#OT#: Results of "Cash for Clunkers" program

A lot of wells are dug and end up in high pressure gas. It is plugged as oil was wanted - and heck with the gas...

The land owners should have escape clauses that all reverts back to them upon termination. The first oil company simply wrote off the well. If they want to come back they wouldn't taint it.

Some of it was obvious dirty tricks - but by whom. Maybe the rig crew. Maybe the cutter wasn't trash. Why not rebuild it.

Doesn't sound like the oil people I knew. There is some honor in them.

I used to handle million dollar checks made out to a company name that I had signing on. It was for the main house counters, not my petty cash account - but I figure a hit man would catch me soon... :-) My friends would do a hand shake deal for millions and once billions.

So the story didn't match what I know or hear. I suspect a big mouth land owner or other issue prompted it.

Mart> >>> and less exploration in the US. So the gov would get less

================== If I have heard this comment once over the last 3 years I must have heard it a hundred times and in all the areas that I keep up on.

It appears that the people with even minimal honor/honesty have been pushed out or forced into retirement in many of our most vital economic/financial sectors.

It may well be that the credit crunch and the resulting economic contraction is due to the fact that the banksters and other players [CFOs] now know exactly the kind of people/companies they are dealing with. Even the largest companies with sophisticated analysts got taken. For one example [Auction Rate Securities @

330 billion $US] see ?pid=newsarchive&sid=anobzfEqmMtc

Unka' George [George McDuffee]

------------------------------------------- He that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils: for Time is the greatest innovator: and if Time, of course, alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end?

Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English philosopher, essayist, statesman. Essays, "Of Innovations" (1597-1625).

No they aren't, and here is what you have to remember. There are few transactions on Earth as highly leveraged as Oil and Gas leases.

I can explain it if you aren't familiar with the mechanics but the basic situation is that Oil companies are gambling money they raise through the issuance of corporate bonds that the price of a barrel of oil will appreciate faster than the general rate of inflation. You don't have to be Einstien to conclude that Oil is likely to be worth more 90 years from now and with a dwindling supply facing a surging demand, you eventually get your payday. They lay claim to say, 1 billion dollars in reserves for a few million dollars. Every dollar that the cost per barrel of oil appreciates puts a billion dollars on their mark to market balance sheets and they never need to pump a thing. With oil at $50.00 that means all you need in order to make a killing is 2 percent inflation in oil. You get your money out as the valuation of the company improves with time.

"Use it or Lose it" would put a quick end to that behavior and the markets would be better off. IOW, nobody really cares about the oil - it's the money.

Looks like its business-as-usual and bye-bye time. Back to the production push model of production scheduling rather than demand pull, i.e. trying to sell what you can make rather than making what [and as much] you can sell. ................ U.S. Automakers? Small-Car Output May Outstrip Demand

By Keith Naughton and Jeff Green

Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC, primed by government incentives to make fuel-efficient models, plan a 63 percent boost in small-car production capacity by 2015 that may outstrip demand.

The U.S. automakers will be able to assemble 2.71 million small cars annually in North America in six years, rising from 1.66 million now, according to consulting firm CSM Worldwide in Northville, Michigan. Industrywide capacity for the segment will rise to 7.5 million vehicles from 4 million, CSM estimated.

................

Gross light vehicle production overcapacity remains a serious and growing problem, even as more car plants come on line....

................... Update and PS -- I just came across this gem.

Toyota is in the process of closing their joint venture [GM] assembly operation in Freemont, California because of excess production capacity, apparently exacerbated by anti business policies of the state.

VW is in the process of *ADDING* light vehicle production capacity.

Volkswagen of America?s top executives outlined a strategy today to turn the European automaker?s money-losing U.S. arm into a pillar of its plans to surpass Toyota Motor Co. as the world?s largest ? and most profitable ? automaker.

With a goal of selling 800,000 VWs in the United States by 2018 ? a threefold increase from this year?s levels ? the automaker will add several new models designed specifically for American buyers, including a new sedan, a seven-seat sport utility and an updated version of its iconic Beetle.

also see

What are these people smoking??? This is not the free market, its an insane asylum run by the inmates.

Is a ban on the use of Federal funds to build additional or expand existing light vehicle production capacity required? Should state and local governments be prohibited from providing subsidies, grants, and tax abatements for new or expanded light vehicle production capacity? Should the FRB, FDIC, etc. prohibit any lending for or investment in expanded light vehicle production capacity by the companies they regulate? Should companies such as VW that wish to build new/additional U.S. LV production capacity be required to buy and demolish/liquidate existing U.S. LV production capacity, possibly at more than 1:1 ratio?

Unka' George [George McDuffee]

------------------------------------------- He that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils: for Time is the greatest innovator: and if Time, of course, alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end?

Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English philosopher, essayist, statesman. Essays, "Of Innovations" (1597-1625).

I do not think you are right. But am not going to continue to try to educate you.

Dan