Modern Business Practice

This Piece by Cactus caught my eye today. The obvious answer to his query is to go traditional, which no Net exchange can match. I, owning a Video store, would go with an entire line of Puzzle Books on one side, and Newspapers and Magazines on the other side. There is an incredible wealth of the traditional Book form of Puzzles of varying complexity, and a lack of Newspaper Reading rooms where One can access World Papers; put in a Coffee-Maker, and you have an area to fascinate the kids, let the Intellectual catch up on World events, and allows you peace to choose your owned desired videos. All have potential to sell high-end Profit products with the introduction of the Coffee-Maker, alongside low Entrance-level Costs. Of course, I have never attempted Retail myself.

Mish and the Attorney General of Mississippi get it right and get it wrong. The approach may be right, but the venue may be wrong. An arbitrary demand by the State that a Company should issue Insurance of all types if they want to issue any Insurance in the State may be wrong, as Mish highlights. The State of Mississippi, though, must have some redress from reckless abandonment of Property Underwriting in the State. The key lies in following the Money, as they say in law enforcement. Mississippi and other Gulf States should instead pass legislation which stipulates all Insurance premiums should be highly taxed as Income, when and if at least 80% of said premiums are not paid out as Claims within the State. Insurers, confronted by an not unreasonable high tax rate, will find that high-Risk underwriting is necessary to avoid taxation.

Jim Hamilton has a very interesting article on Saudi practice in Oil provision. He suggests that Ghawar may be in decline, or it could be because the Saudis enjoy the power attained from maintaining a variable production capacity of 2-3 million bpd over and above normal supply. Both are highly relevant considerations, but I would like to advance other potential rationales. The Saudi know that they will have to blend their Output because of the high sulfur content in the Manaifa field, which this Author understands will become their mainstay field, with Ghawar, Haradh, and Khurais fields all cycling Water. A second rationale for Saudi curtailment of production may be financial; the Saudis believing that Buying In the World economy is not Profitable, if the Markets are overpriced Oil held underground will appreciate in value with the increase in Demand, while above-ground Capital will depreciate in value (both in the Oil fields if pumped, and in the greater economy where the Saudi will have to invest their Oil revenues). The Saudi simply do not feel like pumping heavily, and their even Pumping schedule maximizes their total Investment capacity. lgl