Venezuela halts oil supplies to Exxon Mobil Venezuela halted oil supplies to Exxon Mobil, the latest move by the country's president, Hugo Chavez, in an increasingly bitter dispute over the country's seizure of the company's stake in two oil ventures. Chavez, who had threatened to cut off all oil shipments to the United States, instead on Tuesday opted to cut off oil supplies to Exxon Mobil. Exxon and Venezuela have been fighting over the country's move in the summer to seize Exxon's stake in two ventures. The company won a judgment last week that froze more than $12 billion in assets belonging to the state-held Petroleos de Venezuela. PdVSA said its move won't affect cooperation overseas, a reference to a refinery in Chalmette, La. that converts 180,000 barrels a day of oil.
Retail sales rise on autos and gas in Jan. U.S. retail sales were better-than-expected in January, pushed higher by a surprise gain in auto sales and the rising cost of gasoline, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. Retail sales rose 0.3 % in January after sinking 0.4% in December. Excluding autos and gas, sales were flat in the month. Gasoline station sales rose 2.0% in January after remaining unchanged in December. Excluding gasoline, retail sales rose 0.1%. Over the past year, gasoline sales are up 23%. Motor vehicle sales rose 0.6% by dollar value. This is the biggest gain since September. Excluding autos, retail sales rose 0.3% This was in-line with expectations.
Detroit Had Top Foreclosure Rate in '07 The Detroit area, hit hard by the double-whammy of unemployment and a slumping housing market, had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation last year, with several cities in California ranked close behind, an analysis of foreclosure activity in the country's largest 100 metropolitan areas shows. Some 4.9 percent of the households in the Detroit metro area were in some stage of foreclosure in 2007 -- 4.8 times the national average, according to the study being released Wednesday by mortgage research company RealtyTrac Inc. Stockton, Calif., ranked second with about 4.8 percent of its households in some stage of foreclosure, while the Las Vegas metro area was third with a 4.2 percent rate.
Crumbling Bedrock of U.S. Security During the War of Independence, America learned the painful lesson of reliance on foreign nations. The newborn United States had to rely on France and the Netherlands to supply everything from iron and gunpowder to blankets and clothing, and Britain routinely cut America’s supply lines. Seeing this weakness, America’s founders implemented a national strategy promoting industrial and military self-sufficiency in order to establish the nation’s security. It seems America has forgotten that lesson. One specific example is in mineral production. America’s leaders have allowed the nation’s once formidable mining industry to erode. Many minerals—including some that are strategically important for the military—are no longer produced in the United States at all. Due to lack of investment, radical environmental activism, and low-cost foreign competition, many of America’s former mining giants have turned off the drills, closed the refineries and sent the workers home, or have chosen to develop new production outside the U.S.
The grim repo: 1,28m US homes threatened by bailiffs The sheer scale of the misery wreaked by the United States sub-prime mortgage crisis became clear on Tuesday in research showing that more than 1% of Ameri- can households were hit with some stage of repossession proceedings last year. About 2,2-million foreclosure documents -- including default notices, auction sale notices and repossession papers -- were filed on 1,28-million properties last year, according to RealtyTrac, a company that specialises in marketing seized properties. The figures emerged as the biggest US mortgage lender, Countrywide Financial, slumped to a $704-million loss for 2007 as its customers found themselves unable to meet repayments on high-risk mortgages. Countrywide, which blamed an "unprecedented worldwide financial crisis", was accused of precipitating the crisis by making irresponsible loans to low-income households.
Add another trillion Christopher Ketcham, in his essay "Trends for Downsizing the US: The Bright Side of the Panic of '08", notes former Central Intelligence Agency consultant Chalmers Johnson addressing the "folly" of "military Keynesianism", which is defined as "devotion to militarism, weapons and warfare as fiscal stimulus". I bring this up not because I, as a gun-nut, gold-bug, paranoid lunatic have spent a fortune on weapons but yet am still outgunned by the local police and the US military, all thanks to the government's capriciously arbitrary, unwritten "rule" that citizens cannot own nuclear weapons for "home defense", but because President George W Bush has unveiled his new budget, which is a whopping US$3.1 trillion, has $400 billion of deficits from the get-go, and sports some big increases in its purchases of military ordnance.
Mortgage insurer MGIC lost almost $1.5B in 4Q, looks for more capital Mortgage insurer MGIC Investment Corp. said Wednesday it lost almost $1.5 billion for the last three months of 2007 on higher home delinquencies and payouts. It also said it is looking for ways to boost its capital. Chairman and chief executive Curt S. Culver said the company still doesn't see making money this year, if delinquencies and losses continue to rise and fewer homeowners get back on track with payments. The company said it has hired an advisor to assist it in exploring alternatives for increasing its capital, though Culver said MGIC has enough money to pay claims. The company announced late last month that it could pay $2 billion in claims this year, up from previous estimates of up to $1.5 billion. It finished 2007 paying out $870 million in claims, up from $611 million in 2006.
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