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	<title>Seeker Blog</title>
	<link>http://seekerblog.com</link>
	<description>Seeking reliable, objective sources on economics, foreign-policy and energy-policy issues.</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:25:35 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<item>
		<title>Bill Gurley on the &#8220;Free&#8221; Business Model</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
  (&#8230;) if a disruptive competitor can offer a product or service similar to yours for “free,” and if they can make enough money to keep the lights on, then you likely have a problem.


Don&#8217;t miss Bill Gurley&#8217;s analysis.


  I have been intrigued by the back and forth between Chris Anderson, Malcolm Gladwell, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seekerblog.com/archives/20100316/bill-gurley-on-the-free-business-model/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Google Redefines Disruption: The “Less Than Free” Business Model</title>
		<description><![CDATA[

Benchmark&#8217;s Bill Gurley examines the planet-buster that Google has dropped on the GPS navigators, and on Apple&#8217;s iPhone?


  I like to think of myself as an aficionado of business disruption. After all, as a venture capitalist it is imperative to understand ways in which a smaller private company can gain the upper hand on [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seekerblog.com/archives/20100315/google-redefines-disruption-the-%e2%80%9cless-than-free%e2%80%9d-business-model/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>David Swensen: Yale’s Financial Wizard, guest lecture and interview</title>
		<description><![CDATA[

You can view (or just listen) to a great guest lecture by David Swensen, in Bob Shiller&#8217;s Financial Markets course. The whole course is on iTunes U, but you can grab this lecture directly at Academic Earth, or at iTunes U (audio) which is what we wanted for our iPod hiking.

The ProPublica interview with David [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seekerblog.com/archives/20100315/yale%e2%80%99s-financial-wizard-david-swensen-says-most-endowments-shouldn%e2%80%99t-try-to-be-like-yale/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Andy Smith&#8217;s Daily Burn: food logging + feedback</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Yesterday on This Week in Startups, Jason had the CEO of Daily Burn, Andy Smith, on as guest entrepreneur. Unfortunately we don&#8217;t have an iPhone so we can&#8217;t access the coolest parts of their offering.

We have a Mac calorie/food database/journal which reduces the work of journaling. But the interface is nothing great. What Daily Burn [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seekerblog.com/archives/20100315/andy-smiths-daily-burn-food-logging-feedback/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Understanding the Limits of Wind Power: Key Industry Terms</title>
		<description><![CDATA[For those who are not familiar with the misleading PR tricks used by the wind power industry, this tutorial by Master Resource is very clear and concise.


  Two characteristics of industrial wind power crucially inform the public policy debate.

  First, wind turbines have little or no “capacity value”; i.e., they are unlikely to [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seekerblog.com/archives/20100314/understanding-the-limits-of-wind-power-key-industry-terms/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>What Is Really Happening to the Venture Capital Industry?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[


  All in all, one should expect a large number of VC firms to call it quits over the next five years. &#8211; Bill Gurley


Don&#8217;t miss this perspective on the alternative investments&#8221; asset class&#8221; which, of course, includes venture capital. The above graphic shows the explosion in Leveraged Buyout funds &#8212; but the same [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seekerblog.com/archives/20100314/untitled-12/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Android or iPhone? Wrong Question</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital offers a very interesting look at what Android means to the smartphone market. The following excerpts give the flavor of Bill&#8217;s view &#8212; you need to read the whole piece to put his argument together.


  (&#8230;) If Apple’s business model is aggressive relative to the carriers, in contrast Google’s [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seekerblog.com/archives/20100313/android-or-iphone-wrong-question/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Caldeira Lab: High-altitude windpower</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
  

  Caption: A Sky WindPower kite of turbines might capture wind energy with spinning rotors and send electricity to the ground through the wire that tethers it. [Credit Ben Shepard].

  Dr. Ken Caldeira was kind enough to offer corrections to an earlier post on high wind power opportunities. Which motivated me [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seekerblog.com/archives/20100313/caldeira-lab-high-altitude-windpower/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Hansen backs fee-and-dividend carbon tax and nuclear power</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
  An honest effective approach to energy and climate must place a steadily rising price on carbon emissions. It can only be effective if it is a simple flat fee on all carbon fuels, collected from fossil fuel companies on the first sale, at the mine, wellhead or port of entry.

  The fee [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seekerblog.com/archives/20100312/hansen-backs-fee-and-dividend-carbon-tax-and-nuclear-power/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Solar subsidies: the Ruhr study on the German Experience</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Tom Blees concluded: without considering how the intermittency will be compensated he estimates the German taxpayer is being stuck with about 70 times the cost of modern nuclear.

For reference, read the November 2009 study published by Ruhr University on &#8220;&#8230;the German Experience&#8221; [PDF].


  Abstract

The allure of an environmentally benign, abundant, and cost-effective energy source [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seekerblog.com/archives/20100312/economic-impacts-from-the-promotion-of-renewable-energy-technologies-%e2%80%93-the-german-experience/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Solar subsidies: the German disease</title>
		<description><![CDATA[George Monbiot is earning more points for intellectual honesty. It is also refreshing that the Guardian continues to publish his very non-PC analysis of the solar subsidies:


  (&#8230;) Against my instincts I’ve come to oppose solar photovoltaic power (PV) in the UK, and the feed-in tariffs designed to encourage it, because the facts show [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seekerblog.com/archives/20100312/solar-subsidies-the-german-disease/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Where Will the Jobs Come From? Not Small Business, Not Venture Capital, Not (Much) Manufacturing</title>
		<description><![CDATA[David Goldman continues to present the bear case convincingly. Below I&#8217;ve just excerpted from his analysis two key Fed charts.


  Pardon my gloom, but it’s not clear to me where an employment recovery will come from–at least in the United States. All the indicators we have show that employment is scraping along the bottom. [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seekerblog.com/archives/20100311/where-will-the-jobs-come-from-not-small-business-not-venture-capital-not-much-manufacturing/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>TED 2010: Bill Gates wishes for more than &#8220;cheaper than coal&#8221; (transcript)</title>
		<description><![CDATA[TED has posted the transcript of Gates&#8217; presentation on energy policy. The TED transcripts are interactive, which is great if you wish to hope to a specific video segment based on what you read in the transcript. But it is a pain to get the transcript out where you can read and reflect:


  I&#8217;m [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seekerblog.com/archives/20100311/ted-2010-bill-gates-wishes-for-more-than-cheaper-than-coal-transcript/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>More Trouble from Commercial Real Estate</title>
		<description><![CDATA[More troubling perspective from David Goldman. A non-accrual loan is a non-performing loan, typically that has not paid interest due for at least 90 days.


  Over at Forbes Online, James Kaplan of the research firm Audit Integrity observes:

  
    The 20 banks on our list …exhibit the following alarming levels [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seekerblog.com/archives/20100311/more-trouble-from-commercial-real-estate/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Ken Caldeira and Bill Gates on high wind</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Bill Gates continues his study of energy policy: Bill has repeatedly demonstrated that he knows how to winnow out credible experts in each field that he is studying. Ken Caldeira is certainly an excellent choice to critique the &#8220;electricity from kites&#8221; idea.


  Energy sources that provide power without producing CO2 are critical to addressing [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://seekerblog.com/archives/20100311/ken-caldeira-and-bill-gates-on-high-wind/</link>
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