Tradewolf

Energy Affecting Food Prices

First of all, you along with most people are sadly in error. The bulk of the alternative ethanol program has not even begun yet. ETOH is only being mixed with gasoline in 10-15% or less on average amounts.

It is an additive, not an alternative. Most of the fuel is still gasoline. Ethanol has replaced MBTE a carcinogen, which replaced TetraEthyl Lead another health hazard. What do you want them to use? Take your pick, Lead, MBTE and its carcinogen and water polution issues, or biodegradable ethanol. You have to have one of them for octane improving, pre-ignition detonation prevention and oxygenation for complete fuel burning according to the EPA. If you want the demand to drop on Ethanol for fuel then we can go back to Leaded gas which is the least evil octane improver other than Ethanol.

Now if the Ethanol program gets off the ground and we see large numbers of E85 cars on the road, then you will see big demand and corn prices would go through the roof, smae as any commodity when demand skyrockets, but WE ARE NOT THERE YET. I do not think we will see that happen as I think the popularity of E85 will not happen due to price self limiting. Do not blame all the food cost increase all on Ethanol which is a great fuel *additive*. Blame it on commoditization of everything which is a global neccessity and the speculators parking all their money fleeing from the dollar into them.

They have made these commodities true alternative hard currencies and this will not change unless the speculative money runs back to dollars or the market. Or if there are price controls which are already happening world wide. Remember that once some countries opt for price control this will radically skew the global demand/supply situation elsewhere forcing all to adopt them. All of this will not occur in areas where the commodity is not a life or death demand issue, but where it is look out.

This bubble will burst but before it does a lot of people are going to be hurt or die. These commodity bubbles take the stairs up and the elevator down. Oil and Food speculation can bring the economy of the world to a severe depression a lot worse than some Wall St. mortgage bankers and hedge funds folding. Bernanke should never have dropped the rates unless it was agreed by all nations to do the same but he did and he has destroyed the dollar. This has caused the whole cycle above. He must raise interest rates to 5% prime immediately. This is the only thing that will bring the strength back to the dollar so that we see dollar euro 1:1 again. Watch what happens to oil and corn prices then.

Cost of Rice Rises 50% in Two Weeks as Agflation Continues

As long as we continue to worship at the alter of free market world globalization, without any price controls on all the things which we have come to view as "commodities" we will see the ever spiraling higher of prices controlled by the greed of man. The price of oil,food, housing will begin to balance with the death of a large portion of the human population due to starvation and wars. Thats OK as long as the Larry Kudlows of the world and the fat cats on Wall St are happy with all their money as the world population begins to die off. Price controls and trade sanctions will come back. Its ineveitable. Its coming and soon. TW

The (Abandoned) Uptick Rule and Blaming the Shorts

THe Uptick rule should be reinstated to help provide a stable and orderly market. You can still short all you want. And you should have to have a buyer for your shorted stock to sell. You cant just dump what amounts to fictional quantitites at will. At the moment you short there must be a round trip transaction for it to clear. What is wrong with that?

Big Ben, Please Tell Us You Have a Plan B

Actually the best thing would be to just left the financials geniuses and there money center banks implode. Then remake the system from the ashes. The Fed should immediately begin raising the rate 50 bp a month until they hold at 5% to agressively defend the currency. This is far more important than saving leveraged Wall St greed.

Undoing the Sprint Nextel Merger

First, Sprint is not going BK. Long before the filing would happen a buyer would pick it up at these firesale prices. Second, Sprint could be aquired in whole or just the Nextel part by itself, which would be a plus all around. Do some research; there is a big move on by Public Safety/Homeland Security to build out a Nation wide dedicated network. PS always liked Nextel both Phone and PTT. There are Govt people who are involved that were waiting to see if the 700 mhz PS block auction went well and a Private Operation would build the network for them. Well it imploded. They are looking for a Plan B now. But in the meantime congress has now(surprise) earmarked the proceeds of the auctions, all or in part for PS nationwide network use. It is already being considered right now for Homeland Security to pick up Nextel from Sprint. Saves Sprint a ton of headaches, gives them cash, the Feds get their network already built for them and they dont need a Customer Care center either because the only people using the Public Safety network will basically be government. The civvy users will be migrated to Sprint for the most part. Biggest point...it doesnt have to turn any profits ever again, and Sprint has already offered to foot the cost of the rest of the Nextel 800 rebanding. Sprint can then move ahead with their WiMAX. Another point that was brought up is that the Lease arrangements with colocated sites can be a cash stream from the Feds to Sprint going forward. And Motorola is pushing this too, wonder why.... Everyone wins, maybe except the taxpayers, or Verizon and ATT who are going to pay for part of this through their spectrum auction payments :) Its another way this may play out. Stay tuned.

Sprint's Imploding

Although her article is somewhat factual, it is dated old news, and she does not make any attempt to discuss the improvements that are coming in S by new mgt. In addition although the VZ rumor is mentioned which is OLD she does not talk about the Tmobile or AMX rumors which are NEW and have some credibility. Imploding, no. In decline at the moment yes. They still are a very profitable wireless company sitting on over 50 million subs and a lot of assets. They did not have to throw in the kitchen sink and write down 29B of the 36B Nextel aquisistion. They did so and it saved a lot of capital on top of the over 2B cash they have. It did piss off the shareholders understandably. S is a very attractive takeover candidate at the moment and both GOOG and AMX neither of which have Anti trust concerns here with a S buyout.

Does Anybody Care That Wheat Surpassed $10 A Bushel?

Of course we notice here in the vast midwest. It is a very good thing for the US. Wheat and corn are the new oil. The US is the new Saudi Arabia in this area. If people want the wheat then send the dollars(and oil). It works BOTH WAYS. To some, food will be worth MORE than oil SOON. Is it inflationary, yes. Collateral damage. If you ran a farm and watched all the rats from Wall Street running ADM taking over all your neighbors farms as the go under, you would be glad to see that farmers finally have some hope of a fair living. It will be a net BIG PLUS for the US and Canada to control the vast grain supply.