| Platinum sets lifetime high on SA output woes
Platinum prices hit a record high for the ninth straight trading day on Tuesday as concerns deepened over output losses in top producer South Africa due to a power crisis, analysts said. The rally, which has sent prices up 30 percent in just three weeks, gained pace after Anglo Platinum, the world's biggest producer, said on Monday the power problem alone would cut output by as much as 120 000 ounces in 2008. It had already cost 30 000 ounces in lost output this year. Platinum rose to a high of $1 965 an ounce before falling to $1 940/1 950 by 1304 GMT, against $1 933/1 941 in New York late on Monday. The market nervously awaited financial results of Northam Platinum on Tuesday and Impala Platinum, the world's second-biggest producer of the metal, on Thursday for more cues on production losses.
AEP Transmission Venture With Allegheny Files to Establish FERC Rate ...
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Dec. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- American Electric Power today announced that Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline LLC, AEP's transmission joint venture with Allegheny Energy , has filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to establish a transmission rate to recover costs for the approximately 290-mile, extra-high voltage transmission line that the companies propose to build from West Virginia into Maryland. The companies are seeking a transmission cost-of-service formula rate, effective March 1, 2008, that will provide for annual updates to the amounts that PJM Interconnection (PJM), an independent regional transmission operator, will charge utilities to recover the costs of the project. The proposed rate includes recovery of a return on construction work in progress (CWIP) for the project and a return on equity of 14.3 percent, which includes an incentive award, consistent with federal policy to encourage significant transmission infrastructure and technology improvements.
Egypt vows to help Gazans restock
Egypt has said it will continue to allow Gazans to cross the breached border and help them stock up on supplies. Hundreds of vehicles crossed from Gaza into Egyptian territory for the first time overnight, after bulldozers gouged two new breaches in the wall as security forces failed to stem the human flow into the Sinai peninsula. Fighting erupted at one petrol station on the Egyptian side of Rafah as stocks of one the most popular commodities to take back into the Gaza Strip runs out. .
ASX chief warns of more turmoil
ASX chief executive Robert Elstone has warned shareholders to prepare for a fourth wave of stock market turbulence because of credit downgrades to "monoline" bond insurers in the US. In a rare statement from the manager of a stock exchange, he said yesterday it was "almost impossible" to think that there would not be more share market turbulence ahead. He noted there had been three recent share market lurches, starting in August with the sub-prime meltdown. "Then there was the real credit crunch in early December and the sell-off from January 8 through to 19," he said. "There is a lot of speculation now around the monoline insurers," he told The Australian. Such insurers, mostly based in the US, "rent" their triple-A status to bond issuers to reduce the latter's interest costs but a recent rash of downgradings by ratings agencies has left many institutions owning bonds that are now rated lower than their mandates allow.
JFK’s Torch for Obama
He refuses to de-fund the war or set any time limits on it. He is against single-payer health care reform or anything resembling fair taxation. He has never put himself on the line for anything. His mindset is clearly the middle-of-the-road, don't rock the boat, protect the elite mindset that has controlled American politics since FDR. Using a little polish on a broken down pair of sneakers will not turn them into patent leather dancing shoes, and the endorsements of a few members of America's broken down royalty won't make Obama a progressive. Come on, guys. The man hasn't suddenly changed. What has changed is that, once again, the left is being suckered into supporting a center-right "liberal" because he's the best we can get. I'm just not buying that crap. Just being better than Hillary does not make a candidate palatable.
Candidates make final push before 'Super Tuesday'
A Democrat victory in November's U.S. presidential race may well create a world-wide economic downturn that will make the current (healthy) downturn seem like a walk in the park. The short-term solution is to elect U.S. leaders who understand the importance of free-market capitalism. The long-term solution is to teach economics in government-run schools to create a population of voters who are able to intelligently evaluate the claims and promises of candidates who claim that government actions can regulate economic swings. We teach physical and biological sciences, but the "dismal science" is totally neglected. .
|
