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"CRUDE oil prices above $US120 a barrel are "abnormal" and could fall to about $US78 under the right circumstances, OPEC president Chakib Khelil said in Jakarta yesterday."
Hmmmm... $78 a barrel would be nice, except for the doom & gloom club, they only are happy when things are bad.
Anyone here invest in rails? All the bad news that has been circulated here would help railroad investments but the good news would surely hurt it.
Investing in rails and in firms that support the rail industry is considered a smart play by those who invest in energy stocks and/or invest in stocks that have an 'efficiency' edge in the use of energy. Rails come at it both ways, they move virtually all of the coal and they have at least a 4:1 ratio for fuel efficiency against trucks.
CSX, NSC, BNI, and UNP are all within $1-3 of their 52-week highs, so in my eyes they are not great investments, though their P&F charts don't look bad at all. There may be some upside. Warren Buffett has sizable stakes in all of the rails except CSX, he got in a while back and has had a nice run. Rail is so expensive to get into that almost NO new ones will ever be built unless we have a massive injection of brains in Congress (hah! sure), thus Buffett has bought into a near monopoly situation where no new competitors are on the horizon, or will be for decades, if ever.
There are a number of firms that are suppliers to the rails, like Portec Rail Products (PRPX) that may be decent buys.
If you want to read a scathing account of the political horse**** that has helped lead us to the brink of a financial catastrophe, this article (from the Wall Street Journal no less) should be very interesting--and very depressing. It makes very clear how greed, and the mixing of powerful business interests and government megalomaniacs have created a near-Fascist nightmare in the mortgage industry. It should also make clear why the coming crash of this house of cards will shake the economic underpinnings of a real-estate speculation-dependent place like Colorado right to its foundation.
- Now costs $8k to ship a 40-foot container from Shanghai to the USA compared with $3,000 early this decade. Big container ships shaved their top speed by nearly 20 percent to save on fuel.
- Surge in shipping costs is equal to a 9% tariff on trade. “The cost of moving goods, not the cost of tariffs, is the largest barrier to global trade today,” the report concluded, and as a result “has effectively offset all the trade liberalization efforts of the last three decades.”
- Until recently, American timber was shipped from Norfolk, Baltimore and Charleston to China, where oak and cherry would be milled into sofas, beds, tables, cabinets and chairs, then shipped back to the United States. But with transportation costs rising, more wood is now going to traditional domestic furniture-making centers in NC and VA where the industry had all but been wiped out. While the opening of the American Ikea plant, in Danville, Va., a traditional furniture-producing center hit hard by the outsourcing of production to Asia, is perhaps most emblematic of such changes, other manufacturers are also shifting some production back to the United States.
- The article cites more instances of things "going local" to avoid high transport costs. Higher oil costs and a weak dollar may restore some jobs to the USA. It remains to be debated if all this is good or not so good.
I just read the same article in my hard copy of the NY times and came away with a good feeling. Going local seems like a good development, but time will tell.
Also in the same issue, there was an article about the poor New Yorkers having to compete with a huge influx of European visitors at their favorite shops and restaurants. Reminded me of some of the poor Coloradoans on this forum having a hard time accepting an influx of newcomers. There is nothing new under the sun!
Last edited by CosmicWizard; 08-03-2008 at 01:53 PM..
I just read the same article in my hard copy of the NY times. Going local seems like a good development, but time will tell.
Its funny how people tend to focus on the bad aspects of a weak dollar and expensive oil but ignore the good aspects. Bringing manufacturing jobs back to this country and making people think twice before driving 30 miles for dinner are good. As with many things in life, what's bad for one group of people is good for another. Getting back manufacturing jobs is good for exporters, will improve the value of the dollar, and make things more affordable for importing consumers. And the cycle continues.
We have bigger houses
And smaller families;
More convenience, but less time.
We have degrees, but less sense;
More knowledge, but less judgement;
More experts, but more problems;
More medicine, but less healthiness.
We have been all the way to
The moon and back, but we have trouble
Crossing the street to meet
The new neighbour.
We build more computers to hold more
Information to produce more
Copies than ever,
But have less communication.
We have become long on quantity,
But short on quality.
These are times of fast food.
And slow digestion;
Tall man and short character;
Steep profits, and shallow relationships
It is a time when there is much in the window,
And nothing in the room.
We have bigger houses
And smaller families;
More convenience, but less time.
We have degrees, but less sense;
More knowledge, but less judgement;
More experts, but more problems;
More medicine, but less healthiness.
We have been all the way to
The moon and back, but we have trouble
Crossing the street to meet
The new neighbour.
We build more computers to hold more
Information to produce more
Copies than ever,
But have less communication.
We have become long on quantity,
But short on quality.
These are times of fast food.
And slow digestion;
Tall man and short character;
Steep profits, and shallow relationships
It is a time when there is much in the window,
And nothing in the room.
Message from the Dalai Lama
Is that really from The Dalai Lama?! That's the first thing of real substance I've ever heard out of him.
Personally, I'm more interested in the message rather than the messenger. On this website where I found the message, it was attributed to the Dalai Lama. I posted it becasue the message seems to validate many of the posts on this thread in a simple, elegant manner.....regardless of the author.
Last edited by CosmicWizard; 08-04-2008 at 03:42 PM..
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Silver Lining Emerging?
