Category Archives: Business/Economics

Iran says the Russians considered quakes when building their nuke plant

“The Russians have taken the existence of tectonic plates into consideration in designing the Bushehr nuclear plant.”-Nasser Rastkhah, Atomic Energy Organization of Iran

Recently Russia helped Iran with loading of nuclear fuel rods into their plant. The Bushehr nuke plant is scheduled to power up by May.  ‘Sensitive phases of operation’ would be conducted between May 5 through May 10.

 

Honey Bees dying in China, lack of water

It’s not only crops that are suffering in China, because of drought. Bee keepers say they’re losing their bees as well.

Honey production is down due to a decrease in flower pollen production, thanks to climate change. Bee keepers say it will also mean a decrease in bees, because pollen is their food.

China has the largest rapeseed field in the world. Rapeseed is used to make canola oil. Farmers there say drought keeps seed production too low for use in canola oil production. It also keeps rapeseed flower growth too low for the bees.

Will Obama attack Ecuador? He kicked out their ambassador, oil is involved

Thanks to a WikiLeaks release, tensions between the United States and Ecuador are heating up.

The WikiLeaks document showed that the U.S. ambassador to Ecuador, Heather M. Hodges, made some not so nice comments about their President. Apparently President Rafael Correa gave her a chance to retract, or explain, her statements, and she allegedly refused. She was then declared persona non grata (unwelcome) in Ecuador, but not officially kicked out.

Now the United States has actually kicked out the ambassador from Ecuador. The U.S. State Department says it’s in retaliation for Ecuador ordering Hodges out of the country, which President Correa disputes. Correa says they simply said she was no longer welcome, but they were not “kicking her out”.

This continues a long list of problems between Ecuador and the U.S. In the past few years the United States was pushing Ecuador to allow U.S. military bases to be set up on their soil. The official reason was to fight drugs in Columbia, but many people believe it was to encircle Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. President Correa responded, in 2009, by saying that the only way the U.S. could build bases in Ecuador, was if Ecuador was allowed to build bases in the United States.

Now we have the WikiLeaks/ambassador fiasco. What’s next, oil? Maybe!

Ecuador has oil! They have been fighting international legal battles to prevent oil companies from coming in and drilling. That’s right, they do NOT want anymore oil pumped out of their ground. Ecuador does have active oil fields, but they don’t want anymore. The oil corporations, backed by governments (Chevron/United States), are saying to bad so sad, you just a piddly country, what you gonna do about it?

So far Ecuador has been petitioning United Nations members, but not getting much support.  There’s estimated to be hundreds of millions of barrels of oil still to be drilled and pumped out in Ecuador.  And with the price of oil making it more tempting, could President Obama (or any other future U.S. president) be planning some kinda humanitarian military intervention in Ecuador?

 

Toyota says planned North American plant closures will last 5 days in April

“There are problems with parts supply. But each day, we are doing our utmost to improve the conditions so that we can deliver cars to many customers.”-Akio Toyoda, Toyota President

Toyota is having trouble getting around 150 components, but that’s down from 500 components after the March 11 quake.

Toyota said it will halt North American production starting on April 15.  It doesn’t look like production will be shut down for five days straight, instead it will be spread out, one day here, one day there.
Assembly line workers may report for training, use vacation days, or take unpaid time off.

While the U.S. economy stagnates, Chile’s grows 7.2%

Chile’s economy continues to awe outsiders. For the month of February, 2011, Chile’s economy grew by 7.2%.

Chile’s Central Bank said it’s due mainly to exports. The top export from Chile is copper. Right now copper is trading for $10,000 per ton.

Other exports helped Chile: Fruit, timber and fishing.  Chile also got a boost from it’s transport industries.

The down side is inflation. The Central Bank says it’s inevitable that with such explosive growth inflation will follow.  Currently inflation in Chile is at 4.3%.

If eating well is a sign of a good economy, then Venezuela is doin’ fine

From 1998 to 2008 Venezuelans increased their caloric consumption by 55.5%. That’s according to a study by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

Also, between 70-75% of the food is produced locally. It reflects Venezuela’s focus on increasing domestic production.

Venezuela also has a law that says the government must keep three months worth of food, for an estimated 27 million people, stocked up for emergencies.