How Energy Efficiency Firms Are Eating Utilities’ Lunch

Using better insulation, triple glazing and economical boilers, new homeowners can reduce energy use by as much as 90% — good news for consumers although bad for utilities that compete with energy-services companies for their efficiency euros.

An inevitable efficiency directive by EU that will establish regulations and national targets poses a predicament for utilities.

Should they find a profitable way to help consumers save energy or try to protect their traditional business model?

Products that help users save on heating bills and, therefore, reduce the profits of utilities include heat pumps and condensing boilers from firms such as Germany’s Vaillant or Viessmann, super-insulating materials from Ireland’s Kingspan or Belgium’s Recticel and heat-retaining triple glazing from France’s Saint-Gobain.

German households, according to Bain & Company estimates, spend about 5 to 7% of their income on energy – approximately 2,500 euros ($3,250) annually in today’s money. It is a percentage that has not changed much since the 1970s. However, how the money is being spent is evolving as consumers seek to reduce their gas or power costs through one-off investments in efficiency and use of small-scale, independent power source such as solar energy.

“Total household energy spending has not changed. It just goes to different suppliers,” Berthold Hannes, a Bain consultant, said.

Source Link

“I hope that this is sincere,” Republican Congress to President Obama

President Obama’s effort on his invites for lunch and dinner to congressional Republicans for three weeks regarding the next budget battle, party leaders are conveying watchful buoyancy about the president being sincere and far from being just leading a so-called charm offensive. The invitations emerge to be an adjust in political tactics for Obama, who from the time being elected in 2008 has largely shun pursuing Congress, preferring as of late to as a substitute make his case to the public with campaign-style events. He moreover plans to maintain the exertion this week with three planned trips to Capitol Hill to visit Democrats and Republicans in both chambers. This will in turn a likely effort to broker a “grand bargain” on tax and spending as a replacement for another short-term fix. “I hope that this is sincere,” Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, who had lunch Thursday with Obama at the White House.” “We had a very good, frank exchange. But the proof will be in the coming weeks as to whether or not it’s a real, sincere outreach to find common ground.” Obama’s evident courtship follows $85 billion in payments for cuts this year that kicked in March 1 and earlier than the next deadline, March 27, when the existing short-term budget extension expires and a government shutdown becomes visible. Ryan, R-Wis., also said his proposal for 2014 would balance the federal budget in 10 years, but is based in part on repeal of the president’s Affordable Care Act, which appears unlikely. They also articulated concern that the president’s second-term efforts might be too late though Republicans materializes as optimistic. Source Article

Shinzo Abe on Japan’s Financial State this 2013

2012’s biggest surprise has been the robust rally in the Nikkei 225 Index (NKY)- stock market index for the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has a promise to light a fire under the economy with a massive fiscal effort and pressure the Bank of Japan to set a 2% inflation target and accelerate bond buying, he made the promise when he was an incoming prime minister last year. December 19 last year, the Nikkei broke through the 10,000 mark in early trading in Tokyo and is up about 10% on the year. The strong yen still remains a worry up to today. Due to Japan’s world-class debt mess, now clocking in at about 220% of GDP and so is it’s rapidly aging population, now the third world’s biggest economy are in slow lane at the moment. Full Article

Online Sales Tax: Genehmigt oder abgelehnt?

Die Möglichkeit, Abgaben von den meisten online-Verkäufern zu sammeln, wird bald ein Gesetz des US-Kongresses übergeben. In den vergangenen zwei Jahren eingeführt Kongress drei Gesetze, die Staaten Umsatzsteuer online Verkäufern zu sammeln, die haben keine physische Präsenz erlauben würde. Diese Rechnungen nicht gelungen, übergeben, und sind nicht geeignet, in einer lahmen Ente-Kongress-Sitzung nach der Wahl im November, aber DelBianco sieht wachsende Dynamik für ein online Mehrwertsteuer übergeben. Bradley Associates Blog, einen erwarteten Schub denn online Sales Steuergesetzgebung im Kongress im Jahr 2013 eine “unmittelbare Gefahr zum Internet”, erklärte DelBianco, executive Director des e-Commerce-Handelsgruppe.

See it more

The Significance of Budget Cuts

It’s been a third decade when Americans witnessed economic success with the prism of cooked books and lofty promises – $85 billion in abrupt budget cuts would be an uncouth arising.

The government owes $16.5 trillion, borrows another $1 trillion each year and must satisfy the will of voting populace intent on receiving $1.8 trillion in annual tax breaks for buying a house, medical insurance or saving for retirement.

There is, however, a silver lining to it all: Americans might rediscover the things that really matter in life.

Marketing like television ads, shopping malls and product placement defined the success; credit cards only allowed people to buy it. Sure enough, consumer debt as a percent of disposable income jumped by 75 percent from 1980 to 2010, just as the economy became increasingly addicted to consumer spending, growing from 62.5 percent of GDP to 70 percent during the same period.

See it more

Romeinse gouden munten, een offer aan de goden gevonden

Een grote partij van 4e eeuwse Romeinse gouden munten gevonden in de Engelse stad waar het werd gezegd om weer te geven in de buurt van het eigen land ten noorden van St. Albans waar hij werd ontdekt. De 159 munten showde door het personeel van St. Albans’ Verulamium Musem op woensdag. Bradley Associates zei Romeinse gouden munten zijn voorbeelden van de solidus, hoge waarde munten die zou worden gebruikt voor grote transacties zoals het kopen van grond of schip lading, zei David Thorold, een curator bij het museum. De solidus munt, meervoud solidus, dateert uit het jaar van de sluiting van de vierde eeuw en werd uitgegeven onder de keizers Gratianus, Valentinianus, Theodosius, Arcadius en Honorius. See it more

Features and Specs of Cheap Model said to Resemble iPhone 5 and iPod Touch of Apple iPhone 6 Rumors

“Low cost” iPhone is indeed set to be released later this year according to a reliable source. This is in relation with the reports that Apple has three different phones in development.

Since early January rumors have been circulating about a cheaper iPhone that will be possibly called as “iPhone 5S” or “iPhone 6”. The rumors began when a lot of reports from supply chain sources and even major US news sites like The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg had an eye about the new iPhone development. The development is said to be targeted towards lower-income, emerging markets like China and India.

This next-gen iOS were detailed by iLounge editor-in-chief Jeremy Horwitz followed up on his last exposé of what he calls the “budget iPhone”, allegedly it will look like the iPhone 5 but feature several new design elements and tweaks.

“Yes, it will be made substantially from plastic,” Horwitz wrote, echoing an earlier report from DigiTimes that said the iPhone 5S or 6 would feature a hybrid chassis made of both plastic and metal. “No, it won’t just be a Retina- and Lightning-equipped refresh of the iPhone 3G or 3GS, Apple’s last plastic iPhones, nor will it look just like an all-plastic version of the iPhone 5. This new model is actually a cross between the iPhone 5, fifth-generation iPod touch, and… wait for it… the iPod classic. Yes, really. It will have a 4”
screen, like the iPhone 5, a bott


Read More

Economy to rise in 2013, but fiscal cliff drags down development

Before the New Year hoping to reach a compromise on the fiscal cliff, members of congress and President Barack Obama are hurrying back to Washington.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, going over the fiscal cliff—a series of spending cuts and tax increases set to take effect in 2013—would strip $600 billion from the U.S. economy, sending America back into recession. But according to economic analysts and money managers sent via email of Bradley Associates, the fiscal cliff is only the first in a series of challenges the U.S. economy will face in 2013. Even as the fiscal cliff looms, there are encouraging signs that the economy is poised for continued slow growth next year.


Read More