A refining bottleneck??? And just how did that happen? My take (rant) documented at http://getoddnews.com/2009/06/25/gas-wars-and-woes/ is that you have an effective oil olograchy manipulating the market.
TEHRAN (FNA)- The Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPOI) announced that it plans to exclude the US dollar from the country's foreign exchange reserves.
Since October 2007, Iran has received 85 percent of its oil revenues in currencies other than the US dollar and Tehran is determined to find a substitute for the US dollar for the rest of its 15 percent of oil revenues, the report added.
Iran suggests other currencies such as the euro and the United Arab Emirates' dirham to replace the US dollar for oil revenues.
It looks like Iran will be the first nation to totally reject the dollar. No wonder we are rattling sabers at them.
More important is the developments in Russia.
(RIA Novosti) - Russia is ready to consider using the Russian and Chinese national currencies instead of the dollar in bilateral oil and gas dealings, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.
The premier, currently on a visit to Beijing, said a final decision on the issue can only be made after a thorough expert analysis.
"Yesterday, energy companies, in particular Gazprom, raised the question of using the national currency. We are ready to examine the possibility of selling energy resources for rubles, but our Chinese partners need rubles for that. We are also ready to sell for yuans," Putin said.
He stressed that "there should be a balance here."
On Tuesday, Russia and China agreed terms for Russian gas deliveries at a level of up to 70 billion cubic meters a year. China also imports oil from Russia.
I was just ripped off by my employer in August, and have experienced this for myself. It's true. As long as the amount you were paid divided by your total hours worked averages out to be minimum wage or higher, the DOL WHD will do nothing.
Today's headline in St. Pete Times: Unemployment hits 11%. This is for the state, of course, and is all the more noteworthy when you consider the age structure -- if memory serves, the 65 and over category is about 18% statewide, and in the Tampa Bay area well over 20%. The unemployment rate in the Tampa Bay area was cited at 11.7% -- and that's only the official rate. Wells Fargo Securities analyst was quoted in the article as saying the nationwide rate would peak at 10.5% and Florida at 11.5%. Both Mort Zuckerman and Pat Buchanan have opined that the real current rate should be more like 17% if you include discouraged workers and underemployed. Even Larry Kudlow is getting worried. I have been in the Chauncey Gardiner camp for a while now, and am willing to look for green shoots if I can find any. This year's tourist season will be telling for the state.
Frank T.
Also interesting is the fact that Krugman now says economy recovering quicker than he expected, http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/16/a-smidgen-of-optimism/
...tout that gold is at an all-time high, they ignore the 'Paul Harvey Rest of the Story':
The msm states that gold is at an all-time high. In real, inflation adjusted terms, it is no where near it.
Gold in 1979, ignoring the panic spike up to $900 in the beginning of 1980 due to the surprise Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, was at it's high around $530.
Adjust that for 3.5% inflation, and the 'real' price is $2340 in 2009 dollars. Just think if we use the $900 price.
A few months ago, my brother and I were driving through our nation's capital, admiring the architecture and the monuments, when we stopped at a stop light outside/in front of the the Treasury Department. He quickly shut the radio and air conditioner fan off, rolled down the windows and said 'Shhhhhhh....do you hear it?' I asked 'what'?
His response? "Can't you hear that noise?"
Me: What? (listening to the engine for some mechanic's blood curdling noise)
Him: The sound of the printing presses printing all the money! Look! There's smoke coming from all the windows of the Treasury Department!
With the money being printed faster than a computer can count, we are headed for serious inflation, even if the dollar gets strong.
I live in MA and I can only offer anecdotal evidence which backs up this figure, but keep in mind this figure is never discussed in local media as being this large: huge spike in food pantry use was headlined within the last 10 days as well as the fact that pantry supplies are dangerously low for the high demand; a local freshman state rep told me and about 8 others gathered for a political event back in March that his office hears daily from different constituents about to lose their homes - just utter despair; my sister-in-law works in public education and our local high school saw 26 high schoolers transfer into the public high school from private high schools in JANUARY....they could not even finish out the year at the private school - all due to tuition costs and being unable to pay the new semester. It disrupted the public school budget - keep in mind this number is one town, but it is repeating all around in surrounding communities - the school department had never seen an influx of students that large all at one time. This story is repeating itself all over the state. Private schools are hurting. UMASS, the state subsidized state university, has a freshman class with the highest GPA and highest SAT scores in it's history and if anyone thinks the economy had nothing to do with that fact they are naive. The Governor just announced that a budget shortfall could necessitate the laying off of 2000 state employees,in addition to up to 9 unpaid furlough days for some others within gov't, possibly massive cuts in local aid which will translate into further cuts locally no doubt; possible sale of state owned property......if anyone doesn't think that the stimulus bill should have been bigger .....just ask state and local government officials.
As for why these numbers are so high in MA? One possible reason - large number of coastal communities/suburbs of Boston are home to a large number of financial service employees and they took a big hit around here. Everyone knows someone who lost a job in financials or who does not work on State St or in the financial district anymore. Huge Mcmansions had replaced 'teardowns', no doubt with jumbo mortgages, and they are now sporting for sale signs. Realtors are crying. Lawn services could be seen and manuevered around on certain streets and neighborhoods constantly....now they are a rare sight.
We, as a state, do not have a spending problem....we have a revenue problem. Yet all the public officials can talk about are cuts. Cuts in turn lead to more severe consequences.
And the downward spiral continues and people wonder why?
I wonder why supposedly smart people do not know or understand Keynesian economics.
and we have our Congress gutting everything under the sun, literally puppets for the very companies and special interests to got us into this mess in the first place.
James, your comments have become almost an automatic 5 rating for me. Your mention of "Pappy Bush" makes me wonder whether you have read Russ Baker's excellent book, "Family of Secrets". If you haven't you should do. You won't be disappointed.
As far as Spitzer is concerned, I was deeply disappointed that his transgressions short circuited the large amount of good he could have done as Governor of NY. However, we should all realize it was just "payback" for his tireless efforts to uncover, and prosecute corruption on Wall Street as NY's Attorney General. He is a very smart guy who understands how the investment bank crooks think. And he knows how to connect the dots.
To this end, I would mention that Matt Taibbi's latest article for Rolling Stone, Wall Street's Naked Swindle is now available online. I read it last night and it is extremely enlightening. Not that we haven't discussed naked short selling here at EP, but this puts it into a real life perspective: The Assassination of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers. It is an absolute must read and I GUARANTEE that there will be things in there that you haven't heard or considered before.
But I digress somewhat. There are others around the blogoshpere that are doing the hard work of muckraking and shouting out the truth. Yves Smith has become increasingly more critical of the Washington/Wall Street cabal. Simon Johnson, William Black, Michael Hudson, Paul Craig Roberts, and others have been and are increasingly being more vociferous in their condemnation of the status quo. Next Tuesday, October 20th, PBS's Frontline is offering "The Warning", which reportedly will look at the financial meltdown, why it happened and who might have prevented it. I am very much interested in this piece because Frontline usually does a superb investigative job and I think it might dovetail nicely with Taibbi's article.
Full disclosure, I am in the "salted and barren" on this site's poll. I think major damage has been done to the US society and nothing is going to make that better in the short, or even medium term. But I am also of a vindictive nature and it will soothe my misery to witness the utter demise and devastation of our current ruling classes.
I think that every effort of the Elliot Spitzer's, Paul Craig Roberts, Simon Johnson's, Yves Smith's, Alexander Cockburn's, Midtowng's, RebelCapitalist's, Matt Taibbi's, Ian Welsh's, Karl Denninger's, Bill Bonners', James Kwak's, Joe Stiglitz's, Satyajit Das', Bill Moyers', Robert Oak's and, yes, the James Woolley's of our time, to identify and expose the corruption in our government is to be lauded. If nothing else, it keeps us all sane.
I have long been a "junkie" for econ, finance, political blogs. I enjoy the fine writing and investigative talents. And, I love to read the comments sections on the well read blogs. To this end, I am sensing lately that the level of understanding of just how much we, the public, have been screwed is gaining. I am seeing less "hope" for change "we can believe in", and more resignation and outrage as to how corrupt the whole financial and political system is.
Perhaps it is a fantasy, that this not only can't be changed but, that it will go unpunished. To that I ask, what is the alternative? Are we going to just let the fucking bastards get away with their scam?
Not me. I may go down, but I'm taking as many of these cheating, conniving assholes with me as possible.
Without ignoring the power of the media to from public opinion, I think the sanguineness of the masses implies that they have not yet felt ‘real economic pain’.
It is common to hear references to the 1960s Civil Rights and Vietnam protests. But, I don’t think it is understood that the ‘cause’ of those protest was ‘pain’. The pain that Black Folk felt during Jim Crow segregation era and the empathy for Black Folk by many Whites brought out the protesters.
Also, it is, to my mind, a misunderstanding of the Vietnam War protest to call them ‘anti-war’. It is quantitatively demonstrable that the great mass protests were during the days of the draft. After the draft ended, the size of the protest significantly dropped off. But the war went on with even great viciousness – e.g. the B-52 bombing of Hanoi and other North Vietnam cities.
In short, pain is at least a correlate (I think cause) of the 1960s mass protest -the pain of segregation and the pain of the draft. It is a reasonable hypothesis to posit that the absence of mass protest about today’s economy implies that the pain threshold of the mass has not yet been reached. It is also a reasonable hypothesis that we are very close to that threshold. I think the masters of the economy are very aware of that threshold and the iron hand they have on the ‘happy’ media is indicative of their fear that we will cross that threshold. Just a thought.
Tom
Yet one needs to "piss out there" to get people thinking "outside the box".
He notes that Apple and a few others withdrew their membership from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over their anti-environmental lobbyist activities.
I think there is something to hate for most businesses from that organization, not just regular middle class.
They have also promoted some serious job killing agendas, which gravely affects smaller businesses, who are not in the business of labor arbitrage so much, they are just trying to turn a profit on their business model....
and in terms of trade on that one, that too has killed off many a manufacturing business, esp. the smaller ones.
So, there are many reasons a business might consider withdrawing their membership...literally from a business perspective.
I hate to be a naysayer, but the US Chamber of Commerce behaves and functions more like a multinational anti-free enterprise, pro-corporate fascism outfit.
Back in the early '00s, monies funneled through Bush's Dept. of Commerce, to individual Chamber of Commerces in major cities throughout America, were used to give seminars to local corporations on the most efficient ways of offshoring American jobs. Although I believe this program was finally ended (what better use for taxpayer funds could be found, one wonders????), it demonstrates the primary purpose of city chambers as well as the ruling US Chamber of Commerce.
This is one of the dominant organizations in a list of 20 or so (e.g., Business Roundtable, National Association of Manufacturers [first president of NAM was George W. Bush's great-grandfather], Aspen Institute, Brookings Institution, Peterson Institute, etc., with the dominant two appearing to be the Bretton Woods Committee and the American Securitization Forum), and nothing conspiratorial about this; all pretty much in the open with accessible bios, to anyone paying close attention.
So I think Spitzer, who has backtracked somewhat lately, much to my chagrin, is pretty much urinating into the wind on this one. The US Chamber of Commerce is part of the power elite, and it will take more than any political suggestions to alter their behaviors.
time to back up all that rhetoric with actions. They passed on derivatives legislation.
This is a huge fight - will they provide the countervailing force necessary to hold back the financial oligarchy or will it continue to talk a good game and protect the financial oligarchy.
These lobbyists are beyond belief spin masters. They rain so called "white papers" on Congress like snow.
The problem is one needs to read each one of these things to realize the data, statistical and logic flaws and even worse, they have some think tank arms to help them in the snow job.
So, what they really mean is it will cut into their predatory profits and mess with their short term quarterly profits.
Who cares if it destroys the U.S. consumer base long term? Who cares if it causes families to go bankrupt and homeless?
Who cares if it all takes away from a production economy because hell man, they must make their short term quarterly profits and this is what they came up with, predatory financial agendas.
it will make credit cost more. Woo, maybe that is a good thing. We see what cheap credit does. Second, this may be true in the short-term but in the long-term lenders will adjust and competition will kick in and lending rates will go down.
A refining bottleneck??? And just how did that happen? My take (rant) documented at http://getoddnews.com/2009/06/25/gas-wars-and-woes/ is that you have an effective oil olograchy manipulating the market.
Grandpa Oddball
http://GetOddNews.com
It looks like crude oil bulls are getting more bullish.
Iran is getting totally out of dollars.
It looks like Iran will be the first nation to totally reject the dollar. No wonder we are rattling sabers at them.
More important is the developments in Russia.
I was just ripped off by my employer in August, and have experienced this for myself. It's true. As long as the amount you were paid divided by your total hours worked averages out to be minimum wage or higher, the DOL WHD will do nothing.
Today's headline in St. Pete Times: Unemployment hits 11%. This is for the state, of course, and is all the more noteworthy when you consider the age structure -- if memory serves, the 65 and over category is about 18% statewide, and in the Tampa Bay area well over 20%. The unemployment rate in the Tampa Bay area was cited at 11.7% -- and that's only the official rate. Wells Fargo Securities analyst was quoted in the article as saying the nationwide rate would peak at 10.5% and Florida at 11.5%. Both Mort Zuckerman and Pat Buchanan have opined that the real current rate should be more like 17% if you include discouraged workers and underemployed. Even Larry Kudlow is getting worried. I have been in the Chauncey Gardiner camp for a while now, and am willing to look for green shoots if I can find any. This year's tourist season will be telling for the state.
Frank T.
Not so fast, why don't you read ECRI's reply?
http://www.businesscycle.com/news/press/1591/
Also interesting is the fact that Krugman now says economy recovering quicker than he expected, http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/16/a-smidgen-of-optimism/
So it seems ECRI was right after all.
...tout that gold is at an all-time high, they ignore the 'Paul Harvey Rest of the Story':
The msm states that gold is at an all-time high. In real, inflation adjusted terms, it is no where near it.
Gold in 1979, ignoring the panic spike up to $900 in the beginning of 1980 due to the surprise Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, was at it's high around $530.
Adjust that for 3.5% inflation, and the 'real' price is $2340 in 2009 dollars. Just think if we use the $900 price.
A few months ago, my brother and I were driving through our nation's capital, admiring the architecture and the monuments, when we stopped at a stop light outside/in front of the the Treasury Department. He quickly shut the radio and air conditioner fan off, rolled down the windows and said 'Shhhhhhh....do you hear it?' I asked 'what'?
His response? "Can't you hear that noise?"
Me: What? (listening to the engine for some mechanic's blood curdling noise)
Him: The sound of the printing presses printing all the money! Look! There's smoke coming from all the windows of the Treasury Department!
With the money being printed faster than a computer can count, we are headed for serious inflation, even if the dollar gets strong.
I live in MA and I can only offer anecdotal evidence which backs up this figure, but keep in mind this figure is never discussed in local media as being this large: huge spike in food pantry use was headlined within the last 10 days as well as the fact that pantry supplies are dangerously low for the high demand; a local freshman state rep told me and about 8 others gathered for a political event back in March that his office hears daily from different constituents about to lose their homes - just utter despair; my sister-in-law works in public education and our local high school saw 26 high schoolers transfer into the public high school from private high schools in JANUARY....they could not even finish out the year at the private school - all due to tuition costs and being unable to pay the new semester. It disrupted the public school budget - keep in mind this number is one town, but it is repeating all around in surrounding communities - the school department had never seen an influx of students that large all at one time. This story is repeating itself all over the state. Private schools are hurting. UMASS, the state subsidized state university, has a freshman class with the highest GPA and highest SAT scores in it's history and if anyone thinks the economy had nothing to do with that fact they are naive. The Governor just announced that a budget shortfall could necessitate the laying off of 2000 state employees,in addition to up to 9 unpaid furlough days for some others within gov't, possibly massive cuts in local aid which will translate into further cuts locally no doubt; possible sale of state owned property......if anyone doesn't think that the stimulus bill should have been bigger .....just ask state and local government officials.
As for why these numbers are so high in MA? One possible reason - large number of coastal communities/suburbs of Boston are home to a large number of financial service employees and they took a big hit around here. Everyone knows someone who lost a job in financials or who does not work on State St or in the financial district anymore. Huge Mcmansions had replaced 'teardowns', no doubt with jumbo mortgages, and they are now sporting for sale signs. Realtors are crying. Lawn services could be seen and manuevered around on certain streets and neighborhoods constantly....now they are a rare sight.
We, as a state, do not have a spending problem....we have a revenue problem. Yet all the public officials can talk about are cuts. Cuts in turn lead to more severe consequences.
And the downward spiral continues and people wonder why?
I wonder why supposedly smart people do not know or understand Keynesian economics.
if it were because of a tax on gas the revenues from which were being used for a crash program of building wind, solar and other clean energy sources.
In a sane world . . . .
on here, one by NDD talking about oil actually helping bring about the recession along with one theory.
It's astounding how ignored oil and it's affects are on the U.S. economy across the board too.
Last thing we need is $4+ dollar gas.
and we have our Congress gutting everything under the sun, literally puppets for the very companies and special interests to got us into this mess in the first place.
....and we don't have a FDR this time.
How could I have forgotten one of the most entertaining muckrakers of all, Max Keiser:
My apologies.
James, your comments have become almost an automatic 5 rating for me. Your mention of "Pappy Bush" makes me wonder whether you have read Russ Baker's excellent book, "Family of Secrets". If you haven't you should do. You won't be disappointed.
As far as Spitzer is concerned, I was deeply disappointed that his transgressions short circuited the large amount of good he could have done as Governor of NY. However, we should all realize it was just "payback" for his tireless efforts to uncover, and prosecute corruption on Wall Street as NY's Attorney General. He is a very smart guy who understands how the investment bank crooks think. And he knows how to connect the dots.
To this end, I would mention that Matt Taibbi's latest article for Rolling Stone, Wall Street's Naked Swindle is now available online. I read it last night and it is extremely enlightening. Not that we haven't discussed naked short selling here at EP, but this puts it into a real life perspective: The Assassination of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers. It is an absolute must read and I GUARANTEE that there will be things in there that you haven't heard or considered before.
But I digress somewhat. There are others around the blogoshpere that are doing the hard work of muckraking and shouting out the truth. Yves Smith has become increasingly more critical of the Washington/Wall Street cabal. Simon Johnson, William Black, Michael Hudson, Paul Craig Roberts, and others have been and are increasingly being more vociferous in their condemnation of the status quo. Next Tuesday, October 20th, PBS's Frontline is offering "The Warning", which reportedly will look at the financial meltdown, why it happened and who might have prevented it. I am very much interested in this piece because Frontline usually does a superb investigative job and I think it might dovetail nicely with Taibbi's article.
Full disclosure, I am in the "salted and barren" on this site's poll. I think major damage has been done to the US society and nothing is going to make that better in the short, or even medium term. But I am also of a vindictive nature and it will soothe my misery to witness the utter demise and devastation of our current ruling classes.
I think that every effort of the Elliot Spitzer's, Paul Craig Roberts, Simon Johnson's, Yves Smith's, Alexander Cockburn's, Midtowng's, RebelCapitalist's, Matt Taibbi's, Ian Welsh's, Karl Denninger's, Bill Bonners', James Kwak's, Joe Stiglitz's, Satyajit Das', Bill Moyers', Robert Oak's and, yes, the James Woolley's of our time, to identify and expose the corruption in our government is to be lauded. If nothing else, it keeps us all sane.
I have long been a "junkie" for econ, finance, political blogs. I enjoy the fine writing and investigative talents. And, I love to read the comments sections on the well read blogs. To this end, I am sensing lately that the level of understanding of just how much we, the public, have been screwed is gaining. I am seeing less "hope" for change "we can believe in", and more resignation and outrage as to how corrupt the whole financial and political system is.
Perhaps it is a fantasy, that this not only can't be changed but, that it will go unpunished. To that I ask, what is the alternative? Are we going to just let the fucking bastards get away with their scam?
Not me. I may go down, but I'm taking as many of these cheating, conniving assholes with me as possible.
Without ignoring the power of the media to from public opinion, I think the sanguineness of the masses implies that they have not yet felt ‘real economic pain’.
It is common to hear references to the 1960s Civil Rights and Vietnam protests. But, I don’t think it is understood that the ‘cause’ of those protest was ‘pain’. The pain that Black Folk felt during Jim Crow segregation era and the empathy for Black Folk by many Whites brought out the protesters.
Also, it is, to my mind, a misunderstanding of the Vietnam War protest to call them ‘anti-war’. It is quantitatively demonstrable that the great mass protests were during the days of the draft. After the draft ended, the size of the protest significantly dropped off. But the war went on with even great viciousness – e.g. the B-52 bombing of Hanoi and other North Vietnam cities.
In short, pain is at least a correlate (I think cause) of the 1960s mass protest -the pain of segregation and the pain of the draft. It is a reasonable hypothesis to posit that the absence of mass protest about today’s economy implies that the pain threshold of the mass has not yet been reached. It is also a reasonable hypothesis that we are very close to that threshold. I think the masters of the economy are very aware of that threshold and the iron hand they have on the ‘happy’ media is indicative of their fear that we will cross that threshold. Just a thought.
Tom
Yet one needs to "piss out there" to get people thinking "outside the box".
He notes that Apple and a few others withdrew their membership from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over their anti-environmental lobbyist activities.
I think there is something to hate for most businesses from that organization, not just regular middle class.
They have also promoted some serious job killing agendas, which gravely affects smaller businesses, who are not in the business of labor arbitrage so much, they are just trying to turn a profit on their business model....
and in terms of trade on that one, that too has killed off many a manufacturing business, esp. the smaller ones.
So, there are many reasons a business might consider withdrawing their membership...literally from a business perspective.
I hate to be a naysayer, but the US Chamber of Commerce behaves and functions more like a multinational anti-free enterprise, pro-corporate fascism outfit.
Back in the early '00s, monies funneled through Bush's Dept. of Commerce, to individual Chamber of Commerces in major cities throughout America, were used to give seminars to local corporations on the most efficient ways of offshoring American jobs. Although I believe this program was finally ended (what better use for taxpayer funds could be found, one wonders????), it demonstrates the primary purpose of city chambers as well as the ruling US Chamber of Commerce.
This is one of the dominant organizations in a list of 20 or so (e.g., Business Roundtable, National Association of Manufacturers [first president of NAM was George W. Bush's great-grandfather], Aspen Institute, Brookings Institution, Peterson Institute, etc., with the dominant two appearing to be the Bretton Woods Committee and the American Securitization Forum), and nothing conspiratorial about this; all pretty much in the open with accessible bios, to anyone paying close attention.
So I think Spitzer, who has backtracked somewhat lately, much to my chagrin, is pretty much urinating into the wind on this one. The US Chamber of Commerce is part of the power elite, and it will take more than any political suggestions to alter their behaviors.
time to back up all that rhetoric with actions. They passed on derivatives legislation.
This is a huge fight - will they provide the countervailing force necessary to hold back the financial oligarchy or will it continue to talk a good game and protect the financial oligarchy.
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
These lobbyists are beyond belief spin masters. They rain so called "white papers" on Congress like snow.
The problem is one needs to read each one of these things to realize the data, statistical and logic flaws and even worse, they have some think tank arms to help them in the snow job.
So, what they really mean is it will cut into their predatory profits and mess with their short term quarterly profits.
Who cares if it destroys the U.S. consumer base long term? Who cares if it causes families to go bankrupt and homeless?
Who cares if it all takes away from a production economy because hell man, they must make their short term quarterly profits and this is what they came up with, predatory financial agendas.
it will make credit cost more. Woo, maybe that is a good thing. We see what cheap credit does. Second, this may be true in the short-term but in the long-term lenders will adjust and competition will kick in and lending rates will go down.
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
Looks like the corporate lobbyists have their finger puppets (called Congress) back in line.
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