Several of the largest oil companies in the world are doubling down in Russia despite moves by the West to isolate Russia and its economy. ExxonMobil and BP separately signed agreements with Rosneft – Russia’s state-owned oil company – to extend and deepen their relationships for energy exploration. The U.S. slapped sanctions on Rosneft’s CEO […]
Exxon and BP Defy White House Read More »
The great hype surrounding the advent of a shale gas bonanza in California may turn out to be just that: hype. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) – the statistical arm of the Department of Energy – has downgraded its estimate of the total amount of recoverable oil in the Monterey Shale by a whopping
Bursting the California Shale Bubble Read More »
A major gas deal between Russia and China could finally be sealed this week when Russian President Vladimir Putin visits China on May 20-21 and meets with President Xi Jinping. In the lead up to Putin’s arrival, the two sides have been working on putting the finishing touches on a 30-year contract for a gas
Russia’s Weakened Hand Could Pay Off For Beijing In Major Gas Deal Read More »
By Marin Katusa, Chief Energy Investment Strategist On July 1, 1911, a German gunboat named Panther sailed into the port of Agadir, Morocco, and changed history. For the previous two decades, a faction within the British Admiralty had called for the navy to switch from coal-fired ships to ones powered by a new fuel. Admiral John Fisher,
How a Big Cat Started Europe’s Addiction to Oil Read More »
The FED Thinks it has a “Magic Wand” that can boost the economy and solve all of our country’s problems. But as interest rates near zero… Housing is a major portion of GDP and lower interest rates make housing more affordable, thus boosting the economy but there is an actual limit to how low-interest rates can go and a theoretical limit to how long they can stay at zero.
Yellen’s Wand Is Running Low on Magic Read More »
Riddle me this: Why would anyone ever buy junk bonds or a junk bond fund? Before we get to the answer, I would like to point something out that seems to be a given, but that astonishingly few investors think about: bonds are debt instruments, so investing in bonds means investing in debt, governmental or corporate.
How to Find Junk Bonds That Don’t Stink Read More »
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he doesn’t think the European community can do without the natural gas it gets from energy monopoly Gazprom. With a Russian economy starting to decline, however, it may be Gazprom that’s too strongly interconnected to the European market to break free. The narrative over European energy security reaches at least
Will Putin Lose His Eastern European Energy Gamble? Read More »
And Where We are Going? Policy Makers- Blowing Bubbles Again Many hard-working Americans are scratching their collective heads about the following questions: Why have stocks performed in a manner that seems to be out of step with the relatively slow pace of economic expansion? Why has the economic recovery failed to gain traction, even though
Investors: Do You Know How We Got Here… Read More »
The wealth effect has been used as a justification for quantitative easing and a root cause of consistent overly optimistic growth expectations by the Federal Open Market Committee. The Fed’s over reliance on the so-called “wealth effect,” is a major cause of this optimism and consistently wrong projections. The wealth effect says that an increase in consumer wealth, through higher stock prices or home values will lead to increased consumer spending.
Research suggests that the concept of a wealth effect is in fact deeply flawed. It is unfortunate that the FOMC has relied on this flawed concept to experiment with over $3 trillion in asset purchases and continues to use it as the basis for what we believe are overly optimistic growth expectations.
How’s the Wealth Effect Really Doing? Read More »
In the United States we consider a family with a household income of less than $100,000 to be “Middle Class”. But how well are families really doing? Let’s look at middle class income, net worth, taxes, etc since the recession of 2008. According to the 2010 census, the median household income was $51,371. Which means that half the households earn more and half earn less.
If we break the population up into 5 segments of 20% each we can get a closer look at how the population as a whole is doing. Based on the $100,000 definition, the “middle class” probably comprises segments 3 and 4 of the total population. Households in the top 20% earned about $239,100 per household and those in the bottom 20% earned about $24,100 before taxes. But that doesn’t tell the whole story…
How is the Middle Class in the U.S. Doing? (Infographic) Read More »
