NEW YORK -- June 24, 2009 -- In prepared remarks today at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Siemens AG (NYSE: SI) President and CEO Peter Loscher detailed the steps Siemens has been taking to handle the current economic crisis and to reorganize the company to be better positioned for what it sees as a "paradigm shift in the global economy" towards sustainability and green technologies.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission proposed two new rules on Wednesday that would give shareholders more say in the matter of director elections at the biggest firms in the country.

The development comes after investor complaints regarding executive compensation at large corporations, especially American International Group (AIG), leading the SEC to consider an overhaul of its policies to empower investors in choosing directors for public companies.

"This day has been a long time coming," SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said. "The time has come to resolve this debate."

SEC commissioners split along party lines and voted 3-2 to seek public comment on the proposal of shareholder rights in companies with market values exceeding $700 million. Investors owning at least a 1% stake in these companies will now be allowed to nominate up to a quarter of the company's board of directors in corporate proxy statements.

Billionaire investors

...

The steel business faces its biggest hurdle in 60 years with some analysts predicting double digit production cuts in 2009. Now, a sudden change in China trade policy may spell even more trouble for Western steelmakers, as Beijing is currently considering measures to shore up its ailing steel industry with new export policies.

According to World Steel Dynamics, a U.S. steel consulting firm, steel production could fall next year by 13.9% compared with this year. This downturn comes after a long period of growth in the steel industry. In fact, output has grown every year since 1998 - soaring from 777 million metric tons a decade ago to 1.34 billion metric tons in 2007.

The catalyst behind the expansion has been a robust world economy and a steep rise in demand in China - by far the world’s biggest steel producing and consuming nation, accounting for more than a third

...

The steel business faces its biggest hurdle in 60 years with some analysts predicting double digit production cuts in 2009. Now, a sudden change in China trade policy may spell even more trouble for Western steelmakers, as Beijing is currently considering measures to shore up its ailing steel industry with new export policies. According to World Steel Dynamics, a U.S. steel consulting firm, steel production could fall next year by 13.9% compared with this year. This downturn comes after a long period of growth in the steel industry. In fact, output has grown every year since 1998 - soaring from 777 million metric tons a decade ago to 1.34 billion metric tons in 2007. The catalyst behind the expansion has been a robust world economy and a steep rise in demand in China - by far the world’s biggest steel producing ...

President-elect Barack Obama has made no bones about wanting to jump-start the renewable energy markets – pledging $150 billion for the development of biofuels, solar and wind power, other alternative energy sources during his first term.

But what might the new administration mean for more traditional – and more reliable –energy sources?

Oil is always the first energy source to spring to mind. But it’s hardly a solo act – coal and nuclear make up the other two-thirds of the top fuel trio. Coal delivers 50% of U.S. electricity needs, and nuclear power brings another 20% to the table.

The cold truth is that demand for energy of all types – and especially electricity – is going to keep advancing, domestically and worldwide. And developing alternatives to coal and nuclear will take time. For instance, tying wind and solar into the existing power grid will be enormously expensive and is likely

...

From the Justin Fox, regarding House Republicans' plan:

...that of the House Republican Study Committee, seems to be a joke. It calls for a two-year suspension of the capital gains tax to "encourag[e] corporations to sell unwanted assets." But the toxic mortgage securities clogging up bank balance sheets are worth less now than when they were acquired. Meaning that no capital gains tax would be owed on them anyway. If you repealed the tax, banks would have even less incentive to sell them because they wouldn't be able use the losses to offset capital gains elsewhere. Seriously, where do these people come up with this stuff?

Eric Cantor, the Republican chief deputy whip, has a more reasonable-sounding if still pretty vague plan to insure more mortgages rather than buy mortgage securities. ....

I'm in agreement with Justin that guaranteeing even more mortgages won't be any better than the original Paulson plan.

My observation

...

Accurately predicting a recession is about as easy as pinpointing the landfall of a hurricane several days out. That’s still not stopping CEOs, government leaders and economists on both sides of the fence from weighing in on the matter with increasing frequency.

The U.S. economy with a $13-trillion output of goods and services, as guaged by Gross Domestic Product, or GDP — is not only the world’s largest economy, but thus far has been a resilient economy.