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Strange as it may sound the retired coal power stations in Europe were back in operation and highly profitable during the COP26 Glasgow conference. Unknown to speakers at the conference calling stridently for complete coal phaseout instead of rapid phasedown including speakers from the European Union and from Tuvalu (population about 1500) this was happening not just in China but also in Europe. This was dictated by energy economics as coal prices have come down by half and natural gas prices have risen ten fold, and natural gas shortfall in Europe.  This report in the WSJ shows coal and lignite plants making huge profits for electricity companies in Europe. As a result the calls for phaseout were seen as hollow by China and India in the last days of the conference leading to the language change in the final agreement to "phasedown of fossil fuels." Natural gas producing power stations are losing 2.26 euros for every megawatt hour, compared to 57 euros per magawatt hour for coal powered power plants, 4 times as high as the previous highest levels in 2017, as reported in the WSJ. Estimates are for coal power stations to be more than gas rivals till 2023. Germany says WSJ still has highest level of addiction to coal and lignite. It generated 40 gigawatts of electricity from coal and lignite in September and October, the highest for these 2 months since 2018, Poland is doing the same exporting its coal based power to the rest of Europe. In the same way coal power plants that were idled are back producing electricity in Spain, Portugal and in UK home of the COP26 Glasgow conference.   ...

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DW.com's Aditya Sharma takes a deeper look at India's efforts to tackle climate change before the COP26 Glasgow Summit. Mr. Modi will attend the global summit in Glasgow, Scotland, COP26. Chinese president Xi Jinping is not expected to attend. India is the only major country to be on track to achieve its targets set in the Paris Climate change Agreement, according to the UN Environment Program's Emission Gap Report.  This report in DW.com says India plans to reduce the emissions intensity of GDP- volume of emissions for every unit of GDP- by around 35% by 2030 from 2005 levels. India is also nearing its goal under 2015 Paris Agreement for achieving about 40% share of non fossil fuel based electricity generating capacity, which the government expects will be achieved by 2023, 7 years ahead of schedule. Behind this are ambitious goals for solar energy generation set by prime minister Modi, after his first experiments with new solar energy technologies when he was running the state government in Gujarat state. Modi sees new technologies of the future playing a big role in making it possible to achieve ambitious goals way ahead of schedule. This is the unique approach India is adopting of pushing ahead with newer and newer technologies. ...

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Efforts in 2014 by Jizhong Energy Company to reduce pollution in the city of Xingtai, population 7.6 million, by closing down the worst polluting plants and installing new equipment. The World Bank put the cost of pollution, including cancer and other health problems, at 9% of gross national income in 2009. The Ministry of Environmental Protection estimates 3.5% of GDP as the cost of pollution in 2010. Xingtai's pollution levels have been recorded by air quality monitors at as high as 30 times China's national standard. Government figures show the PM2.5 in the city's air is 150 micrograms per cubic meter over the last 12 months, more than 4 times the national standard. To get some idea what this means, consider that Fresno, California, with the highest pollution level in the U.S. had PM2.5 level of 18 micrograms per cubic meter. To show it is serious the central government requires the city to post pollution figures online, down to individual smokestacks and exhaust ports.

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Dependence on China increased during the Merkel years to extreme levels. A EU survey shown in this DW.com report shows that of 137 products and services deemed critical, including fields such as renewable energy and health, almost 50% are supplied by China and only 3% by Russia. German foreign takeover laws and acquisition laws are being upgraded only now after years of China's investment in German technology and critical infrastructure  companies. The Merkel administration took a lax approach to protecting German technology and critical infrastructure. A similar situation existed with the Obama administration in the US. New regulations give the German government a veto in all critical mergers and acquisitions. This DW.com report says that today Germany's protected sectors include energy and telecommunications, medical technology, artificial intelligence. The problems  with the previous approach in the Merkel years that showed a complete disregard for protecting vital technologies was that the Economy Ministry in 2016 was not able to stop the full takeover of the flagship German robotics company KuKa by a Chinese manufacturer of dishwashers and refrigerators Midea. In 2018 a Chinese state electric utility company SGCC sought to get a 20% stake in 50Hertz a German electric grid operator which was turned back. Only now with the entry of the Greens under Habeck and Baerbock in government has Germany adopted a clear policy of effective action to protect German technology and critical infrastructure companies. ...

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Japan's energy efficient industry is a role model for the western world and for India and China. For years Japan has had a national consensus on consuming less energy an industry has focused on developing energy efficent technologies and investing in it even when oil prices were low. Japan wants to now contribute to the world in this area at the G8 summit on the island of Hokkaido. According to the International Energy Agency in Paris, Japan consumes half as much energy per dollar worth of economic activity as the European Union or the United States, and one-eighth as much as India or China in 2005. According to the Japanese Economic Ministry data corporate Japan has kept its energy consumption annually at a billion barrels of oil since the early 1970's even as the country's economy doubled in size during the 1970's and 1980's. The Japanese steel industry invested $45 billion dollars between 1972 to 2006 in developing energy saving technologies, according to the Japan Iron and Steel Federation. By capturing heat and gases that go into waste JFE Steel at its Keihin mill on Tokyo Bay uses it to power generators that produce 90% of the plant's electricity. The Japanese government is now pushing an initiative that sets Japan's level of energy conservation as targets of global industries. For instance the group leader of JFE's climate change policy group says that by adopting Japanese conservation technologies the global steel industry could reduce carbon emissions by 300 million tons a year. The sector approach advocated by Japan means setting the same numerical goals for all companies in an industry, regardless of location. At next week's summit meeting Japan willl back an initiative that sets its conservation induced energy levels as the new standards for global industries. This will also promote the sale and use of Japanese energy saving technologies around the world....

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The International Energy Agency says China used 2.252 billion tons of oil equivalent in 2009 compared to the 2.170 billion tons of oil equivalent used by the USA. This oil equivalent measure covers crude oil, nuclear energy, coal, natural gas and renewable energy like hydropower. To give an idea of the scale of the increase- China's total energy use was only half of that of the USA in 1999 ten years ago. China plans to reduce emissions by cutting the carbon dioxide per unit of GDP by 40-45% from 2005 levels by 2020. But China looks at higher energy use in the years ahead. Much of the energy use is propelled by infrastructure building and energy intensive use in industries.

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The world today is in a much better position to complete the transition to zero dependence on the volatile Middle East for oil. Today in 2026 the world's largest nations 1. US   2. China  3. India  4. Germany are all free of Middle East oil (India through waivers for Russian sources). European Union and UK is at about 12% which can be quickly substituted from the US+ Venezuela and other sources. US is self sufficient in oil and gas and exports oil to the UK, India, Germany and the European Union. Canada is self sufficient. Germany gets only 6% of its oil from the Middle East, the UK 12%, Spain 13% and Italy 14%. The Iran war is likely to shift more of the needs of UK, Spain and Italy to other more stable sources including oil from the US and Venezuela managed by the US, and other sources. This means that US policymakers can act in the best interests of all the nations of the world for preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and long range ballistic missiles. Germany is moving rapidly to renewable energy and this could bring its dependence on the Middle East to zero. India will meet its needs from Russia for the time being till it also shifts to oil from US+ Venezuela. India get 55% of its oil from the Middle East or about 2.7 million b/d. Russia was an important source of oil for India till the US trade agreement called for it to shift- a 30 day waiver and extension means India can get this oil from Russia without sanctions for the duration of the war. Reducing European demand and Indian demand frees up oil for Japan and South Korea on the world market the other 2 countries dependent on Middle East oil- Japan importing 95% of its oil consumption with imports of 2.5 million b/d and South Korea importing about 2 million b/d or 70% of its consumption. This means Japan and South Korea need a new strategy as they are overexposed to one source just as Germany was and learned a difficult lesson to diversify its sources. Japan has learned to reduce consumption for the same level of GDP and some of this can be through conservation, also tried in Germany in the last 4 years. During the 4 years. of Ukraine war Germany had to find ways to diversify sources Japan and South Korea will need rapidly to do the same in the Iran War. This means that only Japan and South Korea because of their lack of policy direction and vigilance have allowed this overdependence on the Gulf region,  (even as Germany diversified its sources, DJT and Israel were firm on nuclear weapons policy) they failed to see signs that they should diversify. Today in 2026 the world's largest nations 1. US 2. China 3. India 4. Germany are all free of Middle East oil (Indi through waivers for Russian sources), European Union and UK is at about 12% which can be quickly substituted from the US+ Venezuela and other sources.    ...

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The Seagreen wind farm in the windy North Sea waters off Scotland begins production this week. It is a 3 billion pound project of SSE Renewables and TotalEnergies of France located 17 miles off the Angus Coast of eastern Scotland. Production is 1.1 gigawatts of electricity in the first phase enough to power 1 million homes. It is the world's deepest fixed bottom windfarm- the deepest foundation to be installed in December will be 59 metres below sea level. 

Its location near the old oil and gas capital of Aberdeen, Scotland, shows how the renewable energies acceleration is giving a new life to the region. Seagreen uses new renewables technology because of the rocky difficult conditions in the North Sea. SSE Renewables is a London based company that has $12.5 billion in investments in renewable energy.

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The nuclear deal reached in the 2013 Geneva negotiations between Iran and the EU, U.S., Russia, France, Germany, UK and China, a diplomatic bloc named the P5+1. Iran gets sanctions relief that would bring in an additional $6-7 billion dollars. In return Iran agrees to increased International Atomic Energy Agency inspections of the heavy water reactor in Arak, to not start the facility or lead it with nuclear fuel. Earlier France had pushed for a complete dismantling of that reactor. Iran will cap its uranium enrichment to levels needed only for fuel in a reactor, of 3.5%-5%, and maintain its total low enriched nuclear fuel at the current level of about 6 tons for the six month period in which further negotiations will take place. As the EU representative put it, this provides the time and space to reach a serious deal. It does not ship out and destroy the estimated 19,000 centrifuge machines in Iran to produce nuclear fuel. A sticking point was Iran's insistence that it has a right to develop and use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, which Iran says is part of the UN Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty....

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With domestic oil consumption growing at 10% a year, and the Arab Spring leading to increased subsidies and social spending, the Saudis are looking at nuclear power to generate some of the supply of electricity. Saudi Arabia expects to have no reserve margin of supplies by 2020 at current levels of domestic consumption. In 2011 the Saudi government setup the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy, or KA-CARE, for coming up with nuclear energy policies. KA-CARE has an agreement with French supplier AREVA.

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A new Nuclear Fuel Bank has private funding of $50 million from Warren Buffett, and additional funding from Kuwait, US, the EU, Norway, and the UAE. The total funding so far is $157 million. With this initial funding the International Atomic Agency has setup a global nuclear fuel bank that countries can turn to for developing nuclear power. At this time more countries are turning to nuclear power as a source of energy supplies. The development of nuclear supplies and purifying uranium also lends itself to the making of nuclear weapons. By providing an independent source the IAE agency provides a way to remove the ambiguity present in the development of nuclear energy. As the idea of atomic fuel banks is gaining hold Rusia also has set up a bank. When enriched at lower levels uranium can be used for nuclear energy. When enriched at higher levels this becomes a fuel for making atomic bombs. Which is why nuclear experts want to see the uranium turned into fuel rods as quickly as possible, because it is hard to turn the rods into weapons. This money will be enough to buy 80 tons of fuel- enough for refueling one reactor....

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A 16 year old girl, world junior climbing champion, who is one of the best climbers in France, with huge talent, slips unexpectedly on a path in the French Alps, falling 330 feet below. She was walking with family and friends on a path with a handrail in the Chartreuse mountains near her home in southeast France. It was such a banal incident. The French 2024 Paris Olympic Committee says with a lot of sadness that she had so many summits to climb. 

Climbers who went out with her say she had so much energy and joy and sent out so many positive waves. She did not consider the age and level of rivals but just went out with motivation and determination.

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China's government takes the first steps to create a market where credits can be traded on rights to emit carbon, burn fossil fuel and create emissions harmful to the environment and health. Big emissions come from chemical plants, steel and cement factories, and burning of coal by power plants. China is the world's largest user of coal for energy. The credits are a way for this sector of the economy to participate in cutting emissions. The provincial level program run on a pilot basis with only $400 million in credits will now transition to a larger program covering entire sectors of the Chinese economy that are responsible for carbon emissions. Experts say this program takes time to structure and the Chinese government is moving forward even though this takes time.

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Bharat Jagdeo, vice president of Guyana tells the WSJ it wants to produce as much oil as it can quickly before renewble energy takes over. Guyana has $40 billion of Mobil projects that can add 1 million barrels a day by 2030. Non-OPEC producers US, Brazil and Guyana can boost output by 5.1 million barrels a day, OPEC+ can only increase production by 800,000 barrels a day. This means the US can help keep oil prices at levels that help India/Indonesia, Europe and the US grow.  Brazil and Guyana do not want OPEC mandated production cuts.

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Report on Climate Science put out by the US Energy Department in 2025 questioning the severity and impending nature of climate change effects. It is challenged by scientists who believe in the severity and impending nature of climate change, quite the opposite. Koonin, a Fellow at the Hoover Instituion at Stanford describes the work and its conclusions. He says the research is peer reviewed and looks at 200 years of climate research. Some of the conclusions- That climate change models claiming catastrophic situations are ultra sensitive and lead to extreme scenarios.  It talks about climate variability, and model deficiencies, data limitations. And says data for climate over continental US show no long term trends for extreme weather events. Global sea level rise of 8 inches since 1800 is not disputed but it says US tide gauge data shows no long term acceleration in warming globe.  On one point there has been agreement even in the Biden administration- what the US does to cut emissions will little effect the global changes in warming- because of coal use by China and India defended as needed for electricity for two billion people, an essential need. Thus the desire for a calculated tradeoff which lets the US take advantage of its abundance of oil and gas to reduce the cost of living for ordinary Americans, also an essential need. Because of the declining cost of natural gas vs coal, coal is in gradual phase out, and declining cost of solar means Germany, China, India are making the shift to solar, and nuclear energy provides another option. The difference is that the DJT administration is taking government out of the effort and letting the private sector work out building of renewable sources. Government is not always the answer as electric cars are likely to make more gains in 2026 than under the Biden administration because of VW, Mercedes, BYD, Ford and GM coming up with cars that can do close to 500 miles on one charge and the cost of an EV down to about $30,000 to $40,000. ...

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The best player for women's soccer, Norway's Ada Hegerberg, with 3 goals in the first half hour of the Champions League final, is going to stay away from the 2019 World Cup. Playing for Olympique Lyonnais since 2014 she helped win the fourth consecutive French league title.

She says "woman's soccer does not have the respect it should have in Norway," and decided not to play for Norway in this years World Cup. She says there are inequalities in investment at the youth and club levels. She has averaged more than a goal every two games and fels there is not the energy in woman's soccer in Norway that is needed. She has twice been named Women's Footballer of the Year and won the Ballon d'Or award as the top player in soccer. Right now after changes at the Norwegian Federation with new head Klaveness, who also stopped playing for the team in protest, the best they can hope for is that people know she is from Norway.

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Is a Win-Win possible for the US/Israel and Iran possible with the US/Israel strikes and operations started March 1, 2026. Not just for the American and Israeli people, but for the people of the Arab countries and for the people of Iran, and for the people of Russia. Greg Ip in the WSJ, Marc Thiessen in the NYT, and Bret Stephens of the NYT have looked at this in this way and offer an alternative view of what might happen, even though the tendency of the WSJ and the Washington Post is to be skeptical and the NYT with an opposition to all things DJT offering pessimistic version. First, all the anticolonial writings that were read by Khamanei in Moshaad are no longer the case as the US is no longer acting to secure some benefit to itself as the British and French colonial powers did for themselves or their oil companies in pre1960's Iran. Second the US truly wants to learn the lessons of 30 years of troubles in the region at every level of the DJT administration which is to extend a true olive branch to the subdued foe as it did to Germany and Japan under generals Eisenhower and McArthur. Third moderates in Iran could emerge as in Germany ( Adenauer) and in Japan Shigeru Yoshida who worked to adopt the 1947 Japanese Constitution under Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Behind the student protests and now national protests there is a realization in Iran that living perpetually under sanctions is not the way to live, that it can increase oil production, get investment in its industry, and raise standards of living, by doing something different. That nuclear weapons development, supporting movements overseas, perpetual conflicts with Arab states, these things have been tried and are not working. That this is the last chance to build a prosperous Iran before fossil fuels are replaced by renewable energy over 10-15 years and which will make it that much harder to modernize and develop Iran for the benefit of Iran's future 110 million people. The gap with India will only widen as India catches up with China, the way China caught up with Japan. It is better to accept that these anticolonial writings that emerged from decolonizing Arab North Africa applied to the British and the French, and that the world is a different place today as the Indians and the Chinese have realized modernizing ancient societies with ancient religions is possible with the help of the Americans and the Europeans, working with the Americans and the Europeans. Theodore Roosevelt says in his Autobiography that one should be careful to judge people as the best have some negative aspects and the worst have some positive aspects, an experience he described in his dealings with progressives and those who opposed changes. Adenauer and Yoshida had contacts and dealings with earlier governments defeated in the war, but wanted to search for an entirely different path for rebuilding their countries having learned from experience. A thoughtful moderate Iranian outcome is possible as happened in Germany and Japan and which is beginning to develop in Venezuela.   ...

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Swaminathan Iyer in the Times of India looks at the Hindenburg report from another angle. It brings a sort of self-discipline at a crucial time for the Adani enterprises in coal, renewable energy, ports and logistics. By taking note of the criticisms where Adani enterprises can benefit from scaling down the level of debt it puts the company in a better situation for the future. After two decades of breakneck expansion it provides the kind of pause needed to rationalize the entire business operation and put it on a stronger basis. As Iyer points out the Adani and Ambani story in ports logistics and telecom show a delivery of results that few other companies were willing to do. It is this kind of endeavor that made it possible for China to build a large economy over two decades. This also requires companies to take stock of the situation and impose self discipline and the measure of their future success depends on how they meet situations such as these where they are being tested and weak areas that need attention become apparent. ...

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Electricity production and consumption data from the provinces has been overstated say experts making the decline in economic growth in China look less severe than it really is. Coal stockpiles at one key storage location in Qinhuangdao port reached 9.5 million tons in June, says an analyst for Wood Mackenzie, global energy consulting firm, a level not seen since the level of 9.3 million tons in November 2008 during the height of the 2008 financial crisis.

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A Trump-Vance nomination with its huge tariffs inside a Republican shell with its preference for tax cuts is with a large degree of certainty likely to put America further behind China, slipping even further by a decade. And slipping in renewable energy and in meeting the aspirations of ordinary Americans. Most of the public does not realize that Trump-Vance 60% tariffs and Republican preference for tax cuts over infrastructure spending would create inflation and lack of growth in a Trump-Vance second term. Things would get worse because of the contradictions existing in the choice of tariff preferring Trump in a Republican party that sees tax cuts not infrastructure spending -even when desperately needed- as the answer to every economic problem. Without a clear policy of making the trillion dollar investments in the US economy, in manufacturing, in renewable energy, in chips and science, as it has under Biden the US under Trump-Vance policies would have two serious problems- first it would revive inflation. 60% tariffs on Chinese imports and 10% tariffs on other nations proposed by Trump-Vance would increase inflation. In the absence of the infrastructure investment that Biden has put in place it would create both a lack of growth for the jobs missing that come from infrastructure that is badly needed in a aging dilapidated infrastructure economy, and the inflation that the high tariffs would engineer. The benefits would not be great if China chooses to find other ways to conduct business and continues to keep its currency at levels that promote its exports. Even today Chinese products enter the US through other countries or when China builds factories in the US as Japan has done. The Republican aversion to tackling Chinese industrial challenges in the same way that China does by actively supporting American manufacturers would give China another decade of advantage as America slips even further behind in chips, science and manufacturing. This is the real problem in mixing Trump-Vance to the Republican philosophies on the economy which are not right for this point in time whatever their merits may have been in the 1980's when America was the industrial leader in the world.   ...

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Treasury Secretary Yellen says on her second trip to China that she will make this the top issue in discussions, the danger that Chinese overproduction in green energy products will lead to the kind of overspill that happened for steel and aluminium where subsidized products drove American companies out of the market. Speaking at a solar energy factory in Norcross, Georgia, that was itself closed in 2017 and is back up again with the assistance in the Inflation Reduction Act for promoting American green energy manufacturing, Yellen said: "It is important to me and the president that American firms and workers can compete on a level playing field." Yellen's remarks on supply chain resilience- "China's overcapacity distorts global prices and production patterns and hurts American firms and workers, as well as firms and workers around the world. Challenges for individual firms can lead to concentrated supply chains, negatively impacting global economic resilience.”   ...

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Speaking at the Brookings Institution Biden senior adviser Jake Sullivan laid out the "foreign policy of America's middle class." What he means by this is "President Biden's core commitment- indeed his daily direction to us- to more deeply integrate domestic policy with foreign policy." "After the Second War the United States led a fragmented world to create a new international economic order. It lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty. It sustained thrilling technological revolutions. And it helped the United States and many other nations around the world achieve new levels of prosperity. But the last few decades revealed cracks in these foundations. A shifting global economy left many Americans and their communities behind. A financial crisis shook the middle class. A pandemic exposed the fragility of our supply chains. A changing climate threatened lives and livelihoods. Russia's invasion of Ukraine underscored the risks of overdependence. So this moment demands we forge a new consensus." "When president Biden took office the coutnry from our perspective faced four fundamental challenges. First America's industrial base had been hollowed out. Second economic integration with a large non-market economy did not work out. Third, an accelerating climate crisis, and the urgent need for a just and efficient energy transition. Finally we met the challenge of inequality and its damage to democracy."   ...

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As OPEC members met again in June 2015 for the first time since the meeting in November 2014, there is a sense that OPEC no longer exerts the same influence on oil prices. There are 4000 oil companies in the U.S., says one U.S. State Department official, even if OPEC were to cut production the cuts could be matched by shale oil producers in the U.S. quickly increasing output. This is the new reality, say experts. OPEC expects to keep production at the same level of the current production ceiling of 30 million barrels a day in place for the 7th meeting in over 3 years. Algeria and Nigeria, both hurt badly by the drop in oil price, have called for cuts but failed to persuade the Saudis. With Russia unwilling to join a coordinated production cut, there is not much talk about doing this. The Saudis and Iraq have continued to pump more oil, with April 2015 production of 30.84 million barrels a day the highest monthly average since 2012. Other factors also remain in the minds of the Saudis and other producers such as the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar- policies on climate change, use of less energy and more from friendlier sources for the same amount of economic output demonstrated by countries such as Germany, advances in technology, energy saving transitions in emerging markets such as China and India....

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As the Obama administration plans a large stimulus spending plan that may approach $1 trillion over several years, considering also the second phase of the $800 billion first phase stimulus, there is a concern that there may be wasteful spending and social costs of borrowing and spending by the government of such proportions. In economics jargon this hinges on whether there is amultiplier effect of spending, higher if its efficiently and well spent with less impact on private consumption and investment, and lower if the opposite were true. The assumption behind amultiplier of 1.0 for an additional bridge or road is that resources like manpower and capital that would be otherwise idle are deployed to produce something useful. An increase in one unit of government purchases increases by one unit the real gross domestic product. The government has effectively created the additional bridge or road without a cut in anybody's consumption or a businesses investment. The other contrasting approaches are to say there is a multiplier of zero, meaning there is a social cost in two ways. One the reduction of consumption and the crowding out of businesses investing in new products and technologies for example, and second in the inefficent use of resources if a government bureaucracy is put to work allocating money and the additional dangers of favoritism and corruption. To say that there is a multipier of 1.5 would mean that the government figures out a way to get private investment through conversion of plants for automotive parts say to make wind turbine blades by giving incentives, tax benefits and grants, spends on a dilapidated road and public transportation infrastructure that may provide benefits in increased growth capacity over future years. The limits of a government bureaucracy and inefficiency of government would in this case be addressed by transparency rules adopted and measures that track progress that are freely available to all citizens say on a website on the internet, and by bringing in fresh management talent from the private sector. There appears to be no generalization that can be applied for one multiplier for all projects. It may be that the multiplier will vary with the project. Some projects like the conversion of a factory making unneeded auto parts to a badly needed wind energy part, to change the dynamics of energy market pricing, to meet energy needs and cut emissions, may end up having a multiplier much above 1.0. A redundant or less needed bridge has a lower multiplier than a bridge rebuilt before it leads to breakdown. And also the complication that too large a movement in one direction say of stimulus spending, might result in a shift of the curve towards a smaller multiplier and diminishing returns, as the resources to track such a large expenditure and the talent to adminster are overextended. The social cost of private investment not making that investment in new technology, new product or improved product has to be figured into all this, both at the conceptual level as all costs and benefits may not be picked up in the analysis, and at the macro level keeping in mind that the animal spirits, as they were once described, may just not be there to absorb the huge outlays which a government can make. These do not come without an opportunity cost and borrowing costs. All this leads one to to conclude that spending has to be carefully evaluated and projects assessed on a case by case basis for costs and benefits. The spending has to be balanced to provide just as many incentives for private investment to invest in new products and technologies. One way the Obama team is attempting to address this is to include a $300 billion tax cut for businesses and individuals. The business tax cuts are aimed at helping small business with losses, and for future investments and making hires and forgoing layoffs. The other part relates to careful evaluation of spending projects and transparency so the people can see if they are effective. See the link to this....

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Friedman on the energy bill, why its watered down in response to efforts of coal-state democrats in the absence of any support from Republicans, and why he still thinks by setting a price on carbon emissions this bill put forward by Waxman and Markey is good for America and the world. The need for young Americans to mobilize support, and for President Obama to do the same. The bill's goal is to reduce carbon emissions to 17% below 2005 levels.