Raul Castro, in his yearly New Year’s Day speech, expressed a desire to talk with the new Obama administration once it comes into power later this month. Assuming we did have normalized relations with the Caribbean island, there are multiple market sectors that would experience significant changes.

For one, the hotel and casino gaming industry that flourished under Batista would …

For those of you looking to research Obama’s transition, we recommend you check change.gov, the official Obama-Biden Transition website. It has all sorts of great details regarding staff appointments, tentative policies, and last but not least Obama’s agenda once put into power. It’s sure to be a useful tool for the next nineteen days before we see Obama inaugurated. …

As Obama’s economic team continues to work out the details of their stimulus package, they hint at a multitude of market sectors that could receive a significant boost from their actions during the administration.

David Newman from Seeking Alpha notes that Obama’s frequent promise to improve our information superhighway could be realized very shortly. Some major companies providing internet service, …

Don Dion from Seeking Alpha wrote an excellent post back in November that we happened to find while doing some research today. Just as we often do, Dion cites healthcare and energy as two sectors that may perform well under the Obama administration. In addition to this, his specific selections are fantastic.

He notes that in the field of healthcare, …

When we were little (back in the olden days) our grandparents had a coal furnace. We loved to see the coalman come and send all that coal down the coal chute. In winter it was even better because we could search around the chute and find eyes for our snowmen. Not so sure what kids think these …

Don’t know how we could have missed this. Holiday season and all. NPR to the rescue!

Here’s the new carol from the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity: “Frosty the Coalman.”

We have Steven Chu, Energy Sec., Lisa Jackson, EPA, Nancy Sutley, Council on Environmental Quality, and Carol Browner, energy czar. Not an oil (wo)man in the mix. This is a horse of a different color. They want to cap greenhouse gasses, and move to renewable fuel.

What does the energy industry think?

There’s a bull’s eye painted on coal. …

Surprisingly enough, considering Blagojevich’s latest scandal, the political environment surrounding Obama as he prepares to enter the White House is rather calm. Leaders in the Republican party cite a “Honeymoon Phase” in which everyone would like to see Barack Obama succeed in his job as President.

The seriousness of the country’s economic state seems to be kicking in, as shown in …

In an effort to actively combat global climate change in his administration, Obama named John Holdren and Jane Lubchenco as two of his chief science advisers.

Since the two are “leading experts on climate change who have advocated forceful government action,” it is expected that their ideas in policy form could have serious implications for sectors of the market dealing …

President-elect Obama is paving the way for success in working with Congress. The Hill calls it a “charm offensive on congressional Republicans.” Alexander Bolton reports, “One Republican called it the biggest effort to engage Congress since former President Ronald Reagan.”

The story also provides a link to a handy table of which ranking members have gotten a …