This post provides links to a number of thought-provoking articles I have read over the past few days that you may also find of interest.

• Evans-Pritchard (Telegraph): German “wise men” fear credit crunch in 2010, October 15, 2009. Germany’s leading institutes have warned that the pace of economic recovery is “unsustainable” and that the country’s banks may face a fresh crisis over the next year as bad debts surface in earnest.

• Lasse Heje Pedersen (NYU Stern School of Business): When everyone runs for the exit, August 2009. The dangers of shouting “fire” in a crowded theater are well understood, but the dangers of rushing to the exit in the financial markets are more complex. Yet, the two events share several features …

• Anthony Bolton (Financial Times): Are developed or emerging markets the future of investing? October 16,

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Clenergen Corp. is a biofuels company that is approaching the sector from a different perspective – from an agronomy/biology and plantation standpoint. The company’s goal is to produce high-density, short-rotation biomass crops on a commercial scale which will then be used to power, steam and perhaps produce other products from advanced gasification and steam technologies.

The company is led by an eminent Board of Directors and Advisors. Here is a brief overview of the members:

Dr. Arvind Pandalai – Non-Executive Group Chairman

Dr. Pandalai has 32 years of experience in international trading, export and import management, joint ventures, project and financial management along with strategic planning. He has numerous prestigious management awards in his native India.

Robert Kohn – Non-Executive Vice-Chairman, North America

Mr. Kohn has been chairman/CEO, president/COO, and co-founder of three start-up public companies, with a combined market cap of over $1.5 billion.

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Russia's economy shrank at the slowest monthly pace this year in September.  Apparently the Lada has become the quickest growing car brand in Germany since the fall of the Berlin Wall, spurred on by Merkel's cash-for-scrap program.  Putin has offered more funding to Avtovaz, but it is unclear as to whether Renault will participate.  The Russian automaker's management claim the company has no intention of dismissing employees whose retirement age is long-off.  VTB has acquired a controlling interest in Cristall's 11 distilleries, which make Stolichnaya vodka.  Steel maker Severstal says that production at its mills is regaining momentum.  Russia plans to restructure fixed-line operator holding company Svyazinvest by spring 2011.  Sheremetyevo Airport could be privatized to shore up the budget deficit.  The Times reports on the story of Sergei Frank, former transport minister, ...

Clenergen Corp. has developed a unique system of co-gasification and localized plantation management using proprietary and mixed biomass feedstocks to implement sustainable supplies of clean energy to regional, independent clients and national electric grids. The “distributed environmental power system” or DEPS combines significant proprietary advancements in plant science with proven, long-standing engineering technologies to achieve the goal of renewable and sustainable supplies of electricity.

Clenergen has an absolutely outstanding group of scientific advisors and non-executive directors to guide them on a path to future success. Here is a brief overview of the group:

Dr. N. Barathi – Biotechnology Science Advisor

Dr. N. Barathi has 25 years of experience in plant propagation by tissue culture and cultivation of plants. He has conducted research in bamboo for the past 10 years and identified an ideal bamboo clone for energy plantation and standardized agronomical management and agriculture

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OriginOil Inc. is developing a breakthrough technology that will transform algae into a true competitor to petroleum. Algae is considered to be a very promising source of renewable oil as evidenced by Exxon’s recent $600 million investment into the industry.

OriginOil has announced that the company’s CEO, Riggs Eckelberry, and chief scientist, Dr. Vikram Pattarkine, will present the industry’s first-ever comprehensive algae productivity model to industry leaders and fellow members at the National Algae Association’s quarterly conference, entitled “Algae: The New Oil”, in Houston on September 18, 2009.

OriginOil’s interactive model defines the raw material inputs, quantifies the efficiency of the production and extraction system, and the conversion of the feedstock into various fuels and co-products. It also estimates the real estate footprint for an industrial algae operation, capital requirements and operating expenses, and the time required to recapture the initial investment.

OriginOil CEO Riggs Eckelberry said, “A good baseline model for

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Even as investors get more and more bullish about the outlook for the U.S. economy, the economy’s underlying foundation continues to erode.

In a report to be released this week, the Obama administration will boost its 10-year projection for the federal budget deficit to about $9 trillion – an increase of roughly $2 trillion, or 29%, from its prior projection, Fox News reported over the weekend, citing a source from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

The new cumulative deficit projection – for 2010-2019 – replaces the administration’s previous estimate of $7.108 trillion. Changes in budget projections – whether they result in a surplus or a deficit – are often refined as economic conditions change. This new projection was necessary because the recession has gone on for so long, causing federal tax receipts to plunge – and because the economic rebound will be prolonged and weak, resulting

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The first public retirement pension scheme was created by Otto von Bismarck in 1880 Germany. Fifty years later, during the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt followed suit in the United States. As we’ve seen, the number of people expected to reach the retirement age of 65 was not considered to pose a threat to future funding.

Life expectancy in 1935, in the United States, for example, was 76.9 for men. Workers relying on the plan for retirement would not receive much each month and were not expected to live long enough to drain the system.

When Social Security was founded, the typical US worker at age 65 could expect to live another 11.9 years. But if today’s official projections are right, by the year 2040 the typical 65-year-old worker can expect to live at least another 19.2 years. If the normal retirement age had been indexed to longevity since 1935,

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How broad of a following can a country-specific ETF garner? BGI's new EPU is about to get a $300 million shot in the arm.

 

How broad-based of an audience can an exchange-traded fund focused solely on companies based in Peru attract?

Since launching a little more than a month ago, the seemingly narrow-focused iShares MSCI All Peru Capped Index Fund (NYSEArca: EPU) has seen its assets top $33 million. That’s actually down a bit from a week ago when that number surpassed $35 million. (See related story here.)

So what’s driving such growth? Performance is one factor. In the past month, EPU’s returns have shot up by nearly 4 percentage points. More significantly to longer-term investors, the country has produced the best gross domestic product growth rate in the region—or near the top, depending on periods studied and data used—for more than a decade now.

And even more assets figure to start flowing

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DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Thursday July 30, 2009

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Nicholas Financial, Inc. (Nasdaq: NICK) announced that for the three months ended June 30, 2009, net earnings, excluding non-cash unrealized mark-to-market gain on interest rate swaps increased 34% to $2,081,000 as compared to $1,558,000 for the three months ended June 30, 2008. Per share diluted net earnings, excluding non-cash unrealized mark-to-market gain on interest rate swaps, increased 33% to $0.20 for the three months ended June 30, 2009 as compared to $0.15 for the three months ended June 30, 2008. See reconciliations of the non-GAAP measures on page 2. Revenue increased 4% to $13,694,000 for the three months ended June 30, 2009 as compared

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Stalled Infrastructure Projects: What it Means for Investors by David Fessler, Advisory Panelist

Make no mistake: Government and privately funded investment in public works projects - not bubble inducing, debt-financed consumer spending - will be the guiding light that leads the way out of this recession.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act - otherwise known as the “Stimulus Bill” - provides $120 billion to begin to address our nation’s crumbling infrastructure.

It’s the largest infrastructure investment since Eisenhower’s Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, which created the U.S. interstate highway system.

Infrastructure investment - under-funded since the 1960s - will be unprecedented over the next three to five years, and let’s face it: the need is huge.

According to the National Surface Transportation Policy Review Study Commission, $225 billion needs to be spent annually for the next 50 years… that’s over $11 trillion, and that’s just for the transportation

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