Pres. Obama signed into law yesterday a bill that imposes sanctions on financial institutions dealing with Iran's central bank, though exemptions will be made in the interest of U.S. national security and/or energy market stability. Separately, Iran said today it has produced the nation's first nuclear fuel rod, a feat many in the West had thought the country incapable of. [View news story]
What America needs is energy security so that places like Iran can be better dealt with. This is why projects like the Keystone pipeline make a lot of sense.
What We Won't Get From Sunday's Healthcare Vote [View article]
Bla Bla Bla Bla - The USA is the only first world country that does not have proper health care for ALL its citizens. Time to move forward. The problems with the political system are well known but a different story than health care!
As leaked earlier the State Department's assessment (full report) of TransCanada's (TRP) Keystone pipeline project finds little to criticize as far as environmental impact, calling it "very unlikely" any releases would affect groundwater quality. The report also doesn't see much climate impact nor "significant adverse" impact on Canada's environment. There's now a 45-day comment period and then things move to the White House. [View news story]
Good news for America, North American energy independence, jobs and the economy! I am sure that the "greentards" will make a lot of noise. They may even fly to Washington for another protest! They will never get it because blind ideology defies any and all common sense! Obama has no reason not to approve this pipeline!
Tens of thousands of demonstrators protested against TransCanada's (TRP) proposed Keystone pipeline in Washington yesterday, highlighting the dilemma President Obama faces: authorizing the pipeline could create jobs, boost his standing with unions, strengthen ties with Canada and reduce the U.S.'s dependence on Middle East oil; however, it would also alienate a key environmental base that helped get him elected. [View news story]
These people are driven by blind ideology and facts and reality do not matter to them. As designed, Keystone would be the safest pipeline ever built and coal power generation in North America puts out many times more green house gasses than the oil sands. It is all about energy security and providing descent paying jobs for America and here Keystone makes huge sense.
The President's statement denying the application for the building of TransCanada's (TRP) Keystone XL Pipeline: The rejection is "not a judgement on the merits of the pipeline, but the arbitrary nature of (the Congressional) deadline." (earlier) [View news story]
As Expected - Obama voted "Pressent" yet again in an attempt to keep the enviro boys happy till after the election. So much for jobs and energy security!
More Than Half a Million Job Losses Coming [View article]
I suspect that a lot of these people are people who have no intention of looking for work after the Census is done. Retired people and others not looking for a full time job take a lot of these jobs.
Mongolia: Fast Growing Economy, Evolving Investment Climate [View article]
I have been following Events in Mongolia and specifically mining in Mongolia for some time now and can tell you that there are a lot of problems. I have posted links that provide some detail:
You can also get a balanced view of what is happening in Mongolia by viewing articles by Jon Springer and Emmet Kodesh published here at Seeking Alpha.
Mongolia's government has a lot of credibility problems as is evidenced with its attempts to change the Investment agreement with Rio Tinto and Turquois Hill Resourses. This was an agreement that was negotiated over 2 plus years and where Mongolia hired some of the best mining and financial advisers on the planet. Rio Tinto and Turquois Hill had invested over 5 billion dollars on the basis of this agreement. There are also many other examples of problems in Mongolia such as the difficulties that Khan resources ran into (currently being dealt with in World Courts) and the never ending sagas and frustrations faced by Peabody coal and other large western miners that have tried to strike a deal to develop the Tavan Tolgoi coal deposit. Development of this huge deposit is basically going nowhere and the one Mongolian company mining a small fraction of it has had to suspend operations due to lack of funds. The Mongolian bonds in Question are also in my opinion a very poor investment. They were issued at a yield of just over 5% and tanked soon after when it became clear that the Mongolian government was looking at not honoring the agreement that they had signed with Rio Tinto. My view is that based on risk involved in Mongolia a yield closer to 20% is justified. Mongolia does have high potential but it also has very high risk as the government has shown many times that it can not be trusted too honor its signed agreements. Any one looking at investing in Mongolia or Mongolian companies or companies highly dependent on their Mongolian operations should be very aware of these facts.
Undervalued Cameco: Potentially the Best Uranium Buy [View article]
comparing Cameco to BHP????????? That is all I got to say about that one. The supply /demand situation from before the earthquake has changed considerably for the worst. Anyone who thinks that they will now be building any new reactors in the USA or most of Europe is smoking some real good stuff - IMO. A lot of other countries will also be reconsidering there options. Sure - some countries like China and India need the energy and do not have a lot of choice besides nuclear but a lot of countries do. North America for example has a lot of cheap natural gas. IMO - The tables have turned on nuclear and sure Cameco will survive as the world will still need Uranium but the growth for Uranium has been pushed back a fair bit. The Junior players will have a much harder time than the established producers like Cameco. financing all of a sudden just got a lot more difficult for them.
You can call this "The Obama Stall"! "No he can't" Obama just does not seem to be capable on making any deals with the Republicans! No deals on Debt ceiling, No deals on Keystone, No deals on anything!! End result is a suffering economy!!! JMO
Poor positioning by portfolio managers is suggesting a near-term market pullback may be on the way, says BMO's Brian Belski. Right now he says they're inundated with questions from portfolio managers who are "clearly under-performing the market." When that happens, you know that managers are straying from their discipline. "When they stray," Bielski warns, "bad things happen, the market rolls over, you do emotional things and sell stock." [View news story]
Portfolio managers that are under- performing the market! ??? Last time I checked that was something like 90% of them!!!!! Nothing new there!!!
Jeremy Grantham Believes In High Oil Prices: Thinks Oil Sands Producers Are Bad Investments [View article]
Grantham is missing some important points - a couple of them being: -Technology and other improvements is steadily reducing the environmental impact of the oil sands based plants. - Technology and other improvements is also steadily reducing the cost of producing oil from the oil sands. (look at CVE's number for an example) - The most efficient oil sands producers can produce oil at around $30 per barrel verses $60 plus for a lot of the shale oil developments. - A successful North American energy strategy will require that all sources of energy be included in the mix - this means natural gas, conventional oil, oil sands, unconventional oil and renewable. JMO
How President Barack Obama's Economic Policies Could Impact The Market [View article]
The question is - Will Obama do the right thing for America and move towards jobs and energy independence or will he be swayed by the lefties and turn his back on America, its largest trading partner and best friend. The state department has already said that keystone will have zero environmental impact as the oil will be produced regardless but the greens are only driven by blind ideology and common sense seems to mean nothing to them. Canada like America is also committed to improved environmental performance and has made stride in this regard every year for some time. Will Obama leave a legacy behind or just a disaster of a poorer America more dependent on its enemies for energy???? North American nat gas and oil coupled with renewable s are the key here.
So what I get from reading this article is that you can not loose being long natural gas. if it is a big Ponzi scheme then reality will set in and the price will go up. If it is not, then as the current price of gas is below cost of production and makes it the cheapest clean fuel available, consumption will grow and as it catches up and surpasses production, price will go up to the point where production again becomes profitable. Either way, the price is going up and the strong low cost producers will prosper!
Goldcorp's Bad Community Relations Could Sink Stock [View article]
definitely a "greenie" article here! In the case of IVN - they have not even started mining yet and the water they will be using will be coming from very deep aquifers that the people have no access to. As well, they will be making some of this water available to the people actually increasing water availability. Not familiar with the others but if it is as accurate as the IVN Info I would have to describe it as biased and incorrect.
Paul Krugman assails the media for failing to "acknowledge the one-sided role of Republican extremists in making our system dysfunctional." Making "nebulous calls for centrism, like writing news reports that always place equal blame on both parties, is a big cop-out," Krugman writes, which "only encourages more bad behavior." [View news story]
The voters voted that bunch of inward looking rednecks into power so perhaps they will think twice before voting for them next time.
Pres. Obama signed into law yesterday a bill that imposes sanctions on financial institutions dealing with Iran's central bank, though exemptions will be made in the interest of U.S. national security and/or energy market stability. Separately, Iran said today it has produced the nation's first nuclear fuel rod, a feat many in the West had thought the country incapable of. [View news story]
What We Won't Get From Sunday's Healthcare Vote [View article]
As leaked earlier the State Department's assessment (full report) of TransCanada's (TRP) Keystone pipeline project finds little to criticize as far as environmental impact, calling it "very unlikely" any releases would affect groundwater quality. The report also doesn't see much climate impact nor "significant adverse" impact on Canada's environment. There's now a 45-day comment period and then things move to the White House. [View news story]
Tens of thousands of demonstrators protested against TransCanada's (TRP) proposed Keystone pipeline in Washington yesterday, highlighting the dilemma President Obama faces: authorizing the pipeline could create jobs, boost his standing with unions, strengthen ties with Canada and reduce the U.S.'s dependence on Middle East oil; however, it would also alienate a key environmental base that helped get him elected.
[View news story]
The President's statement denying the application for the building of TransCanada's (TRP) Keystone XL Pipeline: The rejection is "not a judgement on the merits of the pipeline, but the arbitrary nature of (the Congressional) deadline." (earlier) [View news story]
More Than Half a Million Job Losses Coming [View article]
Mongolia: Fast Growing Economy, Evolving Investment Climate [View article]
http://bit.ly/W54lO1
http://bit.ly/UtkBK3
You can also get a balanced view of what is happening in Mongolia by viewing articles by Jon Springer and Emmet Kodesh published here at Seeking Alpha.
Mongolia's government has a lot of credibility problems as is evidenced with its attempts to change the Investment agreement with Rio Tinto and Turquois Hill Resourses. This was an agreement that was negotiated over 2 plus years and where Mongolia hired some of the best mining and financial advisers on the planet. Rio Tinto and Turquois Hill had invested over 5 billion dollars on the basis of this agreement.
There are also many other examples of problems in Mongolia such as the difficulties that Khan resources ran into (currently being dealt with in World Courts) and the never ending sagas and frustrations faced by Peabody coal and other large western miners that have tried to strike a deal to develop the Tavan Tolgoi coal deposit. Development of this huge deposit is basically going nowhere and the one Mongolian company mining a small fraction of it has had to suspend operations due to lack of funds.
The Mongolian bonds in Question are also in my opinion a very poor investment. They were issued at a yield of just over 5% and tanked soon after when it became clear that the Mongolian government was looking at not honoring the agreement that they had signed with Rio Tinto. My view is that based on risk involved in Mongolia a yield closer to 20% is justified.
Mongolia does have high potential but it also has very high risk as the government has shown many times that it can not be trusted too honor its signed agreements. Any one looking at investing in Mongolia or Mongolian companies or companies highly dependent on their Mongolian operations should be very aware of these facts.
Undervalued Cameco: Potentially the Best Uranium Buy [View article]
Initial Jobless Claims: +32K to 360K vs. 330K consensus, 328K prior (revised). Continuing claims -4K to 3.00M. [View news story]
Poor positioning by portfolio managers is suggesting a near-term market pullback may be on the way, says BMO's Brian Belski. Right now he says they're inundated with questions from portfolio managers who are "clearly under-performing the market." When that happens, you know that managers are straying from their discipline. "When they stray," Bielski warns, "bad things happen, the market rolls over, you do emotional things and sell stock." [View news story]
Jeremy Grantham Believes In High Oil Prices: Thinks Oil Sands Producers Are Bad Investments [View article]
-Technology and other improvements is steadily reducing the environmental impact of the oil sands based plants.
- Technology and other improvements is also steadily reducing the cost of producing oil from the oil sands. (look at CVE's number for an example)
- The most efficient oil sands producers can produce oil at around $30 per barrel verses $60 plus for a lot of the shale oil developments.
- A successful North American energy strategy will require that all sources of energy be included in the mix - this means natural gas, conventional oil, oil sands, unconventional oil and renewable.
JMO
How President Barack Obama's Economic Policies Could Impact The Market [View article]
The Natural Gas 'Ponzi Scheme' [View article]
Goldcorp's Bad Community Relations Could Sink Stock [View article]
Paul Krugman assails the media for failing to "acknowledge the one-sided role of Republican extremists in making our system dysfunctional." Making "nebulous calls for centrism, like writing news reports that always place equal blame on both parties, is a big cop-out," Krugman writes, which "only encourages more bad behavior." [View news story]