On September 5th we reported that Silicon Valley, the major green booster, had retrenched by pulling out of long-term investments in alternative energy. Today, the other shoe dropped. The Cleantech Group in San Francisco reported that venture-capital investment in clean technology fell 35% in Q4 from the prior quarter, the steepest quarterly drop in two years.

Venture capitalists had infused $1.7 billion into the sector, the smallest amount in six quarters, according to Cleantech.

The implications of this reversal are truly profound.

Silicon Valley superstars have been touting green for the past two years. Boosters include Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel; Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google; John Doerr, perhaps the leading venture capitalist in the world; and just about every other venture capitalist within spitting distance of the fabled Sand Hill Road.

Silicon Valley really hit the brakes hard after a frothy third quarter.

Venture capital investment in cleantech hit a record $4.6

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Alex’s Notes: The term “slippery slope” has been used quite a bit when it comes to analyst commentary on what the Federal Reserve (which by the way isn’t a government institution, contrary to what many believe) has been up to lately.

A little freedom here, a little sovereignty there, and before you know it, a person might just wake up to find them self enslaved.

I am reminded of a few comments by Thomas Jefferson:

“I sincerely believe… that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding is but swindling futurity on a large scale.” ~Letter to John Taylor, 1816

“If the American people ever allow private banks to control issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and the corporations that will grow up around them, will deprive the people of all

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The dollar bounces!  ISM was simply awful!  Oil rallies…  Jobs Jamboree this Friday… And Now… Today’s Pfennig! Although, technically, it’s still the Christmas season (it doesn’t end until Jan. 11), the Santa rally that pushed the euro to 1.45, has gone away, and we’re on to the next phase, which I drew out for you over a week ago… And that is… The Obama bounce… This is something we’ll have to deal with for the next few months. It all began with a huge stock rally on Friday, and that won’t be the last one during the Obama bounce.

The dollar is kicking up its heels once again, and this is to be expected during this Obama

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Alternative-energy investors have pointed to China as the fastest way on the planet to make money in the green revolution. I guess they never went beyond the executive summary of a recent report titled “The Green Evolution - Environmental Policies and Practice in China’s Banking Sector.”

Written by Friends of the Earth in San Francisco, and distributed by BankTrack, the international network that monitors commercial and investment banks, the report offers a promising future for China’s massive and lucrative clean-up - until you reach page 15.

The report is an 18-month update of key developments on a program that China implemented to cut funding for companies that contribute to the country’s devastating pollution.

The program, China’s Green Securities policy, was launched in February 2008 by China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) and the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC). Beijing was trying to cut polluters off at the knees by making it more difficult

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The U.S. unemployment rate, currently at a level of 6.5%, could rise to 8% next year. But it could also find a ceiling sooner than expected, as more companies implement unpaid vacations and four-day workweeks to preserve jobs.

The U.S. recession may just now be entering full swing, but storm clouds have been gathering for more than a year and many companies have already trimmed payrolls. Now, the goal for many companies is to prepare for an economic rebound by finding ways to keep the their skilled productive labor intact.

“More companies are exploring alternatives to layoffs,” John A. Challenger, chief executive of consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, told BusinessWeek. “If they can keep people on until the business turns around, the company would be in much better shape to ramp up quickly.”

Dell Inc. (DELL) employees, for instance, recently received a memo

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An article in the New York Times last week about careers in solar energy revealed a shocking number - one that would certainly make me look elsewhere for job. As an investor, this particular number would also call into question the true growth of solar energy over the next few years.

The Times’ story cited the Solar Energy Industries Association as reporting that 3,400 companies in the solar energy sector employ only 25,000 to 35,000 workers, including installers, manufacturers, distributors and project developers and materials suppliers. Those numbers are expected to hit more 110,000 employees by 2016, according to the association.

Wait a minute: So seven years from now, this highly touted, save-the-world market will employ only 110,000 people?

From an investor’s perspective, I thought that number was absolutely puny. Let’s put that into perspective…

– Toyota employs 110,000 part-time workers. – That’s the number of foreclosure notices sent to homeowners in California during

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Passing on this article on Dolby Labs from Inside Futures - looks promising:  Dolby Laboratories (DLB) engages in the development and delivery of products and technologies for the entertainment industry. The company offers products comprising traditional cinema processors, digital cinema products, digital 3D products, digital media adapters, broadcast products, and live sound products, which are used in ...

The Federal Reserve used up almost all of its remaining conventional ammo today as it desperately tries to prevent the second Great Depression. The statement is below, along with the previous statement, and with my commentary interspersed."The Federal Open Market Committee decided today to establish a target range for the federal funds rate of 0 to 1/4 percent."  "The Federal Open Market Committee decided today to lower its target for the federal funds rate 50 basis points to 1 percent." Hard to believe that just six weeks ago the fed funds rate was at 1.50%. Now we are near zero. The use of a range is unusual and perhaps unprecedented. Then again, the fed funds rate has never been this low before, and at the low end of the range I can safely say that it is a record that will never be ...

Biopharmaceutical company Micromet Inc. (Nasdaq: MITI) develops proprietary antibodies for the treatment of cancer, inflammation and autoimmune diseases, and bases its discoveries on its proprietary antibody platform, BiTE. Yesterday the company released first interim data from a phase 2 clinical trial of BiTE antibody blinatumomab for patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

The company presented the clinical results at the 50th annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology December 6 to 9 in San Francisco. The results showed that ALL patients with minimal residual disease (MRD) after chemotherapy have a “significantly worse prognosis” than those without MRD. In Micromet’s phase 2 clinical trials, blinatumomab for ALL patients with the BiTE antibody was able to eliminate MRD.

Micromet senior vice president and Chief Medical Officer Carsten Reinhardt, M.D. said the positive results may pave the way for advancements to combat ALL. “The level of response to blinatumomab in ALL patients

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U.S., European stocks slide after dismal jobs report… Dollar falls to 7-week low vs yen, but rises vs euro… US government debt falls in face of historic low yields… Crude prices fall to lowest level in almost four years

U.S. stocks fell sharply on Friday in response to a grim U.S. jobs report that sent bond prices higher in Europe and pushed the price of crude down to $42 a barrel as prospects for the world’s economies darkened.

European shares extended losses in afternoon trade as investors reeled at U.S. government data showing a loss of 533,000 jobs in November, the weakest performance in 34 years.

Oils and bank stocks led the decline in Europe, while oil and defense stocks pushed the Dow down in the United States.

The dollar fell to a seven-week low against the yen but rose against the euro as investors

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