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soterios:

An interesting investor article by John Petersen about why my grand-children will likely not be driving electric cars either, despite the hype.  Excerpt:

I’m a strident critic of plug-in vehicles like the Nissan Leaf (NASNY.PK), the Mitsubishi MiEV (MMTOF.PK), the Tesla Roadster (TSLA) and the GM Volt because they use pornographic amounts of highly processed new industrial and exotic metals to save a couple hundred gallons of gas per year. Since it doesn’t take more than a cursory glance at the mineral production table to see that the natural resource balance is unsustainable, the only rational conclusion is that plug-in vehicle business models are a catastrophe in the making for investors.

Thanks, Vic, for the link.

Exactly. Trading one finite resource (which has it’s own list of environmental concerns) for the other is not a real solution. 

According to the Argus Observer, the high school sophomore from Oregon spent nearly a year making the old car more fitting for the 21st century than most modern vehicles — and all for around $4,000. Ashton, with the help of his father, equipped the Beetle with nine golf cart batteries, used to power a single motorized shaft which can propel the car for nearly 50 miles on less than 10 cents worth of electricity.

The converted Beetle is no slow-poke either, able to reach speeds upwards of 45 miles per hour. As the car gets more time on the road, an onboard computer will gather performance data as well.

Awesome.

Hooray. Now maybe we’ll start using my girlfriend’s Blu-Ray player again. 

ichrider:

The U.S. Navy has committed $100 million in contracts for the development and installation of solar arrays at facilities in five U.S. states for both the Navy and Marine Corps.

The U.S. Armed Forces are not new to the application of greener technology. Recently, the Army has began developing and applying hydrogen fuel cell technology to their vehicles and also has HP developing a “Dick Tracy-like” watch that uses solar panels specifically for the U.S. military. 

I suspect solar and wind power are going to be much more viable alternatives with the military getting further involved in R&D.

The wait for an elevator in Abdi Mohamoud’s building on Minneapolis’ West Bank can stretch to 15 minutes, so he often walks up eight flights to his apartment, through a stairwell with rusty pipes.

Once, a pipe burst near the elevators, spewing dirty water and forcing a family to evacuate. The building’s washers and dryers sometimes eat Mohamoud’s quarters or leave his clothes dirtier than when he put them in.

Tenants at the state’s largest affordable housing complex recite these and other defects at Riverside Plaza, which the current landlord says was built too cheaply and has critical systems and parts failing.

That’s why the Minneapolis City Council last week took the first step toward helping to finance a $113.7 million purchase-rehab of the multi-building complex that hovers over two freeways. The council’s preliminary earmarking of $80 million in tax-exempt bonds — to be bought by institutional investors and repaid from rents — was encouraged by dozens of predominantly East African-immigrant residents bused to City Hall.

They represented an estimated 4,440 people who populate the 1,303 units at the site once known as Cedar Square West — a population greater that some of the state’s smaller counties. Federal vouchers subsidize the rents for 62 percent of the units, compared to a mere 20 percent when the complex opened in 1974.

Landmark? More like eyesore. I don’t think any amount of rehab will change that. I do think something should be done though. My family lived there a few decades ago and it was pretty terrible even then. I’m curious as to how much a replacement structure would cost versus rehabbing the current one.

I also find it amusing that Sherman & Associates is attempting to get the structure listed on the National Register of Historic Places to gain $21.6 million in added funds, despite the development only being 36 years old. I’m not aware of any real historical significance of it, other than it being in some background shots of the Mary Tyler Moore show.

unsolicitedanalysis:

 

GM officials say no American taxpayer money is being used to expand in China. But money is fungible. Because of our generosity, GM can use the dollars it doesn’t have to spend in the United States meeting its American payroll and repaying its creditors for new investments in China.

Second, big U.S. businesses are investing their cash in labor-saving technologies. This boosts their productivity, but not their payrolls.

Last Friday, for example, Ford reported a $2.6 billion second-quarter profit. The firm is already more than two-thirds the way to equaling its record 1999 profits. But due to labor-saving technologies, Ford now has half as many employees as it did a decade ago.

How can you get the diagnosis this right and the prescription so wrong?  You can’t stimulate car consumption and expect jobs to pour in - we need jobs from new industries.  Old ones aren’t going to do the job, so stop with the highway projects and the bailouts of creaky old-economy blue chip corporations.

What we really need are for innovative individuals to find capital.  Instead, we’ve directed every spare dollar we have toward war, decrepit banks, and old-guard automakers.  Why?  Investing in the past means that others will drive the economy of the future - we need to completely rethink the way Keynes is being applied for it to work.

This.

We do not need the person that punches the holes in Cheerios anymore. We need the people that can design and maintain the Cheerio hole punching machines. The problem is that our educational system has been failing to properly train, and more importantly, inspire said individuals to move past these low skill jobs.