Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Japan nuclear update - 3 nuclear reactors melted down after quake

Tokyo (CNN) -- Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant experienced full meltdowns at three reactors in the wake of an earthquake and tsunami in March, the country's Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters said Monday.

The nuclear group's new evaluation, released Monday, goes further than previous statements in describing the extent of the damage caused by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

The announcement will not change plans for how to stabilize the Fukushima Daiichi plant, the agency said.

Reactors 1, 2 and 3 experienced a full meltdown, it said.

The plant's owner, Tokyo Electric Power Co., admitted last month that nuclear fuel rods in reactors 2 and 3 probably melted during the first week of the nuclear crisis.

It had already said fuel rods at the heart of reactor No. 1 melted almost completely in the first 16 hours after the disaster struck. The remnants of that core are now sitting in the bottom of the reactor pressure vessel at the heart of the unit and that vessel is now believed to be leaking.....read on

The Global Debt Crisis: How We Got in It and How to Get Out

by: Ellen Brown, Truthout

Countries everywhere are facing debt crises today, precipitated by the credit collapse of 2008. Public services are being slashed and public assets are being sold off in a futile attempt to balance budgets that can't be balanced because the money supply itself has shrunk. Governments usually get the blame for excessive spending, but governments did not initiate the crisis. The collapse was in the banking system and in the credit that it is responsible for creating and sustaining.

Contrary to popular belief, most of our money today is not created by governments. It is created by private banks as loans. The private system of money creation has grown so powerful over the centuries that it has come to dominate governments globally. The system, however, contains the seeds of its own destruction. The source of its power is also a fatal design flaw.....read on

Precious Metals and Currency Dilution

From Bullion Bulls of Canada:

As we saw recently during the May take-down of the gold and silver markets, not only was there a large cast of buffoons referring to the silver market (in particular) as a “bubble”, but an even greater number were asserting that at the least there had been a “top” in these markets. It is really difficult to envision a conclusion which demonstrates more fundamental stupidity.

When I head to the supermarket to do my grocery shopping, the same loaf of “premium” bread which I could purchase for about $2/loaf three years ago today costs me roughly $4 today. Obviously since it is the same loaf of bread, there can be no argument that I’m getting a “better” loaf of bread for twice the price. Instead, it is unequivocal that the purchasing power of the paper in my wallet has fallen by half in just three years.

I could come up with numerous other examples of items with such massive “price increases” (i.e. equivalent collapses in purchasing power) – especially with respect to food items. This broad-based explosion in prices totally rebuts any possible argument that particular items are “getting expensive”. The only exception to that would be with respect to goods where there are now acute shortages. In those cases however, prices have tended to explode by an even greater amount.

What this translates to is that the rampant inflation which has already sparked rioting (and revolution) in many poorer nations is totally a phenomenon of out-of-control currency dilution, which is the same thing as saying out-of-control money-printing. Yet we observe the inability of practically the entire body of “experts” to understand the concept (and effects) of currency dilution, despite the fact that these same individuals have no problem understanding the concept of “dilution” when it is applied to the share structure of a corporation.

Should the experts in our markets spot a company which is printing-up new shares at an excessive rate, these analysts will tell you to dump that stock faster than you can hit the “sell” button on your trading platform. And they won’t hesitate to tell you that only a “fool” would hang onto a company which is undermining shareholder value in that manner. Yet when these same experts watch Ben Bernanke running the Federal Reserve’s printing-press “white hot” year after year after year, at any given time roughly half of these clowns will be advising people to “buy dollars”.

The argument these esteemed financial advisors will use when they “recommend” that people increase their exposure to this rapidly-disintegrating paper is that “other currencies” (i.e. other paper) is supposedly even worse. Putting aside the fact that no paper is currently more worthless than the U.S. dollar, let us assume that the U.S. dollar would “win” a least-ugly contest. What does that imply?

With the same media talking-heads claiming that most European nations are near bankruptcy and Japan’s economy is in ruins, claiming the U.S. dollar is slightly less worthless than its “peers” is hardly an endorsement. Indeed, it is like watching two people being dropped out of an airplane on identical platforms – except that one platform was dropped a millisecond later than the other. And then the person perched on the slightly higher platform says to the person on the slightly lower platform “climb up here and save yourself.”

Gold May Gain on Growth Outlook, European Debt, Survey Shows

From Bloomberg:

Gold may gain on speculation signs of slowing growth means the Federal Reserve won’t start tightening monetary policy soon and as Europe’s debt crisis boosts demand for a protection of wealth, a survey found.

Fifteen of 17 traders, investors and analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, or 88 percent, said bullion will rise next week. One predicted lower prices and one was neutral. Gold for August delivery was down 1.1 percent for this week at $1,520.60 an ounce by 11:31 a.m. yesterday on the Comex in New York. It reached a record of $1,577.40 on May 2.

Manufacturing in China, Europe and the U.S. slowed in May and a private report this week showing slower-than-forecast growth in jobs spurred concern that today’s Labor Department employment data will trail estimates. The Fed plans to complete a $600 billion bond purchase program, a second round of so- called quantitative easing, this month and keep interest rates “exceptionally low” for an “extended period.”

“The possibility of QE3 due to the slowing U.S. economy may propel gold to a new record,” said Mark O’Byrne, executive director of brokerage GoldCore Ltd. in Dublin. “The fundamentals are as sound as ever.”

Bullion climbed to an all-time high in British pounds this week and a record in euros last week as the euro region struggles to contain its sovereign debt crisis. European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said governments should consider setting up a regional finance ministry.....read on

A Global Mafia Cartel