ursamajor5813's  Instablog

Great Moments in Bad Timing:
In 2009, Japan started offering an incentive for Nisei to leave the country.  These Nissei, mostly from South America (esp. Brazil) did mostly the lower paying, dirty and dangerous jobs.  Like Construction, Janitorial Work, Disaster Cleanup, etc.  Trying to create jobs in the wake of the Global Crisis, the LDP proposed this program to get them to go home.

To accept the cash incentive, these Nisei had to promise never to return to Japan for work for their entire life, and the incentive also applied to the children - no matter how young those children were.  IE, if a 30ish Brazilian-Japanese couple with a toddler and an infant took the incentive, both children were banned from ever working in Japan for life, not just the parents.

Now they're going to have to shell out more money to bring them back - if the Public gets over their distaste for foreign workers, even ones with Japanese ancestry.

Ah, unforeseen consequences.

www.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/business/glob...

Another Press Release from CHBT "confirming" a sales order, that will be in effect for "2 years", from an unnamed "nutrition product" company claimed to be based in the United States.
finance.yahoo.com/news/ChinaBiotics-Rece...

That's it folks.  No numbers on the amount sold, no name of the buyer, not even the state or city where the customer is located.

Only in Reverse Merger cloudy cookoo land do small growing companies routinely refuse to identify exciting new clients.

Caveat Emptor.

Tepco, the owners of Fukushima, originally stated that Radiation Levels had reached 1,000 millisileverts/hour, and pulled out all their workers.  However, Tepco later retracted this figure - however the workers are still withdrawn.

This reactor does not seem to be under any more control than it was weeks ago, despite the pumping of untold gallons of seawater into the facility.

It is time for the "Chernobyl Option" - burying the plant in dirt and concrete - before it gets completely away from any kind of control.

The "Sideways" Market remains in full effect.  It has been the long term trend since around 2000.  The key will be the next six months to a year - can the S&P break 1400, or the Dow break 13,000 and stay there?  We have two large peaks in the past decade - early 2000 and 2007.  A third appears to be forming. 

A LEAP straddle may be in the cards here.

Disclosure - will short Japan at any time.  No current position in any US index.  Short FXI.