Company Watch - Northwest Airlines.
6/30/2008 Pilots at Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines have reached a joint contract agreement that will go into effect if the two airlines merge. The two pilot groups have agreed on a system for creating one seniority list by the time the merger closes. 6/25/2008 ...

How two cows make a crisis: U.S.-Canada trade relations and mad cow disease.
Introduction In 2003, Canada and the United States announced their first cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease. In May, a single infected cow was discovered in Alberta. In December, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced the U.S.'s first case: a dairy cow...

Risk floods the pipeline; America needs more natural gas. Other countries want to sell it to us. It's getting it here and into the pipelines that presents the risk, some of it physical but much of it political.
For proponents, imported liquefied natural gas represents a significant part of America's energy future. Opponents see the terminals and tankers that would be needed to handle those natural gas imports as giant bombs waiting to be set off by terrorists. In between, insurers are taking a more...

Weathering the commodities crisis: agriculture dominates the world's headlines, with news of rising prices and extreme weather sowing concern among farmers, governments and consumers almost daily. New weather risk management tools provide a ray of sunshine.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Summary * The agricultural sector is learning the value of weather risk management tools. * The best products for ag producers are over-the-counter contracts designed to meet their specific needs. * Newer tools can help hedge for revenue and...

Johanns v. Livestock Marketing Association-government speech: it's what's for dinner!
In Johanns v. Livestock Marketing Assn, the United States Supreme Court upheld the beef checkoff program and effectively broadened the government speech doctrine. In a 6-3 decision, the Court held that the generic beef advertising program at issue was the government's own speech and therefore was exempt from the...

What's The Ceiling For Paper WTI.
When on April 22, paper WTI reached almost $120/b, traders at NYMEX wondered when the $130 level would be reached. In a comment posted to a BusinessWeek.com opinion piece arguing there was no actual shortage of gasoline, "Ward" on April 17 wrote: "Impeach the oil cos. Then impeach their...

As Cost of Electricity Goes Up, Advanced Green Technologies Offers Services.
ENERGY RESOURCE-11 July 2008-As Cost of Electricity Goes Up, Advanced Green Technologies Offers Services(C)2008 JeraOne - http://www.jeraone.com Advanced Green Technologies, a renewable energy technology distributor, based in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., is working with utility companies to help offset predictions by the U.S. Energy Information Administration that electricity...

World market 101: understanding the perils and promise of international trade.
IMAGINE YOU'RE A MEXICAN CORN FARMER IN 1994. ON A small plot of rain-watered land, you grow corn for your family, with a bit left over to sell so that you can buy medicine, clothes, and other necessities. You may not be aware that your government has just negotiated...

Friends and foes: informal networks in the Soviet Union (1).
The course of the Russian reforms during the 1990s has been a profound disappointment to many of the Western neo-liberal economics advisors drawn to the unique opportunity to test their theories in real-life laboratory. (2) Shock therapy resulted in a several-years-long economic recession punctuated by periodic market-wide crashes, while...

Fitch: AMR and American Airlines at 'B-'; Outlook to Stable.
TRAVEL AND LEISURE CLOSE-UP-20 April 2008-Fitch: AMR and American Airlines at 'B-'; Outlook to Stable(C)2008 - CloseUpMedia - newsdesk@closeupmedia.com Fitch Ratings has affirmed the debt ratings of AMR and its principal operating subsidiary, American Airlines, as follows: AMR - Issuer Default Rating (IDR)...