Green Options

In what is sure to go down as a deft marketing move to garner some publicity (and virtually nothing more), Bank of America and Tesla have teamed up and announced that the megabank will start financing purchases of the Tesla Roadster to make them “much more affordable.”

I call BS.

Women entrepreneurs, don’t miss the Keiretsu Forum’s 4th Annual Summer Solstice panel discussion tonight about “How Women Investors and Entrepreneurs Will Revive the California Economy.”

The event will bring together the Bay Area’s most talented minds to:

•          Foster a collaborative atmosphere between women and the angel community
•          Confront the critical issues facing women entrepreneurs and investors today
•          Drive the recovery of the California economy
•          Build businesses and invest in thought out ventures
•          Explore compelling investment opportunities

In [...]

Economist, James Galbraith, on bank stress tests

The results of bank stress tests released this week, do not bear good news. The bottom line is that at  total of $75 billion needs to be raised from 10 major banks to prop them up for losses that could come from a deepening recession.

Here is a Top 4 summary of who needs what in the next six months:

• Bank of America (BAC) will have to raise $33.9 billion;
• Wells Fargo (WFC), $13.7 billion;
• GMAC (GJM), $11.5 billion; and
• Citigroup (C), $5.5 billion

The question people are asking is whether this is the worst news yet? Or whether it is news that the worst is over?

There is no easy answer. The truth is that if unemployment continues to rise, housing prices continue to fall and the economy continues to shrink, then much more money might be needed as problem bank loans could be on the rise.

Climate action group Rising Tide is joining forces with City Life/Vida Urbana, a housing justice organization, to announce a mass action against Bank of America. Instead of the usual sign holding and chanting (which has also been taking place), they are asking people across the country to close their bank accounts on February 14^th- Valentines Day.

Why?

Because Bank of America continues to kick poor families out of their foreclosed homes and finance the ecologically devastating practice of mountaintop removal. The two causes may seem unrelated, but house foreclosures affect primarily low income families- many of them minorities, and harmful coal extracting practices often take their biggest toll on poorer rural families. According to Rising Tide, the pollution from mountaintop removal poisons the water in Appalachia and has forced people to leave their homes.

While this is an important step in stopping the practice of mountaintop removal, altogether, the Bank of America’s bold statement on MTR turned out to fall a bit short of miraculous. In fact, the banking giant now plans to invest more money in the unproven ‘clean coal’ technology of carbon capture and storage.

Bank of America received praise from the Rainforest Action Network for its decision to phase out financing for companies that practice mountaintop removal coal mining, a controversial method of coal extraction.