A top German banker, Jens Weidmann, commented Wednesday that digital currencies like bitcoin could cause a financial catastrophe. The banker alluded to the idea digital currencies are unstable and prone to violent fluctuations on the market. Weidmann said for people to expect banks to adopt digital currencies so the average citizen begin to have faith in them.
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A Business Insider article further suggested the banking system has a leg up on digital currencies, because they have the ability to print as much money as they want. In other words, they can avert a financial collapse by magically creating more liquidity.
The article quoted Weidmann, saying, “This is a feature which will become relevant especially in times of crisis – when there will be a strong incentive for money holders to switch bank deposits into the official digital currency simply at the push of a button.”
The article’s author also said the banker’s position was that when banks have their own digital currencies, they can use various features to protect the banks from going on bank runs. They could provide people with digital assets so they don’t start taking all their cash out of the bank. The article read:
Weidmann’s basic point is that by making currencies fully digital in future, withdrawing money from a bank would become much more simple. Instead of physically having to visit a cashpoint or bank branch to withdraw cash, customers could do it online. In times of crisis, when people tend to take money out of their accounts so they can have the perceived safety of cash, causing the phenomenon of the bank run.
What the German banker and Business Insider article imply is that digital currencies will not cause a financial crisis alone. A financial crisis will only occur if banks do not have absolute dominion over digital assets, in order to help stabilize them. They are suggesting that people cannot trust cryptocurrencies, but they can trust the regulators and bankers to control their digital wealth for them.
This is a current theme within the banking 
conglomerates’ narrative. Many banks and banking elites have taken notice of the stellar rise of cryptocurrencies, especially bitcoin and Ethereum. In this sense, they have issued commentary about regulating and usurping these digital assets.
Recently, Bitcoin.com covered commentary by Investment Bank Stanley Morgan, in which they said bitcoin would not grow without adequate regulations and control. These controls presumably include the use of “permissioned blockchains.” In some places, courts have actually given banks authority to deny service to blockchain-based companies. This happened in Israel, because “The bank told the court that it fears how criminal organizations can send their ‘monkeys’ to buy bitcoins and transfer them to wallets under their control.”
However, not all banks have had as a heavy-handed mindset. In Russia, bankers want to regulate the currency, but they want to embrace it as well. They do not appear wanting to control it to the point of trying to undermine its original purpose. They certainly do not believe the currency will cause a financial collapse and destroy all the things.
According to relevant reports, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Board recently issued a "on the coal-fired power plant to carry out the norms of construction and operation of the transformation of the notice" (hereinafter referred to as "notice"), will be formed before the end of this year, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Guangxi, Jiangsu and Shandong 6 provinces (autonomous regions) to conduct on-site investigation. The inspection activities, for their own power plant "big" electrolytic aluminum industry, to a certain extent, will have an impact.
In order to further strengthen and standardize the supervision and management of coal-fired power plants, before the end of June, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration will cooperate with the Ministry of Industry and Information, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Environmental Protection, etc., in order to further strengthen and standardize the supervision and management of coal-fired power plants. Departments will form a special inspection team, select some provinces to carry out on-site investigation. Currently selected six provinces (autonomous regions) for Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Guangxi, Jiangsu, Shandong. The National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Industry and Information Bureau, the State Energy Bureau of Electric Power Division, France will be led to the six provinces to carry out inspections, and through field visits, random sampling or unannounced visits to understand the situation The Each province will see no less than three companies.
In recent years, China's new production capacity of electrolytic aluminum and production mainly concentrated in Xinjiang, Shandong, Inner Mongolia and other places, these areas of the new production of electrolytic aluminum production capacity is mostly self-owned power plant as a prerequisite. As we all know, the cost of electricity in the cost of electrolytic aluminum production accounted for more than half of the ratio, and in recent years, China's electrolytic aluminum production capacity to exacerbate a major factor in the regional price imbalance caused by uneven production costs and costs, and have their own power plant Of the enterprises in terms of cost has a huge advantage and continue to increase investment in new electrolytic aluminum production capacity.
In April this year, the National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Land and Resources, Ministry of Environmental Protection jointly issued a "clean up the electrolytic aluminum industry illegal activities of the special action program" notice, the work program that will strictly prohibit illegal aluminum construction, Illegal projects to clean up and rectify, and organize the implementation of a series of clean-up operations, in June 30 to complete the local verification, September 15 to complete a special spot checks, October 5 to complete supervision and rectification.
As the cost of many electrolytic aluminum enterprises in the largest "benefit point" of the self-owned power plant, to some extent the existence of government funds, renewable energy and cross-subsidy of electricity tariffs are not in place, and did not hold "Zhunsheng Zheng" Legitimate conditions of compliance, seriously affected the safe and healthy development of China's power system, exacerbated China's power overcapacity, electricity price imbalance and other prominent issues. In this regard, the inspection action once started, will likely become the first to clean up the rectification of electrolytic aluminum illegal project "starting point."
It is reported that the contents of the inspection mainly includes three aspects:
Inspect the contents
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The first is the basic situation of coal-fired power plants, including the province's coal-fired power plant planning and layout, installed capacity, to be built in the situation; completed project list, operation and approval departments, approval basis, qualification permit; Whether there is no approved construction requirements, not the first to build, approved construction does not match, public power plant to switch to self-imposed power plant, and not up to start construction conditions such as illegal construction and operation.
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The second is the coal-owned power plant commitment to social responsibility, including whether to pay government funds and additional, policy cross-subsidy, system reserve costs and payment standards, payment time; unpaid, missed, Start time and reason.
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The third is the coal-fired power plant discharge standards, including the level of energy efficiency and pollutant emissions to meet the relevant provisions of the state and the requirements of the standard, the existence of ultra-standard super-total emissions, whether the provisions of the implementation of energy conservation, environmental protection, As well as the elimination of backward production capacity and so on.
At the same time, "on strengthening and regulating coal-fired power plant supervision and management of the guidance" that the coal-fired power plant is an important part of China's thermal power industry. With the continuous expansion of installed capacity of power plants and thermal power industry energy efficiency, environmental standards continue to improve, to further strengthen and regulate self-owned power plant supervision and management, and gradually promote the self-owned power plants and public power plant management, to promote self-owned power plant in an orderly development.
Aside from learning more about the rocks, the following six factors have contributed to the tight oil learning curve:
1. Walking rigs – Assembling and dismantling rigs for each new well used to be an unproductive, time consuming process. Wrenches and bolts are passé; new rigs “walk” on large well pads needling holes in the ground like a sewing machine on a patch.
2. Bigger, better gear – From drill bits to motors, pump and electronic sensors, all the gear on a rig is now more powerful and more precise.
3. Longer lateral wells – A horizontal well is like a trough that gathers oil in the rock formation. Why stop at one kilometer when you can drill out two or three with the better gear?
4. Fracturing with greater intensity – Hydraulic fracturing used to be a one-off, complicated process. Today, liberating tight oil is like unzipping a zipper down the length of a lateral well section.
5. Smarter, better logistics – Idle time on well sites can cost tens of thousands of dollars an hour. Modern supply chain management and logistics are helping operators use every hour of the clock more cost effectively.
6. ‘High grading’ of prospects – Low oil prices culled the industry’s spreadsheets of uneconomic play areas. Activity migrated to high quality ‘sweet spots’, which are turning out to be more plentiful than originally thought.
How much better can it all get?
The data in our chart, and from other plays, suggests that the collective learning from these factors may have peaked; ergo a high school conclusion might lead us to believe that the golden geese—tight oil wells drilled into prolific plays like the US Permian and Eagle Ford—may have finally finished laying bigger and bigger eggs.
But it’s not wise to be fooled into that sort of undergraduate thinking. Productivity may have stalled for now, but the learning is paying off. The rate of output growth in the new genre of light tight oil plays isn’t about to lose momentum around the $50/B mark.
Since we opened our first store in 1980, we've not only been passionate about healthy food, we’ve been passionate about a healthy planet. From team members who made something happen in their own home stores to executive leaders who made historical decisions that put planet before profits, we’re always trying something new in green. We work on it every day.
While every store location does things a little differently, we are united in striving to honor this golden rule of environmental stewardship, whether in company-wide or localized efforts.
Our stores are taking the initiative in many areas to reduce our impact on Earth and its resources, including:
We reuse material of all kinds whenever possible, including:
Beyond recycling cardboard and paper, which has long been a regular practice in every store, office and facility, other examples of recycling initiatives include:
In January of 2006, we made our first landmark purchase of renewable energy credits (RECs) from wind farms to offset 100% of the electricity used in all of our stores and other facilities in the United States and Canada. In 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, we did it again! This green action and others earned us the Environmental Protection Agency Green Power Partner of the Year 2006, 2007 and 2010. Additionally, the Environmental Protection Agency recognized us for our green power purchases with a Green Power Leadership Award in 2004, 2005 and 2006.
Our investment in wind energy supports the clean energy industry and helps us avoid nearly 551,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution. That's an environmental benefit equivalent to not consuming 1,200,000 barrels of oil or avoiding the annual electricity usage of 65,000 average-sized homes*. Learn more about how national wind RECs work.
*For more details on these calculations and clean energy in general, visit the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Energy page.
As of 2015, we had 25 stores and facilities supplementing traditional power with solar power, and there are more in development. A typical solar installation can:
As of 2015, we had 45 electric vehicle charging stations at our stores, and 31 more in progress.
We are gradually converting our truck fleet to biodiesel fuels, reducing CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. Our fleet is also being fitted with aerodynamic aprons to cut down on wind resistance resulting in less fuel consumption. These trucks also use a fuel-saving (and emissions-cutting) system that allows the engine to be turned off completely at loading and delivery, rather than remain idling.
Green building techniques conserve natural resources by reducing the use of virgin raw materials and minimizing the amount of toxic resins and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) off-gassed by traditional building materials such as laminates, paint and carpeting.
In addition to reclaimed materials, new store construction includes innovative materials such as MDF (medium density fiberboard made from 100% recovered and recycled wood fiber), Marmoleum (a natural linoleum product); and FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) Certified Wood.
We are proud to have more than 45 stores that have been or are in the process of Green Globes or LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification. Our store in Brooklyn, NY, is on track to receive LEED Platinum certification.
As of 2015, twenty of our stores had been awarded the Environmental Protection Agency’s GreenChill certification. We have the most natural-refrigerant stores in the grocery business.
A significant number of our individual stores’ Community Giving Days benefit nonprofit environmental organizations with a percent of store sales. In addition, team members often participate in local cleanups or regularly volunteer their time to nonprofits.
We go to great lengths to source products using specific standards or purchasing guidelines which emphasize environmental health or include an environmental component:
Many of our stores offer bulk purchasing – as little or as much as you need – which reduces packaging and shipping weight. In addition, our own Whole Foods Market™ and 365 Everyday Value® brands’ bottled body products, vitamins and supplements are in bottles made from at least 50% recycled plastic.
We are in the process of replacing traditional plastic and paper prepared-food containers with compostable fiber packaging made from renewable resources such as bagasse (made from sugar cane pulp and wood fibers). These are either unbleached (free from chlorine and dioxins) or lightened with non-elemental chlorine bleach, which does not have the same environmental detriments as industrial chlorine bleach.
Whole Foods Market is concerned with the social and environmental impacts of palm oil production in tropical rainforest ecosystems around the world, and our company supports the protection of rainforests, communities and our global climate.
We are proud to report that 100% of Whole Foods Market’s 365 Everyday Value® brand food items containing palm oil, palm kernel oil, palm fruit oil and palm shortening are produced using Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certified sustainable oil products. We are fulfilling this pledge through the purchase of Identity-Preserved, Segregated and Mass Balance palm oil.
We acknowledge that many stakeholders believe that the current RSPO standards do not adequately address the impact of palm production on peatlands, High Conservation Value Areas, High Carbon Stock forests, human rights, and the principle of free, prior and informed consent, and we are actively engaged in a multi-stakeholder initiative that seeks to build on the RSPO standards by more deeply addressing these issues. Whole Foods Market calls on our peers in the food industry to join us.
