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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mishedlo who wrote (16980)	11/28/2004 5:06:25 PM
From: ThirdEye	Respond to of 116555

Payday Lenders making a bundle: According to a bloomberg story saturday: As many as 14 million of the 105 million US households used a payday lender in 2003. These lenders charge as much as 390% (that is NOT a typo) per year. In 2003, these lenders, who target the working poor including many military families, made $6B on $40B in loans. They used to operate on the fringe of the consumer finance industry, but now are bankrolled by the likes of Wells, BofA, JPM Chase. There are now 22,000 payday lending outlets in the US. In CA there are 5 times as many such outlets than McDonalds. Sweet, eh?

To: mishedlo who wrote (16980)	11/29/2004 12:41:12 AM
From: Haim R. Branisteanu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

Power cut alarm over Ukraine crisis By Edmund Conway (Filed: 29/11/2004) Europe may face a Christmas of power cuts and even higher energy prices if the Ukrainian election crisis hits the country's key gas pipeline from Russia, analysts have warned. North Sea gas platform A gas platform in the North Sea. Britain will become more dependent on imports as local output declines "This is a completely unprecedented situation," said Patrick Heren, of gas experts Heren Energy. "You have a potential revolution in a [gas] transit country. There is a possibility that someone could turn off the taps." The warning is particularly chilling because the UK will become dependent on imported gas within two years as the North Sea's output declines. Britain has also reshaped its energy policy so that around three quarters of the country’s electricity will be generated by gas-fired power stations by 2020, compared with 38pc at the moment. Around a third of Europe's gas comes in through Ukraine. A sudden disruption would directly affect countries such as Germany and Poland and push market prices higher. Eurogas, the European gas industry's lobby group, said it was increasingly concerned. "One risk is that you have some technical disruption, which would be more likely to take place if this crisis was prolonged for one or two months," said secretary general Jean Marie Devos. So far, there has been no interruption to supply, although United Kingdom wholesale gas prices have risen considerably in the past year, prompting manufacturers' group the EEF to urge the Chancellor to launch an inquiry. Ukrainian pipelines carry over 210billion cubic metres of natural gas from Russia and Central Asia through to Europe every year. The most immediate fear is that, amid the demonstrations and strikes in the country, the pipelines could be shut off or left vulnerable to terrorist strikes. Another worrying scenario is that if the pro-Western candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, takes control of the country, the Kremlin could decide to cut off the gas supply, according to gas analyst Stewart Gray of Wood Mackenzie. "The politics may be changing in a direction that upsets Russia," he said. "There is reason to suspect that they might cut off the gas supply through the Ukraine. They have done so before." In February Russia also temporarily shut off its gas supply from a much smaller pipeline to Belarus amid worsening diplomatic relations. Added to this, according to Mr Heren, the Ukrainian pipeline network is "vast and deteriorating". "It hasn’t been properly maintained," he said. "The general game-plan was that Western companies would go in and invest but the country is so corrupt that they have been driven away, and will be unlikely to do so unless Yushchenko comes in and sorts that out." A spokesman for the Department of Trade and Industry said: "Imports of gas have proved very reliable historically, but we are watching the situation closely in the Ukraine. It is worth noting that we will be importing gas from an increasingly diverse range of supply routes in the future."