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What do you do when all of the low hanging fruit is gone? That question is one that oil producers are increasingly facing as they confront an oil price slump that is now more than a year old and shows no serious signs of abating. With oil prices having fallen by nearly half over the last sixteen months, it is little wonder that oil companies found their balance sheets under pressure. From Exxon to Continental all oil companies have faced problems in maintaining their capital spending and more importantly, their profitability. In light of that, it is little wonder that...

You’ve read the news, Gold at $1320 this week and the analysts are beating each other over their heads as to where the next gold target might be. We heard everything from $1,500 to $5,000 within a few years. All that accompanied with the ongoing debate as to whether we will see continued deflation, inflation or possibly hyper-inflation. So what’s it going to be then? The short answer is: “It depends”. Let’s forget about semantics for a minute however, and look at the general cost of living and the cost of running a business. There are a myriad of factors...

Liberals upset by Hillary’s hedgingBy Holly Yeager Published: May 12 2006 15:26 | Last updated: May 12 2006 15:26 This week’s revelation that Rupert Murdoch will host a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton’s Senate re-election campaign put the punditocracy in a tailspin. But it should not have come as much of a surprise. Yes, the former first lady used to complain that her husband was under attack from a “vast right-wing conspiracy” that surely included the conservative media mogul’s News Corp. And yes, when she ran for the Senate in 2000 his New York Post did all it could to derail...

After analyzing the minutes of a meeting held in Chicago between Cook County and Chicago's city officials with the board of Sequoia, that remained in charge after the take over, and that of Smartmatic [6], Ochoa noted that unknown Venezuelan investors, operating via proxy European ventures, could indeed be the controlling power behind Smartmatic. Ochoa indicated that an entry in the minutes of the meeting aforementioned describes Cook County's Commissioner Peter Silvestri [14] asking to representatives of Sequoia/Smartmatic "who owns Sequoia?" (sic). The answer came from Honorable David Orr [15]: "Smartmatic International, which is owned by a Dutch company, owns...

<p>It's March 2000 all over again. But this time, the frenzied buyers aren't focusing on stocks.</p> <p>Spooked by the prospect of war and anxious for any semblance of safety, bond investors have bid up the price of 10-year Treasury notes, so that they yield just 3.57%.</p>

<p>An Interview With James Turk - Gold appears to have broken out of its longtime funk. But is the move just a flash in the pan or something more substantial? For an answer, we turned to one of the more obsessed gold authorities we know, James Turk, publisher of the Freemarket Gold & Money Report newsletter and founder and managing director of Goldmoney.com, a company striving to make the metal the currency of choice in global commerce, especially in cross-border transactions. An international banker and manager of the commodity department for the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority for much of the 'Eighties, Turk spent most of the 'Nineties providing strategic advice and forecasts to investment managers. To learn why he thinks gold is on the cusp of a new bull market and which stocks he's focused on, please read on.</p>