Some Things Never Change. Some Things Do.

Let me clearly state a few facts that were true 6 months ago and remain true today.

1. No matter how asleep the SEC is, we must never break their rules - or risk getting slammed later when they wake up.

2. "Sophisticated Investors" are no smarter than the rest of us. They just have more money to start with.

3. Fat cats that hoard their money instead of investing in innovative Alternative Energy companies will end up with worthless paper in a bankrupt country.

4. Then and now, the Fed needed to spend those billions directly on consumers and small businesses instead of relying on the failed trickle-down approach.

To elaborate on that last point, we’ve just seen in an instant what the rest of us have known for years. Giving taxpayer money to the people at the top doesn’t result in capital trickling down to the bottom. Any kid with a goldfish could tell you that. Those at the top will feed until their stomachs bulge and they flip – that’s why you never overfeed from the top.

Let's hope that come Jan 20th, the economic approach changes. If the new administration doesn't find a way to invest Alternative Energy dollars directly into Alternative Energy companies, the money will be squandered in the bureaucracy and never make it to the real engine of the economy – small business. Of all the changes we needed this election, that is number one in my opinion.

Tags: alternative, change, companies, energy, investment

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Comment by Jay Rosenberg on January 5, 2009 at 8:47pm: Hi Clynt: I am still trying to get to discuss some ongoing energy developments, that are more than just casual chatter. They have the potency to bring copious amounts of carbon free energy at $.05/kWh to our denizens. I will keep trying. Best
Jay R - CEO Sannerprojects, Inc Sannerwind@gmail.com

Comment by James Everitt on December 22, 2008 at 1:29pm: Clean Energy Should Be Our Cause!

America needs a cause, an uplifting and nonpartisan mission, which harnesses our courage, patriotism, innovation and willingness to sacrifice to build a better future for our kids.

A Blueprint for American Energy Renewal

We are tired of rote partisanship and long for a defining cause greater than consumerism. We are in awe of and inspired by the World War II generation and the Civil Rights crusaders that came together, sacrificed and defeated common enemies and left a legacy of pride and prosperity for their children and grandchildren.

We need to declare our independence from oil, rebuild our industrial economy and reestablish our national prestige. We can do this with our own savings, and profit handsomely from the economic transformation.

The idea that I'm advocating, conceived together with my friend, H.B. Mertz, a small business owner from McMurray, Pennsylvania, is a special government bond like the war bonds issued during World War II. This time, the cause supported by the bonds would be Clean Energy.

The Renew America Bonds we propose are, in essence, 30-year, zero-coupon U.S. government bonds, with principal redeemable at maturity or convertible to a payout based on the long-term performance of America's clean energy economy. The Renew America bonds would be marketed like War bonds were in World War II, from the President, through Wall Street, down to the classrooms across America.

The proceeds of these bonds would be invested in the equity of companies that develop and commercialize new energy technology, through intermediaries like venture capital firms and new clean energy banks. The intermediaries would need to match the public investment, thus leveraging its impact.

Bondholders would have a direct economic stake (through the conversion feature) in the outcome of America's energy and industrial renewal which would be catalyzed by the bonds. Purchasing the bonds would be both an act of patriotism and of economic rationality. Productive investment of the bond proceeds would help fulfill our generational duty to leave this country, and the world, better than we found it.

Click here to see our detailed plan for the Renew America Bond Program

Live from Owens Corning headquarters: Boone announces the Pickens Plan’s first corporate partner, Owens Corning. At the Toledo town hall with CEO Mike Thaman, hundreds of employees join Mike in signing the Pickens Plan pledge.

John Floegel
7 Madison Avenue
Summit, NJ 07901
(908) 358-4016
j-floegel@comcast.net

H.B. Mertz
3311 Washington Road
McMurray, PA 15317
(412) 628-1689
hbmertz@verizon.net

Comment by Mark Hedtke on December 19, 2008 at 9:44pm: While we all may express a certain amount of pessimism regarding change, and we are told we can't change history, we can change the future. There have been marches on the capital before, there have been successful phone campaigns to change Congress' mind, email campaigns to get out and register new voters, IT IS POSSIBLE! WE CAN DO IT! WE WILL CHANGE THE FUTURE TOGETHER! This is the vehicle for change, the Pickens Plan has made it all possible. The only thing that stands in our way is our will to do it! We have the people contact chain started, at over a million strong! It is time to send out invite a friend, a relative, yes even a stranger with each email we send to join the Pickens Army and be a part of the future and part of a legacy, a history for all to knwo that we cared enough about the future to make history!

Comment by Clynton on December 19, 2008 at 4:39am: True, but it looks like we're going to need a Tea Party and a popular revolt to get there, because the Tyrants are fat and happy with the way things are.

Comment by Fred Mars on December 18, 2008 at 11:46pm: Those 11,000+ Senatorial sausages against a few million to kick start an energy revolution? Put American technology at the top of clean energy, and we become the new OPEC. Like Henry Ford did to the horse and carriage.

Comment by Clynton on December 18, 2008 at 8:51pm: Great ideas. As with everything else in this country though (Ethanol comes to mind), we will barrel down the road, spending tons of cash on the wrong thing (Banks again come to mind). Then later, innovators will have to fight to get their solutions funded and into the field (Tesla comes to mind). Let's say we get the idea into the President's hands on Jan 20th - or even before that so that he could prep to do something about it. Did you see that book of 11,000+ pork projects that the politicians are asking to be funded? All the other interest groups have their own volumes of pet projects for him to fund. I don't see him signing a bill that mandates wind turbines along the highways. It would be nice, but Congress (the pork pushers) are the ones who write those bills. And you know they will dare the President to veto their pork for 6 months before we'll see the real sensible bill. That's the pesimistic view.

On the other hand, maybe our Pickens Army will march on Congress and flood the halls until they write a bill like the one you suggested. Maybe it will get to the President's desk with all the good, sensible ideas we suggest at his change.gov website. Maybe for once, we'll see a well funded Manhattan project to redesign cars to make them all electric. Well, we can continue to hope can't we?

Comment by Fred Mars on December 18, 2008 at 8:34pm: I think you are both on the mark here. No matter how much money you throw at a bad idea, a bad business plan, or a bad product, it still won't get better. The auto industry is the example that will be placed in the economic text books for the next generation.

Only GM with the Volt hybrid has a real chance at survival, but they also have to get the price down to where Americans can afford to buy them. Let them fail and let more electric car start-ups emerge as the new auto industry in the US. Only don't do as Tesla Motors and start with a $120,000.00 electric sports car, that only the California Elite can afford. They started out though with silicon valley hardware and software engineers, and then when they got into "trouble" decided to lure some auto industry experts into the fold.

Start with both, because it will take computer, electrical, and auto engineers to make it work. And here is my vision for the next generation of American autos.

Let's begin with the cabin. LED lighting for as low power as possible. Instrumentation LCD with LED backlighting. USB key/remote control. No USB key onserted, no driving. With the codes required to get in permanently burned into the USB key, you are in deep stuff if you lose it, because you can't just call Joe's Locksmith Shop. You have to join AAA or maybe the auto dealer offers a service (for a price of course) to authenticate you as the owner and program a new key for you.

Power to the wheels will be all electric. I'll let the engineers work out the best drivetrain design based on performance requirements and efficient use of energy. For all-wheel-drive applications, I am guessing that a motor at each hub would be better suited that a single large engine that would have to distribute its horsepower and torque to all wheels.

Wind turbines turn by ported air can help generate power on the move. Solar cells can support charging both while moving and parked. A heat pump can be used to provide climate control. For "emergency power" a very small fuel engine can be used to provide power generation. Eventually, provide power to the vehicles without wires from a renewable source, such as wind power along the highways.

We should get this in front of the President before he starts rebuilding America's roads and bridges, so that when the autos are made, the infrastructure will be there too.

True energy independence isn't about oil. It's really about energy, oil, natural gas, electricity. Now when you think about it, all of the previous are all fuels that produce energy, whether it is energy to spin your tires or your hair dryer. But we do not have to use those fuels to produce electricity. That was just the quick and inexpensive solution at the time.

Westinghouse, by Tesla's genius started the whole electric game rolling with clean, renewable, sustainable, hydroelectric power. But Morgan had plenty of capital to buy cheap oil and coal. Tesla went on to produce electric without any fuels or water. He produced electric power "from the cosmos" which he claimed came to us via the sun. He was right. NASA scientists have (quietly) confirmed measurements in excess of 650,000 Amperes of current at magnitudes over 1 million Volts, that emanates from the sun to us 24/7. Maybe that is why the Russians are so interested in staking claims around the north pole, not for oil.

But Tesla did it in Colorado Springs, CO and Long Island, NY and also said that electric power could be transmitted all over the world safely MIT recently "discovered" wireless electric transmission, successfully powering a 70 Watt bulb and no adverse effects on nearby computers and other electronics, and especially no harm to people or animals. But I don't think I will see these technologies in my lifetime.

Buy we never can be that sure, now can we?

Comment by Clynton on December 17, 2008 at 7:05pm: Thanks Chris.

I believe we are in complete agreement. My post is not directed at Tax policy, but monetary and fiscal policy. It takes into account that some in power realized that we were heading into recession and made the decision to try and combat it. The usual step would have been tax cuts (to the top 5% "who are the ones creating jobs" the arguement goes). I would argue that it's small businesses that actually create jobs, but that wasn't my main point here.

Taking into account that they were going to do something about the economy - as you so aptly put it "throw money at it," my point is that they threw it at the wrong target. AIG, the big "banks," etc. in the [hopes] that the banks would turn around and unfreeze the credit market. I say [hope] because they actually said that. These guys should have been smart enough to know that the only way a business does anything that you hope it does is to write it into the contract! Then if they don't play nice with the carrot, you wham them with the stick for breaking the contract.

Business 101 I would say.

Comment by Chris G. on December 17, 2008 at 6:50pm: Hi Clynton,
The debate continues...trickle down economics vs. welfare hand-outs. I think we need to lose those rhetorical descriptives that only polarize us and go a long way to distracting us from focusing on, and enacting an economic theory by which our nation can not only survive, by thrive.

As you accurately stated, money dumped at the top has a hard time filtering down to the worker bee's. But, if all we do is hand out to the worker bees, then we form a dependency that is unhealthy and unsustainable by any nation. You mentioned taxpayer money...if 90+% of taxpayer money comes from the top 5%, how can we argue that our money is going to the rich...seems like it's going back to them...I don't make enough to pay taxes...I always get most of my fed income tax back every April.

If "business as usual" is truly being kicked out of Washington, D.C., then I am hopeful that a smart, healthy and sustainable approach can be devised, and both political parties refrain from throwing out inflammatory and misleading labels to distract us, because one side does not want the other side to get credit.

It seems obvious that a government should foster a business friendly economic environment, i.e. a tax structure that does not punish acheivement, and one that provides incentives for businesses to grow - when the business grows more jobs are created, providing more income to be spent on products, and the cycle continues...though I agree with you, it is not to ensure that the top layer walks away with riches beyond most of our comprehension - regardless of what happens to the company over which they preside.

If that healthy economic environment does not exist, how does the business grow? If the government only subsidizes the worker, how is that sustainable? Where would the government recoup those expenditures? Seems like that would lead us into a race between businesses raising prices, and the government keeping pace with payments to us.

As far as these bailouts are going (which I view as separate from economic theory)...who knows what they're doing...seems like they are doing what they know best...got a problem...throw money at it. Seems like they are paying for those failed businesses to continue doing the things that got them into fiscal trouble in the first place...can you say AIG? :) Your right, this will probably ensure that a few more fat cats can continue to bloat and leave with their pensions in place while the companies they ran fail in the future. My apologies for being cynical.

Alternative energy companies and technologies are a silver lining on this dark cloud...a light at the end of the tunnel...lets get on board that train and drive our economy strong again!

Best regards and Happy Holidays!

Chris