SOLAR PANELS, WINDMILLS AND SCREWED CONSUMERS

There is an old saying no good deed goes unpunished.

A rough translation of that is: If there's a way to screw the consumer we will  find it. Or for every action there is a reaction.Wouldn't it be nice if someone told the bureaucrats and politicians.

Here's a story from MarketWatch we're sure all those climate change freaks and alternative energy pushers will love.

It’s getting harder to figure out whether converting your home to solar energy makes financial sense as utilities adopt new ways to pay customers who pump electricity into the electric grid.
Most utilities buy homeowners’ excess solar power for the same price they sell power from the grid. This idea, called net metering, is easy to understand: Buyer and seller get the same price.
But some utilities around the country complain that net metering doesn’t cover their costs of accommodating solar. With support from regulators, they’ve started paying for home solar at lower prices than grid power.

Consumers need to pay attention to these changes. Most home solar systems export 40% to 60% of their electricity production back to the power grid, says Mark Dyson, a manager at the Rocky Mountain Institute, which studies alternate energy. Lower payments for that power have a big impact on whether home solar is cost effective.
 
In Hawaii — where utilities have griped that rooftop solar stresses parts of the power grid — regulators in October replaced net metering with a new price structure that slashes solar reimbursements.

In Honolulu and the rest of Oahu, rooftop solar owners have been reimbursed at Hawaiian Electric Co.’s retail price, which in 2014 averaged 35.48 cents per kilowatt hour. Under the state’s new rules, Oahu residents installing new rooftop systems will be paid around 15 cents per kilowatt hour — 64% less.

On Hawaii’s other islands, utilities won’t reimburse new solar customers more than 25 cents per kilowatt hour — the exact rate varies by company. The new price setup applies only to new solar installations. Homeowners who’ve already installed rooftop solar will continue to be paid at net metering rates.

Hawaii’s sky-high power prices make solar more popular there than anyplace else in the U.S. One in eight Aloha State homes has solar panels. Hawaii’s average retail electricity price in 2014 was 37.03 cents per kilowatt hour, the nation’s highest. That’s more than double the 18 cents it costs to produce a kilowatt hour of solar in Honolulu, according to an online calculator posted by the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Solar is so cheap compared with Hawaii’s grid power, it’s still a good deal despite the state’s new price rules. “Even with the reduced benefit, you still save money,” said Colin Yost, chief executive of RevoluSun, a Honolulu solar installer. “But it becomes a little less valuable.” Yost thinks the new tariffs will force lower-income customers to think twice about switching over to solar.

If you think they're going to let you leave quietly, solar panels, wind mills or cow flatulence, when there's money and "power"at stake, you probably believe there won't be any ISIS terrorists in the 10,000 Syrian refugees Obama and his crowd want to let into this country.

marketwatch.com/story/why-some-states-are-making-going-solar-more-expensive-2015-12-04.

RECYCLED WATER

She loves me, she loves me not. Anyone remember that childhood flower-petal-picking game?

The economy is doing well, the economy is not doing so well.  New jobs are being created, new jobs are not being created. The Fed wants to crank up interest rates--and most likely will--in a few days and as we've noted before they are data driven. Some might say, data paralyzed.

So you originally put out a feeler to see what the reaction is. It doesn't get the reaction you want. So you give it a little time and then you roll out a revised number. It's nice work if you're fortunate enough to get it. It's what a colleague calls economic plastic surgery. We fixed the nose last month. This month we'll doctor up the jobs numbers.

This “Jobs Friday” ritual is getting truly absurd. So it can’t be repeated often enough: These artifacts of the BLS’ seasonally maladjusted, trend-cycle modeled, heavily imputed/crafted and five times revised “jobs” numbers have precious little to do with the real health of the main street economy. 

Indeed, the six-year run of job gains since early 2010 primarily represent “born-again jobs” and part-time gigs. In economic terms, they do not remotely resemble your grandfather’s industrial era economy when a “job” lasted 40 to 50 hours per week all year round; and most of what the BLS survey counted as “jobs” paid a living wage. 

Not now. Not even close. 

Don't drink the water. It's been recycled. More:

davidstockmanscontracorner.com/these-aint-your-grandfathers-jobs-why-fridays-rip-should-be-sold/

FIT TO SPIN

We've been harping about MSM and it's phony memes longer than most. Why? Because we were once part of that charade. Some might claim that makes us too close to the forest to see the Aspens. Not hardly.

Popular media terms like back grounding the news and interpretive reporting were staples of media protocol for years. Even the slightest cogitation about those terms and what they really mean should tell you pretty much what you need to know--media doesn't think much of its masses.

They need you otherwise there's no need for them to exist. But it's a clear and, especially to them, holier than thou relationship. And we know who the holier are. They even have conceited names for themselves like the Fourth Estate. Now comes this piece from The Daily Bell. One can labor in the wilderness for years thinking he or she is quite alone in one's views only to discover there are others who get it.

Confirmation one is not alone can be an invigorating thing. Sort of like Hugo's intersection about an idea and time. The globe is an unsafe place. And that makes MSM and what they do all the more important. It's your safety and your liberty that rides in the balance. Your freedom. And the future you somehow save just might be yours.

Here's an excerpt.

Dr. Udo Ulfakatte is a top German journalist and editor and has been for more than two decades, so you can bet he knows a thing or two about mainstream media and what really happens behind the scenes. Recently, Dr. Ulfakatte went on public television stating that he was forced to publish the works of intelligence agents under his own name, also adding that noncompliance with these orders would result in him losing his job. He recently made an appearance on RT news to share these facts: 

"I've been a journalist for about 25 years, and I was educated to lie, to betray, and not to tell the truth to the public. But seeing right now within the last months how the German and American media tries to bring war to the people in Europe, to bring war to Russia — this is a point of no return and I'm going to stand up and say it is not right what I have done in the past, to manipulate people, to make propaganda against Russia, and it is not right what my colleagues do and have done in the past because they are bribed to betray the people, not only in Germany, all over Europe." 

It's difficult to find a more prominent member of MSM than the New York Times. That scribe has a famous logo, "All the news that's fit to print." We see it just one word differently: "All the news that's fit to spin."

Now if you don't think, as the Daily Bell says, that there isn't tons of monopoly money floating around the world trying to influence outcomes, you've never heard of people like George Soros and his leftist billionaire climate change freaks.

Now someone will no doubt write in and ask: "What about those Wichita Koch brothers on the right?"  And here's response: What about them?

thedailybell.com/editorials/36676/Anthony-Wile-Directed-History-Hey-We-Told-You-So/ 

THE ECB GOUGE

Well, we've all heard of the Oracle of Omaha, alias the Scold of Omaha.

Now we've had the privilege to hear fron the Oracle of the ECB. Some might say the Scold of the ECB. One day after global markets went slam, bam, no thank you man, Magic Mario told investors to calm down, blaming "markets for messing up."

Yes, this is Magic Mario in his earlier today address to the Economic Club of New York where, referring to his interest rate cuts the day before, he said: "It was not a package meant to address market expectations," concluding the whole thing was "overblown." Oh, and one more thing. Deflation is no longer on the table and the ECB's stimulus packages are "already working."

But here's the quote we relish most and so should you because it shows just how dangerous this former Goldman Sachs executive trainee now turned bureaucrat is. "We have the power to act. We have the determination to act. We have the commitment to act," he said, possibly stealing a rhetorical ploy from Winston Churchill.

In less than two days Magic Mario gouged the markets from a sell off to a big rally. Some might call it jerking the markets as in volatile swings in an attempt to repair the damage he caused.

SAVE YOUR CURRENCY AND YOUR SOVEREIGNTY

The Danes seem to get it more than most albeit they're still a piecemeal part of the European Union.

What they understand it appears are two terms we've discussed at length many times--solvency and sovereignty.  Like the lines of that old Sinatra tune, love and marriage, a horse and carriage, they go together. And it's pretty difficult if not impossible to have one without the other.

Last Thursday Danish voters sent a shrill warning to EU bureaucrats who are setting up for their next confab and confab is the correct term here because that's what bureaucrats spend their time doing. That itself should not surprise. That they get paid for it should.

There's another thing many Danes apparently understand, the dangers of immigration. Denmark has
reportedly some of the EU 's toughest immigration laws. Immigration today might be more dangerous than any time in the last 100 years.

As one scribe put it: The result marks a blow to a beleaguered EU, which faces the threat of a U.K. exit and a worsening crisis in Greece. The People’s Party has said it’s willing to enter an alliance with other EU-skeptical parties that would ask Danes to vote much more often on European reforms.

Next up is the UK, a nation already swamped in socialistic over-regulation and paralyzing bureaucracy. A campaign theme for the no crowd might be: Forget the Queen. Petition God to save your currency and your sovereignty.

REVISION OF THE REVISED

Just to pick up on our recent post about revision of the revised,financialspuds.blogspot.com/2015/12/what-is-two-plus-two, sounds like it could be a hot HBO series, here's a read everyone ought to read even those misguided souls who want to continue wallowing in their benighted states under that infamous Washington cry: "We're from the government and we're here to help you."

Unless you're suffering from a bad case of birth canal trauma or the hoodwinking so popular on today's college campuses, you might want to take a chance and step out of the Brainwashed Zone and think for yourself. We know it's painful, threatening, even downright frightening. The government is here all right, but only to take from you. That's their way of spelling help.

Recounting my own college years and how they taught "The Great Depression," and then spending years doing my own research, I eventually realized revision has been going on a lot longer than I even imagined. It's in the academic genetic code.

davidstockmanscontracorner.com/why-this-sucker-is-going-down-again

WHAT IS TWO PLUS TWO?

As we said recently, the news is out and it's all over the Street. Here's the blurb on it from
www.crossingwallstreet.com.

The November jobs report is out. Non-farm payrolls rose by 211,000. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.0%.

The September NFP was revised higher by 8,000 and October was revised up by 27,000. Average hourly earnings rose four cents to $25.25.

I think this pretty much guarantees a December rate hike. 

We don't question the poster. He's simply reporting what was announced. But our cynical side tells us two things: the Fed wants to raise rates before year end, right or wrong. The second thing is they're data freaks and desperately need data to support their constant stance of hedging or fence straddling.

In short, this not a group noted for its confidence or decisiveness. Check out Mario Draghi's action yesterday. We've written before about revisions and their constant part of government numbers. This is one of those: "Here,we can show you the figures!" Three out of four ain't bad, especially with the fourth one remaining stable.

It reminds of the story about a company CEO who calls in his CFO one day and asks: "What's two plus two these days?" And the CFO shoots back: "Anything you want it to be, boss!"

The Fed got want it wanted and needed, the numbers and the trend, to CYA.

OVERNIGHT

It's like doing so much sweet talking before your marriage that you set it up to be a big disappointment," Reuters quoted one market watcher after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi surprised many with modest actions Thursday.

To say it was less aggressive than many traders expected didn't take long to show up in markets around the globe either as Asian shares joined the selling overnight with"Japan's Nikkei .N225 tumbled 2.2 percent at the close, the biggest daily drop since Sept. 29. It was down 1.9 percent for the week, the most in three months and China's CSI300 index .CSI300 slipped 1.6 percent, shrinking gains for the week to 3.8 percent."

Currency markets also felt the sting with the Euro rising over 3 percent for its largest one-day move in over six years while the dollar index fell to a one month low before rallying over night.

In other news the Wall Street Journal reports that OPEC meeting in Vienna today most likely won't lead to any changes in production output.

The energy ministers of the OPEC nations gathered for the cartel’s policy meeting on Friday amid warnings from its staff that oil prices will likely remain low no matter what the group decides to do about production. 

The analysis, which was reviewed exclusively by The Wall Street Journal, underscores the conundrum faced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries as it tries to respond to a prolonged oil-price slump. With global supplies of oil far outpacing demand, a debate is expected Friday between a faction that wants a reduction in production to boost prices and another arguing such a move would only give away market share to competitors in the U.S. and elsewhere.

The cartel is expected to continue with its policy of pumping flat out, even though prices for Brent crude, the international benchmark, have fallen to less than $45 a barrel compared with highs of $114 a barrel last year. That policy was set a year ago and was a departure for a group that normally pulled back output when prices fell to make oil scarcer and more valuable.

THEY'RE STILL SNIFFING

When you read MSM paragraphs like this one, it makes you want to go do you know what.

We especially like the one: Fed policymakers are widely seen raising interest rates for the first time in almost a decade at their next meeting on Dec. 15-16, but they continue to parse data and trends carefully given the uneven nature of the U.S. recovery. 

Today, speaking before Congress the good lady noted that even after a hike in rates, the Fed will remain accomodative. That's about as politically correct Fed speak as you can get. It's a warped twist on: "We're from the government and we're here to help you."

That they continue to parse data and trends carefully given the uneven nature of the economic recovery is laughable, to say the least. This is the largest group of economic data parsers this side of the ECB. The only thing uneven is the members of the FOMC.

That's essentially how they get appointed. They send out fliers to all economists saying: "If you!re really uneven, we might have a job for you." These are the one-handed, other-handed folks President Truman called out more than half a century ago.

Nothing new under the sun, the Good Book says. Then you have Yellen saying she's looking forward to the first rate hike in years because it will show the economy is recovering. A testament to that. Wow!

These economists remind me of my little dog on a cold, wintry night trying to decide the perfect place to do his business. Raises his leg here, raises his leg there, sniffs there, sniffs here, on the one hand this is the right place, on the other, nope! it's over here. Two or three frost bitten cheeks later....he's still sniffing.

THE SAME DAY

What could be more appropriate than this: Two former Pimco gurus speaking up on the same day.

Be careful or, to put it more abstractly, be diligent, say these two.

Bill Gross says investors should move to protect their money in 2016 rather than reach for higher returns as central bank efforts to stimulate the global economy set the stage for markets to ultimately fall.

Gross, the former manager of the world’s largest bond fund who joined Janus Capital Group Inc. last year, said central bankers have been doing the equivalent of printing money and acting like gamblers who keep doubling bets to recoup losses.

“One day the negative feedback loop on the real economy will halt the ascent of stock and bond prices and investors will look around like Wile E. Coyote wondering how far is down,” Gross wrote in an investment outlook Thursday for Denver-based Janus. Wile E. Coyote is a cartoon character who unsuccessfully hunts the fleet bird Road Runner, injuring and humiliating himself through his ineptitude.

.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-03/gross-says-de-risk-portfolios-as-wile-e-coyote-time-nears