Other formerly "free" resources like fresh air

[rumpel]

Straight from Davos -

Innovation and markets key to overcoming next limits to growth

"I absolutely believe that with innovation and markets you can deal with most issues," said Samuel A. DiPiazza Jr, Global CEO of PricewaterhouseCoopers, in answer to the question of how to deal with the next limits to growth. "If you let the market work and give resources the right prices, then the market will adjust," agreed Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Chairman and CEO of Nestlé and World Economic Forum Foundation Board Member. He continued: "If I had to identify one resource I am worried about, that is water ... There is no market mechanism which regulates the water supply."

Other formerly "free" resources like fresh air, blue sky and free jobs, are also difficult to set a market value, said Fred Kindle, President and CEO, ABB. E. Neville Isdell, Chairman and CEO, The Coca-Cola Company, gave the example of South Africa which attempted to do just that with water. They set the basic water requirement at 60 litres, which would be supplied for free to every citizen. Anything in addition would be priced according to usage.

"I don’t think there are real limits to growth, but there are many constraints to growth," said Isdell. His biggest constraint would be a loss of confidence in the system which is causing growth. Such a loss could lead to a rise in levels of populism and a reaction that "causes barriers to go up."

Chukwuma C. Soludo, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria argued that the deep constraints both domestically and globally to growth are more political and social than economic and technological.

http://www.weforum.org/en/events/AnnualMeeting2007/index.htm

no comment - just speechless

[treestar]

1. What does he mean, formerly free?

Does he have a title deed to any part of the air?

LOL, the arrogance of these people!

[walldude]

3. But he has to protect the air from President Skroob

and the Spaceballs!!

[sandnsea]

2. Death by poverty is just a market mechanism n/t

[rumpel]

4. I had to look up the man, behind those words...

the company:

Our businesses
ABB is a global leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 107,000 people.

http://www.abb.com/cawp/abbzh252/a92797a76354298bc1256aea00487bdb.aspx

and a snip from the 2006 Q2
Turning to asbestos, that issue is now almost at an end. As you know, we made the Combustion Engineering plan of reorganization effective in April.
I am happy to say that our plan for ABB Lummus Global was affirmed by the District Court last Friday, July 21.
Assuming there are no appeals - and we don’t expect any - the Lummus plan should be finalized by the end of August.

To conclude, here is our market outlook for the rest of 2006.
The picture remains positive. We have a very strong order backlog and market conditions remain favorable.
We expect demand to continue to grow both in the power infrastructure and industrial automation sectors.

http://www.abb.com/cawp/ABBZH250/F356E856E1B4265FC12571B80034E8D4.aspx?v=C2C6&e=us

ABB Limited
“As a company we try to do the right thing. We seek to balance economic development, environmental stewardship and social progress.”—Fred Kindle, President and C.E.O.
http://www.global100.org/2006/word.asp

Somehow, the word "sustainable" seem to be the buzz word for big biz these days...