They always say that the Saudis are trying to end US fracking, which requires $70/barrel on average to be sustainable, but I'd say they are also trying to deal a severe blow to Russian oil, which requires about $45/barrel to be sustainable. Saudi Arabian oil only requires $25/barrel to be sustainable. It may not be to hurt Putin directly but rather to exploit the fact that Russian oil companies can't get financing (due to sanctions) to pay off loans, fund new operations, and expand. Saudi's 2 biggest competitors are USA and Russia, so this strikes 2 birds with 1 stone. At least the USA will also substantially benefit from cheap oil (the vast majority of its economy will benefit). For Russia, Venezuela, and others this could cause severe macroeconomic problems as oil sales make up a huge part of their economies....In 2012 a Citigroup report warned that Saudi would run out of oil to export by 2030. The Saudis use a lot of their oil to produce electricity, and demand is growing. Saudi Arabia is supposedly accepting lower prices to maintain its market share. Why sell oil at $20 a barrel when it is a finite resource? Rationing supply to keep prices as high as possible would seem to deliver more value, which has always been the Saudi strategy. It would appear that OPEC's ability to fix prices is a thing of the past. They may be hurting rival producers like Iran, Russia and the US. They are also killing themselves....While this is obviously welcome as a consumer, I can't help think that this is all going to end badly, for guess who, yes you and I. With the dollar in a precarious decline and inevitably coming towards the end of its life a s the global reserve currency, with the absolutely dire condition of the US/European economies, it's going to come crashing down again... even call me Dave said so about a month ago (The "warning lights on the dashboard of the global economy" speech), possibly the only accurate thing he's said for a couple of years. Make hay, don't keep cash in banks, choose your preferred commodity and hold your nose as we head over the edge (once again) some time soon.

Source - The Telegraph.uk...

Victor Spirescu, the first Romanian to arrive in London when border controls were eased a year ago, says life in the capital is difficult and he would not encourage his friends to join him.

“I don’t tell them to come here. It is very hard,” the 30-year-old said. “It is hard work to grow in this country, to save money. It is only if you have some luck.”  But Mr Spirescu, who became a minor celebrity when he was greeted at the airport in January 2014 by journalists, photographers and even MP Keith Vaz, is adamant he did not come to Britain for benefits. He does not think others would either.  “I came here to work. I came here to make money. Not for benefits,” he said.

Around 47,000 Romanians and Bulgarians came to the UK last year after restrictions on migrant workers were lifted on Jan 1, according to the latest statistics. But the numbers were not the feared spike in arrivals: the figure was similar to the numbers who came in 2013 and 2012. Mr Spirescu thinks the panic was unfair, and hit out in particular at Ukip leader Nigel Farage, who he met in his first month here.   “He has a problem with immigrants – but he has an immigrant wife,” he said. “He speaks lots of stupid things. I think maybe he smokes too much…” he said.

After starting by washing cars for £30 a day, Mr Spirescu now earns £250 a day in a construction job in east London.  His parents are looking after the money he sends back to Romania. He split up with his girlfriend, Catalina, when she joined him in London but left soon after, finding the city too intense.  His parents don’t need the money for themselves, he said: “I don’t tell my mum the PIN.”

Instead, he is saving up to return to his village in Romania in the next couple of years and live a “beautiful life”.  He said: “I want to try to make a small construction company. If not, I go back and live like a king. It is a lot of money in Romania. I want to go back and live in my village. I have a house there.”   He said he never wanted to stay in London forever.

“It is a busy town. This is the problem,” he said.

It has the highest number of technology workers per capita, close to 64,000 specialist IT workers, and counts Avangate and UberVu among its most recent exit successes.  These factors, combined with an enviable tax regime; as low as 0% for IT workers, have conspired to help create one of Europe’s hottest start-up scenes; Romania.  The Romanian start-up ecosystem now boasts numerous incubators, co-working spaces and dedicated events to help emerging entrepreneurs. The largest dedicated tech conference in Eastern Europe, HowToWeb5, is held in Bucharest.  However, Cornianu insists that the Romanian start-up scene has always had a global outlook. It had to, he says, in order to succeed. “It makes business founders resilient, teaches entrepreneurs not to rely on handouts or support, and encourages greater achievement,” he says. “We are now seeing an increasing number of successful businesses growing out of this environment.”   123ContactForm, which enables people in any location to build any kind of web form with no programming knowledge, is a case in point. Bootstrapped in 2008, it has experienced 100% year-on-year growth since its formation and added close to 200,000 new customers in 2014 alone.  Half of its paying users come from the US, which represents around 40% of its overall users. The UK is home to 5% of its free users and 6.5% of its paying members.  “It is possible to be successful without large investment, but it does take hard work,” he says. “The most important thing is to build and scale the right team – and to keep an international outlook. At first, it might have been a disadvantage for us to be from Romania, but now it is an advantage as we expand our great team.”  Other Romanian tech trailblazers include ThePoleSociety.com which offers a mobile application for finding information and promoting special events, and this year launched in Brazil.  Twotap.com, launched earlier this year, is an automated checkout solution that allows consumers to buy any product from any retailer on any mobile app or website. In August it secured a $2.7 million seed round from some high profile investors, including Khosla Ventures and Green Visor Capital.  Renderstreet.com and Moqups.com are also making progress in overseas markets, while one to watch is VisionBot, a pick and place robotic machine designed by a maker for makers to place surface-mount devices (SMDs) onto printed circuit boards (PCBs), affordably.  It promises to solve one of the biggest challenges for electrical engineers, makers, hackers, and hobbyists; the huge costs of turning their electronic prototype into an industrial product. Visionbot creates a manufacturing line for turning prototypes into industrial products that are in medium-quantity.  London’s Silicon Roundabout may have had the lion’s share of attention as a tech capital, but as it becomes increasingly saturated, other European locations are vying to offer the start-up appeal that even Silicon Roundabout can’t match, the tech capital of Europe could soon be much further east than East London, says Cornianu.  “The future is definitely bright for the Romanian start-up scene,” he said. “The number of people involved in start-ups is growing every year, more and more kids are showing an interest, and of course we’re creating more successes. The more of those we have, the better our chances of taking on London, Berlin, and yes, even Silicon Valley.”

Brent crude plunged below $57 per barrel briefly on Tuesday, marking a new five-and-a-half-year low as traders bet that the global oversupply of oil will continue deep into 2015.

The benchmark has fallen more than 45pc since June and is on track for its worst year since 2008, while oil traded in the US is now poised to crash through the $50 per barrel level.

"Oil bulls are having another hard week as Brent oil dropped to $56.90, a new five-year low, as lingering worries over supply excess overwhelmed fear of Libya supply disruptions," said Peter Rosenstreich, head of market strategy at Swissquote.

Crude prices have plummeted since the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) agreed in November to leave its production quotas unchanged at 30m per day, effectively triggering a price war with producers outside the Middle East-dominated cartel.

Opec countries led by Saudi Arabia - which pump a third of the world's crude - are concerned about the loss of market share to shale oil drillers in the US and ballooning supply outside the group.

I am pro. EU.but unfortunately as time goes on it seems more likely that as the Federalist Gravy Train Merchants push their agenda further a nationalist backlash looms larger . The more responsibility these incompetents take on themselves the more they present a bigger target to the likes of UKIP . Individual governments make equally bad judgements but they can be held to account by their electorates , the alternative may be not much better but at least the people can have their say. Looking at the record of governance by the EU so far it has been a disaster for many of it's citizens. The clown Junker seems to have the attitude that democracy is only for the wealthy and that in the smallest of doses. Examine the Great New Junker Plan the most unlikely piece of economic nonsense since Ms Hollande promised to reduce unemployment by the power of social spending and an agreement to reduce coporate taxation but only if business took on staff they didn't want or need. Now The French can hold Hollande responsible ,and they surely will. But when a group that purports to be running a society and fails miserably to sectors of that society (whole countries) and those sectors have no means to change their governors that will invariably end in revolution.    

Nothing could be more patriotic than protecting the rights of free born Britons from the the clutches of EU bureaucrats and so leaving the corrupt, undemocratic empire in the making of Europe would help Britain to retain its place in the world as a free country.

There is so much disingenuous rubbish spouted by pro-EU folk - NATO kept the peace, not the EU in the last 60 years. Our jobs are safe as we would continue to trade with the EU and they with us regardless of whether we're in or out so that 3 million jobs lost claim is a complete fantasy. The EU is seen by the rest of the world as an anti free trade bloc (talks the talk but imposes a myriad of regulations to thwart the walk) operating barriers. EU fisheries policies have ruined the UK fisheries industry. In most southern EU countries the rule of law is not observed in the same way as it is in northern Europe, so we are aligned to a bunch of corrupt politicians whose main aim is self interest (as can be seen by the Brussels elite helping themselves to salaries and pensions out of all proportion to the usefulness of their work. The Euro was a vanity project where the rules were all broken to enable unsuitable countries to join, and rules throughout the EU are ignored by many countries where the national interest always overrides the agreed objectives of the EU.

I could go on... the EU has been a disaster for Britain and judging the results by having the ability to drive around the EU unimpeded by passport controls is the blinkered rose tinted view of a tourist ignorant of how horrid it is to deal with bureaucracy in much of Europe and how ghastly it is to get any justice when there has been no greasing of palms to get things done.

Greece was plunged into a renewed political crisis  after parliament failed to elect a head of state, setting the stage for snap polls tipped to bring radical leftists to power. Athens’s 300-seat house voted by 168-132 in favor of Stavros Dimas, a former European commissioner and the sole candidate for the post, becoming president, but he had been required to win 180 ballots.

“The number of 168 votes is a clear parliamentary majority but as the constitution foresees it does not allow my election,” he said. “What is important, now, is the interests of the country and the Greek people … what unites us is Greece.”  Under Greek law the parliament now has to be dissolved within 10 days and elections called within 30. The prime minister, Antonis Samaras, whose conservative-dominated two-party alliance has been in office since June 2012, said he would seek elections as soon as possible. “Tomorrow I will go to the president of the republic to request snap polls as early as possible on 25 January,” he said. “It is the hour of democracy, which means truth and responsibility, not populism.”  Five years into Greece’s worst economic crisis in decades, the stridently anti-austerity Syriza party is leading polls and likely to win. The leftists have declared that renegotiation of the accords Athens has signed with the EU, ECB and IMF – the bodies that have kept it afloat to the tune of €240bn – will be among its top priorities. It will also seek to write off the country’s monumental €320bn debt – ambitions that have revived fears of Greece colliding with creditors and being ejected from the eurozone.   Following the vote, Syriza’s leader, Alexis Tsipras, told reporters the country had experienced “a historic day”.

“In a few days the Samaras government, which pillaged the country, will belong to the past, as will the memoranda of austerity,” he said of the bailout accords. “The future has already begun. You should be optimistic and happy.”  The roll-call vote took place in a somber atmosphere, eclipsed by the tragedy on board a ferry in the Adriatic where rescue efforts were at that point continuing almost 24 hours after the vessel caught fire.  Saying it is a crisis depends very much from where the individual is sitting. For the pro-EU and the bankers it might well be a crisis as it threatens their corrupt game, but for ordinary Greeks and eurosceptics this is a good day.

For 5 years Greece has been plunged into crisis, GDP down 27% from the 2008 peak, average household income down 40%, debt to GDP over 170%, unemployment near 30%, youth unemployment over 50%, Golden Dawn Nazis on the march, suicide rate up...........and so it goes on. If that isn't a crisis in the last 5 years I don't what is. If Syriza wins then the real hard work starts, they are going to renegotiate the MOU with the Troika, and if no agreement can be reached will leave the euro. That will cause even more pain in the short run, but ultimately it is the only salvation for Greece.   If there is contagion, and a fair chance there will be then the blight of the euro can be consigned to the dustbin of history where it belongs, along with the EU. This could be the re-ignition of the eurocrisis which has been dormant for the last year or so. ,, That sucking noise you can faintly hear? that's Euros, rushing out of Greek banks by the truckload. If you had EU denominated savings, you'd move them too. It may not be a high probability, but one outcome is a Grexit and anyone with EU savings will have them swapped for new currency at a rate they didn't like, which would probably get a lot worse rather quickly. Anyone with EU denominated debts might quite like such a settlement (unless it was you who was owed the money).   After a ghastly reset, the country would find it hard if not impossible to borrow, and imported goods (in EU) would be unaffordable expensive.
Inequality would probably get worse, as those with assets will long ago have hedged by parking some of what they own outside of Greece and they'll be rich in local currency.
Whatever happens, it will be bad for those at the lower end, as always it is. I feel very sorry for them. I have no idea what would be the best as well as realistic to happen.

Greek MPs failed to elect a president in a second vote in parliament, bringing an early general election, feared by financial markets and the country's EU-IMF creditors, a step closer.

The government candidate, EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas, fell 32 votes short of the required 200 votes, meaning a third and final vote will be held on December 29.

"The required majority has not been met, therefore the vote will be repeated for a third time," parliament speaker Evangelos Meimarakis told the chamber.  Failure to elect a president in the third vote will automatically spark early elections in Greece, the second in less than two years, a prospect that could reverse fiscal reforms.  The Greek stock exchange opened with a drop , losing over 2.0 percent at the time of the vote. In a bid to sway independent MPs, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras on Sunday offered to hold early elections in late 2015, provided that a president is elected and that tough talks with the country's EU-IMF creditors are concluded first.  European Union and International Monetary Fund officials fear an early election -- which could be held as soon as January 25 -- would be won by radical leftist party Syriza and would undo Greece's ongoing fiscal reforms. The presidential vote has been tainted by allegations from a small nationalist party that people close to the government were trying to bribe its lawmakers into voting for Dimas. )AFP)