Myopic vs. Strategic Thinking

Greetings!  I’m Jill Christiansen, manager of writing services at www.sterlingcreations.ca.  To start the week off, I would like to focus on how we go about thinking; that is, our thought process when it comes to important decisions.  Narrow thinking versus broad thinking.  I have a very interesting article to share with you today and I hope you enjoy reading it.
Have a great day.
 
 
Myopic vs. Strategic Thinking

 
Before getting to the heart of today’s article I’d like to first provide the following definition below:
 
“Myopic”
Unable or unwilling to act prudently; shortsighted.
Lacking tolerance or understanding; narrow-minded.
Lack of discernment or long-range perspective in thinking or planning.
The above definition aptly describes the policy of President Obama towards one of the greatest suppliers of oil to our country, Canada, as President Obama is leaning towards putting pressure on reducing emissions from Canadian oil sands production.
 
Obama Targets Emissions From Oil Sands
 
US President Barack Obama has signaled that Canada’s oil sands industry should not be granted an exemption from strict regulations to limit emissions of greenhouse gases.
 
His stance could add to the already high costs of developing this vast resource which is increasingly regarded as one of North America’s most secure sources of energy…
 
“What we know is that oil sands create a big carbon footprint,” Obama said in a television interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Tuesday. “I think that it is possible for us to create a set of clean energy mechanisms that allow us to use things not just like oil sands, but also coal. The United States is the Saudi Arabia of coal, but we have our own homegrown problems in terms of dealing with a cheap energy source that creates a big carbon footprint.”
 
Canada is the biggest foreign supplier of oil to the US, and in recent years a growing share of that oil has been derived from the oil sands region of northern Alberta which are estimated to hold a massive 173 billion barrels of oil.
 
About 780,000 barrels of oil per day are produced from the Alberta oil sands and exported to the US. Canada currently sells about 60% of its oil sands output to US refiners…
 
The recent steep fall in oil prices to current levels of around $40 a barrel have already had a big impact on plans to expand Canadian oil sands production.
 
Canadian bank TD Newcrest calculates that around 600,000 b/d of new output, originally scheduled to come on stream by 2010 or 2011, has been postponed.
 
The cost of oil production from tar sands is one of the most costly means of producing oil, that and deep water drilling. The collapse in oil prices is making production from the Canadian tar sands less economical, and slapping emissions controls and other regulation will only raise the cost for Canadian oil exporters to the U.S. The article mentions above that roughly 600,000 b/d of new production that was supposed to come on line over the next two years has been scrapped, and slapping regulation on Canadian oil producers will likely lead to even further cut backs in new production plans.
 
While the goal of reducing the carbon footprint is a noble venture, Obama’s policies are likely to have unintended consequences. For example, who’s to say that instead of spending billions to meet possible future regulations on oil sands production that Canadian oil exporters don’t simply export their oil to China or other oil-starved countries?
 
When we eventually pull out of this economic mess we do not want to do so with a crippled oil industry. It will take years to bring new production on steam while demand can rebound much faster, leading to insufficient supply to meet reviving demand from emerging markets that will push oil prices up quickly. With oil production projects already being dropped left and right, one of the worst things we can do prior to an economic recovery is to alienate our top suppliers.
 
Canada is currently our number one supplier of crude oil, surpassing Mexico in late 2005 as Mexico’s giant Cantarell oil field is in decline. Internal demand coming from the Middle East is eating into their export levels, which can be seen with declining exports from Saudi Arabia even before world economic growth collapsed in 2008. Furthermore, Hugo Chavez, no fan of the U.S., is diverting more of his exports to China. These trends can be seen in the figure below that shows exports from our top four oil exporters peaking between 2006-2007, and rising oil demand coming from oil export countries.
 
Source: Bloomberg
 
Source: CIBC World Markets
 
In stark contrast to the U.S. policy shift of alienating the top crude exports to our country, China is acting more like a vulture and opportunist by utilizing the economic crisis to its advantage with their sizable foreign exchange reserves, peaking off the weak to their advantage as the following articles illustrate.
 
Credit crunch plays into China’s shopping plans
 
With the world suffering through a major credit crunch, China has suddenly gone shopping.
Beijing said Friday that one of its big state-owned banks, China Development Bank, agreed to lend Petrobras, the Brazilian oil giant, $10 billion in exchange for a long-term supply of oil.
That investment came after similar deals were signed this week with Russia and Venezuela, bringing China’s total oil investments this month to $41 billion…
 
Venezuela got a $6 billion loan from China and agreed to increase its oil exports to the country, bringing China’s total investment in the country to $12 billion. In Brazil, China signed a $10 billion “loan-for-oil” deal that guaranteed the country up to 160,000 barrels a day at market prices.
 
And in Beijing this week, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao met his Russian counterpart after China agreed to loan Russia’s struggling oil giant, Rosneft, and Russia’s oil pipeline company, Transneft, $25 billion in exchange for 15 million tons of crude oil a year for 20 years.
 
“This is heavy energy diplomacy,” said Philip Andrews-Speed, director of the energy policy center at the University of Dundee in Scotland. “If you need money you go to where the money is, and today, China’s the place.”
 
——————————————————————————–
 
 
 
 
 
 
Get Enthusiastically Caught Up With Your Financial Future Using
The Spartan Trader
 
We’ve specialized in creating confident, traders who are not afraid to fight the investment battle for over 17 years. With over 260,000 clients since 1991, The Spartan Trader and its affiliate sites have been a source in investing, teaching and profits in trading. In fact, if you’re looking for a place to start, look on to what they are saying about us.
 
Frank Hart
Wisconsin
Ex FEDEX Driver
 
“If I could do this, anyone can; all it takes is determination and discipline.”
 
 
 
JanineWillis Nebraska Nurse/Homemaker
 
“I was looking to learn how to trade. But making money while doing it…what could better then that!”
 
 
Thomas Norton
Washington  Distribution Mgr.
 
“I’ve been trading for years, this is the best game on the web, I never seen anything like it.”
 
 
Gary Kinder Arizona Consultant
 
“Playing the real-time market for cash prizes helped me to learn how to trade even quicker. I learned how to trade in a month or two. Now I trade like Spartan warrior…and the $1000 isn’t hard to take either!”
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
While other costs may be escalating, learning how to trade has never been
more affordable, reliable  or exciting!
Through this incredible offer, you will be able to learn how to trade like a Spartan Warrior, and it’s all for FREE. You will receive full access to our powerful state of the art virtual trading platform and website, accompanied by a wealth of information and knowledge from the largest community of novice and advanced investors and traders. All of our information comes to you REAL TIME, so if you are looking toward that single source of strength toward gaining trading ability – look no further. By offering you our platform completely free, The Spartan Trader makes itself available to everyone that has the will, desire and the muscle to learn how to trade the financial markets. You will never find a better opportunity in learning how to trade while being able to make money at the same time.
 
Feel no Fear… Only the strong will survive, find your source of strength, TRADE LIKE A SPARTAN WARRIOR… Here are the trading tools needed, use them wisely because only the strong will survive THE SPARTAN TRADER.
 
With Spartan Trader’s ability to simplify market trading into a game of action, excitement and rewards, it is easy to use this real-time system. This is as close to the real thing as possible. Beginners will be amazed how easy it is to make money virtually trading and seasoned investors enjoy the friendly competition. Learn from your competition by being able to view winning portfolios, use the tutorials to hone your skills and trade alongside some of the best! So get ready to trade like a Spartan, simply register, pick your stocks and collect real cash prizes!
 
READ ON….
 
 
 
 
——————————————————————————–
 
China, Russia: A Pipeline Connection, an Act of Desperation?
 
China and Russia struck a deal that will give Russian energy firms Transneft and Rosneft loans to increase East Siberian oil field development and production and to connect the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline to China. In return, China will receive about 300,000 barrels per day of oil for the next 20 years. Russia might have made the deal out of economic desperation as its state-owned energy firms feel the pain of evaporating credit, economic woes and low oil prices…
 
And the Chinese got a steal: Although not all of the contract’s subtleties are likely out in the open right now, reimbursement for the loan means that the Chinese have purchased Rosneft crude for only about $11.40 a barrel once interest is figured in — about one-third of what Russia’s crude fetches on the open market right now. The Russians have essentially locked the fate of their Far East strategy to the whims of Chinese energy policy, and this is a compromise that could reveal how financially desperate Russia is.
 
Brilliant, purely brilliant! That is what strategic thinking is called! China, concerned about their U.S. reserves being devalued by U.S. monetary policy, is exchanging their holdings for long-term oil contracts from countries all over the world, locking in oil prices at exceptional levels, like the $11.40/barrel estimate for the Russian deal.
 
Over the past decade world oil production growth has been roughly stagnant for most oil producing regions, while Russia was one of the few bright spots this decade, though production growth stagnated in the last few years as capital expenditures in the region began to slow. Now with the recent deal inked by China and Russia, China has just secured direct oil access to one of the few oil regions that showed sizable production growth this decade. When world economic growth turns up, which it eventually will, China will have strategically positioned resources to allow their growth to continue, and has done so at rates 92% below last year’s peak and current prices!
 
Source: Bloomberg
 
Probing the Depths of the Bottom
 
While China may be preparing for the eventual economic recovery, it certainly isn’t here. Looking at the leading economic indicator for the OECD shows that the rate of change has nearly reached the levels of the 73/74 recession, currently declining at a 7.15% year-over-year (YOY) pace. While developed economies were the first to contract, the high-flying BRIC economies are quickly playing catch up as the chart of BRIC industrial production rates shows below.
 
Source: Bloomberg
 
Source: Bloomberg
 
——————————————————————————–
 
 
Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Subscribe Now | Links
Gryphon Financial’s First To The Trade
SIX FEET UNDER YOUR ACCOUNT
Dear Friends,
 
I write to you today to inform you about a most astonishing opportunity. Presently, a limited collection of readers spurred by the legendary trading guru John Gage and his radical new Gryphon Financial’s First To The Trade system are amassing a mind-boggling amount of profits at an equally astonishing rate of speed.
 
Point of fact, these readers have reeled in 26 successful plays out of 28 beginning in January of 2008. For you baseball enthusiast’s, that’s a .929 batting average. For the laymen, it’s the equivalent of swinging at a beach ball with a tennis racquet… which at the end of the day brought in an accumulated total of 2,680% in gains.
 
The single play gains have tallied 155%, 175%, 190%, 267%, 387% and greater still. This is all the more extraordinary when you consider the markets have fallen some 20% in the midst of these gains, and it makes such astounding precision in picks all the more remarkable.
If you had been one of these fortuitous readers who had received these exceptional opportunities, and you simply placed just $5,000 down into each trade, you’d currently be perched atop $183,600.
 
Right about now you must be thinking this sounds too good to be true, but as I am about to explain… it’s true alright, and here is one reason why…
 
READ ON….
 
 
 
 
 
 
——————————————————————————–
 
Th e economic numbers above illustrate the degree of the economic contraction currently underway but do not tell us when the bottom may be in for crude oil. For this we turn to equities as the stock market serves as a useful discounting mechanism for economic data, and thus oil prices. Perhaps “THE” leading indicator for oil prices may be the Chinese stock market, as the Shanghai Index peaked nearly a year prior to the top in oil prices, and the recent break of the down trend that has been in place since 2007 in the Shanghai Index may be signaling a bottom for crude oil ahead. The 50 day moving average (MA) for the Shanghai index served as rally killers for the past year and has done so for oil prices as well. Coming off the October lows the Shanghai Index has staged an impressive rally, breaking above its 50d MA and now assaulting its 200d MA. A move above the 200d MA on the Shanghai Index would be a major positive for oil as it would signal that Chinese equities were discounting an economic bottom and recovery ahead.
 
Oil has yet to break through its 50d MA and that would be the first step for oil prices to turn more constructive, and the 200d MA is more than 100% above current prices, indicating we may see a prolonged period of consolidation before oil can move above its 200d MA.
 
Source: StockCharts.com
 
Also hinting at a potential recovery in oil prices is the MSCI Asian Ex-Japan Index, which typically leads oil prices by 210 days. The bottom in the index in October and stabilization may be signaling the same for oil ahead. If the Asian Ex-Japan Index can best its January highs it is likely that crude oil may follow suit and signal that the low is in. Corroborating the MSCI Asia Ex-Japan Index is the Korean Kospi Index, though it typically leads oil and the CRB Index by 168 days (24 weeks).
 
Source: Bloomberg
 
Source: Bloomberg
 
One final indicator that points to a final bottom in oil is my commodity currency index below that has failed to breach its October lows, and has typically lead oil prices by roughly a month. If the commodity currency index can breach its January highs then we can likely expect oil to break above its January highs of $48.59/barrel, which would also lead to a break above its 50d MA, providing further support that the bottom is in.
 
Source: Bloomberg
 
While the above indicators point to a potential bottom in crude oil, if a market rally in global equities stalls and then equities breach their prior lows, then all bets are off in terms of the final lows in oil prices. However, if equities continue to move to new highs and rise above their 200d moving averages, then the bottom is likely in for oil. If oil has indeed bottomed then I hope that President Obama not only supports alternative energy, but moves to secure our oil supplies or more and more will be directed towards China’s shores. The U.S. is at a critical juncture in terms of our energy future as Mexican oil production is in decline, Venezuela directing exports to China, Saudi Arabian internal demand cannibalizing its exports, and Canada serving as one of the few promising suppliers to the U.S. If President Obama moves to implement greater regulation on Canadian oil sands, he will likely be shooting the U.S. economy in the foot, and we can expect higher oil prices than what is necessary.
 
As President Obama has made an about face in regards to statements made about China’s unfair currency manipulation that could spark trade wars, let’s hope his counselors can help him do the same with his plan of putting further regulation on Canadian oil sands exports, or we may lose the goodwill of our number one oil supplier.
 
——————————————————————————–
 
 
 
The most profitable single trade of all time revealed for the
first time to the first 100 to subscribe!
FACT: 99% of investors do not have a clue how to trade the markets. They ride the crashing wave of buying the highs and selling the lows. Only the strong and truly savvy are able to will and manipulate their trades and continue to profit from Wall Street.
 
For the very first time, we’re revealing a secret strategy to the first 100 subscribers. This bear market strategy is so powerful, government politicians have been trying to outlaw it for years!
 
This controversial and secretly held technique has made a small select few billionaires. One in particular is our head trader, and owner of Gryphon Hedge Fund – Kenneth Maseka, who in one day alone destroyed a particular company and packed more than $190 million inside a 24 hour stretch!
 
As we write this report, we should firmly say that this may be the only way to realize triple digit gains over the upcoming year. And for the first time in the history of the company, we are letting 100 investors into our secret and private group.
 
For over 100 years, this ruthless group has used this secret strategy to make BILLIONS. Over the last century, this private group of “THE TEN”… 10 traders working in unison since 1991, these quiet stock market masters have used this one simple technique to turn wounded weak stocks into BILLIONS.
 
But, remember of all God’s creatures, the wolf has the greatest instinct to pray on the weak and will only let others in to their pack on the unanimous vote – you must be hand selected by “THE TEN” to even be considered for this private service. Typically reserved only to the qualified investor.
 
READ ON….
 
 
If you would like to learn more about us and the services we offer, then please visit www.sterlingcreations.ca
If you would like to keep abreast of some of the most important happenings affecting your lives today, then please visit http://www.sterlingcreations.com/businessdesk.htm.  There you will get the latest news roundups on such topics as:
Stress, anxiety, and depression. News for retirees, seniors, and aging baby boomers.  Security tips for home computer users.  Home business opportunities, Internet business opportunities, small business opportunities, business opportunities in Asia.  You will also learn how to obtain tremendous personal and financial satisfaction by selling your knowledge and experience.
 
 
]]>

About Donna Jodhan

Donna Jodhan is an award winning blind author, advocate, sight loss coach, blogger, podcast commentator, and accessibility specialist.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.