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Japan, U.S. working on pact to fight tax evasion
Japan is also working on a “model two” FATCA agreement. via Switzerland, U.S. sign pact on fighting tax evasion | Reuters. What is FACTCA? “FATCA imposes steep penalties beginning in 2014 on financial institutions that do not comply with the law. Banks and other financial institutions failing to comply could be frozen out of U.S. [...]
Abenomics – deflation is not the problem!
A succinct summing up of the problems (and the non-problems) that Japan’s Abenomics is facing. Mouse-tip to Zero Hedge for the link and video. Zero Hedge’s article also has I recommend the following guides: Brett Kelly’s “Evernote Essentials 3.0″, Dan Gold’s $5 guides to Getting Everything Done with Evernote and Springpad, and DocumentSnap Solutions’ Paperless [...]
Seizure Warrant Against Mutum Sigillum | Lenz Blog
This seems to be a big story, getting bigger by the minute. Bitcoin has been in the news a bit (sorry) lately, from bloggers MikeinTokyoRogers, Mish, and others (e.g. economist Frank Shostak). Tokyo resident, solar energy and legal expert Prof. Lenz has been toying with a “kanji” for Bitcoin. Mutum Sigillum is owned by the [...]
Are Economic Sanctions Effective?
North Korea and Iran are under U.N. economic sanctions and have been for quite a long time (North Korea since 2006, Iran also since 2006). But are sanctions effective? Can they be effective against even intransigent and belligerent political and military leaders? Let’s see what the Internets thingies say. The first clipping here is part [...]
Dr. No not responsible for major outage at Fukushima!
Stop press!! The power outage at the Fukushima nuclear plant that halted the cooling for a full day was not after all a fiendish attack by that fiend Dr. Kim Jogging No, but by an extremely vicious rodent. After some investigation, Tepco found a burned spot on an electricity supply system inside the still-crippled plant [...]
Sherlock (TV Series 2010) – IMDb
A modern update finds the famous sleuth and his doctor partner solving crime in 21st century London. via Sherlock (TV Series 2010) – IMDb. I don’t watch TV except for major soccer games. Oh, and the new BBC Sherlock Holmes series. The first series was just re-shown on Japanese TV (NHK Satellite) Sunday, Monday and [...]
Japan a bug that will not escape the windshield
Enjoying the good weather? Feelin’ groovy? Getting ready for summer? Like MarketingJapan, checking out great new places to eat? As Mike has clearly fumbled the ball on this one, I’ll have to pick it up (well somebody’s gotta!) Summer may be cancelled. Japan is a bug in search of a windshield!!! Are you prepared? Are [...]
For A Million BTU: Monday 4 June 2012 | Gregor.us
Update: Check out this graph from Seth Godin’s blog: it compares fatalities in the nuclear and coal industries. (Thanks to Mike Rogers for the link). A week ago, I posted about Japanese shut-down nuclear reactors and how this had resulted in a big jump in purchases of natural gas and coal. http://www.sheffnersweb.net/blogs/accuratemaps/news/20120530-1300-japans-energy-self-sufficiency-lowest-since-81/ I had believed [...]
2012/05/30 13:00 – Japan’s Energy Self-Sufficiency Lowest Since ’81
PARIS Nikkei–Japan’s energy self-sufficiency fell six points on the year to 13% in 2011, hitting its lowest point since 1981 and raising questions over the country’s energy security, according to the chief economist at the International Energy Agency. Fatih Birol disclosed the agency’s findings in a recent interview with The Nikkei. The energy self-sufficiency rate [...]
2012/05/19 01:16 – Govt Panel Pushes For Total Liberalization Of Household Power
Update: This is not good news. Yet. It could become good news, one day, when action is taken. If “no-one says the current situation is good”, how come the current situation came about? Directive from God? No answer. The question is ignored. Some good news. Just the other day, I was discussing this matter with [...]
