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Fed. 1day RP + 16.75B [net giveth +1.25B ]
The Slosh Report:
http://www.gmtfo.com/RepoReader/OMOps.aspx
http://www.ny.frb.org/markets/omo/dmm/temp.cfm?SHOWMORE=TRUE
W@G2 QQQQ 06/25/08 for a 06/27/08 close
48.63 frenchee
48.08 bob3
46.00 rayrohn
Grandson has converted grease to run 93 benz station wag
bot @ 2,000 w/ second for free parts so far they have deliverd 3 incl old school bus. They look for old diesel junk / conversion costs about $300. lots of old hippie junk out there.
Futures (2) + World Indices
http://www.cme.com/trading/dta/del/globex.html
http://money.cnn.com/data/premarket/
World Indices (2) Mini Charts
Updates every 60sec ~ Watch the dates!!
http://www.wwfn.com/commentary/oscharts.html
http://www.allstocks.com/markets/World_Charts/Asian_Stock_Markets/asian_stock_markets.html
June 24 (Reuters) - Wachovia Corp (WB), the fourth-largest U.S. bank, said on Tuesday it has hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS) for advice on its loan portfolio, after the housing slump caused mortgage-related losses to soar.
"Goldman is performing analytics on our loan portfolio to evaluate various alternatives," said Christy Phillips-Brown, a Wachovia spokeswoman. She declined to comment further.
The hiring came after reports last week that Wachovia also retained Goldman to help it find a new chief executive. Wachovia ousted Ken Thompson from that position three weeks ago following a series of financial, legal and regulatory problems, less than a month after replacing him as chairman.
Wachovia said it ended March with $480.5 billion of net loans, up 14 percent from a year earlier.
Nonperforming assets, however, more than quadrupled over that time to $8.37 billion, largely because of mounting defaults on adjustable-rate mortgages that let borrowers pay less than the interest due. Such low payments can cause amounts owed on so-called "option ARMs" to rise even as home prices fall.
"This implies to us that the bank will mark down a sizable package of loans so that they can be more easily sold," wrote Richard Bove, an analyst at Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. "This could be a meaningful charge to second-quarter earnings."
Option ARMs, which Wachovia calls "Pick-a-Pay" mortgages, were a specialty of Golden West Financial Corp, a California lender that Wachovia bought for $24.2 billion in October 2006 just as the five-year housing boom was peaking.
Problems with the $121.2 billion option ARM portfolio, as well as with other loans, led Wachovia in April to raise $8.05 billion of capital and cut its dividend 41 percent. They also resulted in a $708 million loss from January to March, the bank's first quarterly loss since 2001.
Wachovia shares had through Monday fallen more than 55 percent this year, prompting frequent speculation the bank could be a takeover target.
Wachovia shares rose 94 cents to $17.86 on the New York Stock Exchange shortly before the close.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in Bangalore; editing by Richard Chang)
Good read Joe, agree with all, thanks for your work.
Thought so, we have many Golden Oldies
that stop by the clubhouse....
Welcome The Cap'm, change name Doc ??
What a market, toss some well aimed Billions
Benny says go before meeting starts.....all it takes a few friends @ goldmans
Fed.(1)2) 1day RP + 15.50B [net add 8.00B ]
Fed.(2) 1 Day Forward 28day + 20.00B
The Slosh Report:
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http://www.ny.frb.org/markets/omo/dmm/temp.cfm?SHOWMORE=TRUE
Flooding muddies push for ethanol
Higher corn prices lead to call to modify biofuel rule
David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080623/AUTO01/806230375/1148
WASHINGTON -- Massive flooding in the Midwest has ruined millions of acres of crops, spurring record corn prices and raising serious questions about whether the United States can meet new requirements for using corn-based biofuels in the nation's cars and trucks.
A sweeping federal energy bill signed into law in December requires the production of 9 billion gallons of biofuels this year, nearly all of it corn-based ethanol, up from 6.5 billion in 2007.
Backed by farm state politicians and President Bush, the increase in biofuels output drew strong support as a way to reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil with a homegrown alternative.
But a backlash is emerging.
In April, Texas Gov. Rick Perry asked the Environmental Protection Agency to cut the 2008 mandate in half, citing steep increases in feed prices for cattle and rising food prices.
Last month, 24 Republican senators, including John McCain, the presumed Republican presidential nominee, sent a letter to the EPA saying it needs to revisit the mandate, also because of the rise in food prices, among other factors.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Friday it expected food prices to rise 5 percent in 2008, the highest increase since 1990, when oil prices spiked in the run-up to the Persian Gulf War. That estimate is expected to go up after the flooding to take into account reduced production.
The Grocery Manufacturers Association blames ethanol, calling the fuel diversion "unsustainable."
But the redirection of food for fuel is only going to increase: By 2015, the United States must produce 15 billion gallons of biofuels, and 21 billion gallons by 2022.
The damage to the corn crop -- as much as 4 percent of total U.S. corn production, or 3.3 million acres, could be lost -- is pushing up ethanol prices as well.The wholesale price of ethanol rose 40 cents a gallon in the last month as corn prices have doubled in the past year to an all-time high of nearly $8 a bushel.
Some energy analysts now say the government may have to suspend the biofuels mandate because at those prices it's not profitable to make ethanol, and because 400 million gallons of production has been lost because of the floods.
Congress won't pull back
Bob Dineen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association, said ethanol is still a good deal.
"Abandoning our commitment to ethanol and biofuels, as some would suggest we do, would do nothing to provide meaningful relief from high grain prices today or in the future," he said. "It would absolutely force the price of gas through the roof and require the import of more record-high foreign oil."
Congress isn't likely to pull back on the biofuel mandates in an election year, despite the continuing rise in food prices and the challenges that now exist because of the floods. Additionally, support remains strong in farm states to leave the mandates in place.
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said no decisions should be made on the mandate until after the harvest is complete. He and other farm state members of Congress argue that the Agriculture Department should allow more planting in 35 million acres of conservation land as a way to help ease the price increases.
That won't help Texas cattle ranchers today. Every 1 cent increase in corn prices boosts feed prices for the Texas cattle industry by $6 million. Perry asked the EPA to move quickly because Texas is the nation's largest beef producer and one of the top 10 poultry, egg and dairy producers.
The EPA, which has the authority to suspend the biofuels mandate, is studying Texas' request, said EPA spokesman Jonathan Shradar.
Corn fuels concerns
Corn is the United States' biggest agriculture product -- 13.1 billion bushels worth $52 billion were produced in 2007, twice the value of soybeans, the second largest crop.
Michigan is the nation's 11th biggest producer of corn, according to the Agriculture Department.
The state's 2.35 million acres of corn have largely been spared the devastation caused by floods in nearby Indiana, Illinois and Iowa, but Michigan farmers may not benefit from the steep hike in corn prices. Many of them locked in prices at $3 to $4 a bushel before the harvest was planted.
The United States exports more than half of the world's corn. But more of it is going to ethanol -- 25 percent in 2007, and it will be 35 percent this year, Merrill Lynch said in a June 6 research note.
That has fueled concerns that corn is behind the big jump in worldwide food prices that have led to higher inflation and food riots in poor countries that rely on corn as a staple food source.
If that corn wasn't going into engines, Americans would be burning a lot more gasoline, according to Merrill Lynch, and oil prices would be at least 15 percent higher without biofuels.
Others, like Bruce Dale of Michigan State University, an expert on ethanol, note that energy prices, especially oil, are driving much of the increase in food prices.
"We've had cheap food and cheap energy for a long time," Dale said. He noted diesel fuel has jumped to $4.70 a gallon, up $1.88 in the last year, which also has boosted food prices.
Detroit's Big Three automakers have made a big bet on ethanol, promising to produce half of their fleets as flex-fuel vehicles by 2012, capable of running on E85, a blend made of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.
Automakers get credits toward meeting fuel economy requirements by building vehicles that can run on E85.
Last year, GM alone produced 759,000 flex-fuel vehicles in 11 models in the United States, said Alan Adler, a GM spokesman.
GM also has helped get E85 in more than 300 gas stations since 2005 and will have 18 flex-fuel 2009 models, Adler said.
"This is a pretty challenging time, and I don't see anybody's resolve weakening," Adler said.
You can reach David Shepardson at dshepardson@detnews.com.
4Godnwv Old pal, heard all the noise here
so got on board, not used to all extra zeros needed so bot twice... thanks to you & glassy.
btw our golds are starting to pop early with Ben in the box & no bullets left. GG my fav.
Industry Comparative Performances
hate decay, may do more day trade $3-5 issues
cpst add again
tight group W@G's /e
Fed.1day RP + 7.50B [Net Add +3.25B]
The Slosh Report:
http://www.gmtfo.com/RepoReader/OMOps.aspx
http://www.ny.frb.org/markets/omo/dmm/temp.cfm?SHOWMORE=TRUE
W@G1 QQQQ 06/23/08 for a 06/25/08 close
48.50 frenchee nice W@G last week farooq
48.40 Farooq
48.08 bob3
.50 rayrohn
Citigroup May Fire 10% of Investment-Bank Workers, WSJ Reports
By Jody Shenn
June 22 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc., the bank that's lost more than any other in the collapse of the U.S. mortgage market, plans to fire as much as 10 percent of the about 65,000 employees worldwide in its investment-banking division, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The first notices in the round of dismissals may begin tomorrow, the newspaper said, citing people it didn't name. The New York-based bank, which has more than 350,000 employees, cut at least 9,000 workers as of March 31, the Journal said.
``Citi indicated earlier this year that it would be resizing this business in response to market conditions and as part of our ongoing re-engineering efforts,'' spokesman Dan Noonan told the Journal.
Danielle Romero-Apsilos, a Citigroup spokeswoman, didn't immediately return a message seeking comment from Bloomberg News.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jody Shenn in New York at jshenn@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: June 22, 2008 17:56 EDT
Real-Time Forex Streamers (2)
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Futures (2) + World Indices
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Record corn prices mean more expensive meat, dairy
Sunday June 22, 4:05 pm ET
By Stevenson Jacobs, AP Business Writer
Consumers to pay more for meat, dairy after Midwest floods send corn prices soaring
NEW YORK (AP) -- Raging Midwest floodwaters that swallowed crops and sent corn and soybean prices soaring are about to give consumers more grief at the grocery store.
In the latest bout of food inflation, beef, pork, poultry and even eggs, cheese and milk are expected to get more expensive as livestock owners go out of business or are forced to slaughter more cattle, hogs, turkeys and chickens to cope with rocketing costs for corn-based animal feed.
The floods engulfed an estimated 2 million or more acres of corn and soybean fields in Iowa, Indiana, Illinois and other key growing states, sending world grain prices skyward on fears of a substantially smaller corn crop. The government will give a partial idea of how many corn acres were lost before the end of the month, but experts say the trickle-down effect could be more dramatic later this year, affecting everything from Thanksgiving turkeys to Christmas hams.
Rod Brenneman, president and chief executive of Seaboard Foods, a pork supplier in Sawnee Mission, Kan. that produces 4 million hogs a year, said high corn costs were already forcing producers in his industry to cut back on the number of animals they raise.
"There's definitely liquidation of livestock happening," and that will cause meat prices to rise later this year and into 2009, said Brenneman, who is also the vice chairman of the American Meat Institute.
Brenneman's cost for feeding a single hog has shot up $30 in the past year because of record-high prices for corn and soybeans, the main ingredients in animal feed. Passing that increase on to consumers would tack an extra 15 cents per pound onto a pork chop.
It's a similar story for U.S. beef producers, who now spend a whopping 60-70 percent of their production costs on animal feed and are seeing that number rise daily as corn prices hover near an unprecedented $8 a bushel, up from about $4 a year ago.
"This is not sustainable. The cattle industry is going to have to get smaller," said James Herring, president and CEO of Amarillo, Tex.-based Friona Industries, which buys 20 million bushels of corn each year to feed 550,000 cattle.
Corn's prices were already rising before the floods, driven up 80 percent over the past year as developing countries like China and India scramble for grains to feed people and livestock. U.S. production of ethanol, an alternative fuel that can be made with corn, has also pushed prices higher, prompting livestock owners to lobby Washington to roll back ethanol mandates.
Before the floods, corn farmers were enjoying record profits selling the grain to feed animals and for use in cereals and as a sweetener in soda and candy. But a sharply smaller corn crop could wipe out those gains.
In Iowa, the No. 1 U.S. corn grower, floods inundated about 9 percent of corn crops, representing about 1.2 million acres -- almost 1.5 percent of the country's anticipated harvest.
In Indiana, another 9 percent of corn and soybean crops were flooded, potentially costing farmers up to $840 million in lost earnings, Indiana Agriculture Director Andy Miller said.
Floodwaters also tossed farm equipment, sprayed cornfields with debris and silt and sucked away large chunks of topsoil. For livestock owners and meat producers, the damage may be felt long after the corn grows back.
Even before the floods, Tyson Foods was complaining that high grain prices would drive up its costs by $600 million this year. The world's largest poultry company has already raised its prices over the past year, and expects to keep raising them, CEO Dick Bond told analysts at a conference in May.
Higher feed prices will eventually filter through to the cost of milk, cheese and yogurt, too, since 65 to 75 percent of a dairy farmers' production costs are for feed, said Chris Galen, a spokesman for the National Milk Producers Federation.
With the cost of animal feed only going higher, many poultry and dairy farmers are starting to look for cheaper alternatives.
Nebraska dairy farmer Dan Rice, who has 1,500 cows, said one alternative is to buy some of the byproducts of cereal or flour production, but they're not nearly as productive compared to corn.
"If we all feed less corn and get less production, then the price at the grocery stores are going to go up," said Rice, who supplies milk to grocery stores in Omaha and around Kansas City.
Without easy ways to cut costs, many livestock producers will have little choice but to slaughter more animals and send them to market.
"We're in survival mode now," said Paul Hill, chairman of West Liberty Foods, a turkey processor based in West Liberty, Iowa. He estimated U.S. turkey producers will reduce their flocks by 10 to 15 percent nationwide, a cutback that will send consumer prices dramatically higher.
"The cost of Thanksgiving and Christmas turkeys will go up this year, and maybe even more next year," said Hill, who is also the chairman of the National Turkey Federation.
If corn were to rise to $10 a bushel, Richard Lobb, spokesman for the National Chicken Council, said recouping costs through higher retail prices may not be possible.
"Can you possibly charge enough for the chicken to recoup that investment?" he said. "That's a question no one can answer yet because it's never been done."
Associated Press writers David Mercer in Champaign, Ill., and Lauren Shepherd in New York contributed to this report.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080622/midwest_flooding_food_prices.html
400 charged as U.S. cracks down on mortgage fraud
WASHINGTON -- With Wall Street executives handcuffed and paraded in front of TV cameras and dozens of alleged mortgage scam artists arrested in cities nationwide, the penalty phase of the mortgage meltdown has begun in earnest.
The Justice Department said Thursday that more than 400 real estate industry players, including dozens in recent days, had been charged since March in a federal crackdown on incidents of mortgage fraud that have contributed to the housing crisis. Those arrested included brokers, appraisers, bankers and lenders.
The announcement came on the same day that two former hedge fund managers at Bear Stearns Cos. were arrested on suspicion of misleading investors about a fund that invested in sub-prime loans and collapsed at a cost to investors of $1.4 billion.
The executives became the first Wall Street figures to be charged criminally in the wake of the sub-prime debacle. The charges against them could be a road map for authorities to hold other Wall Street executives to account.
The FBI estimated the losses to homeowners and other borrowers who were victims of mortgage fraud at more than $1 billion. That is a small fraction of the near $1 trillion in losses worldwide that have been chalked up to the U.S. mortgage fiasco, and federal officials said the number of cases under investigation continues to grow rapidly.
More: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-fi-mortgage20-2008jun20,0,4425577.story
CPST: Dipped to $3.90, then popped into the close $4.18.
Cramer push a few days ago.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?play=1&video=772716167&__source=yahoo%7Cheadline%7Cquote%7Cvideo%7C&par=yahoo
====================
BQI....Cramer again, way over bought now but he can move markets
l had this my watch list only from $4 did not buy.
Speculation Friday
For "Speculation Friday," Cramer featured Oil Sands Quest (BQI - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) as a real estate play on the ever-increasing quest for more oil. Oil Sands Quest currently controls over 500,000 acres land in Saskatchewan, Canada -- perfect for oil sands drilling and could be sitting on up to 10 billion barrels of bitumen, or dirty oil.
Cramer explained that while bitumen is harder to refine than light sweet crude, with oil well over $40 a barrel, the economics of oil sands now makes sense. But even if Oil Sands Quests doesn't find oil at all, Cramer values the company as a real estate play.
Cramer compared Oil Sands Quest to Ivanhoe Energy (IVAN - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), which recently purchased leases in Canada at a value of $2.8 million per square acre. Applying that number to Oil Sands' 1,200 square miles of land, Cramer said the company could be valued at $3.4 billion, or more than 3 times its current enterprise value.
Cramer did caution viewers that Oil Sands Quest is speculative. The company has no revenue and has been issuing a slew of stock offerings which has been dilutive to its outstanding shares. He cautioned viewers that with Oil Sands Quest trading at just over $6, they must use caution when buying the speculative name and not pay up for the shares.
text from another poster.
Mauldin: Warren Makes a Bet
by John Mauldin
June 21, 2008
The Sage of Omaha made a bet that was written up in a recent Fortune magazine article. Basically, Warren Buffett bet that the S&P 500 would outperform a group of funds of hedge funds over the next ten years. A million dollars to someone's favorite charity is on the line. This week we will analyze the bet, using it as a springboard to learn about valuation and value investing. As we will see, there are times that making a bet on the S&P 500 to outperform hedge funds (or bonds or real estate or whatever asset class) makes sense and times when it doesn't.
http://www.safehaven.com/article-10568.htm
SCHIFF: The Fed Unreserved
by Peter Schiff
Euro Pacific Capital
June 20, 2008
Throughout history, governments have always used crises to justify blatant power grabs. Often the crisis subsides, but the expanded government powers remain. In America this week, the tendency came into sharp focus. Congress signaled that it is preparing to perpetuate the Bush Administration’s domestic wiretapping program, and has even abandoned the pretense that warrantless surveillance be confined to terrorism. Similarly, even though our financial crisis has yet to reach full flower, Treasury Secretary Paulson announced plans to give the Federal Reserve new and explicit powers to oversee and regulate the financial services industry. However, a sober look at his plan reveals that it is tantamount to giving the fox complete autonomy to guard the henhouse.
What few economic leaders have acknowledged is that the Federal Reserve itself is responsible for the real estate and credit bubbles, which are the source of our current troubles. By keeping interest rates too low for too long, the Fed ignited a speculative fever and engendered a disregard for risk management that pushed asset prices above rational levels. Should we blame the private sector for taking advantage of all the cheap credit, or the Federal Reserve for supplying it? If a kindergarten teacher passes out handfuls of Pixie Sticks, and then leaves her classroom unattended for several hours, should we blame the five year olds for the hysteria that ensues?
The reality is that we should be restricting, rather than expanding, the powers given to the Federal Reserve. Since Greenspan, Bernanke and company have already inflicted so much damage with the weapons already in their arsenal, why provide them with heavier artillery? Only in Washington do those who screw up get rewarded for doing so.
Since the Fed has demonstrated complete incompetence at setting interest rates, why not return that function to the market? Instead of allowing the Fed to inflict unbridled havoc on our economy, why not re-impose some discipline? Instead of looking for new ways to regulate Wall Street, why not find an old way to regulate the Fed? Actually there is a simple answer to all of these questions; it’s called the gold standard.
In his speech outlining these proposals, Paulson stated that during the past fifty years the performance of the U.S. economy has been second to none. I do not know what planet Paulson has been living on these past fifty years, but it is certainly not Earth. If Paulson were referring to the prior fifty year period, from 1908-1958, his statement would have been correct. But from 1958 to 2008, the U.S. economy has blown a lead even greater than the one the Lakers enjoyed over the Celtics in game four of the just concluded NBA Finals. In fact, it may well qualify as the biggest economic choke in history.
In 1958 the U.S. enjoyed a standard of living so unmatched that the rest of the world still lived in the Stone Age by comparison. Our per capita income was so far ahead of our nearest rival that it seemed impossible that any other nation would ever catch up. Today not only is per capita income in the U.S. barely in the top ten, but we are being rapidly overtaken by countries that up until a few years ago were barely discernable in our rear-view mirrors. When it comes to economic performance during the past 150 years, the U.S. is the Big Brown of economies. 1858-1908 was the Kentucky Derby, 1908-1958 was the Preakness, and 1958-2008 was the Belmont Stakes.
Not only did the U.S. surrender a substantial lead, but in many respects our current standard of living is lower than the one our grandparents enjoyed. Sure we have a few more gadgets, larger televisions and more prevalent air conditioning, but the quality of life has actually declined. In the 1950’s, the average man earned enough money to fully support a wife and four kids, all while saving for retirement and paying off his mortgage. Today the average man can barely support himself. It takes two bread winners in most families to make ends meet, and that is assuming only two children. Even with both parents working, the typical mortgage on the family home will never be paid off and retirement is now a pipe dream. Flush with high pay, low debt, and a strong currency, the Ugly American in the 1950’s could vacation in Europe like a king. Now we can now barely afford the gas for a day trip to a Six Flags theme park.
If Paulson can be so completely clueless regarding the Fed’s role in the current debacle and in America’s economic stumbles over the past two generations, why would anyone place any faith in his proposed remedies? In fact, an unaccountable and unelected Federal Reserve, which nonetheless has lately proven to be as politically craven as any two-bit politician, does not hold the keys to our economic revival. However, with its increased willingness to rescue the big financial firms from their own excesses, perhaps Paulson sees an expanded Fed as the best way to ensure the continued prosperity of his former pals on Wall Street.
http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/schiff/2008/0620.html
Travelers Shift to Rail as Cost of Fuel Rises
Patrick Andrade for The New York Times
Amtrak ridership has increased to record levels, and some of the popular long-distance routes are sold out in advance.
By MATTHEW L. WALD
Published: June 21, 2008
WASHINGTON — Record prices for gasoline and jet fuel should be good news for Amtrak, as travelers look for alternatives to cut the cost of driving and flying.
And they are good news, up to a point.
Amtrak set records in May, both for the number of passengers it carried and for ticket revenues — all the more remarkable because May is not usually a strong travel month.
But the railroad, and its suppliers, have shrunk so much, largely because of financial constraints, that they would have difficulty growing quickly to meet the demand.
Many of the long-distance trains are already sold out for some days this summer. Want to take Amtrak’s daily Crescent train from New York to New Orleans? It is sold out on July 5, 6, 7 and 8. Seattle to Vancouver, British Columbia, on July 5? The train is sold out, but Amtrak will sell you a bus ticket.
“We’re starting to bump up against our own capacity constraints,” said R. Clifford Black, a spokesman for Amtrak.
The problem is that rail has shriveled. The number of “passenger miles” traveled on intercity rail has dropped by about two-thirds since 1960, and the companies that build rail cars and locomotives have also shrunk, making it hard to expand.
In 1970, the year that Congress voted to create Amtrak by consolidating the passenger operations of freight railroads, the airlines were about 17 times larger than the railroads, measured by passenger miles traveled; now they are more than 100 times larger. Highway travel was then about 330 times larger; now it is more than 900 times larger.
Today Amtrak has 632 usable rail cars, and dozens more are worn out or damaged but could be reconditioned and put into service at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars each.
And it needs to buy new rail cars soon. Its Amfleet cars, the ones recognizable to riders as the old Metroliners, are more than 30 years old. And the Acela trains, which have been operating about eight years, have about a million miles on them.
Writing specifications for bids, picking a vendor and waiting for delivery takes years, even if the money is in hand.
Amtrak is an alternative to airlines along the Boston-New York-Washington corridor, and on some routes out of Chicago and a few in California. But most of its other routes are so slow that people take those trains because they have no alternative to reach places like Burlington, N.C., or Burlington, Iowa. Or they go for the train ride itself.
The railroad carried about 25 million passengers last year and may hit 27 million this year. (That is all intercity traffic; commuter rail, connecting suburbs and cities, is also growing, but that is not Amtrak’s market.) By contrast, the airlines carry about 680 million domestic passengers a year. If Amtrak were an airline, in terms of passenger boardings it would rank approximately eighth, behind Continental and US Airways and ahead of AirTran and JetBlue.
H. Glenn Scammel, a former head of staff of the rail subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said the railroad should give up on some of its cross-country trains and redeploy the equipment on relatively short intercity trips, where it could provide enough frequency to attract new business. (Providing one train a day in each direction will not draw many new business travelers.)
But the railroad’s labor contracts provide stiff penalties for dropping routes, and dropping states from its itinerary would hurt its political support, especially in the Senate, where thinly populated states are overrepresented relative to their population.
Scarcity is not all bad for the railroad, though. It has raised ticket prices, so that it recorded ticket revenues of $153.4 million in May, up 15.6 percent from $132.7 million in May 2006. That jump is higher than the ridership increase of 12.3 percent, to 2.58 million, from 2.30 million.
Most of the money came from airline-style “yield management,” using a computer to look ahead, see how many seats are filled, and raising or lowering the price on the remainder. Mr. Black said that while the railroad is not set up to make money, “we’re intended to maximize revenues.”
Profits are unlikely. The Government Accountability Office found last November that Amtrak had received more than $30 billion in federal aid since its creation in 1971, but was still in “poor financial condition,” with extensive deferred maintenance.
When Amtrak began operating 37 years ago, the plan was for it to eventually break even. In 1997, Congress passed a law threatening dire consequences if it did not reach self-sufficiency by 2002.
But by 2002 the mood had changed, and the appropriations have continued, financing losses of over $1 billion a year.
The G.A.O. analysis noted the continued operation of cross-country trains with low ridership and high costs. “The current structure does not appear to effectively target federal funds where they may provide the greatest level of public benefits, such as reduced traffic congestion and pollution,” it said.
Oil costs hurt Amtrak, too. Fuel is projected to reach 11 percent of Amtrak’s budget this year, up from 6 percent in 2004. The railroad is not radically more energy-efficient than other means of travel. Amtrak can move a passenger a mile with 17.4 percent less fuel than a passenger car can, and about 32.9 percent less than an airline can, according to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
It does save oil, however, since much of the fuel Amtrak uses is in the form of electricity, made from coal, natural gas and nuclear power.
Despite its popularity with passengers, the biggest determinant of the railroad’s health is still the federal government, and in Washington, views diverge sharply.
Last year Senator Frank Lautenberg, Democrat of New Jersey, and others won overwhelming Senate approval for a bill that would offer the states 80 cents for every 20 cents they spend on new intercity passenger rail service, the same as the match offered for highway projects.
The House passed a bill with the same provision by a veto-proof margin earlier this month. The bill will soon go to a conference committee, but the White House is threatening to veto it because it wants the passenger rail system to be turned over to private operators.
Some members of Congress think the private sector should play a bigger role, and that that congestion and fuel prices should push the country to trains, but not necessarily to Amtrak.
The House version of the Amtrak reauthorization bill has a provision that invites private companies to build a rail link between New York and Washington that would make the trip in less than two hours.
The Florida Representative John Mica, a senior Republican member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee who wrote the provision, said, “We have no passenger high speed rail service in this country. To really change that, you’re going to have to bring in the private sector to develop, finance and operate the system.” Both versions of the bill authorize bigger subsidies, but Congress is often more generous in authorization bills than in actual appropriations.
Amtrak’s fortunes also hinge on who wins the White House; Senator John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican nominee, was a staunch opponent of subsidies to Amtrak when he was chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. Barack Obama, the probable Democratic nominee, was a co-sponsor of the Senate version of the bill to provide an 80/20 financing match.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/21/business/21amtrak.html
Chichi2, Had post ready & Pc shut down
My note perhaps shows my anger with the system.
6h with Dr. while l had some open positions, loss $400.[jul qqq calls]
I'm still leaning toward Louise Yamada so l think we are both on same page as your E-Mail.
btw when l got home 25m till close, boom storm rolled in knocked out power.
btw2 l still love you !!!
Chichi2, l don't see that we
Fed. Stuff
#msg-30171589
Fed. Ops: 52.25B Matures this week. *
Mon: 4.25B 3day
Wed: 20.00B 28day
Thu:
5.00B 14day
23.00B 7day
========================================================
Temp Ops:
Perm Ops:
========================================================
Public Debt: *
Limit ~ $9,815 T
6/19 ~ $9,370 T
=========================================================
The Slosh Report:
http://www.gmtfo.com/RepoReader/OMOps.aspx
http://www.ny.frb.org/markets/omo/dmm/temp.cfm?SHOWMORE=TRUE
==================================================
* Note how these crooks have reduced Debt. Playing 3 card monti
with your $$$, yes l'm pssted!! imho but link back....see for your self & that's T's Not B's.
Fed. Ops: 52.25B Matures this week. *
Mon: 4.25B 3day
Wed: 20.00B 28day
Thu:
5.00B 14day
23.00B 7day
========================================================
Temp Ops:
Perm Ops:
========================================================
Public Debt: *
Limit ~ $9,815 T
6/19 ~ $9,370 T
=========================================================
The Slosh Report:
http://www.gmtfo.com/RepoReader/OMOps.aspx
http://www.ny.frb.org/markets/omo/dmm/temp.cfm?SHOWMORE=TRUE
==================================================
* Note how these crooks have reduced Debt. Playing 3 card monti
with your $$$, yes l'm pssted!! imho but link back....see for your self & that's T's Not B's.
Did l miss anything important ?
TY...she knows her stuff + nice looking /e
Chichi2, Louise Yamada on today great
charts, l can't locate yet proly not updated yet [past 40min]
feel this important for all & l need to ready myself 4 tomo Dr.
Citigroup may take 'substantial' second-quarter markdowns
12:04 PM ET, Jun 19, 2008 - By Greg Morcroft
Citigroup Inc. Chief Financial Officer Gary Crittenden says the bank faces continuing credit problems in the second quarter, with credit costs rising, provisions for bad consumer loans growing and “substantial” write-downs for subprime assets likely.
ot Chichi2, PPT working hard to turn
the market using cash from recent drains imo.
l will be out again tomo Dr. appt my protocol ( lab rat )
Fed.(2)3)7day RP + 23.00B [net drain -12.25B
Fed.(3) 1day RP + 8.25B
The Slosh Report:
http://www.ny.frb.org/markets/omo/dmm/temp.cfm?SHOWMORE=TRUE" target="_blank">http://www.gmtfo.com/RepoReahttp://www.ny.frb.org/markets/omo/dmm/temp.cfm?SHOWMORE=TRUE
der/OMOps.aspx
Fed. 14day RP + 5.00B [sofar
The Slosh Report:
http://www.ny.frb.org/markets/omo/dmm/temp.cfm?SHOWMORE=TRUE" target="_blank">http://www.gmtfo.com/RepoReahttp://www.ny.frb.org/markets/omo/dmm/temp.cfm?SHOWMORE=TRUE
der/OMOps.aspx
Futures (2) + World Indices
http://www.cme.com/trading/dta/del/globex.html
http://money.cnn.com/data/premarket/
World Indices (2) Mini Charts
Updates every 60sec ~ Watch the dates!!
http://www.wwfn.com/commentary/oscharts.html
http://www.allstocks.com/markets/World_Charts/Asian_Stock_Markets/asian_stock_markets.html