By Paolo von Schirach June 14, 2013 WASHINGTON – It is obvious that abundant and cheap US natural gas has forced and will force a reassessment of the real economic advantages of renewable energy technologies. Until not too long ago, the projection was that US fossil fuels were becoming scarce and progressively more expensive. Therefore it [...]
By Paolo von Schirach June 2. 2013 WASHINGTON – The high brow The Atlantic news magazine devoted 12 long pages to its May 2013 cover story titled We Will Never Run Out Of Oil, by Charles C. Mann. This interesting piece discusses in a sober manner the wider implications of a US-led carbon revolution. It talks intelligently about the impact of [...]
By Paolo von Schirach May 1, 2013 WASHINGTON – The FT has a rather prominent story on how the state of New Mexico in the US plans to attract new investors via lowering corporate taxes. The article quotes Susana Martinez, the recently elected Republican Governor, speaking passionately about the need to be competitive, because investors, you [...]
By Paolo von Schirach April 29, 2013 WASHINGTON – Recently The Economist had a story pointing out that the humble automobile is experiencing some kind of a technological rebirth. There are new fuel efficiencies and new technologies that will transform our use of the car. Soom enough, (look at Google’s experimentations), cars will drive themselves, [...]
By Paolo von Schirach March 10, 2013 TRAVELING BETWEEN EMERGING MARKETS – In the developing world, a few decades ago the cry was for “Independence” and “Freedom”, and then “Justice”. Now it is mostly about the more prosaic yet far more tangible issue of “Good Governance”. Governance is a catch-all term that encompasses quite a few things: [...]
By Paolo von Schirach February 8, 2013 WASHINGTON – Democracy is great, as long as it works properly. Ideally we want to have the affairs of the nation managed by elected and accountable leaders. We want majorities that do not turn into tyrannies. We want total transparency and accountability, plus a rules based system upheld by an independent, [...]
By Paolo von Schirach February 7, 2013 WASHINGTON – The American economy has yet to recover from the spending binge that led to the 2008-2009 financial collapse. Simply stated, most American households are spending less as they are trying to pay back the debt they accumulated during the go-go years. And they are doing so while [...]
By Paolo von Schirach February 6, 2013 WASHINGTON – Economist Tyler Cowen calls it “The Great Stagnation”. 2010 Nobel Prize winner for physics Andre Geim calls it the “tech crisis’ in a recent FT op-ed piece. (Be afraid, be very afraid of the world’s tech crisis, February 6, 2013). Others may call it more simply “lack [...]
By Paolo von Schirach February 4, 2013 WASHINGTON – The New Green Economy that would have created tens of thousands of new and highly paid jobs was one of Obama’s first term promises. It sounded good, and it seemed to be in step with the unfolding new era of expensive (and scarce) oil and global warming. Going green appeared both [...]
By Paolo von Schirach January 26, 2013 WASHINGTON – The incredible market capitalization growth followed by rapid shrinking experienced by tech giant Apple prompts some comparisons with the size of other corporate players (once sector leaders) and some reflections about the basic components and drivers of the US economy. Simply stated, Apple’s numbers –the good and the bad ones– have [...]