Hello share takers. Energy costs are in the news again, with the government’s latest ploy to cap charges for the less well off among us. It doesn’t quite seem the right time to invest in electricity suppliers, does it?

As we predicted exactly one week ago here, Minoan (MIN) will not - as some Bulletin Board savants had suggested - have to repay the £5 million loan it got in October 2013 from Hillside International Holdings at close of play today. Minoan clearly did not have the cash.

On Saturday we supplied the picture below of two food bank using victims of evil Tory austerity marching to make the world a better place. We asked you for suitable captions and many were supplied as you can see HERE.

Shares in Echo Energy are off by 5% at 14.5p mid today on the back of the bad news on the drilling front from Sound Energy (SOU). But do they have further to fall? On fundamentals yes they do. 

It looks like the game may soon be up for UK-listed, American oil stock promotion Highlands Natural Resources (HNR). In its prelims, announced last week, the company stated that it needs to raise funds either by issuing equity or third-party participation in its East Denver project.

In the week the world's top central bankers delivered what appears seems to have be a collective message that quantitative easing is being put back in its box and interest rates are going up. Until  now stock and bonds have being  trading higher on the premise that the total pot of global liquidity was still swelling despite rising Federal Reserve rates - courtesy of ongoing European Central Bank and Bank of Japan bond buying programmes, most of all. Mario Draghi's change of tack on Tuesday had the most impact, far more than any of the recent Fed utterances. All of a sudden the usual central bank noises have suddenly harmonised over what the Bank for International Settlements calls the "great unwinding" of easy money. 

No doubt charlatan and snake oil salesman Darren Winters and his evil cancer-patient conning wife Tatjana Valujeva will again use Europe's daft privacy laws to ensure there is no google link to this article which contains a full transcript of a court case showing what complete and utter bastards and conmen they are. So we beg you ALL to use the tweet & Linkedin buttons below the headline, to put a link on every Bulletin board or every finance article you find soi that folks can be warned about this man who has been conning decent folk for almost 20 years.

The City's No 1 oil analyst Zac "the Knife" Phillips of SP Angel is in full flow on the subject of Frontera Resources (FRR) where the management team has today, again, shown that they are greedy selfish pigs who do not give a flying wotsit about shareholder dilution. The Knife puts it a tad more diplomatically but he does not hide his undisguised - and 100% justified - contempt for Steve Nicandros and his co-directors. Over to the Knife...

Sometimes in business you have a moral choice. Do you accept the custom of an individual or not. As a libertarian I do not thing it should be for the state to tell me who I can or cannot choose to serve. 

There was no contest this week (TW - you are talking bollocks. Again). The winner was as clear as failure as that guy who jumped over the Snake River Canyon.

Some folks are just lazy fucks. The team round at PR crony capitalists Vigo Communications who charge an arm and a leg for spinning for Sound Energy (SOU) appear to be such folks, as they put together today's disastrous press release using cut and paste. It starts "Sound Energy, the African and European focused upstream gas company, is pleased to provide an update on the drilling of the Badile exploration well, onshore Italy.". With what followed I bet the ranch that Sound was anything but pleased. Hint: the shares have crashed by 30% to 54.25p in early trade.

Hello Share Spotters. As many members of her Cabinet are pressing Mrs May and her chancellor to ease back on austerity, I’m reminded that the growing national debt seems to deny that there is any real frugality at all. 

Queenie smears journalists and spins for all the worst companies on the casino from fraudsters Eden to Advanced Oncotherapy to Norfolk's finest Fusionex. He truly is a posterboy for AIM and thus a fitting sponsor for this week's contest.  The challenge: We're looking for exemplary examples of sheer stupidity from those founts of brilliance; the Bulletin Board Morons who dwell on the cesspits that are LSE.co.uk, III.co.uk and ADVFN.co.uk. The deadline to post your entries in the comments section below is midnight, Sunday 2 July.

Metal Tiger (MTR) has announced 2016 results and emphasised “encouraging” progress in the first half of 2017…

To end my trilogy of tenuously connected pieces, I’m taking a look at four ongoing coma-inducing delays at each of FastForward Innovations (FFWD), i3 Energy and, of course, Aidan Earley’s Newco and wonder which, if any, will win this slow and laborious race.

AIM-listed Minoan (MIN) announced on Friday that it has extended its loan deal with Hillside. So much for that having presented a problem, then! The extension given Minoan another 6 months on the same terms, barring the dropping of the price on 10 million warrants to 8p (from 13p) – perhaps a bit pricey, but the company now has a fairly clear period ahead to capitalise on the Cavo Sidero site, on which it got final clearance as announced on Monday last week.

Continuing the sleep-related theme, I wanted to take a look at Snoozebox (ZZZ) that rose from its slumber on Thursday following some developments and the release of its year-end results, although it looks to have dropped off again by the close on Friday. I wonder whether there is a turnaround play here.

I was pretty straight back in January  when calling the shares in AIM-listed Parallel Media (PAA) lower. Having headed north from about 16p, people were buying at 48p. With institutional investor Harwood bailing out a couple of days later the shares headed back to 24p (still jolly expensive in my view) but still the madness went on, peaking several time over 30p before the FY16 results were released on Friday. Then reality set in.

Thought I’d write a few sleep-related pieces today and am starting with initiating coverage on the mattress e-tailer, Eve Sleep (EVE). The company joined AIM in May raising £35 million and there is a lot to like about the business, but is it really worth over £130 million?

By far, the most read article of the week was Exclusive: The full Slater & Gordon High Court Claim against Watchstone for £537m - damning on Rob Fielding, David Curry & the lies Quindell told, an excellent example of the journalism that that ShareProphets conducts and that you cannot find anywhere else at any price.