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My corporate obligations must take priority. The incoming faxes, phone calls and emails have gone totally over the top.
Nobody can answer for me as this knowledge in unique. It is the product of 50 year experience.
I simply cannot return all the calls, emails and faxes from the general readership.
My corporate obligations must continue to take priority, which they are.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Nothing has changed but FASB’s previous collapse under pressure of Wall Street and Washington.
The junk is still junk and now has false values back again declared as trading profits via false mark ups.
Troubled Assets Not Going Anywhere
Alexandra Zendrian, 08.19.09, 04:00 PM EDT
It looks like these assets are here for at least five years, which means caution when investing in the banking sector.
It’s recently been reported there are 294 U.S. banks with proportions of troubled assets at 90% or higher. This is despite the fact that the Troubled Asset Relief Program has been in effect since late 2008, at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars. With that mind, it’s easy to imagine such assets remaining on bank balance sheets forever. OK, maybe "forever" is a stretch, but they sure aren’t going anywhere any time soon. In fact, our investment advisers foresee these assets troubling bank balance sheets for another five to 10 years.
What does that time frame mean for you? With uncertainty surrounding the banking sector and a lengthy run needed to cure the sick banks, it means to either stay away or approach with caution.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Tanzania has every chance of becoming THE leading nation on the African continent. When they do they will hold that position
Survey identifies deepwater potential off Tanzania
Published: Aug 19, 2009
Offshore staff
LONDON – Dominion Petroleum has completed the first phase of interpretation of 2D seismic data over Tanzania’s offshore block 7.
The 4,350 km (2,703 mi) of 2D data was acquired between late 2007 and early 2008. Analysis has revealed several large structural closures in water depths Dominion describes as suitable for most drillships and semisubmersibles.
One Palaeocene sandstone prospect in 1,520 m (4,987 ft) of water has a mapped probable closure of 103 sq km (39.7 sq mi), and could potentially hold 1,000 MMbbl of recoverable oil, the company claims.
In the southwest of neighboring Uganda, Dominion has conducted an airborne and magnetic gravity survey over the Lake Edward segment of Exploration Area 4B (EA4B). Last November, the company also completed a 2D seismic data survey that included 130 km (80.8 mi) on Lake Edward.
Preliminary interpretation has revealed the presence of a large sedimentary basin that deepens to the west and which is fragmented into various tilted blocks, similar to those that have yielded oil discoveries in the north of Lake Albert.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Note the deal is in dollars. This is almost a daily event.
What numb-nut still professes China is in dollar prison?
Ecuador in $1bn oil deal with China
By Naomi Mapstone in Lima
Published: August 17 2009 21:02 | Last updated: August 17 2009 21:02
Ecuador has reached out to China to ease its liquidity crisis, signing a deal to supply the energy-hungry nation with 69m barrels of oil over the next two years in return for a $1bn advance payment.
China is also offering a $1bn loan, according to comments by Fander Falconi, foreign minister, reported in Ecuadorean Hoy, a local newspaper.
China has sought to secure long-term access to oil from Ecuador at a time when the Andean nation is running perilously low on liquidity following the commodities crash and its controversial default on $3.2bn in foreign debt that it argued was “illegitimate”.
The leftist administration says it has paid $900m to repurchase about 91 per cent of the Global 2012 and 2030 bond issues, a deal that weakened its already strained relations with foreign investors and multilaterals.
The Andean Development Organsation (CAF) and the Latin America Reserve Fund (FLAR) have lent close to $1bn between them to Ecuador in recent months, and the country is expecting a $500m loan from the Inter-American Development Bank. But Rafael Correa, president, refuses funds from the International Monetary Fund.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Settlements and/or dismissals in circumstances as large as these indicate a desire on the part of party that filed criminal action, and made serious accusations presented by legal counsel in court, to bury the affair.
The inviting conclusion on such matters as this is that the initiated party has something very big to lose at the hands of the accused.
The apparently dumbest attorney in legal history made an original statement saying that "if this program found its way into wrong hands it could be used to manipulate markets."
You decide what this case development is about. It is actually comic relief at the highest level.
Ex-Goldman programmer eyes US dismissal; talks go on
Mon Aug 17, 2009 6:00pm EDT
NEW YORK, Aug 17 (Reuters) – A federal judge has granted more time for the government to seek an indictment against or work out a settlement with a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) programmer accused of stealing trade secrets, after the programmer’s lawyer said she wants the case dismissed.
U.S. Magistrate Judge James Francis delayed further proceedings by 30 days until Sept. 16 to let the government and Sergey Aleynikov, the former programmer, continue talks.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Facciponti said talks to resolve the case have gone on from July 7 to as recently as Aug. 13, and that justice would be served by giving the parties more time. Talks were previously extended on Aug. 3.
It is common for prosecutors to ask to extend a deadline for seeking an indictment while plea negotiations are taking place. The request does not mean a settlement is forthcoming.
Prosecutors have accused Aleynikov of downloading stolen Goldman proprietary code onto a home computer, a theft that could cost the Wall Street bank millions of dollars.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Federal debt literally poses a life risk.
This is a social and political problem as well as an economic concern.
Buffett understates the obvious.
Buffett Says Federal Debt Poses Risks to Economy
By Shamim Adam
Aug. 19 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. must address the massive amounts of “monetary medicine” that have been pumped into the financial system and now pose threats to the world’s largest economy and its currency, billionaire Warren Buffett said.
The “gusher of federal money” has rescued the financial system and the U.S. economy is now on a slow path to recovery, Buffett wrote in a New York Times commentary yesterday. While he applauds measures adopted by the Federal Reserve and officials from the Bush and Obama administrations, Buffett says the U.S. is fiscally in “uncharted territory.”
The government is trying to spark business and consumer spending through a $787 billion stimulus plan spanning tax cuts and infrastructure projects, while the Treasury and the Fed have spent billions more on separate programs to rescue financial institutions and resuscitate the banking system. The U.S. budget deficit is forecast to reach a record $1.841 trillion in the year that ends Sept. 30.
“Enormous dosages of monetary medicine continue to be administered and, before long, we will need to deal with their side effects,” Buffett, 78, said. “For now, most of those effects are invisible and could indeed remain latent for a long time. Still, their threat may be as ominous as that posed by the financial crisis itself.”
The “greenback emissions” will swell the deficit to 13 percent of gross domestic product this fiscal year, while net debt will increase to 56 percent of GDP, Buffett said.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
You expected something different with Washington running the show?
The Volt will flop unless they become police and military vehicles.
I know cars.
CARS: U.S. taxpayers subsidizing pricey Volt
KENNY E. WRIGHT; STEILACOOM
Published: 08/19/09 12:05 am | Updated: 08/19/09 8:56 am
Re: “As gas prices rise, the Volt’s looking good” (editorial, 8-14).
The editorial should have included the net dollar loss each Volt will have for GM. Even with a price tag of $40,000, this is a loss for Government Motors. Taxpayers have given GM $70 billion, and it would have been great to share the total cost to the taxpayers for each sale over and above the $7,500 tax credit we give to the buyers.
At $40,000, I cannot afford a Volt. But each time one is sold, I make a payment through my taxes.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
The US seems to always select exactly the wrong person to act as a puppet.
The West never gets its puppets right. Russia does much better.
He will win
He will steal it.
Doesn’t everyone in the Free World do it?
Battle over ballot boxes in Afghanistan
AFGHANISTAN’S TOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES
A look at the men vying for the country’s leadership in the Aug. 20 election.
ABDULLAH ABDULLAH
Abdullah is a former foreign minister who has risen in the polls to about 25 per cent support and could force President Hamid Karzai into a run-off election. The trained ophthalmologist was a leading member of the Northern Alliance – a group of warlords and politicians from Afghanistan’s north who helped oust the Taliban during the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. His father was Pashtun and his mother was Tajik. He is seen as the favourite of the Tajiks, who dominate the north and make up around a quarter of the Afghan population. Abdullah has talked about cleaning up government corruption as well as changing the government to a parliamentary system.
RAMAZAN BASHARDOST
Bashardost is a parliamentarian and former planning minister with a somewhat eccentric reputation. When not out campaigning, he spends much of his time working in a tent near the parliament building. His frugal style and populist rhetoric, criticizing corruption and cronyism in the government, have earned him enough of a fan base that he’s garnering as much as 10 per cent in polls. Bashardost is Hazara, a minority ethnic group that is largely Shiite Muslim and thus was a major target of the Sunni Muslim Taliban during their reign. He spent many years abroad, including in France, and according to his website, has an extensive academic background.
ASHRAF GHANI
Ghani is a 60-year-old, Western-educated former World Bank official who previously served as Afghanistan’s finance minister. Considered a technocrat with a focus on detail, Ghani has been floated as a potential chief executive for the government – someone who runs the day-to-day affairs under the president. The multilingual Ghani, an ethnic Pashtun, has made eliminating corruption from government a major theme of his campaign, and has pledged such programs as establishing model economic zones in the country and starting a women’s-only university, but he is still considered a long shot. He also is a leading advocate for foreign investment.
HAMID KARZAI
Karzai was named the interim Afghan leader in December 2001 after the ouster of the Taliban, then won a five-year-term as president in 2004. He briefly supported the Taliban in the 1990s, but broke with them amid signs they were falling under the influence of foreign Islamist extremists. His father, a Pashtun tribal chief, was assassinated in 1999 – purportedly by the Taliban. Karzai was among the few Pashtun exiles to mount armed resistance to the Taliban in Afghanistan after the U.S.-led attack of 2001. The 51-year-old is the front-runner, but his popularity has slipped amid Afghan anger over government corruption.
– Associated Press
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
And this means what for the US dollar?
Buffett: Debt Mountain Could Turn America Into A Banana Republic (BRK)
Joe Weisenthal
Aug. 19, 2009, 6:48 AM
Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, a supporter of Barack Obama and an indirect beneficiary of the bailouts, writes in a NYT op-ed to warn about the crushing mountain of debt the US government is now building up.
After laying out the staggering numbers, he concludes thusly:
I want to emphasize that there is nothing evil or destructive in an increase in debt that is proportional to an increase in income or assets. As the resources of individuals, corporations and countries grow, each can handle more debt. The United States remains by far the most prosperous country on earth, and its debt-carrying capacity will grow in the future just as it has in the past.
But it was a wise man who said, “All I want to know is where I’m going to die so I’ll never go there.” We don’t want our country to evolve into the banana-republic economy described by Keynes.
Our immediate problem is to get our country back on its feet and flourishing — “whatever it takes” still makes sense. Once recovery is gained, however, Congress must end the rise in the debt-to-G.D.P. ratio and keep our growth in obligations in line with our growth in resources.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
You have to love the consistency of GM.
GM Cancels Buick SUV One Week After Announcing It
By Katie Merx and Jeff Green
Aug. 19 (Bloomberg) — General Motors Co. said it canceled plans for a new Buick sport-utility vehicle announced Aug. 6 after potential customers said the model lacked the “premium characteristics” they expect from the brand.
The decision was made Aug. 14, after GM earlier in the week showed the SUV and other future vehicles to consumers, dealers, employees, analysts and news reporters, Vice Chairman Tom Stephens said on a company blog. The plans for the SUV called for a plug-in hybrid version, which also was canceled, he wrote.
The speed of the cancellation shows that the largest U.S. automaker since emerging from bankruptcy in July “is listening and moving quickly,” Stephens wrote. Chief Executive Officer Fritz Hendersonhas said he wants to transform GM to be more responsive to customers and make speedier decisions.
“It’s obviously a sign of a faster GM and a GM more open to outside feedback,” said Jim Hall, principal of auto consulting firm 2953 Analytics in Birmingham, Michigan. “It also suggests there were already concerns inside the company about the product.”
The plug-in hybrid technology that was to be used for the Buick SUV will be applied with no delay to another vehicle that Detroit-based GM will discuss soon, Stephens wrote. GM had said it would begin selling the Buick SUV plug-in hybrid version in 2011, after the gasoline-only model began sales in late 2010.
