Coal: Power suppliers are turning back the clock to use coal-fired plants as their main source of electricity. Latest figures from the National Grid show that coal accounted for 42.5 percent of all power generation, overtaking natural gas production.
Tag Archives | quarterly review
Changing Consumer Behavior [Jan 11, 2009]
Posted in Consumer, Quarterly Review
tagged consumer behavior, dress, quarterly review, unemployment
0With the unemployment rate in America at a 14-year high, there has been a detectable shift in the way people are dressing for work. In the financial sector, specifically, the tone has become more serious, and as a result, somber suits are making a comeback.
Changing Consumer Behavior [Jan 11, 2009]
At Visa, the No. 1 card company, debit spending could surpass credit this year. The profits on debit cards are not as plump since banks do not collect interest on them. Comerica Bank won the right this year to issue debit cards to the estimated 4 million Social Security recipients who do not have bank accounts. In a basic change, debit is becoming the plastic card of choice for the American public.
Secrecy [Jan 11, 2009]
Dark pools are electronic venues where funds can buy and sell blocks of shares without publishing bids or offers. The funds value the anonymity of the dark pools and the fact that trades are not public until after their execution. In that way, their orders do not push the price of the stock away from them. Currently, they represent somewhere between 8 and 10 percent of the overall daily U.S. equity volumes, and that is growing fast.
Financial Complexity [Jan 11, 2009]
Complexity is nature’s way of protecting against change. Natural ecosystems depend upon a bewildering degree of complexity to remain adaptable and resilient. This degree of elasticity in an ecosystem–its ability to absorb harmful interactions or infusions –determines its “fitness” for survival. In this light, complexity is really a fundamental truth for us all, and as such is increasingly a right of every conscious individual.
Electronics [Jan 11, 2009]
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation says in a recent report that adding electricity from the wind and sun could increase the frequency of blackouts and reduce the reliability of the nation’s electrical grid. The overhauled electric system that has emerged in the last two decades already has inadequate transmission capacity.