BIG Oil Stocks Good Long-term #Investments?

The Future of Oil Companies: A Slow Decline

Market watchers are announcing the demise of the oil majors. Not for the first time. According to Jilles van den Beukel, former geoscientist with Shell, the oil companies are indeed seeing their world shrinking. But they are not dead yet: their reason for being – the world’s demand for oil and gas – is still there.

NGO’s refer to the oil majors as slowly moving dinosaurs, sitting on stranded assets that cannot be (fully) produced. They maintain that their shares are massively overvalued and that the majors should rapidly change their business model or perish. Financial analysts are worried about high costs, future oil demand and low reserve replacement ratios. They point out that the companies should prepare for an oil price that stays lower for longer rather than to keep on repeating that the current low oil prices are not sustainable. Are things really that bad for the majors?

http://theenergycollective.com/energy-post/2323568/future-oil-companies-slow-decline

Moody's warns global slowdown could spark sovereign downgrades

Credit rating agency Moody's warned on Tuesday there could be another wave of sovereign and corporate downgrades if a wider global economic slowdown started to take place.

European Bonds Gain as Economic Growth Backs Case for ECB Easing

European government bonds extended gains from Monday while the region’s stocks declined as data confirmed economic growth slowed in the second half of 2015, underpinning the case for more stimulus from the European Central Bank.

OECD Leading Indicators Point to Slowing Global Growth

The Paris-based research body said its gauges of future economic activity—which are based on information available for January—continue to point to slowdowns in the U.S., the U.K., Canada and Russia, but now also suggest growth is set to ease in Germany and Brazil.

U.S. Government Bond Yields Fall as Japan Drops to Record Lows

 Government bond yields in Japan on Tuesday fell to record lows, and the ripple effect pushed down yields in the U.S., Germany and the U.K.

Strong auction demand for a 30-year Japanese government bond sent investors piling into bonds. The buying sent the yield on the benchmark U.S. 10-year note below 1.9% again and stalled the yield’s uptick momentum over the past month. As bond prices rise, yields fall. 

http://www.wsj.com/articles/government-bond-yields-in-u-s-europe-japan-drop-1457449179

www.firstfinancialinsights.blogspot.com

Brazil's Credit Rating Junk By S&P, & More

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• Brazil’s Credit Rating at Risk of Cut to Junk Grade by S&P

"The ratings company said in a statement Tuesday it revised the outlook on Brazil’s rating to negative from stable. The country’s rating from S&P is already at BBB-, the lowest investment grade.

The ratings move adds to challenges for President Dilma Rousseff and her economic team led by Finance Minister Joaquim Levy as they duel with Congress to shore up fiscal accounts at the same time the country slips into recession. "

• Brazilian Real Leads Global Declines
•  After Negative S&P Outlook

"Brazil’s real led global declines and fell to a 12-year low after Standard & Poor’s changed the outlook on the nation’s credit rating to negative, citing challenges to balancing the budget and the unprecedented investigation of public officials."

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• European Central Bank's balance sheet rises to EUR 2.525 tn

"The combined balance sheet of the European Central Bank and the euro zone's 19 national central banks rose by 6.2 billion euros ($6.85 billion) to 2.525 trillion euros in the week to July 24, the ECB said on Tuesday."

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• Chinese Stocks Just Created a New Headache for Janet Yellen

"Exit strategies used to be the preoccupation of Pentagon planners. Nowadays, it’s more a province for central bank watchers, since the Federal Reserve gorged on trillions of dollars of mortgage and government debt.

And in that economic realm, China has just added a new conundrum. The dependence of the nation’s stock market on official support was exposed Monday with the biggest drop since 2007 amid speculation aid had been dialed back. The Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.7 percent Tuesday even after China pledged to keep up efforts to “stabilize” the market."

• 13 Per Cent of Canadians Believe They'll Be in Debt Forever 

"According to a new study released on Tuesday by CIBC, the average Canadian expects to be debt free by the time they reach the age of 56 years old; however, some Canadians forecast debt well into their sixties.

Only a third, or 29 per cent, of Canadians are debt free, while 13 per cent do not foresee a future without debt."

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• U.S. Homeownership Drops To Its Lowest Level Since 1967

"The last time homeownership levels were this low, LBJ was president.

Data released by the Census Bureau on Tuesday reveal that the U.S. homeownership rate stood at 63.4% for the second quarter of 2015. The rate is down slightly compared to the first quarter (63.7%), and it represents the lowest level of homeownership in America since 1967."

•  House prices in England and Wales hit record high

"Responding to the figures, Campbell Robb, Shelter’s chief executive, said: “When house prices soar by this much in a single year thanks to our housing shortage, it’s clear that for millions of people across the country, a home of your own is fast becoming a pipe dream.”"

• Rent prices jump, indicating coming crisis 

"Low vacancy rate, high cost of home ownership conspire against renters"

Learn Success: APPLY Tips From The Best

Jeff Bezos, Amazon– Jeff Bezos is a pioneer in world of internet commerce, and was instrumental in defining this space that is now defining many aspects of the internet world. It is Jeff Bezos who innovated the concept of “predictive analytics”–recommending products to customers based on search history and buying habits. Whether you like the concept or you hate it, the idea has made online commerce more profit rich and efficient, and is making online shopping a better experience for consumers throughout the world.

Top Weekly Ideas and Insights

An Inconvenient Truth:

What Happens When Science Confronts Unsubstantiated Fiction?

 EXISTENTIAL REALITY 

"Humanity Coming of Secular Age"

 - The Last Days of Theism -

BRAZIL Hit By Wave Of Loan Defaults, & More

Brazil Loan Defaults Rise In May, Central Bank Says

Loan delinquencies at Brazilian banks rose in May for a second straight month, the latest sign that companies and individuals are struggling to remain current on their credit as Latin America's largest economy deteriorates.

Fed’s Powell eyes two 2015 hikes as he dismisses bubble fears

“I am not particularly troubled by the level of equity values overall. They are certainly higher than normal but in a world where financial market assets are expected to give low returns, P/Es should be high,” he said.

70 million Americans teetering on edge of financial ruin

According to a survey of 1,000 adults released by Bankrate.com on Tuesday, nearly one in three (29%) American adults (that’s roughly 70 million) have no emergency savings at all — the highest percentage since Bankrate began doing this survey five years ago.

ECB's balance sheet rises to 2.452 trillion euros, gold steady

The ECB's balance sheet is steadily increasing as it rolls out a roughly 1 trillion euro scheme to buy government bonds and other assets known as "quantitative easing".

China’s Plan for Local Debt Amounts to a Bailout

Beijing is permitting provinces to issue at least 2.6 trillion yuan ($419 billion) in bonds in 2015, the first local-government issuances in more than 20 years, to stave off a debt crunch. Local administrations have accumulated some 18 trillion yuan in bank loans and bonds to fund risky land and property deals—equivalent to a third of China’s economy. As the real-estate market slows, state-owned banks that did much of the lending are on the hook.

Negative T-Bill Rates Persist as Supply 

Shortage Seen Worsening

Regulations enacted since the global financial to make banks sound and prevent an implosion of the money market mutual fund industry have left less short-term debt instruments, such as bills and repurchase agreements, available. The shift has come while the U.S. Treasury reduces the amount of bills sold in favor of longer-maturity debt as part of plan to lock in lower borrowing costs with interest rates lingering close to historic lows.

Collapse Part 3: No Institutional Path to Contraction

Collapse is not an event, it is a process.

One poorly understood source of collapse is the lack of pathways to contraction and a reduction of complexity/cost. The only pathway that is clearly marked is the one to expansion--of production, debt, credit, government, income, benefits, costs and complexity: more agencies, more regulations, more committees, more staff, more of everything.

The path to less complexity, less debt, less production and a contraction of the entire system doesn't exist in most institutions.

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The Extinction Debate