June 13, 2009 Issue Posted July 2, 2009, 5:00PM EST

BTW

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Ward Schumaker

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The idea came from adman Dieter Grote, who worried about his family's safety after Dörentrup began switching off streetlamps after 11 p.m. to save money. Grote asked local power authority Stadtwerke Lemgo if it could install equipment to allow people to get light on demand. Together with Dörentrup lighting equipment company A&H Meyer, the utility came up with a two-second procedure: A resident calls a number posted in luminous letters on a lamppost. The call is answered by a computer at the utility, which then signals a wireless modem to switch on lights in the area for 15 minutes. The system has cut Dörentrup's power bill by a third, Mayor Friedrich Ehlert says, because the village now cuts lights as early as 9 p.m. in lightly traveled areas. And the utility has patented Dial4Light, using partners to sell it abroad. Says Grote, who will get a cut of the profits: "Even in a recession, a good business idea sells."

with Andrea Zammert in Frankfurt

—Jack Ewing

The Dreary Decade

There are still six months left in this decade, but it may not be too soon to start drafting its obituary.

And a look at the numbers shows that investors calling the 10 years "lost" may have understated the case. As of June 30, the Standard & Poor's (MHP) 500-stock index was down 37%, or 5% a year, from its Dec. 31, 1999, close of 1469.25. So it would take quite a rally just to break even for the decade: The index would have to climb 60% by Dec. 31, 2009. The last such negative decade? The dreadful 1930s, which suffered a 42% cumulative stock market loss. Factor in dividends, says Howard Silverblatt, a senior index analyst at S&P, and the "aughts"—the years 2000 through 2009—look even worse. In the '30s, dividends turned that decade's 5% average annual drop into a positive total return of 1% a year. That return for the '00s: So far it's -3%.

—David Henry and Tara Kalwarski

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