Economic News/Discussion

[AMDScooter]

^^^ By "new phase" don't you mean the next logical step in the progression? Ain't hard to see the writing on the wall.

[kbohip]

Honestly I don't know why CNG isn't far more popular than it is now. Oh wait I know, it's because the US (especially eastern Colorado cha-ching) sits on vast reserves of tight gas. Sooo much land in eastern Colorado can be bought right now for next to nothing. It would be incredible what would happen to it overnight if there was even a hint that the natural gas there was soon to be extracted.

Calling natural gas a mineral could be quite the challenge. I've no doubt though that our government and it's endless resources of lawyers would be up to it though.

Mineral Rights is a catch all term that applies to most if not all subsurface.

Just saw this in our local paper today. It goes right along with what you were saying Falcon.

The Gazette reported last week that there is growing interest in natural gas speculation in El Paso County, where 75,000 acres of land has been leased. For those who want to work on a drilling rig this may be good news, but natural gas activity won’t do much for anyone else, and it could do irreparable harm.

Private landowners don’t own the mineral rights beneath the surface and under federal law, energy companies can pay token amounts before moving the rigs in.

Read more: http://www.gazette.com/articles/gas-...#ixzz1GQ11JIBZ

[falcon_view]

kbohip, this caught me by surprise. Smog in Wyoming????

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11072/1131689-84.stm

[AeroSim]

Remember the definition of Foreign Aid:

"Foreign aid is the process of taking money from poor people in rich countries and giving it to rich people in poor countries."

[Enmore]

Stocks on the Japanese market are nose diving in the first full day of trading since the disaster:

Sony were down about 11% when I last looked.

Toshiba (who make nuclear reactors among other things) are predicted to be heavily exposed. By the looks of it their shares have been suspended already (until 3pm Tokyo time at least).



This will no doubt sweep round the world as markets open.

[AeroSim]

kbohip, this caught me by surprise. Smog in Wyoming????

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11072/1131689-84.stm

Pinedale is at 7200ft elevation and is by some pretty interesting country. Western Wyoming is one of the richest fossil fuel areas in the world and this wouldn't surprise me on a calm day when an air pocket may develop. Some places you can see coal veins on the surface. Here's a shot:



Of course, having a calm day over most of the state ....

You know what they call a 5/8th chain in Wyoming?



Great hunting & fishing up there, btw.
_____________

The entire Nikkei has gone down about 6%.

This brings to mind the Pac Rim- that's two ~9.0s in the area- the other in 2004 in Indonesia. I'm hoping this isn't a trend.

[AeroSim]

Another fall out of the Japan tragedy:

Nuclear is getting clobbered all over:

NLR: 22.50 -3.01 -11.8%

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12735019

And they are still getting hit with sizable aftershocks:

8 hours ago 6.1 Off the east coast of Honshu, Japan
13 hours ago 5.8 Near the east coast of Honshu, Japan
3 days ago 8.9 Near the east coast of Honshu, Japan

earthquake.usgs.gov

Another aftershock:

Both the Hang Seng and Kospi are up- likely in anticipation of making up the slack expected in the Japanese production.

Business is a pretty cold-blooded affair. Fortunately the Yen and oil prices are holding fairly well.

[AeroSim]

It's bad-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12733393

Technicians are battling to stabilise a third reactor at a quake-stricken Japanese nuclear plant, which has been rocked by a second blast in three days.

The fuel rods inside reactor 2 at the Fukushima Daiichi were fully exposed on two occasions, although the IAEA has said there are no signs of a meltdown.
....

A cooling system breakdown preceded explosions at the plant's reactor 3 on Monday and reactor 1 on Saturday.

The latest hydrogen blast injured 11 people, one of them seriously. It was felt 40km (25 miles) away and sent a huge column of smoke into the air.

The outer building around the reactor was largely destroyed.

The fuel rod exposure at Fukushima Daiichi number 2 reactor is potentially the most serious event so far at the plant.

A local government official confirmed the fuel rods were at one point largely, if not totally exposed; but we do not know for exactly how long.

Without coolant around the rods, temperatures can rise to hundreds of degrees Celsius, almost certainly resulting in some melting.

This opens the possibility of a serious meltdown - where molten, highly radioactive reactor core falls through the floor of the containment vessel and into the ground underneath.

However, engineers appear to have restored some water flow into the reactor vessel and if they are successful, temperatures will begin to fall again rapidly.

But as with the first explosion, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said the thick containment walls shielding the reactor cores remained intact. It also said radiation levels outside were still within legal limits.
....

Shortly after the blast, Tepco warned that it had lost the ability to cool Fukushima Daiichi's reactor 2.

Hours later, the company revealed that the fuel rods inside had been exposed fully at one point, reportedly for about two-and-a-half hours. It said a fire pump that had been used to pump seawater into the reactor had run out of fuel.

The company is now trying to inject sea water into the reactor to cover the fuel rods, cool them down and prevent another explosion.
....

As if that isn't bad enough ...

About 2,000 bodies had been found washed ashore on beaches in the north-eastern prefecture of Miyagi, police said.

From what I know of Japan, we may never get a handle on how many have been lost- but the number may be well over what is published.

[AeroSim]

Well, we may be seeing a panic run across the board today:

Crude Oil 97.75 -3.44
Gold 1390.30 -38.50 -2.69%
Silver 33.94 -2.00 -5.56%

Advice: For those of you saner heads- know where to cut your losses and be looking for opportunities

[AeroSim]

^^^ More

NIKKEI 8,605.15 -1,015.34 -10.55%
KOSPI 1,923.92 -47.31 -2.40%
HANG SENG 22,678.25 -667.63 -2.86%

About at opening bell:
Dow 11,747.34 -245.82 -2.05%
SP500 1,267.34 -29.05 -2.24%

[AeroSim]

Looks like a lot of people have confidence that Japan will recover as today the Nikkei recovered about half of their losses. However, I wouldn't expect dividends from some of their companies for a while and some are slipping on the NYSE early on anyhow (eg Sony: SNE).

Despite that, Japan's woes look to help people overlook the abject failure of the US government and the Federal Reserve to resuscitate the economy.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/fal...dist=bigcharts

New construction of U.S. housing units plunged in February, erasing a sharp gain in January and coming close to an all-time-low level.

Starts fell 22.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 479,000, the Commerce Department said. This is just 0.4% above the record low of 477,000 units set in April 2009.

The symptoms are there, baby. The people are getting poorer and the consumption-based populace is evaporating.

My take? People, the truth is they did NOT stimulate the economy with trillions in borrowed money, but squandered almost all of it on the irresponsible parties who created the mess in the first place. It would have been cheaper to imprison the entire cadre of financial and government people who took part in the massacre of our country's wealth and business/employment opportunities.

One more time: We the People are going to have to get involved to fix it. Do not trust our government to do so on their own anymore. The people you are voting in may likely not be anything close to the people you thought they were ... and should have been.

Separate banks and state. Defeat the debt ceiling increase and reform our monetary policy.

[Dutchcedar]

The White House Office of Management and Budget projects that in the current fiscal year (2011), mandatory spending alone will exceed all federal receipts.

Mandatory spending as a percentage of total federal receipts, by year, according to published White House figures:

1970: roughly 33 percent
2000: 47 percent
2005: 61 percent
2010: 90 percent
2011: 101 percent

Hey, do ya ever get the feeling that our government absolutely sucks at governing?

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/...11_554659.html

[AeroSim]

Hey, do ya ever get the feeling that our government absolutely sucks at governing?

....

Well, I know FOR SURE they suk at math.

[AeroSim]

Well, it's too early to say for sure but methinks I maybe smelling a bear.

It looks like at least a general market correction is in the works-

NY market close:

DJIA 11,613.30 -242.12 -2.04%
NASDQ 2,616.82 -50.51 -1.89%
SP100 1,256.88 -24.99 -1.95%

As of this hour on the world markets:

KOSPI 1,943.26 -14.71 -0.75
NIKKEI 8,903.86 -189.86 -2.09
HANGSENG 22,238.90 -461.98 -2.04

Gold 1390.10 -11.40 -0.81%
Silver 33.81 -0.45 -1.31%
Oil 97.55-$0.55

Should be an interesting day tomorrow.

Hope you are all enjoying your stimulating recovery as well ....

[kbohip]

Well, it's too early to say for sure but methinks I maybe smelling a bear.

It looks like at least a general market correction is in the works-

NY market close:

DJIA 11,613.30 -242.12 -2.04%
NASDQ 2,616.82 -50.51 -1.89%
SP100 1,256.88 -24.99 -1.95%

As of this hour on the world markets:

KOSPI 1,943.26 -14.71 -0.75
NIKKEI 8,903.86 -189.86 -2.09
HANGSENG 22,238.90 -461.98 -2.04

Gold 1390.10 -11.40 -0.81%
Silver 33.81 -0.45 -1.31%
Oil 97.55-$0.55

Should be an interesting day tomorrow.

Hope you are all enjoying your stimulating recovery as well ....

Never fear Aerosim, this is nothing to worry about. It's all Japan's fault you see. Oh well, at least they have an excuse to run with this time.