10 Fresh

GLNG - $30 billion

Location: Australia

Companies: Santos, Petronas, Total, Kogas

This development takes natural gas found in coal seams and ships it 260 miles by pipeline to an island off the northeast city of Gladstone.

From there the gas is liquified by chilling it to -258 Fahrenheit, then loaded onto tankers for export. Natural gas is used by power companies, various other industries and by consumers for heating and cooking.

It's one of six Australian natural gas projects on this list, which speaks to the continent's vast natural resources and its proximity to fast growing Asian markets.

Natural gas' clout in the world's energy mix is growing quickly. Some of the natural gas projects on this list may employ hydraulic fracturing -- or fracking for short -- which some fear may contaminate ground water.

http://money.cnn.com

In Greece, a Bold Plan to Solve the Debt Crisis

In Greece, a Bold Plan to Solve the Debt Crisis
By NIKI KITSANTONIS and ELISABETTA POVOLEDO
Published: July 6, 2012

ATHENS — Prime Minister Antonis Samaras of Greece set out his fragile three-party coalition government’s policy platform on Friday, a bold program of selling government assets and reducing state

But in a speech to Parliament, he also emphasized the need for measures to relieve a public weary of two years of economic austerity.

“Extreme injustices must be corrected,” he said, saying there should be no more wage or pension cuts. “We can’t have people who had homes now eating out of garbage bins; we can’t have suicides increasing.”

It was his first appearance in Parliament since being sworn in on June 20. He had been housebound since then after eye surgery.

The speech was the kickoff for a weekend parliamentary debate scheduled to conclude at midnight on Sunday with a vote of confidence on the coalition government. With 179 seats in the 300-seat Parliament, the government is expected to sail through that vote, although the economic program it must subsequently impose will be a much tougher challenge.

Italy moved forward on Friday with its own set of economic measures aimed at further reducing government spending. But analysts questioned whether the intended 26 billion euros ($32 billion) in cuts by Rome, over three years, would do enough to reduce spending that, at 720 billion euros a year, is about half of Italy’s gross domestic product.

But Greece’s budget problems are more urgent. Inspectors representing the country’s foreign creditors are in Athens to assess its progress in enacting spending cuts and other economic reforms to meet the terms of the 130 billion euro rescue package agreed to this year — Greece’s second bailout in two years.

Mr. Samaras was careful to emphasize that the terms of the bailout deal would be respected, as he promised in a letter to his euro zone counterparts last week. But he also indicated that there were limits to Greece’s willingness to bend.

“If the program goes off track again due to recession, this should not become a pretext for the imposition of more austerity measures,” he said.

The finance minister, Yannis Stournaras, acknowledged on Thursday that some aspects of the government’s painful fiscal adjustment program were “off track.” Mr. Stournaras is to flesh out the policy program in a speech to Parliament on Saturday afternoon.

Mr. Stournaras plans to travel to Brussels on Monday for a meeting of euro zone finance ministers, who are expected to have tough questions for him.

Greek opposition to the new government’s policies was evident well before Mr. Samaras spoke to Parliament on Friday.

The left-wing party Syriza, which sailed into second place in the June 17 elections on an anti-bailout platform, has accused Mr. Samaras, a conservative, of trying to renege on pre-election pledges to renegotiate the country’s debt deal. And Syriza vowed to fight the sell-off of state assets.

Mr. Samaras said on Friday that his government would give “top priority” to privatizing assets like the operational arm of the state railway company and the power board. “We don’t see privatizations as a cash generator but a generator of growth,” he said. “Whoever takes over will have to commit to create jobs.”

Pushing forward with privatizations would be a way of averting further painful cuts, he said. “We can’t continue to cut wages and pensions while state assets remain unexploited,” he said.

In Italy, whose debt load of more than 120 percent of gross domestic product is second only to Greece’s in the euro zone, the new measures reached on Friday are aimed at cutting spending in goods and services, trimming ministerial budgets and streamlining the civil service. The measures would also reduce financing to municipalities and regions, and more controversially, would drastically cut the number of Italian provinces by half.

The new program will also postpone a sales tax increase Italy had planned for October but will now put off until July 2013, in response to economists’ warnings that the tax would cause a slump in sales that the recession-racked economy could ill afford.

“This is an operation that aims to reduce excess spending,” Prime Minister Mario Monti said at the end of a seven-hour cabinet meeting early Friday. But he promised that it would not affect “the quality of the services.”

The new measures, detailed in a decree, will take effect immediately but still require the approval of the Italian Parliament within 60 days. Some initial reactions suggested that the government had some rough days ahead.

Lawmakers with the Democratic Party, one of the main political parties that support Mr. Monti’s government, said the decree had positive points but expressed reservations about the reduction of money to local governments.

“We’re concerned that these cuts will affect funding to nursery schools, assistance to the elderly and public transport,” said Stefano Fassina, the Democratic Party’s expert on economic issues. “So we will discuss these issues and try to correct them.”

Niki Kitsantonis reported from Athens and Elisabetta Povoledo from Rome.

http://www.nytimes.com

Wall Street's Leadership Vacuum

Markets & Finance
Wall Street's Leadership Vacuum
By Dawn Kopecki on August 23, 2012

Wall Street, still reeling from public outrage and increased regulation, is in search of a new senior statesman. The indisputable champion of American high finance had been JPMorgan Chase (JPM) Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon—at least until multiple investigations and a $5.8 billion trading loss from wrong-way bets on credit derivatives at his bank diminished his stature. His peers at other big U.S. lenders are hobbled by poor performance, tarnished reputations, or a reluctance to step into the breach. “What you’re seeing in the financial-services industry is a lack of any kind of credible statesmen,” says Rakesh Khurana, a management professor at Harvard Business School. Dimon’s reduced ability to defend the industry publicly “basically leaves a vacuum,” he says.

This would be less of a concern if things were placid. As it stands, the industry confronts the most vigorous onslaught of regulations since Congress separated investment and commercial banking with the Glass-Steagall Act in 1933. That coincides with the lowest level of consumer confidence in U.S. banks since Gallup began polling on the question in 1979. The percentage of Americans saying they had a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence dropped to 21 percent in June, from 41 percent in 2007 and more than 60 percent in 1980.

Dimon, who gained prominence after steering his bank through the financial crisis without a quarterly loss, was sought out for his advice and assistance by U.S. presidents, Treasury secretaries, and regulators. He was unapologetic in his criticism of Washington policies and policymakers. He said former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, for whom a new rule banning proprietary trading is named, doesn’t understand capital markets. Bankers will need psychiatrists to evaluate whether trades qualify as hedges, he said. Last year he took on Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke in a public forum, asking whether anyone has “bothered to study the cumulative effect” of regulation on the U.S. economy. Now Dimon is “stumbling like an ordinary mortal,” says Thomas Stanton, a former senior staff member for the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. “He’s no longer seen as a purely brilliant manager.”

Banks are still a powerful presence in Washington, even without a visible leader. Commercial banks spent $61.4 million lobbying Congress and regulators in 2011, almost double the $36.1 million spent in 2006, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. “They’re spending all this money because they know they are in the eye of the storm,” says Bob Biersack, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan, nonprofit campaign watchdog.

The lack of a commander leaves the industry vulnerable to more regulation, according to Greg Donaldson, chairman of Donaldson Capital Management, based in Evansville, Ind. “The banks have no moral authority at the moment,” Donaldson says. “Jamie Dimon had it, but that’s done. The government is piling on the banks. They’re just being hammered, and it doesn’t help our economy. Somebody has to fight the damn thing.”

The pool of successors is small, and all the contenders have their share of baggage. Bank of America (BAC) CEO Brian Moynihan has struggled to contain losses from soured mortgages that have cost the Charlotte-based lender more than $40 billion. Citigroup (C) CEO Vikram Pandit had his bank’s capital plan rejected by the Fed on March 13. Shares of the New York-based lender have tumbled 18 percent since, as of Aug. 21. Shareholders in May rejected Pandit’s compensation plan, which included about $15 million for 2011 and a retention agreement that could be worth $40 million. At Goldman Sachs (GS), CEO Lloyd Blankfein retreated from making public comments in 2010 and 2011 as his company was sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for its role selling subprime mortgage bonds, a case later settled for $550 million. Blankfein recently began an effort to reshape his image with television interviews and speaking engagements. This month the SEC and the U.S. Department of Justice ended probes of the company.

Morgan Stanley (MS) CEO James Gorman, whose firm announced job cuts on July 19 after missing analysts’ estimates amid a 48 percent drop in trading revenue, doesn’t fit the Wall Street titan stereotype. For black-tie events the Australian prefers a rumpled tuxedo he bought as a business school student in 1980 to Armani, and he stocks Vegemite in the executive kitchen. John Stumpf, CEO of Wells Fargo (WFC), has the respect of his peers, and his San Francisco-based bank, the largest in the U.S. by market value, has posted annual profits for more than a decade. Still, he works far from Wall Street and is “allergic” to the role of industry statesman, says Nancy Bush, an analyst and contributing editor at SNL Financial, a research firm based in Charlottesville, Va. “Part of Jamie’s fitting into that role was his natural brashness as a Wall Streeter and New Yorker, and that is not John,” Bush says. “He’s self-effacing, he’s quiet as a manager, and his company is naturally quiet. It’s not a role that will naturally fall to him, though I think it should.” Spokesmen for Wells Fargo, JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley declined to comment.

Wall Street has had no shortage of public leaders, beginning with John Pierpont Morgan, who founded the company that bears his name and played a major role in halting the banking panic of 1907. More recently, Walter Wriston, who ran Citigroup predecessor Citibank from 1970 to 1984 and is credited with introducing automated teller machines, helped New York City avoid bankruptcy in the 1970s with a financing plan he devised with another industry leader at the time, Felix Rohatyn at Lazard Frères. The dearth of leadership on Wall Street now is “really problematic,” says Harvard’s Khurana. “When an institution or industry loses its legitimacy, it loses the benefit of the doubt.”

http://www.businessweek.com

Lindsay Lohan: Prime Suspect in New Burglary Case!

Lindsay Lohan: Prime Suspect in New Burglary Case!
August 27, 2012 8:15 PM by Free Britney

Lindsay Lohan is back in surprisingly familiar territory as the prime suspect in a criminal investigation ... oh how we only wish we were kidding.

The troubled star is formally a suspect in the theft of $100,000 worth of watches and sunglasses from an L.A. home this month, TMZ reports.

LiLo was recently at the Hollywood Hills home of Sam Magid, who called the LAPD and reported a jewelry theft the night after an all-night party.

The 26-year-old star has been at the house frequently, including at the all-night house party a week ago Sunday when Magid reported the crime.

Lindsay and her assistant Gavin Doyle are both suspects in the theft, with earlier reports suggesting that Lohan may have invited the robbers in.

Now it appears she's being fingered as the crook herself.

There's an odd twist, though, in that Magid has since recanted his story and now says nothing was stolen. Police aren't closing the investigation, however.

Officials believe independent witnesses can corroborate their belief that Lindsay and Gavin are the thieves and bring charges even without Magid.

It's not clear why the wealthy Magid would change his story.

LAPD detectives contacted lawyers for Lindsay Lohan and Gavin Doyle today, asking for an interview with the two suspects; the request was denied.

Read more celebrity gossip at: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/#ixzz24oI9b7nM

Don't forget insurance for your college-bound kids

Don't forget insurance for your college-bound kids
By Dave Carpenter, Associated Press Updated 4d 8h ago

Insurance needs are often overlooked in the last-minute scramble. But relying on existing coverage — or a lack of it — can end up costing families during the college years and perhaps beyond.
Parents don't need to buy all kinds of additional insurance as they pack the kid off to college. But they had better at least review their coverage to know whether they're prepared for that stolen iPad, trip to the emergency room or worse.

A look at key considerations for different types of insurance:

Health

Many colleges and universities require health insurance. Most parents can meet that by keeping their children on their plan, which federal health reform allows until age 26.
If the college is in another state, it's important to check your plan's network of preferred doctors and hospitals extends there. Otherwise the highest level of coverage may not be available.
School-sponsored health plans usually cost hundreds of dollars per semester. Many also place dollar caps on coverage, as well as require that most care be provided through the student medical center. These options are best-suited for the many students whose parents don't have health insurance.
An alternative would be an individual health insurance plan. A student should be able to obtain a policy that costs no more than $150 a month. Check prices at Internet-based insurance provider eHealthInsurance.com or StudentHealthPlan.com.

Auto

Car insurance is an area where families can actually save money.
Premiums may be reduced by 10 percent to 20 percent if the student attends a college more than 100 miles away and doesn't take a car. And, car on campus or not, some insurers also offer a "good student discount" for those who maintain a B average or higher.
Even if they might not qualify for either discount, parents should inform their insurance company that a student on the policy will be relocating. It's good to keep insurers in the loop on such moves. Depending on where the college is, the cost could go up or down.
Personal property
It's not unusual for students to have thousands of dollars of electronic gadgets and other belongings in their dorm rooms, from laptops and videogame systems to bicycles and musical instruments. And they are popular targets for theft.
Such items typically are covered by the parents' homeowners or renters insurance if stolen — minus the deductible, of course. But coverage varies, so inquire about any policy limits.
Taking a photograph of each expensive possession can help ensure receipt of its proper replacement value if it's stolen.
To protect against items being lost, or for extra coverage with a lower deductible, renters insurance is available for usually around $150 to $200 a year. Deductibles can be as low as $50 or $100.
Anyone living off-campus will need to get a separate renters insurance policy to cover personal belongings, as will each roommate.

Tuition
Tuition refund insurance is a means of getting your money back if the student withdraws from college — generally only for documented medical reasons or due to the death of the student, parent or guardian.
Much of what it provides is peace of mind. "It's not something that you really need, and it's relatively expensive," says Mark Kantrowitz, founder of the financial aid site FinAid.org.
But parents may want to think about buying it if they're paying all the costs at an expensive school without financial aid, or if the child has a serious medical condition.
"We encourage tuition insurance because students are not invincible," says Kurt Holmes, dean of students at The College of Wooster in Ohio. "Every year, medical situations as simple as mono or an appendectomy arise that cause students to lose a semester."
First, look into the college's refund policies and tuition insurance plan.
Another option is to get coverage through Sallie Mae. The nation's largest student lender, which provides $5,000 of annual tuition protection to borrowers, also sells the insurance separately. For example, $20,000 of tuition coverage costs $359 a year.

Life
Buying life insurance for a college kid might sound overly cautious, if not macabre. But it can make sense for parents who co-sign for tens of thousands in private student loans. Without it, they will owe the amount they co-signed for if their child dies.
It's possible to get a $100,000 term life insurance policy for a student for less than $100 a year. That's a bargain price to pay to avoid the risk of years of hefty monthly payments if tragedy strikes.

Travel
Travel insurance can help cover costs of a semester abroad marred or lost because of illness, accident, theft or other setbacks. Insurers reimburse for many travel-related emergencies, although exclusions vary widely. Some offer trip cancellation protection for any reason. Check with the college first, and carefully read the fine print of any policy.
Among the travel insurers to consider are Travel Guard, Global Alert and Travel Safe.

http://www.usatoday.com

Hurricane Since 1851 Mapped So the Visual Graph

Hurricane Since 1851 Mapped So the Visual Graph
Visual chart shows the location and intensity of each storm.

If you would like to see a long history of hurricanes on Earth, you can figure it out easily. Now there is a visual chart that maps a hurricane since 1851.

John Nelson, User Experience and Mapping manager IDV Solutions, a
the company has compiled a data visualization, data visualization through storm maps showing the location and intensity of each storm. This criterion is included in tropical storms recorded since 1851.

To quote the page, using a database of NewScientist Nelson accumulation by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Nelson entered more than 12,000 data points in this infografik.

The map uses the Saffir-Simpson scale, the hurricane rating with maximum speeds of category 1 (slower than 153 kilometres per hour) up to a category 5, where the peak wind speed of 252 miles per hour. The storm was weak in infpgrafik is represented by blue point, while strong storms are marked with green electricity.

Nelson choose bottom-up viewpoint of unusual from the Earth, with the Antarctic Centre. So, he found this view is the best view of the underlying pattern that represents the formation of storms.

One of the features that is very striking is the absence of a number of data points in the vicinity of the equator, a black ribbon between two coloured circles. This is due to the Coriolis force, something which is important in the formation of a hurricane, showing the storm too weak to operate at a latitude of the equator.

Before you start to worry about the high number of storms projected across Europe and North America, this is only a representation of data. Detailed satellite imaging from the Eastern and southern hemispheres is a relatively recent development, so naturally and archive NOAA poorly equipped for those parts of the world as can be seen in the chart below which shows the distribution of the data that are available from time to time.

The Jury Said The Reason Apple's Victory

According to the jury, the debate took place.

Apple patent dispute Court jury-Samsung piped about behind their decisions. That decision led to the results it will have to pay a fine to the Samsung Apple.

One of the jurors, Manuel Ilagan, revealing debate between jury last summer, regardless of the speed of the verdict which is less than three days. Citing CNet, Ilagan uncovering thing that makes the Samsung failed to convince the jury.

"Samsung's internal Email regarding incorporating some Apple technologies into their devices, and how to avoid Samsung executives in answering the question as a damning thing," said Ilagan.

As known, some time ago, an internal memo revealed that Samsung said the company from South Korea is experiencing a crisis of design. In addition, Apple also showed a picture of a cell phone made by Samsung before and after the iPhone appeared.

Ilagan also said that Samsung is claiming that Apple is infringing two patents related to 3 g wireless technology, which is used in the iPhone and iPad 3 g.

But during the trial, Apple shows that Samsung has signed a licensing agreement with Intel, which build chips Apple. Under the deal, Samsung was unable to sue companies that use Intel chips, Apple, top iPhone and iPad products. According to Apple's argument is credible Ilagan.

Ilagan also denied that the jury in favor of Apple and one-sided to Apple. "We're not going to Apple. We don't think Apple or Samsung, "he told CNet.

While the Reuters page also revealed recognition of jury, Hogan, which ensure Velvin that Samsung knows has to err.

Hogan, who worked as an engineer for decades before he retired and holds patents on its own, says: "the jury wanted to make sure the message sent is not just a slap. We want to make sure it was quite painful, but it is not without reason, "said Hogan.