Thursday, May 17, 2012

More Japanese Government Meddling in the Economy



Need proof of my contention that shutting down nuclear power plants will seriously hurt our economic situation in Japan and cause a massive increase in costs (backdoor taxes) to the average Japanese who, ultimately, is going to be funding the financial catastrophe Japan is heading for? The Australian reports that the Japanese government - already in the most massive debt to GDP in the entire world, is about to use taxpayers money to guarantee a business venture amongst a consortium of privately owned corporations in Japan: 



TROUBLED Japanese utility Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) has radically scaled back its plan to invest in the $29 billion Wheatstone gas project in Western Australia in the wake of last year's tsunami disaster that destroyed the Fukushima nuclear plant and almost destroyed the company.
But a government-backed Japanese consortium appears poised to rescue the deal by paying $4.4 billion for a 10 per cent stake in the Chevron-operated Wheatstone gas fields development and an 8 per cent stake in the LNG project.


...



The Japanese government was last week forced to bail out TEPCO by injecting 1 trillion yen as part of a 10-year restructuring aimed at preventing one of the world's biggest utilities from sliding into bankruptcy.
TEPCO and the Japanese government will hold stakes of 8 per cent and 42 per cent respectively in a special purpose company set up to acquire the Wheatstone stake, the paper reported. Mitsubishi and Nippon Yusen will control around 40 per cent and 10 per cent respectively.



What!? TEPCO gets bailed out with taxpayer then gets to own part of the new project? 


If this was a good deal, then the government needn't get involved... But, they will use taxpayers money to protect private industry from losses. If these companies make profits, they pocket them. If they lose money, the government takes taxpayers monies and bails them out.... This is State Controlled Capitalism... Used to be called Fascism... 


And some people think that the government needs to do more about the economy, the environment and our daily lives?


Haven't they screwed things up enough as it is?

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