Drum Capacity: 7.600 liters, Concrete output: 5,5 m3 per batch
Maximum speed: 33 km/h, Road transfer from 0 to 30 km/h
Transmission: Hydrostatic, Hydromatic-Rexroth. 4 wheel driving.
Engine: Cummins Turbo-Diesel B5.9 TAA, 150 HP
4 wheel steering, ROPS-FOPS driving seat complete with double closing door, Weighing: Electronic System.
“Load Cells” acting on the drum, display and printer in the cab (on request).
Omlat delivers in fast times a line of electrospindles for steel working
We list the characteristics of the electrospindles:
– Cylindrical Shape diameter: ø=220mm L=860mm
– Max Speed: n 16.000 min-1
– Max Power (S1/100%): 30 kW
– Max Torque (S1/100%): 95.5 Nm
– Lubrication of the Bearings: Grease
– Tool Clamping: HSK-A 63 with hydraulic clamping
Filed under: Plants/Manufacturing, Buick, Chevrolet, GM, Earnings/Financials, UAW/Unions
Two weeks from now, General Motors will start running its Fairfax assembly plant continuously on a permanent basis. The unprecedented around-the-clock operation, following on the heels of the temporary third shifts a few months ago, is intended to boost the plant’s production from its current 4,500 vehicles per week to 6,300 units over the same period.
Operating around-the-clock is no simple feat. Experts point out that automotive assembly lines require a lot of scheduled maintenance, cleaning, and restocking – tasks that are usually accomplished during the down periods between shifts. Typically, car makers add second shifts on a temporary basis when the market demands more vehicles. Third shifts are common for part suppliers, but not for automakers (even Toyota Motor Corp., often cited as a benchmark in efficiency, rarely operates more than two shifts). To allow time for maintenance, GM and union officials have figured out how to “overspeed” parts of the assembly line so they can be slowed temporarily later. The three-shift assembly line will run about 21.6 hours per day (up from 14.5 hours with two shifts).
GM is moving cautiously. The Fairfax assembly plant is the automaker’s best candidate for a permanent third shift. Located in Kansas City, it consistently ranks among the most efficient automotive factories in America. In addition, the facility is tasked with manufacturing the Chevrolet Malibu and Buick Lacrosse – both vehicles are selling well, so a third shift will help satisfy demand rather than oversaturate the market. Hat tip to Sea Urchin for the tip!
[Source: Wall Street Journal – Subs. Req’d]
REPORT: GM to depart with form and run certain plants around-the-clock originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 23 Dec 2009 10:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Google is putting a lot of weight behind Chrome, now that its content with its maturity is starting to actively promote it, at least in the UK where it launched pretty big offline advertising campaign touting the browser’s strong points. And it seems to be paying off, bolstered by the recent beta releases and the Extensions Gallery on top of the advertising campaign, Chrome-related searches have almost doubled overtaking those for Internet Explorer.
“UK Internet searches for Google Chrome have almost doubled over the last couple of weeks and are currently running at their third highest level since the browser was launched towards the end of last summer,” Robin Goad, research director, Hitwise UK, said.
“Searches for Google Chrome overtook those for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer last week. However, as the chart below illustrates, Google still has some way to go before Chrome has the level of brand awareness associated with its main competitor in the ‘alternative browser’ world, Mozilla Firefox,” he added.
The numbers speak for themselves and, for the most part are easily explained. The fact that there are now more searches for Chrome than Internet Explorer doesn’t really mean anything. IE comes bundled with every Windows PC, so there aren’t going to be a lot of people searching for … (read more)
Luxor News Blog (Jane Akshar)
It is great to see that Jane is up and about and getting to the Mummification Museum lectures again. Here’s her latest report.
TT28 Amenhotep – Huy Dr Francisco Martin Valentine 12/12/9Identified on Friederike Kampp’s catalogue Amenhotep was a vizier, Huy is a common abbreviation or nickname for someone called Amenhotep. The tomb is ahead and down from the XI dynasty tomb TT366 Dyar and next to the XVIII dynasty tomb of TT192 Kheruef. It was discovered in May 1978 by Andrew Gordon and Dieter Eigner and is from the time of Amenhotep III 1387-1348 BC.
There is other evidence about this individual
1) 2 jar inscriptions from Malkata mention Vizier Huy referring to first Heb Sed Year 30
2) Steele BM138 Decree of foundation for a funerary temple for Amenhotep son of Hapu in Year 34 of Amenhotep III
3) Chapel at Gebel Silsila year 35 Amenhotep III Le Grand discovered in 1893. It is very important as the inscriptions talk about the relationship between Amenhotep III and IV and prove that Amenhotep III was not at Amarna
4) Remains from quarries
5) TT55 Ramose tomb there is an unnamed vizier at the front of the tomb making offerings to Ramose. This successor is believed to be Amenhotep – Huy
6) The Amarna letter EA11 from Prince Rib-Hadda seem to establish that he was commissioned to make inspections in Syria/Byblos
7) Statue CG590 from Tel El Basta which has no head or hands show he was an important man in the north
8) Statue BM1068 also with head and hands destroyed has an unusual title man, the main one of Nekten
9) Relief in Sobeks temple which replaced one of Ramose as Vizier of the south
See the above page for the rest of Jane’s notes.
Plus other Faculty News.
As the subject of our first profile we spoke with Salima Ikram, Professor of Egyptology, who has been with AUC in various capacities since 1995. Salima is a native of Lahore, Pakistan. A visit to Egypt in early childhood hooked her for life on the mysteries of the Egyptian past. She was educated primarily at Bryn Mawr College and Cambridge University, with a year in between as a Study Abroad student here at AUC. Salima is a powerhouse of productivity, with ten authored or edited scholarly books and six books for children, along with dozens of articles and conference presentations. She has also appeared in a staggering number of television specials and documentary films (since Egyptology is a beloved field around the world, after all). Among other honors, she was the 2007 winner of the AUC Excellence in Research and Creative Endeavors Award. Salima is also known around campus for a friendly personality and an excellent sense of humor. For all of these reasons, she seemed like an ideal candidate to launch our new Faculty Profiles series with the following interview. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
This year isn’t quite over, but in terms of netbooks, it’s evident what we’ll see next year — much more of the same, but with a different Intel chipset inside that offers longer battery life and a slight boost in performance. While a longer run-time benefits any mobile device, some mobile consumers might take issue with Intel’s thoughts that higher performing graphics solutions are “overkill.” Enter two different solutions that might help overcome the overkill.
NVIDIA’s ION solution debuted this year and pairs nicely with the current N270 / N280 Atom. It replaces the separate Intel graphics and offers a solid visual boost in today’s netbooks — 30 frames per second in Call of Duty 4 on a netbook offers a taste of ION’s power. But getting ION into a netbook has posed a challenge this year. Netbook makers allegedly pay more for the Atom alone than they do for the Atom and Intel graphics, which has surfaced as a potential legal issue. And with Intel placing their GMA 3150 graphics on the same chip as the new Atom N450, some have wondered if NVIDIA could still offer a solution. My gut said yes, and it turns out I was right — NVIDIA confirmed that their upcoming ION 2 will support the Intel Atom N450 in the netbooks of tomorrow. Since the ION solution is far more powerful, offering support for 1080p and full HD Flash, it could eat up the battery a bit faster than Intel’s integrated solution. That’s why I’m thinking the perfect solution might be “switchable” — users run on the integrated power-efficient graphics for most common tasks, but flip the switch to ION for a visual boost as needed for videos or games.
Broadcom is another player that entered the netbook graphics space in 2009, but took a different approach. Instead of providing a full graphics processing solution, Broadcom instead created their Crystal HD hardware graphics accelerator that works with the existing Intel integrated graphics. The solution works well for 1080p video playback with specific software as demonstrated in this video: aside from the Broadcom Crystal HD hardware, these two netbooks are basically identical.
Like NVIDIA, Broadcom is poised to gain a foothold in the netbooks of 2010. The company’s next generation Crystal HD solution is ready for OEMs to pair with the new Intel Atom and Broadcom wisely expanded how they offer the product. Tucked in the very bottom of the latest press release, Broadcom mentions that Crystal HD hardware can be installed right on the netbook motherboard, but will also be available in a PCI Express mini-card format, just like the prior hardware was. That means consumers could theoretically add a Broadcom Crystal HD module themselves in an open PCI Express slot as some have done in the past. Broadcom’s Crystal HD hardware accelerator provides software support for Adobe Flash 10.1, Microsoft Windows Media Player 12, and industry standard codecs like H.264/AVC, MPEG-2, VC-1, WMV9, MPEG-4, DivX, Xvid and AVS.
If Yoda were a mobile geek, he’d say: “Begun the netbook graphics wars have!”
Public response to the Canadian exclusive of King Tut: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs continues to be overwhelmingly positive, with more than 100,000 tickets sold since they became available just under three months ago.As a result, and to accommodate continued high demand, the Art Gallery of Ontario will continue extended evening hours through Jan. 31, 2010, on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays until 9:30 p.m. (last entry is 8 p.m.). In addition, the King Tut exhibition as well as the Gallery will be open until 5:30 p.m. Family Day, Monday, Feb. 15.
Cashtration (n): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
Maybe this is some “ok” news? In a story that I first noticed in Mortgage News Daily, enactment of ML 2009-28 (“Appraiser Independence”) will be delayed until February 15, 2010. “ML09-28 (originally planned for a January 1, 2010 implementation) has two parts: a) prohibition of mortgage brokers and commission-based lender staff from the appraisal process, and b) appraiser selection in FHA Connection. The effective date for both sections of this guidance will now take effect for all case numbers assigned on or after February 15, 2010. This extension will provide FHA and lenders additional time to adjust systems to accommodate the changes… lenders should be aware that the requirement for inputting the appraiser ID and the appraisal assignment date in the FHA Connection case number assignment screen will be removed. Instead, lenders will be required to enter all appraisal data, including the appraiser ID, in the Appraisal Update Screen once the completed appraisal is received by the lender and prior to closing the loan.”
In addition, ML 2009-51 (“Adoption of the Appraisal Update and/or Completion Report”), which was slated to start next weekend, is being extended and will now apply to all case numbers assigned on or after February 15, 2010. FHA lenders know that all FHA Mortgagee Letters can be read online at: http://www.hud.gov/offices/adm/hudclips/letters/mortgagee/
Some believe recent breakthroughs in shale gas technology provide the U.S. with a gigantic source of cheap, domestic energy.
Others don’t.
Reuters: New York City urged New York state on Wednesday to ban natural gas drilling in its watershed, adding unprecedented support to critics who consider the chemicals used to mine for shale gas as poisonous to drinking water.
The biggest city in the United States joined environmentalists and small-town neighbors of drilling operations in trying to hinder the exploitation of one of the most promising sources of U.S. energy — the Marcellus Shale formation.
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Since 1955, when Sears mistakenly printed NORAD’s phone number in its catalog instead of the number of its Santa hotline, NORAD has offered Santa-realted services by phone. Now, working together with Google, NORAD continues to offer the same service online during the holidays. Starting at 2 p.m. ET (GMT -5) on Christmas Eve, the newly enhanced Santa Tracker will go live.
Sponsor
This year, Google will use the Google Earth plugin to power noradsanta.org. According to Google, over eight million people used the site to track Santa in 2008.
In addition, Google also now offers a mobile site (m.noradsanta.org). In keeping with the times, NORAD also offers a Twitter account this year where “you can keep up with news about Santa’s flight.”
We’ve previously listed California as one of the world’s greatest soverign debt risks.
But the degree of similarity between the state and a serious-default-risk country like Greece is unsettling.
A very thorough comparison was released today by David Kodok, the chairman and chief investment officer of Cumberland Advisers.
Here it is (from The Big Picture):
Abstract: Sovereign debt is likely to be the big headline issue for 2010. This commentary will look at some debt-related issues of Greece and California in their two respective currency zones and then discuss our view of sovereign debt markets for 2010, particularly with respect to the US dollar and euro currency zones. Some strategy guidance for portfolio management of debt will wrap things up.
“Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks even when they bring gifts.” This is one of the English translations of Virgil’s Aeneid. It refers to the Trojan horse that Greece used to deceive Troy and gain entry into the city.
“During the Depression about half the population of Oklahoma moved to California and the intelligence level in both states went up.” Will Rogers, the great American commentator from Oklahoma, hatched this quip decades ago in his analysis of California’s governmental policies and its finances.
If we were writing a play on the theme of sovereign debt, we might use the following characterization. The US and the EU are the setting: two currency zones. The Fed and the ECB are the dominant members of the cast: two central banks responsible for the two currencies. Greece and California are in leading roles: two states within the two currency zones.
In the United States, California constitutes about 13% of America’s GDP. If CA were a standalone economy, it would be about the seventh largest in the world. The currency in use in California is the US dollar. The CA government determines its own budget, has its own constitution, operates an internal legal system, and decides its own state tax structure. It is also one of the 50 sovereign members of the USA and has legally bound itself to the rules promulgated in Washington, while attempting to preserve some state rights within our highly federalized legal system. CA and most other states have a requirement to balance an annual budget. There are provisions for emergencies in many of these states, and in the coming year we expect the concept of a financial emergency to be deployed and tested in various state courts. CA recently issued “script” during a short-lived budget crisis when it ran out of cash and until its legislature passed a revised budget. That was not the first time script has been used. We do not expect it will be the last.
In the euro zone, Greece is about 3% of the GDP. It is a sovereign state (country), one of the 16 members of the euro monetary system, and one of the 27 members of the European Union. GR maintains its own budget, although it has pledged to adhere to EU budget rules, which it is currently violating along with most other members of the EU. Under present agreements, penalties will occur if GR is not making a sufficient effort to improve its fiscal situation within a year. We do not expect those penalties to be imposed on GR nor on the other EU states in difficulty. Greece has its own tax structure, constitution, and internal legal system. GR is also covered by the newly developed EU Lisbon Treaty and, like other EU member states, is gradually moving into a Europe-wide economic structure.
California and Greece are both lowly rated by the agencies that appraise the creditworthiness of sovereign debt. CA and GR are also on the top of the list of possible default candidates in their respective currency zones. That list is prepared by CMA DataVision, a service that scrutinizes credit default swap pricing in order to determine market-based assessments of default probability over the next five years. CA and GR are both poorly rated, and their scores (default probabilities) are about the same
CA is a problem for the Federal Reserve because the state is a very large part of the US economy and because it is suffering from the financial crisis and the collapse of the housing bubble. If CA defaults, it will lose access to credit markets and contract a governmental economy that is 1/7 of the US. That would be a huge blow to the nascent American economic recovery. The Federal Reserve doesn’t directly place its funds in California’s debt; the Fed does function as the central banker for nearly all of the financial entities that underwrite and distribute CA debt. Commercial bank direct holdings of CA’s $76 billion debt are relatively small, due to the construction of the US tax code, which discourages banks from holding tax-free municipal bonds.
GR is a problem for the European Central Bank. The ECB doesn’t own Greek sovereign debt, but it does extend credit to Greece’s national banks in the euro zone, and they hold Greek debt. Furthermore, the ECB must consider the non-Greek euro zone banks, since they too hold Greek sovereign debt. There are rules in place that will disqualify the Greek sovereign debt from use as acceptable collateral in ECB lending operations to banks. These rules apply because of the credit rating downgrades of Greece and will take effect within a year if they are not suspended or deferred. This should motivate the Greek bank lobby to spur the government of Greece to action.
Moody’s (December 22, 2009) describes the Greece situation like this: “Government action has been swift. We believe they know what they need to do and are under a great deal of external pressure to deliver. Trend growth is likely to be slower than in recent years, which means that growth will not make a significant contribution to addressing the problem. The government is likely to meet its fiscal targets in 2010. What happens in 2011 and beyond is uncertain.”
PMI reports that in California about one out of 20 (5%) of all prime mortgages are in foreclosure. Worse is that one out of five subprime mortgages are in foreclosure. CA house prices fell 8% in the year ending September 30. Payroll employment dropped 4.6% in the year ending October.
The continuing saga of California’s budget crisis is well-known, so we won’t recount details here. In a recent report (November 23, 2009) Moody’s said: “Last Wednesday, the California Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) released a report stating that California’s current-year budget gap is approximately $6 billion and that the gap for next year is $14.4 billion. Gaps of this magnitude were expected, however, and were built into our current rating for the State of California (currently rated Baa1, with a stable outlook). This new report, therefore, does not affect California’s long-term or short-term rating. Although the size of the budgetary gap is important in determining the state’s rating, actions taken by the state to resolve the gap are even more critical because it is within the state’s power to address these large imbalances. If the gaps were to grow significantly from what has been announced by the LAO, however, or if the state cannot execute a plan to address these gaps in a timely fashion, this difficult situation could signal credit deterioration beyond our expectations. Downward pressure on the state’s ratings could result.”
To sum this up: these are two central banks, the Fed and the ECB, with two currencies, the euro and the dollar, operating within two federations of sovereign states, the USA and the EU. The EU is new and only recently became the world’s largest economy, if you add up the entire 27 member states’ GDP. The 27 states are divided into three groups: those in the euro zone, those that want to be in and are trying to get in; and those that have elected not to go in or cannot qualify to get in. The US has a seasoned 50-state membership and is over 200 years old. It started as a loose and weak federation of strong sovereign states and has gradually and solidly tested a constitutional structure of strong central government, which now dominates its states.
About 75% of the combined debt of the entire world is pegged to one of these two currencies. The benchmark interest rate on the euro is the 10-year German government bond; it is paying about 3.25% interest. The benchmark debt of the US dollar is the 10-year US Treasury note; it is paying about 3.75% interest. Both the EU and the Fed are central banks whose jurisdictional boundaries have involved them in episodes of hyperinflation and depression. Both civil and international wars are parts of that history.
Both banks have the same problem. What do they do with policy when they have weakening credit among their sovereign member states? Greece is not the only problem for the ECB. It has to also keep an eye on other weak member states, like Ireland, Portugal, Italy, and Spain. California is not the only problem for the Fed. It has to deal with issues that are surfacing in places like Michigan, New Jersey, and Florida. Both central banks face huge issuance of more sovereign debt, as the budgets within their jurisdictions are in large deficit.
Can any of these states in either system default? Of course they can. California actually flirted with it when it issued script for a brief period. Will the action of a state cause the federal currency to collapse? That is the key question plaguing the markets. We think the answer is no, but acknowledge that this is an untested question. Can the currency’s relative value be maintained by the monetary authority when a state within the currency zone defaults? We think the answer is yes, but with a qualifier.
At Cumberland, we do not expect to see a mass of sovereign defaults. The issues involved are political, and the political price of default is more severe than that of toughening up budget standards. In the end, politics will raise taxes and restrict spending to avert defaults. And actual default comes about when economic pressures cause it and when they leave the political body without a choice. In our view defaults are rarely politically expedient, because default threatens a change in the political regime. Therefore, we expect both Greece and California will pay their debts.
Furthermore, we do not expect the sovereign debt of any of these mature economies to default. The 27 EU member countries and the 50 US states are not anywhere near the same types of cases as Argentina or Venezuela. Those possible defaults are driven by economics and are a result of desperate politicians who have run out of room. Argentina and Venezuela are isolated, not in a currency zone and are victims of terrible politically driven policies. It is in no neighbor’s interest to help them financially.
History shows that most governments do not pay off their debts. They refinance them indefinitely, and their governing central bank applies its directives and mandates and accommodates its sovereign states within that context. It is in the difference between the Fed and the ECB that we may find the outcomes for 2010 and beyond. The ECB is a governmental entity structured under a treaty that clearly established its independence and directs it to maintain inflation under and close to 2%. The Fed is a creature of Congress and is under the most intense political pressure we have seen in the US in a very long time. The Lisbon Treaty did not affect the independence of the ECB. All of the various proposed legislation in the US Senate or the House removes or diminishes some aspect of Fed independence. None enhances it.
Since governments do not pay off their debt and, instead, use their political mechanisms to refinance it, that is what we should expect to see in 2010 and beyond as this large post-crisis infusion of sovereign debt is issued. Here is where the central banks come in and assist with the issuance. And here is where the market may be misjudging the impact.
Debt service is the key issue, not the debt aggregate. And since the principal is not paid off, it is the interest burden alone that constitutes the debt service item. So the market-related issue is, how much of the annual budget will be consumed in paying the interest, since that is where the debt-service cost will be applied. Furthermore, this burden is placed in the cash market only and not as an accrual. Markets seem to ignore accrued liabilities until they become real payments.
Another aspect of this construction about sovereign debt is that it is deflationary. Rising debt burdens consume greater and greater portions of income. They restrain spending. That is why the assumption that the increasing debt will bring on a large inflation is not necessarily correct. Japan is testimony to this outcome.
In order to get the inflation that can accompany large sovereign debt issuance, the central bank has to monetize the debt at very fast and accelerating rates for a prolonged time. In Japan, that policy shift is now a subject of debate, since they are weary of fifteen years of deflation. In Europe the ECB has a clear mandate to avoid an inflationary outcome. Only in the US is this a question, and the Federal Reserve continues to say it will provide liquidity for as long as is needed but will withdraw it slowly and after the economy achieves a more sustainable growth path. The Fed is counting on a new policy-management tool for this purpose. The Fed’s own quarterly FOMC long range forecasts confirm its commitment to avoid a rising inflation rate over the next several years.
The pressures on the Fed will intensify as the sovereign debt loads in the US rise, and especially as the difficulties of finance expand in many of the sovereign 50 states. Rising interest rates hurt the economic recovery, and particularly in the troubled states. Higher mortgage rates slow the incipient housing recovery, and they raise the debt burden of refinance. Help from the US federal government will certainly be forthcoming for the states, as it already has been, but the federal deficit is quite large and not likely to shrink. Remember that federal aid to a state is merely the substitution of one type of sovereign debt for another.
In sum, we expect government bond issuance and higher debt burdens to slow the recovery and to dampen inflation tendencies. That means the Federal Reserve is likely to have the room to continue its “extended period” construction for most of 2010. Hence, we believe the short-term interest rate in the US will remain quite low. The same is true in most of the rest of the world and certainly in the euro zone, the UK, and Japan. 90% of the world’s debt is linked to one of these four currencies: the US dollar, the euro, the British pound, or the Japanese yen. For 2010, the average short-term rate of the four is projected to be between zero and 1%.
Bond portfolios are best deployed in spread products and not in the debt of these sovereigns. Forward rate analysis helps in determining where on the yield curve to position. And individual credit work is needed to ascertain and select the single issues that are desired. Sovereign debt issues will drive markets in 2010. We think they will dominate the headlines all year. It is a fascinating time to manage bonds.
We wish all our readers the very best for the New Year.
David R. Kotok, Chairman and Chief Investment Officer, email: [email protected]
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It seems that the Italian legal system really has problems with YouTube. We’ve already detailed the absolutely ridiculous criminal lawsuit against Google execs over a video of some kids taunting another kid (why Google execs are criminally responsible for this still remains unexplained). Then there’s the Italian politician who has tried to sue a bunch of YouTube commenters. And now comes the news (via Michael Scott) that a court has ordered YouTube to remove all content from Mediaset, an Italian broadcaster owned (of course) by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. It’s unclear how the court thinks YouTube can somehow figure out what content is from Mediaset, but it doesn’t appear that Italian law cares about such practicalities.
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A picture is worth a thousand words, they say, and Google has certainly taken it to heart. It never misses an opportunity to stick a new piece of graphic in place of the regular logo on its homepage to mark a celebration or noteworthy event. With the holidays basically here, Google is taking it one step further with a new ‘doodle’ every day presumably at least until Christmas.
Today we got the third doodle in the series and Google has continued the theme with yet another holiday-themed postcard interestingly displayed on top of the ones from the previous days. The postcard itself depicts a mountain scene and a cabin decked in Christmas lights, a look people will be more accustomed to compared to the first one which featured a desert scene.
The second postcard, displayed yesterday, features another familiar scene with three snow men. What’s interesting is that, as always, Google tries to keep the actual word visible in some form. In the first post card, the ‘L’ was the palm tree and the river lines resembled the ‘G’. In the second one the snow men’s heads, wearing scarfs in the Google colors, make up the two ‘Os’. Finally, in the third one, the ‘Os’ are replaced by the boat and the pier, also in the regulation red and yellow.
As before, hovering the mouse over the logo will spout out “Happy Holidays from Go… (read more)
Article Tags: Headline Story, Piers Corbyn, UK Winter Forecast 2009/10
● Much of the chaos, cost and suffering could be avoided by using available advances in forecasting science
● Global Warming religion is holding back economic recovery
● Severe storms & Floods coming 28-30 Dec – Special Trial forecast
● More Arctic blasts & blizzards coming in January – Salt to run-out again
Piers Corbyn astrophysicist of WeatherAction long range weather & climate forecasters said today: “The gritting crisis and travel chaos in the present big freeze in Britain & Ireland is largely a direct consequence of out-moded forecasting procedures as used by the Met Office, and the unreadiness of Councils for this Arctic blast because they are misled by Global Warming propaganda from government and media and the Met Office’s ridiculous forecast for a ‘probably mild’ winter.
Click source link to read FULL article by Piers Corbyn
Source: weatheraction.com
Iraq's latest oil field auctions, mostly involving partnerships with Russian and Chinese companies due to a dearth of U.S. companies even tendering, could bring total oil production to 12 million barrels per day.
Believe it or not, Iraq is rapidly emerging as a rival to Saudi Arabia.
This has OPEC horrified, since a cash-hungry Iraq threatens to sink their global price-fixing regime.
Deutsche Welle: Once Iraq more than quadruples its output capacity, OPEC will have to take steps to prevent Iraq from flooding the market, and force Baghdad to realign its supply policy with other members and stick to an output target. If not, the current level of supply and demand which OPEC has worked hard to achieve, which provides oil at a price it deems reasonable to producers and consumers - currently around $75 a barrel - will come under threat.
"This will certainly cause ructions within OPEC because Iraq has huge resources and we can only assume that the Iraqis are going to pump as much as possible because they need the money," Judith Kipper, the director of the Energy Security Group of the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, told Deutsche Welle. "If they get to the predicted number of barrels produced per day, this is really going to be a real issue within OPEC."
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Sales of new homes in the US dropped 11.3% to an annualized rate of 355k units in November.
The consensus was for a rise of 2.3%. to 438,000 from 430,000 a month earlier.
This is a really ugly number, far lower than the anticipated decline. It comes on the news of a 30K downward revision to 400k units annualized in October.
New home sales are down 9.0% compared to November of last year when the annualized sales pace stood at 390k. That right: new home sales are worse than they were at the height of the financial crisis.
Some additional data points:
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