CHINA CONFIDENTIAL
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Iran Suddenly Seems Afraid to Talk to Obama
Foreign Confidential....
Iranian rhetoric hit a new level of lunacy this week with a Revolutionary Guard commander claiming that the only thing worse than U.S. military power is U.S. "soft power."
Go figure....
The Islamist regime seems to need its conflict with Washington. Given its suspect nuclear and missile programs, the maniacs running the mullahocracy may even need a war. Should that happens, it wouldn't be the first time a rising regional power with global ambitions--and a monstrous ideology--brings horrible destruction down on its people.
Thomas Erdbrink reports from Tehran:Since 2006, Iran's leaders have called for direct, unconditional talks with the United States to resolve international concerns over their nuclear program. But as an American administration open to such negotiations prepares to take power, Iran's political and military leaders are sounding suddenly wary of President-elect Barack Obama.
"People who put on a mask of friendship, but with the objective of betrayal, and who enter from the angle of negotiations without preconditions, are more dangerous," Hossein Taeb, deputy commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Wednesday, according to the semiofficial Mehr News Agency.
"The power holders in the new American government are trying to regain their lost influence with a tactical change in their foreign diplomacy. They are shifting from a hard conflict to a soft attack," Taeb said.
Click here to continue reading Erdbrink's article in The Washington Post.
Goldman Lowers Gold Forecasts as China National Reports Rising Demand and Kingsgate Hits Pay Dirt
Foreign Confidential....
With gold trading near two-week lows as as falling oil prices and a weak equities market prompted selling from commodities speculators, Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) on Wednesday said it lowered its forecasts for the price of the precious metal in three-, six- and 12-month time horizons because it expects continued financial market deleveraging to further strengthen the dollar.
But Chinese investors' demand for gold has reportedly risen. Investment hit 38.4 tonnes in the first nine months of this year against 24 tonnes for the whole of 2007, the president ofChina National Gold Group Corporation told the China Mining conference in Beijing on Wednesday.
In other gold news, Australia's Kingsgate Consolidated Limited (ASX: KCN) said it has made a major new gold discovery in Thailand. Click here to read all about it.Blind Faith Pays Off: Chevron Begins Producing Oil From Company's Deepest Offshore Oil Platform
Dateline USA....
More proof that the world is running into oil, only it is more costly to find, produce, and (in the case of heavy oil) refine than relatively inexpensive, onshore conventional crude.
Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) announced Wednesday that it has started producing crude oil from its Blind Faith Field in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.
CEO David O’Reilly said the project should put out about 30,000 barrels of oil and 30 million cubic feet of natural gas per day at first. Those output figures will likely rise to 65,000 barrels of oil a day and 55 million cubic feet of natural gas.
First oil from Blind Faith was achieved on Nov. 11, 2008, O'Reilly said.
Blind Faith utilizes a deep-draft semisubmersible hull located about 160 miles (250 kilometers) southeast of New Orleans, La., on Mississippi Canyon block 650.
Located in 6,500 Feet of Water
Chevron’s deepest offshore production facility, Blind Faith is located in 6,500 feet (1,981 meters) of water, and with subsea systems located in 7,000 feet (2,134 meters) of water in Mississippi Canyon blocks 695 and 696.
Also on Wednesday, O'Reilly called on President-elect Barack Obama to create a U. S. national energy policy that promotes efficiency, opens up new areas for oil production, and sets a clear policy on carbon dioxide emissions.
"The new administration has an opportunity to make realistic changes to our approach to energy and to create a comprehensive energy policy, the Chevron CEO said in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations.
"And we need this new energy policy to be addressed as a strategic economic priority as well as national security priority," O'Reilly said.
POSTSCRIPT: Click here to read Toni Johnson's up-to-the-minute analysis for CFR on global oil pricing, production costs and investment decisions.On China's Stimulus, America's Bailout
Add this to the list of about-faces in the past year: Last summer, China was looking for ways to put the brakes on its searing economy. Now its government is spending a fortune to speed things up.
China recently announced a massive $586 billion stimulus package aimed at reviving its slowing economy. Remember, we're talking about China, so by "slowing," I mean something like 9% GDP growth, down from the blistering 12% expansion of recent years.
I know what you're thinking: 9% GDP growth is … bad? For China, it could be. NYU professor Nouriel Roubini estimates China needs to grow at 9%-10% per year just to accommodate the 24 million or so people entering its workforce in that time frame. He also suggests that GDP growth of 5%-6% would qualify as a recession. While we're trying to blunt negative GDP numbers, China's trying to stave off a growth rate we can't fathom. Showoffs.
Calla Weimer, Wall Street Journal Asia:Global markets have cheered the stimulus plan Beijing announced Sunday, and with good reason. At $586 billion, it's ambitious. And although it might take some time to take effect, it could help usher in important changes in China's economy. If China is going to "rescue the world" from economic crisis, this kind of stimulus package is the way to do it.
Some have advocated a rescue of a different sort, calling for China to use its foreign reserves to bail out the U.S. financial system. But that is not the ticket to global recovery. The bulk of China's official reserves are held in low-risk U.S. dollar assets and that is where prudence dictates they should remain.Peres Praises Saudi King
Dateline UN....
Israel's president had rare praise for Saudi Arabia's king at a U.N. interfaith conference Wednesday, saying King Abdullah's initiative to end the Arab-Israeli conflict inspired hope that all countries in the Middle East could live in peace.
Speaking to hundreds of guests in the General Assembly chamber, where Israel has often been villified by its Arab neighbors, Shimon Peres appealed to Abdullah to maintain his leadership in the Arab world during the difficult peace process.
Minutes earlier, Abdullah said it was "high time" the world learned the harsh lesson of history — that differences between followers of different religions and cultures "engendered intolerance, causing devastating wars and considerable bloodshed without any sound logical or ideological justification."
The Saudi monarch, who initiated the two-day U.N. conference as well as another interfaith meeting in July in Madrid, called for all peoples and nations to promote peace, harmony and tolerance, saying "terrorism and criminality are the enemies of every religion and every civilization."
When Peres took the floor, he told delegates that building a new future in the Middle East "seems more feasible today in light of the Saudi proposal which evolved into an Arab peace initiative." The 2002 Saudi plan calls for Arab recognition of the Jewish state in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from all lands captured in the 1967 Mideast war.
Looked Directly at Abdullah
Then, looking directly at Abdullah, the Israeli president interrupted his prepared speech.
"Your Majesty, the king of Saudi Arabia," Peres said. "I was listening to your message. I wish that your voice will become the prevailing voice of the whole region, of all people. It's right. It's needed. It's promising."
Later, Peres told reporters "the king's initiative created a U-turn in the policies of the Middle East, because until quite recently the formal Arab position was ... based on three `No's' ... no recognition, no negotiation, no peace with Israel."
Peres called the Saudi leader a voice of "frankness" and "understanding."
"There is a real change, basically positive. I don't deny there are open and difficult questions, but if there is a will — as the Arabs are saying — there is a way. What was today demonstrated was the will. We know that we have to work for the way," Peres said.
Both Peres and Abdullah attended a private dinner Tuesday night for leaders attending the conference, but the Israeli president would not say whether they had any personal contact — or whether he talked with other Arab leaders.
The Saudi king did not directly mention Mideast peace efforts, and he made no mention of criticism from Human Rights Watch and others about Saudi Arabia refusing to allow the public practice of any religion other than Islam.
"Terrorism and criminality are the enemies of every religion and every civilization," he said, adding that they have appeared because of the absence of tolerance. Abdullah said constructive dialogue among peoples and nations can revive "these lofty ideals."
- AP
Thursday, 13 November 2008
Morgan Housel, The Motley Fool:
Posts
