The ezPalm Blog

The U. S. economy is feeling the brunt of skyrocketing oil prices as the nation’s dependence on foreign oil continues to grow. We need a responsible energy plan to reduce our reliance on foreign oil. President Bush and Senator Kerry appear to be skirting the real issues involved.

Growing transportation requirements combined with declining domestic oil production have led to burgeoning oil imports. Rising oil prices are having an adverse impact on the U.S. economy as evident from recent economic data and stock market performance. We need a responsible energy plan which will balance our transportation requirements with the necessity to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Rising Oil Prices.

Oil prices have been on a roll this year. As of August 10, crude oil prices have climbed over 45% since the start of 2004. A barrel of West Texas Intermediate recently recorded its all time high of $45.04 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. And this has happened despite the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries increasing its oil output.

Earlier in the year, the run up in oil prices was attributed to surging demand for petroleum products due to a strong global economy. Then it was the unrest in Venezuela and Nigeria.

Concerns on security of oil supplies have heightened more recently. Added to the pipeline disruptions in Iraq are kidnappings of foreign workers in the Middle East.

Yukos, the Russian oil company’s tax evasion dispute has taken center stage currently. With a production rate of 1.7 million barrels a day (mmbd), Yukos is Russia’s largest oil producer.

While the underlying factors behind the dramatic increase in the price of oil this year are a combination of all the above, the impact is hardly comforting.

Weakening Economy.

Higher oil prices that work like an added tax have the effect of holding down hiring, consumer spending, and corporate profits.

The July jobs report that was released by the Labor Department on August 6 was a disappointment. The U.S. economy added a mere 32,000 to the non-farm payrolls, the lowest monthly addition this year. The rate of employment growth is slowing as business confidence appears to be undermined by rising oil prices. High oil prices are also taking the bite out of consumer spending.

By some economists’ estimates, every $10 rise in the price of oil knocks 0.5% off of GDP growth and adds about the same amount to inflation. The equity markets have been fixated with the trend in oil prices and have relentlessly spiraled lower since late June. On August 6, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 9,815.33, its lowest level since Nov. 28 after losing more than 300 points over the last two sessions. The technology heavy Nasdaq Composite Index is down over 11% since the start of the year.

The Root Cause: Transportation Relies on Foreign Oil.

A combination of declining domestic oil production and increasing oil consumption has left the U.S. increasingly dependent on foreign oil.

The U. S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration states that domestic oil production in 2002 was 5.8 mmbd, about 36% lower than the 9.0 mmbd produced in 1985. The total use of petroleum products on the other hand has grown from 15.2 mmbd in 1985 to 19.3 mmbd in 2002.

The lion’s share of oil consumption stems from transportation needs. In 2002, the transportation sector accounted for about 68% of total petroleum use with gasoline accounting for two-thirds of the petroleum consumed in the transportation sector.

U.S. net oil imports have grown from 4.3 mmbd in 1985 to 10.4 mmbd in 2002. Net oil imports as a percent of U. S. petroleum product use has risen from 28% in 1985 to 54% in 2002.

Based on Sandia National Laboratories and U. S. DOE/EIA forecast, an additional 7.5 mmbd of oil and petroleum products will have to be imported by 2020 to bridge the gap between growing consumption and falling domestic oil production. In 2020, U.S. oil production will supply less than 30% of U.S. oil needs.

The Energy Bill: Long-Term Plan for Energy Security.

The picture the current events paint as a preview of the future is cause for concern.

On August 6, Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry outlined a $30-billion, 10-year plan to veer the U. S. towards energy independence. The plan includes tax breaks and incentives for carmakers and buyers, coal producers and alternative fuels research. President Bush responded saying Kerry’s proposals mimic much of what Bush had already proposed but is stalled in Congress.

It will not be adequate if President Bush and Senator Kerry just reignite the energy debate. To bring clarity to energy security, we need a comprehensive long-term national energy plan that will reduce our reliance on foreign oil while meeting the nation’s growing transportation needs.

Both supply and demand sides of the transportation issue will have to be addressed to make a meaningful impact in reducing the dependence on foreign oil. Steps to increase the supply of domestic transportation fuels including alternatives to oil will likely be required. So too will efforts to reduce per capita transportation fuel consumption.

Based on what has been outlined to date, neither the Bush proposal nor the Kerry plan appears to fully address the critical transportation issue. The House-Senate conferees have an opportunity to deliver a responsible energy bill to the President’s desk for his signature. If the dependence on foreign oil is not reduced, the course of the U. S. economy and the stock market may well be shaped more by decisions made in Moscow, Riyadh, and Vienna rather than being determined by the decisions made at home.

Notes: This report is for information purposes only. Nothing herein should be construed as an offer to buy or sell securities or to give individual investment advice. This report does not have regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation, and particular needs of any specific person who may receive this report. The information contained in this report is obtained from various sources believed to be accurate and is provided without warranties of any kind. AlphaProfit Investments, LLC does not represent that this information, including any third party information, is accurate or complete and it should not be relied upon as such. AlphaProfit Investments, LLC is not responsible for any errors or omissions herein. Past performance is neither an indication of nor a guarantee for future results. No part of this document may be reproduced in any manner without written permission of AlphaProfit Investments, LLC.
Copyright © 2004 AlphaProfit Investments, LLC. All rights reserved.

After working for the nation’s leading oil and auto companies, Sam Subramanian, PhD, MBA is currently Managing Principal of AlphaProfit Investments, LLC, an investment research firm based in Houston, TX. Sam edits the AlphaProfit Sector Investors’ Newsletter. For the 5 year period ending June 30, 2004, AlphaProfit model portfolios increased by up to 252%, a compound annual return rate of 28.6%. To learn more about AlphaProfit and to subscribe to the FREE newsletter, visit http://www.alphaprofit.com

Baby baptism is probably one of the most widely misunderstood rituals in the Christian (and many other) faiths. Almost all Christian churches practice Baptism in some form or another. Baptism comes from a Greek word baptizo which loosely translated means to dip, a washing or immersion. However baptism for babies is not a practice that was performed by the churches in the first century.

According to various chapters in the New Testament as you come into faith with Christ then the next few steps would be confession and then baptism. The process of baptism symbolizes the dying, burial and rising of Christ. Through baptism the symbolism of these acts are reenacted.

Baptism is done for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38), it washes away our sins (Acts 22:16). We are baptized so that will God will resurrect us from death (Colossians 2:12, Romans 6:3-6).

So when should someone be baptized?

In order to answer this question properly we will need to refer to the scriptures. The Bible clearly tells us that children are considered to be pure in the eyes of the Lord. The scriptures teach us that in order to enter God’s kingdom we need to become more like children and open our hearts (Matthew 18:3, Mark 10:15).

The baby baptism advocates interpret passages such as Psalm 51:5 as saying that we are born sinners. However with proper interpretation would say that we are just born into a sinful world. A close look at a couple of passages tells us that children do not have sin as a result being born and that sin is a result of lust and therefore turns into sin. See Ezekiel 18: 20; James 1:14-15. As children grow older they are filled with secular knowledge and through this process their hearts become hardened. This is when the blood of Christ is needed.

Being able to recite the word of God is very different to comprehending it properly. Whilst young children might mean well when they ask if they are ready to be baptized they do not know any better. The choice to become a Christian is one of the gravest and most serious decisions you can make; is your child really ready for that kind of commitment?

So who are the real candidates for baptism?

Anybody who is prepared to hear the word of God confess their sins, and ready to live a life committed to Christ can be baptized. Another place to learn who can be baptized is searching through the book of Acts. It is known as “the book of conversions.” The reason why is it shows how several people were told how to be saved and become a member of the church.

Children should be introduced to the word of God at the earliest possible stage in their lives. Parents will need to take care to strike a balance between guiding their child and supporting the child’s spiritual development. Any commitment they make to Christ is their own and should be something which they would have independently chosen for themselves.

It’s common for parents to push their children to agree with their religious beliefs. However well-intentioned it is sad because in the end this undermines the child’s spiritual development. To baptize someone who is not ready is to do them a grave disservice.

By waiting until they are ready to really understand the commitment they are agreeing to; the ritual becomes more meaningful for everyone involved, thus also approved of by God.

Christine Bettridge has loved writing since childhood. She has written Plays, poetry and many articles on several topics. She is the editor of the article directory Above All Content She is also the author of the highly popular End Times e-book which has caused a stir in the religious world. It can be found at End Time Secrets Visit her blog at: The Bible Sound Blog

You most likely already know how favourable posting your businesses online video is. For a businesses marketing manager, online video clips are a commendable media that can easily capture your potential clients’ attention & raise the overall number of visits to your businesses website. Promotional videos are enormously successful in maintaining the target consumers’ relatively short attention span. Moreover, if codes are built-in & online video sharing is promoted, Web videos can be a marvellous way to get one-way links & thereby positively affect your web site’s position on the search engines.

In reality, professional videos have become a significant source for business or self-advertising. The following are some tips to circulating your own short format promotional videos. Vidify is one of the best video production companies around that produce cost-effective short format online videos for local businesses.

Firstly, you can post your Internet videos on your own web site; although this would entail you to make your own video hosting arrangements. Ask your web hosting solutions merchant if video downloading or video streaming functions are supported.

Video downloading is where your viewers must download your Internet video to their hard disk. They need to save the Internet video to their own computers before they can play it using their PC’s video player or a downloadable video player application. There are countless video downloading service businesses that are reasonably cheap. There’s also a progressive downloading mechanism where your web viewers can play the Internet videos while downloading them.

Video sharing streaming on the other hand totally does away with the need to download the promotional videos and allows immediate playback so it gives the most convenience to your Web users. Of course, getting a video hosting provider that supports video streaming can cost you a pretty penny.

And finally, the more trendy way to distribute video commercials is by posting your sites to video distribution websites that have their very own video hosting infrastructure. These websites cost you nothing to become a member & will even sometimes give you money post video material. What’s more, also have an immense market base and reach; for example, YouTube gets around 19 million Web visitors each month.