Huhne, hubris and home improvement: the failure of the 'green deal'

All politicians want some kind of legacy. They seek a footnote in the annuls, just to prove that all those compromises and disappointments were not in vain. Chris Huhne?s legacy is that his name is synonymous with the criminal act of passing off your speeding points to someone else. It?s a legacy of a sort.

Huhne wanted his legacy to be, not an entry into the dictionary of urban slang, but as a great reforming energy secretary. At the heart of his programme was the ?green deal?, a scheme to insulate homes and businesses, thus cutting their heating bills and more importantly, their carbon emissions. It was broadly similar to a scheme Labour had been piloting, and to one which appeared in Labour?s 2010 manifesto as ?Pay as You Save?.

Here?s what Chris Huhne told the Liberal Democrat conference in 2010, in the first flush of coalition amour:

?The Green Deal will be a revolution. The first scheme of its kind in the developed world. The most ambitious energy-saving plan ever put forward. A once-and-for-all refit that will make every home in Britain ready for a low-carbon future. No more half-measures going off at half-cock.?

Most ambitious ever. Every home. No more half-measures. When the Greeks invented hyperbole, they meant it to be used for emphasis, not literally. Huhne was not being hyperbolic; he meant it. His audience of Liberal Democrat activists clapped like seals as the man most them had voted for in the leadership contest declared the End of Global Warming

A few weeks later he told an audience at the London School of Economics: ?Over the next two years we expect to insulate 3.5 million homes?. He went on: ?The number of people employed in insulation alone could soar from 27,000 to 100,000 by 2015. That could eventually rise to a peak of 250,000.?

It couldn?t be clearer: 3.5 million homes insulated by 2012, and 100,000 jobs by 2015. And lest you think this was merely Chris Huhne?s vaunting ambition and loose grip of reality getting the better of him, the rhetorical baton was picked up by his fellow ministers. Energy Minister Greg Barker has declared the Green Deal will be ?transformational?. In March this year, Barker told BBC Radio 4: ?I wouldn?t be sleeping if we didn?t have 10,000 at the end of the year.?

Yesterday, we had the first proper analysis of how the Green Deal is doing. I?ve sat in a few meetings where ministers are given bad news by their officials. I imagine the conversation went something like this:

Official: ????????? ?Minister, there?s good news and there?s bad news on the Green Deal. The good news is that people are taking up our offer of finance schemes to insulate their homes. The Green Deal is up and running. Congratulations, Minister.?

Minister: ??????? ?And the bad news??

Official: ????????? ?ah yes, the bad news is that he haven?t quite hit our targets. Still, it?s early days. Rome wasn?t built in a day. Nil desperandum.?

Minister: ??????? ?How many??

Official: ????????? ?Four?

Minister: ??????? ?Just four? That?s terrible. I promised millions. Four thousand is a dreadful start.?

Official: ????????? ?not 4,000, minister, just four. We have their names and addresses here on this post-it note.?

Four households have had insulation under the Green Deal. Not one single household has fully completed work under the Green Deal. Most of the money allocated ? ?250,000 out of a potential pot of millions ? has been for boiler upgrades, mostly for people who could have afforded it anyway.

Greg Barker told the Guardian that ?Eight million solid wall homes have had no affordable solution to insulate. The green deal will change that.? How many solid walls have had insulation under the Green Deal? One. Strictly speaking, going from zero to one does count as ?change?, but it?s not quite eight million.

It?s a catastrophic cock-up on a grand scale. A failure of Titanic proportions. It is the R101 of public policy. It also suggests that even ministers, their advisers and officials have failed to take up the Green Deal. Making Lib Dem MPs do it would have boosted the numbers. Even they consider it a waste of time.

It may look like farce, but the tragedy is that it needn?t have been like this. Labour?s front-bench energy team have consistently and loudly warned that the policy was badly-conceived and likely to fail. At Labour?s 2011 conference, shadow energy secretary Meg Hillier warned of a ?green deal that promises the earth, but few have even heard of.? Her successor as shadow energy secretary Caroline Flint has consistently warned that the scheme would fail. Shadow energy minister Luciana Berger has harried ministers over the details of the scheme: the failure to secure business backers, the high interest rates on repayments, and the failure to adequately restrict con artists and cowboys.

So three years on from Huhne?s ridiculous speeches about the ?step change? in home insulation, we are left with fewer homes and businesses than ever with adequate insulation, no new job opportunities and Britain even further away from meetings its international obligations on climate change.

A serious piece of work needs to be done on what went wrong, perhaps by the Institute for Government, or some such independent body. It?s a case study in public policy failure. But the real job now is for Labour to outline an alternative programme. We will inherit a mess, but we will need to clear it up quick. A new, fair, affordable finance regime, less reliance on private suppliers, more use of local authorities, a bigger marketing budget: whatever the answers are, we need to articulate them quickly. Shadenfreude doesn?t win any votes; a practical scheme to insulate peoples? homes and save them cash, delivered without any Huhne-esque hubris, will.

Source: http://labourlist.org/2013/06/huhne-hubris-and-home-improvement-the-failure-of-the-green-deal/

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French Property ? Buyers Guide to buying property in France | Home ...

CompromisThis document is a document signed an agreement to buy the property at an agreed price. The letter was signed by the seller and the buyer and set all the details of the purchase price and signed the first 7 days fees.Once cold season, in which the consumer can withdraw from the sale without penalty. After a quiet period of the contract is valid for both vendors and customers, and can pay a deposit. The average down payment of 10% of the purchase price.

The compromis is a legal and binding contract to withdraw may result in your deposit of 10% is lost. But there is a kind of compromis prepared to allow the removal, in certain circumstances, such as the French refused compromis drawn mortgage.To need a passport, marriage / divorce, the relevant details of the document if you take out a loan to buy property.You should seek advice as soon as you receive the compromis and if it needs to be translated by experts before you sign.Surveys and heritage adviceOnce compromis is signed and payment begins after seeing a notary deposit, checking boundaries, public roads termite inspection test, in addition to removing lead and asbestos. Notaries are responsible for ensuring that this is done and the seller is responsible for the French costs.Unlike not always have a survey done on the property when sold. You may find inspectors in France to offer this service, or registered builders often called to give his opinion. These things must be overcome before signing.French inheritance law is complex and you should consult with matter.The Notaires office late attorney signingThis fact, if you can not afford to France for final signature can see the power and have someone to sign on your behalf . See matterIdeally legal representative must see property upon signing a clause that says ?sold as seen on the day of signature.?

You will need to ensure that the transfer payments account balance came Notaires final time signature, the date agreed for the original supplier is clearly important that this can be achieved if not, you could lose your deposit and most importantly home sales. Money from the sale is not complete unless it is clearly notary bank account.

This entry was posted in Real Estate. Bookmark the permalink.

Source: http://redevelopks.org/2013/06/french-property-buyers-guide-to-buying-property-in-france.html

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Big global increase in 'legal highs'

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Big global increase in 'legal highs'
Governments everywhere are struggling to cope with an increase in new substances known as "legal highs", the UN's latest World Drug Report says.

Source: BBC News
Posted on: Wednesday, Jun 26, 2013, 8:19am
Views: 23

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128798/Big_global_increase_in__legal_highs_

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Hedge fund alternative investors love ? Bankrate, Inc.

Institutional investors are increasingly turning to mutual funds over hedge funds for strategy diversification. Just over a quarter, 26 percent, of institutions use hedge funds for exposure to long-short strategies this year, compared to 61 percent in 2010, according to a survey released this week by Morningstar and Barron's.

Long-short mutual funds take mostly long positions, buying investments they believe will go up, while hedging their bets with a smaller amount of short positions, or investments they think will go down. There are other types of alternative strategies --?for instance, market neutral strategies that take long and short positions but avoid stocks to lessen volatility. In general, alternative investment strategy funds "provide a smoother ride over time," says Nadia Papagiannis, CFA, director of alternative fund research at Morningstar.

During the events of 2008, institutional investors found themselves stuck in illiquid, highly leveraged hedge funds that only a year or two before had returned outsized returns.

"In 2008, hedge funds delivered high losses. Investors were stuck with illiquid investments they had to pay management fees on but couldn't get out of," says Papagiannis.

Mutual funds offer liquidity and transparency, plus lower fees for similar strategies. "When you are getting double-digit returns, it's?OK to pay 2 percent management fees and a 20 percent performance fee. But with mediocre returns, that eats away at benefits. Plus, if you can find something with lower costs, that is something that as a fiduciary, you have look at," she says.

The average expense ratio of the long/short equity fund category on the Morningstar website is 1.96 percent.

Advisers to small investors are also interested in the risk-management benefits of alternative strategies. For investors, allocating a portion of their portfolio to an alternative strategy fund helps cushion the downside when big stock market drops happen. That downside cushion means less return on the upside as well.

"In order to build wealth over time, you need to have a little bit of a smaller upside and a lot smaller downside. That way, you can build wealth more effectively over time rather than having a couple good up years and then big down years," says Papagiannis.

Investors scared of living through another stock market drop like the one in 2008 and 2009 may want to consider incorporating some strategies that behave differently than the rest of their investments.

Follow me on Twitter: @SheynaSteiner.

***
Senior investing reporter Sheyna Steiner is a co-author of "Future Millionaires' Guidebook," an e-book written by Bankrate editors and reporters. It's available at all the major e-book retailers.

Source: http://www.bankrate.com/financing/investing/hedge-fund-alternative-investors-love/

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Mapping out how to save species

June 27, 2013 ? In stunning color, new biodiversity research from North Carolina State University maps out priority areas worldwide that hold the key to protecting vulnerable species and focusing conservation efforts.

The research, published online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, pinpoints the highest global concentrations of mammals, amphibians and birds on a scale that's 100 times finer than previous assessments. The findings can be used to make the most of available conservation resources, said Dr. Clinton Jenkins, lead author and research scholar at NC State University.

"We must know where individual species live, which ones are vulnerable, and where human actions threaten them," Jenkins said. "We have better data than in the past -- and better analytical methods. Now we have married them for conservation purposes."

To assess how well the bright-red priority areas are being protected, researchers calculated the percentage of priority areas that fell within existing protected zones. They produced colorful maps that offer a snapshot of worldwide efforts to protect vertebrate species and preserve biodiversity. More maps are available in high resolution on the Saving Species blog.

"The most important biodiversity areas do have a higher rate of protection than the global average. Unfortunately, it is still insufficient given how important these areas are," said co-author Dr. Lucas Joppa with Microsoft Research in Cambridge, England. "There is a growing worry that we are running out of time to expand the global network of protected areas."

Researchers hope their work can guide expansion of protected areas before it's too late.

"The choice of which areas in the world receive protection will ultimately decide which species survive and which go extinct," says co-author Dr. Stuart Pimm of Duke University. "We need the best available science to guide these decisions."

Jenkins' work was supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Blue Moon Foundation and a National Aeronautics and Space Agency Biodiversity Grant.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/ZRUnmtmr1A8/130627130951.htm

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Danish Company Creates Software That Will Stop You From Printing A Gun

A Danish company called Create It Real has built a software package that recognizes digital gun part models and prevents them from being printed. The software compares each piece you are attempting to print with a database of potential firearm parts and, the company notes, "for safety reasons, there are no models of firearms stored on the user's computer but rather a list of characteristics."

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/fIAaUOFkxgI/

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US economy grows at slower 1.8 pct. rate in Q1

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 1.8 percent in the first three months of the year, significantly slower than first thought. The steep revision occurred mostly because consumers spent less than previously estimated, a sign that higher taxes could be dampening growth.

The Commerce Department revised its estimate of economic growth for the January-March quarter down from a 2.4 percent annual rate. The revised rate was still faster than the 0.4 percent rate in the October-December quarter.

Economists had thought growth in the April-June quarter would be 2 percent or less. Analysts had also expected growth to strengthen in the second half of this year. The downgrade for the January-March quarter will likely change those estimates.

It might also affect the timing of the Federal Reserve's plan to scale back its bond-buying program. Chairman Ben Bernanke said last week that the Fed would likely start to slow its bond purchases later this year and end them next year if the economy continues to strengthen. The Fed's bond purchases have helped keep long-term interest rates low.

Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, noted that the economy barely grew in the final quarter of last year. If the April-June quarter proves as weak as some analysts expect, the Fed will be looking at three quarters of subpar growth.

"The Fed won't taper under these conditions," Lee said. "They need convincing signs of a pickup."

Most of the revision to last quarter's growth was due to a drop in consumer spending to an annual rate of 2.6 percent. That's sharply lower than the 3.4 percent rate estimated last month. Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of economic activity.

Much of the change reflected a lower estimate for spending on services such travel, legal services, health care and utilities.

Export growth was also trimmed, reflecting slower global growth. And business investment spending was much weaker than initially estimated. That was largely due to an even larger drop in spending on buildings than previously thought, a particularly volatile category.

An increase in Social Security taxes on Jan. 1 has reduced take-home pay for most Americans. A person earning $50,000 a year has roughly $1,000 less to spend, while a high-earning couple has $4,500 less.

Many economists had thought that the tax increase, along with steep government spending cuts, would start to affect consumers in the second quarter, which ends next week. But the revision suggests the tax increase may have hampered consumer spending a little earlier than thought.

The economy continued to be slowed by weakness in government spending. It fell during the first quarter at an annual rate of 4.8 percent. That shaved 0.9 percentage points from growth ? the biggest negative factor. And it followed an even steeper decline in government spending during the fourth quarter.

Economists had predicted that economic growth would rebound to a rate of around 2.5 percent in the July-September quarter and to more than a 3 percent rate in the final three months of the year.

The Fed's latest economic projections are for growth of 2.3 percent to 2.6 percent this year. And it predicts that growth will accelerate next year to as much as 3.5 percent.

The latest reports have been encouraging. U.S. factories are fielding more orders. Home sales and prices are rising, signaling a stronger housing recovery. Spending at retail businesses rose in May. And employers added 175,000 jobs last month, which almost exactly matched the average increase of the previous 12 months.

Steady job growth has gradually reduced the unemployment rate to 7.6 percent from a peak of 10 percent in 2009. And it has lifted Americans' confidence in the economy to its highest point in 5? years.

Consumers' confidence in the economy is watched closely because their spending accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-economy-grows-slower-1-8-pct-rate-123936162.html

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