You are here

Home

Economic Impacts

Primary tabs

Sun, 2011-03-13 17:04 — mdmcdonald
Economic Impacts

Working Group email address:  ***@***.***

Add Content to this group

Click to add a new Group Post Simple to this group
Click to add a new Group Post Simple w Images to this group
Click to add a new Group Post to this group
Click to add a new PRIVATE Group Post to this group
Click to add a new TASK to this group

Members

AlMac99 Kathy Gilbeaux mdmcdonald
Subscribe to group

Email address for group

economic-impacts@m.resiliencesystem.org

Japanese Economy Slides Into Recession

Sat, 2011-05-21 10:11 — Kathy Gilbeaux
The Associated Press - May 19, 2011

Japan's economy contracted sharply in the first quarter, veering back into recession as factory production and consumer spending wilted in the aftermath of March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Real gross domestic product — a measure of the value of all goods and services produced domestically — shrank at an annualized rate of 3.7 per cent in the January-March period, the Cabinet Office said Thursday.

The result marks the second straight quarter that the world's No. 3 economy has lost steam and undershoots an annualized 2.3 per cent fall forecast in a Kyodo News agency survey.

While there is no universally accepted definition of a recession, many economists define it as two consecutive quarters of GDP contraction. Others consider the depth of economic decline as well as other measures like unemployment.

Martin Schulz, senior economist at Fujitsu Research Institute in Tokyo, said there is "no doubt" that recession has returned. More surprising is just how quickly the economy crumpled, he said.

The latest GDP report includes just 20 days following the disaster, but "the impact is huge," said Schulz, who had expected to see most of the economic fallout in the second quarter.

3 tril. yen eyed for quake budget

Wed, 2011-04-06 21:21 — JRees

The Yomiuri Shimbun

A supplementary budget the government and the Democratic Party of Japan are crafting for postquake reconstruction likely will total more than 3 trillion yen, sources said Wednesday.

The extra budget, the first for this fiscal year, would be used mainly for disposing of rubble and constructing temporary housing for survivors of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The government and the ruling party have decided not to issue government bonds to finance the budget, the sources said.

Instead, they are considering using 2.5 trillion yen allocated to shoulder 50 percent of basic pension benefits and could revise policies from the DPJ's manifesto for the 2009 House of Representatives election, such as making expressways toll-free, according to the sources.

The government intends to enact the supplemental budget late this month or early next month after holding talks with opposition parties.

But some members in both the ruling and opposition camps have criticized the funding plans.

Initially, the government was considering an extra budget of more than 1 trillion yen, but later revised the amount upward in the face of the enormous damage to areas affected by the disaster.

Drug production stymied by quake

Wed, 2011-04-06 21:15 — JRees

The Yomiuri Shimbun
April 07

Production of various medicines at pharmaceutical factories in the Tohoku and northern Kanto regions is at a standstill because of damage caused by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Pharmaceutical companies are trying to import medicines in case domestic supply falls short, and doctors have been asked to avoid issuing long-term prescriptions, to help stretch the limited stock of certain medicines.

One of the most serious shortages is of levothyroxine sodium, a hypothyroidism medicine. Aska Pharmaceutical Co. accounts for 98 percent of the domestic supply of Thyradin S, a branded version of levothyroxine sodium, but damage suffered by the company's factory in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, has paralyzed operations there.

About 300,000 patients nationwide are believed to be taking Thyradin S, and a lack of the medicine will pose a direct risk to those patients' lives.

A number of professional associations, including Japanese Medical and Dental Practitioners for the Improvement of Medical Care, have asked the central government to support emergency imports of levothyroxine sodium.

Radioactivity in Sea Up 7.5 Million Times - Marine Life Contamination Well Beyond Japan Feared

Wed, 2011-04-06 15:53 — Kathy Gilbeaux

The Japan Times - by Kanako Takahara - April 5, 2011

Radioactive iodine-131 readings taken from seawater near the water intake of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant's No. 2 reactor reached 7.5 million times the legal limit, Tokyo Electric Power Co. admitted Tuesday.

The sample that yielded the high reading was taken Saturday, before Tepco announced Monday it would start releasing radioactive water into the sea, and experts fear the contamination may spread well beyond Japan's shores to affect seafood overseas.

The unstoppable radioactive discharge into the Pacific has prompted experts to sound the alarm, as cesium, which has a much longer half-life than iodine, is expected to concentrate in the upper food chain.

According to Tepco, some 300,000 becquerels per sq. centimeter of radioactive iodine-131 was detected Saturday, while the amount of cesium-134 was 2 million times the maximum amount permitted and cesium-137 was 1.3 million times the amount allowable.

The amount of iodine-131 dropped to 79,000 becquerels per sq. centimeter Sunday but shot up again Monday to 200,000 becquerels, 5 million times the permissible amount.

News Media declared war against truth and against the victims of disaster

Thu, 2011-03-24 16:02 — AlMac99

People's lives are on the line, as there are efforts to rush aid to vulnerable members of society. Some aid is seriously delayed due to bogus stories about the radiation risks.

Public policy is expensive, especially when it comes to figuring out how to be better prepared against similar disasters.  I am also seeing how Japanese imports are being blocked at foreign borders, thanks to misinformation about radiation.

News media should endeavor to report the truth, to help the helpers who seek to get relief aid to the vulnerable.

But instead, the news media is on a science fiction fantasy trip, describing their worst nightmares as pure speculation. People on the USA west coast are tooling up to protect against radiation coming across the Pacific from Japan, and I have seen lots of lovely maps speculating the path of this radiation, but it is all a fiction.  The only radiation risk so far, is inside the evacuation zone, and trivial rainfall contamination, where Japan tracing where that happening.

Situation Reports found by Al Mac V 1.2 thru Mar 23

Wed, 2011-03-23 22:28 — AlMac99

Here are links to many situation reports on the situations in Japan.  I am far behind on finding all relevant info, but have added lots more here since my last sharing.

When you trace the links to any one source of situation reports, hopefully you can find more current from the same outfit.

What I have found here includes:

  • Disaster Recovery
  • Health
  • IAEA
  • Industry
  • Japan government
  • NGOs
  • Nuclear
  • OCHA Relief Web
  • Radiation Readings
  • Red Cross
  • USAID

Economic and Statistical Data on Japan

Wed, 2011-03-23 01:18 — AlMac99

Japanese Bureau of Statistics

Bad wintry weather for areas impacted by earthquakes and tsunamis

Wed, 2011-03-23 00:53 — AlMac99

Bad weather returns to the worst affected areas affecting the distribution of goods.  See  United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Relief Web 

Summary Link to March 21 # 10 update attached.

The report also quotes World Bank saying it will take Japan 5 years to rebuild what was destroyed by the big quakes and tsunamis.

It also adds to our growing directory of useful links:

Al Mac Sit-Reps Mar-20 V 1.1

Mon, 2011-03-21 16:15 — AlMac99

Here are links to situation reports which I had found thru wee hours of March 20.

Obviously I am behind in absorbing the info which has been coming out, but I have devised a title, so if I post later updates later, using same title system, you will see which is the more recent information.

METI Economic damage March 16

Mon, 2011-03-21 16:10 — AlMac99

Here is a report from METI on Economic damage as of March 16 ... industries, infrastructure, etc.

Nuclear stuff, disaster victims, are in other reports.

Pages

howdy folks
Page loaded in 0.670 seconds.