Tag Archives: unemployment

Fukushima

Japan says it will take at least 40 years to scrap the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant!

The Japanese government released details of their plan to tear down the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

From 2012 to 2015 they hope to remove the hundreds of spent fuel rods stored in the facility’s spent fuel pools.

Then from 2015 to 2021 they will work to repair and fill up the highly radioactive reactor containment vessels with the melted fuel rods inside.  That plan involves using water to fill the containment vessels on four reactors.

Then by 2022 they hope they can figure out a way to safely remove the melted fuel rods from the containment vessels.  The ultimate goal is to tear down the reactor buildings.

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Global Economic War: China slaps U.S. made cars with tariffs, blames it on the anti-free trade action of the United States

“U.S. vehicles benefiting from subsidies and dumping on the China market have substantially damaged China’s auto industry.”-statement from Chinese Ministry of Commerce

General Motors and Chrysler will suffer the most from Chinese economic action against vehicles made in the United States.

Anti-dumping duties on GM vehicles are 8.9%, and 8.8% for Chrysler vehicles.

GM vehicles will also face anti-subsidy duties of 12.9%, and 6.2% for Chrysler vehicles.

The tariffs target cars with engines bigger than 2.5 liters, and made between December 201 through December 2013.

German car makers BMW and Mercedes will be hit with much much lower tariffs.

Chinese officials say the United States is violating the trade rules of the U.S. dominated World Trade Organization.

GM and Chrysler officials are not to worried.  Why? Because the majority of the cars they sell in China, are actually made in China (another reason for growing unemployment in the U.S.), and the tariffs do not apply to the cars they make in China.

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? The United States ranks as World’s 4th worst for income disparity. Another official study that proves that the Occupy movement is right! Proof the American Dream was a lie!

“The income inequality level of the United States ranks only after Chile, Mexico and Turkey in the 29 OECD countries. Inequality among working age people has risen steadily since 1980, in total by 25%.”–John Martin, OECD

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released its latest report on income disparity, and the United States came in as fourth worst, after Mexico, Chile and Turkey.

The report is called: Growing Unequal? Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries.

The report says the trend for the wealth not being spread evenly within the U.S. actually began in the 1970s.

Here’s some interesting facts from the report: “The average income of the richest 10% is US$93,000 US$ in purchasing power parities, the highest level in the OECD. However, the poorest 10% of the US citizens have an income of US$5,800 US$ per year – about 20% lower than the average for OECD countries.”

“Redistribution of income by government plays a relatively minor role in the United States…effectiveness of taxes and transfers in reducing
inequality has fallen still further in the past 10 years.”

“Wealth is distributed much more unequally than income: the top 1% control some 25-33% of total net worth and the top 10% hold 71%.” 

Richard L. Trumka, chairman of the Trade Union Advisory Committee, said the growing disparity in income in the United States is not because the average person isn’t willing to work harder, but because wages and benefits for the average worker have actually been going down (when adjusted for inflation), while salaries, benefits and other forms of revenue for the top 10% have been going up!

A video presentation by the OECD says this latest study is the most detailed ever.

The study also discovered that low income families stuck in countries with high income disparities, can not expect to ever prosper in those countries: “…but what we find is that in very unequal societies they get stuck. Their incomes don’t reflect their true talents and they stay much poorer on average…”-Mark Pearson, OECD

 

Fukushima, Idaho

What Economic Recovery? Japanese nuclear disaster, dissapointing mine operations in Namibia, shutting down French company Areva. Idaho could lose jobs in 2012. Idaho leaders unrealistically optimistic

The ongoing nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan, and a bad mine operation deal in Africa, is bringing down a major player in international nuclear power; Areva.  The result will mean job losses all over the world, and possibly here in Idaho.

French government owned Areva recently announced that their revenues have crashed since the Japanese nuclear disaster began in March, and, since the French government opened an investigation into Areva’s purchase of a mining operation in Namibia, Africa.

On 13 December 2011, Areva officials unveiled a five year plan to reduce the size of the company.  This is because of a projected loss of U.S.$2.1 billion for just this year, and expected losses in the next few years.

Areva officials have already announced they will not replace French employees who retire, and they are laying off 1,500 German employees.

This is because of a negative backlash against nuclear power, as a result of the Japanese nuclear disaster.  In Germany, the government decided to end all reliance on nuclear power.  In Japan, the prefectural governments are refusing to allow nuclear power plants to start back up.  Both actions in Germany and Japan are at the demands of the majority of the citizens.

Areva’s loses also come from what is looking like a pig in a poke deal, from their purchase of uranium mines in Namibia, Africa.  Areva spent $2.5 billion on the mines, and the French government is now investigating because it turns out the mines have only half the projected uranium that Areva officials were told it had.

As part of their five year turn around plan Areva has suspended the construction of a uranium enrichment plant near Idaho Falls, Idaho.  State officials claim that Areva has agreed to keep on their payroll about 300 Idaho employees, but that’s only until the end of 2012.

The problem now is that Areva has stated that their continued operation depends on the sale of ten new generation EPR (European Pressurized Reactor) nuclear power units.  Those sales need to take place between 2012 to 2016.

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Government Incompetence: Construction companies say Idaho city driving down the economy with their outrageous construction fees. Is Pocatello violating state law?

“It’s gone up in a period of ten years from about $300 connection fees to about $5,000!”-Al Tetz, BCASE

The Building Contractors Association of Southeast Idaho (BCASE) says the city of Pocatello is charging outrageous, and illegal hook up fees.  And they believe it’s one of the main reasons for the drop in local construction jobs and home sales.

BCASE members also say the huge jump from $300 to $5,000 could be an attempt by city officials to try and make up for lost tax revenues, and millions of dollars generated from those fees have been placed in Pocatello’s general fund, which violates Idaho state law.

The construction organization is suing the city.

Officials with the city of Pocatello have no comment, because they haven’t been served with any notification of a lawsuit (as of December 13).

 

 

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Incompetence & What Economic Recovery? NAR says U.S. housing market is in worse shape, than first thought

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) is warning that the U.S. housing market collapse is even worse than first thought.  On December 21, NAR will release new/revised data on the housing collapse going back to 2007.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist for NAR, said that real estate analysts have made incorrect assumptions when they counted existing home sales in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS).  The assumptions in counting home sales made things look better than they really are: “For the real estate business, this means the housing market’s downturn was deeper than what was initially thought.”

Yu also said the MLS, and some of the other NAR counts, were done using data from 2000, not up to date data!

Another problem is that some real estate markets overlap in reporting their sales. This means a sale in one market could, on paper, look like two sales in two markets: “Colorado Springs has their own database, but because the Denver market is nearby they may also list that home in the Denver database, so when the home gets sold, both Denver and Colorado Springs will say sales rose, so that’s genuine double counting.”-Lawrence Yu

For some reason it took until a recent meeting of NAR officials, this year, to realize the reporting mistakes.

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? U.S. Congress & Postal Service make delay deal; no closings until May 2012

“If you don’t like what the postal service has put forward (to cut costs) by closing processing facilities and post offices and eliminating jobs, then come up with a better approach. It’s a challenge we need to accept, and this agreement with the postal service gives us that opportunity.”-Richard Durbin, U.S. Senator for Illinois

The U.S. Congress and the Postal Service has reached an agreement, that will delay closing of hundreds of processing centers and thousands of post offices.  Instead of starting that shut down in March, the USPS will wait until May.

This is because members of Congress promise they will return to negotiations regarding how to make cuts, and minimize the effects on postal employees and the economy.  Back in November Congress indicated they were shelving any discussions about the Postal Service until after elections in November 2012.  However that’s far later than the December 16 default date set by President Barack Obama.  I suppose members of Congress got an earful, about the draconian cuts looming for the USPS, from their constituents.

The Postal Service operates on money that comes from you and me buying postal products, not taxes!

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? It’s an official record, 6.3 million U.S. citizens left the United States. 40% of young adults want to leave!

“I don’t regret leaving the States one bit!”-Matt Landau, left the U.S. six years ago

The U.S. State Department is admitting that at least 6.3 million U.S. citizens have left the Untied States, officially to find jobs or go to cheaper universities!

“There’s a feeling among more entrepreneurial Americans that if you really want to get anything done, you have to get out of country and away from the depressing atmosphere. There’s a sense of lost direction, so more people are looking for locations that offer more hope about the future.”–Bob Adams, America Wave

Blame it on a bad economy, caused by outsourcing jobs: “We’ve pretty much outsourced everything else.”-Giovanni Pinzon, laidoff aerospace technician

The U.S. State Department said Russia, China and Latin American countries are the recipients of the brain drain from the United States.

“I connected the dots and decided that I should go somewhere different and learn something new, like Mandarin, to challenge myself. I picked China because it was growing so fast.”-Derek Capo, left Florida for China

According to Bob Adams, who’s been doing surveys of U.S. citizens leaving the country, 40% of 18 to 24 year olds now want to leave the U.S.! Adams says he’s been doing the surveys for the past nine years and said the latest numbers “…have shot through the ceiling…not something I anticipated.”

 

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Holiday season Movie revenues lowest in three years. Past two weekends took in less money than the weekends after September 11, 2001

‘Hollywood’ isn’t merry this holiday season. That’s ’cause the past two weekends have seen the least amount of revenues since the two weekends after September 11, 2001.

Also, this past weekend (December 10-11) was the lowest money making weekend since Labor Day in 2008.

The past two weekends combined saw only 19.8 million customers! To put it in perspective; the past two weekends saw the same amount of movie goers for all the movies that were playing, as that 19+ million people who saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 on it’s opening weekend!

Happy Holidays, Hollywood!

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Comments out of Korea and Europe cast strong doubt on any EU recovery

“The leaders have not yet proposed fundamental solutions such as euro bond issuance or the European Central Bank’s intervention.”-Kwon Hyouk-se, Financial Supervisory Service, South Korea 

“The EU summit was widely seen as a new step in the right direction, but the summit deal has many obvious flaws and lacks operational details in many areas. It looks more like a comprehensive fix to the next crisis, rather than a final resolution to the current one.”-Luca Jellinek, Credit Agricole, France