Japan’s trade minister quits over Fukushima ‘town of death’ comments
Agence France-Presse
Sep 11, 2011
TOKYO// In an early blow to Japan’s new government, the economy, trade and industry minister resigned yesterday over his comments about radiation contamination in crisis-hit Fukushima.
Yoshio Hachiro, appointed only a week ago in the new government of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, provoked anger when he called the area around the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant a "shi no machi" or a "town of death".
In a press conference, Mr Hachiro said Mr Noda had accepted his resignation, which came a day before Japan was to mark six months since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami which left 20,000 dead or missing and sparked the nuclear crisis at Fukushima.
Japan’s trade minister quits over Fukushima ‘town of death’ comments – The National
Number of Highway Truck Crashes Drops
11/15/2011WASHINGTON —A recent report by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMSCA) shows an encouraging drop in the number of large truck crashes, fatalities and injuries.
Of the 33,308 people killed in motor vehicle accidents in 2009, 10 percent died in crashes that involved trucks.
The number of large trucks involved in fatal crashes from 2007 to 2009 dropped from 4,633 to 3,215, a 31 percent decrease.
The number of trucks in fatal crashes per 100 million vehicle miles traveled also declined from 2007 to 2009, showing a 26 percent drop. Passenger vehicle crashes are getting better, too, showing a 17 percent drop during the same period.
Only 2 percent of drivers involved in fatal crashes were legally intoxicated, compared with 23 percent of passenger driver vehicles.
Eighty-two percent of truck drivers in fatal accidents were wearing their seatbelts.
Number of Highway Truck Crashes Drops – Today’s Trucking, the truck news site.
Nov. 15 (Bloomberg) — China has shuttered almost 90 percent of lead-acid battery makers in a government crackdown to curb lead poisoning cases, cutting sales and weighing on metal prices, said an industry group.
Local environmental protection bureaus have inspected 1,744 lead-storage battery makers and only 229 are still operating, Cao Guoqing, deputy secretary general of the China Battery Industry Association, said in an e-mailed response to questions. China is the world’s largest exporter of the batteries used in electric bicycles and hybrid vehicles.
Decreasing lead demand may extend a 20 percent decline in prices this year on the London Metal Exchange and squeeze profits at metal makers Henan Yuguang Gold & Lead Co. and Shenzhen Zhongjin Lingnan Nonfemet Co. Battery producers, which represent 80 percent of consumption, were shut along with recyclers after hundreds were poisoned in Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces in May and June.
China Shuts 90% of Lead-Acid Battery Plants as Prices Drop – Businessweek
By Li Hongmei
The forthcoming 19th ASEAN summit to be held in Bali, Indonesia seems more noteworthy than before, as it will see the formal entry of the United States and Russia into the East Asia summit grouping.
Also, leaders of ASEAN countries, its dialogue partners Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon will be converging at the 19th ASEAN Summit and related Summits from Nov. 17 to 19.
In addition, “Initiatives” aimed at settling the South China Sea issue will be offered by the Philippine President Aquino III, as released by its Foreign Affairs Undersecretary.
Actually, it is no key highlight to the world, in that the Philippines, even at the 18th ASEAN Summit, proposed to establish a Zone of Peace, Freedom, Friendship, and Cooperation (ZoPFF/C) that seeks to segregate the disputed South China Sea islands from the undisputed parts to put an end to “military intrusions” in the region.
It is also no surprise at all why the Philippine will reignite the so-called South China Sea proposal in the name of regional tranquility, since the “Pacific President” Barack Obama would show up at the upcoming Bali Summit, he would much like to see any gesture to echo Washington’s “Return to Asia” strategy.
SHANGHAI’S key stock index was almost unchanged in the morning session today.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dipped 0.05 percent to 2,527.5 points. Turnover was 44.5 billion yuan (US$7 billion).
Energy and resource shares were mixed after President Hu Jintao pledged to stabilize commodity prices and maintain normal market order. PetroChina fell 0.6 percent to 10.12 yuan. Jiangxi Copper Co lost 0.8 percent to 28.03 yuan.
Banks were weak after Bank of America Corp, the second largest lender in the United States by assets, had agreed to sell most of its remaining stake in China Construction Bank after divesting about 13 billion shares in August.
Stocks nearly flat in morning trade — Shanghai Daily | ???? — English Window to China New
CTVNews.ca Staff
Date: Monday Nov. 14, 2011 12:21 PM ET
Canada, along with the United States, China and others is heading towards an economic slowdown in the coming months, according to a report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The OECD issued its composite leading indicator (CLI) report Monday, showing that the rate had fallen for the seventh consecutive month in September, hitting 100.4.
In August the CLI was 100.9.
Canada’s CLI fell 0.4 points to 99.4, down from 99.8 in August and 101.2 in May. Canada’s leading indicator has been falling for several months, largely due to the slow global economic recovery and sluggish growth in the U.S.
The Paris-based organization said numbers were down across the board for member countries, and the results for many fell below their long-term averages.
Overall the news was grim, the OECD said.
It’s our tradition to control,
like Erich Honecker and Helmut Kohl,
remember him
from the Ukraine to the Rhone.
Sweet home uber alles,
Lord, I’m coming home.yah
Come on, Sugar Daddy, bring me home.– ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ef6M4sPrr8g&feature=player_embedded
George Soros isn’t the only sugar daddy whom former beneficiaries accuse of turning tightwad faced with rollercoaster stock markets and interminable debt debates.
German taxpayers all along were wary of becoming the only teat on the EC’s udder for what Winston Churchill once called Europe’s soft underbelly. There is nostalgia, too, for the once high-flying DMark which few wanted exchanged in 2002 for Euros. Now those feelings are exploding with Germany’s vaunted economy going south – but not just for bailouts for Greece, Portugal, Ireland, and possibly Spain, and even Italy.
German growth collapsed to near zero over the early summer which could take Germany, Europe [and the world] into recession by winter. That would mean abandoning hope Europe’s biggest industrial engine would salvage the EU common currency.
Many usual suspect talking heads called all this totally unexpected. Hello! Sixty percent of the German template for an export-led economy went to other EU countries. True, profligate Greeks, Portuguese, Spaniards and Irishmen should not have bought those Mercedes they couldn’t afford. But if they hadn’t, how would German auto plants have pumped out cars, keeping German unemployment relatively low!
The Germans, like everybody else with dreams going back to Marco Polo, turned to China [and Russia] for new markets. Trouble is the jerry-built Chinese “world factory” is in deep doo-doo too, cutting back on what its “Communism with Chinese characteristics” leaders thought was a foolproof, permanent formula for stability: unlimited infrastructure expansion, subsidized exports for super growth rates with corruption for the elite .
But more than one little piggie didn’t go to market. Chinese inflation [or should we use new Obama Administration’s gobbledygook, “core inflation”] is rising, particularly food where 80% of Chinese subsist. [Incidentally Chinese shortages mean huge US corn purchases lifting American prices.] And there are still Chinese who remember in 1949 the Communists installed that ogre Mao Tse-tung mostly because of rip-roaring inflation on Shanghai’s counting house tables, not battlefield valor.
Russia? There, increased German dependence on Soviet gas, even encouraging Moscow government monopolies to buy into Western distribution, was all well and good during the halcyon days of unlimited credit and rising consumption. But now Moscow bleeds; an incredible $30 billion capital outflow in the first six months of 2011. [No oligarch dares leave money lying around in Petersburg or Moscow lest the new Rasputin grab it]. Some 1.2 million professionals immigrating in the last three years carried part of it out. And with diving fossil fuel prices, the Russian economy is hanging by one energy thread. That’s why a half million small and medium sized German firms in Russia, ”highly leveraged” with government export credits, are sweating.
Sol Sanders | Follow the money No. 80 Daddy’s sugar bowl empties | ZeroHedge
The Great Collapse Has Officially Begun
Submitted by Phoenix Capital Research on 08/20/2011 16:51 -0400
I’ve been warning of this for well over two years. My primary warnings were:
- 1) That 2008 was just a warm-up
- 2) That the REAL Crisis had yet to unfold
- 3) That the REAL Crisis would make 2008 look like a picnic
Well, the period I’ve been warning of is now here. What’s happening right now is not just a market crash, bear market, deflation, or any other item related to just one asset class.
Instead, this is a collapse of the entire US monetary and political system and the mentality of spending one’s way to wealth.
For 80+ years, the US has operated under a crony capitalist system in which politicians dole out political and economic favors to the chosen few whose bribes/donations funded their campaigns.
This system was aided and abetted by the US Federal Reserve, which dealt with any and all economic issues by printing more money. Whether it was the Asian Crisis, Long Term Capital Management, or the 2008 Crash, the Fed dealt with the issue by opening the floodgates and flooding the financial system with liquidity.
Aside from making moral hazard (the notion that those large firms who screwed up were never actually allowed to fail) the bedrock of the financial system, the Fed also blew a credit bubble which in turn funded bubbles in virtually every asset class: bonds, stocks, real estate, emerging markets, even some commodities.
Indeed, the vast majority of US economic growth over the last 40 years has been fueled by the Fed’s loose money policies. Bill King, an analyst and investor whom I admire, shared the below chart with me a while back. It charts US GDP growth in nominal terms (the dark blue line), the performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (the black line), and REAL GDP growth or growth that accounts for inflation (the light blue line).
As you can see, when we account for inflation, the US economic “miracle” of the last 30 years is in fact not all that miraculous. Take away easy credit and Fed funny money and the US GDP has barely grown at all since the ‘70s.
When your entire financial system is built on debt eventually you hit a brick wall. We did this in 2008. The Fed barely held the system together by going “all in” and funneling over $11 trillion in bailouts, backstopping the major US banks, and transferring north of $2 trillion in garbage debt to the public’s balance sheet (these are just the moves we know about).
This effort has now failed as the world collectively realizes that the Fed cannot hold the system together. This began to become clear when QE 2 spent $600 billion and the US got at most three months’ worth of improved economic data (while inflation exploded throughout the global economy, leading to riots, coups, and more).
In simple terms, we’ve now entered the Real Crisis, the END GAME, for our current monetary system. Before the dust settles on this mess, the US and its political, economic, monetary structure will look very very different.
However, before we get there, we will see riots, civil unrest, possibly martial law, for certain a Government shutdown, bank holidays, a debt default/ restructuring, the re-instatement of the Gold standard or something like it (possibly a basket of commodities), food shortages, and more.
We will also see trade wars, possibly another World War, a temporary backlash against globalization, a de-consolidation or fragmentation of corporate America, and other items.
Exclusive: Pentagon Probe Will Review Every Darpa Contract
- By Noah Shachtman
- August 16, 2011 |
- 4:00 am |
- Categories: DarpaWatch
- Follow @dangerroom
Since Regina Dugan became the director of Darpa, the Pentagon’s top research division has signed millions of dollars’ worth of contracts with her family firm, which in turn owes her at least a quarter-million dollars. It’s an arrangement that has raised eyebrows in the research community, and has now drawn the attention of the Defense Department’s internal auditors and investigators.
The Pentagon’s Inspector General is launching an audit of those deals — and of every other research contract Darpa has signed during Dugan’s two-year tenure. This is just “the first in a series of planned audits to review [Darpa's] contracting processes,” the Inspector General’s office promises.
The probe isn’t itself an accusation of wrongdoing; just an investigation to see if any occurred. Darpa representatives have insisted that the agency acted properly in its dealings with RedXDefense — the bomb detection firm Dugan co-founded with her father, Vince Dugan. She recused herself from any decisions involving the company, they say, and RedXDefense won its $1.7 million in research contracts from Darpa fair and square.
“At no time did Dr. Dugan participate in any dealings between the Agency and RedXDefense related to the contract,” Darpa spokesman Eric Mazzacone told Danger Room in March. (He declined to comment for this story.)
Nevertheless, the Inspector General’s office wants to take a closer look. Not only does Dugan still own tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of stock in RedXDefense; according to a financial report she filed last year, the company (now led by her father) has yet to reimburse Dugan for a “note/loan” with “no schedule of payment or guarantee of repayment.”
That’s one reason, presumably, why the IG is also launching a separate inquiry into “Regina Dugan’s continued financial and familial relations with Darpa contractor RedXDefense,” the office noted in a letter to the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group.
The look into Darpa’s deal-making won’t end there, however. Every research contract issued by the agency over the last two fiscal years will be reviewed, to “determine the adequacy of Darpa’s selection, award, and administration of contracts and grants,” the IG’s office wrote in a July 26 memorandum to other military agencies. So will Darpa’s relationship with airship-builder (and one-time agency contractor) Aeros, which now counts former Darpa director Tony Tether as a member of its board of advisors.
The scrutiny of Darpa’s $3 billion budget is needed, agency insiders say. Darpa gets wide latitude from the rest of the Pentagon — and from Congress — in how it hands out its contracts.
“You could pull a lot of money out of that place if you really wanted to,” a recently retired Darpa official tells Danger Room. “There really isn’t any due diligence there.”
Exclusive: Pentagon Probe Will Review Every Darpa Contract | Danger Room | Wired.com
Suspected Chinese spear-phishing attacks continue to hit Gmail users
Submitted by l33tdawg on Sun, 08/14/2011 – 01:18
Months after Google said that Chinese hackers were targeting the Gmail accounts of senior U.S. government officials, attempts to hijack Gmail inboxes continue, a researcher said Thursday.
"Once compromises happen and are covered in the news, they do not disappear and attackers don’t give up or stop. They continue their business as usual," said Mila Parkour, an independent security researcher based in Washington, D.C., on her Contagio Malware Dump website.
In early June, Google announced it had disrupted a targeted phishing campaign designed to compromise Gmail accounts belonging to senior U.S. and South Korean government officials, military personnel, Chinese activists and journalists. Google said it had traced the attacks to Jinan, China, a city in eastern China that has been linked to other hacking campaigns, including one in late 2009 against Google’s own network. Parkour had revealed details of the earlier phishing attacks months before Google’s June announcement.
Suspected Chinese spear-phishing attacks continue to hit Gmail users | HITBSecNews