Archive for the 'Economy' Category
President Trump’s Budget Includes a $2 Trillion Math Mistake
May 25th, 2017It wouldn’t be the first time. Here’s another $2.3 trillion dollar mistake that’s long forgotten: On Sept. 10, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared war. Not on foreign terrorists, “the adversary’s closer to home. It’s the Pentagon bureaucracy,” he said. He said money wasted by the military poses a serious threat. “In fact, it could […]
Switzerland Votes to Phase Out Nuclear Power
May 25th, 2017Via: MIT Technology Review: It’s a tough time to be in the nuclear business. In Europe, Germany banned construction of new plants following the Fukushima disaster in 2011, and Austria stopped the practice long ago. The U.S., meanwhile, has a fleet of aging and costly reactors, and recent attempts to build new ones have been […]
Baking Soda Shortage?
May 25th, 2017A cartel combined with absurd government regulations can look a lot like a doomed socialist state at times. In Venezuela, for example, there are shortages of food, toilet paper, medicines etc. Pretty standard stuff, Comrade. But in the U.S., how is it possible that the there’s a shortage of solutions of sodium bicarbonate? Key words […]
Thai Company to Build a Tesla Style Lithium Ion Battery Factory
May 25th, 2017Via: Bloomberg: A little-known company from Thailand with grand ambitions in clean energy wants to take on Tesla Inc. at its own game. Energy Absolute Pcl, which has morphed in recent years from a producer of biodiesel to Thailand’s leading renewable energy company, is eyeing a major push into energy storage with plans to develop […]
Daimler Begins Construction on Lithium-Ion Battery Factory in Germany
May 22nd, 2017Via: Ars Technica: On Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited the site of a future lithium-ion battery factory in the eastern German town of Kamenz. The factory is being developed by Mercedes-Benz manufacturer Daimler, which will devote approximately €500 million (or $562 million) to churning out batteries for electric vehicles and stationary storage. If the […]
U.S.-Saudi Arabia Weapons Deal Worth $350 billion Over 10 Years
May 21st, 2017Update: Ivanka Trump’s Women Entrepreneurs Fund Takes $100 Million from Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates From BAE to Settle Bribery Cases for More Than $400 Million: This is right out of Yes, Minister – The Moral Dimension. Here’s an audio clip from that episode. Note that the name of the “fictional” company is BES, […]
A Quarter Of American Adults Can’t Pay All Their Monthly Bills; 44% Have Less Than $400 In Cash
May 20th, 2017Via: ZeroHedge: Nearly eight years into an economic recovery, nearly half of Americans didn’t have enough cash available to cover a $400 emergency. Specifically, the survey found that, in line with what the Fed had disclosed in previous years, 44% of respondents said they wouldn’t be able to cover an unexpected $400 expense like a […]
Americans Are Paying $38 to Collect $1 of Student Debt
May 19th, 2017Via: Bloomberg: The federal government has, in recent years, paid debt collectors close to $1 billion annually to help distressed borrowers climb out of default and scrounge up regular monthly payments. New government figures suggest much of that money may have been wasted. Nearly half of defaulted student-loan borrowers who worked with debt collectors to […]
Stanford Professor: Fossil-Fuel Vehicles Will Vanish in 8 Years in Twin ‘Death Spiral’ for Big Oil and Big Autos
May 18th, 2017I very seriously doubt it. Via: Financial Post: No more petrol or diesel cars, buses, or trucks will be sold anywhere in the world within eight years. The entire market for land transport will switch to electrification, leading to a collapse of oil prices and the demise of the petroleum industry as we have known […]
Brazil’s Stock Market Declines 10 Percent
May 18th, 2017Via: CNN: Brazil’s stock market, Bovespa, plunged more than 10% immediately after opening Thursday, wiping out almost all of its gains for the year. Officials halted trading for 30 minutes. Brazil’s currency, the real, also tanked 7% against the dollar, its worst day since the global financial crisis in 2008. The selloff came after new […]
