The Hugo Chavez ‘Socialist Revolution’ Nets Goldman Sachs et al. About 15% a Year
January 31st, 2013Same as it ever was:
Via: Bloomberg:
Since taking office in 1999, Hugo Chavez has spread his socialist revolution in Venezuela by seizing more than 1,000 companies. For bondholders that stuck by him, he’s also delivered returns that are double the emerging- market average.
The 681 percent advance, equal to 14.7 percent annually, has enriched investors from OppenheimerFunds Inc. to Goldman Sachs Asset Management LP that counted on Chavez’s willingness to siphon the country’s oil wealth to pay its creditors in the face of start-stop growth and falling reserves. While his policies drove away enough investors to keep Venezuela’s borrowing costs over 12 percent on average during his tenure, or 4 percentage points higher than those of developing nations, he’s never missed a bond payment.
“This is a really great high-income and high-total-return investment for your portfolio,” said Sara Zervos, an emerging- market debt manager at New York-based OppenheimerFunds, which oversees $176 billion in assets and has invested in Venezuelan notes for more than a decade. “Chavez hasn’t done a lot of good for his country, but he has the objective to service the bonds. Our interests are aligned.”
What to Do with Thousands of Tons of Radioactive Scrap Metal? Recycle It Into Consumer Goods
January 31st, 2013Via: Wall Street Journal:
The Department of Energy is proposing to allow the sale of tons of scrap metal from government nuclear sites—an attempt to reduce waste that critics say could lead to radiation-tainted belt buckles, surgical implants and other consumer products.
The department, in a document released last month, said the recycling proposal is in line with its policy of “reusing materials whenever possible.”
The approximately 14,000 tons of metal under review for possible initial release is only a fraction of the tens of millions of tons of metal recycled annually, it said. Smaller amounts could be eligible for release in future years.
Selling the metals could bring in $10 million to $40 million a year, the DOE estimates.
While the metal would come from “radiological areas” such as research laboratories and nuclear-weapons-related facilities, any contamination would be so low that a member of the public would be exposed to a “negligible individual dose” of additional radiation, the DOE said. The allowable annual radiation dose to an individual from a given shipment of the scrap metal would be half the estimated amount of radiation a person gets flying cross-country, or even less, the document said.
Some industry and environmental groups aren’t satisfied by the government’s assurances.
“We are concerned about what could happen in the marketplace if you have to worry about radioactive material possibly being in your eyeglass frames,” said Thomas Danjczek, president of the Steel Manufacturers Association, a trade group whose members use recycled metals. “Why is the government trying to hurt the image of American products?”
It is difficult and expensive to prevent the commingling of recycled metals. Metal-processing facilities already face contamination problems when they inadvertently accept medical devices and other radioactive products, Mr. Danjczek said. Cleanup from such incidents can cost a recycling plant as much as $15 million, he added.
Some critics argue the DOE’s proposed exposure standards are too high and that information provided in its 50-page document explaining the proposal is even more worrisome.
Higher exposures could occur if contaminated metal is made into items such as belt buckles or hip-replacement joints, said Daniel Hirsch, a lecturer on nuclear policy at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and critic of the government’s proposal. Such exposures would further increase a person’s cancer risk, he said.
On Friday, Rep. Ed Markey wrote to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, calling the recycling proposal “unwise” and stating the proposal “should be immediately abandoned.” The Massachusetts Democrat added that contaminated products could “ultimately be utilized by pregnant women, children and other vulnerable populations.”
A DOE spokesman said procedures for clearing the metals for sale are designed to ensure the materials don’t cause problems for industry. He disputed the claims that the metals could possibly cause higher radiation exposures to individuals. The DOE is preparing a response to Mr. Markey, he added.
Related: Toxic Sludge is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry by John Stauber
Disclosure: I’m Long PowerShares DB Agriculture (DBA)
January 31st, 2013Warning: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
I bought some DBA.
China’s Filthy Air Prompts Mask Rush and Sale of Fresh Air in Cans
January 30th, 2013Via: ABC:
For the fourth time this year, a murky haze has descended over north China, leaving residents of Beijing choking on toxic smog. China’s air hasn’t been this bad since 1954, according to the state-run People’s Daily newspaper.
In a remarkable record of dirty air, 24 out of January’s first 29 days this year had air classified as hazardous. And the skies have still not cleared.
The Air Quality Index from the U.S. embassy, designed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, shows that the concentration of fine particulate matter, known as PM 2.5, has been hovering at the top of the scale since last Friday. It’s in a range described as “hazardous” and calls for protective measures to be taken.
Visibility is reduced to 100 yards in downtown Beijing. Travel has been disrupted with more than 100 flights cancelled, at a time when millions start the journey home for Chinese New Year.
The air is so bad that wealthy Chinese entrepreneur, Chen Guangbiao, is selling fresh air in soft drinks cans, similar to bottled drinking water. Each can is sold for 5RMB or about 80 cents. Chen is well known for his charitable donations and publicity stunts. He says he wants to stimulate awareness of environmental protection among government officials and citizens by selling the canned fresh air.
…
Today by mid-morning, a text from the government was sent to millions of cell phones warning residents to stay indoors. Beijing environmental authorities temporarily shut down 103 high-emission factories on Tuesday and ordered 30 percent of government cars off the roads.
For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact
January 30th, 2013Via: Smithsonian:
In 1978, Soviet geologists prospecting in the wilds of Siberia discovered a family of six, lost in the taiga.
Arkansas Town Enacts Martial Law
January 30th, 2013Via: Salon:
Following a rise in violent crime in Paragould, an Arkansas town of around 26,000 residents, the mayor and police chief announced that starting this month police in SWAT gear carrying AR-15s would patrol the streets.
“If you’re out walking, we’re going to stop you, ask why you’re out walking, and check for your ID,” police chief Todd Stovall told a December town hall meeting. As if to render the implementation of a visible police state more palatable, Stovall assured residents that police stops would not be based on any profiling: “We’re going to do it to everybody,” he said.
Libor: ‘We will never know the amounts of money involved, but it has to be the biggest financial fraud of all time’
January 30th, 2013Via: Bloomberg:
Where Libor is set each day affects what families pay on their mortgages, the interest on savings accounts and returns on corporate bonds. Now, banks are facing a reckoning, as prosecutors make arrests, regulators impose fines and lawyers around the world file lawsuits claiming the manipulation pushed homeowners into poverty and deprived brokerage firms of profits.
For years, traders at Deutsche Bank AG, UBS AG, Barclays, RBS and other banks colluded with colleagues responsible for setting the benchmark and their counterparts at other firms to rig the price of money, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg and interviews with two dozen current and former traders, lawyers and regulators. UBS traders went as far as offering bribes to brokers to persuade others to make favorable submissions on their behalf, regulatory filings show.
Members of the close-knit group of traders knew each other from working at the same firms or going on trips organized by interdealer brokers, which line up buyers and sellers of securities, to French ski resort Chamonix and the Monaco Grand Prix. The manipulation flourished for years, even after bank supervisors were made aware of the system’s flaws.
“We will never know the amounts of money involved, but it has to be the biggest financial fraud of all time,” says Adrian Blundell-Wignall, a special adviser to the secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris. “Libor is the basis for calculating practically every derivative known to man.”
U.S. Senate Approves John ‘Skull & Bones’ Kerry as Secretary of State
January 30th, 2013Via: BBC:
The US Senate has approved Senator John Kerry’s nomination as secretary of state, after he was backed unanimously by the foreign relations committee.
His confirmation after a 94-3 vote was met with applause on the Senate floor.
President Barack Obama chose the Massachusetts Democrat to succeed Hillary Clinton, who is stepping down after four years, as his top diplomat.
Wal-Mart Accused of Using Mexican Governor to Push Bribes
January 29th, 2013Via: Bloomberg:
Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s (WMT) Mexican unit used a current state governor there to facilitate $156,000 in bribes meant to help open stores, an ex-lawyer for the retailer told company officials in 2005, according to documents released by members of the U.S. Congress.
The payments were negotiated by Graco Ramirez Garrido Abreu, who at the time served as a federal lawmaker for the state of Morelos, a Wal-Mart summary of the accusations stated. It was released Jan. 10 by Democratic Representatives Henry Waxman of California and Elijah Cummings of Maryland, whose staff is investigating the lawyer’s allegations.
The accusations by attorney Sergio Cicero Zapata, who alleged Ramirez was “the main contact person” to speed needed permissions from the Urban Development Ministry, came in a summary of an Oct. 13, 2005 meeting with the retailer’s officials. Cicero, a 28-year veteran of the company, told them he set up the bribery scheme while employed by Wal-Mart. He was forced out in 2004 after colleagues questioned his oversight of payments to consultants in company-related real-estate deals.
Canadian Special Forces on Ground in Mali
January 29th, 2013This is from CBC News, What Canada Is Doing in Mali:
Canadian bilateral trade with Mali doesn’t amount to much. In 2011, we exported about $26 million worth of goods to Mali, most of that machinery and equipment. Imports from Mali came to less than $1 million.
But Canadian investment in Mali amounts to considerably more — in the hundreds of millions. And the bulk of that investment can be summed up in one word: gold.
About a dozen Canadian gold miners are actively producing and exploring in Mali. Rich veins of gold were discovered in the country’s southwest region in the late 1980s.
The biggest Canadian company there, Toronto-based Iamgold Corp., operates two joint ventures with South Africa-based AngloGold Ashanti and the Malian government.
Via: CBC News:
Canadian special forces are on the ground inside the troubled West African country of Mali to protect Canadian assets there, CBC News has learned.
The special forces are not there to train Malian troops — and they are not involved in any combat role, as the government has repeatedly stressed and Prime Minister Stephen Harper repeated again Monday in the House of Commons.
The Department of National Defence would not confirm or deny the special forces are in Mali due to issues of security of personnel.
But a spokesperson for Foreign Affairs told CBC News, “Steps have been taken to ensure our mission and Canadian personnel are protected.”
Evan Solomon, host of CBC News Network’s Power & Politics, reports the special forces on the ground are protecting Canadian assets such as the Canadian Embassy in the capital Bamako, according to sources.
Related: UK Troops to Train Mali Forces
