The Untapped Energy Riches of Uzbekistan

While many Western investors remain fixated on somehow acquiring a slice of Turkmenistan’s natural gas riches, despite a recent scandal over the country’s actual reserves, there is another country further east whose energy and mineralogical reserves have been overlooked – Uzbekistan.

While a number of factors are responsible for this oversight, including relative geographical isolation (Uzbekistan, along with Liechtenstein, is one of the world’s doubly landlocked nations, requiring crossing two other nations to gain access to the oceans), which currently limits energy exports available for the global market, there are a number of pluses that the country has for investors willing…

The Next Bust: The “Risk Trade”

A lot of focus was given to the central banks’ meetings this week.

That’s because a lot of people would really like to see target rates start moving up from their low levels.

Some argue for higher rates because they think the world is returning to normal and the emergency policy responses need to be removed sooner rather than later to avoid a date with inflation.

Others are concerned that all of the ultra-easy money will result in asset price inflation, another bubble and ultimately another bust.

But clearly, the central banks have different concerns. This week …

• The Federal Reserve kept…

A Crisis in the Kremlin

Earlier this week, I sent out a piece that talked about the dangers of ignoring the big picture – even for the “bottom up” investor. Every once in a while, we all have to step away from the Dow Jones Industrial Average, housing prices and other indicators to look at what’s going to influence these factors in the long term.

Today I give you a video about Russia and how a plan to fix the economy might throw off the political balance of power. I regard Moscow’s situation as a valuable lesson for our country – also in the throes of…

Deficits, Debt, and International Investments

Last week it was official.  The U.S. government ran a $1.42 trillion deficit for fiscal year 2009, the worst year since 1945.  The fiscal year ends on September 30.  While not surprising, the enormous numbers are still hard to believe.  The FY 2008 deficit was $442 billion – nearly $1 trillion less.

While the US government, under both Bush and Obama Administrations, spent unprecedented amounts to “stabilize” the economy, such spending only accounted for 24% of the deficit.  The real problem was a drop in tax revenue. Corporate tax receipts plunged a staggering 55% and personal income tax revenue dropped 20%.

Despite…

Iraq Lowers Taxes to Lure in Oil Companies

Reuters: Iraq has lured big oil firms into new service contracts on some of its giant oilfields by cutting taxes and sweetening terms to make the deals more profitable, industry sources said on Wednesday.

International oil companies are close to striking deals that would almost triple Iraq’s output and catapult it up the table of global producers. The firms walked away from those deals at an auction just over three months ago.

Lower taxes were the main factor that convinced firms they could turn a profit where they previously saw too much risk on punishing terms, executives at international oil firms said.

My…