Offshore oil drilling banned by President Obama, invoking a 1953 law

President Obama invoked the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to "permanently" ban drilling along the Arctic and Atlantic seaboards. The sudden move ahead of Donald Trump's assumption of the role of President cannot be easily undone without Republicans amending the 1953 Act. While this Act does give the President the power to make decisions unilaterally, it has only ever been invoked for temporary matters and may not stand should it be challenged in court.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/20/us/obama-drilling-ban-arctic-atlantic.html

21st Century Cures Act signed into law by President Obama

Yesterday, President Obama signed into law the 21st Century Cures Act that was recently passed by Congress. About 1,000 pages long, the act will increase funding for the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) while also include some measure of deregulation.

Although potentially helpful, the changes in the law may have limited effect on the FDA approval process. Currently, drugs that come before the FDA's Division of Neurological Products (DNP) have a more difficult path to approval than drugs that come under the FDA's Division of Psychiatry Products (DPP).



https://www.cbsnews.com/news/working-president-obama-signs-the-21st-century-cures-act/

Barron's suggestions for 2017

It's that time of year again! Time to evaluate the effectiveness of 2016's strategies and rebalance portfolios, positioning for the 2017 fiscal year. Barrons has some potential stock picks that may just fit your needs.

www.barrons.com/articles/top-10-stock-picks-for-2017-1480748688

OPEC agrees on oil production cut

Chicken! OPEC has indeed blinked first - if with a partner, Russia - and what was merely rumor last month has come to pass in the form of a formal agreement for the cartel to cap production at 32.6 million barrels per day. This is a bit lower than current production numbers, and Saudi Arabia will bear the brunt of the reduction. Consensus could only be reached with some concessions to Iran and Russian cooperation with their own production cut of -300,000 barrels per day.

While this may merely look like a kernal of corn in a sack of chicken feed, it is a positive for an overwhelmed and oversupplied oil market, although it remains to be seen if USA oil producers simply use this opportunity to take market share from OPEC and Russia. Drill, frackers, drill.

http://fortune.com/2016/11/30/oil-prices-opec-meeting/