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Heading for extinction

Unbelievable, incredible - what prehistoric planet do these people live on? Please see below for a rant from a-soon-to-be-extinct species of business leader - the US chemicals executive against Barack Obama. I have my doubts about Obama, but at least he has a brain bigger than a shrivelled pea (unlike...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 11-04-2008
The big challenges

As delegates gather for this year's European Petrochemical Association meeting in the unreal world of Monaco (unrealf or 99.9 per cent recurring of us), I thought it was worth summarising some of the issues discussed on this blog over the last few months. We've dealt with: *Oil-price volatility...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 09-27-2008
Changing nature of demand

As oil prices keep on falling, it might be tempting to forget the big picture. I had another frustrating conversation yesterday with a contact who believes that there's nothing to worry about on crude (it was all downs to speculators, he said) and so we could carry on as normal once the economic...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 09-19-2008
History will repeat itself

It is September 2025 and the financial system has imploded due to the collapse in value of collaterised green obligations (CGOs). So how did we end up in this sorry state? Here is a guide to how the crisis developed: Governments (often sovereign wealth funds that had made a fortune from selling oil and...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 09-17-2008
The world is round after all

I asked my boss two years ago what were his favourite business books. His list included The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century by Thomas Friedman. Of course I rushed out and bought the book. It has sold by the truck load and was quoted by Mohamed Al-Mady of SABIC during his speech at...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 09-16-2008
Go on, stick your head in deeper

Apparently it's a fallacy - ostriches don't stick their heads in the sand. Investment bankers frequently do, though, especially all the greedy ones who only cared about their end-of-year bonuses when they new perfectly well that the credit crisis was on its way. I am sitting here sipping a beer...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 09-15-2008
Uncle Sam back from the dead?

A very interesting report by McKinsey (you can sign up free for their online newsletter which only takes a minute) expands on the theme of reverse globalisation which I talked about last week. The cost of shipping a standard 40-foot container has tripled since 2000 and labour cost increases have risen...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 09-10-2008
Do you ever get that sinking feeling?

I am afraid I do when it comes to climate change and, as a result, don't always switch off lights when I leave rooms, don't always say no to unnecesssary plastic bags when I buy anything and will happily (and this could be the worst damage of all) jet anywhere in the world either for business...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 09-02-2008
Can I have those coconuts, please?

This article, by David Strahan, author of The Last Oil Shock, says that it would take three million coconuts to power one flight from London to Amsterdam on 100% biofuels. Some of the comments posted at the end of this excellent article, first published in the New Scientists, agree with Strahan that...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 08-27-2008
Filled Up With Faith

Only in America, surely. If I had made this up you wouldn't have believed me. Rocky Twyman (see picture above), Founder of the Pray For The Pump Movement, and his pals have been touring the US asking the big guy in the sky to intervene and bring down the price of gasoline. Watch Rocky and his fellow...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 08-15-2008

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