THE CAN FROM CHINA

BUYING FOOD THE OTHER DAY AT THE COUNTRY MARKET, I NOTICED ON THE LABEL OF SOME PRODUCTS IT SAID, 'FROM CHINA'. FOR EXAMPLE, THE "OUR FAMILY" BRAND OF THE MANDARIN ORANGES SAYS RIGHT ON THE CAN: 'FROM CHINA'. I WAS SHOCKED!! SO, FOR A FEW MORE CENTS I BUY THE LIBERTY GOLD BRAND OR THE DOLE NOW SINCE IT'S FROM CALIF. TAKES FOREVER JUST TO BUY FOOD AND DO LABEL READING ! !

Are we Americans as dumb as we appear --- or --- is it that we just do not think? While the Chinese, knowingly and intentionally, export inferior and even toxic products and dangerous toys and goods to be sold in American markets, the media wrings its hands and criticizes the ex-Bush Administration for perceived errors.

Yet 70% of Americans believe that the trading privileges afforded to the Chinese should be suspended. Well, duh..why do you need the government to suspend trading privileges?

SIMPLY DO IT YOURSELF, AMERICA!!

Simply look on the bottom of every product you buy, and if it says 'Made in China' or 'PRC' (and that now includes Hong Kong), simply choose another product, or none at all. You will be amazed at how dependent you are on Chinese products, and you will be equally amazed at what you can do without.

Who needs plastic eggs to celebrate Easter? If you must have eggs, use real ones and benefit some American farmer. Easter is just an example, the point is do not wait for the government to act. Just go ahead and assume control on your own.

THINK ABOUT THIS: If 200 million Americans refuse to buy just $20 each of Chinese goods, that's a billion dollar trade imbalance resolved in our favor...fast!!

The downside? Some American businesses will feel a temporary pinch from having foreign stockpiles of inventory. Wahhhhhhhhhhhh !!!

The solution? Let's give them fair warning and send our own message. Most of the people who have been reading about this matter are planning on implementing this on June 4, and continue it until July 4. That is only one month of trading losses, but it will hit the Chinese for 1/12th of the total, or 8%, of their American exports. Then they will at least have to ask themselves if the benefits of their arrogance and lawlessness were worth it.

Remember, June 4 to July 4.

EVEN BETTER. . . START NOW.
Send this to everybody you know. Let's show them that we are Americans and NOBODY can take us for granted. If we can't live without cheap Chinese goods for one month out of our lives, WE DESERVE WHAT WE GET!

Pass it on, America


Marty's:

Who writes this nonsense? Why aren't these stupid, misguided pieces of nationalistic, specious, propaganda signed, so their authors can be rightly excoriated for the bumpkins that they are? Why would anyone practice even a pitiful amount of economic protectionism when it has been proven, over and over again, that protectionism and isolationism theories are harmfully counter productive? In the case of our particular relations with China, the problem does not lie in our buying more goods from them, than they buy from us...approximately 5 X in their favor...but rather the problem has been our penchant of living beyond our means and China, and other countries, affording us the credit allowing us to do so. By the measure of mini-protectionism thinking, what should our policy be towards those countries, Australia for example, with whom we have a positive balance of trade? Lower our prices, restrict our exports to them, give them rebates, buy more of their goods...or convert our cash reserves into interest bearing securities, make more money on the investment, and loan them vast amounts of money enabling them to buy more of our goods so we may then use the securities to finance the purchase of world wide raw materials, goods and services that serve to grow our own economy? Under that scenario, it would make sense to buy more Australian goods, wouldn't it? We cannot blame China, or anyone else, for our own perfidy of sound, personal economic conduct. One has only to look at our dismal rate of savings for decades, compared to other countries, particularly Asian countries, to understand our dependence on foreign debt maintaining our lifestyles. Under the circumstance of our fortunes being intertwined with a world economy now the whole of every other country's economy, it is pure folly to think that protectionism is anything but a detriment to our well being...it brings about nothing but economic contraction, higher unemployment, lessening productivity, higher costs and a diminishing GDP. So, go ahead, put the Mandarin Oranges back on the shelf and buy the good old American Dole brand canned oranges, which they have been stealing and raping from Honduras for over 100 years.

Celeb

More On Illegal Aliens...

And you wonder why health care costs are out of control!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

These are extreme cases but there are thousands more which create a great deal of cost.
Please listen to this---if they are illegal then it is illegal to grant medical care---a very simple solution to a huge problem




Maybe someone should tell Obama, if we would stop paying for the medical services for illegal's our health care cost quite possibly would be more reasonable


MY RESPONSE:

This story has to be at least 5 or 6 years old and is used for propaganda purposes from the right wing, nativist, CHRISTIAN activists that are anti-immigration, prejudicial bigots. No one disputes the medical costs involved in treating the poor, non-insured sick in this country...legal or not, but medical costs, in general, are a separate subject best left to the single payer, universal coverage debate, another shameful aspect of "the greatest country in the world" bullshit.

This subject is really one having to do with illegals...and the economic misrepresentations surrounding them. The single, most identifiable problem at the heart of this dilemma is that non-documented workers in this country are not entitled to Medicaid. Period. What is not taken into consideration is the economic contribution that illegals make to the economy...which, ironically, benefits everyone save them. Florida enjoys a particular advantage derived from their illegals that isn't matched by any other state with the possible exception of California. Because of Florida's climate and their ability to multi-crop agricultural products, triple cropping in some cases, they maximize the benefits of low cost, no benefits, labor provided by illegals. The tomato growing industry, for example, which produces over 80% of the country's winter tomatoes, utilizes immigration labor as a practical indentured servant class.

Tomato pickers currently earn about 45 cents per 32# bucket of tomatoes...$0.014. In 1980, almost 30 years ago, they received 40 cents a pound. Chantra tells me tomatoes currently sell for about $4.00#. Bend over, pick 32 pounds of tomatoes, one by one, fill a bucket then carry it to a flat bed truck..voila! you've just made a quarter, a nickle and two pennies...do this 10 times and you can then buy a cup of coffee at a Starbucks (not including the TAX)!! While McDonald's and YUM Brands, bowing to activist pressure from labor and religious groups, are willing to pay an additional penny a pound to pickers, which would improve their lot considerably, Burger king and the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange are not...in fact, the Growers Exchange is threatening fines against any grower that even shares information on wages and tonnage picked with anyone.

The point of this is that pickers in Florida, illegals the country over, are used and abused for financial gain but are castigated and denigrated when they are sick and not allowed to participate in Medicade...while most of their incomes are TAXED locally and their FICA payroll deductions forfeited and never used. Illegals that use phony and fake Social Security numbers effectively forfeit over $7,000,000,000 annually in FICA taxes...what happens to it? Could not a pro-rata share of this $7B that comes from each state be returned to the states for reimbursement of their medical and educational costs attributable to illegals?

The bottom line on illegals in this country, notwithstanding common morality and questions of societal ethics, is that they are an indispensable, positive part of a $14Trillion economy and should be medically taken care of for that reason alone...and since many would proclaim that we are a "Christian" nation, its about fucking time we acted like one instead of the greatest killing nation in the world.

Auto Supplier Tells GM Where To Go

This message says a lot about our need to stand up and be responsible. Hopefully it will get a wide distribution.
This is one of the greatest responses to the requests for bailout money I have seen thus far.

As a supplier for the Big 3, this man received a letter from the President of GM North America requesting support for the bail out program. His response is well written, and has to make you proud of a local guy who tells it like it is.

This letter and Mr. Knox are real.. check it out at: http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/knox.asp


This is GM's letter:

Dear Employees & Suppliers,

Congress and the current Administration will soon determine whether to provide immediate support to the domestic auto industry to help it through one of the most difficult economic times in our nation's history. Your elected officials must hear from all of us now on why this support is critical to our continuing the progress we began prior to the global financial crisis.

As an employee or supplier, you have a lot at stake and continue to be one of our most effective and passionate voices. I know GM can count on you to have your voice heard.

Thank you for your urgent action and ongoing support.

Troy Clarke
President,
General Motors North America


Response from: Gregory Knox, Pres.
Knox Machinery Company
Franklin, Ohio

Gentlemen:

In response to your request to contact legislators and ask for a bailout for the Big Three automakers please consider the following, and please pass my thoughts on to Troy Clarke, President of General Motors North America.

Politicians and Management of the Big 3 are both infected with the same entitlement mentality that has spread like cancerous germs in UAW halls for the last countless decades, and whose plague is now sweeping this nation, awaiting our new "messiah," Pres-elect Obama, to wave his magic wand and make all our problems go away, while at the same time allowing our once great nation to keep "living the dream." Believe me folks, The dream is over!

This dream where we can ignore the consumer for years while management myopically focuses on its personal rewards packages at the same time that our factories have been filled with the worlds most overpaid, arrogant, ignorant and laziest entitlement minded "laborers" without paying the price for these atrocities. This dream where you still think the masses will line up to buy our products for ever and ever.

Don't even think about telling me I'm wrong. Don't accuse me of not knowing of what I speak. I have called on Ford, GM, Chrysler, TRW, Delphi, Kelsey Hayes, American Axle, and countless other automotive OEM's throughout the Midwest, during the past 30 years and what I've seen over those years in these union shops can only be described as disgusting.

Troy Clarke, President of General Motors North America, states: "There is widespread sentiment throughout this country, and our government, and especially via the news media, that the current crisis is completely the result of bad management which it certainly is not."

You're right Mr. Clarke, it's not JUST management. How about the electricians who walk around the plants like lords in feudal times, making people wait on them for countless hours while they drag ass so they can come in on the weekend and make double and triple time for a job they easily could have done within their normal 40 hour work week. How about the line workers who threaten newbies with all kinds of scare tactics for putting out too many parts on a shift and for being too productive.

(We certainly must not expose those lazy bums who have been getting overpaid for decades for their horrific underproduction, must we?!?)

Do you folks really not know about this stuff?!? How about this great sentiment abridged from Mr. Clarke's sad plea: "over the last few years we have closed the quality and efficiency gaps with our competitors." What the hell has Detroit been doing for the last 40 years?!? Did we really JUST wake up to the gaps in quality and efficiency between us and them? The K car vs. the Accord? The Pinto vs. the Civic?!? Do I need to go on? What a joke!

We are living through the inevitable outcome of the actions of the United States auto industry for decades. It's time to pay for your sins, Detroit.

I attended an economic summit last week where brilliant economist, Alan Beaulieu, from the Institute of Trend Research, surprised the crowd when he said he would not have given the banks a penny of "bailout money."

"Yes, he said, this would cause short term problems," but despite what people like politicians and corporate magnates would have us believe, the sun would in fact rise the next day and the following very important thing would happen. Where there had been greedy and sloppy banks, new efficient ones would pop up. That is how a free market system works. It does work if we would only let it work."

But for some nondescript reason we are now deciding that the rest of the world is right and that capitalism doesn't work - that we need the government to step in and "save us". Save us my ass, Hell - we're nationalizing and unfortunately too many of our once fine nation's citizens don't even have a clue that this is what is really happening.

But, they sure can tell you the stats on their favorite sports teams.
Yeah - THAT'S really important, isn't it.

Does it ever occur to ANYONE that the "competition" has been producing vehicles, EXTREMELY PROFITABLY, for decades in this country? How can that be??? Let's see. Fuel efficient. Listening to customers. Investing in the proper tooling and automation for the long haul.

Not being too complacent or arrogant to listen to Dr.. W Edwards Deming four decades ago when he taught that by adopting appropriate principles of management, organizations could increase quality and simultaneously reduce costs. Ever increased productivity through quality and intelligent planning. Treating vendors like strategic partners, rather than like "the enemy." Efficient front and back offices. Non union environment.

Again, I could go on and on, but I really wouldn't be telling anyone anything they really don't already know down deep in their hearts.

I have six children, so I am not unfamiliar with the concept of wanting someone to bail you out of a mess that you have gotten yourself into - my children do this on a weekly, if not daily basis, as I did when I was their age. I do for them what my parents did for me (one of their greatest gifts, by the way) - I make them stand on their own two feet and accept the consequences of their actions and work through it. Radical concept, huh. Am I there for them in the wings? Of course - but only until such time as they need to be fully on their own as adults.

I don't want to oversimplify a complex situation, but there certainly are unmistakable parallels here between the proper role of parenting and government. Detroit and the United States need to pay for their sins.

Bad news people - it's coming whether we like it or not The newly elected Messiah really doesn't have a magic wand big enough to "make it all go away." I laughed as I heard Obama "reeling it back in" almost immediately after the final vote count was tallied. "We really might not do it in a year or in four." Where the Hell was that kind of talk when he was RUNNING for office.

Stop trying to put off the inevitable folks. That house in Florida really isn't worth $750,000. People who jump across a border really don't deserve free health care benefits. That job driving that forklift for the Big 3 really isn't worth $85,000 a year. We really shouldn't allow Wal-Mart to stock their shelves with products acquired from a country that unfairly manipulates their currency and has the most atrocious human rights infractions on the face of the globe. That couple whose combined income is less than $50,000 really shouldn't be living in that $485,000 home.

Let the market correct itself folks - it will.. Yes it will be painful, but it's gonna' be painful either way, and the bright side of my proposal is that on the other side of it all, is a nation that appreciates what it has and doesn't live beyond its means and gets back to basics and redevelops the patriotic work ethic that made it the greatest nation in the history of the world and probably turns back to God..

Sorry - don't cut my head off, I'm just the messenger sharing with you the "bad news". I hope you take it to heart.


Gregory J. Knox, President
Knox Machinery, Inc.
Franklin, Ohio 45005


MY RESPONSE:


Dear Mr. Knox:

You are certainly entitled to your opinions, which right also allows me to have mine. I think you're full of shit.

To begin, you make statements in your opening paragraph concerning 'politicians and the Big 3' which, to be gratuitous, are nonsensical. To what, exactly, entitlements have politicians claimed for themselves? Can you enumerate them? Likewise with the the automakers, UAW and the 'mentality' of entitlement in the form of a plague sweeping the country. And please clarify, if you will, what is meant by the 'magic wand' you mention as being waved by PRESIDENT Obama...what exactly is this 'magic wand' comprised of? My best recollection of the president's remarks concerning the economy were words to the effect that it was not going to be easy to overcome the mistakes and errors, greed and incompetence of the past 8 years. but rather it was going to be a tough, hard struggle. I heard nothing of a 'magic wand', and I challenge you to prove one iota of an Obama 'magic wand'. Mini demagogues should better prepare before shooting their mouths off and spewing things created out of thin air. OK, so you're a conservative with a big 'C', say it and stop with the pedantic bullshit already.

You go on to bash the 'lazy bums' of labor and the incompetence of management. Of course, as a salesman, you qualify as an expert. Needless to say, when I called on architects such as Skidmore, Owings and Merrill for years, I too could have designed the John Hancock building in Chicago and a friend, Margie Phelps, who detailed doctors for 35 years while working for Phizer, now is a brain surgeon.

In your purity of rightfulness you mention the 'brilliant economist' Alan Beaulieu, and his apparent unwillingness to give 'a penny' of bailout money to banks. Trouble is, Beaulieu is not a formally trained economist any more than I am, though I have a masters Degree from the Instituto de Allende, but i don't hold myself out as an 'economist.' Further, while the sun will rise again in the east, I hear no alternative suggestions to diverting a world wide financial melt down from either you or Beaulieu. You know nothing of economic theory from any accepted school of economic thought whatsoever. You skip over what Warren Buffett describes as our financial Pearl Harbor with Beaulieu stating "....would cause short term problems' as if we were in the midst of a garden variety recession. You're an economic jerk.

Continuing your self-righteous bullshit, you mention that "...the rest of the world is right and that capitalism doesn't work...." I haven't come across much of this. I have come across much that says enforced regulation is in the cards...and I believe this is so. You, Knox, are in the machine tool business and surely must realize that the most efficient, high speed, creative tools extant today have to be regulated...that while they have RPMs and capacities that the layman can't comprehend, they have to be controlled for maximum efficiency, lest they run amok. True?
You also speak of "...nationalizing..." as if it were dengue fever...forgetting that it is nothing new in American history going back to the nation's railroads and banks...when they were indeed the very aortas of the economy. As much as you don't know about economics, you know less about history.

Your academic business mentor may have been Deming, mine was Drucker.

Your having six children proves nothing more than you, or someone, had sex with your wife at least six times. It is less an indication of sageness than the father of one stating that he didn't want to screw himself out of a place at the table. Parenting and government similarity? Please, spare us your nuggets of imbecility. Orwell came up with the term 'big brother' for government, now we have Knox to thank for 'father government.'

RE: $750,000 house in Florida, border jumpers free health care, forklift $85,000 incomes, Wal-Mart and Chinese goods, $50,000 couple buying $485,000 home. Who the hell are you to tell anyone what house to buy? To tell Wal-Mart or anyone else how to live their lives or conduct their business? Where do you get off with your sanctimonious bullshit? You're nothing but a parasite in business...selling things that someone else makes to someone else that operates them. What do you contribute to sociey...a measley little pimple on the ass of progress living off other people's creativity, risk capital and labor (did you steal customers and prospects from your prior employer to start your business?)...the factors of a capitalistic system...while you do nothing but serve as a bump along the road of distribution. You know nothing of pain in a societal sense, you offer NO proposals, people do not have "patriotic" (how many foreign brands of machinery do you represent? you're a hypocrite) work ethics and our standard of living isn't even in the top ten of world countries...you are not even a messenger because you don't have a message...nothing but self-serving, narcissistic bullshit. Knox, you're an asshole.

Stimulus Bill

Harvey, you posed a great question...wasteful spending in the Stimulus Bill, "pork" in the argot of the political trade, and the ostensible objection to the proposed Obama bill. As I do better literately than verbally, I'm going to re-state my take on your question...if for no other reason than I believe the written word carries far more weight of credibility than does the spoken word, particularly when that word is only marginally comprehended amidst the din of a raucous tavern.

Inasmuch as I consider the crisis the country is facing is tantamount to catastrophe, hardship, pain and ruin beyond anything we have ever experienced in our history..making time of the essence...that Republicans would obfuscate, splutter and obstruct, from the obvious standpoint of self-serving partisanship, can only be judged, IMO, reprehensible and downright unpatriotic. To qualify my point, I would refresh the fact that the failed policies of the past, Republican, years...starting with the repeal of Glass-Steagle by country bumpkin economist Phil Gramm..wherein regulations of our financial system that served us well for decades, were overruled in favor of "free Marketers" and laissez faire proponents, which allowed Sears to sell stocks, bonds and insurance policies right next to refrigerators and claw hammers...and gave Wall Street carte blanche, which resulted in the creation of, not tangible products, but huge fees in paper financial instruments that even the creators of them could not sensibly explain to the likes of our greatest businessman, Warren Buffett. Not only was the Street allowed to run "free", the mantra of the greedy, but restraints on leverage and reserves were abated, then not even enforced by a government that was simply incompetent and incapable of governing in any area, let alone the financial sector. The Bush administration let the fox in the hen house. Fact or liberal partisan fiction?

When the financial system crashed...the Republican Secretary of the Treasury, Hank Paulson..former GS COB and CEO with an annual income of $40+M for years from the very people on whose behalf he was now making fervent pleas, and the Bush appointed Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, called a meeting of Congressional leaders...DEMOCRATS all...and in a matter of fucking HOURS had agreement to give the heretofore wealthiest investment brokerages and banks in the world, $350 BILLION, not only with no strings attached...but with virtual czar powers to Paulson...a single man was going to determine who got how much of an unprecedent amount of taxpayer money...because the DEMOCRATIC leaders realized the situation was dire and time was of the essence. They did not equivocate...they did not go before TV cameras and raise bullshit about Reagan's deficit legacy..or Bush's total lack of any leadership in the crisis...they said, "do what you have to do, Hank." And it was done. And the DEMOCRATS went before the public and explained why it had to be done as articulately as any Republican...and more so, because they were leaders thinking of the good of the country...and not a wonderful opportunity to castigate the administration for bringing the mess about in the first place. It didn't solve the provlem, nor was it intended as a panacea, but it staved off armageddon and bought time until cool heads could prevail and longer term plans devised.

Now? Now, with the whole country imperiled and on the edge of a financial abyss...we see assholes like Vitter, McCain, Lindsey, Boehner and others spouting the hackneyed old Republican saws of "wasteful spending" and "cut taxes"...fucking shibboleths with no purpose other than to cover their asses with their faithful back home...so next election when, hopefully, we are past this millenial crisis and fighting solvable inflation, he can say, "I told you so." This is not statesman ledership. This is bullshit partisanship evidenced by partisan votes, to a man, by Republicans that have amnesia to the extent that their party, whilst having the hat trick of government, fucked things up...and, besides, they LOST!! To think that not a single Representative..or Senator...of the opposition party could agree with the majority party on such a momentous matter affecting the entire country, is beyond mathematical calculation in its absurdity...especially when, only months before, the opposition party of that time supported the majority's programs, without hesitation or folderol, and ironically, it was a no debate approval of the biggest "spend" give-away in history!!

Our economy is 70% driven by consumers...and with trillions of wealth from home equities, IRAs, pension funds, literally evaporated...people not only voluntarily stop spending, they can't spend. Arm chair economists bemoan the "living beyond our means" and "we are all to blame", blah, blah, but there is a difference in supporting even excessive consumer debt when mom and dad both have good jobs and $50K equity in real estate vs one so-so job and no equity to leverage. Businesses, without orders, utility capacity of 70% or less and sales projected to continue to erode...are not going to increase capital spending..they are going to curtail it, shut existing facilities, cut costs, work off inventories and cut labor..their biggest expense...to the bone...and a vicious spiral begins with disinflation whirling into dreaded deflation...economists', the world over, worst nighmare. With the Fed's classic tool for combatting economic slowdowns, reducing interest rates, totally used up...and Fed Treasury buys not making a dent...what is the answer? How does a massive economy get its life blood, consumers, to spend money in this scenario of pending economic doom? As sure as government is charged with military defense of the country, so too is it charged with protecting the country's life blood, its economy. Unless, of course, the country is willing to emulate the ruination and insolvency of, say, Iceland...a microcosm of a nation's ruined economic health for years to come.

We are experiencing wage cuts not seen since the depression, unemployment is at or near double digits in California, the largest state and barometer for the country, our once vaunted auto industry is collapsing in front of our eyes, retailers are slashing prices to move inventory yet sales continue to decline, bankruptcies are escalating, commercial mortgages, auto loans and credit card debt defaults are rising...and disinflation is rapidly looking like deflation...which will result in debt being more of an onerous burden which leads to more defaults, more liquidations, layoffs and the cycle feeds on itself with the only recourse we have left to stop the spiraling is government...who or what else can do it? Only govt can deal with such a problem...and in a consumer economy, only spending...whether it be on condoms, to artists to paint, writers to write, kids to play, the sick be treated or building a god damn bridge, doesn't matter.

Obama's only mistake regarding getting a massive amount of spendable money into the hands of consumers was his bipartisan approach to Republicans...coddling their favor with an open, outstretched hand..listening to their bullshit and empowering them to the point that the assholes are afraid to deny or cross the hateful, divisive pig, Rush. He should have taken a cue from Bush when he had Congress...and rammed his program down their throats.

An ecosystem of ideas at the Clean-Tech Summit

10:00 AM, January 24, 2009

At the annual Clean-Tech Investor Summit in Indian Wells this week, finance, science and imagination mingled, with the aim of fostering industries that preserve the planet. The gathering was produced by Ron Pernick of Clean Edge consultants and Craig Simak of the International Business Forum, and chaired by venture investor Ira Ehrenpreis of Technology Partners.

Times staff writer Edward Silver filed this report on some of the ideas offered by conference speakers, each an innovator in sustainability:

A long road

During a discussion of the roadmap for electric vehicles, Britta Gross, manager of hydrogen and electric infrastructure for General Motors, spoke of the challenge to succeed with the upcoming Volt car along with the rest of the company’s EV agenda.

Producing a quality electric car, she said, isn’t enough to win hearts and minds. To begin with, you need effective charging systems and smart public policy. Suddenly you’re also up against cheaper gasoline.

I got the sense that Gross feels she’s in a bind, and not just because of GM’s financial straits. If there’s no mechanism but the marketplace at work, the entrenched advantages of the petro-driven status quo -- cost, familiarity, convenience -- will be difficult to overcome.

Jason Wolf of Better Place offered his view of the solution, or at least a piece of it. His Palo Alto company proposes to own the EV battery, taking a big chunk out of the price of the car. That becomes a subscription fee instead. The motorist pays to use the battery, rejuicing it at perhaps one-day-ubiquitous Better Place charging stations. During a trip longer than 100 miles, you swap it out for a fresh one. Said Wolf: "We enable mass adoption." . . . .

Investing in natural selection

Janine Benyus, an eloquent proponent of "biomimicry," was billed as the inspirational speaker of the day, and she delivered. Benyus came to tell the venture investors that plants and creatures that live well on very little are inspiring product design. Think about it, she said -- life on Earth, guided by natural selection, put in 3.8 billion years of R&D before humans even started tinkering.

Her presentation brought to light emerging companies that study the quiet, efficient, low-impact processes of nature and adapt them for industry and sustainability. Among them is Aquaporin of Denmark, whose pure-water technology was modeled on the workings of kidneys and blood cells. Another, Canada’s Regen Energy, based its approach on the teamwork observed in bee colonies: With its software and devices, energy-hogging machines within a building can coordinate, and cut, their consumption -- a smart grid on a small scale.

Benyus has more credits than can be counted in a blog, but if you’re interested, visit the websites of her consulting firm, the Biomimicry Guild, and the nonprofit Biomimicry Institute. She and Paul Hawken, the entrepreneur and noted author of "Natural Capitalism," recently launched the Biomimicry Venture Group, presumably to fund these ideas.

Liquidity crisis

Water and fossil fuels have more in common than we’d like to think. Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, noted that they permeate the ways we make things and consume things. But growing long-term demand and competition for both threaten us with scarcity and environmental harm.

America’s massive Ogallala acquifer is one among many sources feeling the pressure. Overpumping, Gleick warned, will raise the cost of tapping groundwater, and some sites around the globe could run dry. We see something like that in the diminishing returns from mature oil fields like Mexico’s Cantarell. Climate change jeopardizes water supplies, too. But few resource planners have worked that into their models for the future.

Gleick also pointed to vital differences between these resources: Oil is much more valuable in dollars and cents. Yet we have substitutes for oil, however imperfect, and if push comes to shove, we could live without it. For water, there are none, and we can’t.

Gleick told his audience that China has banned new operations in water-intensive industries around parched Beijing. If the wet stuff becomes dear, businesses like semiconductors and agriculture will feel it, while conservation technology and desalination could catch the wave.

Top photo: Chevy Volt. Credit: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg News

Bottom photo: The California Aqueduct. Credit: Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times

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Comments

One wonders why anyone who would claim that EV technology is at the control of the marketplace (i.e. he means that consumers will decide what they need, rather than Big Brother) is alowed to publish fiction such as this.

Oabama has promised $7500 per vehicle tax credit for Ev or REVs like the Volt. That don't sound nothing like no marketplace environment to me. I also note that brainless Obama's dream of 1 milion cars electrically powered cars on the road within the next 5 years will accomplish exactly nothing in terms of either carbon emissions or gasoline consumption. Let's see now. There are 365 million gas powered cars out there, using approximately 40% of the crude oil. That works out to an invisible reduction of 1/5th of 1 percent of oil demand. Oh, yeah, Obama reallly knows his math. Another symbolic idea from the newsset fool in the WH - file it alongside that guff about appointing honest, competent Feds or closing Guantanomo. Obama has sold out before he's even changed the drapes in the White House. Different colored skin, same old brainless jerk. The internet made Obama and the internet will drstroy the liar.

Posted by: ArthurGlen | January 24, 2009 at 10:51 AM

Talk about 'brainless jerks', its almost comical when a real doozy posts on this otherwise enlightening blog. Even but a cursory search of the US Bureau of Transit Statistics indicates there were only 135,399,945 registered 'cars' on the road in 2006 (latest available figures), and only 250,851,833 total vehicles, including cars, trucks and 6,686,147 motorcycles to boot. Speaking of math, I think its safe to say that only a bona fide jerk could be wrong by over 200,000,000 cars...unless, of course, the car manufacturers have been faking their sales numbers the past two years.

I believe there is a convention in law, perhaps it is only tacit, that if a part of witness testimony can be impeached, then his/her entire testimony can be disregarded by the jury. In bars, a jerk guilty of this is known as a bull..ter and becomes a pariah, if not thrown out on his fat assets.

In the case of thinking people v bona fide jerks, the defense rests.

Posted by: martscan | January 26, 2009 at 02:18 AM

To Martscan, while ArthurGlen's post is a bit of a political rant, the underlying point is a valid one - is this the best use of funds to accomplish the goal?

Not long ago, GM indicated they thought EV was a "transitional technology" at best, and the holy grail was indeed hydrogen fuel cells. Apparently, that was the reasoning behind almost no serious focus on EV - they wanted to beat Toyota and Honda to fuel cells, anticipating a much shorter development period. History has shown the folly of that. At least in the short term.

But if ArthurGlen's "$7,500 and 1 million vehicles" is correct (I don't know if it is or isn't), that's a federal taxes expenditure of $7.5 billion. Would the ultimate goal of zero emmissions not be much closer if that cash was spent on fuel cell research? Do we need tens of millions of toxic batteries to dispose of in 10-15 years? Do we not create carbon emmissions generating electricity, which is currently 50+% coal in the US?

To declare EV the winner, and worthy of massive subsidy, ignores the science and longer term implications of the technology. Why not offer that subsidy to hydrogen? In the rush to be seen to be green, it looks like marketing trumps science.

Posted by: JS | January 26, 2009 at 10:04 AM

The market place would probably accept electric cars if the cost of electricity as fuel was less than the cost of oil as fuel. If we invested the $7.5 billion into research into superconductivity that would happen very quickly. Well over 2/3 of all electricity generated in the United States is lost in getting the juice from where it is generated to where it is used. Most of that is in the bulk conduction, for example from Hoover dam to LA or from the Tennessee Valley to the steel mills on the great lakes. If we are looking for places to cut waste that loss of electricity is the greatest waste in the country. It is also something that is relatively near to being feasible if money were thrown at it. Otherwise, the pollution and global warming caused by coal and gas generated electricity is greater than simply using oil to fuel the vehicle. I find it amazing that this is so little discussed, superconductivity would be the quickest and easiest way to increase our energy supplies!!!

Posted by: Gary Noel | January 26, 2009 at 12:21 PM

JS:

Am I missing something? Where is it written that projected "costs" of a hypothetical program are the ONLY funds earmarked for the goal of becoming independent of OPEC oil with respect to powering autos? Where is it written that one source of alternative energy, regardless of its application, trumps any other source of alternative energy, to the extent of their not receiving government credits or other monetary incentives? Where is it written that a hypothetical lost opportunity is a hard "cost"? Your contention of "...a federal taxes expenditure of $7.5 billion", and "...if that cash was spent on fuel cell research?", is nonsensical. "Cash" you don't have can't be "spent."

Speaking of fuel cell research, the Dept. of Energy has had outright fuel cell research grants available via its SBIR program for years, as has the Pentagon through the military services.

Its my understanding that Obama's proposed tax credits ($7000, not $7500) apply to ANY vehicle, plug-in, fuel cell or rubber band, capable of 150 mpg or equivalent...also, if memory serves, Obama once proposed a $10B venture capital fund for alternative energy research. And, I believe McCain was touting a $5000 credit and a $300M prize for advanced battery technology...apparently, John McCain 'sold out' even before he could possibly be president. Glen's post is not a "bit of political rant", its a lot of gobblygook.

Regarding GM and EV, why is it no one mentions that the EV1 car would have sold like hot cakes during the gas price spike...if it hadn't been scrapped...and its technology, including the battery intelligence, was sold to, of all people, Chevron oil? The point is that corporations are not formed to be patriotic entities, they are formed to make money for their owners, and they make decisions according to what they believe the market will buy. Period. There is no lack of money in this country for a viably marketable product...whether it be fuel cells or widgets.

Posted by: martscan | January 26, 2009 at 06:00 PM

Martscan,
The apparent mindset at the moment is “Prius good, Tahoe bad”. There is currently an obsession with electric cars as it is viewed to be the shortest path to reducing fossil fuels reliance. While it’s not specifically wrong, it’s worth noting that if Obama wants to act fast, EV is the technology likely to receive most of the “investment dollars” (or tax credits) he espouses. And we should be specific – it’s not the electric car that’s the problem, it’s the battery and charging time.

If the government enacts a tax credit of any size, that credit creates a tax hole that will have to be filled from something, and that means cash from a taxpayer’s wallet. And if "Cash you don't have can't be spent." was true, there would be no government deficits.

As for the DOE SBIR grants, yes, they have been in place for years, but they are in the millions, not hundreds of millions, and certainly not billions. Their current program allocates, according to their web pages, $100 mil up to 2010, a mere drop in the bucket of alternative fuels research spending. There has been an enormous amount of private money spent on hydrogen to date, I suspect because if/when it is perfected on an economic level, the rewards will be mind-boggling.

GM’s EV1 program was a technology that failed to materialize in a profitable product. At the time, as is now, electric cars are NOT PROFITABLE to their manufacturers on any kind of mass scale. 10 years into the Prius, Toyota’s investment has not been covered, although they arguably have achieved a "mindshare" dominance as a GREEN car company. GM made a decision to re-allocate capital to a technology that has proven a tough nut to crack. But what if they had sold EV1 cars “like hotcakes”? Presuming consumers would have elected to buy one, they projected a loss on every car, even selling at a price substantially higher than the Prius. So GM would have lost more money. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

I generally agree that “There is no lack of money in this country for a viably marketable product...whether it be fuel cells or widgets”. I personally abhor any tax incentive or government spending to move “alternative fuels” forward.

What I am asserting is that if Obama spends money (or provides tax credits) on this, and it’s almost a foregone conclusion he will, companies will flock towards electric cars, because that’s where the low hanging fruit will be. If the result is that money for other alternatives all but disappears, including zero emissions technologies like rubber bands, we’ll have shot ourselves in the foot yet again.

Posted by: JS | January 27, 2009 at 12:50 PM

JS:
You make an intelligent and cogent argument stated articulately, which I respect. However, I disagree with it.

My point is that whatever mitigates our dependence on foreign oil is fine with me. What's the difference what form the savings takes as long as it works?

Regarding the government creating a 'tax hole' that has to be filled by cash from taxpayers' wallets and comparing this to never having a deficit, is nonsense, on both counts. To begin, the incentive, tax credit, by definition is offered to bring about an event that wouldn't ordinarily happen without the incentive. A taxpayer with, say, a $25,000 tax liability buying a $40,000 car and receiving a $7,000 credit would then have a tax bill of $18,000...ostensibly "costing" the federal govt his $7,000 tax savings. But, no one knows if the taxpayer would have bought a conventional car, or not, rather than the new tech car with the tax benefit...whatever that technology might be. Tracking backwards, tell me how much in federal taxes were paid in making the car, beginning with design, engineering, manufacturing, etc, etc to delivery and the wages paid to a dealer's car hiker, before the $7,000 so called 'cost' even enters the picture...that arguably wouldn't have been made without the incentive? Going forward, the car purchaser immediately pays over $3,500 in sales taxes, albeit local, they support public employees that pay federal taxes and, knowing the current velocity of a dollar (I'd guess 6-8X), it wouldn't be too difficult to calculate a total amount garnered by the federal govt in tax revenue from the sale of this car..and the one built to replace it in inventory....and the figure will easily surpass the $7,000 deducted from the purchasers tax bill, making a so called cost an actual net gain. With respect to federal deficits, they are the result of financings, borrowed money...and bear no relationship to what amounts to a tax cut vs an expenditure.

You state that Toyota has yet to make a profit with Prius. I don't know where you source your information, but I do know that I've read statements from Toyota executives, as early as 2003, that Prius was profitable. Also, Goldman Sachs' analyst, Kota Kuzawa states that Prius will produce 10% of Toyota's total company profits by next year. If this is true, I doubt the division goes from negative to incredibly positive overnight...rather it probably has enjoyed incremental gains from year to year. The fact of the matter is that no one outside of Toyota knows what Prius' financial critical mass is, or how the company treats expenses attributable to Prius.

If someone is drawn to a Toyota showroom out of curiosity to see a Prius, and ends up buying a Camry, is any part of that sale attributable to Prius? It is not arguable that Prius has won the green 'halo' for Toyota...witness Bob Lutz's denunciation of the Prius years ago, and his penchant for egomaniacal failures has forfeited any hope of GM ever catching Toyota's technological lead. Given GM's track record of not being able to forecast major consumer trends..not to mention their obsession with concept cars and contrived obsolescence, rather than producing reliable, profitable cars that people really wanted...I doubt anyone can make reasonable prognostications and presumptions about GM's EV prospects, when its clear that they can't do it themselves.

With respect to govt incentives, we are at opposite ends of the spectrum, and I suspect this may reflect our philosophies having to do with the role of govt. I am in favor of incentives regarding alternative energy because it is a matter of national security, in fact, we should have instituted a 'Manhattan' type project for this purpose years ago. Of course, the clout of big oil and 'Detroit' has prevented this. I am opposed to corporate hand outs, veiled as incentives, such as the ethanol fiasco on top of the Farm Bill fiasco, to name but one. And I say this as someone having considerable farm interests.

It is my belief that whatever Obama does, it will be in the best interests of the most people to the best of his knowledge...and not corporate special interests as has been our tacit policy for as long as I can remember.

Posted by: martscan | January 27, 2009 at 09:58 PM

Bank of America shares surge after execs buy stock

1:14 PM, January 21, 2009

Bank of America Corp.'s stock led a sharp rebound in hammered financial issues today, after some of the bank's senior executives and directors disclosed that they bought shares Tuesday.

At the very least, the purchases suggest the execs don’t believe the bank is in danger of being nationalized, which would wipe out common shareholders.

From Bloomberg News:

Bank of America gained as much as 35% after regulatory filings showing Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lewis and five directors bought more than 500,000 shares yesterday.

Lewis bought 200,000 shares of the bank yesterday at prices ranging form $5.98 to $6.06, while director Robert Tillman also bought 200,000 shares for $5.77 to $5.78, according to a filing today.

Temple Sloan Jr., lead director of the bank, bought 41,800 shares. Buyers also included William Barnet III, Jacquelyn Ward and John Collins.

The company declined to comment on the stock purchases, spokesman Scott Silvestri said.

The stock was up $1.58, or 31%, to $6.68 at the close of regular trading today.

The average big bank stock rebounded 15% today, and the rally in financial issues helped boost the broader market. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 279.01 points, or 3.5%, to 8,228.10 after slumping 4% on Tuesday.

Traders said financial issues got a boost in part from "short covering" -- buying by traders who had previously borrowed the shares and sold them, betting on falling prices. As the stocks turned up some of the shorts rushed in to close out their bets.

Bank of America shares had plunged 29% to $5.10 on Tuesday, bringing the year-to-date decline to 64%, after the company last week got another $20-billion capital infusion from the government and a Treasury guarantee of $118 billion of its bad loans.

The latest round of federal help stoked Wall Street fears that Bank of America and other struggling financial titans were heading for full government control.

The British government on Monday in effect nationalized Royal Bank of Scotland by saying it would take up to a 70% stake in the ailing lender.

-- Tom Petruno

Photo: BofA CEO Ken Lewis. Credit: Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times

Comment:

For a guy that has been making over $20M a year from a company that he has headed for years, Ken Lewis' purchase of a measly $1+M of BAC stock is such a blatant PR ploy as to be an insult to rank and file stockholders. On the basis of his recent managerial acumen and foresight, his purchase should serve as a tocsin for liquidation of BAC from the puniest of portfolios.

Aside from the obvious narcissistic, ego-maniacal drives of managers that run sound companies into the ground, there must be a psychological explanation for an otherwise competent manager that loses all underpinnings of common sense. Lewis is on track to emulate Sir Fred Goodwin, who so deftly built RBS into a powerhouse, but in the exhaust phase of his accelerated trend, crashed and burned like a burned out meteor, taking a once proud and great bank with him.

Were it up to me, I'd fire Ken Lewis in a Merrill Lynch minute.

Posted by: martscan | January 22, 2009 at 09:50 AM

ref: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2009/01/bank-nationaliz.html

Merrill's Thain reportedly sped up bonus payments

2:16 PM, January 22, 2009

Just when it seemed impossible for the image of Wall Street executives to sink any lower, now hear this: The Financial Times reports that Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain sped up bonus payments to staff at the end of 2008, even as the brokerage’s losses were deepening.

From the Times:

Merrill Lynch took the unusual step of accelerating bonus payments by a month last year, doling out billions of dollars to employees just three days before the closing of its sale to Bank of America.

The timing is notable because the money was paid as Merrill’s losses were mounting and Ken Lewis, BofA’s chief executive, was seeking additional funds from the government’s troubled asset recovery program to help close the deal.

Merrill and BofA shareholders voted to approve the takeover on December 5. Three days later, Merrill’s compensation committee approved the bonuses, which were paid on December 29. In past years, Merrill had paid bonuses later -- usually late January or early February, according to company officials.

Thain, who had intended to stay on at Merrill, resigned today.

The U.S. Treasury last week announced a capital infusion and loan guarantee plan worth $138 billion for Bank of America to bolster the company’s finances in the wake of the Merrill’s losses, which totaled $15 billion in the fourth quarter.

New York Atty. Gen. Andrew Cuomo has decided to investigate the bonus payments, Bloomberg reported today.

BofA told the Financial Times: "Merrill Lynch was an independent company until January 1, 2009. John Thain decided to pay year-end incentives in December as opposed to their normal date in January. BofA was informed of his decision."

-- Tom Petruno
Photo: John Thain. Credit: Richard Drew / Associated Press


Comment:

The BoA/Merrill drama is turning into a Greek tragedy with not so subtle undertones of poetic justice for the mythical gods that have brought it about.

That Thain and Lewis turn out to be less than mythical, indeed, actually pedestrian in their lack of vision attributable to great heads of state and titans of commerce...is testament to their facade of competence and the folly of their remuneration.

Whether it be Thain's mergers and acquisitions..such as Euronext, and his engendering of animosity and destroying of ML old hands' morale by luring old Goldman buddies with obscene packages of dough...not to mention his dilution of stockholder equity...to Lewis' insatiable quest for personal grandeur via acquisitions, sans adequate diligence (read management blunder), these two wolves in wolves clothing deserved each other.
Greek tragedies originated from a pagan form of religion, the ancient Greek word 'tragedy' meant 'goat song'...and the ritual culminated in the slaughter of the goats. So should it be today.

Posted by: martscan | January 22, 2009 at 05:04 PM

ref: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2009/01/merrill-bonuses.html?cid=145927162#comments