His charges and arrest notice stem from his being accused of participating in over 150 bombings, assassinations, attacks and has been linked to the killing of Shiite government officials. This is obviously not the kind of person you want help to run the government. Al-Hashemi claims the charges and the trial are politically motivated and he refuses to return to Iraq and face then in a court of law.

While he is now living in a luxury apartment in Istanbul under the protection of Turkish security guards apparently living a life of ease not willing to face the realities of a harsh life in the war torn Iraq. He is also claiming that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a rival Shiite, is behind the politically motivated charges and is trying to snuff out any opposition to his rule.

While Tariq al-Hashemi is safe for now in his luxury apartment in Turkey, the arrest notice issued by Interpol will severely restrict his ability to move around Europe and the rest of the world. Turkey apparently doesn't honor Interpol notices, but other countries in the EU do and al-Hashemi could be subject to arrest if he ventures into any countries that do honor these notices.

More than likely al-Hashemi will not be returning to Iraq any time soon.

Iraq Set To Triple Oil Output In Six Years | Peak Oil News and ...

Iraq Set To Triple Oil Output In Six Years. Iraq, which is currently producing more than three million barrels of crude oil per day, will increase its capacity of production to more than ten million barrels a day in the next six years.

Iraq Urged To Have Oil Law: Report « The Currency Newshound

Tuesday, 24 April 2012. A recent report called on oil companies and the international community to not make any agreements on disputed territories in Iraq, adding that time was running out to reach a solution for both Iraq's ...

Iraq oil exports jump nearly 15 percent in March - seattlepi.com

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq says oil exports jumped by 15 percent in March compared to the previous month, putting them at the highest level the nation has seen since 1989. Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said Sunday that ...

Iraq also exported its first crude oil cargo from an offshore terminal as reported by XE.com:

XE.com - Iraq exports first oil cargo from second offshore terminal

Iraq exported its first cargo of crude oil of two million barrels from its second new floating terminal in the Gulf on Tuesday, shipping data tracked by Reuters showed.

And here is a look at investing in oil rich countries such as Iraq and the risks involved:

Investment in oil-rich countries: case of Iraq - Timizzer

Investment in oil-rich countries: case of Iraq - Tweet It took 9 years for Iraq to create the environment in order to encourage investors to direct their capital into the country's economy...

Hopefully, those that want to cause chaos in Iraq will see that without a strong economy the country will not succeed. Investors in Iraqi Dinars and other assets are feverishly awaiting increased stability so their investments will pay off and a robust Iraq economy will be enjoyed by all.

Dinar Trade is Back in The Market for Buying and Selling of Iraq ...

Stock Assault 2.0 was developed by a team of 25 day traders at a cost of $3 million over a period of 5 years and all you have to do is let the program run on your computer and gather data on stocks for about a week and then it will give you a stock pick. All you have to do at that point is call your broker or make your trade online. The software keeps monitoring your trades on an ongoing basis and it will recommend to you when to exit your trade whether it be that same day or in a few days, whenever it crunches the data to find you the best exit spot.

The 25 people who designed this trading software put enough into it so it is more like you have the combined power of 1,000 day traders picking stock for you without having to pay their salaries. And all this is done a lot quicker than this same group could gather and quantify the data to give you worthwhile stock picks.

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The article goes on to say:

Smith’s description of the firm fits with Main Street’s perception of Wall Street these days. Despite the run-up in the stock market, many people view Wall Street as a place where fat cats rake in huge bonuses, and lobby aggressively against attempts by Congress to rein in their activities.

“Wall Street is not held in high regard so this is certainly not going to help,” says Dennis Jacobe, chief economist at the Gallup Organization in Washington. “I think one of the things that is under-perceived on Wall Street and many of the financial sectors is how badly the financial crisis has hurt the reputation of everyone involved with Wall Street.”

In a survey published last December, Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership ranked Wall Street at the bottom in terms of American’s confidence in its leadership. Congress, the media, and the White House all ranked higher.

Even long-time Wall Street observers agree that the perceptions are distinctly negative.

“Wall Street is not doing a very good job of explaining its importance to the economy and the good it does,” says public relations executive Richard Torrenzano of the Torrenzano Group and a former spokesman for the New York Stock Exchange. “It helps corporations and new organizations raise money in a public environment, and that money is used to build new plants, create jobs, and really help the quality of life in which we live.”

However much good Wall Street does is far overshadowed by the public’s memory of 2008 financial crisis, which ultimately lead to the Great Recession.

“People will always be suspicious of banks,” says Hester Peirce, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and a former Securities and Exchange Commission official. “Part of the reason is that Main Street has suffered so tremendously, and people are still mad at the banks getting all the money they got.”

That's certainly not a very good opinion of Goldman and one that is more than likely to give investors a weary eye towards putting much of their money in the firms stock. How this letter plays out in the coming days may determine for some time the continued price of Goldman Sachs stock. If you are invested in Goldman it may behoove you to keep a close eye on your investment.

Now imagine that the dollar and the United States fiat currency goes into hyperinflation (I'm kind of wondering why this hasn't happened as of yet) and essentially becomes worthless. What happens then? At this point precious metals become the currency exchange of choice because they have a real and intrinsic value unlike paper. While many people have invested in one ounce gold coins, let's look at the price of that gold coin for a moment. At $1,755 per ounce that is the least your coin will be worth. Now think about how you actually exchange that amount of money for something else. Most of us don't normally go to the grocery store and buy $1,755 worth of food, or clothes at the mall, or other essential items, but we may buy $100 or less worth of those things at any one time. And we certainly buy at least $35 worth of stuff most of the time we go get groceries.

While society probably won't function as normal if our paper currency collapses and we may not exactly have what looks like a normal grocery store that we shop in now, people will still need to buy goods and services and it will be a lot easier to exchange a $35 coin that it will be a $1,750 coin.

And even if we don't see a hyper-inflation of our currency that makes the dollar worthless, we still may soon see a big rise in the value of precious metals. That's why now may be a good time to invest in silver bullion and silver coins before the world and the economy gets out of control. Who knows, maybe over the next couple of years the price of gold and the price of silver may double and if you are holding lots of coins that contain silver, you could make out pretty well.

Check out some of these Silver Eagle coins and see if you might want to invest in sliver bullion before it gets even more expensive.

In the middle of September 2011, there was a significant drop in the price of gold, but it has recuperated and gold prices have now become steady. The investors are typically worried about the euro zone debt crisis and the stable drop in the value of Dollar. The cost of silver also suffered a momentary setback but is steadily escalating up now.

Financial brokers and professionals are of the view that gold is back on track after the sudden change of prices in November previous year, when people began selling and liquidating the expensive metal. However, it won’t be acceptable to state that gold costs are moving up. Currently, the economic condition of the market is quite stable and the investors are hoping for the best. They are waiting for the right opportunity to make the right move. However, it must be noted that gold will probably manage to retain its position even if Dollar becomes more powerful. Technical purchase also played a vital role in keeping the value of Dollar stable.

It was anticipated that Ireland could pay back its debt if there was a significant rise in the price of gold towards the end of the year. Investors are apprehensive that the debt crisis in Ireland will slowly spread to other areas of the euro zone as well. The condition of Greece is not very promising either and the financial situation of the nation is on the verge of disintegration. In reality, several nations in the euro zone like Poland and Romania are facing debt crisis. Under such circumstances, gold seems to be a comparatively safe investment to people, since the economic problem is likely to spread to other parts of the globe very soon. Presently, the position of gold is quite strong. Moreover, the drop in the prices of bonds of the U.S. and German governments has provided people with a reason to invest in gold.

A rise in the borrowing prices of euro zone members has resulted in doubt on whether the obliged member nations can probably reduce their debt. In the mean time, Ireland has requested for help from the EU in order to eliminate its debt although the country hasn’t officially approached the latter. Market analysts have also stated another fact. A powerful Dollar can splendidly reduce the valuation of gold. Nevertheless, if the debt problems in the euro zone intensify, then the gold as well as the dollar will be safe place for the investors.

The action taken by the S&P credit rating service was because they deems the actions taken by these countries so far are not sufficient to relieve the systemic stress in the euro zone. Really? No kidding the measures taken so far aren't sufficient. If they were, the European union wouldn't be on the verge of collapse. It's a wonder that the credit of any nation in the Euro Union has any credibility whatsoever at this point. Europe has been running roughshod with money that belongs to the people for decades and they expect a little bandage is going to solve the crisis of decade of monetary and fiscal irresponsibility.

I find it utterly amazing that educated men and women who run these nations cannot figure out that they can't spend more money than they take in. But, gee whiz, neither can the majority of the population who collect government money for doing nothing. Apparently no one realizes that there is no more money to spend and all the EU has been doing for the last 5 years is to move the money around and put out one fire after another. At some point there will be no more money to spend, and serious things will happen. Yes, serious consequences will take place when the minions don't have any cash because the government can no longer afford to dole money out to them.

Moving headlong into eventual default is Greece where talks broke down between the nation and its creditors over swapping debt. if a default is to be avoided someone somewhere will have to buy Greece's debt. But, this will only delay the inevitable because the powers that be still want to spend like there is tomorrow.

Some day soon, there will be no tomorrow. Very soon.

As the nation of Iraq tries to recover from the ravages of a 10 year war and internal strife, water is obviously a major issue. With the most abundant source of water, the Tigris, flowing less because of actions by Turkey and added to that fact that it is more polluted in recent years due to the war, this is creating a huge crisis. The reason for more pollution is that due to the consequences of war, there is no one to see to it that the laws forbidding desecration and pollution of the Tigris are enforced. During the reign of Saddam Hussein, even though he was a monster dictator, there was at least an infrastructure to manage and care for the water supply. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case.

As the infrastructure continues to be rebuilt in Iraq, some of the ongoing water problem will be fix as part of the crisis is transportation needs, but the major crux of the problem is that there is just not enough water. One of the solutions proposed to solve this crisis is to sip water from Alaska to India, namely India, and then further transport it to the Iraq port city of Umm Qasr which is approximately 35 miles up to mouth of the Khawr az-Zubayr Waterway from the Persian Gulf.

Whether or not this actually happens all depends on many factors, the most expensive of which is the sheer cost of transporting a heavy commodity such as water several thousand miles over the surface of the ocean. At the present time the cost of this is prohibitively expensive, but more efficient ways may be found to move the water such long distances. If the obvious cost problem is overcome, this may be a great investment opportunity for those that are so inclined to be involved in. It does however remain to be seen as to whether this will ever be viable as a mode to solve the water crisis in Iraq. Stay tuned for further updates.

Stock and commodity futures and futures contracts are basically deals made between 2 parties to pay for that stock or commodity at an agreed price and then the payment and exchange can take place in the future. The price agreed upon is payed and the amount of stock or commodity is exchanged regardless of the price in the future, because it was agreed upon in the past.

Dow Jones futures are also used by investors to gauge the strength of the markets into the next day and possibly week. They help to determine the sentiment of the where the market is headed and thus help investors determine how the stock market will perform the next day.

A lot goes into determining the price of futures and the Bloomberg futures website gives all the relevant information on futures prices and the direction of these futures. Typical headlines you may see include, "Stock Futures Signal Lower Open" or "Futures Show Higher Open For Stocks" investors use this information to supposedly get a jump on what will happen in the short future in the markets. Bloomberg Futures also offers a robust trading platform called Bloomberg Tradebook Futures where investors can get real time price information in a professional turnkey trading solution.