Saturday, December 27, 2014

Fwd: Oil

'OPEC produced more than its 30 million-barrel daily target in each of the past six months, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Non-OPEC production will expand 2.3 percent next year to 57.84 million barrels a day after climbing 3.5 percent this year, the International Energy Agency forecast in a Dec. 12 report.

"Irresponsible production from outside OPEC is behind the fall in prices," Mazrouei said. "We call on all other producers to stop the increase." …

Crude tumbled into a bear market this year as oil extraction soared at shale formations in Texas and North Dakota

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-21/non-opec-producers-called-on-to-cut-oil-output-amid-oversupply.html

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Fwd: China

'China is stepping up its role as the lender of last resort to some of the world's most financially strapped countries.

Chinese officials signaled Saturday that they are willing to expand a $24 billion currency swap program to help Russia weather the worst economic crisis since the 1998 default. China has provided $2.3 billion in funds to Argentina since October as part of a currency swap, and last month it lent $4 billion to Venezuela, whose reserves cover just two years of debt payments. '

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-22/yuan-ruble-swap-shows-china-challenging-imf-as-emergency-lender.html

 

 




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Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Fwd: Oil and the dollar

'Commodity prices are inversely correlated to the dollar. The oft-cited rationale is that a stronger currency makes dollar-priced commodities more expensive to buyers using other currencies.

The ICE dollar index DXY, +0.12% a measure of the currency against a basket of six major rivals, is up more than 10.8% since the beginning of the year. Moreover, the index is up more than 10.3% since the beginning of May.

Binky Chadha, chief global strategist at Deutsche Bank, argues that the strong dollar is the primary factor in oil's decline. After all, oil supplies have been building for a long time. It's hard to believe that investors just "suddenly woke up" to the oil glut at midyear, he said.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/here-are-the-reasons-oil-is-plunging-toward-60-2014-12-10


Thursday, December 11, 2014

Fwd: Airbus

'Airbus raised the prospect of discontinuing its A380 superjumbo as soon as 2018, the first admission that it may have misjudged the market for the double-decker after failing to find a single airline buyer this year.'

Monday, October 13, 2014

Fwd: Oil


'Indeed, this July the United States replaced Saudi Arabia as the world's No. 1 oil producer, and virtually every industry study indicates that the trend will continue through the next two decades and beyond. 

 

http://www.nationalreview.com/energy-week/388610/americas-new-oil-weapon-arthur-l-herman

 

Monday, June 23, 2014

Tim Cook is setting Apple up for its next big hit and he isn’t getting the credit he deserves

The Returned (They Came Back) * * *

They Returned.

They Returned is the 2003 French movie that inspired the better 2012 French TV
series "The Returned". The point of both shows is that society must cope
with a large number of dead people coming back to life. The movie version
is slower and the ending lacks any clear resolution, but I still found it
entertaining. The ending is way too understated but it also sort of
makes sense.

They Returned might try the patience of some who would prefer a more
exciting movie.

The movie is less about the resurrected dead than it is about how the living
react to their presence. If there is any point to the film at all, and it is
not clear that the movie has a point, it is about how society integrates a large
number of immigrants or refugees who are dramatically different than the rest
of the population. (This has been a problem for Europe in general.) In this
movie the dead seem like mere echoes of their former selves who are less
capable of original thought. For this reason they are difficult to integrate
into society and can only work menial jobs.

But the dead in this movie have their own agenda. They aren't very
interested in the living. They secretly collude among themselves and make
plans. This leads to violent conflict between the living and the dead.

In a couple of scenes we see reflections of female beauty in a mirror and in
a window. In the first scene the reflection is covered by fog and in the
second scene we briefly see reflections of breasts. This seems like some
sort of symbolism because the dead are like poor reflections of their former
selves.

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Learning

'This is my 3,000th column. I've learned a tremendous amount in writing about investing and the economy. Here are a few of the big lessons….'

 

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/06/11/im-just-now-realizing-how-stupid-we-are.aspx

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Fwd: Skype translation


'Skype hopes to make its international connections easier — though perhaps still a little awkward — with a new feature that automatically translates conversations almost in real time.

 

Parent company Microsoft unveiled the new technology at the Code technology conference on Tuesday, where Skype vice president Gurdeep Pall made small talk in English with a German-speaking Skype manager in Europe.

 

After saying a sentence in English, an automated voice translated his words into German. (You can watch the video here.)'

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2014/05/28/microsoft-unveils-near-real-time-language-translation-for-skype/

 

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Nintendo is stuck between the past and the future of gaming

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/nintendo-is-stuck-between-the-past-and-the-future-of-gaming/2014/01/29/aaccd47a-88fd-11e3-833c-33098f9e5267_story.html

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Sunday, January 12, 2014