Belly Up: One of World's Largest Solar Panel Maker

This probably as much a cautionary tale about investing in China as it is about investing in uneconomic technologies like solar power. 

One of the world's largest solar panel manufacturers, Suntech Power, has nearly run out of cash and is poised to be taken over partially or entirely by the municipal government's holding company in its hometown of Wuxi, China, solar industry executives and a Wuxi official said on Wednesday. 

Putting aside the very weird tidbit that the company may have bought hundred of millions of dollars worth of fake German bonds, the solar panel industry was uneconomic and supported by massive and increasing subsidies from green-devoted Western governments.  To add to this dismal picture, Chinese firms in this space were never about making money, they were about amassing technological know-how by hook or by crook (by hook preferably and if possible, by crook if necessary).  If you bought into either false premise, you paid dearly...