Hopes For Democracy In Iran Dashed By Colossal Failure of American Fo... -06/16/09 at 4:44 PM CDTby Perry Rod

It began on July 8th, 1999 with a peaceful demonstration in Tehran, Iran.  But by the end of the week, the Islamic Republic was responsible for the killing of several students, the disappearance of dozens of others, and thousands of arrests.  There was mass rioting in the streets and Iran was thought to be on the brink of some kind of new st...

The Crushing of False Hope in Iran -06/12/09 at 10:12 PM CDTby Perry Rod

It is a moment of truth for Iran, and truth can oftentimes be painful for the young at heart. The question will quickly transform from “who won?” to “what will Mr. Mousavi do?”  The so-called reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi is now in a position to do what no other man has done in Iran since the Iranian rev...

Peak Oil & Mainstream Attention Reveals A New Economic Pattern -06/11/09 at 7:49 PM CDTby Reggie Abaca

Look out everybody.  Suddenly, the mainstream media is talking about peak oil, as if they've been just as concerned all along.  This spells trouble for the world economy as it is a significant change in behavior from the mainstream outlets. It is absolutely true and we've been saying it for years - oil production has hit its peak in most of the ...

The Inevitable Future: Peak Oil and Socialism -04/21/09 at 3:13 AM CDTby Reggie Abaca

The current economic malaise was triggered by falling home prices and aggressive lending practices, they say. The other part of the story – where oil (OIL, USO, USL) prices shot up to $150 a barrel - has been largely ignored, for now.  But it happened. Worldwide peak oil is not a theory.  It has already occurred and the 2008 oil price shoc...

Religious Fanatics and Peak Oil: A Match Made In Hell -03/22/09 at 2:22 PM CDTby Peter York

We already knew that Iran is controlled by religious extremists.  Iran's real leader in ultimate power is not a president, but a "supreme" religious leader who punishes anybody who criticizes him or his authority.  That included the current supreme leader's younger brother, who was severely beaten for criticizing his authority years ago, along w...

Dennis Ross and What He Means for Iran and the Price of Oil -03/17/09 at 5:20 AM CDTby Reggie Abaca

Investors in oil (OIL, USO, USL) ought to pay special attention to last month's appointment for the office of "special advisor" on Middle East affairs to the United States Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton. Is this person a thoughtful middle of the road academic scholar?  No. This person is Dennis Ross, a former foreign affairs analyst for the ...

Watch Out For Contango: Looking For The Best Long Term Oil Fund: USO,... -03/06/09 at 10:48 PM CSTby Perry Rod

It's really very simple. Go to any stock comparison chart today and compare the popular United States Oil Fund (USO), Barclay's iPath S&P GSCI Crude Oil Fund (OIL), or PowerShares Crude Oil Double Long and compare these to The United States 12 Month Oil Fund (USL) or PowerShares DB Oil Fund.  You will find that USL and DBO outperform the res...

Bank Of America Corp's Preferred Trusts Continue to Trade at Irration... -03/04/09 at 10:21 PM CSTby Perry Rod

In my first installment of this issue on February 20th, I highlighted an unusually enormous spread between the yields of nearly identical Merrill Lynch and Bank of America preferred trusts.  In particular, MER-C on that Friday closed with a yield of 26.79% while BAC-U closed with a yield of 15.58%.  It turns out that on that parti...

With Citigroup and Bank of America Leading The Way, The S&P 500 Is Ha... -02/23/09 at 6:45 PM CSTby Mahyar Hashemi

Things are getting ugly in an unprecedented way.  Last month, The New York Times reported that the S&P 500 was having its worst decade yet as of the end of January 2009, with a 5.1% ten year drop after accounting for inflation and reinvested dividends.  That beat the previous record of 1974 when the S&P 500 dropped 4.7% in a ten year per...

An In Depth Look Into Bank Of America Corp Preferred Trusts And Their... -02/21/09 at 5:07 PM CSTby Perry Rod

In my last installment, I showed that Bank Of America (NYSE: BAC) preferred trusts are trading at yields that are completely arbitrary when compared to their own nearly identical trusts.  I further pointed out that the Merrill Lynch Trusts, which are basically the same trusts with the exact same terms, trade at an even greater discrepancy. Let's get...

Bank Of America Preferred Stocks Trading At Dramatically Different Yi... -02/20/09 at 5:37 PM CSTby Perry Rod

Only in unprecedented times like these will you ever see the following situation.  Merrill Lynch Trust Preferred stock (stock symbols MER-D, MER-E, MER-F, MER-K, MER-P, MER-U) closed on Friday with an average yield of over 26%, while the virtually identical and better known Bank of America Trust Preferred stock (stock symbols BAC-B, BAC-C, BAC-U, BAC...