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Iceland president rejects Icesave bill

admin — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 00:15:05 +0000

The President of Iceland, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, has decided that the latest Icesave bill will be sent to a public referendum.

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Iceland president rejects Icesave bill

Market Wrap-Up for Feb.18 (JWN, CF, DLR, SWK, EOG, WTW, more)

admin — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 04:14:22 +0000

We’re saw a gradual rise for the DOW as other indices remained fairly flat, finishing what has been a generally solid week for the averages. We added a new yield-focused name to our recommended list today, while also removing three growth names from our list as well. Be sure to check out Dividend.com Premium for those stories if you did not read the e-mail alerts we sent out earlier today. Elsewhere, earnings results are lifting shares of Digital Realty Trust ( DLR ), a recent addition to our recommended list. Nordstrom ( JWN ) bounced off of earlier levels and closed higher following the company’s earnings report, as well as news the company was buying a private sales e-commerce company. Wall Street upgrades pushed several stocks higher, including Stanley Black & Decker ( SWK ), EOG Resources ( EOG ), and Raytheon ( RTN ). On the downside, fertilizer play CF Industries ( CF ) sold off after reporting better-than-expected results. Weight Watchers ( WTW ) also gave back just a smidgen of yesterday’s huge gains. The speculation in the venture capital space continues to rage on as we continue to hear about huge rounds of money being raised at ever-climbing market valuations. Mark Cuban just came out with some comments that echoed what I have been saying about the “game” that is going on, where eventually regular investors get burned with the usual late invitations to participate (post-IPO after the insiders have already cashed…

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Market Wrap-Up for Feb.18 (JWN, CF, DLR, SWK, EOG, WTW, more)

Blinder Understates Cost of Carbon Tax

admin — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 22:57:48 +0000

In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal , Alan Blinder listed numerous alleged benefits of a phased-in carbon tax. Out of his entire column, he devoted a single sentence to the possible downside of his plan when he wrote, “No one likes to pay higher taxes.” A more balanced assessment shows that a carbon tax presents very real dangers, even if we rely on the same economic analysis that so enthralled Blinder. Spurring Innovation through Higher Taxes? Here’s Blinder explaining the economic benefits of a carbon tax that starts out low, but will eventually become quite steep: “Once America’s entrepreneurs and corporate executives see lucrative opportunities from carbon-saving devices and technologies, they will start investing right away — and in ways that make the most economic sense. I don’t know whether all this innovation will lead to 80% of our electricity being generated by clean energy sources in 2035, which is the president’s goal. But I can hardly wait to witness the outpouring of ideas it would unleash. The next Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are waiting in the wings to make themselves rich by helping the environment.” We should also be clear that Blinder’s argument for job creation does not rely on the “negative externalities” of carbon emissions. Earlier in the piece, he made a list of the “few nice side effects” that would result from a carbon tax: “reducing our trade deficit, making our economy more efficient, ameliorating global warming …” Because he puts global warming at third in the list, we see that there is nothing peculiar to greenhouse gases behind his main argument for job creation. No, Blinder is making the simple observation that if the government imposes artificial costs on the…

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Blinder Understates Cost of Carbon Tax

Bambuser blocked in Egypt (Live video site)

admin — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 07:04:27 +0000

The Swedish live video streaming site Bambuser says its service has been blocked in Egypt. The site, which provides live video from mobile phones and webcams, says the interruption began Tuesday, shortly after the start of unprecedented nationwide demonstratons against the 30 year rule of President Hosni Mubarak. Måns Adler, who founded the site in 2007, tells AFP he is convinced the Egyptian government is behind the blockage. “The Internet provider is probably the one that can deny access to different websites and services,” he says, “but in this case we believe that the Egyptian government has asked the Internet providers to shut down a range of services.” The Swedish website is reportedly very popular in Egypt, where Egyptians use it to stream videos directly from their country. During the general elections there late last year, some 10,000 videos filmed in the country were posted on Bambuser It was earlier reported that the micro-blogging site Twitter has been blocked in Egypt. Social media were instrumental in the recent wave of protests in Tunisia.

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Bambuser blocked in Egypt (Live video site)

Obama’s TSA pat-downs joke infuriates ACLU

admin — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 00:06:30 +0000

During his third State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Barack Obama cracked a joke about TSA pat-downs – and earned an immediate rebuke from the ACLU.

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Obama’s TSA pat-downs joke infuriates ACLU

Free Afiuni, Political Prisoner of Hugo Chavez

admin — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 07:18:55 +0000

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez maintains in detention varying numbers of political prisoners at any given time, but the case which has stood out the most over the past year has been that of Judge Maria Lourdes Afiuni. Imprisoned for no…

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Free Afiuni, Political Prisoner of Hugo Chavez

Obama Administration Plans Internet ID for All Americans

admin — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 07:56:44 +0000

Fox News | President Obama is putting plans in motion to give the Commerce Department authority to create an Internet ID for all Americans, a White House official told CNET.com.

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Obama Administration Plans Internet ID for All Americans

OPEC’s Cheating and Peak Oil

admin — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 23:56:47 +0000

Editor’s Note: In light of recent energy price spikes, this article by my colleague Nick Hodge seems especially relevant. It was originally published in our sister publication, Energy and Capital . If you’re interested in learning more about peak oil — and its implications for investors — EAC is a daily must-read. Adam Sharp Analyst, Wealth Daily —————————— Now that peak oil production has passed , all sorts of interesting tidbits are emerging. Take the December 13th BusinessWeek article that declared OPEC is cheating the most since 2004… Apparently, the oil cartel pumped 26.78 million barrels per day (mmbd) this year. Yet they have a production limit of only 24.845 mmbd, set at the end of 2008 in response to the recession. So your friendly neighborhood fuel gang has been breaking its output limit by 1.934 million barrels — everyday, all year long. ~~SIGNUP_WD~~ With crude at its highest price in two years, overproduction allows OPEC members to boost profits without formally changing output targets. An extra 1.934 mmbd at $80 works out to a nice “informal” $56.47 billion boost. OPEC’s been lying… That’s nothing new. What’s important here is to note the willingness to extract as much as they can as prices rise. Analysts, start your engines If the price of oil creeps high enough, OPEC will officially raise its target to cash in. $100 seems to be the obvious trigger to make that happen, and the consensus is that it will happen this year. Oil’s at $91.43 as I write this�— up 30% from the year’s low. Goldman says it’ll “average $100 in 2010 and $110 in 2012.” JPMorgan says we’ll see $120 by the end of 2012. Adding to the pricing fire, U.S. stockpiles declined by 19 million barrels this month thanks to intense cold and holiday travel. That’s the biggest monthly decrease since December 2006. I’m sure you’ve noticed gas station marquee numbers are back on the march. A $3.00 appetizer Prices at the pump have officially broken $3.00 for the first time since October 2008. And they aren’t expected to ease anytime soon. John Hofmeister (former President of Shell, current Head of Citizens for Affordable Energy) is touring TV land this week with a new prediction: We’ll be paying $5.00 per gallon in less than two years, and sometime between 2018 and 2020 there will be another 1970s-style energy shortage requiring rationing. And this guy didn’t just jump on the bandwagon; he’s been saying for years that “the last days of affordable gas are behind us.” He’s been attacking our national energy policy since the turn of the century, saying business as usual would lead us to an “energy abyss”. And like an ever-increasing cadre of oil execs, he admits conventional oil production is in decline, and is convinced we must turn to unconventional sources to fill the gap�— and avoid gas station rationing. There’s still time to put this trend to work for your portfolio. Oil at $…

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OPEC’s Cheating and Peak Oil

General Electric Sells Mexican Mortgage Business (GE)

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 20:31:26 +0000

Multinational conglomerate General Electric Company ( GE ) said that its GE Capital unit has sold its Mexican consumer mortgage business to Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico. The sale includes a $2 billion consumer mortgage portfolio. Financial terms of the move haven’t yet been announced, but the deal is expected to close in the first half of 2011. Mark Begor, President and CEO of GE Capital, Restructuring Operations, said that “This sale is consistent with our strategy to exit non-strategic businesses that lack scale to help reduce GE Capital’s balance sheet while investing in core industrial and commercial finance platforms, including in Mexico.” General Electric shares were mostly flat in premarket trading Monday. The Bottom Line We have been recommending shares of General Electric ( GE ) since July 23, 2010, when the stock was trading at $15.21. The company has a 3.10% dividend yield, based on Friday’s closing stock price of $18.04. General Electric Company ( GE ) is not recommended at this time, holding a Dividend.com DARS™ Rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars. Be sure to visit our complete recommended list of the Best Dividend Stocks , as well as a detailed explanation of our ratings system here .

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General Electric Sells Mexican Mortgage Business (GE)

Ultra-Deepwater Rigs are Back

admin — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 04:17:55 +0000

Ben Bernanke, head of the Federal Reserve, went on 60 Minutes over the weekend and talked about a third round of quantitative easing (QE3).� I’m of the opinion that you can’t spend your way out of a debt crisis, but Ben believes in “priming the pump” by spending — or loaning to banks, anyway. And by banks, we mean the massive trading companies that got us into this mess to begin with. Bernanke thinks that by giving money to banks so that they can loan it will spur small business growth and other spending… The problem is that money is like your ex-girlfriend; it goes where it is treated best. And right now, the market believes that the commodity super-cycle spurred by emerging market demand and inflationary fears will continue to push higher. Unintended consequences As I write this, oil is running just shy of $90 a 26-month high. Gold popped up to $1,424 — a near record. Silver is at a 30-year high. According to the Associated Press , Bernanke said he hopes the Fed’s bond buying will lower bond yields and encourage investment in stocks, boosting business activity and economic growth in the country. But what is happening is that — at a time when we need inexpensive commodities to lower costs — we have record prices in coal and gasoline will average more than $3.00 a gallon by Christmas. If you remember the sharp rise in commodity prices (most notably oil to $147 a barrel) crushed the U.S. economy back in 2008. The low price of oil ($33bbl) coincided with the bottom in March of 2009. (Oil is black, SP500 is gold in the chart below): � The shakeout in commodities also took out a host of highly-leveraged hedge funds as they got crushed with margin calls. The New York Times reported in March 2009 that more than 200 hedge funds went under with losses of $84 billion. In December 2008, I recommended buying four gold companies that were trading at less than cash at the time. This was back when gold miners were sold off to a negative market value during a severe economic crisis, and when the gold price was moving up as a safe haven. That is the power of speculators in the commodities market. � And right now, the speculators are being fed free money from Ben…

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Ultra-Deepwater Rigs are Back

Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup

admin — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 22:50:08 +0000

THIS WEEK: By Ken Haapala, Executive Vice President Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP) This week the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment of the US House of Representatives held a hearing entitled: “A Rational Discussion of Climate Change: the Science, … Continue reading →

High Stakes on START

admin — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 17:47:58 +0000

An editorial in the Guardian argues that a failure on behalf of the U.S. Senate to ratify the START treaty would cause significant damage to the president’s ability to be taken seriously on the world stage. However the authors fail…

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High Stakes on START