Steve LeVine

Recent Articles by Steve LeVine

February 3, 2010

The Most Precious Metals: All That Glitters is Not Gold

While many metals have lost their luster, platinum and palladium are poised to shine this year.

January 12, 2010

IBM May Not Be the Patent King After All

No one beats IBM (IBM) on patents. For 17 years running, Big Blue has been granted more U.S. patents than any other applicant, raking in an ­unprecedented 4,914 in ...

January 11, 2010

IBM Tops in U.S. Patents for 17th Year

(Bloomberg)—International Business Machines Corp. was awarded more U.S. patents than any other company for a 17th straight year, breaking its own record by receiving ...

January 2, 2010

CFTC to Step Up Regulation of Commodities

The U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission, criticized for its alleged failure to curb 2008's historic runup in oil prices, will soon propose caps on how much any...

December 16, 2009

XTO: Exxon Buys a Green Headache

With its deal to buy XTO Energy (XTO) for $31 billion, ExxonMobil (XOM) became the first major oil company to bet serious money on shale gas, a type of natural gas ...

November 11, 2009

Gazprom's American Ambitions

Just how tough is Gazprom? As the world's biggest supplier of natural gas, the Russian company has a reputation for hard-nosed bargaining. So when John Hattenberger, ...

October 25, 2009

$100 Oil? Don't Bet on It

Oil has returned to the role it held before last year's price collapse—a sanctuary of choice for investors fleeing the dollar. At least for now, that is. Over the past...

October 22, 2009

A U.S. Emissions Tariff: Who'd Get Hurt?

In the early morning of June 26, as Democrats rounded up votes to pass cap-and-trade legislation in the House of Representatives, negotiators settled on a compromise ...

October 8, 2009

Betting Big on a Boom in Natural Gas

Earlier this year the time came for Lloyd M. Yates, CEO of Progress Energy (PGN), to decide how the big Raleigh (N.C.) utility would meet the state's stringent ...

September 23, 2009

Steelworkers' Union Chief Becomes a Force in Trade

Over the past eight years, Leo W. Gerard has earned a reputation as a labor strongman with a pragmatic streak. The 62-year-old Canadian who heads the 850,000-strong ...