This “Big Story” is Turning the Energy Market on Its Head

by Dr. Kent Moors | published October 29th, 2013

 

The revolution in unconventional shale gas and tight (or shale) oil is changing everything we use to think about energy.  Along the way, it’s creating a new energy balance.

That is especially true in North America, where the genuine opportunity for energy independence could become a reality as early as 2020.
This massive shift is possible only because both the U.S. and Canada are rapidly transforming from net importers to net exporters of both crude oil and natural gas (via liquefied natural gas, or LNG).
This is a transition that Canada actually reached a while ago.
In fact, the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin and its combination of conventional and unconventional production made Canada less reliant on imports well before the shale revolution set in.
The “big story” today, though, is what is happening inside the U.S

A Reversal of Fortune

Thanks to the largess of shale gas, all the discussions that the U.S. would need to import LNG have suddenly ended.
Of course, we only have to go back to 2005 and 2006 when the exact opposite was true.  At the time, most analysts (including myself) were suggesting the U.S. would need to import as much as 15% of its gas annually.
Well no more. Beginning in about a year, this revolution will start moving in the opposite direction as the U.S. starts exporting LNG to both Europe and Asia. Canada will begin phasing in LNG exports from the Pacific Coast as well.
But the ability to meet domestic gas demand for internal resources is not the real reason the import/export mix is changing so dramatically.
The real energy independence is now happening on the oil side.
Only three years ago, the U.S. was importing almost 70% of its oil. Today, the figure is closer to 50% (or less by some estimates).  What’s more, at current projections, this figure will decline even further to the low 30s in about ten years.
By that time, what America needs to import will largely come from a close-in source: Canada.
Oil production will also come in higher this year than at any point since the 1970s, while the exports of oil products are increasing.  My own view is that we will also see some relaxation of the rules when it comes to moving crude out of the country.
However, this is as much a political issue as it is a market consideration.

The Big Push to Export Oil

The problem is that domestically produced oil is looked at as a “strategic commodity” making its export difficult. Nonetheless, there are two categories where it is already allowed.
The first involves the special treatment of the heavy oil coming from the Monterey basin in California. Exports are permitted here because the heavily discounted crude has difficulty finding decent sale prospects in the states. It is expensive to process and requires costly refinery upgrades.
Second, there’s the prospect of tolling. This is the process whereby a raw material (in this case crude oil) is exported and the refined result (i.e., oil products) it is imported back into the states. Tolling is well understood in metals, especially in the production of aluminum. 
But now there is a whole new dynamic forming over the possibilities of tolling. That’s because we are also experiencing an increase in the gasoline and diesel leaving the U.S. Oil products are not covered by the same export restrictions as is the initial crude itself, although periodic regional shortages do occasionally limit export flows.
The export of crude from the U.S. is likely to increase for two reasons, both of which undercut the “strategic commodity” concerns. 
The first addresses the quality of some tight oil produced. This will be heavier, lower quality volume similar to the current Monterey allowances. Opening an export market for this quality of crude would allow for increased production.
Second, the overall production levels will prove to be decisive. We still don’t know how sustainable unconventional sources really are. If tight oil ends up being a phenomenon of only a few decades in duration, export potential will be lessened.
However, that conclusion is still in the future. By all indications, we probably have much more extractable unconventional oil than originally thought. That being the case, the pressure against exports promises to decline.

Finding New Ways to Profit

And there is now no question the availability of shale gas and tight oil worldwide is much higher than the figures had suggested even two years ago.
In fact, just this past June, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) released a revision of its global tight oil reserve figures and they were staggering.
U.S. shale gas reserves were higher in the revised study, but the new American total left the U.S. fourth in the world – behind China, Algeria, and Argentina. Initial EIA projections on the oil side also show the potential for unconventional reserves are at least 60% as much as all the conventional oil known to exist worldwide.
In short, this unconventional revolution is initiating a massive shift in energy balance expectations internationally. That was the primary reason why I was invited to London last week to brief such a high-powered audience.
And while all the attention is directed at production prospects, I am already looking to other places for new investment opportunities.
For instance, we have already talked about the accelerating use of rail to move crude oil in North America, especially from Canada to the U.S. as an alternative to the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.
Then this morning another interesting wrinkle emerged. Gas Business Briefing reported that the use of barges to move unconventional oil will be increasing as well.
In fact, industry observers are now saying this could be the biggest jump in barge profitability in over 30 years.  So the use of barges adds another enticing element.
River systems in other parts of the world have developed barge traffic as well. As unconventional production ramps up, so also will reliance on barges to move it.
Once again, what began in North America is providing yet another investment direction elsewhere. That means additional ways to profit for all of us.

Don't Negotiate With Chase - Prosecute Them!

Last night, I went on All In With Chris Hayes to discuss something that should be unbelievable: The Justice Department has evidence JP Morgan Chase committed major securities fraud – but instead of filing criminal charges, they’re negotiating with them to settle for a small fraction of the damage they did.

Chase and Chase CEO Jamie Dimon broke the law, defrauded millions and crashed the economy. It's time for a perpwalk, not a negotiation.
Sign our letter to Attorney General Eric Holder demanding criminal charges for Chase, not sweetheart deals:
http://other98.com/dont-negotiate-with-chase-prosecute-them/
The New York Times has reported that JPMorgan Chase’s CEO Jamie Dimon has been in regular contact with Eric Holder at the Justice Department, negotiating the terms of his own fines, tacitly admitting guilt without ever having to face a jury for his crimes or even publicly admitting wrongdoing.
Isn’t is time we stopped letting the banks get away with buying off the government in exchange for escaping criminal charges? Especially when we are talking about a bank that continues to be charged with new offenses almost every month?
I'm beyond tired of Big Banks being Above The Law - and I think it's long past time to say No Banker Is Too Big To Jail. Join me.
Thank you for all you do to make this movement real.
Sincerely,
Alexis Goldstein, The Other 98%
--
Sources:
1. The New York Times, “U.S. Deal with JP Morgan Spurred by a Phone Call.”
2. BuzzFeed, “How Two Deals And Two Lawsuits Led To JPMorgan’s $13 Billion Settlement.”
3. The Other 98%, “Alexis Breaks Down the $13 BN JPM Settlement.”

---

The Other 98% is making democracy work for the rest of us.
Our website is http://other98.com/.

End the GOP Government Shutdown Now

The last week has been a tough one for our country. Republican extremists in the House, determined to defund our landmark health care law, shut down the federal government for the first time in 17 years.

This Republican-led shutdown is already doing damage to our economy. Thousands of federal employees have been furloughed, Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories are running on reserve funds. And government loans to small businesses all across the state have been suspended.

William -- there isn't an easy answer to this crisis -- but I'm working every day to end this senseless stalemate. We need to convince Republicans that our country can't afford another day of their partisan gridlock.

Help me send a message to Congress. We need to end this deadlock so we can get our focus back to where it needs to be: Rebuilding our economy in New Mexico and across the country.

Sign the petition today and tell the extreme Republicans that we need to end this shutdown now.
Tea Party obstructionists in Congress need to focus less on winning extreme ideological battles and more on doing what’s right for the country. I’m committed to making Washington work for New Mexico and getting our economy back on track.

Thank you for your help.

Tom
 

Tell President Obama and Secretary Kerry: You can't ignore us. You must reject Keystone XL

President Obama and the State Department just wish you would go away.

That was the message they sent yesterday to the 36 activists who sat in and risked arrest in Boston, and the hundreds of folks who came out in support.

First, they tried to intimidate us from showing up at all, with threats of federal charges carrying sentences of up to 30 days in jail, a $5,000 fine, and likely four or five court appearances. Then, when not a single person backed down from taking action, they refused to arrest the peaceful protestors, despite their sitting in and blocking two entrances to the State Department office over the course of two hours.

But the brave stand of the 36 dignified and peaceful protestors in Boston sent the president and secretary of state a different message: You have to face us. And we aren't going anywhere until you reject the Keystone XL pipeline once and for all.1,2

You can send that message too, by joining the local Pledge of Resistance sit-in being planned near you. Click here to find yours.


If you don't have an action near you, you can still chip in to support this massive organizing effort to build a wave of resistance to Keystone XL.

Over 75,000 of us have signed the Keystone XL Pledge of Resistance. We are ready to commit mass civil disobedience if the State Department recommends the White House grant TransCanada a presidential permit for the Keystone XL pipeline.

And to show the White House that these 75,000 pledgers mean what they say, CREDO, Rainforest Action Network and the Other 98% have organized actions in Chicago where 22 of us were arrested, in Houston where 13 were arrested at the front door of TransCanada’s corporate offices, in D.C. where dozens risked arrest at the State Department, and now in Boston to send a message directly to Secretary Kerry.

One woman traveled all the way from Florida to Boston to send the message in Secretary Kerry's hometown, that as head of the State Department, he must live up to the commitments he has made to fight climate change.

Secretary Kerry has rightly called climate change the biggest "long-term threat" to our national security.3 And the Keystone XL pipeline is one of the biggest long-term threats to our climate.

We will not be silent if Secretary Kerry and his State Department try to claim in their upcoming final evaluation of Keystone XL, as they did in their sham first draft, that its approval carries "no significant impact" -- when Secretary Kerry so clearly knows the dangers of "game over" for the climate.

Build the resistance to Keystone XL – be part of your local Pledge of Resistance sit-in.

It is a testament to our growing power that two years after everyone thought the Keystone XL pipeline would certainly be approved, it still has not been. We hope we never have to trigger the Pledge of Resistance and start a wave of civil disobedience that will sweep the country, but we must be ready to do so if we are going to stop the White House from approving this pipeline.
The time for delays has passed. The recent comprehensive (and restrained) report from more than 900 of the world's top scientists stated unequivocally that we have only a few decades to stop burning carbon.4 But those building pipelines do so to keep them in operation for far longer than that.

We cannot afford to allow a foreign corporation to transport dirty tar sands oil across our nation so it can ship it to Asia, making massive profits while our planet burns.

President Obama must reject Keystone XL. And it's up to us to keep building pressure on him until he does. That's why we're letting the president know that tens of thousands of us will be risking arrest if his administration recommends approval of Keystone XL. Will you let him know that you'll be one of them?

Sign up to be a part of your local sit-in to show President Obama he must reject Keystone XL.

Or chip in to keep this massive organizing effort building.

Thanks for fighting Keystone XL.

Elijah Zarlin
CREDO Action


1. "More photos from the sit-in in Boston
2. "Activists Stage Sit-In During Keystone XL Pipeline Protest," Boston Magazine, 9/16/13
3. "Kerry Pledges To Confront Climate Change: ‘I Will Be A Passionate Advocate’ Of Action," Think Progress 1/24/13
4. "IPCC: 30 years to climate calamity if we carry on blowing the carbon budget," Guardian, 9/2713

Photo credit: Kayana Szymczak
© 2013 CREDO. All rights reserved.

24 New polls show GOP in grave danger of losing House in wake of government shutdown

"24 new polls show GOP in grave danger of losing House in wake of government shutdown"
That's the title of the game-changing memo that we're sending to Washington reporters right now.

With small donations from MoveOn members, we hired the top firm Public Policy Polling to run polls in 24 Republican-held congressional districts this past week, and the results are truly astonishing. And now MSNBC and other major media outlets are reporting that Democrats could take back the House in 2014.2

In 17 districts a Democrat would likely beat the incumbent Republican if the election were held today—and that's the magic number, as Democrats need 17 seats to take back the House from Tea Party Republicans.

This is an incredible opportunity. We've seen wave elections that flip the House emerge before—as in 2006 when MoveOn was one of the first groups to say that Democrats could take back the House, and, together with our allies, we organized to do just that, and won.
Can you pitch in $3 right now to set in motion a major campaign to take back the House from Tea Party Republicans?

Yes, I can contribute $3.
Our analytics and campaigns teams have been working around the clock since the polling results started coming in, and we've crafted a major media and grassroots organizing plan targeting these swing districts that we could set in motion this week—but only if we can raise the money to fund the program. 
If we go big now, when folks are paying attention, we can make sure voters don't forget how Republicans shut down the government, and we can create the conditions for Democrats to take back the House next year. So we've set an audacious goal of raising $500,000 this week to make the most of this moment.
It may seem early, but next year's elections could very well turn on the decisions being made right now—by those who choose to make nearly 800,000 public workers go without pay, who choose to try keeping millions of people from accessing health insurance, and who choose to lock thousands of children out of Head Start programs.

We've just run a major ad campaign that earned national attention, and this past week MoveOn members rallied outside dozens of congressional district offices demanding that Republicans end the government shutdown. If we double down now, we can lay the groundwork for an unexpected sweep next year—and give President Obama a Democratic-controlled Congress to work with in his final two years in office.

Can you donate $3 right now to make sure Republicans pay a price at the polls for shutting down the government?

Yes, I can contribute $3.
We're still digesting the details, but we wanted to give you a first look at these new polls because the results are so stunning. Here are a few details:
In 17 districts a Democrat would likely beat the incumbent Republican if the election were held today—and that's the magic number, as Democrats need 17 seats to take back the House from Tea Party Republicans.     
 
Majorities of respondents in every poll indicated that they "oppose Congress shutting down major activities of the federal government as a way to stop the health care law from being put into place."  
 
When voters learn that their Republican Representative supported the government shutdown over Obamacare, they're even more likely to support the Democratic candidate—with four more seats flipping Democratic when people learn that news.    
    
The Tea Party's approval is in the gutter and some of their greatest champions are already trailing—like Steve King from Iowa who is known for immigrant-bashing, and is now trailing a Democratic opponent 45% to 49%.   

This is a truly unprecedented opportunity—but we can seize it only if we can raise the resources to match. Can you pitch in?
Yes, I can contribute $3..

Because of Republican gerrymandering, it will be an uphill battle. But what seemed far-fetched before—winning a Democratic majority in Congress for Obama's last two years as president—suddenly feels within reach, thanks to the GOP's own actions. They recklessly drove our government into a shutdown because they can't accept that the Affordable Care Act is the law—and voters are starting to indicate they could pay for that at the polls.

Thanks for all you do.

–Ilya, Victoria, Eric, Joan, and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. "24 MoveOn polls show GOP could lose House in wake of shutdown," October 6, 2013
http://www.moveon.org/r/?r=294125&id=75944-15018975-GzhCvax&t=5

2. "Poll: GOP could lose House in 2014," October 6, 2013
http://www.moveon.org/r/?r=294128&id=75944-15018975-GzhCvax&t=6

Want to support our work? We're entirely funded by our 8 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Yes, I can contribute $3..
PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

CEOs Whose Companies Made Them Rich

1. Warren Buffett
> Company: Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
> Value of shares: $56.5 billion
> CEO since: 1970

 

Warren Buffett has been the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) for more than 40 years and has been the controlling shareholder of the company since 1965. In 2010, Buffett told CNBC that he began acquiring shares in Berkshire Hathaway in 1962, when the company was a failing textile maker. He only decided to buy up the company after feeling he had been ripped off by its former management when he offered to sell back his stock to the company. Today, less than 50 years later, Berkshire is one of the world’s largest companies, and Buffett is possibly the most celebrated investor of all time.
Also Read: The Countries with the Most Multimillionaires
2. Larry Ellison
> Company: Oracle Corp.
> Value of shares: $35.8 billion
> CEO since: 1977
Oracle Corp. (NYSE: ORCL) was founded in 1977, when three engineers formed Software Development Laboratories to build a CIA database program code-named “Oracle.” More than 35 years later, the company continues to build and sell databases, as well as a range of IT services and products, software and hardware. One of the three original founding engineers, Larry Ellison, has served as CEO from the outset. During that time, he has amassed a massive fortune, with nearly $36 billion in company stock. Outside of his role at Oracle, Ellison recently has generated controversy for his role in attempting to transform the America’s Cup, a long-running and prestigious sailboat race, into a made-for-TV event. Critics have accused Ellison of allowing participation in the event to become too dangerous after a New Zealand team sailor died in practice.
3. Jeff Bezos
> Company: Amazon.com Inc.
> Value of shares: $25.4 billion
> CEO since: 1996
Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) in 1994. By July 1995, the company began selling products online. Less than two years later, in May 1997, the company completed an initial public offering (IPO) at just $18 a share (or, splits adjusted, just $1.50 a share, according to the company). Currently, shares trade at close to $300. In 1999, Time magazine named Bezos Man of the Year, and he was hailed as having changed retail. Recently, Bezos has been in the news for his purchase of the Washington Post for $250 million in cash from the Washington Post Co.
4. Sheldon Adelson
> Company: Las Vegas Sands Corp.
> Value of shares: $24.9 billion
> CEO since: 1988
Sheldon Adelson is the founder, and current chairman and CEO, of hotel and casino company Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS). According to the company, Adelson first found success as a trade show owner — he started the computer trade show COMDEX in 1979 and later sold it for $800 million in 1995. Adelson bought his first hotel, the Sands Hotel, in 1989 and began building his resort empire in 1996, when he imploded the Sands Hotel to build The Venetian. Adelson was key in helping to bring convention travelers to Las Vegas, the company notes, and his relatively early expansion into Asia was hailed as highly successful. In addition to his work with Las Vegas Sands, Adelson is also a prominent political donor and supporter of the Birthright Israel Foundation.
5. Larry Page
> Company: Google Inc.
> Value of shares: $21.5 billion
> CEO since: 2011
Larry Page is the co-founder of search engine giant Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), along with Sergey Brin. The two started Google in 1996 as a research project while they were Ph.D. candidates at Stanford University. Initially, the search engine was called BackRub and ran on the university’s server. By 1998, Google had incorporated and was named by PC Magazine as one of the year’s top 100 websites. PageRank, the key component of the company’s search algorithm, which assigns a level of importance for any given webpage, is named after Larry Page. In 2004, Google went public, turning more than 1,000 employees into millionaires while making Page and Brin billionaires. In 2006, Google acquired YouTube, giving the company ownership of two of the most widely trafficked websites in the world. In early 2011, Page was named CEO of Google, replacing Eric Schmidt, whom Page and Brin had hired in 2001 to help manage and direct the company.

6. Mark Zuckerberg
> Company: Facebook Inc.
> Value of shares: $18.7 billion
> CEO since: 2004

 

Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook at Harvard in early 2004, along with help from classmates Chris Hughes, Dustin Moskovitz and Eduardo Saverin. By the end of the year, the site had more than a million users. From there, Facebook only continued to grow in popularity. By October 2012, according to the company, Facebook had more than a billion users. Along with the company’s growth, Zuckerberg’s wealth has grown as well — he was worth nearly $19 billion at the end of the last fiscal year. But not all news about the company has been positive. Most recently, the company’s initial public offering was deemed a monumental failure. Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) initially was valued at more than $100 billion, yet shares fell immediately after the IPO and did not regain their initial valuation until about a year later.
Also Read: States Where the Most People Go Hungry
7. Harold Hamm
> Company: Continental Resources Inc.
> Value of shares: $13.8 billion
> CEO since: 1967
Harold Hamm is the CEO of Continental Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLR), one of the nation’s largest oil exploration and production companies. He has served in this role since 1967 when he founded Shelley Dean Oil Co., the predecessor company to Continental. The company is a major player in the Bakken area, and it was the largest leaseholder in the region at the end of 2012. Because of his role in the oil industry, Hamm was named to the Time 100 list of the world’s most influential people in 2012. Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe honored Hamm for Time magazine: “Through the use of hydraulic fracturing and other new technologies, Hamm, 66, has created hundreds of jobs and homegrown energy.”
8. Rupert Murdoch
> Company: Twenty-First Century Fox Inc.
> Value of shares: $10.4 billion
> CEO since: 2013
The 82-year-old CEO and co-founder of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. (NASDAQ: FOXA), Rupert Murdoch spent more than six decades building his multinational media empire. In June, the company split from News Corp, the publishing division responsible for publications such as The Wall Street Journal, in part due to losses in its print newspaper operations. The split came in the wake of the widely publicized phone-hacking and bribery scandal within the defunct British newspaper News of the World, which was controlled by News Corp.
9. Steve Ballmer
> Company: Microsoft Corp.
> Value of shares: $10.4 billion
> CEO since: 2000
Steve Ballmer was one of Microsoft’s first business managers, having joined the company in 1980. Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) is the global leader in software products. Best known for its Windows operating system, the company recently has begun a transformation into a devices and services company, signaled by its recent purchase of Nokia’s handset business. Since being named CEO in 2000, Ballmer’s tenure has often been criticized. During his time as CEO, Ballmer more than tripled the headcount from 39,000 to more than 131,000, including Nokia employees, according to Reuters. Over the same time, Microsoft’s share price dropped more than 40%. Last month, Ballmer revealed his intention to retire in the next year.
10. Richard Kinder
> Company: Kinder Morgan Inc.
> Value of shares: $8.5 billion
> CEO since: 1999
Richard Kinder, who co-founded Kinder Morgan Inc. (NYSE: KMI) in 1997, has helped grow the business into the nation’s largest midstream oil company. Today, Kinder Morgan has more than 11,000 employees, as well as roughly 80,000 miles of pipelines and 180 terminals, according to its website. While Kinder is paid just $1 a year, his stake in the company is worth more than $8.5 billion. His company also serves as a general partner in several master limited partnerships — publicly traded stakes in energy infrastructure that offer investors favorable tax treatment.


11. Elon Musk
> Company: Tesla Motors Inc.
> Value of shares: $4.7 billion
> CEO since: 2008

 

PayPal founder Elon Musk is currently the CEO of both Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA), an electric car company, and SpaceX, a rockets and spacecraft company. Musk began running Tesla as CEO in 2008, just five years after he help found the company. Within two years, in 2010, Tesla went public and today is worth more than $20 billion. SpaceX was responsible for the first privately developed spacecraft — the SpaceX Falcon 1 — which successfully entered space and orbited around the Earth. Musk is a hands-on chief executive, who oversees and participates in design and development. He additionally served as chairman of alternative energy company SolarCity Corp.
Also Read: The Best Economies in the World
12. Michael Dell
> Company: Dell Inc.
> Value of shares: $3.8 billion
> CEO since: 2007
Michael Dell founded his namesake company in a college dorm room in 1984. By 1992, Dell was the youngest CEO at the time to make the Fortune 500 list. This year, Dell is poised to reacquire the PC maker for $24.9 billion. In the past several years, Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) has struggled, due in part to the rising popularity of smartphones and tablets, which has accelerated the decline of the PC market. As a private business, Dell will attempt to transition its focus towards providing software and enterprise services.
13. Ralph Lauren
> Company: Ralph Lauren Corp.
> Value of shares: $3.7 billion
> CEO since: 1967
Ralph Lauren founded what would become Ralph Lauren Corp. (NYSE: RL) in 1967, when the designer’s ties first appeared in department stores. From there, Lauren continued to develop new ideas, including using men’s fabrics for womens’ clothing and his famous polo shirt. In 1997, he took his company public. Presently, Ralph Lauren has multiple brands in addition to the well-known Polo Ralph Lauren, including luxury, athletic wear and denim-focused lines. The company also has two restaurants located in Chicago and Paris.
14. John Hess
> Company: Hess Corp.
> Value of shares: $2.3 billion
> CEO since: 1983
Leon Hess founded Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES) in 1933 as an oil delivery business near his home in New Jersey. With time, the company expanded beyond local delivery, purchasing oil tankers and building both oil terminals and refineries. By the 1960s, the company started opening gas stations and began offering its now-famous line of Hess truck toys. Leon Hess eventually was succeeded by his son, John. Recently, Elliott Management Corp., one of the company’s largest shareholders, heavily criticized John Hess and Hess Corp. for having a board of directors that was too entwined with the company’s management and the founding family. Elliott also accused Hess of poorly managing the company. In May, the dispute was settled with Hess being stripped of his role as chairman and the company overhauling its board of directors.
Also Read: America’s Most Popular Six-Figure Jobs
15. Frederick Smith
> Company: FedEx Corp.
> Value of shares: $2.1 billion
> CEO since: 1977
Frederick Smith founded FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) in 1971. He has served as either chairman, CEO or president, or some combination thereof, ever since. The company was a pioneer in combining air and ground express shipping. According to its website, in 1973, FedEx sent 14 Dassault Falcon jets to deliver packages across the nation on its first night of operations. Roughly 10 years later, FedEx became the first company in the country to surpass $1 billion in revenue without any merger and acquisition activity. Currently, FedEx has more than $44 billion in annual revenues and more than 300,000 employees. Smith’s ownership stake, totaling more than 6% of the company, is worth more than $2 billion.

Read more: CEOs Whose Companies Made Them Rich - Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/special-report/2013/09/17/ceos-whose-companies-made-them-rich/#ixzz2fpTZkaYo
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Hail, Hail, Euphoria! No Taper, More Paper: Federal Reserve

Peter Coyne, checking in on the markets now that the euphoria has settled down...

Peter Coyne

Every suit on Wall Street had their Web browser opened to federalreserve.gov yesterday.

As 2:00 approached, fingers furiously tapped F5 on their keyboards to refresh the page… hoping to be the first to read the FOMC release and place their orders. Split seconds make a difference in the paper swapping business.

 They were pleasantly surprised. "No taper, more paper" extended their lease on stimulus-fueled gains. Stocks booked record highs. Dow, 15,676; S&P 500, 1,725; Nasdaq, 3,783. Today, the market opened up but began paring back some of those gains.

Gold had lift off yesterday too. Trough to peak, it was up over $60 for the day. At writing, the yellow metal is sitting at $1,367.

 The benchmark 10-year yield is 2.72% after sliding 16 basis points yesterday. The drop in yield made other currencies more attracBlogger is a free blog publishing tool from Google for easily sharing your thoughts with the world. Blogger makes it simple to post text, photos and video onto your personal or team blog.tive relative to the dollar. The greenback is down against the euro and sterling.

By now, you know the magic numbers the Fed governors are looking for before turning off the money spigot -- 6.5% unemployment or greater than 2% inflation. Whichever is first. Until then, acres of money will be printed.

 "According to data compiled by Bloomberg," writes David Franklin in yesterday's Sprott's Thoughts, "the Fed's balance sheet has been increasing at an average rate of $91.9 billion each month during 2013 -- yes, more than the $85 billion headline number. While the Fed has been buying assets at a rate of $85 billion per month, they have also been further adding to their purchases by investing earned interest and proceeds from maturing bonds.

"The largest single monthly addition to their balance sheet in 2013," Franklin continues, "was during the month of April when the Federal Reserve added $114.7 billion of assets, almost $30 billion more than the stated purchases of $85 billion."

By the Fed's own projections… we could see those purchases wind down as early mid-2014 or as late as mid-2015.


Then again, those projections could be wrong too. In the meantime, an avalanche of other economic data has been released in the past 48 hours…

Housing starts came in below expectations for August. Those numbers will be revised downward. Existing home sales reached a six-year high last month, beating expectations by about 200,000 sales. Buyers locked in mortgage rates before they head any higher. Jobless claims came in 11,000 fewer than expected for August. Those too will probably be revised upward.

Bernanke has made it clear that the data will pave the way for policy. But markets work in real-time while data come in on a monthly basis.

Doesn't that create a disconnect? Doesn't the situation on the ground change by the time the data are collected, collated and reported?

 Data revisions only compound the problem. How can you make a policy decision if the facts are constantly changing? All of the Fed's policies, by definition, are outdated.

The Federal Open Market Committee makes policy more or less on a monthly basis. But by the time the Fed formulates a policy, it's addressing the specific scope and size of a problem that no longer exists. It thinks it has a live recording when all it has is a still shot.

So whenever the Fed does change its policy, figure it will be wrong. Figure it will be too little too late. Or too much too early. Or whatever combination of wrongness it happens to be. As an investor, you should assume only one thing: Your purchasing power today is greater than it will be in 10 years.

"Before the Fed trans-configured everyone's expectations [yesterday], the value of the dollar was something like a 1,300th of an ounce of gold," reads yesterday's New York Sun editorial.
"By the mid-afternoon, it had plunged to but a 1,360th of an ounce of gold. We wouldn't want to make too much of minute-to-minute fluctuations in the value of the dollar, not in this age of fiat money. But we wouldn't want to make too little of it either, not in this age of fiat money."

In today's episode of The Daily Reckoning, Dr. Ron Paul explains why government legislation is tying your hands when it comes to protecting yourself from inflation. Once you realize it, writes Dr. Paul, it "is no wonder that governments fight tooth and nail against sound money…"

Read on below…

[Ed. Note: If yesterday's gold spike made you wonder what will spur the next run up -- and where gold's going from here -- we have the perfect answer for you.

Oddly enough, it comes to us from a book published long ago by Rep. Ron Paul, during his first stint in Congress.

It's 221 pages long and best of all, since Dr. Paul is our guest essayist today and (and because it's one of the most important reads you'll have all year) we've locked in a copy for you for free.

To find out how to grab your free copy of what some call Dr. Paul's "gold bible" click here.