"Bayou Billionaires," a new reality show on Country Music Television, follows the lives of the Dowdens, a Louisiana family that’s struck it rich off natural gas.

"I bought me a new pickup" says Gerald Dowden in the trailer posted on CMT’s website. "And I bought a dually," says his wife Kitten, referring to a pickup with four tires on the rear axle. "I got the special edition Polaris," says Gerald, clearly excited about his all-terrain vehicle. "She put the pool in."

"We got a new hot tub," says Kitten. "Jet skis," says Gerald.

"I have 50 hounds" and one horse, he adds. "But my wife has nine. We’re spending it, that’s what it’s for."

Ohio set to see oil boom thanks to fracking

Billionaires may be stretching it, but the Dowdens sure have come into some serious cash.

Thanks to new drilling technology, a small Texas firm called Exco () was able to put four new natural gas wells on the Dowden’s 80 acres of land outside Shreveport, La. in the last three years.

Each month, the wells generate a royalty check for the Dowdens that can be as high as $40,000. The wells are expected to produce for 16 to 20 years. And their royalty checks could grow considerably.

Exco, has plans to add up to 16 wells on the Dowden’s land over the next few years, Gerald says in an interview with CNNMoney.

Their royalties are also pegged to the price of natural gas, which is currently at a decade-long low. But if natural gas returns to the the highs it hit in 2008 and the other wells are drilled, the Dowdens could potentially see a check for nearly a million dollars a month.

"We’re going to make a lot of money," says Gerald.

Not that the family was poor before. The Dowdens previously had four smaller natural gas wells on their land, which used to generate royalty checks of between $3,000 and $5,000 a month. Plus, they own a small construction business that employs around 20 people.

Striking it rich hasn’t seemed to change their work pattern that much — Kitten is still the bookkeeper at the construction company, and Gerald says he’s yet to officially retire.

But in addition to their new toys the couple has carved out time for three cruises over the past year, one to the Persian Gulf.

Opponents of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking for short, fear the process of injecting pressurized water and chemicals into the ground to ease the extraction process is contaminating the water business cards design. Others with gas wells on their property have regretted the decision, saying the compressors are loud and the wells produce nauseating fumes.

But the Dowdens say they aren’t worried. And they say noise or fumes aren’t a problem either.

"They’re a community-oriented company," said Gerald. "They’re really safe."

The reality show, which was filmed over an eight-week period last year, profiles the adventures of not just Gerald and Kitten but their extended family.

Gerald says neither their new wealth nor having a television crew on their land has strained relations with their neighbors, who are out of eyesight anyway.

"They’re excited, they all want to be in it," says Kitten.

Despite claims by the show’s producer and the Dowden family that the program doesn’t aim to celebrate or exploit redneck stereotypes, clips on CMT’s website leave some room for doubt.

"I love my new teeth," says the couple’s daughter Chantal in the episode trailer, which is also filled with lots of ATV riding and yee-haws partially set to a steel guitar soundtrack.

Obama’s energy plan: The winners, and winners

"She really needed ‘em," responds Chantel’s boyfriend in the trailer, which gives his name as Carl, Albert or Jimmy, "depending on what part of the country," he’s in, and where Gerald affectionately calls him the "burnout biker."

Still, show producer Brian Flanagan says the aim was to simply profile a tight- knit family that’s come into some money.

"I wasn’t trying to make a redneck show, I was trying to make a sweet show," says Flanagan, who got the idea from an employee who has family in the area and saw first hand how normal people were getting rich off the energy boom.

Flanagan, whose company is behind other reality shows including the Discovery channel’s "Moonshires" and TLC’s "Long Island Medium," says the Dowdens fit the part perfectly.

"They love their property, they love each other, and they are having a blast together thanks to their newfound fortune," he says.

He notes the show is devoid of some of the more unsavory aspects on reality television.

"I don’t need anyone flipping a table over on this show," he says. "It’s a show for the whole family, not a train wreck."

Bayou Billionaires’ third episode airs Saturday at 9 PM on Viacom’s (, Fortune 500) CMT. 

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The Central Bank of Sri Lanka raised the reverse repurchase rate to 9 percent from 8.5 percent and the repurchase rate to 7.5 percent from 7 percent, the Colombo-based bank said in a statement on its website today. All seven economists in a Bloomberg News survey predicted rates would be unchanged.

Central bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal

The push to limit Chinese auto imports comes a week after President Obama announced in his State of the Union address that he was creating a trade enforcement unit to bring cases against countries, mentioning China by name.

It also comes two weeks ahead of a Washington visit by Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, seen as likely to become president of China when Hu Jintao’s term ends next winter.

Criticism of China’s currency valuation and other trade practices are likely to be a point of contention between the two major trading partners at the Obama-Xi meeting, especially as the U.S. election season heats up.

Those who participated in the Capitol Hill news conference had praise for the Obama administration’s rescue of General Motors (, Fortune 500) and Chrysler Group in 2009, as well as its past trade cases against China. (GM back on top in global sales race)

But they argued that unless there were new cases brought against Chinese parts imports that even more jobs were at risk, since 75% of those employed in the auto industry work for parts suppliers rather than the automakers themselves.

"We’re very proud of the turnaround in the Big Three, but we can’t sit back and celebrate their comeback as long as China unabashedly steals jobs from small businesses who make up the majority of the American automobile industry," said Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat from Michigan.

The Democratic lawmakers who spoke Tuesday came from Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, all expected to be key battleground states in this November’s general election.

Experts who spoke Tuesday argued that when China targets an industry, it can quickly come to dominate sales.

"If these policies are not stopped, by the end of this decade, China could seize 50% of more of our auto parts market, costing additional hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs" said Terrence Stewart, an attorney who has won trade cases against China in the past. "The last 15 years of watching other industries will tell you that’s not (just) a possibility but a high likelihood if there is not something done."

The critics say China’s improper support comes in the form of direct subsidies, as well as restrictions on U.S. operations in its market. China has become the largest market for auto sales in the world, and U.S. suppliers’ limited access gives Chinese parts manufacturers an unfair advantage, the critics argued.

Among those joining the presentation Tuesday were the Alliance for American Manufacturing, a trade group supported by small manufacturers and the United Steelworkers union, as well as the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, and the United Auto Workers.

But missing from the presentation were officials from GM, Ford Motor (, Fortune 500), Chrysler or their suppliers, many of whom have their own plants in China and don’t want to risk alienating Chinese officials by calling for tough trade actions.

"At this point, all the major auto parts producers are invested in China," said Robert Scott, international economist with the Economic Policy Institute. "Not only do they want these subsidies, they’re afraid to complain that they will lose share in China."

China has recently imposed its own tariffs on U.S. vehicle exports to China that would significantly raise the price of any vehicles exported there. It alleges that the U.S. industry is itself benefiting from unfair subsidies.

But even though GM now sells more cars in China than it does in the United States, the Chinese duties will have little impact on its sales there, since less than 0.5% of its Chinese sales are cars built in the United States.

Asked about the move at the Detroit auto show earlier this month, GM CEO Dan Akerson refused to criticize the Chinese action against U.S. exports, saying "All countries, including the United States, have tariffs." 

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Dow Jones industrial futures are down 65 points to 12,549. The broader S&P 500 futures are down 7 points to 1,305. The Nasdaq composite is 14 points lower at 2,443.

The leaders gathering in Brussels hope to focus on how to stimulate economic growth when huge government spending cuts threaten to push many countries back into recession short term personal loan.

The latest data showed Spain’s economy shrank in the last three months of 2011.

European markets also declined. In Asia, most indexes fell as investors reacted to Friday’s release of data showing the U.S. economy grew more slowly than expected in the fourth quarter.

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At first glance, it seems logical _ after all, the crisis erupted after too many governments spent and borrowed too much for too long.

But a number of economists _ and some politicians _ say the focus on cutting deficits is misplaced and that more fundamental problems are being left unaddressed.

It’s how the euro was set up in the first place, they say _ one currency, but multiple government budgets, economies moving at different speeds and no central treasury or borrowing authority to back them up.

Until those institutional flaws are tackled, the economists say, the euro will remain vulnerable. So far, Greece, Ireland and Portugal have turned to other eurozone governments and the International Monetary Fund for emergency funds to avoid defaulting on their debts.

Nonetheless, Europe’s leading countries are pushing a new Europe-wide treaty that would as the leading edge of their effort to reassure markets. European Union leaders hope to agree on the treaty’s text at a meeting starting Monday, and sign it by March.

The proposed treaty pushes countries to limit “structural” deficits _ shortfalls not caused by ups and downs of the business cycle _ to a tight 0.5 percent of gross domestic product or face a fine. That comes on top of other recent EU legislation intended to tighten observance of the eurozone’s limits: overall deficits of 3 percent of GDP and national debt of 60 percent of GDP.

European leaders are also urging countries to improve growth by reducing regulation and other barriers to business.

Yet economists like Jean Pisani-Ferry, director of the Brueghel think tank in Brussels, says it’s striking that governments are focusing on budget rules, given Europe’s earlier experience with them. An earlier set of rules were largely ignored at the behest of France and Germany in the first years after the euro’s 1999 launch.

And some of the countries that now are in the deepest trouble _ such as Spain and bailed-out Ireland _ stayed well within the debt limit for years.

“This suggests that the simplistic view _ that a thorough enforcement of the rules would have prevented the crisis _ should be treated with caution,” Pisani-Ferry wrote in a recent article for Brueghel.

Some European politicians are also voicing doubts about focusing primarily on deficits. They include new Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, who has warned that growth is the real answer to shrinking debt in the long term. International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde has urged a broader approach. She calls for a willingness to share the burden of supporting banks and other financial risks so troubles in one country don’t become a crisis for the entire currency bloc.

Here are four reasons for concern cited by economists _ but not yet on the summit agendas of the eurozone’s leaders.

NO COMMON BORROWING: Without a central, pan-European treasury, there’s no steady central source of support for eurozone countries that run into economic or financial trouble. Many economists say issuing jointly guaranteed “eurobonds” would make sure no one country would ever default and governments would always be able to borrow. Governments would give up some of their sovereignty, allowing review of their spending and borrowing plans, to get the money.

Pisani-Ferry argues that this would protect governments from the kind of self-fulfilling bond market panic fueled by fears of default, that pushed Greece, Ireland and Portugal over the edge.

Yet the idea of more collective responsibility remains unpopular in prosperous EU countries such as Germany, Finland and the Netherlands. They can borrow cheaply due to their strong finances and would likely pay more to borrow at the rate that includes the shaky ones.

Eurobonds would also likely require a time-consuming change to the European Union’s basic treaty _ which currently bans members from assuming each other’s debts. There would also have to be a mechanisms in place to stop countries with shoddy finances from borrowing too much.

Opponents say that’s unrealistic. “If you have mutual debt responsibility, and freedom of each country to borrow, then each country can drive the eurozone into bankruptcy,” said Kai Konrad, managing director of the Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance in Munich.

BANK BAILOUTS: Europe currently has no safety mechanism that would stop a country from sinking under the weight of having to bail out banks based in that country.

At the moment, each country bears the brunt of rescuing its own banks. This can create serious problems in a crisis.

For example Ireland’s loosely regulated banks borrowed heavily and loaned out money freely for speculative real estate projects. When the real estate market collapsed and the loans were not paid back, the Irish government had to step in to guarantee the bank’s bonds _ and quickly went broke. Ireland had a very low debt level of only 25 percent of annual economic output in 2007. As bank losses moved to the government’s balance sheet, by 2011 debt hit 106 percent of annual GDP. The country remains on EU-IMF life support.

Simon Tilford of the Centre for European Reform in London draws an analogy with U.S. insurer AIG, which was bailed out by the U.S. federal government in 2008. AIG was incorporated in the U.S. state of Delaware, yet Delaware did not go bankrupt handling the rescue. The central government stepped in.

TRADE IMBALANCES: Economists point out that gaps in how well countries compete and trade with one another have steadily widened since the euro was created.

Greece’s current account deficit _ the broadest measure of trade _ is even worse than its budget deficit. It buys and borrows far more than it sells and earns abroad.

Normally trade imbalances are evened out by fluctuating exchange rates _ but that can’t happen within the euro. Countries can improve their competitiveness by doing what Germany did in the 2000s _ cut labor costs to business by cutting general unemployment benefits. They can cut red tape and taxes. But that takes years.

Meanwhile, the region is also hampered by an inflexible pan-euro interest rate. Low interest rates _ set by the European Central Bank to see Germany and France through stagnation in the early 2000s _ were too low to control wage inflation and reckless borrowing in places like Greece and Ireland. Wage costs and debt levels rose. Competitiveness and exports declined, weakening the economy and undermining government finances.

CENTRAL BANK POWERS: Yet another structural issue is the limited power of the European Central Bank to support governments.

The bank resisted calls to buy larger amounts of government bonds. That resistance observes the spirit of the EU basic treaty, which forbids the central bank from financing governments.

But it’s a constraint that central banks such as the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of England don’t have. They can buy up their country’s debt, a move that can push down government borrowing costs and reassure markets the state will always pay its debts.

The ECB remains “a limited-purpose central bank,” says Tilford.

He notes that Britain has more debt than Spain, 81 percent of GDP versus 67 percent, yet borrows at just over 2 percent annual interest for its 10-year bonds, while Spanish debt for the same period has a 5 percent-plus interest rate. One difference: markets know the Bank of England has the ability to support the government in a crisis by buying bonds and driving down interest rates.

Many of these issue were raised before the currency was launched in 1999, then got less attention.

Tilford says that “the tendency has been to say the currency union needs all these things but in practice it’s not necessarily the case” so long as countries obey budget rules and manage their finances well.

“It’s become harder to maintain that kind of argumentation now, given how bad things have got.”

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The San Ramon, Calif. oil giant on Friday reported net income of $5.12 billion, or $2.58 per share, in the final three months of 2011. That compares with $5.3 billion, or $2.64 per share, in the same part of 2010. Revenue increased 11.9 percent to $60 billion.

The net income fell short of Wall Street forecasts of $2.86 per share, according to FactSet. Shares dropped $2.04, or 1.9 percent, to $104.55 in premarket trading.

Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company behind Exxon Mobil Corp., said that oil and natural gas production declined in the quarter. Profits from its exploration and production business increased anyway, as the company sold oil at higher prices. International natural gas prices also rose in the quarter.

The refining business struggled, however, as falling prices for retail gasoline and other fuels made it harder to pass along higher oil costs to customers. Chevron’s U.S. refining operations lost $204 million from October to December, compared with a profit a year-earlier, while international refining profits fell by 46.4 percent.

For the full year, Chevron earned $26.9 billion, or $13.44 per share, compared with $19 billion, or $9.48 per share in 2010. Annual revenue increased 23.3 percent to $253.7 billion.

Exxon will release its fourth-quarter financial results on Tuesday.

Earlier in the week, ConocoPhillips reported a 66 percent increase in quarterly earnings, though much of that came from the sale of a pipeline and other assets. Occidental Petroleum Corp. reported a 35 percent jump in quarterly profits as it increased production and sold crude oil for higher prices.

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Evangelos Venizelos said Tuesday “We have the green light from the Eurogroup to close the deal with the private sector in the next few days.”

Greece is in talks with private creditors to swap their existing bonds with news ones of a lower value and interest rates.

On Monday night, eurozone ministers decided to cap interest rates on the new bonds below 4 percent, less than the private creditors would like.

The bond swap will cut the face value of Greek bonds in half, thereby slicing some euro100 billion off its debt, and push repayments far into the future.

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The blast happened Friday night in Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa state, the home of President Goodluck Jonathan. Bayelsa state police spokesman Eguavoen Emokpae said the bomb targeted a bridge, but caused little damage.

The blast occurred as Bayelsa state is under increasing political pressure over an upcoming gubernatorial race in the state no teletrack payday loan. The winner of the race will control a state budget that’s larger than some nations surrounding oil-rich Nigeria. Violence remains common in elections in Nigeria, a nation of more than 160 million people and a top crude oil supplier to the U.S.

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Applications (INJCJC) for unemployment insurance payments plunged by 50,000 to 352,000 in the week ended Jan. 14, less than forecast and the fewest since April 2008, according to data from the Labor Department issued today in Washington. Other reports showed consumer prices were little changed in December for a second month and builders started work on the most single-family houses in more than a year.

Jobless claims, which tend to be volatile week to week around holidays, have trended down over the past month, a sign employment may pick up after payrolls grew by 200,000 in December. Gains in incomes, combined with less inflation, will probably underpin household spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the world