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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
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
How Carlos Tavares is setting the way for remote workers in an hybrid work model to disconnect during the day and on weekends
07/08/2022
Carlos Tavares heads a auto company that has 75,000 employees across the US, Europe, Asia and Latin America and plans 75 new electric car models by 2030. He favors a hybrid work model and works one week a month from his home in Lisbon, Portugal. He works Portuguese time 7am to 4 or 5 pm when he disconnects from the workday by taking a one hour walk. Germans call this practice "feierabend" literally to break away from work to revitalize and get fresh by say taking a bike ride through the woods or in a park. Tavares does not call or email employees on the weekend, and believes to be in game shape on Monday one needs to disconnect on the weekends.
Linked Articles
Right to disconnect is vital for future health of home workers
04/23/2021
This Auto CEO Won’t Put Remote Work in ReverseWSJ 07/08/2022
Armies of accountants, lawyers, financial experts and the problem of tax evasion, money laundering, that reaches $3.6 trillion worldwide
10/06/2021
Years of revelations have not changed the way the system operates. Inertia is instituionalized and the political system is available for hire, says a professor at the University of Sheffield.
Linked Articles
Too big to jail: why the crackdowns on dodgy finance have been so ineffective | Prem Sikka
The Guardian 10/06/2021
How Accounting Giants Craft Favorable Tax Rules From Inside GovernmentNYTimes.com 09/19/2021
The opening of bars in tourism destinations of Europe in summer triggering a second wave of the pandemic
09/22/2020
Linked Articles
Tourists in Croatia Help Feed Covid-19 Surge Across Europe
WSJ 09/21/2020
Coronavirus Cases Rise in Europe as Youth Hit Beaches and BarsWSJ 08/02/2020
Problem in U.S. coronavirus effort - the lack of a well funded institution setup by the government for quality data on the virus
05/15/2020
Reliable quality data on the coronavirus is centralized in other countries so that decisions can be made with confidence by state and federal decisionmakers. The U.S. lacks such an institution and information is collected and presented from disparate sources without consistency by private individuals or organizations leaving decisionmakers exposed to errors from lack of quality data that can prove very costly.
Linked Articles
States Are Reopening With No Clear Picture of U.S. Coronavirus Cases
WSJ 05/15/2020
How a Johns Hopkins Professor and Her Chinese Students Tracked CoronavirusWSJ 05/09/2020
Tesla's stalled effort in self-driving cars
04/02/2018
Linked Articles
Tesla’s Push to Build a Self-Driving Car Sparks Dissent Among Its Engineers
WSJ 08/24/2017
Tesla Says Autopilot Was Engaged in Fatal Crash Under Investigation in CaliforniaWSJ 03/31/2018
The Women20 Summit in Berlin and the path for women to the workplace in Europe, the U.S., and other countries
05/08/2017
The views expressed at the Women20 Summit at the G-20 summit in Berlin reflect the views of women leaders including Angela Merkel. Problems women in the U.S. are facing are covered here by Fed chairwoman Janet Yellen. For the first time leaders of the stature of Merkel and Yellen are talking about these issues openly to drive the debate and clear the path for women.
Linked Articles
The real issues at Women20 | Business | DW.COM | 26.04.2017
DW.COM 04/26/2017
To Lift Growth, Janet Yellen Says, Make It Easier for Women to WorkThe New York Times 05/05/2017
Sharp contrast between the Trump and Clinton economic plans- Trump's negative in the long run, Clinton's positive in the long run
10/18/2016
Economic experts look at the Trump and Clinton economic plans, Trump's based on extreme borrowing and Clinton's careful about deficits. Trump's plan aggravates the wide disparities in income in America after the tech booms and Clinton's reduces these disparities. Clinton's preserves global trading system while addressing the problems, Trump's moves in the direction of protectionism and high tariffs with potential unintended consequences for the global economy.
Linked Articles
Donald Trump’s Economic Plan, Up Close, Doesn’t Add Up
WSJ 10/18/2016
Donald Trump’s Tax Plan Would Boost Economy in Short Run but Not Long Term, Analysis FindsWSJ 10/17/2016
Speaker Paul Ryan's House seat in Janesville, Wisconsin- improving economy in a U.S. midwestern factory town and the debate on trade, help for working class families
08/10/2016
The unemployment rate in Janesville, Wisconsin drops to 4.4% in May 2016, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It was over 9% following the closing of the GM plant and the recession from the 2008 financial crisis. A working class town Janesville was hit hard by the closing of the GM plant in 2008. Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post describes the impact of losing about 5000 jobs at the GM plant, and the problems typical of most manufacturing dependent towns. Throughout the period since being first elected to Congress in 1998 Ryan has continued to be able to get elected on the basis of faith, family and public service, even though some of his policies may not have helped the poor and elderly or laid off workers. Ryan voted for rescuing the auto industry and worked hard to keep the GM plant, and listens to his constituents, and as the economy recovered by 2016 won easily in this old industrial midwestern town. His influence in national politics gives Janesville an opportunity to be heard, as it tackles problems common to many midwestern towns in the U.S.
Linked Articles
Could Paul Ryan’s ideas help his struggling home town? - The Washington Post
Washington Post 08/19/2012
Paul Ryan beats outsider 'mini-Donald Trump' challenger in Wisconsin primaryThe Guardian 08/10/2016
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
Reagan, Greenspan and America's lost years 1980-2009
11/17/2023
It was in this period that many of the problems that we face today were created through policies of low interest rates, deregulation and financial market speculation leading to the financial crisis of 2008. At the beginning of the Reagan administration in 1980 China was still a country of bicycles and largely rural, by 2009 it had transformed itself into the largest manufacturing nation in the world and continued to 2023. In the US financial deregulation and lack of health care for all allowed financial interests to become the dominant force in the economy in a speculative way , and defunded manufacturing, infrastructure and public services. The work of FDR, Truman Eisenhower and Kennedy unraveled, Clinton, Obama and Trump continued that decline.
Linked Articles
Puerto Rico Was Supposed to Be John Paulson’s Paradise. Then Came the Lawsuits.
WSJ 11/16/2023
Trader Made Billions on SubprimeWSJ Jan 15 2008 01/15/2008
Try hard but not too hard-cutting yourself some slack improves health and concentration, the Andy Grove principle for slack in your work routine reinforces this
09/15/2023
People forget that this applies to sports athletes and high achieving people. Andy Grove, founder of Intel and of Silicon Valley, believed in keeping some slack in his work routine and schedule. He left Hungary in 1956 after the Hungarian revolution and Russian invasion as a refugee, and graduated first in his class in the City College of New York in chemical engineering 3 years later. In 3 more years he obtained a PhD from UC Berkeley. In his book Output Management he says productive arrangement is one that keeps slack in the way that highway planners know that having too many cars compared to capacity means everything comes to a halt. In his daily work he always believed in having some slack. Today people pile on work upon work forgetting these basic principles. The other principle is leveraging of activities which is where the output comes from. To leverage effectively concentration of mind is needed and a chance to reflect and think, which requires slack and slack that adds additional time for healthy living that aids mindfulness. This adds to Motivation and Training which Grove says affect Output. To do this requires some slack to think and reflect and healthy lifestyles that power this process. This is also why the competing styles today show contrasts between those of Boeing's top managers and Stellantis managers similar to Grove and Musk's style for Tesla also shown in WSJ in the last few months being just the opposite.
Linked Articles
Burnt-out from work? Try following Hugh Jackman’s 85% rule
The Guardian 09/15/2023
Try Hard, but Not That Hard. 85% Is the Magic Number for Productivity.WSJ 09/11/2023
Friendshoring- US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Jake Sullivan NSA Advisor's call to invest in India
03/07/2023
American leaders president Biden, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan call for friendshoring- to invest in Indian manufacturing. This will reduce concentration of manufacturing in one country and create abetter more resilient supply chain. The pandemic and supply chain problems that added to inflation showed the extraordinary risks of the existing supply chain. As pointed out by FInance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in an interview at Raisina Dialogue India is creating the right conditions to attract foreign investors in Indian maufacturing for advanced technologies.
Linked Articles
U.S. Pursues India as a Supply-Chain Alternative to China
WSJ 03/06/2023
Raisina Dialogue 2023: In conversation with Finance Minister Nirmala SitharamanThe Economic Times 03/06/2023
Disastrous economic losses for the former Soviet region including Russia from the Ukraine invasion
04/11/2022
Losses to the economy for Russia from 11% to 25%, for Ukraine 45%, for Belarus, Moldova and former Soviet republics 30%. This is the scale and magnitude of economic losses for this region. All sides in the war are losers and the spinoff effects are creating economic problems in other regions of Asia, Latin America and North Africa who have no connection to this war. Yet nothing has been solved.
Linked Articles
Ukraine economy to shrink by almost half this year, World Bank forecasts
The Guardian 04/11/2022
Russia-Ukraine war latest news: Austrian leader’s talks with Putin ‘very direct, open and tough’The Guardian 04/11/2022
American men - losing the battle to get a university education
09/21/2021
The percentage of men at universities in America falls to an all time low of 40% creating shock waves about problems related to the cost of education, failing social safety nets, and social issues during the pandemic.
Linked Articles
Opinion | Why Men Are Disappearing on Campus
WSJ 09/19/2021
A Generation of American Men Give Up on College: ‘I Just Feel Lost’WSJ 09/06/2021
France and Germany - the struggle to get young people to adopt responsible behaviours during the pandemic
08/04/2020
Three police officers hospitalized after a protest against coronavirus restrictions in Berlin and an outbreak in the Quiberon peninsula with 72 cases after beach parties, show the persistent problem in both Germany and France to get young people to adopt responsible behaviors.
Linked Articles
Coronavirus cluster in western France pits youth against authorities preaching caution
France 24 07/30/2020
Germany: 45 officers injured at Berlin rally against coronavirus curbs | DW | 02.08.2020DW.COM 08/02/2020
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
Automakers in the U.S. and the problem with looser emissions standards proposed by the Trump administration
04/02/2018
Linked Articles
Opinion | Looser Emissions Standards Will Hurt the Auto Industry
03/30/2018
Automakers Sought Looser Rules but May Get More Than They Bargained for03/31/2018
Germany's fumbled response to electric cars
12/11/2016
Linked Articles
German Government at Odds with Industry over Electric Cars - SPIEGEL ONLINE
SPIEGEL ONLINE 12/01/2016
Germany’s Premium Car Makers Fumble Response to Electric ChallengeWall Street Journal 05/12/2016
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
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