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DJT energy and climate change policy as response to China getting away with 80 GW of new coal powered electricity plants for 2024 under Paris Agreement
01/31/2025
DJT Alaska policy to open up the natural gas potential in Alaska comes from the Republican position that the US should also get some allowance for its needs the way China did for 80 GW of coal powered electricity production in 2024 under Paris Agreement. This is the Republican argument as Senators Dan Borghum of North Dakota and Dan Sullivan of Alaska present it for DJT. DJT reasoning is that Paris Agreement is not fair to US needs. Seen in this way the DJT policy is much more nuanced than media present it- it is for Make America Great Again by using advantages such as Alaskan production and Shale while at the same time pursuing pristine environment and tackling climate change. As this theory goes the stronger economy would give US more resources to tackle climate change. Biden signed on to this approach in a small way when he let Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia put the same idea in his energy plans. Seen in this way DJT is not portrayed as trying to destroy climate change action plans.
Linked Articles
Opinion | Trump Lifts Sanctions on Alaska
WSJ 01/31/2025
China’s coal-fired power boom may be ending amid slowdown in permitsThe Guardian 01/31/2025
How low interest rates from the banks created 2009 financial crisis were squeezing Americans and most of all seniors
06/05/2024
In 2010 Charles Schwab pointed out that low interest rates were squeezing Americans, most of all seniors on fixed incomes and pensions. In 2024 first quarter the higher interest rates in one quarter alone created an additional $770 billion in interest and dividends for Americans, many of them seniors, according to US Federal Reserve. This is the damage done by the recklessness of the banks and financial sector and seniors have paid heavily for this and for the wars in the Middle East which reduced the growth potential of the US economy that were embraced by Reagan and Bush, Trump and Obama. The war money was not used to build new infrastructure to replace the old as it should have been leading to China having new infrastructure and America's being aging and worn out.
Linked Articles
Low Interest Rates Are Squeezing Seniors
Wall Street Journal 03/30/2010
Americans Have More Investment Income Than Ever BeforeWSJ 06/05/2024
"Pay their fair share of taxes" Biden asks of corporations showing 2017 predecessor tax cuts did not increase investment and added $100 billion yearly to the US Deficit
03/08/2024
By paying their fair share of taxes Biden says in State of Union speech to US Congress 2024 one can increase investment in education, affordable childcare and better living for seniors in their homes, and still cut the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars. What is fair share? Certainly not zero percent that 55 of the largest corporations paid on $40 billion in profits in 2020, and corporate minimum tax was introduced at levels of 15% for which most ordinary Americans are not eligible for. And certainly not 8.2% that Biden said was being paid by 1000 billionaires in the US. Not a single penny more is being asked of hard working Americans earning less than $400,000 a year. Biden said he wanted to see the corporate minimum tax at 21% not 15%, and the top corporate tax rate set at 28% not the 21% that it was reduced to in 2017 from 35%. In short his predecessor turned to help companies and billionaires profit from the popular distress of the shipping of jobs overseas and the 2009 financial crisis caused by Bank executives without investing the nation's capital resources in manufacturing at home in scale to match and exceed China's. And at the same time neglecting to do anything about the concerns of the people for ease of living- affordable access to childcare, preschool education, education, health care to match Europe/China/India in quality and cost, and aging transportation infrastructure of airports, subways, roads and bridges. The savings when this is done properly go to cut the deficit by over 4 trillion dollars and keep America as the leader of all G-20 economies.
Linked Articles
Biden Draws Sharp Contrast With Trump in State of the Union
WSJ 03/07/2024
Biden Pushes More Corporate-Tax Hikes to Draw Contrast With TrumpWSJ 03/07/2024
America has forgotten it is American workers who built America
09/28/2023
American workers built the middle class and American workers built America with its factories. Biden joins a picket line at at GM plant in Beleville, Michigan, saying this with a bull horn. Shawn Fain directly elected by autoworkers says workers not billionaires run America. This happens as the UAW union rejects tiered wages. Entry level tier wages of younger workers at $17 an hour or $34,000 a year is below the Federal Poverty Level of $35000-$40000 for families with children. It would be seen as outrageous by both Lincoln and TR-FDR in a country where the Constitution starts with the line "We the People. Workers are forgotten in a world that is only waking up to this in 2024.
Linked Articles
Biden Joins Autoworkers on Picket Line in Michigan
NYTimes.com 09/27/2023
Trump’s pitch for autoworker votes in car heartland is short on autoworkersThe Guardian 09/28/2023
UK's 100,000 deaths in pandemic higher than civilian deaths in World War II- where UK made mistakes
02/01/2021
Linked Articles
Covid-19 death toll: where did the UK make mistakes?
The Times 01/27/2021
How the UK reached 100,000 Covid deathsThe Times 01/27/2021
FBI scrutiny of Chinese researchers
09/09/2020
Linked Articles
Trump Administration Turns Up Pressure on China on Several Fronts
WSJ 07/16/2020
WSJ News Exclusive | FBI Sweep of China Researchers Leads to Cat-and-Mouse TacticsWSJ 09/07/2020
Report on Russian disinformation effort 2014-2017 by two cybersecurity companies for the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee
12/18/2018
Linked Articles
Opinion | What We Now Know About Russian Disinformation
New York Times 12/17/2018
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Withheld Russia Data, Reports SayNew York Times 12/18/2018
The 1976 Montreal Olympics, the 2004 Athens Olympics, the 2014 Sochi Olympics and the Rio Olympics- decades long debt hangovers and costs growing from the $1+ billion in Montreal to $50+ billion in Sochi
08/24/2016
Developing and developed countries alike have seen the cost of the Olympics as a huge burden. Many countries or cities that committed to hosting the Olympic games during boom years were facing economic hard times by the time of the games. Corruption and mismanagement of public funds, overspending and cost overruns added to the problems. Citizens uproar caused cities such as Boston and Oslo to withdraw bids for the Olympics. The Olympics appears to be a costly way to show off a country, and raises questions about better allocation of funds in other directions, especially when upward mobility is a problem for the middle and working class, countries have other infrastructure needs, and neglected basic needs in education, healthcare, public services.
Linked Articles
The 40-year hangover: how the 1976 Olympics nearly broke Montreal
The Guardian 07/06/2016
Rio Games Highlight Problems With the Olympic ModelThe New York Times 08/23/2016
China's efforts to transition to a new model for development in 2016-2017, based on consumers and not on heavy state spending
08/25/2015
Xi-Jinping and Li Keqiang face a challenge and choices not unlike the one facing Deng Xiaoping in the 1980's- now the challenge is how to move China beyond the middle income status it has achieved with all its accompanying problems of environmental destruction, corruption and aging population.
Linked Articles
Economist 01/23/2016
Political Risks May Foil Economic Reform in ChinaNew York Times 08/25/2015
Errors made by the IMF, Syriza Tsipras far left government, leading to the third bailout program of 2015 for Greece
07/06/2015
Just when the first signs of growth in the economy were taking place in 2014 the IMF held back on a 7.2 billion euro payment to Greece which would have increased liquidity to the private sector for growth. The IMF hope to gain leverage with a future Syriza far left government. The first half of 2015 led to economic anxiety in Greece with a failed negotiating strategy of Syriza far left government focussing only on the debt and not on the economy. The damage led to about 85 billion in addtional financing needed following the closing of Greece's banking system in July 2015.
Linked Articles
IMF Warns Eurozone That Greece Needs Far More Debt Relief
Wall Street Journal 07/15/2015
How to Undo the Damage in GreeceNew York Times 07/06/2015
The response of financial markets to Russian intervention in Ukraine 2014-2015, as arms aid to Ukraine is seen as not a good option
02/11/2015
Linked Articles
New York Times 02/11/2015
Stopping Putin Without Firing a ShotWall Street Journal 02/11/2015
Russia and global financial markets in 2014-2015- a disconnect between an economy connected to the global economy and separation from a postwar order of international cooperation within a global economy
01/29/2015
Linked Articles
Stopping Putin Without Firing a Shot
Wall Street Journal 02/11/2015
From Russia With No LoveWall Street Journal 01/29/2015
The miscalculations and missteps of Russian president Putin in 2014 leading to a major crisis for the Russian economy in 2015
12/18/2014
A major miscalculation was totally misjudging Merkel and post-war German public opinion about policies that remind people about the period between the two World Wars- this is anathema to Germans who see the European Union as a way to build a new and different Europe. The other miscalculation was on how a foreign adventurous policy in Syria would affect Sunni world opinion, in particular Saudi Arabia. Just as Brezhnev took Russia into Afghanistan where Russia had no vital interest leading to eventual Soviet collapse, Putin risked alienating a key member in OPEC pricing moves and hurting Russia's economic interest. By not listening to Kudrin, the head of Sberbank, and other economic advisers from the first and second terms of the Putin-Medvedev administrations, Putin opened the door to two years of serious missteps, risking the very real accomplishments of the first and second term of creating a stable growing Russian economy with close economic ties to Europe. The only positive outcome of the crisis and low oil prices would be making the shift away from oil dependence, which was talked about but never seriously attempted in the Putin administrations. For this to happen major new investments would have to be made and technology links to the outside strengthened, both hammered by the missteps in 2013-2014. The irony of all this is that Putin gained the support of rural Russians in the countryside in the 2012 presidential elections by promising no return to the economic crisis conditions following earlier ruble collapses. Now by ignoring Kudrin and other wiser counsel from the first and second administrations he does just that.
Linked Articles
Putin’s Year of Defiance and Miscalculation
Wall Street Journal 12/18/2014
Russian President Vladimir Putin Seeks to Reassure on EconomyWall Street Journal 12/18/2014
How television channels and internet media are failing to ask questions about what will be done on climate change action 2024-2028?
07/31/2024
Linked Articles
How the Murdoch family ended up in a legal fight over the future of Fox
Washington Post 07/31/2024
What Rupert Murdoch Owns, and How He Built His Media EmpireNYTimes.com 07/30/2024
Mitch McConnell on the Senate floor "dithering and hesitation have compounded the challenges we face" and the passage of $61 billion aid to Ukraine April 2024
04/26/2024
Mitch McConnell persuades 31 Republican Senators a majority of his caucus to support Ukraine's defense by joining Democrats, working "shoulder to shoulder" with Democrat Pat Schumer to get passage of Ukraine aid legislation in the vote 79 to 18 in April 2024. It comes at a critical moment of the defense of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, just 25 miles from the border as shown by NYT in April 24 coverage. It is part of the larger effort to secure a peace in Ukraine with the help of India and China as the war drags on for another year.
Linked Articles
Bucking G.O.P. Isolationists, McConnell Was Linchpin in Winning Ukraine Aid
NYTimes.com 04/24/2024
Senate Approves Aid for Ukraine and Israel, Sending It to Biden’s DeskNYTimes.com 04/24/2024
Li Keqiang and the era of Openness in China 1977-2023
11/02/2023
LI Keqiang was able to pass entrance exams to Peking University in 1977 after entrance exams were reinstated following Mao's death. He led the modernization of China during the 2000-2022 period two decades of fast growth turning China into a middle income industrialized country after centuries of decline. During this period China urbanized at a rapid rate and Li's advanced studies focused on urbanization. It was also a period when China realized the damage done to the environment and quality of air, water, with haphazard growth, and shifted to climate change action through focus on solar energy and limiting use of coal.
Linked Articles
China Mourns Former Premier Whose Death Hovers Over Xi Jinping
WSJ 11/02/2023
Next Premier Came of Age in Era of OpennessWall Street Journal 11/16/2012
The collapse of American education and the slowest growth in America's history 2000-2020 as Biden tries to reverse this in 2024
05/19/2023
Krugman looks at the extraordinary effort put in by Robert Gordon of Northwestern University to look at the growth of America since 1850 over periods 1850-1870, 1870-1910, 1910-1950, 1950-2000 and 2000-2020 showing that the last 20 years have the lowest growth in American history. Gordon looks at the near collapse of American education, scores on NAEP of two thirds of 8th graders failing reading comprehension reflect this sad state of affairs that president Biden is trying to reverse in 2024. Other research shows a drop in potential GDP of 2 percentage points when education is failing as it has been for 2 decades. Other researchers have shown what is openly evident today that technology such as social media do more harm, that other internet use technology has not done much for education only established monopolies as with Google and Apple.
Linked Articles
Paul Krugman Reviews ‘The Rise and Fall of American Growth’ by Robert J. Gordon
New York Times 01/25/2016
'Secular Stagnation' May Be for RealWall Street Journal 08/27/2014
Congress passed a new law to delist Chinese companies on U.S. stock exchanges not under U.S. regulatory agency with little impact
12/03/2020
Linked Articles
China Has One Powerful Friend Left in the U.S.: Wall Street
WSJ 12/02/2020
Delisting Chinese Stocks in the U.S. Won’t Sever Their Access to Global CapitalWSJ 12/03/2020
What to know about face masks imported from China
08/04/2020
Why FDA has failed in its quality control of face masks imported from China. WSJ analysis shows the unreliability of many of the N95 masks imported from Chinese suppliers. These imported masks follow a Chinese standard K95.
Linked Articles
WSJ News Exclusive | FDA’s Shifting Standards for Chinese Face Masks Fuel Confusion
WSJ 08/03/2020
What to Know About KN95 Face MasksWSJ 08/03/2020
Educated Chinese women with jobs and careers- changing social and economic landscape in China
09/26/2016
The profound changes underway in China in the notions of marraige and family as a new generation of women are better educated and look for independent lives with their own careers. Over half of all undergraduates are women in China, and half of all graduate students pursuing master's degrees are women, showing how much China has changed in three decades.
Linked Articles
Marriage Falls in China, Transforming Finances and Families
The New York Times 09/12/2016
China Shrugs Off the Ties That BindThe New York Times 09/22/2016
The Chinese market in 2015 and pitfalls for Yum Brands and its KFC, Pizza Hut stores in China
10/21/2015
Rapid growth and then a public scare with media reports of falling quality standards hurt KFC outlets. Local Chinese and Taiwanese brands offer more options at the higher and lower ends of the price range. Other European competitors partnering with local Chinese companies offer better value and quality upscale hurting Pizza Hut stores. And suddenly the whole landscape has changed for Yum Brands in China. It shows the Chinese market is no place for the complacent, that the discriminating tastes of consumers and search for healthier alternatives is taking place in China, India and other developing countries, just as much as it is in the U.S.
Linked Articles
China Isn’t the Easy Market It Once Was for Fast-Food Chains
Wall Street Journal 10/21/2015
Yum Brands to Split Off China BusinessWall Street Journal 10/21/2015
The devaluation of the yuan in August 2015 as China responds to lower exports, the appreciation of the euro and the yen, and the U.S. Federal Reserve's plan to raise rates
08/12/2015
China's currency appreciated 9.2% against the euro and 57% against the Japanese yen with its soft peg to the dollar in 2013-2015. The 8.3% decline in China's exports for July 2015 over the prior year led to the policy action to devalue the Chinese currency, the yuan on August 11, 2015.
Linked Articles
China is trying to save its economy with a cheaper currency - The Washington Post
Washington Post 08/12/2015
China’s Devaluation GambitWall Street Journal 08/12/2015
The puzzle of U.S. job gains in 2014-2015 with tepid wage gains- a result of labor market slack not reflected in 5.5% unemployment rate, low productivity, low investment
03/07/2015
Linked Articles
Sluggish Productivity Hampers Wage Gains
Wall Street Journal 03/07/2015
Brisk Jobs Growth Puts Focus on FedWall Street Journal 03/07/2015
Resilence of the Russian economy in 2015-2016 compared to other emerging markets- (1) the decision to let the ruble float in Nov. 2014
02/09/2015
Linked Articles
Russia and Turkey Show Oil Prices Aren’t Everything
Wall Street Journal 01/25/2016
Ruble’s Fall Tests Governor of Russia’s Central BankNew York Times 02/09/2015
Looking back at Hong Kong and China today and yesterday- China in 1842 and in 1945, nationalism and commercial interests of foreign powers
01/09/2015
A wariness with foreign powers in China stems from the influences left behind from the British commercial interests and the Japanese invasion of China. Compared to that period, the period of collaboration on an equal footing and playing field is is a short and recent one that has taken place for just three decades 1985-2015. Fears that the accelerated development in China could slow down without a strong central government, combine with the awareness of the need for western technology and open communications in today's global economy to accelerate the development, create in the Chinese mind a problem that needs to be tackled carefully to continue progress. Awareness of the huge inequalities and corruption in the rush towards modernization, need to tackle extensive contamination of air and water, and need for social security and healthcare for an aging population create a new urgency for careful policy making to sustain progress.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 01/12/2015
‘China 1945,’ by Richard BernsteinNew York Times 01/09/2015
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