Category: economy

The BP spill could have powered 40,000 cars for a year. [link]
Whale poop removes the carbon emissions of 40,000 cars each year. [link]

For every single person in a city you need 2 lbs of grains a day.

You can go to the historical record, you can research in China, in India, in the Near East, and you will still be talking about 2 lbs of grain-based food for every person in the city every day.

Always the largest customer:

All cities require fuel: oil, gas, electricity, and so on. What I want to talk about today is the energy that fuels the people in the cities—food. Without food energy, a city is nothing. A city is nothing without the people who work and play and enjoy or suffer through the city, and they require food.

What do cities need in terms of food?

There’s only one way to feed a city, at least historically, and that’s to feed it with grains—rice, wheat, maize, barley, sorghum, etc.. You can go round the world, and there just aren’t cities that aren’t fed on grains, except for possibly in the high Andes.

Basically, to maintain a city, you’ve got to get grains into it. Be it Bangkok, be it Guangzhou, be it London, or be it Rome—throughout history, grains and cities are two sides of the coin.

And what do you need in terms of grains? For most of history—really, until about 150 years ago—most people in most cities, except for the very wealthy, lived almost exclusively on grains. They got about ninety percent of their calories from grains.

63.4 million Americans volunteered last year, giving more than 8.1 billion hours of volunteer service worth an estimated $169 billion.

Leadership becoming local:

The world is taking notice of this social experiment: so far in 2010, Evergreen has been reported on in The Economist and Business Week, but perhaps the most thorough story on the Evergreen Cooperative is found in “The Cleveland Model”, an article appearing in a recent issue of The Nation. I urge you to read this article to learn more about a truly positive glimmer of hope in the revitalization of the industrial Midwest of the United States — and in the mainstreaming of cleantech throughout the American economy all the way into its inner cities.

You’ll wonder once again if humans are utterly bananas.

via Mind Blog:

Thinking about fast food increases preferences for time-saving.

We found that mere exposure to fast-food symbols reduced people’s willingness to save, and led them to prefer immediate gain over greater future return, ultimately harming their economic interest.

Comment on economic order and the invisible hand:

There is no such thing as a ‘free market’. All markets operate according to rules.

The realists would argue that rules are needed to protect consumers and individuals from liar, cheats, scam artists and those who willfully impose their external costs on the rest of us. The Libertarians prefer a caveat emptor approach.

Certainly, everyone cannot be protected from everything. However, turning the sharks loose in the baby pool has high social costs.

George Monbiot:

Money currently defined as profit is nothing of the kind.

Annual costs dumped on the environment by the world’s 3000 biggest public companies in 2008 is $2.2 trillion, equivalent to one third of their profits for that year.

The oil industry’s decommissioning costs will dwarf those of nuclear power. The money being made now should be put aside to meet them.

They include, but are not confined to, the money that will have to spent on adapting to climate change. The United Nations estimates this cost at $50–170 billion a year, but a report last year by British scientists suggested that this is around three times too low.

Does this sound familiar? In the ten years preceding the crash, the banks posted and disposed of stupendous profits. When their risky ventures failed, they discovered that they hadn’t made sufficient provision against future costs, and had to go begging from the state. They had classified their annual surplus as profit and given it to their investors and staff long before it was safe to do so.

A moment’s pause to sum it all up.
Because house prices will keep falling in most places.
Because the housing bubble was not driven by supply and demand.

Only a small part of the price of the Chinese made goods is impacted by the value of the yuan.

Marc Chandler:

Many pundits talk about China being the factory of the world.  This is misleading.  China might be more accurately thought of as the assembler of the world.

While last year it was the world’s biggest exporter, it was also one of the world’s biggest importers.  China does not simply import raw materials and commodities; it also imports parts and semi-finished goods which it then assembles.

The imported raw materials and commodities are largely invoiced in U.S. dollars.  So are the parts and semi-finished goods.  The cost of these inputs is estimated to be about 25% of the price of the finished good.  The value-added in the assembly work can also be worth another quarter of the price of the finished good. This assembly work is the only part that is sensitive to the value of the yuan.

The other 50% of the price of the Chinese good is incurred locally in the U.S. for storage, shipping, and marketing. Of course, each of those middlemen also earns a profit.

White House:

Obviously the top of our list was our continued response to the crisis in the Gulf and what’s happening with the oil spill.  We gave them an update on all the measures that are being taken, the single largest national response in United States history to an environmental disaster.

But we had a frank conversation about the fact that the laws that have been in place have not been adequate for a crisis of this magnitude.  The Oil Pollution Act was passed at a time when people didn’t envision drilling four miles under the sea for oil.

And so it’s going to be important that, based on facts, based on experts, based on a thorough examination of what went wrong here and where things have gone right, that we update the laws to make sure that the people in the Gulf, the fishermen, the hotel owners, families who are dependent for their livelihoods in the Gulf, that they are all made whole and that we are in a much better position to respond to any such crisis in the future.

Unsafe food handling leading to illness and outbreak happens more often than previously thought.

The first study to place video cameras in commercial kitchens – as many as eight cameras in each kitchen – found approximately one violation per food handler per hour, eight food safety errors per shift:

“During peak hours, we found increases in cross-contamination and decreases in workers complying with hand-washing guidelines.”

Although the food-service providers that volunteered for this study used the best practices in the industry for training their staff, “Meals prepared outside the home have been implicated in up to 70 percent of food poisoning outbreaks.”

Employee payroll and compensation devoted to construction.

Building and rebuilding is a principal economic engine. Deeper red reveals where as much as 20% of the total payroll and compensation is dedicated to construction.

When was the last time an unsustainable economic situation was solved without a crisis?  Seriously, that’s a question.

From the NOAA division responsible for giving the Coast Guard daily projected oil trajectories, based on data collected from the air, water and shorelines. Scientists here study how the oil moves and ages.

No other oil company is even close to the 706 citations issued to BP for egregious willful violation and failure to follow industry-accepted safety measures.

A willful violation is a violation where an “employer has knowledge of a violation and demonstrates either an intentional disregard for the requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, or shows plain indifference to employee safety and health.”

Last year OSHA issued a record-breaking fine to BP of $87,430,000 for failure to correct potential hazards faced by employees; 15 dead.

Last year the Minerals Management Service bestowed the ‘Safety Award for Excellence’ to BP and Transocean; 11 dead.

Canceled. The MMS had scheduled a lavish luncheon honoring the safety award winners for May 3rd.

Heat is change.

Which neighborhoods have the highest number of liquor stores?
Which zip codes have the lowest diabetes rates?
Which hospitals have the worst rates of antibiotic-resistant bacteria?
Which zip codes in America have good access to fresh produce?

We have weather reports and the air quality index, can you imagine what will be possible when we have health information?

One thousand years ago the monarchs ruled — so what’s different today?

One-third of the earth’s surface is ruled by 35 monarchs. Queen Elizabeth II is the largest land owner on Earth. The pope’s holdings and massive land ownership by the world’s religions are in trillions. Ted Turner’s 2 million acres is the largest USA land holding. Plum Creek Corporation owns over 7 million acres.

There is a hierarchy of prestige in medicine.

Which diseases boost a doctor’s rank? Here’s the ranking of diseases:

Myocardial infarction [heart attack]
Leukaemia
Spleen rupture
Brain tumour
Testicle cancer
Pulmonary embolism [normally blood clot on the lung]
Angina pectoris
Extrauterine pregnancy
Thyroid cancer
Meniscus rupture [‘torn cartilage’]
Colon cancer
Ovarian cancer
Kidney stone
Appendicitis
Ulcerative colitis [inflammation of the bowel]
Kidney failure
Cataract
Duodenal ulcer [peptic ulcer]
Asthma
Pancreas cancer
Ankle fracture
Lung cancer
Sciatica [‘trapped nerve’]
Bechterew’s disease [arthritis of the spine]
Femoral neck fracture
Multiple sclerosis
Arthritis
Inguinal hernia [abdominal wall hernia]
Apoplexy [internal organ bleeding]
Psoriasis
Cerebral palsy
AIDS
Anorexia
Schizophrenia
Depressive neurosis
Hepatocirrhosis [cirrhosis of the liver]
Anxiety neurosis
Fibromyalgia

Doctors working with people who have the least status in society (children, the ‘mad’, the ‘old’) also have the least status in medicine.

“Oil price spikes have preceded 10 of the last 11 U.S. recessions, so we need to eliminate this vulnerability.” – Diana Farrell, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council.

Gregor Macdonald:

Two industries dwarf any other influence on US energy policy… the Automobile and the Highway Construction complex.

There is a rather antiquated belief that the oil and gas industry drives US energy policy.  This is usually framed in people’s minds as a pleading oil and gas lobbyist making sure that the US stays hooked on oil.

While this image may be accurate with regards to the US coal industry, which does indeed have heavy influence on Congress and policy, it’s much less the case with oil and gas. And here’s why: The US automobile industry and the US highway construction industry performs all the heavy lifting one could require…

Superb example where everybody is an official and nobody is a citizen.

After four years, $300,000 in legal bills and a three-week court trial, a San Francisco fishmonger is facing eviction from the port – all over a bathroom. The bathroom is part of a trailer that William Dawson inherited 17 years ago when he opened his fish-processing business on Pier 33.

Nobody paid much attention to the trailer until 2006 when the fire marshal declared it a hazard, saying it would block fire trucks if they needed to get onto the wooden pier. However, without the bathroom for his workers his business would be shut down.

He offered to build a new toilet on the property, and even hired an architect to draw up plans.

Then the finger-pointing began.

Port property manager Susan Reynolds says Dawson wanted the port to pay for the $29,000 sewage hookup, which the port said it couldn’t afford. Dawson’s attorney, Kurt Peterson, insists his client was always willing to pay for the hookup, but wanted permission to keep the trailer until the new toilet was built. “Their position was the trailer needed to go immediately,” Peterson said.

As a result, Dawson found himself in a Catch-22 – if he satisfied the fire marshal and the port, the health department might shut him down. So he kept the trailer and its toilet, prompting the port to declare he was no longer a tenant in good standing and therefore was ineligible for a permit to build a new bathroom. The standoff eventually wound up in court, where a jury hung before the two sides agreed to have the judge rule – and he sided with the port.

“It’s just crazy,” said former Mayor Art Agnos, a friend of Dawson’s who tried to mediate a settlement with the city. “They want to kill him over a bathroom.” “I wish this was just about the bathroom,” says the port’s Reynolds. Dawson, it seems, spent so much on his court fight that he couldn’t come up with the $167,000 in back rent that the city was barred from collecting during the battle.

Dawson’s attorney expressed confidence Friday that a deal was near to spare the fishmonger and his nine employees from being evicted. Meanwhile, it’s been nearly four years since the port has been able to collect rent from the business – but if you head out to Pier 33, you’ll see the toilet-equipped trailer unmoved.

NASA Terra Satellite oil slick image, May 24, as sunlight reflects and outlines extent of the surface spill. [click for 2400px]

Oil beneath the sea is another worrisome matter.  Follow updates and photos from the expedition that discovered the deepwater plumes thousands of feet below the surface.

How many real estate agents and brokers does it take to sell a California home?

There are 493,000 real estate agents and brokers for a total of 219,000 homes listed for sale.

Before the well can be capped with cement, BP needs to push 40 to 50 barrels per minute of increasingly dense mud a distance of three miles through the casing pipe below the mile deep blowout preventer.

NYTimes: Half of the nation’s adult population takes vitamin supplements regularly – vast majority from overseas suppliers – and about a quarter take herbal supplements at least occasionally. Annual sales are about $25 billion a year. Don’t blame that on government. Nearly all of the vitamin C and many other supplements consumed in the United States are made from ingredients made in Chinese plants. Those plants are almost never inspected by the FDA.