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Global Warming on 15-Year Hold
April 2, 2012 | 12 comments
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Suddenly This Summer
March 31, 2012 | 8 comments
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FakeGate: Just Another Day at Team Green
February 22, 2012 | 7 comments
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“Climate” and the Campaign
January 12, 2012 | 8 comments
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Germany’s Green Bubble Follows Spain’s; Will Congress Waste More Billions on Ours?
December 15, 2011 | 3 comments
The Spectacle Blog
Speaking of I told you so… It seems that we’ve just had another belly flop in a long list of belly flops proving that politically conjured jobs, which exist solely because of wealth transfers from the taxpayer, are temporary, even if their creation kills real jobs in both opportunity cost, and otherwise.
A solar panel company that took $58.6 million in stimulus green jobs money to ‘create 350 jobs’ has decided it’s too expensive to make stuff in places that fetishize the green movement. So they’re going to China. That’s $167,428 or so per temporary (about a year) job. Don’t worry. The Dems and their enablers are convinced we’ll make this up in volume.
Reminding us also, yet again, of the folly of the Sen. John Kerry-led ‘do we want all of our windmills and solar panels to be made in China?!’ erm, ‘argument’, for mandating their use here. They will be made there. Or Philipines, South Korea, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico…
Politicians can mandate you use or pay for anything they can politically get away with mandating you use or pay for. But in so doing they also ensure that these things will be made somewhere else where they are not mandated. Because particularly these schemes touted in the name of jobs (paging Bastiat on Bonaparte!) carry other baggage making it too expensive to actually make the things there. They are worse than Napoleon’s ditch-digging-and-refilling. They require higher energy prices on top of the debt (the latter meaning taxes to pay for them, which investors also understand).
Don’t think that this particular Massachusetts Miracle will dissuade Obama’s congressional point man, Massachusetts’ Kerry, to change his tune.
View all comments (10) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Chris Horner
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/01/12/hows-that-stimulusgreen-jobs-t
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Bernard the Green Jobs Guru | 1.12.11 @ 12:03PM
Yes, one belly flop among hundreds of success stories, that's still a pretty good average. See the report bu Next10 on green job creation in California (http://www.thegreenjobbank.com/stories/california-green-job-growth-significantly-outpaces-other-sectors).
Also, please consider the fact that some Chinese green tech companies are setup manufacturing facilities in the US! (http://www.thegreenjobbank.com/stories/chinese-cleantech-leader-brings-green-jobs-to-the-us)
Wayne | 1.12.11 @ 12:20PM
If the marketplace decides what is successful, then why not have the marketplace create the green jobs? See how that works?
Andrew | 1.19.11 @ 1:09PM
It is not that simple. The "marketplace" is not some unknown force that acts outside of human life, it is a combination of forces that can influence a broad spectrum of the economy but it has no forethought; what is great to buy/invest in now, is not always what will allow us to continue existing on this world. The market likes things to be easy, changing practices and increasing standards so that we all have a better life is hard. that type of effort takes a lot of work and the market just isn't there yet.
Grzmlyk| 1.12.11 @ 1:57PM
I see Bernard the Green Jobs Guru has had more than his dose of pixie dust today.
You are an absolute fool - or else you are raking in government money as a result of this canard.
Or maybe you're just stupid.
Which is it? Inquiring minds want to know.
Grzmlyk| 1.12.11 @ 2:20PM
Oh and, by the way - the link you embedded above is to a figgin' PRESS RELEASE. I used to write press releases for tech companies for a living - believe me, any passing resemblence to the truth is strictly coincidantal.
How about THIS: Barely more than a month after they put out this phonied up press release on October 13, 2010, this story appeared on November 17. It was written by Elizabeth Harrow, a senior equities analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.
Read the part about analysts' lowered expectations for the entire solar industry; here's the money quote:
"In a note to clients, a team of analysts led by Satya Kumar explained, 'We have grown more concerned that subsidy-driven solar market demand cannot keep up with incremental solar supply coming online from mid-2011.'"
In other words, the only reason these "green" companies are making any money at all is because TAXPAYERS ARE FOOTING THE BILL. The minute they try to compete in the real world, it's adios, amigo.
Thanks, Bernard the Green Jobs Guru, for you lame effort at propping up a boondoggle.
Here's the story in full:
Suntech Power Tumbles to New Annual Low Following Earnings
Suntech Power (STP) is taking a post-earnings plunge, as traders pan the company's third-quarter report.
Wednesday morning, Suntech said its third-quarter profit climbed 11% to $33.1 million, or 18 cents per American depositary share (ADS), while revenue rose 57% to $743.7 million. Gross margin for the quarter contracted to 16.4% from 17.8%, due to lower selling prices.
The bottom-line results fell short of analysts' expectations, which called for a profit of 23 cents per share. Suntech's results were impacted by $9.3 million in acquisition expense and other items. In fact, Suntech announced that it will acquire ingot and wafer slicing capacity from Glory Silicon Technology Investment Ltd., to the tune of $127 million.
Meanwhile, the stock was also hit with a downgrade this morning. Credit Suisse slashed its rating on STP to underperform from neutral, as the brokerage firm lowered its opinion of the broader solar sector to market weight. In a note to clients, a team of analysts led by Satya Kumar explained, "We have grown more concerned that subsidy-driven solar market demand cannot keep up with incremental solar supply coming online from mid-2011."
As a result of this double dose of negative news, STP gapped lower out of the gate Wednesday morning. The stock slumped to a fresh 52-week low of $7.46 in early trading. The shares have since pared the worst of their losses, but STP is still pinned below familiar resistance at its 10-week and 20-week moving averages. These troublesome trendlines haven't been surmounted on a weekly closing basis since early March, leading STP to a year-to-date deficit of nearly 50%.
Traders have responded by flocking to STP's puts, with volume rising to about 19 times the expected level within the first hour of the session. Most active was STP's January 2011 6-strike put, where more than 1,800 contracts were exchanged by 10:30 a.m. Eastern. The bulk of these puts changed hands at the ask price, suggesting that speculators are adding new bearish bets at this out-of-the-money strike.
Wayne | 1.12.11 @ 12:18PM
What gets me about these green energy projects is they are not even viable. How many require rare earth minerals which are mostly only mined by China. So as soon as you produce an alternative to Opec, you become dependent on China. Some tradeoff.
What is becoming obvious is that it is not about energy independence at all. It is about CONTROL.
Vangel| 1.12.11 @ 8:20PM
Shhh!!! Many of us make a decent living from keeping the greens supplied with what is needed to implement their schemes and I for one am happy that my rare earth stocks have exploded in price thanks to Kerry and the green movement. Given the way things are going, I am looking to use my profits to buy Vermont or Wyoming after the USD collapses.
LiveFreeOrDie| 1.12.11 @ 12:27PM
Your links are from a website owned by a web business that specializes in queries. This is not anything close to unbiased as they are attempting to generate revenue by getting people to visit their website which advertises so-called "green jobs." What do you think they are going to say?
Example: I know where you can get the absolute best price on a new car! Now here's a link to a dealership website that will confirm what I've told you. Get real!
The real fact is green jobs are practically non-existent. Even the website you use as a source claims there are about 9,000 green jobs in the country. Well there are 15 million people looking for a job.
Here's a quote from your source. "As the economy slowed between 2007 and 2008, total employment fell 1 percent, but green jobs continued to grow five percent." (Refers to California) Yes, and it cost tax payers how many billions to accomplish this feat of foolishness? What happens next year when these Government funded companies no longer get this corporate welfare? They all go away, along with the jobs.
Vangel| 1.12.11 @ 8:21PM
You might want to do some digging. Green companies are leaving California for the South.
Grzmlyk| 1.12.11 @ 1:54PM
You mean-spirited conservatives. I see that hate binds you to the real world, where cause and effect reign.
You should come over to the liberal side, where we aren't constrained by logic, reality, truth, rationality, facts or common sense.
Now if you evil conservatives all shut your eyes real tight, held hands and wished just as hard as you could for green jobs, they would materialize in front of us and we would all be saved.
But no, because of your hate, you refuse to join us liberals in "pretend land."