Shale Gas Hype: Subprime 2.0?
If my RSS reader is any guide, most of the press about shale gas has focused on two issues. First, shale gas is in considerable supply, cheap to produce, and burns far cleaner than other fossil fuels. Second, shale gas does not look so hot environmentally, all in. Fracking can pollute ground water (and potable...
Chris Cook: Spikes and Speculation in the Oil Market – Flash Crash Part Deux?
By Chris Cook, former compliance and market supervision director of the International Petroleum Exchange
Cui Bono from High Prices?
If there is one thing that the history of commodity markets tells us it is that if producers can support and manipulate prices in their favour, then they will.
Chris Cook: The Ghost of Enron Past Explains Oil Market Manipulation
By Chris Cook, former compliance and market supervision director of the International Petroleum Exchange
I outlined in my recent post my view that the oil market price has been inflated by passive investors whose attempts to 'hedge inflation' actually ended up causing it, and have allowed oil producers to manipulate and support the oil market price...
9/11 Commissioner and Co-Chair of Congressional Inquiry into 9/11 Say in Sworn Declarations that Saudi Government Linked to 9/11 Attacks
Two Senators with Access to Classified Information Say Saudi Government Backed 9/11 Attack
Chris Cook: The Oil End Game
By Chris Cook, former compliance and market supervision director of the International Petroleum Exchange. Cross posted from Asia Times
The end game is about to begin. On the one hand you have the noise and rhetoric. Greedy speculators gouging gasoline prices; mad mullahs preparing to wipe Israel off the map; bunker buster bombs and fleets...
Chinese Credit Growth Slows Significantly
Yves here. This is a short post, but don't underestimate the significance. The big picture is that Chinese government has been tightening credit to try to lower inflation, with some success, and various commentators have been calling a soft landing outcome. But residential real estate sales took a tumble in November, and electricity use fell...
Chinese Credit Growth Slows Significantly
Yves here. This is a short post, but don't underestimate the significance. The big picture is that Chinese government has been tightening credit to try to lower inflation, with some success, and various commentators have been calling a soft landing outcome. But residential real estate sales took a tumble in November, and electricity use fell...
Philip Pilkington: Fear and Loathing in the Financial Markets – What Happens to the Economy When the Oil Bubble Bursts?
By Philip Pilkington, a journalist and writer living in Dublin, Ireland
In 2008 profits in the US economy crashed out. But they soon bounced back. This bounce was largely due to the profits being reaped in the financial sector – which sickened many given that 2008 was in large measure caused by the financial...
Chris Cook: Naked Oil
By Chris Cook, former compliance and market supervision director of the International Petroleum Exchange
All is not as it appears in the global oil markets, which in my view have become entirely dysfunctional and no longer fit for its purpose. I believe that the market price is about to collapse as it did in 2008 and...
Doctors Call for Fracking Moratorium
Wow, this bit of news is amazing, in both a good and bad way. Just to mention one fracking contaminant, benzene is a particularly nasty carcinogen (not that this Bloomberg article mentions it, but it is the sort of thing that too often gets into water tables thanks to fracking). The fact that fracking...
Mark Ames: Failing Up With Joshua Foust – Meet The “Evil Genius” Massacre-Denier Who Shills For War Profiteers
Yves here. We cross posted a piece by Mark Ames on a massacre of Kazakh oil workers striking against KazMunaiGaz, a company "owned" by the son-in-law of the Kazakh president for life. Its American JV partners are led by Chevron.
The story got a surprising amount of pushback here and on Ames' site, and...
