QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The Fed is out of the closet. They expect to end these [bond] purchases. [Ben]
Bernanke wasn’t more specific than later this year, but connecting all the dots suggests he is thinking in the fourth quarter.”
Ward McCarthy, Jefferies Group chief financial economist Article, 1D
Business startup camp for teens offered
Sparkible, an educational nonprofit, is offering a summer camp for high school students interested in creating startup companies.
The Startup Idea Camp is being offered throughout July at locations in Little Rock, Conway, Rogers and Fayetteville for four-day periods. The camp costs students $195 to attend.
Teenagers will learn how to spot and develop innovative ideas, find startup capital and build a team. It also will examine how social media and mobile technology affect businesses. The camp will culminate in a business-pitch competition.
Additional information is available at sparkible.org.
Israel to cap natural-gas exports at 40%
Israel will cap exports of its natural-gas resources at 40 percent, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday, scaling back under public and political pressure the amount a government-appointed panel recommended.
“This amount of gas will satisfy our gas needs for at least the next 25 years,” Netanyahu said at a Jerusalem news conference. “We are talking about a decision that balances our need to ensure an affordable energy source for the Israeli public with the need for gas exports to produce revenue that will be invested for the public’s needs and security.”
The government committee had recommended last year that Israel allow about 50 percent of its natural-gas resources for export. Lawmakers and public interest groups protested the panel’s proposals, with some opposing any gas exports, saying they would enrich energy companies instead of benefiting the country by lowering prices.
Exploration companies have discovered natural gas in two fields off Israel’s Mediterranean coast. The partners in those fields include Houston, Texas-based Noble Energy Inc., and Israeli companies Delek Drilling Ltd., Ratio Oil Exploration Ltd., Avner Oil & Gas Ltd. and Isramco Negev 2 LP.
- Bloomberg News
Pentagon seeks refund from Boeing
The Pentagon’s purchasing agency says Boeing Co.
must refund $13.7 million in excessive prices charged on spare parts, including a $10 device for which the defense contractor charged $2,286 apiece.
The Defense Logistics Agency “is seeking a refund from Boeing,” spokesman Michelle McCaskill said in a statement. “The refund will be for the full $13.7 million identified” and will be requested by July 31, she said.
The agency overpaid about $1.3 million for 573 of the aluminum “bearing sleeves” used on an aircraft’s main landing-gear door that should have cost $10 each, the Pentagon’s inspector general said in an audit labeled “For Official Use Only.”
Wasteful spending resulted from agency personnel failing to negotiate good deals or to perform adequate oversight, and from Boeing’s failure to pass on savings it won from subcontractors, according to the complete audit report.
Boeing “has been working with the Defense Logistics Agency” and the inspector general “throughout the audit process,” Ellen Buhr, a spokesman for Boeing’s Global Services and Support unit, said in an e-mailed statement.
- Bloomberg News
Canadian: Pipeline denial won’t halt oil
Heavy oil from Alberta will be developed with or without the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, though the fuel will be delivered to market using less-efficient means, Canada’s ambassador to the U.S. said Wednesday.
Speaking at a Bloomberg Government breakfast in Washington, Gary Doer said he supported the U.S. State Department’s finding in March that blocking the Trans-Canada Corp. pipeline won’t stop production of bitumen, a type of heavy crude oil, in the oil sands of the Canadian province.
Environmentalists oppose Keystone in part because they say production and use of bitumen releases more greenhouse gases tied to climate change compared with conventional forms of crude.
The State Department is reviewing TransCanada’s application to build the $5.3 billion link between Alberta and Steele City, Neb. From Nebraska, the oil would eventually go to refineries along the Gulf Coast.
The State Department has jurisdiction because the pipeline crosses an international border.
Business, Pages 28 on 06/20/2013