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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (694789)	8/1/2005 8:53:19 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Respond to of 769670

speculators :Oil Prices Hit Record High After Saudi King Dies By JAD MOUAWAD With oil traders, analysts and hedge fund investors on the lookout for any news of instability in Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, the long-expected death of King Fahd and the planned succession by Crown Prince Abdullah sent oil prices to a record high during trading today. Still, the kingdom's energy policy is not expected to change much under the new sovereign, who as crown prince has shaped Saudi Arabia's oil and gas strategy for the past decade. But for oil markets that are concerned about the Saud dynasty's hold over the oil-rich kingdom, the announcement from Riyadh provoked a knee-jerk reaction, said Thomas Bentz, a senior oil analyst with BNP Paribas in New York. Crude oil futures rose as high as $62.30 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange today and later settled up 98 cents, at $61.55 a barrel. In two years, oil prices have more than doubled. So far this year, they are up about 41 percent. "For years, oil markets have reacted bullishly at every rumor of King Fahd's death," Mr. Bentz said. "The king finally died and markets reacted." Other factors, mostly in the United States, also contributed to Monday's jump, however. Shutdowns at major refineries owned by Exxon Mobil, BP and Valero renewed worries about the tightness of supplies of products like gasoline, diesel and heating oil in coming months as demand grows. King Abdullah has been the kingdom's effective ruler since 1995 when his half-brother suffered a debilitating stroke. During that time, he steered a limited opening of the country's gas sector to foreign investors while maintaining Saudi Aramco's strict state monopoly over oil production. As the most powerful member of OPEC, Saudi Arabia has long maintained a policy of keeping spare capacity in oil production to make up for potential disruptions from other suppliers. The kingdom holds a quarter of the world's oil reserves. Saudi officials were quick to reassure markets. The country's newly appointed ambassador to the United States, Prince Turki al-Faisal, told reporters in London that Saudi Arabia would stick to its policies. Similar assurances quickly came from OPEC officials in the Persian Gulf. "Abdullah has been actively involved in the core activities of Saudi Arabian energy," said Anthony Cordesman, an expert on Saudi energy policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "It's hard to see that the death of King Fahd would produce much change there." Ian Bremmer, the president of Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy in New York, said, "One area where you can expect to see consistency is Saudi energy policy." The crown price's stewardship over the past decade coincided with a period in which oil prices collapsed to less than $10 a barrel, in 1998, bringing many producers to the brink of bankruptcy. Thanks to Saudi Arabia's leadership within OPEC, aimed mainly at curbing production, prices then recovered. The new king has also witnessed the run-up in oil prices of the past two years as fast-growing demand from Asia in recent years, mainly from China, caught many producers flat-footed. But even as most of OPEC's producers have been producing at maximum capacity to meet the rising demand, prices have not let up. Saudi Arabia, which has a maximum production capacity of about 10.5 million barrels a day, plans to increase investments through 2009 to increase capacity to 12.5 million barrels a day. At the same time, some analysts said the kingdom faces little incentive to bring prices down too much. "Saudi Arabia has come to enjoy these high prices," said Muhammad-Ali Zainy, the senior energy economist at the London-based Center for Global Energy Studies. "Saudi Arabia remains totally dependent on oil and has not succeeded, in the past 30 years, in diversifying its economy. I am worried that, as prices are up and their revenues grow, it will push them to complacency."

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (694789)	8/1/2005 10:29:18 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 769670

Hooverville US factory activity accelerates By Christopher Swann in Washington Mon Aug 1,11:10 AM ET Growth in the US manufacturing sector accelerated in July, according to the Institute for Supply Management. The ISM index of activity rose to 56.5 in July from 53.8 in June. Economists had been expecting a more modest rise. A reading above 50 shows that the sector is growing, while a reading below implies contraction. The ISM data has shown the manufacturing sector expanding for the past 26 months. The new orders component of the index rose to 60.6 from 57.2. Economists have been expecting orders and production to pick up after a decline in inventories in the second quarter. The figures hinted that companies may have been surprised by the strength of demand in the quarter and had been forced to dig into their inventories. It seems that at the start of the third quarter they may have started to replenish their stock rooms. This was also born out by the production component of the index which rose to 61.2 from 55.6. The employment component of the index also rose from 49.9 to 53.2. Employment in the manufacturing sector has been on a downward trend for several years - reflecting the growth of production overseas as companies have shifted to lower cost locations. Most economists expect this weakness to continue but will welcome any interruptions in the trend. There was also good news on inflation. The prices paid index slid back to 48.5 from 50.5. news.yahoo.com

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (694789)	8/1/2005 10:40:58 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 769670

Hooverville Gov't Plans to Borrow Less This Quarter By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer Mon Aug 1, 5:38 PM ET WASHINGTON - The government expects to borrow $59 billion from the credit markets this quarter — considerably less than previously estimated, the Treasury Department said Monday. The improvement mostly reflects higher tax revenues, the department said. The previous borrowing estimate, in May, was $103 billion for the July-to-September quarter. If the new borrowing projection of $59 billion proves accurate, that would mark the smallest amount of borrowing for the July-to-September period in five years. The new estimate comes as the economy is enjoying solid growth, which is helping to boost tax revenues. The economy grew by an energetic 3.4 percent annual rate in the April-to-June quarter, the government reported last week. Private economists believe growth will be even better in the current quarter. Against that backdrop, the White House recently lowered its projection for the federal budget deficit for this year to $333 billion, down from an initial estimate of $427 billion. Last year, the government ran up $412 billion in red ink, a record in dollar terms. "The buoyant income growth that has accompanied the expanding economy has generated a fiscal dividend," Mark Warshawsky, assistant secretary of the Treasury Department's Office of Economic Policy, said Monday. "Federal tax receipts have improved dramatically, sharply reducing the budget deficit. Tax receipts in fiscal year 2005 are on track to grow 14 percent — the largest such year-over-year increase in nearly 25 years," he said. For the upcoming October-to-December quarter, Treasury expects to borrow $97 billion. Treasury needs to borrow to finance the daily operations of government, including meeting interest payments on the national debt, which now stands at around $7.8 trillion. The estimates are made as the department considers the government's financing needs, something its does on a quarterly basis. As part of that process, the department is widely expected to announce later this week that it will bring back the 30-year Treasury bond. The department had stopped selling new 30-year bonds in October 2001. news.yahoo.com

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (694789)	8/2/2005 1:48:12 AM
From: Sully-	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

HOOVERVILLE The two Americas Power Line Donald Lambro of the Washington Times describes them. There's the real America, which has experienced 25 consecutive months of job gains resulting in 3.7 million new jobs, and in which manufacturing, according to both the Fed and the Commerce Department, is surging. And there's the Democrats' America, as depicted by Nancy Pelosi and John Kerry, which is in its worst shape since Hoover thanks to misguided policies, such as free trade, that are destroying our manufacturing base. There must be more at work here than just partisan politics -- I don't recall Republicans claiming that our economy was sinking during the boom years under President Clinton. I can't improve on Lambro's diagnosis: "The answer, unfortunately, is all about the politics of pessimism and denial, an illness that has long afflicted Mrs. Pelosi's party -- to its detriment." http://powerlineblog.com/archives/011223.php washtimes.com