Friday, May 6, 2011

Fukushima Friday Redux: May 8th May Be Set For Big Radiation Release; New Photos From Inside Reactor 1; New Video From Robot, Detects Radiation Levels Far Higher Than Expected; Portugal's Bailout In Question Over Lack Of Finnish Support, Key Change Complicates Matters; Portuguese Civil Servants Strike After Deal, Greece Riots, Wants Out Of EU; 8 in 10 Americans Believe Economy Is Poor; Animal Farm Payrolls;Much More

Editors Note: Due to popular demand, the update section will be moved back to its original location at the top. During the past few days, there have been some technical issues with the blogging software which has removed and scrambled content. Due to these issues, articles have been delayed and were rewritten. Sorry for the delay.
Updates 

Update 2: An article from The Sydney Morning Herald is a must read. "Cumulative dose of 19mSv, showed a cancer risk consistent with that of the A-bomb survivors."  

Update 1: Lloyd Blankfein says he won't resign. Now why would he do that? More time with the family?

Main Article 
Just because news about Fukushima is being buried (read: ignored) by the MSM, doesn't mean nothing is occurring. In fact, on the contrary. As reported here yesterday, PM Kan had some very interesting things to say about that other nuclear plant called Onagawa which gets no love these days. One has to wonder what is really going on there as well. Perhaps if the public knew that Onagawa was also a problem, they'd have more work to do keeping the clam. Which is particularly interesting because Energy News is reporting that a Japanese official stated that within 2 days from now, on the 8th of May, a high density release of radiation will occur if the situation continues. How the high density (read: high level) radiation will be released and what exactly the current situation that causes this release is not clear. That being said, what is clear according to the same source, is this information was not to be made public like the "mistake of the release of radiated water." 
If you want to be surprised by something you didn't already know, watch this new video from inside reactor 1. And here is the surprise: radiation levels detected inside are... wait for it... wait for it... higher than expected. You can act surprised if you want. Well, what did you expect- lower radiation readings?
Also of interest, new photos from Fukushima of various thingamabobs. I thought you might have wanted to take a look. Now that Fukushima news is out of the way, we return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

As you may know, Portugal was verbally awarded by the EU a sizable handout bailout by its big brothers on Monday. However, as we noted, Finland holds key to whether or not they actually get the money and as of now, it's not looking too good for them. In fact, a key shift in power has lead some to believe that Portugal may not get a bailout out. At the very least, this power shift will cause a long delay in the bailout monies being delivered. The vote, to take place on the 16th, must be unanimous.

One of the requirements Finland is seeking from Portugal is the dreaded "A" word - austerity. Thus, about 250,000 civil servants went on strike today to join Greece and Ireland in general strikes that are having a major impact on the system. Just in time to celebrate the May 6th flash crash, strikes are taking place in Greece, a country that doesn't need any more problems for its economy. No wonder, most Greeks want to get out of the EU. Either that or Germany will just kick them out. N you see how easy it was to predict a disintegration of the EU? We wonder if George Papaconstantinou will consider the riots as bullish for his economy.

Of course, the problems related to the global economic depression recession are not confined to the EU. Today, CNN is reporting that a recent survey shows 8 in 10 Americans think the "economy" is in poor condition. Only 1% think it's in very good condition. Now who might think that? Could it be the top 1% who will see record pay that exceeds pre-recession levels? You see, it's good to be wrong most of the time with other people's money and get paid big bucks for doing so.

Of course, the "markets" are "rallying" today on the Non-Farm Animals Payroll, uh, numbers. Headlines everywhere are in extra bold face today, with every main stream media article running "Big Job Growth, Economy Adds 244k Jobs." The sheep might be fooled but savvy thinkers know otherwise. Here's what they know:

-They know that 175k of the 244k jobs were created out of thin air by the magic wand of estimation measures.

-They know that if the official U3 unemployment number that was released with this "release" is up to 9% and the official U6 unemployment is up to 15.9%, then the real unemployment rate which includes those who want a job, those who have fallen off the unemployment payrolls and are no longer counted as unemployed, is more than 23%

-They know that the labor force participation rate is at the lowest rate in 25 years.

-They know the number of people not in the labor force AND the number of people that want a job are both a all time records.

-They know that full time jobs are a thing of the past in this country and nearly all new jobs are part time (read: minimum wage Burger King, WalMart et al jobs) which means, don't expect a housing recovery from those people. Take for example McDonalds hiring 62k people of that big number!

-They know that NFP and all the data sets from the BLS are nothing but BLS minus the L. (A special thanks to ZeroHedge for getting that information out there. As I said many times, who else besides ZH would really report that data?)

Finally, although paper silver and gold has been taken out to the woodshed in the past couple of days, demand for the physical stuff remains very high. So much so that there is not enough to fill all of the orders. In fact, China and Mexico are reportedly buying up all they can. It's beyond amazing that the good Doctor can't even allow more than one day of down markets. 

7 comments:

  1. In case you hadn't heard, Der Spiegel has just exposed a secret plot in the EU to kick Greece out of the euro and back to the drachma.

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  2. @Newland- That's where the article is from. In German. Seems when they are ready to deny, then you know it's true. ;)

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  3. Ah, didn't see the German version, my mistake. Yeah, denial is always the first stage. :)

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  4. Updates back at the top? Who are these people requesting that? Well the only fair thing to do is to compromise. Put the updates in the middle of the story.

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  5. As long as you keep bringing it all together you can put the updates where ever you like.

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  6. @Sirmodem- You were the first to suggest moving the updates and I did move them. Until a few other members wrote me to change that back. Majority rules ;)

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