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Tuesday 05.21.2013
Gold rises, snapping 7-session losing streak Silver rebounds from lowest level since 2010; copper climbs
By Myra P. Saefong and Saumya Vaishampayan, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Gold futures ended higher Monday, snapping a seven-session losing streak, while silver rebounded from a level not seen since 2010.
Gold for June delivery settled up $19.40, or 1.4%, to $1,384.10 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange after tapping a low below $1,340.
The "very sharp reversal in gold and silver" appears to be due to short covering after gold's inability to fall below an April low of $1,321.50, said Chintan Karnani, an independent bullion analyst based in New Delhi.
It's Official: Gold is Now the Most Hated Asset Class Full Court Press
By: Pater Tenebrarum - GoldSeek.com
Not a day passes without the financial media denouncing gold as an investment option and hailing the bureaucrats heading the world's monopolist monetary central planning agencies as superheroes. It began prior to gold's recent breakdown, with widely cited bearish reports on gold published by Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs, among others. Never mind that most of their arguments were easily unmasked as spurious. It should be no wonder though: gold's rise was the most conspicuous evidence of faith in central banking being slowly but surely undermined. The banking cartel relies on the fiat money system remaining intact; the legal privilege of fractional reserve banking provides it with what is an essentially fraudulent profit center unparalleled by any other in the world (fraudulent in terms of traditional legal principles, but not in terms of the current law of course). Not surprisingly, ever since the completely unrestrained fiat money system became operational in the early 1970s, the financial sector's share of corporate profits has inexorably risen and finally eclipsed all other sectors of the economy.
Gold breaks trend line resistance and shoots higher
By Greg Michalowski - FXDD.com
Gold has been wandering higher for most of the trading day, but managed to stay below trend line resistance. However, when the price moved above the trend l1ine, a slow creep higher turned into a wild rally higher which took the price from 1364 (trend line level), to a high of 1399.18.
George Soros switches from physical gold
to gold stocks and that is very bullish for gold prices
By: Peter Cooper - GoldSeek.com
Ever the investor who loves to confuse markets – remember how his description of gold as the 'ultimate bubble' confused some folk as he bought the metal himself – George Soros has done it again with his gold ETF sales.
Today the global financial press is awash with reports that Mr. Soros has sold gold again. True. But he has reinvested that money in a far more risky investment in gold miners whose performance is leveraged against the gold price. They go up faster than the gold price and they fall further when it comes down too.
Very bullish
Gold Bear Bets Reach Record
as Soros Cuts Holdings: Commodities
By Joe Richter - Bloomberg.com
Hedge-fund managers are making the biggest ever bet against gold as billionaire George Soros sold holdings last quarter and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. predicted more declines after the longest slump in four years.
The funds and other large speculators held 74,432 so-called short contracts on May 14, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. That's the highest since the data begins in June 2006 and compares with 67,374 a week earlier. The net-long position dropped 20 percent to 39,216 futures and options, the lowest since July 2007. Net-bullish wagers across 18 U.S.- traded raw materials rose 1.1 percent to 588,482, led by gains in hogs, corn and cotton.
Gold: Motive, Means & Opportunity
By Gary Christenson - GoldSilverWorlds.com
The various governments of the world and their central banks produce and distribute a product – paper currencies. Those currencies are backed by confidence, faith and credit, but not by gold, oil, or anything real. Those currencies are digitally printed to excess, since almost all governments spend more than their revenues. The UK, Japan, and the USA are prime examples.
Politicians want to spend more money, but they also need to maintain the illusion that the money is still valuable, that it will retain most of its purchasing power over time, and that inflation is under control. The illusion weakens when food, gasoline prices, and other consumer goods are wildly rising in price. At a more abstract level, gold indicates the same lack of confidence in the printed pieces of paper that our central banks distribute.
PRECIOUS-Silver and gold lurch higher after early dive
By Barani Krishnan and Clara Denina
NEW YORK/LONDON, May 20 (Reuters) - Gold and silver prices gained nearly 3 percent on Monday after a roller-coaster session that opened with a gut-wrenching dive in silver to its lowest in 2-1/2 years before an abrupt midday turnaround.
After trading lower through most of the day, gold suddenly lurched more than $10 an ounce higher around noon U.S. time, with traders citing a wave of pent-up short-covering after seven consecutive days of losses. Also, COMEX silver futures had plunged more than 9 percent after a big sell order at the open, triggering technical buy signals, they said.
Silver Price Recovers From Its Flash Crash
GoldSilverWorlds.com
After writing about the sharp silver price drop yesterday late afternoon US time / today midnight European time, the silver price has recovered greatly from its losses. Gold is almost back at the point where is started the Asian trading session. At the time of writing (10h30 EST / 15h30 GMT) dollar gold is trading at 1358 an ounce (close to where it closed Friday evening) and dollar silver at 21,8 (which is some 2,5% lower than Friday's close).
On the chart below it appears that the number of silver futures contracts were over 3,000 in the first hour when Asian trading opened, with the largest part of the trade in only fifteen minutes (although not visible on the chart). Jesse writes that "2500 contracts traded in 15 minutes is a near record for an off hours session."
Thinking the Unthinkable: Quitting a Currency
By THOMAS CATAN and MARCUS WALKER - WSJ.com
Unemployment in Spain is at 27%. Young people are fleeing Portugal and Ireland. One-in-four Greeks say they have difficulty paying for food.
Despite the Depression-era conditions, however, Europe has no crash plan to get people back to work. Under the German-engineered strategy to escape the euro crisis, struggling southern European members must continue to cut public spending, lower wages and grind down prices until they're competitive again. At current rates, it could take a decade or more to complete the process, according to studies by Goldman Sachs.
Debt limit resets at higher level, budget impasse grinds on
By David Lawder
WASHINGTON | Mon May 20, 2013 6:55pm EDT
(Reuters) - The government added $306 billion in new debt during a four-month suspension of the federal borrowing limit, the Treasury Department said on Monday, but there was no sign on Capitol Hill of any movement toward a budget compromise.
As of Friday, the last business day before the debt limit was officially reset on Sunday, the Treasury said in its daily statement that U.S. debt subject to the limit was $16.7 trillion, compared to $16.394 trillion prior to the suspension in February.
The Market Is Not the Economy: What the Fed Misses
By: Jeff Cox - CNBC.com
Whatever course it chooses, the Federal Reserve will have to grapple with the reality that while its policies have helped levitate stocks, they've been considerably less effective at expanding the economy.
While rising equity prices help add to total growth, the stock market is not the economy.
The U.S. economy, rather, is propelled by consumption, which accounts for about 70 percent of gross domestic product.
Bitcoiners rally to enlighten Washington Now may be the perfect moment for outreach, some say
By Zach Miners - Computerworld.com
IDG News Service - Washington's biggest problem when it comes to Bitcoin may just be that policymakers on the Hill don't know enough about it, yet.
That was the general consensus of a panel of legal experts speaking Saturday at a Silicon Valley conference devoted to the nascent digital currency.
Bitcoin developer talks regulation,
open source and the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto Jeff Garzik says the Bitcoin creator was a brilliant architect and economist but that his coding left a bit do be desired
By James Niccolai - Computerworld.com
IDG News Service - With Bitcoin all the rage and startups popping up left and right, it's hard to know who's an expert in the virtual currency and who just has an opinion. Most people would put Jeff Garzik in the former camp.
A Bitcoin core developer for three years, he left his job at Red Hat on Friday to start work at Bitpay, the biggest Bitcoin payment processing service. IDG News Service caught up with him at the Bitcoin 2013 conference in Silicon Valley, where he talked about the state of Bitcoin today, the parallels with open source, and Bitcoin's pseudonymous creator, the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto. Following is an edited transcript of the conversation.
Max Keiser - Bitcoin, Bernanke & Buffett | London Real
Max Keiser of Russia Today drops by to explain the genesis and implications of the digital currency Bitcoin, why The Federal Reserve and the banking system should apologise to the people for manipulating interest rates, how Warren Buffett is complicit in the Mexican drug trade by purchasing Wells Fargo, and Max's crazy times in the 1980s as a New York City stockbroker by day and punk-rock party animal by night.
Bitcoiners crave coders to cope with demand More support to help with backend testing
is high on developers' wish lists
By Zach Miners - Computerworld.com
IDG News Service - Bitcoin is not going away, the digital currency's developers say, and they're craving more technically savvy people to support its use.
"Our bottleneck is not new code, it's code review and testing," said Gavin Andresen , chief scientist at the Bitcoin Foundation, which provides most of the core backend development for the currency.
After two-year hiatus, EFF accepts bitcoin donations again The EFF isn't endorsing the Bitcoin system but
feels it is on stable legal ground to accept the virtual currency
By Jeremy Kirk - Computerworld.com
IDG News Service - The Electronic Frontier Foundation has resumed accepting bitcoins donations, saying some of the legal ambiguity around the virtual currency has disappeared.
The influential digital watchdog stopped accepting bitcoins two years ago citing a raft of complex legal questions that could have inadvertently thrust the nonprofit as a defender rather than an observer of an emerging technology.
Obama's IRS and AP scandals cast Big Chill on free speech
By Michael Barone - WashingtonExaminer.com
Chilling effect. That's the term lawyers and judges use to describe the result of government actions that deter people from exercising their right of free speech.
There have been plenty of examples in the past 10 days.
The Obama administration's Justice Department issued a sweeping demand for two months of office, cellular and home telephone records from multiple Associated Press reporters and editors to investigate an alleged breach of national security.
The IRS Scandal Started at the Top The bureaucrats at the Internal Revenue Service did exactly what the president said was the right and honorable thing to do.
By Kimberly A. Strasel - WSJ.com
Was the White House involved in the IRS's targeting of conservatives? No investigation needed to answer that one. Of course it was.
President Obama and Co. are in full deniability mode, noting that the IRS is an "independent" agency and that they knew nothing about its abuse. The media and Congress are sleuthing for some hint that Mr. Obama picked up the phone and sicced the tax dogs on his enemies.
Carney: WH officials knew of IRS targeting but didn't tell Obama
By Jonathan Easley - TheHill.com
White House officials were notified of a Treasury Department inspector general report on the IRS but elected not to tell President Obama about it.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday that Chief of Staff Dennis McDonough and other senior officials knew of the general nature of the report but decided to keep the president in the dark about the report's finding that the IRS had targeted conservative groups for extra tax scrutiny.
White House aides insulated Obama from IRS scandal
By Susan Crabtree-The Washington Times
Top White House aides first learned of a draft report detailing IRS abuses in targeting conservative groups in late April, but they chose to insulate President Obama by not informing him until it exploded in the press, the president's spokesman said Monday.
White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters Monday that White House counsel Kathy Ruemmler learned about an IRS inspector general's draft report looking into the singling out of conservative groups on April 24. She advised senior White House staff including chief of staff Denis McDonough — about the then-draft report, but Mr. Carney said she believed that Mr. Obama shouldn't be told and other staffers followed her advice.
W.H.: 'Entirely appropriate'
that senior staff didn't tell Obama about IRS probe
By Brian Hughes - WashingtonExaminer.com
Senior White House officials knew for nearly a month that the Internal Revenue Service was under investigation for targeting conservative groups, but they decided not to tell President Obama about the incident, the White House said Monday.
The admission shows the White House knew about the IRS activities and investigation earlier than previously acknowledged.
More Scrutiny Ahead for the IRS
By Nancy Cook - NationalJournal.com
Think the Internal Revenue Service scandal will fade away in time for summer? That may be wishful thinking on the part of the White House and congressional Democrats, who are poised to endure another week of congressional hearings in both the House and Senate.
Republicans experienced their first live and in-person brush with the IRS's misdeeds and internal machinations at the House Ways and Means Committee hearing on Friday, a crowded, four-hour event that seemed to excite and enrage the committee's Republican members.
Baucus, Hatch seek wide range of records from IRS on targeting
By Bernie Becker - TheHill.com
The top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Finance Committee pressed the IRS on Monday for more information about the extra scrutiny the agency gave to conservative groups.
A day ahead of the panel's first hearing on the matter, Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and the committee's ranking Republican, Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah), in a letter to acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller, asked the agency more than three dozen questions, often looking for more than three years' worth of detail from the IRS.
Dem: IRS 'could affect everything else'
By Daniel Strauss - TheHill.com
The top Democratic tax writer in the House on Monday said heightened partisan tensions from the investigation into the IRS could slow down legislation, including the cornerstone of President Obama's second-term agenda.
Speaking Monday on MSNBC, Rep. Sandy Levin (D-Mich.) said the multiple inquiries into the conduct of IRS employees could undermine the push for immigration reform if the oversight effort becomes politicized.
Taxes on some wealthy French top 100 pct of income
(Reuters) - More than 8,000 French households' tax bills topped 100 percent of their income last year, the business newspaper Les Echos reported on Saturday, citing Finance Ministry data.
The newspaper said that the exceptionally high level of taxation was due to a one-off levy last year on 2011 incomes for households with assets of more than 1.3 million euros ($1.67 million).
Transforming democrats to dictators The president's abuse of power crosses the line
By Jeffrey Scott Shapiro
and T. Michael Andrews - WashingtonTimes.com
Ever since Barack Obama was nominated in 2008 as the Democratic candidate for the president of the United States, his staunchest critics have implied that he had the makings of a dictator.
Those admonitions were not taken at all seriously, however, and the liberal media ridiculed anyone if they dared suggest the new president was anything but the messiah.
Those of us who saw then what the press is finally seeing now were dismissed and ridiculed as racists.
Obama admits he's a socialist What his 'Bulworth' fantasy reveals
By KYLE SMITH - NYPost.com
Buried in the 17th paragraph of one of those mewling New York Times pieces on the woes of Obama — can we start calling him Woe-bama yet? — appeared these two words: "going Bulworth."
Obama himself, the Times explained, has been "longingly" telling his inner circle that what he'd really like to do is what Sen. Jay Bulworth, played by Warren Beatty in his 1998 movie "Bulworth," did: to go public as an unabashed, angry and admitted socialist.
Big Government Loses Control Tea party and other groups use social media to spread the news about IRS abuse world-wide.
By L. Gordon Crovitz - WSJ.com
What to make of the political scandals that are dominating the headlines and forcing the Obama administration into Nixonian damage control? Technology is finally doing to big government what it has done to big business, big media and other institutions that once could operate with nearly full control over information. The government is losing the ability to manipulate information to avoid accountability.
Consider how the news broke that the Internal Revenue Service has been targeting conservative groups. The admission by IRS official Lois Lerner came in response to a question from the audience at a low-profile meeting of the tax section of the American Bar Association. For a week, perplexed reporters quoted her supporters saying she was apolitical and must not have meant to make news this way.
GOP generational divide could sink Web sales tax bill
By Tim Devaney-The Washington Times
Critics of Internet sales tax say that rising resistance from newer GOP lawmakers could sink a bill now before the Republican-controlled House to require online retailers such as eBay to start collecting sales taxes for the states.
The Heritage Action, a fierce opponent of the Marketplace Fairness Act that passed the Senate two weeks ago, has released a study which predicts more junior Republicans in Congress are more likely reject the bill.
7 Things About The Mainstream Media
That They Do Not Want You To Know
By Michael Snyder - TheEconomiccollapseBlog.com
Have you ever wondered who controls the mainstream media? In America today, we are more "connected" than ever. The average American watches 153 hours of television a month, and we also spend countless hours watching movies, playing video games, listening to music, reading books and surfing the Internet. If someone could control the production of all of that media, that would make them immensely powerful. They would literally be in a position to tell people what to think. Well, what if I told you that there are just six enormous media conglomerates that combine to produce about 90 percent of all the media that Americans consume. Would that alarm you? It should alarm you. The truth is that our attitudes, opinions and beliefs are greatly shaped by what we allow into our minds. After all, they don't call it "programming" for no reason. Even those of us that realize that we are connected to "the matrix" probably greatly underestimate the tremendous influence that the media has over us. We live at a time when it is absolutely imperative to think for ourselves, but most Americans are being absolutely overwhelmed with information and seem more than content to let others do their thinking for them. Sadly, this is greatly contributing to the downfall of our society.
'Co-Conspirator': Fox News Reporter James Rosen's
Private Emails Given To Justice Dept. By Google
by Noah Rothman - Mediaite.com
As a result of Fox News Channel's State Department reporter James Rosen's 2009 investigation into the government's response to North Korea's repeated provocations, it wasreported on Monday that the Department of Justice tracked Rosen's movements as well as subpoenaed telephone and email records. According to the DoJ's subpoena, Google surrendered Rosen's emails, who is described as "an aider and abettor and/or co-conspirator," to the government.
Is The White House Obscuring the Truth? White House spokesman Dan Pfeiffer offers more confusion than clarity in defending the White House response to Benghazi, IRS scandal.
By Josh Kraushaar - NationalJournal.com
What did the president know and when did he know it?
Those simple questions are at the heart of the scandals buffeting the White House, and they were only obscured by White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer, appearing on the Sunday talk shows to represent the administration. Asked by Fox News' Chris Wallace where the president was in the aftermath of the Benghazi attacks, Pfeiffer dodged, only saying he was "kept up to date throughout the day." When pressed if he was being briefed in the Situation Room, Pfeiffer responded that it was an "irrelevant fact"—a formulation he used on several other shows to deflect scrutiny. On all the Sunday shows, Pfeiffer's party line on the IRS scandal is that it would be more problematic if the president knew about the agency's problems and interfered, raising the perception of meddling.
Despite concern Fed may review stimulus plan,
stock investors refrain from big profit-taking
AP - WashingtonPost.com
LONDON — The price of silver was the standout mover in financial markets Monday as it took a hammering for the second trading session in a row, even as stocks remained relatively solid amid hopes over the U.S. economy.
By late-afternoon London time, the metal's price was down another 3.7 percent to $21.57 an ounce. Earlier in the session, it had fallen over 7 percent to $20.25, its lowest level since September 2010.
Businesses already boosting employee premiums,
co-pays for Obamacare
By Paul Bedard - WashingtonExaminer.com
Already hit with cost increases to cover minor Obamacare demands, businesses are boosting employee payments through higher insurance premiums and doctor visit co-pays in advance of the bulk of the health reform law's rules taking effect Jan. 1.
A sweeping survey of several hundred U.S. businesses by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans found that their costs have already jumped because of a rule requiring them to cover employees' children up to age 26.
There is NO dignity in murder; only ignorance Vermont governor signs 'death with dignity' measure
By Michael Muskal - LATimes.com
With the strokes from three gubernatorial pens, Vermont on Monday became the fourth state in the country to allow doctors to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill patients.
Gov. Peter Shumlin signed the measure in a state House ceremony in Montpelier, capping a decade-long effort on the issue in Vermont.
Vermont is the first state to pass such a law through the legislative process. Oregon and Washington enacted their laws by referendum; in Montana, it was legalized by the courts.
States Bank On Online Sales Tax
[Google title for free article access]
Even Before Congress Decides to End Tax-Free Internet Shopping, Legislators Build New Revenue Source Into Their Budgets
By AMY SCHATZ - WSJ.com
WASHINGTON—Congress hasn't yet agreed to end tax-free shopping on the Internet, but some states already are planning how they'll spend the money.
Maryland and Virginia both passed transportation bills that counted on the revenue to avoid implementing future state gas-tax increases, which would kick in if Congress turns down the Internet-sales tax bill. In Missouri, residents could see a half-percentage-point cut on their personal income taxes if Congress approves it.
Monsanto CEO Says Play Fair, Guys
Published on May 20, 2013
Monsanto Exec Hugh Grant accuses Anti-GMO protestors of "reverse eliticism", saying their social media campaigns aren't giving his company a chance to feed the world through advanced technology. According to State Department cables reviewed by Food & Water Watch, the biotech giant already has more than enough help propagating to the world, as the US government lobbies foreign nations on their behalf
Mass Bird Kills And More-Now Answered-USDA & Monsanto
Published on Jan 4, 2013
And Now We Know:Fowl-Mammals-Fish-Honey Bees all KILLED by our Government and Monsanto. This is heartbreaking.
This news report (from 2011) reveals that the USDA poisoned a group of several thousand birds in Nebraska as part of its "Bye Bye Blackbird" program from the '60s, which has murdered over FOUR MILLION birds since 2009. Carol Bannerman with the USDA Wildlife Services defends this activity and claims it's being done to protect "human health and safety" in the name of agriculture. Many are endangered.
Further research reveils this is only the tip of the iceberg. "Bye Bye Blackbird Program" began in the 1960's under the USDA Wildlike Damage Management Program, since then massive amounts of all forms of wildlike both fowl and mammals have been culled with poisons owned and distributed by none other than "MONSANTO". This research reeks of Agenda 21. The long list of their disposible wildlife includes many of our songbirds,owls,herions,looms, the list is truly heartbreaking and goes on and on. If you are an animal, wildlife and nature lover as I am, prepare yourself for a shock.
"When we try to control nature we always lose."
10 Careers Robots Are Taking From You Should we fear the rise of robots? From pharmacists to fast food cooks, here's a look at 10 advancements in technology that could put you out of work.
By Kristin Burnham, CIO.com
There's no doubt that technology breakthroughs have helped make us better at our jobs. Now, however, these breakthroughs could render us obsolete. Here's a look at 10 advancements in robotics that could have dire consequences for humans in those professions.
Astronauts
Pharmacists
Assembly Line Workers
Fast Food Cooks
Librarians
Drivers
Nannies
Postal Workers
Journalists
Help Desk Workers
Beyond Surveillance: Envisioning the Future Drone Workforce
BY MICHAEL V. COPELAND - Wired.com
Jonathan Downey is the kind of guy you want flying you around. The 29-year-old MIT-educated engineer not only has a commercial pilot's license, but he also helped set the record for longest unmanned helicopter flight (18.7 hours) and pulled off among the highest hovers out of ground-effect (20,000 feet). You also get the feeling he'd knock out a barrel roll if you asked. Downey has taken his pilot and pilotless chops and turned them toward his own commercial drone company, Airware. Airware doesn't build drones; it builds in software and hardware the brains that fly the machines and a platform on which others can build. Think of Airware as an operating system with some hardware thrown in. Wired Business caught up with Downey to talk the commercial case for robotic planes, and whether we're going to see pilotless planes before driverless cars.
The poor are leaving cities for suburbs
By Cheryl K. Chumley-The Washington Times
Poor people are leaving the cities behind and heading to the suburbs, a new report from The Brookings Institution finds.
Those in poverty living the suburban life increased by 67 percent between 2000 and 2011, the report said. But looking at the percentages closer: Cities still have a higher percent of poverty-level residents than suburbs do, The Associated Press reported.
Unemployed IT vets say job offers go to cheaper labor Tech pros with 15-plus years of experience say they're getting bypassed in the job market as employers hire foreigners and young people.
By Grant Gross - Computerworld.com
Computerworld - Tech companies have long called on Congress to ease restrictions on high-skill immigration, arguing that qualified tech workers are in short supply in the U.S. But veteran IT professionals who say they can't find jobs question that analysis of the labor market.
More than a dozen longtime IT workers, contacted through the Programmers Guild and high-skill immigration critic Norm Matloff, computer science professor at the University of California, Davis, said a glut of low-paid H-1B visa holders and recent graduates is keeping them unemployed or underemployed.
Valuable Vets Panel highlights challenges and opportunities
facing returning veterans entering the workforce
BY: Andrew Evans - FreeBeacon.com
Joseph Wagner and his unit in the Marines were being held against their will. Their captors?
The U.S. Marines.
They had just returned from Iraq and were preparing to exit the military and move back into the civilian world.
"We just got home from deployment. We all want to go out and drink a lot and see all our family, and do all the other celebratory things after getting home," Wagner said, recounting his final days in the service.
Post Collapse Retirement Plan
By: Tom Chatham - Project Chesapeake
The majority of people work all their life and look forward to a pleasant retirement. Their retirement plan involves paper assets to provide for their living expenses in the future. The major problem with this type of plan is that they have no backup plan to provide for themselves in the event that all paper assets are destroyed through inflation or default.
It does not matter if your plan is wrapped up in stocks, bonds, currency, CD's, pensions or social security payments. When fiat currencies collapse, all paper assets go at the same time. When this happens, you no longer have the means to pay for your future needs without working for them. This is the Achilles heel of the retirement system that we use.
Energy and Economic Growth: Interview with Mark Thoma
By James Stafford - OilPrice.com
If you want an objective view of energy, ask an economist, who can tell you what to expect to pay at the pump in the coming years, and why, as well as what to expect from medium- and long-term economic growth and what the real drivers will be. These are questions that are crucial to a pending decision by the US government over natural gas exports, and while we know where big oil stands versus its manufacturing rivals—it's the economist who can set things straight.
Mark Thoma is a macroeconomist and time-series econometrician at the University of Oregon. His research focuses on how monetary policy affects the economy, and he has also worked on political business cycle models. Mark is currently a fellow at The Century Foundation, a columnist at The Fiscal Times, an analyst at CBS MoneyWatch, and he blogs daily at Economist's View.
Low US [Natural] Gas Prices
Prompt $72 Billion Investment in Chemical Projects
By Joao Peixe - OilPrice.com
A new study released by the American Chemistry Council (ACC) has said that due to the large number of chemical and plastics projects that have been announced in order to take advantage of the incredibly low natural gas prices, the US chemical industry is set to see the creation of as many as 46,000 permanent jobs.
The report also said that by 2020 supplier industries could offer an extra 264,000 jobs, with another 226,000 jobs created in communities where chemical and supplier industry workers live, adding an extra $200 billion to the economy.
US Energy Infrastructure Fails to Keep Pace with Boom
By Jen Alic - OilPrice.com
America's energy infrastructure is in dire straits and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has given it a D+ in a "report card" that measures everything from the electricity grid's transmissions capacity to oil and gas distribution channels.
The whole premise of the report is that there is progress, but we're only half way there.
While technological advancements are rapidly evolving, transmission and distribution systems that would allow us to actually take advantage of these advancements have not been put in place, according to the report. And the specter of cybersecurity threats that arises from these "smart" bounds is not being sufficiently addressed.
Billionaire activist Steyer:
Donors will flee Obama if Keystone XL approved
By Ben Geman - TheHill.com
Billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer, who's increasingly throwing his weight around in politics, said approving the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline would create political hurdles for President Obama's second-term agenda and cost him the support of key donors.
Steyer, a major Democratic fundraiser, told Grist magazine that Keystone opponents have leverage to exert over Obama even though he's free of having to run for reelection.
North Carolina's Car Dealers Sponsor Bill
to Ban the Sale of Tesla EV's
By Joao Peixe - OilPrice.com
And the stories regarding Tesla just continue to pop out of the wood work. Can they do nothing without grabbing the media's attention?
This time, to be fair, it is not something they have done, but rather something being done to them.
North Carolina has proposed a bill to ban the sale of Tesla's electric cars in the state.
Corning taps into optical fiber for better indoor wireless The company will introduce a cellular
and Wi-Fi
distributed antenna system without coaxial cable
By Stephen Lawson - Computerworld.com
IDG News Service - Bringing wireless indoors, which was once just a matter of antennas carrying a few cellular bands so people could get phone calls, has grown far more complex and demanding in the age of Wi-Fi, multiple radio bands and more powerful antennas.
DAS (distributed antenna systems) using coaxial cable have been the main solution to the problem, but they now face some limitations. To address them, Corning will introduce a DAS at this week's CTIA Wireless trade show in Las Vegas that uses fiber instead of coax all the way from the remote cell antennas to the base station in the heart of a building.
U.S. approves Apple iOS devices
for use on Defense Department networks Devices from BlackBerry and Samsung Electronics
were cleared earlier by the department
By John Ribeiro - Computerworld.com
IDG News Service - Devices built around Apple's iOS operating system have been approved by the U.S. Department of Defense for use on its networks, as the department moves to support multivendor mobile devices and operating systems.
The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), which certifies commercial technology for defense use, said Friday it had approved the Apple iOS 6 Security Technical Implementation Guide (STIG).
Charging EV's Faster than Filling a Normal Tank with Gasoline
By Joao Peixe - OilPrice.com
Tesla Motors really is grabbing the headlines at the moment, and CEO Elon Musk is using the publicity to make some bold claims. Having recently published impressive first quarter results that far exceeded analyst expectations, and announce a new round of stock offerings to raise money to pay of the Department of Energy loan earlier than forecast, Musk has now posted on his Twitter account the following Tweet:
"There is a way for the Tesla Model S to be recharged throughout the country faster than you could fill a gas tank."
Syria could be Obama's real headache
By AARON DAVID MILLER | Politico.com
A trifecta of domestic headaches confronts President Obama these days. They've shaken his self-confidence, thrown his second-term agenda off track, and given Republicans seemingly endless opportunities to hammer him.
And yet a fourth headache looms not at home; but abroad, a migraine really, potentially more painful than the rest.
Hezbollah Suffers Big Losses In Syria Battle
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Dominic Evans - FreeBeacon.com
AMMAN (Reuters) – About 30 Lebanese Hezbollah fighters and 20 Syrian soldiers and militiamen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have been killed in the fiercest fighting this year in the rebel stronghold of Qusair, Syrian activists said on Monday.
If confirmed, the Hezbollah toll from Sunday's battles in Qusair near the Lebanese border would highlight a deepening intervention in Syria by the guerrilla group set up by Iran in the 1980s to fight Israeli occupation troops in south Lebanon.
Benjamin Netanyahu threatens more Israeli strikes on Syria Benjamin Netanyahu raised the prospect of further Israeli strikes on Syria today, amid claims that Bashar al-Assad's regime has installed high-tech weapons aimed at hitting Tel Aviv.
By Robert Tait - Telegraph.co.uk
The Israeli prime minister said his government would act "with determination" to prevent arms being transferred from Syria to Hizbollah, the Lebanese Shia group, which last week claimed it would soon acquire "game changing" weapons to attack Israel.
"The government of Israel is working responsibly and with determination and sagacity, in order to ensure the supreme interest of the State of Israel... to... prevent the transfer of advanced weapons to Hizbollah and to [other] terrorist elements," Mr Netanyahu said at the beginning of the weekly cabinet meeting. "We will work to ensure Israelis' security interest in the future as well."
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