Decoding Donald Trump's Davos Speech

US President Donald Trump (left) spoke at the World Economic Forum on January 21 in Switzerland. His address was designated as a special session in the official agenda for Davos.

It was a meandering 72-minute speech of dubiety, deception and delirium. 

72 minutes in which he bragged everything is going great guns in the US of A! Grocery prices, energy prices, air fares, mortgages, rents, car payments – are all coming down and they are coming down fast!

72 minutes in which Trump confused Greenland with Iceland. One a colony of Denmark; the other a sovereign country. Multiple times. While explaining why he wants to buy it. 

72 minutes in which he called Greenland “a piece of ice” on which the fate of the Earth would depend: “What I’m asking for is a piece of ice in exchange for world peace”.

72 minutes in which he threatened a NATO ally, Denmark, with these words: “You can say yes, and we’ll appreciate it. You can say no, and we’ll remember it”.  

72 minutes in which he declared that he has “100% Scottish blood and 100% German blood”. Which would make 200%. Evidently math is not his strong suit. 

72 minutes in which he claimed that the United States, after World War II, “gave Greenland back to Denmark”. Too bad that’s not true. The United States never owned Greenland. Never. In 1916 they officially recognized Danish sovereignty. During the war they only obtained temporary military bases. And in 1946 they tried to buy it by offering 100 million dollars. Denmark said no. There was no “giving back”. 

72 minutes in which he claimed that “China has no wind turbines”. China. The country that for 15 consecutive years has been the world’s largest producer of wind energy. The one that builds 45% of all wind projects on the planet. But for Trump, “they don’t have fields of windmills”. They sell them “to the stupid”. 

72 minutes in which he said that “all the big oil companies are coming with us to Venezuela”. Too bad that 3 days earlier, the CEO of ExxonMobil told him to his face that Venezuela is “not investible”. Too bad Trump got furious and threatened to exclude Exxon. Too bad the other companies are standing on the sidelines, terrified. But at Davos he said “they’re all coming”. 

72 minutes in which he claimed that “there is practically no inflation” in the United States. US inflation is at 2.7%. Above the Fed’s target. Forecast to rise because of his own tariffs. But for him, “there is practically none”. 

72 minutes in which he attacked the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, calling him “stupid” and “Jerome too-late Powell”. Live. In front of world economic leaders. 

72 minutes in which he told the story of imposing tariffs on Switzerland out of spite, because “a woman” whose name he doesn’t remember “petted him the wrong way”. 

72 minutes in which he said that “yesterday the market crashed because of Iceland”. Iceland. A country with 380,000 inhabitants. That supposedly made Wall Street collapse. 

72 minutes in which he claimed that the United States “paid 100% of NATO”. 100%. When the American share of the NATO budget is about 16%. But for him, 100%. 

72 minutes in which he mispronounced Azerbaijan as “Aber-bajian”. 

72 minutes of conveyer-belt wordiness. A smokescreen of fustian and fantasy. A clumsy catalogue of easily verifiable lies, of made-up numbers, of threats to allies, of insults to officials, of geographical flubs, of boasts contradicted by facts. 

And the world, in bemused silence, watched. 

California Sues Oil Behemoths

The US state of California has sued five oil behemoths for their alleged role in downplaying the risk posed by fossil fuels while causing tens of billions of dollars in damage, The New York Times has reported. 

 

The lawsuit, filed on Friday in the superior court of San Francisco, targeted Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips and Chevron. 

 

It is said to be the most significant lawsuit to put the spotlight on the fossil fuel industry and demand the creation of a fund to compensate for future damages caused by climate-related disasters. 

 

And it follows other cases brought by US cities, counties and states against fossil fuel interests over the impact of climate change, as well as alleged disinformation campaigns spanning decades. 

 

California’s attorney general Rob Bonta, who is leading the case, claimed in the 135-page document the oil giants intentionally downplayed the risks posed by fossil fuels to the public since the 1950s – despite knowing their products were likely to lead to significant global warming.

 

Since the current wave of environmental litigation against fossil fuel firms began in 2017, the industry has sought to avoid state trials on procedural grounds. But that effort received a major blow in May when the US Supreme Court declined to consider an appeal in two cases, meaning they could proceed. 

 

The legal complaint highlights the destruction unfolding in California from climate change, including record heat, wildfires and drought.

 

The lawsuits are modeled on successful cases against Big Tobacco as well as against the pharmaceutical industry over the proliferation of opioids.

 

No response by the oil majors to the California lawsuit was immediately available. 

 

Oil companies have said in response to other lawsuits that policies to address climate change should come from the federal executive branch and Congress, not via a patchwork of decisions in court cases across the United States.

Banks Finance Oil & Gas Firms

Banks are snubbing the climate pledges they made. 

In April, they indicated they understood that they have an important role in the transition away from fossil fuels, and many signed up to the United Nations-backed Net-Zero Banking Alliance, which requires they set targets to reduce carbon emissions.

However, activist group ShareAction said on Monday that their analysis showed that twenty-five of the said banks have provided $33 billion (£24 billion) in loans and other financing to 50 companies with large oil and gas expansion plans. The oil & gas companies include America’s ExxonMobil, which have tried to defy shareholder demands to cut emissions, state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco and London-listed Shell and BP who have made huge profits from energy price increases in recent months. 

More than half ($19 billion) of the financing since the net zero agreement came from four of alliance’s founders. They were London-headquartered HSBC and Barclays, France’s BNP Paribas and Germany’s Deutsche Bank. 

HSBC, Barclays and BNP Paribas also provided the most finance to these companies since 2016, at $59 billion, $48 billion and $46 billion respectively. 

The banks’ broken promises mean they are giving all of us the one-finger salute.

Oil Companies Continue to Take a Beating

Exxon Mobil Corp and Royal Dutch Shell Plc this week reported their lowest quarterly profits since 1999 and 2005, respectively. Chevron Corp’s third straight loss marked the longest slump in 27 years, and BP Plc lodged its lowest refining margins in six years.

 

Welcome to year two of a supply overhang and depressed crude prices – that is threatening to tip into yet another bear market, dashing hopes that a slump that began in mid-2014 would show signs of abating.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pix by Hasriyasyah Sabudin @ http://www.nst.com.my/news/2016/07/161832/squash-nicol-and-joshna-make-sram-invitational-finals-contrasting-style

 

Nicol David checked into the finals of the SRAM Women's Invitational in Bukit Jalil in Kuala Lumpur after beating Egypt's Omneya Abdel Kawy 11-4, 11-4, 11-6 on Saturday.

 

Tomorrow, she will meet India’s Joshna Chinappa for the second time in this tournament – after the latter rallied from two games down to oust New Zealand's Joelle King 8-11, 5-11, 11-8, 11-4, 11-9.

 

David had defeated Chinappa in three games in the group stage on Thursday. The top seed, however, had to come from behind in each game to win 11-8, 11-8, 12-10 in 37 minutes and preserve her record of never having dropped a game against Chinappa in twelve meetings.

 

A day earlier, she needed just 24 minutes to win over England's Jenny Duncalf 11-4, 11-4, 11-4.

 

On Wednesday, Celtic emerged from a testing visit to Astana in Kazakhstan where they were largely second best with a commendable 1-1 draw.

 

Looking to reach the Champions League group stage for the first time since 2013 – they fell behind to a Yuri Logvinenko header in the nineteenth minute. But Leigh Griffiths found the equalizer when he rifled the ball past FC Astana’s goalkeeper in the seventy-eighth minute – thanks to Patrick Roberts who won possession near the byline and picked out Griffiths inside the penalty area.

 

Celtic must aim for a win in Glasgow next week to reach the Champions League play-off stage.

BP Admits Crimes

British oil company BP on Thursday announced it will pay $4.5 billion in fines and ther payments to the government, and plead guilty to 14 criminal charges resulting from the giant oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico two years ago. This sum includes $1.3 in criminal fines, breaking the record for criminal penalties in the country previously held by drug maker Pfizer, who was penalized to the tune of $1.2 billion in 2009 for marketing fraud related to pain medication.

The US Justice Department also filed criminal charges against three BP employees. Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine have been indicted with manslaughter for their involvement in the disaster that left 11 workers dead – alleging that they were negligent in supervising tests before the well blowout and explosion that destroyed the rig. Prosecutors also charged BP’s former vice president for exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, David Rainey, with obstruction of Congress and making false statements about the rate at which oil was spilling from the well.

The April 20, 2010 explosion at the Deepwater Horizon rig managed by BP not only caused eleven deaths but ravaged the Gulf shore by polluting it with 4.9 million barrels of crude oil in the worst spill ever to happen off of America and only brought under control after five months. [Up until that point, the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill was the most severe in US history, having resulted in a comparably meager 750,000 barrels polluting Prince William Sound, Alaska due to a tanker crash. In that case, Exxon settled with the US government for what would be only $1.8 billion by today’s standards].

BP is still subject to other claims, including billions of dollars in federal civil claims and claims for damages to natural resources. In particular, BP noted that the settlement does not resolve what is potentially the largest penalty related to the spill: fines under the Clean Water Act. The potential fine for the spill under the act is $1,100 to $4,300 a barrel spilled. That means the fine could be as much as $21 billion.

Even with these fines, the economic losses suffered by the locals can never be truly compensated, especially to the poor and working-class families whose homes, bodies, and lives were devastated because of BP’s criminal irresponsibility.

Mirzan Hogging the Headlines Again

Last evening, I went to Extol Corporation Bhd in Wisma UOA Pantai to attend the Kelab Pidato Kuala Lumpur – this is a Malay-speaking Toastmasters club. I must admit that it was a very different experience because everybody spoke in Malay and for the first time, I was lost for words. It has been a long, long time since I spoke Malay in a formal setting – the last time was when I did classroom teaching at Open University Malaysia in 2010 where I used both English and Malay, but predominantly the latter. Yesterday, I felt inadequate and only spoke when I had to. Anyway, I was requested to take on the role of time-keeper and I managed reasonably well. Needless to say, I collected my share of pauses and ‘speech crutches’ although on this particular evening, there was no ‘Ah’ counter.

I actually enjoyed this meeting. Kim Chow was outstanding in her role as the Toastmaster-of-the-Evening (“Pengacara Majlis” in Malay). I also liked the speech by Leong Oi Wah because it touched on the Obedient Wives Club or as she referred to in Malay as “Kelab Isteri Taat Suami” (KITS). And with Hadzrin Shah helming the Table Topics session (or as it is referred to as “Sesi Ucapan Spontan”), you can bet that it will be fun! All in all a good meeting – even if there were only nine of us!

ExxonMobil is selling off their interests in three downstream businesses in Malaysia to Philippine conglomerate, San Miguel Corporation for $610 million.

But this business transaction is not a simple deal as many have thought it to be. If we examine the sale individually – we will note that the two unlisted companies (i.e. ExxonMobil Malaysia Sdn Bhd and ExxonMobil Borneo Sdn Bhd) have much higher valuations than the listed vehicle (i.e. Esso Malaysia Bhd). San Miguel is expected to pay $206.02 million (RM614.25 million @ RM3.50/share for a 65% stake) for the latter as against $403.98 million (RM1,204.46 million) for 100% of the former! I am wondering why this is so? Also the latter operates the 88,000-barrels-capacity-rated Port Dickson refinery plus owning seven storage terminals and a network of 560 petrol service stations across the country. So far, I have no answer to this question!

San Miguel Corp has reportedly said that it will fork out another RM330 million to buy over the remaining shares from minority holders when the deal is completed. The price of RM3.50 per share is 1.07 times its book value but much lower than its market value! Why are minority shareholders getting a lousy deal?

The next question is who helped broker this deal? Yup, that same person whom I have highlighted in yesterday’s posting ("Mahathir’s First Son") – Mirzan Mahathir! He is the face of San Miguel in Malaysia. He was appointed director after acquiring 19.9 percent share in the corporation for RM2.9 billion. And although he has resigned from the board in April 2010, he surfaced as a director of Petron Corporation – an associated company of San Miguel Corp that owns a network of refineries and petrol dealership in Philippines – in timely fashion.

This whole deal sucks big-time right from the beginning! Stafford T Kelly, Vice President of ExxonMobil Corporation had pre-empted everybody by announcing to the whole country that the deal to his preferred partner San Miguel was final even before the Malaysian authorities had a chance to consider the Foreign Investment Committee ruling. Is it wrong to infer that he knew something we didn’t? Guess who is the Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry? Yup, Mirzan’s brother, Mokhzani and we all know that he has benefitted greatly from the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry through Kenchana Petroleum. [Mokhzani is Kenchana’s group chief executive officer and was appointed to the Kenchana Petroluem board of directors in 2004]. Did you manage to piece together the jigsaw puzzle? If you did, you need not have to wonder who helped to get the FIC approval so quickly.

Where is the government’s commitment to corporate governance?

And another thing! I bet you Mahathir is in the swim too!