A easy read article from Time magazine describing why the way we measure performance is primitive and unhelpful: Is GDP An Obsolete Measure of Progress? Since last summer the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has gone up — indeed, it grew at a surprising 5.7% rate in the 4th quarter — seeming to confirm what …
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Category:3 The World of Money
Radical opening up of the auto industry
From The Ecologist: The open-source hydrogen car set to change the industry by Alex McDonald Cars are evil, right? But what if they ran on hydrogen, did 300 miles per gallon, were leased rather than owned, and were produced under an open source business model… We have often been introduced to the car of tomorrow, …
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Richer, but less free.
Freedom House released its 2010 survey. The principal findings are depressing: less democracy. It’s mainly in sub-saharan africa, but that doesn’t make it OK. Maybe the rich world is a main driver. We vote with our wallets every day. While we might enjoy some kind of democracy and freedom at home, we choose cheap food, …
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Soup kitchen – it’s not 1929, it’s now
Increasing numbers of New Yorkers need help getting enough to eat. A fifth of children (397,000) rely on soup kitchens. Food programmes are struggling to meet demand. It’s no 1929. It’s not Africa. It’s the richest country in the world and it’s today. The Big Apple is hungry by The Economist
It’s not just about money – it’s about jobs.
There is a desperate dearth of jobs in developed economies. The economies have cratered because of profligacy by banks and consumers. Credit has collapsed. And with this businesses have folded. As the tide of money has gne out it has revealed a long term employment probkem that has been created over decades. As technology has …
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Over $ 1 trillion invested in green since 2007
A step in the right direction. But a long way to go. That’s about as much as Exxon’s revenues over 2 years. Washington, DC – December 4, 2009 – Ethical Markets Media (USA and Brazil) and The Climate Prosperity Alliance today launched their Global Climate Prosperity Scoreboard® which tracks private investment in companies growing the …
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Google has acquired Gizmo5
Gizmo5 is another (a better?) VOIP, like Skype. The official announcement is here. It’s probably a good thing for Michael Robertson, the entrepreneur who started Gizmo5 and Lindows/Linspire. Hopefully it will take some of the pressure off him. A shame it had to be the big one. Apart from the issues raised by google-watch, it …
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The problem with carbon trading
While I appreciate the positive aspect of carbon trading – that it draws attention to the problem of overconsumption of energy, in particular fossil fuels – it is a distraction from focussing on the real problem of changing the way we do things. A new report of carbon trading articulates the increasing risks of focussing …
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Listen to Roubini
OK, you don’t have to listen to me. But listen to Nouriel Roubini, the high profile economist that sees past the King’s New Clothes. World financial crisis ‘not over’ “There is a wall of liquidity chasing assets. But I think that there is a growing gap between asset prices and the real economy.” Beware of …
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‘The bellboys are handing out stock tips in the lifts’
Are markets reaching bubble proportions? Regular readers of our world of money blog know how I feel. That’s not to say you can’t make money in a bubble. Or that valuations won’t be maintained. But I just can’t get comfortable with the massive hole in the financial system on one hand and the buoyancy of …
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