Archive for the 'Economy' Category
GM Bolt: Pure EV, 200 Mile Range, $30,000, 2017
January 16th, 2015Via: MIT Technology Review: GM today unveiled an all-electric concept car, called the Bolt, which it says will have a 200-mile range. That’s comparable to the range of Tesla’s electric luxury cars, but the Bolt will cost around $30,000 (while a Tesla will sell for between $70,000 and $94,000). The Bolt, a compact hatchback, will […]
Swiss Franc Soars After SNB Drops Cap on Currency
January 15th, 2015Via: Reuters: The Swiss franc soared nearly 28 percent against the dollar on Thursday after Switzerland’s central bank dumped a three-year-old cap on the franc’s value against the euro, sending shockwaves through currency markets and pummelling traders who had bet against the franc. The euro plunged as much as 30 percent below the 1.20 cap […]
The U.S. Has More Jails Than Colleges
January 13th, 2015Via: Washington Post: There were 2.3 million prisoners in the U.S. as of the 2010 Census. It’s often been remarked that our national incarceration rate of 707 adults per every 100,000 residents is the highest in the world, by a huge margin. We tend to focus less on where we’re putting all those people. But […]
Oil Drillers Pull Most U.S. Rigs in More Than Two Decades
January 9th, 2015Disclosure: I’m long USO/oil. Via: Bloomberg: In what is the strongest sign yet of the damage that plunging crude prices are doing to the U.S. oil industry, drillers idled more rigs last week than they have at any point since 1991. Oil rigs fell by 61 to 1,421, Baker Hughes Inc. (BHI) said on its […]
Venezuela: Military Supervises Food Distribution
January 9th, 2015The stores are full, comrades. Just form orderly lines and do what the soldiers say. Via: Bloomberg: Shoppers thronged grocery stores across Caracas today as deepening shortages led the government to put Venezuela’s food distribution under military protection. Long lines, some stretching for blocks, formed outside grocery stores in the South American country’s capital as […]
How OPEC Weaponized the Price of Oil Against U.S. Drillers
January 9th, 2015Disclosure: I’m long USO/oil. Via: Bloomberg: If there ever was doubt about the strategy of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, its wealthiest members are putting that issue to rest. Representatives of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait stressed a dozen times in the past six weeks that the group won’t curb output […]
Aquion Energy Enters 1 MWh Battery Supply Deal in Hawaii
January 8th, 2015Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. Via: PV Magazine: U.S. aqueous hybrid ion battery developer and supplier Aquion Energy has entered into a supply deal with the residential community Bakken Hale, to supply a 1 MWh battery system. The battery installation will be coupled with a PV array to supply the community […]
Afghan Money Pit & The Pacification of Rio
January 8th, 2015Via: Vice:
The Invasion of America
January 8th, 2015Via: Aeon: Between 1776 and the present, the United States seized some 1.5 billion acres from North America’s native peoples, an area 25 times the size of the United Kingdom. Many Americans are only vaguely familiar with the story of how this happened. They perhaps recognise Wounded Knee and the Trail of Tears, but few […]
Fracking Confirmed as Cause of Rare “Felt” Earthquake in Ohio
January 7th, 2015Via: Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (.pdf): A new study links the March 2014 earthquakes in Poland Township, Ohio to hydraulic fracturing that activated a previously unknown fault. The induced seismic sequence included a rare felt earthquake of magnitude 3.0, according to research published online by the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of […]
