Why Investors Are Not Seeing Solar Profits [View article]
I think your question holds the answer. Chinese companies are under Chinese rules.
China still treats itself, its investors, and its consumers as though it were an underdeveloped country, even as it becomes larger than our economy. This is a disservice to the Chinese people, but that's not my call to make. It would be like a Chinese person talking about American policy. All we can do is deal with what is.
RBC notes a decade of wage inflation in China vs. stagnation in Mexico has left the U.S. southern neighbor quite competitive. Toss in a new world of expensive energy, and Mexico's advantage over China gets clearer. Look for Mexico's share of U.S. imports - 12.5% in 2010 - to keep rising. [View news story]
Considering Bill Gross's Demand for Immediate Stimulus [View article]
The liberal agenda, if you define it by the Administration, is just as Gross describes. The liberal agenda, as practiced as sites like Firedoglake, is quite different, which may be one reason why they were up with the story very quickly.
I happen to agree with Gross that infrastructure spending is badly needed. Shared infrastructure makes business more efficient for everyone. I have covered open source extensively for years, and that's shared infrastructure, too, only privately funded.
The problem with privately funded shared infrastructure, we found in the 19th century, was that either the investment fails (canals) or the investor demands monopoly rents (railroads) that keep everyone else down. That's where the modern utility model came from, America's experience in the 19th century.
RBC notes a decade of wage inflation in China vs. stagnation in Mexico has left the U.S. southern neighbor quite competitive. Toss in a new world of expensive energy, and Mexico's advantage over China gets clearer. Look for Mexico's share of U.S. imports - 12.5% in 2010 - to keep rising. [View news story]
The question is where you'd prefer to invest. I personally agree with you, investing in Mexico makes more sense. But it's not up to me.
I may have misspoken. It's not that webOS would be licensed to OEMs, but that OEMs might be more interested in supplying HP with hardware as a result of Android's problems.
The advantage Android has in the market, for OEMs, is that they have some control of it. If they can't get control, all bets are off.
Considering Bill Gross's Demand for Immediate Stimulus [View article]
I think Gross' point is what kind of stimulus. Specifically he's suggesting an infrastructure bank, which is bonds committed to rebuilding roads, ports, and repairing the economy's arteries.
That's one reason why he sounds so liberal. While his letter quotes Warren Buffett on this, I saw an MSNBC ad in which host Rachel Maddow made the same point about the need for infrastructure. Which is why I mentioned it in the piece.
RBC notes a decade of wage inflation in China vs. stagnation in Mexico has left the U.S. southern neighbor quite competitive. Toss in a new world of expensive energy, and Mexico's advantage over China gets clearer. Look for Mexico's share of U.S. imports - 12.5% in 2010 - to keep rising. [View news story]
Yeah, except for all that gang violence and drug wars and complete lack of education or sophisticated infrastructure they're exactly the same!
Microsoft's changing attitude toward intellectual property is well documenting in the book "Burning the Ships." It switched in the early 2000s from demanding business partners agree not to sue on patent claims to its present stance (copying IBM) of having as many patents as possible so it can freely enter any business it wants.
One key weakness Google has, according to Mueller, is its patent portfolio. That's why it is trying to buy the remains of Nortel -- to get its patent portfolio as a set of bargaining chips in future negotiations.
Why Investors Are Not Seeing Solar Profits [View article]
SHEC Labs has had no public announcements of any note since November. They announced a patent filing in May that looks similar to a 2005 filing. Earlier versions of a company with that name www.shec-labs.com/pres... ended in tears -- accusations of penny stock fraud out of Saskatoon. www.investmentbanter.c...
When there's some there there worth investing in, it won't be necessary to run to Saskatoon to find funding. In my opinion. Loved to be proven wrong.
Why Investors Are Not Seeing Solar Profits [View article]
There are several dimensions to cost-effectiveness, other than mere cell efficiency. There is the cost of cell production. There is the cost of installation. All those goes into the cost-per-watt calculation, where in fact you're getting the kind of halving of costs every 18 months Gordon Moore predicted in his famous article.
Why Investors Are Not Seeing Solar Profits [View article]
California was very much ahead of the curve when it came to semiconductors, and it's ahead of the curve with this related technology as well.
I emphasize the 1971 date in part because we have yet to see the final form this technology will take. You say you see solar panels everywhere in Italy. But will it stay a panel-based technology, with all the attendant installation costs?
Why Investors Are Not Seeing Solar Profits [View article]
My problem is identifying winners. There were a lot of chip companies in the early 70s, and a ton of PC companies in the mid-70s, that were gone by the 80s.
Yet that industry was driving through the "s" curve, making money hand over fist.
It's a mistake to confuse the direction of a market with that of any player in that market.
Why Investors Are Not Seeing Solar Profits [View article]
At this point in the cycle you shouldn't expect manufacturing profits. The first people to profit will be retailers, those who are making a market. And the big profits remain in efficiency, not in generation.
The important point to note, however, is the trend. As prices plunge new opportunities open up, in different sectors of the ecosystem.
The subsidies are designed to hasten the crossover, which is now seen coming in 2014 or 2015, from solar being the "expensive energy that needs subsidies" to being the "cheap energy that doesn't."
Yes, even without charging fossil fuel people for the external costs of what they're doing to the Earth, the water table, and the air, solar panels will be cheaper in just a few years.
Why Investors Are Not Seeing Solar Profits [View article]
China still treats itself, its investors, and its consumers as though it were an underdeveloped country, even as it becomes larger than our economy. This is a disservice to the Chinese people, but that's not my call to make. It would be like a Chinese person talking about American policy. All we can do is deal with what is.
RBC notes a decade of wage inflation in China vs. stagnation in Mexico has left the U.S. southern neighbor quite competitive. Toss in a new world of expensive energy, and Mexico's advantage over China gets clearer. Look for Mexico's share of U.S. imports - 12.5% in 2010 - to keep rising. [View news story]
Simply put, if one guy has all the money he has no one to sell to.
Considering Bill Gross's Demand for Immediate Stimulus [View article]
I happen to agree with Gross that infrastructure spending is badly needed. Shared infrastructure makes business more efficient for everyone. I have covered open source extensively for years, and that's shared infrastructure, too, only privately funded.
The problem with privately funded shared infrastructure, we found in the 19th century, was that either the investment fails (canals) or the investor demands monopoly rents (railroads) that keep everyone else down. That's where the modern utility model came from, America's experience in the 19th century.
RBC notes a decade of wage inflation in China vs. stagnation in Mexico has left the U.S. southern neighbor quite competitive. Toss in a new world of expensive energy, and Mexico's advantage over China gets clearer. Look for Mexico's share of U.S. imports - 12.5% in 2010 - to keep rising. [View news story]
Google Android Faces Legal Threats [View article]
The advantage Android has in the market, for OEMs, is that they have some control of it. If they can't get control, all bets are off.
Considering Bill Gross's Demand for Immediate Stimulus [View article]
That's one reason why he sounds so liberal. While his letter quotes Warren Buffett on this, I saw an MSNBC ad in which host Rachel Maddow made the same point about the need for infrastructure. Which is why I mentioned it in the piece.
RBC notes a decade of wage inflation in China vs. stagnation in Mexico has left the U.S. southern neighbor quite competitive. Toss in a new world of expensive energy, and Mexico's advantage over China gets clearer. Look for Mexico's share of U.S. imports - 12.5% in 2010 - to keep rising. [View news story]
Google Android Faces Legal Threats [View article]
One key weakness Google has, according to Mueller, is its patent portfolio. That's why it is trying to buy the remains of Nortel -- to get its patent portfolio as a set of bargaining chips in future negotiations.
Google Android Faces Legal Threats [View article]
Why Investors Are Not Seeing Solar Profits [View article]
When there's some there there worth investing in, it won't be necessary to run to Saskatoon to find funding. In my opinion. Loved to be proven wrong.
Why Investors Are Not Seeing Solar Profits [View article]
As costs decline, the accessible market also changes. Right now it makes no sense without direct, constant sunlight. That's also going to change.
Don't get locked into what things look like now. Think instead about what technology makes possible.
Why Investors Are Not Seeing Solar Profits [View article]
Why Investors Are Not Seeing Solar Profits [View article]
I emphasize the 1971 date in part because we have yet to see the final form this technology will take. You say you see solar panels everywhere in Italy. But will it stay a panel-based technology, with all the attendant installation costs?
Why Investors Are Not Seeing Solar Profits [View article]
Yet that industry was driving through the "s" curve, making money hand over fist.
It's a mistake to confuse the direction of a market with that of any player in that market.
Why Investors Are Not Seeing Solar Profits [View article]
The important point to note, however, is the trend. As prices plunge new opportunities open up, in different sectors of the ecosystem.
The subsidies are designed to hasten the crossover, which is now seen coming in 2014 or 2015, from solar being the "expensive energy that needs subsidies" to being the "cheap energy that doesn't."
Yes, even without charging fossil fuel people for the external costs of what they're doing to the Earth, the water table, and the air, solar panels will be cheaper in just a few years.