Digital Archive....

Kenyan Consumer Guide on Solar for Homes Bankelele Kenya is currently the largest market for solar home systems on the African continent and second largest in the world, after China, by both annual sales as well as total installed base. The Kenyan solar home system (SHS) category is considered the most competitive by far, and  due to its history and heritage ,one of the most developed, albeit primarily in the informal sector.  Today, there are over 350,000 solar home systems across Kenya and the market is still growing at more than 15% a year. What does this mean for you, the consumer?  V ariety of solar options for rural household s Choice:   With so much to choose from and new products, services and business models being launched, how can you evaluate what kind of solution would work best for your household needs? Not only is there something for every budget, but big names such as Safaricom, Total, Dayliff (Davis & Shirtliff), Solla...

The Great Bank Escape Project Syndicate - A World of Ideas - the highest quality opinion ... Corporate decisions taken in the name of shareholder value often benefit only those whose wealth is closely tied to the firm's profits, and may be harmful to many shareholders. If policymakers and regulators do not strengthen their reform efforts, taxpayers and shareholders – not bankers – will suffer the consequences of the next crisis.

Stephen Ellis on Africa in world: "best" book 2012 Africa Works Worldwide, there's a growing concensus that "outsiders" (useful, for lack of a better term to describe non-residents of the sub-Saharan) ought to view Africa with a new set of spectacles. Outdated pre-conceptions still dominate outisders perceptions of what ails Africa, and how the "patient" might best be "cured." But increasingly, the dangerous stereotypes of the past – mental maps and meta-narratives that influenced all manner of wrong-headed understandings of what's happening in the sub-Saharan – are giving way to new approaches that begin with asking better questions about Africa's present and future. Probably the clearest expression of the need for looking afresh at a tired subject is this year's most important book on Africa by a professional Africanist, the eminent observer of the region's politics, Stephen Ellis. An advisor ...

The 'Great Scam' Economist's View Following up the post below this one, Paul Krugman explains why it's important to realize that deficit reduction is not the true goal of Republicans, it's just a means to bring about tax cuts for the wealthy and pay for them with cuts to social services such as Medicare and Social Security: ...Remember, George W. Bush campaigned on the basis that the surplus of the late Clinton years meant that we needed to cut taxes — and Alan Greenspan provided crucial support, telling Congress that the biggest danger we faced was that we might pay off our debt too fast. Now Greenspan is helping groups like Fix the Debt. And as  Duncan Black  points out, the Bush experience tells us something important about fiscal policy: namely, that when Democrats get obsessed with deficit reduction, all they do is provide a pot of money that Republicans will squander on more tax breaks for the ...

http://www.freakonomics.com/2012/12/28/an-economists-guide-to-year-end-charitable-giving/