This article originally appeared at The New American on May 23rd, 2013:
Tag Archives: American
Senate Votes to Continue Sugar Subsidies
- Monday, 07 September 2020 08:54
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U.S. Oil Production Will Soon Overtake Saudi Arabia’s
- Tuesday, 23 January 2018 06:45
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, January 22, 2018:
Fatih Birol, head of the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA), told a congressional committee last week, “What we see is a result of the shale revolution [fracking]. The U.S. is becoming the undisputed leader of oil and gas production worldwide. [U.S.] oil production is growing very strongly and will continue to grow. We think that this growth is unprecedented [both in the] size of the growth and the pace of the growth.”
In 1973, Saudi Arabia punished U.S. citizens with an oil embargo in retaliation for the U.S. government’s support for Israel during the Yom Kippur War. It could do so because it held the biggest hammer: Saudi Arabia controlled the world’s largest reserves of crude oil and the kingdom. Within months, the price of oil quadrupled in the United States, resulting in shortages and rationing. Gas stations were closed, and when they reopened they were forced to restrict gasoline purchases to “odd” and “even” days depending upon their customers’ license plate numbers. The federal government imposed “double-nickel” (55 mph) speed limits on highways, and experimented with “daylight saving” time in order to reduce the impact of the embargo.
Those days are long gone and not likely ever to return. Saudi Arabia and its OPEC cartel are slowly being reduced to bit players in the global energy market. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman saw that coming more than two years ago when he announced
The Coming Avalanche of Repatriated Dollars
- Saturday, 20 January 2018 06:58
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Friday, January 19, 2018:
This is an old chart of US GDP. Get ready for the next leg up
On Thursday The New American speculated about the impact of Apple’s repatriation of its overseas profit hoard of some $250 billion and where Apple intends to invest some of it. It raised questions about the $2.5 trillion in profits that is still held overseas by American companies unwilling to subject those profits to the United States’ outrageously high income tax rates.
With Apple’s decision, and the repatriation tax rate of just 15.5 percent in the new tax law, some of those questions can be addressed.
First,
Economy Beats Forecasters Again: Jobless Claims at 45-year Low
- Saturday, 20 January 2018 06:50
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Friday, January 19, 2018:
Economists polled by Reuters expected jobless claims filed during the week ending January 13 to be a little lower than the week before — 250,000 new claims compared to 261,000 new claims filed the first week in January. Once again, the economy surprised to the upside: Jobless claims fell to a 45-year low of 220,000. Any number below 300,000 in an economy as large as the United States’ reflects a healthy economy.
Excuses for the miss ranged from
U.S. Natural Gas Exports to Add 500,000 Jobs, $73 Billion to Economy
- Tuesday, 17 October 2017 05:49
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, October 16, 2017:
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker, section view from side.
The latest estimate from API, the energy trade group, is that increased exports of LNG (liquefied natural gas) over the next 20 years will add nearly 500,000 jobs to the American economy and $73 billion to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Marty Durbin, API’s chief strategy officer, stated, “This report confirms that increasing U.S. LNG exports would bring great benefits to American workers and consumers and [to] the U.S. economy. Increasing the use of U.S. natural gas throughout the world means more production here at home, cleaner air, and increased energy security for our nation and our allies.”
The revolution taking place in natural gas has been almost completely overlooked.
An Open Letter to NFL Players
- Saturday, 14 October 2017 06:24
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You graduated from high school in 2011. Your teenage years were a struggle. You grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. Your mother was the leader of the family because your father was absent and worked tirelessly to keep a roof over your head and food on your plate.. Academics were a struggle for you and your grades were mediocre at best. The only thing that made you stand out is you weighed 225 lbs and could run 40 yards in 4.2 seconds while carrying a football. Your best friend was just like you, except he didn’t play football. Instead of going to football practice after school, he went to work at McDonald’s for minimum wage. You were recruited by all the big colleges and spent every weekend of your senior year making visits to universities where coaches and boosters tried to convince you their school was the best. They laid out the red carpet for you. Your best friend worked double shifts at Mickey D’s. College was not an option for him. On the day you signed with Big State University, your best friend signed paperwork with his Army recruiter. You went to summer workouts. He went to basic training.
You spent the next four years living in the athletic dorm, eating at the training table. You spent your Saturdays on the football field, cheered on by adoring fans. Tutors attended to your every academic need. You attended class when you felt like it. Sure, you worked hard. You lifted weights, ran sprints, studied plays, and soon became one of the top football players in the country.
Your best friend was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division. While you were in college, he deployed to Iraq once and Afghanistan twice. He became a Sergeant and led a squad of 19 year old soldiers who grew up just like he did. He shed his blood in Afghanistan and watched young American’s give their lives, limbs, and innocence for the USA.
You went to the NFL combine and scored off the charts. You hired an agent and waited for draft day. You were drafted in the first round and your agent immediately went to work, ensuring that you received the most money possible. You signed for $16 million although you had never played a single down of professional football. Your best friend re-enlisted in the Army for four more years. As a combat tested sergeant, he will be paid $32,000 per year.
You will drive a Ferrari on the streets of South Beach. He will ride in the back of a Blackhawk helicopter with 10 other combat-ready soldiers. You will sleep at the Ritz. He will dig a hole in the ground and try to sleep. You will “make it rain” in the club. He will pray for rain as the temperature reaches 120 degrees.
On Sunday, you will run into a stadium as tens of thousands of fans cheer and yell your name. For your best friend, there is little difference between Sunday and any other day of the week. There are no adoring fans. There are only people trying to kill him and his soldiers. Every now and then, he and his soldiers leave the front lines and “go to the rear” to rest. He might be lucky enough to catch an NFL game on TV. When the National Anthem plays and you take a knee, he will jump to his feet and salute the television. While you protest the unfairness of life in the United States, he will give thanks to God that he has the honor of defending this great country.
To the players of the NFL: We are the people who buy your tickets, watch you on TV, and wear your jerseys. We anxiously wait for Sundays so we can cheer for you and marvel at your athleticism. Although we love to watch you play, we care little about your opinions until you offend us. You have the absolute right to express yourselves, but we have the absolute right to boycott you. We have tolerated your drug use and DUIs, your domestic violence, your vulgar displays of wealth and your wearisome selfish displays in the end zone. We should be ashamed for putting our admiration of your physical skills before what is morally right. But now you have gone too far. You have insulted our flag, our country, our soldiers, our police officers, and our veterans. You are living the American dream, yet you disparage our great country. I am done with NFL football and encourage all like minded Americans to boycott the NFL as well.
OPEC is Textbook Example of Classic Cartel
- Wednesday, 11 October 2017 11:42
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This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Wednesday, October 11, 2017:
OPEC headquarters in Vienna
Free market economists have long considered OPEC as a textbook example of the anti-free market cartel. Its mission statement confirms it:
To coordinate and unify the petroleum policies of its member countries and ensure the stabilization of oil markets, in order to secure an efficient, economic, and regular supply of petroleum to consumers, a steady income to producers, and a fair return on capital for those investing in the petroleum industry.
This is of course the “siren song” of every cartel:
Fitch Knocks Saudi Arabia’s Credit Rating Down Another Notch
- Thursday, 23 March 2017 05:44
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, March 22, 2017:
Fitch Ratings downgraded Saudi Arabia’s credit rating again on Wednesday, bringing it perilously close to “speculative,” from “investment grade.” It dropped the country’s long-term credit rating from A+ to AA-, but with a “stable” outlook, noting that the reduction was due to the country’s “continued deterioration of public and external balance sheets.”
Fitch sees what both Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s, the other two global credit rating agencies, see: declining oil prices hurting a country that once enjoyed the highest investment grade ratings thanks to high oil prices that not only paid for extravagant welfare programs and subsidies to its citizens but allowed it to accumulate three-quarters of a trillion dollars in foreign reserves — more than ample to ride out any conceivable storm.
The rating agencies have seen that an inconceivable storm arrived in 2014 when
OPEC’s Influence Wanes as Members Cheat on Production Cuts
- Tuesday, 14 February 2017 07:03
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, February 13, 2017:
OPEC’s report on how its members are complying with the production-cut agreement hammered out last fall came out on Monday. As expected, it reported cheating among its members.
Per the November 30 agreement, members allegedly agreed to cut production to 32.5 million bpd (barrels per day) of crude. Iraq, Venezuela, Angola, and Algeria cut their production modestly but less than they agreed, while Nigeria, Libya, and Iran produced more. Because Nigeria and Libya are exempt from the production cuts, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and UAE (United Arab Emirates) were forced to over-comply. The total produced by the cartel in January came in just below the target of 32.5 million bpd at 32.1 bpd.
Accompanying the report was a statement that crude oil price “gains were capped by increased drilling activity in the US.”
Those crude oil prices are likely to continue to drop despite OPEC’s best efforts to force them higher. The headwinds the cartel faces are monumental:
First, U.S. rig counts jumped to 591 last week, the highest since October 23, 2015 and an increase of 114 since the OPEC agreement.
Second, the Department of Energy announced it will be reducing the U.S. strategic oil reserve later this month through the sale of 10 million barrels.
Third, crude oil inventories jumped by nearly 14 million barrels last week, bringing the stockpile of private oil inventories close to an 80-year record level at 508 million barrels.
In addition, U.S. oil and gas companies are raising new money through Wall Street equity offerings at rates not seen since at least the year 2000. In January alone, 13 different offerings raised $6.64 billion. And they are using that new money not only to develop existing oil fields, but to acquire additional reserves through mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Last year, M&A activity totaled $24 billion. For 2017, oil and gas companies have already invested half that much and it’s only February.
All of this illustrates the decreasing influence of OPEC in directing the price of crude oil on the world market. Aside from the cheaters, OPEC is also faced with other forces over which it has no control, mostly in the oil industry of the United States.
Trump Meets With Ma: One Million U.S. Jobs Over Five Years?
- Tuesday, 10 January 2017 07:08
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, January 9, 2017:
Jack Ma, Founder of Alibaba Group
Monday morning’s meeting between President-elect Donald Trump and Alibaba Executive Chairman Jack Ma, said to be China’s second-richest man, is the latest likely to generate more U.S. jobs. Following on the heels of a meeting in December with Masayoshi Son, the founder of venture capital firm Softbank, Trump continues his quest to bring new jobs to the United States. That meeting with Son ended with the announcement that Softbank would be creating 50,000 new jobs in the United States by 2018.
The details of Monday’s meeting are unclear, but the potential is enormous.
OPEC to Meet in Vienna Wednesday to Plan Production Cuts
- Saturday, 26 November 2016 13:44
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Friday, November 25, 2016:
Oil ministers from the 14 oil producing countries that make up the OPEC cartel are arriving in Vienna to prepare for their formal gathering there next Wednesday. The meeting is supposed to finalize a tentative agreement reached in September that would put a cap on the cartel’s production in an effort to raise the price of a barrel of crude oil. A sufficient rise would reduce the pain currently being inflicted on those members as the decision to keep pumping in November 2014 has bitten them — some of them badly.
Saudi Arabia was forced last month to
Tom Hayden, 1960s Radical, Dead at 76
- Tuesday, 25 October 2016 06:09
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, October 24, 2016:
Tom Hayden addressing an anti-war demonstration in Boston during the 2004 Democratic National Convention
On Sunday Tom Hayden, after falling ill while attending the Democratic Party’s convention in July, passed away, according to his third wife, Barbara Williams.
Hayden left behind a legacy that included forming the radical group Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and writing its 25,000-word manifesto, the Port Huron Statement.
He took to heart his determination to change American society, conspiring with several others, including Rennie Davis, Abbie Hoffman, and Jerry Rubin, to disrupt the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968. He along with the others were convicted of inciting a riot
Investors Remember Black Monday 1987: Dow Loses 22 Percent
- Wednesday, 19 October 2016 15:20
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, October 19, 2016:
Wednesday is the 29th anniversary of the largest percentage sell-off of stocks in the history of Wall Street, including the sell-off that triggered the Great Depression on October 28, 1929. On that day in 1929, the Dow dropped 13 percent. In 1987, it dropped 22 percent.
Concerns abound about whether a repeat is likely to take place this month.
Saudi Arabia to Sell $10 Billion in Bonds to Shore Up Its Finances
- Wednesday, 19 October 2016 04:53
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, October 19, 2016:
Coat of Arms of Saudi Arabia
Oil ministers from Saudi Arabia have been traveling the world doing investment “roadshows” to promote their $10-billion bond offering that hits the markets this week. In so doing, they must disclose the risks investors could be taking, and then price the bonds according to those risks.
The Saudis appear to be paying the price for losing their bet about American oil producers. In November 2014 they made a massive wager that they could
Saudi Energy Minister: Crude Oil at $60 Not “Unthinkable”
- Tuesday, 11 October 2016 13:23
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Tuesday, October 11, 2016:
Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, Khalid al-Falih, asserted at the World Petroleum Congress in Istanbul on Monday that he is optimistic that members of the OPEC cartel will agree on production cuts at its meeting in late November, and that it isn’t “unthinkable” that, as a result, crude oil prices could hit $60 a barrel by the end of the year.
Following late September’s informal meeting when the cartel agreed to appoint a committee to come up with options in time for the Istanbul meeting, energy traders drove the price of crude above $50 a barrel. On Monday it nearly touched its highest level for the year, reacting to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s support for OPEC’s possible cut in crude oil production to “stabilize” the market.
Such a production cut, if it takes place (OPEC members are notoriously fickle about keeping solemnly-pledged agreements), would be designed to push crude oil prices higher, but still low enough to keep “rivals from raising their output,” according to OPEC’s secretary-general following the September meeting in Algeria.
That’s going to be a trick,
CIA Director John Brennan Probably Isn’t a Communist
- Monday, 26 September 2016 09:18
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This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Monday, September 26, 2016:
John Brennan
He’s not a duck, either, but he talks like one and hangs around with other ducks who speak the same language. Relevant is Brennan’s visit to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation last week, where he told the left-wing crowd that if he could get into the CIA with his record, so could they.
The Foundation has close ties to the Congressional Black Caucus, which has more than 40 members with backgrounds so criminal and extreme that each of them rates a special page at DiscoverTheNetworks.org. Among them are names that are no doubt familiar to students of the left, including
Production Freeze Main Topic at OPEC Late September Meeting
- Tuesday, 09 August 2016 04:35
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, August 8, 2016:
OPEC’s current president, Qatar’s energy minister Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada (shown at center, above), announced Monday that the oil cartel will hold “informal” side meetings at the International Energy Forum in Algeria in late September. Not surprisingly, the topic will once again be “cooperation” among the disparate and increasingly desperate members to restrict production in efforts to force oil prices higher.
Al Sada, who holds a Ph.D. from England’s University of Manchester’s Institute of Science and Technology, asserted,
Missouri Lawmakers Pass “Stand Your Ground,” No-permit Concealed Carry
- Wednesday, 18 May 2016 05:29
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Tuesday, May 17, 2016:
Image of the Bill of Rights (United States Constitution) cropped to show just the Second Amendment.
Missouri lawmakers passed a bill expanding Second Amendment-protected self-defense rights just as the legislative session was coming to a close last Friday night. The bill is now on Governor Jay Nixon’s desk awaiting his signature.
Once it becomes law, it will allow Missourians to carry concealed, if they care to, without first being forced to apply for permission to do so. The new law also enacts a “stand-your-ground” right allowing citizens to defend themselves against attack in any place where they have a right to be. This would make Missouri the 31st state in the union where those laws (or court precedents) already exist, and the first since 2011 to enact such a law.
The bill passed both state houses with more than enough votes to override a veto if Nixon decides to turn it down.
Missouri is just one more example of pro-Second Amendment victories being enjoyed by citizens across the land as momentum continues to build for such expansions.
Beginning with a concealed-carry law in 2004,
Obama Wants US to Emulate Australia’s Gun Laws
- Thursday, 08 October 2015 05:55
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This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Wednesday, October 7, 2015:
Frustrated with the failure of his frontal attack on the Second Amendment, President Obama has chosen another approach: the United States should emulate Australia’s gun laws. A year ago, Obama said:
A couple of decades ago, Australia had a mass shooting, similar to Columbine or Newtown. And Australia just said, Well, that’s it, we’re not doing … we’re not seeing that again, and basically imposed very severe, tough gun laws, and they haven’t had a mass shooting since.
Our levels of gun violence are off the charts. There’s no advanced, developed country that would put up with this.
In June he iterated the meme:
American Sea-Change in Attitude Toward Government
- Monday, 20 April 2015 08:32
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This article was first published at The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Monday, April 20, 2015:
Careful observers of Hillary Clinton’s brief announcement for the presidency on April 3 noted one word missing: redistribution. She alluded briefly to how “the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top,” but she focused instead on wanting to be everyone’s “champion,” supporting strong families, same-sex marriage, and economic opportunity.
She and her advisors no doubt read and took to heart the latest from Gallup. In 2006, by a margin of more than two to one, 69-28, those surveyed said that
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