Andrew Haak

Bill Gross To 'President' Obama: Double The Deficit

The overall federal debt is now above $9 trillion thanks to out of control spending and massive tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans (was about $4 trillion when Bush came into office---). The interest payments on that alone are running about $350-500 billion a year. Federal spending has to be trimmed where it can be, no doubt---but you're not going to cut it by 10-20%---which is what would be necessary if you wanted to start meaningfully chipping away at that federal debt number---much less the recurring federal budget deficit. The only other way to balance the books---if you're serious about it---is to do (and I truly hate saying this) is to bring in more revenue, realistically by raising taxes. The problem with the Laffer Curve (cutting taxes brings in more money via increased economic growth) is that Republicans will always argue that the ideal tax rate is some number less than what they're already paying. I do not recall the economy collapsing during the 1990's when the tax rate for the "wealthy" was at 39.6%, rather I recall a much stronger dollar, budgets drastically more balanced, a more fundamentally sound economy (because we weren't building our roads and fighter planes with borrowed money from Asia), and portions of the federal debt actually getting paid off.
If you had a large credit card bill, you wouldn't pay less of it each month in the hopes that you could reinvest that money at a higher rate and then eventually be able to pay it off in full. You'd devote as much as you could to paying the damn thing off as quickly as possible because its mere existence was destabilizing your personal balance sheet. And that is what is currently happening in this country.

Green Energy Prospecting: Eye on Ocean Power Technologies

Stan, great job getting the ball really rolling here like GH mentioned. I have been reading as much as possible about the other companies in this space (companies developing technologies to harvest energy from ocean wave and tidal movements) and I believe that OPTT has the most proven, efficient, and "common sense" design if that can be stated. I worked as a commercial fisherman in Alaska for a few years and have seen up close the destructive power (and corrosive) of the ocean and believe that efficiency of design is hugely important here. That's why I cannot yet buy into the idea behind Pelamis technology. Too many moving and seemingly awkwardley arrayed parts...valves, seals, gaskets, seams, etc, for the ocean to pound on. I just can't believe it wouldn't be a nightmare to maintain once in operation. I like OPTTs design for its apparent simplicity and scalability. Hopefully this company is wave energy industries' Vestas circa 1992.