There's been a big argument since gas passed $3 a gallon over just how much of the soaring price is due to speculation. News has just come out from the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (which is like the Securities and Exchange Commission but responsible for futures contracts on things like oil, wheat and frozen concentrated orange juice) that gives us a pretty good idea. Around 81% of NYMEX contracts are held by financial institutions for their own accounts or those of their clients. That's a heck of a lot of extra demand in a market with tight supply. The only conclusion is that we're sitting on an oil bubble.
Skyrocketing oil and natural gas prices in the second quarter of this year led ExxonMobil to report the highest profit ever by an American company. In spite of falling production and rising operating costs, Exxon brought in a 138 billion dollars in revenue and reported an astounding net income of 11.7 billion dollars.
Here's a crazy idea that's being discussed by the rulers of the Persian Gulf city-state of Dubai: What if they were to invite Barack Obama and John McCain to come to the desert oasis for a presidential debate?
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The United States is unpopular abroad these days in part because of a perception that we're arrogant -- that we don't care what the world thinks. An overseas debate would help change that perception.
I think that embracing the idea of a debate in Dubai will give the world a quite different impression - one that we really don't want.
No one has raised sails longer and held the pirates' banner high then ancient ones of Dubai. I crossed swords with many worthy foes, but I never got to test their steel. Little did I know though, the ship of fools at our republic’s capital decided to give them a go.
These mad men had no idea who they were dealing with; Dubai is not Tripoli.
As with all ambition, it was just a shadow of dreams dreamt by those refusing to enter into the refuge of failure. Their ego was too great to tell the republic the truth, that years of misguided greed and decadence by a few was about to bring about ruin to us all.
First they tried the panacea of war to distract all of our attentions, now they intend to give inflation a whirl. As Hemingway lauded, both will lead to our ruin, especially by their combined force of sublime stupidity.
And where there is disarray, there are usually pirates.
What pirates desire more than life itself is gold.
I have also mentioned in a number of posts the number of BIG Favors that Hillary owes to the Sheik of Dubai.
The Sheik of Dubai, that little country that wanted so badly to take over AMERICA's ports after 911.
That Sheik of Dubai who in 2002 stood and called for the destruction of Israel.Former President Bill Clinton has accepted at least $1.6 million from the United Arab Emirates, including $300,000 from a Dubai sheik who adamantly backs the country's controversial boycott of Israel.Less than three months later, Sheik Mohammad urged the United Nations to approve the use of force against Israel to halt what he called the Jewish state's "butchery" of Palestinians, according to London's Financial Times.
That Sheik of Dubai, who was introduced to Hillary and Bill, became a partner with Bill thru Burkle.
Guess what? I have all my past tax returns. As far as I can tell, if anyone wanted to see them, all I need to do is go to a xerox machine and make a few copies. I think it would probably take me about 1 hour at most to cover 15 years. So why aren't you releasing yours again? You could always have one of your staff members do it - I hear Patti Solis-Doyle isn't too busy these days trying to get the knife out of her back.
A father-of-three who was found with a microscopic speck of cannabis stuck to the bottom of one of his shoes has been sentenced to four years in a Dubai prison.
Keith Brown, a council youth development officer, was travelling through the United Arab Emirates on his way back to England when he was stopped as he walked through Dubai's main airport.
A search by customs officials uncovered a speck of cannabis weighing just 0.003g - so small it would be invisible to the naked eye and weighing less than a grain of sugar - on the tread of one of his shoes.
"Bugs are crawling out of his mattress when he's sleeping. His family are frantic with worry and can't call him."
Hillary Clinton has said she would only release her tax returns if she were to win the nomination. But of course then it would be too late for Democrats to evaluate her finances as part of the nomination process.
Mr. Obama, speaking to reporters, zeroed in on Mrs. Clinton’s loan and said that her decision not to disclose her income tax returns raised questions about the loan.
"I’ll just say that I’ve released my tax returns," he said, responding to a question about tax returns. "That’s been a policy I’ve maintained consistently. I think the American people deserve to know where you get your income from."
Bill Clinton is working to unwind himself from Yucaipa partnerships in which he is a principal, largely in order to distance himself from the Dubai government which also is a principal in one of these partnerships. Clinton got involved in Yucaipa through Ron Burkle, grocery store buyer and seller extraordinaire. http://online.wsj.com/... Bill's payout from this unwinding is estimated at $20 million.
What makes Bill Clinton's position at Yucaipa any different than the Bush family involvement in the Carlyle Group? OK, the Bin Ladin family did not invest in Yucaipa. But the Bush and Clinton families are involved in international crony capitalism. And like with George and W, there should be no doubt the problems of wealthy international investors have a higher visibility to the Clintons than do the problems of average Americans.
In the case of both Bush I and Bill, this access to money is the result of high faluting influence peddling - crony capitalism - since they brought no money to the deals. As the WSJ article linked reports, no one knows what work Clinton actually does at Yucaipa.
Last week I wrote about rape in the region. This week I've been following the development of Dubai skyline with various degrees of incredulity. I don't like vulgarity in abundance and I certainly don't like the fact that Dubai, for all its superficiality, has the second highest carbon footprint in the world, per capita. Yes, the second highest on the globe.
But the shocking truth behind the glittering and the towering skyscrapers is that it is being built on the back of an underpaid and severely abused work force. Human Rights Watch reports "
significant labor abuses, such as extremely low wages, routine withholding of wages for months at a time, and the confiscation of worker passports as "security" to keep workers from quitting
That's the upside. The downside is physical and sexual abuse, forced confinement, non-payment of wages, denial of food and health care and excessive working hours with no rest days. Welcome to Dubai where we worship Democracy!
I wrote a diary on modern slavery that is blatantly occurring (and still is) in Dubai back in May. As a frequent reader of Middle East news I have been following these horrific stories: a 15 year-old French boy was raped by three men (trial is currently going on) and two filipino girls were also raped by local men, no trial there as the 14 year-old girls were deemed "whorish" and the men who repeatedly raped them over a period of two years are innocent in the eyes of the local government.
When the French boy, named Alex, went to the police, the officers discouraged him from filing a complaint. And, what’s more, he can’t call it "rape," because the United Arab Emirates don’t have male rape. Only "forced homosexuality". Yeah, right, just like Iran does not have a gay community.
What is up with all these high level Republican / White House departures? Some we know about, Donald Rumsfeld, Tom Delay, Larry Craig and now we have the second highest ranking Republican, Senator Trent Lott, leaving five years before his seat was expected to be contested, causing the Katrina stricken state of Mississippi to spend over a million some odd dollars to hold a special election just to replace him. Why?
Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. struck a complex deal to sell a 20-percent stake to the state-owned Borse Dubai in return for control of Sweden's leading stock market, but the plan met with some questions from U.S. politicians concerned it would raise security issues. ...
U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., chairman of the Joint Economic Committee and a senior member of the Senate Banking Committee, expressed doubts about the deal, saying "at this early stage this deal gives me pause." Schumer sent a letter to the Treasury Department seeking a review of the deal.
