Genesis

High Gold Prices: It's the Oil, Stupid

WayneS,

It appears you want a pat on the back for saving on fuel costs by using a diesel-powered truck.

I found the following ratio on the Internet: "Three barrels of crude will produce two barrels of unleaded gasoline, and one barrel of heating oil." Heating oil is essentially the same thing as diesel fuel. So... are you suggesting that we throw away all the gasoline since it is "inefficient", and have every motor vehicle in the U.S. run on diesel?

Then you compare gasoline to ethanol... ??

Also, according to Wikipedia, 47 cents out of every gallon goes toward taxes, not "half of the cost of gasoline."

Also, this statement is absurd: "Gas stations don't make a profit on gasoline. Never did." I guess before the quickie mart days, Goober had to rely on tips from windshield washing.

There are so many absurdities in this post (nat gas is used to heat homes; tf, nat gas produces heat), that I do not have time to address them all.

I hope you follow a good investment advisor, cause you are apparently unable to reach any accurate conclusions on your own.

On Nov 24 09:49 AM WayneS wrote:

> We use natural gas to heat our homes. In vehicles, heat is a waste
> product. Gasoline and ethanol is not much better. Diesel engines
> are the most efficient we have. My one-ton dually truck gets 23 mpg,
> better than most cars. Even the vehicles that can get better than
> 23 mpg don't because of bad driving habits. These habits not only
> waste 25-40% of the gasoline purchased, but kill and maim millions
> per year. The US exports vehicles to Europe that get 47 mpg.
> At $4/gal, waste was curtailed and 1700 lives were saved.
> Over half of the cost of a gallon of gasoline goes to taxes. Gas
> stations don't make a profit on gasoline. Never did. Refineries are
> losing money. We import 70% of the crude.
> Why doesn't "government" fix the problem. We the people would vote
> them out of office for messing with our right to waste gasoline with
> fast, imposing vehicles. Lose/lose situation.

Bargains Still Abound in a Few Gold Miners

Why not research it yourself?


On Nov 23 12:19 PM Dan Braem wrote:

> I don't own any gold stocks - but can anyone provide me an example
> of a gold stock with a 10% FCF yield (compared to the market cap)?

Golden Shorting Opportunity, if Stocks Pull Back

IF STOCKS PULL BACK, I think it will be a golden opportunity to short the stock indexes, as long as we do so in advance of the pullback.

This comment makes more sense than your entire article!

China and South Korea: From Emerging to Emerged

"China is proving itself as a fast moving global player, and South Korea is boarding that same bus."

Didn't South Korea get "on the bus" at least 17 years before China (1961 vs. 1978)? This doesn't inspire me to seek investment advice on South Korea from this author.

RIP: Retail Stores Closed in 2009

I agree with matthutch and swingtimer. FDO's business is booming. There are some winners in this recession. Also, SA should not allow the posting of raw data like this, regardless of whether it contains errors as this one does. If I want to find out what stores closed in 2009, I can Google it. I personally don't like to get my information from about.com anyway. Thumbs down on this article - a function desperately needed on SA.

Copper, Gold and Coal Poised to Break Out

As for your title, FCX is not "gold," PCU is not "copper," and CLF (and other coal mining stocks) are not "coal."

SA needs to start editing inaccurate and misleading titles.

Fed Sends Gold Higher, But What Is It Good For?

They say gold has always been able to buy a good men's suit. I didn't know the Romans wore suits.

Traders Betting on 60%+ Rise in Silver

No kidding?

On Nov 19 12:24 PM AtTheMurph wrote:

> $100 of gold costs just as much as $100 of silver.

Are We Exacerbating China's Pollution?

According to your logic, the planet would apparently be better off if American consumers all died of heart attacks tomorrow. Please don't bother looking for systemic causes; that might cause you to overload your brain circuits. And, oh yes, I'm sure you refuse to buy the pizza cutter at the Dollar Store because it's made in China, then go to five different stores until you finally find the "Made in USA" pizza cutter. You obviously have a lot of frustrations to vent. May I suggest you buy a punching bag?

The U.S. Budget Challenge in International Context

True, hindsight is 20/20, but didn't the USSR's failure in Afghanistan take place before Bush II got us mired in that country?
Seems appropriate for a "joke" by Bush similar to his WMD joke about Iraq: "Osama Bin Laden's got to be around here somewhere!" Funny stuff, if you can momentarily forget about the soldiers we've needlessly sacrificed there.

On Nov 18 09:31 PM chris coonan wrote:

> Obama announced yesterday that US is pulling out of Afghanastan by
> the time he leaves office, and that a contracted War is not in the
> interest of the US. This should help, we are spending a lot of Treasure
> for this war, and not getting results. I think the Russians figured
> that out during the 1980s....but hindsight is 20/20.

Newspapers: The Opportunity of Bankruptcy

While I generally believe in the free market, I think local governments everywhere should outlaw the unwanted, daily distribution of large numbers of advertisements to every household. It's ridiculous, wasteful, and harmful to the environment.

U.S. Treasuries in a Bubble, Not Commodities

Good comment overall. However, the carry trade has absolutely nothing to do with the nationality of the investors. Rather, it is about investors of any nationality borrowing dollars at a low interest rate in order to purchase currencies or assets that are either guaranteed or expected to yield a higher return.

"As for the much vaunted "carry trade", US investors owned less in foreign assets at the end of last year than nearly ever, really."

George Soros: The Guru Outlook

This makes no sense. You say we need to improve the way we produce everything, then talk about how people need to be better at selling real estate. The housing surplus is a long term structural problem resulting from a financial bubble. Better marketing may help a few sellers, but to suppose it's the answer to the housing bubble is just absurd.


On Oct 31 07:39 AM a fat panda wrote:

> You are right but you need to broaden your comment. It isn't just
> technical innovation that we need. We need to improve the way we
> produce everything. This is a particular problem in real estate,
> where we are letting prices fall instead of improving the value of
> the property through innovation.
>
> Here is the problem. Many people look at a house and say a house
> is a commodity. Those people will compete on price, and cry and look
> to mommy-government as the price falls. Others are looking for way
> to reach one house into different markets and find more efficient
> ways to sell it. The later are going to get better prices for the
> same house.
>

Stephen Schork: More Upside in Oil

This has got to be the most bizarre oil price estimate I've ever seen. Whatever this company said, whatever these governments set their budgets at and, oh yeah, let's throw in a 3X multiplier in for good measure.

"So at this point, if we look at the cost of taking oil out of the ground, and what the Saudis (or any other government) are setting their budgets at, then I think fair market value is three times that. Petrobras (PBE) has said that at oil at $55-$65/barrel, they'd be tickled pink - so, really, anything above this, I think."

Countdown Is on for a Global Currency Crisis

Good idea. A large-sized bill would easily accommodate a large number of zeros.

Look at the bright side. We will no longer have to return shopping carts to the front of the store since customers will need to dump their cash into them.


On Nov 10 12:01 PM chris coonan wrote:

>
> Perhaps the Fed should start increasing the physical size of the
> dollar, just to get prepared for the future.