California, the most populous U.S. state - if it were a separate country, it would among the 10 largest economies in the world - is being hit hard by the global economic crisis which was sparked by the U.S. housing crisis - partly rooted in Californian suburbs - and in addition, the “Golden State” is now [...]
U.S. President Barack Obama’s address to Congress on Tuesday marks the beginning of a new era and is a clear break with the past. Unfortunately I was not able to watch his speech live on February 24th because I was traveling a lot this week. However, I watched it on the Internet yesterday evening and [...]
China has become a country with an apparently insatiable appetite for energy. Although China’s economy is slowing as the global meltdown crushes demand for Chinese goods, Chinese energy companies are busy importing ever more oil and coal and other commodities. Dependence on oil imports from politically unstable nations not only poses a threat to the U.S. [...]
Who’s to blame for the current economic crisis and anything else which is in a mess right now?
Exactly! Corrupt bank managers, investment bankers and generally all the people who are involved in finance. That’s a growing sentiment supported by politicians who prefer calling greedy CEOs responsible for all the mess to working out solutions in [...]
The world has resources that are limited such as oil, coal, gold, silver, silicon, iron ore, and resources that are unlimited such as sunlight, wind, geothermic power and water. Especially water appears to be abundant with more than two thirds of the earth’s surface covered with it. The problem, however, is that only 0.65% of [...]
“When we invest, we are investing for 10, 15, 20 years. You may look as if you are making a big loss today, but you have not borrowed money to invest. You will ride the storm, the company recovers, your shares go up.” (Lee Kuan Yew - Singapore’s Founding Father)
Given these turbulent economic times, it’s [...]
[You can download this chart as PDF on the page "Energy Charts"]
40 dollars a barrel is a considerably cheap price for oil. It’s very likely that oil prices will rise again in the latter half of 2009. It’s also important to consider that drilling oil out of the ground has become much more expensive since [...]
“Entrepreneurs are first and foremost imaginative and innovative artists – with highly developed communication skills, curious about new ideas, able to reflect critically on themselves and on the society in which they live, fascinated by beauty and extremely sensitive to the fate of our planet. This mentality not only allows the entrepreneur to create new [...]
Electric motors will power the next generation of cars. Given the necessity to reduce our fossil fuel consumption for the sake of the environment in addition to the uncontrollably fluctuating oil prices and scarce energy resources, electric cars will be the embodiment of 21st century transportation. The electrification of cars and public transport makes great [...]
As it’s always been when the economy is in crisis, a wave of protectionism is swelling around the world. Policymakers tend to believe that imports coming in are the reason why the economy is in bad shape. To punish the bad guys who are apparently exporting too much an importing too little, these simple-minded politicians think [...]
