The Road To New England Paved With Gold For Savvy Traders; NBC's David Gregory Fired? -- August 14, 2014

Congress is worried about "inversions." There are "worse" things out there to worry about. 

Steven sent a link to a great article on making money on the nation's fragile electricity grid. Be sure to read to the end of the story to see a "North Dakota connection." Before you get that far, ask where yourself where opportunities for profit might exist. The New York Times is reporting:

By 10 a.m. the heat was closing in on the North Shore of Long Island. But 300 miles down the seaboard, at an obscure investment company near Washington, the forecast pointed to something else: profit.

As the temperatures climbed toward the 90s here and air-conditioners turned on, the electric grid struggled to meet the demand. By midafternoon, the wholesale price of electricity had jumped nearly 550 percent.

What no one here knew that day, May 30, 2013, was that the investment company, DC Energy, was reaping rewards from the swelter. Within 48 hours the firm, based in Vienna, Va., had made more than $1.5 million by cashing in on so-called congestion contracts, complex financial instruments that gain value when the grid becomes overburdened, according to an analysis of trading data by The New York Times.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. So not make any investment decisions based on anything you read here or think you may have read here. 

The wholesale price of electricity surged to similar prices in New England last winter, and will probably do so again this winter.

By the way, mainstream media is reporting that President Obama will keep donations from companies who have benefited from "inversions."

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Connecting The Dots

Golfing While The World Burns ... and closer to home ...

... sort of reminds me of the riots back in the 1960's under another out-of-touch President

Remember all those stories about Homeland Security and other federal agencies stockpiling ammunition? At the time, I opined that it had to do with a concern about a break-down in border security along Mexico. It appears the Feds were aware of another tinderbox: hyper-segregation with extreme income disparity/wealth-poverty divide.  Two headlines from The Drudge Report:

• why Ferguson was ready to explode -- Time Magazine
• death stokes fire of US racial tensions-- Financial Times

The differences this time: a) the federal government knows how a small incident can turn into a big event and are better prepared; b) the population in Ferguson is not the same size as the population in the cities with the race riots in the 60's.

I don't follow the news on television, so for all I know the situation in Ferguson is now back under control and everyone is resolving to "work it out peacefully." On the other hand, if things get significantly worse, it will be interesting if the National Guard is called out [update: the Missouri governor called in the National Guard overnight, August 17 - 18, 2014].

The British tabloids seem to be covering this story much better than US mainstream media. Maybe it's not that big a deal; I really don't know.  If this continues to be a big story through the weekend, ... as SecDef Hagel said, "the world is exploding all over."

So, with that, let's see what The Wall Street Journal will be reporting tomorrow in the print media.

Oh, before we get to that. How's the war in Iraq going? French Total is pulling out some of its workers in the Kurdish oil fields. 

French oil major Total said on Thursday it had reduced its personnel working in the autonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq, although work on the two oil blocks it operates continued as scheduled.

A dramatic push by the Islamic State through northern Iraq to the border with the semi-autonomous Kurdish region alarmed Baghdad and drew the first U.S. air strikes on Iraq since the withdrawal of American troops in 2011.

The Wall Street Journal

Top story: riots in St Louis.  Police use new tactic: the highway patrol.

Iraqi's Maliki steps down.

NBC News "Meet The Press" moderator David Gregory was fired; replaced by Chuck Todd. I thought I heard that on the radio today, but thought I was mistaken. Despite dismal ratings, I thought David Gregory was bulletproof, as they say. Maybe Mr Gregory was not fired; perhaps he just wants to spend more time with his family.

How about those sanctions? The euro-zone economy stalled in the second quarter, raisign the ugly prospect (their words, not mine) that the region's recent weak economy after its long debt crisis has already lost momentum as it faces fresh headwinds from Russian and Ukraine.. How's that renewable energy working out?

Big story: Mexico will allow private companies to big on country's oil and gas reserves, eding Pemex's monopoly.

UUS retail sales at a standstill in July, suggesting that the US economy is struggling to lift off.

Ao, what are Americans buying? Cars. Americans took out new auto loans at the fastest pace in enarly eight years while new home loans tumbled to lowest level since 2000.

I don't remember the numbers that were just reported the other day, but the USPS financial losses seem to be getting significantly bigger. How are US senators reacting? Fifty senators joined forces earlier today (Thursday) to try to halt for one year a US Postal Service plan to clsoe 82 mail sorting centers, cutting 15,000 jobs and slow delivery speed for some letters. And you know? I think the senators will win this one.

The Journal reports on a nation-wide mosque-building boom. Related: even as the Muslim population in the US multiplies, the number of imams lag behind.

Hmmm .. now the US says ISIS is a new threat to the west. I thought the war on terror was pretty much over under President Obama.

Another hmmmm...Coke buys stake in Monster Beverage.

I've been following this story for quite some time for at MacRumors, but not it's being covered by The WSJ: new iPhone's sapphire screen. How much is Apple betting on this? Amost $1 billion. Sounds like a lot of cash, doesn't it? Doesn't APPL have about $40 billion in cash?

The Los Angeles Times

Lead story: Ferguson riots.

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Too Good To Last

Yesterday it was reported that the Pentagon filled weapons orders for Israel under earlier contracts / agreements. The transactions were reported to have been "out of the reach of the White House. I knew that was too good to last. It is now being reported that President Obama has blocked an Israeli missile shipment and will weigh in on future ammunition requests. I'm just a spectator; no dog in this fight. SecState John Kerry will make the decisions in the future whether to honor military-to-military agreements with Israel.