Russia and its ME conundrum

Succinct and nice post from Starfor. Engages in the dynamics of the various possibilities that lie ahead.


Link here


Russia tried its best to keep the Americans and Iranians apart. Offers to sell Iran advanced air defense systems were designed to poke holes in U.S. threats to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities. Teams of Russian nuclear experts whetted Iran’s appetite for civilian nuclear power with offers to build additional power reactors. Russian banks did their part to help Iran circumvent financial sanctions. The Russian plan all along was not to help Iran get the bomb, but to use its leverage with a thorny player in the Middle East to get the United States into a negotiation on issues vital to Russia’s national security interests. So, if Washington wanted to resolve its Iran problem, it would have to pull back on issues like ballistic missile defense in Central Europe, which Moscow saw early on as the first of several U.S. steps to encircle Russia.

Quick notes on Infrastructure and Energy Sector

Just been very quickly looking at the Infrastructure and Energy sectors and how those stocks have shaped up in the markets over the last few months. It does leave me with the impression that it has risen secularly... pretty much across the board, if you will.


Pleasant days. Will this mean there will be a rise in the infrastructure capacity levels and energy security needs too? Time should tell

Time to invest in coal?

Been reading a fair bit of articles on how Coal price is surging ahead and there is still a lot of upside in the prices.
We have just seen a bull run on almost every commodity man has ever known and almost everything enjoyed a significant upside the last 12-18 months.

Lots of compelling articles which mention that Coal looks very lucrative and its demand is sky rocketing given the general prevailing conditions.

Significant factors amongst these:
a. EM's (India, China and the growing economies) are growing smartly at a decent clip and need a lot of Coal to take care of their energy needs
b. Australian miners are lobbying against their government to introduce carbon taxes in 2012. A crucial meet in scheduled for sometime this week to decide on these matters.
c. Demand far outstrips supply which would obviously lead to higher prices.

For ppl interested in the entire article, the link is here

Coal India is up quite smartly ever since it started trading sometime last year. Currently the stock is up about 70 odd % in some 3 Q's which is excellent whichever way one looks at it.
So, is it time to dirty one's hands (euphemistically speaking) and dig deep into Coal? What say ye?