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Chevron CEO John Watson says the U.S. needs more affordable energy, and this means it needs to find more fossil fuels. It needs more oil gas and coal. He says the U.S. should take advantage of its own fossil fuel resources. People want strong environmental standards, but as Watson puts it, their top most priority is affordable energy which creates economic growth and jobs. He criticizes the Obama administration for not pushing ahead with developing of U.S. offshore oil, because BP's problems were not systemic and industry wide. He calls for dramatically increasing U.S. oil production, and doing this immediately. Worldwide Chevron plans to invest $26 billion for its exploration budget, and plans to drill in Australia, Western Africa, Gulf of Thailand and other locations. Watson points out that the dynamics of oil production are affected by two factors, price and technology. With current prices at over $100 a barrel more oil is accessible. At these prices new technologies can make it possible to use existing older wells to increase production. He cites the example of Bakersfield, where steam flooding is helping get 70 to 80 barrels out of every 100 barrels in the ground, when in the past Chevron could only get 10-20 barrels of oil. Another technology he mentions is hydrofracking for producing large and cheap supplies of natural gas. Chevron acquired Atlas Energy for $3.2 billion in 2010 to enter this market. Watson's overall emphasis is on the U.S. going for affordable energy and affordable conservation that will create economic growth and a better future....

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Provo, Utah university shooting of Charlie Kirk on campus September 10, 2025. It has aroused the whole nation because it happened on campus while talking to students and debating issues. Kirk was founder of Turning Point a student focused organization that has worked on campuses all across the US since 2016 for debating alternative ways of tackling problems facing the US on issues relating to the Border, Jobs, cost of living and immigration.

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3% wealth tax on over $10 million euros in asset holdings in France proposed by the Socialists and accepted by Lecornu's new government in France. Similar tax proposals to this one could raise in the range of $27 billion, that combined with other action could provide France the resources needed for its economy and for new infrastructure and tackling cost of living concerns of the people of France.

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The Spanish government agreed to open the books of Spanish regional governments and the regional savings banks to reduce concern in financial markets about Spain's debt. Spain's government debt is 53.2% of GDP in 2009, which is lower than Greece at 127%, Italy at 116%, Portugal at 76%, Ireland at 65%, and Germany at 73%. Spain's problem is the a large amount of private debt accumulated during15 years, in the low interest rate environment after joining the eurozone. Joining the euro sent interest rates in Spain down because it removed the risk of devaluation. The government was restrained by the Maastricht treaty criteria but private investors and regional banks could borrow freely, and they borrowed extensively, with money going into home building and construction. The fear is that the Spanish government will end up taking on much of this debt. The other problem is that Spain needs to refinance much of that debt in 2011, at a time when investors are nervous about eurozone debt. Spain's central government will need to raise 170 billion euros in 2011, regional governments another 30 billion euros, and Spanish banks another 90 billion euros. The government has set up a special facility for Spanish banks to draw on of 99 billion euros....

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European banks hold $147 billion of Portugal's assets and $117 billion of Greece's assets. The banking systems of Euopean lending countries are heavily exposed in the event of a sovereign default which is why it is in the self interest of Germany and France to come up with an aid package that restores confidence in financial markets, to avoid a direct hit to their banking system. Because of the ineptitude of Europe's decisionmakers, especially Chancellor Angela Merkel, private investors will not play the role in helping roll over Greek debt at tolerable interest rates that they could have played. With the now larger aid package of $160 billon there are still concerns from other angles. One is that debts of Greece will continue to grow- hence the three year aid plan. Analysis by the Economist suggests that the Greek government debt would rise to 149% of GDP by 2014 even with an aggressive budget deficit reduction of 12 percentage points (excluding interest costs). This assumes an interest cost of 5% in the aid package. In an average year Greece needs to refinance 40 billon euros of its debt and $70 billon is needed to cover cumulative budget deficits till 2014, hence the need for the IMF to step in and the nervousness in financial markets. ...

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A further drop in the value of the ruble would increase the cost of servicing the $500 billion in foreign debt. Fitch downgraded Russia's credit rating to BBB, the main concern being the drop in foreign exchange reserves, down by $210 billion to $390 billion in 6 months. Forward rates on the ruble imply a further depreciation of 20% in 12 months. Russia last week abandoned its committment to stick to the 2009 budget. After the first $29 billion bailout for banks another $40 billion has been assigned for the banks. All this has shown clearly that for Russia the job of reforming the economy, of changing its dependence on oil and commodities, and shifting to manufacturing and high tech industries has hardly begun. As a writer at the Financial Times put it in a CSPAN talk show, Russia is like 120 million people gathered around a oil wellhead. Or as another writer puts it, it remains a dangerously leveraged bet on the oil price. This has ominous implications for Russia, and serious social implications in terms of unemployment, social unrest, and a crisis of expectations, as for the second time in the lives of this generation hopes are raised only to be disappointed....

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Enabling access to broadband to millions of people in developing countries that lack this access is the next goal for Facebook. Facebook embraced open source software and it is relying on open source technology, including its own as open source, as a way to reduce the cost of building and operating the world's telecommunication networks- an operation that costs $150 billion a year. This will put pressure on telecommunications providers such as Ericsson to cut costs. Nokia has joined Facebook in the Telecom Infra Project or TIP, a Facebook initiated group that has set as its goal cutting telecom costs. Some of this is to be seen at Facebook developers' conference with open source efforts such as urban wireless network that checks performance 125,000 times a second, and a long range wireless system that can send a gigabit of data a second, according to Facebook.

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1. ACCELERATION OF DECLINING PRODUCTION FROM GULF OF MEXICO AS DRILLING RIGS LEAVE THE GULF. Offshore oil production mostly in the Gulf fell by 19% between 2003 and 2005. Natural gas production fell by about 22% from 2001 to 2004, according to EIA. The drilling rigs jack-up rigs and deep-water rigs that drill for oil and gas are declining rapidly in the Gulf of Mexico. There were 148 rigs in 2001, now only 90 remain with more leaving soon. Many of the rigs that are leaving are jack-up rigs, used for drilling for natural gas in shallower waters, and this should lead to a pronounced effect on natural gas production. Gulf Gas reservoirs that use these jack-up rigs are quickly exhausted requiring new wells to be drilled to just maintain production. Fewer rigs available mean upward pressure on natural gas prices more so than oil because gas is a market supplied locally. EIA estimates natural gas will move from recent close (July 5, 2006) of $6.10 per million BTU's to a price of $10.00 by end of 2007. This compares with a price in 2001 of $2.43. Hurrican related disruptions pushed oil prices up by $10 a barrel for hurricanes Katrina and Rita, in each of two years, so there will be continued upward pressure on oil price from this acceleration in production declines in the Gulf. 2. SEA CHANGE IN THE OFFSHORE DRILLING RIG MARKET, IN DAY RATES, IN PREFERRED DRILLING LOCATIONS, AND IN RIG PRODUCTION. The hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed 5 rigs. What is a bigger effect is that drilling companies are signing longterm deals with companies overseas. Global Santa Fe Corp. for instance signed a deal last month to send 4 jack-up rigs to Saudi Aramco at $160,000 per day, for 4 years. Ensco International will send one to Tunisia at rates approaching $200,000 for 2 years. There are hotter prospects for petroleum offshore in the Middle east, and in Africa, whereas the easier drilling spots in the Gulf have already been tapped. Worldwide 91 major offshore rigs are under construction compared to 10 in 2003 according to ODS-Petrodata. The new rigs may take till 2009 and may have delays so as to come out after 2009. They cost $160-190 million for one jack-up rig and about $600 million for one deep-water rig. All this has pushed day rates throug the roof. BP PLC agreed to pay Transocean Inc $520,000 a day for three years for a massive drill ship. The same ship cost BP PLC $185,000 a day in 2004. The drilling ship is as large as 3 football fields and can drill in oceans upto 10,000 feet deep. ...

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For groceries cost limiting Trump proposes nothing. It was found in the EU that there was excessive price action by grocery stores in 2022 and 2023. Though experts say no for price setting by government, the deterrent effect of a policy of the government to not set prices but to send a clear message about excessive profit as anti-social behavior, has beneficial impact for price reduction or future price increases to be put on hold. Harris will do this. For child care costs. Trump proposes nothing and does not put children as the next generation of Americans at the top of priorities. Harris puts children as the top priority and early years development as critical. Harris proposes a child tax credit of $6000 per family that would cost $110 billion per year estimate from Office for Responsible Budget, offset by Medicare savings achieved by negotiating with Pharma of $36 billion a year, tax on billionaires at 25% instead of 8.2% saving $40 billion a year, for net cost of $44 billion a year the Harris $6000 Child Tax Credit.  Congress including Democrats failed to extend the $3600 tax credit per child below 6 years that was introduced after 2019 yet allowed to expire in 2022 reverting to $2000 per child under 6 years. The concept is accepted as helping children, Vance the Republican VP nominee has suggested $5000, only opposed by country club Republicans oblivious to the importance of children having free school lunches and parents having the money for child care added costs for the future of the children of this Nation.     ...

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Questions raised about reservation processing charges for national parks for over $100 million that go not to the National Park Service work or activities for keeping up park trails but to a private company Booz Allen. Park goers question whether the government negotiated a payment structure that is in the public's interest, says this WSJ report. The park does not charge for using the park when making a reservation on site Recreation.gov. Yet the government pays $2 for every park reservation made on that site to Booz Allen, a private company.

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The difficult task facing Wang Yi, former foreign minister of China, of maintaining relations with the European Union in the middle of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on which China has not supported the EU. Some changes have taken place in the EU in 2022 that affect EU relations with China. Italy and Czech Republic have new governments that are critical of China. The Ukraine war after one year is taking its toll on EU relations with China, as trade between Russia and China is expected to grow to $200 billion in 2023 from $140 billion in 2021.

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Enel, Italy's energy company, plans to invest $83 billion over the next decade to 2030 to increase renewable energy capacity from 45 gigawatts to 120 gigawatts. Renewable energy's share is expected to increase from 27% to 33% by 2025, according to IEA. Europe has committed to spend a third of its $750 billion recovery fund on addressing climate issues. ENel market share would increase from 2.8% to 5% by the end of this decade. With Iberdrola of Spain Enel was early in making investments and is the largest company in renewable energy in Europe.

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On CBS "Face the Nation" last weekend both Mark Warner and Senator Rubio expressed concern about unknown algorithms targeting 150 million young users in America. The problem extends beyond that into the effects of TikTok and other social media that is harmful to children taking so much of their time that basic civics, reading, sports and exercise, outdoor activities, suffers enormously. No other generation has faced this and the US Congress and the White House have fallen far behind the curve of setting the rules and regulating use of the new information technologies. 

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This report in the NYT looks at median household checking account balances of households in the lower classes, middle classes and upper income groups as they changed during the pandemic. The deep plunges are seen in the graph for the lower classes making below $30,000 and a jump of as much as 100% after every effort by the government to send in pandemic aid money. The income groups making over $70,000 also benefited from the government aid money by as much as 40%. Six months after the aid the household checking balances show sharp declines.

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Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party is tied in the 2019 elections with Benny Gantz's Blue and White Party with 35 seats each in parliament. Netanyahu's right wing party bloc controls 65 seats giving it a majority in the 120 member parliament.

Gantz says "we founded a true alternative rule to Netanyahu." Extreme right wing parties did not get elected to the Knesset. Labour Party and left parties also lost votes in the contest between Gantz and Netanyahu, leaving Gantz without enough seats from his left bloc in parliament.

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Russia does not face the risks it faced in 2008 when $80 billion was owed to western and other foreign lenders, according to the chief economist of financial firm Otkritie. This debt has been brought down by paying down much of it and extending the maturities. In the fourth quarter of 2011, about $35 billion will be coming due. Russia still faces a serious risk from another direction. Every $10 drop in the price of a barrel of oil reduces Russia's GDP by 1%, according to Kingsmill Bond, chief Russia strategist for Citigroup. Government spending has increased rapidly and the government estimates it would take an oil price of $120 a barrel to generate enough tax revenues from the oil export tariff and mineral extraction fees to balance Russia's budget in 2011. The government needs to borrow the extra money from domestic and foreign investors. A slowing global economy could mean significantly lower prices than the current price of $87 a barrel on August 17, 2011.

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China's vice premier, Li Keqiang, wil visit Spain Jan 4-6, 2011. In an editorial page article for El Pais, Li wrote that China will continue to purchase Spain's public debt in the future. China is a large buyer of Spain's sovereign debt, owning about 10% of the total foreign holdings. Spain's central government will need to raise 170 billion euros in 2011, and its regional governments an additional 30 billion euros. Natixis expects 824 billion of eurozone government bonds to be auctioned in 2011. For China the eurozone is its largest market and it is concerned abou the impact of a eurozone crisis on imports from China. A declining euro would make Chinese exports less competitive and costlier in European markets. And China is wary of the impact on its export industries at a time when its economy is trying to make a soft landing, and strains are showing with an asset bubble in real estate, too much bank lending and high inflation.

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Flipkart, India's largest online retailer, was started by 2 Amazon executives in 2007. Flipkart has 22 million registered users and hosts 3000 merchants selling products ranging from electronics to clothing. Flipkart sales reached $1 billion in the last 12 months. In July 2014 Flipkart raised $1 billion from a group of investors including Tiger Global Management, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC. This follows the raising of $210 million in May 2014 from a group of investors led by DST Global, a Russian investor. Competitors include Amazon and eBay backed SnapDeal. Funds raised will be used to hire more engineers and improve mobile technologies, as over half of sales are made on mobile phones. India's online retail market is expected to grow 11 fold to $23 billion by 2018, according to Nomura brokerage firm. Flipkart earns money by charging merchants a fee for products sold on its online website.

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Within minutes of the SNB's decision to lift the cap on the euro the Swiss Franc surged 30% against the euro and 18% against the dollar. FXCM, retail currency broker, suffered severe losses and the company needed a $300 million investment from Leucadia National Corp. to survive. Citigroup and Deutsche Bank AG each had losses of $150 million. Hedge Funds Discovery and Comac also suffered losses. FXCM losses stem from use by FXCM clients of borrowed money, along with higher leverage the company also has lower margin requirements. Interestingly FXCM fought CFTC efforts under Dodd-Frank legislation to limit leverage to 10 to 1- saying "it would have a devastating impact and drive it overseas." The limit finally set at 50 to 1, meant that an investor could borrow $50 for every dollar he put in of his own. The leverage meant large losses for inexperienced investors and threatened the survival of FXCM in a matter of minutes.

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Saudi Arabia which was seeing GDP growth of 4% a year is slowing and should see GDP growth at 2% in 2009. Overall Saudis are in much better shape than their cousins in the United Arab Emirates like Dubai and Abu Dhabi. THis is because the Saudi banking system followed conservative practices and parked its $500 billion in foreign assets in US and European government bonds. Saudis can use these funds to increase infrastructure, education and healthcare spending by an estimated 10% this year to about $150 billion. At the samt time the Saudis will have to pull back from the $600 billion of megaprojects that were planned and will have to put more government money in projects that do go ahead. There is likely to be a hold on the projects to build a number of new cities in remote parts of the country. Some like the King Abdullah Economic City planned for the Red Sea coast may get the go ahead.

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Ausra using Australian David Mills technology and research has come up with soar mirrors that focus the intense heat of the suns rays in desert climates onto water that is directly turned into steam that then runs the turbines that generate electricity. With PG&E for distribution and Vinod Khosla's venture capital investment solar energy for about 10 cents per kilowatthour (kwh) is within reach using Ausra's technology and compettitve with cola based energy. Carbon is also going to be about 20% more expensive with higher environmental costs of coal based energy factored into the price as governments restrict its use. The plan is to go from a initial $47 million investment to a $400 million investment for a 100 megawatt plant. This technology could bring a promising future for solar energy and cut dependence on oil and coal, and help bring down oil prices and spur growth with cheaper and clean energy.

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Hyundai says it can meet the 35 miles per gallon target for its automobile fleet by 2015 instead of 2020, 5 years ahead of schedule. It can do this without relying too much on hybrids, concentrating efforts in the direction of lighter materials, new engine and powertrain technologies such as direct injection, dual continuously variable valve timing, and eight speed automatic transmissions. And Hyundai can do this, says its head of R&D division, Lee Hyun-Soon, by increasing the price of the automobile by only a small amount. Lee says by increasing the cost of an automobile by a mere $100 or $200 a gain of 10% in fuel efficiency can be achieved. Meanwhile US automakers are arguing that the current requirements in a law signed by President Bush in December 2007 for 35mpg by 2020 is too stringent. The standard this year is 27.5 mpg for cars and 22.5 mpg for light trucks. See the group " Was America asleep at the spigot?"

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10 year U.S. Treasury yields drop below 1.5% in June 2012. German bond yields in negative territory.

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Experts view the behaviour of 10 year Treasury yields at different periods following the 2008 financial crisis. Twice in early 2010 and early 2011 there were signals that the economy was not so weak before faltering, each time 10 year Treasury yields went up to 3.75-4% before going down to the 2.24% level. This situation appears to be happening again in 2012 with rates dropping in the first quarter to between 1.82%- 2.11%. The yields on 10 year Treasury jumped again, this time to 2.39% on March 19, 2012, as the eurozone crisis fears and U.S. economic growth fears subsided for the time being.

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US China agreement on TikTok sale to American ownership as required by Congress, Scott Bessent announces that an agreement has been reached with China in negotiations for the transfer of ownership. China is concentrating its energies in negotiating tariffs that were kept at 30% by the US and 10% by China which hurt Chinese industry in industries where it has overcapacity.