Free Republic

The take from UBS floor guy Art Cashin probably perfectly sums up the Wall Street take on the new millionaire tax. The Millionaire’s Tax - Three Observations - The expected proposal by the President to tax annual income above a million dollars may be too cute by half. It clearly looks like a “populist” initiative and a clever political maneuver ... it looks so much like an “in your face” political challenge to his opponents, that may have evaporated all that talk about “constructive compromise” ... Third, the proposal flies in the face of the lessons of history. According to...

A very good summation of voter attitudes towards entitlements and spending from UBS floor guy Art Cashin: That “Made Up” Quote Looks Truer And Truer Each Day – The continuing loud cautions of “Don’t Tread On MyEntitlements”, and the imminence of a majority of voters not paying any taxes, recalls yet again the rather prophetic but apparently fictitious quote of Alexander Tytler... "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates...

Carbon offset cash-in questioned 10:00 13 May 2007 NewScientist.com news service Some firms are making a killing from schemes designed to curb greenhouse gas emissions, while doing little or nothing in return. The market in carbon offsets, which allows companies to invest in renewable energy as a way of mitigating their own greenhouse gas emissions - almost doubled in 2006 to $5 billion, the World Bank said on 2 May. According to a recent report in the London-based Financial Times, some of that money is going to oil companies that are simply pumping CO2 into oilfields to extract more oil....

[Snip highlights] "...Crude oil markets will continue to show heightened volatility and price spikes cannotbe ruled out, as participants react to short-term developments ranging from politicalcrises to the weather forecast. However, under our baseline forecast, to which weattach a probability of 50%, markets respond to the price signal. Consequently, drilling activity continues to increase while consumption growth continues to slow, and inventories are replenished. As the factors underlying the recent price spikes unwind, we see crude oil reverting to its long-term average price of $40-45 in nominal terms. This assumes that demand growth is roughly offset by advances in productivity,...