Good Morning!  Here are a few items of interest from our morning paddle through the news:

With all eyes on Facebook and the EU Summit, the US sends another carrier to Iran.  Zerohedge posts on new developments in the Arabian Sea where the US Navy has deployed a third carrier group.

A comeback for PACE?  Cleantechnica posts on potential new life for the Property Assessed Clean Energy program which enable property owners to finance the initial cost of energy efficiency improvements or small scale renewable energy projects with up to 20-year incremental payments added to property taxes.

 1,200 acres.  That’s what could be available to NYC urban farmers if a proposal to allow buildings to add rooftop greenhouses above regular height restrictions gains favor (Grist).

Good Morning!  Here are a few items of interest from our morning paddle through the news:

The rogue elephant of agricultural banking.  Investmentnews.com reports on aggressive lending activity underway by the Farm Credit System as average values for ag land reach new records and commercial lenders battle for ag loan share.

Germany’s solar debate.  Bloomberg posts on a stalemate in Germany over plans to overhaul the country’s clean-energy subsidy system and the likely rush of solar panel installations ahead of proposed subsidy cuts there.

Crippling the banking system we rescued.  CNBC posts thoughts from bank sector analyst Dick Bove who noted that the Fed’s recent announcement of exceptionally low interest rates through at least late 2014 along with the President’s mortgage refinancing plan will squeeze the margins of banks just a couple of years after massive taxpayer stimulus was dished out to save them.

Good Morning!  Here are a few items of interest from our morning paddle through the news:

A political gift to Realtors.  That’s how Peter Wallison and Edward Pinto @ AEI describe the on-going taxpayer support of the deeply insolvent Federal Housing Authority which continues the not so winning pattern of doubling down on risk followed by the S&Ls and then Fannie and Freddie.

The private market cannot be expected to put in the investment necessary to finance mortgages until it is clear that the GSEs will be wound down or privatized and the FHA will be confined to insuring low-income loans. The fact that a majority in Congress voted to support the interests of the Realtors is a bad sign both for the future of housing finance and for the taxpayers. In its best light, it may mean that Congress did not know that the FHA was insolvent when it loaded the agency down with more responsibilities; in its worst light, it suggests that many members of Congress still do not consider either the seriousness of the nation’s debt or the interests of the taxpayers when they are pressed to provide benefits to a powerful interest group.

In the end, the FHA’s current condition should be a wake-up call for Congress. It made a huge mistake in increasing the FHA’s conforming loan limit. This should be fixed as soon as possible. But that will not be enough. Today the FHA has more incentive to increase its risk taking than to reduce it, as was true of the government-insured S&Ls and countless insured banks in the past. Before the agency’s losses skyrocket, Congress should bite the bullet—recognize the losses that are already embedded in the FHA’s insurance fund and adopt reforms to the agency’s accounting and underwriting that will stop the bleeding.

Federal bennies touch 48.5% of Americans.  Zerohedge posts this chart that overviews the direct federal payments that now equal $6,640 per citizen.

Toxic schools.  Inhabitat posts on Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s look at indoor and outdoor environmental problems at more than a third of all U.S. schools where issues like mold, asbestos, radon, lead in paint and drinking water, heavy metals and persistent toxics like mercury and PCBs threaten to expose kids and school staff to a plethora of physical, neurological, and psychological problems.

Good Morning!  Here are a few items of interest from our morning paddle through the news:

System D.  That’s how the OECD labels the $10T global underground economy, where half the world’s workers toil.  Valuewalk posts an infographic which summarizes this fastest-growing economy in the world.

China pushes into U.S. wind market.  Bloomberg reports on China #2 turbine maker Xinjiang Goldwind’s purchase of two 10MW wind farms in Montana as the firm gains share at the expense of rivals like global #1 Vestas.

Casey counters the frac-tivists.  Casey Research chimes in on the fracking debate with a point-by-point fact check on the claims made in the now-viral Gasland (Zerohedge).

Good Morning!  Here are a few items of interest from our morning paddle through the news:

Privacy and collaboration.  Susan Cain writes in the NYT about the need to move beyond the New Groupthink and embrace an approach to creativity and learning that recognizes the human need for private time.

Oil prospects in the Falklands revive Argentina-UK tensions.  Bloomberg posts on the 8.3b barrels of underwater oil explorers are targeting around the Falkland Islands and rising sovereign tensions over the resource grab.

Electricity-generating walls.  Cleantechnica posts on the development underway at Mitsubishi Chemical of a new solar cell technology that it hopes to incorporate into building walls, curtains, and even the bodies of electric vehicles from 2013.

Good Morning!  Here are a few items of interest from our morning paddle through the news:

Driving docs out of business.  Businessinsider posts on the recent financial troubles of physicians who blame shrinking insurance reimbursements, changing regulations, and rising business and drug costs.

Fear Factory.  Jon Stewart skewers Foxconn, the Chinese producer of pretty much every electronic gadget consumed in America (minyanville.com).

Wooing food stamp recipients.  Bloomberg posts on the competition among supermarket, drugstore, and dollar store chains to win share of the $71.8b in annual distributions from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Good Morning!  Here are a few items of interest from our morning paddle through the news:

A molecule that cools the planet?    Mnn.com posts on researcher detection of new molecules that occur naturally in the presence of chemical compounds released by plants, called Criegee biradicals, that can convert pollutants like nitrogen dioxide into compounds that form clouds and help shield the earth from the sun.

 Will shale gas kill renewables investment?  MITnews posts on a new report that finds shale gas has the power to lower gas prices and stimulate the economy but also suppress R&D into longer-term renewable energy solutions.

 Is sharing illegal?  In many cases, unfortunately, the answer is yes.  The Sustainable Economies Law Center is a resource that tackles some of the complicated legal areas of barter and local currency, cooperatives, buying clubs and room sharing.  They have a nice intro video dubbed Economy Sandwich which frames these issues here.

Good Morning!  Here are a few items of interest from our morning paddle through the news:

Colbert explores a run.    Bloomberg posts on the Comedy Central giant’s possible bid for president of the United States of South Carolina as the “Mitt-ternative.”

New capital for negawatts.  Deutsche Bank announces the result of a comprehensive study that paves the way for changes in multifamily lending.  The report documents the impact and value of building retrofits, a development that may free up the capital required to unlock billions in energy savings potential across the nation’s multifamily housing stock.

Where’s the beef?  Grist posts on the 50-year low in U.S. beef consumption and the overall trend to lower meat consumption in America.

Good Morning!  Here are a few items of interest from our morning paddle through the news:

Foreclosures to re-accelerate.    Bloomberg posts on the outlook for increased U.S. foreclosures in 2012 as settlement talks with state attorney generals over “robo-signing” and other documentation flaws gather steam and banks resume foreclosure actions.

Cherry-picking the healthiest patients.  Bloomberg posts on a growing trend where insurers seek healthier and less costly patients to their Medicare programs by offering gym memberships or reimbursements for fitness classes.

Sunflower biomimicry.  Cleantechnica posts on work underway by researchers at MIT who are modeling the layouts of more efficient large-scale concentrating solar power plants  after the buds in the center of the sunflower.

Good Morning!  Here are a few items of interest from our morning paddle through the news:

CO-OP Power.    BALLE’s Accelerating Community Capital Series hosted its monthly webinar yesterday and featured New England-based Co-op Power, a consumer-owned renewable energy cooperative.  The co-op used a combination of member equity, member loans and investment from high-net worth individuals to support the development of community-scale clean energy projects.  A slideshow from Co-op Power can be found here.

Snyder’s embrace of immigrants.  Bloomberg reports on our Gov’s push on Congress to ease the entry of educated immigrants and the contrast with other Republicans taking hard-line stands against the idea.

Greek crisis dries up critical supplies of medicines.  Businessweek reports on increasing shortages of critical drugs as policy-makers mandate lower drug prices, public insurers delay payments to pharmacies, and reimbursement fraud explodes, combining to drain the country’s health resources.