News from July 2011

The Seven Secrets of Successful Globalization

A fashionable consensus among MBA students, managers and luminaries such as Colin Powell, George Soros and Tom Friedman, to name but a few, has been building around the notion that the world is globalized—that borders don’t matter at all. But fashion is no substitute for the facts—so consider some data about globalization. Despite the perception that [...]

Ugo Bardi: The question of Sovicille

My job often casts me the role of public speaker and that gives me a chance to visit very interesting places. Not long ago, I gave a talk in the small town of Sovicille, near Siena, in the beautiful countryside of central Tuscany. At this presentation, a member of the audience posed a question that [...]

Pipelines 101: An Introduction To North American Oil & Gas Pipeline Routes and Safety Concerns

Over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to be rolling out a whole lot of information about pipelines. Why? Because these metal tubes are truly the blood vessels of the oil and gas industry. Without them, the industry wouldn’t be able to deliver the liquid fossil fuels to their refineries, or out to the [...]

Leaked contract reveals BP’s control of Iraqi oil

A report published today uses leaked documents to shows how BP secretly renegotiated it’s Iraqi oil contract, and how Iraqis will pay the price. Here is the press release for the report, published by PLATFORM A leaked contract between BP and the Iraqi government has revealed the extent to which the company has gained control [...]

Could a US Default Push Oil Prices Above $130? ‎

Could the price of oil, already high at about $96 per barrel, rise above $150 if the U.S Government defaults on its debt? Indeed it could. Here’s why: Oil, priced in dollars, tends to move higher as the U.S. dollar falls, and vice-versa. It’s a result of oil traders trying to maintain their “purchasing power” [...]

Militants attack gas pipeline to Israel

Gunmen blew up a terminal along Egypt’s natural gas pipeline to Israel in the northern Sinai Peninsula Saturday, security officials said. It is the third attack on the pipeline this month and the fifth since the 18-day uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak in February. No gas has been flowing through the pipeline since the [...]

India will use various currencies to pay Iran oil debt

India will use different currencies, but mainly euro, to pay Iran for its oil exports, an Iranian Oil Ministry official told Reuters on Sunday. “Different currencies will be used by India to pay its debt to Iran but the main part of the payment will be in euro,” the official said on condition of anonymity. [...]

A deflationist’s nightmare

If you’re in the same camp as David Rosenberg and Gary Shilling you believe that the economy is in the throes of a deflationary cycle. Whether or not I agree is irrelevant to this article. However I’d like to point a critical flaw in the deflationist’s investment strategy. A deflationary economy will cause bonds to [...]

Orlov: Thinking in Straight Lines

Let’s face it, we, the civilized, educated, enlightened part of humanity like things to be straight. Let primitive tribesmen live in picturesque and practical round huts—we require abstract boxes of steel and concrete clad in plate glass, with plenty of nice straight lines, true vertical and horizontal planar surfaces and lots of ninety-degree angles to [...]

World Population In 2050 To Explode To 9 Billion, Africa Contributes 49%

The world population is expected to reach nine billion in 2050, experts said. For the next fifty years in 2100, it is expected to climb to another billion, making it to ten billion. This is based on a review article by Professor David Bloom, which was highlighted by the Harvard School of Public Health press [...]