Archive for March 17th, 2011

Ben Cubby Sydney Morning Herald RADIATION levels have risen again around Japan’s crippled Daiichi nuclear power station after improvised attempts to flood smouldering uranium fuel storage tanks with water failed. Australia, the US and many other nations strengthened their danger warnings yesterday and told citizens not to approach to within 80 kilometres of the... »

by Tyler Durden ZeroHedge.com 03/17/2011 The resilience of those living in the Japanese capital has been beyond admirable. After experiencing a record earthquake, hundreds of aftershocks, a historic tsunami, radioactive catastrophy 160 miles away and constant fears a northeasterly wind can bring in radioactive snow, and now unending rolling blackouts and ATM service interruptions,... »

Joe Weisenthal and Gus Lubin BusinessInsider.com Mar. 17, 2011 THE LATEST: The next best hope is to reconnect the plant to the grid with a new line power line. This attempt will occur within hours, says TEPCO. The threat of meltdown continues as water is exhausted in the spent pools, and the only option... »

Gus Lubin BusinessInsider.com Mar. 16, 2011 A prescient article by Michael Lewis in 1989 looked at the systemic risk of a Japanese earthquake (via Paul Kedrosky). Basically it goes like this. An earthquake destroys the Tokyo Stock Exchange and all financial records. Shares of Western insurance companies lead a global selloff. Japan liquidates overseas... »

EndOfTheAmericanDream.com The Japanese tsunami is a crystal clear example of just how unpredictable disasters and emergencies can be. Nobody ever dreamed that a tsunami in Japan could wash cars, homes and people up to 6 miles inland. But that is exactly what happened. So while it is great to make elaborate preparations for potential... »

EconomicCollapseBlog.com Global financial markets are in turmoil as the situation in Japan continues to deteriorate. Stock markets are plunging all over the world as investors flock to investments that are considered to be safer. The 9.0 earthquake and the unprecedented tsunami in Japan would have been more than enough to spook investors and unleash... »

Is QE3 Ahead? by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. LewRockwell.com Austrian School economists have often explained the business cycle using the metaphor of liquor or drugs. The expansion of paper money and credit gives a sense of exuberance, an economic high that leads to excessive risk-taking and ballooning production. But it can’t be sustained. There... »

The Great Wave by Sean Corrigan Cobden Centre Rather than pretending to a level of insight into the scale of Japan’s problems which neither we nor anyone else truly possesses at this stage of the disaster, we think it might be worthwhile instead to run through some general considerations of what ramifications might be... »