Obama Regime Understates Deficits by $2.3 Trillion
March 19th, 2011Maybe they’re anticipating finding the missing $2.3 trillion that Rumsfeld mentioned on September 10, 2001.
Via: AP:
A new assessment of President Barack Obama’s budget released Friday says the White House underestimates future budget deficits by more than $2 trillion over the upcoming decade.
The estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says that if Obama’s February budget submission is enacted into law it would produce deficits totaling $9.5 trillion over 10 years — an average of almost $1 trillion a year.
Obama’s budget saw deficits totaling $7.2 trillion over the same period.
The difference is chiefly because CBO has a less optimistic estimate of how much the government will collect in tax revenues, partly because the administration has rosier economic projections.
Yemeni Forces Open Fire at Protest, 30 Dead
March 18th, 2011Via: Reuters:
Yemeni security forces and unidentified snipers opened fire at a protest in Sanaa after Muslim prayers Friday, killing at least 30 people and wounding 200 others, medical sources and witnesses told Reuters.
Commander of U.S. Military Forces in the Pacific On Prospect of Reactors Being Abandoned to Melt Down: ‘That Can’t Happen’
March 18th, 2011Reminder: Voice of America is the official propaganda outlet of the U.S. Government.
Via: Voice of America:
The commander of U.S. military forces in the Pacific says he is sending his troops into the danger zone near the Japan’s crippled nuclear power plants as needed, and if necessary he will send more to help prevent a meltdown of the reactors’ fuel and the release of large amounts of harmful radiation.
In a phone call from his headquarters in Hawaii, Admiral Robert Willard told reporters at the Pentagon everything possible must be done to avoid the worst case scenario.
“That would be a situation where the recovery effort to keep the cores covered in these reactors would ever be abandoned. And we believe that that can’t happen, that we must do everything required to keep water and cooling affecting these reactors,” said Willard.
Japanese engineers working in and near the reactors have had difficulty keeping the reactor cores cooled and spent fuel rods covered with water. If they fail in that effort, large amounts of radiation would be released, creating a contamination cloud that could affect millions of people in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
But Admiral Willard says reports he has received indicate the team at the reactors had more success on Thursday and he is “cautiously optimistic” a full meltdown of the nuclear fuel will be avoided. He indicated he will send more forces into the most dangerous area near the reactors to help if necessary.
“We, when necessary, will conduct operations inside that radius, when they’re in support of the Japanese Defense Forces,” he said. “So while U.S. citizens are constrained from operating in there, my forces are not, when they’re needed to conduct humanitarian assistance, disaster response or logistics support to our Japanese friends or to our own forces or any other forces that we happen to be supporting.”
U.S. Cost of Living Hits Record, Passing Pre-Crisis High
March 18th, 2011Via: CNBC:
A special index created by the Labor Department to measure the actual cost of living for Americans hit a record high in February, according to data released Thursday, surpassing the old high in July 2008. The Chained Consumer Price Index, released along with the more widely-watched CPI, increased 0.5 percent to 127.4, from 126.8 in January. In July 2008, just as the housing crisis was tightening its grip, the Chained Consumer Price Index hit its previous record of 126.9.
“The Federal Reserve continues to focus on the rate of change in inflation,” said Peter Bookvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak. “Sure, it’s moving at a slower pace, but the absolute cost of living is now back at a record high in a country that has seven million less jobs.”
JAPAN WEIGHS NEED TO BURY NUCLEAR PLANT
March 18th, 2011Via: Reuters:
Japanese engineers conceded on Friday that burying a crippled nuclear plant in sand and concrete may be a last resort to prevent a catastrophic radiation release, the method used to seal huge leakages from Chernobyl in 1986.
But they still hoped to solve the crisis by fixing a power cable to two reactors by Saturday to restart water pumps needed to cool overheating nuclear fuel rods. Workers also sprayed water on the No.3 reactor, the most critical of the plant’s six.
It was the first time the facility operator had acknowledged burying the sprawling complex was possible, a sign that piecemeal actions such as dumping water from military helicopters or scrambling to restart cooling pumps may not work.
“It is not impossible to encase the reactors in concrete. But our priority right now is to try and cool them down first,” an official from the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, told a news conference.
G7 Intervention on Yen
March 18th, 2011It had to happen. Anyway, there’s the “free market” for you.
There’s a lot of mythology about free markets in mainstream texts books and corporate media, but when the wheels come off the cart in Fiat Currency Hell (and have no doubt about it, the wheels came off the cart with this Yen thing), the global Soviet Ministry of Currency Value Stabilization springs to life and says, “The free market is wrong here. Manipulation is necessary.”
Call this nonsense whatever you want, but it’s not a free market.
Maybe it’s Free Market Lite.
Or, Free Market Extreme!#@*!
Or, Free Market Plus.
I know:
Free Market — Now with Even More WTF?™
Via: Reuters:
The Group of Seven rich nations on Friday agreed to join in rare concerted intervention to restrain a soaring yen and calm global markets after a wild week of panicky trading as Japan scrambled to prevent a meltdown at a nuclear power plant.
The U.S. dollar surged two full yen to as far as 81.70 yen, leaving behind a record low of 76.25 hit on Thursday as the Bank of Japan kicked off the joint action. Media reported it bought more than $25 billion.
Japan’s Nikkei share index climbed 3 percent, recouping some of the week’s stinging losses as Japan reeled from an earthquake, tsunami and the nuclear power plant crisis.
The last time the G7 agreed on joint intervention was a decade ago to turn a slumping euro following its 1999 launch.
The G7 show of solidarity with disaster-hit Japan came as a surprise to many because Tokyo had indicated it was looking for moral support for its attempts to calm markets rather than joint action.
Japan’s Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said the Bank of Japan had begun to sell yen at 0000 GMT and other central banks from the G7 would intervene as their markets opened.
“This is the first coordinated intervention that we have seen since 2000 so it’s going to have a very huge resonating effect on the market,” said Kathy Lien, director of currency research at GFT in New York.
“Because the only type of intervention that actually works is coordinated intervention and it shows the solidarity of all central banks in terms of the severity of the situation in Japan.”
A source told Reuters the BOJ would also leave the yen it sold in the banking system rather than mopping it up, thus adding to the vast amount of liquidity it had already provided to support its domestic markets.
GM Closing Pickup Plant for Lack of Japanese Parts
March 18th, 2011Via: USA Today:
General Motors plans to halt production Monday of the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon compact pickups made at Shreveport, La., because some parts come from Japan and aren’t available now.
The GM move is the first production halt directly linked to the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that wiped out portions of the northeast coast of Japan.
“We have suspended production at Shreveport for next week due to parts shortages due to the crisis in Japan. We will resume operations as soon as we can,” GM manufacturing spokesman Chris Lee tells Drive On. He wouldn’t identify the parts involved. Japanese companies often are the sole suppliers of electronics part for many vehicles.
UN APPROVES NO-FLY ZONE OVER LIBYA
March 17th, 2011Update: UN Approves No-Fly Zone Over Libya
Via: Los Angeles Times:
The U.N. Security Council has voted to authorize a no-fly zone and other military action against the regime of Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi.
The vote was 10 to 0, with five abstentions. The five were China, Russia, Brazil, India and Germany.
Military officials in the U.S., France and Britain had already been planning airstrikes designed to protect civilians and stop the momentum of Kadafi’s forces.
—End Update—
Well… Here we go again.
Reuters is flashing that the UN Security Council has authorized the no-fly zone.
Via: AP:
Congressional officials say the Obama administration is readying plans to participate in a no-fly zone in Libya with the help of Arab countries in anticipation of a United Nations Security Council resolution.
These officials said Thursday they expected the effort to enforce a no-fly zone and ground Moammar Gadhafi’s air force could begin within a few days if the UN takes action by day’s end.
They spoke after a briefing for members of the Senate.
Big Picture Gallery: Japan: Hopes Fade for Finding More Survivors
March 17th, 2011Via: Boston Globe / Big Picture:
As officials desperately tried to prevent disaster at a damaged nuclear facility, hopes faded for finding survivors amid the rubble as snow and cold blanketed the areas most affected by the earthquake and tsunami in northeast Japan. Residents were allowed back into damaged areas for the first time since the disaster to inspect what might be left of their homes. And flights out of Japan were full as foreign nationals and others left the country. The Big Picture continues special daily coverage of the disaster through tomorrow, with later updates anticipated as events merit.
Power Restored to Cooling System of Reactor Two at Fukushima Daiichi
March 17th, 2011Finally, a bit of good news. I hope it’s real.
Via: Cnet:
The Tokyo Electric Power Co. has successfully restored power to part of a dangerously overheating nuclear power plant damaged by last week’s earthquake and tsunami, a key move in efforts to cool the site.
The power company, also called Tepco, connected a power line to reactor 2, one of six at the Fukushima Daiichi power station about 140 miles northeast of Tokyo. The site has six reactors; keeping them and their associated spent-fuel ponds cool has been a problem ever since the massive magnitude 9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunamis knocked out power and damaged auxiliary cooling pumps.
The International Atomic Energy Agency reported that the new power cable was connected to reactor 2, which suffered a serious explosion Monday that breached its primary containment vessel. Due next for a connection is reactor 3, which suffered an explosion of its own and which is fueled by a more hazardous combination of uranium and plutonium oxide.
