Thursday Morning Links

Wells coming off the confidential list have been posted; scroll down.

RBN Energy: more on the natural gas network in the northeast. An incredible story and a great "factbox" source.

Winter forecast fueling a gas rally: prices have almost doubled and the best is yet to come -- WSJ, page C4. Information-challenged naysayers elsewhere suggest that natural gas fields are declining faster than expected; these information-challenged naysayers are unaware of the number of natural gas rigs stacked this past year.

Starbucks buying tea in largest acquisition ever.

Stage set for next act in fiscal drama. I do not understand or know the details of the "Grand Compromise" that will eventually be passed but I cannot get a bit upset about the president's proposal as summarized at the link: let Bush tax cuts expire for top 2% of taxpayers; and limit value of deductions and exclusions to 28%. The only caveat: somehow there needs to be a safety net/exclusion for "small business" and that would be easy to do. The alternative proposals are about the same, just simple tweaking. In fact, when you look at the president's proposals and the alternate proposals, it appears to be all about "saving face" and/or which side can claim victory. The only reason for the fighting between the two proposals (since they hardly seem to be all that different, as far as I can tell), is to provide time for the top 2% to liquidate non-performing assets, move performing assets off-shore, and study how Apple was able to pay 1.9% in corporate taxes. The Bush tax cuts are a McGuffin; the real challenge for the (un)employed in 2013 will be the US-mandated 29-hour workweek.

In the president's proposal there is a request to end "oil, gas, and coal industry subsidies" which will raise $30 billion over ten years. $3 billion/year.  Nothing is said about end subsidies for renewable energy, but I guess wind (and solar?) subsidies will end this year anyway (which I doubt, by the way; they will be reinstated sometime in 2013 and made retroactive, following the discussions on global warming that the President says he will entertain in the "near" future).

By the way, a lot of those currently in the top 2% will not see higher taxes. Due to the recession, they will come under the $250,000/year cap or whatever the cap ends up being. In addition, many of these folks will be laid off, anyway.