Read This Blog in 9 Different Languages

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

11 Safe and Natural Cures Now Available To Discerning Citizens

11 Safe and Natural Cures Now Available To Discerning Citizens

The independent health research team at Natural Health Dossier has just recorded a special presentation for you.

In the video, they talk about 11 of the world's best cures. Their investigative team of doctors and medical researchers has scoured the world to find what they believe are the absolute most effective solutions for crippling diseases.

Please watch this video now. The information can literally turn your life around... or even save it.

If you delay in watching this, you might forget or the video might be taken down and you'll have missed out. But spend a few minutes watching this now and you'll be prepared if the worst happens to you or your family.

To Your Best Health,

Maria Dolgova
Associate Publisher
Natural Health Dossier






Urgent Health Alert...

11 Safe and Natural Cures Now Available To Discerning Citizens






****************************************************
W A I T B E F O R E Y O U G O !


Discover...A Volcanic Rock That Out Smarts Heart Disease...Why HEAT May Be The Best Cure For Cancer...How To Reverse Your Diabetes Naturally...How To Look & Feel 10-15 Years Younger!

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

The Infestation of Corporate Lobbyists

The response is extraordinary.

Public Citizen supporters across the country are answering my urgent call for financial support with incredible generosity.

We’re pulling out all the stops to challenge corporate power from the moment the new Congress convenes in early January.

In the next four days—before the clock strikes midnight this Friday, December 31—we must reach our $150,000 goal to have a fighting chance against the infestation of corporate lobbyists in Washington, D.C.!

Please contribute $10, $20, $35 or whatever you can right now.

From winning the fight that created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to mobilizing more than half a million people in support of a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. FEC ruling, we’ve done good and great things this year.

Your online activism has been instrumental to the success we’ve achieved together. Now, as we prepare to take on a Congress more beholden to corporate greed than any in recent memory, I’m asking you to supplement your grassroots advocacy with financial support.

We can’t afford to face the new Congress wishing we had done more to strengthen our defenses. Contribute today!

We can’t do what we do without your grassroots advocacy. But we can’t organize and coordinate that grassroots effort without your generous support.

We need to raise $150,000 by midnight this Friday so that corporate lobbyists don’t get even one day’s head start in the new Congress.

Corporate lobbyists have risen to a new level of influence in Washington. They’re not just raising money for members of Congress, they’re joining congressional staffs and writing the very laws that directly benefit their former, and future, employers.

For example, Speaker of the House-elect John Boehner—who once handed out checks from tobacco company PACs on the House floor—hired the chief lobbyist for the medical device industry as his policy director. This example of the “revolving door” is representative of the pro-corporate mindset that dominates the Republican Party and even many Democrats.

Stand with Public Citizen against this corporate faction by contributing $10, $20, $35 or whatever you can.

There’s no question, we’re going to have to work in a more hostile political environment. But Public Citizen has met challenges like this in the past. We took on Nixon. We took on Reagan. We took on Bush. Both of them. And we consistently won substantive reforms and protections that make life better for ordinary Americans like you and me.

Public Citizen’s strength comes from the grassroots activism and financial generosity of our members. I want to thank you for all you’ve contributed by staying informed and taking action as part of our online community. And I want you to know that I’m counting on your financial support, too.

We will do this.

Together.

Robert Weissman, President

P.S. Contribute $100 or more right now and we’ll send you a DVD from a selection of progressive films like Battle in Seattle, An Unreasonable Man and The Story of Stuff as our thanks for your support.

To get regular e-alerts about opportunities for activism and other ways to help with Public Citizen's work, sign up for the Public Citizen Action Network.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Celebrating 2 Christmas Family Traditions: Eating and Texas Hold 'Em!!

Happy Holidays,Facebook Social Network Blog Readers!

If your Christian, Merry Christmas!
If your Jewish, Happy Hanukah!
If you are Muslim, Happy Islamic New Year!

If you are African-American, Happy Kwanza! (Some of you get double the fun!)

And if your Atheist.... this is some pretty crappy weather we are having huh?
Regardless of how you spent the holidays, we hope you enjoyed it surrounded by those you love.
Jose Feliciano - Feliz Navidad



Christmas Songs - We Wish You a Merry Christmas Lyrics

Saturday, December 25, 2010

The Descent of Money

Bill Bonner [Reckoning on January 29, 2010 from Paris, France]

Science and technology have produced many wondrous breakthroughs. But there are some things it cannot improve. A kiss from natural lips is still the lover's choice. Baby formula proved no match for the real thing. Ersatz money is a flop too. That last item is not so much a fact as a prediction.

The first modern competition between gold and paper money ended like the pre-modern ones. Gold won. Herewith, a short summary:

A rogue, John Law, was the protagonist of the story. He killed Beau Wilson in a duel. Then, he went on the lam...first to Scotland...then to Amsterdam...and finally to Paris. Like Alan Greenspan or Ben Bernanke, he made himself useful to people in high places - in this case the Duke d'Orleans, who needed money. Law had a way to get it:

"I have discovered the secret of the philosophers' stone," he is said to have remarked, "it is to make gold out of paper."

We need to look no further. Law may have been good with figures; it was at philosophy that he failed. A thing cannot be both one thing and a different thing at the same time. It is either gold. Or it is paper. Rarity and durability give gold value - as money. Paper's most conspicuous properties are just the opposite - it is common...and has a tendency to curl up and blow away.

Law's new, easy money helped France to an economic recovery - or so it seemed. But in the end, the philosophical error caught up with him. Gold has real value. If you can create it at will, why not create more of it? It was just a matter of time before he had created too much. Soon, there was an angry mob outside Law's office on the Rue Quincampoix. People who held his paper gold had come to see it in a different light. Where once they cherished it as paper gold...now they despised it as nothing but paper.

Law's scheme increased France's money supply - including banknotes and shares in his Mississippi company - by 300%. Prices in Paris doubled between 1718 and 1720. Then, when the new money system began to give way, the Duke d'Orleans "cranked up the printing press." By 1721, Law's money was worthless. "Banque" was a dirty word in France for the next 200 years.

The current experiment with paper money began on the 15th of August 1971. Henceforth, said Richard Nixon, foreign countries that wished to exercise their right to trade US dollars for gold could drop dead. From that point forward, the dollar was worth only what someone would give you for it. Philosophers held their breath. But nothing happened. Many have died since, waiting for the dollar to succumb first. Still, the millstones of monetary history may grind slowly, but the more slowly they grind, the more fingers they pinch.

The new paper money standard allowed for a worldwide credit boom - just as in Paris following the establishment of Law's scheme. The US created dollars. Its citizens spent them. The dollars accumulated as reserves all over the world...and every central bank raced to keep up. Soon, the exporters were producing too much. The importers were consuming too much. And there was too much money and credit everywhere.

The Japanese economy was the first to blow up - in 1989. The tech sector on Wall Street was next to go - in 1999. Finally, in 2007, the planet-wide bubble popped. Suddenly, the whole world was Japan. And now, every nation in Christendom, to say nothing of the others, is following Law's example. All issue paper gold - in the form of bills, notes, and bonds - as if they were the Banque Royale. Europe is estimated to need $2.2 trillion in deficit funding this year. America will need at least a trillion more. If the depression deepens, maybe $2 trillion. How long can this go on? Where will it lead?

"There are no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion," wrote Ludwig von Mises. "The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as a result of voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved."

On Tuesday, the S&P rating agency issued a warning. If Japan continues in the direction it is going, it will have Hell to pay. Japan leads the way into the future. And into a monetary minefield. Her current deficit - a record - is more than her tax revenue. And her public debt is nearly 7 times as great. Her feet grow larger.

No natural life survives the lifecycle. And no paper currency standard has ever survived a complete credit cycle. It is just a matter of time until we hear the explosion and see body parts flying.

Regards,

Bill Bonner,
for The Daily Reckoning

Joel's Note: Addison tells us they're putting the final touches on a collection of Bill's various reckonings from over the past decade, titled "Dice Have No Memory: Big Bets and Bad Faith from Paris to the Pampas." At this stage, we're looking at a March release. Keep a look out for it.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

The Religion of Consumerism: Continuing a holiday tradition, even if it’s fiscally imprudent

Joel Bowman
From Buenos Aires, Argentina...

Cricket in the park...beers in the sun...outdoor cafes and pretty girls in summer dresses. We're getting an early jump on the holiday season here at The Daily Reckoning...at least so far as it's conducted south of the equator.

Last year your editor celebrated the occasion with Buddhist friends in the Far East. The year before, with Hindus in Mumbai. And before that, with Muslims in the Middle East. This weekend, we'll have Catholic buddies around for an Argentine asado. We'll drink Malbec and yerba maté and listen to Carlos Gardel belt out some old classics from the rooftop terrace.

That's the wonderful thing about the holiday season. It's a time of year when people of all faiths set aside their differences to worship a common higher purpose: the religion of consumerism. Flocks of all colors and creeds make their annual pilgrimages to consumerism's many temples - sometimes known as "malls" - to prostrate themselves at the discount aisle and to sacrifice the balance of their credit cards. Indeed, people who don't even believe in Jesus Christ or the virgin birth can still be found queuing up for two-for-one tie sales and half- off kitchen appliance clearances. We remember reading somewhere, a highly regarded scientific journal perhaps, that the sound of the collective global credit card swipe around this time of year is audible even in the outer reaches of space.

"But wait a minute," we hear some Fellow Reckoners complain. "Isn't this precisely how we arrived in this mess in the first place? By overspending on junk we didn't need and couldn't afford? Shouldn't we be paying down our debts and practicing some fiscal responsibility?"

Oh bah humbug! Don't be such a Grinch! Nobody likes a stickler for inconvenient facts while the eggnog is still flowing.

Besides, Christmas isn't about spending money we don't have on things we don't need...it's about spending money we don't have on things other people don't need. The net effect might be the same, but at least the soundtrack to financial ruin is a feel-good one.

Christmas is also a time to gather with friends and family and to reflect on the year gone by. Who got married? Who graduated? Which currency narrowly escaped collapse? That sort of thing.

With that in mind, we present the first installment of our 2010 Daily Reckoning "Best Of" Series. Your editors sifted through both the column archives and the reader mail to come up with a selection of essays that, we hope, provide you with some interesting discussion topics for your holiday season family gatherings.

First, let's go back to the beginning...

Way back in January, Bill Bonner penned the following essay, a kind of "ghost of currencies past," if you will. Please enjoy and send your comments to the address below...
Additional articles and commentary from The Daily Reckoning on:
Twitter Facebook DR iPhone APP

If you are you having trouble receiving your Daily Reckoning subscription, you can ensure its arrival in your mailbox by whitelisting the Daily Reckoning.

© 2010-2011 Agora Financial, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Protected by copyright laws of the United States and international treaties. This newsletter may only be used pursuant to the subscription agreement and any reproduction, copying, or redistribution (electronic or otherwise, including on the World Wide Web), in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of Agora Financial, LLC. 808 Saint Paul Street, Baltimore MD 21202. Nothing in this e-mail should be considered personalized investment advice. A lthough our employees may answer your general customer service questions, they are not licensed under securities laws to address your particular investment situation. No communication by our employees to you should be deemed as personalized investment advice.We expressly forbid our writers from having a financial int erest in any security recommended to our readers. All of our employees and agents must wait 24 hours after on-line publication or 72 hours after the mailing of a printed-only publication prior to following an initial recommendation.Any investments recommended in this letter should be made only after consulting with your investment advisor and only after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Delusions of Power: The Effects of Central Banking on Gold and Paper Currencies

Reporting from Laguna Beach, California...by Eric Fry

"When will the gold bubble burst?" CNBC's Larry Kudlow wondered aloud this morning.

A question to which your California editor would reply, "We know what gold is and we know what a financial bubble is, but we don't see any gold bubbles."

Perhaps Kudlow is referring to the fact that the gold price is rising...in response to the Central Banking Bubble. On its face, the idea is ludicrous that one man can steer an entire economy, simply by adjusting one little interest rate. The idea is a doubly ludicrous that one institution can nurture economic growth, simply by printing money. And yet, a nation of investors places its faith in the Cult of Central Banking, as folks like Larry Kudlow pay homage to Ben Bernanke every business day.

So far, the true believers have profited from their faith. It has paid well to embrace this cult and to trust the Delphic utterances of its high priests like Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke. But this whole central bank thing is getting a little out of hand.

The early central bankers admitted their fallibility. They would adjust interest rates up or down, depending on the prevailing economic circumstances, then hope for the best. But the more that the central bankers' tinkering and meddling appeared to succeed, the more they tinkered and meddled, and the more they believed in the power of their tinkering and meddling.

Eventually, the central bankers not only believed in the power of their intrusions and manipulations, but also in the wisdom of them. Before long, the central bankers considered their activities to be not merely a responsibility, but an imperative, a social duty; perhaps even a "calling" - a kind of Divine Right of Central Banking.

Armed with these potent delusions, central bankers around the world continue to meddle, day by day, month by month. And the investor-flock continues to trust in their mystical powers. This nearly universal faith in a priesthood of monetary medicine men is an extreme idea...taken to an extreme. It is a bubble - the effects of which are as varied as they are non-quantifiable. But one effect is very clear: currency values are perpetually in decline.

The more the medicine men prescribe their remedies and elixirs, the faster the purchasing power of their paper currencies erodes. Observing this trend, rational, forward-looking investors scout around for assets the central bankers are not trying to protect - assets that require no protection whatsoever. Gold is an obvious choice. It is the timeless choice of all investors who reject the Cult of Central Banking and who, therefore, distrust paper currencies as a store of value.

Gold is rising because Central Banking is in a bubble. But the gold bubble, itself, will not arrive until the Central Banking Bubble bursts - the moment when investors universally spurn the cult of Central banking as heresy, and rebuke central bankers, themselves, as agents of wealth destruction. At that moment, when gold is trading north of $10,000 an ounce...or $20,000...or $100,000, the gold bubble will have arrived. And when it does, we will be there to issue a "sell" recommendation.

Speaking of "sell" recommendations, Jay Shartsis, a seasoned options pro at R.F. Lafferty in Lower Manhattan, warned his clients on Wednesday, "A big stock market decline is coming."

To support his bearish call, Shartsis has highlighted a variety of market signals and sentiment indicators. Late last week, for example, Shartsis noted that the "CBOE equity put/call ratio hit .27 - the lowest in my memory. And now 8 days in a row, this ratio has been sitting below .60 - that's a sell signal."

Then earlier this week, Shartsis observed, "With the stock market near the highs for this move, there are only 127 new highs on the NYSE and 88 new lows. The new lows number is way above where it would be if this market was in good underlying shape. Yesterday saw 3% of all NYSE stocks at new lows - a condition that has happened only 36 times in the past. Two months afterwards, the S&P 500 was lower on 32 of those 36 instances."

Lastly, Shartsis called attention to the nearby chart, as he remarked, "The chart displays the Options Speculation Index. It is a measure of total call buys plus put sales (those are bullish transactions), divided by total put buys plus call sales (bearish transactions). So this is a very comprehensive gauge and it now reflects the most bullish option trader sentiment probably ever recorded. No fear at all. Note that the index is considerably higher than it was before the flash crash last May. A big market decline is coming!"
Shartsis has been wrong before, of course. But he has also been right. We predict he will be one of the two this time around.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Where the Jobs Went

Whiskey & Gunpowder By Henry Daniels
December 8, 2010
Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

As we head into the Holidays, with no signs that things are ever going to get better, some news was recently released that casts an interesting, and gloomy, light on why there are no jobs.

If there is one common theme I’ve heard from friends who still have jobs over the last two years, it’s that they are working harder than ever and making the same or less than they used to. Personally, I’m self-employed, and while I work 15 to 20 hour days, seven days a week, it hasn’t been in vain; the last two years have been my best ever.

Today, I heard a report on corporate profits and amazingly (or not) the quarter has been the most profitable in corporate history since they started keeping records on such things over 60 years ago.

The math is simple. If a corporation can get by with 50 to 65 percent fewer employees while holding production steady, they will make a lot more money. So what if people have to work two or three times harder than they did a few years ago? If they don’t like it, there are ten people standing in line to take their place.

This means there’s no incentive for corporations to hire. None. At least not until one of three watershed events occur.

The first watershed will be when the workers productivity starts to falter. The truth is that the only way work is getting done on time these days is because the workers are forced to take shortcuts to meet deadlines and quotas. It is already showing up in the quality of products, things are not made as well or last as long as they did just a few years ago. The failure rate is getting alarming on car parts, computer components, and customer service.

The second watershed event will be when the workers decide they are tired of being exploited, and if anyone else wants their job they’re welcome to it. We will see worker slowdowns similar to those popular in Europe. Suddenly, corporate profits will be jeopardized.

The third watershed event will be when corporations no longer have anyone left to sell to. In other words, if the number of unemployed keeps rising, at some point there will no longer be anyone left to buy things until they get employed again. At this point corporate survival will dictate the need to hire people if only to continue selling their products.

Last week, we talked about how one of our first indications of where things are going would be the Black Friday and Cyber Monday’s sales figures. By all accounts, sales this year were basically flat compared to last year. This argues quite forcibly that status quo is where we are stuck for a while.

My guess is we won’t see new jobs for at least a year, maybe two. There will be no trickle down job creation. It’s going to take something more visceral to stimulate job creation.

We’ve become a nation fixated on short-term quotas while we ignore the long-term consequences of such actions. I’ve never held that to be a way to run anything: not your life, not your personal finances, not corporate policy.

Regards,
Henry Daniels

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~External Advertisement~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There’s a brilliant documentary entitled “The Fall of America and the Western World.” It not only predicted this mess we’re in, it offers real-world solutions that will enable you to survive the grim future we face.

This hard-hitting, thought-provoking documentary features nine hours of uncensored conversations with Joseph Farah, Naomi Wolf, Doug Casey, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, professor Mark Crispin Miller, Alex Jones, David Icke, Mickey Z, David McAlvany, Doug McIntyre, G. Edward Griffin and Ken Klein. If you listen to them and follow their advice, you’ll be prepared for whatever lies ahead….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



First, a correction…

Remember this letter from last time?


“I think you guys are becoming the most left-leaning rag on the net. Get a life or get out if you dislike America. These are some of the [most] leftist-leaning articles I have ever read. Are you guys commies or just deep-seeded socialists?”

Seems we got the guy all wrong. He followed up with an email to express his shock at how I used his letter.


“I thought I clearly stated in the subject line that I was referring to Samantha Buker’s anti-Christian article. If I didn’t, then my mistake. I did like your comments after Black’s article.”

There was truly no indication in the email that the comments were directed at Sam, who sits mere feet away from the Whiskey Bar. The editors at The Daily Reckoning snapped her article before I could. So I wasn’t expecting any heat from it.

Anyway, I promised the reader I’d clear up the confusion.

Now, about those taxes…


“I’m as opposed to the high-end tax cuts today as I’ve been for years. In the long run, we simply can’t afford them.”


— Barack Hussein Obama, 2010


“Gimme yo’ damn money, rich boy!”


— Barack Hussein Obama, 2012

Barack is trying to be polite about it right now, but make no mistake: He fully believes that the more money one makes, the more one should be forking over to people in nice suits who have no idea how to make an honest buck…

And he warns that come 2012, somebody is going to be upping their government tithes… or else…

From The Associated Press:


“‘If we don't get my option through the Senate right now and we do nothing, then on Jan. 1 of this 2011, the average family is going to see their taxes go up about $3,000,’ [Obama] warned.

“‘At any given juncture, there are going to be times where my preferred option, what I'm absolutely positive is right, I can't get done,’ the U.S. president said, stabbing his finger for emphasis.

“‘And so then my question is does it make sense for me to tack a little bit this way or tack a little bit that way because I'm keeping my eye on the long term and the long fight.’”

I got your long fight right here, Barack…

Tax Revolt: The Rebellion Against an Overbearing, Bloated, Arrogant, and Abusive Government




A powerful rallying cry to all Americans to continue to fight against ever-increasing taxes…

By exploring the crippling effects of taxes on our economy and the lives of each individual citizen and drawing from the stories of other revolts, Phil Valentine will anger and incite readers to action, giving them the motivation and know-how to spread the word and activate a powerful new revolution.

At the Whiskey Bar, we’ve never met a tax cut we didn’t like. In the spirit of tax revolt, we’re offering a discount on this book if you order it by clicking here.

It’s normally $24.95, but if you enter in the discount code TAX2011, then you’ll get $5 off. So be sure to order your copy right now.

Regards,
Gary Gibson
Managing Editor, Whiskey & Gunpowder

P.S.: As always, after you get the book, be sure to drop me a line about it: gary@whiskeyandgunpowder.com. We’re moving the Bar into the corner of this very nice bookstore, and there will be a lot of reading to do and a lot to discuss.

Evidence for ET is mounting daily, but not proven

By SETH BORENSTEIN.....WASHINGTON — Lately, a handful of new discoveries make it seem more likely that we are not alone — that there is life somewhere else in universe.


In the past several days, scientists have reported there are three times as many stars as they previously thought. Another group of researchers discovered a microbe can live on arsenic, expanding our understanding of how life can thrive under the harshest environments. And earlier this year, astronomers for the first time said they'd found a potentially habitable planet.

"The evidence is just getting stronger and stronger," said Carl Pilcher, director of NASA's Astrobiology Institute, which studies the origins, evolution and possibilities of life in the universe. "I think anybody looking at this evidence is going to say, 'There's got to be life out there.'"

A caveat: Since much of this research is new, scientists are still debating how solid the conclusions are.

Another reason to not get too excited is that the search for life starts small — microscopically small — and then looks to evolution for more. The first signs of life elsewhere are more likely to be closer to slime mold than to ET. It can evolve from there.

Scientists have an equation that calculates the odds of civilized life on another planet. But much of it includes factors that are pure guesswork on less-than-astronomical factors, such as the likelihood of the evolution of intelligence and how long civilizations last. Stripped to its simplistic core — with the requirement for intelligence and civilization removed — the calculations hinge on two basic factors: How many places out there can support life? And how hard is it for life to take root?

Alien Life Living Among Us?
What last week's findings did was both increase the number of potential homes for life and broaden the definition of what life is. That means the probability for alien life is higher than ever before, agree 10 scientists interviewed by The Associated Press.

Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute in California, ticks off the astronomical findings about planet abundance and Earthbound discoveries about life's hardiness. "All of these have gone in the direction of encouraging life out there and they didn't have to."

Scientists who looked for life were once dismissed as working on the fringes of science. Now, Shostak said, it's the other way around. He said that given the mounting evidence, to believe now that Earth is the only place harboring life is essentially like believing in miracles. "And astronomers tend not to believe in miracles."

Astronomers, however, do believe in proof. They don't have proof of life yet. There's no green alien or even a bacterium that scientists can point to and say it's alive and alien. Even that arsenic-munching microbe discovered in Mono Lake in California isn't truly alien. It was manipulated in the lab.

But, says NASA astrobiologist Chris McKay, who has worked on searches for life on Mars and extreme places on Earth, "There are real things we can point to and show that being optimistic about life elsewhere is not silly."

First, there's the basic question of where such life might exist. Until a few years ago, astronomers thought life was only likely to be found on or around planets circling stars like our sun. So that's where the search of life focused — on stars like ours.

That left out the universe's most common stars: red dwarfs, which are smaller than our sun and dimmer. Up to 90 percent of the stars in the universe are red dwarf stars. And astronomers assumed planets circling them would be devoid of life.

But three years ago, NASA got the top experts in the field together. They crunched numbers and realized that life could exist on planets orbiting red dwarfs. The planets would have to be closer to their star and wouldn't rotate as quickly as Earth. The scientists considered habitability and found conditions near these small stars wouldn't be similar to Earth but would still be acceptable for life.

That didn't just open up billions of new worlds, but many, many times that.

Last week, a Yale University astronomer said he estimates there are 300 sextillion stars — triple the previous number. Lisa Kaltenegger of Harvard University says scientists now believe that as many as half the stars in our galaxy have planets that are two to 10 times the size of Earth — "super Earths" which might sustain life.

Then the question is how many of those are in the so-called Goldilocks zone — not too hot, not too cold. The discovery of such a planet was announced in April, although some scientists are challenging that.

The other half of the equation is: How likely is life? Over the past decade and a half, scientists have found Earth life growing in acid, in Antarctica and other extreme environments. But nothing topped last week's news of a lake bacterium that scientists could train to thrive on arsenic instead of phosphorous. Six major elements have long been considered essential for life — carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur. This changed that definition of life.

By making life more likely in extreme places, it increases the number of planets that are potential homes for life, said Kaltenegger, who also works at the Max Planck Institute in Germany.

Donald Brownlee, an astronomer at the University of Washington, is less optimistic because he believes what's likely to be out there is not going to be easy to find — or that meaningful. If it's out there, he said, it's likely microbes that can't be seen easily from great distances. Also, the different geologic and atmospheric forces on planets may keep life from evolving into something complex or intelligent, he said.

If life is going to be found, Mars is the most likely candidate. And any life is probably underground where there is water, astronomers say. Other possibilities include Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moons Enceladus and Titan.

There's also a chance that a telescope could spot a planet with an atmosphere that suggests photosynthesis is occurring, Kaltenegger said. And then there's the possibility of finding alien life on Earth, perhaps in a meteorite, or something with an entirely different set of DNA.

And finally, advanced aliens could find us or we could hear their radio transmissions, McKay said. That's what the SETI Institute is about, listening for intelligent life.

That's where Shostak puts his money behind his optimism. At his public lectures, Shostak bets a cup of coffee for everyone in the audience that scientists will find proof of alien life by about 2026. The odds, he figures, have never been more in his favor.

___

Online:

NASA Astrobiology Institute: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/

SETI Institute: http://www.seti.org/

Friday, November 19, 2010

Facebook and Consumer Learning Process

A great deal of successful marketing today depends on closely understanding consumer behavior. As a marketer, you may always be curious to understand what excites or motivates your customers into buying either your products or those of your competitor. Depending on the buying and consumption cycle of your product, there can be several factors that will determine the sales conversion ratio for your product.

Toward Right Learning
A successful sale happens when your customer understands his need and is convinced that your product can satisfy that need in a reliable way. Both these steps happen through a process, which is known as learning. Hence as a marketer, your job begins by ensuring that the customer perceives his need and, more importantly, finds the solution in your product

Right Learning and Right Conversations
At this very moment, you may be reading this article on your laptop or desktop. Remember the day when you had decided to buy your first computer. You must have considered many factors before finalizing which computer to purchase. One of the important decision points for a buyer is his circle of reference. It is natural for you, as a buyer, to discuss with your informed friends about the best brand. Positive references from friends and acquaintances help one make a decision.

How has Facebook changed all of this?
Research has shown that buyers do a great deal of product research on the Internet and most of the time choose to purchase the product either online or offline. The power of the Internet as a research and information resource has been realized to a great extent by customers worldwide.

The basics of consumer behavior, learning, reference groups, and buying decisions have remained exactly the same. But what has changed significantly is the speed with which everything happens. Technology has brought down the barriers in global communication. Social networking sites, and more importantly the rising popularity of Facebook, bears a strong testimony to the growing power of the Internet as a mode of communication and a source of information.

Before and After Facebook
Like we discussed, most of the learning before the proliferation of Facebook and social media happened through advertisements on television. During the days of conventional media dominance, marketing was driven by the power to broadcast. Marketing communication was primarily unidirectional through blaring advertisements and press releases.

Word of mouth happened on a one-on-one basis, where the conversation would begin and end around a small group of people. Today, a search on your favorite brand on Facebook may reveal many conversations about the brand, which may depict user’s positive or negative experiences with the brand. Unlike the clandestine brand gossip of earlier days, the Facebook era ensures that conversations are documented and made easily available through social networking sites.

Brands trying to ignore this new medium find themselves in a state similar to an ostrich, with its head buried in sand, thinking the world cannot see it. The real image of the brand in people’s minds shows up aloud these days through conversations on Facebook.

These dumb kids on Facebook made $119,833.57


Facebook and Online Reputation
The power of Facebook, as discussed, has extended the scope of Word of Mouth beyond the good old conversation between friends. Today, each and every Facebook user is free to publish his views on your brand. The true effect of this happens whenever these conversations appear in searches and influence people’s opinion about the brand image. This is where online reputation, primarily on a widely accepted medium like Facebook, matters.

In a nutshell..
Managing a positive image of your brand requires you to expand your reach, more than what you would do in case of conventional media. The conversational nature of social networking sites, such as Facebook, demands a different approach. Unlike one-time broadcast by the conventional medium, Facebook stores each and every conversation and makes it available through the search option for anyone who is curious to know more about your brand.

That is the reason why it is a critical part of any brand plan to feature positively on social networking sites, such as Facebook. Engaging consultants who have experience in managing brands through the new era of social networks is a growing practice that can help brands manage the new wave.
Get more information here for the best Facebook training available.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Facebook and Social Media - The Next Marketing Opportunity

Marketing as an activity is all about reaching the right customers with the right products, and the result sought is delighted customers who are more than willing to open their purses wide enough to boost your revenues. For many years, marketers stalked their target customers through various means and by trying to get their message across to spread awareness about their wares.

Traditional Means of Communication

Traditionally, marketing communications were conducted via print, broadcast and such traditional media through disruptive advertising, where advertisements appear in between the content of interest for the customer.

Traditional media does give a large reach to a marketer with its programming of mass appeal. However, the wastage is equally high, since a large portion of the audience would belong to a different segment than the one that is to be targeted by the marketer.

Enter Social Media and the Internet

The revolution stirred by the internet as a medium took place because of the fact that it is highly personalized and provides more content on-demand than any other available medium. Social sites proliferated far and wide in their usage for a few simple reasons:

The power to create and distribute content is equally available to every user, irrespective of him/her being a customer or a marketer. In the earlier forms of media, that power rested with the editorial staff of the channel or the advertiser, but hardly ever with the user.
The medium is completely personalized, and a user can create or join groups and further create content based on what he/she likes.
Opinions are free and fair. This is one reason why social media is of utmost concern to marketers, since buying decisions are no more influenced as much by advertisements. The traditional word-of-mouth marketing approach has grown leaps and bounds on social networks.


Facebook – At the Center of Social Media

With 500 million (and growing) unique users worldwide, Facebook is the number one social networking site in terms of activity and subscriptions. What started as a garage initiative by Mark Zuckerberg has now become the biggest phenomenon on the internet.

A user interface that allows for quick communication and the ability to create fan pages and groups at the click of a mouse button are what make Facebook extremely popular. Another important reason for its immense popularity is the wide variety of social applications that have been developed and made available within the Facebook environment.

These applications can allow users and friends to do joint activities like playing games that run endlessly, sharing photos, videos, and web links, and many more.


How does this help a marketer?

Traditionally, media plans were drawn to include television channels, publications, or any other media that can grab maximum eyeballs and effectively reach a selected target audience. The science of segmentation and targeting has become only more accurate in the case of social media.

Facebook provides a wide variety of avenues to communicate with the audience, which opens up an entirely different world of possibilities to have a fruitful dialogue with customers. Some of these methods used popularly by marketers are:
Get more information here for the best Facebook training available

Advertising: The first opportunity, which is the most obvious one, is advertising on Facebook. The difference, however, is the fact that you can create your own advertisement in a matter of minutes and also specify the details of your target group in terms of demographics and types of discussions where you want your advertisement to appear.
Fan Pages: Facebook allows every brand, as well as individual users, to create fan pages for their favorite celebrities and their own homegrown businesses. Large brands have also created their official pages on Facebook that have a huge, immediate fan following around the world. The fan page has immense utility to convey first hand information about the brand and also to collect immediate and frank feedback from your customers.
Branded applications: One of the most effective ways to engage a user toward your brand is by creating an application; this could be a game or a contest, with your branding coming across subtly through it.

What makes Facebook even more exciting is the way it allows you to target your communication sharply just to the customer segment you want to attract. It also provides analytics and page insights that give good feedback and measurement on the activity done.

The options provided by Facebook can be creatively explored and used judiciously for bringing about maximum benefits to any brand.

However, while doing all this, you need to be aware of the fact that customers have an equal say and have the ability to respond immediately to any of your actions with a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Availing the service of a social media consultant to work out a social media strategy may be required so that your efforts will not be in vain.

Get more information here for the best Facebook training available

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Fight Corporate Offshoring of U.S. Jobs - Free Trade = Job Loss

Corporate offshoring of American jobs to low-wage countries has become one of the defining issues of the 2010 elections.

Even The Wall Street Journal—not exactly a cornerstone of the supposed “liberal media”—just published a survey with some revealing results about who and what is to blame for our nation’s poor economy:

86% of Americans believe that offshoring of jobs by U.S. companies contributed to our sluggish economy.
Nearly 7 out of 10 people—an all time high—say that “free trade” agreements with other countries cost us jobs here at home.
Over three-quarters of Americans consider corporate profit-seeking a factor in the downturn.
This is not news to you, or to Public Citizen. Time and time again, we have proven that flawed trade policies and blind corporate greed are eroding the U.S. economy.

Now, our Global Trade Watch team has launched an innovative, interactive website to give you the knowledge to be a more informed voter by seeing the full impact the corporate pursuit of profits has on jobs, the environment and our communities.

Check out Public Citizen’s Trade Data Center.

This powerful new tool is just the latest example of the tremendous amount of research, education and advocacy that Public Citizen does to expose and counteract policies that benefit mega-corporations at the expense of We, the People.

This powerful new tool is just the latest example of the tremendous amount of research, education and advocacy that Public Citizen does to expose and counteract policies that benefit mega-corporations at the expense of We, the People.

Lost jobs. Corporate greed. Of course these are the issues you care about. And Nobody is more committed to reforming the failed trade regime and challenging runaway corporate power than Public Citizen.

With your support, Public Citizen can continue developing resources like the Trade Data Center and fighting for policies that benefit all of us, not just the multinationals.

Onward!
Robert Weissman, President

To get regular e-alerts about opportunities for activism and other ways to help with Public Citizen's work, sign up for the Public Citizen Action Network.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

A Really Bad Day for Maliki, the Prime Minister of Iraq

No matter how bad a day you’re having, it’s probably not as bad as the day Nouri al-Maliki is having.

Maliki is the prime minister of Iraq. He wants very much to remain prime minister of Iraq, but he’s having trouble forming a coalition that can make up a majority of parliament. He’s been trying ever since indecisive elections last March -- seven months ago -- a world record, the BBC reckons.

You knew the job was dangerous when you took it…

On a visit to Tehran today, Maliki was told he must “get rid of America” and the 50,000 remaining U.S. troops in his country. So said Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

He’s the real power in Iran, in contrast to the blowhard president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who grabs all the headlines but doesn’t even command the military.

Maliki will take this seriously. For one thing, he lived in exile in Iran during Saddam Hussein’s rule. On the other hand, he’s well aware he wouldn’t be prime minister now if the United States had never invaded Iraq. It’s hard to serve two masters.

Now he has to make a choice. Two weeks ago, Iran convinced another faction in Iraq to back Maliki’s bid to remain prime minister. It happens that Washington insists this faction be kept out of the coalition because it insists on the departure of U.S. troops.

Maliki’s 4½-year balancing act between the United States and Iran is coming to a head. This is the choice he now faces…

Side with Iran and form a viable governing coalition
Side with the United States and allow a seven-month crisis to drag into perpetuity, undermining his legitimacy among ordinary Iraqis
No. 1 seems like a slam-dunk. It’s an outcome Washington won’t like but nonetheless can live with. The Bush administration already negotiated an agreement under which all the U.S. troops are gone by the end of next year. That gives the current administration political cover.

Still, come the end of next year, we can just imagine the cries: “Who lost Iraq?” That is, how did the U.S. invasion manage to strengthen Iran’s hand in the Middle East?

We won’t wade into that political thicket. We’ll just note that Iran sees itself as a sort of godfather to all Shia Muslims. And now they’re allied with an oil-rich country next door where 60% of the population is Shia.

“Iran's Shia influence,” says Byron King, “has spilled across the border into southern Iraq. Southern Iraq is where you'll find six of Iraq's eight ‘supergiant’ oil fields. It's also where you'll find a key border with Shia Islam's mortal enemy -- Saudi Arabia.”

If that sounds like a recipe for conflict, you’re right. It could easily push oil to $125 a barrel… and, if it really spirals out of control, $200 or more. Byron paints an all-too-believable scenario in a fully revised and updated version of his presentation on the subject. He also shows you how to safeguard your investments when the day comes.

Regards,

Addison Wiggin
The 5 Min. Forecast

Thank you for reading The 5 Min. Forecast! We greatly value your questions and comments. Please send all feedback to 5minforecast@agorafinancial.com

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Save the U.S. Senate from Corporate Domination Sponsored by Republicans

There's no point in sugarcoating this: If the election were held today, Republicans and their corporate benefactors would gain control of the House—and quite possibly the Senate.

That's the nightmare scenario. It would spell an end to any hope of progress in the next two years—and quite possibly to Obama's presidency.

But there are three key races that Republicans would have to win to take the Senate, and all are tied. Meaning, they're close enough for us to tip the balance. We need to help these Democratic candidates raise enough money to get their message out—despite all the corporate ads targeting them—and run serious get-out-the-vote efforts.

This is a true emergency: We must stop the Republicans from taking over the Senate. There's a critical fundraising deadline at midnight tonight.

Please, make the most generous contribution you can afford, immediately

Here are the three progressive candidates in tight races who need our help right now:

We're adding Alexi Giannoulias in Illinois to our Progressive Heroes list today because he's locked in a tight race for President Obama's old Senate seat, and because he's running a populist campaign focused on taking on the corporate special interests and cleaning up Washington, D.C. This is the closest race in the country: Every poll in this race for the past two months has been tied.

Sen. Patty Murray is the highest-ranking Democratic woman in the Senate. She supported the public option and the fight for clean energy jobs, and has worked with other pro-choice Democratic women senators to eliminate egregious gender disparities in insurance coverage. Her Republican challenger significantly out-raised her in the last three months, and Murray needs our help to win.

And Sen. Harry Reid in Nevada is facing Sharron Angle, the tea party fanatic who wants to "phase out" Social Security and Medicare, withdraw from the United Nations, and abolish the Department of Education.1 The latest polls show her tied—or even slightly ahead, and just yesterday her campaign announced that they've raised a record-breaking $14 million in the past three months.2

Can you chip in to these candidates' campaigns and help stop the takeover?
Thanks for all you do.

–Michael, Joan, Anna, Adam, and the rest of the team


1. "Sharron Angle says eliminate Social Security," Progress Now Nevada, June 8, 2010


"Reid, in Fistfight, Could Take More Punches From Climate Bill," Climate Wire, May 26, 2010


"Sharron Angle wants to eliminate federal Department of Education," MyNews4, September 8, 2010



2. "Angle raises $14.3 million," The Washington Post, October 12, 2010


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The U.S. Solar Market Annual Review: 2010 Early Results

RenewableEnergyWorld.com weekly e-newsletter
FREE to you every week. To view an online version of this message, please visit http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/partner/altaterra/2010-09-21/.

Our Online Executive Conferences bring you independent, in-depth information on critical marketplace developments in efficiency, renewable energy, and sustainable business--in a time-efficient 60- to 90-minute interactive format.


Final Call: The U.S. Solar Market Annual Review: 2010 Early Results
When: Thursday, September 30, 2010
11:00 AM-12:30 PM PT / 2:00-3:30 PM ET


Where: Live Online Web Conference and Teleconference


Cost: $74 to $331 (See registration page for details)


Contact: Eric Paul (e.paul@altaterra.net)


Registration Ends this Wednesday, September 30
Register for this event »

Online Conference Details Full Details »



Larry Sherwood, the solar industry’s "best-kept secret," is the author of the single most widely cited source of information about the United States’ solar market--the annual IREC U.S. Solar Market Trends report.

In this online conference, we will be taking a behind-the-scenes preview of 2010 and look into 2011. Mr. Sherwood will provide data and analysis including preliminary installation results and projections by state, customer segment, and technology for the U.S. solar market.

If you do or are considering doing business in the U.S., you can’t afford to miss this opportunity to learn how the U.S. solar market is shaping up this year and what to expect next year.

This presentation and discussion will address key questions facing solar companies today, including:
• How have sales and installations grown in 2010 and what is the outlook for 2011?
• How does the total market break down by state and by segment (residential, commercial, utility)?
• How is project size growing?
• How have the concentrating solar power (CSP/CST) and solar heating and cooling markets developed in 2010 and what can be expected for 2011?
• What are the implementation and market execution bottlenecks, and how are they being addressed?
• Which states had the most installations in 2010? Which states experienced the highest growth rates?
• What are the key factors driving the market for the near future?

The conference will provide an in-depth look at the rapidly-changing nature of the U.S. solar market, including preliminary installation figures for 2010 by state, customer segment, and technology. The conference will also feature a discussion on potential regulatory barriers to accelerated growth and the latest incentives driving state-level growth.

RenewableEnergyWorld.com Editor Jennifer Runyon will draw on her wide knowledge of the solar market industry and trends to frame and contribute to the discussion. The event will be moderated by Jon Guice, managing director of research at AltaTerra.

About the Speaker: Larry Sherwood is widely known as the author of the authoritative annual report, "U.S. Solar Market Trends 2009," with the Interstate Renewable Energy Council. President of Sherwood Associates, a renewable energy consulting firm, Mr. Sherwood has nearly 30 years of experience in renewable energy. His public roles include serving as Project Administrator for the Solar America Board for Codes and Standards, Executive Director of the Small Wind Certification Council, and Editor of the IREC Small Wind Newsletter.

Read Full Details »
Register for this event »




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About Online Executive Conferences
Our Online Executive Conferences are designed to provide independent professional education on critical market developments in efficiency, renewable energy, and sustainable business. Recognized experts from the business community, institutions, and government share information and insights in an accessible conference session format that is interactive and non-sponsored. Conferences typically begin with an overview, then move into greater detail and close with a moderated audience question-and-answer (Q&A) period. You may access an online recording, including audio and presentations, shortly after the conference.

These events are co-produced by AltaTerra Research and RenewableEnergyWorld.com.

AltaTerra Research - All rights reserved.
RenewableEnergyWorld.com - All rights reserved.
RenewableEnergyWorld.com - World's #1 Renewable Energy Network for News & Information

You are invited to view this message because you are a registered reader of RenewableEnergyWorld.com.
RenewableEnergyWorld.com - 9 Vose Farm Road - Peterborough, NH 03458 - United States of America

Friday, September 3, 2010

A.O.P: The Secret Investment That's Crushing Gold!

A.O.P: The Secret Investment That's Crushing Gold!
Learn about this special type of investment out there that’s not only beaten gold over the past decade but has practically destroyed every asset class on the market as well. Don’t miss your chance to get in on the biggest payouts yet.
Copied from http://www.stockgumshoe.com/2010/08/a-o-p-the-secret-investment-thats-crushing-gold.html

“Everyone knows gold is a great investment. Since 2000, it’s gone from $275 to $1,250 an ounce.

“But what if I told you there’s a special type of investment out there that’s not only beaten gold over the past decade but has practically destroyed every asset class on the market as well. In terms of average, annualized returns:

“It’s performed 18-times better than the S&P 500

“It’s beaten mutual funds 17 to 1

“It’s beaten utilities 6 to 1

“It’s beaten bonds 3 to 1

“In fact, we couldn’t find a single type of investment that has even come close to this ‘gold-beater.’

“And the next 12-24 months could be the most profitable period to date for this investment.”
Not that gold is necessarily the one thing we should be comparing all other investments to (personally, I’ve always thought of gold as more of a “store of value” savings vehicle than an investment, but it sure has gone up in recent years) … but whatever you compare it to, those are some nice numbers.

So what is this? The folks at Stansberry Research tell us that they call it the “A.O.P.” — here’s how they put it:

“Spawned by a 31-year old snippet of U.S. corporate tax code, the A.O.P. has been generating capital gains AND progressively higher levels of income since the inception.

“But you won’t find this income opportunity through any government agency website… even though it owes its very existence to an act of Congress.

“Plus – and here’s the kicker – the A.O.P. has historically increased shareholder payouts every year no matter what’s going on in the markets.”
And then, as newsletters are wont to do, they brag about the fact that they’ve been behind this “AOP” investment for a long time, letting their shareholders enjoy a nice run:

“We first wrote about the A.O.P. four years ago.

“At the time the economy was booming, the financial markets were still strong, and people were spending money hand over fist.

“Everyone knows what happened next…

“Banks began to fail, the markets collapsed, the economy went into a tailspin…

“But for those who took advantage of the A.O.P., it’s been a much different story…”
So this made me check back in the Gumshoe files … and yes, the S&A Resource Report did teaser this “AOP” investment in their ad campaigns several years ago — I don’t know if it was really four years ago, since I wasn’t publishing then and the Gumshoe had yet to lay the foundation on our virtual edutainment storefront … but I did write about Matt Badiali’s teaser for his newsletter, which was then called the S&A Oil Report, and he was pushing the “AOP” quite hard then.

And from that point, the investments have mostly done quite well — but that’s because they’re roughly flat (not counting dividends) — which, compared to the S&P and other comparables, is pretty good. When I wrote about this sector for the first time back then, in May of 2007 when my inbox was overflowing with A.O.P. stuff, I thought these investments were pretty expensive and would have to come back in to make the yields more competitive and attractive… and they did, taking an outsize hit in late 2008 and early 2009 that made them, in retrospect, insanely cheap.

But I should go ahead and slake your thirst for the “answer”, right? The A.O.P. is their acronym for “American Oil Pension,” and then as now it’s a teaser about investing in Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs), largely those MLPs that make up the majority of the sector, the companies that transport, process and store oil and natural gas.

I’d have to assume, however, that Badiali and his copywriters are teasing out different MLPs than they did three years ago — so let’s dig into the tease a bit, shall we?

If you’re not familiar with the MLP term (and don’t worry, no one else sues AOP — that’s just a copywriter invention to help make this seem mysterious, and bolster Badiali’s case that he’s got the inside info you need on this little-known investment), Master Limited Partnerships are a creation of the Reagan-era tax code, designed to help spur investment in our oil and gas infrastructure and domestic energy production.

There were some bad apples in the bunch in the early years that were essentially just created as tax dodges, but the sector is now largely well-run and well-respected, and the larger MLPs are effective and efficient pipeline operators (for the most part) who benefit from the tax code in a couple ways: first, they don’t have to pay taxes on their corporate income as long as they pass it along to their unitholders (not technically shareholders, since these are partnerships, not corporations); and second, they own assets that for the most part are very long-lived and relatively inexpensive to maintain, and that generally depreciate quite a bit faster than they physically deteriorate, so they generate even more cash than they actually classify as income, meaning that they can disperse even more cash to their unitholders and keep them happy.

I’ve written about MLPs many times before, so this may all be a bit boring — but essentially, they are a way to get high current income and defer taxes on that income until you sell your units, since the fact that the dividends/distributions to unitholders are far higher than the partnership’s reported income means that you’re often getting a “return of capital” as most of your distribution, which just lowers your cost basis in the shares and means you end up paying capital gains taxes on that “return of capital” … but not until you sell the shares and register that gain, so you get to choose when to incur taxes (and I’m not a tax expert so don’t rely on me for the details of this, but I think that inherited MLP shares get a bump up in cost basis, so this is a popular investment among older investors in part as a way to efficiently pass along wealth to future generations without forgoing current income — do remember, I could easily be wrong on that point).

And yes, MLPs are generally probably not very well understood by most investors, so there is perhaps an opportunity for folks to get in on a sector that’s critical and profitable but somewhat small and not dominated by institutions (many institutions can’t own MLPs, and most mutual funds do not although they’re now technically allowed to), but it’s worth noting that MLPs generally trade like other yield-focused investments — they compete with bonds, high dividend stocks, and stuff like Real Estate Investment Trusts for the attention of income-focused investors, so the prices fluctuate in part due to yield expectations for those other sectors. Right now the yields on most investments are so absurdly low that it’s tough to say what’s fair — the REITs and the utilities yield about 4-4.5% (or at least the averages of those, as measured by the big ETFs for those sectors), the ten year US Treasury bond or a 5-year CD yields a bit under 3%, and the closest thing to an index for MLPs (the JP Morgan Alerian Exchange Traded Note) yields about 5.5%. MLPs don’t historically seem to get to yield much less than that before the price falls to get the income levels back up, but we haven’t had many long-lasting low-interest-rate environments like this in the past, where 5 or 6% seems like a terrific yield.

And certainly MLPs have been probably by far the best thing to own for the last decade or so — the compounding high interest and the relative stability of their income stream have helped them to avoid the worst of the crashes (though they’ve had several downward spikes), and I wouldn’t argue with anyone who wanted to dedicate a portion of their portfolio to the sector.

So without further ado, which are the favored “A.O.P.” investments that Matt Badiali is pushing now? Here’s how he hints for us:

“Today, there are TWO A.O.P. businesses that stand head and shoulders above the rest—they regularly send out the biggest paychecks… and have superior streams of revenue.

“I’m very confident and pleased with the results these companies have had to offer investors. Take a look below, and you’ll find a brief description of what I really like about each one:

“A.O.P. Company #1: This Pennsylvania business owns and operates natural gas assets, including five natural gas processing facilities and over 4,000 miles of natural gas gathering pipelines.

“Although they’ve only been around for 3 years, this company has increased its distribution payouts by an incredible 457%.

“Since 2005, they’ve also increased their total revenues by 58% and cash distributions by around 200%.

“To qualify for the August 14, 2010 distribution check, you must enroll by August 3.”
Well, I don’t know how you get the “only been around for three years” and reconcile that with the “since 2005″ numbers in the subsequent paragraph, but maybe they just made a little mistake on the dates — this MLP had only been around for three years in 2005, arguably (this entity was formed in 2001), but they have been in business under various names and corporate structures since the late 19th century … I think this first one must be Penn Virginia Resources (PVR), which does have the natural gas assets described in the tease but which is also has a second major business as an owner of coal properties in Appalachia.

And oddly enough, when you think “Pennsylvania” and natural gas you probably think of the Marcellus Shale, which might get you excited about growth prospects for Penn Virginia … but in actuality, when it comes to natural gas they’re still mostly a Texas/Oklahoma company. That’s possibly going to gradually change over the next several years, since they have made deals with two different Marcellus producers to expand gathering systems in the area over the next several years, most notably a five-year deal with Range Resources that started just recently and that will have them spending a couple hundred million building out gathering pipes for some of Range’s acreage in Pennsylvania. They do think this will be accretive to “distributable cash flow” by next year, which means they shouldn’t have to cut the quarterly distribution to unitholders.

PVR is an interesting MLP, they own primarily gathering and midstream assets on the natural gas side (gathering is what it sounds like, small pipes that connect the wells to bigger pipelines for movement to refineries or storage; midstream is mostly refining and processing, and the separating of natural gas liquids), which means they have to constantly analyze the production in their service areas and expand to new areas as (or if) the area where they’re “gathering” sees production declines, so it’s a bit more complicated than the MLPs who primarily own the big interstate pipelines that primarily, for example, move crude oil from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast.

And if you add on the coal business, you’d think that would provide some additional stability to earnings — you get, at least, more diversity of revenue. The coal business is basically just land ownership — the own the coal, but they don’t produce it, they just collect royalties, so it’s far smaller in terms of revenue than their natural gas business, but that revenue comes in with far higher margins because they don’t actually have to mine the coal.

But even given that, this MLP has an above-average yield, and unlike some MLPs they actually make enough in income to cover their distribution (it’s not just the distribution of depreciation). I haven’t looked at this one for my personal account in a long time, and I don’t want to downplay the relative risk of owning gathering systems in Texas and Oklahoma when fields might decline, but it is impressive that they have an above-average yield for the MLP space (just under 8%) — and like essentially all MLPs, they have been able to continue to increase the distribution amount, though not as aggressively as some. They’ve got a market cap of about a billion dollars, so they’re quite small compared to big guys like Kinder Morgan (KMP) and Enterprise Products Partners (EPD) which are 20 times as large, but they also yield more (the big MLPs generally have yields in the low-6% range) and, since they are smaller, might arguably have more growth potential.

And there’s one more …

“AOP Company #2: This Houston firm is one of the largest A.O.P. businesses in the world. They own 49,100 of oil and gas pipeline throughout the continental U.S.

“If you bought 5,000 shares of this A.O.P. business soon after it first went public in 1998, you would have since collected over $90,000 in distribution payouts.

“You’d have received 47 distribution checks during that time and your initial $5,000 stake would now be worth $155,000 in capital gains. Combined, you’d have made $245,000.

“In order to ensure you receive the next distribution payout, which will likely be paid on August 13, you will want to purchase your shares prior to August 6, 2010.”
Well, what do you know — this one is one of the biggies I mentioned above, Enterprise Products Partners (EPD). I think this is actually the largest of the pipeline MLPs at the moment, their market cap is just under $25 billion, and they do pretty much everything that you think of for “traditional” MLPs — they own gas gathering systems, they own onshore and offshore pipelines for both gas and oil, they do midstream gas processing and marketing of the various products, they own storage facilities and terminals, and they even sell chemicals and feedstocks. So if you’re looking for one of the more diversified MLPs, it’s hard to argue with EPD.

While Enterprise is huge, they are also focused on growing — and growth for MLPs generally means either acquiring small pipeline operators, or building new (or expanding and extending old) gathering and transportation systems. EPD has done quite a bit of acquiring in the past, and they do seem focused on significant oil and gas growth areas, which I would always look for in an MLP to make sure they’ve got some potential to keep adding to their revenue base — in EPD’s case, the expansion focus seems largely to be the southern shale areas, primarily Barnett and Haynesville, and the big Eagle Ford Shale that has everyone excited in South Texas.

But as I said, the yield is not massive — EPD will earn you just a whisper over 6%, and that will eventually be taxable unless you try to finagle holding it in an IRA. And most people don’t recommend holding MLPs in IRAs since a lot of their value is in the tax deferral, which you get with an IRA anyway — as an aside, some MLPs will tell you that holding their units in a Roth IRA isn’t kosher, but I think that’s just for pipeline operators that are entirely FERC-regulated (I know that both Boardwalk Pipeline — which I own — and El Paso Pipeline Partners are ineligible for Roth IRAs, but as far as I know that’s a FERC-specific issue in proving that tax is eventually paid on those distributions).

So there you have it — the two main A.O.P. investments that Badiali appears to be recommending in the MLP space this time around — and no, neither of these was on his list three or four years ago, if you’re curious about those “original” A.O.P. ideas you can always check out my older article here (those four picks from 2006 or 2007 have generally done well, though as a group they’ve probably been similar to the average MLP performance — unless you picked these on downward spikes they’re wealth builders and powerful compounders, not usually rocket stocks), and of course under “related articles” below you’ll see several other MLP-oriented articles, these tend to come up at least once a month or so.

The only general thoughts I’d share as you get started in your research are to look at how the MLPs you like might grow (ie, these days that mostly means they’re either an acquirer, or they’re serving the hot new exploration areas in some way, like shale gas), and make sure they’re generating enough free cash (or EBITDA, depending how you want to measure — it doesn’t have to be actual accounting income) so they don’t have to cut the distribution if things get ugly for a year (as happened in late 2008, precipitating the dips in most of these stocks — and the disappearance of the weakest ones). You might also, if you’re looking more closely, check on how the company’s pipes are regulated and their services priced — many pipelines, especially larger ones, tend to have pricing agreements set by regulators, like other utilities, and they tend to be consistently busy, the smaller or more regional gathering systems may be unregulated and possibly more subject to pricing pressures from time to time.

And, of course, there’s always risk — just ask Enbridge Energy Partners (EEP) about their major spill last week on the pipeline that transports Canadian oil to midwest refineries (though that’s of course quite minor compared to BP’s Gulf disaster, and didn’t seem to hit EEP’s unit price terribly hard, at least not yet).

Finally, I know I have lots of MLP-happy folks in the vast Stock Gumshoe readership, so feel free to share your thoughts about the best or worst MLPs out there, that’s why we’ve got the friendly little comment box below.

Full disclosure: as noted above, I do own shares of Boardwalk Pipeline Partners (BWP), but do not currently own any other Master Limited Partnership units named above (or any others, actually). I will not trade in any mentioned shares for at least three days.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Chevron Witch Trials: "environmental justice" lawsuit being prosecuted against Chevron, by U.S. attorneys, in Ecuador

Now, before you think too much about silver, let's switch gears and return to a topic that I've discussed in previous OI updates, beginning exactly one year ago. It's what I call the Chevron Witch Trial, a so-called "environmental justice" lawsuit being prosecuted against Chevron, by U.S. attorneys, in Ecuador. Right now, the proposed damage award against Chevron is in the vicinity of $27 billion -- no typo, $27 billion.

Even though we don't hold Chevron in the OI model portfolio, I think the news I'm about to relate is very important to investors. It reflects on the kinds of obstacles that are out there, hindering energy development across this world.

The news in this update also offers a sobering lesson in how "lawfare" can come out of nowhere, let alone make its way through national-level court systems. That is, unscrupulous parties can engage in pure fraud, under color of judicial proceedings, and strike at any large, deep-pocketed resource company. As I'll describe below, this is not just my view. It's the finding of fact by a U.S. federal court.

Going Back to the Texaco Days

Here's a quick summary of what's happened so far. In the early 1990s, a U.S. lawyer from New York, named Steven Donziger, sued the former Texaco company in U.S. federal courts over alleged environmental contamination from oil operations in Ecuador.

Yes, Texaco operated in Ecuador, beginning in the 1960s. But starting in 1977, the Ecuadoreans began a systematic program to nationalize Texaco assets. By the early 1990s, Texaco was entirely out of Ecuador. Oil development in Ecuador, from 1977 through the 1980s and into the 1990s, was controlled by the state-owned oil company, Petro-Ecuador.

When Texaco finally withdrew from Ecuador, it made an agreement with Petro-Ecuador and the Ecuadorean government to remediate a portion of the list of old oil sites. Texaco cleaned up many former oil sites, and the balance of the oil sites were left for Petro-Ecuador to clean up.

Texaco kept up its part of the bargain, cleaned up the sites and even received a "release" of claims from the national government in Quito. But that didn't stop attorney Donziger -- fresh out of Harvard Law School, Class of 1991 -- from suing Texaco.

The "environmental justice" claim is a novel legal concept that they teach at enlightened places like Harvard. In this case, it's along the lines that Texaco's energy development adversely affected the Ecuadorean environment and local residents. After much preliminary litigation, the case was dismissed in the U.S. and re-filed in Ecuador.

Dealing With the Situation In Ecuador

Texaco merged with Chevron in 2001. Chevron then became the named defendant in the Ecuadorean lawsuit, even though Chevron never operated down there.

The details of the Ecuador lawsuit are technically complex, and very voluminous. I'll just summarize and note that the proceedings are ongoing, with hundreds of thousands of pages of exhibits and testimony. Litigating this case has pretty much "been" Mr. Donziger's entire legal career.

The long and short of it is that there are still many areas in Ecuador that are a huge mess from oil operations. But the source of the current environmental problem in Ecuador sure as heck isn't Chevron. Indeed, the problem appears to be the shoddy industrial practices of long-time domestic energy operator Petro-Ecuador.

What's the real problem? Well, for many years Petro-Ecuador has paid over the bulk of its operating capital to the government. Hence Petro-Ecuador has chronically under-invested in maintenance and safe operations.

Indeed, much of the "evidence" in the Ecuador trial displays problems that are recent, if not ongoing. That is, the damage occurred long after Texaco departed the scene, and is objectively and entirely attributable to Petro-Ecuador.

The Fake "Expert"

Well, now we're down in Ecuador, dealing with a species of patriotic emotion known as resource nationalism. It's hard for anyone -- especially an appointed judge -- to point the finger too close to home. After all, even Ecuadorean judges have to eat lunch.

So the judge passed the buck by naming a so-called "expert witness," Richard Cabrera, to advise the court on the scope of damages, injuries, and monetary claims.

Here's where things get really interesting. Turns out that this "expert witness," Mr. Cabrera, is a complete fake. At least, his "expert report" is a complete fake. How do we know?

For some strange reason, New York-licensed attorney Donziger allowed himself to be filmed by a documentary film-maker named Joe Berlinger. Mr. Berlinger was making a movie about environmental issues related to oil development. I suppose that Mr. Donziger wanted to be a movie star or something.

A couple months ago, Chevron obtained the out-takes of the movie -- the stuff that never made it past the cutting room floor. Here's what one of Mr. Berlinger's out-takes shows attorney Donziger saying about how he approaches his dealings with the Ecuadorean justice system:
"Hold on a second, you know, this is Ecuador. . . . You can say whatever you want and at the end of the day, there’s a thousand people around the courthouse, you’re going to get what you want. Sorry, but it’s true. ... Because at the end of the day, this is all for the Court just a bunch of smoke and mirrors and bullshit. It really is. We have enough, to get money, to win."
Whose "Expert" Report?

Oh really? I suppose that's what those pesky Rules of Ethics mean when they refer to an attorney's obligation of "candor towards the tribunal?" It's all "smoke and mirrors and bullshit," right?

Now, based on the movie out-takes, Chevron wants to depose a man in North Carolina named Charles Champ. Who's that? Well, he runs a small company called Champ Science and Engineering. And it turns out that Mr. Champ worked as an "environmental consultant" for attorney Donziger.

Oh, it gets much better. In the out-takes from the Berlinger film, Mr. Champ is shown as he discusses writing the "expert report" that Mr. Cabrera eventually submitted to the court. In other words, the evidence -- on film, no less -- indicates that attorney Donziger's "consultant," Mr. Champ, had a hand in ghost-writing the "expert" report submitted by Mr. Cabrera.

So much for an independent expert report, eh?

Opposing Deposing -- and a White Hot Federal Court Decision

Mr. Champ, as you might imagine, does NOT want to be deposed by Chevron. Must be some issue about either telling the truth, or possibly facing federal criminal charges for perjury. So Mr. Champ went to court in North Carolina to oppose the Chevron subpoena.

Last week, on August 27, the federal court in the Western District of North Carolina held a fact-hearing on the merits of Mr. Champ's objection to being deposed. Here's what the Honorable Dennis Howell, a U.S. Magistrate Judge wrote in his decision:
"As the court stated during the hearing, it was clear from the materials presented that Mr. Champ played a key supporting role in such plaintiffs’ efforts to write the court appointed independent expert’s report for him, masking his own opinions and any documents as those of the expert. Further, the court determined that Mr. Champ’s expertise, which appears to be remediation and the cost of clean up of oil spills, amount to shared expertise on what was likely the ultimate object of the litigation, an award of damages.
So here we have a federal judge, determining that the "expert report" in a $27 billion lawsuit was ghost-written, with the purpose of running up large damage claims against Chevron. Wow.

Somebody is in a LOT of trouble. Having spent many years of my life practicing law, including practice in U.S. federal courts, I have to say that I think this judge is kind of mad at Messrs. Champ and Donziger.

There's more. Indeed, the federal judge was just warming up. He continued:
"(It) is very clear from the words used by plaintiffs’ lawyer (Mr. Donziger) in the meeting - - some few weeks before the expert sitting in the room was in fact appointed by the court - - that Chevron did not know that the expert report was being ghostwritten by experts for the party opponent, that it would be important for no one at the meeting to tell Chevron that such had occurred, and, to the amusement of those in attendance at the meeting, Chevron would not realize what had happened to them with the independent report."
As findings of fact go in a federal court, I have a hard time putting any sort of "happy face" on this decision, towards the plaintiffs and their New York attorney Mr. Donziger.

"Bigger Problems Than An Oil Spill"

Really, how does one get out from behind this eight-ball? Mr. Donziger had better be talking with his malpractice insurance carrier, if not his favorite criminal defense counsel. Because the federal judge wasn't finished. Here goes:
"While this court is unfamiliar with the practices of the Ecuadorian judicial system, the court must believe that the concept of fraud is universal, and that what has blatantly occurred in this matter would in fact be considered fraud by any court. If such conduct does not amount to fraud in a particular country, then that country has bigger problems than an oil spill."
Hmmm... "What has blatantly occurred in this matter would in fact be considered fraud by any court." Can a federal judge be any more clear?

OK, if it's not clear, then maybe the judge made his point towards the end of the decision, when he ruled against any use of "attorney-client privilege" to stay proceedings during any appeal by Mr. Champ:
"(It) appears that any consulting expert privilege has been waived and that the crime-fraud exception prevents assertion of any other privilege by respondent, requiring the disclosures and testimony requested."
The "crime-fraud exception?" You don't really have to know the details of this concept, except maybe for your bar-exam. If you're interested, you can look it up.

The actions and issues in this matter probably rise to the level of an indictable federal offense. Bottom line is that none of this is good for either Mr. Champ, nor attorney Donziger, nor for their lawsuit against Chevron .

Still, despite this measure of justice for Chevron in a U.S. federal court, the California-based company is still in the crosshairs of the Ecuadorean judicial system. There's still $27 billion in play. That's the world in which we live.

And that's all for now. Thanks for reading. Have a good Labor Day weekend.

Byron W. King

P.S. As I mentioned in the article, plaintiffs' attorney Steven Donziger is a graduate of the Harvard Law School, Class of 1991. Coincidentally, one of Mr. Donziger's classmates was none other than Barack H. Obama, now President of the United States. Which goes to show that sometimes you can choose your President of the United States, but you can't choose your classmates.
Special Offer: Renew Your Commitment to Outstanding Investments Today
and Save 50%

Order Processing Center | Attn: Customer Service | P.O. Box 960 | Frederick, MD 21705 USA

Nothing in this post should be considered personalized investment advice. Although our employees may answer your general customer service questions, they are not licensed under securities laws to address your particular investment situation. No communication by our employees to you should be deemed as personalized investment advice.


We expressly forbid our writers from having a financial interest in any security recommended to our readers. All of our employees and agents must wait 24 hours after on-line publication or 72 hours after the mailing of printed-only publication prior to following an initial recommendation. Any investments recommended in this letter should be made only after consulting with your investment advisor and only after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.


©2010 Agora Financial, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Protected by copyright laws of the United States and international treaties. This Newsletter may only be used pursuant to the subscription agreement and any reproduction, copying, or redistribution (electronic or otherwise, including on the world wide web) , in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of Agora Financial, LLC. 808 Saint Paul Street, Baltimore MD 21202.

Oil platform explodes off La. coast; crew rescued

NEW ORLEANS, La. — An oil platform exploded and caught fire Thursday off the Louisiana coast, the second such disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in less than five months. All 13 crew members were rescued from the water in protective "Gumby suits."

The Coast Guard initially reported that an oil sheen a mile long and 100 feet wide had begun to spread from the site of the blast, about 200 miles west of the site of BP's massive spill. But hours later, Coast Guard Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesau said crews were unable to find any spill.

The company that owns the platform, Houston-based Mariner Energy, did not know what caused the blast.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said Mariner officials told him there were seven active production wells on the platform, and they were shut down shortly after the fire broke out.

The Coast Guard said Mariner Energy reported the oil sheen. But the company said in a public statement that an initial flyover of the platform did not reveal any spilled oil.

Photos from the scene showed at least five ships floating near the platform. Three of them were shooting great plumes of water onto the machinery. Light smoke could be seen drifting across the deep blue waters of the gulf.

By late afternoon, the fire on the platform was out.

The platform is in about 340 feet of water and about 100 miles south of Louisiana's Vermilion Bay. Its location is considered shallow water, much less than the approximately 5,000 feet where BP's well spewed oil and gas for three months after the April rig explosion.

Responding to any oil spill in shallow water would be much easier than in deep water, where crews depend on remote-operated vehicles access equipment on the sea floor.

A homeland security update obtained by The Associated Press said the platform was producing 58,800 gallons of oil and 900,000 cubic feet of gas per day. The platform can store 4,200 gallons of oil.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the administration has "response assets ready for deployment should we receive reports of pollution in the water."

Crew members were found floating in the water, huddled together in insulated survival outfits called "Gumby suits" for their resemblance to the cartoon character.

"These guys had the presence of mind, used their training to get into those Gumby suits before they entered the water," Coast Guard spokesman Chief Petty Officer John Edwards said.

The crew was being flown to a hospital in Houma. The Coast Guard said one person was injured, but the company said there were no injuries.

A company report said the well was drilled in the third quarter of 2008.

There are about 3,400 platforms operating in the Gulf, according to the American Petroleum Institute. Together they pump about a third of the America's domestic oil, forming the backbone of the country's petroleum industry.

Platforms are vastly different from oil rigs like the Deepwater Horizon. They are usually brought in after wells are already drilled and sealed.

"A production platform is much more stable," said Andy Radford, an API expert on offshore oil drilling. "On a drilling rig, you're actually drilling the well. You're cutting. You're pumping mud down the hole. You have a lot more activity on a drilling rig."

In contrast, platforms are usually placed atop stable wells where the oil is flowing at a predictable pressure, he said. A majority of platforms in the Gulf do not require crews on board.

Many platforms, especially those in shallower water, stand on legs that are drilled into the sea floor. Like a giant octopus, they spread numerous pipelines across the sea floor and can tap into many wells at once.

Platforms do not have blowout preventers, but they are usually equipped with a series of redundant valves that can shut off oil and gas at different points along the pipeline.

Numerous platforms were damaged during hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The storms broke pipelines and oil spilled into the Gulf. But the platforms successfully kept major spills from happening, Radford said.

"Those safety valves did their job," he said.

Federal authorities have cited Mariner Energy and related entities for 10 accidents in the Gulf of Mexico over the last four years, according to safety records from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.

The accidents range from platform fires to pollution spills and a blowout, according to accident-investigation reports from the agency formerly known as the Minerals Management Service.

In 2007, welding sparks falling onto an oil storage tank caused a flash fire that slightly burned a contract worker. The Minerals Management Service issued a $35,000 fine.

Mariner Energy Inc. focuses on oil and gas exploration and production in the Gulf. In April, Apache Corp., another independent oil company, announced plans to buy Mariner in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $3.9 billion, including the assumption of about $1.2 billion of Mariner's debt. That deal is pending.

On Friday, BP was expected to begin the process of removing the cap and failed blowout preventer, another step toward completion of a relief well that would put a final seal on the well. The Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20, killing 11 people and setting off a three-month leak that totaled 206 million gallons of oil.

___

Associated Press writers Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans, Chris Kahn in New York, Eileen Sullivan, Matthew Daly and Gerry Bodlander in Washington, Garance Burke in Fresno, Calif., and researcher Monika Mathur in New York contributed to this report.