PeakOiler

Dennis Gartman on Gold, Oil, Government and the Economy

Gartman conveniently ommitted discussing the tax cuts during the Bush II years (tax cuts mainly for the wealthy). He's basically saying that tax cuts lead to greater prosperity, and perhaps that is true if the savings rate goes up as a result (savings finance growth). But under Bush, tax cuts were accompanied by a declining savings rate (it got down to 0% a year ago). The experience over the past eight years has proven that egregious tax cuts simply lead to egregious greed. Supply siders have been completely humiliated by the experience of the past eight years, but Gartman's wealth and ego simply won't let him recognize this fact.

Petrobras: Set to Become a Global Oil Major - Barron's

"Jason Swarz says Petrobras’ recent deepwater finds could yield 33 billion barrels of oil cumulatively. This contravenes the 'peak oil' theory - that the world is running out of oil. Incidentally, while Barron’s says the Tupi field could double Brazil’s oil reserves, Schwarz estimates it could triple them."

What Jason Swarz may not know, and many don't, is that the optimistic potential for Brazil is less than one year of world wide consumption. What the world would need to prove Swarz right is a 500 billion barrel field. Tupi and Carioca are but drops in the bucket relative to the giant fields of Saudi Arabia, which are now in decline. The world burns 30 billion a year, the US burns 22 million barrels a day. The US has 5% of the world's population, and burns 25% of the world's oil. Extraoplate this to China, India, the Asian tigers, etc. and overlay this with growth rates in these countries. Not only that, but watch the growth rates in the Middle East. Those countries are breeding like rabbits and are now keeping much more oil to satisfy their own populations.