Iran, China And Saudi Arabia — An Oil Markets Love Triangle

‘China wants guaranteed oil supplies…so it’s playing all the countries of the Gulf, to it advantage, It’s like watching a bad episode of Desperate Housewives.’

Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar signaled closer ties with Beijing, hinting they’d deliver more oil to energy-hungry Asia if Iran could no longer deliver. Saudi Aramco signed deals with China’s Sinopec, including one for a $10 billion refinery at Yanbu. The UAE and China announced a currency swap for 35 billion yuan, part of a push for broader trade ties.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/lara-setrakian-iran-china-and-saudi-arabia—an-oil-markets-love-triangle-2012-1?nr_email_referer=1&utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Business%20Insider%20Select&utm_campaign=BI%20Select%20Recurring%202012-01-23#ixzz1kQuuSt5n

Here’s How Google Search Is Destroying Our Memory

“We are becoming symbiotic with our computer tools, growing into interconnected systems that remember less by knowing information than by knowing where the information can be found.”

 ”It may be no more that nostalgia at this point, however, to wish we were less dependent on our gadgets,” the study concludes. Perhaps relying on external memory isn’t such a bad thing—unless your smartphone runs out of battery, that is

Full infographic: http://www.onlinecolleges.net/2011/09/19/google-and-your-memory/

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/google-search-is-destroying-our-memory-but-is-that-such-a-bad-thing-2012-1#ixzz1kJtlFJ2z 

Read more: http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~wegner/pdfs/science.1207745.full.pdf

Wendy’s Adds $16 Foie Gras Burger in Second Bet on Japan

Wendy’s Co., the third-biggest U.S. fast-food chain, added goose-liver pate and truffles to burgers as it invests as much as $200 million on a return to Japan two years after leaving the country.

This Dec. 8, 2011 satellite image provided by the the DigitalGlobe Analysis Center shows the Chinese aircraft carrier Varyag sailing in the Yellow Sea, approximately 100 kilometers south-southeast of the port of Dalian, China. (AP Photo/DigitalGlobe) MANDATORY CREDIT

http://www.ajc.com/business/apnewsbreak-satellite-gets-pic-1260137.html

Marines keeping Okinawa high-speed ferry

A high-speed ferry used by Marine Corps in Okinawa, Japan, has had its charter renewed and will continue operating for up to another two years, the Pentagon announced Thursday.

The Australian-built WestPac Express has been operating under the control of the III Marine Expeditionary Force since 2001. The ship can carry vehicles and cargo, while up to 970 passengers sit in airplane-style seats. Capable of speeds up to 36 knots, the ship is run by 14 contract mariners working for the Military Sealift Command.

The base period of the new charter is for the ship’s operation into August 2012, with three six-month option periods that would extend the service to January 2014. Base value of the fixed-price charter is $8.2 million, but the value of the contract rises to more than $30 million if all the options are exercised.

The contract announcement noted that three offers were received to provide high-speed ferry service to the Marines.

The 331-foot-long aluminum catamaran ferry was built by Austal in western Australia. Ten similar ships are being built by Austal USA in Mobile, Ala., under the Joint High Speed Vessel program for the Navy and Army.

In addition to moving military cargo throughout the Far East, the WestPac Express was active in March in providing disaster relief services in northeast Japan after the earthquake and tsunami devastated the region.

China, Japan to Back Direct Trade of Currencies

Japan and China will promote direct trading of yen and yuan without using dollars and will encourage the development of a market for the exchange, to cut costs for companies, the Japanese government said.

Japan will also apply to buy Chinese bonds next year, the Japanese government said in a statement after a meeting between Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing yesterday.

The deals between the world’s second and third-largest economies come as the two-year-old European debt crisis keeps global financial markets volatile. Japan will start to buy “a small amount” of China’s bonds, a Japanese government official said on condition of anonymity because of the ministry’s policy, without elaborating on when and how much of the debt the nation plans to purchase.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-25/china-japan-to-promote-direct-trading-of-currencies-to-cut-company-costs.html

In Germany the economy hums and the euro crisis seems elsewhere

‘There is a sense here that Germany has survived this crisis because it’s done so many things right,’ says a Berlin-based economist. But critics say it has leveraged the euro crisis to its advantage.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-germany-calm-20111225,0,6054702.story

http://pl2011.eu/

Hardly ‘Incredible India’

Policy paralysis, corruption scandals and a government fearful of political backlash to any bold moves have combined with the global slowdown and worsening domestic finances in the last few months to derail Asia’s third-largest economy.

India now faces the worst-case scenario that was touted earlier this year - stubbornly high inflation, slowing growth, a mounting fiscal deficit, a rupee that risks freefall — and both policymakers and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have few levers to fix it.

http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/12/16/hardly-incredible-india-idINDEE7BF03W20111216?feedType=nl&feedName=intopnews