Archive for the 'Economy' Category
Japan’s Day Trading Elite
August 10th, 2013Via: Bloomberg: Murakami calls himself the smallest player in a group of seven day traders who chat with each other online, vacation together, and cumulatively buy and sell almost $100 million in stocks each day, using borrowed money to increase the size of their bets. … “These guys are pros,” says Jesper Koll, head of […]
Japan Gets to Know a Quadrillion as Debt Hits New High
August 10th, 2013Via: Bloomberg: The late Senator Everett Dirksen (R-Ill.) is famous for allegedly saying, “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.” It might be apocryphal—the Dirksen Congressional Center has found no evidence that the late Illinois Republican ever made the quip—but it certainly resonates as the political parties spar over […]
Americans Giving Up Citizenship Jump Sixfold
August 10th, 2013Update: Forgot to Mention I recently received an email from an American who is attempting to renounce his or her U.S. citizenship in New Zealand. I don’t want to get into any details, because NZ is like a small village full of people who take great pleasure talking about other people in the village. The […]
‘Why are so many Japanese men refusing to leave their rooms?’
August 9th, 2013Via: BBC: As many as a million young people in Japan are thought to remain holed up in their homes – sometimes for decades at a time. Why? For Hide, the problems started when he gave up school. “I started to blame myself and my parents also blamed me for not going to school. The […]
JPMorgan Faces Criminal and Civil Investigations Related to Mortgage Securities Scam
August 8th, 2013Via: New York Times: JPMorgan Chase disclosed on Wednesday that it faced a criminal and civil investigation into whether it sold shoddy mortgage securities to investors in the run-up to the financial crisis, the latest legal threat to the nation’s biggest bank. JPMorgan acknowledged for the first time the existence of the investigation — one […]
Britain: Prices Collapse for Prostitution Services
August 8th, 2013Via: The Economist: In part, this reflects the sluggish economy. Overall consumer spending at the end of 2012 was almost 4% lower than its 2007 peak. And Vivienne, an independent escort in the south who works part-time to supplement her income as a photographer, says paying for sex is a luxury: “Food is more important; […]
FUKUSHIMA PLANT LEAKING 300 TONS OF TOXIC WATER INTO SEA DAILY
August 8th, 2013Via: Japan Today: A Japanese government official on Wednesday said an estimated 300 tons of contaminated water is leaking into the ocean per day from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged on Wednesday to step up government efforts to stem radioactive water leakage. The ministry official also said the utility […]
U.S. Air Force Transported 24 Tons of Cocaine from Costa Rica to Miami, Allegedly to be Destroyed *wink*
August 7th, 2013Via: Costa Rica Star: According to an official press release from the Organization of Judicial Investigations (OIJ in Spanish), Costa Rica will no longer send cocaine or other controlled substances to the United States, at least for the time being. The announcement comes in the wake of news reports about nearly 24 tons of cocaine […]
Biotech Industry PSYOP Against Public Demands for GMO Labeling
August 7th, 2013Via: Alternet: Monsanto and Big Food are taking the battle for consumers’ hearts and minds to the next level. And it’s no coincidence that they’re pulling out the big guns just as the Washington State I-522 campaign to label genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food products is gaining steam. Can industry front groups and slick […]
Children Given Lifetime Gag Order In Pennsylvania Fracking Suit Settlement
August 7th, 2013Via: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: The non-disclosure agreement prohibiting Chris and Stephanie Hallowich from talking about the 2011 settlement of their high-profile Marcellus Shale damage case in Washington County, or saying anything about gas drilling and fracking, isn’t unusual. It happens often in settling such cases. But the insistence that their two minor children, then ages 7 […]
