In the month of December alone, the state of Hawaii has raised $226 million through the sale of tax-free bonds to investors. These bond sales are to help underwrite over $1.8 billion in statewide infrastructure development projects. Slated improvement projects for the island state include port development, widening of a major highway, various housing projects and even termite treatments for local schools.

The Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported: "Hawaii County Mayor Billy Kenoi said he's "very grateful" hundreds of millions of dollars will flow into Hawaii Island's economy "so we can keep our workers working."

Hawaii Governor, Linda Lingle indicates her intent to keep her state's economy healthy by keeping its construction industry busy. Working with a consortium of contractors, developers, labor interests and government agencies, Hawaii has no less than 1,500 capital improvement projects now in various stages of progress. In all, Hawaii is committed to initiating $1,865,522,037 worth of new development and improvement projects. Bidding for much of the project volume stretches through 2009, and into the first quarter of 2010.

These are the type of capital investments that President-elect Barack Obama has been telling us about. The possible difference here is that Hawaii is using an investment strategy, rather than a taxation strategy, to generate the needed capital. Kudos to Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle, for overseeing the infusion of large amounts of new capital into her state, without placing the entire burden upon the taxpayers there.

Spam, Hormel Foods' (NYSE: HRL) legendary pork-based canned meat product, is still a staple in Hawaii, a fact that has not escaped the attention of fast food giants McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) and Burger King (NYSE:BKC). In its island restaurants, McDonalds offers the McSpam sandwich, and in 2002 added the pigalicious treat to its breakfast menu. Its Spam platter consists of Spam, scrambled eggs and rice.

Now Burger King has jumped into the Spam war by launching its "Spam in the A.M." campaign. Hawaii BKs are offering a similar platter selection, as well as Spam on a croissant or biscuit.

According to the AP, Hawaii is the leading consumer of Spam, averaging six cans per person annually. Before you jump to conclusions, let me point out that, according to the CDC, in mainland U.S. states the percentage of adults overweight or obese ranges from 52.9% (Colorado) to 65.5% (Mississippi), while Hawaii reports only 49.5% of their residents fall into this class. And it's hard to imagine a Spam sandwich could be more damaging to one's waistline than BK's 730-calorie Enormous Omelet Sandwich, available throughout the U.S.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s (NYSE: WMT) coming to India -- soon. According to India's Bharti Enterprises' Chairman Sunil Bharti Mitta, Wal-Mart will have stores operating in India in less than a year. Bharti will enter into a joint venture with Wal-Mart to operate a chain of stores, and it has already begun hiring workers. It will be interesting to see what happens, as Wal-Mart failed miserably in Germany and left Korea in June after years of fruitless efforts.

According to the Associated Press, Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) expects to have 2,000 U.S. stores by 2011, and is currently planning to open its first locations in Hawaii and Alaska. Target has said it will eventually expand overseas but is in no rush. According to CEO Robert Ulrich, "In some of the major emerging economies such as India and China one could argue that it's much better to enter 5 years or 10 years down the road when that guest is becoming more affluent, better educated, because that is more in sync with our strategy."

It appears that Target will continue to be a more upscale version of Wal-Mart (waiting for countries to become wealthier before expanding there), while Wal-Mart will look to capitalize on growth in India by offering cheap goods there first.

GE will fund a wind farming project in Hawaii under its unit GE Energy Financial Services. GE maintains that renewable energy is an essential component of the "world energy mix." I stumbled across GE's in-house Global Research blog. According to a post written early this year, the company claimed that since obtaining "Enron's wind turbine assets in 2002, GE has presided over significant growth in this business." Around the same time, the independently-run EnergyBlog noted that "wind energy costs drop below conventional sources in some markets."

Ge will supply 14 of its 1.5-MW wind turbines which will be place at the south tip of the big island. Project managers estimate the farm will produce energy equivalent to power 10,000 homes.