Fukushima

Hope springs eternal for Japan’s Reconstruction Agency, which is running a sponsored content campaign in the Financial Times, to attract travelers to its Fukushima Prefecture, which in 2011 suffered the biggest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

RA wants to lure travelers who are ready to hit the road as COVID-19 fades and are thirsting for new destinations.

The Agency puts all its cards on the table, acknowledging that Fukushima “has been greatly affected by the accident at TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.”

It seeks to entice visitors by stating, “After suffering a triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident in March 2011, the region has been recovering at a remarkable speed.”

Beyond the stricken nuclear complex, the region features magnificent landscape, wildlife, ponds, lakes and resort hotels.

The RA website has a “Let’s Learn About Radiation” section that says “normal life” exists in 97.6 percent of the region. Radiation is only high in the sealed off “difficult-to-return zones.”

The marketing push uses the tagline: “Isn’t that image getting old? It’s time to update Fukushima in your mind.” I think I'll stick with a trip to the Catskills.

Japan’s Nikkei Inc. owns the FT.

The military fat cats get fatter. The US State Dept. on Feb. 18 fast-tracked the approval of the $6B sale of 250 Abrams tanks to Poland, in light of the potential Russian invasion of Ukraine.

General Dynamics CEO Phebe Novakovic on Oct. 27, 2021 predicted US approval for the deal could take up to two years.

Her firm is one of America’s Top 5 military contractors, a group that includes Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

The Pentagon has warned that consolidation of the military-industrial complex is jacking up prices for weapons systems.

It released a report on Feb. 15 calling for tougher oversight of defense company mergers and called for more small businesses to bid on contracts.

That’s easier said than done because there just aren’t that many contractors with the financial clout to compete with the big guys as an acquisition wave beginning in 1990 has trimmed the number of prime military contractors from 51 in 1990 to five today.

As for small businesses, it isn’t very easy to break into the tank business.

US judge Arthur Engoron earns the “No Spin Zone Award" (Hat tip to former Fox talking head Bill O’Reilly) for destroying the Trump Organization’s legal strategy in New York state’s probe of its finances.

It attempted to put a positive spin on the decision by Mazars accounting firm to walk away from 10 years of financial reports.

Mazars admitted the reports “do not contain any material discrepancies,” which to TO’s legal eagles made the New York probe moot.

Engoron likened the lawyers’ argument to slogans like “War Is Peace” in George Orwell’s “1984”; to Lewis Carroll’s sayings in “Through the Looking Glass”; and Kellyanne Conway’s “alternative facts.”

It's too bad Engoron wasn’t around to analyze the magical thinking during the Trump White House.

Trump’s financial guru Allen Weisselberg also had a great line about the claim that the former president’s 30,000 sq. ft. triplex (Fact Check: the apartment is 11K sq ft) was worth $327M.

Weisselberg admitted the apartment was overvalued by “give or take” $200M.

Touche, Allen.