Clipmarks | deb2012's 'economics' clips

France the the beneficiary of nuclear growth...

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:30:30 GMT

clipped by: deb2012
clipper's remarks: even though their construction projects aren't going so well. That great sucking sound you hear is proposed or in-the-works nuclear plants blowing their budgets everywhere. French company Areva's first EPR project, in Finland, is two years behind schedule and at least $1.5-billion over budget. Its second, in France's Normandy region, is headed in the same direction, after construction stalled for several weeks recently.

It's not just the skyrocketing price of basic materials, such as concrete and steel, that's driving costs upward. So-called third generation reactors - such Areva's EPR and Atomic Energy's ACR-1000 - are still works in progress. And the two decades during which nuclear power faced desert-like prospects has left the industry grappling with a severe shortage of skilled workers.

Clip Source: www.theglobeandmail.com

Well before any of the planned nuclear plants get built - but possibly long enough after it will be too late to stop them from going up - the economics and logistics of wind energy, solar power and carbon capture will have evolved favourably enough to have changed the game.

"Within three to seven years, unsubsidized solar power could cost no more to end customers in many markets, such as California and Italy, than electricity generated by fossil fuels or by renewable alternatives to solar,"

So why bet on a horse

- nuclear power

- that

leaves behind the most deadly waste known to man - waste for which there is still no permanent disposal solution?

France

has staked its energy present

on splitting the atom

built an entire industrial policy on the idea

State-owned Areva is the world leader in nuclear energy

Mr. Sarkozy will stop at nothing to promote nuclear power globally, sometimes in the most questionable of places, such as Libya and Algeria.

escalating cost of nuclear

led

Buffet to reconsider

Tags: nuclear, energy

The new leader of Coca Cola

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:49:44 GMT

clipped by: deb2012
clipper's remarks: As of today, Coke is run by a Turkish man of interesting background and lineage who started with the company at the bottom.

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

Muhtar Kent was born 1952 in New York City, New York, USA as his father Necdet Kent, was the Turkish consul-general. His father was called "Turkish Schindler" for risking his life to save Jews in France during the Holocaust.

After completing the high school at Tarsus American College in Adana, Turkey in 1971, he went to the United Kingdom to study at the University of Hull, and graduated in 1978 from the Department of Economics. Subsequently, he attended the graduate program in administrative sciences at the City University, London and earned his MBA degree at the Cass Business School.

Muhtar Kent returned then to Turkey to attend active military duty. Following his military service, he moved with US$1,000 in the pocket to the United States, where he was accommodated by his uncle in New York City.

found a job at the Coca-Cola Company through a newspaper ad. He toured the country in trucks to sell Coca-Cola, and thereby learned its distribution, marketing and logistics systems

Tags: business

The End of the Inflation Scare

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:33:06 GMT

clipped by: deb2012
clipper's remarks: hard to clip the highlights on this one, as a full read of the article is necessary to understand this viewpoint

Clip Source: www.investorsinsight.com

are now in a situation where a) The Fed is not printing money and b) US financials are de-leveraging rapidly. Thus, if inflation is "always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon", one may conclude that what we are now seeing in the inflation numbers is the echo of the 2003-2007 credit boom, but that looking ahead, the inflation picture should start improving rather dramatically.

But such a conclusion would miss out on the other big contributor to global liquidity growth, namely the US current account deficit.

should oil prices start pulling back, we would move extremely rapidly into a situation where the US current account deficit was deflating the whole world

Will an ever growing US trade deficit continue to force other countries to reflate and lead to an ever lower US$? We tend to believe that the answer to that question is a very firm "no".

should oil prices roll over, we could witness the most rapid improvement in the US current account deficit ever seen

Tags: economics

McCain on Economy

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 21:11:48 GMT

clipped by: deb2012
clipper's remarks: http://www.ontheissues.org/John_McCain.htm

Clip Source: www.ontheissues.org

Bailing out Bear Stearns necessary to protect economy

Key is to not to bail out homeowners who speculated

Things are tough now, but we're better off than in 2000

Impose some fiscal discipline to revive the economy

Will be able to reduce war costs & have a stable Middle East

Reform insurance to cover violent weather patterns

Republicans have forgotten how to control spending

Veto all pork-barrel bills and announce pork spenders

May have to go further to fix the subprime lending situation

Recession is partly psychological and not inevitable

I'm well-versed in economics; I was at the Reagan Revolution

FactCheck: Said--then denied--he needed economics education

To avoid recession, stop out-of-control spending

Loss of economic strength leads to losing military strength

Congress spends money like a drunken sailor

AdWatch: Outrageous to spend $233M for bridge to nowhere

FactCheck:Bridge-to-Nowhere never built; would serve 200,000

FactCheck: Criticized "Woodstock museum," but skipped vote

Tags: politics

Dollar is increasingly backed by "junk"

Fri, 30 May 2008 13:48:43 GMT

clipped by: deb2012
clipper's remarks: instead of U.S. treasuries

Clip Source: www.agorafinancial.com

“Illiquid collateralized debt obligations — including mortgage-backed securities,” says our government stats watchdog John Williams, “now total in excess of 20% of the collateral backing the Federal Reserve Notes.”

Yikes. One-fifth of the U.S. currency is backed by fetid CDOs. Think about that.

“Since the onset of the banking solvency crisis and the establishment of various new lending facilities by the U.S. central bank, however, an increasing portion of the U.S. Treasury securities held as collateral has been lent to troubled financial institutions in exchange for largely illiquid collateralized debt obligations.”

“Those securities traditionally are U.S. Treasury securities.

Tags: monetary policy, economics

Baseball analogy of tax rebate program

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:31:50 GMT

clipped by: deb2012
clipper's remarks: It is a bipartisan plan though, now isn't it?

Clip Source: investorshub.advfn.com

If you don't understand the Democrats' version of tax
refunds, maybe this will help explain it:
50,000 people went to a baseball game, but the game
was rained out. A refund was then due.

People in the $10 seats will get back $15. After all,
they have less money to spend on tickets to begin
with. Call it an "Earned Income Ticket Credit."
Persons "earn" it by having few skills, poor work
habits, and low ambition, thus keeping them at entry
level wages.
People in the $25 seats will get back $25, because it
"seems fair."
People in the $50 seats will get back $1, because they
already make a lot of money and don't need a refund.
After all, if they can afford a $50 ticket, they must
not be paying enough taxes.

People in the $75 luxury box seats will each have to
pay an additional $25 because it's the "right thing to
do".
People walking past the stadium that couldn't afford
to buy a ticket for the game each will get a $10
refund, even though they didn't pay anything for the
tickets.

Tags: economics, taxes

Women Thrive Worldwide

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:00:48 GMT

clipped by: deb2012
clipper's remarks: caught my eye -- I'd like to see this organization and KIVA, my favorite social service organization, work to do more in the U.S.
http://www.kiva.org/lender/deb4800

Clip Source: sharecompassion.blogspot.com

Women Thrive Worldwide

is a leading non-profit organization helping to shape U.S. Policy to give women in developing countries a chance to lift themselves out of poverty.

Women Thrive - develops, shapes, and advocates for policies that foster economic opportunity for women living in poverty. They focus on making U.S. international assistance and trade programs prioritize women. They bring together over 50 organizations and 25,000 individuals united in the belief that women are the key to ending global poverty.

Tags: social service, economics, poverty

Fed at the edge of lawful power

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:24:17 GMT

clipped by: deb2012
clipper's remarks: Volcker WARNS us....

Clip Source: blogs.wsj.com

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker roundly criticized the central bank’s extraordinary response to the financial crisis that’s been gripping markets since late last summer in a speech Tuesday.

“The Federal Reserve judged it necessary to take actions that extended to the very edge of its lawful and implied power, transcending certain long embedded central banking principles and practices,” Volcker said

“What appears to be in substance a direct transfer of mortgage and mortgage-backed securities of questionable pedigree from an investment bank to the Federal Reserve seems to test the time honored central bank mantra in time of crisis - ‘lend freely at high rates against good collateral’ to the point of no return,” Volcker said.

nation as a whole “became addicted to spending and consuming beyond its capacity to produce.”

Tags: economics, power

Open Letter To The President And Others

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 21:25:47 GMT

clipped by: deb2012
clipper's remarks: somebody in power please hire a problem solver!

Clip Source: market-ticker.denninger.net

In short, if we are to avoid the worst potential outcomes, it is imperative that the following actions be announced immediately as public policy by our Government and implemented without delay:

All securities and instruments traded and held for investment by regulated financial entities must have a CUSIP assigned and be traded on a public exchange or their value must be established by independent appraisal (in the case of a house or other real property.)

Margin requirements must be enforced against all market participants

All off-balance sheet vehicles must be banned and existing ones immediately brought back onto the balance sheet of the firm involved and disclosed in full.

We must either get rid of the NRSRO label for ratings agencies, allowing free and open competition, or we must hold those certified agencies to their ratings

All credit instruments must be subject to “Regulation FD” disclosure requirements.

Fraud must be aggressively prosecuted in all instances

Tags: economics

Greenspan New Finance revolution

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 00:16:27 GMT

clipped by: deb2012
clipper's remarks: opened the floodgates to fraud on every level from home mortgage brokers to lending agencies to Wall Street and London securitization banks to the credit rating agencies

Clip Source: www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net

Reich noted, “Credit-rating agencies are paid by the same institutions that package and sell the securities the agencies are rating. If an investment bank doesn't like the rating, it doesn't have to pay for it. And even if it likes the rating, it pays only after the security is sold. Get it? It's as if movie studios hired film critics to review their movies, and paid them only if the reviews were positive enough to get lots of people to see the movie.”

The raters under US law were not liable for their ratings despite the fact that investors worldwide depend often exclusively on the AAA or other rating by Moody’s or S&P as validation of creditworthiness,

US courts have ruled in ruling after ruling that financial markets are “efficient” and hence, markets will detect any fraud in a company or security and price it accordingly…eventually. No need to worry about the raters then… ^[11]

That was the “self-regulation” that Alan Greenspan apparently had in mind

Tags: economics, finance

I.O.U.S.A

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 12:48:48 GMT

clipped by: deb2012
clipper's remarks: don't miss the movie

Clip Source: investorshub.advfn.com

Sundance veteran Patrick Creadon

helps demystify the nation’s financial practices and policies

The film follows U.S. Comptroller General David Walker as he crisscrosses the country explaining America’s unsustainable fiscal policies to its citizens.

With surgical precision, Creadon interweaves archival footage and economic data to paint a vivid and alarming profile of America’s current economic situation. The ultimate power of I.O.U.S.A. is that the film moves beyond doomsday rhetoric to proffer potential financial scenarios and propose solutions about how we can recreate a fiscally sound nation for future generations.

Tags: economics

Taxing the Rich

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 22:25:49 GMT

clipped by: deb2012
clipper's remarks: they just move

Clip Source: www.cato-at-liberty.org

Unnerved by the Conservatives, who promised that in government they would impose a levy on rich foreigners, Brown and his Chancellor, Alistair Darling, announced just before Christmas that come spring, tax rules on foreigners resident in the UK would change. Under the previous regime, foreign residents could claim “non-domiciled” status and avoid paying tax on overseas earnings and offshore assets. Only money brought into the UK or generated there was liable to income tax or capital gains tax.

Brown’s new proposal would have all non-domiciled foreigners resident in the UK for more than 7 years paying an annual tax charge of 30,000 pounds ($60,000).

Many of the country’s richest foreigners have already started to relocate to Geneva, Zurich, Barbados or Ireland

Tags: economics

Carbon Standards

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 22:12:42 GMT

clipped by: deb2012
clipper's remarks: Wall Street gets something right.

Clip Source: www.cleantechblog.com

Wall Street sees federal carbon legislation as imminent, and doesn't want power sector executives to try to "sneak in" any last coal plants before the legislation whose economics might be threatened in a carbon-constrained world. The banks' interest is not necessarily environmentally-motivated -- they simply don't want to see any more loans go bad -- but the effect of this announcement is likely to be positive.

Climate change is a real phenomenon, and carbon legislation is coming -- let's begin to deal with it!

Given how Wall Street didn't seemingly exercise any leadership whatsoever on the subprime mortgage debacles, it's refreshing to see that they're actually out in front (at least a little bit) on the climate change issue.

Tags: economy, energy

Gold as an investment

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 13:26:44 GMT

clipped by: deb2012
clipper's remarks: gold is better than money these days

Clip Source: www.kitcocasey.com

Lately the metals markets have been abuzz with speculation about the meaning, and implications, of proposed gold sales by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“Central bankers will most likely continue, as usual, to scare the price of gold down from time to time by statements of gold sales. But they are all too keenly aware of the growing number of people who realize that the gold, not paper and ink, is the real stable monetary element.”

In other words, if IMF sales do happen, and if they depress gold’s price, that’s a buying opportunity… for bullion and especially for the high-quality junior exploration stocks that pack the most punch in a rising gold market.

Tags: economics

the debt bubble

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 23:13:24 GMT

clipped by: deb2012
clipper's remarks: what caused it

Clip Source: www.safehaven.com

Those who study the history of money understand the cause of the debt bubble is composed of two factors: The centralized interest rate model and the fractional reserve system.

- The Fed unilaterally sets the national interest rates, which indiscriminately applies to Bob, Jane, and everyone else. The economy endured several years of unprecedented, historic low interest rates below 3% since 2001. Low interest rates encourage excessive borrowing, and ultra low interest rates like 1% exacerbate the problem even more.

- Through the fractional reserve banking system installed in 1913, banks can print money out of thin air and lend to earn an interest. This magic of making something from nothing leads to lax lending standards. The Fractional reserve banking system is also directly responsible for gas prices going from .15 cents a gallon in 1910 to today's $4 a gallon.

Tags: economics