The oil spill from BP’s offshore platform has been in news since last week. I do not have any first hand idea of the ground realities. Based on news media and reports, as of today, the oil spill continues unabated, with many different estimates of rate of flow of crude oil in the sea. To me, this is an indicator that nobody knows how serious or trivial this crude oil spill is. There are no signs that in will stop in near future.
The news agencies government organizations have been showing that potential short term damage and long term impacts would be very significant (to local population and local businesses). At least for now, BP has also mentioned that it will pay for clean up and considers itself partially responsible. In short, BP is on the hook for cleanup, irrespective of what are the ground realities and technicalities.
According to one estimates, it is expected that BP will be liable up to $6 billion for clean up, $ 1Billion for litigation, and $3 Billion for compensation, and $4 billion in lost revenue. This is a total of $14 billion. I am not so sure if these estimates are in the ball park. However, it gives some idea on the scope of the financial impact. continue reading rest of the article….
In general, there is school of thought that if risk is higher, then probability of “returns are also higher”. On many occasions almost all investors would have used this interpretation. This is only true to certain extent, it is a partial truth. It is incomplete. 
We all do not need to be told that US economy is passing through a turbulent phase. Talk to any individual who has slightest interest in economy and/or investment process, they will tell you the housing is the root cause of our economic malaise. One would imagine that everybody would learn from past mistakes (i.e. particularly mortgage practices) and hopefully do not do repeat it. Sometimes I do not get that feeling, and many times who will feel stakeholders have different objectives and hence knowingly they keep repeat it. 
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Effect of Currency Fluctuations on US Dividend Investors?
As you may or may not know, currency fluctuations significantly affect US dividend investors. In fact, in a recent survey conducted by the Pennsylvania-based AvantGard Company, it was discovered that fifty-nine percent of the 275 people that participated in the poll stated that currency fluctuations resulted in a loss or gain of at least five percent in the past year ending in March 31, 2010. These numbers are up forty percent when they are compared with the previous year’s survey.
“The majority of corporations are in the business of doing business, producing and manufacturing, not hedging currencies,” said Paul Bramwell, a senior vice president of Treasury solutions at the AvantGard unit of SunGard in Connecticut. “A lot of companies were caught unawares by volatility.” continue reading rest of the article….