This man does not seem to be in touch with the sentiment of the general public who at this time seem quite prepared to take a big bath rather than continue bailing out failed corporations.  Realizing at least a few of their previous faux pas the heads of the big three are once again preparing to appear before congress to request an ever growing sum of bail out money. Henderson conceded that flying to Washington previously in separate corporate jets was “a problem” for lawmakers, and also acknowledged that their plan at the time was not clear.  This time the three auto leaders plan to travel the 520 miles to Washington in fuel efficient hybrid cars. Their collective satori may have come too late however as Americans, hopefully including lawmakers, begin to question the wisdom of the meme, “too big to fail.”

Automaker’s demands call to mind the antics of evangelist Oral Roberts who once threatened that “God will take me home” unless the public donated $8 million over the next two months. Well time has moved on and the automakers are demanding more than Oral ever did, much more.  Chrysler needs $7 billion ’till year end “just to keep running.”  GM is asking for $4 billion “now” as the first installment on a $12 billion loan. These demands are just the beginning, there are additional reqests for multi billion dollar lines of credit sealed with the threat “or we will have to close our doors and shutter our windows.”  The obvious problem with bailing them out at all is that once we begin, when do we end?  We need to ask about the opportunity cost of a bail out: what else could we do with $34 billion inflatable dollars?

Are the automakers really “too big to fail?”  Besides, even if I cannot buy a GM, or a Ford in the future, there will still likely be the Hondas, Toyotas, and Hyundais.  In a global market the lions share will go to the producer with the best balance of value and quality, the big three have realized this “too late to recover.”

One exciting story in the age of a greening culture and environmentally sensitive populace is the announcement that British researchers have produced an independently verified device that produces more energy in heat than the energy it consumes in electricity. 

The Daily Mail article said, “The system – developed by scientists at a firm called Ecowatts in a nondescript laboratory on an industrial estate at Lancing, West Sussex – involves passing an electrical current through a mixture of water, potassium carbonate (otherwise known as potash) and a secret liquid catalyst, based on chrome. This creates a reaction that releases an incredible amount of energy compared to that put in. If the reaction takes place in a unit surrounded by water, the liquid heats up, which could form the basis for a household heating system. If the technology can be developed on a domestic scale, it means consumers will need much less energy for heating and hot water – creating smaller bills and fewer greenhouse gases.

Jim Lyons, of the University of York, independently evaluated the system. He said: ‘Let’s be honest, people are generally pretty sceptical about this kind of thing. Our team was happy to take on the evaluation, even if to prove it didn’t work. ‘But this is a very efficient replacement for the traditional immersion heater. We have examined this interesting technology and when we got the rig operating, we were getting 150 to 200 per cent more energy out than we put in, without trying too hard.”

Researchers think that somehow the device resources “a previously unrecognised source of energy, stored at a sub-atomic level within the hydrogen atoms in water.”

The development company is called “Ecowatts,” and the project formed from the chance meeting of Ecowatts’ chairman Chris Davies with Irish inventor Christopher Eccles in 1998.  After informal review of Eccles’ research, Mrs. Davies immediately wrote out a check on the hood of her car for 20,000 pounds.  Eccles assumed the post of chief researcher at Ecowatts.

How it works…

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They said that, “current and former hourly workers from July 31, 1999, forward can sue in a single case, Judge Perry M. Buckner III in Walterboro, S.C., said. The group of about 100,000 workers is large enough and their claims similar enough to allow a class action, Buckner said in an Aug. 1 ruling.”

Wal Mart faces more than 70 U.S. wage-and-hour suits by employees claiming it failed to pay for all hours worked.  In other Wal Mart news, Julie Roehm, Wal-Mart’s former marketing chief alleged in a recent court filing that Lee Scott, Wal-Mart’s CEO, bought yachts and jewellery for his wife at preferential prices as a result of his relationship with Irwin Jacobs, whose company buys unsold Wal-Mart stock.  Roehm, the accuser, was previously fired for an alleged affair with another employee and for accepting gifts from vendors.  Both sides contend the respective accusations and, like the wage-and-hour suits, will have their day in court.  The internal investigation and subsequent firing of Julie Roehm is a story in itself, one that is as deeply troubling as it is interesting.

Considering Wal-Mart’s ongoing business, human resources, labor, and ethical issues, one might be justified in considering these as signs of a company that has become bloated and unmanageable, that is perhaps nearing the end of its useful business life. Could we be viewing WM’s segue into senescence?

Yesterday’s market drop under pressure from rising bond yields appears to have eased today with the DJIA regaining 140 points in the wake of favorable economic news including a 1.4% increase in retail sales for the month of May. Ten year treasuries fell from yesterday’s peak of 5.3% to 5.21%.

To add insult to injury, ethanol production is at least momentarily reliant on federal subsidies that contribute an estimated 51 cents for every gallon of ethanol, an important incentive as ethanol trends downward in price with gasoline.

Under consideration is a measure to boost ethanol production to 60 billion gallons by 2030.

Currently, according to Forbes, “Net of the tax subsidy, the price of ethanol is $2.04 a gallon, which is 70 cents more than the $1.34 wholesale price of gasoline. And the energy content of ethanol is only two-thirds that of gasoline.”

It must feel a lot better to be holding the IOUs than to be writing them!

The BBC release went on to say that Vodafone already owns 10% of Bharti Airtel, the market leader in India, but is keen to build a more substantial presence in the world’s fastest growing telecoms market.  Hutchison revealed that several other companies have expressed similar interest.

Foreign firms are limited to owning 74% of Indian mobile phone providers.

Spending in November increased by 0.5% from 0.3% in the month previous. Analysts see a possibility of interest rate cuts by policy makers in the new year. This is all around, good news to an economy where two thirds of GDP is dependent on consumer spending.

Factory orders for big-ticket items such as appliances rose 1.9% in November after an 8.2% tumble in October.

“Humanity is living off its ecological credit card,” said Mathis Wackernagel, head of the Global Footprint Network. “While this can be done for a short while, overshoot ultimately leads to liquidation of the planet’s ecological assets, and the depletion of resources, such as the forests, oceans and agricultural land upon which our economy depends.”

“On current projections, humanity will be using two planets’ worth of natural resources by 2050 — if those resources have not run out by then,” they say.  ”People are turning resources into waste faster than nature can turn waste back into resources.”

If this estimate is data-based and more than exageration for the sake of a point, we have a very, forward-leading indicator of coming crisis for our present economic model.  This is to say that capitalism, though not extinguished, will be increasingly pressed into the service of clean and sustainable technologies.  After IT, coul eco-business be the coming boom?