The Financial Times reported yesterday that GE is going to build a $100M battery manufacturing facility in New York State. According to the article:

"Commercial use of the sodium-based, high-energy density storage batteries will begin next year with the deployment of new hybrid locomotives produced by GE’s transportation division. The company said it has lined up launch customers in the mining, telecommunications and utility industries.

GE has also invested $70m in A123Systems, a startup that is developing lithium-based batteries used in plug-in electric automobiles and other hybrid vehicles. The conglomerate now owns more than 10 per cent of A123, which counts Chrysler and SAIC Motor among its customers. Mark Little, who heads GE’s research centre, is on the company’s board.

As sodium and lithium batteries advance and prove their worth in additional commercial applications, GE intends to develop."

This facility will only employ 350 people.

My industry saw some slowdown in layoffs in April but they are back in full force in May. My business volume is still pretty good but everyone wants steep discounts--and they are in a position to get them.

If the boy had not had insurance and his parents could not pay for the treatment, it would be, "Oh well, too bad. No money. No treatment." The boy would be just another casualty of the screwed up healthcare system. But the parents apparently have insurance so the boy gets the treatment, whether he wants it or not.

Americans might be feeling better because they are using software called, The Recession Blocker, http://recessionblocker.com/ .

This software enables everyone to live in complete denial.

Is there anything to prevent the management of GM to outsource its auto manufacturing to China?

The blog, Naked Capitalism, had a good article on Friday discussing some very peculiar patterns that have emerged regarding trading, in particular, odd run-ups at the end of the day.

The Automatic Earth reported yesterday that Steven Rattner, Obama's Car Czar, is demanding that the bankruptcy court use $6B in the auto workers' pension fund to pay loans made by Citibank and Morgan Stanley.

http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/

Can anyone confirm this or challenge it? If true, it is one more pebble in the pile of occurrances that make me doubt that the Obama administration is anything other than completely corrupt.

This is what happens when a failed social structure is put on life support: the human sewage does not get flushed. It gets a new, high paying job. When Schwartz runs this new company into the ground, no problem. Just raid another pension fund or 401K plan.

The book, "House of Cards", has a fairly neutral portrayal of Schwartz. Even with that it was clear that I know more about the financial products sold by Bear Stearns, than its CEO, Schwartz, knew, and I know practically nothing.

The bond market is being screwed up by the bank bailout, which is sucking all future wealth out of the economy. This bailout may well result in an inflationary depression. People will starve to death in great numbers if that happens.

I agree that a faith-based anything in government is absurd. I am disappointed with Obama for continuing this nonsense. Young women have been taking a lot of opportunities for granted for a long time. They are about to learn that things like a right to choose, equal work for equal pay, equal opportunity in higher education didn't come without a lot of sacrifice and struggle. Praying to Jesus is not going to be very helpful in maintaining these rights.

and angry all of his miserable life. Good riddance.

Most of the rest of us, in the other 49 states, are in about the same boat, but without the natural resources, esteemed scientists and engineers, and talented business people that live in California. California has, by far, the largest number of inventors of any state in the U.S. Many of these people are the best and brightest from other countries. Silicon Valley is the best place in the world for inventors. San Diego is the biotech center of the world.

If you can't balance your state's budget and get out of debt, you are doing something so wrong, the rest of us cannot help you.

Listed below are states, in addition to California, that have paid funds into the federal government, in excess of what they have received from the feds. Don't expect us to bail out California. We have got our own problems that are at least as serious as yours.

Maybe you can shake it out of the idiots in the Red States who could not break even in good times.

New Hampshire

Georgia

Texas

Indiana

Ohio

Colorado

Nevada

Connecticut

Delaware

Massachusetts

New Jersey

New York

Illinois

Michigan

Minnesota

Wisconsin

Oregon

Washington

I heard from a colleague earlier this week that over twenty scientists from a pharmaceutical company in Penn. have moved to India to work for one of the Indian generic pharmas. These people were all U.S. citizens who felt their prospects for the future were better in India than Pennsylvania!

On the West Coast, the FT reported that Chinese companies are starting to buy high technology SV, R&D-based companies, so that they can capture the new technology. Based on experience so far, it is probably not a "stretch" to assume that the technoloy will be commercialized in China but not necessarily in the U.S.

This is certainly not a traditional business cycle. When the dust finally settles, we may not recognize what we see.

Rich people have an interest in paying more taxes in order to keep sufficient social order so that they and their families do not have to constantly worry about being kidnapped or murdered by poor, desperate people.

I do not understand why poor people are right wing republicans. I think it is because they are so poorly educated that they cannot identify their own self interest. Several of my younger brothers are rednecks and I don't get it.