WSJ: Splintered Indonesia Election Results Could Block Economic Reform

     The WSJ reports,"the splintered parliament and the coalition government likely to result from Indonesia's legislative elections this week dim chances for quick and sweeping reforms of Southeast Asia's largest economy.

Several key actions are at risk: the opening up industries to foreign investment, instituting labor reforms and rolling back budget-breaking subsidies that have long made Indonesian fuel prices some of the cheapest in the region.

"The next government of Indonesia will be another weak coalition like the existing" one, Bill Sullivan, a legal adviser for major mining companies, said Friday. It "is bad news for the mining sector in general and for foreign investors in the mining sector, in particular."

Investors have been critical of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who steps down this year after having reached his statutory two-term limit, and his unwieldy coalition of six parties as well as his placement of political figures rather than technocrats in important posts.

The new legislative picture is no less complex. According to early counts of a sampling of ballots, 10 parties earned seats in parliament in Wednesday's election, up from the present nine. Official results won't be available until May, but preliminary tallies in the past have proven to be reliable indicators.

GlencoreXstrata Sells Las Bambas Mine to Chinese Consortium Peruvian Copper Project Fetches $5.8 Billion After Months of Talks

      The WSJ reports,"GlencoreXtrataPLC said Sunday it agreed to sell the mining company's Las Bambas Peruvian copper project to a Chinese consortium in an all-cash deal worth at least $5.8 billion.

The deal, one of China's biggest mining acquisitions in recent years, follows months of tortuous negotiations over how much the copper project is worth. In a short statement Sunday evening, Glencore said it had agreed to sell its entire interest in Las Bambas to a consortium led by MMG Ltd.  , a unit of state-controlled China Minmetals Corp.

The transaction is expected to close by the autumn, subject to regulatory approval and a vote by MMG's shareholders, Glencore said.

China Minmetals, MMG's 74% majority investor, has already "irrevocably" backed the deal, Glencore said.

"Today's announcement demonstrates our commitment to maximizing value for our shareholders," said Glencore Chief Executive Ivan Glasenberg".

Glencore Xstrata agreed to sell Las Bambas to win approval from China's Ministry of Commerce for Glencore International PLC's deal to merge with Xstrata. That move created the world's fourth-biggest mining company and the world's largest commodities trader.

An agreement with China's commerce ministry allowed it to decline any offer that didn't meet Glencore's valuation, subject to certain conditions.

Sunday's acquisition is the largest Chinese purchase of an overseas mining asset since state-owned Aluminum Corp. of China, or Chinalco, took a 12% stake in Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto PLC for $14 billion in 2008, according to Dealogic.

Like that purchase, this latest deal gives China greater control of the raw materials its industries crave. The country accounts for roughly 40% of global copper demand. Las Bambas is expected to produce 460,000 metric tons of copper concentrate annually over the next 10 years, according to projections by Glencore.

For Glencore, the proceeds of the deal will be reinvested in the company, it said, and used to reduce debt.

Asia should look within itself: Boao Forum

Asia's distinctive cultural resources can propel the development of the continent's businesses, and the region's cultural diversity can provide new ideas and opportunities for Asian economic integration. This was the consensus of participants in a panel discussion hosted by Beijing Foreign Studies University on Thursday at the Boao Forum for Asia in China's Hainan province.

"This year, Asia has become the most active region in the world in terms of economic development," the university's president Peng Long said.

"But there is still a lot of room for economic integration as the GDP per capita in Asia is only one-fifth of that in the European Union and one-eighth of that in North America. Many countries are thinking about how to find a new driving force to stimulate social and enterprise development by exploring Asian cultures."

The panelists agreed that Asian economic integration must be in step with cultural values and based on mutual understanding and respect.

Although Asia is a culturally diverse region and cultures vary considerably from one country to another, Asian cultures share a general characteristic of mutual tolerance. This enables the people to accept different levels of economic development and different models of economic growth during the economic integration process, said Long Yongtu, a member of the Council of Advisors of the Boao Forum for Asia.

"Mutual respect means I don't want to change others. It means I respect you as you are. This is very important," said Arun Maira, a member of the Indian Planning Commission.

"If you want to grow the global economy, you must not enforce just one way on everything."

Zhang Xiping, director of the National Research Center of Overseas Sinology at Beijing Foreign Studies University, emphasized that China needs to conduct an overall study of Asian cultures because systematic analyses of Asia by Chinese intellectuals have been almost missing since the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

"During the last 100 years, we have devoted a lot more attention to Europe and the US than to our neighbors, because Asian countries are smaller in size and weaker in economic development," Zhang said. "Chinese undergraduates can easily talk about Western intellectuals and tell stories related to Western culture, but they know little about Cambodia and Laos."

However, the situation has started to change, he said, since Chinese President Xi Jinping made diplomacy with neighboring countries a priority.

Zhang urged Chinese scholars to introduce Asia's rich and diversified cultures to the general public and domestic companies to help increase mutual understanding among Asian countries.

Beijing Foreign Studies University invited Sinologists from 19 Asian countries to attend a seminar on Asian cultures and values in Beijing last October.

"We hope that our neighbors will get a real picture of China through the eyes of Sinologists," Zhang said.

The university has also started building a database of Sinologists around the world and is collecting information on academic institutions specializing in Asian studies.

The university offers programs in all the official languages of the ASEAN countries to cultivate knowledge about China's neighboring countries and cultivate talent with excellent Asian-language skills.

Source: China Daily

Xinhua: Integrated Asia master of own fate. 4 Billion People a Strong Fundamental

"Asian countries can determine their own future as long as they work closely together in a community of shared interests, responsibilities and objectives.

With Europe still in a debt crisis, and the U.S. recovery uninspiring, Asia's fate is in Asian hands.

A population of over 4 billion, some two thirds of the world's people, supplies Asia with an ample labor force. The continent now boasts one third of global gross domestic product, and remains a global growth engine, despite international financial volatility. To be masters of their own fate, Asian countries must now bring the full power of their resources into play.

Speaking on Thursday at the opening of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA), Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said Asian countries needed to build a community of shared interests, common destiny and shared responsibilities.

"To sustain development momentum in new conditions, Asia needs to find a dynamic source of development to re-energize itself," Li said.

Regional integration and cooperation would doubtless support re-energizing, if countries allow their interests and destinies to merge. No single nation in the area can grow and prosper in isolation. Geographic proximity coupled with industrial synergy are a solid foundation for cooperation.

"With our interests closely intertwined, we Asian countries need to seek mutually beneficial cooperation where 'one plus one can make more than two' and even produce a multiplier effect in which 'two plus two makes more than four'," Li said in his Thursday speech.

Infrastructure paves the way for economic integration. According to Li, China is ready to draw up plans for a Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar economic corridor, and another between China and Pakistan, over and above the Silk Road economic belt and the 21st century maritime Silk Road. Plans are afoot to intensify consultation on the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and to upgrade the China-ASEAN free trade agreement.

"With a concerted effort, we can be sure that Asia will continue to be an important engine driving the global economy," Li said.

A common vision for national interests can only come in a peaceful environment, and economic integration in Asia will leave no room for regional turbulence. Peace and stability are the responsibility of all.

Just as Li said, Asia's future hinges not only on development of each country but on the common progress of the whole region.

Only when countries put aside differences and share interests can we attain lasting prosperity"

Source: Xinhua.

Xinhua: What Ukraine needs is firefighters, not flame-stokers

"As fears for violent clashes have begun simmering in Ukraine, the United States decided Saturday to send its vice president to the country of unique geopolitical significance.

The April 22 trip will make Joe Biden the most high-profile U.S. official to visit the turmoil-torn country since the crisis broke out, and see him underscore Washington's support "for a united, democratic Ukraine."

Ironically, with Crimea having broken away, Ukraine is no longer united. And with pro-Moscow sentiment and cries for independence and integration with Russia bubbling up in its east, the country is on the brink of further chaos.

Adding to the irony is the fact that Western countries, not least the United States, played no small part in plunging Ukraine into the current predicament.

The West planted the seeds of confrontation by fomenting discontent and inciting unrest. They turned sparks of protest into a vicious fire and stoked the flames while Ukraine was burning.

It has turned out that the United States, with all its self-righteousness and sense of moral superiority, is only good at starting and stoking fires, instead of quenching one.

From a geopolitical perspective, the region's balance of power was disrupted after Western countries made Russia feel insecure by pushing their frontier further closer to Moscow.

As it is widely feared, the still escalating situation could snowball into the worst standoff between the West and Russia since the end of the Cold War, a scenario that would not only inflict more pain on Ukraine but undermine regional and global peace.

Immediate de-escalation is needed to prevent the flames of the Ukraine crisis from devouring the whole region and burning down the entire edifice of the current world order.

The only viable exit is a political solution. All parties involved should avoid any action that might deteriorate the situation, and start laying the foundation for dialogue.

Outside powers should be firefighters instead of flame-stokers. They need to play a constructive role by persuading Ukrainians of all sides to calm down and jointly seek a way out.

The prospect is not all dark. EU, Russian, Ukrainian and U.S. diplomats are planning to meet for direct talks on the Ukraine crisis in Geneva in the coming days.

The four-party meeting, the first of its kind during the months-old crisis, offers an opportunity. It is imperative that the participants make good use of it and turn the sparks of hope into a bright beacon for dialogue and peace".

Source: Xinhua

Xinhua: U.S. needs to embrace IMF reform or face Plan B

Nearly four years after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a revamp of its quota and governance regime, the much-anticipated reform is yet to materialize. The situation has put the lender in embarrassment as the top finance officials of its 188 members gather in Washington over the weekend.

But the United States bears more blame than the IMF as the country is a major opponent to the reform, which will give emerging economies a bigger say they deserve.

At the IMF spring meeting that began Friday, finance ministers and central bank governors from other Group of 20 major economies expressed their "deep disappointment" with the continued delay of the reform.

They took a harder line than before by pushing the United States to endorse the reform by year-end, or they would consider an optional plan.

A member's share of IMF quotas is the principal determinant of its voting shares in the IMF. It is fair enough to raise the quotas of the emerging economies in order to reflect their rising influence in the global economy.

The members had reached this consensus, with the United States being a strong advocate for the reform when it was still in its infancy.

As the largest shareholder of the IMF with veto power, the United States should have played its active role in pushing forward such essential and significant agenda.

On the contrary, the U.S. Congress blocked it, and the reform has become a bargaining chip for the Republicans and Democrats in a political game, even though many of them do acknowledge that giving the green light to the reform is the right thing to do.

The House and Senate dropped a voting on IMF reform again weeks ago, making the chance of passing the reform even slimmer for this year.

In such circumstances, the reform package, which is key to promote democracy in global economic governance, is hijacked by U.S. domestic partisan maneuver. It is the emerging economies that will pay the price of U.S. domestic politics.

The price tag of no reform could be high. The reform package calls for a 6 percent shift in quota share to emerging markets, which would lift China to the third largest shareholder. Shares for Russia, India and Brazil will also get hefty rises.

Emerging economies should not tolerate the U.S. abuse of its veto in a time that sources of the IMF money could become increasingly ample and diversified.

In fact, the reform is good for the United States itself, as more prosperous emerging markets bode well for U.S. foreign trade and help sustain its hard-earn recovery.

Whether to move from Plan A to Plan B rests on whether the United States exercises its power within the reasonable and responsible range.

Source: Xinhua

WSJ: No Candidate Seen Winning Outright Majority in Afghan Election

         the Wall Street Journal reports,"Based on initial results from 26 of the country's 34 provinces, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani appeared to be headed for a runoff, said Yusuf Nuristani, chairman of the Independent Election Commission.

"These results are subject to change," Mr. Nuristani added.

"A candidate may have the lead in these results, but another candidate may be in the lead in the next announcement."

The results released on Sunday were based on around 7% of the roughly seven million votes cast.

According to that partial tally, Mr. Abdullah received 41.9% of votes while Mr. Ghani got 37.6%. Before the results were announced, both candidates expressed confidence that they had won an absolute majority.

The runoff will probably be held in late May or early June, election officials said.

Despite Sunday's announcement, Messrs. Ghani and Abdullah have expressed confidence about their ability to win in the first round".

ECB may purchase assets to Fight Too-Low Inflation

"The European Central Bank may consider purchases of assets to hold down long-term interest rates, ECB executive board member Benoit Coeure said Sunday, the latest sign that officials are open to dramatic steps to keep inflation in the euro zone from staying too low for too long.

"Should further monetary accommodation be needed, it is reasonable to consider other operations aimed at lowering the term premium. This is where targeted asset purchases enter the toolset of monetary policy," Mr. Coeure said in prepared remarks to an International Monetary Fund conference.

The term premium is the extra yield investors demand for holding longer-term securities.

The issue confronting the ECB and other major central banks is how to stimulate the economy with official interest rates near zero. The ECB's main lending rate is 0.25%, a record low. It could be cut further, but not by much"".

Is There a Renaissance of Manufacturing in the U.S.?

"While the manufacturing sector grew in the long term from 1992 to 2007 (adjusted for the crisis year 2001) with an average annual rate of 3.3 percent – more slowly than real GDP grew (4.6 percent) –, this ratio has reversed since 2010. In the years 2010 to 2012 the growth in real value added of the manufacturing sector was 5.2 percent annually, while real GDP only grew by 2.1 percent. This shows that the manufacturing sector grew more than twice as fast in recent years than the U.S. economy in general.

This recovery, however, must mostly be seen as a backlash to the crisis-related slump in 2008 and 2009. While the overall economy during this period shrank by 3.4 percent, the manufacturing sector contracted by 14.4 percent, more than four times the overall economic slump. That the rapid growth of the manufacturing sector can hardly be seen as a new “industry boom” is demonstrated by absolute figures: With a real value added of 1.68 trillion U.S. dollars in 2012, the manufacturing sector had not completely reached its pre-crisis level of 1.69 trillion U.S. dollars in 2007.

If there was a large-scale re-industrialization taking place in the United States, there would have to be an expansion in production capacities in the manufacturing sector. Such an expansion could not be observed so far. The average annual growth rate of production capacities for the years 1995 to 2013 was 2.4 percent. The annual rates of change in the years relevant to the re-industrialization theory (2010-2013) are sometimes even below that. The fact that the manufacturing sector does not seem to be driven by the need to expand its existing capacities so far is also indicated by the current degree of capacity utilization. Over the years 1992-2007 (omitting the crisis years 1991, 2001, 2008 and 2009), capacity utilization was 79.4 percent. In comparison, from 2010 to 2012 it was below average at 73.7 percent.

An essential argument in favour of the re-strengthening of the U.S. manufacturing sector is the increase of employment. Between 2010 and 2013 over half a million employees were hired, which constituted the most significant increase in 15 years. However, it is important to consider that large portions of the U.S. American labour market experienced an increase in employment figures in the course of economic recovery. Furthermore, the manufacturing sector with its 12.3 million employees (2013) is still far removed from its pre-crisis employment level (13.7 million employees in early 2008). What can be observed here is not a convincing sign of re-industrialization, but rather a moderate recovery from crisis-related mass lay-offs.

However, compared to important competing countries, the U.S. manufacturing sector finds itself in a favourable situation. The United States has cut labour costs considerably since 2000, whereas labour costs rose significantly in the major competing countries, such as Germany, France and Canada. U.S. manufacturers enjoy another competitive advantage: Due to the shale gas and oil boom, natural gas, crude oil and electricity are significantly cheaper in the United States than in the competing countries.

Wage differentials and energy costs as factors promoting a re-industrialization are often overrated in contrast to differentials in productivity development, freight costs, growth differences and tax loads. Energy costs are a small portion of input costs in the overall processing industry (an average of two percent in 2011). The share of energy-intensive sectors in U.S. industrial production in general (specifically aluminium, steel, synthetics, basic chemicals, fertilizers) fluctuates, depending on definition, between 7 percent and 25 percent. Effects on overall industrial production are therefore likely to be limited. Moreover, it appears that the shale gas boom has levelled off and that many forecasts have overstated its magnitude.

Low energy costs rather provide for more growth and more consumption indirectly than directly leading to more investment in the U.S. industry. Increasing labour productivity, the relative loss of competitiveness in other countries (esp. that of China), the trend toward shortening complex production chains, and the relatively larger significance of transport costs are many reasons for the stability of the U.S. industrial sector.

Therefore, whether a »re-industrialization« of the U.S. economy is really taking place remains to be seen.. Whether manufacturing companies will benefit more strongly from low energy prices in the future is an open question and depends, apart from the relative share of energy costs in production, on many other factors, such as taxes, infrastructure and the energy policies of other countries".

Source: BDI, by  

Dr Berend Diekmann is the division head in the Federal Ministry of Economics for Foreign Economic Policy, North America, G8/G20 and OECD. Prior to this he was i.a. division head of international economic and monetary policy and IMF.

Ukraine's Government Warns pro-Russian forces

Ukraine is to launch a "large-scale anti-terrorist operation" to resist pro-Russian forces, the country's president warned on Sunday following a shootout that claimed one victim in the eastern city of Slaviansk. The threat came after gunmen seized control of government buildings and fuelled international alarm about the escalating crisis.

Events on the ground suggested that the authorities in Kiev – anticipating a repeat of the Russian takeover of Crimea – were rapidly losing control of the situation, while Moscow, which denies any direct involvement in Ukraine, warned of the danger of civil war.

Armed men, widely believed to include Russian commandos, took over buildings in Slaviansk on Saturday and targeted four other cities. Ukraine's interior minister, Arsen Avakov, said a state security officer had been killed and five others wounded. There had been an "unidentifiable number" of casualties on the side of the separatists, Avakov said.

Oleksandr Turchynov, Ukraine's interim president, announced on state television that an amnesty would be granted to anyone who laid down their arms by 6am Monday morning, but he warned: "We're not going to allow Russia to repeat the Crimean scenario in Ukraine's east. Today's Palm Sunday celebrations were marred by aggression and blood. The terrorist troops co-ordinated by the Russian Federation seized a number of government buildings."

Turchynov said the situation was especially dangerous in Slaviansk where "trained criminals, dressed in camouflage and armed with Russian guns", were operating. "The blood of Ukrainian heroes has been shed in a war which the Russian Federation is waging against Ukraine," he said. "The aggressor has not stopped and is continuing to sow disorder in the east of the country."

Ukraine Crisis: Moscow accuses Kiev of issuing 'criminal orders' and warns of civil war Russia orchestrating latest violence in east Ukraine and is staging another Crimea-syle intervention, claims US and Nato

"The crisis in Ukraine escalated dramatically on Sunday night as Russiaaccused Kiev of issuing a "criminal order" against protesters and warned of a civil war in the country, which has been hit by a wave of unrest that America believes has been orchestrated from Moscow.

The Russian statement came after unknown armed men attacked a convoy of Ukrainian troops in Slaviansk, about 100 miles from the border, launching the first gun battle in Ukraine since the standoff began, in which at least one person was killed. Both the US and Nato accused Russia of staging another Crimea-style intervention, with Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the United Nations, saying events were following the same pattern as in Crimea, where unidentified military forces took over government installations before the peninsula was in effect annexed last month".

"[The unrest] is professional, it's co-ordinated, there is nothing grassroots-seeming about it," Power said. "The forces are doing, in each of the six or seven cities they've been active in, exactly the same thing. Certainly it bears the telltale signs of Moscow's involvement," she told ABC's This Week.

The Nato secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, described the protests as "a concerted campaign of violence by pro-Russian separatists, aiming to destabilise Ukraine as a sovereign state".

He said the appearance of men carrying Russian weapons and wearing uniforms without insignia was a "grave development" and called on Russia to pull back its troops from Ukraine's border.

Ukraine's acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, went on television on Sunday night to announce that the army would take part in a "large-scale anti-terrorist operation" against the protesters, adding: "We're not going to allow Russia to repeat the Crimean scenario in Ukraine's east." He set a deadline of 6am GMT for the separatists to give up their weapons.

But the Russian foreign ministry said the west should bring its allies in Ukraine's government under control. "It is now the west's responsibility to prevent civil war in Ukraine," the ministry said in a statement on Facebook. "The situation in south-eastern Ukraine is taking on an extremely dangerous character. We decisively condemn attempts to use brute force against protesters and activists … We are particularly indignant about the criminal order [by Turchynov] to use the army to put down protest."

Source: TheGuardian

Alexander Hamilton and the Story of the First U.S. Bank Bailout

"If one man deserves credit for both the brilliance and the horrors of modern finance it is Alexander Hamilton, the first Treasury secretary of the United States. In financial terms the young country was a blank canvas: in 1790, just 14 years after the Declaration of Independence, it had five banks and few insurers. Hamilton wanted a state-of-the-art financial set-up, like that of Britain or Holland. That meant a federal debt that would pull together individual states’ IOUs. America’s new bonds would be traded in open markets, allowing the government to borrow cheaply. And America would also need a central bank, the First Bank of the United States (BUS), which would be publicly owned.
This new bank was an exciting investment opportunity. Of the $10m in BUS shares, $8m were made available to the public. The initial auction, in July 1791, went well and was oversubscribed within an hour. This was great news for Hamilton, because the two pillars of his system—the bank and the debt—had been designed to support each other. To get hold of a $400 BUS share, investors had to buy a $25 share certificate or “scrip”, and pay three-quarters of the remainder not in cash, but with federal bonds. The plan therefore stoked demand for government debt, while also furnishing the bank with a healthy wedge of safe assets. It was seen as a great deal: scrip prices shot up from $25 to reach more than $300 in August 1791. The bank opened that December.

Two things put Hamilton’s plan at risk. The first was an old friend gone bad, William Duer. The scheming old Etonian was the first Englishman to be blamed for an American financial crisis, but would not be the last. Duer and his accomplices knew that investors needed federal bonds to pay for their BUS shares, so they tried to corner the market. To fund this scheme Duer borrowed from wealthy friends and, by issuing personal IOUs, from the public. He also embezzled from companies he ran.

The other problem was the bank itself. On the day it opened it dwarfed the nation’s other lenders. Already massive, it then ballooned, making almost $2.7m in new loans in its first two months. Awash with credit, the residents of Philadelphia and New York were gripped by speculative fever. Markets for short sales and futures contracts sprang up. As many as 20. carriages a week raced between the two cities to exploit opportunities for arbitrage.

Meet the villain

William 
Duer

Born in Devon and educated at Eton, William Duer moved to America as a young man and made a fortune selling supplies to the army. Scams funded his expensive lifestyle: he once sold half the land in Ohio, even though he did not own it. He conned so many people that by the time he ended up in jail, it was said to be the safest place for him. 

MAR 1792

The jitters began in March 1792. The BUS began to run low on the hard currency that backed its paper notes. It cut the supply of credit almost as quickly as it had expanded it, with loans down by 25% between the end of January and March. As credit tightened, Duer and his cabal, who often took on new debts in order to repay old ones, started to feel the pinch.

Rumours of Duer’s troubles, combined with the tightening of credit by the BUS, sent America’s markets into sharp descent. Prices of government debt, BUS shares and the stocks of the handful of other traded companies plunged by almost 25% in two weeks. By March 23rd Duer was in prison. But that did not stop the contagion, and firms started to fail. As the pain spread, so did the anger. A mob of angry investors pounded the New York jail where Duer was being held with stones.

Hamilton knew what was at stake. A student of financial history, he was aware that France’s crash in 1720 had hobbled its financial system for years. And he knew Thomas Jefferson was waiting in the wings to dismantle all he had built. His response, as described in a 2007 paper by Richard Sylla of New York University, was America’s first bank bail-out. Hamilton attacked on many fronts: he used public money to buy federal bonds and pep up their prices, helping protect the bank and speculators who had bought at inflated prices. He funnelled cash to troubled lenders. And he ensured that banks with collateral could borrow as much as they wanted, at a penalty rate of 7% (then the usury ceiling).

Even as the medicine was taking effect, arguments about how to prevent future slumps had started. Everyone agreed that finance had become too frothy. Seeking to protect naive amateurs from risky investments, lawmakers sought outright bans, with rules passed in New York in April 1792 outlawing public futures trading. In response to this aggressive regulation a group of 24 traders met on Wall Street—under a Buttonwood tree, the story goes—to set up their own private trading club. That group was the precursor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Hamilton’s bail-out worked brilliantly. With confidence restored, finance flowered. Within half a century New York was a financial superpower: the number of banks and markets shot up, as did GDP. But the rescue had done something else too. By bailing out the banking system, Hamilton had set a precedent. Subsequent crises caused the financial system to become steadily more reliant on state support.

Source: The Economist

                                                            

NYSEPost Comments on BPZ

"CEO of BPZ Resources Inc (NYSE:BPZ), Pflucker Manuel Pablo Zuniga off loaded 41,627 shares of the company stock in the open market in the transaction that was dated on Wednesday, 2 April. These shares were sold-off at the average-price of $3.00, and the value of the total transaction was $124,881.00. Post this sale, the Chief Executive Officer now directly-owns 5,236,118 of the company shares, valued at around $15,708,354. This transaction was disclosed in the SEC filing.

Richard Saverio Menniti the CFO sold 17,890 shares of the company stock in the open market in the transaction that was dated 8 April . This stock was sold-off at the average price of $2.83, and the total transaction value was $50,628.70. Post completion of this transaction, the CFO now directly-owns 376,597 shares of BPZstock, valued at around $1,065,770. This sale was disclosed in the SEC filing.

BPZ Resources (NYSE:BPZ) last announced the company’s earnings-results on 6 March. It reported earnings per share of $0.09 for the quarter, which missed the average analyst projection of $0.08 by $0.01. BPZ Resources reported revenue of $12.07M for the quarter, in comparison to the average projection of $13.39 million. In the same quarter in the earlier year, it posted earnings per share of $0.11. Its quarterly revenue dropped 51.8% on a y-o-y basis. Analysts now project that the company will post EPS of $0.17 for the current financial year.

Separately, Wunderlich analysts restated their rating of “buy” on BPZ Resources shares in the research note that was released to investors on 5 March. They now have set a price target of $6.00 on the stock. The company is very focused on the exploration and the development as well as the production of oil as well as various natural gas properties in Peru as well as in Ecuador".

Edit Piaf Les Feuilles Mortes, (Autumn Leaves), "I Miss You Most of All My darling....

Edith Piaf - Autumn Leaves (Les Feuilles Mortes)

Bonjour, Madame Edith Piaf, "et la Foule vient me jeter entre ses bras....

Je revois la ville en fête et en délire
Suffoquant sous le soleil et sous la joie
Et j'entends dans la musique les cris, les rires
Qui éclatent et rebondissent autour de moi
Et perdue parmi ces gens qui me bousculent
Étourdie, désemparée, je reste là
Quand soudain, je me retourne, il se recule,
Et la foule vient me jeter entre ses bras...

Emportés par la foule qui nous traîne
Nous entraîne
Écrasés l'un contre l'autre
Nous ne formons qu'un seul corps
Et le flot sans effort
Nous pousse, enchaînés l'un et l'autre
Et nous laisse tous deux
Épanouis, enivrés et heureux.

Entraînés par la foule qui s'élance
Et qui danse
Une folle farandole
Nos deux mains restent soudées
Et parfois soulevés
Nos deux corps enlacés s'envolent
Et retombent tous deux
Épanouis, enivrés et heureux...

Et la joie éclaboussée par son sourire
Me transperce et rejaillit au fond de moi
Mais soudain je pousse un cri parmi les rires
Quand la foule vient l'arracher d'entre mes bras...

Emportés par la foule qui nous traîne
Nous entraîne
Nous éloigne l'un de l'autre
Je lutte et je me débats
Mais le son de sa voix
S'étouffe dans les rires des autres
Et je crie de douleur, de fureur et de rage
Et je pleure...

Entraînée par la foule qui s'élance
Et qui danse
Une folle farandole
Je suis emportée au loin
Et je crispe mes poings, maudissant la foule qui me vole
L'homme qu'elle m'avait donné
Et que je n'ai jamais retrouvé...

SONGWRITERS
DIZEO, ENRIQUE / AMATO, ANGEL

"Que Nadie Sepa Mi Sufrir " lyrics:

No te asombres si te digo lo que fuiste
un ingrato con mi pobre corazσn,
y que el brillo de tus grandes ojos negros
alumbraron el camino de otro amor.

Y pensar que te adoraba tiernamente
que a tu lado como nunca me sentí
y por esas cosas raras de la vida
sin el beso de tu boca yo me vi

Amor de mis amores
alma mía que me hiciste
que no puedo consolarme
sin poderte contemplar.
Que gano con decir
que tu amor cambio mi suerte?Solo conseguirasque no te nombre nunca mas.

Amor de mis amores
si dejaste de quererme
no hay cuidado, que la gente
de esto no se enterarα.
Que gano con decir
que tu amor no fue sincero
Se burlarαn de mi
que nadie sepa mi sufrir.

Y pensar que te adoraba tiernamente
que a tu lado como nunca me sentí
y por esas cosas raras de la vida
sin el beso de tu boca yo me vi

Amor de mis amores
alma mía que me hiciste
que no puedo consolarme
sin poderte contemplar.
Que gano con decir
que tu amor cambio mi suerte?
Solo conseguirás
que no te nombre nunca mas.

Amor de mis amores
si dejaste de quererme
no hay cuidado, que la gente
de esto no se enterara.
Que gano con decir
que tu amor no fue sincero
Se burlaran de mi
que nadie sepa mi sufrir.

Edith Piaf, La Vie en Rose

                                 Des yeux qui font baisser les miens

                                 Un rire qui se perd sur sa bouche
                                 Voila le portrait sans retouche
                                 De l'homme auquel, j'appartiens

                                 Quand il me prend dans ses bras
                                 Il me parle tout bas
                                Je vois la vie en rose

                                 Il ma dit des mots d'amour

                                 Des mots de tous les jours

                                 Et ca me fait quelque chose

                                 Il est entré dans mon coeur
Une part de bonheur
Dont je connais la cause

C'est lui pour moi
Moi pour lui dans la vie
Il me l'a dit, l'a jure pour la vie

Et, des que je l'apercois
Alors je sens en moi
Mon coeur qui bat

Des nuits d'amour ne plus en finir
Un grand bonheur qui prend sa place
Des enuis des chagrins, des phases
Heureux, heureux a en mourir

Quand il me prend dans ses bras
Il me parle tout bas
Je vois la vie en rose

Il me dit des mots d'amour
Des mots de tous les jours
Et ca me fait quelque chose

Il est entré dans mon Coeur
Une part de bonheur
Dont je connais la cause

C'est toi pour moi
Moi pour toi dans la vie
Il me l'a dit, m'a jure pour la vie

Et, des que je l'apercois
Alors je sens en moi
Mon coeur qui bat

OECD: The Perils of Mounting Debt Burdens........

The Economist: Debt was,then, both a cause and a consequence of the Great Recession 2008-9, and remains...

"IT WAS the growing rate of default on home mortgages in America that precipitated the financial crisis five years ago. These delinquencies, although not enormous in themselves, became impossible for some investment banks to bear, thanks partly to their own heavy debts. As the contagion spread throughout the financial sector in 2007-08, nervous or cash-strapped banks and other creditors stopped lending, thereby infecting the rest of the economy. Deep recessions and big financial rescues then led to a surge in government debt. That, in turn, raised fears about the solvency of various countries in the euro area, culminating in Greece’s default in 2012. Debt was, then, both a cause and a consequence of the crisis, and remains a big reason for its continuance".