George Sears

Can Eaton Vance's Tax-Advantaged Dividend Fund Sustain Its Yield?

You have to love dividend and debt funds that use debt to increase yields. Why not have a fund that buys leveraged debt funds, and uses debt to leverage even more? Then a fund that buys these funds and... People wonder why we have a debt crisis.

In fact the basic premise of the WSJ column was that people don't save and have too much debt. So they should save by, drum roll, buying a fund that creates even more debt.

Solar Symbiosis: Making a Clean Break

You can find plans on the web for a smallish house that uses $300 a year in electric heat. It's designed for Montana. So you can do a lot with construction techniques, like structural insulated panels (SIP's). I've built LED lights. My outdoor lighting system runs on one 65 watt solar panel, and one battery. The superbright LED's, right now, tend to run hot. But there is enormous momentum building for LED lighting. Like you say, a car like the volt can be "run" with a fairly small array of panels, even if power is traded on the grid to actually do the charging at night. So, we can heat a house with a small amount of energy, have lights, and have a car. Fridges and many other appliances can be made relatively efficient. A few things, like dryers, are a problem, but so what? Why are people so negative? I think what this column says will just snap into focus.