As President-elect Obama toots his green-energy horn, the smart money in Silicon Valley is reversing its position on the moneymaking potential of wind, solar and geothermal power sources.

The pullback by Silicon Valley’s venture-capital elite is part of a complete overhaul of its investment criteria. The big surprise is that green investments are on the hit list along with other high-tech innovations — a reversal of the save-the-planet culture that has emerged in this Mecca of libertarian funding.

An article in today’s New York Times revealed that Silicon Valley VCs are now turning to shorter term opportunities versus the long-term returns that exemplify a healthy investment climate.

Alternative energy will get more critical assessment along with the Web 2.0 hype (think social networking), cell-phone advertising, massive enterprise software development and other long-term, big-ticket products.

Silicon Valley’s turn-around on green infrastructure comes at a time when the incoming Obama administration is pushing alternative energy as

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Some not so breaking news for our readers We signaled a few weeks ago [Nov 12: CNBC Europe - USA May Lose its AAA Rating] Minerd doubts that private savings in the U.S. and foreign purchases of Treasury debt will be sufficient to meet those government cash requirements. That leaves the Fed to take up the slack; that is, monetization of the debt. (in English this means when there is no buyer for US Treasuries we will create the buyer in house: the Federal Reserve. So the left hand will be buying from the right hand i.e. desperation... banana republic style) And lo an behold, the great helicopter drop of all time is being hinted at - the actual buying of US Treasuries by the Federal Reserve (since at some point no one ...

Why We Should Take a Solutions Approach to the Crisis and Look at Some Things DifferentlyBy Peter Schiff, President of Euro Pacific Capital, Inc. Author of The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear MarketsI don't think we're going to see any light at the end of the tunnel until we have a clear, objective understanding of how we got into this mess in the first place. There is a tendency whenever major problems occur in the economy to place blame on external factors and to assume that the external factors can be prevented from causing similar problems in the future by expanding the government's regulatory powers. The problem I have with this kind of thinking is that it makes government bigger and more intrusive without ever getting at the root of the problem, which is usually the government ...

Adam Lass says the US economy looks “dreadful” in the short term. And it faces long-term monetary ruin. But somewhere in between, he expects a new bubble to form. One that will make some investors huge profits. To survive until then, Adam says you must use put options on “deadbeats” like Kohls (NYSE:KSS) to hedge long positions on proven “survivors” like Macy’s (NYSE:M).

This from Taipan Daily:

“Widespread property foreclosures have led to bank failures, and further to much unemployment and a disastrous decline in manufacturing and agricultural production.” Sound a tad familiar?

No, it is not another of my dreary “ripped from today’s headlines” quotes. Rather, it is a contemporaneous description of the chain of events that lead to, and resulted from, the Panic of 1819.

And

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Today, Ben Bernanke proposed another fiscal stimulus package for the wilting economy. More evidence that we’re living in a Keynesian world, says Bill Bonner. When the private sector falters, the government is ready to pick up the slack. And it doesn’t matter how much it costs. Bill says trillion-dollar deficits are on the way, and that’s bad news for the US dollar.

This from the Daily Reckoning:

Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman is, of course, a Keynesian. All economists – or practically all – are now Keynesians. So are all government officials. “We’re all Keynesians now,” announced Richard Nixon in the ‘70s.

That is, they all believe that government has to manage the economy – in a macro-economic way.

The theory is simple: when private industry and private consumers drop the ball…the government should pick it up and run

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Source: Adrian Ash, Bullion Vault  09/08/2008
“…My God, this is the time. If everyone wants gold we’re all going to be ruined, because there is not enough gold to go around…” – J.F.K. to the Fed chairman, Aug. 1962

ONCE UPON A TIME money meant gold (and ever less silver), freely exchanged between private individuals looking to buy and sell, invest and spend.

But then came the 20th century.

There had been experiments with “fiat money” before. Most famously in 13th century China, 18th century France and Civil War America, paper was issued as currency without gold (or silver) to back it. There was no gold content or value, just the promise – dictated by emperors, kings and army commanders – that other people would accept it in payment.

The foot-soldiers would make sure of that. So you’d better accept it, or else.

Hence the name “fiat” – from the Latin – meaning “Let it …

“I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, do declare that said national emergency still continues to exist and pursuant to said…” With those mealy words, America’s Depression-era president ventured from bad luck into treachery. The Executive Order he issued on the 5th of April 1933 confiscated Americans’ private holdings of gold, then valued at $20.67 per ounce. Then, in January, 1934, the U.S. president fixed the price of gold at $35. All of sudden, Americans’ dollars had been devalued by 69.3%. Whether this act of nationwide larceny did the economy any good or not, we cannot say. It was not until after World War II that the economy fully recovered the spring in its step. And U.S. stock prices didn’t return to their ‘29 highs until 1950. But there is hardly an act of government so foolish or so maladroit that subsequent politicians won’t provide an encore. This week, ...