captainccs

Crops Headed for a Tough Harvest

Crops rotting on the ground? Buy fertilizer for the next season.

Market to Shine on Solar Industry Through 2011

All solar needs is a little bit of taxpayer money

taxpayer money
taxpayer money
taxpayer money

Then the solar tea parties begin....

First Solar's Ultraviolet Earnings

>>>with OPEC’s “October War” when they decided to stop shipping oil to countries that supported Israel. <<<

Please get your facts straight. It was NOT an OPEC embargo. It was an ARAB embargo. It was the ARAB member states of OPEC that withheld oil. not countries like Venezuela, a founding member of OPEC.

www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/...

Finding Opportunities in Wind Energy

Take a look at American Superconductor [AMSC]. It's American. It just reported the 3rd consecutive quarter with positive earnings. It supplies wind turbine makers and also has equipment for the grid so it has a more diversified customer base including the Navy.

Disclosure: short puts.

In Defense of Executive Pay Caps

Just let the damn banks fail. That cuts executive pay to the bone!

The Price of a Pound of Banking Flesh

Just let the damn banks fail. That cuts executive pay to the bone!

Not Everyone Likes Windows 7

>>>Now, where to begin with Vista?<<<

Just say No! Switch to Mac! LOL

Avoiding the Pitfalls of Confirmation Bias

The article implies that First Marblehead crashed on its own, that it had nothing to do with the general financial meltdown. While FMC did do a couple of dumb things, neither of them can take credit for the meltdown.

OK, beware confirmation bias. Now give me a real example.

Kenneth Feinberg, Pay Warrior

Why does the gov not cut the pork in the bills it creates in Congress? That would save trillions not just a million or two.

Better yet, let failing banks fail and stay out of business.

It's all posturing and nonsense.

End the Fed!

Wind Energy: Now Is the Time to Invest

>>>Looking at the wind energy supply chain we find many companies ranging from materials to components, turbines, wind farm project developers to independent power producers and utilities which allow the investor to fully participate, but this will be the topic for a follow-up article. <<<

That's the picks and shovels of wind farming! That's where I'm looking for aeolian investments.

What a Portfolio Approach to Climate Policy Means for Your Stock Portfolio

This is wishful thinking. China has four times the population of the USA. By the time China catches up in standard of living with the USA they will be consuming four times the energy the USA consumes. China is desperate to get energy from everywhere. Getting energy from solar and wind is not Chinese altruism towards the welfare of Gaia but an imperative necessity if they are to grow in standard of living. Let a thousand flowers bloom!

On Oct 19 10:16 AM Tom Konrad wrote:

> 3) China understands climate change, and they are making a stong
> push to build out both wind and solar.

What a Portfolio Approach to Climate Policy Means for Your Stock Portfolio

MPT is silly. It tells you to find losers to compensate for your winners to make sure you go nowhere, up or down. Why would such silliness applied to something else be a good idea? I thought the idea was to reduce greenhouse gases and pollutants.

Investing in green is no different from investing in anything else, you have to find companies that produce something useful and make money doing it. Forget the portfolio approach. Cherry pick! There are hundreds of companies to choose from just as there were hundreds of car makers at the beginning of the 20th century. In America they were pruned down to the Big Three. The same will happen in green. The one big difference this century is that instead of having vertically integrated behemoths (Ford had iron mines) it will have horizontally distributed value chains (Intel, M$, Dell, Oracle, etc.).

As investors we need to find the key value producers in the value chain either because they have a controlling technology (Wintel) or because they are the low cost producer (Dell). Everything else is of little interest.

Personally I believe liquid fuels are here to stay so I look for the key player who can replace hydrocarbon fuels with green, renewable fuels.

Without any doubt, electricity will continue to be a major source of power so I look for the key player who can bring down the cost of production and distribution.

You don't need a portfolio of 20 companies, you need two or three winners.

On EESAT and Energy Storage Opportunities on the Smart Grid

How soon will ZBB run out of cash? Reminds me of the dot-com no-revenues-but-great-... bargains. ;)

I just don't see investing in any energy related company that is not currently making a profit. I'll leave that to the VCs.

On EESAT and Energy Storage Opportunities on the Smart Grid

If you wait for a brown-out to start doing something about it, you'll have guaranteed blackouts before you solve the problem.


On Oct 16 08:46 AM jerrydd wrote:

>
> Your line that 'what was missing was buyers' is telling. Facts are
> we already have enough grid to handle the load. How many blackouts
> have you heard about this summer?
>

Too Big to Fail: Greenspan Adds His Voice to the Break-Up Chorus

Yes, if a bank is too big to fail, it is too big and needs to be broken up, like Standard Oil in 1911 and Ma Bell in 1974-82.

Bring on the trust busters!