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FISHRGAME
_____________
Feature
Stories -
062005-06
/ Week tviNews
Convergence
Todays Puzzle
--
WHERE'S ALL THE IRAQ
OIL?
• •
The International Monetary Fund is extending
more than $450 million to Iraq to help it stabilize
its financial system. And U.S. government funds for
the reconstruction of Iraq have begun to flow -- $3
billion so far, with $9 billion more set to be put
to work soon in various infrastructure
projects.
• • An incipient recovery is also
visible in Iraq's agricultural sector, centered in
the Tigris and Euphrates valleys -- the biblical
Garden of Eden. The nation's farms suffered from
neglect and a dearth of investment under Hussein.
But now irrigation is flowing over more acres, and
more crops are blooming.
• • The Iraq Stock Exchange, which
opened in June to replace the corrupt Baghdad
exchange of Hussein's time, is stirring to life as
well. More than 60 companies are listed and $1
billion-plus in bonds were traded last year,
according to Amman, Jordan-based Atlas Investment
Co.
• • Through the exchange, an
enterprise such as Al Mansur Co. can raise capital
for building 1 million housing units in three
cities.
• • "Getting financing and
building materials for reconstruction is not
difficult," analyst Lubna Bashiti of Atlas
Investment says.
• • "The only obstacle may be
logistics in transporting the materials from
Jordan, the Emirates or Saudi Arabia," Bashiti
says, referring to continued violence along Iraqi
roads.
• • But, in truth, says, a LA
Times report, zealots with car bombs may be the
least of Iraq's economic
problems.
• • Most of the exchange's
listings are state-owned firms, the legacy of a
regime under which even companies making such
workaday products as batteries, fertilizer, milk
and cheese were government-controlled. Now these
ventures present opportunities for private
investors who can transform them into real
businesses. But privatization also carries great
risks -- especially in a place where the notion of
a free economy is so strange and
new.
• • The roots of Hussein's
patronage economy -- in which contracts were let
solely to reward friends and punish enemies -- run
deep. Iraq remains beset by "corruption and
resentment and false values," says Timur Kuran,
professor of economics and law at USC and an
Islamic scholar.
• • To succeed in this new day,
Kuran says, Iraq must create an independent
business sector and a civil structure of laws and
checks and balances.
• • That won't happen overnight.
Instead, U.S. investment managers hear reports that
the streets of Iraq are awash with American
currency, probably left over from years of looting
by Hussein's lieutenants and "oil-for-food" scams.
Buildings are being bought for cold cash, according
to the reports.
• • Some saw the Iraqi election as
nothing short of a miracle. The lifting of the
Iraqi economy will require far more than
that.
A
week ago, millions of Iraqi citizens braved threats
of
violence to cast ballots in their
nation's first multiparty elections in half a
century. Rightly, many around the world
cheered.
• • A week ago, millions of Iraqi
citizens braved threats of violence to cast ballots
in their nation's first multiparty elections in
half a century. Rightly, many around the world
cheered.
• • And yet for all the
jubilation, there is a sobering reality that
continues to hang over the war-ravaged country:
Iraq is going to have a hard time sustaining its
fledgling democracy unless millions of its citizens
also get to do things beyond the ballot box, like
land decent jobs and invest their money with
confidence.
• • Unfortunately, that's not
going to happen anytime
soon.
• • Everyone knows that Iraq has
the potential to be rich. In 2003, as the bombs
began to fall over Baghdad, Bush administration
officials blithely explained how the country's oil
would finance its postwar rebuilding. They have
since thought better of such
statements.
• • Iraq has enormous oil reserves
-- at least 120 billion barrels, or 11% of the
world's total -- and probably much more remaining,
to be proved through exploration and development.
But the country won't soon be able to produce as
much oil as it did in the
1990s.
• • Security is a huge problem, of
course; sabotage to a pipeline in the north is
currently cutting into Iraq's oil
exports.
• • But the real trouble
transcends any one or two terrorist incidents.
Saddam Hussein, it turns out, was a lousy oil field
manager.
• • The basic problem, says Vera
de Ladoucette, an expert on Middle East oil for
Cambridge Energy Research Associates, is that the
greedy dictator
overproduced.
• • Hussein wanted to pump up oil
production to generate a gusher of money, with
little thought about husbanding resources for the
future. So his minions used water-flooding
techniques and other means to maximize production
from petroleum deposits in southern
Iraq.
• • The result: Those reservoirs
may be severely damaged, shortening their
productive life.
• • The Iraqi oil ministry
evidently senses the danger. It has given contracts
to BP and Royal Dutch/Shell Group to study data
from the fields over the next 11 months. The intent
is to see what needs to be done to repair the oil
reservoirs.
• • Meanwhile, Iraq's petroleum
output looks as if it'll be stuck at about 2
million barrels a day for the next couple of years
-- a 43% reduction from the country's former
capabilities. "And that's the absolute maximum," De
Ladoucette notes.
• • At current prices, Iraq's oil
production should generate more than $30 billion a
year in income, pushing the nation's gross domestic
product to more than $35 billion. But Iraq needs to
generate far more economic activity to meet the
needs of its population, now at 24.8 million and
growing by 5% a year.
• • There are, fortunately, some
signs of progress.
• •
///
• •
------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWS
CONVERGENCE
///
Center
Page / Feature
BofA Prop 64
Stop Existing Lawsuits
John Sullivan BofA Court Says Prop. 64 Can't Stop
Existing Lawsuits
A California appellate court has ruled
that a state ballot measure passed in November to
limit lawsuits against businesses cannot be used to
dismiss cases filed before voters approved the
measure.
• • A California appellate
court has ruled that a state ballot measure passed
in November to limit lawsuits against businesses
cannot be used to dismiss cases filed before voters
approved the measure.
• • The 1st District Court
of Appeal in San Francisco ruled Tuesday that
privately held Mervyn's, a department store chain
with 126 stores in the state, could not use
Proposition 64 to seek the dismissal of a lawsuit
brought by the group Californians for Disability
Rights.
• • "Application of
Proposition 64 to cases filed before the
initiative's effective date would deny parties fair
notice," a three-judge panel wrote. "Plaintiffs who
filed and prosecuted cases for years, like CDR,
could suffer dismissal of their lawsuit at all
stages of litigation."
• • Proposition 64 requires
that plaintiffs, before suing for deceptive
advertising or other fraudulent behavior, prove
they personally suffered injury or financial loss
because of a company's behavior. Companies
including AT&T Corp. and Anheuser-Busch Cos.
have asked state judges to dismiss suits filed
before the proposition was
passed.
• • Greg Terk, a spokesman
for Hayward, Calif.-based Mervyn's, declined to
comment.
• • The lawsuit claimed
that Mervyn's didn't provide enough space between
displays for people with
disabilities.
• • Andrea G. Asaro, a
lawyer representing the disability rights group,
said nothing in Proposition 64 indicated that it
should be applied
retroactively.
• • "It's a long-standing
principle that when you change the law, that
applies prospectively but not to cases already
underway," Asaro said. "If drafters of Proposition
64 intended it to apply retroactively, then the
voters should have been apprised of
that."
• • John H. Sullivan, a
lawyer and co-chairman of the Yes on 64 campaign,
said the appellate court decision was surprising
given that lower trial courts have tended to rule
the other way.
• • "It's not over yet,"
Sullivan said. "We expect other courts of appeal to
rule in other districts, and a Supreme Court ruling
we hope not long after that."
• • Supporters of
Proposition 64, which won 59% of the vote, said it
would end frivolous lawsuits.
TIMELINE:
Top Stories To Start The Week
With:
ByLines:
Editors Note
#106Law
Statute of limitations Rape Case
• • Rape Conviction of Utah
Polygamist Upheld
February 2, 2005
• • SALT LAKE CITY -- The Utah
Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the conviction of a
polygamist charged with child rape for having sex
with his first wife when she was 13. Tom Green, 56,
had lived with his five wives and 31 children in a
cluster of..
• • SALT LAKE CITY -- The Utah
Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the conviction of a
polygamist charged with child rape for having sex
with his first wife when she was 13.
• • Tom Green, 56, had lived with
his five wives and 31 children in a cluster of
trailer homes in the remote desert about 125 miles
southwest of Salt Lake City. He was convicted in
June 2002 of child rape and appealed, arguing that
the statute of limitations had run out and the
court that tried him lacked jurisdiction because
the alleged rape occurred in
Mexico.
• • The high court
ruled Tuesday that the statute had not run out
because the 1985 incident was not reported to law
enforcement until 1999. The court also said the
case was decided in the right jurisdiction.
• • Green's attorney, John Bucher,
said he was disappointed. "In many points, I
believe they did not meet the issues," he
said.
• • In the appeal, Bucher argued
that the state's Division of Child and Family
Services had been made aware of Linda Kunz's age
and the age of the son that was conceived when she
was 13. Bucher said that should have started the
clock on the statute of limitations.
• • But the Supreme Court said
informing the child services agency did not
constitute contact with a law enforcement agency.
• • A year before the child rape
conviction, Green was convicted of four counts of
bigamy and one count of criminal nonsupport of his
children. He appealed his bigamy conviction to the
high court and lost.
Larry
Page
Bylines
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