Free Hedge Fund Blog Book. AND: Hedge funds: The new global super powers

Richard Wilson is offering an e-book of some of his articles at the Hedge Fund blog.
Here's the e-book page.
Here's the Hedge Fund blog main page.

From The Telegraph comes the super powers story.
Robert Peston is the BBC's business editor and was the first to break the story of what FT Alphaville called the "All Chauffeur Alert" on the Bank of England's 9:30 p.m. emergency Northern Rock meeting last September.

In our second extract from his provocative new book, Who Runs Britain? Robert Peston asks whether the new Masters of the Universe should be using their talents to save the world rather than making themselves even richer

To find where true power and super-riches lie in modern Britain, go to the thickets of the hedge funds. In January 2007, $261bn of hedge fund money was managed from London by 72 firms that each control more than $1bn. That makes London the second largest hedge fund centre after New York.

Although they are usually described as City businesses, most of them are not based in the Square Mile, London's financial district, or in the towers of Canary Wharf. Their stupendously rewarded managers live and work in Mayfair, Knightsbridge, Belgravia, Covent Garden and Chelsea. The journey from overpriced home to overpriced office to overpriced restaurant is just a short walk.

Habitually tieless and dressed-down casual, they sit at computer screens and construct complicated trading strategies. Many of them stay at their desks without pause or interruption from 7am to 9pm on weekdays and maintain electronic contact with markets at all other times. They are not to be pitied. Some of them are worth hundreds of millions of pounds....MORE

Rick Santelli Takes Down Jim Cramer

Full Disclosure- I've only seen Mad Money a few times, when friends would email links to particularly funny episodes. The guy is a self-confessed stock manipulator.

Ten days ago we had this post, I think it says more than Cramer intended:

From The Street.com:

"First Solar is a fabulous company that is highly speculative right here. ... That's how bad and nasty this bear market has become."

FRSL is trading around $172, down $110 from its high, three weeks ago, when Mr. Cramer made it one of his "2008: 5 picks for the next 5 years".

Here's Rat Tube on Cramer:

Maybe, just maybe, the single coolest thing I’ve ever seen on CNBC. Rick Santelli heard just about enough of Jim’s lies today (Tuesday, January 22, 2008). So, he called ol’ Jimbo out. What a glorious moment! The first time a CNBC-ite challenged their King. (No disrepect to you, Mr. Santelli, but Jim Cramer was crowned, King Shill the First in 2005.) The really neat thing is this: Although Jim got all huffy and tough sounding, and said how “bearish” he had been (you’ll see what I mean), I added some cute video clips that show that Rick Santelli was right: Jim was pounding people into stocks all last year. And, I do mean ALL. Enjoy! donharrold

Rat Says: Jim Cramer, aka CNBC’s Mad Money host is blown out of the water by Rick Santelli. RatTube has sung Rick Santelli’s praises since the market has become a political issue. He and Art Cashin are the only regulars on CNBC that tell the truth.

And one of the funniest bylines you'll find on a market manipulation story:

Cramer vs. Cramer
Will his crazy confession destroy his career?
By Henry Blodget

Jim Cramer and I had a bit of a tiff a few weeks ago, so some readers might view this column as just another round in that fight. Others might see it as the pot calling the kettle black, or schadenfreude. Think what you will—but as the author of a column about bad investment advice, I feel compelled to comment on what just might qualify as the worst financial counsel ever offered.

As the New York Post, the New York Times, and Reuters recently reported, Cramer gave an interview on TheStreet.com's Wall Street Confidential in late December (watch it here) that can be read as recommending that hedge funds boost returns by orchestrating stock prices and spreading false information. He said that "this is the way the market really works" and that those who don't do these things "shouldn't be in the game." He also talked about his own practices—orchestrating stock prices—to boost returns at the hedge fund he ran in the 1990s....MORE

Here's the transcript of the Wall Street Confidential episode:

You know, a lot of times when I was short at my hedge fund—when I was positioned short, meaning I needed it down—I would create a level of activity beforehand that could drive the futures. It doesn't take much money. Similarly, if I were long, and I wanted to make things a little bit rosy, I would go in and take a bunch of stocks and make sure that they're higher. Maybe commit $5 million in capital, and I could affect it. What you're seeing now is maybe it's probably a bigger market. Maybe you need $10 million in capital to knock the stuff down.

But it's a fun game, and it's a lucrative game. You can move it up and then fade it—that often creates a very negative feel. So let's say you take a longer term view intraday, and you say, "Listen, I'm going to boost the futures, and the when the real sellers come in—the real market comes in—they're going to knock it down and that's going to create a negative view." That's a strategy very worth doing when you're valuing on a day-to-day basis. I would encourage anyone who's in the hedge fund game to do it. Because it's legal. And it is a very quick way to make money. And very satisfying....MORE

WWWD?- What Would Warren Do? (BRK.A)

From U.S. News & World Report:

Getting Started on Mimicking the Master

How $1,000 GrewTo $27.6 Million

Six Keys to Buffett's Investing

Fund Managers Learn From Buffett

The Oracle Nobody Knows

Buffett's Brain:
Wired for Wealth?

Fortis raises CO2 forecast, prices surge

From Reuters:

European carbon prices rose more
than 5 percent on Friday after Belgian-Dutch
financial group Fortis (FOR.BR: Quote, Profile, Research)
raised its forecast for European carbon
emissions prices to more than double current levels.

 Benchmark EUAs CFI2YZ8 were trading up 1.02 euros
or 5.2 percent at 20.78 a tonne at 1200 GMT.

 In a note published Friday, Fortis energy analyst
Kris Voorspools said if there is no international
agreement to succeed the UN's Kyoto Protocol after
2012, he expects phase 2 (2008-2012) prices of
European Union emission permits, called EUAs,
to rise to 48 euros ($70.33) a tonne....MORE

New approach may power future of solar

From the Los Angeles Times:
'Thin film' formula is less costly but must boost its energy output to compete with traditional silicon.

High energy prices are fueling a sleek new kind of solar technology that could someday set skyscrapers and high-rise apartment windows quietly buzzing with renewable power.

The emerging technology uses so-called thin films mounted on glass windows and other surfaces to harness the sun's rays.

It's more attractive and cheaper than the bulkier conventional solar cells made from polycrystalline silicon. Plus, the silicon supply has tightened and prices have risen as solar energy has taken off.

Current thin film surfaces generate less power in the same area than polysilicon modules, but they use much less polysilicon than conventional cells, making them attractive to some of the world's top solar panel makers.

"Silicon is in short supply. This is a very critical issue, so at the moment we are focusing on thin film investment," said Tatsuo Saga, deputy general manager of Japan's Sharp Corp. solar systems, an industry leader.

Thin film is cheaper to produce, more durable and less unsightly than bulky solar panels, which are often called eyesores. The transparent sheets can serve as facades for skyscrapers and house roofs, where they turn sunshine into energy.

"One big advantage of the thin film products is that they don't have to use too many raw materials and they are much cheaper than silicon solar wafers," said Robin Cheng, an analyst at UBS Securities....MORE
HT: the Wall Street Journal's Environmental Capital blog.

It's The End of The World- IMF head in shock fiscal warning

Last September, during the run on Northern Rock, we passed along the first rule of bank runs:
"He who panics first, panics best".
Looking at the headlines of the last three posts I started giggling.
(HEY! It's a manly giggle).
Yes, we're all going to die. No it's not the end 0f the world.

Here's R.E.M., live.
Here's President Bush covering R.E.M.
Here's Skeeter Davis doing a different "End of the World" song.
Here's the IMF's Managing director:

The intensifying credit crunch is so severe that lower interest rates alone will not be enough “to get out of the turmoil we are in”, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, warned at the weekend.

In a dramatic volte face for an international body that as recently as the autumn called for “continued fiscal consolidation” in the US, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the new IMF head, gave a green light for the proposed US fiscal stimulus package and called for other countries to follow suit. “I don’t think we would get rid of the crisis with just monetary tools,” he said, adding “a new fiscal policy is probably today an accurate way to answer the crisis”....MORE

Here's the WSJ's Daily Davos blog:

Depression Session Fills Up

Given the negative sentiment around the World Economic Forum this week, perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that a panel discussion centering on depression treatment was full. In fact, it was one of only three discussions that were full on a day when 28 panels were available for sign-ups. Activity typically winds down on Saturday ahead of the official end on Sunday.

The panel, titled “Mood Manipulation” features a new form of therapy for depression. Karl Deisseroth, assistant professor of bioengineering at Stanford University, discusses the use of minimally invasive tools, such as electromagnetic induction and light sensitive implants, that specifically target that emotion....

Quant angst may be different this time

From FT Alphaville:

Are we about to experience a rerun of the summer’s pain for quant funds?

Rumours abound. Dealbreaker was last week on the trail of a mystery Boston-based fund, said to be liquidating positions. By the end of the week, Reuters was relaying that prominent funds had failed to navigate profitably the choppy markets, with the average fund down 3 per cent. Were the quants struggling again?

It might be an easy market in which to lose money, but the consensus seems to be that we’re not seeing the kind of orchestrated quant melt-down that occurred in August.

MSCI Barra have crunched some numbers on the dismal start to the year for European markets. The falls on January 21st, last Monday, were greater than any other one-day fall during previous crises over the last 10 years - an extremely broad-based event, affecting all countries, sectors, size segmenets and style segments, all more or less to the same degree. Only 10 of the 622 index constituents of the MSCI Europe index ended the day in positive territory.

In this way, the sell-off last Monday was similar in character to that on 16th August, as markets globally tumbled. The problems which hit quants funds earlier that month, says MSCI Barra, were narrower, picking off just specific style factors....MORE

In a World Short Of Oil, Provisions Must Be Made

From the Wall Street Journal:

Mr. Wissner of Middleville
Stocks Up on Rice, Gold;
No Faith in a 'Techno Fix'

It was around midnight one evening in November when Aaron Wissner shot up in bed, jolted awake by a fear: He wasn't fully ready for the day when the world starts running low on oil.

Yes, he had tripled the size of the garden in front of the tidy white-clapboard house he shares with his wife and infant son. He had stacked bags of rice in his new pantry, stashed gold valued at $8,000 in his safe-deposit box and doubled the size of the propane tank in his yard.

"But I felt panicky, like I needed more insurance," he says. So the 38-year-old middle-school computer teacher put on his jacket and drove to an all-night gas station, where he filled three, five-gallon jugs with gasoline....MORE

China's Snowstorms Halt Fuel Shipment, Flights, Power

From Bloomberg:

China's heaviest snowstorms in five decades crushed homes, grounded flights, disrupted electricity and left hundreds of thousands of travelers stranded, a week before millions take to the roads for Lunar New Year holidays.

As many as 5 percent of China's coal-fired power plants, which generate 78 percent of electricity, were shut because snow hampered coal shipments, the National Development and Reform Commission said today. Zhuzhou Smelter Group Co., China's largest zinc refiner, said shortages forced it to cut production.

More than a foot (34 centimeters) of snow fell yesterday in Nanjing in the east, the city's heaviest in 50 years, halting air and rail service, in turn delaying a third of ensuing flights in Beijing and Shanghai and throwing national train service into chaos. Military police kept order at the Beijing railway station today, where 400,000 passengers were stranded.

``We face a very severe situation in ensuring supplies of coal, electricity, oil and transportation,'' Zhu Hongren, spokesman for top planning agency the National Development and Reform Commission, said at a press conference today in Beijing. ``The inventory of thermal coal fell due to a combination of energy demand, massive snowstorms and the annual peak Lunar New Year traffic. Early holidays at some coal mines also contributed to the shortage of the fuel.''

The Chinese Lunar New Year holiday runs Feb. 6 to Feb. 12 this year. Travelers will probably make a record 2.17 billion journeys during the period, according to the government.

Power Shortages

China's fifth year of power shortages may increase pressure on Premier Wen Jiabao to lift caps on coal, gasoline and electricity prices, undermining efforts to curb the fastest inflation in 11 years. December inflation was 6.5 percent, and the central bank raised interest rates six times last year to curb spending. The government also capped the prices of food and public transport and ordered banks to reduce lending....MORE

The Shanghai Composite Index closed down 7.2%.

Gold price soars as SAfrican power crisis halts production

As we said in the post below, everything is connected. The first hint we saw was "Zimbabwe: Power Cuts Worsen As South Africa Cuts Supplies" on Monday.
From AFP:

The price of gold hit a record high Friday as production ground to a halt in South Africa on the back of a spiralling electricity crisis the government has labelled a national emergency.

The three main companies operating in a country with a long record as the world's biggest gold producer announced they had suspended production because of unreliable energy supplies.

Gold Fields, Harmony and AngloGold Ashanti said in separate statements they had been notified by state energy utility Eskom that it could not guarantee supplies to their mines, adding they did not know when operations would resume.

Their announcement propelled the price of the yellow metal to a record high 923.73 dollars, and that of platinum to 1,701 dollars per ounce....MORE

Jim Cramer and TheStreet.com pull Rating on First Solar (FSLR)

Unbelievable. No announcement. Just a little pop-up that says

Rating not available for symbol 'FSLR'

Check it out here.

Hearing Looks at Implications of Auction in Cap-and-Trade

We have 350 feeds in various readers and screens, the link-vault has a rotating inventory of 30, 000 bookmarks and we have friends who seem to take pleasure in pointing out, and curing, our ignorance of their particular areas of expertise.

With all of that I find Hill Heat one of the more intriguing policy blogs on the web.
I don't visit every day, partly because of a belief that Churchill was onto something when he was scrawling on reports
"Action this Day", and a lot of what Hill Heat covers is either evolving or backround hum. On the other hand we find something like this:

At this morning’s House Global Warming Committee hearing on Auctions and Revenue Recycling in Cap and Trade, the witnesses presented some of the first Congressional testimony on the economic implications of a greenhouse-emissions cap and trade system such as the one proposed in Lieberman-Warner (S. 2191).

A summary of some of the analysis presented in the written testimony:

1. Power generators will raise prices the same whether allowances are given away for free or are auctioned, because the price is set by the limitation in supply (the cap)
2. Investment in energy efficiency provides greater immediate taxpayer return than technology investment
3. Because power generators are free from competition they don’t need any protection through free allowances
4. A European Commission analysis found no macroeconomic negative impact of moving their cap-and-trade system to full auction
5. Free allocation to load-serving entities is a subsidy to electricity consumption, which leads to an increase in allowance prices and requiring greater decreases from other sectors
6. The “virtual tax” a cap-and-trade system imposes can be greatly alleviated if revenues are used to reduce pre-existing taxes
7. To fully offset the costs on the electricity sector through free allocation of allowances would cost the government 2.5 to ten times the value of the economic harm to the emitters, depending on whether the free allowances are narrowly targeted (15% of sector allowances) or nationally distributed (65% of sector allowances)
8. To fully offset the costs on the poorest 20% of the American public takes about 14% of total revenues of a 100% auction system

Excerpts from the testimony related to the above points are below the jump....MORE

MEMC nearly triples profits in Q4 (WFR)

Talk about a class act.
From the St. Louis Business Journal:

MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. reported Thursday significant growth in both earnings and sales for the fourth quarter and full year 2007, aided primarily by higher product volumes.

For the year ended Dec. 31, MEMC's profits skyrocketed from $369.3 million, or $1.61 per share, to $826.2 million, or $3.56 per share. The company nearly tripled its profits from last year's fourth-quarter earnings of $129 million, or 56 cents per share, to this year's $376.4 million, or $1.62 per share....MORE

And from StreetInsider:
Piper Jaffray Ups Price Target on MEMC Electronic to $95

Piper Jaffray raises its price target on MEMC Electronic (NYSE: WFR) from $88 to $95 and has a Buy rating on the stock.

As a result of MEMC's raised guidance yesterday, Piper Jaffray also needed to raise its FY08 and '09 earnings estimates on the Company. The firm now sees FY08 EPS and sales of $4.52 and $2.45 billion, respectively, up from $4.15 and $2.38 billion. FY09 EPS and revenues are now raised to $5.28 and $3.08 billion from $5.20 and $3.05 billion, respectively....MORE

Lazard's Defense of SunPower (LAZ; SPWR)

This is probably a good place to mention some of the thinking behind this blog.
Although one of the foci of the blog is alternative/renewable energy, it is not exclusive of the wider world.
To paraphrase Chairman Mao, "The markets are the sea in which cleantech/greentech swims". Everything is connected and being able to make the connections is one of the talents/skills/gifts that capitalism rewards, sometimes handsomely.

So when depositors started queuing up at Northern Rock, we posted quite a few links. It was a spectacle- a run on a bank in 2007!?- and a portent. It's the same with the monoline insurers. So three of our last five posts had ABK in the headline.
That the managers of what should be a sleepy little backwater thought they were gunslingers is a heck of a story. It is also important to the cost of money, which is one of the transmission mechanisms of the zeitgeist. If Vestas (to pick an example out of the air, so to speak) has to pay more to rent money it changes the expected rates of return.
Plus, the numbers are getting really big, which has always fascinated me.
Now, on with the show.
From 24/7 Wall Street:

SunPower (NASDAQ: SPWR) posted a lackluster guidance after earnings this morning and this originally had most of the other key solar stocks trading much lower. Most of these recovered handily in the morning and even SunPower recovered quite a bit off of lows.

Analyst Sanjay Shrestha of Lazard Capital Markets issued a note today whereby he called the weakness a buying opportunity and he is reiterating his BUY rating and has a price target of $185.00. That is well over a 100% move from today's prices if that were to come true.

• Shrestha says, "...we note that the company tends to be conservative with its initial guidance, and the Systems business' numbers are lumpy on a quarterly basis... The current price (19x 2009E EPS of $3.35) represents a compelling entry point, in our view. Even a 20x multiple on 2010E EPS of $5.35, discounting back at 15%, would equate to a $95-$100 share price, well above the current level.... Our $185 price target reflects a 40x (a premium to the solar group's 2009E multiple of 20x) multiple on our 2010E EPS of $5.35, discounted at 15% for one year."...

Mortgage bond insurers 'need $200bn boost' (ABK; MBI; BRK.A)

Our third post on a story that gets bigger with each telling. This one links to the Times of London:

America's biggest mortgage bond insurers collectively need a $200 billion (£101 billion) capital injection if they are to maintain their key AAA credit ratings, a figure that dwarfs a plan by New York regulators to put together a capital infusion of up to $15 billion, a leading ratings expert said yesterday.

The failure to maintain their AAA ratings will lead to a further round of multibillion-dollar writedowns among the Wall Street banks and other large owners of the bonds, Sean Egan, of Egan Jones Ratings Company, said.

It would also push some of them into receivership, Mr Egan added.

Egan Jones makes its money by selling its research to money managers, rather than through fees from the companies it rates....MORE

$200,000,000,000
Yikes.

Follow-up: The bond insurers, a $200bn problem and Wilbur Ross (ABK; MBI; BRK.A)

FT Alphaville has a different take on the hot new boy-band:
Wilbur & The Monolines.

...Come Friday and it seems that everyone wants to be a bond insurer. The FT reports that private equity groups, include TPG, and value investors like Wilbur Ross are considering launching bond insurers in a move that could hamper efforts to help out the struggling incumbents.

This perhaps made more sense than an earlier story in the Standard,[-our post] which put Ross in takeover talks with Ambac.

As Buffett doesn’t appear to be stumping up to rescue anyone (except a small bit of relief for Swiss Re), we need another big name. But if Ross is considering that, he should also consider a sanity check, says Smith.

Ooh, either Wilbur Ross, a savvy investor in distressed assets, has completely lost his judgment with his advancing years, or he has been leaned on by the powers that be to look at this deal in the hopes that it might bring others to the table....MUCH MORE

More Alphaville links here:

...Maybe these comments from BarCap credit analyst Manish Bakhda, sent to clients on Thursday morning, bear repetition:

According to our US insurance analysts (Seth Glasser/Joseph Lesko), the market may have gotten ahead of itself with the major rally that took place yesterday afternoon once the bailout story hit the news.

First, the NYS insurance commissioner is not the lead bank regulator, and cannot compel the banks to make large capital contributions to the monolines. We do not know yet if the Fed is working in unison with the commissioner, however even if that is the case, the Fed will need to be more concerned with the safety and soundness of the banking system, with the impact of the current crisis on monolines a secondary consideration. This could mean that pressure severe enough to force action might never develop.

Second, we believe that it could be very hard for the bank group to agree on a breakdown for contributions. Similar to the super-SIV proposal that ultimately fell apart, banks and dealers have different sizes of monoline exposures, and different counterparty distribution, potentially making some supportive, and others dismissive, of any plan that might near completion.

The bottom line is that we view any potential bailout of the monolines as being in the very early innings, and feel it is by no means a certainty. We believe the market should realize that more detail is needed before a rally akin to yesterday’s is really justified....

A Cheaper Battery for Hybrid Cars

From MIT's Technology Review:
New lead-acid batteries could achieve high performance

The future market for hybrid-electric vehicles, at least those that are affordable, isn't necessarily paved with lithium. Researchers in Australia have created what could be called a lead-acid battery on steroids, capable of performing as well as the nickel-metal hydride systems found in most hybrid cars but at a fraction of the cost.

The so-called UltraBattery combines 150-year-old lead-acid technology with supercapacitors, electronic devices that can quickly absorb and release large bursts of energy over millions of cycles without significant degradation. As a result, the new battery lasts at least four times longer than conventional lead-acid batteries, and its creators say that it can be manufactured at one-quarter the cost of existing hybrid-electric battery packs.

In the United Kingdom last week, a Honda Insight hybrid powered by the UltraBattery system surpassed 100,000 miles on a test track. "The batteries were still in perfect condition at the end of the test," says David Lamb, who heads up low-emission transport research at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia's national science agency. "What we've got is a lead-acid battery that is nice and cheap but can perform as well as, or better than, the nickel-metal hydride technology, which we know is very expensive.">>>MORE

Billionaire to rescue of crisis-hit US insurer (ABK)

If you are running a mismanaged monoline insurer you DO NOT want this man pulling into the parking lot. His presence means the jig's up and you're buffing that résumé. He is a VERY serious dude.

Bond play: Ross is 'keen to take advantage of a coming wave of consolidation'

From The Evening Standard:

Billionaire vulture fund operator Wilbur Ross is in takeover talks with Ambac, the troubled bond insurer whose recent financial crisis was a major factor in this week's dramatic US interest rate cut.

The Evening Standard has learned that a deal for the stricken $14 billion (£7.2 billion) US company, which insures bonds issued by a host of British businesses including Arsenal Football Club, Punch Taverns and the backers of Tube infrastructure projects, could come within the next two weeks.

Insiders said the negotiations are serious and progressing well. News of the talks came after last night's dramatic intervention by US regulators to rescue the stricken bond insurance market.

Wall Street banks are in talks with New York's insurance superintendent, Eric Dinallo, about raising capital to shore up the likes of Ambac, which have been badly hit by the collapse of the credit market, which they insure.

If bond insurers collapse, trillions of dollars of the debt they underwrite would have to be downgraded. The banks holding the debt would be hit by even bigger losses and companies issuing the debt would face higher repayment costs.

The bond insurance crisis is being talked of as the next tidal wave in the global credit crunch, following the sub-prime mortgage market collapses. News of the regulatory intervention triggered a big turnaround on Wall Street, as a 326-point deficit on the Dowswung to a 299-point gain by the close.

Ross declined to comment on specific potential deals but said he was keen to buy a bond insurer to take advantage of a coming wave of consolidation....MORE

What a Depression Looks Like

I have a couple promises to fulfill: "The best investments during a hyperinflation" and "What I learned from the Cowles commission about stock indexes". I'll get to them within a week, I promise. 'Til then here's Time magazine's June 13. 1938 story "Depression II":

Last week Kennecott Copper Corp., whose operations fell to 16% of capacity in 1932 during the depths of Depression I, announced that beginning June 16 all its U. S. mines would be closed "for at least a month." Domestic scrap copper prices having tumbled from 10¢ to 6.75¢ a Ib. in eight days, Anaconda Copper Mining Co., one of the world's biggest producers, already had closed two of its biggest U. S. mines.

Producers of other commodities seem to have developed similarly sensitive reflexes since Depression I when business took its time about shutting up shop. In London last week the International Rubber Regulation Committee cut the third quarter export quota to 45% of basic allowances. Setting of the new quota, lowest since the Committee was formed, halted an abrupt decline in prices—19.7¢ a Ib. down to 11.3¢ since last year. Also the International Tin Committee ordered tin exports cut from 55% to 45% of standard tonnages. In Washington, Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace said he would soon reduce sugar quotas in the U. S. The petroleum industry, still hopeful of maintaining current prices, cut production to its lowest point in many months—3,098,650 bbl. daily, 77.8% of capacity.

Other items of Depression II: ¶. In October 1936, General Electric Co. instituted its Cost of Living Adjustment Plan, paid employes making $4,000 and less a bonus based on the Department of Labor's cost-of-living index. Still on this basis, G.E. last week cut its bonus from 5% to 3%, its common stock dividend from 30¢ to 20¢....MORE

Sunnyvale homeowners told to cut redwoods that block solar panels

As Grandma used to say "if it's not one tham ding it's another"
From the San Jose Mercury-News:

Talk about a clash of cherished green values.

In a case with statewide significance, the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office is pursuing a Sunnyvale couple under a little-known California law because redwood trees in their backyard cast a shadow over their neighbor's solar panels.

Richard Treanor and Carolynn Bissett own a Prius and consider themselves environmentalists. But they refuse to cut down any of the trees behind their house on Benton Street, saying they've done nothing wrong.

"We're just living here in peace. We want to be left alone," said Bissett, who with her husband has spent $25,000 defending themselves against criminal charges. "We support solar power, but we thought common sense would prevail."

Their neighbor Mark Vargas considers himself an environmentalist, too. His 10-kilowatt solar system, which he installed in 2001, is so big he pays only about $60 a year in electrical bills. He drives an electric car....MORE