Posts Tagged ‘investments’
Remember when journalists published corrections when they screwed up facts? Not anymore, man!
What happens if you can’t find an actual scandal? Make one up. The Fisker “scandal” that started at ABC News has jumped to Fox and right wing blogs, where the idea that the U.S. bumbled into paying for cars built overseas is gaining steam.
ABC’s report incorrectly stated that Fisker had made off with U.S. taxpayer funds in a kind of bait and switch, promising jobs in America then outsourcing to Finland. Since that report rolled out last week, Fox has jumped on the issue with a story headlined “Federal Loan… for Finland?” Fox’s Neil Cavuto jumped in to add that, two years after the payments to Fisker, “those jobs still are not here, they’re in Finland.” Attempts to turn the Fisker loan (not a grant) into a scandal have become entangled in Republican primary politics, with candidate Mitt Romney calling for an investigation and claiming that loans to both Fisker and Tesla were payback for political donations.
All of which conveniently ignores some important facts. Yes, Fisker’s first model, the Karma plug-in hybrid sports car, is currently being assembled in Finland. However, the first $169 million in loans provided to Fisker were not for the assembly of the Karma. The loans went toward the design and engineering of the car, activities that took place at Fisker’s Pontiac, MI headquarters.
The bulk of the loan for Fisker was provided not for the Karma, but to support the upcoming Nina model, which will be built at the company’s new factory in Delaware starting in 2013. There are already 100 plant workers in Delaware employed by Fisker in preparation for the Nina and millions have been invested in preparing the Delaware assembly lines.
…Fisker has stated that “not a single dollar” of the money it received from the government has been spent overseas…[The federal funds were] used soley in the U.S. to fund design, engineering and integration work.”
Even real journalists hate to admit they screwed up. Retractions and corrections would appear in a follow-on edition – usually a tiny paragraph buried next to city council notes or something equally boring. Not anymore.
With the advent of the Web taking over news distribution, the original crappy article stays online. That’s where the correction should be posted. Which also serves to reinforce how the original writer was wrong.
When right-wing bloggers, Fox Noise and other know-nothings have already leaped into the abyss of being wrong with all four feet flailing in the wind, the likelihood of a correction continues to diminish – if you’re a chicken outfit like ABC News. How can they admit they’re wrong when so many ideologues are using that failure as the premise for political attacks.
Poisonally, I think it’s time for ABC News to act like grown-ups and own up to their lousy reporting – and quit worrying about where that leaves Rupert’s army of toy noisemakers.
Financial investigators gave squeaky-clean rating to Ponzi scheme
Kroll, the secretive investigations consultancy, is facing embarrassment after giving a clean bill of health to a pair of alleged fraudsters who are accused of running a $248 million Ponzi scheme.
The revelation is a blow for Kroll as the American firm is still reeling from the discovery that one of its top investigators gave a similar endorsement to Sir Allen Stanford, the Texas billionaire accused of orchestrating a $7 billion Ponzi scheme.
In June 2007 Kroll was asked to investigate Barry Tannenbaum, a South African, and Dean Rees on behalf of a New York-based asset management firm that was considering investingplacing a large investment with the pair.
The due diligence investigation found nothing untoward with either Tannenbaum or Rees and is said to have shown both men in a “very positive light”, according to sources.
Since then Tannenbaum and Rees have been accused of running a scheme involving the importation of antiretroviral drugs into South Africa for the treatment of HIV. They are being investigated by South African police…
The finished Kroll report is understood to have been passed on to others, unwittingly pushing even more potential victims into Tannenbaum’s alleged fraud.
Kroll declined to comment on the report…
Electri International, a Maryland based foundation for electrical contractors, is suing Kroll over $6.3 million it placed with Stanford International Bank, Sir Allen’s Antigua-based operation, even though it paid Kroll Associates $15,000 in fees, plus expenses, to conduct due diligence on the bank.
It turned out that one Kroll official was Allen Stanford’s buddy. Not that it would have colored their report. Right?
Clean tech still hot – and growing
Total investments in clean technology – including wind, solar, bio-fuels and a host of related technologies – totaled $4.09 billion through the end of 2008, compared to just $1.44 billion in 2006, according to the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). That’s still just a fraction of the overall $28.2 billion in venture capital investments but the area is steadily gaining momentum.
In a recent interview with Reuters.com, Mark G. Heesen, president of the NVCA, the leading trade association for venture capitalists in the United States, representing the interests of more than 450 member firms, discussed the growing interest in clean technology and how this fast-growing sector will shape the future of early-stage investing.
Despite a fall-off in interest in the sector in the first quarter of 2009, Heesen expects clean-tech to eclipse the traditional VC mainstays such as information technology and medical devices, within five years, helped in part by the federal government’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on foreign oil.
RTFA. Consider what real players have to say.
It gives me a special chuckle to see and hear the skeptic-bots trundle around political sites – especially those masquerading as somehow science-based – parroting political pundits who make their living preaching to the neocon choir.
I pay attention to sci-tech experts who actually concern themselves 24/7 with technology and the relevant economic machinery involved with growth and profit in the field. I don’t give investment tips at this site – and I don’t recommend sites to folks who want to know who I listen to.
Read this blog often enough and you’ll figure it out on your own.
