To the inhabitants of the Niger Delta, oil is a specific, destructive, stolen substance; to Western stock traders it's an abstract source of competitive and speculative profits.
Rather, Raleigh tried to woo financiers with promises of long-term profits made off of New World commodities, hinting at plentiful goods that more closely resemble grist for pharmaceuticals than snappy speculative profits.
In both Europe and the United States, the surge of industry during the mid- and late 19th century was accompanied by rapid population growth, unfettered business enterprise, great speculative profits, and public failures in managing the unwanted physical consequences of development.
Indeed, Jean-Claude Juncker's new commission called last week for the European Investment Bank to play a greater role in nurturing investment-led growth in Europe rather than debt-driven growth) precisely because EU private finance continues to make speculative profits elsewhere.
The platform, Enron Online, generated more than $500 million in speculative profits for Enron in 2000 and 2001 by manipulating actual physical prices for gas and electricity that greatly boosted Enron's profits on derivative financial contracts tied to those physical prices, the report stated.
Influences from the authorities, such as fleet emission targets, and from users who take up new technologies, drive the decisions by manufacturers to invest in production capacity and R&D of new technologies, due to forecast or speculative profits.
Whatever the long term may hold, there's been plenty of room for speculative profits lately, with the price fluctuating between $500 and $1,200 for the past few months (see chart below).
While many financial interests will oppose the economic gains from upzoning going to affordable housing and other infrastructure rather than speculative profits, the main opposition to a large-scale expansion of housing in New York will be those who fear it will endanger what they love about the city.
One of the big questions is whether the loser trades were really, as Mr. Dimon claims, hedges intended to protect against potential losses on other of the bank's positions, or proprietary trades — speculative bets — placed for profit".
