During these historic times of chaos and fear on Wall Street, one market still stands poised to achieve great success: green investing, which includes everything from wind and solar power to forest conservation. It’s the next ‘bull market’, and it’s got a lot of promise for investors looking to pick up the pieces of their financial futures.
From The Nation:
Since 2001, the wind industry has grown 339 percent; the solar industry has grown a whopping 579 percent; both are projected to continue their blockbuster double-digit annual growth into the foreseeable future. In contrast, the Dow Jones average has climbed just 2 percent during the same period, and is only barely hanging on at those levels because of the artificial boost produced by talk of the bailout.
A recent report by the Center for American Progress estimates that investing just $100 billion in the green economy (one-seventh the amount contemplated in the administration’s proposed Wall Street bailout) would create 2 million new jobs, with a significant percentage of those coming in the struggling manufacturing and construction sectors. In contrast, investing that much money in the financial services sector would generate just 1.1 million jobs, according to an analysis conducted by the study’s authors, Robert Pollin and Heidi Garrett-Peltier of the University of Massachusetts. In other words, Wall Street’s offering about half the jobs for the same money: hardly a smart bet for the taxpayer.
The Nation explains how a green investment on the level of the Wall Street bailout could create growth on a massive scale, almost entirely eliminating unemployment and significantly raising middle-class incomes. We’d be pushing forth on the transition to clean energy at a pace that would eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels at a much faster rate than could occur otherwise. It would also provide funding for a new green tech revolution, allowing ideas like skyscraper farms to become reality. Check it out at The Nation’s website.
It’s true – think of how much we could accomplish by diverting just a fraction of the massive Wall Street bailout to green tech instead of rescuing firms that have made their mistakes. Of course, that’s not going to happen, but green investing is certainly radiating promise during such uncertain times.
Link [The Nation]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
