Browsing Tag

commodities

Russia cuts Europe off completely from its gas

Edward Harrison Jan 7, 2009

The Ukraine-Russia row over natural gas has escalated to a new high. Now, state-owned Gazprom has completely cut off supplies to Europe through the Ukrainian transit route. It still remains unclear what the ultimate aim of the Russians…

Political Economy

Russia: playing chicken with Ukraine over natural gas

Edward Harrison Jan 4, 2009

As an article in my links yesterday suggested, for many in the west, Russia's behavior of late has lurched toward the unpredictable, volatile and aggressive. After Russia's moves against Georgia in South Ossetia, wariness in the west has…

Daily

My best and worst calls of 2008: a credit crisis retrospective

Edward Harrison Dec 29, 2008

This is the time of year when everyone tends to look back and sum up the year in one way or another. I have been doing much of the same. In keeping with that theme, I have taken a good look through my nearly 1400 posts to get a better…

Political Economy

Kuwait: A harbinger of Mideast deficits to come

Edward Harrison Dec 21, 2008

With oil prices having plummeted, one should expect Middle Eastern oil exporters' budgets to implode. What were budget surpluses will quickly turn to deficits, stoking civil unrest amongst the burgeoning masses. Very high population growth…

Markets

Brent – WTI disconnect

Edward Harrison Dec 19, 2008

Recently, an enormous 33% premium has developed for Brent. To me, this gap is utterly inexplicable except by technical factors. Translation: some players have a huge long position of WTI and they are getting squeezed.

Canada: how much of a slowdown should we expect?

Edward Harrison Dec 18, 2008

I am going to post a BBC article here that gives an anecdote about western Canada and how the boom in oil and commodities is causing economic problems there. Make of it what you will, but my bottom line is that Canada is neither immune from…

Business

Rio Tinto: all kinds of trouble

Edward Harrison Dec 18, 2008

Just months ago, Rio Tinto was a behemoth swaggering from the huge run up in commodity prices. This is a company that had revenue of nearly $30 billion and net income of nearly $8 billion in 2007. It was worth over $160 billion by May as…

Business

Glencore: credit default swaps suggest something amiss

Edward Harrison Dec 16, 2008

You have probably never heard of Glencore. Well you have heard of its founder Marc Rich, the man infamously pardoned by President Clinton before he left office. And I suspect that you will soon hear a lot more about the company as well.…

Political Economy

Russia devalues currency again as foreign reserves plummet

Edward Harrison Dec 15, 2008

Russia is one country that we do not want to see fall on hard times. It has great geo-strategic power, but a weak economy, declining oil output and revenues and increasingly autocratic rule? Now it is being roiled by the global financial…

Business

Glencore: A Swiss giant on the edge

Edward Harrison Nov 18, 2008

I caught a post today on the Swiss Blog Zeitenwende about Glencore, the Swiss corporate giant, which should reinforce the fact that this credit crisis is far from over. As the original post was in German, I have translated it into English…

Previous 1 … 36 37 38 39 40 … 44 Next