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Japanese probe reveals more on how a NYK containership crushed a US destroyer a quarter of its size
The crew of the guided-missile destroyer that was struck by a 2,858-TEU ship four times its size in June off the coast of Japan fought to save the ship for an hour before the first calls went out for help, say Japanese investigators.
According to the US Naval Institute News, the collision of USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) and the Philippine-flagged ACX Crystal knocked out the destroyer’s communications for an hour, while the box ship was unaware of what it hit until it doubled back and found the damaged warship, two sources familiar with the ongoing Japanese investigation told USNI News.
Investigators think the Crystal was transiting to Tokyo on autopilot with an inattentive or asleep crew when the box ship struck a glancing blow on the destroyer’s starboard side at 1:30am Saturday June 17.
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Using tax credits to raise US$1 trillion to replace US Interstate Highways and bridges
The big turnaround project confronting the Donald Trump Administration is the US$1 trillion infrastructure spending programme that stands to energise Middle America.
The US President's troubles with repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, has proven problematical just as his plans to reform tax code have stalled.
While there is much to dispute in health care and tax reform, there is little or no argument about the need to replace America's infrastructure, its crumbling highways and bridges, its antiquated air traffic control system among many other things.
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Decade of American dredging heralds new era of great prosperity for America and the world
Before the massive dredging of American harbours, the United States was closed to mega ships because of its shallow waters, and some say, shallow thinking.
But now, with US$1 trillion expected in infrastructure spending to replace America's crumbling Interstate Highways, even greater prosperity is in the offing today.
Dredging US harbours brought fresh spending power to the Democratic coastal regions during the Obama years. Now massive highway spending in Republican "fly-over states" will generate even greater prosperity.
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NAFTA narrows Mexican income disparity, giving more workers more to spend
THERE is good reason to believe that northern Mexico has developed into a promising market for affordable Asian goods if research into the effects of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is to be credited.
"I find that men with low incomes get a boost from NAFTA in their wages while NAFTA has a negative effect for those with high incomes. Thus, trade liberalisation appears to have decreased income disparities," said Rafael Garduno Rivera, who specialises in agriculture and economic studies at the University of Illinois.
Dr Rivera's paper, "NAFTA's Distributional Effect on Mexico", also said that this trade leads to more migration since the US market appears to be increasing in importance, whereas the domestic market represented by Mexico City has become relatively less important.
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