Eskom continues to skid on slippery excuses into an uncertain future

Yesterday Bloomberg said Eskom had a power reserve margin of just above 10 percent, less than its minimum target of 15 percent, according to chief executive Jacob Maroga.

SHOOT: One thing we can expect, one thing that is certain, is that the prices of electricity and other energy [fuel and food] will continue to increase. It's becoming a simple question of fundamental aggregate supply/demand economics.

clipped from www.busrep.co.za Eskom has been blamed for jeopardising a $2.5 billion (R18.5bn) project that could create thousands of jobs and reopen a power station that could add as much as 1 500 megawatts to the national grid. The Ngagane power station at Amajuba Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal, shut down 18 years ago, was put up for sale by Eskom last July, but the utility has not followed through with the sale. The Southern Africa Power Consortium (SAPC) was shortlisted as one of the two preferred bidders to kill the old power unit and build a new one. The other shortlisted bidder is the EB Steam consortium. In a presentation to Eskom, SAPC said the new power station would create 100 000 jobs during the construction phase and 400 to 500 permanent jobs once the plant was operating again. The station currently can produce 500MW. "There is 400 million tons of coal within a 25km radius of the power station," said Pryde. The firms that Pryde represents will supply 200 000 of the 600 000 tons of coal a month.

How to lower your rent now

SHOOT: Some interesting ideas here. Click on the link to read all of them. Kiyosaki doesn't mention moving to a cheaper area, which is probably the most obvious, but also the least convenient.
I have a bone to pick with Kiyosaki. He grew rich advising people to take oput loans [go into debt] to buy homes, and saw property as the holy grail of wealth. He tended to see it as an infallible strategy. It isn't. But that mindset has shown how fallible the entire world's financial system has become.

clipped from www.richerdaddy.com When it comes to lowering their monthly housing payments in the down economy, renters have homeowners beat. Refinancing a mortgage requires plenty of paperwork, a stellar credit score and weeks of effort. But property owners faced with profit-sucking vacancies and cash-strapped tenants are increasingly willing to negotiate. According to a recent survey from rental property marketplace Rent.com, 68% of landlords reported lowering rents or giving one or more months free to retain tenants. Try these five strategies to cut your bill: Research the market Cohen’s daughter Abigail tried that tip and found that others in her neighborhood on New York’s Upper West Side were paying an average 20% less than she was for a studio apartment. She brought those figures to her landlord and ended up with a new lease this summer for $1,550 instead of $1,850 — an 18% discount. Take on a roommate Obviously, the more people sharing your space the less rent you’ll pay.

In a recession, most businesses are losers, but whose winning?

Amazon. (Revenue increase: 38 percent.) This premier online retailer is gaining from the pain at the mall. While overall retail spending has fallen, online sales have kept growing, as thrifty consumers search for the lowest price on the Web and even try to save gas money by shopping from home.

O'Reilly Automotive: All those owners holding on to aging cars need more parts and service than ever. O'Reilly sells fan belts, alternators, headlights, and other components to two sets of customers: professional installers and at-home tinkerers who work on their own cars. The balance positions O'Reilly to benefit from a turbulent market in which thousands of Chrysler and General Motors dealers are shutting down and dispersing their maintenance business.

SHOOT: If you're cheap, and you can fix things, you'll survive these times.

clipped from finance.yahoo.com A trip through the mall tells the story: The recession of the past two years has devastated the retail industry, as overspent consumers have put away their credit cards, started paying off years of debt, and put the kibosh on shopping. So far, the victims include bankrupt chains like Dial-a-Mattress, Filene's Basement, KB Toys, Circuit City, Mervyn's, Steve & Barry's, and Linens 'n Things, plus hundreds of smaller retail outlets. Vacancy rates at shopping malls have been shooting up, and 10 percent of malls might even close, by some estimates. The pain could continue for another year or longer, as unemployment keeps rising and shoppers scrimp. Once the economy recovers, these retailers will enjoy a competitive position that has become significantly stronger over the past two years: Aaron's. (Revenue increase since 2007: 21 percent.) This rent-to-own furniture chain has been aggressively expanding and buying up competitors, aided by an economy that favors its business model.

Question: How can 80 ambulances worth R48m disappear without a trace?

SHOOT: Answer is simple. An ambulance is the perfect chassis for a mini-bus taxi. Take one and sell it. You don't get caught, take another one, or two, or three. It's taxpayers money. Who cares.

clipped from www.sowetan.co.za THE Emergency Medical Services in Limpopo are in a fix – after 80 of its ambulances have disappeared without a trace. This damning allegation will form part of an internal investigation into whether Bim Kerupashad, manager of EMS, and head of administration services Herbert Phaahla sold the ambulances and pocketed the money. The two men were suspended three months ago over allegations of financial mismanagement. In 2007 the province bought 100 new ambulances at a cost of R60million. But 80 of the ambulances have since disappeared. But an administration official said yesterday it was “still” investigating the disappearance of the ambulances and would not comment further. Another source said that one of the implicated officials, who earns a salary of about R191000 a year, which translates to about R16000 a month, owns “three luxury cars”. The official apparently owns a BMW, a Mercedes-Benz and a Discovery.

Who wants a cup of kak-fee

SHOOT: Coffee is filled with some yucky stuff...Check it out.

clipped from www.wired.com Caffeine This is why the world produces more than 16 billion pounds of coffee beans per year. It's actually an alkaloid plant toxin (like nicotine and cocaine), a bug killer that stimulates us by blocking neuroreceptors for the sleep chemical adenosine. The result: you, awake. 2-Ethylphenol Creates a tarlike, medicinal odor in your morning wake-up. It's also a component of cockroach alarm pheromones, chemical signals that warn the colony of danger. Quinic acid Gives coffee its slightly sour flavor. On the plus side, it's one of the starter chemicals in the formulation of Tamiflu. Acetylmethylcarbinol That rich, buttery taste in your daily jolt comes in part from this flammable yellow liquid, which helps give real butter its flavor and is a component of artificial flavoring in microwave popcorn.

Cleaning up the nation's financial crisis often rewards the firms that helped create the mess.

"Too many homeowners face foreclosure without receiving any meaningful assistance by their mortgage servicer, a reality that is growing worse rather than better," said a report from the State Foreclosure Prevention Working Group .
Several companies in the Treasury program have been cited by judges or regulators for having engaged in improper behavior with their customers.

They include Select Portfolio Servicing Inc. , a Utah -based company formerly known as Fairbanks Capital Corp. ; Countrywide Home Loans Inc. , now a unit of Bank of America Corp. ; Carrington Mortgage Services LLC , based in California ; Saxon Mortgage Services Inc. , a unit of Morgan Stanley ; EMC Mortgage Corp. , now a subsidiary of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. ; and Green Tree Servicing, a Minnesota company.

SHOOT: Mess is the word. How do you get someone addicted to greed to somehow not be. Simple answer: you can't. You don't.

clipped from news.yahoo.com The federal government is engaged in a massive mortgage modification program that's on track to send billions in tax dollars to many of the very companies that judges or regulators have cited in recent years for abusive mortgage practices. The firms, called mortgage servicers, have been cited for badgering, manipulating or lying to their customers; sticking them with bogus fees, or improperly foreclosing on them. Mortgage servicers are the middlemen between homeowners and the investors that hold their mortgages, collecting homeowners' checks and disbursing payments for the mortgages, property tax and insurance. They're a necessary player for any modification. The reliance on such companies points to an ironic paradox for federal regulators: Cleaning up the nation's financial crisis often rewards the firms that helped create the mess. "Servicers look for reasons to avoid making the modifications when they are most needed, rather than for opportunities to make them," Trauss said.

Petrol down 39 cents from next week

SHOOT: Say thanks to a strong Rand/weak $.

clipped from www.sowetan.co.za The retail price of petrol will drop next week, the Energy Department said on Friday. Petrol 93 ULP and LRP will decrease in price by 39 cents a litre and the price of Petrol 95 ULP and LRP will drop by 40 cents a litre. The wholesale price of diesel with a 0.05 percent sulphur content will drop by 32.5 cents a litre. Diesel with a 0.005 percent sulphur content will fall by 33 cents a litre.