As much as I like outside-the-box thinking, I don't expect to see this on the next CFP exam.
The risk for Germany is that the economy tips into a double-dip recession as emergency stimulus subsides. Its cash-for-clunkers scheme expired earlier this month after a rush of sales over the summer. The Centre for Automotive Research says sales will fall by a million next year in "the largest downturn ever suffered by the German car industry".
This isn't new news, but it still makes the blood boil.
The rewriting of history is well under way. The near global financial collapse really wasn't that bad. It all could have been prevented if only Lehman had been bailed out. Bernanke saved the world. The banks didn't really need taxpayer dollars. Goldman employees are still geniuses...Goldman won't repay taxpayers the $13 billion it never would have collected from AIG had we not kept AIG alive. (In one of the most blatant conflicts of interest in all of American history, Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein attended the closed-door meeting last fall where then Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, who was formerly Goldman's CEO, and Tim Geithner, then at the New York Fed, made the decision to bail out AIG.) Meanwhile, Goldman is still depending on $28 billion in outstanding debt issued cheaply with the backing of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Which means you and I are still indirectly funding Goldman's high-risk operations.
Also,The Tire Industry Association has opposed the tariffs, arguing that they will not preserve American jobs but will instead cause manufacturers to relocate plants to other countries where they can produce tires cheaply.
The decision signals the first time that the United States has invoked a special safeguard provision that was part of its agreement to support China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001.Under that safeguard provision, American companies or workers harmed by imports from China can ask the government for protection simply by demonstrating that American producers have suffered a “market disruption” or a “surge” in imports from China.
Unlike more traditional anti-dumping cases, the government does not need to determine that a country is competing unfairly or selling its products at less than their true cost.
China to Probe Alleged ‘Dumping’ of U.S. ProductsIt's hard to blame the Chinese for retaliating. We'd certainly do the same had they acted first. The Chinese are most likely to target a value of American imports fairly equal to the value of Chinese tires being impacted. If we know what's best, we'll leave it at that and go back to squabbling over North Korea.Sept. 14 (Bloomberg) -- China announced a probe into the alleged dumping of American auto and chicken products, two days after U.S. President Barack Obama imposed tariffs on imports of tires from the Asian nation.
Chinese industries have complained that they’re being hurt by “unfair trade practices,” the nation’s Ministry of Commerce said on its Web site yesterday. The Beijing-based ministry is also looking into subsidies for the products, it said. It didn’t specify the imports’ value.
link to full story
Last year, I wrote about the likely peaking and production decline of some of the world's largest oil fields. The best example remains the once-giant Mexican Cantarell field. The following graph of production from Cantarell is simply stunning. Production from this one field has fallen one million barrels per day in just the last few years.
Much has been made lately of some recent exploration successes offshore Brazil and in the Gulf of Mexico. Many are claiming that these successes prove that the threat of Peak Oil is false. When it comes to the Peak Oil theory, however, the key point to remember is that it refers to easily recoverable oil. Higher oil prices will be necessary to support the very costly exploration and development efforts necessary in the deepwater and (eventually) Arctic frontier plays. The future production decline from the world's aging major oilfields will need to be replaced, and the most likely source will be much higher-cost less-traditional sources.
Disclosure: Aspera Financial, LLC is long a number of energy-related stocks and natural gas.
Unfortunately, too few people share this view. In fact, one of the key lessons learned by our experts seems to be that Lehman should have been bailed out. We've missed a wonderful opportunity to get this country back on a solid economic footing. Instead, we're simply laying the foundation for the next crisis as government debt takes the place of private sector debt.The idea that a problem of too much debt and too much consumption can be solved by more gigantic debt and consumption is ludicrous. Would that governments stop interfering with fundamental principles and let the market clean out mistakes! Marx is singing in his grave there in London as the US government now controls the auto, mortgage, insurance, banking, et al industries and he has not fired a shot. Letting Lehman fail was perhaps the only thing governments have done right during this whole drama.
Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) -- About 200 monkeys are being moved from the grounds of Zambia’s presidency to a botanical garden after one of the primates urinated on President Rupiah Banda during a press briefing, the British Broadcasting Corp. said.
About 61 monkeys have already been moved to the Munda Wanga Botanical Gardens in the capital, Lusaka, the broadcaster said, citing an unidentified official.
Banda suggested that being urinated on by the monkey may bring him good luck, the BBC said, without elaborating.
