Breaking News: Tokyo Geiger Counter Shows Radiation Levels; Bank of Japan "Prints Up" $200 Billion For Markets; Middle East Uprisings and EU Debt Crisis Taking a Back Seat

Update 4: Breaking news right now showing radiation levels in the city of Isobe/Ibaraki have spiked exponentially in the last 10-15 minutes, suggesting that one or more reactors at the Fukushima plant have indeed experienced a meltdown. Levels have gone from <50 nGy/h to >5081 nGy/h, with 100-150 nGy/h being the maximum safe reference level. We can only hope the area was evacuated well in advance.

Update 3: Perhaps this update deserves an entire post for itself- 
CNBC's Kudlow on Japan Quake - "Be Grateful Human Toll Much Worse than Economic Toll."   Sorry, this is the kind of stuff you can't make up. Wish we could, but it's true. Must see. I promise you will not be disappointed. Just goes to show that indeed, human life is worth far less than money in the eyes of certain individuals. This is a diseased world. 

Update 2: It is now being reported that fuel rods at all three reactors are indeed melting. This scenario that is playing out is very reminiscent of the movie "China Syndrome" and if indeed true will bring the level of this catastrophe to an unprecedented level. Good thing China has millions of homes of excess supply ready to go. 

Update 1: It seems the fuel rods at Fukushima are playing hide and seek once again, as TEPCO, the owner/operator of the plant is now saying the "fuel rods are fully exposed." Just earlier they were not exposed, then later were exposed, then not exposed and now once again, they are exposed. Stay tuned for further updates.

Below is a live stream of a geiger counter in Tokyo, Japan. The initial count began at 7:58 AM EST and is now 1.5 hours into the detection. Since the geiger counter was turned on, levels have increased from 11.21 CPM (0.01121mR/hr) to 12.39 CPM (0.01239mR/hr). As a reference, normal background levels are between 6-20. What happens when levels reach 50 CPM+? It may be time to make your own radiation suits out of trash bags and duct tape.

Click here to view geiger counter.

The situation at the Fukushima #3 has been escalating all weekend- officials are reporting reactor #3 now faces partial meltdown. Levels at the Fukushima plant are now 1000 times above normal. At the Onagawa plant, levels are 700 times above normal. Which could be why the German news magazine Der Spiegel is pulling reporters out of Tokyo. 

From the updates:

Another dramatic development: Der Spiegel has decided to pull its reporter out of Tokyo because of the risk a Chernobyl-style radiation cloud could reach the Japanese capital. Thilo Thielke, Spiegel's veteran war correspondent, is leaving Japan today. Spiegel is now covering the story from Bangkok and the south of Japan. Mathias Müller von Blumencron says the latest information is ominous: the wind is blowing to the north – in the direction of Tokyo. "Perhaps this is a piece of German angst. But no country is more against nuclear power than Germany," he says. He adds: "The wind is shifting from the north and could blow a cloud south directly to Tokyo. This is really horrible. I think this is a big, big crisis and a wake-up call for nuclear energy." The German embassy is also making preparations to evacuate some staff, apparently.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting, the BoJ has injected $200 Billion into the markets to help support and calm the fear of the markets. If you looked at the NIKKEI this morning, you'd notice not only were the "circuit breakers" tripped but the markets closed down 6% anyways. So, by tearing out a page from Dr. Deficit's playbook, the BoJ has managed to now directly participate in market manipulation. As if global inflation was not already hot enough?

Which begs the question, if March 19th's "Super Moon" triggers more natural disasters, such as a major earthquake in Europe, can the global economy survive? Can the Central Banks expect to fix all problems by simply "printing" their way out?

Of course, now with Japan's mega earthquake grabbing all the attention, few people have noticed that a deal has been reached to end (read: slow down) the escalating European debt crisis, or the uprising and revolutions taking place in the Middle East with a "War Declaration" now making "War" official. 

More later.