In a private interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr. Rice touched on an array of topics related to GE and its substantial operations in developing markets from China to Turkey. Mr. Rice said that demand in infrastructure in China "remains great."
Mr. Rice said that many governments still haven't figured out the best ways to encourage maximum investment in new energy projects. He cited the U.S., where a controversial wind-production tax credit known as the "PTC" faced annual federal renewals.
"On again, off again approvals was the way to waste billions," Mr. Rice said. "There was no ability to plan."It sounds like Mr Rice is really frustrated with the government's energy policy. Geee....no, not "geee" but GE.
Oh, by the way -- he suggests 8% growth in China is a reasonable expectation: lots of conventional energy is going to be needed: coal, natural gas, and oil.
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Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on what you see here or what you might have think you saw here.
Can we all have an amen? WMB raises dividend again. And again.
WMB board of directors has approved a regular dividend of $0.4025 on the company's common stock, payable March 31, 2014, to holders of record at the close of business on March 14.
The first-quarter 2014 dividend is an increase of $0.0225, or 5.9 percent, from the previous quarterly dividend of $.38 per share. The new amount is an increase of $0.06375, or 18.8 percent, from the first-quarter 2013 dividend.
The company continues to expect to increase the full-year dividend it pays shareholders by 20 percent in each of 2014 and 2015 – to per-share amounts of $1.75 and $2.11, respectively. Williams' full-year dividend for 2013 was $1.44 per share.
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Things Have Changed, Bob Dylan
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A Note to the Granddaughters
Readers should ignore this post. There's going to be some grandfatherly bragging.
Overhead Starbucks is playing a '60's Bob Dylan song. It brings back great memories. This tune must be located immediately next to the neuron(s) that store information from room 102, Solberg Hall, Augustana College, roommate Rich Nelson, 1969 - 1970.
My roommate was probably the smartest person I ever knew, up to that point. He had a photographic memory, or what sophisticates call an eidetic memory. He would stay up all night before a calculus test, a course we shared in our freshman year, looking at the chapter for the first time. I had studied all week. Calculus was at 7:30 a.m., taught by a retired US Navy officer. Rich would fall asleep about 6:30 a.m. after staying up all night. He had three alarm clocks to wake him up which he hid in drawers, and still he might have overslept had it not been for me or others across the hall coming by to wake him up. He would ace the test. I did okay but never scored as well as he did.
So, the video, but, of course, not the one that Starbucks was playing.
Our older granddaughter appears to have an eidetic memory, at least to some extent, in some areas. Like all children her age, she loves to read. When I say "loves to read," it is not an exaggeration. She will read every free moment she finds. She brought home the results of her standardized reading test yesterday. She told us, and checking out the website regarding the standardized test, that she is now reading at college level. She says there are no books in her elementary school library that are "college level." I asked her what she was going to do. She said she would just read "more" books.
She is the one, a fifth grader, who has asked me to leave my library to her when it's time to leave it to someone.
On another note, I accomplished something yesterday I have wanted to accomplish for a long time. Regular readers know that my biggest disappointment coming out of high school (academically) was not understanding/appreciating physics, specifically electricity. [My biggest disappointment coming out of high school, not academically, was not dating a certain young woman.]
But I digress.
Where was I? Oh, yes, electricity. I have never understood electricity. Yesterday I took a college text on electricity and started reading. Then, when the granddaughters came home from school we got out the Elenco Snap Circuits kit which their dad got them some time ago. We check it out periodically mostly for entertainment but yesterday it was for learning. Our older granddaughter was thrilled when she saw the difference between circuits in series and parallel, and then tried to understand a diode. It was a great day. I finally understood a bit more. We have quite a bit more to go to get through this kit, but it looks like there's even more available out there. I see there's an Elenco Solar Deluxe Educational Kit -- wow. It's going to be a busy summer. [Later, when I was discussing this with her mom, our older granddaughter pointed out something I had said that was incorrect.]
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It was particularly cold today taking them to school. Our older granddaughter knew it was going to be very, very cold. We never drive; we always walk, no matter how cold. But today, the older granddaughter really, really wanted to ride over to the school because it was going to be really, really cold. I hate waiting in long car lines, so I discussed with her that if we drove, I would take a different route, and that they might have to get out at the cross-walk and walk the last little bit on their own.
It was a nice discussion. It started to turn a bit too philosophical.
The younger granddaughter cut to the chase: "Ride or walk. Decide. I just want to get to school on time."
We walked.
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