| Bernanke: Business growth is set to slow
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Farmers Wonder if Boom In Grain Prices Is a Bubble
Come spring, Tim Recker plans to demolish two rotting barns and a dilapidated workshop on his 1,500-acre farm in Arlington, Iowa. In their place will sit about three acres of rich, black topsoil prime for capitalizing on the biggest global grain boom in decades. "Every acre is more valuable than it was five years ago," says Mr. Recker, a farmer and land excavator. With corn, wheat, soybeans, barley, sunflowers and other grains selling at or near record prices, U.S. farmers are preparing for a potentially historic planting season. A rush to make biofuels from crops and soaring demand for grains in China, India and other emerging markets have pushed up grain prices world-wide, helping drive food prices higher. .
Illinois' new law on guns came too late
There was a huge traffic accident in Michigan a few weeks ago where six people were killed and another dozen were injured. I never hear people calling for banning all cars after those tragedies. Anyway, I guess I better order that Glock and that AR15 I've had my eye on before I can't buy them anymore. " .
Shares in gold miner Newcrest drop on cost fears
SHARES in Australia's largest gold miner, Newcrest Mining, fell today after warning costs at its giant Telfer pit in Western Australia were rising. The miner also cut its 2008 production target for Telfer, but maintained its group annual forecast because the shortfall would be made up by its other mine in New South Wales. The company's production forecast was unchanged at between 1.81 and 1.89 million ounces of gold, and between 86,500 and 90,000 tonnes of copper. "Full year production guidance is maintained, with the trend of increasing quarterly production expected to continue for the remainder of the year,'' Newcrest said in its December quarter production report. In the December quarter Newcrest produced 456,618 ounces of gold, up 2 per cent on the September quarter, and achieved a gold price of $US870 an ounce, up 21 per cent.
Rio buys three iron ore ships for $US315mn
MAJOR miner Rio Tinto has bought three iron ore vessels for $US315 million ($362.51 million), as the company looks to increase its annual production profile to 600 million tonnes. Rio Tinto said the 250,000 tonne vessels would transport iron ore from the company's mines in Western Australia to customers in China and elsewhere. "These very large ore carriers will assist us in continuing to provide our customers with better delivery options well into the future while locking in low, long term freight rates for the benefit of our shareholders,'' Rio Tinto chief executive of iron ore Sam Walsh said in a statement. The vessels will be built by Namura Shipyards in Japan and delivered to Rio Tinto from late 2012. The major miner has also reserved rights on another two vessels of similar size.
Cyclo-cross news & racing roundup for November 28
Verge MAC brings down the curtain on its 2007 campaign with a "classic" double-header of UCI racing on the first weekend of December. Mike Hebe's Carlisle Classic in central Pennsylvania kick-starts the racing weekend on Saturday, December 1 and the traditional season-ending Capital Cross Classic brings international cyclo-cross back to the Washington, DC suburb of Reston, Virginia the following day. One thing that has changed dramatically for the Pennsylvania leg of the weekend is the new venue at the Carlisle Fairgrounds. After outgrowing its former home in nearby Lower Allen Township, race promoter Mike Hebe has relocated his race to the Carlisle Fairgrounds, site of the some of the world's largest auto shows. The new venue not only provides more infrastructure and a centralized location, it also offers the racers a different kind of challenge.
The city is caught in tensions and violence
University College London was the largest recruiter of overseas students, with nearly 6,000 on its books, but the London School of Economics topped the list of universities dominated by overseas undergraduates and postgraduates, with 64 per cent coming from overseas. A spokesman for Universities UK hailed the rising number of students and academics choosing to work and study in Britain. He said: " International students and academics also provide an immeasurable academic, cultural, and social benefit to the UK generally. By contrast, 19,000 people left Britain last year to study overseas, a number that has stayed broadly similar for a decade. .
'Black Swan' author Nassim Taleb warns traders to look out for the ...
Market meltdowns that scorch investors, 100-year floods that occur every 10 years and terrorist attacks such as 9/11.
Nassim Taleb, an author, lecturer and big thinker, calls such unforeseen events "black swans," borrowing from a tale about 17th Century European seafarers who landed on Australia and, much to their surprise, learned that not all swans were white.
Such shocks occur, Taleb says, because even experts fail to consider the likelihood of extreme scenarios. That's why his theory, outlined in his book, "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable," is so intriguing to Chicago's trading community, which seeks to lessen risk by exchanging futures and options. His ideas have earned him cachet with investment bankers as well as rock 'n' rollers.
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