Global Economy Bursting?

[Randolph Kinney]

As California farmworkers age, a labor shortage looms

JSmith43 will pay even more for that salad

http://www.sacbee.com/2013/03/10/5250292/as-california-farmworkers-age.html

Vicente Contreras is 70 years old – and "no más," he insists with a smile – and he says he is still fit and hearty enough to perform the hard labor of California's farm fields.

Contreras concedes his knees hurt when he climbs ladders to pick peaches, nectarines and plums for $8 to $9 an hour, six days a week, during the peak summer harvest. And during the less rigorous pruning of grapevines in winter, he can't move as fast as the young workers – at least when they happen to be around.

Amid the verdant fields and orchards of America's most bountiful agricultural region, California farmworkers are graying. A labor shortage deepens as fewer younger workers arrive from Mexico and more head home to stay.

Increasingly, California's $44.3 billion agricultural industry must rely on the well-calloused hands of older workers who came many years ago to fill jobs pruning, planting, picking and packing.

The aging of California's agricultural workforce reflects a convergence of trends.

In many cases, the children of farmworkers who arrived decades ago have little interest in field work, leaving much of the vital labor to their elders.

Tighter U.S. immigration enforcement, as well as brutal cartel-driven violence along the Mexican border, have deterred many potential workers from attempting to cross.

And, amid a rebounding economy in Mexico, Mexican farms are facing their own labor shortage and have plenty of work to offer at home.

The upshot, according to the California Farm Bureau Federation, is that more than 70 percent of state agricultural producers anticipate a worker shortage starting this spring and worsening though the growing season. Some officials estimate the labor force could fall by more than 80,000 farmworkers – down from the 450,000 workers whom farmers have come to rely on for the peak harvest of late summer.

"Basically, we're running out of low-skilled workers. People simply are not doing farm work to the extent they were doing before," said J. Edward Taylor, a University of California, Davis, economist who has studied the migration of farmworkers from Mexico.

California agricultural interests estimate that as many as 70 percent to 90 percent of farmworkers in the state may be here illegally, often presenting counterfeit documents to secure work.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

Contreras concedes his knees hurt when he climbs ladders to pick peaches, nectarines and plums for $8 to $9 an hour, six days a week, during the peak summer harvest.

My uncle, his brother, and their father before them, ran orchards for 70 years. They paid pickers "by the bushel". 25¢ a bushel for typical apples (more for peaches because you have to handle them more carefully). A good picker would pick from 80 to 120 bu. a day. An older person might only pick 60...but that was pretty much the "minimum". Pickers worked 7 hours usually, so that the "packing shed" workers had time to finish up sorting and packing the apples in boxes. A few pickers might stay on to load out a semi. $20-25 a day does not sound like much but the average wages was $1.20 an hour. So they made double the going minimum wage on average.

When he leased the orchard out after running it well into his 70s, the new operator brought in Mexican workers under a labor dept program. They were paid minimum wage, arrived in a bus and were housed on the operators other orchards where he had bunkhouses. They picked about 40 bu. a day...on a good day. You get what you pay for. The operator had to hire twice as many pickers. The "old hands" when told the wages was minimum wage, refused to work there. There was 100% turnover in the change of ownership.

I am convinced that in many such enterprises there is no incentive for people to work at low paying jobs. They can make more on welfare. But I would dispute the notion that immigrants do jobs "no American will do". College educated men will wade chicken and cow manure a foot deep when the incentive is right. And local teens looking for a summer job couldn't ask for a better paying one than apple picking by the bushel. But these jobs at minimum wages are jobs "no American will do at that price.." Pay them and you'd get the same amount of work with half the laborers...and, I bet if you pay immigrants by the bushel to pick apples your labor shortage would be over. And your old pickers would suddenly increase production by a large percentage.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

Apple’s Billion Dollar Project in Nevada

California lost out again

http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/apples-billion-dollar-project-in-nevada.html/

Reno, Nevada is already known to many Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) aficionados as the home of Braeburn Capital, the asset management company that handles Apple’s massive $135 billion cash hoard. However, as Apple Insider reports, there is something else that Apple is doing in the Nevada desert besides saving its money.

In anticipation of the expected large-scale consumer expansion into cloud computing, Apple has begun construction of a massive data center site located about 15 miles east of Reno. Apple’s Kristin Huguet stated via Apple Insider that the data center in Reno will “support Apple’s iTunes Store, App Store, and incredibly popular iCloud services.” The project is expected to cost over $1 billion.

Whereas Apple located Braeburn Capital in Reno because of the state’s lack of corporate income tax, several other different factors made Reno an attractive location for Apple’s data center site.

Although Nevada does have relatively low property and sales taxes (thanks to incentives approved by the local government), Apple was mostly interested in the availability of high-speed fiber optic conduits that are necessary for large data centers.

Since data centers are also notorious power hogs, Apple’s data center will be built at Reno Technology Park, which is conveniently located next to a power plant and large solar field. Several high-capacity power lines which connect to hydroelectric power sources in other states are also nearby, which gives Apple multiple options to ensure power is always available.

This will be Apple’s third major data center, in addition to the ones located in Maiden, North Carolina and Prineville, Oregon.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

Speaking of apples... I keep waiting for Apple to name some products after other varieties of apples, like they did the MacIntosh (Mac)...I'm thinking old fashion American Apples, not those foriegn jobs like Granny Smith (Austrailia); Gala (New Zealand); or Fuji (Japan). Maybe a Maiden Blush (some say NY, some say developed in New Jersey); a Jonathan (Ohio); and, of course, the Arkansas Black...where else?

Actually, one of the old fashion apples we used to grow locally was called a transparent, very pale flesh early apple and really good in pies - tart. Over-ripe on the tree, they were pretty good eating. It was developed in Europe if Wikipedia can be believed.

BTW, if you don't know apples are grafted and if an apple is allowed to seed itself, it is likely to revert back to a generic base plant unlike the apple it came from, or, often into some sort of new variety. And that is how most such varieties started, by chance.

There is an Idared apple - named after Idaho. But a very rare variety that may have disappeared was developed locally in NW Arkansas. It was an Ada Red, named after the farmer's daughter that found just such an oddball in a fence row. It was red and at one point the uncle above had the only commercial orchard of Ada Reds in the nation. The Univ. of Arkansas experimented with Ada Reds but the old Long Orchard has been demolished and outside a tree in the yard of the old farmhouse that had 5 varieties grafted to it, I doubt there is any Ada Reds on the planet if the Univ. hasn't kept them alive.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

An Energy Coup for Japan: ‘Flammable Ice’

Energy will be cheap everywhere in the world except the U.S.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/13/b....html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130313

Japan said Tuesday that it had extracted gas from offshore deposits of methane hydrate — sometimes called “flammable ice” — a breakthrough that officials and experts said could be a step toward tapping a promising but still little-understood energy source.

The gas, whose extraction from the undersea hydrate reservoir was thought to be a world first, could provide an alternative source of energy to known oil and gas reserves. That could be crucial especially for Japan, which is the world’s biggest importer of liquefied natural gas and is engaged in a public debate about whether to resume the country’s heavy reliance on nuclear power.

Experts estimate that the carbon found in gas hydrates worldwide totals at least twice the amount of carbon in all of the earth’s other fossil fuels, making it a potential game-changer for energy-poor countries like Japan. Researchers had already successfully extracted gas from onshore methane hydrate reservoirs, but not from beneath the seabed, where much of the world’s deposits are thought to lie.

The exact properties of undersea hydrates and how they might affect the environment are still poorly understood, given that methane is a greenhouse gas.

Experts say there are abundant deposits of gas hydrates in the seabed and in some Arctic regions. Japan, together with Canada, has already succeeded in extracting gas from methane hydrate trapped in permafrost soil. American researchers are carrying out similar test projects on the North Slope of Alaska.

According to the United States Geological Survey, recent mapping off the North Carolina and South Carolina coasts shows large offshore accumulations of methane hydrates. Canada, China, Norway and the United States are also exploring hydrate deposits.

Scientists at the geological survey note, however, that there is still a limited understanding of how drilling for hydrates might affect the environment, particularly the possible release of methane into the atmosphere, and are calling for continued research and monitoring.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

Methane hydrates exist all over the planet but extracting the gas is a big issue. Like shale gas, it also involves (usually) water and the hydrate is frozen in tandem with water by processes little understood. Getting the ice to the surface and capturing it without losing the gas into the atmosphere is the issue. Can it be "mined" in situ? Difficult to handle due to its temperature as well.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

Bankrupt San Bernardino threatens to sue California over taxes

http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuter...rdino_threatens_to_sue_California_over_taxes/

Bankrupt San Bernardino is threatening to sue the state of California over demands it owes millions of dollars in property taxes, the latest complication in the city's quest to fix its fiscal problems in federal bankruptcy court.

The bankruptcy of the city 65 miles east of Los Angeles is a national test case on whether the pensions of government workers take precedence over other payments in a municipal bankruptcy. It is a high stakes issue for pension plans and their beneficiaries, and for Wall Street bondholders who lend money to governments.

In letters dated February 21 and March 4, the California Department of Finance demanded the city pay $15.2 million in property taxes related to its former redevelopment agency. If the city does not pay the money by April 3, the state could dock the funds from San Bernardino's future sales and property tax revenues, the letters state.

In response, San Bernardino's city attorney said in a letter to California's state controller, John Chiang, that the threat to withhold tax revenue is "illegal" and a "willful violation" of federal bankruptcy law, which protects debtors from creditors' demands during proceedings.

If California does not withdraw its threat to dock future city revenue, "the city will have no choice but to institute proceedings" against the state controller and other state officials, James Penman, San Bernardino's city attorney, wrote in a March 8 letter.

A federal bankruptcy judge has yet to rule on the city's eligibility for bankruptcy protection, but in the meantime bankruptcy court protections against collection actions remain in place.

The bankruptcy court proceedings are still in an early stage, with the city and its creditors -- notably Calpers, the public employee retirement system -- wrangling over the production of financial records.

San Bernardino halted its twice monthly pension payments to Calpers in August, an unprecedented step for a city. Calpers argues that it takes primacy over other creditors in the bankruptcy, something Wall Street bondholders dispute.

The state finance department move follows a letter last week from California's state controller, alleging that San Bernardino misdirected over $500 million in assets and cash after its redevelopment agency was dissolved.

San Bernardino's RDA was one of about 400 eliminated last year across California as a result of legislation spearheaded by Governor Jerry Brown. The goal was to free up property tax revenues controlled by the RDAs for use in funding schools and other services.

San Bernardino's dispute with the state over RDA funds is not an isolated case, said Karol Denniston, an expert in municipal bankruptcy at Schiff Hardin law firm in San Francisco who is not involved in the San Bernardino case.

Many cities have received demands from the state over the allocation of RDA funds and are disputing them, she said. What makes San Bernardino unique is that it is the only one of these cities in bankruptcy.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

The Tonopah Solar Company in Harry Reid's Nevada is getting a $737 million loan from Obama's DOE. The project will produce a 110 megawatt power system and employ
45 permanent workers. That's costing us just $16 million per job. One of the investment partners in this endeavor is PacificCorporate Group (PCG). The PCG executive director is Ron Pelosi who is the brother to Nancy 's husband.
[url]http://www.factcheck.org/2011/12/ron-pelosis-connection-to-tonopah-solar-energy/[/URL]

 

[William K]

Just wondering about others thoughts are on the Cyprus deal where they are in essence taking/ stealing/ taxing all bank deposit accounts anywhere from 6% to 10% so that they can receive a bailout from the ECB,EU,IMF of their banking system. I see they have declared Tuesday a bank holiday so there wont be a run and may have to extend it to Weds.
I anticipate that this could lead to a run on banks across Europe as depositors fear a similar fate due to lax controls over the banking system.
So how long before it reaches banks here?

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

Cyprus problems relate to Greece...
To borrow a headline

The country desperately needs 17.5 billion euros in bailout funding to recapitalize its troubled banks and pay its bills on time after taking a hit from its large exposure to the Greek economy.