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Posts Tagged ‘Libya’

Will $200 oil kill the economy?

March 2, 2011 Comments off

money.msn.com

Unrest in key oil-producing nations opens the door to price spikes that could push gas to $7 a gallon and spin the world back into recession. Here’s how we’d get there, and how to protect your portfolio.

Image: Oil drums © Kevin Phillips, Digital Vision, age fotostock


Are your pocketbook and portfolio ready for $200-a-barrel oil?

This kind of dramatic price spike may seem less likely now than a few days ago, with oil markets calming down a bit and the price slipping below $100. But given the instability and unrest rolling through the Middle East and North Africa, it’s a definitely a viable scenario.

For the moment, most oil sector analysts have gone off high alert because of a Saudi Arabian pledge to increase production to make up for any shortfalls sparked by unrest. But that ignores a key angle in all this: There’s simply not enough spare capacity to make up for the production losses we’d see if the rolling crises in the region hit just two or three major producers at once.

This could easily happen, given the heightened Read more…

Categories: Economy, Oil Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Bernanke warns on oil price ‘threat’

March 2, 2011 Comments off

news.yahoo.com

Bernanke warns on oil price 'threat' AFP – US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke speaks during a hearing of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban …
by Andrew Beatty Andrew Beatty

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke on Tuesday warned a “sustained” rise in oil prices could threaten US growth and spark dangerous price rises, as he eyed turmoil in Libya.

Bernanke told Congress he believed unrest in the oil-rich Middle East would result in “temporary” and “modest” increase in US prices, but acknowledged greater risks remain.

“The most likely outcome is that the recent rise in commodity prices will lead to Read more…

Categories: Federal Reserve, Oil Tags: , , , , , , ,

Biblical Prophecies Are Being Fulfilled

March 1, 2011 Comments off

examiner.com

Biblical prophecies are being fulfilled. God is setting the stage for the Battle of Armageddon and the Second Coming of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

God is setting the stage

Uprisings in Egypt and now Libya are setting the stage for things to come.  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says similar chaos will break out in Europe and North America.  Biblically, all of this will lead to what most of us already know is coming: Read more…

Categories: Bible Prophecy Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Gadhafi’s $30 Billion In US Assets Blocked By Treasury

March 1, 2011 Comments off

forbes.com

By AGUSTINO FONTEVECCHIA
BENGHAZI, LIBYA - FEBRUARY 26: Mothers mourn ...Libya’s people have taken most of the country, Gadhafi still controls Tripoli – Getty Images via @daylife

In addition to having his assets frozen by the Swiss and British governments, Colonel Muammar al-Gadhafi’s holdings in the United States have been blocked by the Department of the Treasury, which claims to have located at least $30 billion in Libyan assets.

After an executive order signed by President Barack Obama on Friday declared the “actions of Colonel Muammar Qadhafi [sic], his government, and close associates, […] an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States,” the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the U.S. Treasury began to track down Libyan assets in Read more…

Categories: Libya Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Libya: West ready to use force against Col Gaddafi amid chemical weapon fears

March 1, 2011 1 comment

telegraph.co.uk

The Prime Minister disclosed that he would not rule out “the use of military assets” as Britain “must not tolerate this regime using military forces against its own people”. Britain and America are also thought to be considering arming rebel forces in Libya.

Adding to growing concern about the crumbling regime’s ability to commit last desperate acts of mass murder, British sources have disclosed that Libya still has stocks of mustard gas chemicals.

Mr Cameron told MPs that Britain and its allies were considering using fighter jets to impose a no-fly zone over Libya, patrolling and shooting down Libyan aircraft ordered to attack protesters.

The Pentagon announced that the Americans had begun “repositioning forces” around Libya to provide “flexibility”. The French also announced that they would back a possible military intervention with Nato partners.

The warnings were sounded after Gaddafi was accused of ordering Libyan aircraft to attack a Read more…

Categories: Libya, WMD Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Zawiyah: 30 miles from Tripoli, the city on the frontline of Libya’s revolt

February 28, 2011 Comments off
A man stands on a Libyan tank

guardian.co.uk

A man stands on a Libyan army tank manned by soldiers opposed to leader Muammar Gaddafi in the city of Zawiyah, holding a sign that reads in Arabic ‘Our demand: freedom.’ Photograph: Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters

“If you go down there you will meet young men with guns,” said one of the Libyan government minders. “Please be careful,” he warned.

The crossing from the territory controlled by the regime of Colonel Gaddafi to rebel-held land was a short walk, as unexpected as it was bizarre.

Bizarre, because we had been delivered to the edge of the city of Zawiyah by Gaddafi’s men, who were supposed to be showing us how far their leader’s writ still extended. Instead they let us out of our cars and made no effort to prevent us crossing to the other side.

The “down there” mentioned by the minder was a broad boulevard with barricades across the street. A man with a machine gun came out of a door, ammunition belt across his shoulder. A half hour’s drive from the centre of Tripoli and Gaddafi’s control had Read more…

Categories: age of rage, Libya, Protests Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Zimbabwean army helping Gaddafi in Libya

February 28, 2011 Comments off

thezimbabwean.co.uk

emmerson_mnangagwaSpeculation that members of the Zimbabwe National Army are in Libya to help prop up cornered dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, has gained momentum. This follows Zimbabwe’s Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa (pictured) avoiding giving a straight answer to a question posed in Parliament.

With the eastern part of Libya having fallen to anti-Gaddafi protesters, it’s being reported that mercenaries from several African countries, including Zimbabwe, are putting up a stand in the west of the country, including the capital Tripoli, on behalf of Gaddafi. They are reportedly gunning down unarmed civilians at random and Arab TV channel Al Jazeera said that Zimbabwe was helping to provide mercenaries, along with Chad and other African countries.

In Parliament on Wednesday MDC-T MP and Chief Whip, Innocent Gonese, asked Mnangagwa to respond to reports that soldiers from Zimbabwe are involved. Instead of giving a Read more…

Categories: Libya, Zimbabwe Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Foreigners in Libya report being beaten, robbed

February 27, 2011 Comments off

latimes.com

Reporting from Ras Ajdir, Tunisia —

Paying $200 for a government-sponsored taxi ride to the Tunisian border sounded like a bad deal. But Tunisian laborer Amr Soltan had no idea just how bad until he and his friends were driven instead to a prison, locked up for five days, robbed of their cellphones by police and beaten by guards.

“It’s a miracle that I am alive,” he said after arriving in his own country as one of the thousands who have been brutalized by Libyan security forces during the uprising against Moammar Kadafi‘s 41-year rule. “They accused us of being traitors because our people revolted against dictators.”

Unlike Arab leaders facing challenges in Morocco, Bahrain, Jordan, Algeria and Yemen, Kadafi and son Seif Islam have responded to their enemies not with substantive concessions and appeals to calm but with blood-curdling rhetoric.

Many Arab leaders cringed when Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was ousted, but Kadafi’s actions may strengthen resolve across the Arab world to unseat him. Libya’s membership in the Read more…

Categories: Libya Tags: , , ,

Graph of the Amount of Oil Production Affected by Crisis

February 27, 2011 Comments off

Although Obama might not view what is happening in the Middle East as all that important- he is going to basketball games and concerts and instead directing attempts to riot in WI- I think it is very important because the Middle East region sits on a very important resource- oil. So for fun, I put together a graph this morning to demonstrate the amount of oil production that is affected by the crisis in the Middle East. The graph shows oil production by country based on the most recent data I found in the CIA World Factbook, and shows each nation currently in crisis or about to be in crisis, and then the gray area represents all other nations not currently affected.

Any change in oil production likely will cause the price of gasoline to go up, and as you can see, a large percentage of the world’s oil comes out of this affected region, although if Saudi Arabia stays stable, then the percentages is considerably less although still significant. In my amateur opinion, gas prices are going to rise, the economy will dip again, and Obama will react to this all by supporting our enemies and lowering our oil output. Here is the graph:

Categories: Middle East, Oil, Protests Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

North Korea Warns of Military Response Against South Over Leaflet Drops

February 27, 2011 Comments off

North Korea threatened to take military action if the South continues to drop leaflets fomenting revolt, Korean Central News Agency reported.

North Korea said it will fire at the “source” of balloons containing leaflets and video clips saved on flash-memory devices and DVDs, along with books and one U.S. dollar bills. The leaflets were a psychological plot to “shake up our socialism and break the trust of our military and people,” state-run KCNA said today.

South Korea’s military has dropped leaflets on North Korea that contain information on pro-democracy revolts in the Middle East with the intention of provoking a movement against Kim Jong Il’s regime, a South Korean Read more…

Categories: North Korea, South Korea Tags: , , , , , , , ,