Lexy

Green Energy Experts: Why Do They Buy Solars?

The outlook for Evergreen Solar is bad due to a steep drop in panel prices (low demand coupled with cheap Chinese imports). Just thought you should know.

www.boston.com/busines.../

On Oct 30 11:32 AM H.J. Huneycutt wrote:

> I've become increasingly skeptical of the solar sector, but if I
> had to pick companies in that sector, I like LDK Solar (seekingalpha.com/symbo...)
> and Evergreen Solar (seekingalpha.com/symbo...) the most.
> ESLR probably manufacturers the highest quality solar panels and
> I think they have some of the best minds on the engineering side
> working for them. Still, I have my doubts about the sector in general.

Niall Ferguson: Dollar Is Doomed, U.S. Empire Over

I would be careful not to underestimate this adversary. China is the midst of the fastest, most prolific military modernization in the history of the world. They are licensed to build Sukhoi fighters, and they have made several notable improvements that have surprised top engineers at several Russian design bureaus. We would be foolish to engage them in naval littoral warfare, e.g. the defense of Taiwan, as they have developed an anti-carrier ballistic missile for which we have no countermeasure. I would argue that the notion of a carrier battle group as the centerpiece of a power projection strategy is Jurassic mainly due to the advent of AIP-equipped diesel subs.

Just fyi, we stopped building battleships when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.


On Oct 20 07:03 PM Steve Pasq wrote:

> China will become more important in world affairs over the next few
> decades but only by degrees. The China/Brazil alliance is still in
> the chump change category. Chinese workers may be sophisticated enough
> to build furniture and cell phones but space stations, battle ships
> and drones are made in the USA and by the time China figures those
> things out we will be on to something that obsoletes them.
>
> Americans are also pretty good at financial innovation and I will
> predict that the US will refashion the dollar into the world currency
> that China wants to buy--into say "mega dollars" and then let the
> Chinese exchange their "ancient dollars" for the new currency at
> a 10-1 rate. Everyone's happy.

Niall Ferguson: Dollar Is Doomed, U.S. Empire Over

I believe the inference was "financial" empire and not in the context of an imperial power in the classic sense.

On Oct 20 11:58 PM Teutonic Knight wrote:

> Wait a Minute, Professor Ferguson, did you say "American Empire"?
>
>
> The video reminds me of a related good read from another British,
> Professor Bernard Porter's "Empire and Super-Empire" where it would
> perfectly illustrate such profound, absurd and outdated Anglo-Saxon
> views of the United States of America.
>
> The notion of an "American Empire" is a cold case in history, akin
> to an Ultimate Mystery - An Empire that never was. Unlike the illustrious
> Roman Empire which at least had the Five Good Emperors (and Hadrian
> was a Standout, kicking in the Hadrian Era), the Americans are either
> an ultimate hypocrisy, or an God-ordained benevolence to Mankind.
> Toward the end of the 19th Century, President McKinley was pursuing
> his expansionary policies while Mark Twain adamantly advocated anti-colonialism
>
>
> We took over the Phillippines after a brief and brutal war only to
> giving it up after some 50 years, and now we are saddled with a 20
> plus-year wait backlog of would-be immigrants from that now independent
> country .
>
> In short, we are forever caught in that giant space of indecision
> - to be, or not to be - An Empire!
>
> Admittedly, we had been in rapid decline, economically, politically,
> and morally (my view) ever since the sixties, and the two mainstream
> political parties are now in a state of decay.
>
> As for the Chinese? Well, only the fools would think that they are
> our friends, and we theirs. Since our involvement of their Civil
> War in 1949, and continuing to this date as I write, you could well
> count on that hegemony tug of war between these two powers.
>
> America is still a bit of a mystery to me as a foreign-born person.
> It is perhaps the hardest country to be understood in the history
> of all mankind.
>
> Teutonic Knight

Is the Pulse of the Post-War Business Cycle on the Verge of Stopping?

Yeah, when I see your obese and morally bankrupt generation driving around in free $6K scooters that you scammed from Medicare and a discount prescription program, the cost of which was sloughed onto us, and then my generation, who will not have Social Security and will be forced to make ethical decisions as to who receives life-saving medication and who will die, half of me says "kiss off early."


On Aug 16 09:40 PM whidbey wrote:

> This is the Nth story of ":how it could end". I love them all, but....
>
>
> I feel things are changing because the structures that held up American
> life are gone or damaged beyond repair, ergo something must happen
> if we are to go on.
>
> I think it leads to a greatly scaled down life style, and lots of
> inter-generational strife between the wrecker generations and the
> wrecked generations. We old people may be asked to kiss-off early
> and the youth to live in mud huts with 52" screens and free health
> care.
>
> Hell who knows, because the forces that reshape a society are just
> now mobilizing for the most difficult period in American history
> and I am not overlooking the Civil War or Woodstock. Just get ready
> and pray Obama gives up most of his cockamamie initiatives.

Global Markets in Review: Has Pullback Begun with China?

IMHO, I've been hearing this for the past year, and I don't believe there is any merit to it. The CIC purportedly has over $1.5T USD, enough to placate the masses for several years if exports continue to decline in a worst average case.

On Aug 16 08:41 AM Pauly B wrote:

> Thank you for the great article. The China piece is concerning not
> just from an economic point from a political point as well. I am
> hearing of millions of layoffs over there because of decreased demand
> for product from the world which intern could cause political upheaval.

Penn West Energy's Reassuring Earnings Update

Sorry, I had a large expresso yesterday.


On Mar 04 11:44 AM paultaut wrote:

> Lexy, thanks a lot. I own PWE too.
>
> But, No Pain, No Gain.

Penn West Energy's Reassuring Earnings Update

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/2.../

Sorry for being candid, but technicals are overridden here. There is simply way too much supply of oil, gas, and even coal. It's just a matter of time before the dividend is whittled down. The economy of the largest consumer of energy is in a death spiral with no end in sight for '09. I'd lick my wounds and move on before the waterboarding starts.

PWE is on an express elevator to hell.

Ben Stein Watch: December 28, 2008

Let's settle this once and for all. Read this column published in Aug 2007. Stein basically pooh poohs the whole sub-prime mortgage crisis saying that losses amounted to only 37B and was basically a minor speedbump for the market. Had no idea that mortgages were packaged and sold as CDOs and way overleveraged. Furthermore, he was calling for the average investor to go long near the very peak of the market, and if you had following his pollyannish advice, you would be down >35%.

money.cnn.com/gallerie...

And I really don't care for the arrogant tone of his message.

UTS Energy: Risky Play?

This company is toast. It has never produced a single barrel of oil and has only been adept at pushing its schedule back year after year, from 2009 to 2012. The reality is that they have not and will not ever acquire the billions necessary to fulfill their obligations to the partners esp. in this credit environment which is compounded by the freefall in oil prices. Their best hope is m&a. The most realistic outcome is insolvency.

Before Friday's Earnings, GeoEye Presents an Immediate Buy Opportunity

At present this stock has no support level. Also, me thinks DigitalGlobe is a better company since it is leaner, meaner, and supplies imagery to Google, hence, a better foothold in the commercial sector. The stock may have slipped in recent weeks based solely on the IPO news.

On-Demand Software Stocks: The Bottom or More Pain?

Rick, so what do you think about LOOP now that it is hovering around $11?

Boeing Cleared for Takeoff

Forget the tanker, has anyone been paying attention to recent events? The wing center box which is the structural heart of the plane will have to be completely redesigned by Fuji because they skimped on the plastic. More material = more weight = less range = retrofitting = more delays = compensation = trouble. Just shows Boeing's inexperience with composites.

Thursday's Rumor: Bear Goes Belly Up (Who's Next?)

The emergency funding, i.e credit extensions, by JP Morgan Chase (and backed by the Fed) only buys BSC a little time...28 days to be exact. With other financials due to report soon, there is a somber mood on the street, and my gut instinct says the carnage will be bigger than expected which will drag this sector down further with BSC in tow. Beware Lehman Bros.

Thornburg's a Huge Bargain After Monday's Crash

"Thornburg's a Huge Bargain After Monday's Crash"

This website needs to ensure that its articles pass a basic smell test. The mere suggestion of bargain hunting in toxic financials in the midst of what is steadily becoming the worst economic crisis of our time not only enrages me but is doing your readership the worst possible disservice. Thornburg is in deep, deep kimchi long term.

“A Whiff of Panic...”

Solar panel production capability is in line with market forces and it currently limited by a shortage of high grade silicon. Nothing is going to change that near term. If we want to significantly reduce our consumption of oil, what we need is a massive investment in nuclear power and a technology called concentrated solar which is far more economical that photovoltaics. Lastly, I take great offense at any suggestions from non-Coloradans/Utahns with regard to resurrecting oil shale production. There has been some enthusiasm directed at a nascent refrigeration barrier/in situ processing technology. Believe me when I say this will generate 2-3x more greenhouse gases per barrel of convention oil and still has the potential to greatly contaminate our water supply. Don't give Big Oil the chance!