Aluminum surplus only rivals natural gas surplus!!!

Rio Tinto PLC (RIO)'s  2011 profit was dragged down by a US$9.29 billion impairment charge mainly against the value of its struggling aluminum business .

The company booked an US$8.86 billion charge to reflect a fall in the value of its aluminum assets, plus a smaller impairment charge for its diamonds business in anticipation of higher costs to complete underground development of a key mine. The charges pushed Rio to a loss for the second half of the year of about US$1.76 billion from a profit of US$8.39 billion a year earlier.

"The current environment in the aluminum industry is tough," Albanese said, pointing to low prices and rising costs, compounded by running surpluses for the industry over the past five years.

E&Y is wrong on every count!

Ernst & Young LLP, bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s former auditor, should “disgorge” $125 million in fees earned in an alleged fraud involving so- called Repo 105 transactions that concealed tens of billions of dollars in debt, the New York attorney general said.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman asked a judge today to let him pursue the suit after the auditing firm tried to get it dismissed. The state is limited by law from recovering the fees for itself or for Lehman’s former shareholders, Ernst & Young said.

“E&Y is wrong on every count,” Schneiderman said in a court filing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. “It is well- settled that the state can, and frequently does, obtain disgorgement of ill-gotten gains under public enforcement statutes.”

America in the year 2012 = 13 million living below the poverty level

The conditions aren't sanitary; they're unhygienic at best. But those who have been unable to maintain a job or those who simply can't make enough to afford rent have resorted to these uncomfortable living conditions.

Poverty has become a painful reality for those hit hard with the economic downturn over the past couple of years.

If you've passed through the town of Ann Abor, Michigan, perhaps you also noticed an untidy mini-housing establishment of about 30 tents in the woods nearby.

Those woods have become home for local residents who can no longer afford the cost of rent due to joblessness or extreme wage-cuts.

Imagine a home without heat, electricity, or toilets...

Black mould plagues these people on a regular basis, tainting their bodies, clothes, and bedding.

For at least 5,000 desperate Americans – out of the 47 million living below the poverty level – this is the best home they can get in these tough times; singles, couples, and families alike.

According to Panorama, the latest tent-city trend has popped up in at least 55 cities throughout the United States.

One of the largest tent-homes houses approximately 300 individuals in sunny Florida. New Jersey and Portland now harbor some sizable tent communities as well.

With recent budget cuts affecting a great deal of some of America's poorest residents, there has been too much pressure on homeless shelters to let everyone in.

Because of the increase in homelessness, city residents generally run these tent camps with help from a local charity group.

Census data reveals that America hasn't seen poverty like this in more than 50 years. Years of high unemployment has caught up with ordinary Americans all over the nation.

Right now, there are at least 13 million unemployed Americans.

The scariest part of this story is that many of these desperate, homeless tent-dwellers were very recently living comfortable lives as part of America's middle-class...they were good, honest, hard-working people.

H.R. 7 the Worst Environmental Bill = tries to push thru Keystone XL, open the Artic Wildlife Refuge, cut public transportation, safe biking and walking programs = this is Congress for the Corporation not We the PEOPLE!!!

In less than 24 hours, dozens of environmental and progressive groups came together to send 500,000 emails to the Senate against the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. It worked -- Congress heard from nearly 800,000 Americans, from all 50 states.

This is huge. After feeling that grassroots pressure, the Senate has postponed the Keystone XL vote for the second time this month. But there's an even worse bill in the House of Representatives up for a vote this month -- and it's up to you to make sure the House feels the same pressure the Senate did.

H.R. 7 could be the worst environmental bill we see all year. Call your Representative today and let them know: Valentine's Day is over. No more sweetheart deals for Big Oil.

House Republicans are using crucial transportation legislation to push through not just Keystone XL but also drilling in the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, deep cuts to public transportation and safe biking and walking programs, and attacks on bedrock environmental protections.

Instead, this legislation should be about giving Americans clean transportation choices that move us beyond oil -- a dirty fuel that spills out of pipelines and wells, threatens our national security, and contributes more to climate change and smog than any other fossil fuel.

It's true that Big Oil has millions of dollars to spend lobbying the Hill. But we have 1.4 million supporters and members -- and as we've seen time and time again, when we stand together, voices can speak louder than money.

North American Natural Gas Producers = Write-off, Impairment, Write-Down Season...

Many exploration and production companies have taken impairment charges during the most recent quarter as they write down the value of natural gas properties. This trend will probably continue in 2012. 

Impairments
Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE:APC) recorded a $1.5 billion pretax noncash charge in the fourth quarter of 2011, related to the impairment of coal bed methane properties in the Powder River Basin. The write down was caused by low natural gas prices and came to $1 billion on an after tax basis. The company said that the write down did not reduce its proved reserve total. 

Conoco Phillips (NYSE:COP) reported a $190 million impairment for various natural gas properties in Canada. The company also wrote down $44 million of properties in its United States exploration and production segment, but did not give further details on these properties.

Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD) reported an after tax noncash charge of $223 million, or $1.83 per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2011. The write off was related to the company's properties in the Edwards trend play in Texas.

The Edwards play is present on the company's acreage in south Texas and lies below the Eagle Ford Shale in many areas. The company used to be very active in this play, and as recently as the first half of 2008, drilled 22 wells into this dry gas formation. The company suspended drilling in the Edwards trend in 2009. It also wrote off $20 million in unproved dry gas properties in other areas of its portfolio. 

Comstock Resources (NYSE:CRK) also suffered from the decline in natural gas prices, and recorded a fourth quarter pretax impairment charge of $60.8 million related to its proved natural gas properties. On an after tax basis the write down was $39.5 million, or 86 cents per share.

Comstock didn't say where the impaired properties were located, but the company recently suspended operated drilling activity in the Haynesville Shale. The company plans to end development here by March 2012.

It has been very active in the Haynesville Shale over the last few years, and has drilled 180 gross wells here since entering the play in 2008.

The Bottom Line
Most exploration and production companies tend to downplay impairment charges as non-charge accounting items and bury them deep in the footnotes of financial statements. 

Illinois & Wind Energy = PTC renewals => Common Sense

We need your help.  In the next two weeks, the US House of Representatives will vote on legislation to extend the payroll tax holiday, and it is vital that Congress also include an extension of the renewable energy production tax credit (PTC) in that bill. But they will only include the PTC if they believe their constituents support it. 

That's where you come in. You know that the loss of the PTC would dramatically slow wind energy installations in Illinois and other states. So help us tell the Illinois Congressional Delegation that the PTC must be included in the pending tax legislation. Specifically, Congressmen Bob Dold (R-Libertyville) and Bobby Schilling (R-Moline) will play a great role in determining whether or not the PTC is extended in the next few weeks, and we need you to let them and the rest of Illinois' Representatives know how important this economic instrument is to creating certainty in your market.

Volcker Rule

The “Volcker Rule”  prohibits an insured depository institution and its affiliates from:

• engaging in “proprietary trading”;

• acquiring or retaining any equity, partnership, or other ownership interest in a hedge fund or private equity fund; and

• sponsoring a hedge fund or a private equity fund.

Nonbank financial companies designated by the Council for supervision by the Board of Governors would not be subject to this prohibition. The Act provides, however, that they could be subject to additional capital requirements for, and additional quantitative limits with respect to, the foregoing activities.

The Volcker Rule would apply to proprietary trading and fund activities by U.S. banking organizations regardless of where the trading or activities are conducted. However, for non-U.S. banking organizations, the Volcker Rule would apply only to proprietary trading and fund activities in the U.S., or such activities outside the U.S., if they involve the offering of securities to any U.S. resident.

While the Volcker Rule has been moderated since its inception, these limitations would have a significant impact on the ability of U.S. banking organizations to provide investment management products and services that are competitive with nonbanking firms generally and with non-U.S. banking organizations in overseas markets. It would also effectively prohibit short-term trading strategies by any U.S. banking organization, regardless of the location of its trading business, if those strategies involve instruments other than those specifically permitted for trading

Isn't it amazing what a country that saves and produces can do to stimulate its economy and the world => China (who btw didn't bring us the sub-prime crisis...)

European equity futures climbed, the euro advanced to a two-month high against the yen and commodities rallied as China said it will help Europe resolve the debt crisis. 

Asian stocks jumped the most in four weeks.

Euro Stoxx 50 Index futures added 0.8 percent as of 7:02 a.m. in London. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index (MXAP) advanced 1.8 percent and Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures added 0.5 percent. German 10-year bund yields rose two basis points to 1.92 percent. The euro climbed 0.4 percent against the yen. Copper snapped a three-day losing streak, rising 0.7 percent. Oil increased 0.8 percent to $101.56 a barrel.
China, which holds the world’s largest currency reserves, can provide help through avenues including the central bank and its sovereign wealth fund, said People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan. The nation is willing to get “more deeply” involved in helping Europe deal with its debt crisis, Premier Wen Jiabao said yesterday. The leaders of Greece’s two biggest political parties will provide written commitments to budget cuts, according to a government official in Athens.

“China could make Europe’s problems go away,” said Peter Jolly, head of market research at National Australia Bank Ltd. in Sydney. “They have the funds. To the extent that China will participate in the European solution, it takes away some of the flight to quality in Treasuries.”

‘Spectacular’ Losses = USA Banks

The rule, named after former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, was included in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act in an effort to restrict risky trading at banks that operate with federal guarantees. Five U.S. regulators released the 298-page proposal seeking comment on how it would affect market-making, liquidity, foreign institutions and private equity and hedge fund investments.

Volcker, 84, defended the rule in his own letter yesterday, challenging banks’ arguments that the rule would hurt markets.

“The recent years of financial crisis have seen spectacular trading losses in large commercial and investment banks here and abroad,” Volcker said. “Consequently, the stability of important banks was jeopardized, contributing to a financial crisis of historic dimension.”

The Volcker Rule will push risk outside the US Federal envelope and make it the risk takers problem and not the taxpayers problem....

USA: The right wing ... really the corporate wing with whatever it takes wrapper to corrupt you.

It is no coincidence that so many state legislatures have spent the last year taking destructive actions: making it harder for minorities and other groups that support Democrats to vote, obstructing health care reform, weakening environmental regulations and breaking the spines of public- and private-sector unions. All of these efforts are being backed — in some cases, orchestrated — by a little-known conservative organization financed by millions of corporate dollars. 

The American Legislative Exchange Council was founded in 1973 by the right-wing activist Paul Weyrich; its big funders include Exxon Mobil, the Olin and Scaife families and foundations tied to Koch Industries. Many of the largest corporations are represented on its board. 

ALEC has written model legislation on a host of subjects dear to corporate and conservative interests, and supporting lawmakers have introduced these bills in dozens of states. A recent study of the group’s impact in Virginia showed that more than 50 of its bills were introduced there, many practically word for word. The study, by ProgressVA, found that ALEC had been involved in writing bills that would: 

¶Prohibit penalizing residents for failing to obtain health insurance, undermining the individual mandate in the reform law. The bill, which ALEC says has been introduced in 38 states, was signed into law and became the basis for Virginia’s legal challenge to heath care reform. 

¶Require voters to show a form of identification. Versions of this bill passed both chambers this month. 

¶Encourage school districts to contract with private virtual-education companies. (One such company was the corporate co-chair of ALEC’s education committee.) The bill was signed into law. 

¶Call for a federal constitutional amendment to permit the repeal of any federal law on a two-thirds vote of state legislatures. The bill failed. 

¶Legalize use of deadly force in defending one’s home. Bills to this effect, which recently passed both houses, have been backed by the National Rifle Association, a longtime member of ALEC. 

ALEC’s influence in the Virginia statehouse is pervasive, the study showed. The House of Delegates speaker, William Howell, has been on the board since 2003 and was national chairman in 2009. He has sponsored or pushed many of the group’s bills, including several benefiting specific companies that support ALEC financially, like one that would reduce a single company’s asbestos liability. At least 115 other state legislators have ties to the group, including paying membership dues, attending meetings and sponsoring bills. The state has spent more than $230,000 sending lawmakers to ALEC conferences since 2001.

Similar efforts have gone on in many other states. The group has been particularly active in weakening environmental regulations and fighting the Environmental Protection Agency. ALEC’s publication, “E.P.A.’s Regulatory Train Wreck,” outlines steps lawmakers can take, including curtailing the power of state regulators.

The future of American children if you VOTE Republican in 2012!!! = Slavery

Tears tracing lines of dirt on his face, six-year-old Pakistani boy Nabeel Mukhtar cries while crouching on a pavement to scrub motorbikes, his job for nine hours a day, six days a week.

He is one of millions of children driven into labor by poverty in a country where the unpopular government is seen as too corrupt and ineffective to care for its citizens, even the young and helpless.

"I want to study and become a doctor but we don't have any money," said Mukhtar, who helps his family make ends meet.

Rising food and fuel prices and a struggling economy have forced many families to send their children to search for work instead of to the classroom.

USA VOTE Democrat in 2012 if you want to avoid slavery!!!  Fight for your FREEDOM...it is being taken AWAY.

US Energy Independence within our GRASP!!!

The U.S. has reversed a two-decade-long decline in energy independence, increasing the proportion of demand met from domestic sources over the last six years to an estimated 81 percent through the first 10 months of 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from the U.S. Department of Energy. That would be the highest level since 1992.


“For 40 years, only politicians and the occasional author in Popular Mechanics magazine talked about achieving energy independence,” said Adam Sieminski, who has been nominated by President Barack Obama to head the U.S. Energy Information Administration. “Now it doesn’t seem such an outlandish idea.”
The transformation, which could see the country become the world’s top energy producer by 2020, has implications for the economy and national security -- boosting household incomes, jobs and government revenue; cutting the trade deficit; enhancing manufacturers’ competitiveness; and allowing greater flexibility in dealing with unrest in the Middle East.

Almost half of all Americans lived in households that received government benefits in 2010! Why? Becasue the Middle-Class is being destroyed...

Almost half of all Americans lived in households that received government benefits in 2010, according to the Census Bureau. The share climbed from 37.7 percent in 1998 to 44.5 percent in 2006, before the recession, to 48.5 percent in 2010. 

The trend reflects the expansion of the safety net. When the earned-income credit was introduced in 1975, eligibility was limited to households making the current equivalent of up to $26,997. In 2010, it was available to families making up to $49,317. The maximum payout, meanwhile, quadrupled on an inflation-adjusted basis. 

It also reflects the deterioration of the middle class. Chisago boomed and prospered for decades as working families packed new subdivisions along Interstate 35, which runs up the western edge of the county like a flagpole with its base set firmly in Minneapolis. But recent years have been leaner. Per capita income in Chisago excluding government aid fell 6 percent on an inflation-adjusted basis between 2000 and 2007. Over the next two years, it fell an additional 7 percent. Nationally, per capita income excluding government benefits fell by 3 percent over the same 10 years. 

Rick Santorum, who won 57 percent of the vote in Chicago County in the Republican presidential caucuses last week, has warned of “the narcotic of government dependency.” Newt Gingrich has compared the safety net to a spider web. Mitt Romney has said the nation must choose between an “entitlement society” and an “opportunity society.” All the candidates, including Ron Paul, have promised to cut spending and further reduce taxes.

The Republicans will turn your sons into slaves and daughters into prostitutes.  Vote wisely, the 1% see you merely as a cost function. 

THINK for YOURSELF!!!

Poland the Game Changer in European Gas

Poland's ambitious goal to exploit Europe's biggest estimated deposits of shale gas. Beginning in 2014, Warsaw wants to tap an estimated 5.3 trillion cubic meters of recoverable reserves of gas - enough, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, to supply Poland with more than 300 years of its domestic energy needs.

But the shale gas push is about more than energy. Poland wants to break its reliance on Russian energy and reduce Moscow's power over Europe. That is one reason why Warsaw has welcomed U.S. oil majors such as Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Conoco and Marathon, even though it risks igniting tensions with Russia.

"If this thing comes true, if the American technologies deployed here at some point are really able to produce this gas, then this means a winning situation for the whole of Europe really," Radzieciak said in an interview in his small office filled with sports trophies, banners from local teams and a large map of Poland on the wall. "It would create more competitiveness on the gas market, which is now dominated by Russia, and one side would not be able to force anything unilaterally anymore."

Western European capitals are just as eager as Poland to diminish Russian influence over supplies. Russia currently supplies 25 percent of deliveries to the European Union. Daniel Yergin, a Pulitzer-prize winning author and energy historian who included a chapter on shale gas in his latest book "The Quest," sums up Warsaw's thinking: "They're motivated to develop it economically and they're motivated to develop it politically."