Warning: Don’t install Firefox 3

I downloaded and installed Firefox 3 and instantly regretted it. I have been struggling for the last couple of hours to access my Google toolbar bookmarks and it is not working. I even attempted to roll back to Firefox 2 but now even FF 2 does not work.

Consider yourself warned. FF 3 sucks.

Water powered car

(Via R S Malapati) Reuters reports Water-fuel car by Genepax unveiled in Japan

The car has an energy generator that extracts hydrogen from water that is poured into the car’s tank. The generator then releases electrons that produce electric power to run the car. Genepax, the company that invented the technology, aims to collaborate with Japanese manufacturers to mass produce it.

Thank god that India is not alone in creating fantastic technologies (recall the sensational “invention” of diesel from swirling a few sticks in a bucket of water some years ago.) Google “water fuel” and you will get loads of quite simply unbelievable technologies developed by cranks and crooks. See this one, for instance.
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Disintermediation

Don’t thank me. As an economist, I am duty-bound to propose efficient ways of achieving goals. Here’s the current problem that I was trying to address. Sify.com reports that “ISI wants to double aid to militants.”

Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) has very recently proposed to double the financial support to terrorist groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir, India’s external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) has warned in a ‘top secret’ report.

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Reliance’s Rural Business Hubs

A news item from yesterday reports:

“As part of the organised retail initiative, Reliance Retail will be creating several rural business hubs. At one level, these will be centres for aggregation of farm produce. At another level, they will engage with supply of quality farm inputs and provision of products and services to rural consumers,” Mr Ambani said.

That report also notes that Ambani is proposing to build semiconductor plants for solar energy. Good ideas, Mr Mukesh Ambani.

He’s consistent. See the post “A quicker faster way to help rural India” from July 2006. So far, I like what Ambani is interested in: building cities, creating rural hubs, investing in solar energy. More power to Reliance.

(Thanks to Gautam Patil for the link.)

Some thoughts on the Price of Oil — Part 1

One of the main questions occupying the public mind appears to be related to the price of oil. Since economics informs that, and related questions, I think it would be appropriate to reason economically (so to speak) about the matter. Will the unprecedented high price of oil become a permanent feature of the world or is it just a passing phenomenon, a bubble that is bound to burst? What’s the appropriate price of oil? Is the high price of oil a good thing, and if so, for whom?

As this is just a blog post and not a deep analysis meant for a peer-reviewed journal, I will be informal. That CYA disclaimer out of the way, let’s begin at the beginning.
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Iraq now, Iran next, Saudi Arabia for later

“It’s the oil, stupid.”

In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal of 10th June, Edward J. Markey asks rhetorically “Why Is Bush Helping Saudi Arabia Build Nukes?” He points out that if at all the Saudis need more energy — even after sitting atop the world’s largest oil reserves — then the US should be helping them out by selling them solar technology. Solar technology makes sense in a country three times the size of Texas, and where the desert sands see around 300 days of sunshine every year. He says, “For a country with so much oil, gas and solar potential, importing expensive and dangerous nuclear power makes no economic sense.”
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Let’s regularize this, shall we?

I think it is high time the government of India took some action. This whole thing is becoming regular enough that its normality should be acknowledged by having a ministry in the government which would frame proper regulation and oversee the industry. I propose that they frame the right tax codes. People would like to know what the tax rate is for income arising from rewards earned from murdering people?
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