And now a few words from Senator McCain and your investment tip of the week.

McCain on ethanol (excerpts from a speech made in Ames, Iowa no less, this past November):

"Yes, I oppose subsidies. Not just ethanol subsidies. Subsidies. And not just in Iowa either. I oppose them in my own state of Arizona. I am a proud of the conservative tradition that the government can sometimes best serve the interests of the American people by knowing when to stay out of their way

There is no economic force on this globe that is stronger than free people. Entrepreneurs lie at the heart of innovation, growth, and advancing prosperity. Entrepreneurs should not be shackled by excessive regulation that raises the cost of business. Entrepreneurs should not be disadvantaged by earmarking and pork-barrel spending that favors politically connected competitors.

I trust Americans, I trust markets and I oppose subsidies. As President, I'll propose a national energy strategy that will amount to a declaration of independence from the risk bred by our reliance on petro-dictators and our vulnerability to the troubled politics of the lands they rule. That strategy won't be another grab bag of handouts to this or that industry and a full employment act for lobbyists."

We like it when McCain talks to us like this and we'll freely admit that this ability to tell Iowan farmers probably what they didn't want to hear was fully underappreciated by us.

We have a Naval Reservist in our office doing his 2 weeks active duty rotation. In real life he works for an investment firm that specializes in green and renewable energy for public utilities. We’re big fans of “money”… as in “private money”… as in “what’s the private money doing?” as this is a great indicator of the relative strength of an idea or technology as there is inherent risk with private money… public money (your tax dollars invested by the Government), not so much.

This is why we supported President Bush when he denied federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Moral dilemmas aside, if stem cell research was the medical Big Idea, then why wasn’t there the amount of private investment there that would suggest it was so?

Anyway, we asked him: “Where’s the green money going?” “Batteries”. “Batteries?” “Yeah. There is promise in wind and solar power but unfortunately, when its needed at peak hours in the evening, the wind dies down and the sun sets. This is the problem with that technology currently, so the money is going towards finding ways to store the megawatts of energy that can be used when the demand is there.”

What’s the money doing with ethanol? Not much. The smart money knows its ultimately a dead end.