Archive for the 'Economy' Category
NREL: 200,000 GW of Solar Could be Installed; 4,000 TWh/a
August 2nd, 2012What if that lab had the funding equivalent of what the U.S. is spending on the war over a period of two or three days? —Chart: The Cost of the War in Iraq vs. Spending on Solar Energy Research Here’s another one for our herniating Woulda-Coulda-Shoulda file folders. The consolation prizes were a decade plus […]
Tate Modern Death Fall Man Was Senior HSBC Banker
July 31st, 2012Via: Telegraph: A man who plunged 100ft to his death at the Tate Modern art gallery in London was a senior bank manager with HSBC. Michael Foreman, 48, fell from a fifth-floor balcony in the members’ bar area of the gallery on the South Bank last Tuesday evening. The banker, who lived in Grays, Essex, […]
600 Million Without Power in India After 3 Power Grids Fail
July 31st, 2012Via: AP: India’s energy crisis cascaded over half the country Tuesday when three of its regional grids collapsed, leaving 620 million people without government-supplied electricity in one of the world’s biggest-ever blackouts. Hundreds of trains stalled across the country and traffic lights went out, causing widespread traffic jams in New Delhi. Electric crematoria stopped operating, […]
Company Finds Facebook Advertising Results in Clickthroughs That Are 80% Bots
July 31st, 2012This is some incredibly timely news for me. I just started running an ad campaign on Facebook for my wife’s business two days ago. Just a tiny test, $5 budget per day. I looked at the Google Analytics data for the site to reconcile what Facebook was charging me vs. what was showing up on […]
Facebook Slaughter: Down Another 15%
July 27th, 2012Via: CNN: Facebook’s stock opened at an all-time low, after its first earnings report failed to ease worries over slowing sales growth and its plan for mobile advertising. Shares of Facebook (FB) tumbled nearly 15% to below $23 on Friday, 40% below the company’s initial offering price from May.
With Nuclear Power Plants Offline, Japan Runs Up Record Trade Deficit Burning Imported Fuels; Export Markets Slumping
July 25th, 2012Via: Washington Post: Japan posted its biggest first-half trade deficit on record, according to government figures released Wednesday, highlighting the economic consequences as this nuclear-averse country imports fossil fuels to meet its energy needs. The Ministry of Finance reported a 2.92 trillion yen (or $37.3 billion) trade deficit, which reflected not only Japan’s surging need […]
Anglo Irish Bank’s Ex-CEO Arrested for Fraud
July 24th, 2012Released on bail of €1,000? Really? Via: USA Today: Fraud detectives arrested the former chief executive of Anglo Irish Bank and charged him Tuesday over a conspiracy to hide colossal losses at the bank that brought the nation to the brink of bankruptcy. Officers of the Bureau of Fraud Investigation arrested Sean FitzPatrick, 64, at […]
Research Firm Correlates Spending on Lobbying with Stock Market Performance
July 23rd, 2012Via: Breakout: While this financial connection, in and of itself, is hardly a great revelation, new analysis from Strategas Research Partners shows irrefutable evidence that companies are getting a real bang for their buck on the money they spend trying to influence lawmakers. By tracking the 50 companies that spend the most money — as […]
U.S. Poverty Rate to Hit Highest Level Since 1960s
July 23rd, 2012Via: AP: The ranks of America’s poor are on track to climb to levels unseen in nearly half a century, erasing gains from the war on poverty in the 1960s amid a weak economy and fraying government safety net. Census figures for 2011 will be released this fall in the critical weeks ahead of the […]
TEPCO Subcontractor Tried to Underreport Workers’ Radiation Exposure by Covering Dosimeters with Lead
July 23rd, 2012Via: Kyodo: An executive of a Tokyo Electric Power Co. subcontractor forced its nine workers at the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to cover their radiation monitoring meters with lead-made plates, the company said Saturday.
