Saturday 30 April 2016

Chasing Functional Extinction - Tigers, Oil Industry, and...

" Stories Going Beyond the Mainstream "  

  

 Chasing Functional Extinction - Tigers, Oil Industry, and... 


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Goldman Pegs Oil Between $20-40 in New Industry Order


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PUTTING SENSE  TO  AN INDUSTRY'S TRANSFORMATION 

After a decade-long “investment phase” that helped unleash the shale revolution, oil is seeking a new equilibrium between supply and demand. Jeff Currie, head of Commodities Research for Global Investment Research at Goldman Sachs, describes how the market has entered an “exploitation phase” that puts downward pressure on prices.  

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The Nuclear Taboo - Rethinking Armageddon


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The world is far different today. On the one hand, both the United States and Russia have far smaller nuclear arsenals than they did at the Cold War’s end. At the same time, new nuclear powers have emerged in pace with advanced conventional precision warfare capabilities. The rise of cyber warfare has also led to concerns over the security and reliability of early warning and command-and-control systems, and weapon systems as well. Advances in the cognitive sciences and research on Cold War crisis decision-making have challenged some of our thinking as to how strategies based on deterrence work, or risk failing. Together, these and other recent developments have combined to form what some are calling a Second Nuclear Age.


Sure Sign Global Economy Heading for Recession


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China Ocean Freight Index Collapses to Record Low  

  1. ....exports are down 9.6% year-over year. Specifically:

  1. To the US -8.8%
  2. To Hong Kong -6.5%
  3. To Japan -5.5%
  4. To South Korea -11.2%
  5. To Taiwan -3.7%
  6. To the countries in the ASEAN -13.7%
  7. To the EU -6.9%
  8. To South Africa -29.6% (!)
  9. To Brazil -47.2% (!!)
  10. To Australia -1.9%
  11. To New Zealand -12.4%.  
  12. READ MORE

GRIM CHARTS: Earnings and S&P Negatively Correlating


Since mid-2015, corporate earnings and the S&P 500 have been moving in the complete opposite direction. Last time they had a complete negative relationship, it was back in 2009—when the stock market crashed.


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Stock Market Crash: These Charts Are a Grim Warning for Investors


  Charts Investors Shouldn’t Overlook

Mainstream stock advisors will never tell you this, but it’s true: the odds of an economic collapse and stock market crash in 2016 are stacking up higher each day.
When I want to know where the stock market is headed, I look at three indicators and they are very powerful predictors over a longer-term period. Those indicators are copper prices, corporate earnings, and how investors treat utilities stocks compared to technology stocks.

More Woes for Schlumberger

Less spending on oil and gas exploration taking its toll on one of the sector's largest companies.

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HOUSTON, April 22 (UPI) -- Schlumberger, the largest oil field services company in the world, said its first quarter revenue experienced one of its sharpest declines since 2014.
The company said revenue through March 31 was $6.5 billion, a 16 percent drop from the previous quarter and 36 percent lower year-on-year.
Chairman and CEO Paal Kibsgaard said in a statement the sequential decrease was one of the largest since crude oil prices started moving sharply lower near the end of 2014.

Just Awful: "Beautiful Cambodian Tigers Functionally Extinct"

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Tigers Are Now Extinct In A Country Where They Used To Thrive 

Six years after 13 countries pledged to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2020, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) declared tigers “functionally extinct” in Cambodia on Wednesday.
According to WWF, the last wild tiger in the country was observed in 2007 thanks to a hidden camera in the Mondulkiri Protected Forest. Cambodia, one of the 13 countries in the world where tigers live, has approved a plan to reintroduce tigers into the Mondulkiri protected forest in eastern Cambodia, the Guardian reports. “We want two male tigers and five to six females tigers for the start,” said Keo Omaliss, director of the department of wildlife and biodiversity at the Forestry Administration, according to the Guardian. “This is a huge task.”

Friday 29 April 2016

The Nuclear Taboo - Rethinking Armageddon





Rethinking Armageddon



The First Nuclear Age was characterized by the Cold War era bipolar international system and a corresponding bipolar nuclear competition between the United States and the Soviet Union. While a few other states, such as Great Britain and France, also possessed nuclear arms, their arsenals were very small compared to those of the two superpowers.
The world is far different today. On the one hand, both the United States and Russia have far smaller nuclear arsenals than they did at the Cold War’s end. At the same time, new nuclear powers have emerged in pace with advanced conventional precision warfare capabilities. The rise of cyber warfare has also led to concerns over the security and reliability of early warning and command-and-control systems, and weapon systems as well. Advances in the cognitive sciences and research on Cold War crisis decision-making have challenged some of our thinking as to how strategies based on deterrence work, or risk failing. Together, these and other recent developments have combined to form what some are calling a Second Nuclear Age.

Thursday 28 April 2016

Climate Change Dramatically Affects Africa

 Climate News

 


Africa 2050 Human Existence Still Possible?


Climate: Africa’s Human Existence Is at Severe Risk 


“Africa’s human existence and development is under threat from the adverse impacts of climate change – its population, ecosystems and unique biodiversity will all be the major victims of global climate change.”

This is how clear the Nairobi-based United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is when it comes to assessing the negative impact of climate change on this continent of 54 countries with a combined population of over 1,200 billion [1.2 billion] inhabitants. “No continent will be struck as severely by the impacts of climate change as Africa.”

Other international organisations are similarly trenchant. For instance, the World Bank, basing on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, confirms that Africa is becoming the most exposed region in the world to the impacts of climate change.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, extreme weather will cause dry areas to become drier and wet areas wetter; agriculture yields will suffer from crop failures; and diseases will spread to new altitudes, say the World Bank experts, while alerting that by 2030 it is expected that 90 million more people in Africa will be exposed to malaria, “already the biggest killer in Sub-Saharan Africa.”




Sunday 24 April 2016

Goldman Sachs Pegs $20-40 as New #Oil Order Range


THE NEW OIL ORDER" AND THE COMMODITY CYCLE




After a decade-long “investment phase” that helped unleash the shale revolution, oil is seeking a new equilibrium between supply and demand. Jeff Currie, head of Commodities Research for Global Investment Research at Goldman Sachs, describes how the market has entered an “exploitation phase” that puts downward pressure on prices.  

 PUTTING SENSE  TO  AN INDUSTRY'S TRANSFORMATION 

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MAKING SENSE OF OIL VOLATILITY


Our outlook going forward…is that prices will likely remain trendless, with significant volatility between operational stress at $20 a barrel and financial stress at $40 a barrel.”  
– Jeff Currie










2016 GLOBAL OIL INDUSTRY OUTLOOK

"The position that we are likely to be in by the end of 2016 is a more balanced physical market, but a supply chain that is still highly deflationary and the full equilibrium price over time will keep shifting lower."

– Michele Della Vigna









LOWER FOR LONGER?: THE IMPACT OF "THE NEW OIL ORDER"

The decline in oil prices is, on balance, we think a positive for global economic activity. The oil consumers are generally getting a boost.” 
– Jan Hatzius




IRAN’S POTENTIAL IMPACT ON THE GLOBAL ENERGY MARKETS


"There is a substantial potential here for increase [in production]… but it’s going to take time”
- Jeff Currie






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EYE on the World - 23 April 2016

" Stories Going Beyond the Mainstream "  

  

 Big Woes Hit Oil, Goldman Sachs, Silicon Valley & Saudis


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Good News: #Exxongate Climate Investigations Expanding



'The scope of the problem we are facing. . . is massive and it requires a multistate effort,' said New York Attorney General Schneiderman.

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DCI Group Subpoenaed in Expanding

 Exxon Climate Denial Investigation


DCI Group, a Washington DC public relations and lobbying firm, is the latest group subpoenaed in an expanding investigation by state attorneys general into the funding of climate change denial by ExxonMobil, according to court filings reviewed by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD).

ExxonMobil has now received separate subpoenas from both the New York and U.S. Virgin Islands U.S. Attorneys' Offices. The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) and DCI Group have also been subpoenaed by the U.S. Virgin Islands for records relating to their role in helping ExxonMobil with climate change denial.

Seventeen state attorneys general—calling themselves "AGs United for Clean Power"—held a press conference on March 29, announcing increased collaboration between the states in investigating the opposition to tackling climate change.





Silicon Valley Faces Massive Layoff Carnage


The meltdown of Silicon Valley tech jobs accelerated Tuesday, as Intel announced 12,000 job cuts worldwide and a plan to dump product lines, despite reporting higher profits.


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Intel Corporation (INTC: NASDAQ) reported that first quarter net income rose 2.7 percent to $2.05 billion, and sales climbed 7.2 percent to $13.7 billion. The earnings were 14 percent higher than expected, and the sales were in line with expectations.
But during what was anticipated to be an upbeat earnings call, new President Murthy Renduchintala, brought in from Qualcomm in late November, announced he was presenting a plan to CEO Brian Krzanich to slash employment by 11 percent and give CFO Stacy Smith direct control of manufacturing, sales, and operations.

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Movements Against Arming Saudis Growing Rapidly

Human rights groups and others call for arms embargo, accuse US, UK, France, and Canada of complicity in war crimes


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The flow of weapons to Saudi Arabia over the past year has "facilitated appalling crimes," according to leading international human rights groups, which argue that the United States and other western nations are thus complicit in the killing of thousands of Yemeni civilians.


 Oil Plunges with No Deal in Doha

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            Oil tumbled by the most in two months after output talks Sunday between the world’s biggest producers ended without any                                           agreement on limiting supplies, a diplomatic failure that threatens to renew the rout in prices. 

 

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Goldman Sachs Profits Collapse 56.3%



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Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s profit slumped for the fourth straight quarter as market volatility hit the company's bond trading and investment banking businesses.
Goldman - the last of the big U.S. banks to release first-quarter results - reported a 56.3 percent fall in net income applicable to common shareholders to $1.2 billion, or $2.68 per share, for the three months ended March 31.

Education Of Women Key To Advancing Human Condition



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Why Organized Religion Fears Educated Women


Educating women improves the welfare of families as they become empowered to contribute to the financial success of their household—which in turn creates more opportunities and resources available for their children. 
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For thousands of years women have been defined only in correlation to their relationship to men. They have been kept hidden, prohibited from speaking, forced into submission and treated as the “unclean” gender whose existence is that of mental and physical servitude to her human counterpart. Why has so much emphasis been placed upon the mind and actions of women? What does organized religion fear about the mind of an educated and logically-thinking woman?
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