The Smartest Man Online

Oil as a commodity has been the dominant force in the energy world over the past century for many reasons. A low cost of production, while important, has been a result of oil containing high amounts of energy and being easily transportable. Coal, which may be equivalently abundant, does not provide the same amount of energy, and is more difficult to transport long distances because of its solid state. On the same token, natural gas, while being high in energy output, has been difficult to transport because of the current inability to transport gas effectively. That, however, is quickly changing as liquid natural gas terminals may one day make this cheaper, cleaner burning fuel the commodity of choice for energy production. (more…)

Warren Buffet announced today on CNBC that he offered to insure the bond insurers, on their municipal bonds. This is a fairly significant event in the world of finance, as many analysts begin to wonder how dire the debt markets may become. The largest question in this situation is that of Mr. Buffet’s motive. Does he believe the situation is over exaggerated, and he saw this as an opportunity to profit by going where few others dare to go, or does he believe the situation is so dire, that if the municipalities were to go bankrupt, that it could take down the whole financial market as we know it. (more…)

In another sign of China’s burgeoning economy, the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association reported that output of natural gas in the country grew at an astounding 23% in 2007. This gain was on top of a 19% gain the year before and puts China’s total natural gas output at 58 billion cubic meters for the year ending 2007. (more…)

Britain, which has been in a bull market for the past 15 years, may be the most vulnerable country to the financial debacle currently going on in the world’s credit markets. (more…)

Wheat futures rose 30 cents today, reaching its price ceiling for a single trading day, as reports coming out of Canada showed a huge drop in wheat supplies. (more…)

While much of the western world takes rice for granted, it is the staple crop through most of Asia, providing the people of that region with the majority of their daily nourishment. The quadrupling of prices over the past 5 years has meant that many of the region’s poor have struggled just to obtain food, despite the tremendous pace of economic growth on the entire continent. Many of the poor farmers of Thailand, though, have been reaping the rewards of sky high rice prices. (more…)

The biggest winner over the past few years have been a little known metal known as Rhodium. While gold has been on the news every day now that it is up 300% , and oil up 600%, many people would be surprised to know that over the past 5 years, Rhodium is up an astonishing 2000%. The metal, which was trading as low as $380/oz, is now trading above $7,200/oz. (more…)