This is a bad story any way you look at it. The Russian essentially support the Assad government while the rest of the world opposes it and its recent military actions.

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Via WattsUpWithThat

Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach

Sounds like a scam, huh? But it’s real. Let me explain how people (no, not you or me, don’t be foolish) can make a guaranteed 29% return on their investment. However, to make it clear, I’ll need to take a short digression. I ran across a National Geographic article on where the world gets its electricity. Here are their figures:

Figure 1. World electricity production by fuel type. Renewables (defined by AGW activists as solar-, geothermal-, wind-, and biomass-generated electricity, but not hydroelectricity) are 2.7% of the total electricity use. Data from National Geographic 

You can see why the AGW supporters’ heads are exploding as the Durban climate party approaches. It is obvious from the chart that years and years of subsidies and tax breaks and IPCC reports and various urgings by well-meaning but clueless pundits and billions in wasted taxpayer dollars have not succeeded in getting renewables up to even 3% of the total electricity generated. Less than 3%. It must drive them round the twist to contemplate their stunning lack of success at making water flow uphill.

Despite that history, you know how they say on those TV commercials, “But wait! There’s even more!”? In this case, it’s “But wait! There’s even less!”

And I don’t mean just a bit of money to get them over the hump. Huge subsidies. Because of the total failure of renewables to penetrate the market, the AGW supporters are desperately throwing money at renewable technologies. The New York Times showed a graphic for one such power plant in California. Their graphic is reproduced below as Figure 3.

Figure 3. Federal and State Subsidies for the California Valley Solar Ranch.

Unfortunately, the Times didn’t really discuss the business implications of this chart, so let me remedy that omission.

First, how much money did the investors have to put in? Since the project will start earning money once the key is turned and the market is guaranteed, the investors only had to put up the total capital outlay of $1.6 billion. Less, of course, the generous government grant of nearly half a billion dollars. Total invested, therefore, is $1,170 million dollars.

On that money, the investors stand to make a net present value of $334 million dollars … which means that due to the screwing of the taxpayers and ratepayers, a few very wealthy investors are GUARANTEED A RETURN OF 29% ON THEIR INVESTMENT!!!

How is this fair in any sane universe? AGW supporters talk about the 1% having too much money, and here the same folks are shoveling the money into the one percenters’ pockets. The 1% weren’t rich enough already, so I have to foot the bill for them to get a GUARANTEED 29% RETURN on their investment?

Note also that a huge part of the money, some $462 billion dollars, is coming from the California electricity ratepayers, including yours truly, through increased charges for electricity. This means that these solar scam artists are being allowed to sell their power at 50% ABOVE MARKET PRICES!!! Not just a little bit above market. Fifty percent above the market price! Where is the California Public Utilities Commission whose job is to protect the consumer? Oh, I see … the are the ones who agreed to the 50% above market rate hike … for shame.

Read the rest here.

MADRID (AP) — Carlos Slim, one of the world’s richest men, has bought 3.23 percent of Spanish-language media giant Grupo Prisa.

Spanish financial officials said Friday the Mexican businessman bought at least 14.7 million shares of the company this month for about euro11 billion ($14.8 billion).

Slim has also purchased 7.2 percent of the publisher of The New York Times in recent years.

Grupo Prisa operates newspapers, broadcasters and publishers in 22 countries.

Last year it received a cash injection from U.S.-based Liberty Acquisitions Holdings Corp. to refinance its $6.4 billion debt.

..

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — An oil spill off Brazil’s coast could be “much bigger” than earlier estimated, the Rio de Janeiro state environment minister said Friday, and Federal Police said that oil company Chevron drilled deeper than allowed.

Minister Carlos Minc didn’t say how much oil has leaked from the site of a well owned by Chevron. The leak began Nov. 8 and some Brazilian officials say has not yet been contained.

The exact cause of the leak is not yet known, but a spokesman for Brazil’s Federal Police, which has opened an investigation into the spill, said that Chevron “drilled about 500 meters (1,640 feet) farther than they were licensed to do.”

The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to discuss the matter.

Minc is calling for more transparency on the part of Chevron.

Waiters at some of New York’s swankiest eateries were part of a criminal crew that stole credit card information to create counterfeit cards — and then racked up some $600,000 in purchases, prosecutors revealed Friday.

Led by Luis Damian “DJ” Jacas, the crooks equipped waiters at Smith & Wollensky, The Capital Grille, Wolfgang’s Steakhouse and JoJo — and at two restaurants outside the city — with electronic “scimmers” to steal the info from at least 50 customers, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said.

Then Jacas used a “network of shoppers” to go on shopping sprees at high-end Manhattan stores like Chanel, Neiman Marcus, Cartier, Hermes of Paris, Bloomingdales, Bergdorf Goodman, Waldmann’s, London Jewelers, Burberry, Jimmy Choo, Lord & Taylor, prosecutors said.

They even used the phony American Express cards to refuel at Starbucks and also hit stores in Westchester County, Long Island, Boston, Chicago and Florida.

The ill-gotten goods were then fenced to “complicit customers” for cash, prosecutors said.

“The high-end targets of this case make it notable, but disturbingly this case is far from unique,” said District Attorney Cy Vance, whose 18-month joint investigation with the Secret Service ended Thursday with the arrests of 27 people.

The suspects were hit with 172 counts of felony enterprise corruption, conspiracy, grand larceny and other charges.

One of the key players in the ring was Brian Torrey, 34, of Bronxville, a longtime Smith & Wollensky waiter.

“Over 60 credit cards were stolen by Mr. Torrey,” Assistant District Attorney Kenneth Kern said.

Two of Jacas’ alleged fences, Eric Brahms, 42, and his wife, Emily, 30, both of Manhattan, were busted at Mt. Sinai Hospital while she was in labor, sources said.

Another alleged member of the ring, 46-year-old Anthony Coffarro, of Brooklyn, was apparently rousted from his bed and arrived at his arraignment Friday dressed in long johns.

The crimes charged in the indictments occurred between April 2010 and November 2011.

Jacas, 41, of Manhattan, also had phony drivers licenses made in the names of the customers whose credit card information was stolen, prosecutors said.

Jacas “oversaw and managed all aspects of the criminal operation,” prosecutors said. He directed his “shoppers” to buy watches, handbags, wallets and other easilly-fenced items.

In addition to the luxury items, investigators who raided the crews’ storage unit at Manhattan Mini Storage on East 62nd St. found a stash of expensive wine, more than $1 million in cash, the skimming devices and the equipment used to make the bogus credit cards and drivers licenses.

The American Express card holders victimized by the gang were not stuck with the bill, prosecutors said.

Read more: http://trade.cc/ijk

It is beyond me how you would have lax security on an exchange….

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Syracuse Police have confirmed to CNY Central they are in the very early stages of an investigation into allegations made against Syracuse University assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine.

Police would not elaborate on what those allegations are, but ESPN.com is reporting that those allegations involve molesting a team ball boy. Syracuse Police say the information came to the department today.

According to ESPN.com, the alleged abuse started in the mid-1980s and lasted for more than a dozen years. The alleged victim told ESPN’s Outside the Lines that he was entering the seventh grade at the time it started.

We have put in several calls to the Syracuse University Athletics Department. So far, no calls have been returned.

The accelerated pace of cyber courtship is getting part of the blame for an increase in sexually transmitted diseases.

“You don’t have to spend a week in a bar to find somebody your comfortable with,” said St. Louis Health Director Pam Walker, “People are doing it online and they’re doing it faster.”

Walker says 90 percent of the some 400 new cases of gonorrhea and 126 new cases of chlamydia are African Americans between the ages of 15-to-24.

New numbers released today by the CDC also show 18 new cases of syphilis.  Gay men who know they are HIV positive account for the all of the new syphilis cases, Walker said.

“Two people who know their status and know they are positive for HIV feel like they can have sex without a condom, because they’re already infected,” Walker said, “And what they’re doing is giving each other syphilis.”

With syphilis up 46 percent, gonorrhea up 31 percent and chlamydia up three-percent, Walker says none of the increases appear linked to any cutbacks in health department spending.

“I have not cut communicable disease control in the five years that I’ve been director,” Walker said.

Without yet calling forfunding increases, Walker warns that reducing STDs could be an expensive public policy problem.

“If I put 20 disease investigators in the field and they followed those 55 people around who have syphilis, could I probably get rid of it?” Walker asked, “Yeah, but that would cost about $400,000.”

Walker is calling on private providers and community clinics to help her locate the sex partners of people with known sexual diseases.  She points to a new law in the state — the Expedited Partner Therapy law — that allows for clinics to dispense enough antibiotics to a known carrier of gonorrhea , chlamydia or syphilis to give anonymously to sexual partners to treat them.

“If you have gonorrhea, then your partner probably has gonorrhea,” Walker said, “I need to talk to that partner and find out if they have three other partners, or we never break the chain.”  Walker says

Of particular concern among the three STDs on the increase, chlamydia shows no symptoms and if left untreated in women, it can lead to infertility.  Based a national CDC study, Walker estimates that one in three women in the city may be infected with chlamydia.

SOURCE 

Flat to slightly higher is their guidance

Online review company Yelp files for $100 mil with GS as lead underwriter

One in four American women take medication for a mental disorder

• Women more likely than men to take antipsychotic drugs, according to new report
• Most often prescribed to females over 45
  
• Prescriptions for psychiatric problems in all adults have risen 22% since 2001
• Usage has quadrupled among men aged between 20 and 64 over the last decade

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Last updated at 1:59 PM on 17th November 2011

More than one in four American women took at least one drug for conditions like anxiety and depression last year, according to an analysis of prescription data.

The report, by pharmacy benefits manager Medco Health Solutions Inc, found the use of drugs for psychiatric and behavioral disorders in all adults rose 22per cent from 2001.

The medications are most often prescribed to women aged 45 and older, but their use among men and in younger adults climbed sharply.

On the rise: A bar graph showing the increase in the number of Americans using mental health medication between 2001 and 2010. There are considerably more women doing so than men

In total, more than 20per cent of American adults were found to be on at least one drug for mental health disorders.

A number of celebrities have gone public in recent years with their battles with mental health disorders.

They include Catherin Zeta-Jones, who was treated for a form of bipolar disorder earlier this year due to the stress of coping with her husband Michael Douglas’s fight with cancer.

Model Brooke Shields admitted suffering postpartum depression after the birth of her baby in 2003, while fellow big screen icon Carrie Fisher, of Star Wars fame, told how she had turned to electroshock therapy to treat the worst symptoms of her chronic depression.

Needed help: Actress Catherin Zeta-Jones (left) was treated for bipolar disorder earlier this year, while model and movie star Brooke Shields revealed she had suffered from postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter in 2003

Ends of the spectrum: Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher, 54, turned to electroshock therapy to help treat her chronic depression, while Olympic gold medal swimmer Michael Phelps was diagnosed with ADHD when he was nine years old

In adults 20 to 44, use of antipsychotic drugs and treatments for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) more than tripled, while use of anti-anxiety drugs like Xanax, Valium and Ativan rose 30per cent from a decade ago.

The statistics were taken from Medco’s database of prescriptions and is based on 2.5million patients with 24 months of continuous prescription drug insurance and eligibility.

The company said women are twice as likely as men to use anxiety treatments as 11per cent of women 45 to 65 are on an anxiety medication.

Women are also more likely than men to take antipsychotic drugs like Zyprexa, Risperdal, and Abilify, which treat disorders like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

However, among men 20 to 64, use of the drugs has quadrupled over the last decade.

Geographical differences: In the ‘diabetes belt’ states of Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi and Alabama, about 23per cent of people are on at least one mental health drug. The lowest rate is less than 15per cent

The sex divide: This graph shows how far more women used anti-depressant drugs last year compared to men

Dr David Muzina, a psychiatrist and national practice leader of Medco’s Neuroscience Therapeutic Resource Center, said: ‘There has been a significant uptick in the use of medications to treat a variety of mental health problems.

‘What is not as clear is if more people — especially women – are actually developing psychological disorders that require treatment.

‘Or (it might be) if they are more willing to seek out help and clinicians are better at diagnosing these conditions than they once were.’

Pharmaceutical companies have also sought and received approvals to market their drugs to larger groups of people.

Drugs for ADHD, which Olympic gold medal swimmer Michael Phelps was diagnosed with when he was nine, are prescribed to boys more often than girls, but adult women now take the drugs more often than men.

ADHD prescriptions to adult women grew 2.5 times from 2001. However, ADHD prescriptions for children have been declining since 2005.

That reflects a decline in prescriptions for psychiatric and behavioral drugs for children.

Worrying trend: There has been a sharp rise in the the percentage of Americans aged between 20 and 44 taking ADHD medication since 2001

Medco found that prescriptions of those drugs for children have dropped since 2004, when the FDA warned they were linked to suicidal thoughts when used in people under 19.

The company said less than 1per cent of children use antipsychotics drugs, although the figure has doubled since 2001.

In the ‘diabetes belt’ states of Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi and Alabama, about 23per cent of people are on at least one psychiatric or behavioral disorder drug.

Diabetes is particularly widespread in those states and the condition is associated with higher levels of depression and anxiety disorders.

The lowest rate of prescriptions was found in Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Michigan, where less than 15 per cent of people are using those medications.

Read more: http://trade.cc/hyh#ixzz1dzQViKfo

SOURCE 

Intraday woosh down at around 12:30pm EST. Nasdaq currently down more than 2%

Victims of Allen Stanford’s alleged $7.2 billion Ponzi scheme may soon have a chance to submit claims, though it remains unclear how much of their losses they might ultimately recover.

Ralph Janvey, the court-appointed receiver for Stanford’s firm, asked a federal judge in Houston for permission to set up a claims process, more than 2-1/2 years after the financier’s arrest, a Wednesday court filing shows.

Approval of the request could pave the way for investors to recover at least some of their losses from Stanford’s alleged fraud, a sum believed to be $2 billion or more.

Stanford, 61, faces 14 criminal charges and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission civil charges over allegations he deceived investors who bought fake certificates of deposit from his Antiguan bank, Stanford International Bank Ltd.

His February 2009 arrest came two months after Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme was uncovered.

Wednesday’s filing is “a major step” toward returning money to victims, Kevin Sadler, a partner at Baker Botts representing Janvey, said in an email.

Though a court-appointed examiner and a committee of Stanford investors expressed disagreements over parts of the process at an Oct. 13 court conference, “the court made clear at the status conference that the process should begin, and the receiver has acted accordingly,” he added.

Peter Morgenstern, a lawyer for the investors’ committee, on Thursday declined immediate comment. John Little, the examiner, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

It is unclear how much money will be distributed, when payouts will begin, and how such amounts will be calculated.

“For investor claimants, the amount of the investor’s net investment in the Ponzi scheme will be one of the most significant factors” in determining payouts, Janvey said.

The $7.2 billion figure reflects CDs on Stanford’s books when the receivership was set up, not actual investor losses.

At the Oct. 13 conference, Sadler said at least $2 billion of investor funds had been lost through a series of backdated fictitious loans. “If one wanted to consider a floor of money that’s gone, that certainly would be a candidate,” he said.

HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS SOUGHT

According to a court filing, Janvey had $80.1 million of unrestricted cash on hand as of Oct. 31, after accounting for professional fees and costs.

The trustee is seeking another $955.3 million in litigation. This includes $610 million from other Stanford investors and vendors, and $335 million in British, Canadian, Swiss and other accounts.

Liquidators in Antigua have sought control of some of these accounts, court papers show.

Stanford recently moved to a Houston federal detention center from the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina, where he was treated for an addiction to an anti-anxiety medication.

His criminal trial is expected to begin in January in the federal court in Houston. Stanford is scheduled to be arraigned under his most recent indictment on Nov. 28. That proceeding had been delayed because of his treatment at Butner.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge David Hittner, who oversees the criminal case, barred Stephen Cochell, a lawyer for Stanford in the SEC case, from meeting his client at the Houston detention center until the criminal case is finished.

The judge said public comments by Cochell about Stanford’s current mental status could impact the criminal trial. Cochell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Madoff is serving a 150-year prison term at Butner.

The civil case is SEC v. Stanford International Bank Ltd, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas, No. 09-00298. The criminal case is U.S. v. Stanford, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas, No. 09-00342
Read more: http://trade.cc/hwl

Google tries to catch up to AMZN and AAPL

Boeing gets a $21.7 billion dollar deal

MU & RMBS still halted

More fun with banks

This affects the refinery space immensely. Game changer, potentially.

Read here:

Jenga! ConocoPhillips just knocked a big hole in the delicate logistical edifice on which the biggest anomaly in the oil world has been balancing.

In oil markets, 2011 has been the year of the great Brent spread. The North Sea crude oil benchmark has been trading at an unusually high premium to U.S. West Texas Intermediate oil for much of the year after many years of rough parity or trading at a slight discount.

On one side, the Libyan conflict pulled up demand for Brent. On the other — as discussed in this “Heard on the Street” column from February — logistical constraints have kept an increasing amount of oil bottled up in the Midwest. As Cushing, OK is where the WTI contract is settled physically, this glut has kept WTI prices depressed, widening the spread. Having started the year trading at a premium of $3.37 a barrel to WTI, Brent’s lead hit a peak of almost $27 on September 6th.

Now one of those bottlenecks on WTI is likely to be eased. Conoco is selling its 50% stake in the Seaway pipeline to Canada’s Enbridge Inc. Conoco kept the pipeline running northwards, i.e. bringing oil from the Gulf coast to Cushing. This kept oil bottled up in the Midwest, meaning Conoco’s refineries there had access to cheaper raw material, allowing them to generate big profits. Now that Conoco is splitting itself, it has no need for Seaway. And Enbridge, as a pipeline operator, has no incentive to keep the pipeline flowing north. By the second quarter of 2012, it expects Seaway to be transporting 150,000 barrels per day from Cushing to the Gulf coast, alleviating the WTI glut.

As of now, Brent’s premium to WTI has collapsed another $2.37 this morning, and is now down under $11 a barrel. As more pipelines get built over the next several years — including, perhaps, a rerouted Keystone XL — the great 2011 spread will be but a fond memory in oil refiners’ minds.

– Liam Denning