Politics

Call me a cynic, call me a skeptic. Whenever a hotspot flares up in the world, I invariably find myself exploring for deeper meanings instead of just accepting the perspective offered up by CNN.

The current situation involving Georgia, Russia and South Ossetia has certainly given me plenty to ponder.

As a brief history, as the Russian empire expanded in the 18th and 19th centuries, the tribal people of Ossetia generally sided with the Russians instead of trying to fight them. In the 1920's, this loyalty seems to have been rewarded when Russia established the South Ossetian Autonomous Region which today lies inside the breakaway Republic of Georgia.

As the Soviet Union began its fade to black as the Communist model failed, Georgian nationalist leader Zviad Gamsakhurdia began locking horns with South Ossetia. Violence flared in 1990 as South Ossetia declared its intention to secede from Georgia. When the Soviet Union officially failed in 1991-1992, South Ossetia ramped up its separatist rhetoric. Clashes followed and casualties mounted

Fast forward to the present and we see that the situation has again flared up. But this time, the dynamic is different and this invites a series of questions. Read more »

Will Hinton interviews U.S. Congressman Hank Johnson in a broad ranging conversation covering the current energy crisis, real estate foreclosures, the War on Terror, and Barack Obama. Part 1 covers the current energy crisis and peak oil. Read more »

Campaign 2008 has come to Canada. While we cannot vote in this Presidential election, it looks like we are going to have seats on the 50 yard line and see the action up close.

One of the plays expected from the Obama team is a policy move to bring in a low carbon fuel standard. This policy will effectively see refiners and gasoline marketers who use Canadian oil sands crude penalized because this crude oil emits "bad stuff" into the atmosphere when processed. In a recent article in the Globe and Mail, journalist Shawn McCarthy references a chart that compares the various types of oil. Oil from the North Sea (Brent Crude) emits 494 kg of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) per barrel of Oil processed, Arab Light Crude 517 kgs, Nigerian Crude 541 kgs, Mexican Crude 557 kgs, Canadian Tar Sands Crude 568 kgs and Venezuelan Crude 579 kgs. The important observation here is that Canadian Tar Sands Crude emits only 10% more "stuff" than Arab Light Crude. These data tell me that Tar Sands Crude is hardly worthy of being further maligned by a carbon fuel standard policy. Read more »

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is now promising as president he will mandate greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the time 2020 rolls around and he will reduce emissions to 80% of these 1990 levels by 2050.

This week the Washington based scientific think tank Marshall Institute crunched the numbers and the end result is a scary one. Read more »

Oil is rising, Oil is rising, Oil is rising !!! But is it? The media has done a wonderful job of turning the word Oil into a one size fits all term. The fact is, when we hear that Oil is rising, what we are really hearing is that prices of Crude Oil Futures contracts based on West Texas Intermediate Crude are rising.

There are many other types of Oil in the world over and above the West Texas variety. In fact, a goodly amount of Oil in the world is what we call heavy oil which contains long, complicated molecular chains. This Oil requires specialized approaches to refining which can involve some environmental issues. But, if refined properly these environmental concerns can be mitigated. Right now there is a shortage of refining capacity in the USA to handle these heavier types of Oil. This explains why Iran and other Middle Eastern nations right now have tanker loads of heavy oil moored offshore. Nobody wants the stuff because there is a lack of refinery capacity for it. Read more »

So this morning I am reading Wired.com and come across an article "What Is the Ultimate Apocalypsemobile". I am assuming that there are going to be references to Mad Max and descriptions of how to modify cars for what the author and many others fear is a coming world struggling with a lack of oil.

And as far-fetched as this scenario is to some, the author Joe Brown just couldn't resist seeing the Devil at work:

Through both his environmental and foreign policy, George W. Bush has set in motion events that will likely destroy the world as we know it. Our land will cease to support life, our cities will become havens for gangs of the violent undead and we will all be forced out into the scorched wasteland to fend for ourselves, looting gas stations for canned goods, stockpiling water and food.

Don't forget Joe, that when children cry anywhere in the world, it is because of Bush. Read more »

If you are like me, you are probably starting to feel some angst over the continuing rise is gas prices. My wife and I are discussing the idea of selling our cars to get more fuel efficient ones. I may even get a Vespa.

A large factor that is driving my concern is the growing realization that our government doesn't have a clue about what a real energy policy should look like. Unfortunately it appears that both parties simply want to demogogue and attempt to buy votes. Read more »

My wife reminded me the other day about our Breakfast meeting on Thursday. I grumbled…”what breakfast? You never told me about a breakfast meeting….”.

Well in fact she had told me and I had forgotten as I am prone to do in my often hectic state of being.

Turns out it was a very good breakfast and I am glad I went. The speaker was former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.

His speech was one that made me sit back in my chair and quite literally say “Whoa”…..

He reminded us that the global economy is very different today in that all corners of the global economy are inextricably linked. Clever investment bankers in New York package together some asset backed mortgage products and before you know it institutions around the world have bellied up to the trough for second helpings because rating agencies said it was OK to do so. And now the entire global economy is reaching for the AlkaSeltzer to deal with the heartburn that follows. Read more »

Brazil's state owned oil company Petrobras has made a massive discovery in the Carioca basin, 275 kms offshore from Brazil. Preliminary indications are that this pool could contain 33 billion barrels of oil.

Add to this the recently discovered Tupi field which contains up to 8 billion barrels and Brazil is now turning a lot of heads including that of Venezuelan strong-man Hugo Chavez. Brazil is now moving into a position where it will have the bragging rights as the major oil player in South America, a position that Chavez has long held. Read more »

Adam Smith the father of modern day economics often talked about the invisible hand of the marketplace. If a baker could make 50 cents profit on a loaf of white bread but could make 60 cents profit on a loaf of rye bread, that baker will shift some of his output to making rye bread. Pretty common sense stuff.

This week the Canadian Government obviously misplaced their Economics 101 textbook and proceeded to do something so abjectly stupid I still find myself steaming under the collar. Read more »

At www.themarkettraders.com, we routinely educate readers as to how assay results and resource estimates can be used to assess whether a stock is undervalued or overvalued.

Now it looks like we are going to have to add "politics" to our list of variables.

This week I read some rather disturbing news out of Kazakhstan. Certainly a resource rich country and one that plays host to several mining and exploration firms that we follow. But now the Kazak politicians are openly mulling the imposition of a metals export duty that will see the Government rake in loads of extra cash to bolster budgetary shortfalls. Strange thing about duties....they can take on some very nasty appearances and grow year after year. As much as we like Kazak mining and exploration plays, we must now adopt a defensive posture until such time as we see the outcome of this threat to impose this duty. If Kazakhstan does follow through with this duty, I shudder to think that other neighboring nations such as Kyrgistan might do likewise. Read more »