Power Pal

Someone recommended I read the NY Times Magazine article from a few weeks ago called " Capitalism to the Rescue " about how venture capital money is fueling the so-called green-tech economy.  The article almost entirely focuses on Kleiner Perkins.  The article includes quotes from John Doerr and Aileen Kim (one of the Green VC Stars ) among others.  The article talks at length about how KPCB finally made its foray into green-tech in the last few years and why they did so.  Surprisingly it was Bill Joy that led the way with a "map of grand challenges" in the energy space: Then, in late 2006, at one of Kleiner’s corporate retreats, Bill Joy, a founder of Sun Microsystems and a new partner at the firm, displayed what later became known within Kleiner as “the map of grand challenges.” This was a matrix of colored squares that itemized the firm’s progress in locating potential investments in about 40 different categories: water, transportation, energy efficiency, electri...

I watched this 7 min video from the McKinsey Quarterly and thought it was pretty good. It focuses on the urbanization that China will undergo over the next decade as hundreds of millions of people flock to urban centers. It also deals with how China should build those urban centers - lots of mega-cities of 10 million+ vs. some mega-cities surrounded by mid-size cities in a hub-and-spoke model vs. proliferation of small townships. Here's the video: The accompanying article on the topic covers the same material in a little more analytic detail.  Beyond the exact format the urbanization will take, what I think is more interesting is the implications that any mass urbanization will have on the economy there.  Here are some areas of concern: Land - with urbanization and development comes urban sprawl and the loss of arable land - which means heightened concerns over food security Energy - the demand for energy and energy resources will more than double (from 60 quadrillion Brit...

I saw this on BigThink. Soros talks about how consumer spending has been America's engine of growth over the past decade. The current financial crisis has basically shut that engine off. So, what's the next engine that's going to take us out of the recession/depression we're heading into? Soros thinks it's energy - alternative energy and energy savings technology. video platform video management video solutions free video player

It's been a few months since I've posted anything up here (chalk it up to b-school). But I figure I should try to keep in the habit of posting things I come across. With the election only 8 days away, I thought this one was appropriate. I read a post in Mankiw's blog called " My Personal Work Incentives ". He takes a look at each of the candidates tax plans, specifically the high-end of where their tax plans would place people and companies, and then considers where an additional dollar earned today would be 35 years from now. Basically, if he earned an additional dollar today and saved it for 35 years with interest at 10%, what could he expect to hand over to his kids in 35 years (taking into account personal income taxes, capital gains taxes, corporate taxes, and estate taxes)? So, it turns out that $1 would yield $28 to his kids without taxes, $4.81 with McCain's tax plan, and $1.85 with Obama's tax plan. I thought this was a funny closing line: The bot...