Economics

Yingli Solar Profits Rise 53.4% in 2014, Ships Over 3.3 GW of PV

Generating revenue of RMB 12,927.4 million, or US$ 2,083.5 million, Chinese solar giant Yingli Green Energy recorded a gross profit of 53.4% for 2014. PV module shipments rose 17% in 2014, as the world’s leading supplier shipped a whopping 3.3 GW of PV modules to solar markets around the globe. To date, more than 40 …

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Help Wanted: Build the Best Green Jobs Site Ever

Help Build the Best Green Jobs Site EVER! Important Media, our parent company, is hosting an IndieGoGo campaign to crowdfund the best green jobs site ever. Sounds audacious, right? Perhaps a little self-important? But with our global network of clean tech, clean transportation, healthy food, and sustainable living websites, we are confident that we can build …

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The Invisible Hand (Never Picks Up the Check)

Raise your hand if this has ever happened to you. You’re telling someone about some problem the world is facing, whether it’s global warming, animal cruelty in factory farms, sweatshop labor conditions, polluted rivers, e-waste, or some public health epidemic like diabetes, heart disease, cancer or obesity. In your mind, it’s clear as day: the cause …

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New Spending Bill Includes Environmental Setbacks

Several setbacks undermining environmental efforts and interests are tucked into the federal spending bill President Obama signed into U.S. law last Tuesday. This bill is one of the last acts of Congress under the Democratic-controlled Senate. Not boding well for environmentalists and climate change activists, Congress will return in January with Republicans in charge of …

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John Kerry’s Economics of Climate Change Denial

Thanking the government of Peru for hosting the UN Climate Change Conference, or COP20, John Kerry applauded the delegates for their hard work to bring global warming under control. Approving the draft text of the climate treaty in Peru was a critical stepping stone to the agreement that must be reached in Paris next year. …

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Amazon Shoppers, Start Your Devices! $61bn E-Sales Forecasted

Representing a 16 percent increase over last year’s holiday e-commerce spending, ComScore’s official forecast for US spending in November and December is $61 billion. Growing 25 percent over last year, mobile purchases are predicted to account for $7.9 billion of the $61bn. Gian Fulgoni, Executive Chairman Emeritus of comScore says, “The stock market is near all-time highs, …

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World Food Program in DRC Says, “Let Them Eat Cash”

Life in Mole Refugee Camp in northern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been dramatically changing in the last few months for 13,000 refugees from Central African Republic. When the World Food Program (WFP) decided to end food distributions, and introduce cash grants instead, somebody should have guessed all hell could break loose. The …

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Diaspora Contributes $413B in Remittances to Global Economy Each Year

One of the most overlooked drivers of the global economy is the money sent from the large number of people around the world who work abroad, the so-called remittances which go to their families and villages. Each remittance, taken on its own, may not seem like very much, but when added together, the money sent …

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Big Local Gains for States with Wildlife Refuge Recreation

Western Values Project released a new report, Recreation Spending & BLM Sagebrush Lands, highlighting the important economic effects associated with local recreation-related spending. Visits to BLM-managed lands in 11 western states resulted in an economic output of over $1 billion in 2013 alone. The report by Eugene, Oregon firm ECONorthwest, was prepared for Pew Charitable Trusts’ …

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Jean Tirole Wins 2014 Nobel Prize in Economics (and Why)

Jean Tirole is the 2014 winner of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Tirole, of Toulouse 1 Capitole University in France, has been awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences “for his analysis of market power and regulation.” A Nobel Prize for Sowing Seeds of Corporate Social Responsibility …

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Economic Fundamentalism: Staying the Course in Defiance of Common Sense

In a recent meeting which went largely unnoticed by most of the world’s  media, Australia’s new Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, landed in Ottawa and held talks with Stephen Harper, the Canadian Prime Minister. These two leaders are both ideologically driven conservatives, in the mold of George W Bush, and both are going all out in …

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Should We Put a Price on Nature to Save it?

The first World Forum on Natural Capital was held in Edinburgh, Scotland last November. This comes at a time when there is increasing interest in the idea that we need to place a value on the services that nature provides us with for free if we are to prevent further environmental degradation. The conference attracted …

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