The current credit crisis should be both a squeeze and a crunch, but it seems to have been neither in the euro area. This column explains why credit may become costlier or scarcer under current conditions and explores how European financial entities seem to be defying the negative news. There are two channels through which the present credit crisis can affect economic activity. The first is prices, making credit more costly, and the second is quantities, making it scarcer. Dearer credit is called a "credit squeeze" and while scarcer credit is called "credit crunch". The euro area seems to be suffering neither of the two, at least for the time being. Credit may be getting dearer for at least for four reasons. -Today's banks tend to face higher spreads when issuing debt compared to non-banks, even of the same rating, thus their lending to ...

Some companies have gotten into the oil and gas groove and are enjoying their production rewards. They do, however, understand that working the front lines of oil and gas means getting the cash and looking for other exploration/development projects. Those companies that can keep their business nimble and quick - in this up cycle - are the ones that will most likely profit to the greatest degree.

Petrosearch Energy Corp., an oil and gas exploration and development company, works to find and develop oil and gas properties in the panhandle of Texas. Until today, the company had a 5% position in Barnett Petrosearch Inc.’s Bartlett county shale gas project. The sale price of $36 million will likely be used for future development projects, in addition to extensive drilling plans slated for its Texas property.

The company currently operates several other smaller operations in North Dakota and Mississippi. Each area is producing both

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Superlattice Power Inc. (SLAT.OB) is a company focused on developing and producing the next-generation lithium battery. These batteries can be used to power electric vehicles and have potential applications in homes and commercial buildings as a source of zero-emissions power.

Superlattice Power’s researchers have investigated high-capacity and energy-dense superlattice structures in an attempt to develop the next-generation lithium-ion polymer battery that is environmentally non-toxic, safe, less expensive and more powerful. What is a superlattice? The term refers to the crystal structure of a compound and indicates periodically alternating layers of several substances.

Until the efforts made by Superlattice, all prior efforts to substitute lithium for the transition metal have failed. The prior efforts all resulted in a loss of energy storage capacity over time. However, Superlattice Power announced earlier this year that the company has synthsized a new cathode material called Superlattice Structure

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