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US Banks to Be Subjected to ‘Stress Test’ to Measure Resilience

Denver Lessing — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:29:17 +0000

The Obama administration is looking at the severity of the banking crisis with a mind to settling the issue of survivability and recoverability of banks, case by case, based on facts in evidence. The first step will be to gather evidence, through a series of 'stress tests' designed to examine what resources troubled banks have to weather oncoming storms, then plan according to the results of those tests.

Chasing the Rainbow: Wall St. Gambled on Fictional Expansion-potential

Joseph Robertson — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:43:01 +0000

The hardest thing to understand about the current, and deepening, economic crisis, is that it came about largely because some of the most experienced, well-staffed and prestigious financial institutions in the world gambled on untenable projects of unlimited expansion, without ever producing sound mathematics to back up the projections. Philosophical exuberance replaced philosophical underpinnings, and the dynamo of financial speculation greased the wheels of commerce in a way that masked underlying shortfalls.

Flawed International Farm Seed Rules Establish Permanent Spread of Patented GM Brands

Joseph Robertson — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 13:32:31 +0000

A long-running bellwether legal case in Canada's farming industry, which has left at least one farmer unable to farm any crop variety of rapeseed (canola) —for fear of having to pay accidental royalties to bio-chemical giant Monsanto—, highlights the need for comprehensive reform of international seed regulation standards. The Canadian courts ruled that the individual farmer had to shoulder the burden of ferreting out any instance of "contamination" of his crop by pollen from nearby genetically-modified (GM) planting, as Monsanto held a patent on the seeds. The farmer, and those who support his claims, argue that there is no means by which anyone can prevent cross-pollination from GM plants.

Cholera Epidemic Spreads in Zimbabwe, as Health Services Collapse (video)

staff — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 19:12:17 +0000

The spread of cholera due to Zimbabwe’s foundering hygienic infrastructure is reaching crisis proportions. UNICEF is calling for an emergency fund of $17.5 million to fight the spread of cholera in Zimbabwe, calling the outbreak “a cholera crisis of unprecedented levels”. With 13,960 cases already declared and an estimated 589 dead to date, the UN warns upwards of 60,000 people could become infected if drastic and immediate action is not taken to contain the epidemic.

Creating New Jobs, Cutting Carbon Emissions & Reducing Oil Imports by Investing in Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency

staff — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:14:51 +0000

At a time when major U.S. companies are announcing job layoffs almost daily, the renewable energy industry is hiring new workers every day to build wind farms, install rooftop solar arrays, and build solar thermal and geothermal power plants. The output of industrial firms that manufacture the equipment for these energy facilities is expanding by well over 30 percent a year. These investments both create jobs and help prevent climate change from spiraling out of control.

The Nature of Volatility is Not Gain or Loss, but Volatility

Joseph Robertson — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 21:09:10 +0000

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA/Dow) today had its single biggest day of gains in history, climbing 936 points. It could be a good sign, that on Friday the market "established a bottom", but it's important to remember: the nature of volatility is not that it is ripe for gain or ripe for loss, but that it is volatility, and one's will and judgment are not always as relevant as one would like.

High Gas Prices Direct Assault on American Commuter-Consumer Lifestyle

Joseph Robertson — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:00:21 +0000

As gasoline prices were escalating seemingly without hope of stalling or coming down, due to all-time record oil prices, and in the context of a severely weakened consumer economy, we found ourselves confronted with a major challenge to the basic assumptions of the dynamics of our economy. We have seen, in just one [...]

Nuclear Power & Offshore Drilling May Help Keep Oil Prices High

Joseph Robertson — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:25:18 +0000

With gasoline prices at record highs, and the strain on a weak American economy already at an extreme, Pres. Bush is pushing Congress to hold an "up-or-down vote" on renewed exploration of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) before its August recess. Opponents protest that none of any oil found there would be available for production for 10 to 15 years, and the OCS plan is an attempt to deliver oil firms an otherwise unjustifiable gift, taking advantage of the pressurized situation of exorbitant prices.

US Recession Takes Root as Job-loss, Housing, Banking, Energy Crises Converge to Slow Growth

Joseph Robertson — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:19:47 +0000

CafeSentido.com :: The United States is firmly in the thrall of a banking meltdown, in which the normal structures, the means of measuring performance, and the meaning of debt-holdings, are all out of balance. More than one Wall Street firm or investment bank has written of tens of billions of dollars in uncollectable [...]

Food price crisis: more complex than first thought & putting food beyond the reach of the planet’s poor

Joseph Robertson — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:25:18 +0000

Food prices are skyrocketing. Initially, many put the blame on the rising demand of biofuels in the transport sector, but bio-ethanol is far from the only thing driving up food prices. New diets, soaring oil prices and climate change are all in the complex soup of explanations behind the recent development putting food beyond the reach of the planet’s poor.

Renewable Energy Consumption & Electricity Preliminary 2007 Statistics

jr3o — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:31:29 +0000

EIA Report: Renewable energy consumption declined 1 percent between 2006 and 2007 to 6,830 trillion Btu, according to preliminary 2007 data. In contrast, both total energy and non-renewable energy increased 2 percent. There was wide variation in the consumption behavior of individual renewable energy sources. Hydro electricity dropped 14 percent in 2007 due to reduced precipitation in several regions of the country. On the plus side, biomass-based energy grew 7 percent and wind-generated electricity jumped 21 percent. Major increases in consumption of biomass to produce and use biofuels (ethanol and biodiesel) were almost entirely responsible for the increase in biomass during 2007.

Pres. Bush Lifts Executive Ban on Offshore Oil Drilling, Challenges Environmentally-minded Congress

Joseph Robertson — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:48:14 +0000

US pres. George W. Bush has lifted the executive ban on offshore oil drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), and has challenged the US Congress to act to open the OCS to new oil exploration, saying the US needs to increase domestic production to reduce its dependence on imported oil. The ban was put in place by his father, George H.W. Bush, the 41st US president, for environmental concerns and in part because the oil companies have leases for huge expanses of underwater terrain they have not explored or exploited.

Food Insecurity & Failing States

jr3o — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 19:36:53 +0000

During the concluding half of the last century, the world was making steady progress in reducing hunger, but during the transition into the new century, the tide began to turn. In February 2007, James Morris, head of the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP), announced that 18,000 children are now dying each day from hunger and related causes. For perspective, this loss of young lives in one day is almost five times U.S. combat deaths in Iraq through four years of fighting. Although these huge numbers of dying children may be an abstraction, each represents a young life ended far too soon.

Transparent Dyes Allow Windows to Act as Super-powerful Solar Panels

Joseph Robertson — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:01:03 +0000

Special transparent dyes coating glass or plastic panes concentrate the Sun's rays, guiding them to solar-voltaic cells lining the edges, allowing a window to act as a solar panel with 10 times the electricity generation capacity of solar cells, by current standards. The 'organic solar concentrator' (OSC) system also reduces cost, by reducing the surface area that needs to be coated by solar-voltaic cells and by eliminating the need for large concentrating mirrors and sun-tracking mechanisms.

Oilman T. Boone Pickens Wants to Create National Wind-energy Network in the US

Joseph Robertson — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:36:50 +0000

T. Boone Pickens has started what USA Today reports will be "the biggest public policy ad campaign ever" to promote a national economic shift from oil to renewable fuels, primarily wind. The campaign is centered on the PickensPlan website, which shows the oil tycoon explaining how and why the US can and must break its dependence on foreign oil —for which American consumers pay $700 billion per year— by transitioning to an energy economy founded on exploiting the massive wind resources of the Great Plains.

Wind Power Set to Become World’s Leading Energy Source

jr3o — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:09:14 +0000

In 1991, a national wind resource inventory taken by the U.S. Department of Energy startled the world when it reported that the three most wind-rich states —North Dakota, Kansas, and Texas— had enough harnessable wind energy to satisfy national electricity needs. Now a new study by a team of engineers at Stanford reports that the wind energy potential is actually substantially greater than that estimated in 1991.

Wind Energy Demand Booming

admin — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:03:17 +0000

When Austin Energy, the publicly owned utility in Austin, Texas, launched its GreenChoice program in 2000, customers opting for green electricity paid a premium. During the fall of 2005, climbing natural gas prices pulled conventional electricity costs above those of wind-generated electricity, the source of most green power. This crossing of the cost lines in Austin and several other communities is a milestone in the U.S. shift to a renewable energy economy.

Oil Shock: the Coming Economic Unraveling & How We Can Adjust

Joseph Robertson — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:11:05 +0000

Petroleum is the most pervasive base resource other than water in the global economy of the 21st century, and as demand is exploding, production is nearing its geological peak, and untenable price increases are hitting a strained economy hard. Oil prices could be in a stagflation lock, unable to readjust to consumers' means, unable to compete as emerging energy sources repeatedly slash development and commercial prices. Whatever factors are at play, crude oil prices have jumped over 900% since 1998, and it looks like production cannot meet global demand.

What the Market Doesn’t Know Can Hurt You, Whoever You Are

Joseph Robertson — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:13:49 +0000

Every participant in any system, is dependent upon the quality of information behind the major forces at play, just as any player in any system is beholden to the quality or jeopardy posed by the system's prevailing methods. Free flow of information is the best hope of achieving the optimum level of functionality for the broadest array of stakeholders.

Corn Ethanol is a Destructive Economic Force, Not the Basis of Our Energy Future

Joseph Robertson — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:45:51 +0000

Corn-ethanol, long a fascination for US politicians and for the farm lobby that courts their support for ethanol subsidies, may play some role in remediating the economic fallout of soaring gasoline prices, though it seems unlikely, for a number of reasons. First and foremost is the fact that the numbers work against us: in order to produce more corn-ethanol, we must divert cropland destined for food production to fuel production, and that has a severely negative impact on the availability and affordability of corn for human consumption.