Tag Archives: economy

Fukushima

Japan Disaster Predicted, More to Come for Rest of World!

13 March 2011

In February there were several reports that a massive geological event was beginning under Japan. This was driven by the sudden increase in volcanic and quake activity south of Japan. It’s all tied to the increasing activity of the Pacific Plate, and surrounding tectonic plates. It’s also believed that disasters will resonate around the world.

13 March, a report in a Wales newspaper says the Japan event was part of a larger event that changed the tilt of the Earth on its axis. The tilt was changed by 10cm. The article also says Japanese professors claim that events will occur around the world on “…faults that are already on the brink of a tectonic upheaval.”  They also say this event in Japan happens every 1000 years.

Another report says that the speed of Earth’s rotation has increased, as a result of the Japan event. It was increased by 1.6 microseconds.  The speed was also increased after last years big Chile quake. But after the big 2004 Sumatra quake/tsunami the Earth was slowed down by 6.8 microseconds.  The point is that these events are not just ‘normal’ quake events.  They are deep events affecting the very rotation of the planet.

For the past few years there have been growing events of quakes and tsunamis in the Pacific Ocean.  There’s a reason it’s called the Pacific Ring of Fire: An event on one side of the Pacific will result in an event on the other side.  The intervals of events have been getting closer together.  So far this year we had New Zealand quake event, then volcanic event in Hawaii, now Japan. There was also a moderate quake off Chile the same day as the big Japan quake.  It looks like the Pacific Ring of Fire events are intensifying.

Be prepared.

 

Fukushima

Japan Modern Day Atlantis round 3 Quake Upgraded 10,000+ Dead

13 March 2011

Nuclear power plant officials admit that reactor 1 at Fukushima plant 1 exploded due to hydrogen gas build up. Many western observers had already made this statement, but Japanese officials downplayed it for almost a day. This is becoming standard of Japanese officials, they have been downplaying the severity of the situation from day one. Nuclear officials say their nuclear plants are designed to withstand 7.9 quakes. Japan’s government has uprated the main quake to 9 on the international scale. I think it will be higher.

Miyagi prefecture is reporting that at least 10,000 people are dead. Towns wiped out along with their population. Miyagi prefecture has 13 cities, plus towns & villages, with a total official population of about 2 million.

Some local governments have literally been wiped out and the national government has taken direct control.

Major Japanese companies, like Toyota, Honda, Sony, etc, are shutting down operations in Japan due to a total collapse of the infrastructure of Japan. Japanese reporters have said that rescue helicopters have not been able to land in the hardest hit areas because the ground is too torn up. One city looks like it has been hit with a nuclear bomb, only the tallest buildings are standing. Landslides have hit areas further inland. The infrastructure includes roads, bridges, rail lines, water lines, power lines, etc. This is adding to the growing nuclear disaster.

Officials with nuclear power plants say they have no back up power from non-nuclear plants because those plants have been shut down by the quake/flood. The back up generators at the nuclear plants are not working, or will not run properly, damaged by the quake/flood. Power is needed to run the massive cooling systems on the nuclear reactors. Fukushima nuclear plants 1 and 2 are in trouble. Reactor 1, at plant 1, has exploded and experience partial melt down of reactor rods. Other reactors at both plants are overheating. As I’m writing this word has come that reactor 3 could explode. Officials say hydrogen gas is building in the reactors. They are trying to vent it to prevent explosion. They are dumping sea water on the reactors. Using sea water is a last ditch act, which is a sign that they can not do anything else to prevent nuclear catastrophe. 62,000 people have been evacuated from around the Fukushima plants. Officials are now saying they want to expand the evacuation to include another 80,000 people. There are reports that another nuclear plant, in Onagawa, is in trouble.

JAPAN MODERN DAY ATLANTIS ROUND 2: People of Atlantis had become extremely arrogant because of their technological advances. 

Fukushima

Japan Modern Day Atlantis round 2

12 March 2011

Part of the myth of Atlantis is that the people of Atlantis had become extremely arrogant because of their technological advances. Some Atlantis myths say they were destroyed for their arrogance. The ongoing nuclear disaster in Japan is a modern day example.

The Fukushima nuclear plant was built with many safe guards and back up systems. This was part of the selling point of the plant when convincing the people to accept that the worlds biggest nuclear plant was to be built in their country. Right up until the explosion at reactor 1, the government was reminding people of all the back up systems and how unlikely it was for the problem to get worse. It got worse, and it could get catastrophic. There is more than one reactor at the plant, and reactor 2 is in trouble. (Japan’s NHK media will not show the video of the explosion of the reactor, I watched it on BBC and RT. Japanese officials are still claiming that the explosion happened after the walls fell down. Watch the video, there is a clear shock wave before the walls fall.)

What happened to the safeguards and back up systems, which included 13 back up diesel generators for reactor 1? It all failed, all the high tech systems failed. Plant officials and workers were attempting to cool the reactor manually. They were rotating work crews in and out of the plant, because of the radiation levels. The crews were trying to operate cooling valves manually. Also, they were dumping sea water on the reactor, in an attempt to cool it down (the U.S. military was helping with this attempt). All these attempts failed.

Another event has escaped the attention of most media and government officials: Landslides. A CNN reporter discovered, on her way to flood hit areas, that major landslides have occurred at higher elevations. She did a live report from one small town where half a neighborhood was buried by what looks like about 20 feet of earth. There are reports of towns being wiped away, by landslides and flooding. One small city says 9500 of their residence are missing, half their population. Again, the Japanese government is downplaying the severity of the situation, they are still saying the “…death toll could hit 1000” (can you say “understatement”?). When you hear the number of people being reported as missing, by the different cities and prefectures, the indication is that the death toll will be in the thousands, if not tens of thousands. Japan’s NHK has been showing before and after aerial pics of cities. It is clear that some cities have been completely erased.

Also, I have heard that millions of people on the main Japanese state of Honshu are without access to drinking water. The water supply system has failed. No power, no water, no food supply because the road/rail systems are disrupted, the systems of an advanced society have failed. In the U.S. I still hear insulting talk about the people of Haiti, still suffering from their deadly quake, better think twice and humble your arrogance.

The Atlantis myth has another lesson for arrogant humans: Societies can be erased by Mother Earth, no mater how advanced their technology, no mater how correct they think their way of life is. Mother Earth always wins.

JAPAN MODERN DAY ATLANTIS:  “A potentially catastrophic disaster,” understated President Obama. 

Fukushima

Japan Modern Day Atlantis

12 March 2011

“A potentially catastrophic disaster,” said President Obama. Hello, can you say understatement?

Aside from the looming nuclear disaster, it is starting to look to me that there is a major catastrophic geological event taking place under Japan. There are now reports that suggest that the big 8.9 quake set off chain reaction quakes all over Japan’s main state of Honshu. It would explain why some areas experienced shaking for up to 5 minutes. Other reports are adding that there was more than one major tsunami, which would have been caused by multi-quakes around Honshu. Early morning, March 12, NHK reported that some parts of northern Honshu were still being hit by small tsunami every 30 minutes. This means the “event” is continuing. The east coast of Honshu moved at least 8 feet eastward. Also, there was the 6+ quake on the north west coast of Honshu on Friday, and there was a 7.3 quake the day before the bigger 8.9. A Japanese committee said GPS data indicates that the quakes were “synchronized”.

Honshu sits where three major tectonic plates converge: Pacific Plate, Eurasian Plate and Philippine Plate. A major quake with chain reaction quakes on the Pacific side, with a major quake following on the Eurasian side, signifies a major tectonic event. (There are more detailed smaller plate and trench structures that run through Honshu).

Also, in some areas of northern Honshu the flood water has not receded. An “expert” interviewed on NHK stated that it could be because the ground was saturated (don’t quote me, this was through hasty translation). I find it interesting that the ground was saturated that fast from flooding, I’m thinking liquefaction. So water is not only being pushed on land, but it is being pushed up through the land. Another possibility is that the land has actually dropped.

Liquefaction was a factor in the large earthquakes along the New Madrid fault line during the 1800s in the United States.

The Pacific Plate is making a major push eastward. The norther end of Honshu might go the way of Atlantis, being submerged under the ocean. But this brings up the question of what is happening on the eastern side of the Pacific Plate, North America.

The Pacific Plate is being pushed by the North American Plate (I assume that because the North American Plate is moving southwesterly, and is not being subducted, except along the Puerto Rico Trench). Big events should be expected in North America. It is known, by geological evidence, that a major quake/tsunami event is expected anytime for the Pacific Northwest. What is happening to Japan could be a precursor for a major event for North America, just as what happened in New Zealand could be considered a precursor to the Japan event (New Zealand sits on top of the converging Pacific and Australian plates). Don’t forget the super volcano known as Yellowstone, in the Pacific Northwest, is overdue for major eruption.

Be prepared.

Fukushima

Japan Quake = No Economic Recovery

11 March 2011.

Japan’s huge earthquake, Tsunami and huge aftershocks, are not only devastating for the people of Japan, but are devastating to Japan’s economic recovery, as well as the world’s economic recovery.

Infrastructure for densely populated areas of Japan, hit by the flooding, are destroyed. Nuclear power plants are shut down. One nuclear power plant is in emergency mode because its cooling system, and back up systems, have failed. Auto manufacturing plants have been shut down. A major oil refinery is on fire. A lot of the land flooded by the Tsunami is farm land, which means no crops this year, adding to the what the UN is calling a World Food Supply Crisis for 2011.

This on going event of Mother Earth is adding insult to injury for Japan’s struggle for economic recovery. Before the quake hit, Japan’s so called recovery stalled, with its credit rating downgraded because the country is deep in debt. Recently there was hope that investors would start buying up stocks in Japanese companies, because they were considered a bargain, and, it was thought they would pick up in value as the Japanese recovery picked up steam. Now all that is in doubt.

It looks like Japan, helped by Mother Earth, might become the next domino to fall in the world economic crisis.

Business/Economics, Opinion, U.S.

Economy About to Crash? What Happened to Recovery? 10 Reasons

March 10, 2011.

“I think this is the beginning of something severe.” said chief investment strategist at Windham Financial Services, Paul Mendelsohn. He’s referring to the more than 220 point drop in the DOW, which got little to no mention in national TV news coverage on March 10. There’s a lot of legitimate reasons for investors getting out of the market, not just in the U.S., but world wide. Those reasons also prove that there is no economic recovery.

Reason 1: First time jobless claims, in the U.S., for state benefits went up, more than expected (again).

Reason 2: World wide unemployment is high. Most of the violence around the world involves unemployment. The current crisis in North Africa and the Middle East is due, in part, to high unemployment rates. In 2010 Macedonia took the top spot with an official unemployment rate of 33.8%. How can the global economy recover when there are so many people not making any money to buy things with?

Reason 3: U.S. trade deficit increased (again).

Reason 4: China’s trade deficit increased (a surprise).

Reason 5: Credit ratings for Greece and Spain decreased (again).

Reason 6: Oil prices remain high, and still look to go higher (it’s interesting how analysts predicted the increase in price, without even considering, or knowing, that there would be a “revolutionary” crisis affecting many oil producing countries, or did they, mmmm?)

Reason 7: Food prices are increasing, worldwide. The UN (United Nations) says it does not see any improvement in food supply worldwide. I have read that Chinese wheat farmers will have only enough harvest for subsistence in 2011, nothing left over to sell. Across the world the food supply (“supply” is the key word, because some areas have plenty of crops but they aren’t getting to market) situation is getting worse for a number of reasons, from climate change, to the cost of transportation, to lack of credit, to political/social instability. A new problem adding to food supply issues is that migrant workers are not working. This is due to things like anti-migrant attitudes in the U.S., and the increasing violence in North Africa and the Middle East.

Reason 8: Union busting in the United States. Why should this be considered a factor? Because the goal of union busting is to reduce pay and benefits for employees. If workers are going to be making even less than what they are now, then that’s less they’ll spend while shopping. Gee, isn’t the U.S. economy a “consumer” based economy, which would mean the more a worker spends the better it is for the economy?

Reason 9: Stagnant pay for 90% of U.S. workers. Recently the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) reported that their own study, into the wages and salaries of taxpayers, reveled that 90% of taxpayers had no increase in pay in the past 20 years (when adjusted for inflation). The study also showed that the top 5% of taxpayers saw a 33% increase in earnings over the same period (also adjusted for inflation). Basic economics states that for an economy to do well the money in the system needs to go through as many hands as possible. Clearly the money is staying at the top and not trickling down.

Reason 10: This is probably a very important sign that there is no U.S. economic recovery. The world’s largest bond fund, PIMCO’s Total Return Fund, dumped all its U.S. government bonds, then moved into cash/cash equivalent big time. Why is that important? PIMCO used to be the biggest holder of U.S. bonds. That’s because they trusted that the U.S. government could pay its debts. By selling ALL its U.S. bonds PIMCO is indicating that they don’t think the U.S. government can pay back its debts. PIMCO has actually told other investors to get out of U.S. bonds. Not good. The move into cash is a traditional investor’s way of preparing for the worst. How much did PIMCO move into cash? In January PIMCO’s cash holdings were about 5%, now they are at 23%, a big jump. PIMCO is now selling off mortgage backed securities, this indicates that PIMCO is expecting another drop in the housing market.

There are plenty of other reason to list, you can do your own homework. Some of my sources: Voice of America, Reuters, CNN, Russia Today, The Atlantic. Do your own research, I’m not getting paid for this.

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Pocatello, Idaho, Could be Site of New Super VA Clinic

A little history:  When I was a student/employee at Idaho State University, in Pocatello, Idaho, there was hope that the State of Idaho would use the old hospital to create a much needed medical school.  After all, the local economy was going down, a new owner of the hospital was building a new hospital and vacating the old one, and, the United States is suffering from not enough medical personnel.  But, our wise state leaders basically said no (some of those leaders are currently campaigning for re-election).

On to plan B.  The owners of the Portneuf Medical Center (PMC) announced that they have been working to convince the Federal Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), to turn the soon to be vacant old hospital (West Campus facility) into a Super VA Outpatient Specialty Clinic.

PMC West Campus, Pocatello, Idaho.

The new PMC hospital (East Campus facility) is complete, and they will be moving out of the old West Campus.  The new East Campus should be open by the middle of 2011.

PMC East Campus, Pocatello, Idaho.

Officials from the cities of Pocatello, and Chubbuck, as well as Bannock County officials, are working to help convince the VA to choose Pocatello.  What are the benefits?  Because of the War on Terror there is an increasing need for VA clinics and hospitals.  The old West Campus hospital would be ready made, no need to build a new facility, and, PMC says they will even leave medical equipment behind.  The location would mean that East Idaho, Montana and Wyoming veterans would not have to travel to Salt Lake City, Utah, for treatment.  Idaho State University, located right next to the West Campus, would be involved because they are already getting Department of Defense grants for several veterans programs.

A recent meeting with officials in Washington D.C. revealed that funding has become an issue, even with the fact that the VA wouldn’t have to build anything.  I think the residents of Idaho need to get behind this plan, especially since the Idaho National Guard (including members from Montana and Oregon) is currently serving another War on Terror tour of duty.

Business/Economics, Idaho

Hoku Turning to China to Help Finish Pocatello Plant

13 October 2010

Hoku Corporation has taken on several millions of dollars in loans, from Chinese banks, in order to finish construction of their Pocatello, Idaho, polysilicon plant.   That’s according to information on Hoku’s website.

Also, Hoku has amended its construction contract with JH Kelly.  A result of delays due to Hoku having difficulty with funding the construction.

Hoku Corp. produces fuel cell membranes, photovoltaic systems, and hopes to produce polysilicon for solar panels at the new Pocatello facility.

Hoku has made several supply agreements with companies based in Asia, but, those agreements hinge on the completion of the Pocatello plant, and, successful demonstration of polysilicon production.  Those agreements have resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars of pre-payments by the Asian companies.

Hoku is hoping to get production started by the end of the year.

Business/Economics, Idaho

Pocatello Big Lots! In time for Halloween.

Despite store closings in Pocatello, Idaho, a new store is opening just in time for Halloween.

Big Lots! Pocatello, Idaho.

Big Lots! is located where the Rite Aid used to be, on 1000 Pocatello Creek Road, in the Foothill Plaza Shopping Center, right next to the WINCO grocery store.

Pocatello, Idaho.

Big Lots! is one of the country’s largest closeout stores.  Because of the nature of their business their inventory changes a lot, but bargain hunters love it.  Big Lots! is set to open October 28th.

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

China No Longer Needs Us. November Elections. The Economy is Everything.

Beware of political promises, especially when it comes to the economy.  History shows politicians have a bad track record when it comes to ‘saving’ the economy.  Sometimes they get it right in the short term, but when it comes to long term planning, forget it.  Long term should be considered 20 years plus, not ten years, or more commonly, 5 years or less.

Big news in economics involving the world and the United States.  Last week a U.S. economics professor was quoted, in the European media, as saying the world was “…partially decoupling,” from the U.S. economy (www.bloomberg.com).  What he meant, and what I’ve be warning about in discussions with acquaintances and relatives, is that the “developing economies” (which should no longer be called “developing”) have now reached a point where they do not need the United States to be economically viable.  Those countries include India, Brazil and China.

How many times has you’ve heard how the Chinese need the U.S. economy in order to continue growing?  Remember how much the U.S. is in debt to the Chinese?  Now, realize they no longer need us economically.  Uh oh.

In other economic news, the IMF (International Monetary Fund) has revised, downward, it’s expectations for U.S. economic growth in 2011 (www.imf.org).  Some reasons are the amount of debt owed by the government, and, that economic data coming from the U.S. is never as good as predicted, and in some cases it’s worse.

Here’s an example: Today it was revealed, in a CNNMoney.com article, that according to the U.S. Department of Labor, for the second year in a row, the overall unemployment numbers need to be increased.  They are saying that, so far this year, 366,000 job losses have not been counted.  It was revealed, earlier this year, that 902,000 lost jobs had not been counted for 2009.  Also, the uncounted job losses for 2010 will not be officially added to the 2010 unemployment numbers until February 2011 (you have to keep that in mind every time you hear the “official” numbers reported this year).  One analyst says it is common in a bad economy to underestimate job losses.  Another analyst says the current employment models (formulas for predicting trends, or figuring out what happened) are not working.  Oh really?

We, the people of the United States, are in a predicament that was created by the short term policies of our corporate and political leaders.  Some countries called “developing economies” (formerly known as third world) have not only caught up with us, they are leaving us in their dust.  When you vote this November do your homework.  Investigate the candidates and the issues.  We need not only a high quantity of voting, but a high quality of voting.