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Oil under the Bahamas: BPC goes deep-sea fishing

September 25, 2008 · Filed Under Oil and Energy · Comments 
Tom Bulford of Penny Sleuth UK recently spoke with the head of Bahamas oil explorer BPC (London:BPC). And besides some valuable advice about being on an oil rig during a hurricane, Tom also learned that BPC’s stock, cheap at 4.5 pence on the LSE’s AIM board, could provide investors with a golden opportunity. But it’s [...]

Real estate crisis misses farmland: Profit from the agricultural boom

September 25, 2008 · Filed Under Real Estate · Comments 
Farmland isn’t crashing with the rest of the real estate sector. In fact, it’s booming. How can you profit from agricultural land without buying property? And is the boom really safe? by Stephanie Grimmett Baltimore — (TFN): A few days ago, Chris Mayer told readers that the next big boom would be in real [...]

Lloyd’s (LLOY) to takeover HBOS (HBOS)

September 18, 2008 · Filed Under International Investing · Comments 
"The deal’s being described as a private sector solution – but this could never have happened without government backing, for reasons we’ll go into in a moment." — John Stepek Blogger’s note: You may not have noticed, but two of the Big Five banks in the UK just agreed to a merger. The news [...]

Think London, Buy China: London Olympics get Beijing treatment

August 29, 2008 · Filed Under International Investing · Comments 
Maybe I’m a bit too cynical, but when London says it’s recruiting Chinese vendors to support the 2012 Olympic games (the next Summer Olympics is going to be in London, in case you missed that memo), I tend to think the reasoning behind the decision has more to do with the favorable exchange rate than [...]

Cities Unlimited provides a breath of logical political and economic fresh air

August 26, 2008 · Filed Under Politics · Comments 
"Any such report that meets with universal condemnation by politicians from all sides has clearly got something right and this one has been branded as a ‘complete load of rubbish’ by David Cameron, ‘vindictive and anti-northern’, by Redcar MP Vera Braid and ‘insulting and ignorant,’ by John Prescott." — Tom Bulford Blogger’s note: Economics and politics [...]

European Central Bank (ECB) could topple Spain’s financial sector

August 26, 2008 · Filed Under International Investing · Comments 
"There’s a bombshell being delivered here - the European Central Bank is about to stop bailing out eurozone commercial banks. And that could mean another big lender going ‘bust’." — David Stevenson Blogger’s note: Just like in the U.S. and UK, the European Union’s state bank has been extending easy credit to prevent "temporary" illiquidity in [...]

Recession Watch: Is the Euro Headed for a Crash?

August 7, 2008 · Filed Under International Investing · Comments 
"But while there seems to have been more or less a straight fight between the States and us (the UK) as to who actually plunges into a recession first, within the last few weeks another strong contender for this dubious prize has emerged. The eurozone now looks like it [...]

Is HBOS Selling to National Australia Bank (NAB)?

June 26, 2008 · Filed Under International Investing · Comments 
“So far HBOS has posted nearly GBP 4 billion (about $7.95 billion) in writedowns from the UK’s failing real estate market. And in lieu of selling chunks of itself to foreign banks to bring capital back into the company, HBOS’s shareholders just voted today to issue 1.5 billion new shares in a rights sale [...]

Oil Prices Are in a Bubble, a GOOD Bubble

June 23, 2008 · Filed Under Oil and Energy · Comments 
“In the meantime, we should look on the bright side, even as we wince at the petrol pump. Because if the current oil price is indeed a bubble, it’s a good bubble.” — John Stepek by John Stepek Blogger’s note: John Stepek, deputy editor of MoneyWeek in the UK, recently sent out this interesting piece to his [...]

UK Tax Policy: The Labour Party is going down

May 6, 2008 · Filed Under Politics · Comments 
“Why is Labour going down? U.K. political experts are pointing to Labour’s high tax policies. These sky-high taxes have driven British corporations to business tax havens in nearby Ireland and Switzerland. Also, individual citizens who can afford it have picked up and moved their residence to Monaco or Andorra.” — Bob Bauman by Bob Bauman Baltimore [...]

Foreign Investment: Bank of England solves the UK banking crisis?

April 24, 2008 · Filed Under International Investing · Comments 
“Mr. King has attached enough conditions to these loans to make the risk to the taxpayer much smaller than it might have been. He’s also helped to make life easier for banks with genuine liquidity problems. Problems with actual solvency are quite another matter however.” — John [...]

Is the UK bear market already here?

January 17, 2008 · Filed Under International Investing · Comments 
"It takes quite a while for unemployment figures to tick up, even when an economy is clearly in trouble. In the US, jobless data only started to look worrying towards the end of last year, despite the clear trouble in the housing market and some early forecasts of recession." — John Stepek. John Stepek of [...]

Energy Investing: The UK goes nuclear

January 7, 2008 · Filed Under Oil and Energy · Comments 
“With oil in the North Sea almost running out, we need to have a strategy in place to become self-sufficient in terms of our energy needs. If we don’t, we will ultimately have to go cap in hand to the Russians for their gas and oil – and they will wring our [...]