UncleFred

Vale Pushes China for Higher Steel Prices

jay c, I just went to Yahoo Finance, my favorite site and home page, and it seem to provide the same amount of information for RIO as it does for any other stock.

No Matter Who's Elected, Alternative Energy Wins

Would we have gone to the moon without government involvement? Highly unlikely that any private firm would have undertaken such a project with little chance of profit. The Democrats understand thereis a role for government in projects of this magnitude. The Republicans want to "privatize" everything in site. Thus a Democratic administration will be much more likely to launch an Apollo-like mission to restructure our energy policies around renewable, non-carbon based sources, while the Republicans are much more likely to want the government out of the project, and expect private industry to change our energy structure without government involvement. With the Oil and Coal Companies dominating the current energy policies, moving to renewable sources is MUCH less likely to happen.

The Crude Reality

Short term (6 months) oil down, to $110/barrel; intermediate term (6 months - 5 years) oil up, to ~$150/barrel; long term (5 - 10 years) oil up (~$150/barrel; ultra long term (10 - 20 years) oil at $110/barrel (all measured in today's dollars).

Save this, and see.

Adjusted for Income & Fuel Efficiency Increases, Gas Today is Almost 50% Below Record High

Despite other disparaging remarks, this is an interesting way to look at these high oil prices. Another aspect to add to the analysis cannot be bad, unless the data used is bad, and that doesn't seem to be the case here, providing a proper definition of "per capita disposable income" is being used.

Energy Independence Is a Military, Not Economic, Concept

An issue not addressed in this analysis is the effect of shifting vast portions of American wealth to the middle east. Our dollars go to OPEC countries to purchase hundreds of millions of gallons of oil, the OPEC countries use those dollars to buy the United States, bit by bit. If we don't wean ourselves from the oil teat, we will all soon be renters in our own country, with everything owned by the OPEC countries. As for a military tie-in, if militant Islam can't defeat the United States militarily, they will simply buy it with the money we give them. This is why it is a national emergency to IMMEDIATELY invest in alternative energy, the best of which is definitely solar.

Oil Price Implications of a Strike on Iran

Israel will strike at Iran between the U.S. elections in November and Thanksgiving. Israel will be acting with the blessings of the U.S. neocons who have put the U.S. into a terrible situation worldwide with their short term thinking, and inept execution.

I have thought for quite some time that the Bush administration is indeed deliberately aiming the planet toward "Armegedon", and a strike on Iran by Israel will almost certainly take us there. It is IMPERATIVE that we all contact our congressional representatives to draft a bill that would SPECIFICALLY ban any military action against Iran without express congressional approval. Even then, the Bushies are planning an end-run in that contingency by using Israel to actually execute the strike. So to be effective, the bill would need to specifically state that aid to Israel will be terminated should they strike Iran.

With or without a strike on Iran, oil prices are only going one direction, and that is up, long term. Striking Iran will only accelerate that trend.

SunPower Chairman Doesn't Talk Green

Rogers should remember that environmental concerns are what drive the whole solar industry, and dismissing the "greenies" is not helpful to his sales.

Tracking Jim Cramer's Performance: January 2007 Stock Picks

Not included in this discussion of Cramer's January '07 picks and pans is his "Pick of the Year" for 2007, a pick he actually made first in December 2006, and repeated many times thereafter: NYX.

NYX was around $100/share when he made his pick. It is now around $62/share.

You would think at least his "Stock of the Year" could be relied on as a carefully researched pick. Yeah, sure, it is up to individual investors to pick and choose, but the point of this whole discussion is that Cramer does no better than the average investor. In point of fact he did substantially worse than I did, on my own. And I am STRICTLY an amateur, not an analyst (pronounce that anal ist), or a broker (well named, the name says everything).

If I can do better than Cramer, what are people watching him for? I assume just for the entertainment, kind of like watching a clown show.

I'm so glad to see that someone finally took the time to put Cramer's recommendations to some analysis (anal lysis).

Peak Oil is a Cost Issue

Jim's analysis is excellent. And the part about EROEI especially relevant.

Underlying all shortages is this simple premise: we all live on a big round spaceship called Earth that can support a certain population in a sustainable manner. But we have far, far too many people on our spaceship to make many, many resources "sustainable". This goes double for non-renewables like oil. As long as organized religions exhort their followers to "multiply and be plentiful", (read "Give me more donors") we are in deep trouble. Read "The End of Faith".

Western Wind Energy Powers California

Distributive Solar Energy Generation is the best way to proceed. Think of every rooftop of homes, office buildings, factories, warehouses, retail stores etc. being covered with solar panels, and the local power company integrating the power generated into the grid. No long transmission lines, fewer power generating stations, and less disruption by hurricanes, tornadoes, etc. Of course, the power company would still have to provide power at night, but that cuts their generation needs by about half.

Solar is also the single most environmentally friendly way to generate electricity. Even wind power, taken to an extreme needed to make a meaningful difference in power generation, could disrupt wind patterns and adversely affect the environment, while solar would have the net effect of cooling the environment by directly converting solar energy, which would otherwise heat the atmosphere, into kinetic energy to run electric motors, etc.

Renewable Energy: Approaching Grid Parity?

A benefit of solar not mentioned is that it takes heat energy out of our atmosphere directly (from the sunlight used) and converts it to kinetic energy, such as electric motors. This directly helps reduce global warming, in addition to the lack of CO2 produced.

Time for an Oil Change: Think American Alternative Energy

The real solution for alternative energy is distributive solar generation of electricity. Think: every rooftop covered with solar cells, with banks of batteries inside the building to store the power generated. This will also work to reverse the process of overheating our planet.

Hydrogen is a solution of the future, and always will be, because the energy needed to generate the hydrogen is more than the energy you can get out of it.

Coal is Up, Goldman Downgrade Be Damned

Another very relevant equity is FDG, appreciating in share price while paying a decent dividend, though not as much as other CanRoys by a wide margin.

Exxon's 2007 Tax Bill: $30 Billion

Let's all remember that Exxon-Mobil didn't in reality pay any taxes at all. We all paid that huge tax bill in the form of higher prices at the pump. Corporations never pay taxes, they just pass them on in the cost of their goods and services.

We'd all be way better off eliminating corporate taxes completely, and generating federal revenue exclusively from individual income taxes. Gross national individual income/federal budget = average tax rate. Sliding scale: those making the least pay a much lower percentage, those making the most (benefiting the most from our society and economy) pay a higher percentage. To file your taxes you look at one table. No exemptions. All sources of income count the same. This would give us a balanced federal budget every year, too.

Is the Reuters/Jeffries CRB Index Missing the Commodity Bull?

The people that do these calculations must be the same ones who calculate the COLA for SS payments. Here in S. FL inflation for 2007 was 5.8%. Nationally it ran 4.1%. The SS COLA this year (2008) is 2.5%. How does this come to pass?