The Key to Low-Cost Solar Cells

While thin film technologies are receiving worldwide attention with their potential to lower the cost of solar energy, there are researchers who are thinking outside the box and are looking into different approaches that will result in cost reductions for photovoltaic technologies. One of those approaches comes with the collaboration of the Department of Engineering [...]

Source: http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/press/key-low-cost-solar-cells/

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Offshore U.S. oversight of derivatives may bolster defenses against JPMorgan-type losses

The CDS indices involved in the JPMorgan trades are already encompassed under CFTC’s anti-fraud and anti-manipulation regime, and a clearing house clears trades in the CDS indices.

Source: http://blogs.reuters.com/financial-regulatory-forum/2012/05/29/offshore-u-s-oversight-of-derivatives-may-bolster-defenses-against-jpmorgan-type-losses/

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Microsoft Surface: 5 Reasons to Pay Attention to This iPad Challenger

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Microsoft surfaceMicrosoft's (MSFT) plan to take on Apple's (AAPL) iconic iPad finally surfaced on Monday.

The arrival of Surface -- the name of Microsoft's upcoming Windows-based tablet -- will naturally be met with a lot of skepticism. Despite the company's success in software and video game consoles, it has done poorly when trying to play catch up with Apple in the past.

The Zune was no iPod. Last year's commitment giving Nokia (NOK) billions in support in return for the handset maker's championing of Microsoft's fledgling mobile operating system has yet to result in any serious inroads against Apple's iPhone.

Why should Microsoft fare any better with tablets?

Well, there are plenty of reasons to take the world's largest software company seriously in its push to make Surface a mainstream device, and not just because it's taking a big gamble by breaking from tradition and putting out the computing hardware on its own. Here are some reasons to get excited.

Microsoft surface

1. Microsoft's going bigger

Early tablet makers tried to match the iPad's screen size of 9.7 inches, but the push to beat Apple on price eventually found companies saving money by thinking smaller.

Amazon's (AMZN) Kindle, Barnes & Noble's (BKS) Nook, and Research In Motion's (RIMM) PlayBook have all settled on 7-inch touchscreens.

Surface is going with a larger 10.6-inch screen. The end result is a tablet that may be larger in terms of lugging around, but it should provide a better device to consume video. The fact that the Surface features a kickstand -- allowing it to stand up like a photo frame -- makes this a device that folks can simply place on a desk or table and enjoy.

2. Surface is coming in two flavors

Microsoft watchers weren't sure what they would be getting ahead of Monday afternoon's rollout. Would they be getting a simplified tablet or a high-end computing device? Well, buyers will have a choice.

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The first Surface that will hit the market in a few months will be fueled by the stripped down Windows RT version of Microsoft's new operating system and will use the same ARM-based processor architecture as many of popular tablets already on the market. A few months later, the company will introduce a beefier model using Intel (INTC) chips and running Windows 8 Pro.

Aiming for both ends of the market matters.

3. Two words: Flash and Office

Apple's iOS doesn't support Flash, something that has helped Android gain a foothold with visitors of sites using the popular video platform. Surface will support Flash.

As a Windows-powered device, Surface will also play nice with the undisputed champ among productivity suites: Microsoft Office. There may be Android and iOS apps that indirectly work with Office files, but this is the real McCoy.

4. Microsoft has friends in high places

It's pretty convenient that Netflix (NFLX) CEO Reed Hastings sits on Microsoft's board of directors. That relationship may have been instrumental in granting the Xbox 360 a year of streaming exclusivity before Netflix became available on the rival PS3 and Wii consoles.

It wasn't a surprise to hear on Monday that Netflix will stream on Surface.

5. Microsoft isn't afraid to spend money to make money

Microsoft reportedly sells the Xbox at a loss, knowing that it can make it back in software and digital goodies. Its move to spend billions in support of Nokia's Lumia initiative is another example of Microsoft willing to take a near-term hit for the potential of long-term reward.

Microsoft didn't reveal pricing information on either Surface model this week, but it would be a surprise if the company is aiming for Apple-sized profit margins. Microsoft knows that it has to sacrifice margins to hit a price point that's compelling to mainstream audiences. It will also need to shell out big bucks to top developers to make sure that they're porting over the hottest iOS and Android downloads for Surface.

Microsoft's not going to bow out quietly here. It knows that it has too much at stake as tablets and smartphones are eating into the traditional PC market.

Motley Fool contributor Rick Munarriz does not own shares in any of the stocks in this article, except for Netflix. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple, Microsoft, Intel, Amazon.com, and Netflix. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Intel, Amazon.com, Apple, Microsoft, and Netflix; writing puts on Barnes & Noble; and creating bull call spread positions in Microsoft and Apple.


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Source: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/06/19/microsoft-surface-5-reasons-to-pay-attention-to-this-ipad-chall/

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Euro Opportunity Could Be Coming

Note: Despite today’s weak market, the S&P 500 lost only 7 points this week; the NASDAQ finished with a slight weekly gain. It didn’t take long for the press to hop on the “pressure grows on Fed to act” train following the weak employment data on Friday morning. From Reuters: Expectations rose that the Federal Reserve [...]

Source: http://ciovaccocapital.com/wordpress/index.php/stock-market-us/euro-opportunity-could-be-coming/

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How to Sneak Into a Roth IRA Through the 'Back Door'

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Back door
The Roth IRA is one of the best retirement vehicles around:

  • Once your money gets into a Roth IRA, it grows tax deferred.
  • At (or after) age 59½, as long as you first funded your Roth IRA at least five years previously, you can withdraw the money completely tax-free.
  • Unlike with many other retirement accounts, you're never required to take a distribution from your Roth IRA, even if you live to be 120.
  • Once you do pass away, your heirs can also take the money out from the account without paying additional income taxes, making the Roth IRA one of the most potent estate tools out there.

The only problem with a Roth IRA is that not everyone qualifies to contribute directly to one.

Fortunately, there are often ways to get money into such an account without directly contributing to it -- creating the concept of a "backdoor Roth IRA."

Sneaking in Through the Back Door

In addition to directly contributing to a Roth IRA, you can get money into one by converting money from a traditional IRA. Until 2010, you needed to have an income below $100,000 to do a conversion, but since that income cap was eliminated, anyone with a traditional IRA can convert part, if not all, of the account to a Roth.

In many cases, it's easier to qualify to get money into a traditional IRA, either through direct contributions or via rollover from a qualified employer-sponsored retirement plan. That's especially true if:

  • You file your taxes as "married filing separately," yet you lived with your spouse.
  • You have a modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) above $110,000 as a single filer.
  • You and your spouse file jointly and together have a MAGI above $173,000.

At any of those levels, you start running into restrictions on the amount you can contribute directly to a Roth IRA -- and quickly run out of room to contribute at all. Not so for a traditional IRA, where the primary restrictions are that you have to be below age 70½ at the end of the year to contribute, and that you need to have taxable compensation of at least enough to cover the IRA contribution amount.

You may or may not be able to deduct the traditional IRA contribution, but you can still make it. And once you've got it, to go from traditional IRA to backdoor Roth IRA is as easy as contributing to the traditional IRA, then immediately converting to a Roth.

What's the Catch?

As easy as it is to do, like virtually everything related to taxes, there are strings attached. But if you follow the rules you won't get tangled in the IRS' web.

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The biggest is the fact that you need to track your tax basis across all your traditional IRAs. If all your traditional IRA contributions were deductible, it's easy -- your traditional IRA tax basis is $0, and all the money you convert is taxable as ordinary income in the year you convert it.

If some or all of your contributions to your traditional IRAs were nondeductible, the math gets a bit trickier. In essence, you look at both your nondeductible basis and your total traditional IRA balance, calculate the ratio, and use that to determine how much you can convert tax-free. What's left over in your traditional IRA after your conversion remains with the same ratio of taxable basis to total value.

For instance, if you've got an $8,000 nondeductible basis and a $20,000 account balance, 60% of the amount you convert from a traditional to a Roth IRA is taxed, and the other 40% is a tax-free conversion of your taxable basis. If you convert $6,000 of that balance, $3,600 is taxable as ordinary income, and $2,400 of your conversion is nontaxable as your basis moving over. Of the $14,000 left in your traditional IRA, $5,600 is your new nondeductible basis and the rest, $8,400, remains untaxed until converted or rolled over.

You can convert some -- or all -- of your traditional IRA balance to a Roth IRA in any given year. Once converted, that money could potentially never face income taxes again. Of course, you'll want to be careful that you don't convert so much in any one given year that you can't pay the taxes on the conversion from money you've got socked away outside of the IRA. It'd be a completely wasted effort -- not only now, but for the long haul -- to be forced to liquidate your account to pay the tax on the conversion that created it.

Still, once you've got money in your Roth IRA through the conversion back door and paid any taxes on that conversion, it can stay there until you pull it out - tax-free, if you qualify -- as a retiree.


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Source: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/07/11/how-to-sneak-into-a-roth-ira-through-the-back-door/

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History repeats…some ETFs seem like Mutual Funds to me…

    For years, the financial industry has promoted and used mutual funds for personal and institutional portfolios.  Actually, it’s been more than years, centuries in fact.  The advent of mutual funds dates back to the late-1700’s in Europe. The first Canadian mutual fund, Canadian Investment Fund Ltd. (CIF) was established in 1932.   Since then, [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/myownadvisor/CsCc/~3/ZVBubyTxzdY/

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Retail Investors Rejoice: Even ETFs Beat Hedge Funds in 2009

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Retail investors who think they're missing out on the big money because they don't have a million bucks to get into a hedge fund should consider themselves lucky. Hedge funds had their best year in a decade in 2009 -- and yet they couldn't even beat the broader market.

Continue reading Retail Investors Rejoice: Even ETFs Beat Hedge Funds in 2009

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Source: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/01/07/retail-investors-rejoice-even-etfs-beat-hedge-funds-in-2009/

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America's economy reformed?

Just over a year after economic calamity brought promises of reform to Washington, many now say that the recession is nearing an end. But is it business as usual for Wall Street, and have future financial crises been averted? Former International Monetary Fund chief economist Simon Johnson and US Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) join Bill Moyers for a report card on the bailouts, an update on the state of the U.S. economy, and to find out whether efforts of reform have been derailed.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bmjvodcast/~3/SIMWnLu_l4s/profile.html

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