Our series continues on the companies and organizations that were awarded grants from the Department of Energy to pursue renewable energy sources. Private investors are left out in the cold on the award given to Renewable Energy Institute International (REII), a non-profit organization. Eventually some of the institute’s technology will find their way into commercial projects - at least that is the idea - and within reach of investors.

Yesterday during the Olympics I spent a little time reading about Karl Popper, seriously, and while no one will confuse me for a Popper scholar I am in a slightly more critical (thinking) frame of mind than whatever is normal for me. With that in mind I stumbled across a couple of things that could be worth thinking about, critically or otherwise.

India's still heavily dependent on agriculture economy suffered through a weak monsoon season and GDP came in at only 6% versus 7.9% the previous quarter.  [Nov 20, 2009: India's Q3 2009 GDP Jumps to 7.9%, Highest in 6 Months. Stimulus Could be Exiting Stage Right] However, a forecast for higher growth in the current quarter & a government pledge to address the deficit seemed to placate investors - we'll see how those promises work out in due time.  For now, words are enough.

Krugman recently wrote a little on how Europe screwed themselves by going with the Euro. It seems that with the Euro the deflationary spirals will/could last a lot longer than a normal crisis. Not good at all for the global economy.