Despite 30 years of trade deficits sucking demand out of the U.S. economy, you still have a declining but powerful cliche of free trade utopians that get hives and anxiety when someone talks about smart trade.  Then they try to kick you out of the club. When I was at…

Reposted from Product Design and Development ***** GE Scraps Nation’s Largest Solar Panel Plant August 6, 2013  |  Product Design and Deveopment General Electric Co. is permanently scrapping plans to build the largest solar factory in the U.S. near Denver. GE blamed the cancellation on a glut of solar panels…

Reposted from The New York Times *********** Weak Finish From Europe on Chinese Solar Panels Keith Bradsher | July 28, 2013 |NY Times HONG KONG — The European Commission’s investigation of solar-panel imports from China was the world’s biggest antidumping case when it began last September, signaling a new willingness…

Serial lawbreakers won’t change their practices until they’re held accountable. If they break more laws to express their unhappiness with being held accountable, you’ll never break their habit or compensate those wronged. Rather than backing off on its solar panel subsidies, the Chinese government is pushing back with more illegality….

Their cut-rate solar panels fail at an astounding rate here.  They’re gonna have to use ‘em themselves.  What is it the drug lords say?  ”Never get high on your own supply.” A solar-panel manufacturing blitz by Chinese companies has left a glut in the market, driving down prices for photovoltaic…

China’s recent five year plan targeted solar as a major area for state intervention and mandated growth.  Mandated growth regardless of market forces.  So they built capacity very quickly, cut prices to below cost, shipped huge volumes globally into other markets and decimated the U.S. and EU solar industries. Now…

Reposted from The Huffington Post ******* Obama’s Economic Vision: The U.S. as a Third World Nation Curtis Ellis | May 14, 2013 | Huffington Post The Obama Administration’s economic vision for America is coming into focus and it’s not pretty — the United States as a third-world nation. Third world…

Reposted from The New York Times *****   Chinese Solar Company’s Operating Unit Declares Bankruptcy   Keith Bradsher  |  March 20, 2013  |  The New York Times HONG KONG — Suntech Power, a Chinese manufacturer that became the world’s largest producer of solar panels by 2011 only to be battered…

Reposted from Real Money ***** Free Grade Explodes Emerging Markets Massive Pollution Matt Horween  |  March 5, 2013  |  Real Money Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on Real Money on March 5. To see the latest Real Money commentary as it’s published, sign up for a free trial of…

Here is a letter I received from Burl Finkelstein of Kason Industries. ***** http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-28/shell-kinder-morgan-to-export-natural-gas-from-u-s-.html Hello Michael: As a manufacturer and employer in Georgia I am alarmed the US government is not going to act to assure a reliable and economical energy supply for the future. Natural gas has become the…