On Thursday, famed investor Jim Rogers appeared on CNBC with Maria Bartiromo with some very bearish views on the economy.  The following is a summary of some of his thoughts:

(1) Rogers believes that there is a good probability that the U.S. dollar will rally in the near term due to the current extreme pessimism towards the U.S. dollar.  Usually when market participants feel the same way regarding the direction of an investment, that can be an indication that the subject investment will actually move against popular thought.  Yet, he qualified this statement by saying that in the long-term he remains pessimistic on the U.S. dollar.

(2) Regarding the economy Rogers remains concerned about the policies being pushed in Washington, D.C. and the capabilities of those pushing them.  First, he believes, in general, that increased spending and borrowing caused the current financial situation and that Obama’s proposal of spending our way out of financial trouble will increase the severity of the situation.  Second, Rogers expresses the views that both the Fed and the Treasury have been negligent and should both be abolished.  According to Rogers, the Fed has tripled its balance sheet with garbage and will continue to worsen the situation for everyone with rising inflation.  Considering  Rogers opinions its no wonder he believes that  Ben Bernanke should not be reaffirmed and that Treasury Secretary Mr. Geithner, who has been wrong for the last 15 years, should be removed.

(3) Basically, the economy is in a situation where policy makers have few to no bullets left to fire.

(4) Rogers also foresees an unstable future for many currencies due to debt problems.  Many nations have reacted to the global recession the same way; print money and issue more debt.  Except for some nations in Asia, many other countries are currently debtors.  It’s imperative for investors to learn more about foreign currencies because there will be great opportunities in the near future.  Rogers suggests that investors may want to begin by looking into Swiss francs, Canadian dollars, and yen.  Furthermore, the majority of economies are at risk of a currency crisis  due to their reliance on paper money, which is not a currency people can trust.  There will be world currency problems in the future, most likely in 2010.

(5) The above mentioned beliefs have triggered Rogers to believe that commodities are the place people should be placing their money (as a note, Rogers does happen to be an expert on commodities and has built a significant part of his reputation from them).  He likes gold in the long run, but believes that it is due for a near term correction, meanwhile he is bullish on silver, which is 70% below its all time high, and agriculture due to global food inventories being at or near their lowest points in decades.  When people begin to doubt the strength of their currencies, real assets are the ideal place to put money.

(6) With the exception of China, Rogers is not invested in any of the emerging markets and believes that they will be susceptible to downturns, even though they currently are not at bubble levels.  Most people know China for its manufacturing, but its next step is to begin designing and innovating.  For every one engineer the U.S. produces, China turns out 10 to 15 engineers.

(7) He defines a bubble as a situation when everyone is buying.  Gold is currently not at bubble level, but the U.S. long-term government bond market is most likely the next bubble to burst.  He does not recommend putting much money into the U.S. economy.

Chain Bridge Investing (“we” or “CBI”) states at the outset that the opinions, judgments and derivation of thinking in this writing are solely Chain Bridge Investing’s. It is imperative that any judgment or valuation you take from information dispersed by CBI be examined within the context of your portfolio investment and overall objectives. To that end we urge you to contact your investment advisor or portfolio manager to insure that the information or suggestions proposed by CBI conforms to your needs and financial strategy.

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Good morning, investors and traders! You are reading the Daily Download (”Daily DL”), which includes summaries and links to the day’s selected economic and stock investing news. The Daily DL is maintained by Chain Bridge Investing (“CB”), which is a financial blog at www.chainbridgeinvesting.com. Chain Bridge Investing is constantly improving and adding new financial and investing content to the website. Please let us know if you have any suggestions at the following email address:  .

General News & Headlines Summary

News items not covered below are as follows: (1) Due to better-than-expected growth in international priority and ground shipments, FedEx stated that it now expects earnings per share of $1.10 for its second fiscal quarter ended November 30th, up from the initial forecast of 65 cents to 95 cents a share; (2) Peet’s Coffee & Tea believes that there are significant antitrust issues that could emerge from a Green Mountain Coffee Roasters bid, which has at this point out bid Peet’s, for Diedrich Coffee Inc.; (3) 3M is creating a division to focus on mobile electronic accessories; (4) Texas Instruments is going to have a mid-quarter up-date on Tuesday, as it has been witnessing larger demand than expected for chips for hard disk drives, cell phones, and video game consoles; (5) McDermott International will spin off its power generation subsidiary Babcock & Wilcox Co. and its oil and gas construction unit J. Ray McDermott SA, while existing shareholders will own 100% of both spin-offs; (6) Amgen, a biotech drugmaker, stated that its board has approved a $5 billion stock buyback plan; and (7) With a deficit that is expected to reach nearly 13% of GDP and government debt exceeding 110%, Standard & Poor’s put Greece’s A- rating on “negative watch,” which means it will likely be downgraded in a month.

Upcoming Economic Data for the Day (all times EST)

7:45 AM        ICSC – Goldman Store Sales

8:55 AM         Rebook

11:30 AM      4-Week Bill Auction

1:00 PM         3-Yr. Note Auction

Initial Public Offerings (”IPOs”) for the Week of December  7 – 11, 2009

12-9-09        Pebblebrook Hotel Trust  – Acquire and invest in hotel properties (“PEB”)

12-9-09        Chesapeake Lodging Trust – REIT focusing on hotels (“CHSP”)

12-9-09        China Nuokang Bio-Pharmaceutical- Biopharmaceutical company (“NKBP”)

12-9-09        Linkage Tech Intl Hldgs – Provider of software solutions and IT services (“BOSS”)

12-9-09        Trony Solar Hldgs Comm – Solar renewable energy (“TRO”)

12-10-09      Concord Med Svcs Hldgs – Medical and healthcare services (“CCM”)

12-10-09      Elington Fin LLC – Focusing on mortgage loans & sec. (“EFC”)

12-10-09      Kar Auction Svcs – Used vehicle & salvage auction services (“KAR”)

Data from the WSJ Market Data Group

For Daily Market Performance Data, Please Visit the Daily Market Sheet

List of Selected Companies with Third-Quarter Earnings for 12-8-09

News

Lending Squeeze Drags On – The Wall Street Journal

Summary: In October, overall consumer lending shrank at an annual rate of 1.7% and contracted for the ninth consecutive month.  Consumer lending has slid 4% since it peaked in July 2008 after more than 50 years of growth.  Furthermore, Visa offers the evidence that debit cards for the first time are being used more than credit cards.  Despite talk that the credit markets are reviving, consumers and small businesses continue to have trouble borrowing.  Consequently, consumer spending will likely decrease while businesses continue to eschew investments and hiring, thus leading to reduced overall economic growth.  Due to these consequences, Mohamed El-Erain does not believe that the economy will reset where it left off, instead it will take a different path and the tighter credit markets will continue to have long-term effects.  Additionally, over the last two years through  early November, corporate- and consumer – credit markets have contracted by 7%, or $1.5 trillion.  Meanwhile, since the second half of 2007 the markets for securities backed by homeowners’ equity loans, auto loans, and riskier mortgages have contracted 40%, 33%, and 35%, respectively.  Preceding the crisis, these markets helped to support roughly 50% of the consumer lending, without these markets returning to their previous sizes there will most likely be a sustained reduction in overall lending.  At present, Treasury debt has increased 40% and household debt remains 122% of total disposable income.

CB:

Related Reading: Consumer Credit Shrank Again in October, Setting a Record – The Associated Press

Bernanke Stands Firm on Rates – The Wall Street Journal

Summary: Despite the recent news that the unemployment rate in November dropped to 10.0% from 10.2% in October, Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, claims that he intends to keep interest rates near zero as the sustainability of the current economic recovery is uncertain.  There are still many economic headwinds and it is unclear that the recovery can supply enough jobs to significantly reduce the unemployment rate.  The economy still has to deal with banks that remain under the pressure of credit losses and the very slow recovering credit markets.  Furthermore, inflation could continue to fall due to the economy’s weakness and low utilization rates, yet the rise of commodity prices may reflect the pick up in global economic activity.

Related Reading: Bernanke Sees Slow Jobs Growth – Financial Times, Recovery Remains Fragile, Fed Chief Says – The Associated Press

Emissions Ruling Adds to U.S. Firepower – Financial Times & Big Business Goes on to the Offensive – Financial Times

Summary: On Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency (the “EPA”) stated that carbon dioxide and five other gases pose a danger to human health, thus the EPA can now regulate emissions from large industrial sources without legislation from Congress.  Yet, many business leaders and republicans fear that such regulation will constrain the economic recovery.  The Obama administration would prefer legislation over regulation, but now has the evidence it needs to continue with its plans.  Analysts believe that the EPA is likely to increase regulations on large sources that emit more than 25,000 tonnes of carbon a year, which would limit any regulation primarily to power and chemical plants, oil refineries, and cement kilns.  Critics of the EPA have claimed that more review and critical assessment needs to be conducted on the EPA’s conclusions.

Related Reading: EPA’s Carbon Proposal Riles Industries – The Wall Street Journal

Moody’s Puts U.S., U.k. on Chopping Block – The Wall Street Journal

Summary: According to a Moody’s Investors Service report, there are 17 countries that have their credit worthiness rated as a “triple-A.”  Included in the “triple-A” rating are the U.S. and the U.K., both of which must reduce their deficits to avoid losing their current ratings.  In Moody’s worst case scenario, the U.S. would lose its rating in 2013 if economic growth is minimal, interest rates increase, and the government does not reduce the deficit.  In Moody’s most likely scenario, the U.S would experience moderate growth and deficit reduction, and the ratings of the U.S. and the U.K. would not be threatened.  Yet, Moody ’s cites that the U.S. has an advantage with its interest payments representing 8.4% of government revenue, indicating the U.S. has been borrowing cheaply.  However, Moody’s believes that in the U.S. interest rates could climb to 13% by 2012 in the most likely scenario and 18% in the worst case scenario.  Furthermore, Canada, France and Germany were mentioned in the report in having their public finances in better shape than both the U.S. and U.K..

U.S. Mortgage Delinquencies to Fall in 2010 – Financial Times

Summary: According the the credit bureau TransUnion, in a sign that the housing crisis is ending, the proportion of U.S. borrowers delinquent will decline for the first time since the financial turmoil began.  As of the third quarter, 6.25% of the mortgages were delinquent and the rate is expected to increase to 6.56% by the end of 2009 before settling at 6.39% in 2010.  This forecast is based on unemployment declining, house prices increasing, and subprime loans being renegotiated or expiring.

CB: The critical factor to consider for  the TransUnion projection is that it is based on the following general assumptions: (1) unemployment declining; (2) housing prices increasing; and (3) subprime loans being renegotiated.  None of these assumptions is guaranteed to occur, especially since more delinquencies are now coming from the more expensive housing markets, where the market value of the houses are significantly below the amount owed on the loan.  Housing prices would have to increase significantly for a reduction in delinquencies.  CB does not feel comfortable banking on this projection and would recommend people take it with a grain of salt.  However, CB may be the one stuck in a situation where it cannot imagine a situation different from the status quo and thus continues to be bearish on housing.  The following are some of CB’s selected past thoughts regarding this situation:

Considering the [housing] demand side there are three large factors (1) interest rates, (2) wealth effect, and (3) unemployment.  The interest rates for mortgages will likely increase when the Fed increases the fed funds rate and when it withdraws its support from the market.   The Fed has been very active buying mortgage-backed securities and trying to keep the interest rates low.  Home sales are highly correlated with interest rates and increase when rates decline and decrease when rates increase.

Then there is the wealth effect.  People believe, as stated above, that home prices are becoming very cheap, thus demand should increase.  Yet, to every transaction there are two sides. When a person has to put a home on the market for a significantly reduced price than the purchase price, that person loses wealth – especially in a foreclosure.  There is a higher probability in the current period that the seller will leave the housing market and not seek a new house for a significant period of time, thus decreasing demand.  If the house is sold in foreclosure , then it is much more likely the individual, given his new credit rating, will also not seek a new house.  Thus, these people leaving the housing market offset, at least partly, the demand of those entering it.  If there are not enough buyers, then prices will decrease.

Not only are those with subprime mortgages entering foreclosure, but now the high-quality prime loans account for the largest portion of new foreclosures.  The housing industry is demonstrating its dependence on the economy.  Yes, the economy may have a jobless recovery, but as long as unemployment persists at these levels there will be other parts of the economy that lag and weaken the strength of a recovery.  Furthermore, the article didn’t mention the large amount of adjustable-rate mortgages that are expected to have higher rates kick in over the next two years.  When those rates adjust, delinquencies will likely increase significantly, thus further adding to the potential housing supply.

Yet, one argument that CB has encountered recently in support of a housing market recovery is that there is pent-up demand waiting to buy these foreclosed homes and this will reduce the excess supply on the market.  Nevertheless, one should consider for every foreclosed home, there are people being displaced and potentially leaving the housing market for the near-term, thus shrinking the market and potential demand unless new buyers can enter at a higher rate than those leaving

Dubai World to Sell Assets but not State – The Wall Street Journal

Summary: The Director of Dubai’s Department of Finance stated that Dubai World has many foreign and real-estate investments that it is considering selling to reduce its debt burden.  The Dubai government will not sell any state assets, and will not aid Dubai World at this time.  Yet, Dubai World’s primary concern at this time is the $3.52 billion sukuk that matures on December 14th. Unless an agreement can be reached with creditors, Dubai World could default.

CB: By selling its assets Dubai World may be able to resolve some of its debt issues, but most likely it is also further weakening its business, which most of the press has ignored.  These assets were acquired during boom times and will now be sold in a forced sale, which is usually much to the buyer’s advantage, and at a likely discount.  Dubai World will lose much value and will probably have a difficult time regaining the level of assets it had before.  The company will definitely feel negative long-term effects from its current situation.  At least, its debt situation occurred now and not during the early part of the year.

World of Crude Turned Upside Down – Financial Times

Summary: Historically, the West Texas Intermediate (“WTI”) trades at a premium to Brent crude and Dubai oil.  Yet, at present, the WTI trades at a discount to both the Brent crude and Dubai oil.  Analysts have cited the following three factors to explain this unusual new relationship: (1) Asia’s strong demand for oil; (2) the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries production cuts, which are supporting the price of heavy and sour crude like Dubai oil; and (3) the increasing U.S. crude inventories.  Furthermore, the International Energy Agency, estimates that oil demand in Asian developing countries will increase by roughly 500,000 barrels a day for 2009, compared to a 1.6 million barrels a day contraction in the Europe and North America.

More Links of Note

Looking Back on Ten Years and 316,657 Transactions – The Wall Street Journal

Debt Raters Avoid Overhaul After Crisis – The New York Times

The Rally Apologista’s Handbook – The Big Picture

The Value of Gold – Bloomberg

Still More Lessons from the Crisis – The Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Credit Booms Gone Wrong

Too Big to Live – Stiglitz

10 Reasons the Equity Rally is Over – PragCap

More Signs of the Natural Gas Apocalypse – The Chron

Chinese Energy Plans Could Trim World Oil Demand, Goldman – The WSJ Blogs

As Refineries Close, New Stresses are Added to the System – The Oil Drum

Households Face Power-Pricing Revolution – John Kemp

Chain Bridge Investing (“we” or “CBI”) states at the outset that the opinions, judgments and derivation of thinking in this writing are solely Chain Bridge Investing’s. It is imperative that any judgment or valuation you take from information dispersed by CBI be examined within the context of your portfolio investment and overall objectives. To that end we urge you to contact your investment advisor or portfolio manager to insure that the information or suggestions proposed by CBI conforms to your needs and financial strategy.

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Good morning, investors and traders! You are reading the Daily Download (”Daily DL”), which includes summaries and links to the day’s selected economic and stock investing news. The Daily DL is maintained by Chain Bridge Investing, which is a financial blog at www.chainbridgeinvesting.com. Chain Bridge Investing is constantly improving and adding new financial and investing content to the website. Please let us know if you have any suggestions at the following email address:  .

General News & Headlines Summary

Tim Geithner, the U.S. Treasury secretary, continues to come under attack from various congressional members regarding the handling of the bailouts and the current unemployment situation of the U.S..  While many in the financial community are not exactly pleased with the job done by Mr. Geithner, CB highly doubts those in Congress could do a much better job.  The problem with Congress wanting to increase control and oversight over the Fed and the Treasury is multifaceted: (1) the economy is partly a confidence game, thus some information is better not released to the public; (2) most Representatives, Senators, and their staffs do not have a clue about the economy or the financial world, as proven by the stimulus bills and handling of various events related to the crisis in 2008; and (3) if the Fed or Treasury is limited in regards to access to certain economic information, then they may not be able to act in the best interests of the U.S..  CB agrees things can be fixed and executed better at both the Fed and the Treasury, yet the way these congressmen are going about this change is not the correct way.  Their words and criticisms demonstrate their lack of knowledge and the tools necessary to correctly fix the system.

Meanwhile, other news items are as follows: (1) Charles Evans, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, believes that U.S. unemployment will peak near 10.5% and will not drop until mid 2010; (2)  Coca-Cola has plans of doubling its bottling plants in China over the next 10 years in an attempt to triple its China sales as it appeals to the ever increasing middle class; (3) over the past year, the volume activity associated with credit-default swaps (“CDS”) has doubled for the CDS linked to the U.S., the U.K., Japan, and Italy; (4) Cadbury would welcome a bid from Hershey as long as it is high enough, especially since the companies know each other and share values; (5) the average maturity of U.S. banks’ wholesale debt has dropped to 3.8 years, compared to 5.8 years in 2006, thus bank regulators are likely to prod banks to take on longer-term debt, which will lead to higher interest rates and a possible reduction in future earnings of near 15%; and (6) News Corp. and Microsoft Corp. are in early discussions regarding News Corp. removing its newspaper content from Google’s search engine, while leaving the newspaper content on a Microsoft’s services.

Upcoming Economic Data for the Day (all times EST)

10:00 AM         Existing Home Sales

Initial Public Offerings (”IPOs”) for the Week of November 23-27, 2009

11-23-09       Westwood One Inc. – Supplies radio television stations with information services and programming (“WWON”)

11-24-09         Authentidate Holding Corp. – Manufactures personal computers (“ADAT”)

11-24-09         GeoResources Inc.  – Explores and produces oil and gas as well as mines leonardite and manufactures leonardite-based products (“GEOI”)

For Daily Market Performance Data, Please Visit the Daily Market Sheet

List of Selected Companies with Third-Quarter Earnings for 11-23-09

News

Investors Dial Back Risk as Year-End Nears – The Wall Street Journal

Summary: The reduced trading volumes and rising demand for U.S. Treasuries last week could imply that market participants are becoming more cautious and reducing risk exposure before year end.  This behavior by investment firms to protect gains from potential year-end losses and by banks to improve capital positions  for the year end is fairly common; however, it appears to be occurring earlier this year than in the past.  A few uncertainties that are driving this less-risky behavior revolve around the potential effects of: (1) the Fed’s removal of support form the mortgage-backed securities market; (2) the eventual increase in interest rates; (3) the general lack of revenue growth amongst corporations; (4) unemployment; and (5) housing-market prices and supply.  These issues helped fuel increased demand for short-term government securities, thus resulting in the negative yields the Treasury Bills due in January 2010 experienced on Thursday and Friday.  Furthermore, trading volume averaged 4.2 billion shares a day last week, compared to the 5.5 billion daily average from August to the end of October.

CB: Investors need to monitor this year-end behavior, which is occurring earlier than usual.  One reason for the earlier occurrence may be due to the knowledge that other financial firms are trying to shift to less risky assets, and thus firms are trying to implement their switch before the others.  Yet, if the switching out of riskier assets continues, there could be significant drops in the equity markets, which could trigger others to sell and create larger drops, especially if any significantly negative news or economic data  is released for the remainder of the year.

States Hit By Drop in Tax Collections – The Wall Street Journal

Summary: According to a Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government report, tax collections dropped 11% across 44 states in the third quarter fueled by third-quarter drops in every major category of state tax revenue, including: (1) sales taxes, which declined 8.2%; (2) corporate-income taxes, which declined 19.4%; and (3) personal-income taxes, which declined 11.4%.  Furthermore, sales and personal-income taxes account for approximately 80% of the states’ total tax revenues.  Consequently, high unemployment and pressure on wages could cause  state-tax and local-tax revenues to decrease for months.      

CB: One component of the most recent GDP report that few commented on was the future trend of  state- and local -government expenditures, which can account for roughly 12% of total GDP.  This component of GDP should not be ignored by investors and analysts.  The majority of state- and local- governments must maintain a balanced budget, thus as tax revenues decrease so do expenditures.  Thus the future of state- and local-government expenditures are dependent on the effects of prolonged unemployment, wage pressure, and decreasing property values.  Consequently, going forward, investors should be aware that this component of GDP will likely slow the overall GDP growth for the near future.

Bullard Favors Extending Fed Asset Buying – The Wall Street Journal

Summary: James Bullard, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, believes that the Fed should maintain the asset-purchase program beyond the March 2010 cutoff, at least at a low level.  Keeping the program operational allows the Fed more options to influence the economy and smooth the transition in the markets away from Fed support.  Yet, the program has its opposition primarily due to its affect on increasing the Fed’s balance sheet from $800 billion before the crisis to $2 trillion currently.  Separately, Mr. Bullard states that GDP growth would have to grow at 4% annually to reduce unemployment materially.

Wave of Debt Payments Facing U.S. Government – The New York Times

Summary: The U.S. Treasury faces the following problems as the recovery begins to take hold: (1)  $12 trillion of debt, which will likely cost the government $700 billion a year in 2019 to service – compared to $202 billion for 2009; (2) nearly $1.6 trillion of short-term borrowings maturing in the next few months has to be refinanced; and (3) interest rates that will increase due to the eventual increase in federal funds rate and the end of Fed’s purchase program for U.S. Treasuries.  Furthermore, according to White House estimates, the government will have to borrow approximately$3.5 trillion over the next three years.  At present, in order to save taxpayers money and avoid the eventual rising interest-rate levels, the Treasury is trying to switch short-term debt with 10- and 30-year Treasuries.  Yet, long-term interest rates remain significantly higher than short-term rates, thus the U.S. will have to pay billions of dollars in additional annual interest fees to refinance the short-term debt for the long-term debt.  To provide some clarity, a one percentage point increase in the Treasury’s average cost of borrowing would cost taxpayers an additional $80 billion this year.  Yet, sound debt management alone will not resolve this situation.

CB:  Where does one begin?  The debt cannot continue to increase and the balance sheet of the Fed needs to be fixed.  Yet, the biggest issue in CB’s mind is the amount of current debt and the relationship with interest rates.  Many market participants are asking for the Fed to raise the interest-rate target; however, such a maneuver would likely result in increased interests costs when the short-term debt is refinanced.  These increased interests costs may require more debt or more printing of money to resolve.  Thus, potentially creating, a continuous loop of debt creation and money printing.   As in physics, for every action there is a reaction.  When the officials go to fix one hole, they create another hole or make an existing hole worst – very similar to a rubik’s cube. These complexities in the economy are part of the reasons, CB never saw a “V” shaped recovery, but instead a protracted recovery.

While the financial aspect is  briefly discussed here, the solution is not entirely financial.  The solution has to involve reductions in spending and sound fiscal policy.  Just as consumers in deep debt have to conserve money and cutback on goods, so must an economy.

Copper Rises Despite the Stockpiles – The Wall Street Journal

Summary: Despite continued increases in copper stockpiles across the world, the market continues to price copper higher.  Given the supply glut, the price of copper should be declining if the markets were dictated strictly by fundamentals; however, this base metal is trading like a precious metal.  Analysts believe that the following items have more than offset the bearish fundamentals of copper: (1) the economic recovery; (2) a weaker U.S. dollar; (3) concerns over labor disruptions; and (4) forecasts that the future demand for copper will increase significantly.  As copper is primarily used in housing and power generation, it tends to move with the economy.  Consequently, investors expecting a strong recovery could then expected a significant increase in demand for copper.

CB:  Yes, the demand for copper may comeback in 2010 as some are predicting, but what will happen to the price of copper?  Will it recognize this run-up in the price was a result of the expected demand, or will it continue to increase as demand increases?

Reliance to Offer About $10 billion for Lyondell – Financial Times

Summary: Reliance Industries, a large Indian conglomerate, submitted  preliminary non-binding cash offer of $ 10 billion for a controlling stake in LyondellBasell, a bankrupt U.S. petrochemical company based in the Netherlands.   If this deal were to close, then it would represent one of the largest offshore acquisitions from by an Indian group. Reliance’s ambition to expand globally represents an increasing trend amongst the larger companies in India.  At present, Reliance is the world’s largest producer of polyester yarn and fibre and does more than $30 billion in annual revenue.  Meanwhile, LyondellBasell is the third-largest independent chemical company in the world with nearly $50.7 billion in revenue.  Yet, Lyondell took on too much debt to complete a leveraged buyout of Basell during the credit boom and thus filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for its U.S. operations and a European holding in 2009.

More Links of Note

Government Debt Default

Insider Selling Soars Higher – PragCap

Duke’s Rogers: Why Nuclear Power will Probably Trump Coal – WSJ Blogs

China Money Leaks Offshore -WSJ

Chain Bridge Investing (“we” or “CBI”) states at the outset that the opinions, judgments and derivation of thinking in this writing are solely Chain Bridge Investing’s. It is imperative that any judgment or valuation you take from information dispersed by CBI be examined within the context of your portfolio investment and overall objectives. To that end we urge you to contact your investment advisor or portfolio manager to insure that the information or suggestions proposed by CBI conforms to your needs and financial strategy.

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