"Are these people going to be found frozen?" These are words that define what the cold of winter means to so many in Maine. Stark, frightening words from the owner of a small oil dealership listening to the pleas of too many of his customers, unable to pay for their...
26 Comments | Posted January 30, 2012 | 1/30/12
Where is Yogi Berra when we need him? There is Iran going back to its old game plan, threatening to ban oil exports. This time shipments of oil to Europe in its head-to-head with European consumers who are readying their own import embargo on deliveries of Iranian oil, given the...
13 Comments | Posted January 26, 2012 | 1/26/12
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has swept aside your target of what a fair price for oil should be. And perhaps, the worst miscreant in that coven of reprobates is Your own benighted subject, Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister, Ali al-Naimi. The man shows no respect.
Why, only not...
5 Comments | Posted January 19, 2012 | 1/19/12
The Huffington Post only recently announced it's joint undertaking in France ('Le Huffington Post') together with the great French Daily Le Monde, probably the most respected newspaper in that most particular country.
Whenever passing through Paris, the habit of picking up and browsing through Le Monde on a...
27 Comments | Posted January 9, 2012 | 1/9/12
One of the most grievous mishandlings by our government's oversight agencies was the botched July 2010 consent judgment of the S.E.C. v Goldman Sachs & Co... an action brought by the SEC as part of its statutory oversight responsibilities. The judgment permitting Goldman Sachs to enter a consent decree without...
40 Comments | Posted January 2, 2012 | 1/2/12
No critical commodity moves as much on rhetoric and supply and demand fundamentals, as does crude oil. Over the years few news services, perceived as being disinterested purveyors of news and information, have lent their imprimatur more to the upward distortion of oil prices than the New York Times.
In...
601 Comments | Posted December 29, 2011 | 12/29/11
Amid increased pressure from sanctions and now facing a voluntary embargo that would curtail their oil exports to a wide spectrum of their important crude oil customers such as the European Union, Japan, and Korea, Iran is coming under massive economic pressure to desist from continuing its not so clandestine...
222 Comments | Posted December 22, 2011 | 12/22/11
The prospect of messianic fanatic mullahs acquiring nuclear weapons presents an existential danger to entire swaths of the world and puts millions of lives at risk. Clearly the Obama administration understands this and has chosen to act at this juncture in the most effective manner short of a military or...
10 Comments | Posted December 16, 2011 | 12/16/11
The core lesson of the Corzine imbroglio and his "Who me?" testimony before various congressional committees, has not been instinctively overlooked, but certainly not emblazoned into our consciousness, as well it should be.
Only a few days ago, the New York Times, in a revealing article ("A...
112 Comments | Posted December 12, 2011 | 12/12/11
Citigroup is not alone. But it has become a primal example of our vaunted system of American capitalism, once a meritocracy open to all, that has now been diminished, if not erased, into a cesspool of self dealing and outright unfairness. In May of this year, Vikram Pandit received a...
406 Comments | Posted December 7, 2011 | 12/7/11
Ramin Mehmanparast, spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Ministry, laid it out for all to hear. Reacting to the possibility of new Western penalties that could reduce its oil exports, he issued a warning that oil prices could more than double to $250/barrel ("Penalties May Send Oil Prices Soaring, Iran...
Posted November 30, 2011 | 11/30/11
Has France's President Sarkozy, who is now calling for a European boycott of Iranian oil, been reading the HuffPost?
Perhaps, perhaps not. But one thing is certain, the concept of embargoing Iranian oil has been espoused in this corner on numerous occasions over the past weeks and months while barely...
Posted November 28, 2011 | 11/28/11
Sometimes it is not just the numbers. The human factor and historical imperatives need play their role in policy formation.
Unquestionably, the financial impasse in Europe today has historical foundations. A prosperous and diligent Germany is called upon to relent its rigid financial determinants to relieve the regional economic pressures,...
Posted November 25, 2011 | 11/25/11
Wall Street continues in its ways unabated. Here we have a nation with 9% plus unemployment, an economy that is deep in recession and at the precipice of worse with a government that protects one sector of the economy, the financial sector, to the vast expense of the working stiffs...
Posted November 21, 2011 | 11/21/11
In a recent interview on Al Jazeera television Iran's Oil Minister Rostam Qaesemi, commenting on Iran's Oil exports, brazenly threatened, "In case we are urged to and feel it necessary, we will use it as a political tool." This amidst his comments that currently Iran will seek a...
Posted November 16, 2011 | 11/16/11
Writing in USA Today earlier this month, Mitt Romney opens boastfully: "I spent much of my 25 year career in the private sector turning around failing enterprises."
Really!? Just this past week the New York Times set forth exactly how Romney achieved much of his fortune...
Posted November 12, 2011 | 11/12/11
Amidst all the talk and failed initiatives coming from Washington on creating jobs, jobs, jobs for Americans and the stillborn programs creating or improving America's infrastructure, little has been achieved and given the ongoing stalemate in government, less is being done.
Concurrent to the current sense of national disillusionment we...
Posted November 6, 2011 | 11/6/11
A chilling New York Times article, "America's Deadly Dynamics With Iran," touches on the gruesome prospects of Iran achieving nuclear weapons capability, and what, short of a preemptive attack, could be done to thwart Iran's ambitions.
According to the article, the issue is about to take on heightened...
Posted November 3, 2011 | 11/3/11
Just last week Exxon announced a significant increase of 41% in its quarterly earnings in spite of a 4% drop in Exxon's oil production. This is an earnings trend that will certainly continue to barrel along, given that oil prices rose another 18 % in October alone.
Ironically...
Posted October 23, 2011 | 10/23/11
In July, my post in this corner, ("America Needs a President Who Will Confront The Financial Industry's Hegemony Over Our Lives") opened as follows:
No one in a position of authority in our government today seems to understand fully the threat to American institutions and...

23 Comments | Posted February 5, 2012 | 2/5/12