The world’s cut flower market is dominated by two producers: the Netherlands and Colombia who together account for approximately 70% of the annual $49 billion dollar cut flower market. The Netherlands controls almost half of that trade and Colombia is the second largest producer with a 20% market share. Other large produces include Israel, Kenya, Italy, Thailand, Ethiopia, Ecuador, Guatemala and New Zealand though none of these account for more than 4% of global trade. Still, the principal global exchange remains that of the Aaslmeer Flower Auction in the Netherlands held daily that accounts for an estimated 35% of global sales. Of course, the Dutch floral trade dates back over 300 years.
The cut flower market, while global, is really three large regional markets dominated by the largest consumers of cut flowers: the European Community (Germany, the UK and France are the three largest consumers), the United States and Japan. Until the 1960s, the cut flower market was primarily a local one but air freight allowed global trade to flourish. Some Dutch flowers are sold in the United States and some Colombian flowers are sold in Europe but with freshness paramount in the trade, shipping long distances is generally avoided.
Ugh! They are all wrong to some degree though at least they all agreed that subsidies for oil & gas companies should be ended. Neil Cavuto is simply off his rocker. He is against a windfall tax on oil company profits for fearing that that may lead to some arbitrary standard on taxing other companies’ exorbitant profits the same way. The difference between Apple and ExxonMobil should be obvious. One is an innovative technology company that is investing heavily in its R&D for an array products that run from essential to the non-essential. The second is a dinosaur in terms of its life-cycle. It does produce very essential products, a product that without which life as we know could not exist on this planet for the quantity of people now on it.
As I wrote yesterday, the oil companies are cash cows and for whatever reason many of them don’t seem interested in morphing into alternative energy companies. They seem to prefer to die a slow death. That’s their choice but it does not mean they have the right to take us with them. Chris Nelder is right that the oil companies do not control the price of oil. OPEC largely does based on supply & demand. It is not free market since a cartel does set production quotas that limit supply but the situation today is far different than it was in 1970s. Then the price was wholly artificial, today it is only partially artificial. Supply ain’t what it used to be. Indonesia is now a net-importer of oil (it still exports LNG) and Mexico is likely to be a net-importer of oil by 2012 or sooner. Norway’s luck should run out in 2030. As non-OPEC producers start to run out of excess for export then prices will really hit levels that will make us look back fondly on $100 a barrel (the fortnight that that lasted anyway).
As we approach the Oregon Primary on May 20th, the very junior from Illinois is beginning to make his pitch to Oregonians. On the key issues up in Oregon are three LNG (liquefied natural gas) terminals that are slated for construction and their location. Well the very junior from Illinois has now come out and is supporting the right of states like Oregon to veto the siting and construction of onshore LNG facilities in their states. Obama believes that any LNG terminals must include strong environmental and safety reviews, a process that is critical for the proposed LNG facilities in Oregon. Obama supports legislation championed by Senator Ron Wyden to preserve Oregon’s siting authority and will sign it into law as president.
Good for him but two slight problems. First of all that legislation is a joint Wyden-Clinton proposal and you conveniently leave out the other co-sponsor of the bill. Must have slipped your memory. But what hasn’t slipped mine is that this would not even be an issue now if the Bush-Cheney Energy Plan hadn’t been enacted into law. You see the Bush-Cheney Energy Bill stripped States’ of their voice in the siting process. That’s the bill that Barack Obama voted for, while Hillary voted against it. This is just more duplicity from the very junior Senator from Illinois.
In a scant four months, I have done a complete 180 degree turn politically. Until January 8th, 2008 I was an Anybody But Clinton voter. I supported John Edwards because I share his view that poverty is a moral imperative and that the country needs to rededicated itself to principles of fairness and equality from which we have strayed decisively since the Johnson Administration. As Edwards’ candidacy faltered, I had to take a good hard look at the two remaining candidates. And the more I listened to both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and examined both their record and their policy proposals, a funny thing happened on my way to the polls. I became a Nobody But Clinton voter.
Part of my evolution is clearly that I find Senator Obama lacking in substance and experience coupled with a political naïveté. But more of it is that I simply do not share his values and I vote my values. If I were to vote my own narrow economic self-interests, I would have been voting for the GOP all my life. But I haven’t done this because ultimately I believe that the United States is best served where there is equality of opportunity for all. CEO to average worker pay in 1964 stood at 24:1. Today the ratio of average CEO pay to the average pay of a production (i.e., non-management) worker is approximately 431-to-1. The cumulative pay of the top 10 highest paid CEOs in the past 15 years totals some $11.7 billion. Clearly something is amiss.
Here is the Wednesday May 7th, 2008 edition of interesting reads from around the world.
Anger and Despair In Yangon
Burma’s largest city, Yangon, with over 5 million inhabitants is growing chaotic as relief supplies have been delayed in arriving. The story from Reuters and the Asia Times.
Going, Going, Gone
I have noted that we will see oil hit $125 a barrel by the end of May. Today it briefly pass the $122 mark before setting at $121.91 at the close of the trading session. One thing that we are never likely to see again is oil at $100 a barrel. More on where the oil market is headed and what is driving the increase from The Oil Drum.
Hard Work, Hidden Lives
Reports of labour exploitation are nothing new though certainly always shocking. The TUC (Trade Union Congress) of the United Kingdom has released a report on labour conditions in Britain’s service sector. It reveals a hidden Britain where those providing the services on which society and the economy rely are trapped in a cycle of poverty and injustice. More from the Guardian Unlimited.
India Bill Pushes to Reserve A Third of Parliament for Women
The bill first introduced in 1996 was yet again tabled amid bitter acrimony in India’s Lower House. More from the Arab News.
Open Trade & The World Food Crisis
Australia’s Federal Trade Minister Simon Crean says breaking down trade barriers will help ease the world food crisis. Yes, I could not agree more but at the same there needs to be a balance that protects the livelihoods of farmers in the developing world. The full story from Australia’s ABC News.
Boca Juniors 1, River Plate 0
Argentina’s most bitter football rivalry ends in a win for Boca Juniors at the Bombonera. More on the game from Latin American Affairs. A game at the Bombonera, Boca’s stadium, is considered one of the must do of sports. Be forewarned, it pays to root for the home team.
The validity of election results rests on transparency and transparency requires that results be released as soon as they are known. In most of the world, election results are known within a couple of hours of the polls closing. In Indiana tonight, there was a clear break-down of the process. Delays in the release of the results can be the Achilles Heel of any election, leading to allegations of voter fraud and manipulation. Robert Mugagbe played the delay game to his advantage in Zimbabwe. But in the United States delays in the release of results are rare and unacceptable. There are only three reasons that delays can occur: weather related, turnout related (polls stay open later by court order) and computer/technical glitches.
In four counties tonight in Indiana there were delays and only one of them is fully explicable. In Union County on the Ohio border a technical glitch with computer tallying delayed the results until well after midnight. In Union County being a small rural county, there were few voters, a total of 1,186. And the cause of the delay was reported. That covers Union County.