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Economics,

LNG Commercial & Economics Management Master Class

Liquified Natural Gas is a booming industry with new sources of LNG being constantly discovered. And with each new discovery comes the business of extraction, transport, storage and distribution. Commercial managers play a vital role in all these areas.

A four day course designed to help commercial managers with the ever-changing situation in LNG will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from June 20-23. The course consists of lectures, workshops and discussion sessions with experts in their respective fields. So keen are the organisers to ensure the course has enormous practical benefits, each delegate is asked to prepare a pre-course document outlining their experience, needs and requests.

The course format is dominated by small groups and highly interactive workshops with subject matters dealing with current trends and issues and points raised by delegates in their pre-course submissions. If this does not work out, you can always play simple and interactive betting games to earn money via ufabet168.info/เว็บยูฟ่าเบท-ปลอดภัย/

Of course the technical aspects of LNG production are of vital concern. But commercial managers have to deal with the overview position. Commercial managers must be aware of the technical requirements and take them into consideration when running the commercial operation of the LNG operator and the course in Malaysia covers all aspects of the commercial managers’ role.

The beauty of the experts at the course is that they all come from a practical background. They all have current and lengthy expertise in the commercial, technical and legal aspects of working within the LNG industry.

And while the course aims clearly at commercial managers, many others will find the sessions of much value. Investors, lawyers, government officials, distributors, traders and managers will find sessions informative and of serious practical assistance.

Economics, Politics,

We Need to Pass the Oil Extraction Tax to Fund Education (Prop. 1522)

“Our response to this economic war on the people is to ensure that public education be supported by a stable, rational and democratic system of taxation and we believe a good way to accomplish that is to pass the Oil Extraction Tax To Fund Education (Prop 1522), which would impose a 15% tax on the […]

Rodger Scott

Introduction by Workers Action

Below is the speech by Rodger Scott of the American Federation of Teachers, Local 2121, at the Defense of Public Education and Social Services Rally in San Francisco, California, March 1, 2012.  For more information on the campaign, please visit http://www.rescueeducationcalifornia.org

We’re here today to express our collective and reasoned outrage — and to go forward.

We know we must be united to prevail. We know also that the individuals and corporations that benefit most don’t pay their fair share of taxes to support essential human services like public education. We’d like to transplant a conscience into the minds of the super-rich, but a more realistic goal is to impose a just and reasonable tax on California millionaires and oil companies.

We’re outraged by the unequal distribution of wealth (and thanks to Occupy that anti-democratic reality of the top 1% controlling 40% if our country’s wealth is now part of the national discourse); also the absurd priorities that justify funding undeclared and immoral wars and subsidizing our richest citizens and largest corporations while cutting education, health care and other programs that the people need to survive.

Our response to this economic war on the people is to ensure that public education be supported by a stable, rational and democratic system of taxation and we believe a good way to accomplish that is to pass the Oil Extraction Tax To Fund Education (Prop 1522), which would impose a 15% tax on the extraction of oil and gas: finite resources that belong to the people. That tax would generate $3 to $3.5 billion a year for the 9-10 million students in K-12, Community Colleges, CSU and UC. California is the only major oil-producing state that has no oil extraction tax. Even Texas and Alaska have an oil extraction tax.

Spending $1 million a year to keep one soldier in Afghanistan, allocating more money to prisons than higher education, and having no oil extraction tax for more than 100 years in California all assault common sense and the common good.

In 2010, as wars raged, prison construction continued, and the rich got even richer, San Francisco City College had to cancel the entire summer program because there was no money — and drastic cuts continue this semester.

College and university students fortunate enough to get a 4-year degree now owe on average $23,000, the cumulative student loan debt is approaching $1 trillion and that debt is excluded from personal bankruptcy.

Chevron, which recently posted over $26 billion in profits, ran a half-page ad in the San Francisco Chronicle on Dec. 18, 2011 that reads in large bold print: BIG OIL SHOULD SUPPORT LOCAL SCHOOLS. Chevron, however, paid lower taxes than middle class workers–and no oil extraction tax. We demand economic justice and a good public education system with stable funding that serves all the people of California. Public education is the foundation of democratic institutions and the enemy of the de facto oligarchy that tries to equate economic democracy with class warfare.

In San Francisco, for example, where 1 in 2 families studies at City College, the Oil Extraction Tax would generate $34 to $40 million a year to restore classes, rehire teachers, lower tuition, and never again have to cancel the entire summer program.

Public education, K-12 through UC [University of California], needs your help to get 504,760 signatures by April 15 to put the Oil Extraction Tax Initiative on the November ballot. Sign and circulate petitions or make a contribution if you believe in the cause.

Economics,

Why Supply Side Economics is More Effective Than Demand Side in Today’s Global Economy

In the 1970’s, after America experienced years of “stagflation”, that is a no growth economy coupled with high inflation, Keynesian Economics had reached an impasse. The government’s putting money into the hands of consumers, which stimulates the demand side of the economy, only increased the inflationary pressure, which further drives up prices. It was time for the US to put, Demand Side Economics aside, and give Supply Side Economics a try.

When the Republicans put the plan into motion, by reducing corporate, personal income, and inheritance taxes, it encouraged entrepreneurialism and incentivized business expansion. This ushered in the longest period of economic growth ever seen. After the current “short wave,” (7-11 year) business cycle inevitably concluded, the Democratic Party came to power and started to exacerbate the slow-down by imposing bad economic policies. The resulting worldwide economic collapse, while ingeniously blamed on the Republicans, was a direct result of the Democrats’ unprecedented meddling with the time-honored practices of the banking and mortgage industries. All of the legislation signed into law after Obama came into power, while having convincingly benevolent titles like Economic Recovery Act, was in fact, socialist wish lists for growing a big wasteful government and punishing the economic engine.

Today the country is cautiously optimistic because it instinctively believes that enough time has passed for the economy to turn around on its own. However, many economists have predicted a “double dip” recession, because of the government’s interference and huge deficits, which will eliminate credit, and pull much needed capital out of the private sector, thus further shrinking both job expansion and consumer demand. In essence we have taken a broke country, and in a last gasp effort, plunged ourselves deeper into debt, exhausting every last drop of credit available, in order to do the exact opposite of what was needed to improve the economy. In times like this, there’s simply no reason to get comfortable and is advised to have side hustle to make extra money. With the help of https://www.bk8thai.club/ you could make some serious cash simply by playing fun and interactive casino games. 

So where do we go from here? There is no more money or credit for purchasing expensive recovery schemes. Yet, there have always been things a government can do that do not cost a penny (other than legislative cost). And that is, enact Supply Side economic policies. Keep in mind that they need not invest in, or underwrite business, just get out of its way, and stop taxing it so heavily. Remove some of the hindrances that have discouraged businesses and entrepreneurs from investing, expanding, growing, and employing – in other words, doing what they do best: creating wealth.

Now, more than ever before, we live in a new economic climate. Part of what the Republicans created, going as far back as Nixon, was a Laissez-Faire approach to world trade. The economic theory is that each country has its own specialties where it can make certain goods for less than other countries could, and vise-versa; therefore, all countries benefit from lower cost goods. The tropics can produce coffee and bananas for a lot less than Canada. Saudi Arabia can export oil more cheaply, and America can export higher quality grains. Mexico and China can supply labor for a lot less than America can.

I have seen exact opposite at work in Mexico, where until recently, it suffered from Protectionism. Imported goods like electronics had a 300% tariff in order to encourage the domestic electronics industry. Hardly anyone could afford a Sony TV that came with an extra 300% price tag. They were forced to own lower quality, locally made electronics.

 

Today, trade restrictions and tariffs have been reduced world wide, and China has taken the ball and ran with it, for they had also allowed Free Market Capitalism to flourish experimentally at home. Where previous years of command economy, “Twenty Year Plans” had resulted in starvation, little infrastructure, and hardly any consumer goods; now, their Free Market production’s overflow capacity found a huge tariff-free consumer market eagerly waiting overseas in the United States.

Now, Free Trade works both ways. And, while we have enjoyed tons of cheaper consumer goods like clothing, plastics, and electronics from China, American companies like Coca-Cola, Ford, and McDonald’s finally got access to the world’s most populous country. (Now you know why Ford posted a profit this year.) Whether Free Global Trade actually is as good for everyone in reality, as it is on paper (as with all experiments) only time will tell. Inevitably, with economic change, comes the closing down of the specific industries that are not as efficient as those overseas, and comes the growing of whatever local industries that tend to be more efficient. Unfortunately, for us, and fortunately for poorer countries, cheap labor tends to give most any industry an economic advantage. (Eventually however, a new equilibrium emerges as the third world prospers, and their new middle class can afford American goods.) However, the point is, where do we go from here.

National economic policy is no longer enacted in a vacuum. The policies we make at home will be taken advantage of by the world at large. We are in a World Economy now, like it or not. And thankfully, as of yet, there is no one-world government. So, let’s contrast the two differing economic directions, Demand Side and Supply Side, by illustrating how they operate within the Free Trade, Global Economy.

Demand Side Economic Policies increase demand by giving the American consumer more purchasing power, whether by reduced income taxes, reduced sales taxes, or outright gifts of money such as those stimulus checks in the mail back in 2008. Setting aside the fact that this money must come out of the exact same economy it is being placed back into, the fact is that this money encourages the American Consumer to purchase not only from American Companies, but from overseas companies as well. This was seen recently in the “Cash for Clunkers” Government Program. People bought new Fords as well as new Toyotas. Any such policy today causes the importation of goods from abroad and the exportation of American dollars. In essence, helping to grow overseas companies and increase their competitive stance against us. As a net result, we loose more market share and more jobs.

Supply Side Economic Policies enacted in America, (remember we can’t enact laws in other countries) encourages America to produce more goods and services, which can be purchased by both American and oversea consumers. The idea is, and the result would be, to make American goods more efficient, have higher quality and lower costs, and more competitive on the world market. The jobs created by this new productivity and increased global market share also would translate into American workers having bigger paychecks and increased purchasing power, thus increasing the demand side of the economy naturally. But this time, it is demand for real goods and services that have just been produced. (In other words, this not only raises the chicken, but also allows the consumer put it in his pot.) When this demand meets the increased supply of goods and services, less inflationary forces will be put on the economy than if you only increased demand and not the supply by implementing artificial Demand Side Policies alone.

This approach is what prevents the “Stagflation” from coming back. The net result is the more efficient and competitive domestic product is available to both American and Foreign consumers. When the overseas consumers buy our now more competitive products, we will export goods and services and import dollars. This is how national wealth is created. If I don’t make this point convincingly enough, you could read The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith. However, the net result of American Supply Side Economic Policy would be the growing of American business and the creation of American jobs.

If only our current political leaders understood this one fact, our economy would start to turn around. You should not hobble American businesses with over-taxation and capricious regulation. That would be, “killing the goose that lays the golden egg.” You should encourage business. Many competing countries go so far as to subsidize the very industries that produce goods that compete against American companies.

Increasing American industrial efficiency and competitiveness on the world stage would increase their profits, so that our government can levy its desired revenues via corporate and income taxes. Then and only then, will the government have the resources and the budget available to spend on its “wish lists.” Tax and hinder business first, and you can count on unemployment, trade imbalances, decreased tax intake, budget deficits, and eventual economic collapse!