In response to this report of $1.4 billion dollars of ARRA funding, that's Stimulus dollars, claiming to create U.S. jobs, instead being funneled offshore to foreign nations, Senators Schumer, Brown, Tester & Casey demand the Obama administration Suspend Stimulus Program Funneling Billions Overseas.
In the wake of a new report revealing that a clean-energy grant program in the stimulus has paid out more than $1 billion to foreign manufacturers, U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), Bob Casey (D-PA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Jon Tester (D-MT) urged the Obama administration Wednesday to suspend the program indefinitely until the law can be fixed so that funds only flow to projects that will create jobs in the United States.
Gomory is referring to the United States response to the mercantile trade practices of China. In the piece, The Innovation Delusion, Gomory exposes the absurdity the United States can create intellectual property, advanced R&D and innovate it's way out of the trade deficit. Gomory also calls out Thomas Flat Brain Friedman, one of my favorite things to see. (I have yet to figure out how such nonsense even gets published never mind on the best sellers' list!)
It seems the MSM is finally catching on and reporting that Stimulus is actually stimulating other countries economies, including China. ABC News is reporting $2.1 billion of renewable energy stimulus funds have gone offshore.
For many a post, I've said the U.S. government needs to get into the Venture Capital game, especially for key advanced sectors critical to the national interest. Well, read this Wall Street Journal piece to get a warm fuzzy that someone, somewhere, is doing something right.
The DOE hopes to lend or give out more than $40 billion to businesses working on "clean technology," everything from electric cars and novel batteries to wind turbines and solar panels. In the first nine months of 2009, the DOE doled out $13 billion in loans and grants to such firms. By contrast, venture-capital firms -- which have long been the chief funders of fledgling tech firms, taking equity stakes in the start-ups that will pay off if they go public -- poured just $2.68 billion into the sector in that time, according to data tracker Cleantech Group.
Noel explains that, in addition to waiting for a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy, he must then get funding from investors. The irony is that, at a time when credit is tight, many investors are putting scarce resources into Chinese projects, not American.
Wondering why $787 Billion in Stimulus funds isn't translating into jobs for Americans? This might be part of the reason.
As we warned here and here, a new study confirms that yes indeed, Stimulus funds are being given to foreign companies, offshore, with no restrictions.
Of the $1.05 billion in clean-energy grants handed out by the government since Sept. 1, 84 percent – a total of $849 million – has gone to foreign wind companies. Spanish utility company, Iberdrola S.A., alone has collected $545 million through its American subsidiary.
You can bet all of the good ones have been eaten by China and all of those crappy nasty ones have been bitten, put back in the box and left for America.
Remember the Stimulus and how we're all going to recover by getting those new shiny green jobs? Guess what, companies are offshore outsourcing them in droves:
The US firms have offshored 22,000 green technology jobs to India since January 1, 2009, Doug Brown, co-author of the influential 2009 Green Outsourcing Report, informed TNIE.
“We see the (green job offshoring) trend increasing as the US and the UK outsourcing buyers are seeking lower cost in labour and energy consumption. There are few suppliers who match credentials and outcomes of Indian firms,” he said.
The annual industry study by Brown-Wilson Group, which surveyed 4,000 global firms, was released last week.
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