11/9 DailyFinance

Please add updates@feedmyinbox.com to your address book to make sure you receive these messages in the future. DailyFinance Alternative energy down on the farm: A still-untapped resource November 8, 2009 at 8:30 pm Filed under: Energy, Technology, Green As the federal government hands out billions of dollars to subsidize, push, prod and canoodle companies into jump-starting a green revolution in the U.S., one segment of the economy has been more or less left out. That would be farmers. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has gotten only a few tens of millions of dollars to underwrite grants and programs to promote rural alternative energy projects. Still, acccording to the AP, the ranks of farmers who are producing their own power is increasing. But what's even more striking is how few now do so, considering the nature of their business and their access to precious energy commodities such as large acreage needed for solar panels and steady winds needed for wind-power generation. According to U.S. government figures collected in 2007, just over 1 percent of the 2 million U.S. farms are producing their own electricity, reported Cleantech. Continue reading Alternative energy down on the farm: A still-untapped resource Alternative energy down on the farm: A still-untapped resource originally appeared on DailyFinance on Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments In a Congress of millionaires, Republican Anh Cao voted for poor New Orleans November 8, 2009 at 7:45 pm Filed under: People, Healthcare The single House Republican who voted for the Democrats' health-care legislation is a first-term congressman from a strongly Democratic -- and very poor -- district comprising most of New Orleans. Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao's vote is significant, not because it was politically motivated -- and it was -- but because it highlights the disparity between lower- and middle-class people throughout the country and many of their representatives in Washington, D.C. Among the 535 elected representatives deciding the future shape of the American health care system, some 44% are millionaires, according to a new study by the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP), a nonpartisan reseach group that tracks the effect of money in U.S. politics and policy. Rep. Cao is not among them. Neither are his constituents. Continue reading In a Congress of millionaires, Republican Anh Cao voted for poor New Orleans In a Congress of millionaires, Republican Anh Cao voted for poor New Orleans originally appeared on DailyFinance on Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Tom Sosnoff: A Q&A with the $600 million man behind Thinkorswim November 8, 2009 at 6:00 pm Filed under: Technology, Economy, People, Investing, Media, Southwest Airlines In an era when so many things have gone so wrong on Wall Street, the story of options trader Tom Sosnoff stands out as one thing that's gone right. Sosnoff is co-founder of online brokerage firm Thinkorswim, the top-rated online broker in Barron's and one that's amassed some $3.6 billion in client assets from more than 70,000 trading accounts over the course of a decade. Sosnoff, who spent 10 years as an options-market maker at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, created Thinkorswim in 1999 and sold it this year to TD Ameritrade (AMTD) for more than $600 million. Now senior VP of the TD's Trader Group, Sosnoff took a break from trading to chat with DailyFinance about the stock market, investing trends, and what it takes to build a successful company. Continue reading Tom Sosnoff: A Q&A with the $600 million man behind Thinkorswim Tom Sosnoff: A Q&A with the $600 million man behind Thinkorswim originally appeared on DailyFinance on Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments The coming natural gas boom is not all it's 'fracced' up to be November 8, 2009 at 3:30 pm Filed under: Energy Please pardon my poor punning, and let me explain: "Fraccing" (rhymes with "cracking") is the oil and natural gas industry's an informal contraction for the technology called hydraulic fracturing, in which water (and in some cases, a chemical mixture) is pumped deep underground to fracture shale and rock and thus free up trapped oil and gas deposits. The financial media has been buzzing with stories proclaiming a new era for America's natural gas industry as new fraccing technology has enabled the tapping of vast dispersed fields in the Eastern U.S. and the "oil patch" states of Oklahoma and Texas. These advances have caused analysts to raise their estimates of America's natural gas reserves to an astounding 1.8 trillion cubic feet, the equivalent of about 320 billion barrels of oil -- far more than Saudi Arabia's proven reserves of around 260 billion barrels of oil. Continue reading The coming natural gas boom is not all it's 'fracced' up to be The coming natural gas boom is not all it's 'fracced' up to be originally appeared on DailyFinance on Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments The Crash of 2008: It's the Panic of 1825 all over again (also 1837, 1847, 1866 ... ) November 8, 2009 at 2:00 pm Filed under: Economy A freeze in lending triggers a panic in a Western financial capital which then spreads around the globe, eventually tipping several South American countries into default. In a desperate attempt to stem the panic, the central bank steps in as "the lender of last resort" and unleashes a flood of new money into the palpitating financial system. Gee, was that 1998, or 2008? Neither -- try 1825 London. You might think an era of gas lighting, slow sailing ships and horse-drawn carriages has little to teach us about modern finance, but much of what we consider advanced capitalism has been in place since the 1500s: stock markets, portfolio insurance, options, commercial paper and global banking. Continue reading The Crash of 2008: It's the Panic of 1825 all over again (also 1837, 1847, 1866 ... ) The Crash of 2008: It's the Panic of 1825 all over again (also 1837, 1847, 1866 ... ) originally appeared on DailyFinance on Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Franklin fund bought into Cadbury hoping for buyout deal November 8, 2009 at 1:00 pm Filed under: Company News, Investing, Kraft Foods Some of the money managers at fund and money management firm Franklin Resources (BEN) must be clairvoyant. They bought Cadbury (CBY) shares before Kraft (KFT) made its buyout offer for the U.K. company. Franklin now owns at least 7.2% of Cadbury's shares. Speaking at a conference in Vienna, Franklin fund manager Anne Gudefin, whose Mutual Global Discovery Fund holds the Cadbury shares, said "We have an idea" of a bid price for Cadbury that would be acceptable, according to a report from Bloomberg. Franklin bought a lot of the stock at below 550 pence per share. Cadbury closed trading Friday at 758 pence. A better bid from Kraft could take the shares higher. Continue reading Franklin fund bought into Cadbury hoping for buyout deal Franklin fund bought into Cadbury hoping for buyout deal originally appeared on DailyFinance on Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Cruise wars: To lure tourists back, companies vie to launch biggest ship November 8, 2009 at 12:00 pm Filed under: Company News, Economy There's a battle brewing at sea, but you won't hear a lick about it from the Pentagon. That's because it involves passenger ships, not battleships. Cruise lines are fighting for customers by launching their biggest boats ever. It's no warship, but the largest boat to date -- Royal Caribbean International's (RCL) Oasis of the Seas (pictured) -- is, at 1,181 feet, 89 feet longer than the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier, one of the world's biggest battleships. And the second-largest cruise ship plying the ocean blue, Carnival's (CCL) 1,004-foot Carnival Dream, is just two feet shorter than the Chrysler Building is tall. Continue reading Cruise wars: To lure tourists back, companies vie to launch biggest ship Cruise wars: To lure tourists back, companies vie to launch biggest ship originally appeared on DailyFinance on Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Broader unemployment rate hits 17.5% as companies get smarter about staff November 8, 2009 at 11:00 am Filed under: Economy The weekly blizzard of economic statistics makes it tough to figure out what is really going on. But with a near-record number of people unemployed or underemployed, productivity at very high levels, and pay rising for the people who still have jobs, one conclusion seems to jump out: Companies are getting smarter about who they keep, how they manage the keepers, and who they fire. Let's look at some of the numbers. The New York Times reports that what I would call wasted workers -- the combination of unemployed who are still looking for work, discouraged workers who have given up looking, and part-time workers seeking full-time jobs -- has hit a record 17.5%. This beats the previous record of 17.1% set in the midst of the Paul Volcker-led recession of 1982. (Then-Fed Chair Volcker's recession resulted from his decision to raise interest rates up to 20% to break the back of inflation.) Continue reading Broader unemployment rate hits 17.5% as companies get smarter about staff Broader unemployment rate hits 17.5% as companies get smarter about staff originally appeared on DailyFinance on Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Hurricane Ida's trip through Gulf of Mexico could push oil prices higher November 8, 2009 at 10:30 am Filed under: Energy It has been months since a hurricane posed a real threat to oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. Now, Hurricane Ida is entering the region from the west after doing significant damage in Nicaragua. Most hurricanes that move into the Gulf end up doing very little damage to either deep sea drilling platforms or the refineries around Houston, but traders still get nervous about the potential interruption in oil supply. According to the Financial Times, the Gulf of Mexico accounts for almost 25% of U.S. oil production. Continue reading Hurricane Ida's trip through Gulf of Mexico could push oil prices higher Hurricane Ida's trip through Gulf of Mexico could push oil prices higher originally appeared on DailyFinance on Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments More bad health care news: Half of American kids will use food stamps November 8, 2009 at 10:00 am Filed under: Economy, People, Healthcare, Media In November, the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine published an article stating that, over the past thirty years, nearly half of all American children have been on food stamps at one time or another. The authors of the article, Mark R. Rank and Thomas A. Hirschl, are sociology professors at Washington University in St. Louis and Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., respectively. Their findings were based on the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), a long-term survey that has studied 9,000 "representative" American families from 1968 to the present day. Of the children analyzed by the study, 49 percent were on food stamps for at least part of their childhood. Ninety percent of black children and 37 percent of white children in the study used the program. The Rank/Hirschl analysis undermines some powerful stereotypes about food stamps. While the families in the program were ethnically diverse, the long-term nature of the study automatically weeds out the waves of immigrants that, many critics claim, feed their families at the cost of American taxpayers. Continue reading More bad health care news: Half of American kids will use food stamps More bad health care news: Half of American kids will use food stamps originally appeared on DailyFinance on Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. 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