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By Knight Kiplinger

The Kiplinger Washington Editors

July 2, 2009

By year-end or so, Congress will give the nod to a major rewriting of the nation's financial regulatory system. This week’s Kiplinger Letter explores whether the package will do more harm than good and what lawmakers are likely to include.

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: The Economy, Business Costs, Taxes, Supreme Court, Energy, Workplace Regulations, Climate Change, Health Care Legislation and Foreign Policy

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I just attended a franchise seminar. The speaker represents a few hundred franchises that (he says) are hand picked. He has the prospect (aka victim?) answer some questions about themselves then he makes recomendations - based on your personality, capital situation, etc.. If you pick a franchise, then he does some due dilligence for you. If you both decide it's a good idea, he helps you get started. He says he offers this service free of charge, which means he gets a commission if he's able to sell you a franchise. Has anyone done this? Successfully? Unsuccessfully?

-- fender

$6 Gas? One Nasty Hurricane Could Do It

One well-aimed Category 5 storm in the Gulf of Mexico -- certainly possible in the active season being forecast for this year -- could cripple oil and gasoline production, and the economy.

Worth Reading: The Quick Take from Kiplinger

July 2007

A.M. Best Company

Founded in 1899, A.M. Best Company is a global full-service credit rating organization that serves the financial and health care services industries, including insurance companies, banks and health care system providers. It is the largest and oldest company devoted to issuing in-depth reports and financial strength ratings about insurance organizations

Remember the jump in gasoline prices after hurricanes Katrina and Rita dealt a one-two punch to the Gulf coast in 2005? If a storm of similar or greater strength should ever land a direct hit on Houston, drivers might find themselves looking back wistfully. So much of the oil and gas industry is located in the region that the economic consequences -- let alone the potentially devastating human costs -- of such a hit could be disastrous.

The insurance company rating firm A.M. Best recently issued its forecast for the 2007 hurricane season and included an assessment of such a strike. Fittingly, it's entitled its report calculating the effect of such strike One Blow Away from $6 Gas. "A Category 5 storm moving on the Houston area...would dwarf energy industry disruptions seen from Katrina and Rita," says the report, relying on scientific modeling done by two catastrophe-modeling firms. "Forty percent of U.S. refinery production could be shut, as well as nearly all offshore production facilities."

Unfortunately, the prospect of such a strike -- and such a price reaction -- is not far fetched. An active hurricane season is expected, with four to five storms expected to be Category 3 hurricanes or higher. Driven up by other factors, gas prices are already rivaling the highs seen after Katrina struck two years ago. "In the current environment...even the suggestion of a developing hurricane headed in that direction has the potential to push energy prices significantly higher, producing economic disruptions," the report says.

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POSTED BY: JDD (August 18, 2007 09:34 AM)
BULL PUCKY!!!just another opportunity for the oil pirates to bilk money from the consumer!!!the oil companies are so obese and ugly now with their greed!!!

POSTED BY: Stantheman (June 02, 2008 10:25 PM)
If you dont like the price of gas.... Walk. Until the dems get off there high horse of destroying our economy and allow drilling and refineries being built in this country we are doomed to pay increasing prices... And the republicans do nothing to change it either.

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