The Los Angeles office of Green Solar Technologies was humming on a recent Tuesday. In dozens of cubicles, sales people were working their phones, following up on sales pitches for solar systems. Looking out through his large office windows, Edward Harner, chief operating officer of the company, didn't focus on the mountains that were visible but on the houses spread out before him. "You can see a couple solar installations in the view, and the only thing that I keep asking myself is, 'Why is there not solar on every roof that I see, and why can’t we be the ones to give them solar?'” Harner said. Most of the panels his company puts on rooftops come from SolarWorld, one of the largest manufacturers of solar panels in the United States. That's a somewhat unique practice, because most of the solar panels on American houses these days are made overseas, many from China. The cheap price of foreign panels has made them so prevalent that some U.S. manufacturers say they can’t compete.  Related Why two American billionaires are betting on renewable energy The sun is rising on mandatory solar roofs Does it matter if the US doesn't lead on climate change policy? SolarWorld just joined a petition asking that the International Trade Commission effectively double the import tax on foreign-made panels. That petition was drawn up by another U.S. solar panel maker, Suniva, which has filed for bankruptcy. If their bid for an import tax works, other solar power companies — which sell not just panels, but all the services around them — could suffer. “We consider this a significant risk to the solar industry,” said Timothy Fox, a vice president and research analyst at ClearView Energy Partners.  Fox said the price of solar equipment would at least double if the tariff is put into place. He said that increase in costs could lead to a decrease in installations.  That would slow down the entire sector, from consultants to installers, said Abigail Ross Hopper, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association. “If the relief that this company has proposed is granted, we would lose approximately 88,000 jobs across the country," Hopper said. Tim Brightbill, an attorney representing SolarWorld, disagreed with such arguments, saying previous projections that tens of thousands of jobs would be lost when SolarWorld won earlier trade disputes never materialized.  "Instead, solar demand kept going up, prices stabilized to help manufacturing and solar jobs went up,” said Brightbill, with law firm Wiley Rein. If the International Trade Commission sides with Suniva and SolarWorld, their petition will go to the White House. President Trump has signaled indifference to increased green energy production within the country. His desire for an increase in manufacturing jobs could align well with the two companies' request.  Harner of Green Solar Technologies said his company's business would be somewhat protected by its existing purchasing relationship with SolarWorld. He said only about 30 percent of the panels his company uses are foreign made.  “If the tariffs actually go up for imported panels, then we are going to be hurt less than others,” Harner said.

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With five months of 2017 in the books, the $3 trillion hedge fund industry continues to look mostly positive on the surface. The majority of products are producing positive returns, and the average positive return has outweighed the average loss, […] The post Emerging markets’ run continues as China remains strong appeared first on ValueWalk.

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Apple seems determined to integrate the Touch ID fingerprint sensor into the 10th anniversary iPhone’s display no matter how many challenges it faces. Samsung had tried to do the same with the Galaxy S8, but it was forced to move […] The post iPhone 8 Fingerprint Scanner Still Causing Headache: Analyst appeared first on ValueWalk.

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The history of Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange is a tortured one, to be sure. Once the darling of the left for exposing important misdeeds by the American government, the site then became a tool for the right in the last Presidential election with the publishing of emails stolen in a hack of the DNC. From there, some have accused Wikileaks of being an arm of Moscow's intelligence efforts, while the America government has made noise about prosecuting the site and Assange under the

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Former Texas Congressman Ron Paul likes to joke that when he gets invited to speaking engagements in Washington, DC,  audiences typically don’t applaud. But at the Future of Freedom Foundation, Paul was right at home, delivering a speech entitled "Enemies: Foreign And Domestic" about how to apply the principles of non-interventionism in domestic and foreign policy. He spoke about how his stint in Congress made him more skeptical of government and wary of the deep

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I was never much of a Porsche guy, but this is very cool — driving to Le Mans in a very special Porsche 911: There’s nothing extraordinary about the millionth 911. Porsche could have chosen for it to be a bewinged RS model with a zillion horsepower, but no. This is a ‘normal’ Carrera S… Read More The post The One Millionth 911 appeared first on The Big Picture.

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Authored by Valentin Schmid via The Epoch Times, Up 158 percent against the U.S. dollar this year, bitcoin is now the best-performing currency. Many are confused as to how this mathematical protocol can be worth more than $2,600, and why it keeps going up. The short answer: Bitcoin is money, just a little better and cheaper than the alternatives. If you don’t understand money, you cannot understand bitcoin. For most of us, money is the U.S. dollar, the fiat currency of the United States

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The post Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin – 2017 Q2 appeared first on The Big Picture.

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It’s hard to predict when a stock market crash will occur, so the best defense is to be prepared. Today’s infographic comes to us from StocksToTrade.com, and it explains what happens when a large enough drop in the market triggers a “circuit breaker”, or a temporary halt in trading. Courtesy of: Visual Capitalist As Visual Capitalist's Jeff Desjardins notes, these temporary halts in trading, or “circuit breakers”, are measures approved by the SEC to

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Content originally published at iBankCoin.com Two days after the US State Department formally inquired about WTF is going on between Arab States and Qatar, the countries of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Baahrain, and the UAE sent a list of 13 demands to the tiny Gulf nation to be met within 10 days in order to lift their total blockade of the country. Among them - reducing diplomatic ties with Iran, shutting down broadcaster Al Jazeera (and affiliates), and immediately

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Authored by Darius Shatahmasebi via TheAntiMedia.org, It’s time to have a sane discussion regarding what is going on in Syria. Things have escalated exponentially over the past month or so, and they continue to escalate. The U.S. just shot down yet another Iranian-made drone within Syrian territory on Tuesday, even as authorities insist they “do not seek conflict with any party in Syria other than ISIS.” Col. Ryan Dillon, chief U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, seemed to

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Given that 2016 was the worst year for homicides in nearly two decades in Chicago, it comes as little surprise that the city has a reputation as one of the most violent places in the United States. Last year, there were 762 murders, 3,550 shooting incidents and 4,331 shooting victims with an average of 12 people shot every single day. In fact, the Windy City experienced more murders than New York and Los Angeles combined last year with the number of homicides there since 2001 eclipsing

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After Harry Markopolos became an international hero for taking down Bernie Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme in 2009, Harry gave King World News an exclusive interview. Markopolos then gave King World News an exclusive in 2011 when he exposed the stunning corruption and theft that was taking place at Bank of New York Mellon as well as other banks. Today Markopolos delivered another bombshell, saying the U.S. government is a giant Ponzi scheme, a full-blown panic is coming and journalism is dead. Markopolos takes KWN readers around the world on a trip down the rabbit hole of corruption, Ponzi schemes, what he calls "The Line of Death," and "A Day of reckoning." The post BREAKING: Madoff Whistleblower Harry Markopolos Says U.S. Government Is A Giant Ponzi Scheme, A Full-Blown Panic Is Coming And Journalism Is Dead appeared first on King World News.

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Authored by Daniel Greenfield via CanadaFreePress.com, If you want to know who has privilege in a society and who doesn’t, follow the anger... There are people in this country who can safely express their anger. And those who can’t. If you’re angry that Trump won, your anger is socially acceptable. If you were angry that Obama won, it wasn’t. James Hodgkinson’s rage was socially acceptable. It continued to be socially acceptable until he crossed the line into

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Content originally published at iBankCoin.com President Trump told Fox News' Ainsley Earhardt in a Fox and Friends interview scheduled to air Friday that he is bothered by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's close relationship with fired FBI Director James Comey. When asked of Mueller should recuse himself, Trump stated "Well he's very, very good friends with Comey which is very bothersome... We're going to have to see." As Radio Host Mark Levin pointed out last week: John Legato is a

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A professor at a Connecticut college said he was forced to flee the state after he received death threats for appearing to endorse the idea that first responders to last week’s congressional shooting should have let the victims "f**king die” instead of treating them, according to the Hartford Courant. Trinity College Professor Johnny Eric Williams shared a link to a medium post which suggested that “bigots” should be left to die in life threatening situations. The

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Authored by Maco Slavo via SHTFplan.com, FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Administration) is planning for a massive solar storm that would be so strong, it would take down the power grid. Noting that the rare, yet “high-consequence” scenario has “the potential for catastrophic impact on our nation and FEMA’s ability to respond.” According to unpublished FEMA documents obtained by Government Attic, a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) database and non-profit

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The median age in most areas of the US is rising, while the population is growing more diverse, according to Census Bureau data released Thursday. America’s median age - the age where half of the population is half younger and half older - rose from 35.3 years on April 1, 2000, to 37.9 years on July 1, 2016, according to the data. Meanwhile, the population of White Americans is growing at a much slower rate than most minority groups: The number of whites living in the US increased by 0.5%

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Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com, An interesting article on HowMuch puts the Bitcoin phenomenon into proper perspective. Google founder Larry Page’s net worth beats bitcoin’s entire market cap. Microsoft founder Bill Gates’s net worth is double Bitcoin. Please consider The Bitcoin Economy, in Perspective. Last year, Bitcoin became more stable than gold, and earlier this year, the price of a Bitcoin surpassed that of an ounce of gold for the first time.

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It was just about a year ago that James Comey boldly consolidated the roles of investigator, lawyer, judge and jury when he announced that, although Hillary was "extremely careless" in her mishandling of classified State Department emails, no reasonable prosecutor would be willing to bring charges against her.  And even though she got a free pass from the former FBI Director, Hillary may not be "out of the woods" just yet.  As The Washington Times points out, a New York attorney has

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