Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Recession Elsewhere, but It’s Booming in China
China is surpassing the United States as the world’s biggest market — from cars to refrigerators to washing machines, even desktop computers.
The Chinese market is “on full tilt — booming is an understatement these days
The Beijing government is increasing consumption with rebates, subsidies and heavy bank lending. Whether China can turn the spending spree into the seeds of a true consumer society matters not just to China, but to the world.
Retail sales are growing 17 percent a year in China after adjusting for inflation, almost twice as fast as the overall economy.
annual incomes still average just $2,775 a person in cities and $840 in rural areas, Western economists predict the economy will grow almost 12 percent in each of the next two years and the renminbi is widely expected to appreciate someday
Click on the following for more details: Recession Elsewhere, but It’s Booming in China - NYTimes.com
Investigator finishes look into NDK
“He just ... made sure there were no chemicals of concern at that plant,” Boone County emergency management Director Sandra Rogers said today.
The NDK plant, a supplier to the Chrysler Group LLC assembly plant in Belvidere, is being guarded around the clock by local law enforcement.
“We still have volunteers; the sheriff’s Department and Belvidere police still have people routing (traffic) day and night to maintain security,” Rogers said.
Sweeny Report » Why was NDK building constructed so close to I 90 and Oasis?
Why was NDK building constructed so close to I 90 and Oasis?
Given the kind of work going on inside the factory, and the fact that it was designed to have the wall panels fly off the building in an explosion, it seems to me that the building should not have been constructed close to a busy Interstate highway and a busy tollway Oasis.
Read Chuck’s complete opinion by clicking on the following: Sweeny Report » Why was NDK building constructed so close to I 90 and Oasis?
Illinois Review: The New Economic Bubble: Big Government
Great article regarding how the federal debt is no problem today but could become a huge problem very soon and easily.
The public sector, particularly the federal government, has benefitted enormously from absurdly low interest rates
net interest – the cost of servicing the national debt – was only 1.3% of GDP, the lowest in about 40 years. For comparison, net interest was absorbing about 3% of GDP in the 1980s and 1990s.
In other words, loose money has created a temporary mirage where a massive increase in government spending appears to be an easy burden to carry.
Report: Illinois lagging on tobacco prevention funding
Illinois ranks 42nd among U.S. states in its funding of tobacco prevention programs.
Tobacco companies agreed in 1998 to settle lawsuits several states brought over smoking-related health care costs. The companies are paying the states about $206 billion over more than two decades.
Illinois this year will collect $857 million from the settlement and tobacco taxes. The reports says the state will spend about 1 percent of it on tobacco prevention.
Kraft has offered changes to Cadbury deal
Still no decision in sight.
that Kraft Foods Inc. had put forward possible changes to its hostile $16.3 billion takeover of Cadbury PLC to soothe antitrust worries.
The European Commission gave no details when it said it was extending a deadline by 10 working days _ from Dec. 14 to Jan. 6 _
Blog Count for the last 30 days: 1077 visits; 756 separate visitors.
The major increase was due to the NDK explosion, There were 173 visits on Monday December 7, 2009, the date of the blast.
Since September 1, 2009: 1903 visits, 1034 separate visitors
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NDK review may take months
CSB is an independent federal agency charged with investigating industrial chemical accidents. Headquartered in Washington, DC, the agency's board members are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
The CSB conducts root cause investigations of chemical accidents at fixed industrial facilities. Root causes are usually deficiencies in safety management systems, but can be any factor that would have prevented the accident if that factor had not occurred. Other accident causes often involve equipment failures, human errors, unforeseen chemical reactions or other hazards. The agency does not issue fines or citations, but does make recommendations to plants, regulatory agencies
Staff and members from the Washington-based U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board will be in town starting Wednesday, confirmed Daniel Horowitz, director of Congressional, Public, and Board Affairs for the U.S. Chemical Safety Board.
Board member William B. Wark, three investigators and a public affairs representative will arrive in Belvidere and are expected to investigate what chemicals were involved and whether clean air was endangered, he said.
“We investigate about 15 of the most serious chemical actions across the country each year,” he said. “For us, this is certainly among the most serious. We are equally distraught by the fatality of a member of the public and are required under the Clean Air Act to investigate any incident of this type. We’re going to try to get to the bottom of what happened and give safety recommendations to prevent something like this from ever happening again.”
The status of the NDK Investigation by CSD and its full report will eventually be available at: http://www.chemsafety.gov/investigations/investigations.aspx?Type=1&F_All=y
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