#1
Falling further is relative. Importantly, metals have long been the most tightly controlled cartel market out there.
In copper, for example, when the US went to mostly fiber optic cable for long distance, enough copper to build several aircraft carriers out of pure copper disappeared into storage, and the price of copper didn't vary at all.
#2
Exotic alloys prices are not falling very much at all. Inconel, monel, hastelloy, and titanium are still relatively high. Carbon steel and the standard grades of stainless steel (304L and 316L) are falling because of a decrease in demand.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/03/2008 18:50 Comments ||
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#3
The important thing is that demand for depleted uranium and white phosphorus stay strong.
Posted by: ed ||
12/03/2008 19:53 Comments ||
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Hat tip, Instapundit
The horrific story of the latest adventure conducted by the religion of peace in Bombay riveted the publics attention to such an extent that one of the most egregious violations of political freedom in a Western democracy has, at least on this side of the Atlantic, gone almost without comment. We always ask "why our tranzi ruling classes love Islam so much?".
I mean the sudden arrest in London last week of of Damian Green, a conservative MP and Shadow Minister for Immigration, who was seized by anti-terrorist personnel from the Metropolitan police, held for questioning for 9 hours, and whose private papers and computer files in his home and office in the House of Commons were confiscated. The Honorable Members offense? Embarrassing Gordon Browns government. How did he do this? By revealing in debate on the floor of the House of Commons and in various lapses, failures, and dirty-little-secrets about the governments immigration policy, e.g.,
* the fact that the home secretary knew that the Security Industry Authority had granted licences to 5,000 illegal workers, but decided not to publicise it.
* the fact that an illegal immigrant had been employed as a cleaner in the House of Commons.
* A whips list of potential Labour rebels in the vote on plans to increase the pre-charge terror detention limit to 42 days.
In other words, Mr. Green was doing exactly what a member of the Opposition should do: shedding light on the governments failures in order to make it more accountable to the public. I wonder what George Orwell would say?
#1
The object of the exercise seems to have been intimidation and the flaunting of power. Short of an outright, totalitarian suspension of democracy
And they've accomplished it all without ACORN, an Obama Youth Army, George Soros, The Clintons, Kissenger and Assoc. or Hank Paulson. Amazing, absolutely amazing.
#2
Its a constant conflict in history between those who want a static society, largely to protect the power they've accumulated, against the dynamics of human behavior. The imperial, aristocratic, and socialist static models eventual suffer from entropy which leads to decay. Then it takes a dynamic outside or internal force that overwhelms the society in which only the few with power at the top have a true vested interest in preserving. Up till recently the American republic had a reasonable structure to accommodate the dynamic, to say - ride the tiger. However, as the population progressed to better standards of living, more and more sought to control the vagaries of that dynamic and preserve their gains by imposing more and more order and control over it. In doing so, it is starting to strangle the dynamic and sliding to the static [of course all in the name of the poor, the children, - or whatever it took to keep the same players in power].
Tim Down knows that 1 millimeter is nothing to sniff at. This past summer, the fruit and vegetable wholesaler was caught with kiwi fruit that were too small by about that much -- 0.04 of an inch.
Government inspectors told him that because his 5,000 Chilean kiwis were too scrawny, he could not sell them. "I couldn't even give them away. It was ridiculous," said Down, a 53-year-old from Bristol, who paid $150 to dispose of the fruit.
There is good news for merchants such as Down who hawk misshapen produce. This month, the European Union voted to repeal its strict rules on the size, shape and appearance of 26 fruits and vegetables. It will still regulate 10 items, including kiwi fruit, but if one of these is now deemed too petite, or too plump, it could still be sold as long as it carries a warning label. "This is better regulated at the level of trade than at the level of Brussels," said Michael Mann, the E.U. spokesman on agriculture.
The changes take effect in July. Until then, it will remain illegal for retailers throughout the European Union to sell a forked carrot or a cauliflower less than 4.33 inches in diameter. A Class 1 green asparagus must be green for at least 80 percent of its length. A vine shoot on a bunch of grapes must be less than 1.97 inches.
In a blog entry titled "Return of the curvy cucumber," Mariann Fischer Boel, the E.U. agriculture commissioner, wrote, "In these days of high food prices and general economic difficulties, consumers should be able to choose from the widest range of products possible." She added, "I hope very much that we will never again read about 'bonkers Brussels bureaucrats.' "
The food classifications have long been fodder for the many Euro-skeptics here who paint the bloc as a faceless creature that spends its time devising schemes to wipe out British identity. The most boisterous are the British tabloids, always ready with a gibe or an opinion. In 1994, when the European Commission, the European Union's executive arm, introduced minimum standards for the curvature of bananas, the Sun roared that European officials had "really gone bananas," while the Daily Mail, hunting for the dimensions decreed by the "old fruits of the European Commission," reported a "slip-up" when they could not find the exact angle of the bend permitted (there isn't one).
For its part, the European Commission attempts to monitor what it calls "Euromyths" and debunk "scare stories about the EU reported in the British press," according to its Web site, where it posts its rebuttals.
Mann said the changes were part of an internal campaign by the European Commission to reduce red tape by 25 percent by 2012.
Sainsbury's, a large British supermarket chain, recently joined the debate with a Halloween display of disfigured vegetables: forked carrots would be sold as "witches' fingers" and imperfect cauliflowers as "zombie brains," and so on. A spokesman for the company said the campaign was shelved when it was discovered that store managers could be prosecuted individually.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/03/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Too many university graduated bureaucrats looking for gainful employment. More Paper! More Regulations!
Someone please remind me later how much more civilized and cultured our Euro-betters are because at the moment I'm torn between acute mirth at their legislative buffoonery and profuse gratitude that my ancestors left for a country where people can choose for themselves whether to buy specific items of produce.
#6
SteveS---it is called the technical imperative. Management would rather tinker around in the technical stuff than actually have to make the tough decisions on vital issues.
Mr. Down had to throw away 5000 kiwi fruits because of a dimension issue, so all that energy, and food value was absolutely wasted because of a bureaucratic rule. Nice going, greenhouse gas boys.
The EUniks would rather deal with so-called undersized kiwi fruit that deal with Dinnerjacket's nuke threats. And the US may not be far behind in this madness.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Nikolaevsk, AK ||
12/03/2008 12:46 Comments ||
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#7
A. Paul,
It's also an example of the Peter Principle about people promoted to their level of incompetence.
These Eurorabble are incompetent to deal with what they should handle, so they regress to trivalities that they can.
#8
Something like 30 years ago our local school system found itself saddled with an incompentent they couldn't fire, so they gave him a lateral promotion into a position to clarify policies. A few years ago they found themselves with a three-inch binder full of trivia, and appointed a committee to weed out worthless rules. From time to time the committee reports to the school board with a list of rules to consolidate or throw out.
Posted by: James ||
12/03/2008 13:49 Comments ||
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#9
James do you think that they'd be willing to take on the Federal Law books?
#11
AlanC---the EUniks have gone WAYYYYYYYYYYYYY beyond the intended scope of the Peter Principle. LOL!
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Nikolaevsk, AK ||
12/03/2008 15:52 Comments ||
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#12
That is big government socialism. The incompetent are hired by the government where they are responsible for the creating rules and regulations for those who can succeed without living off of other people's forced contributions under penalty of law. In other words everyone must live as equals determined by the lowest common denomenator.
Typical european aristocratic mentality - Hey Britain you dodged one here: imagine two counts grand indictment to usurp Brussel authority for using a knife to cut Key Lime Pie.
The UN atomic watchdog called Tuesday for renewed interest and increased investment in a technique that uses radiation to improve crop yields and resistance against a backdrop of the global food and energy crises.
The International Atomic Energy Agency is hoping that, given the current food crisis, countries will revive their interest in mutation induction -- a technique that has been in use since the 1920s -- to produce improved high-yielding plants that adapt to harsh climate conditions such as drought or flood, or that are resistant to certain diseases and insect pests.
The technique, which the IAEA insists is "safe, proven and cost effective", uses radiation to alter genetic material in crop plants to boost output and disease resistance. Selective mutation can also help crops adapt to changing climates and conditions.
"The global nature of the food crisis is unprecedented. Families all around the world are struggling to feed themselves," said IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei. "To provide sustainable, long-term solutions, we must make use of all available resources. Selecting the crops that are better able to feed us is one of humankind's oldest sciences. But we've neglected to give it the support and investment it requires for universal application. The IAEA is urging a revival of nuclear crop breeding technologies to help tackle world hunger."
Earlier this year, the IAEA hosted an International Symposium on Induced Mutations in Plants, which brought together some 600 plant scientists, researchers and breeders from around the world.
Some 3,000 mutant varieties from 170 plant species spread over 60 countries -- including cereals, pulses, oil, root and tuber crops -- are currently cataloged in a seed database jointly run by the IAEA and the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Unlike bio-engineered genetic modification, induced mutation does not splice foreign genes into the plant, but rather reorganises its existing genetic material, said the head of plant breeding and genetics at the IAEA, Pierre Lagoda.
"Spontaneous mutations are the motor of evolution," he said. "If we could live millions of years and survey billions of hectares (acres) of land with 100 percent precision, we would find variants with all of the traits we're looking for but which have mutated naturally.
"But we can't wait millions of years to find the plants that are necessary now, if we want to feed the world. So with induced mutation, we are actively speeding up the process."
No residual radiation is left on the plant, according to Lagoda. And because the technique mimics nature, it has encountered less resistance than genetically modified organisms (GMOs), derided by idiotic critics as potentially dangerous "Frankenfoods". "We're not producing anything that is not produced by nature itself," Lagoda said.
Induced mutation would not solve the world's food crisis on its own, but it was "a very efficient tool, to the global agricultural community to broaden the adaptability of crops in the face of climate change, rising prices, and soils that lack fertility or have other major problems," Lagoda said.
The technology was inexpensive, said the head of the FAO/IAEA Joint Division Plant Breeding Unit in Seibersdorf, Austria, Chikelu Mba. "Investment would be required in training people, in enhancing the capacity of member states to have scientists who will take up plant breeding as a profession and work on problems within their own countries," Mba said.
Indeed, the return on investment was huge. Japan, for example, has invested 69 million dollars (55 million euros) in its plant breeding infrastructure over the past 40 years, but the returns were something like 62 billion dollars, Mba said. Let me guess - they want a mutant pot that drug dogs can't smell in customs..
Posted by: James Carville ||
12/03/2008 10:46 Comments ||
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#3
Mutant plants ya say? Feed me Seymour, sez I.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Nikolaevsk, AK ||
12/03/2008 12:51 Comments ||
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#4
OK, anyone who bites on this crap & still freaks out over GMOs deserves to starve to death. It's a much more dangerous, much more uncontrolled, much more unnecessary line of investigation than the poor, much-maligned genetic engineering approach. It is shotgun-broad, uses dangerous and dirty radioactive material, is intrinsically sloppy, and allows for widespread handling of proliferatable materials. (The flattened Syrian nuke plant was pretending to be an experimental station for this sort of irradiative agricultural research.)
This is the classic example of 'to someone holding a hammer, every problem looks like a nail'.
Imbeciles!
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
12/03/2008 13:59 Comments ||
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Saudi Arabia slammed a Hamas official on Sunday for accusing the oil-rich kingdom of refusing to grant visas to Palestinians in the Islamist-ruled Gaza Strip who want to go on the hajj.
A foreign ministry spokesman, quoted by the official SPA news agency, said visas for the annual pilgrimage to the holy Saudi city of Mecca were being granted through the Palestinian Authority of president Mahmoud Abbas. "Saudi Arabia treats all Palestinians on an equal footing and it has increased the number of visas granted to Gaza residents because of their circumstances," a foreign ministry spokesman said.
The Islamist movement Hamas posted remarks on Saturday on its website accusing Riyadh of allowing thousands of people registered with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank to have pilgrimage visas but not the 2,200 in the Israeli-blockaded Gaza who applied through Hamas.
"All of the Kingdom's entry points are ready to welcome Palestinian pilgrims who will be given all facilities to perform their Haj rituals comfortably," the official said, adding that such false statements are not in the interests of the Palestinian people. Saudi authorities have granted visas to some 3,000 Gazans who registered for Haj through the Palestinian Authority.
Witnesses and would-be pilgrims told AFP on Saturday that Hamas prevented scores of Muslims wanting to travel to Mecca from reaching the Rafah border with Egypt. Egypt had announced on Friday that the Rafah crossing would be open for three days from Saturday to allow the passage of some 3,000 Palestinian pilgrims with Saudi visas.
Hamas said last week that it would not allow would-be pilgrims who obtained visas through the West Bank authorities to join the hajj unless Hamas was also given a quota to allocate to the faithful.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/03/2008 00:00 ||
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The prime minister of Thailand resigned Tuesday after the nation's Constitutional Court banned him from politics and dissolved three political parties in his ruling coalition, concluding that the government was involved in vote-buying and other irregularities in last year's elections.
The ruling against Somchai Wongsawat appeared to break an impasse that has locked the country in spiral of economic destruction. Anti-government activists announced that they would leave two airports they had seized in their drive to remove Somchai's administration from office.
The court banned Somchai from politics for five years, along with 108 other officials of his People Power Party and two of its coalition allies.
But Somchai's downfall represented only a partial victory for protesters belonging to the opposition People's Alliance for Democracy. Somchai's deputy, Chavarat Charnvirakul, became the acting prime minister, and the coalition formerly headed by Somchai retained its substantial majority in parliament. The coalition is looking to form a new government with fresh leadership early next week.
Protesters said they were monitoring developments.
"If a puppet government returns or a new government shows its insincerity in pushing for political reform, we will return," said Sondhi Linthongkul, one of the group's leaders.
It was not immediately clear why the People's Alliance pulled back with only part of its agenda fulfilled. But even before Tuesday's verdict, it had been coming under increasing pressure as its demonstrations brought the country's vital tourism industry to its knees and threatened to push the country into recession.
The Constitutional Court found Somchai's People Power Party and their coalition allies in the Chart Thai and Matchima Thipatai parties guilty of electoral fraud in last December's vote.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/03/2008 00:00 ||
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Court strips PM of his post for vote fraud, outlaws ruling party; airport to reopen
A Thai court stripped Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat of his post and outlawed the ruling party yesterday, prompting jubilant anti-government protesters to lift a blockade of Bangkok's main airport. Party leaders quickly vowed to form another government under a new banner, but without Somchai, who was barred from politics five years by the Constitutional Court in a vote fraud case.
The move was welcomed by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), which occupied Suvarnabhumi airport a week ago to cap a months-long campaign to oust Somchai, the brother-in-law of exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
"My duty is over. I am now an ordinary citizen," Somchai, 61, told reporters in the northern city of Chiang Mai from where he has been governing since the blockade began.
Under a military constitution adopted after a 2006 coup against then-premier Thaksin, any political party in which a single executive is convicted of vote fraud must be dissolved and all executives banned.
Somchai, a former lawyer, spent less than three months in power, beset by the royalist protesters who accused his government of acting as a proxy for their nemesis Thaksin and of being hostile to the monarchy.
"As the court decided to dissolve the People Power Party (PPP), therefore the leader of the party and party executives must be banned from politics for five years," said Chat Chonlaworn, head of the nine-judge court panel. "The court had no other option," he said.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says even if the price of oil hits zero, Iran has enough foreign exchange reserves to last for 'three years'.
"As far as the foreign exchange reserve is concerned, we are in good shape, and even if the price of oil hits zero, we can manage the country for about three years," the Fars News Agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.
"The foresight of the country's managers prevented Iran from being swallowed by the global economy, and this helped us because it decreased our susceptibility to the world financial crisis," he said in a live TV address in Tehran on Tuesday.
Ahmadinejad noted that the sanctions imposed on Iran and the Islamic Revolution's prioritization of self-sufficiency helped Iran become strong enough to withstand the "waves of the world economic crisis."
"We thank those countries that imposed sanctions on us because these sanctions helped Iran stand on its own two feet," the Iranian president said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/03/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
"We thank those countries that imposed sanctions on us because these sanctions helped Iran stand on its own two feet," the Iranian president said.
Good. Win-win. We got more where that came from Mo.
The Baltic Dry Index which is a direct indicator of the health of vital worldwide shipping and supply activity as well as the potential health of the global economy has recently slipped more than 93%. Its value has gone from over 11,000 to less than 800 with little except for a floor of zero to suggest the slide will stop in the near future.
This means that worldwide, the demand for cargo ships and more importantly raw materials that go into producing the everyday items that consumers buy has come to a near standstill. This is an indicator of a massive worldwide slump and likely foreshadows more economic woes for not only the US, but also the entire globe.
To understand the Baltic Dry index one has to approach this economic telltale from multiple angles. Basically, the index is set where the supply of raw materials meets the demand for ships to be booked to carry those materials from country to country or continent to continent.
The index is broken down into different segments that take into account the size of the ship and the type of the cargo that is being shipped.
Generally, when the BDI is charting a gain, stocks will likely close up and countries' whose currency are good market indicators of worldwide exchange, like the value of the Canadian and Australian Dollars are on their way up as well.
When the BDI is performing badly, generally the US and worldwide stock markets are likely to also perform badly in the near future and the currencies of the countries previously mentioned, who are heavily affected by the foreign goods and raw materials exchange will also likely soon show losses.
This is because the BDI shows exactly where the worldwide demand for raw goods and materials rests at any given period. When these raw goods and materials are not being moved around, production of almost everything imaginable slows due to the tightening supply of worldwide goods.
#1
I find this hard to believe for one simple reason ... the malls around here are still packed. I have noticed no significant decrease in the number of people shopping or the number of bags they are carrying. I am still seeing people loading cars in the parking lot.
Think about this for a second. Are you buying only 7% of the things you were buying? If people aren't buying cars, then they are having to keep the ones they have running longer. That should mean an increase in demand for repair parts. And regular wearout items like wiper blades and headlights which are imported still need to be shipped. People will still need tires, shoes, flashlights, etc.
#3
Joe, EVERYTHING will eventually on the bailout list. Congress is doing a grand experiment by pouring money down a black hole and determine exactly how much is needed to satiate its appetite. Tune in for regular updates.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Nikolaevsk, AK ||
12/03/2008 4:22 Comments ||
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#4
crosspatch ,
It's not the amount shipped, it's the cost to ship.
Price is set at the margin so a 93% fall in price is NOT a 93% fall in trade.
Basically it means that there is a LOT more containerised supply than demand.
#7
Looking at the shopping mallsright now is not a good measure of underlying economic status.
It neglects to take into account the lag time between economic causes and visible effects. Your retail shopping mall is full of people seeking bargains at a time that traditionally is a very high volume sales period. Those goods were manufactured and stocked months ago.
Today wholesalers have seen their orders fall dramatically and as a result are placing fewer orders with manufacturers, who in turn are buying a lot less of the bulk commodities that make up the main cargo for bulk shipping.
#9
From a previous article: Which is why global shipping has collapsed: it is the harbinger of the end of the era of trade, in which third-world labour costs kept first world inflation down and allowed interest rates to fall and stay low and debt to be increased to an historic degree.
That process of importing deflation (or, more precisely, disinflation) from developing nations -- especially China and India -- relied on trade: raw materials in; finished goods out.
The fall in freight rates for both dry bulk carriers and container ships is telling us that it's over.
In other words inflation is set to rise, so we are in for a period of "stagflation" (recession and inflation)
I'm still cogitating this hypothesis. Governments around the world are driving interest rates down to historic lows, so what's going on?
#10
People aren't buying new cars. That, after all, is why the Big Three have gone to Washington with their palms outstretched. At the shopping malls the prices were shockingly low even for the traditional day-after-Thanksgiving sales; In Buffalo, one of the most price-sensitive cities in the country, Lord & Taylor had rack after rack of current-season $100 items for $25.
#11
Is it price reduction or gouge reduction? 'If' they are still making a profit, has it been gouging all along? And 'if' profits are still being made, with the decline in ROI in other venues [as in I could make more money investing it over here rather than making a real reasonably priced item or service] does it reinforce basics in the economy at the expense of speculative markets?
#13
The shopping continues because of habit. People still spending what they should not. If they have cash, they ought to be conserving it. Do without the habit for once. The prices being offered now by retailers are likely below purchase cost. Many retailers have to sell at any price, because many are going to have to file for bankruptcy after the new year dawns. They are trying to keep the lights on and rent paid. But they are not gaining ground and turning a profit.
Yes, all transnational shipping is dropping. The use of electricity on the Chinese grid is down 40-60 %, depending on source information. This means a drastic contraction in smelting and manufacturing. Port loads at Port of LA are down 30% year/year and dropping. The operators of the TransCon rail shiping, BNSF and UP are laying off crews on that route which brings 90% of the containers east. Retail sales are bound to contract. People have enough "stuff" to get by for some time and will have to. Contraction is in the air.
#15
Could this mean that we'll actually have to begin manufacturing our very own stuff?
Nope. This doesn't change foreign labor being cheaper.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
12/03/2008 12:30 Comments ||
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#16
Another way to look at this is that we have commodity deflation. Raw materials are becoming cheaper after spiking. Eventually, somebody is going to find the prices ammenable to making products again. This should fuel the eventual turnaround as long as credit markets are functional.
Look at gas prices. They've crashed. This will eventually free up some cash in the economy. It is like an across the board tax cut.
I agree some spending is out of habit but some is necessary too (food, diapers, etc.). This too forms the 'bottom' of the economic downturn.
Labor intensive manufacturing will continue to go offshore when there is demand for the products.
#17
#8, Could this mean that we'll actually have to begin manufacturing our very own stuff?
Seems like that would be a good idea. Jobs need to be created to give people purchasing ability. People also have to have purchasing power and create demand for there to be manufacturing. I don't mean to be pessimistic but things could get pretty rough before they get better.
#19
"This doesn't change foreign labor being cheaper."
The globalization and leveling of labor costs was already underway. This crisis may accelerate it, which would ultimately be a good thing.
Labor costs will eventually rise elsewhere as workers demand more, and workers in the U.S. will ultimately be obliged to demand less for their work, bringing the cost of employing them back to levels that have a more accurate historical context. This will make it more attractive to employ people here again.
This will NOT happen overnight, but it will happen.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
12/03/2008 22:17 Comments ||
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#20
Couple of things about the BDI: First, it's quite dependent on shipping credit risk. From page two of the article:
While it is important to look at this recent tumble in the BDI's value as a possible harbinger of worsening global economic conditions, it is possible to speculate about the cause of this huge loss and therefore take some of the mystery and potential fear out of this gut wrenching economic development. One of the biggest factors that could be contributing to the BDI's recent massive downturn is the US turned International credit crisis. If a merchant who is selling and shipping $100 million dollars in goods can not obtain a guarantee from a bank that payment will be delivered upon completion of the sale, not many merchants would want to take the chance that their buyer would not be able to furnish the money to complete the transaction. In the past this was less of an issue even when banks couldn't entirely guarantee that the buyer could pay completely for the goods.
Banks used to be able to sell the cargo outright to pay the debt of a buyer in default. The situation has since changed. Because consumer and financial sector confidence has fallen in consumer goods being shipped from overseas and an economy that has driven down the demand for consumer goods, these same banks are reluctant to trust that they could sell the ships' cargo and recoup their potential loss due to a default of payment either by a raw goods buyer or another bank.
Second, it's not much lower today than it was in 2002.
Third, it appears to lag the S&P 500. Better to watch that:
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Tim Down knows that 1 millimeter is nothing to sniff at. This past summer, the fruit and vegetable wholesaler was caught with kiwi fruit that were too small by about that much -- 0.04 of an inch. 
