Grandinite

Northern Premiere Investments , headed by a Calgary real estate broker, Croft Axsen, is seeking investors in some industrial land just outside of Fort Saskatchewan. With industrial vacancies low, and skyrocketing, this seems like a pretty good deal.

It is described as a: “153.79 acre parcel out of 526 acres of land we own in Edmontons NE corner. This parcel of prime development land is accessed by and is bordered by three major traffic arteries, Edmonton’s 33 Street, Highway 28A, and Highway 15. All of which run towards Alberta’s Industrial Heartland, the fastest growing Canadian Indstrial area.”

You can read more about investing HERE (pdf).

I’m adding this one to my Mortgage Meltdown Sountrack: Subprime Apocalypse.

Queen: Another One Bites The Dust

From Bloomberg:

Wachovia and Washington Mutual may have combined second- quarter losses of $3.8 billion, according to analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Wachovia, the nation’s fourth-biggest bank by assets, and Washington Mutual, the largest saving and loan, rank among the top providers of “option-ARM” and subprime mortgages that now have some of the highest default rates.

Why’s this bad? ARMs are ‘Adjustable Rate Mortgages’. In essence, here’s the quick n dirty version: the borrower takes out a loan for the first two years; after two years, the interest rate re-sets, possibly to a higher rate, resulting in defaults in some instances.

h/t: m-implode.com

Related: http://www.newyorkfed.org/mortgagemaps/

I learned of THIS article from Alberta Views by reading AGRDT, wherein an active Green Party member bemoans the advantage the Conservatives have vis-a-vis campaign financing and Big Oil:

The Greens—and the Liberals and NDP, for that matter—can’t count on much support from oil companies (whose interest is to have as little regulation as possible), and no other Alberta industry can match Big Oil’s support. The Greens received donations totalling $17,387 in 2006—not quite enough for one prime-time TV commercial. The Alberta Conservatives raised $1.9-million the same year. “Caps on donations would be reasonable,” says Read, suggesting $2,000-$5,000 as a new limit.

Green-minded people should just buy shares in oil Companies and use their right to vote in the company to bring about change. They can also donate capital gains to green causes. It’s called shareholder activism.

A case in point: T. Boone Pickens and the Pickens Plan. From Canada.com:

Texas oil investor T. Boone Pickens called on Tuesday for a massive switch to natural gas as a transportation fuel and a boost in wind power in a plan aimed at reducing U.S. foreign oil dependence by a more than a third.

The Pickens Plan, which includes exploiting domestic natural gas supplies by tapping new areas like East Texas and Appalachia, could replace 38 percent of U.S. oil imports, he said.

“U.S. natural gas can replace foreign oil. It’s the only natural resource we have that can do that,” Pickens said during a press event for the release of his energy plan.

The 10-year plan would reduce the U.S. annual oil import bill of $700 billion, at oil prices of $140 a barrel, by hundreds of billions of dollars, he said.

You need some green-minded folks to start an investment fund that buys shares in oil companies and then takes these issues to the boardroom. I think the average joe might buy shares as a way to get their voice heard. of course, there’s the argument around one’s ability to pay, but I think those old farmers have more dough kicking around than they let on.

Related: Preston Manning Interview, 2006

LINK

MSN compares the price of oil to the net worth of Americans, and concludes that the wealth of America, as measured in barrels of oil, is at an all time low 400 Billion barrels:

At the end of March, for instance, our collective net worth as a nation was $56 trillion, the second straight quarter it had dropped. Divide $56 trillion by the recent $140-a-barrel price of oil and you get 400 billion barrels of oil as the value of America, a fraction of our national value in 1998, 1995 or even 1990.

Either oil is too expensive or America is too cheap.

There’s a nifty little table at that link; you might want to check it out.

From an old CBC link, we see that Alberta has between 1.7 and 2.5 trillion barrels of oil, but we’ll call it 2 trillion.

2 trillion, divided by 400 billion - that’s about 20% of Alberta’s oil. America’s on sale - if we moved now, Alberta could trade its oil for the entire wealth of the United States.

But, the MSN article fails to take into account the 56 trillion in unfunded liabilities of the US government, so we’d have to add that to the original amount, thereby roughly doubling the amount to 40%

Of course, I’m not taking into consideration technical limitations of bringing that oil to market, building upgraders, etc., etc., nor am I considering things from a net present value perspective.

It either goes to show how huge our reserves are, or how small the value of America’s assets and liabilities are. I’d choose the former.

The United States borrows from China to pay for oil from Saudi Arabia. The Saudis then buy up hard assets in the US on a favorable exchange rate. That’s 40% off from 2002 prices, according to Norges Bank.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com

The Abu Dhabi Investment Council of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates kingdom of Abu Dhabi last November announced it was bailing out the mammoth Citibank financial institution, formerly headed by Bank of Israel Governor Prof. Stanley Fischer, with $7.5 billion.

Next in line was Britain’s Barclay’s Bank, which raised $9 billion from investors in the oil-rich kingdom of Qatar and in Asian countries. The Abu Dhabi Investment Council last month forked out approximately $800 million for a 75 percent stake in New York City’s 1,046-foot-tall Chrysler Building, which was the world’s tallest building for a year until the Empire State Building surpassed it in the 1930’s.

The purchase of American banks by foreigners has been blocked in the past by security and political considerations, but the barriers have come down, wrote Dr. Ramady. “How long this lasts is only a matter of guesswork, as once again, the specter of foreign takeovers of ‘national’ symbols will be hard to accept,” he added.

The latest American symbol to go down the drain is the Anheuser-Busch beer brewer. The Times of London wrote, “The weak dollar and weak economy mean the United States is up for sale. Japs are conquering the car industry. Arabs just bought part of the Chrysler Building. Jeez, they even tried to buy the ports a while back. Whatever next? A hijab on the Statue of Liberty?”

Loretta Napoleoni may have it right when she states that “In the end. . . a new Islamic monetary system will emerge and that the dinar, pegged to the price of gold, will become the reserve currency of the world.”

What’s the best music to listen to on your iPod when you’re stuck in line at IndyMac?

Jim Rogers: We Don’t Need No Bailouts, Let the Motherf*cker Burn:

Edmonton Journal: America’s house is on fire, and there’s no end in sight

Daily Reckoning: The Global Financial System is Falling Apart and the World Economy is Slowing Down

Bloomberg: U.S. Misery Index Climbs to 15-Year High

Soundtrack for the Economic Meltdown

AC/DC - Down Payment Blues: YouTube

Radiohead - Dollars & Cents: YouTube

Steve Miller - Take the Money and Run: YouTube

The Clash - Know Your Rights: YouTube

Via SDA comes this New Yorker cover, as presented by the New Editor, reporting:

Washington (Rooters) — President Bush’s Press Secretary Dana Perino today denounced a January 2007 cover for The New Yorker magazine which depicted George Bush as the Roman Emperor Nero.

A visibly angry Perino called the depiction of Bush “an ugly reminder of the often-repeated stereotype of the US as an empire and the president as an unaccountable tyrant who wears a toga, uses decorative leaves in his hair, and plays the harp. In fact, the president hasn’t worn a toga since his senior year in college,” said Perino.

FT.com: Learn from the fall of Rome, US warned

The US government is on a “burning platform” of unsustainable policies and practices with fiscal deficits, chronic healthcare underfunding, immigration and overseas military commitments threatening a crisis if action is not taken soon, the country’s top government inspector has warned.

David Walker, comptroller general of the US, issued the unusually downbeat assessment of his country’s future in a report that lays out what he called “chilling long-term simulations”.

Drawing parallels with the end of the Roman empire, Mr Walker warned there were “striking similarities” between America’s current situation and the factors that brought down Rome, including “declining moral values and political civility at home, an over-confident and over-extended military in foreign lands and fiscal irresponsibility by the central government”.

Related:

Mr. Walker: Transforming Government to Meet The Demands of The 21st Century (we’re f*cked, pdf)

Strike the Root: USA is a Republic, not an Empire

Chalmers Johnson: USA a Republic in Name, Democracy in Practice (domestically) and an Empire abroad.

Chalmers Johnson (Again): What, then, do we make of the USA’s 700 Military bases?

Michael Hudson (economist): USA not an Empire, it’s a SUPER-Empire on the economic front, will collapse due to impossibility of paying debt (audio).

Michael Hudson, economist (again): How the USA Suckers other nations into paying for its wars (pdf)

I’ve been reading up on Iran tonight, and amongst the mess and the rhetoric, it appears that it’s all chatter. I’m betting that the DebkaFile argument for secret talks is the likely scenario, and that the headlines regarding missile tests, sanctions and resolutions are simply distractions. Happy reading.

Trackback sent to: LMB

Ron Paul asks: Where does the US get off launching sanctions against Iran? Didn’t we do that against Iraq? (video, transcript)

US Shipments to Iran have Expanded Tenfold Under Bush

Flashback to May: ‘Bush Planning to Attack Iran This August’

Newsweek: Iranian ‘Missile Test’ Could be the tipping point, war to follow from the momentum of military scheduling.

DebkaFile: Secret talks easing tensions, Missile ‘test’ actually a response to war games.

Ahmadinejad: US Threats & Psyops Driving Oil Prices Higher

Iran will ‘Burn Tel Aviv, Sink US Ships and Block Oil Shipments’ if Attacked

Sheds some new light on the term “Crown Corporation”. See episode 2, about 30 minutes into Part 1.

City of London + City of Vatican + City of columbia are the 3 independant states within states which composes the empire of the city. The first is financial control over earth economy, the second is religion control over the earth and the third one is military control over the earth. Together they make the very unholy trinity which forms the egyptian pyramid that we can see on the back of the privately owned federal reserve note that is used as american dollar to maintain the colony in debt and under the Queen. Many people realize that this mystifying situation, in which an alleged democratic and self-governing nation is actually controlled against the will of the people, is a clear indication that there must be a very powerful and well-financed occult organization which plans and directs world affairs, and for lack of a more specific identification thie suspected secret organization is popularly referred to as the International Financiers, Banksters cartel or “The Crown corporation”.«

Part 1.

Part 2.

Image Source

If you haven’t heard, 500 dead ducks are making news around the world.

Considering the Food & Drug Administration has maximum allowable insect particles per unit of food, it’s not outrageous to consider that one barrel of synthetic crude equates with some portion of caribou, duck or beaver.

So, how many ducks are in a barrel of synthetic crude oil?

Here’s a novel idea: animals perform ecological services, without which, the economy would not survive. Take, for example, the squirrel, who transports nuts throughout the forest:

From: Why I Quit Hunting

One morning, as I sat on top of a steep hill waiting for the sun to come up and the game to start moving about, I noticed many small oak trees on the hill. Acorns are heavy, especially this variety. They were as big as chestnuts and probably weighed several ounces. I hadn’t seen this particular variety before.

I strolled down the hill and crossed a small valley to another hill and found the parent tree, a huge oak about four feet in diameter. I was puzzled. How did the acorns travel across a valley to another hill? The wind didn’t blow them, that was for sure, and floodwaters don’t run uphill. I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. It was a gray squirrel leaping from a huge oak heading across the valley. I dropped the squirrel with a single shot. Imagine my surprise when I picked up the squirrel and he had one of those huge acorns lodged in his mouth! I had been shooting the planters of the forests! On the way home I said to myself, “So that’s why God made squirrels.”

Squirrels, beavers, ducks - all these animals contribute something to our economy. It seems almost wrong to value an animal insofar as it contributes to production, but that’s not the issue. What would our economy look like without ducks? What’s the economic impact of 500 dead ducks? Probably not much, but if you extrapolate that across many instances that go undetected, and if you consider that the Norther Boreal forest is basically the world’s duck factory, the problem becomes a little clearer.

Have a read of this:

With its southern fringe running just across the border from northern New England and the upper Great Lakes, the boreal forest is largely unknown to most people in the United States. Its most visible product, however, is now flooding our backyards with welcome color and song. The boreal forest is the continent’s matchless bird nursery: some three billion individuals of nearly 300 species breed there, from trumpeter swans to delicate warblers, migrating across the entirety of the United States to return there. In autumn, they scatter to the farthest corners of the hemisphere, leading some scientists to suggest that the boreal has a greater global impact than perhaps any other single ecosystem.

Governments have also begun to recognize the economic importance of a vibrant, healthy boreal forest. A recent study found that the ecological benefits of Canada’s boreal forest — including clean water, carbon sequestration and pest control by migratory birds — are worth more than $80 billion annually, two and a half times the extractive value of its resources.

North America’s waterfowl come to Alberta to breed and raise their young. When they head south for the winter, they take some of Alberta’s tar sands with them.