A Parallel Quagmire: The Trans-Afghanistan Gas Pipeline

Very interesting story, esp. to those who have been following the Adventures in Afghanistan over the last 20 years,

"The perpetually postponed U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan tracks a little too closely with timelines for another fubar project, the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline.

TAPI, as the pipeline is known, ought to be called TBD. It’s been a Big Oil dream since the mid-1990s, and a decade’s-long American military presence in the region has brought it no closer to reality. The Afghan news outfit Killid Media reported yesterday that “Little has happened on the TAPI natural gas project involving four countries a year after [an] agreement was signed by the governments.”

Planners are promising the project could be in operation by 2016. … Work which was delayed by security concerns will start from early 2012 and finish in two years…

Are the pipeline planners scheduling based on the projected 2014 timeline for U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, or vice-versa? Does it matter? Either way, there are signs that the U.S. government is doubling down on the project as Pakistani leaders have indicated they might prefer a competing pipeline proposed to connect Pakistan and a U.S. adversary, Iran."

http://www.warisbusiness.com/7808/news/a-parallel-quagmire-the-trans-afghanistan-gas-pipeline/#more-7808

First broker failure of the year: due to fraud?

Added info: Note the REST of the story below this one, which explains WHY the company may have closed its doors ( fraud)


WJB Capital Halts Brokerage Operations

WJB Capital Group Inc., a Wall Street firm with more than 100 employees, shut its brokerage operations amid “financial issues,” according to the company’s attorney.

“A decision was made -- and I might say it was a very painful decision -- that it would terminate its broker-dealer operations, and it has done so,” Mark Skolnick, general counsel for the company at law firm Platzer, Swergold, Karlin, Levine, Goldberg & Jaslow LLP, said today. The closely held firm has some non-brokerage operations and is exploring “other possibilities,” he said in a phone interview today.
WJB Capital was “unable to raise capital in a manner that would have allowed the firm to continue its operations given the current climate and the constraints that would have been placed on everyone,” Chief Executive Officer Craig A. Rothfeld said in an interview. The New York-based firm shut voluntarily, he said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-03/wjb-capital-halts-brokerage-operations.html

Note: Unlike MF global the company holds no client funds nor is it going to file for bankruptcy...but it IS closing, after expanding twice since 2005.
denninger has a take on it in his Market Ticker today also...
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=200006

Added info:

WJB Capital Group Sued for Alleged Fraud

WJB Capital Group Inc. the Wall Street firm that said it shut down its brokerage operations, was sued in New York over an alleged fraud.
WJB Capital and its chief executive officer, Craig Rothfeld, were accused of fraud and breach of contract by an individual who said he made a $250,000 investment in the company, according to a complaint filed Dec. 31 in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan.

The plaintiff, James McNally, said in his complaint that he was promised “compensation for the duration of the investment.” WJB Capital failed to pay and used the money “for fraudulent purposes,” according to the complaint.

Rothfeld said in a phone interview that McNally provided an eight-year, $250,000 loan to the firm, not an equity investment, and received monthly interest.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-03/wjb-capital-group-sued-for-alleged-fraud.html

Bank of America severing some small-business credit lines

By E. SCOTT RECKARD - Los Angeles Times
Published Mon, Jan 02, 2012 08:20 PM


LOS ANGELES -- Bank of America Corp., under pressure to raise capital and cut risks, is severing lines of credit to some small-business owners who have used them to stay afloat.

The Charlotte, N.C., bank is demanding that these customers pay off their credit line balances all at once instead of making monthly payments. If they can't pay in full, they are being offered new repayment plans for as long as five years, but with far higher interest rates than their original credit lines had.

Business owners complain that BofA's credit squeeze is abrupt and could strain their small companies and even put them out of business.
The credit cutoff is coming at a time when the California economy can't seem to catch a break, and bucks what the financial industry says is a new trend of easing standards on business loans.
http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/01/02/1749212/bank-of-america-severing-some.html

Found a very cool site for those who have repair all sorts of household items:

This looks like a difficult and rewarding doc to watch, I just ordered it:

A Grin Without a Cat
(Le Fond de l'Air Est Rouge)

Filmmaker Chris Marker charts the tumultuous political upheaval and power struggles of the 1960s and '70s in this moving-picture essay that was first released in 1977, then restored and revised by Marker 15 years later. Segments focus on Vietnam, the Watergate hearings, Che Guevara's death, the overthrow of Salvador Allende and the Soviet invasion of Prague -- collectively described by Marker as "scenes of the Third World War."

http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/A_Grin_Without_a_Cat/70113593?trkid=2965439

What is with all this "forced" using of only certain browsers on websites?

There are websites which only use Windows Explorer or the latest version of Firefox ( which 10. something) and you are out of luck if you use any other browser.
Audible.com is apparently one of the sites, tho, strangely, it is owned by Amazon and Amazon works fine with
my FF 3.6.
I just tried to redeem a Christmas present, a gift certificate, on Audible and the site will not respond to my FF 3.6.
The Help desk people ( in the Caribbean, btw) confirmed and tried VERY hard to get me to download Explorer.
They suggested Google Chrome "might" work, but not Opera, not anything but the latest version of FF.

I REALLY hate being pushed into limited choices of browsers, esp hate the hold that Explorer has on the internet.
It's not like the websites CAN'T allow other browsers to work.


Sheesh....complain....piss and moan.

Winn-Dixie Stores Sold to Bi-Lo for $560M

See, Southerners will know why this is an important story.
Tell me, do you think it will be a good or bad change for Winn Dixie?
Anyone had experience with HI-LO?

The supermarket chain Winn-Dixie is being sold in a deal valued at $560 million to Bi-Lo LLC, the companies said Monday, creating a huge grocery operator in the South.

Shares of Winn-Dixie, which has more than twice the number of stores of its buyer, jumped over 70 percent Monday. The company had struggled in the past, entering into bankruptcy protection in 2005, but has been revamping operations in recent years.

The combined company will have about 690 stores and 63,000 workers in eight states in the southern U.S. Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. will become a privately held subsidiary and its ticker will be removed from the Nasdaq. Bi-Lo is a private company.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/winn-dixie-stores-sold-bi-lo-560m-15194841

cross posted in Alabama group

Is there an easy way to see how many host positions each person is currently holding?

BofA to pay $335m over loans bias claims

Bank of America will pay $335m to resolve US allegations that the lender discriminated against African-American and Hispanic borrowers, the latest in a series of legal and costly problems the bank has inherited from its troubled Countrywide unit.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c65efdb4-2c1e-11e1-b7df-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1hDYy406J

Buried in the story are a few other tidbits:
"The money will be distributed to aggrieved borrowers for an average amount of about $1,600. According to the complaint filed in federal court, some borrowers were allegedly overcharged by hundreds of dollars. Others paid thousands of dollars extra due to the alleged discrimination."

"Investors are trying to force BofA to swallow tens of billions of dollars in losses over allegedly defective home loan bonds, state and federal prosecutors are trying to extract billions of dollars from the bank for its alleged mistreatment of distressed borrowers, and other regulators are probing its lending and servicing activities."
AND
wayyy at the bottom, is the fact that Ilinois AG has settled with BAC in the above suit, also.

"The settlement resolves a separate lawsuit launched by Lisa Madigan, Illinois attorney-general, against BofA for allegedly discriminating against her state’s borrowers. Ms Madigan began her probe of Countrywide in 2008. At least $20m will be reserved for aggrieved borrowers in Illinois"

Gee, BOa has a LOT on its plate.

Beware if you decide to watch "Seven Days in Utopia"

The dvd is now out on Netflix.
I eagerly got it, cause I love Robert Duvall, and Lucas Black is a promising new actor from here in Ala,
plus it has the always wonderful Melissa Leo.
NOwhere does the movie warn you that while the first 1/2 was good, it then degenerates into a Christain lecture,
plus,
it not only stops abruptly and leaves the viewer hanging wondering how it ended,
the movie THEN scolls to direct the viewer to a web site which has a video ( and links to a STORE! )
where the author of the book, a "performance psychologist", tries to have you sign up to participate in as money making schemes as he can think of.
In order to find out how the movie ended, you have to play a video on the website, where the author,
reads to you all the biblical passages from the book that the movie was made from.
Then his website offers to let you to sign up with your name and email address for news letters, retreats, books, videos, and golf equipment! The golf putter free advertising in the movie.
Thus the movie is a nothing more than an advertising gimmick.
btw..the movie is set in Utopia, Texas, a real place.And no doubt soon to be a major tourist spot of true believers.

Here is a link to the site :
http://www.linksofutopia.com/cms/ministryhub.html

To be clear..I have nothing against people of faith.
I DO have plenty against being tricked into watching an advertisement for some guys books and golf supplies, and having to sit thru a sermon to find out how the movie ended.