I keep reading all this green stuff that everyone’s writing and I am full of admiration for those that would repair our planet. Then I decided to take the green matter one step further and live green. I made the announcement in the kitchen where my wife and her 2 assistants, my daughters, were preparing dinner. I ended my little speech by saying to my wife, “you are the manager of our Green Project. You decide what we do.” She nodded in silent acceptance. Oh boy… Did I hear shrieks of laughter after I left the kitchen?

Dinner

Dinner turned out to be salads, fresh fruit and 2 pieces of whole-wheat bread. The bread was quickly withdrawn when daughter number 2 reminded us that bread is baked in an electric oven and using electricity is a green no-no. I was about to suggest that we could get around the electrical problem by taking a Cash Advance and buying bread which is a dietary necessity, but then I realized that the cooking factor would still be there. We definitely saved money on the dinner.

Shower

I hopped into the shower before going to bed to find the water icy cold. “I turned the boiler off. Heating water with electricity is a green no-no. I suggest you build one of those solar water heating panels tomorrow.”

“But I arranged to go fishing with the boys…”

“Your choice. I myself find the cold showers invigorating. Plus we’re saving money on electricity and saving the planet.” I saved more money on water. I was out of that shower in a flash.

Bed

“Reading lamps are out. Electricity again. But we don’t have to give up reading in bed, we’ll use candles. I managed about 2 pages of the thousand page monster book I was trying to finish. “Can’t we just…?” I asked. I got a silent headshake. Money saved on my candle.

Breakfast

Breakfast was cereal and cold milk and an awful concoction of hand-stirred cold coffee. I was presented with a small scrap of paper which simply read, “Savings to date $35.78.” I sprinted for the garage so I could get away from this self-inflicted madness and get to the office and environmental sanity as quickly as possible.

The car

The garage was locked with the largest padlock I have ever seen. Yep, my car is not green. It’s not even hybrid, just an old-fashioned fossil fuel guzzling super-comfortable Chev. I love it! I grabbed one of the girl’s old bikes from the tool shed, pumped up the tires and made for the station. I have to admit that I enjoyed the bike ride but hated inhaling everyone else’s exhaust fumes. I also hated the feeling that I was a moving target for every car on the road. I broke the green rules by riding on the electric powered train and enjoyed it. I may get back to bike riding in the countryside after this green experiment is over.

The office

The office brews great hot coffee, has an electric water cooler and as a senior draftsman I have an electric pencil sharpener.

The day

All in all I had a good “green” day. We saved money and if we keep this up and iron out some of the bumps, we can live green lives. Like everything else it will take some work.

Make that rusted hulk worth something

A little while back, we talked about President Obama’s plan for the “Cash For Clunkers” program. It appeared to be a promising plan to spur new car sales by enabling car dealerships to take in older cars at better trade value. Better economically, better environmentally in that it promotes getting rid of old, non-green vehicles. A cash advance for and credit repair with Mother Nature, so to speak.

Now Cash For Clunkers is more than an early-stage plan. ABC News’ Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller report that President Obama held a private meeting with Democratic members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. While working on the ins and out of “cap and trade” environmental legislation, key progress was made on the vehicle trade-in legislation.

Rust buckets for vouchers

Under the newly modified agreement, consumers can trade in any vehicle that gets 18 miles per gallon or less. They’ll receive a voucher for a new, more fuel-efficient car. The amount of the voucher will range from $3,500 to $4,500, depending upon the new vehicle’s fuel efficiency.

“Cash for Clunkers” legislation will likely be folded into a larger Climate Change bill, which sources say is on schedule to pass the House in 2009. The carbon emissions part of the proposal will put a cap on the amount of emissions that will be reduced. Within that cap we will be a market-based system that will generate innovative ways to break America’s carbon-based fuel dependency.

How green is green and other issues

Senator Waxman from California had this to say about meeting some of the key challenges before the Climate Change bill committee:

If we can reach agreement with the coal sector, with the steel, with the auto sector, with the refining sector on our committee which is very representative of the Congress on the whole, then we believe that will be a template for passage in the Senate as well.

Then there are decisions to be made about just how green a car needs to be to receive the credit through the Cash For Clunkers program. “We had to decide how green these cars need to be to get that credit,” Rep. Jay Inslee told reporters.

But the end result should be a win-win. “It’s a good agreement,” agreed former committee chairman Rep. John Dingell. Dingell has been known as a protector of the United States automobile industry, so his endorsement could mean that the last stumbling blocks toward passage will be few.

“It means auto sales, it means fuel efficiency and it means progress.”

Related Video:

Shamrock seeds aplenty, here. If you missed the first, CHECK IT OUT.

I love the green. Not cash or payday loans, the color. The feeling. The Schulers share Master Gardener Valerie Cribbs’ view on the meaning of shamrock green:

The shamrock was first used by Saint Patrick as he explained the holy trinity to his followers, but the history of its somewhat magical attributes dates back further than St. Patrick. The druids considered the four-leafed clover good luck and the Celts considered the shamrock an effective charm against evil. It’s even rumored that Eve wore a shamrock in the Garden of Eden! Each leaf on the clover stands for something different; one stands for hope, one for faith, and one for love and the fourth for luck.

Sounds delightful and non-toxic. Of course, the druids weren’t eating them in mass quantities like Beldar…

Shamrocks are an asset… just not a toxic asset

Let’s talk about something that IS toxic to the economy. It’s the bleeding red books too many American banks have been carrying. Those toxic assets are deadly to our economic recovery. If you are unsure as to exactly what a toxic asset is, help is available in simple layman’s terms. Here’s an easy-to-follow description:

Let’s say that Bob had a loan with Mellon Bank. The Loan is for $200,000 for a house and Bob pays 6% interest. The house is collateral, meaning Mellon gets the house if Bob defaults. But this house was valued at $275,000, so what is the worry?

So now Mellon Bank has “mortgage paper”, which is an asset. They can sell the mortgage to anyone they wish. Bob will then be required to pay the purchaser, who will get the benefit of the 6% interest. It’s an investment which may (or may not) make more money in the future. A good idea if Mellon needs money immediately.

But ol’ Bob doesn’t have the money to pay this mortgage. At the same time, the house value has greatly reduced to $150,000. Bob still owes $199,000.

If Bob defaults on this, Mellon will only be able to recover a portion of their money back. The mortgage paper has now become illiquid (the house can’t pay the mortgage). Mellon is now unable to sell it. Why would somebody pay for an asset that guarantees you will lose money?

That mortgage has become a “toxic asset.”

Let’s celebrate this St. Patrick’s Day

May the feds not cop your shamrock seeds
May the wind scatter them to fertile soil
May the sun shine warm upon your finances,
And the rains wash toxic assets away,
And, until we meet at Personal Money Store again,
May the economy ne’er capsize your open boat

Related Videos:

Oil drilling rig in the North Sea

We took Payday Loans back in the 70’s and 80’s when the price of energy went through the roof. It was the only way we could finance the feasibility studies and design reports we were doing. We got down and designed free-energy and low energy generating schemes, determined to cut ourselves loose from the oil prices that kept rising.

Oil companies lowered their prices

Whole new companies and businesses were founded, springing up like mushrooms and the inventiveness of man was a continual surprise. The oil companies looked at us askance and lowered their prices and most of the new ventures simply folded and walked away, unable to compete.

How the oil price game works

We love cars. We all want a car and some of us want more than one car, one for business and one for fun. We cannot manage without our cars. The car is an integral part of our life and a huge percentage of all industry focuses around the car. The countries that produce oil love our cars too. The bigger and more powerful our cars are, the more they love them. They are clever people, our oil makers; they know how to play the game. Last year between April and August, they simply doubled the prices bringing many countries of the world to their knees. I remember very well how I took a Payday Loan to fill the tank of my car after I asked that gorgeous girl, Diane, out for a date and I needed to use the car.

The game goes on

CULVER CITY, CA - APRIL 25

Now the price of oil is back down and scooting up and down every day and making the financial forecasters scratch their heads as they try and get things into order. But something is missing. What’s happened to all the companies who set out to find alternative sources of energy?

The oil free companies

Many of these companies folded as soon as the oil price dropped, unable to manufacture energy that was cheap enough to compete with the price of oil based energy. Others are hanging in, determined to try and beat the price of oil and determined to re-green the earth. They need a lot of money to keep going and even more to continue the struggle to live without oil. It’s going to take a very determined company to invent economic alternative energy. Of course the moment someone sneezes in the oil producing Middle East, America will catch cold and the alternative energy companies will come mushrooming out of the ground again.

Where to now?

It’s a problem. Overriding all other problems is the question of population growth around the globe which in turn leads to shortages of water, then food, then natural resources and finally money. Imagine another 20 years, then 50 years and then 100 years. Everything will be in short supply.

I’m making sure about my Payday Loan

I’m not hanging around until the bitter end. I don’t want to be the one left holding the ball when the whistle blows. I’m applying for my Payday Loan today so I don’t get caught in the stampede.

North American Free Trade Agreement

This is part two of your payday loans source’s close-up view of President Obama’s domestic economic policy. Part one is available here. Let’s look at what Mr. Obama plans to do to promote trade and improve manufacturing.

Trade that benefits America

Increased trade with foreign countries will help the American economy and create jobs, which is essential during the country’s current recession. President Obama will accomplish this in a variety of ways, which will include the following:

• A “Fair Trade” policy that will spread good labor and environmental standards around the world and stand against previous policies that are insufficient. Trade agreements, unfair subsidies and nontariff barriers on U.S. exports will also fall under Obama’s scrutiny
• Amend NAFTA: Obama and Biden will work with Canada and Mexico to ensure that the North American Free Trade Agreement is amended to make up for the chasms that threatened to swallow American workers
• In the changing economy, workers must have the education to properly adjust. Thus, Obama will update the Trade Adjustment Assistance to help previously overlooked workers who are currently in danger of losing their jobs
• Job outsourcers will pay. President Obama will work to curtail tax breaks for companies that offshore their jobs. Moreover, a preference will be shown to America-based companies when public contracts are awarded
• Mr. Obama endorses the Patriot Employer Act of 2007, which rewards those companies that create jobs with good benefits for Americans. He will continue to pursue such gains for American workers in the areas of pay and benefits

Manufacturing and “green” jobs

President Obama understands the value of modernizing American manufacturing jobs to meet the challenges of the current world economy. In the process, he will also have the opportunity to help the environment by funding and encouraging the growth of manufacturing that produces less waste, or at least waste that is less harmful. To use a payday loans analogy, old manufacturing is depending upon expensive, wasteful checking overdraft, while green manufacturing is swift and efficient, like no fax payday loans. Here are just a few of the initiatives the 44th President of the United States of America plans to bring to fruition:

• Obama wishes to create an Advanced Manufacturing Fund that through research and peer review will identify top opportunities for expanding America’s economic sector
• The Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) will receive twice the funding it received before. In the past, this program helped create more than 50,000 jobs. By increasing funding, these numbers should increase exponentially
• Five million new green jobs was an important part of Obama’s campaign. His plan to invest $150 billion over 10 years in biofuels and fuel infrastructure will not only increase fuel efficiency and aid the environment, but will provide a tremendous boost to the economy. Funding programs that are green-oriented will be necessary to educate the workforce to fill the necessary positions
• Mr. Obama is behind a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) that will require 25 percent of American electricity be derived from renewable (non-coal) sources by 2025. Not only will this create jobs, but it will open up the potential for encouraging tax credits like the Production Tax Credit

If President Obama is able to accomplish his goals for America in terms of trade and manufacturing, the boost to the American job market should be tremendous. More jobs equals greater economic freedom. Freedom to choose how your money will be spent (as well as how it will be borrowed, when you want payday loans) is essential to the rights of the American consumer. Read on to Part 3 of this article and see how President Obama will address the economy through aids to the country’s infrastructure, technology and small businesses.