Canadian Red Neck

Has the U.S. Been Playing Loose with Oil Market Data?

Why is this comment here??????


On Nov 13 05:17 PM PARTICULARMEN wrote:

> Warren Buffett: The financial panic is over (Reuters headline)<br/>
>
> Why Warren Buffett pays $34 billion (market cap) for BNI instead
> max. $24 billion when market DJIA was at 6500?
> Why BRK depends on Goldman Sachs bankers?
> Why Buffett is buying stuff at the peak of the market instead of
> waiting to buy cheaper in a very short time ?
> Does he think DJIA at 10000 is "cheap" ?
> Why he wanna split his highly priced BRK.B shares and make it appeal
> to average John Q. Public investor ?
> He buys BNI at the top to calm the matket panic and "make you buy
> too".
> Why BRK is not selling all their stuff, when W. Buffett knows very
> clear that DJIA will be 5000 soon and will bottom only at 2000 that
> will hit him too?
> Find out in WARREN BUFFET? link
> snipr.com/t7w23

Baidu Has Massive Growth Trends Firmly in Its Grasp

If my understanding is correct, Google makes its money from on line advertizements. I like to ask, "Does on line advertizement work?" I almost never look at those advertizements. Anyone of those that popped got closed immediately.

I actually read newspaper advertizements and flyers when I was looking to buy something. I can't recall an incident that I bought something because I saw the online advertizements. Same goes for TV advertizements.

So, basically I ask whether a company that depends exclusively on revenue from online advertizement is sustainable.

Google’s New Mobile App Cuts Garmin, TomTom at the Knees

I could never quite understand the need of GPS navigation gadget. I travelled a lot around the world, USA & Canada. All I needed was a good map of the city I visited. Some of them, I got free from the local tourism booths; some of them I bought at bookstore for around $10. They lasted me long long time.

As for looking for places to eat and for entertainment, usually I got them through local tourism board free of charge or at hotels.

The Secret Paulson-Goldman Meeting

Many years ago, I was asked about doing business in the east and corruption. I told the class that there was corruption in the east but it was very transparent. The power that be just asked for their percentage and you cost that in your business plan. It was known situation and established way of doing business.

In the west, we professed that there was no corruption but the situation was much more insidious. That was where the lobbiests and connections came into play.

Basically, we have honest crooks in the east and lying crooks in the west.

Android Opens the Doors for Google's Next-Gen Search, Ads and Tools

I wonder if I am one of those simple cell phone users. All of these multi-functions cell phones are wasted on me. I don't need to be connected all the times, very seldom use the camera function (quality does not meet my needs), very seldom listen to music while walking around (I have a MP3 player for use on plane).

All I need is a cell phone with strong phone capability & reasonable contact management software. The phone must also be rugged as it gets tossed around quite a bit. So far, Nokia phones generally fits the bill. My wife and kid have similar experience with Nokia cell phones.

Unfortunately, many cell phone manufacturers have gone on the "feature rich path". It is just more things to go wrong.

China: Spreading the Sovereign Wealth to Buy Overseas Commodity Assets

Do not put Chinese on the pedestal. They will spend just as good as us one of these days. Right now, they are just getting out of survival mode, so minimal spending overall. But the "middle class" is spending quite well just like the new rich.

All through Chinese history, dynasties collapsed because the emperors overspent and the peasants were overtaxed. China is not there yet. I believe quite a few of western countries are in the thick of it right now. So, be prepared for the day of reckoning.

Sirius Radio: Glowing or About to Burn Up?

It has been very interesting reading the comments to this article. In the last 4 years, I came across a total of 2 users of satellite radio in Canada, one XM and one Sirius. In both instants, it was in northern Canada. So, how many people actually susbscribe to Sirius after the free trial? I also have not come across any one that has Sirius/XM installed in their new car. Me included.

I thought about getting Sirius/XM but decided against it because I have more than enough music at home and in car, either free, part of cable subscription, through internet or personal music library. I guess I am so used to getting music for free that I find it hard to pay specifically for them.

The question is whether satellite radio is a viable business model. The other question is where Sirius is just a speculative play at the moment. I generally do not invest in speculative plays, burned too many times. It is very hard to predict the future correctly. I now only buy stocks in companies with some operating histories, cash flow and PROFIT. Stocks like Sirius I leave them to braver souls.

The Truth About Fossil Fuels and Renewable Energy

I like realityrese's geothermal idea, especially the one using existing oil and gas wells. I can see one problem with using oil and gas wells in geothermal schemes. They are generally very well spaced geographically and located generally far away from end users. This may make capturing this energy and delivering them to end users a costly undertaking.

I think why this idea is not pursued by the government. They are too simple and not sexy. Furthermore, the oil and gas wells are owned by big, bad oil companies. We cannot do anything that will benefit these bad guys. By the way, I work for one of the big, bad oil companies.

The American Patient: Energy

Alternative energy will eventually happen. That's when whatever we use currently becomes too expensive. We should have a variety of petential alternatives. I am not so sure that I trust the government to make the right decision. I would rather let market place decide which is the best and economical alternative energy. To artificially support one over the other is just plain stupidity. Look at the record of all those planned economy.

I am an engineer and constructor. I am very excited about all these changes happening these days. It means more work for us "slaves". Thanks for pushing all these alternative energy. The more the merrier. Even better still, more mistakes so that we can do the projects over and over again.

China Blows a Double Bubble

Historically, Chinese problems came from unrests of farmers, which happened every 150-200 years. Then they had a dynasty change. Back then farmers accounted for some 80-90% of the population, now may be less than 50%.

I used to work in China and have travelled extensivelly along the coast and in the poorer interior. The interior is indeed much poorer, but the peasants are still moderately contented. But problems are brewing. Chinese government reported that land under cultivation has been decreasing for the last few years, because the farmers cannot make a living off the land. That's why the farmers are going to the coastal cities to look for work.

With the joining of WTO, Chinese farmers' life could become even more miserable with the importation of various farm products from highly subsidized western countries.

Communist Chinese government recognizes that they must keep the farmers happy and stay where they are, otherwise, they just may be thrown out like past emperors. It can be rather violent. Mao said "Revolution is not a tea party". They have set up incentive programs to encourage both local and foreign investors to locate inland. They even put up a humongous coal fire power plant in the interior and transmit the electricity to the coastal cities.

China also faces another dilemma. As it moves up the manufacturing food chain, it needs more automation and skilled trade workers. This means more unemployed unskilled workers, ie ex-farmers. Watch out, trouble. When I was there, Chinese labour department commented that they were short some 3 million precision machinists and equipment operators. The catch with the Chinese is those who can afford to send their kids to school do not want their kids to become trade workers. Go figure. China in fact has surplus of young engineers.

Basically, China is going through very unstable and precarious time. Things can go crazy and downhill very fast.

Will Pickens' Scrapped Project Slow Wind Energy Momentum?

Wind power is a "regulation driven" energy alternative. By this, I mean only the government can make it viable with the right kind of regulations.

If one searches "wind power" on the internet, one can find lots of web sites catering to this topic, both pro and con. Many of these sites are very logical in their arguments. I learn enough from these web sites to know that wind power will never be a reliable form of power/electricity. Base load still has to come from hydro-, various forms of fossil fuel burning and nuclear power plants.

Based on study of wind turbine installations in Europe, wind energy actually does not decrease the overall carbon footprint because backup power generation plants have to be idling all the time for ramping up when wind stop blowing.

Wind power proponents recognize the shortcomings of this alternative energy. That's why they are talking such thing as power storage systems. This creates other problems. Nothing in life is free.

Overall, wind power will be a niche play at best.

Oil to Retest $40/Barrel by Year-End?

Social Security was in the hole right from Day One because the first group who received the money did not put much money into it. SS is always kept alive by the following generation.

The problem we have right now is we are not making enought babies. I think it used to be for every retiree there are 10 working stiffs putting money into SS, now it is more like 3-4 working stiffs to 1 retiree. One other problem is we are living longer. You combine the two, we have shortfalls in SS.

Boomer retirees, be prepared for benefit cuts. Generation X & Y, grin and bear it. We need your money as we cannot go back to our dearly departed parents to ask for our money back. Furthermore, if you still thinking of getting something out of SS when you retire, please hurry up and have more babies. That's why people have more babies in the good old days. It was another form of retirement planning.

Chinese Retaliation - Detained Rio Executive Should Make Us Nervous

Let's not jump to conclusion. The charge may or may not be bogus. Only time will tell. The guy might be having a few drinks and karaoke with his counterparts after work and tried to pump them for information. That may be construed as trying to steal state secret. Whatever.

Yap, many China state owned companies do do the biddings of their government. How sure are we that our supposedly private companies do not support the wishes of the government. A good case in point is Petrocanada in its early days.

The use of security reason to prevent Chinese companies from buying into western companies is a smokescreen. Let's say a Chinese company buys up a Canadian company with oil and gas properties in Canada, what are the Chinese going to do with the Canadian oil and gas properties if we should go to war with them. The oil and gas stay in the ground. We can always nationalize the properties.

If Chinese companies want to pay good money for western companies, let them buy the companies and allow the shareholders to enjoy the gain. Let the shareholders vote on the sale if we truly believe in capitalism.

The Dollar Ain't Picture Perfect, But What's Better?

The supplier was German manufacturer with local representation. I presumed they did not want to take the foreign exchange risk.


On Jun 20 01:08 PM Brad Zigler wrote:

> "When I purchased materials for a couple of projects in China, the
>
> suppliers insisted on being paid in Deutch Marks"
>
> Must have been a project done a while back. Deutsche marks were replaced
> by euros in 1999. Are you saying that the Chinese wanted non-dollar
> payments a decade ago?

China Counterattacks With a 'Buy China' Policy

Hi, Backtoreality,

I don't know much about farming industry. From what I have read in newspapers, it appears that American farmers are much more subsidized than Canadian farmers. Our Canadian farmers kept telling us that they cannot compete against the American farmers because Canadian government does not subsidize them as much as the American government. Anyway, who knows.

One of the problems faced by the American farmers is the exchange rate between US$ & C$. We can't help it if people think US$ is worth more than C$. There lies the handicap. May be you should convince your government to let US$ fall.

By the way, I worked in China for 3 1/2 years a few years ago. In most cities along the coast, standard is not as low as you have discribed. I have also shopped in Walmart while working in China. I did not look out for things made in USA, but there sure were fair number of American brand products. Of all probability, they were all made in China. Please complain to Walmart for not selling American made products in China.

In many Asian countries, people like to buy live chicken and fish. Frozen stuffs are considered substandard. Please do not be so judgemental because you saw someone carry a live chicken into an apartment. I grew up in a village, we have slaughtered enough chickens in our time for our own consumption.



On Jun 20 04:29 PM backtoreality wrote:

> Cannuck..
>
> Tell your sad tale to the wheat farmers in north dakota, where I
> come from.
> The canadian wheat board and the USDA allowed canadien wheat farmers
> to haul and sell their wheat in north dakota grain elevators.
> They got $6.00 US a bushel for their wheat, when the canadian wheat
> board was selling on the world market for $5.00
> Plus..they got paid in US dollars...which were then worth $1.40 in
> canadian dollars when they got home.
> Plus, the grain monopoly run by archer daniels and cargill were overjoyed
> to buy canadian wheat for $6.00 because without the imports, they
> would have been paying the north dakota farmer closer to $7.00 a
> bushel
>
> On Jun 19 03:57 PM Canadian Red Neck wrote: