Main Street
This is kind of interesting -- the linked article below -- the opening sentence says it all: "...
overall retail sales increased far less than economists expected" and then the writer spends the rest of the article trying to tell us things are actually going quite well...
USA Today is reporting:
Overall retail sales increased 0.2% in June, far less than economists
expected. But sales excluding autos, gasoline, building materials and
food services jumped a better-than-expected 0.6%. Economists say that
closely watched measure feeds more directly into economic growth.
Sales
of general merchandise, clothing, sporting goods and non-store retail
items all rose solidly. Also encouraging: retail sales for April and May
were revised upward.
Still, sales so far this year are up 3.8% at an annual pace vs. 4.2% in all of 2013.
"It's
just modest growth," Greg Daco, chief U.S. economist of Oxford
Economics says of Tuesday's data. "It's not the breakout report."
Many
economists expected consumers to spend more freely this year, driving a
stronger recovery. Consumer spending makes up nearly 70% of the
economy. Higher household wealth — a result of a roaring stock market
and rising home prices — and sharply reduced consumer debt were expected
to fuel the increased outlays.
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Wall Street
Triangle Petroleum announces
pricing of $450 mln offering of senior notes; increased from previously
announced $350 mln due to high demand: aggregate principal amount of 6.75% senior unsecured notes due 2022.
The Notes were sold at par. The size of the
offering was increased to $450 mln from the previously announced $350 mln due to high demand.
Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on anything you've read here or think you may have read here.
Occidental Petro names Marshall D. Smith as Chief Financial Officer of California Resources: Following its separation from
Occidental, California Resources Corporation will be an independent oil
and natural gas exploration and production company focused on
high-growth, high-return conventional and unconventional assets
exclusively in California.
Dominion's subsidiary, Dominion
Virginia Power, to install Northern Virginia's largest solar energy
project to date at Prologis Concorde Distribution Center: Dominion Virginia Power will install more than 3,000 solar panels
capable of generating more than 800 kilowatts of electricity -- enough
to power nearly 200 homes -- at the Prologis (
PLD) Concorde
Distribution Center in Sterling, Va. The panels will be installed on the
rooftops of two adjacent buildings on its campus and
will cover nearly 102,000 square feet.
Trading at new highs: BK, CSX, INTC, KOG, MSFT, WLL.
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Hoping The Stars Align
Philly.com is reporting:
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is set to rule this
summer on Dominion's application to export up to 770 million cubic feet
of natural gas a day from Maryland, the closest export outlet for
producers in Pennsylvania's booming Marcellus Shale region.
"Thanks
to technological advances, the U.S. has enough natural gas to meet not
only America's consumer demand, but also to export some supply in the
form of LNG without significant impacts on domestic prices," Diane
Leopold, president of Dominion Energy, told a House Foreign Affairs
Committee panel in May.
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Chinese Economy Expanding
At least their economy expanded... more than one can say about the US economy, 1Q14.
Reuters is reporting:
Asian stocks held stubbornly steady on Wednesday after China reported
economic growth that was just ahead of market expectations, drawing a
sigh of relief from investors rather than outright applause. China's
economy expanded by 2.0 percent in the second quarter from the previous
quarter, taking annual growth to 7.5 percent. "
The US economy "collapsed" (their word, not mine) in 1Q14.
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Developing Mexico's New Shale Oil Fields
The Dallas Morning Herald is reporting:
Pemex officials believe shale has the potential to provide Mexico
with more oil and gas than the country has produced since it first
struck oil in the early 20th century. “Mexico has the sixth largest gas
shale fields in the world. And you’re all welcome to come join the
exploration opportunities,” Emilio Lozoya, Pemex chief executive
officer, told an energy conference in Houston in March.
Developing those resources would require up to $1.2 trillion in
capital spending, according to an analysis earlier this year by Goldman
Sachs. By way of comparison, the world’s four largest publicly traded
oil companies spent less than $180 billion worldwide last year.
The hope at the highest echelons of Mexican politics and business is
that development of the energy reserves will not only boost government
revenue but expand the country’s industrial and manufacturing economy
far beyond anything envisioned 20 years ago, when the North American
Free Trade Agreement was enacted.
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ObamaCare: A Washington Success -- Paul Krugman
The Weekly Standard is reporting:
In March 2010, Obamacare was about to be voted upon by the House of
Representatives, and the Democrats were in the process of deciding
whether to ignore public opinion at their peril. At that time, the
Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected
that Obamacare would cost $938 billion over a decade and would reduce
the number of uninsured people by 19 million as of 2014 (with a
reduction of 1 million prior to 2014 and 18 million in 2014 alone).
Unimpressed, the American people overwhelmingly opposed the intrusive
overhaul — with 20 of 21 polls taken that month
showing it to be unpopular, most of them by double digits. The
Democrats willfully passed Obamacare anyway and lost 63 House seats that
November.
Two years later, the Supreme Court declared Obamacare’s coercive
Medicaid expansion to be unconstitutional as written, and the CBO
adjusted its projection for the number of uninsured accordingly.
The CBO projected
that Obamacare would reduce the number of uninsured by 14 million as of
2014 (2 million before 2014 and 12 million in 2014 alone), at a 10-year
cost of $1.677 trillion — or $739 billion more than the 2010
projection. (This February, the CBO projected that Obamacare’s 10-year cost would eclipse $2 trillion.)
The op-ed goes on, and then this:
Yet Paul Krugman says
that “health reform is — gasp! — working.” Only in Washington could
something that fails to hit even half of its original target be
considered a gasp-inducing success.
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OPEN BORDERS Policy a Resounding Success -- WND
Of the tens of thousands of communities across the United States, only a handful of communities -- perhaps a dozen or less -- are protesting the relocation of immigrants streaming across the border. The vast majority of US communities have not reacted and are probably ready and waiting with OPEN ARMS to accept these future US citizens.
WND is reporting only eleven cities that have concerns (and in one city it's just the "south side").
It appears that this is a two-step program:
- OPEN BORDERS: entering the US
- OPEN ARMS: relocation
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"Most Expensive Music Video Produced At The Time" -- Fleetwood Mac, Opus Collection
Gypsy, Fleetwood Mac
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Pulling A Bergdahl
Whenever Hamas and Israel have reached this point in the past, the US has stepped in and convinced Israel it was in its best interests to "stop."
This time the US is silent.
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Never Mind
By the way, all those kids streaming across the border under the president's OPEN BORDERS policy has little, if anything, to do with Central American violence.
Another inconvenient truth.
Runaway/Crime Story, Del Shannon
