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Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TobagoJack who wrote (53125)	9/8/2004 12:04:42 PM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

US economy on the up, says Greenspan (Can't stop Bush.) Mark Tran Wednesday September 8, 2004 The US economy has come out of its recent soft patch and regained some momentum, the Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan, said today. In upbeat testimony before the House of Representatives budget committee, the world's most powerful central banker said consumer spending and housing starts had rebounded in July and that business investment remained on a solid upward trend - although he acknowledged that early readings on retail sales in August were mixed. "The most recent data suggest that, on the whole, the expansion has regained some traction," Mr Greenspan said, in testimony that was sure to be closely followed by the White House and the Democratic presidential hopeful, John Kerry. With an economic record that gives him little to boast about, President George Bush has mentioned the economy as little as possible in his speeches. Mr Kerry, on the other hand, has begun to focus on bread and butter issues on the advice of Bill Clinton, who won the presidency on the mantra: "It's the economy, stupid." Mr Greenspan's positive assessment will be welcomed by Mr Bush amid debate about whether the US economy was losing steam just a couple of months ahead of November's presidential vote. Private economists largely agree with Mr Greenspan that the economy has picked up, although they thought he hedged his bets today. "Greenspan has edged away from the `soft-patch' story and taken a step towards the `regaining of traction' theme, but has put in enough hedges, perhaps reflecting his lack of conviction," said Ian Morris, an economist with HSBC. Still, last week there was encouraging news on the jobs front for the Republicans. The US labour department reported last Friday that non-farm payrolls - among the most watched of US economic indicators - rose 144,000, about in line with economists' forecasts. Figures for the previous two months were revised up, from 32,000 to 73,000 for July and to 96,000 from 78,000 in June. The unemployment rate fell to 5.4% from 5.5% in July, the lowest in almost three years. On a more negative note for the White House, Mr Greenspan voiced implicit criticism of Mr Bush's handling of the budget, which has ballooned into an enormous deficit, from a surplus under the Clinton presidency. The Congressional Budget Office yesterday said for the year to September 30 2004 the deficit would set a new record of $422bn (£236.5bn) . Mr Greenspan said the record deficit would likely narrow in the year ahead but that the long-term outlook was worrying. "With the economy continuing to improve, the deficit is more likely to decline than to increase in the year ahead," he said. "Nonetheless, the prospects for the federal budget over the longer term remain troubling." The Fed chairman reiterated his concerns about the sustainability of social security (state pensions) and Medicare (health insurance for elderly) programmes. Mr Greenspan avoided policy prescriptions to address the fiscal strains that the retirement of the baby-boom generation would create, but again urged discipline in the budget process. "Re-establishing an effective procedural framework for budgetary decision making should be a high priority. But it is only a start," Mr Greenspan said. "As we prepare for the retirement of the baby-boom generation and confront the implications of soaring expenditures for medical care, a major effort by policymakers to set priorities for tax and spending programs and to start making tradeoffs is long overdue."

To: TobagoJack who wrote (53125)	9/8/2004 12:29:36 PM
From: energyplay	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

Have not looked at Viking in detail - I should. Paramount is- 1)Under valued on current and future (slightly reduced production) .Even with production shut downs from energy board, divdidneds will be high. Undervalued by about 10-20%. 2) Very likely to get either monetary compensation or allowance to keep taking more gas from the shut in areas. With Monetary compensation, the now have recently bought assests which are nearby where that money can be put to work at good returns. I expect the undervalue to close over time, as it has been.