While Chrysler refocuses its capital and development plans on the people of China, it leaves the United States scuttled in its wake.
In a recent statement, it said that electric vehicles would only represent 2% of its sales by 2014. So in a bold move, it is now the only top selling automaker in the U.S. without a hybrid offering.
Chrysler spokesperson Nick Cappa said on Friday that an in-house team of electric car development engineers had been disbanded in favor a more traditional organization.
This after the company took $12.5 billion from the U.S. taxpayer and another $70 million in grants from the Dept of Energy.
Chrysler again disappoints and finds itself on par with the Reserve Bank & friends' abuse of the U.S.A. and its diminishing financial and market oversight.
Who is Karl Denninger? He is like most of us, a normal guy, a computer geek, who happens to enjoy sharing his thoughts on the market and politics among other things.
In a $2.8 trillion municipal bond market that more than doubled in just over a decade, public corruption, officials’ mistakes and lack of disclosure cost taxpayers as much as $6 billion a year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
What's going on here?
Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) -- At the end of a March 6, 2000, conference call with the financial adviser David Rubin, city of Atlanta officials disqualified the winning bid for a $453.3 million investment-management contract.
The decision shaved $58,000 off what Atlanta taxpayers would have earned from the $13.5 million high bid and awarded the account to runner-up Bank of America Corp., according to a copy of city documents obtained under the Georgia Records Act.
Only after the Internal Revenue Service investigated five years later did local officials learn that Rubin’s firm, CDR Financial Products Inc., had entered into a secret side agreement with the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank. CDR’s share would be worth as much as $340,000, based on city and federal records.
This, ultimately, is the sort of result that one can expect when we refuse to stop the looting and start prosecuting.
There have been many over the last two years who said that the "subprime (and stated income) borrowers deserved it" - referring to the loss of their houses, of course.
Perhaps they did.
But the bigger issue here - the societal issue - is how crooked the entire marketplace has become for securities in general. Not just for end-user mortgages but also for securitizations, municipal bonds (as outlined in this article) - virtually everything!
“We need a worldview change about transparency and that includes municipal finance,” said Elizabeth Warren, chairwoman of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, in an interview with Bloomberg last month.
Indeed. But so far we see zero indication that we're going to get it. Municipal finance is just one tiny piece of the scam-ridden world of financial back-room deals.
Witness the mortgage-backed bond business, where firms such as Goldman Sachs have admitted shorting the very mortgage-backed securities they were packaging and selling! McClatchy ran a story this weekend on the matter which I opined on this morning; the salient factor here being not that McClatchy picked this up, but that it took two years for the so-called "mainstream DC media" to do so!
We continue to see the fraud-and-pony-show throughout Wall Street and Washington DC - and there is no indication anywhere that anyone gives a damn. Amnesty, as given to Bank of America in this case, is an outrage. Remember that the allegation in the instant case is that:
“IRS believes that CDR, Bank of America and possibly others may have colluded to fix pricing,” an unidentified Atlanta employee wrote in an undated internal memorandum after city authorities met with IRS investigators in September 2005.
Got it? Fix prices, and if you're a big bank you get amnesty. Even though what you did is under black-letter law felonious, you will not be prosecuted so long as you are one of the favored few.
How much more of this is hidden under the rock of bribes, er, "campaign contributions" and lobbying? The answer is likely to surprise, but what's also likely to surprise is exactly how little of this we the "little people" will ever hear about.
Sustainable economic growth does not come from scams - it comes from honest deals. So long as the way Wall Street "makes money" is to rip someone off, and those who engage in such activity are given "amnesty" instead of losing their corporate charters we will simply continue robbing the common man for the benefit of the few banksters among the "privileged elite."
First of all I want to thank you for having me as a guest today!
My name is Adam Hewison. You might want to Google Me to confirm what I am about to share with you.
There are plenty of people out there that create “exclusive email courses” with little or no credentials to actually backup their teachings. So, I think it’s right that I share a little bit about myself with you before we even start.
I was a former floor trader on the IMM, IOM, NYFE and LIFFE as well as a risk manager of a large, multinational corporation in Geneva, Switzerland. I also have written books on forex trading and trend following. In 1995, I founded INO.com and later co-founded MarketClub. I’ve been in the trading biz for over three decades and have seen it all. I created this course as a way to give back and share trading tips and techniques that I still use in my trading today.
Rather than repeat what is already here, just look at the article below.
Every success,
Adam Hewison
President, INO.com & Co-Creator, MarketClub
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If thats true, where have they been? My friends have the answer...they tell me that GM and other American car companies have been clowning us all these years. Now that they're status and reputation has dropped to all time lows, they claim that over-night they've found quality!!! Except of course for Ford, whom for many years have proclaimed "At Ford...Quality is #1". So we say, what about outside the Ford facilities? Or do they only really mean that with their F150 line?
Maybe they mean the F150 line here and all their flex fuel car line in Brazil. Americans can be convinced to buy crap if the commercials are both sexy and macho. In Brazil however, Ford doesn't advertise because the people demand of manufacturers that they want highly efficient cars, so voila! you have flex fuel cars which run on highly efficient low cost bio fuel.
In the late ninety's, the State of California on behalf of its people mandated highly efficient vehicles be sold. Voila! GM produced the very popular EV1, only to spend more time and money poo-pooing its own product and only allowing folks to lease, not purchase this coveted car. They couldn't afford having this engineering marvel outsell its other lines. GM couldn't afford to allow the EV1 popularity in California to spread across the U.S.A. They were making too much money producing inefficient, poor quality vehicles which saw more profits from a shorter owner lifespan and a booming parts 'n service business.
Should we applaud car companies for selling us products that leak dollars from our pocket while we drive, then turn around and make a better product only when we stop buying from them? We are not free of blame here however. Business marketing dictates that they will sell and charge what the market will bear. If we are too dumb to demand far better and if we are willing to part with our money for anything less, even using credit, then we're as much to blame here too. The only American car companies who should be applauded are the innovators. Take Tesla for instance. Ok, right, their first car, a very exhilarating, fantastically fun-to-drive model is over $100k. Yet this tiny car company makes one of the fastest cars on the road and it runs on batteries. It can beat nearly any sports car the world over with its 0-60 mph in 3.9 secs. with batteries! It can be fully charged in only 3.5 hours at home. It can go over 240 miles on a single charge! Tesla started out in 2003! Yes, that we can applaud! Tesla is going to produce another model at less than half the price and be more available to the family market. While the price tag sounds ominous to us during the recession; coming from a very tiny company like Tesla, it can be applauded! They don't have the advantages of the economies of scale like Ford and GM, so in comparison, Tesla can be applauded! And they are an American company...yeah!
But GM with their anticipated 2010 release of the Volt, carrying a $40k price tag? Come on! Lets look at Toyota who has been making the Prius Hybrid since 1996. Who still to this day ranks among the most efficient and pollution clean vehicles in the world. Currently they are 2nd behind the Smart Fortwo. Then Toyota places in the winners circle again with the Toyota iQ. Back to the Prius...in price comparison the Prius even when maxed out fully loaded with options, cost a clear $8k less than a base model Volt from GM. Don't need all the bells and whistles? Then you can get the Toyota Prius for a whopping $18K less!!! Mind you, Toyota has been doing this since 1996 with this car, which is now in its 3rd generation. We can applaud a car company who has been doing the right thing for the people and stand as a shining example. Even when GM was busy laying off American workers and closing plants, Toyota was sending employees on leave fully paid! Then when the worst hit, they did it again, but then asked its employees to volunteer in their communities. For this, we can applaud a car company who does right by the people!
Then theres the Ford Fusion. At $27.3k base or $36.6 fully loaded, it gets 41 mpg or possibly 48 if you drive it nicely. Do the same thing with a Toyota Prius and you get about 60 mpg by comparison. Ford was making all electric vehicles all the way back...believe it or not...from 1890 through to 1930. So you tell me that we the people haven't been clowned? We have had the ability but since the advent of dirty, filthy oil, they just didn't want to produce anything that was exciting to the buyer using electric technologies. They could have all this time but instead, we have paid for and paid for, and paid some more, for cars and the service of those cars which just don't last. It took a massive mistake through war (Pearl Harbor), by the Japanese in defeat, to learn that the best way to get to the top is with quality, efficiencies, and caring for its people.
We recently heard that GM has good sales in China. Question...does this help the U.S. side and its workers? No? Ah Shucks! We also heard that GM is going to be building the largest GM manufacturing facility in China. Is that where our bailout money went...to China???? Does this benefit the U.S. taxpayer? No? Ah Shucks! Then why did we bail them out?
Why don't we the people of the United States demand the same of our American companies as with Toyota; as with home grown Tesla? If we would and if they responded...even if mimicking Toyota, who has been doing it all these years, then we could applaud the Americans. But we'd have to ask ourselves, was it worth the wait? Could we have spoken up far far sooner and got a better deal for us and our planet? Why aren't the Americans leading the technological innovations and why must we get the old bits while the rest of most of the world benefit from the newest technologies??? Its because we'll buy anything...we'll buy crap even. We need to clean out our old expectations and start up a new and healthier lifestyle of expectations for our country. And we need to demand it from all our businesses. Will you speak up?
Special thanks to Art for inspiring this story; you really have interesting and great on-target perspectives...and to Gary, burning oil and billowing smoke from his car as he drove down the highway late one night.
There is a company now that has a solar lease product which makes solar affordable now for every homeowner who wishes to save money on their electric bill and reduce their carbon footprint at the same time! This is an exciting discovery...
This next article comes to you thanks to Treehugger. The video at the end shows the visual consequences of this problem as well.
Why is anyone fighting to save these things again? A detailed report in the New York Times just revealed that hundreds of coal plants across the country are routinely dumping thousands of gallons of waste water into rivers and lakes--rivers and lakes that millions of people get their drinking water from.
So here's why all that dumping is going on, in a nutshell--coal plants, as you well know, are extremely heavy polluters. Some plants pollute so heavily, some even spewing sickly yellow smoke, that little coal waste chunks litter nearby residents' yards and coat their property in a thin film. So when a community gets tired of this--and gets sick of the respiratory illnesses and intermittent acid rain the plant creates as well--sometimes they're able to get the state to insist on stricter pollution regulations.
If they're lucky, as in the case of the super-polluting coal plant in Masontown, Pennsylvania, they're successful, and the coal company installs 'scrubbers' that trap up to 150,000 tons of the pollution and keep it from entering the air. Hooray! Right?
Not so fast. Since the scrubbing process creates waste water from all that pollution, it turns out that the coal companies are simply dumping all of into nearby rivers and lakes, many of which Americans get their drinking water from.
And if you're anything like me, you're first reaction will be something like, "how the hell are they allowed to do that?" The answer is, oftentimes they're not. But they're getting away with it unpunished. You see, there's no federal regulation--at all--that specifically determines how much, if any, waste coal plants can dump into water sources. There are state regulations, and restrictions set by the Clean Water Act, but the Times found that while the plants are receiving notices for violations, nothing is being done about it:
Ninety percent of 313 coal-fired power plants that have violated the Clean Water Act since 2004 were not fined or otherwise sanctioned by federal or state regulators.
It also notes those few plants that have had to pay fines--but they're egregiously low, even for excessive violations:
Hatfield's Ferry has violated the Clean Water Act 33 times since 2006. For those violations, the company paid less than $26,000. During that same period, the plant's parent company earned $1.1 billion.
In other cases, there's no existing framework at all to prevent companies from dumping harmful chemicals. This, for example, is particularly alarming:
only one in 43 power plants and other electric utilities across the nation must limit how much barium they dump into nearby waterways ... Barium, which is commonly found in power plant waste and scrubber wastewater, has been linked to heart problems and diseases in other organs.
The atrocities go on and on. No wonder coal companies are balking at the prospect of limiting their pollution under a climate bill--they're evidently entirely unfamiliar with taking the environment and/or people's health into account at all. So allow me to hark back to my opening question: coal plants pollute the air, give people heart and respiratory problems, contribute to climate change, and now, dump tons of dangerous waste into our drinking water every day. Why is anyone trying to save these things?
People that are the closest to the issue say it best: jakkman69 wrote: I live right here. We have our corrupt officials to comfort us and tell us it's all A-OK. As long as those people are rich and happy, we are all OK. ALL the creeks in knoxville run grey with polluted waters. Way Way before this spill happened. We are so polluted u would shit ur pants if you knew what oak ridge and our corrupt officials have done here. Cancer all over the place here. Thank God we have corruption to protect us.......
We don't think CLEANTECH is just a myth; not at all! But from the deplorable action of big oil, coal, and nuclear power companies you'd thing that it was. See the next article (coming soon, above this one) on Coal Companies deplorable reaction to being asked to clean up their act and install air pollution equipment.
Some of what you see on this blog is not new but we'd sure like to help spread the education to those who haven't exactly been finding truths in all the usual places:
The 4 Biggest Lies Told about Alternative Energy
So let's just clear the air. Those public relations hot-shots at Big Oil spent years trying to convince investors and consumers that "cleantech" was really just a myth. A crazy idea with no basis in reality.
It's pathetic, really-- when you think about the depths Big Oil's sunk to in order to keep its massive pockets padded. Of course, their distractions, diversionary tactics, and -- outright lies -- have now been exposed. Take a look. . .
* Outrageous Lie #1 - Wind energy is inefficient and only provides a small amount of electricity.
Absolute hogwash. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates America's wind energy potential to be larger than total U.S. electricity consumption today. Financial News Online estimates the wind sector, which has been developing for more than 10 years in Europe and for about five years in the U.S., could bring in annual revenues of $10 billion to $12 billion.
* Outrageous Lie #2 - Renewable energy can't survive without subsidies
Right. . . that's why "Big Oil" invested more than $58.4 billion of its own money into alternative energy from 2000 to 2008. And, as I mentioned earlier, more than $155 billion was invested in 2008 in clean energy companies and projects worldwide. Does that sound like an industry that can't survive without government handouts? Didn't think so.
* Outrageous Lie #3 - Solar energy can only serve a tiny fraction of U.S. or world electricity needs
Actually, the truth is. . . solar photovoltaic (PV) technology can meet electricity demand on any scale. The solar energy resource in a 100-mile-square area of Nevada could supply the U.S. with its entire electricity demand using modestly efficient commercial PV modules. Bear in mind, the market capitalization for pure-play solar companies has jumped from $1 billion in 2004 to over $118.3 billion today. The carbon based energy companies in the State of Florida which is dubbed the "Sunshine State" keep utility rates artificially low just to thwart interest in alternative energy development. Sad...don't you think? The Sunshine State isn't a model for solar usage in the U.S.A.???
* Outrageous Lie #4 - Geothermal energy is still new and experimental
It's exactly the opposite. Geothermal energy has been used to generate electricity since 1904. Today, the United States has nearly 2,800 MW of geothermal electricity connected to the grid, which generates a yearly average of 15 billion kilowatt hours of power. That's comparable to burning about 25 million barrels of oil... or six million short tons of coal per year.
It's easy to understand why lies like these would be spread.
But now that you know the truth — Want in on a couple more "truths" that might surprise you?
*According to Morgan Stanley, banks will soon become reluctant to lend money to fossil fuel projects. Take a look at this from a Morgan Stanley press release:
Leading Wall Street Banks Establish The Carbon Principles
"The Principles are... Energy efficiency. An effective way to limit CO2 emissions is to not produce them. The signatory financial institutions will encourage clients to invest in cost-effective demand reduction."
Seems that the banks have made their decision — and they're placing their bets squarely on renewable energy.
*Think coal is still our future? Consider this: since 2002, 100 coal plants have been cancelled in the U.S. alone. This trend "demonstrates an undeniable trend of American communities moving beyond coal and toward clean, renewable energy," according to Reuters.
*And don't even think about coal as a possibility in Los Angeles:
"Los Angeles will eliminate the use of electricity made from coal by 2020, replacing it with power from cleaner renewable energy sources, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said."
-- Reuters, July 2, 2009
As you can see — the evidence is truly overwhelming. And our future is crystal-clear. Question is; will you be able to find which solar, which wind, which geothermal will shoot to the top of the charts and will you get into the market near the bottom? Or will you catch the wave just before it breaks and miss the next new wave rising from the bottom? This is where most individual investors get in. If you want to make big money, you have got to spend more time researching and watching potentials via a watch-list of ten or fifteen in each category, weeding out one by one as new confirmed data comes in on each company.
This was started by a long-time entrepreneur who was forced into corporate service by the Dot.com crash which wiped out $5-Trillion in market value of technology companies from March 2000 to October 2002.
See March post: Deja Vu.
This is a web log created by many contributors about their investing thoughts, making-saving-loosing money, as we together follow the stock market. It also questions many things about the world as it relates to the companies, sectors, and people affected by the the money we seek to make.
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