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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (114379)	8/30/2007 11:10:52 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Respond to of 361249

Jim Willie...picked this up off the Oil Drum If anybody is in contact with him, tell him the Rat sez congrats. theoildrum.com US / Mexico : Failed System and Failed State South of the border is Mexico, whose fiscal wagon is quietly and dangerously careening down a hill, most assuredly over a precipice. This would constitute another extreme development. The decline of their giant oil field Cantarell, combined with the mismanagement of their PEMEX national oil industry, hampered by their corrupt powerful labor union, stymied by their compromised Parliament, these guarantee a monstrous fiscal problem in Mexico . The reduction in their FOREX trade surplus accelerates from greater gasoline import, a whiplash factor. This story has so far eluded the sleepy lapdog press, but not the oil industry. This story was covered in the August Hat Trick Letter in greater depth. My forecast is for Mexico to disintegrate into a failed state within two years, owing to its lost FOREX trade surplus and utter breakdown of law and order. Mexico City soon will be forced to turn to desperate measures.http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article1969.html

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (114379)	8/30/2007 11:33:46 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 361249

Greater Depression?? Looks like it is starting... Unpaid bills for natural gas are up sharply About 20,000 CenterPoint customers have been disconnected -- at least double the number in previous years. By Mike Meyers, Star Tribune Last update: August 28, 2007 – 9:01 PM About 160,000 CenterPoint Energy customers across Minnesota are in arrears on their natural gas bills, up from a 70,000 to 100,000 at the end of summer in years past, the company said Tuesday. About 20,000 customers have been disconnected -- double to triple the number in years past -- with an average amount due of about $1,200. Service has been restored for about 40 percent of those customers, who have agreed to payment plans. The company has about 780,000 Minnesota customers. "It's not just a bill that's one day past due," said Greg Schirmers, CenterPoint manager of credit. As many as half are behind in payments for 150 days or more, he said. But it's an open question whether the $66 million in overdue gas bills is a bellwether of hard times for homeowners or continued fallout from real estate speculators who've been burned by falling prices. "There are a lot of people who are carrying a large level of debt and who are struggling," Schirmers said. An estimated 1.2 million households have been disconnected from utility service across the country, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors' Association in Washington, D.C. Cuts in federal aid to help the poor pay the cost of energy and higher mortgage payments for families with adjustable-rate home loans get some of the blame. "With adjustable-rate mortgages repricing at higher amounts, some people might be squeezed making high home loan payments and have to cut back in some other areas," said Toby Madden, regional economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. But Minnesota state economist Tom Stinson is skeptical of the idea that hard times for overextended homeowners has driven the rise in overdue utility bills. "The Minnesota economy is not that bad," Stinson said. Falling residential real estate prices may have more to do with the phenomenon, in his view. People who bought homes and condos as a short-term investment, hoping for a quick resale at a profit, have been giving up on a "flipping" strategy as home prices have dropped, contributing to a jump in mortgage defaults and foreclosures, Stinson said. "If you're a property owner not living in the house but holding it for speculation and you've decided to walk away from the mortgage, it's likely you would walk away from your utility bills, too," he said. "That might be what we're seeing here." CenterPoint urges customers with overdue bills to call the company to work out a payment plan. Mike Meyers • 612-673-1746 startribune.com