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

The Editorial Board

The 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

Charles R. Schwab, Charles, R., Schwab

WSJ 06/05/2024

David Uberti

"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

Ken Thomas, Tarini Parti

WSJ 03/07/2024

Andrew Restuccia, Andrew Duehren, Richard Rubin

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

Paul Krugman, Paul, Krugman

Wall Street Journal 08/27/2014

Willliam Galston, Willliam, Galston

Miscalculations by Putin's Russia and Neglect by Merkel and Bush-Obama- WSJ's Analysis of Events Leading to Ukraine war

04/03/2022

The highly detailed WSJ reports on events going back 20 years throw light on the failure of Merkel in Germany and Bush-Obama in the US to grasp the situation of Russia under Putin's nationalism and the miscalculations made by president Putin about the changing situation in Ukraine that had created a national identity. While Putin looked to history something different had emerged on the ground for the people of Ukraine that both German and Russian leaders failed to grasp as they continued to pursue economic integration. Business in Europe and the US had no clue what was happening, and how the situation was unraveling till the end. It is also leading to the unexpected effect of accelerating weaning western nations from fossil fuels, a goal of Glasgow's COP26 Climate Change Summit, the only constructive effect of the war.

Linked Articles

Vladimir Putin’s 20-Year March to War in Ukraine—and How the West Mishandled It

WSJ 04/01/2022

Michael R. Gordon, Bojan Pancevski, Noemie Bisserbe, Marcus Walker

WSJ 04/01/2022

Yaroslav Trofimov

East Gemany's struggle to find its own identity after young people leave and a sense of nostalgia for the economic security under the GDR

11/14/2019

By 2019 East Germany's search for identity is in full swing as it struggles with a nostalgia for the past before integration with west Germany, and following a departure of young people going west that leaves behind a rapidly aging society with less economic security. The promise of integration appears to be failed when seen as culture and identity, economic security.

Linked Articles

Germans still don’t agree on what reunification meant

The Economist 11/02/2019

11/05/2019

Oliver Moody, Berlin

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

The New York Times 08/23/2016

Michael Powell

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

Ian Talley, Ian, Talley

New York Times 07/06/2015

Gikas Hardouvelis, Gikas, Hardouvelis

Norway parliament's decision to divest holdings in companies 30% dependent on coal opens up debate on coal- (3) Coal India and the 1 billion ton target for 2020

05/14/2015

With about 300 million people without electricity, and India lagging behind Brazil and Indonesia in the percentage of population lacking electricity, the goal is to modernize the coal industry and increase production. This shows the different tradeoffs in less developed countries such as India, which face a completely different set of tradeoffs, and are moving in the opposite direction out of necessity. China is just entering a period after rapid modernization where the discussion about the tradeoffs is shifting, whereas India remains in a very different phase.

Linked Articles

Norway Will Divest From Coal in Push Against Climate Change

New York Times 06/05/2015

John Schwartz, John, Schwartz

Wall Street Journal 05/14/2015

Raymond Zhong And Niharika Mandhana, Raymond, Zhong, And, Niharika, Mandhana

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

In Ukraine, It’s Putin’s Game

New York Times 02/11/2015

Andrew Higgins, Andrew, Higgins

Wall Street Journal 02/11/2015

Roger C. Altman, Roger, C., Altman

The cost of the crisis to Russia exceeds $200 billion- a story of wasted opportunities to diversify away from oil and gas and integrate fully into the competitive global economy

01/29/2015

Linked Articles

From Russia With No Love

Wall Street Journal 01/29/2015

Richard Barley, Richard, Barley

Wall Street Journal 01/29/2015

Alexander Kolyandr, Alexander, Kolyandr, Andrey Ostroukh, Andrey, Ostroukh

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

Gregory White, Gregory, White, Anton Troianovski, Anton, Troianovski

Wall Street Journal 12/18/2014

Alexander Kolyandr, Alexander, Kolyandr, James Marson, James, Marson

China and corruption under the Xi Jinping administration

12/02/2014

Transparency International gives China 36 points , a decline of 4 points in 2014. Since 2013 China has dropped 20 place in the Corruption Perceptions Index, only Turkey had a steeper drop in points in 2014. Transparency, independent judiciary, free speech, whistleblower protection, and accountable government are factors that determine ranking in the index.

Linked Articles

A Beijing House of Cards

Wall Street Journal 12/09/2014

Wsj Editorial, Wsj, Editorial

New York Times 12/02/2014

Didi Kirsten Tatlow, Didi, Kirsten, Tatlow