It seems that a high proportion of start-ups in an economy is actually a liability because they are so inefficient.
Infraero, the sluggish state-owned monopoly that operates them, is so inefficient that for years it has failed to spend even half its budget for airport upgrades.
ANCAP, the oil company, runs a cement works, a whisky distillery and a refinery so inefficient that fuel costs 20% more than it should, according to the finance minister, Isaac Alfie.
"Classifieds pricing today is just so inefficient, " says Donato, who imagines that his new feature will serve as a sort of pumped-up Kelley Blue Book, one that is also local and in real time.
Applied Materials (nasdaq: AMAT - news - people ), are working to improve another thin-film technology that is extremely cheap but so inefficient it can't yet match First Solar in cost per kwh.
At times of peak demand, electricity is made largely from natural gas in turbines so inefficient that saving 1% of U.S. electricity, including peak hours, saves 2% of total natural gas use and cuts its price 3% to 4%.
Eventually, productive individuals go broke and so do the inefficient living off of them.
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Besides, greens often claim that the American economy is so energy-inefficient that it is littered with cheap carbon savings.
Even though Nigeria is such a big oil producer, for instance, its few refineries are so old and inefficient that it now has to import the bulk of its petrol and kerosene, a huge extra cost to business.
However, what the WSJ then points out is that if this were so then those funds investing in those inefficient markets should be beating the general market: and while certain funds do do so, no class of funds does so regularly.
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Compressed-air plants are inefficient, and so they are commercially viable only in places where the price of power varies dramatically.
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Having so many different ports is inefficient.
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Not much, they think: spending is inefficient now and would remain so.
Despite their utility, candles were expensive, inefficient and often smelled, so few were sorry to abandon them in favor of oil lamps and electrical lights.
Big mistake as prices will become artificial and allow inefficient operators to stay in place so short changing the human race in the medium to long term.
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So you need all these people, the seemingly inefficient intermediaries, to actually do that.
But if the GP practice is hidebound by oversight, and the competition body Monitor, which was originally designed to drive inefficient hospitals bust can no longer do so, it is hard to see the central argument of the reforms operating.
Not so easy for an industry that largely still relies on inefficient mail and phone surveys.
We're also looking at this idea of providing new prisons outside, on brown field sites, so that we can close and sell off some of the inefficient inner urban prisons.
The old financial system suppressed credit risk, so the banks were happy to channel low-interest loans to inefficient and uncompetitive industries, such as construction and wholesaling.
If many Latin American companies are inefficient, it is partly because governments have allowed them to be so by not doing enough to stimulate competition.
The basics: As you probably know, Congress passed a law that basically compels the lighting industry is phasing out the warm and incredibly inefficient light provided by incandescent bulbs, which are nice for a warm glow, but not so nice for the Earth or your energy bill.
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