Archive for June 25th, 2009

Sears Willis Tower to “Go Green”

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

Story Here

Chicago’s Sears Tower claims it will reduce its consumption of electricity by 80%, and have the goal of becoming net-zero user of the power grid.  The London based Willis Insurance company will rename the Sears Tower to be Willis Tower next month.

How will technology save all this energy?   Well, they’re going to replace all of the windows in the building.  Okay, that’s useful.  I hope the new windows aren’t heavier than the ones they are replacing.   More efficient elevators and lighting control systems.     A few hundred square feet of solar panels to heat water for the 104 story building    They might try putting some wind turbines on the roof, but aren’t sure if that will work.

The description of the building says it is has a 150 Mwh power distribution system.   That’s 150,000 kw of power.   That’s a lot of power to get from 4 wind turbines.    How much energy is that?   Another stimulus funded green energy project on the south side of Chicago covering 46 acres in the former Pullman industrial site is “hoped” to generate a maximum of 10 Mwh of power.   Of course, that would only be when the sun is shining and there are no clouds.  

The building will somehow be powered by green energy… (like buying green energy offset credits from T Boon Pickens in Texas perhaps?)

Another part of the plan is to build a new hotel next door – Chicago currently has a glut of unused hotel rooms, but that could change when President Obama moves the U.S. Capital to Chicago.

A few other things to ask…  

  • Is the 80% figure for only the building or does it include the energy used by the tenants in the building?
  • How is the building heated?   Will the other changes change the heating and air conditioning load?  [answers]

The insanity continues.

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Posted in Politics, State of Fear, Stimulus Fund Abuse | No Comments »

Solution: Save Capitalism by taxing it 80%

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

Who would to so incredibly stupid to propose an 80% tax rate on capital gains?

Bloomberg Story

Louis Gerstner – the former CEO of I.B.M.  You know them as the company that is currently promoting taxing people “congestion pricing” for driving their cars into the city (like in Stockholm, Sweden) , and pitching the Obama government to let IBM be the builder of the “intelligent” “Smart Grid” which will let central environmental managers do things like turn off your air conditioning to “save the planet”.

Before working at IBM, he was the chairman of the Carlyle Group, the world’s second largest Private Equity Firm.   If you’re a global conspiracy person, the Carlyle Group is already on your list – even Michael Moore’s.   He also has worked for TARP recipient American Express, and Tobacco product seller RJR Nabisco.

Note that the co-author of this story is PBS’s Judy Woodruff, wife of former Wall Street Journal Editor Al Hunt – who is now executive Washington Editor for the Bloombama news Service.   Isn’t it sort of a conflict of interest to be the editor in charge of reviewing your wife’s reporting?   Where is the opposing point of view in this story that this might be a really stupid idea?

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Posted in BloomBama news, Financial Collapse, Politics | No Comments »

Trouble in Oil Land

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

Bloomberg Story

Why would a rich man in Saudi Arabia need to borrow $6 Billion from banks in Europe and the United States?   The answer is that Saudi Arabia has been going broke, and on the edge of financial collapse for some time.  CitiGroup is on the hook for $500 million just to this one company.

Saudi Arabia has virtually no resources other than oil.   They know the oil can’t last forever, so they’ve been engaged in very expensive long term projects like farms to grow their own food with hydroponics, desalinization plants to make fresh water from the ocean, building a rail line to get Islamic visitors to the holy sites, etc… 

Most of the actual work of all of the above is being done by foreigners, mostly from Pakistan and other Islamic countries.   The draconian repression of women and other religions, and a legal system that punishes people by stoning them to death and cutting their heads off is not helpful in trying to develop a modern society.   Those Saudi people with a good university education got it from being sent to universities in other countries.   It’s very hard to be a teacher in a country where the only book that matters is the Holy Book.

Other than pumping out oil, the only other economic activity going on in Saudi Arabia is pumping out babies.  Since 1980, the population has grown from 9 million to more than 25 million.  Close to 40% of the population is under 15 years old.  Only 2% are 65+ years old.   (In the United States, those numbers are 20.1% and 12.7%)

Jobs that involve manual labor or maintaining households are considered beneath the dignity of a Saudi, and are done by about 6 million non-Saudis (mostly single males).   Young Saudi men are largely unemployed and living on the money from government handouts, which gives them lots of time to think about blowing up skyscrapers in New York and hating Jews.

The large population growth and the lack of any other economic activity means the GDP per person is only about $17k.   (U.S. GDP/Person is $46k) 

The world’s banks have been more than willing to advance Saudi Arabia loan money against future oil revenues, so Saudi Arabia has huge debts.   Since 2003, their external debt has risen from $25 billion to $58 billion.  I’ve heard the figure thrown around that below $60 barrel, Saudi Arabia gets into serious problems.  If oil stayed below $40/barrel for a long time, the entire oil business falls apart.  Oil is currently about $68/barrel.

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Posted in Financial Collapse | No Comments »