Archive for the 'Economy' Category
Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em: Australian Electricity Retailers Selling Battery Systems to Customers with Solar
June 2nd, 2015In other news, Meridian CEO Mark Binns shits the bed. haha Here’s another one for you, Mark: New Zealand Solar Uptake Triples. Have a nice day. Via: Sydney Morning Herald: Snowy Hydro’s retail arm Red Energy, ActewAGL and Queensland’s Ergon Energy will trial a home battery system made by Panasonic in a bid to ensure […]
Prosecution of GM May Let Corporate Bosses Off the Hook
June 1st, 2015Too big to jail? Via: Yahoo: Should anybody go to jail? This is undoubtedly one of the thorny questions federal prosecutors are grappling with as they craft a criminal case against General Motors (GM) in response to the recalls that dominated headlines last year. The New York Times reported recently that the Justice Department has […]
Data Furnaces Arrive in Europe
May 28th, 2015Via: Ars Technica: Nerdalize is a small Dutch company that is trying to commercialise Microsoft’s data furnace idea. The first product is the eRadiator, which, given its size, probably contains two or three servers that pump out around 1000W of heat—probably just enough to heat a small room in winter. In an interview with the […]
Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert Indicted by Federal Grand Jury
May 28th, 2015Via: Washington Post: J. Dennis Hastert, the longest serving Republican speaker in the U.S. House, was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury on charges that he violated banking laws in a bid to pay $3.5 million because of “past misconduct” against an unnamed individual from their hometown west of Chicago. Hastert, 73, who has […]
Obama, Senate Republicans United: Trans-Pacific Partnership Lurches On
May 24th, 2015Via: Washington Post: President Obama won a big victory for his trade agenda Friday with the Senate’s approval of fast-track legislation that could make it easier for him to complete a wide-ranging trade deal that would include 11 Pacific Rim nations. A coalition of 48 Senate Republicans and 14 Democrats voted for Trade Promotion Authority […]
America’s Trailer Parks: The Residents May Be Poor But The Owners Are Getting Rich
May 24th, 2015It’s harvest time. Via: Guardian: It’s an unusual but potentially lucrative investment: billionaire Warren Buffett is heavily invested, and his and others’ success is prompting ordinary people to attend Mobile Home University, a ‘boot camp’ in trailer park ownership. Related: Wall Street’s Hot New Financial Product: Your Rent Check
Banks Fined $5.7 Billion Over Foreign Exchange Market Rigging
May 23rd, 2015And nobody goes to jail. Via: Evening Standard: Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland were among six banks to be fined a total of $5.7 billion (£3.8 billion) by British and US regulators over allegations that they rigged the $5.3 trillion-a-day foreign exchange market. The settlement, which also involved US banks JP Morgan, Bank […]
New ‘Deep Learning’ Technique Enables Robot Mastery of Skills Via Trial and Error
May 22nd, 2015I mainly posted this because of the Comedy Gold juxtaposition below. haha Via: UC Berkeley: The work is part of a new People and Robots Initiative at UC’s Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS). The new multi-campus, multidisciplinary research initiative seeks to keep the dizzying advances in artificial intelligence, robotics […]
40 Percent of Unemployed Have Quit Looking for Jobs
May 21st, 2015Via: CNBC: At a time when 8.5 million Americans still don’t have jobs, some 40 percent have given up even looking. The revelation, contained in a new survey Wednesday showing how much work needs to be done yet in the U.S. labor market, comes as the labor force participation rate remains mired near 37-year lows. […]
Wall Street’s Hot New Financial Product: Your Rent Check
May 20th, 2015Via: Mother Jones: Over the last two years, private equity firms and hedge funds have amassed an unprecedented real estate empire, snapping up Spanish revivals in Phoenix, adobes in Los Angeles, Queen Anne Victorians in Atlanta, and brick-faced bungalows in Chicago. In total, Wall Street investors have bought more than 200,000 cheap, mostly foreclosed houses […]
