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The Solari Report – 05 Mar 2009
John Rubino’s latest book, Clean Money: Picking Winners in the Green-Tech Boom, is as good as the one before, The Collapse of the Dollar and How to Profit from It, which he co-authored with James Turk.
John’s background in investing is significant. He worked on Wall Street as a Eurodollar trader, equity analyst and junk bond analyst. During the 1990s, he was a featured tech stock columnist with TheStreet.com and a frequent contributor to Individual Investor, Online Investor, and Consumers Digest, among other publications. He now writes for CFA Magazine and edits DollarCollapse.com and GreenStockInvesting.
Several years ago, my Solari Circle decided we would invest in alternative energy companies. I spent a year navigating through the complex products and companies in this area. Getting my mind around this area took an immense amount of time. I was also very concerned about fraud, particularly given the chances that we experience a green investing “pump and dump.” Best to wait until the global bubble burst and equity markets had found new levels.
Well the bubble has burst and the markets are falling towards a new level. If we are going to shift our capital out of fraudulent bubbles and into enterprises that hold out the hope for real solutions in the real economy, then this is an investment area that is going to be very long lived. The opportunities for change are many and the technologies that need to be applied are also many.
John will be joining me on Thursday, March 5 on The Solari Report. We will be talking about green-tech investing – what is it, the risks and opportunities and how can you learn more about it. We will also talk about the outlook for the global equity markets and what that could mean for whether capital is flowing to real solutions or not.
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Hello, not good at English, but want to know where your RSS Feed is?
http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/81R/billtext/html/HB02753I.htm
This is a proposed Texas law. Looks like our state is getting ready for Solar by financing through companies preapproved by the state and providing a tax lean equivalent debt. I don’t understand the world of finance. I suppose this is a good thing for Solar?
Brad
“As we have already seen with ethanol…”
Mr. Armstrong, I assume your comment means you proffer the negative EROEI, pro-GHG and food vs fuel model of fuel ethanol? Am I to assume you can document this model?
If your comment simply refers to the public (gun-totin’ government) and private (subsidized hype-machine) nexus of winner-picking then I would agree. But if you are making an argument based on the Pimentel et al conspiracy, I can provide plenty of evidence to debunk it.
Simply put,the ethanol molecule is the low-hanging fruit of all Green Energy. Ethanol not only reduces GHG (if you believe in that sort of thing) but also increases food while reducing costs across the board for our marketplace economy. Distributed diversification with integrated pre-existing economic activity (all corn ethanol is from waste corn) just extends the historical process of innovation.
I am also interested in these swirling events. The tainted flue vaccines that were discovered are also in the eye of this approaching storm. What are our options?
Not to change the topic but I would like to know what this British Mr. Brown has in mind in relation to a global coup d’etat with the upcoming summit or is it something different and how will it affect us-work environment-politics-money-gold? He also mentioned the environment.
Also I wonder when this all comes down with threats of martial law and fema regions and camps if we’ll even be able to stay in our own little communities and circles and plant our garders? Thank you
Bob:
I agree that the misuse of “green” and the opportunities for fraudulent policies, companies and investments abound. One of the reasons that I like John’s book is he does a good job of warning about many of the frauds.
I don’t understand the carbon tax area — what I have been told scares the living XXX out of me.
Catherine
Lasting wealth , capital , depends on accurately understanding reality . “Green” tech currently suffers from a politically motivated dangerously distorted view of the physics and chemistry of CO2 . Rather than being a “poison” , the few molecules in every 10,000 of air is absolutely essential for life on earth as all plant life is essentially CO2 + H2O + ash . We are in perhaps the lower quartile of the geologic record . On the other hand , the temperature of the earth is determined , thru the Stefan-Boltzmann law by the surface temperature of the sun and our distance to it . Variation in CO2’s couple of , already quite saturated at levels required for life , skinny spectral lines have a perhaps undetectable effect .
As we have already seen with ethanol , the war against carbon may leave us with substantially more expensive energy , and therefore lower human welfare , purely on the basis of false propaganda .