Microsoft’s Bill Gates to start multi-billion-dollar clean tech initiative

Microsoft co-founder Gates will launch a multi-billion-dollar clean energy research and development initiative with heads of state on Monday, the opening day of the U.N. climate change summit in Paris, the French government said Friday.

Gates and a group of developing and developed countries will launch the Clean Tech Initiative, in which countries will commit to doubling their clean energy technology research and development budgets by 2020 and private investors will boost their own investments in the sector.

Access to clean energy technology will play a key role in a global agreement to combat climate change. More than 190 countries will negotiate a new pact in Paris from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11 at the 21st U.N. Conference of the Parties summit.

France, the United States, India, South Korea, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Canada and Norway have said they will join, a source close to the conference presidency told Reuters.

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Deutsche Bank Stops Taking On Some Clients During Regulatory Review

Deutsche Bank AG said the management board will review its procedures for bringing on new customers as co-Chief Executive Officer John Cryan seeks to tighten controls and avoid a repeat of regulatory investigations of the lender.

While the review is under way, the bank will “suspend the on-boarding of new clients and the introduction of new products to existing clients in certain locations that have higher risk weightings,” Cryan said in a staff memo posted on the bank’s website late Friday. The Frankfurt-based lender said it won’t begin to work with new customers until it has completed all procedures requiring the bank to know its clients.

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NYSE Is Delisting National Bank of Greece After 91% Plunge

Wow!

The New York Stock Exchange is delisting American depositary receipts of National Bank of Greece SA after they lost 91 percent of their value this year.

The ADRs were suspended on Friday, when their value slumped to 16 cents from as much as $1.96 in February. NYSE cited an “abnormally low” price in a statement.

Losses spiraled to a record this month, after the Greek lender sold new shares at a more than 90 percent discount to market prices. The nation’s four largest banks have been raising capital to help fill a 14.4 billion-euro ($15.3 billion) hole in their accounts identified by the European Central Bank.

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The U.S. May Be the World’s Richest Country, But It Ranks 14th in Financial Literacy

By many measures, the U.S. is the world’s wealthiest country—but it’s not because Americans are the best with their finances.

In fact, a sprawling global survey of financial literacy around the world finds that the U.S. ranks 14th, behind Singapore and the Czech Republic.

This new measure of financial literacy comes from a survey of 150,000 adults in 148 countries. To conduct a survey of this scope, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Servicespartnered with the Gallup World Poll, the World Bank and the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center at George Washington University. On Wednesday, they released a vast treasure trove of new data that, for the first time, make internationally comparable global rankings of financial literacy.

To gauge financial literacy, and capture whether adults know how to make sound decisions, the researchers asked questions on four basic personal finance topics: inflation, interest, compounding and financial diversification. Anyone providing correct answers to three of the four topics was rated as financially literate.

Only 57% of Americans notched a passing grade, compared with over 70% in Norway, Denmark and Sweden, and over 60% in Israel, Canada, the U.K., the Netherlands, Germany, Australia, Finland and New Zealand.

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These Kids Can’t Vote, but They Can Sue

In between middle school, tae kwon do and saxophone lessons, 13-year-old Gabe Mandell, along with seven other young environmental activists, sued the government of Washington State. By legally challenging a state agency’s approach to carbon emission regulation, they hoped to protect the planet for future generations. Here’s what they gained.

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Dirty Connecticut Mayor (Sentenced To Prison For Corruption) Reelected In Landslide

After East Chicago re-elected an accused drug dealer and murderer as councilman, we thought the bar had dropped as low as it gets for the ignorance of an electorate. But, no! Bridgeport, Connecticut residents just took the proverbial biscuit by re-electing Mayor Joseph P. Ganim – who during his last ‘reign’ was convicted of 16 felonies including racketeering, extortion, and bribery.

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