Baltic Dry Index. 978 +18 Brent Crude 48.40
LIR Gold Target in 2019: $30,000. Revised due to QE programs.
Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.
H. L. Mencken.
Today, Destroyed in Seconds. Tired of writing about the dying EUSSR, Greece, the Fed and Chinese rigging stocks, and London banksters rigging everything else, we focus today on “clean diesel,” so beloved and heavily promoted by the loony left “green” movement for supposedly producing much lower amounts of CO2 than petrol engines. Never mind the eye watering dangerous particulates and the nitrogen oxide produced, never mind the nasty smell and noise from “green/black” diesel.
Today, thank you Volkswagen for admitting to polluting America’s cities and towns air, for at least six years, endangering American’s health and environment among other nasties. Just imagine if GM cars were caught doing this in Germany deliberately endangering Germany’s health and their environment! Now if VW would just tell us how many other countries the diesels pollute in, the world can make a start on undoing all the unnecessary damage.
Below, VW’s diesel black swan flies in and reason to think that they are not alone. In fact, are any automakers emissions tests any better than China’s GDP statistics? I suspect that this auto scam story is going to grow and grow. How clean are VW cars in polluted China? Germany’s engineering reputation destroyed in a single weekend.
It is hard to believe that a
man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his
place.
Volkswagen Drops 23% After Admitting Diesel Emissions Cheat
September 21, 2015 — 8:06 AM BST Updated on September 21, 2015 — 4:40 PM
BST
Volkswagen AG lost almost a quarter of its market value after it
admitted to cheating on U.S. air pollution tests for years, putting pressure on
Chief Executive Officer Martin Winterkorn to repair the reputation of the
world’s biggest carmaker.
Top supervisory board members will convene on Wednesday, according to
two people with knowledge of the plans, who asked not to be named because the
meeting is private. Volkswagen plunged as much as 23 percent to 125.40 euros in
Frankfurt, wiping out about 15.6 billion euros ($17.6 billion) in market value.
The stock closed at 132.2 euros, its lowest in more than three years.
VW said it’s cooperating with regulators probing gaps between emissions on the road and lab tests on some diesel models. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the company insisted for a year that discrepancies were mere technical glitches. Winterkorn, who has led VW since 2007, was forced to halt sales of the cars on Sunday and issue a public apology, saying he’s “deeply sorry” for breaking the public’s trust and that VW would do “everything necessary in order to reverse the damage this has caused.”
----The U.S. charges are “grave” and must be clarified swiftly, said Stephan Weil, prime minister of the German state of Lower Saxony, which owns 20 percent of Volkswagen’s voting shares. “Possible consequences can be decided after that.”
The European Commission also said it’s taking VW’s cheating seriously
and is in contact with U.S. regulators and the company about details of the
case.
German competitors BMW AG and Daimler AG said on Monday they aren’t
aware of a similar U.S. probe into their cars. Shares of both slipped the most
in almost a month.
----Volkswagen faces not only a short-term drop in sales and a hit to its reputation but also the longer-term risk of litigation in the U.S., the analysts wrote in a note on Monday.
The crisis is unlikely to trigger an immediate downgrade of the
company’s debt rating, Fitch Ratings said on Monday. It may come under pressure
if the situation deepens, Fitch said.
Morehttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-21/volkswagen-drops-15-after-admitting-u-s-diesel-emissions-cheat
VW emissions scandal could snare other firms, whistleblower claims
Billions wiped off value of industry heavyweights as Congress confirms it is investigatingTuesday 22 September 2015 04.45 BST
The emissions-fixing scandal that has engulfed Volkswagen in the US could extend to other companies and countries, one of the officials involved in uncovering the alleged behaviour has told the Guardian.
Billions of pounds have been wiped off the value of global carmakers amid growing concerns that emissions tests may have been rigged across the industry.
“We need to ask the question, is this happening in other countries and is this happening at other manufacturers? Some part of our reaction is not even understanding what has happened exactly,” said John German, one of the two co-leads on the US team of the International Council for Clean Transportation (ICCT), the European-based NGO that raised the alarm.
Shares in Volkswagen fell by almost a fifth after the world’s second biggest carmaker issued a public apology in response to US allegations that it used a defeat device to falsify emissions data.
----US Congress confirmed it is investigating the scandal on Monday. House energy and commerce committee chairman Fred Upton and oversight and investigations subcommittee chairman Tim Murphy announced that the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee will hold a hearing.
The US Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation of Volkswagen admission, according to Bloomberg, which cited two officials familiar with the inquiry.
The company could face a fine of up to $18bn (£11.6bn), criminal charges for its executives, and legal action from customers and shareholders. The US law firm Hagens Berman has already launched a class-action law suit on behalf of customers who bought the affected cars.
----Max Warburton, an analyst at the financial research group Bernstein, said: “There is no way to put an optimistic spin on this – this is really serious.”
A British expert in low-emission vehicles claimed the manipulation of air pollution data could be “very widespread” and that tests in Europe are “much more open to this sort of abuse”.
----Greg Archer, a former government adviser and head of clean vehicles at the respected Transport & Environment thinktank, said: “I am not surprised. There has been a lot of anecdotal evidence about carmakers using these defeat devices. All credit to the EPA for investigating and finding the truth.”
Archer, the former managing director of the UK’s Low Carbon Vehicle
Partnership and non-executive director for the government’s Renewable Fuels
Agency, said the scandal could spread into petrol cars and CO2 levels. “It is
probably not limited to diesel and not limited to emissions,” he added.
The devices are thought to work by injecting more urea – an exhaust
fluid – into the car when it is being tested. This limits nitrogen oxide
emissions. The car detects it is being tested because devices such as the
anti-collision systems have to be turned off when it is in the laboratory. The
extra urea is not injected into the car when it is on the road because it would
quickly run out.
Archer claims European tests are more open to abuse because they are
conducted before the car goes into mass production and by companies that have
been paid by the carmakers.
Morehttp://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/sep/21/volkswagen-emissions-scandal-sends-shares-in-global-carmakers-reeling
Audi Airs Misstimed ‘Truth in Engineering’ Ads
September 21, 2015 — 12:20 PM BST Updated on September 21, 2015 — 1:12
PM BST
“It’s not that easy being green.”That was Kermit the Frog’s lament to comedian Joel McHale in an advertisement during Sunday night’s Primetime Emmy Awards which touted Audi’s latest innovations in low emissions technology. The punchline couldn’t have come at a less opportune moment for the German luxury carmaker and its parent Volkswagen AG.
Just hours earlier, VW Chief Executive Officer Martin Winterkorn
apologized for breaking the trust of customers following revelations his
company cheated on emissions data for nearly half a million of its diesel cars.
The Audi campaign’s discordance was compounded by the marque’s U.S. slogan,
“Truth in Engineering,” which also featured prominently in advertisements shown
Sunday during U.S. football games.
The VW brand’s North American slogan is:
“Isn’t it time for German engineering?”
“Volkswagen is an extreme example of a brand believing itself to be
bulletproof,” Jo Arden, head of strategy at advertising agency 23red in London,
wrote in an e-mail. “In today’s climate, consumers will run a mile from brands
that say one thing and do another.”
McHale ended Sunday’s advertisement by climbing into an A3 plug-in
hybrid -- the diesel version of the A3 compact was among the models that the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said used software that turned on full
emission controls only during tests.
Morehttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-21/audi-truth-in-engineering-ads-come-back-to-bite-amid-probe
South Korea to probe VW, Audi diesel car emissions
---- The South Korean probe will involve 4,000 to 5,000 Jetta, Golf and Audi A3 vehicles produced in 2014 and 2015, Park Pan-kyu, a deputy director at South Korea's environment ministry, told Reuters.
The ministry will consider recalling those vehicles after conducting the
investigation, he said.
"If South Korean authorities find problems in the VW diesel cars,
the probe could be expanded to all German diesel cars," he said.
Volkswagen Korea declined to comment.
German rivals Daimler and BMW have said the accusations against VW did
not apply to them.
---- The European Commission has said it is in contact with VW and U.S. regulators, but it was too early to say whether VW vehicles in Europe were also affected.
A VW spokesman in Australia said the company had contacted its head
office in Germany asking for advice about how to proceed and whether it
expected cars sold in Australia to be affected. He added that the Australian
office had not been contacted by local police or government agencies.
---- German car sales in South Korea have soared since a 2011 free-trade deal eliminated duties on vehicles imported from Europe. Vehicle imports from Germany rose 18.2 percent to $4.5 billion in the first eight months of 2015, South Korean customs data show, following a 42.5 percent increase for all of 2014.
Volkswagen and Audi accounted for 28.2 percent of all foreign cars sold
the in the first eight months, according to the Korea Automobile Importers and
Distributors Association.
Suh Sung-moon, analyst at Korea Investment & Securities, said local
brands such as Hyundai and its sister firm Kia Motors would benefit.
Morehttp://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/22/us-usa-volkswagen-southkorea-idUSKCN0RM02E20150922
Below, what VW execs may face.
Former peanut exec sentenced to 28 years for covering up deadly salmonella outbreak
Published: Sept 21, 2015 7:09 p.m. ET
A former Georgia peanut executive was sentenced to 28 years in prison
Monday for presiding over a cover-up that led to a deadly salmonella outbreak,
marking what legal experts believe to be the most severe punishment yet in a
U.S. food-safety case.
A U.S. district judge in Albany, Ga., sentenced Stewart Parnell, the 61-year-old
former owner of Peanut Corp. of America, after a jury found him guilty last
year on dozens of felony counts, including conspiracy to conceal that many of
the company’s products were contaminated with salmonella.
----
In the Peanut Corp. case, prosecutors introduced internal emails they said
showed Parnell and his company had for years hidden the fact that many of the
firm’s products were contaminated with salmonella. In some cases, company
officials falsified lab results, stating peanut products were safe to eat when
tests showed otherwise, or when products had never been tested at all,
according to court papers.
More
Every normal man must be
tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin
slitting throats.
H. L. Mencken.
At the Comex silver depositories Monday
final figures were: Registered 46.89 Moz, Eligible 120.88 Moz, Total 167.77
Moz.
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally
doubled over.
Today, socialism for energy companies. But how much
can we trust the figure used, and how much is spin and hype towards a man-made
global warming from fossil fuels agenda?
Where is Diogenes and his lamp finding honest men in this debate? As we
see everyday in Japan at Fukishima, it’s nuclear that gets the biggest subsidy
of all, although only after events go badly wrong. I suspect that nearly all is
hype, spin and talking up one’s book.
The 800 Ways Taxpayer Money Supports Fossil Fuel Industries
September
21, 2015 — 10:00 AM BST Updated on September 21, 2015 — 12:19 PM BST
As world leaders converge on New York for a United Nations gathering
that’s expected to have a strong emphasis on climate change, the OECD is
pointing out 800 ways rich industrial nations support fossil fuels with
taxpayer money, along with a handful of countries that are catching up
quickly.
The measures were worth $167 billion last year for the oil, natural gas
and coal industries, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development, a Paris-based institution that advises 34 industrial nations.
While that number has fallen from almost $200 billion in 2012, it easily
exceeds the value of subsidies for renewables such as wind and solar.
The findings released Monday are designed to stimulate debate on what
constitutes fair support for energy technologies. World leaders including U.S.
President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping are attempting to
ratchet up ambitions for a global deal reducing greenhouse gas pollution. The
UN-organized negotiations are expected to yield an international agreement in
Paris in December. The OECD report suggests policy makers burrow into their own
tax and spending measures for a solution.
“We’re totally schizophrenic,” Angel Gurria, the OECD’s
secretary-general, said at a press conference in Paris on Monday. “We’re trying
to reduce emissions, and we subsidize the consumption of fossil
fuels. These policies are not obsolete, they’re dangerous legacies of a
bygone era when pollution was viewed as a tolerable side effect of economic
growth. They should be erased from the books.”
-----The report covered OECD member nations plus six developing economies
outside the group -- Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Russia and South Africa.
It expands on a 2013 assessment and on the work of the International Energy
Agency, which put the cost of fossil fuel subsidies at $548 billion in 2013,
down 25 percent from the year before.Biggest Subsidizers
The IEA report includes countries from the Middle East and Africa such as Qatar, Iran and Nigeria that top other rankings of big subsidizers. It looked at how consumer prices vary from market prices, while the OECD looked specifically at measures in national budgets that support fossil fuels.“If other developing countries were included, then the total would be much higher,” said Angus McCrone, senior analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance in London. “The reassuring point from the OECD report is that although it found attempts to reduce fossil-fuel subsidies running into inertia, it also concluded that support is now on a downward trend.”
Renewable energy subsidies rose 15 percent to $121 billion in 2013 and may rise to $230 billion by 2030, according to an IEA report released last year.
The measures counted by the OECD covered some of the most obscure pieces of national tax codes -- including direct controls on gasoline prices, depreciation allowances for oil drillers, breaks for refiners, credits for infrastructure like pipelines and stimulus for technology to clean up coal emissions.
“People are outraged when they find out that their tax dollars are being used to prop up the richest industry on the planet,” said Jamie Henn, strategy director at 350.org, the campaign group founded by environmentalist Bill McKibben to urge investors to divest from high-polluting industries. “Funding fossil fuels is like buying up typewriters at the dawn of the computer age.”
More
Solar & Related Update.
With events happening fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this new section. Updates as they get reported. Is converting sunlight to usable cheap AC energy mankind’s future from the 21st century onwards? DC? A quantum computer next?Three Ways To Celebrate National Drive Electric Week
Sarah SheltonSeptember 10, 2015
National Drive Electric Week begins this Saturday, with more than 150
cities around the world gearing up to celebrate plug-in cars and other
electrified vehicles (EVs).
“What strikes me the most about National Drive Electric Week is the
incredible diversity of our participants and our event organizers’ passion,”
said Joel Levin, executive director for Plug In America, which started the
event. “At present, we have 171 events in 39 states across the American
landscape – in big cities, in farm towns and on top of mountains.”
“Plug-ins are not a partisan issue any more,” he added. “People just
love these vehicles and the volunteers putting on these events are keen to
educate people about EVs and share their excitement.”
Whether you already own an alternatively-fueled vehicle or you’re
considering buying one, there are plenty of ways to participate. Here are three
ways to celebrate National Drive Electric Week (NDEW):
Take a Test Drive
If you’re curious to experience what it’s like to drive an EV, many NDEW events will be giving the public a chance to get behind the wheel. Electrified vehicles from Audi, BMW, Chevrolet, Fiat, Kia, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen will be onsite for a test drive at the NDEW event in Los Angeles this Saturday. You can even get a peek at the Bolt EV, a battery electric concept from Chevrolet.“I got to look at and test drive a broad spectrum of electric vehicles without any car dealership pressure,” Peggy Vadillo Orenstein said of her experience at a 2014 NEDW event. “I was able to compare different vehicles at the same time.”
After owning BMWs and an Audi Q5, she ended up picking a 2015 Ford Fusion Energi after her test drive.
Join A Record-Breaking Parade
Many cities are kicking off their NDEW event with an EV parade. You can join in the processions in cities such as Poolesville, Md., and Cohoes, N.Y. The parade in Lincoln City, Ore., has already received so many registrations, that organizers had to start a wait list.Last year, attendees at one NDEW celebration set a world record for their parade: 507 battery electric cars lined up for a convoy in Cupertino, Calif. Check out their gathering in the video below.
More
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished August
DJIA: +65 Down. NASDAQ:
+168 Down. SP500: +92 Down.
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