I'LL JUST LEAVE IT AT THAT, SO YOU ALL CAN CONTEMPLATE THE CHUTZPAH

http://fortune.com/2015/01/05/jpmorgan-chase-split/

and Jupiter should get the rings, those precious, precious rings.

Rings of Jupiter--From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A schema of Jupiter's ring system showing the four main components. For simplicity, Metis and Adrastea are depicted as sharing their orbit.



The planet Jupiter has a system of rings, known as the rings of Jupiter or the Jovian ring system. It was the third ring system to be discovered in the Solar System, after those of Saturn and Uranus. It was first observed in 1979 by the Voyager 1 space probe and thoroughly investigated in the 1990s by the Galileo orbiter. It has also been observed by the Hubble Space Telescope and from Earth for the past 23 years. Ground-based observations of the rings require the largest available telescopes.

The Jovian ring system is faint and consists mainly of dust. It has four main components: a thick inner torus of particles known as the "halo ring"; a relatively bright, exceptionally thin "main ring"; and two wide, thick and faint outer "gossamer rings", named for the moons of whose material they are composed: Amalthea and Thebe.

The main and halo rings consist of dust ejected from the moons Metis, Adrastea, and other unobserved parent bodies as the result of high-velocity impacts. High-resolution images obtained in February and March 2007 by the New Horizons spacecraft revealed a rich fine structure in the main ring.

In visible and near-infrared light, the rings have a reddish color, except the halo ring, which is neutral or blue in color. The size of the dust in the rings varies, but the cross-sectional area is greatest for nonspherical particles of radius about 15 ?m in all rings except the halo. The halo ring is probably dominated by submicrometre dust. The total mass of the ring system (including unresolved parent bodies) is poorly known, but is probably in the range of 1011 to 1016 kg. The age of the ring system is not known, but it may have existed since the formation of Jupiter.

A ring could possibly exist in Himalia's orbit. One possible explanation is that a small moon had crashed into Himalia and the force of the impact caused material to blast off Himalia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rings_of_Jupiter

Moe could not be reached for comment.

I'm surrounded by crazy people.

My spoiled rotten dogs are the least demanding around here.

http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/readers-opinion/as-i-see-it/article5360631.html

STFU, KEVIN!

Republicans are turning into a comedy routine.

If deregulation makes them safer, we should give them all plutonium. I'm sure that would be super-duper safe. (Note to bankers: don't leave all your blocks of plutonium in the same vault when you go to lunch. That's what happened at Lehman Brothers.)

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/launder-stolen-bitcoins/

Bitcoin’s main problem is that every transaction is public. Such a feature makes it difficult to launder stolen bitcoins. Take this $5m thief as the example. The person controlling 19,000 of Bitstamp’s coins has a problem. Anyone can follow the coins as they move between addresses. Lucky for them (or not as we’ll see), there exist tools to assist in hiding, disguising, and making it difficult to prove where your bitcoins originate.

Mixers combine your coins with the coins of others. Everyone sends coins to a central address. The mixer sends a transaction back to each user from the key controlling the central address. When stolen coins mix with ‘clean’ coins, they become difficult to track.

Coin Tumblers swap coins between users. A Tumbler will mix coins, send transactions with various amounts to keys it controls; attempting to simulate other network transactions. Sending a tumbler 1BTC may result in you receiving multiple, smaller, transactions in return over a short time. The bitcoins returned to you will have been combined, split and transacted many, many times. Taint is the probability of tracing coins back to any given address after mixing and tumbling.

A Google search will turn up half a dozen of these coin washing services. Many are a combination of the preceding concepts. The majority offer themselves to consumers as anonymizers protecting privacy. Whether they are tools for crime or a defense against tyrants remains in the hand of the user. As Cody Wilson, co-founder of the anonymous Bitcoin wallet ‘Dark Wallet’, has said “Liberty is a dangerous thing.”

I'D RATHER BE PAID IN BULLION, THANKS.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/amagi-metals-pay-entire-staff-bitcoin/

Precious metals dealer Amagi Metals has announced a partnership with bitcoin payroll processor Bitwage that will allow Amagi to pay the company’s entire staff in bitcoin. Employees still have the option to receive a portion of their salaries in fiat, but all employees will receive at least a portion of their salary in bitcoin.

Amagi says the move to Bitwage was not just about helping their employees have more payroll options. CEO Stephen Macaskill–who will receive $40,000 of his salary in bitcoin–says the company decided to make the move because they view bitcoin as the future of currency and want to stay ahead of the adoption curve.

I see Bitcoin as the future, so I’m going to put my money where my mouth is, and I’m thrilled to have a team that thinks the same way. The integration of Bitwage into our operations is a step to ensure our company’s divorce from the U.S. Dollar in 2017.

Jonathan Chester, Bitwage’s Chief Strategic Officer, says Amagi is helping create a “new era” for bitcoin adoption.

The Amagi Metals team is innovative, not just in the goods and services it delivers, but also in the realm of benefits and payroll. Amagi Metals is leading a new era for Bitcoin adoption as one of the first companies to leverage Bitcoin to improve payroll efficiency while cutting operational costs.

Cheaper Than ATMs

Bitwage gives employees the option to select what percentage of their salary they want to receive in bitcoin. They can select anywhere from 0-100%, letting them strike the right balance between cryptocurrency and fiat. This feature is great for employees interested in cryptocurrency, because it lets them receive bitcoin automatically, without having to purchase it using a bitcoin service such as Coinbase. As Amagi Marketing Director Megan Duffield related:

I’d love to have an easy way to accrue Bitcoin without having to pay premiums at a Bitcoin ATM.

Or do they just use regular banks like HSBC now? Do you suppose every big bank has a money laundering desk?

Two bitcoin exchanges. I think they were also into murder for hire.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/01/democracy-threat-revolution-new-evidence.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29



Yves here. This piece looks at events like Arab Spring and the revolutions of 1848 and concludes they were more successful than is commonly thought. When they did not succeed in overthrowing governments, they still led to reforms.

By Toke S. Aidt, Senior University Lecturer in the Faculty of Economics at University of Cambridge, Gabriel Leon, Lecturer at the Department of Economics, Bar Ilan University, Raphael Franck, Professor at the Department of Business and Economics, University of Southern Denmark, and Peter S. Jensen, Lecturer in Political Economy in the Department of Political Economy, King’s College London. Originally published at VoxEU

Some theories suggest that the threat of revolution plays a pivotal role in democratisation. This column provides new evidence in support of this hypothesis. The authors use democratic transitions from Europe in the 19th century, Africa at the turn at the 20th century, and the Great Reform Act of 1832 in Great Britain. They find that credible threats of revolution have systematically triggered pre-emptive democratic reforms throughout history.

The threat of Revolution Hypothesis

The wave of violent protests that swept across north Africa and parts of the Middle East during the Arab spring between 2010 and 2012 coincided with the fall of several long-established autocracies; in those that survived, policy reforms and redistributive policies aimed at calming the masses were hastily implemented. A century and a half before, something similar happened in western Europe. The revolutions in France and parts of Germany in 1848 were followed by democratic reforms in Denmark, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

Episodes like these lend credence to the hypothesis that revolutions, riots, and other types of violent protest can trigger democratic change. The hypothesis is appealing because it resolves the franchise extension puzzle, namely why would incumbent autocrats with a monopoly on political power, and often on economic resources, agree to share their power with broader segments of the population whose goals they do not share? The threat of revolution hypothesis, developed in the work of Acemoglu and Robinson (2000, 2006) and Boix (2003) amongst others, suggests that autocrats might do so when they face a credible threat of revolution that, if successful, would eliminate their entire power base. Seen in this perspective, the reactions of autocrats in the Arab world today, and of monarchs in western Europe 150 years ago, are pre-emptive responses to a credible threat of revolution.

Not everyone agrees with this interpretation, however. In his discussion of democratic reforms between 1830 and 1930, Roger Congleton (2010, p. 15), for example, argues that: “In essentially all cases [countries], liberal reforms were adopted using pre-existing constitutional rules for amendment. In no case [country] is every liberal reform preceded by a large-scale revolt, and in most cases, there are examples of large-scale demonstrations that failed to produce obvious reform”.

Democratisation is a multi-faceted process and the challenge is to gauge the boundaries between the threat of revolution hypothesis and alternative explanations of the root causes of democracy. Establishing how far the threat of revolution hypothesis explains democratic transitions is, however, difficult for two reasons.

Firstly, it is the threat of revolution that matters and that is hard to quantify.

Secondly, if observed social protest is used as a proxy for the underlying threat, it is hard to establish if the threat causes democratisation or if both occur because of something else.

In a series of papers (Aidt and Jensen 2014, Aidt and Leon forthcoming, Aidt and Franck 2013, forthcoming), we use historical and recent data and a variety of identification strategies to engage with these issues. The picture that emerges from these studies, as well as from previous work by Przeworski (2009) and the recent study by Dorsch and Maarek (2015), is clear:

The threat of revolution is one of the causal drivers of democratisation.

MORE

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-macys-to-cut-jobs-close-14-stores-2015-1

(Reuters) - Department store operator Macy's Inc said it would close 14 stores in early spring 2015 and cut some jobs to focus on its popular services such as in-store pickups for online orders and "ship-from-store".

Macy's, which owns the high-end Bloomingdale's chain, said the move would help offset higher expense expected from healthcare and retirement plans.

The retailer said its workforce is expected to remain at a level of about 175,000 as it expects to hire associates to expand its direct-to-consumer business.

Macy's has spent nearly $2 billion on IT and e-commerce projects over the past five years to compete with online giants such as Amazon.com Inc <amzn.o>.

Ship-from-store, a service that allows customers to order from another Macy's store if the item is not available and have it sent to their home, has helped Macy's keep a tight hold on inventory.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-macys-to-cut-jobs-close-14-stores-2015-1#ixzz3OJqMJ62i

Also in the same mall, a Penney's is closing too. With Penney's and Macy's no longer anchoring the mall, the only anchor store left is Sears. It is becoming another ghost mall.

The first of the mega-malls. When they started building it back in the mid-70's it was the worlds biggest. Now they're tearing it down.

I remember that my mother would never go there, because Jeanne Dixon predicted it would collapse during an earthquake..

I guess she wasn't that far off. It's a wrecking ball.

http://www.businessinsider.com/market-update-9-jan-2015-2015-1

Here's the scorecard:

France's CAC 40: -0.24%

Germany's DAX: -0.25%

UK's FTSE 100: -0.38%

Spain's IBEX: -2.23%

Italy's FTSE MIB: -0.49%

Asian markets had a solid day. Other than China's Shanghai Composite index, which closed 0.24% lower. Hong Kong's Hang Seng finished up 0.35% and Japan's Nikkei ended 0.18% higher.

US futures are down a little. The S&P 500 is 2.25 points lower and the Dow is down 13 points.

In the US, the jobs report is coming later. At 1.30 p.m. GMT, we'll get a look at the latest non-farm payroll figures, pay growth, and the official unemployment rate from the US. In November, the US economy added 321,000 jobs, blowing away expectations and marking the 10th straight month that payrolls grew by more than 200,000, the longest such streak since 1995.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/market-update-9-jan-2015-2015-1#ixzz3OJv1PD8a

http://www.businessinsider.com/10-most-important-things-in-the-world-jan-9-2015-1

1. Police are closing in on the Paris terror suspects who have taken a hostage.

2. Officials say Said Kouachi, one of the suspects in the Paris attacks, trained with an al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen.

3. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is hesitant to ease sanctions on Russia, saying on Thursday that her government needs "to see the entire Minsk agreement implemented before we can say that sanctions will be lifted."

4. Oil prices are heading for a seventh weekly loss.

5. In a surprise outcome, longtime Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa lost his bid for re-election to opponent Maithripala Sirisensa.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/10-most-important-things-in-the-world-jan-9-2015-1#ixzz3OJvX7Vc3

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-oil-heads-for-seventh-weekly-loss-as-supply-glut-drags-2015-1

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices were heading for a seventh weekly loss on Friday, with key producers showing no signs of cutting output in the face of a global supply glut.

Brent and U.S. crude futures both hit their lowest since 2009 this week and are down more than 50 percent from June, although they inched up on Friday after robust U.S. economic data brightened the outlook for demand.

Brent crude had climbed 21 cents to $51.17 a barrel by 0203 GMT. U.S. crude for February delivery was at $49.13, up 34 cents.

But supply concerns remained as Saudi Arabia and its Gulf OPEC allies are showing no sign of considering cutting output to boost oil prices even as demand slowed globally.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-oil-heads-for-seventh-weekly-loss-as-supply-glut-drags-2015-1#ixzz3OJw6NAJg

http://www.businessinsider.com/china-december-ppi-cpi-2015-1

Slowing consumer demand has been hurting Chinese companies already suffering from thinning margins, and it looks like the pain isn't ending any time soon.

Thursday night at 8:30 PM EST, China released December figures for its producer price index (PPI) and consumer price index (CPI). These are numbers associated with inflation.

PPI came in at -3.3%, missing analyst expectations, and CPI came right in line at 1.5%.

Analysts polled by Bloomberg expected CPI to come at around 1.5%, as opposed to 1.4% at the same time last year. PPI was estimated to come in at -3.1% as opposed to -2.7% at this time last year.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/china-december-ppi-cpi-2015-1#ixzz3OJwkx7Ll

http://www.businessinsider.com/financial-advisor-insights-january-8-2015-1

Nobel Prize Winning Economist: "The Issue Is Not Greece. It Is Europe" (Project Syndicate)

Many are once again worried about Greece. However, the Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz doesn't think that Greece should be the EU's number one concern right now.

"This issue is not Greece. It is Europe," writes Stiglitz. "If Europe does not change its ways — if it does not reform the eurozone and repeal austerity — a popular backlash will become inevitable. Greece may stay the course this time. But this economic madness cannot continue forever."

"What Europe needs more than structural reform within member countries is reform of the Eurozone itself, and a reversal of austere policies, which have failed time and again to reignite economic growth," writes Stiglitz.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/financial-advisor-insights-january-8-2015-1#ixzz3OJyPzx5V

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/01/hebdo-fallout-greater-odds-frexit-marine-le-pens-star-rises.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29


The odds of France leaving the Eurozone, or Frexit, have just gone from a tail risk to plausible thanks to the boost the Hedbo shootings have given to the leader of France’s far right party, the National Front, and its leader, Marine Le Pen. Opinion polls indicate that that she would win the first round of a presidential ballot were elections held now.

As political scientists have found, a depression or prolonged depression tends to move political sympathies to the right. The murders in Paris playing straight into National Front themes: anti-immigration, anti-minorities, pro-law and order. But Marine Le Pen’s campaign has also gotten support from the far left for her anti-globalization, anti-fat-cat, anti-Eurozone stance, since the only way to get out of the austerity hairshirt appears to be to abandon the Eurozone entirely. If the French professional left, like our homegrown Vichy Left, took those issues seriously, they would not be seeing defections to Le Pen’s style of rancid populism.

In the wake of the Paris killings, Marine Le Pen has called for a referendum to reinstate capital punishment, which was eliminated in 1981. This alone would put France on a collision course with the European Union, which forbids it. As Aljazeera noted, “A referendum on capital punishment, however, would amount to a stealth fast-track mechanism for achieving the party’s EU-phobic goal. That’s not a proposal Hollande is likely to entertain any time soon.”

Slate give a good overview of Le Pen’s strategy:



A row over efforts to defuse Muslim-related hostilities is playing into Marine Le Pen’s hand. A march in solidarity for the victims is set for this Sunday in Paris. All major French political parties will participate, and major Muslim groups have are also encouraging their members to join. But the National Front was not invited, giving Le Pen the opportunity to attack the event falling as well short of a “uniting of the nation.” Hollande is giving her a boost in stature by deigning to meet with her on Friday...

PRETTY SOON, THE ONLY PEOPLE IN THE EURO WILL BE CENTRAL EUROPEANS. IF THEY BOOT GERMANY, IT MIGHT ACTUALLY START TO WORK....A REVIVAL OF THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE OF SORTS, WHICH GAVE US AMONG OTHER THINGS, MOZART:



WHICH GAVE US PDQ BACH

&list=RDenT9oAE0TxM

WHICH GAVE US THE NETWORK



WHICH BRINGS US BACK TO DOUGH RE ME AND THE NSA....

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CONGRESS_KEYSTONE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-01-09-04-04-13

WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Republicans are on track to easily pass legislation to authorize the construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, moving the GOP-led Congress closer to a clash with President Barack Obama.

Friday's vote will be the 10th time since July 2011 that the House has voted on legislation advancing the pipeline, and the outcome is expected to be no different: It will pass.

But the effort is still likely to hit a dead end, despite the fact the Senate on Thursday cleared an identical bill out of a committee. The Senate bill has the backing of 60 members, enough to pass the full chamber, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell moved to start debate immediately. Democrats blocked his effort, setting up a test vote early next week.

The White House has said Obama will veto the bill if it passes the Republican-controlled Congress because it "prevents the thorough consideration of complex issues that could bear on U.S. national interests."

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OIL_PRICES_JOB_GROWTH?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-01-08-16-30-37

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In June, when oil cost $107 a barrel, U.S. employers added a healthy number of jobs - 267,000. Now, with oil below $50, hopes are rising that hiring in the United States is poised to intensify.

Goldman Sachs forecasts that if oil stays near its current price, the economy will add 300,000 more jobs this year than if the price had remained at its June level. Stronger job growth is foreseen at retailers, auto dealers, shipping firms, restaurants and hotels - all of which will likely show gains in Friday's jobs report for December.

From gas-station prices to utility bills, consumers and businesses are now enjoying savings on basic energy costs. It means more people can splurge on purchases from clothing and appliances to vacations and dinners out. That stronger demand will likely require some businesses to step up hiring, which would circulate more money through the economy and perhaps fuel further job growth.

Just as critically, cheaper gas is suppressing overall U.S. inflation. Lower prices keep down yields on U.S. Treasurys. Lower yields, in turn, serve the housing market by reducing mortgage rates and potentially producing more construction jobs. This week, for example, the average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage sank to 3.73 percent, its lowest point since May 2013.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TRADE_POLITICS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-01-09-03-46-32

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Trade pacts create odd politics. That's why advocates hope new trade agreements might advance this year despite tensions between the Republican-run Congress and the Democratic White House on so many other issues.

President Barack Obama, like presidents of both parties before him, wants renewed authority to negotiate complex, multinational trade deals that Congress can approve or reject, but not amend. This "trade promotion" or "fast track" authority is crucial to keep critics on the left and right from attaching killer amendments.

Many Republicans favor freer trade, while many liberal groups vehemently oppose it, claiming it encourages companies to send U.S. jobs overseas. These fault lines are creating new and rare sniping between Obama and countless activists who have considered him a political hero.

Dozens of these activists - along with several Democratic lawmakers - crammed a Capitol Hill news conference Thursday to condemn "fast track" authority as a freeway to U.S. job losses, environmental wrongdoings by trade partners, riskier imported foods and drugs, and many other woes.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-09/ecb-said-to-study-bond-purchase-models-up-to-500-billion-euros.html

European Central Bank staff presented policy makers with models for buying as much as 500 billion euros ($591 billion) of investment-grade assets, according to a person who attended a meeting of the Governing Council.

Various quantitative-easing options were shown to governors on Jan. 7 in Frankfurt, including buying only AAA-rated debt or bonds rated at least BBB-, the euro-area central bank official said. Governors took no decision on the design or implementation of any package after the presentation, according to the person and another official who attended the meeting. The people asked not to be identified because the deliberations were private.

A 500 billion-euro purchase program would take the ECB halfway toward its goal of boosting its balance sheet to avert a deflationary spiral in the euro area. The institution is also buying asset-backed securities and covered bonds, and government bond-buying would be part of fresh stimulus to be considered at the Governing Council’s Jan. 22 meeting.

An ECB spokesman declined to comment on policy makers’ proceedings.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-09/german-industrial-production-falls-amid-plunge-in-energy-output.html

German industrial production unexpectedly fell for the first time in three months in November as energy output (GRIPIMOM) slumped, signaling that the recovery in Europe’s largest economy remains vulnerable.

Output, adjusted for seasonal swings, fell 0.1 percent from October, when it climbed a revised 0.6 percent, the Economy Ministry in Berlin said today. Economists in a Bloomberg News survey predicted an increase of 0.3 percent, according to the median of 25 estimates. Production dropped 0.5% percent from a year earlier.

The Bundesbank has said the German economy managed only a “modest start” to the fourth quarter, after effectively stagnating in the prior six months. While surveys have shown that economic sentiment in the country is improving, the outlook is clouded by the euro area’s struggle with sluggish growth, falling prices and Greek political instability.

“The most important message is that we have to be a bit more patient,” said Andreas Rees, chief German economist at UniCredit MIB in Munich. “In terms of business sentiment, there is more and more evidence that German companies already turned the corner. However, in line with economics 101, hard data typically lag behind such leading indicators.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-08/world-s-best-forecaster-targets-euro-dollar-parity-currencies.html

Being more bearish on the euro than the consensus helped ING Groep NV become the world’s most accurate currency forecaster in 2014. The Dutch bank sees no reason to change its strategy now, breaking from the pack to predict a drop to parity with the dollar within two years.

After watching the 19-nation currency slide as low as $1.1754 today from last year’s high of $1.3993 in May, ING sees it continuing to weaken all the way to $1, a level last seen in 2002. The median estimate of more than 30 forecasters in a Bloomberg survey is $1.15 by the end of 2016.

ING expects measures by the European Central Bank to boost the euro zone’s flagging economy and avoid deflation will have direr consequences for the currency than most other firms. Few investors will want the euro as policy makers expand the money supply, especially as the Federal Reserve makes dollar assets more attractive by raising interest rates.

“We are one of the most bearish houses on euro-dollar,” Petr Krpata, a foreign-exchange strategist at ING in London, said yesterday by phone. “It looks as if the Fed will start hiking rates sooner rather than later, potentially even late in the second quarter, and this will further fuel the divergence on policy.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-08/greece-s-syriza-leader-braces-for-market-turmoil-after-elections.html

Greek anti-austerity Syriza party leader Alexis Tsipras isn’t “frightened” by possible market turmoil in case of victory at the Jan. 25 general election.

“We know markets certainly won’t be rooting for us and there’s a chance that initially they will show some aggressiveness toward a left government,” he said, according to excerpts of “Alexis Tsipras, My Left,” a book scheduled to be published in Italy next week. “The more you need money, the higher is the interest markets require.”

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras was forced to ask for snap elections on Dec. 29 after failing to get enough lawmakers to support his candidate for the country’s ceremonial presidency. Greek 10-year government bond yields climbed back above 10 percent this week as Syriza’s lead in polls was confirmed less than three weeks before the ballot.

The yield on 10-year government bonds fell 13 basis points to 9.99 percent at 12:05 p.m. in Athens. Greece’s benchmark stock index (ASE), the Athens Stock Exchange Index, rose 2.1 percent, paring this week’s decline so far to 7 percent.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-09/why-opec-is-talking-oil-down-not-up-after-48-selloff.html

If there ever was doubt about the strategy of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, its wealthiest members are putting that issue to rest.

Representatives of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait stressed a dozen times in the past six weeks that the group won’t curb output to halt the biggest drop in crude since 2008. Qatar’s estimate for the global oversupply is among the biggest of any producing country. These countries actually want -- and are achieving -- further price declines as part of an attempt to hasten cutbacks by U.S. shale drillers, according to Barclays Plc and Commerzbank AG.

Crude fell 48 percent last year and has declined 35 percent since OPEC affirmed its output target on Nov. 27. That decision, while squeezing revenues for OPEC members in 2015, aims at preserving their market share for years to come.

“The faster you bring the price down, the quicker you will have a response from U.S. production -- that is the expectation and the hope,” said Jamie Webster, an analyst at consultants IHS Inc. in Washington. “I cannot recall a time when several members were actively pushing the price down in both word and deed.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-08/iraq-oil-deal-evokes-churchill-in-islamic-state-battle.html

Winston Churchill understood the significance of the black stuff seeping to the surface in the Kurdish plains of Mesopotamia when he included the region within Iraq as the British forged the nation in the 1920s.

In doing so, Churchill, the colonial secretary at the time, set in train almost a century of bickering between the Iraqi government and its Kurdish enclave over the area’s estimated 45 billion barrels of crude.

While their latest dispute was temporarily resolved last month to help finance the struggle against Islamic State, the accord has not addressed differences between administrations in Baghdad and Erbil that include the future of Kirkuk, northern Iraq’s main oil hub. The Iraqi government started pumping crude from Kirkuk via Kurdish pipes that bypass militant-held territory to Turkey, Al-Mada Press reported Jan. 1.

“The need to finance military operations has brought together the Iraqi government and the Kurds,” said Hussein Allawi, a Baghdad-based oil analyst. “But this is a temporary agreement that does not resolve fundamental differences.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-08/pentagon-said-to-seek-20-cut-in-u-s-war-funding-to-51-billion.html

The Pentagon will request about $51 billion in war funding for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, a 20 percent reduction from the $64 billion Congress approved this year and the least since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, officials and congressional aides said.

The Overseas Contingency Operations funding, as it’s known, will be sent to Congress in addition to basic defense spending of about $534 billion when President Barack Obama offers his proposed fiscal 2016 federal budget on Feb. 2, according to the officials and aides, who asked not to be identified before the details are made public.

While the decline in war funding largely reflects the continued withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan -- from the 10,600 now there to half that planned by year-end -- it remains enough to draw questions about why the Defense Department shouldn’t pay to fight wars as part of its basic mission.

“The continuing drawdown in Afghanistan is not having a proportionate effect on” the war budget because it’s “being used for a lot of things other than Afghanistan,” said Todd Harrison, a defense budget analyst with the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-08/abe-adviser-opposes-bankers-industrialists-for-boj-board-seats.html

Two policy board seats opening up at the Bank of Japan this year shouldn’t be filled with bankers or industrialists, said Koichi Hamada, who advises Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on monetary policy.

“A BOJ board member needs specialized, high-level knowledge of economics and finance,” Hamada said in an e-mail. “We shouldn’t choose representatives of sectoral interests such as finance or industry to be board members. Other nations pick specialists.”

The two seats have the potential to shift the balance on the board after Haruhiko Kuroda faced more opposition than any governor since 2008 when he pushed through a boost to record stimulus on Oct. 31. Ryuzo Miyao, whose term ends in March, backed the move, while Yoshihisa Morimoto, whose term ends in June, dissented. The selection is “very important” to give Kuroda freedom to ease monetary policy further if needed, said Etsuro Honda, another adviser to the prime minister.

“Monetary policy is more important than ever to end Japan’s prolonged stagnation,” said Takeshi Minami, an economist at Norinchukin Research Institute. “The new board members are likely to have similar views to those of Kuroda so he can proceed with massive easing.”