as illegal drugs.

The information was specifically about U.S. Army personnel in Afghanistan.  Earlier this year the Army admitted that between 2006 and 2011, 36,000 soldiers were involved in drug offenses.

But wait, there’s more!  The Army also saw a huge spike in drug use in 2011.  Drug use jumped by 1,800 from 2010 to 2011.

 

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

Government & Corporate Evil: Ritual Animal Sacrifice under the guise of Michigan’s new Corporate created “feral” farm animal law. What do other state’s say about feral pigs?

“Does anyone know what it feels like to open fire on 20 baby piglets in one group which weigh between 5 lbs and 15 lbs? They are so adorable and cute.“-Dave Tuxbury, forced by the state to kill off his entire herd

Under the NAZI’s in Germany in the 1930s-40s, you could get thrown in a concentration camp just because of your physical features.  If you ‘looked’ Jewish, or Gypsyish, or ‘behaved’ like a homosexual, in you go.

Now the U.S. state of Michigan has created a law (with Corporate America’s help) that allows state officials to trespass on small farms and shoot to kill any pig that doesn’t ‘look’ right.

Farmers who do not comply will be charged with a felony crime!

“I’m one of two farmers in Michigan that has said we will not comply, and we have filed suit against the Michigan DNR [Department of Natural Resources] and we’ll probably go to court with them this summer.”-Mark Baker, Bakers’ Green Acres in Marion, Michigan

Corporate America farmers have convinced the Michigan government that small family hog farmers are a health threat.  That’s because many family run hog farms have bred their pigs in a way that produces better meat.

The Corporate America farmers can’t compete, because the pigs they use have been designed for their mass production style of operation, which means tasteless meat (that’s the real reason they call it “the other white meat”).

Anyone hunt wild boar?  The meat is red, not white.  The small family farms have bred hogs with red meat, they’re called Heritage Pigs.  Under Michigan’s new law they are now considered “Invasive Species”!

The irony is that these “invasive” or “feral” hogs are actually a better food source than what the Corporate America farmers can produce!  So how are they a threat?  They’re only a threat to the profits of Corporate America!

And the state of Michigan has already forced farmers to kill off their entire hog herd, under threat of prison time:  “I was served a search warrant yesterday at 7:45am.  After 8 guys, 3 four wheelers, and 4 hours, DNR decided I was correct. I have killed all my hogs. They gave me papers that say I do not have any hogs on my property. All they saw were dead hogs laying around from my mass slaughtering. It took 12 guys 4 times in there to kill all of them, sows with young, pregnant sows, dozens of piglets, and old mature boars. It has been a sad few weeks.    

Does anyone know what it feels like to open fire on 20 baby piglets in one group which weigh between 5 lbs and 15 lbs? They are so adorable and cute.

They commented to everyone that they never saw a fence built so tough and no way would a hog get out of this area. I trenched 2′ then installed chain link fencing, then a 10′ high tightlock fence on top of that. ( 200 acre area ) They never saw a fence like that.”-Dave Tuxbury, deer tracks ranch

This new law affects 2,000 farms and private hunting ranches!

Here’s an incomplete list of the types of pigs that Michigan now bans: Wild boar, wild hog, wild swine, feral pig, feral hog, feral swine, Old world swine, razorback, Eurasian wild boar, and Russian wild boar.  Basically the same list as used by the Federal USDA.

Michigan is not the only state with bans on pigs that do not meet the needs of Corporate America’s mass production facilities.  However, most of those states focus only on truly wild pigs, not the pigs that family hog farmers have bred for better meat.

The state of Washington says:  “It is unlawful to import, hold, possess, propagate, offer for sale, sell, transfer, or release feral swine.”

The state of New York says it’s hard to tell domesticated pigs from feral pigs: “Feral swine crossbreed readily with domestic pigs, which has resulted in a wide range of coat colors and body shapes.  Many look like typical wild boars, while others may be hard to distinguish from domestic pigs.”

While New York supports the eradication of feral pigs, they do allow “…anyone with a small game license may hunt and keep feral swine year round with no limit.”

In Texas wild pigs are so numerous that people are encouraged to hunt them and eat them.  But, keep in mind they’re talking about pigs running free in the wild, not some family farm operation!

Realize that Michigan is saying that they now consider certain farm raised pigs to be invasive, and therefore to be killed and not used for food!

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

U.S. Media Confuses: Home Construction actually dropped, blame the Too Big to Fail Banks

One U.S. media headline stated “…Housing Starts Remain Unchanged…”, yet when you read the article it actually admits that construction starts, for March 2012, have declined by 5.8%.

The overall decline was led by a 16.9% drop in construction of multifamily homes.

Construction reps blame the bad economy caused by the too big to fail banks not wanting to lend money to the working class: “…builders remain very cautious about starting new projects until they see more actual sales materializing. At the same time, in places where buyers are ready to go forward with a purchase, access to credit for both builders and buyers and difficulties in obtaining accurate appraisals are persistent challenges that continue to slow that process considerably.”-Barry Rutenberg, National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)

Another article pointed out that March is the second straight month with such a big drop in housing construction projects.  It was also not expected by the economic “experts”!

So what’s the real info?  According to the April 17, 2012, Joint Release U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development PDF, March 2012 housing starts are 5.8% down from February, yet up 10.3% from March 2011.  So; a drop from month prior, an increase from year prior.

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery: “Developed Country” status for Japan to end, could officially regress to “Less-Developed”

The Japan Business Federation’s 21st Century Public Policy Institute is warning of not only a collapse of the Japanese economy, but a regression to “less-developed” country status.

That would put Japan behind India, as India’s economy counties to boom.

Analysts blame Japan’s fall on an ongoing population exodus, and money exodus, both caused by the March 2011 natural and ongoing nuclear disasters (gee, maybe nuclear reactors are not good for the economy?).

The analysts say that even in the good scenario, Japan’s economy will shrink drastically and by 2050 will drop to 28th in world Gross Domestic Product rankings.

However, the analysts say one way the government can slow the fall, is to drastically increase taxes!  That seems counter productive, as I think it would cause even more people to leave Japan (as is happening in the United States).

By the way, Japan is a member of the Trilateral Commission (Europe, North America, Japan/Asia), whose goal is to establish a singular privatized government system that is seemingly created in response to severe economic and “natural” disasters.

Fukushima

One Year Later: Big Exodus continues; most number of people flee Japan since 1950!

April 17, 2012, Japan’s Internal Affairs Ministry reported a record drop in Japan’s population.  The exodus started as a result of the March 2011 nuclear disaster at the GE designed Fukushima Daiichi power plant.

As of October 2011, 259,000 people fled Japan.  Percentage wise it’s not much, only 0.2% of the total population of Japan, but still a record since 1950.

It’s not just people who live near the disabled nuclear power plant who’re leaving; 40 of the 47 prefectures are experiencing exodus.

Japan is also experiencing the biggest number of foreign residents leaving.  By October 2011, 51,000 more foreigners left, than those who were moving to Japan.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Government Incompetence: Yet again, Record number of people renounce U.S. citizenship. IRS blames elected officials. Where to get official advise for kicking the U.S. citizenship habit

“Americans abroad are terrified. We’ve had people pay tens of thousands of dollars in fines. We’ve had people … pay huge amounts of back taxes. Up to this point, we never heard of anyone renouncing, or if they did, they didn’t talk about it, now we’re seeing a lot of people speak openly about it and come to us for information.”-Marylouise Serrato,  American Citizens Abroad

April 17, 2012, according to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) National Taxpayer Advocate’s Office, 1,788 people renounced their United States citizenship in 2011.

That’s another record.  The National Taxpayer Advocate’s Office has been keeping track since 1998, and it’s been going up every year.

However, the U.S. Department of State keeps their own records of who gives up U.S. citizenship, and they say it’s been a steady average loss of 1,100 people every year.  Still not good if the United States is such a great place to live; 1,100 people give it up every year, that’s 11,000 people in the past ten years.

The number one reason for leaving the land that’s no longer of the free is taxes!  If you know your U.S. history, taxes were the number one reason for the 1776 Revolution that created the U.S. of A.

In fact one of the rallying cries for the Revolution was “No taxation without representation!”   We’ll that’s exactly what’s happening to the approximately 6.3 million U.S. citizens living in other countries, they’re being taxed and fined more than if they were living in the U.S., and they have no true representation in the U.S. government.

Another problem is that foreign banks say the U.S. government is interfering in their business so much that it’s not worth it to take on U.S. customers: “They’re going to drop Americans like hot potatoes. The foreign banks are upset enough about the regulations that they’re saying they just won’t keep American customers, and it’s giving (Americans living abroad) a lot of sleepless nights.”-Francisca N. Mordi, American Bankers Association

Even the IRS’s National Taxpayer Advocate’s Office blames the U.S. government: “The complexity of international tax law, combined with the administrative burden placed on these taxpayers, creates an environment where taxpayers who are trying their best to comply simply cannot. For some, this means paying more U.S. tax than is legally required, while others may be subject to steep civil and criminal penalties. For some U.S. taxpayers abroad, the tax requirements are so confusing and the compliance burden so great that they give up their U.S. citizenship.”

A major problem with the U.S. tax law is that not only does the U.S. citizen have to report their own income and assets, but they must report the income and assets of their non-U.S. citizen spouse: “When they decide to come clean and report everything, they have to go ask their husbands for all of their bank information, retirement funds, and investment accounts, everything. Your options are to ignore the IRS and stick your head in the sand; take your name off of all the accounts and live in a completely cash economy; divorce; or renounce U.S. citizenship.”-Lucy Stensland Laederich,  Bordeaux Women’s Club

“I grew up in a military family where patriotic feeling was very strong. I’m amazed at how terrible I felt renouncing. But it was the only way to get them off my back. It’s very distressing and time consuming to keep up with all the paperwork. But if it’s this bad when I’m 64, how bad will it be when I’m 74?”-Genette Eysselinck, renounced all ties with the United States

But don’t think renouncing your U.S. citizenship will solve your tax problems, in fact they could get worse: “First of all, there is over a 2 year wait in several countries. Secondly, you are still liable for taxes for the next 10 years. Finally, on the day that you renounce your citizenship, you are considered by the IRS to have made a fictive sale of all of your assets worldwide, and you will be taxed on that sale.”–American Women’s Club Düsseldorf

For an idea of what it takes to officially/legally renounce your citizenship, you can check out the U.S. embassy website in Germany here.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Global Economic War: Israel sues Bank of America

Israel’s Bank Hapoalim has filed a $720 million USD lawsuit against BoA.

Officials with Bank Hapoalim says BoA lied about the mortgage securities it sold to Israel.  BoA is also accused of violating its contracts regarding the sale of those securities.

Bank Hapoalim suffered more than $1 billion USD in losses in the 2008/2009 mortgage/credit crunch fiasco.