| Grain shoots higher on USDA reports
Washington, D.C. Commodity prices shot higher today after the government reported that demand for grain is staying strong and last years corn harvest was smaller than previously thought.
The U.S. Agriculture Departments final crop report for 2007 put corn production at 13.1 billion bushels, down 1 percent from the November estimate.
Meanwhile, the government raised its estimate of how much of the corn crop will be used for livestock feed by 300 million bushels. That was the big surprise, the shocker, Don Roose, president of U.S. Commodities Inc.
The report suggests livestock farms are not reducing production despite the soaring cost of feed, he said. .
Oil price strikes record $US90
CRUDE oil prices struck a record $US90 a barrel in after-hours trading in New York overnight, amid increased tensions between Turkey's government and Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. Traders said a weak US dollar and supply jitters had also stoked the price surge. The price gains came after New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in November, had jumped $US2.07 to a record close of $US89.47 a barrel. London prices also pushed higher in after-hours trading, as Brent North Sea crude for December delivery soared to $US84.88 after the contract had earlier settled $US1.47 higher at $US84.60. Oil prices have pushed higher this week amid geopolitical angst related to the Turkey-Iraq border and a weakening dollar, which makes dollar-priced commodities such as oil cheaper for buyers with stronger currencies and therefore lifts crude demand.
Meeting demand for oil-pricing answers
Stephen Schork, a former New York commodities trader who lives in Villanova, is attracting a lot of attention with his three-year-old newsletter that analyzes the wild changes in oil prices. Only about 100 people have agreed to pay the upwards of $10,500 that he charges for a one-year subscription. He shows up regularly in newspapers and on national television as reporters seek help in making sense of this crucial and volatile commodity market. This exposure during the year when crude oil prices nearly doubled has produced "a ton of people on trial subscriptions," he said. Schork, 41, caught a wave when the collapse of Enron and other factors came together to drastically change the oil markets. In addition to supply-and-demand and what OPEC is thinking, people with oil-centered lives now "have to worry about what some 28-year-old hedge fund manager in Manhattan, with billions of dollars of other people's money, will do next," Schork said over coffee at the MilkBoy Cafe in Ardmore.
We are looking for voluntary translators from Arabic into English.
Research continued anyway amidst lies that risks were minimal and a promised future lay ahead. All that mattered were huge potential profits and geopolitical gain so let the good times roll and the chips fall where they may.
One project was to map the rice genome. It launched a 17 year effort to spread GMO rice around the world with Rockefeller Foundation money behind it. It spent millions funding 46 worldwide science labs. It also financed the training of hundreds of graduate students and developed an "elite fraternity" of top scientific researchers at Foundation-backed research institutes. It was a diabolical scheme aiming big - to control the staple food for 2.4 billion people and in the process destroy the biological diversity of over 140,000 developed varieties that can withstand droughts, pests and grow in every imaginable climate.
Honey, I Lost the Endowment
Al Parish has been known for his flashy wardrobe and big spending ways in Charleston, S.C. His collection of fancy pens was believed to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. And the Web site of one of his investment companies featured a cartoon superhero version of Parish, dubbed "Economan." .
Obama: Beware 'Reverse Bradley'
He has to lose to Bill Richardson to be in trouble? ... Update: Politico's Josh Kraushaar has some standards ("at least a strong second-place performance")! ... 5) Note that Richelieu, a McCain booster (even in the highly unlikely event that he's not Mike Murphy) predicted McCain would finish third with 17%--a "surging third." He came in fourth with 13%--a "disappointing 4th," wrote NBC's First Read, in an honest assessment you don't find many other places in the MSM. Somehow, the press never requires McCain to actually match the "comeback" hype it generates about him. ... **--I once speculated that Harold Ford might benefit from a different kind of Reverse Bradley effect in his Tennessee senate race, in the form of conservative white voters who don't want to admit to their buddies or to pollsters that on the secret ballot they were going to vote for the black Democrat.
The BIG Immigration Debate
Regarding the migration to the north from the south, its only natural that if you teach me that all that is good is in the north, why will i not like to experience it first hand. It becomes a problem in the north based on 2 main issues 1. When the immigrant becomes successful ( economically or literally= jealousy e.g. Al Fayed ) 2. Unsuccessful ( economically or literally= crime, destitute, social welfare benefits e.g. a Jamaican rude-boy) In other words, immigrants are just not wanted in the north. What then is the essence of Globalization? .
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