A Health-Insurance Solution

By Merrill Mathews, The Wall Street Journal
December 12, 2007; Page A18

Why can't people living in New Jersey buy health insurance available to residents of, say, Pennsylvania?

Rep. John Shadegg, an Arizona Republican, thinks they should -- and today will reintroduce legislation to make that possible.

The Health Care Choice Act would allow residents in one state to buy health insurance that is available in and regulated by another state. If enacted, the law would create a competitive, 50-state market for health insurance, likely making it cheaper. It would do this without imposing a large cost on taxpayers and without creating a new government bureaucracy.

This should be a no-brainer for Congress. But a few years ago, Mr. Shadegg went looking for a Democratic cosponsor for his bill. He found one who initially signed on, then withdrew under pressure from Democratic House leaders who wanted to dismiss the Shadegg bill with the excuse that it lacked bipartisan support.

The health-insurance market can be divided into three segments. The first consists of mostly large employers, with self-funded plans, and are regulated by the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and thus not subject to state regulation. The two remaining segments of the health-insurance market are heavily regulated by states: those that serve small-group plans (typically covering two to 50 people), and individuals who pay for their own insurance. Mr. Shadegg's bill only applies to the individual market.

Because regulations vary from state to state, the cost of health insurance for these last two segments of the insurance market vary widely. Some states ensure that residents have access to a wide range of affordable policies. Others -- New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, for instance -- have all but destroyed their individual health-insurance markets with over-regulation.

One of the most expensive state-level regulations is "guaranteed issue," which requires insurers to sell insurance to anyone willing to buy it, regardless of their health, or other factors that may make it much more expensive to cover them. New Jersey, for example, enacted guaranteed issue in 1994. At the time, a family policy could be purchased in the state for as little as $463 a month or as much as $1,076, depending on which of the 14 participating insurers a family chose. Now there are just 10 insurance companies offering plans in the state and the cost has soared to $1,726 per month on the low end and $14,062 on the high end.

In New Jersey then, residents who buy their own insurance have to pay at least $20,000 a year for the cheapest family policy. Meanwhile, in neighboring Pennsylvania similar health-insurance policies cost a third of what they cost in New Jersey. What Mr. Shadegg wants to do is to let New Jersey residents buy what's now for sale in Pennsylvania.

Mandates are another reason the cost of health insurance varies from state to state. States impose those mandates on what an insurance plan must cover -- such as chiropractic care or mental-health services. The Council for Affordable Health Insurance, which tracks mandates, estimates that there are more than 1,900 state mandates nationwide. These mandates can increase the cost of health insurance by as much as 50%, which can then force residents in many states to decide between "Cadillac coverage" -- insurance that covers nearly everything and costs a mini fortune -- or no coverage at all.

Typically, state mandates are justified by the belief that they make health insurance more comprehensive. But consider this: Idaho has just 14 state mandates, the fewest in the nation, while Minnesota, with 63, has the most. Yet, the people of Idaho aren't dying in the streets for lack of mandates.

Critics of the Health Care Choice Act claim that it would limit the ability of states to protect their residents. The assertion is that cross-state health-insurance purchases are a risky experiment. In truth, millions of people already have access to health insurance across state lines. Employees of large companies with plans covered by ERISA are one example.

But there are others. Some small businesses cover employees working across state lines. And, because people are mobile, some people buy individual insurance in one state and then end up moving to another. In many cases, they can take their health-insurance policies with them. A person living in Pennsylvania with an individual policy now could retain that policy even if he moved to New Jersey. Premiums would likely increase, but they would be cheaper than if he had started out with a New Jersey policy.

If states are worried about losing regulatory control over health insurance, they might try making their regulations competitive with other states. Health insurers would likely respond by returning and offering a wide range of affordable policies. As it stands, many states are "protecting" their residents right into the uninsured camp.

The Health Care Choice Act won't solve every problem. But it would increase competition and consumer choices currently denied to residents in many states.

Mr. Matthews is executive director of the Council for Affordable Health Insurance and a resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation.

URL for this article:
(http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119742880091722751.html)

First major increase by Congress in required automobile fuel efficiency in 32 years

By H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 6 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The Senate passed a trimmed-back energy bill Thursday that would bring higher-gas mileage cars and SUVs into showrooms in the coming decade and fill their tanks with ethanol.

The measure was approved with strong bipartisan support 86-8 after Democrats abandoned efforts to impose billions of dollars in new taxes on the biggest oil companies, unable by one vote to overcome a Republican filibuster against the new taxes.

The bill now goes to the House, where a vote is expected next week. The White House issued a statement saying President Bush will sign the legislation if it reaches his desk, as is expected. Bush had promised a veto if the oil industry taxes were not removed.

The bill calls for the first major increase by Congress in required automobile fuel efficiency in 32 years, something the auto companies have fought for two decades.

The car companies will have to achieve an industrywide average 35 mile per gallon for cars, small trucks and SUVs over the next 13 years, an increase of 10 mpg over what the entire fleet averages today.

And it would boost use of ethanol to 36 billion gallons a year by 2022, a nearly sixfold increase, and impose an array of new requirements to promote efficiency in appliances, lighting and buildings.

This bill "will begin to reverse our addiction to oil. It's a step to fight global warming," said Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

The increased auto efficiency by 2020 will save 1.1 million barrels of oil a day, equal to half the oil now imported from the Persian Gulf, save consumers $22 billion at the pump, and reduce annual greenhouse gases emissions by 200 million tons, said Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii., whose committee crafted the measure.

"It demonstrates to the world that America is a leader in fighting global warming," he said.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., a longtime protector of the auto industry that is so important to his state, called the fuel economy measure "ambitious but achievable."

For consumers, the legislation will mean that over the next dozen years auto companies will likely build more diesel-powered SUVs and gas-electric hybrid cars as well as vehicles that can run on 85 percent ethanol. They will push engineers to develop new technologies to save fuel.

"Automakers can meet the new standards with today's technology," said David Friedman, research director at the Union of Concerned Scientists Clean Vehicle Program. "Cars and trucks will be the same size and perform the same way they do today."

But they may be using a different fuel.

The energy legislation would require that ethanol use as a motor fuel be ramped up at an unprecedented pace to 36 billion gallons a year by 2022. And at least 21 billion gallons will have to be ethanol from feedstock other than corn such as prairie grasses, switchgrass and wood chips.

About 6.5 billion gallons of ethanol were expected to be used as a gasoline additive this year, according to the Renewable Fuels Association, which represents ethanol producers.

The legislation also would increase energy efficiency requirements for appliances and federal and commercial buildings and require faster approval of federal energy efficiency standards.

These measures, said Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., "will eventually save more energy than all our previous energy efficiency measures combined."

Tax breaks for a wide range of clean energy industries, including wind, solar, biomass and carbon capture from coal plants, were part of the tax package that was dropped. Senate Democrats earlier also abandoned a House-passed provision that would have required investor-owned utilities nationwide to generate 15 percent of their electricity from solar, wind and other renewable sources.

While many environmentalists viewed almost certain approval of the automobile fuel economy increase as a major victory, some were critical Thursday of the Democrats' inability to push through taxes on major oil companies, which have been making huge profits in recent years.

"The Senate Democrats should show some backbone," said Brent Blackwelder, president of Friends of the Earth. "If Republicans want to block progress on clean energy and global warming, they should be forced to mount a real filibuster — for weeks if necessary."

Republicans had made it clear they would require the Democrats to find 60 votes on the oil taxes and the White House had said repeatedly the $13.5 billion in taxes on the five largest oil companies over 10 years would assure a veto.

On the 59-40 vote that failed to overcome a GOP filibuster, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., whose state's economy is dominated by oil and energy activities, was the only Democrat to break ranks. Nine Republicans supported the tax measures.

The White House has said the taxes would lead to higher energy costs and unfairly single out the oil industry for punishment. A Democratic analysis showed that the $13.5 billion over 10 years amounted to 1.1 percent of the net profits that five largest oil companies would be expected to earn given today's oil prices.

(http://news.yahoo.com)

China's ship building poses big challenge: Top US admiral

14 Dec 2007, 0545 hrs IST,AFP

WASHINGTON: The chief of the US naval operations expressed concern on Thursday about competition from China's flourishing ship building sector, while a lawmaker said that it could soon be building more warships that the United States.

"The fact that our shipbuilding capacity and industry is not as competitive as other builders around the world is cause for concern," Admiral Gary Roughead told the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee.

Singling out China, he said: "They are very competitive on the world market. There is no question that their ship building capability is increasing rapidly."

Republican lawmaker Duncan Hunter told the hearing that China was turning out 5,000 commercial ships a year, against 300 by the United States, and an average of three submarines a year, to the United States' one.

China is also producing nearly five times as much steel as the United States, he said - some 480 million tons a year.

"All that is giving them the industrial base that could allow the Chinese naval capability to outstrip the United States if they turn that commercial ship building capability into warship-building capability," Hunter said.

Roughead added: "I believe that not in a distant future they will likely surpass Korea as the prominent ship builder in the world."

(http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com)

AMT: House passes fix, Senate likely to kill.

AMT: House passes fix, Senate likely to kill.

The move is a protest of the recently passed Senate bill, which doesn't offer provisions to pay for the protection of 21 million from the 'wealth' tax.

By Jeanne Sahadi, CNNMoney.com senior writer

December 12 2007: 7:05 PM EST

... Bottom Line ...

Since 2001, Congress has temporarily increased income exemption levels. The last "patch" - for 2006 - put the exemption levels at $62,550 for joint filers and $42,250 for single filers. The bill passed by the House calls for an increase in those levels to $66,250 and $44,350, respectively.

Without a patch, the 2007 exemption amounts will fall to $45,000 for joint filers and $33,750 for single filers.

Research Request #4 - Oil Prices Jump on Inventories, Fed

AP
Oil Prices Jump on Inventories, Fed
Wednesday December 12, 3:37 pm ET

By John Wilen, AP Business Writer

Crude Futures Spike After Energy Department Reports Supplies Fell, Fed Announces Credit Plan

NEW YORK (AP) -- Energy futures rose sharply Wednesday after the government reported unexpected declines in supplies of crude and heating oil last week and the Federal Reserve announced a plan to help banks weather the credit crisis.

Crude supplies fell 700,000 barrels during the week ended Dec. 7, according to a weekly inventory report from the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration. Analysts had expected a 100,000 barrel increase.

And supplies of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, fell 800,000 barrels; analysts had expected inventories to rise by 300,000 barrels.

"Traders are concerned about that drop in distillate supplies," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp., in Chicago.

Earlier, the Fed said it was working with other central banks to try to counter the credit crisis. That alleviated some of investors' disappointment that the Fed on Tuesday cut interest rates by just a quarter percentage point. Many investors had hoped for a larger half-point cut.

"Anything the Fed is doing to help out is going to support oil prices," said Brad Samples, commodities analyst at Summit Energy Services Inc. in Louisville, Ky.

Light, sweet crude for January delivery rose $4.37 to settle at $94.39 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and January heating oil futures jumped 12.02 cents to settle at $2.6432 a gallon.

It was crude's highest close since Nov. 27....

(http://biz.yahoo.com/ap)

Wall Street Bonus for Year 2007 (to be updated daily)

		Wall Street Bonus for Year 2007
		(Pay, Restricted Stocks etc)
12/12/2007		Goldman Sachs	Lloyd Blankfein	$70	(http://ft.com)
12/12/2007		Lehman Brothers	Dick Fuld	$41	(http://ft.com)

Beijing lectures US on weak dollar

Beijing lectures US on weak dollar

By Richard McGregor in Xianghe

Published: December 12 2007 07:23 | Last updated: December 12 2007 20:20

Beijing turned the tables on the US on Wednesday after years of criticism from Washington of its handling of the Chinese economy, warning of the serious global implications of the weak dollar, recent US interest rate cuts and the subprime crisis.

Beijing highlighted US economic problems at the opening of a twice-yearly meeting between ministers from both countries ...

(http://ft.com)

Poll: Economy outpaces war on list of voters' worries

My Comment -

"Its not the Economy Silly, Its Education, Energy, and Emergency Health Care"

updated 6:22 p.m. EST, Tue December 11, 2007

From Bill Schneider
CNN senior political analyst

DES MOINES, Iowa (CNN) -- The 2004 election was about terrorism. The 2006 election was about Iraq.

As the stock market continues to suffer losses, the economy is now the top issue in the presidential race.

What's the big issue going to be for 2008?

Remember "the economy, stupid"? That was in 1992 -- the last time the U.S. had an economic election. Another Bush, another Clinton, and that year the nation experienced an economic downturn.

Now, for the first time in more than four years, a majority of Americans, 57 percent, believe the nation is in a recession, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Tuesday.

The poll's margin of error on that question was plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

The economy is now the biggest issue in the presidential campaign. Twenty-nine percent of poll respondents said the economy was their top issue, compared with 23 percent who listed the Iraq war -- a reversal from October's results, when 28 percent listed the war and 22 percent pointed to the economy.

Rounding out the list of top five issues, health care was the top issue for 20 percent of respondents, illegal immigration was the most important issue for 14 percent and terrorism was the key issue for 10 percent.

The poll's margin of error on the top issues was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Is the economy really that bad? Democrats say yes.

"I'd describe the economy as kind of a trap door where you're one medical diagnosis or a pink slip or a missed mortgage payment away from dropping through and losing everything," said Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, the front-runner in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Republicans prefer to look at the big picture.

"What country has had more success in creating a society of fairness and decency, in creating a society in which people move out of poverty, in which people have social mobility, have a chance to succeed?" said former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, one of the leading candidates for the Republican presidential nomination.

Undoubtedly true, but what about gas prices, home foreclosures, lagging wages and stock market jitters?

Can Republicans look to national security to save them? Terrorism -- Giuliani's issue -- ranks fifth in importance out of five issues right now.

The security situation in Iraq may be improving, although that, too, is in dispute.

"The senator from New York, Sen. Clinton, said, quote, 'I would have to suspend disbelief in order to believe that the surge is working,' " said Sen. John McCain of Arizona, another Republican presidential hopeful. "Well, anyone today would have to suspend disbelief to not believe that the surge is working."

But there's no evidence of any increase in public support for the war in Iraq. According to the poll, 69 percent, the highest number yet, want to withdraw some or all U.S. troops.

There's been some good news about Iran. A National Intelligence Estimate finds that Iran may have halted its nuclear weapons program for the time being.

But that news may not do Republicans much good. Nearly half of Americans, 54 percent, believe the Bush administration deliberately misled them about whether Iran was attempting to develop nuclear weapons. The poll's margin of error on that question was plus-or-minus 4.5 percent.

President Bush's job approval is 32 percent. No wonder Republicans as well as Democrats are trying to run as agents of change.

(http://www.cnn.com)

Bhutto: the new Chalabi

There's much in common between smooth-talking Benazir and the man once favoured by the White House to succeed Saddam Hussein

(old News ftr) November 14, 2007 8:30 PM

By projecting Benazir Bhutto as the future saviour of crisis-ridden Pakistan, the Bush White House is repeating the blunder it made five years ago by presenting Ahmad Chalabi as the redeemer of post-Saddam Iraq.

There are uncanny parallels between Bhutto and Chalabi. The elements that helped Chalabi to portray himself - and be accepted - as the poster boy of the Bush administration are the same that have turned Bhutto into an indispensable ingredient to transform Pakistan's embarrassing dictatorship into a likable democracy ... with her as the chief executive.

Ahmad Chalabi was born into an affluent household where the father was a banker to Iraq's king Faisal II until the anti-royalist coup in 1958. The Chalabis fled. After university education in Beirut, Ahmad enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then obtained a doctorate at the University of Chicago.

Benazir - daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a landlord owning 12,000 acres of fertile agricultural land in Pakistan - was brought up by an English governess. After an undergraduate degree from Oxford University, she did her postgraduate studies at Harvard University.

That explains the fluency in English that both Chalabi and Bhutto possess - a basic requirement for gaining popularity among the movers and shakers of Washington, DC.

Along with this skill goes the ability to tease out what the politicians in power want to hear, and express it simply and eloquently.

Chalabi was foremost in assuring George Bush, vice-president Dick Cheney and defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld that the Iraqi people were inherently democratic and secular, and that they would welcome the American troops with sweets and flowers. He offered no hard evidence to support his claims, and nobody from the Bush team demanded it.

During her several trips to the United States, the silver-tongued Bhutto has convinced the Bush team that she was the one with the popularity and political skills to pull Pakistan back from the encroaching anarchy. This continues.

In an impromptu speech on Friday, Bhutto warned that Pakistan could turn into another Iraq. "We have seen what happens in Iraq," she said. "There was a dictatorship, the people revolted, and there was a bloody end." The people revolted in Iraq! Such make-believe analysis and interpretation is popular with the Bush White House.

By now, the Bush administration's assumption that Bhutto is all set to become the democratically-elected prime minister has acquired an air of self-evident truth.

Reality is something else. Though Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) is the largest, polls suggest that it will not secure more than 30% of the vote. The most likely scenario is a coalition government of the PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz Sharif (PML-N), if the latter decides to contest the general election.

While she declared on Tuesday that "I will not serve as prime minister as long as Musharraf is president", President Musharraf pointed out a legal fact: "Constitutionally, she has been prime minister twice," he said. "She is not constitutionally allowed [to become prime minister for the third time]."

There is still another element in their biographies that Bhutto and Chalabi share. Both face allegations of corruption.

After teaching maths at the American University in Beirut, Chalabi moved to Amman in 1977. He set up Petra Bank, which within a decade became the third largest in Jordan. In 1989, it was seized by the Central Bank due to shady foreign exchange dealings. He fled to Damascus and then to London. In 1992, the State Security Court in Amman convicted him in absentia and sentenced him to a 22-year jail term.

Benazir Bhutto and her husband Asif Zardari faced eight charges of taking tens of million of dollars in illegal kickbacks during her two years in office in the 1990s. These charges remain suspended because of Musharraf's National Reconciliation Ordinance. It gave amnesty to all those charged with corruption during the 1990s. But there is an active case against Bhutto in Geneva regarding illegal kickbacks deposited into a Swiss Bank. Another case involving allegations of unlawful kickbacks from two Swiss companies is moving toward a trial in Geneva. There is also a criminal investigation into alleged money laundering in progress in Spain. Both Bhutto and Chalabi have denied wrongdoing.

It seems the old adage, "Once bitten, twice shy" does not apply to the Bush White House.

(http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk)

House bill extends immigration laws to Pacific islands

Dec. 11, 2007 01:05 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Marianas in the western Pacific, tainted by past associations with lobbyist Jack Abramoff and reports of sweatshop labor, would come under greater federal immigration and labor law controls with legislation that passed the House on Tuesday.

The bill, approved by voice vote, extends immigration law and creates a federally run guest-worker program in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, which includes Saipan and 13 other islands north of Guam.

It would also give the commonwealth a delegate in the House with limited voting powers. Currently Guam, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia have a delegate in the House. A similar bill is pending in the Senate.

The islands gained a reputation in the 1990s for garment factories where clothing, carrying "made in U.S." labels, was produced by foreign workers, often from China and the Philippines, under abusive, sweatshop conditions.

But efforts to legislate reforms were blocked by disgraced former lobbyist Abramoff, working for the CNMI government, and his allies in Congress, including former Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.

Now, said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., Abramoff is in jail on unrelated fraud charges, DeLay is no longer in Congress and "we pass a bill that restores the human rights to those individuals working in the CNMI."

Currently, up to 20,000 of the estimated 65,000 people on the islands are foreign nationals, but that number is decreasing due to the decline of the commonwealth's garment industry under increased competition from China.

The commonwealth's governor, Benigno Fitial, has opposed the legislation, saying it doesn't reflect recent steps to end labor abuses and that turning over immigration and guest worker controls to bureaucrats 8,500 miles away in Washington would impede efforts to attract Asian investment to revive the islands' faltering economy.

Supporters of the bill also said greater federal controls over the islands' entry points was needed out of security concerns in a post-Sept. 11 world and with the prospect of a greater military presence in Guam and the islands as the U.S. reduces its forces in Okinawa.

---

The bill is H.R. 3079

On the Net:

Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov/

Citi names Pandit CEO

(My guess was right on - Guessed in my blog Dec 7th)

Troubled bank picks head of investment banking as new chief. Interim CEO Bischoff to become chairman.

By David Ellis, CNNMoney.com staff writer
December 11 2007: 2:49 PM EST

A little over a month after the exit of Charles Prince, Citigroup tapped Vikram Pandit to lead the firm.

Citigroup also said that Sir Win Bischoff, who formerly headed up Citi's European unit, would take succeed Robert Rubin as company chairman.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- After weeks of searching for a new CEO, Citigroup confirmed speculation Tuesday, naming investment banking chief Vikram Pandit its new chief executive, with interim CEO Sir Win Bischoff taking over as chairman.

The New York-based bank said Pandit would take over as CEO effective immediately.

"The combination of his deep executive experience and long history as a strategic thinker makes the the outstanding choice to be Citi's CEO," Robert Rubin, Citigroup's acting chairman, said in a prepared statement.

(http://www.cnn.com)

Pak test-fires nuclear-capable cruise missile

11 Dec 2007, 1136 hrs IST

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday successfully test-fired a nuclear-capable cruise missile, the defence ministry said.

The locally developed Babur (Hatf 7) missile has a range of 700 kilometres (440 miles), a ministry spokesman said.

Pakistan previously tested the missile in March and July this year. It was first fired in 2005, when its range was only 500 kilometres.

Pakistan and India have routinely conducted missile tests since the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours carried out tit-for-tat nuclear detonations in May 1998.

However in 2004, they launched a slow-moving peace process aimed at ending six decades of hostility and resolving their dispute over Jammu and Kashmir, the cause of two of their three wars.

In February, Pakistan and India signed a deal to cut the risk of atomic weapons accidents.

Pakistan did not say if it had informed New Delhi in advance about the latest test. They have an agreement to notify each other about tests of ballistic missiles but not cruise missiles.

(http://www.timesofindia.com)

Myth: Canadians Pay Much Higher Federal Income Tax than Americans

(Research in Progress)

FACT:

(Page 81 http://www.fin.gc.ca/ec2007/pdf/EconomicStatement2007_E.pdf)

Examples of Personal Income Tax Relief

Joseph and Sandy have two children. Joseph earns $16,000 and Sandy
$24,000. Prior to the measures taken by this Government, they would have
paid $2,920 in federal personal income taxes in 2007 (net of the GST credit).
Tax relief provided in Budgets 2006 and 2007 reduced their personal income
taxes by about $1,100. Measures proposed in this Economic Statement will
further reduce their taxes by $270. In total, their federal personal income
taxes in 2007 will be reduced by almost 50 per cent.

Connie and Richard have two children. Connie earns $60,000 and Richard
earns $40,000. Prior to the measures taken by this Government, they
would have paid $13,913 in federal personal income taxes in 2007. Tax
relief provided in Budgets 2006 and 2007 reduced their personal income
taxes by $1,255. Measures proposed in this Economic Statement will
further reduce their taxes by about $430. In total, their federal personal
income taxes in 2007 will be reduced by 12 per cent.

Iran signs $2bn oil deal with China

By Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran

Published: December 9 2007 22:41 | Last updated: December 9 2007 22:41

Iran signed a $2bn oil contract with Sinopec of China on Sunday, sending a signal to western companies that they might miss out on potentially lucrative contracts with one of the world’s biggest energy exporters if they continued to heed US-inspired sanctions against Tehran.

“If other countries who like to invest in oil and gas hesitate, they will lose opportunities,” said Gholam-Hossein Nozari, Iran’s oil minister.

(http://www.ft.com)