Reactions to story from MSNBC

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  King Abdullah to Bush Screw You, Again!

  http://papastraighttalk.blogspot.com/2008/05/king-abdullah-t...
  68 days ago in Papamoka Straight Talk · Authority: 66

  On President Bushs second trip to Saudi Arabia in four months time the King once more is not buying what Bush is selling. President Bush asked the King of Saudi Arabia to raise production to ease concerns over supply and the King basically told him that
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  The Price of Arrogance

  http://aldacron.net/blog/2008/06/17/the-price-of-arrogance/
  37 days ago in The One With Aldacron : Searching for reason in an unreasonable world. · Authority: 13

  Since first taking office, members of the Bush administration have acted as if America’s long dominance in the world made them untouchable. They have repeatedly gone their own way, using diplomacy when it suited their purposes and ignoring the world when it didn’t. This collective arrogance is personified in the cocky smirk and swagger of the Decider, and the smug, matter-of-fact, false assertions of the Big Dick. What their parents failed to teach them, apparently, is that cockiness and arrogance ultimately lead to irrelevance. And now the United States is reaping what Bush and Co. have sown. Because the administration’s arrogance blinded them to reality, our standing in the world has declined greatly in the past seven years. Our military is in a shambles, our economy is tanking, and a large portion of the world population hate us. We are weak and other countries know it. That’s why earlier this year Saudi King Abdullah twice refused the Decider’s appeals to increase oil production. It’s also a major reason why there’s been a role reversal between the US and China, who are now blasting the Bushies over America’s failed economic policies and blaming them for the current global economic problems. In the past, King Abdullah would have diplomatically ‘considered it’, and the Chinese would not have had a pedestal to stand on. Obama may restore our credibility, but it will be a very long time before we regain the position we once held in the world, if we ever do. Technorati Tags: China, United States, America, economy, Bush
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  Mondays Insanity

  http://madnessletters.com/2008/06/16/mondays-insanity-15/
  38 days ago in Madnessletters · Authority: 10

  Mondays Insanity June 16, 2008 ·
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  Oil Prices vs. Power of Personality vs. Reality Sucks

  http://uncleremus.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/06/oil-prices-v...
  45 days ago in Uncle Remus · No authority yet

  Oil Prices vs. Power of Personality vs. Reality Sucks From Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis last week. "Dateline June 28th 2000 - The 2000 presidential campaign Bush Would Use Power of Persuasion to Raise Oil Supply Gov. George W. Bush of Texas said today that if he was president, he would bring down gasoline prices through sheer force of personality, by creating enough political good will with oil-producing nations that they would increase their supply of crude." Now we have this jewel - group grovel? Going it alone didn't work. Oh please please please pump more oil. We promise to not use so much. Looky, we're already shutting down the gas hog factories! Or else. -UR Posted by Uncle Remus on Monday, June 09, 2008 at 00:17 in Current Affairs |
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  May 2008 Portfolio Results

  http://colemanscorner.blogspot.com/2008/05/may-2008-portfoli...
  53 days ago in Stock Market Views From the ChimneyCorner · Authority: 1

  Following are year-to-date returns through May 31: . NoTouch Portfolio: +3.8%. OOP Portfolio: +2.8%. Dividend Portfolio: +13.4%. Three stocks in this portfolio have had spectacular runs in the first five months of this year: HGT up 49%; PWE 26% and NRP 21%. Their ytd returns are really even better, as this portfolio is only reflecting changes in share values. All dividends are being collected into a general cash pool to make the record keeping easier, and not allocated to the specific stock that produced the dividend. HGT and PWE pay monthly royalties and NRP pays a quarterly dividend. . All the model portfolios compare favorably to the overall market averages: . Dow: -4.7%. S&P 500: -4.6%. Nasdaq Composite: -4.9%. Wilshire 5000: -3.8%. . The markets continue to be in rally mode. In my system, the Nasdaq March lows now have become long term lows, and the April lows have become intermediate term lows. At 2522, the Nasdaq is above its moving averages, and the 20, 50, and 200 day ema's are in proper bullish trend alignment. However, so as not to go totally in the tank with the bulls, Friday's close makes an interesting candlestick pattern and indicates some indecision. The close this week also could not exceed last week's high, so early trading next week will determine whether there is a short term continuation pattern or a potential reversal. The bulls need to clear the 5/19 high, or there is real potential for a selloff. . The S&P 500 is not as bullish as the Nasdaq. The index kissed its 200 day ema from the bottom side both Thursday and Friday, but could not penetrate it. Both the 20 and 50 day ema's are below the 200 day ema. It is possible the S&P held and marked a short term low this week, but the index needs to clear the distinctly negative short term pattern it printed on 5/19. . I had a good month in my real life accounts due to my continuing overweighting in energy and commodity stocks. The first half of the month was spectacular; it almost had me dreaming of lazy days on tropical islands, but then reality returned. It still was a nice month. I did lighten up more on some trading positions. I should have dumped RIO this week, too, but did not. It triggered a sell on the system I use, but I was away from the markets for a few days and by the time I returned it's Tues/Wed/Thurs results had carved a new short term low. If that low doesn't hold, I'll exit to protect my gains on this one. I've been in the stock long enough and it has advanced enough that I had intended to use a new 10 day low as my exit signal, and that happened Tuesday. I do not like to leave stop orders with the broker. I prefer to monitor them myself. I have enough of a gain in RIO to ride out some hits, but I still do not like to violate the discipline of my system. . I did not like the action in my all-time favorite stock, XTO, recently either. It has painted two distinct distribution weeks in the past six weeks, made a double top on the weekly chart, and if next week's price action is negative, will have marked a definite short term top. XTO is my longest held position. I know you are not supposed to fall in love with a stock, but this company has been great to shareholders over the years. Not only has it done well itself, but XTO has also spun off shares of royalty trusts CRT and HGT to shareholders over the years, and when they announced their latest 5:4 split, they effectively increased the dividend 25% at the same time, by not reducing the dividend amount when they increased the shares. ...XTO CEO Mr. Simpson gets paid like a rock star. I cringe every time one of those articles about overpaid executives comes out because I know he will be on it, and it sometimes has a short term effect on the stock. But at the same time, I think he is the best CEO in the oil/gas business, and I expect to be an XTO shareholder as long as he continues at the helm. I sometimes sell out of trading positions in XTO, but the core holding is about as untouchable as it gets for me. ...And I've become much more appreciative of the effects of royalty and dividend payments over the years. I never was interested in them before. I only used to be concerned about price movement. But CRT changed that for me. When XTO spun off CRT to shareholders, in retrospect that was a watershed moment for me, although I did not know it at the time. I logged onto my online account one day and saw shares of CRT there. At first I thought it was a mistake. At that time, I wasn't keeping up with my reading on my positions, another bad habit. ...I figured there wasn't enough of the CRT there to bother selling it, so I just left it there. After several months, I finally started noticing those monthly royalty payments. I bought more, and subsequently added royalty trusts HGT (another XTO spinoff), SJT and PWE to the portfolio. I also use the financial ETF PGF for the monthly dividend. I have tried from time to time to make ACAS a part of the mix, but have always been forced to sell out due to their price action. In fact, I have gone as far as to remove them from my watchlist. Once I have proved myself wrong too many times on the same stock, it is time to realize that I just don't have a feel for trading that one and move on. ...Years ago, I knew a trader (via bulletin boards) who used to make all his monthly living expenses out of dividend and royalty payments. I have always thought that would be a good way to go, but of course, requires a lot of capital, and probably a more austere lifestyle than my better half would tolerate. He had been the beneficiary of a large lump sum settlement and used those proceeds to get himself set up with the dividend/royalty paying stocks to pay his monthly bills. Then he would trade the rest of the money. I never met him personally, but he was very helpful to anyone who asked. He was always more than gracious to me, and gave expansive, detailed answers to all of my questions. I was pleased to see him featured in an article in Investors Business Daily some years after that. Although my present day style does not begin to resemble the methods I used in those days, the education I received from several people on those early Prodigy boards was invaluable. Several of the regular contributors on that board went on to become full-time traders, a couple of them fairly well known. I have never run across a similar group since. . OUTLOOK . It would not be surprising to see continuing selloffs in the commodity and energy stocks. While the longer term trends are firmly in place and are not going to change, imo, unless the world economies go totally into the dumper, there is considerable pressure being applied for price relief right now. ...From all appearances, there is already warfare going on between the countries that control resources and the countries that use those resources. It appears that President Bush went hat in hand to visit our supposed allies a few weeks ago to try and get them to help out with the oil situation, but they basically told him to forget it. That in itself is a major story, because if true, it would indicate that there is a genuine belief in that region that there is a power shift going on and that they do not have to worry as much about keeping the U.S. happy. ...A few days after his return, Mr. Bush lashed out against the oil producing nations in that region. In warning them that their resources were not going to last indefinitely, he may have also inadvertently confirmed the peak oil theory. ...Then a few days ago, European leaders were speaking out against high oil prices and publicly suggesting that there needed to be concerted efforts to bring the prices down. And, lo and behold, there was a commodity and energy selloff shortly afterward. ...It appears that oil and energy will still be key factors in the end-time scenarios that are shaping up. The major countries that are net importers of energy also happen to have more political and military clout, with a couple of notable exceptions, of course, than the countries that export energy. There are many folks, among them former Fed Chairman Mr. Greenspan, who state that the U.S. is in Iraq primarily because of oil. ...When the major powers that be are forced to step up because of the potential for civil unrest in their countries, that is something to keep an eye on. They can exert powerful pressure on nations, not to mention the markets that we trade. I have been lightening up on my resource stocks for over a month now. I am also keeping a close eye on DUG, which I use at times to hedge against my permanent portfolio energy long positions. ...This past month I also added the first tech stock that I have owned for quite some time. GLW is an industry leader in its field, with a 23% OR and 31% ROE. The weekly chart has formed a decent cup and handle formation, so I bought the breakout. I was looking for further diversification away from energy and up to that point did not have direct exposure to tech. The breakout is a favorite Canslim pattern. It would have been good to be in this stock long before now in 20/20 hindsight, but I was sitting fat, dumb and happy in my other positions up until I started getting edgy about the resource sector several weeks ago. . Shocked! How the Oil Crisis Has Hit the World, The Independent, UK. Irate Europeans Protest the Soaring Price of Gasoline, New York Times.
• 

  Pain @ the pump from ‘irrational exuberance?’

  http://blogesque.wordpress.com/2008/05/23/pain-the-pump-from...
  61 days ago in Blogesque · Authority: 15

  Via Dave at Nixguy comes an article suggesting just that. Here’s the core of the matter, according to market analyst Grace Cheng: But aren’t there fundamental reasons for this rise in oil prices? In some ways yes, demand from China and India is increasing, but at a slower pace than oil has gone up. In markets such as the US, gasoline prices have not moved up nearly as much as crude, squeezing refineries margins, and slowing their orders of crude, which shows that demand for gasoline isn’t justifying higher prices. So could this recent rally be a short squeeze so that banks and funds can exit their long positions while small speculators are filled with “irrational exuberance” over the price of oil? OPEC ministers might think so, they’ve said that the recent spike is caused by speculation rather than by an increase in demand and that their level of supply is more than sufficient. John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil said that the “proper” range for oil should be somewhere between $35-$90 a barrel. Dave is right to say that at this stage, nobody really knows whether these high prices are a bubble or not. But IF this is an investor-driven bubble with pricing having nothing to do with observational reality, it needs to be popped right quick. It’s in the bubble-blowers’ economic interests to keep that sucker inflating for as long as possible, but the bigger it is when it pops, the messier it is to clean up. If it is a bubble then crude prices ultimately have to come down, but we can’t really make any solid predictions as to when it might happen, how far prices might fall, or how much damage might be done. Bush’s request for increased OPEC production was basically vetoed by the Saudi King Abdullah on this most recent supplicative visit (since the Saudis are the only OPEC nation with the spare capacity to increase production); just imagine what reception other presidents might receive. Even Bush has had to kiss Abdullah and walk around holding his hand, what might Abdullah demand from someone else? After all, he’s the dealer and we’re the junkies; where’s the power in that kind of relationship? Since CAFE standards are already set to go up in 2015, there aren’t many other practical options for reduction of demand. Though I personally loathe the idea and would likely earn many many speeding tickets, one option that remains is a return to the national 55 MPH speed limit. That would be the quickest fix as far as lowering consumption (thereby saving money) is concerned. However, I doubt there’s the political will to make it happen.
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  God Save the King

  http://deadhedgefunds.wordpress.com/2008/05/22/god-save-the-...
  63 days ago in deadhedgefunds.com · Authority: 2

  Sometimes despotic monarchies do work better than democracies. If Saudi Arabia was a functioning democracy, rather than an old-fashioned monarchy, the oil would likely be pumping much faster, and President Bush and other leaders of oil-addicted nations wouldn’t have to go begging to the King for more oil, a request the King is politely denying. Wisely, in fact, as he is looking out for the long-term revenue stream of himself, his family, and possibly even the people who live in his country. In a democratic Saudi Arabia, self-interested citizens would vote to open the taps and get the cash now. The world, and the United States in particular, would have a short term cushion, and serious decisions about efficiency and use could be staved off. When the oil did run out, however, it would run out more precipitously. Better a steady diet than a feast and a famine. Thanks, oh, glorious King. Above, Bush is pictured, hoping the meeting is going well. It didn’t. link

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