Kerry urges US envoys to make climate change a priority … US Secretary of State John Kerry has called on American ambassadors around the world to make the fight against climate change a top priority ahead of new UN talks next year. In his first department-wide policy guidance statement since taking office a year ago, he told his 70,000 staff: "The environment has been one of the central...Read More
Janet Yellen's Nemesis – The Great Moderation … New Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen has a great task ahead of her. How to combat the results of the Great Moderation, as it was called, that period of low inflation with moderate economic growth that prevailed from 1985 to 2007, according to Paul Krugman. But why, when lots of jobs were created, particularly the 22 million jobs created du...Read More
COLD SHOULDER: ABC, CBS Exclude Scientists Critical of Global Warming for More Than 1,300 Days … Like a simple parlor trick, the networks are able to make skeptical scientists vanish, at least from the eyes of their viewers. In some cases, the broadcast networks have failed to include such scientists for years, while including alarmist scientists within the past six months. ABC, CBS and NBC&...Read More
Janet Yellen's Nemesis – The Great Moderation … New Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen has a great task ahead of her. How to combat the results of the Great Moderation, as it was called, that period of low inflation with moderate economic growth that prevailed from 1985 to 2007, according to Paul Krugman. But why, when lots of jobs were created, particularly the 22 million jobs created du...Read More
COLD SHOULDER: ABC, CBS Exclude Scientists Critical of Global Warming for More Than 1,300 Days … Like a simple parlor trick, the networks are able to make skeptical scientists vanish, at least from the eyes of their viewers. In some cases, the broadcast networks have failed to include such scientists for years, while including alarmist scientists within the past six months. ABC, CBS and NBC&...Read More
- John Stephenson, CFAAfter the banner finish to the market last year, the price action on the S&P 500 has so far been somewhat dismal with stocks consolidating and digesting their big advance.Most of the trading so far this year is coming from fast money hedge funds, with big mutual fund investors choosing to sit this round out.Markets are searching for a direction in the early part of 2014, an...Read More
Government UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain recall their ambassadors from Qatar – Qatar says it will not withdraw its ambassadors from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain … The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain said on Wednesday they were withdrawing their ambassadors from Qatar because Doha had not implemented an agreement among Gulf Arab countries not to interfere in each others' internal...Read More
People Are Still Being Prosecuted for Legal Marijuana. Obama Hasn't Pardoned One of Them … When Robert Duncan got laid off from his job in T.V. production and a friend offered him a gig at a medical marijuana dispensary in northern California, he paid a lawyer $800 to review the company's operations and make sure the outfit was on the right side of state law. The lawyer told him he h...Read More
Government UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain recall their ambassadors from Qatar – Qatar says it will not withdraw its ambassadors from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain … The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain said on Wednesday they were withdrawing their ambassadors from Qatar because Doha had not implemented an agreement among Gulf Arab countries not to interfere in each others' internal...Read More
People Are Still Being Prosecuted for Legal Marijuana. Obama Hasn't Pardoned One of Them … When Robert Duncan got laid off from his job in T.V. production and a friend offered him a gig at a medical marijuana dispensary in northern California, he paid a lawyer $800 to review the company's operations and make sure the outfit was on the right side of state law. The lawyer told him he h...Read More
Catherine Ashton, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy | Photo by Mark III Photonics / Shutterstock.comA new scheme by the European Union (EU) hopes to make it more difficult for armed groups to finance their activities through the sale of conflict minerals.Under the draft regulation announced on Wednesday, companies will find it easier to source tin, tantalum, tungsten,...Read More
The New USA? Secession Movement Gains Steam … If you mention the word "secession" most people think of the South during the Civil War. But today, a new movement is gaining steam because of frustration over a growing, out-of-control federal government. A number of conservative, rural Americans are taking about seceding and creating their own states … A 51st state called Jeffer...Read More
Obama Budget Offers Tax Breaks From Child Care to College … U.S. President Barack Obama's budget will propose tax cuts for low-income families, a retirement savings plan and ask Congress to make permanent certain tax breaks to offset the cost of higher education. The Obama administration yesterday released excerpts of the president's $3 trillion-plus fiscal 2015 budget to be sent to...Read More
The New USA? Secession Movement Gains Steam … If you mention the word "secession" most people think of the South during the Civil War. But today, a new movement is gaining steam because of frustration over a growing, out-of-control federal government. A number of conservative, rural Americans are taking about seceding and creating their own states … A 51st state called Jeffer...Read More
Obama Budget Offers Tax Breaks From Child Care to College … U.S. President Barack Obama's budget will propose tax cuts for low-income families, a retirement savings plan and ask Congress to make permanent certain tax breaks to offset the cost of higher education. The Obama administration yesterday released excerpts of the president's $3 trillion-plus fiscal 2015 budget to be sent to...Read More
Now shipping on behalf of customers.Recently, TransCanada Corporation (TSX:TRP), the oil and gas / energy infrastructure giant, announced the startup of commercial operation of what is called the Gulf Coast Project. The US$2.3 billion pipeline connects the major oil hub in Cushing, Oklahoma to delivery points on the U.S. Gulf Coast such as Nederland, Texas.That's it for that line. The testing has...Read More
Gold exploration stocks are highly speculative because there's less chance of success. Since it often takes three years or more before an exploration property becomes a producing mine-if it happens at all-only lucky investors with long-term investments make money.Gold exploration stocks and junior mining stocks are gambles. The odds of buying the next big gold producer are low. The odds of buying...Read More
Ukraine crisis: Angry Angela Merkel questions whether Putin is 'in touch with reality' German newspaper claims that in a conversation between Angela Merkel and Barack Obama she was heard to question the Russian President's grip on reality … The German mass circulation Bild newspaper wrote on Monday that during a telephone conversation she held with US President Barack Obama to di...Read More
Apple's Tim Cook: Business isn't just about making a profit … He leads a company that some would consider the epitome of ruthless global capitalism. But Apple chief executive Tim Cook has shocked some in the US with an impassioned attack on the singleminded pursuit of profit – and a direct appeal to climate-change deniers not to buy shares in his firm. Eyewitnesses said Cook, w...Read More
Ukraine crisis: Angry Angela Merkel questions whether Putin is 'in touch with reality' German newspaper claims that in a conversation between Angela Merkel and Barack Obama she was heard to question the Russian President's grip on reality … The German mass circulation Bild newspaper wrote on Monday that during a telephone conversation she held with US President Barack Obama to di...Read More