Five banks plead guilty, pay more than $5B in FX penalties

Stephan:  Finally we see some accountability for the corruption of financial markets, as this report describes. But note this well: Jimmy Gurulé a former assistant attorney general and Treasury official, questioned whether the criminal pleas and massive fines would produce meaningful change in banks' activities, explaining "Once again the actual perpetrators and criminal architects of the fraud scheme will avoid criminal liability."

Seal_of_the_United_States_Department_of_Justice.svgFive major banks Wednesday agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges and pay more than $5 billion in collective penalties to settle charges their traders routinely manipulated the $5.3-trillion-a-day foreign-exchange currency market for their own profit.

The Department of Justice, the Federal Reserve and other U.S. and European authorities and regulators said corporate units of Citicorp(C), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), London-based Barclays(BCS) and Royal Bank of Scotland(RBS) acknowledged their traders rigged foreign exchange prices of U.S. dollars and euros for several years starting in December 2007.

Outlining what she termed a “brazen display of collusion,” U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said investigators found that traders in the nearly unregulated foreign-exchange market, the world’s largest trading forum, colluded in you-scratch-my-back-and-I’ll-scratch-yours forms of plotting.

The $2.5 billion in criminal fines levied as part of the resolutions represent the largest federal anti-trust penalties ever obtained by U.S. authorities, she said.

“Starting as early as Dec 2007, currency traders at several multinational banks formed a group dubbed ‘The Cartel,’ ” Lynch […]

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Solar panels can power the world – MIT study

Stephan:  Here is the truth about solar: The only thing blocking the transition out of the carbon age is investment not technology. No further technological advance needs occur, although many will. We have the ability to do this right now. It is a question of will and intent. The human species, expressed through national policy can condemn itself to what unremediated climate change deals us, or we can change the trend. It is about as stark a choice as one sees. I found this on a Russian website. RT seems to be the only publication covering the MIT report, which I think is very telling.
A solar installation of the type described in this article. Credit: Reuters / Jorge Cabrera

A solar installation of the type described in this article.
Credit: Reuters / Jorge Cabrera

An MIT report has found that regular solar panels like the ones used today could supply much of the world with power. They believe terawatts of energy could be produced by 2050 and say that investment, not technology, could be the biggest hurdle. (emphasis added)

The world’s population currently consumes 15 terawatts of power from various energy sources, according to the Economist. Despite making up less than 5 percent of the world’s population, Americans use 26 percent of the world’s power.

The publication, by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, shows that no revolution in solar energy needs to take place, as scientists already have everything they need to harness the energy of the sun and turn it into electricity, though minor tweaks may help to improve efficiency.

The US, for example, generates less than 1 percent of its energy from solar power. This is something the researchers […]

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Nevada’s big utility is about to strangle the state’s rooftop solar program

Stephan:  This is an excellent essay presenting where solar is in the U.S., using what is happening in Nevada as a case study. If you want to understand the trend dynamic out of carbon energy this will be very helpful.  
The Nevada Legislature Credit: www.leg.state.nv.us

The Nevada Legislature
Credit: www.leg.state.nv.us

An intense political battle is playing out over rooftop solar power in Nevada, the latest skirmish in an ongoing war between power utilities and a species many of them have recently encountered for the first time ever: competitors.

At issue in Nevada, as in many of these fights, is a policy known as “net metering.” The details differ from place to place, but the basic idea is simple: utilities have to buy rooftop solar power from customers who produce it, at current retail electric rates. If a customer generates as much power as he consumes, he can zero out his utility bill. Currently, 44 states and Washington, DC, have mandatory net metering, and utilities in three of the remaining states allow some form of it.

The program has been extremely popular in Nevada, where it’s helped establish a thriving solar industry. According to the Solar Foundation, solar businesses employed 5,900 Nevadans in 2014 — more solar employees […]

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‘Sunshine State?’ Florida behind on solar power

Stephan:  One aspect of the trend out of carbon, is the effect if will have on the great schism. The Red value states tend to have legislatures and governors that enact laws that are based on ideology or theology not facts and, as a result,  that do active damage to the wellness of the state while a small elite profits. Florida, like Nevada is a clear case of this process playing out. It is a major struggle that will effect every one of us, and it is playing out in a mostly empty ballpark, because few cover the game.
In this Wednesday, May 13, 2015 photo, Henry Plange, a power generation engineer, checks temperatures of solar panels at the Space Coast Next Generation Solar Center, in Merritt Island, Fla. Industry experts rank Florida third in the nation in rooftop solar energy potential but 13th in the amount of solar energy generated.  Credit: AP Photo/John Raoux

In this Wednesday, May 13, 2015 photo, Henry Plange, a power generation engineer, checks temperatures of solar panels at the Space Coast Next Generation Solar Center, in Merritt Island, Fla. Industry experts rank Florida third in the nation in rooftop solar energy potential but 13th in the amount of solar energy generated.
Credit: AP Photo/John Raoux

GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA — Residents of the Sunshine State are finding that harnessing Florida’s abundant solar power is no simple task.

With its bounty of sunny days, Florida ranks third in the nation in rooftop solar energy potential but 13th in the amount of solar energy generated, according to industry estimates.

The industry views Florida as a […]

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Shell accused of strategy risking catastrophic climate change

Stephan:  This is a study in corporate evil. Shell knows the truth but profit is more important than the long term survival of Earth's Matrix of life as currently configured.  It is also another study in how even the grossest depredations, when done by the uber-rich, go unpunished. There should be a world outcry and the the corporate executives who have advanced this policy should be tried for crimes against the Earth, including humanity. Instead there are a few kayakers, and general corporate media silence. Not that this story comes from the British Guardian, which is free of corporate influence.
"Kayak-tivists" gathered to protest Shell Oil Company's drilling rig Polar Pioneer parked at the Port of Seattle.  Credit: Jason Redmond / Reuters

“Kayak-tivists” gathered to protest Shell Oil Company’s drilling rig Polar Pioneer parked at the Port of Seattle.
Credit: Jason Redmond / Reuters

Royal Dutch Shell has been accused of pursuing a strategy that would lead to potentially catastrophic climate change after an internal document acknowledged a global temperature rise of 4C, twice the level considered safe for the planet.

A paper used for guiding future business planning at the Anglo-Dutch multinational assumes that carbon dioxide emissions will fail to limit temperature increases to 2C, the internationally agreed threshold to prevent widespread flooding, famine and desertification

Instead, the New Lens Scenarios document refers to a forecast by the independent International Energy Agency (IEA) that points to a temperature rise of up to 4C in the short term, rising later to 6C.

The revelations come ahead of the annual general meeting of Shell shareholders in the Netherlands on Tuesday, where the group has accepted […]

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