Author: Serkadis

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH. 10 December 2009 – QSI Corporation, designer and manufacturer of rugged human machine interface and mobile data terminals, announce their wireless handheld QTERM®-G58 is chosen by Dakota Fluid Power, a leader in hydraulic and pneumatic systems and service. The QTERM-G58 is included in the Fire Flow Pro® and ValveSTAR® systems provided by Hurco Technologies, Inc., a manufacturer of products built for the testing, maintenance and repair of sewer and water systems.

The public’s safety and property depend on the fire fighter having the proper water pressure to successfully fight a fire. With the Fire Flow Pro, the QTERM-G58’s wireless Ethernet allows a field operator to collect water pressure data and GPS location from the hydrant without the assistance of another person. This information is critical in maintaining hydrant performance. ValveSTAR uses the QTERM-G58 to track critical valve and hydrant exercising data, import work orders, capture GPS locations and create numerous reports. Operators can easily input data using the QTERM-G58’s “finger-friendly” keypad and transfer the information to a laptop or office computer. Visit www.gethurco.com for more information about Hurco Technologies, Inc.

The QTERM-G58 is a wireless and battery powered handheld graphic HMI with a transflective sunlight readable LCD display measuring 89 mm (3.5″) diagonal. Features include a 200 MHz processor, resistive touch screen and a 24- or 40-key keypad. The QTERM-G58 is NEMA-4 rated and will soon feature Windows® Embedded CE.

About QSI Corporation
Established in 1983, QSI Corporation is a leading designer and manufacturer of rugged operator interface and mobile data terminals (TREQ®) for industrial OEMs and commercial vehicle systems integrators. For more information, contact QSI Corporation at 801-466-8770 or visit www.qsicorp.com.

About Dakota Fluid Power, Inc.
Dakota Fluid Power, Inc. has provided quality hydraulic and pneumatic systems, sales and service since 1991. Known for hydraulic distribution, service and manufacturing of most major lines of hydraulic power units and systems, pneumatic and electrical systems, Dakota Fluid Power Inc. also provides testing, field service and installation services. For more information, call 605-338-9982 or visit www.dakotafluidpower.com.

Particular high-pressure maintenance units are being used in the PET blow molding technology, the offshore
technology and in the ship industries.
In our established Standard product line we offer several units for 40 up to 60 bar applications.
40- and 60 bar Filter und Microfilter
• Compressed air filters in modular design
• Manually operated drain valve
• Filter element of sintered bronze
• Body of aluminum (black anodized)
• Bowl of brass
• Test certificate included
• Available sizes from G 3/8 to G 2
Microfilter like filter, but
• Filter element for 0,01 ¼m
• Sizes from G 3/8 to G 1

40- and 60 bar Pressure Regulator
• 40- and 60 bar inlet pressure
• Outlet pressure from 0,5 to 25 bar (40 bar regulator) or 50 bar (60 bar
regulator)
• Body of brass and aluminum diecast
• Sizes from G 1/4 to G 2
• Mounting on either side.
• Bracket mounting upon request

40 bar Pressure Regulator Diaphragm Type
• Diaphragm type pressure regulator with servomechanism
• Sizes from G 1 1/2 up to G 2
• Outlet pressure ranges: 0,5 to 6, 10, 16 and 25 bar
• Two gauges (inlet and outlet pressure) can be mounted on both sides
• Bracket mounting upon request
Safety Valve
• Component tested Safety Valve DN 8
• CE certified
• Sizes from G 1/4 to G 1/2
• Operating pressure from 1.5 up to 40 bar
• Material: brass

Mini Blow-Off-Valve
• Not component tested
• Sizes from G 1/8 to G 1/4
• Operating pressure up to 60 bar
• Material: brass

Threading technology:

For more than 25 years we have been well-known as threading manufacturers. An extensive product range of screw threads and screw nuts can be delivered on short notice.

We manufacture components ready for installation, including all turning, milling and drilling operations as well as subsequent end machining and surface finishing.

Standard threads:

External screw thread diameters range between 10 mm and 180 mm. Work piece lengths up to 6 metres are processed by default. We are also able to manufacture longer external screw threads on demand, based on the availability of the feed material, or diameters exceeding 180 mm.

We are able to manufacture internal screw threads from a diameter starting from 10 mm. Our internal screw thread lengths are dependent on the thread diameter up to 10 x D (D = nominal thread diameter). Longer internal screw threads are processed on demand.

Product range of screw threads:

External screw threads and internal screw threads according to international thread standards as well as special screw threads according to your individual needs, based on a drawing or sample can be manufactured by us. Our product range includes single and multi-start threads, as well as whirled, milled, machine-cut and turned threads.

We furthermore offer screw nuts corresponding to our threaded spindles, a repair service for lead screws as well as the production of pump rotors.

West Texas Intermediate crude has dropped below $70.

A few weeks ago it was in the mid-$80s.

FT Alphaville’s Izabella Kaminska highlights research from JBC Research about the sad state of end demand (remember, last week’s surprisingly narrow trade deficit was partly the result of oil demand at levels not seen since January 2000):

Some of the reasons behind the latest bearish wave are: the massive middle-distillate overhang, negative y-o-y demand figures for gas oil and gasoline, a widening crude contango, bearish economic headlines, renewed turbulence in financial markets and a strengthening dollar.

And those demand figures: pretty much down everywhere.

This weekend we noted how the last time oil and gold made a sharp move down in tandem, such as what we’ve seen in the last couple weeks, bad things followed.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• The Next Leg Of Deflation Has Begun
• Oil’s Going To $225 By 2012, Says Analyst
• The Recovery Is Faltering

Nouriel Roubini’s nickname is “Dr. Doom,” but unlike other noted doomsayers who warn about massive debt and deflation, he’s a Keynesian. So his views are more in line with the likes of Paul Krugman — more spending, please — than many of the uber-bears with whome he’s frequtnly lumped in.

And like other Keynesians he’s not a gold bull. Remember, Keynesians believe in the curative power of paper money.

On Friday he dropped a roundhouse kick on the gold bulls with a post at Roubini.com about “The New Bubble in the Barbous Relic that is gold.”

Via ZeroHedge, here are his five reasons why gold is toast:

First, the dollar carry trade may at some point unravel, popping the global asset bubble that this carry trade has fueled.

Second, central banks will eventually need to exit quantitative easing and effectively zero policy rates, which will put downward pressure on risky assets including commodities.

Third, bouts of global risk aversion may occur as the global recovery may turn fragile, anemic and subpar, thus leading to a rise in the U.S. dollar that would drive down prices of commodities and gold in dollar terms.

Fourth, since the carry trade and the wall of liquidity are causing a global asset bubble, some of the recent rise of gold is also bubble driven by herding behavior and momentum trading, pushing gold higher and higher. But all bubbles eventually crash and the bigger the bubble the bigger the eventual crash.

Fifth, the effect of rising sovereign risk on gold prices is ambiguous, as the events of recent weeks suggest. A risk in such risk could push up the price of gold if it leads to expectations that central banks will eventually monetize those fiscal problems. But in practice it has weighed on the price of gold because it has increased investors’ risk aversion and led to a rush into a different (and more liquid) asset than gold—e.g. the U.S. dollar—thus pushing gold prices down. In general, gold always competes with fiat currencies and anything that is dollar bullish—like repeated bouts of global risk aversion—tends to be gold bearish.

He adds:

Thus, the gold bugs are wrong—or at least very, very premature—in justifying buying gold as an attack on fiat currency. The velocity of money is still low or falling—the opposite of a currency crisis or run on the dollar. As a further indication of the collapse of credit/money multipliers, indicators of expected inflation are subdued or falling, despite governments printing money (excess reserves). The high inflation scenario may be constrained even if/when easy money gains too much traction, as the yield curve would steepen sharply, raising the discount rate for risky private sector debt and for corporate equity, limiting the speed of the recovery and hence the ability of states to impose inflation surprises in the context of shortening average debt maturities.

Read more over at Zero Hedge >>

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Russian Central Bank Buys 30 Tons Of Gold From State Repository
• As Gold Slides, One-By-One, The Haters Come Out Of The Woodwork
• IMF: Rising Asset Correlations Prove Roubini’s Dollar Carry Trade Warning

Here it is, via DubaiChronicle.com:

—–

The Government of Dubai, acting through the Supreme Fiscal Committee (”SFC”), today announced a set of actions in relation to Dubai World: Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Dubai Supreme Fiscal Committee said: Like other global financial centers, Dubai has faced recent market challenges driven by global economic slowdown and severe real estate market correction.

Recently, Dubai World announced that it might not be able to commercially support its obligations. Since that time, the Government of Dubai has worked closely with the Abu Dhabi Government and the UAE Central Bank addressing and assessing the impact of Dubai World on the UAE economy, banking system and investor confidence.

The following provides comprehensive set of actions: First, the Government of Abu Dhabi and the UAE Central Bank have agreed to provide important support.

Specifically, the Government of Abu Dhabi has agreed to fund $10 billion to the Dubai Financial Support Fund that will be used to satisfy a series of upcoming obligations on Dubai World.

As a first action for the new fund, the Government of Dubai has authorized $4.1 billion to be used to pay the sukuk obligations that are due today. The remaining funds would also provide for interest expenses and company working capital through April 30, 2010 – conditioned on the company being successful in negotiating a standstill as previously announced.

In addition, the Government of Dubai is particularly focused on addressing the concerns of Dubai World trade creditors within the Emirate of Dubai. To help address these concerns, today the Government of Dubai is announcing that the remainder of the funds provided will be used for the satisfaction of obligations to existing trade creditors and contractors. Discussions with affected contractors will begin in short order.

Next, the central bank is also prepared to provide support to local UAE banks.

Finally, today the Government of Dubai will announce a comprehensive reorganization law, a framework that is based upon internationally accepted standards for transparency and creditor protection. This law will be available should Dubai World and its subsidiaries be unable to achieve an acceptable restructuring of its remaining obligations.

Today’s actions, taken together, demonstrate our strong commitment as a global financial leader to transparency, good governance, and market principles. There will certainly be challenges periodically, just as there are challenges in other major financial centers around the globe. We believe today’s actions will best serve the interests of all stakeholders.

We are here today to reassure investors, financial and trade creditors, employees, and our citizens that our government will act at all times in accordance with market principles and internationally accepted business practices. Dubai is, and will continue to be, a strong and vibrant global financial center. Our best days are yet to come.

The Government of Dubai remains committed to its high standards and its obligations. We are confident in our economic model, and we are confident in the long-term health and outlook for our economy.

The actions taken today are consistent with our market development, and we believe they are the actions that will best serve the interests of all stakeholders.”

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Check Out The Banks That Just Made A Boatload Of Money On The Dubai Bailout
• World Markets Jump On Dubai Bailout News
• A Satellite Tour Of The Dubai Debacle

Cloud computing, despite the fact that most people still have no real idea what it means, is taking off and on-demand services by the likes of Google and Amazon are becoming increasingly popular with people wanting cheap computing power and storage for their sites or projects. As the market matures, the offerings diversify, following the trend of other markets which use a similar pay-per-use model but are otherwise completely unrelated. Amazon has now released a new product for its EC2 service dubbed Spot Instances which allow users to bid for computing power in an automated auction system to maximize the available capabilities while keeping costs down.

“As customers continued to expand their use of AWS, they started asking if additional pools of capacity were available, even if only for a few hours at a time. Some customers were looking to reduce costs in exchange for being flexible as to when they run their application; others told us they were willing to pay more when they had urgent, high volume needs,” Peter De Santis, general manger of Amazon EC2, said.

“Because of the dynamic nature of supply and demand in the Amazon EC2 environment, we developed Spot Instances to let customers take advantage of our unused capacity while specifying a price they are willing to pay,” he added.

The… (read more)

For many years, in the US, there were claims that Comcast was doing traffic shaping on its network, slowing down or even blocking certain types of traffic. Despite increasingly sophisticated evidence, Comcast always denied it, until the Associated Press finally presented proof. Comcast still tried to dance around on definitions, but finally came clean. In response it got a wrist slap from the FCC (which it’s fighting in court), but it has become a lot more transparent in its traffic shaping/filtering practices. There just isn’t any logical reason why any ISP should be less than forthcoming about these issues.

Slashdot points us to the news that a new study of Israeli ISPs shows that, despite denying it, many are traffic shaping P2P traffic, often using deep packet inspection. Apparently, Israel’s Communications Ministry is already looking into this and determining if it requires any action on its part. It makes you wonder why ISPs think it makes sense not to explain what they’re doing to customers.

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In its latest quarterly reserach update, the Bank of England acknowledges the recent spike the cost of credit protection on UK gilts, and what it means about the world’s confidence in the country. (via DailyMail)

In addition, contacts noted that gilt yields were affected by
concerns about how the gilt market would absorb the scale of
prospective issuance by the UK Debt Management Office
and/or potential gilt sales by the Bank.  Similarly, because of
the projected UK government debt position, investors
mightalso have become more concerned about the
UnitedKingdom’s credit standing and demanded additional
compensation to hold gilts.  The premia on long-horizon UK
sovereign credit default swaps (CDS) rose both in absolute
terms and relative to other triple-A rated sovereign borrowers,
but remained below their peaks earlier in the year (Chart 13).

qb0904 –

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Citi Blasts Moody’s Optimism, Says UK’s AAA Rating Is Doomed
• U.K. Analysts: The UK Budget Is Terrible, Especially The Part About Big Taxes On Bonuses
• Moody’s Says US And UK "Test" The Limit Of Their AAA Ratings — Pound Tanks .4%

SGR slewing drives are an essential component in transmiting power from Electric Motor or Hydraulic Motor on equipment such as tower cranes, wind turbines, discharge facility and excavation machine and construction equipment.

Its planetary structure means that it can withstand very high torque values. The wide range of ratios available enables the selection of a motor size and type which best suits users’ requirements: hydraulic, electric, pneumatic.Simple mounting, operating reliability and versatility make these units suitable for the most severe duties and environments.

SGR produces the slewing drives also in gearmotor version, with integrated hydraulic motor and brake, specifically designed for mini-excavators and light duty machines.

SGR company will be always glad to provide solutions to you if you can offer following data: 1. input power 2. ratio 3. working conditions

Energy saving with tie bar-less benefits
Hybrid machine with hydraulic, tie bar-less clamping unit and electrical injection unit.

The universal machine in the small to mid-sized machine range, between 280 and 2,200 kN with hybrid drive concept as a combination of the tried-and-trusted ENGEL victory clamping unit with the ENGEL e-motion series injection units. The ENGEL e-victory is deployed wherever compatibility with an existing range of moulds, efficient mould changing and easy automation are required.

The ENGEL e-victory is the best machine for energy-saving production

using moulds with hydraulic core-pulls and/or hot runner nozzles
using hydraulic high speed mounting systems
and it leverages the precision offered by an electric injection unit
while at the same time benefiting from ENGEL’s tie bar-less technology

Solar oil skimmer removes oil from wastewater at locations without power

Abanaki Corporation offers the Oil Grabber® Model 8 with a Solar Option, the leading oil skimmer with a solar-power enhancement, which makes it a portable oil-skimming powerhouse.

Applying the Model 8’s already proven success at removing oil from water and water-based solutions, this unit provides a continuous belt and wiper to remove up to 40 gallons of oil per hour from the fluid surface – and lets you “run with the sun.” A 12-V motor powers the compact, self-contained unit. That motor runs off a deep-cycle battery, which in turn is recharged by an adjustable solar panel. It takes only a couple of hours to recharge the battery.

The solar option makes this unit ideal for locations far from electric service, such as mine sites and the remote corners of steel mills, food processing plants, and rail yards. At times, skimming alone can reduce oil to an acceptable level of water purity. Depending on the characteristics of the liquid, it is possible for the Model 8 solar oil skimmer alone to reduce oil content to less than five parts per million in water. The unit is used as a pretreatment before disposal, as well as in conjunction with coalescing systems and with systems where it prevents filters from blinding prematurely.

Using an upper and lower pulley system, the belt runs through contaminated liquid to pick up oil from the surface. The belt travels over the head pulley and then passes through tandem wiper blades, from which oil is scraped off both sides and discharged. The tail pulley features flanges that allow the pulley to roll freely on the inside of the belt without becoming dislodged. No bearings are needed; the unit does not need to be fastened to the tank. An optional tether and cage assembly is offered to prevent the tail pulley from being dislodged. The Oil Grabber Model 8 can be used in tanks with depths as shallow as one foot or as deep as 100 feet.

About Abanaki Corporation: Abanaki, the world leader in oil skimmer products, manufactures a wide range of products to remove oils, greases, solvents, and related hydrocarbons from water. Skimmer models are available with removal rates ranging from 1 to 200 gallons per hour in both stationary and portable systems. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Abanaki has served a global customer base in industries as diverse as iron and steel, wastewater, paper, food processing, automotive, environmental remediation and recycling for more than 40 years. Today, under the corporate motto “Clean Our World™,” Abanaki continues to address pollution in industry through innovation, customer commitment, and environmental stewardship within its own operations.

	Tesla employees going on 2,700-mile road trip from LA to Detroit Yes, there will be many stops along the way.		Automaker Advice: How to relieve long-range anxiety and gain market share Two words: rental cars.
	NMG two-seat electric car now available for pre-order The price could be as low as $22,495 if 1,000 people place a pre-order.	Other news: 2nd-gen Smart Ed driven, still not ready for its close-up Shell opens New York’s third hydrogen station in the Bronx At Witz’ End – The Business of Plugging In, Take 2

AutoblogGreen for 12.14.09 originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 14 Dec 2009 05:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last night we mentioned NY Governor David Patterson, who just announced plans to withhold money from state schools in order to keep The Empire State solvent.

Paul Krugman would refer to him as a little Herbert Hoover for cutting spending during a recessionary, thus creating a drag on an economy that can ill-afford it.

Well, bad news, the little Hoovers are multiplying!

As Goldman Sachs (GS) notes (via ShiftCTRL), all around the coutry, state budgets are being negatively impacted by surprisingly sluggish tax receipts, and that’s going to contribute to lower spending, and that’s going to be a drag on the economy.

Says Goldman:

State budget gaps going into FY 2010 were
even larger than we thought.  In April, the
National Conference of State Legislatures
(NCSL) estimated that these gaps totaled $121bn. 
This was the latest figure available for our July
analysis, but it has since risen to $146bn.2  In
other words, state governments had to carve out
$25bn more in tax hikes or spending cuts than we
had expected as they finished work on FY 2010
budgets, a figure worth close to 0.2% of GDP.
 
2. Income and sales tax revenues have started the
fiscal year well below state budget officers’
expectations.  In July, we said that these
expectations—up 1.3% for income taxes and 3%
for sales taxes—seemed unrealistically high given
the depth of the recession and the normal
tendency for tax revenues to lag economic turning
points.  Data for the third quarter support this
skepticism.  As shown in Exhibit 1, year-to-year
changes in both categories were deeply negative
according to the Rockefeller Institute of
Government, which tracks state revenue.  Figures
in the national income and product accounts,
which add in local government revenues, were
governments would exert a drag of 0.6-0.7 percentage
points on annualized real GDP growth between mid-
2009 and mid-2010, a period that corresponds to fiscal
year (FY) 2010 for most of these jurisdictions.1  This
projection was predicated on: (1) an observation that
federal fiscal stimulus under the American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) would offset only part
of the shortfalls state governments faced in attempting
to balance their budgets, and (2) a judgment that tax
revenues would continue to fall short of expectations
as the fiscal year unfolded, reflecting the depth of the
recession.  Together, these two factors implied the
likelihood of $80-$100bn in fiscal restraint to bring
and keep these budgets in balance.

 
This estimate is about on track judging from the
also down sharply.  This was the basis for our full
fiscal year estimates, and for both categories it is
clear that the year is off to a very weak start.  The
evidence on corporate taxes—not shown—is
more mixed but also less important as these levies
comprise only about 4% of state tax revenue.
 
3. As a result, most budget officers have lowered
their sights on general revenues for FY 2010. 
According to the NCSL, 39 states plus Puerto
Rico now expect general revenues to fall in FY
2010, and at least 9 expect setbacks of more than
5%.  Of the 10 states indicating that general
revenue might beat their projections, several—
including California—have cited tax law changes
(rather than economic conditions) as the principal
reason.  Judging from the data presented in
Exhibit 1, the reduced expectations for the group
as a whole still embody an implicit assumption
that year-to-year tax flows will improve over the
next three quarters.  This is not unreasonable for
an economy that is slowly coming back to life, but
the risks still lie to the downside.  For example,
the Rockefeller Institute reports that tax flows in
the fourth quarter remain depressed according to
its contacts.

 
4. Spending has also surprised to the high side. 
Although revenue shortfalls have been the main
factor causing budget gaps to reemerge during the
fiscal year, state governments have had to spend
more on Medicaid and other public support
programs, the need for which rises as the
economy weakens.  Almost two-fifths of the
states reported this as a problem.
 
5. Together, surprises on both sides of the ledger
have opened up a new mid-year budget gap of
at least $28bn.  We say “at least” because 15
states have not yet revised estimates; the $28bn
figure comes from the other 36 that have done so
(counting Puerto Rico among those that now see
new shortfalls).  Of the missing 15, only a few are
apt to avoid midcourse corrections, and some of
the 36 will probably find that their gaps are even
wider than they now anticipate.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Governor Paterson Goes Hoover: Delays Payments To Local Schools To Keep State Solvent
• Gartman: Illinois Is The New California
• 10 States On The Verge Of A Fiscal Catastrophe

The Google phone which the company denied so vehemently is very much a reality and it’s coming to market early next year. Google has confirmed its existence though it claims it is only a testing device handed out to employees as a sort of mobile lab to run experimental apps and services. Everyone else though is having a field day with info on the device and we know that it will be called Nexus One and will be sold as an unlocked GSM phone, which in the US means it will work on T-Mobile and AT&T. In fact, the unlocked phone will apparently be carried by T-Mobile as well.

“At Google, we are constantly experimenting with new products and technologies, and often ask employees to test these products for quick feedback and suggestions for improvements in a process we call dogfooding (from “eating your own dogfood”). Well this holiday season, we are taking dogfooding to a new level,” Mario Queiroz, vice president, Product Management, writes on Google’s mobile blog.

“We recently came up with the concept of a mobile lab, which is a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities, and we shared this device with Google employees across the globe. This means they get to test out a new te… (read more)

On the occasion of the recent fifth birthday of this blog, we thought a bit about the archival nature of the whole enterprise. With (almost) daily updates about fresh projects from visualization and information aesthetics, about 1950 different projects have been described and documented up to now. So here [moritz.stefaner.eu] is a first step towards making this growing archive more accessible: a custom adaptation of the elastic lists principle for the 1950 posts of infosthetics.com.

Here is how it works: The little tiles on the left represent the individual posts, with color stripes representing their categories. You can find a color legend in the category filter on the right. In addition, you will find filters for the number of comments, year and author. Clicking one of the filter entries will display only matching posts, and also update the number of items for each filter accordingly. If you click a post, you can see its details on the bottom, and visit it by clicking the preview. In addition, the filter values that belong to this post are marked with a grey background.

The little bar charts in each filter show you the relative number of posts in the current filter context (red bar) compared to the overall percentage (grey bar) – so, in the example above, you can see that for the selected category infographic the number of comments is slightly higher than usual and the posts seem to be more recent overall.

There is certainly room for improvement (keyword search, represent links between projects…), but we thought it would be good to share it anyways – so try it out and let us know what you think! Do you think this is worth pursuing, and which other browsing options/modes could be interesting to you?

(Note by infosthetics: Best birthday present ever! Thnkx Moritz!)

Niall Ferguson is in the media a lot, but this interview with Consuelo Mack (via Paul Kedrosky) is one of the best summations of he’s views we’ve come across.

Some of the points he gets across:

• Governments and households are in denial about how the world has changed post-crisis.
• Wall Street is in a worse state than prior to the crisis because now the government backstop is explicit, and because the remaining players now have a bigger oligopoly than before.
• The yuan-dollar link is badly hurting other countries, like Japan and Germany, because the Yuan really should be strengthening. Instead it’s weakening.
• The Fed will have to catch its lenders by surprise — a shock devaluation of sorts — if it wants to inflate its way out of debt.
• It won’t be that long before the US has a true equal — China — in the global economy.
• As the US gets poorer, chaos around the world will increase, as we can’t afford to create stability. Aready we’re seeing it in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, and elsewhere.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Yield Curve Is The Steepest It’s Been Since 1980 Amid Flight To Safety And Long-Term Debt Fears
• Actually, America Is Massively Slowing Its Debt Binge
• Niall Ferguson: Even Krugman Admits The Deficit Is Unsustainable

MineWeb has an excllent interview with independent mining consultant Jack Lifton on the subject of rare earth metals.

TGR: I heard you speak recently at the Hard Assets Conference about supply issues in terms of expanding wind and solar technologies. Can you explain some of those supply constraints?

JL: Yes. In the United States, Canada, and Western Europe we are consuming most of the supplies of the technology metals. Now we’re facing six billion people in the rest of the world whose standard of living is growing rapidly and we do not have ten times the amount of materials used to create the good life in the West to create the same standard of living for the entire world.

I don’t mean to be a doomsayer, but if the Chinese government wants its own people to have the standard of living that people in Los Angeles have today, it’s going to mean that China must use all of its own natural resources to improve its standard of living and its quality of life, which will mean that our standard of living will have to decline. Why? Because there are some materials-for example, the rare earths-that China controls 100% of the supply of today. And as China’s economy is growing, China is requiring more and more of these materials for its own domestic economy.

Ten years ago China exported 75% of its production of rare earth metals to the rest of the world. Today it exports less than 25%, even though the production in the last 10 years has more than doubled. So that should tell you what’s going on here. This is not a conflict. This is economic reality.

Now I’m using the rare earths as an example of something I think is very much misunderstood in the West. The rare earth metals were originally discovered in Europe and originally produced commercially en masse in California. The largest rare earth deposit in the world of its kind was discovered in California in 1947. It was put into production and by 1984 that site, Mountain Pass, California, near the Nevada border on M-15, was producing 35% of the world’s rare earth metals and 100% of the domestic needs of those metals here in the U.S. That was 25 years ago. Today that mine is producing nothing and approximately 95% of the rare earth metals are today produced in the People’s Republic of China. The United States imports all its rare earth metals from the People’s Republic of China.

Why? Because between 1984 and 2009, Chinese production of those metals ramped up to the point where the Chinese decided to lower the price so that they could sell more metals so they could mine more metal and employ more people. They basically were able to sell these metals into the market, including to the United States, at a price less than the cost of producing it in California. Well, if you believe in a global economy, then you say, that’s how capitalism works.

There are now other issues arising besides price, which is what shut down the Mountain Pass mines. Price may not be as important as security of supply. Do we really need rare earth metals to maintain our style of life? We cannot force the Chinese to sell them to us. The Chinese have an internal priority to develop their domestic economy. China’s issue is the need of the Chinese economy to grow and to improve the quality and style of life of the Chinese people. We have become so dependent on rare metals in general and rare earth metals in particular in our technological economy and at the same time we’ve simply ignored the fact that we are not producing them in the West.

TGR: Doesn’t the U.S. have plenty of metals? Why aren’t we supplying more of what we need?

JL: The United States has the largest distribution of different metals and minerals of any country in the world. The National Mining Association, on their website, nma.org, shows that we have 76 minerals and metals in the United States in sufficient quantity to supply our needs. However, in the last 10 years we have lost our self-sufficiency in between 14 and 25 metals and minerals. Not that we don’t have them, but that we don’t produce them.

The reason for this is that we have been going global in our economic outlook. For example, Chile produces 25% of the world’s copper. Well, the United States was always self-sufficient in copper. Now we’re not. Now we’re beginning to import copper because it’s cheaper to buy Chilean copper than to keep mining more of it in Utah. The U.S. was always self-sufficient in iron. Today we import 30% of our iron ore to make steel here because it’s been, up till this moment, cheaper for us to do this than to produce it here. But now something new is happening. The demand in the rest of the world is increasing at such a rate that the United States must, for the first time in its history, compete.

We need to produce wealth here and not just consume it. One way we can produce wealth is by reactivating, for example, the rare earth mines we have and by starting new ones in the United States and North America. If we don’t start producing our own critical and strategic metals and minerals, we’re going to find that our industry, and anything we want that uses those materials, will be made in other places such as China. We’ll be at the mercy of those economies as to whether they have a surplus to ship us. China is a dynamic growing economy, which has four times as many people as we do and maybe 20% of our GDP. So, on average, they’re way behind us, but they’re growing and they are consuming their own production of energy, minerals, and metals and they do not believe that they must export those things to us, either as raw materials or finished goods if there’s a Chinese demand for them and they’re trying to increase Chinese demand.

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See Also:

• Electric Cars Will Strip The World Of Rare Earths
• Goldman’s Mining Subsidiary Using China Fears To Get Taxpayer Money (GS)
• China Doesn’t Ban Exports Of Rare Earth Metals

Last week Meredith Whitney declared that the government is out of bullets, and now Alan Greenspan is saying the same thing about his old place of employment, The Fed.

Reuters: The U.S. Federal Reserve has done all it can do to reduce unemployment and needs to worry more about the risk of inflation from the stimulus it poured into the economy, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Sunday.

“I think the Fed has done an extraordinary job and it’s done a huge amount (to bolster employment). There’s just so much monetary policy and the central bank can do. And I think they’ve gone to their limits, at this particular stage,” Greenspan said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Remember: this is a guy who knows his bullets, having fired them early and often at ever opportunity during his tenure at the Fed.

He’s probably right, though if anything he’s understating things a bit. The Fed, with its quantiative easing and massive expansion of the Fed’s balance sheet has already gone far beyond what many regard as safe.

Even if the Fed’s activites haven’t been dangerous and bubble-making, we should hope that the economy can somehow organically from here. If we’re still at the point where it’s on Bernanke to do the job, we’re screwed, especially in light of the higher Fed funding costs looming on the horizon…

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• Meredith Whitney Is Still Bearish, Says The Government Has Run Out Of Bullets
• Death Trap: Fed Stuck At Zero And US Borrowing Costs Starting To Rise
• Roach: The Fed Is Going To Blow The Exit, Get Ready For Another Massive Bubble

(This guest post originally appeared at the author’s blog)

There appears to be a similar outlook playing out among the major Wall Street strategists – H1 of 2010 will be very strong as the trends of late 2009 continue to play out while H2 2010 will be fraught with risks that could lead to a sizable market downturn.   RBC’s 2010 outlook is very similar to that of Credit Suisse & Morgan Stanley (read the full CS outlook here & the MS outlook here).   RBC sees 4 major themes playing out in 2010:

• Fundamentals will continue to rebound led by growth

• Market technicals remain supportive, though slightly rich

• External backdrop improving, though risks abound

• Remain bullish in H1 with ‘catch-up’ trade; adopt defensiveness on approach of H2

Like JP Morgan, they are particularly bullish on emerging markets:

The outlook for Emerging Markets (EM) is decidedly bullish on a long-term basis which should translate into solid returns in 2010 (particularly in H1), though the ongoing fallout from the financial crisis will continue to require disciplined risk management.

Heading into the back half of 2010 they see substantial risks arising.  Among them are these 5 primary concers:

• A possible double-dip (U.S. or global) looms once fiscal support measures are allowed to expire if private-sector demand has not recovered sufficiently to carry the economy on a sustainable growth path, leaving the economy vulnerable to a return to another recession (possibly in 2011-12).

• The US dollar collapses in a disorderly fashion causing commodity prices to rise quickly, triggering a tightening of monetary policy globally that weakens the global recovery.

• EM policy makers employ increasingly unconventional policy measures to slow the appreciation of their currencies versus a trend-weakening of the USD, raising investor concern over EM policymakers’ commitment to market-oriented policies and preventing progress in correcting global imbalances.

• Fiscal largesse amongst EM countries is not reigned in as improved access to international markets gives governments a false sense of security, which eventually causes a trend deterioration in the debt burden (debt/gdp) of most countries, weakening a key leg of the EM investment case.

• A loss in confidence of governments in the G-7 to re-impose fiscal discipline and put debt dynamics on a sustainable track leads to rising long-end yields globally, a strengthening in the USD and tighter access to financing, triggering other ‘Dubai-like’ events.

Source: RBC

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See Also:

• David Rosenberg’s Outlook For 2010
• The Euro Breakup Will Be THE Story Of 2010, As Analyst Expects Ireland And Greece To Leave The Union
• Goldman: Here’s How To Make A Killing In 2010