Tag Archives: Cost

The interaction between the Renewable Fuel Standard, drought and hunger

An article in the Opinion section of the Wall Street Journal (August 11, 2012) describes the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS, which requires use of 13 billion gallons of ethanol based fuel this year and 36 billion gallons by 2022) and … Continue reading →

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Boeing’s delivery delays, airline order cancellations and profit impact

An article in the Wall Street Journal (August 24, 2012) describes a decision by Quantas Airlines to cancel orders for 35 Dreamliner airplanes. Delivery delays meant that the promised 20% fuel efficiency and 30 % lower maintenance costs did not … Continue reading →

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Boeing plans to ramp up production rates

An article in the Wall Street Journal (August 30,2012) describes plans by Boeing to add another production line in Washington, in addition to one in North Carolina, thus increasing production rate to 10 Dreamliners across locations per month from the … Continue reading →

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Boeing’s 66th Dreamliner aircraft first to go to preflight from assembly

An article in the Wall Street Journal (June 8, 2012) describes a milestone reached by the 66th Dreamliner aircraft – the first to reach normalized production i.e., go from assembly to preflight testing. That milestone was reached by the Airbus … Continue reading →

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Trading zero emission credits to comply with state regulations

An article in Bloombergbusinessweek (June 7, 2012) describes California’s regulation requiring 2 % of cars sold by automakers selling 60,000 cars annually to be zero emission by 2014 and 15 % by 2025. But automakers can also buy credits from … Continue reading →

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Barnes & Noble claims elimination of agency pricing will increase prices

An article in the New York Times (June 8, 2012) describes the Justice department’s settlement with publishers to eliminate “agency pricing” which was claimed to enable collusion among publishers for ebook prices. Under agency pricing, five publishers were allowed by … Continue reading →

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Nokia’s smartphone component costs vs Apple’s iphone component costs

An article in the Wall Street Journal (May 31, 2012) describes an estimate by iSuppli that components for the Nokia Lumia 900 cost $ 209 while those for the 16GB iPhone cost $ 190. But the Lumia sells for $ … Continue reading →

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Amazon requesting some of its sales tax back from California cities

An article in the Wall Street Journal (May 31, 2012) describes a request by Amazon, which recently agreed to collect sales taxes for purchases soon, to get back some of the sales tax as an incentive. The company claims that … Continue reading →

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Export US gas or keep it to reduce energy costs at home

An article in the Wall Street Journal (May 31, 2012) describes a US decision to hold exports of natural gas, whose generation capacity has grown rapidly. Countries like Japan want to use liquified US gas in the future to replace … Continue reading →

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Battery manufacturing capacity rampup and short and long term impact

An article in the Wall Street Journal (May 31, 2012) describes the US government’s $ 1.26 billion investment in battery capacity, and demands for rapid ramp up and hiring to create 6400 jobs. The slow growth rate implied only 2000 … Continue reading →

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