November 15, 2023
The modern American version of “the environmental emperor has no clothes” until now has been the rise and fall of Enron. As former Ken Lay speechwriter Robert Bradley, Jr., says, “(T)he cause of Enron’s financial bankruptcy were at root philosophical…. Enron’s leaders were certainly engaged in massive philosophical fraud – an attempt to cheat reality itself.”
For years, Enron was hailed as one of the most forward-thinking corporations, and Lay, its founder and CEO, was a man in great demand. During his 13-year tenure that ended with a bang in 2021, Lay collected over $220 million in cash and company stock, and just months before “the largest bankruptcy in America” (at that time) Lay gave five presentations at the 2001 World Economic Forum meeting in Davos.
As Bradley, now the CEO of the Institute for Economic Research, recounts, Lay was the salesman promoting a business model developed by Jeffrey Skilling, who Lay had brought on as chief operating officer. In Skilling’s “mark-to-market” accounting, anticipated future profits from any deal were accounted for by estimating their present value rather than historical cost. Thus, argued Skilling, Enron did not really need “assets.”
It just needed connections.
And that was Lay’s special skill. His idea was to embrace a “revolution always” business philosophy, which Bradley called “a perpetual search for the first-mover advantage.” To that end, he became all things to all people, winning favor from Republicans, Democrats, environmentalists, minorities, and business leaders. His “illusion-making” in effect created a smokescreen so strong that nearly everyone was caught by surprise when the bubble burst.
[Editor’s note: As an environmental writer in Louisiana, I wrote in 1999 that the U.S. Senate rejection of the Kyoto Protocol would ensure Enron’s soon demise. I based my view on the fact that the company lacked assets and had built its presumed net worth on Kyoto largesse. As Bradley points out, Enron relied heavily on government favors.]
Today, the collapse of FTX and the recent criminal conviction of founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (who is facing a lifetime behind bars) brings Enron, Skilling, and Lay to mind. But, despite the magnitude of SBF’s fraud, it pales in comparison to the ongoing fraud being perpetrated mostly on America and its Western allies in the name of “climate change.”
A bit like FTX, but unlike Enron, there are plenty of warning signs that the “Green Revolution” is about to come tumbling down and its loudest advocates brought to account. The main thing keeping the mirages afloat today is the massive egos and their investments in folly that may leave them going down with the ship.
While the “Green Revolution” has been under way for decades, it is the Biden Administration that has imposed mandates, attacked popular energy sources and transportation options, and waged war against traditional industrial development. Europeans and states like California had earlier imposed their own mandates with supposedly “hard” deadlines for abolishing the use of oil, natural gas, coal, and every tool or vehicle that uses them.
The green war on fossil fuels, as fleshed out in the “Net Zero” campaign, is perhaps history’s greatest example of philosophical fraud.
“To dream the impossible dream” and turn it into reality would mean sacrificing an estimated 6,000 useful products that rely on byproducts from crude oil refineries – products that range from asphalt for highways to fertilizers, cosmetics, synthetic rubber, medicines and medical devices, cleaning products, plastics, so many more. The 3 billion who live without the benefits fossil fuels have provided are also the poorest, sickest, and most vulnerable humans on the planet.
Cracks are already developing in the “Net Zero” world, what with countries backing away from the mandates they so recently touted while marching around like peacocks in mating season. In March the European Union reached an agreement with Germany to formally back away from its total ban on internal combustion engines in 2035.
Still, 30 countries are signatories to the Glasgow Declaration that would force all vehicles sold by 2040 to have zero carbon dioxide emissions, and 21 others have crafted plans to ban new ICE vehicle sales earlier than 2040. Dozens of major cities and states, most notably California and the California clone states, intend to disallow new ICE vehicles by 2035.
Several problems stand in the way of their utopian dream. Even EV advocates are now admitting the “EV-olution” has to overcome “serious issues” – like the use of child labor in lithium mining, the woefully inadequate EV charging infrastructure, and an unprepared power grid. Yet the biggest obstacle is that a majority of the Earth’s people object to having EVs – or heat pumps, or electric stoves, and so on — shoved down their throats.
EVs may be fine for short-trip urban travel but not for construction equipment, airplanes, or even urban buses, as evidenced by the recent horrific scene in San Francisco when a Google-operated electric bus lost power and slid backwards downhill into nine vehicles. Today’s EVs are wholly impractical for mountain and prairie residents or others making long trips (worse with children).
Like Ken Lay with Enron, the Green revolution has relied heavily on government subsidies and a “revolution always” business philosophy aimed at making pariahs of anyone who dares oppose the grandiose – but fatally flawed – plan.
During the Obama Administration, Solyndra went under despite a $535 million government-guaranteed loan, none of which was paid back. Forbes, citing OpenTheBooks.com, noted that taxpayers were left holding the notes for $400 million given to Abound Solar, $280 million wasted by CaliSolar, $193 million doled out to Fisker Automotive (with another $336 million canceled), and $132 million to A123 Systems (a failed battery maker).
Undaunted, the Biden Administration’s $2.3 trillion “jobs” package was rife with more subsidies for technologies that by their own admission are unsustainable. Yet despite all the free money, Ford, General Motors, and many other automakers are backing away from multibillion-dollar investments in new EV factories as new EV sales have slowed despite increased rebates.
Ford in March projected a loss of $3 billion on electric vehicles in 2023, offsetting profits of as much as $14 billion from its other divisions. Ford also admitted losses of $900 million in 2021 and $2.1 billion in 2022 in its EV division. Ford and GM believe their EV fortunes will turn around by 2025, but those rosy scenarios seem wholly dependent upon Biden (or an even “greener” Democrat) winning the White House next November.
Even with a Green win in 2024, reality will still bite the EV dream. China has been quietly moving toward total dominance in the global EV marketplace – largely because it controls the lithium battery market. Financial Times wrote in September that China is so far ahead in the EV market that its competitors are trailing in the dust.
Biden’s reliance on huge subsidies to underwrite the “Green Revolution” has brought soaring inflation to the U.S. that is taking away purchasing power faster than it can increase subsidies and Mafia-style “incentives” (you will buy what we want you to buy, or else!).
Lay died of a heart attack shortly after his trial, leaving behind “a legacy of shame” characterized by “mismanagement and dishonesty” that led Politico to rank him as the third-worst American CEO of all time.
America’s doddering President Biden, now facing pre-impeachment hearings for other alleged mistakes, may not live to see his name smeared as Lay’s once was. But does anyone truly believe Biden is calling all the shots here?
Who will, then, get the blame if America’s forced march to EV subservience to Xi’s China brings an end to America’s hegemony on the world stage?
Duggan Flanakin is a senior policy analyst for the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow and a frequent writer on public policy issues.
This article was originally published by RealClearEnergy and made available via RealClearWire.
I think the writer meant child labor and COBALT, not lithium. The “artisanal” mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are notorious for their labor practices, while lithium is mostly brine extraction.
Also Ken Lay’s tenure at Enron ended in 2001, not 2021. I used to work just a couple of blocks away from Enron HQ in downtown Houston and passed the big E on my commute.
“Cracks are already developing in the “Net Zero” world, what with countries backing away from the mandates they so recently touted while marching around like peacocks in mating season.”
No cracks here in Wokeachusetts’ net zero. If you have a good job in government, the ivory tower, and many companies and you want to keep it- you’re no more likely to challenge the state’s net zero than any Russian will criticize Putin.
They may have papered over the cracks there, Joseph, but they are still there. When the ‘green revolution’ implodes it’ll hit Wokeachussets as well.
It won’t implode here. This state is so crazy- it’ll continue with its net zero idiocy regardless of what happens elsewhere. The market for EVs and heat pumps may collapse but the state will continue with not allowing you to buy an ICE car/truck nor install a new oil/gas furnace- all because it’s a one party state. They can’t back down because they’re so invested in this new cult. Backing down would admit that they’re fools and criminals once all the damage is counted. The media will stick with them- and the ivory tower. But there are fights within the cult- right now in fact, there’s a battle over forests- in the short term over state ownd forest land, later over private forest. The state has had hearings and webinars. At none of these does anyone challenge the cult- while they debate over policy details. Today I emailed them my ideas which include the claim that the climate emergency is a cult. They can’t cancel me now because I dropped my forester license now that I’m 74. They tried canceling me twice in the past 20 years for daring to challenge their policies. They failed, partly thanks to the help of the ACLU who will defend anybody over the first amendment.
Except those in charge today won’t be in charge forever and the new crew will feel no compunction about blaming their predecessors for the mess.
When it gets bad enough people will run on a repeal platform.
Puts me in mind of Stalin’s two letters for Khrushchev.
When opened when Khrushchev was in trouble politically the first said “Blame everything on me”. A few years later when again in serious trouble Khrushchev opened the second which said “Prepare two letters”
One advantage of Wokeachusetts is that the owner of an ICE vehicle can escape to another state within an hour. It’s a lot more difficult from California.
“EVs may be fine for short-trip urban travel but not for construction equipment, airplanes, or even urban buses, as evidenced by the recent horrific scene in San Francisco when a Google-operated electric bus lost power and slid backwards downhill into nine vehicles.”
no brakes? or, do brakes in EVs need the “engine” running? no emergency hand brake? or was the bus driver stoned?
It was a heavy bus on a steep hill when it completely lost power, it’s probable that the brakes wouldn’t have held it in place and stopped it sliding into the cars.
Plus if it had air brakes then the compressor would have failed with no power and I’m not sure how much ‘grip’ the brakes would be left with at that point.
Air operated brakes are ON unless air is applied. So losing power should have resulted in the application of 100% braking.
That’s how I understood air-brakes = the compressed air held the brakes off by pushing against a big fugoff spring that was trying to (very) forcibly apply the brakes.
The brakes were then triply /quadruply fail-safe.
If the vehicle’s engine or power failed, brakes came on.
If the air system failed, in any way, the brakes came on.
The (air) braking system would only fail if that big spring failed but as there’d be one inside each wheel hub, the chances of complete vehicle brake failure were = nil
Sounds like it wasnt a ‘complete loss of electrical power’ after all, just some fault with traction motor- electrical interface.
The bus electrical system which included the brakes was working but the brakes not applied properly The braking system is also likely regenerative and that certainly wont hold a bus from going backwards.
Maybe its just a maintenance problem which many electric buses can have
https://www.imperialengineering.co.uk/avoiding-brake-system-faults-on-hybrid-and-electric-buses
If you look at the short video, you will note that there are overhead trolleybus wires on that street (Castro). So what, exactly, was the purpose of using a battery bus?
To demonstrate that you can store electricity in a battery, then use it to power a bus made extra heavy by the battery, and expect that it will be in some intangible way “superior” to delivering electricity directly to a much lighter bus via overhead wires?
One wonders what the end-to-end (substation-to-wheels) efficiency of the two approaches would be – 60% for the battery bus and 80% for the trolleybus (those are just uneducated guesses)? And what about the relative purchase cost? And relative lifespan?
They might witter on about regenerative braking, but modern trolleybuses do that too. And modern hybrid trolleybuses used in Europe can run on battery for ±20 km on “branch” routes and easily reconnect themselves to wires on “main” routes. They can also use battery power to “leapfrog” when a nearly-empty bus gets stuck behind a crowded bus, which was one of the drawbacks of traditional trolleybuses.
Battery buses are still a bit less idiotic than the Scottish battery-powered train,which (thus far at least) takes the prize for brainless virtue signalling. But, well, that’s the SNP government….
I don’t think that the bus in question was city owned, it looks more like a highway vehicle or a tour bus. In any event the question about brakes is a good one, if it had air brakes and it is probable that it did then brakes would be applied automatically as the air is used to keep the brakes off not to apply the brakes. It could be that the weight of the bus was too much for the braking system in which case the manufacturer has some liability if the bus relied on regenerative braking to supplement the air brakes.
It was similar thinking to the Texas freeze disaster where they used electricity for everything, especially to pump the gas.
The same ‘electricity cannot fail‘ thinking that all of today’s youngsters have been taught and believe means that a helluva lot of them are in for some very big shocks
“Electricity cannot fail” is dangerous thinking. Engineers like myself who have designed units of refineries are always trying to design them to be “fail-safe”, meaning that in the event of a power failure, and all pumps and compressors stop running, the plant shuts down safely without any overheating or overpressure.
Electricity can fail, and will fail eventually from time to time, particularly due to lightning strikes or trees falling on power lines during storms. We have to plan for it.
It was an all-electric bus funded by Google to ferry employees of tech firms to and from their jobs. It’s come under fire in San Francisco because rents have gone up near its stops.
Trolley buses always seemed a better option than trams. Much cheaper to install, and extend and not stuck in tracks. Much safer for cyclists and motorcyclists.
Speaking of inflation, the Government (US Bureau of Labor Statistics) states that inflation from November 2022 thru October 2023, as measured by CPI-U, has ranged from a high of 7.1% to a low of 3.0%, averaging out at 4.7%.
source: https://www.bls.gov/regions/mid-atlantic/data/consumerpriceindexhistorical_us_table.htm
Meanwhile, the US Social Security Administration states that Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for more than 71 million Americans will have a cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) of 3.2% in 2024.
source: https://www.ssa.gov/cola/
So, under the “transparency” of the current Biden administration, the government continues to cook the books.
“You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”
— commonly attributed (likely incorrectly) to Abraham Lincoln
The CPI, based on a basket of goods, that keeps changing, was purposely doctored downwards, by almost a factor of 2, by Greenspan to save the Social Security System.
Senator Dole went along, plus agreed to federal TAXING of 80% of your SS check
The money people put into the SS system had already been taxed!!!
That way older people at 65 are sort-of OK with their SS check, but after ten yours that check will have been increasing at the CPI rate, but prices will have been increasing much more, based on my own experience. Those folks are soooooo screwed again!!
Luckily, I made investments over 40 years, so the SS check is minor for me, but for many others, it is a real downer, after working your butt off for 40 years
The feds claim that Social Security recipients get back all that they paid after a few years. That’s not exactly true. First, they don’t count the “employer’s contribution” which is actually paid by the employee. It’s only a bookkeeping trick. They could easily change the measuring rod by saying that your employer pays all of it simply by not listing your contribution on your paycheck. If you doubt this, ask anyone who is self employed.
Second, if you adjust your total contributions for inflation over 40 years you actually paid 2 to 3 times as much.
Third, if you include the opportunity costs of not investing that money, then you probably paid 5 times what the feds say was your contribution.
Bob,
Thank you for great comments.
Some years ago, I made a 25-y spreadsheet of a solar system and compared it with investing the same money in a stock paying a 6% dividend, plus having a 5% annual appreciation.
I was ahead by a factor of 3 buying the stock
All the damned lies gullible people are told about the benefits of this and that
Three years ago, I had installed three heat pumps with 6 heads in my 3700 sq ft house, in Vermont; turnkey cost $24000
My net energy savings $200/y.
I had thought it would be more
But the amortizing cost is about $2000/y, if 6% at 15 years, plus I will have periodic maintenance, parts, and labor
Plus, I have the amortization and annual maintenance, parts, labor of my older, traditional system, which is still working fine after 10 years
The climate wackos are soooo screwing us.
If you retired 20 years ago, you did get back all you put in, in just a few years. And that was what was wrong with the system. Retirees were getting back way more than they put in, meaning that those who hadn’t retired yet, would never manage to break even, because previous retirees, and the politicians they voted for, had already drained the system dry.
And that includes the employer contributions.
. . . Fourth, consider the fact that Social Security payouts are based on average life expectancy at the time one starts collecting such payments and the number of years a person has spent paying into the system (at least up to a maximum contribution threshold). Yet a significant number people die earlier than SS defines “full retirement age”: ranging from age 65 if born in 1937 or earlier to age 67 if born in 1960 or later.
A surviving spouse, surviving divorced spouse, unmarried child, or dependent parent may be eligible for monthly survivor benefits based on the deceased worker’s earnings. But many people who paid into SS over their working lifetime die without meeting any of those conditions. In such cases, all that money paid into the SS system is simple kept by the government . . . and I don’t believe they even send out a condolence letter.
You write that as if SS was an investment and not a tax. We take money from people who work and give it to people who are old. A single mom working two jobs pays SS so DJT and JB can collect checks.
I love how some people have decided that rich people shouldn’t be permitted to draw from Social Security.
Short of reinventing the entire system, the options are:
1) cut benefits
2) cut recipients
3) raise payroll taxes
To me it makes more sense to not continue to give the rich handouts that are funded by additional taxes on those who are struggling to get by.
Reinventing the system, by putting 50% of the contributions in an annuity in YOUR NAME would, if invested in the AVERAGE stock market value would, in the end, provide MORE from the annuity than the current SS payments. The other 50% would just pay off the currently stuck in the system recipients.
That change was proposed under W and was shut down be your kind of people. (Statists)
BTW, people were to be given the option to go the NEW way or stay in the current system.
The only choice your type of people believe in is the choice to kill a baby, up till the moment of birth, and beyond.
School choice, no way.
SS choice, no way.
15 minute cities OR NOT, no way.
EV or ICE, no way.
Heat pump of FF boiler/furnace, no way.
Cheap electricity of expensive unreliable electricity, no way!
“. . . it makes more sense to not continue to give the rich handouts that are funded by additional taxes on those who are struggling to get by.”
Handouts???
You are obviously unaware that Social Security checks are issued only to those who have paid into the system over their working lifetime, or their rightful beneficiaries at time of their death.
Both employed and self-employed individuals are required to make payments into (i.e., make annual tax payments into) Social Security . . . with only a very few classes of workers, most notably Federal employees, being allowed to escape Social Security tax withholding
— ref: https://smartasset.com/retirement/exempt-from-social-security-taxes
“When you’re self-employed, you’re considered both the employee and the employer and you are responsible for withholding 12.4% in Social Security taxes from your earnings. In other words, you contribute both the employer’s portion of Social Security (6.2%) and your own portion (6.2%).”
— https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/030216/social-security-selfemployed-how-it-works.asp
Now, you were saying something about “making sense” . . .
Depends on your definition of “rich” – and how they got “rich”. Rode a Honda CB350/later CB360 in college and to work. No one forgave my college loans. I didn’t buy my first car until I was 30. I didn’t buy my first townhouse until I was in my 30’s. I didn’t date (until I was 30, I didn’t party, didn’t do alcohol or any other recreational drug. No vacations, no travel (except for business) until I was 31. I put everything into the stock market despite my degree being in physics (vs business). When I married, I convinced my wife to invest almost as much as I did – despite her protests. And except for my first year I always paid the max amount into SocSec. Money that I could have invested very profitably!
I listened to some of my co-workers talk about how they didn’t see the value in saving because they were paying into SocSec and if they didn’t have a living wage when they retired they’d take their NRA guaranteed assault rifle and shoot up D.C.
We sacrificed – and now we’re comfortable. Kind of. We have a Congress and a President who want to take our money to build windmills and a million other worthless junk. Our SocSec payments are taxed as normal income. I have college for three kids to worry about in a few years (not mine, but friends who did not scrifice like we did). I am still forking out tens of thousands to friends who had a great time in their youth to get them over problems now.
I would be OK with taking a SocSec cut if all windmill and sunflower farm subsidies were eliminated tomorrow and the war on oil ended the same day – and the EPA defunded. I would be happier still if the approach of cutting at least two regulations for every new one was re-instated.
I don’t see why we should be singled out as long as our Government can waste money left and right and do everything possible to cripple our economy – and make my investments riskier.
urban buses:
They are already here:
https://theicct.org/electric-buses-europe-may23/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_emission_buses_in_London
“Earth’s people object to having EVs – or heat pumps, or electric stoves, and so on — shoved down their throats”
That’s mostly a US problem – German speaking countries and France for example have a huge share of electric stoves and even professionals go induction now.
And heat pumps are huge in northern european countries.
I already said it – if the car industry won’t innovate, they sure have to be scared from chinese companies.
End EV subsidies and then see how popular EV’s are.
End the electric appliance mandates and see how popular they are.
I spent ten years living in rural France, despite their Nuclear electricity domestic heating was predominantly wood and many people also had LPG in cisternes for heating and cooking, if not cooking was by small LPG cylinders.
Around 2013 there was an attempt to ban wood for heating in Paris which failed. Macron also attempted to moved from nuclear to renewable, failing in that.
I imagine things may have changed in the last 5 years thanks to constant propaganda
France tried a tricky little thing by shutting down many nukes simultaneously to strain their electrical system and found their unreliables were unreliable and then just did the needed repairs and upgrades to the nukes. So their system is again functioning.
Yes, it sounds like a conspiracy. But what other explanation is there for shutting down MANY reactors for “emergency” repairs, those reactors having been working for upwards of 40 years or more???
At least the scam proved they needed the Nukes.
Inflation in the US is going down, not up.
According to the government. Independent confirmation?
SCVBLWXQ, In what world do you live in? I see no prices going down. One other thing in my entire life when inflation hits you will never get deflation. The cost of a loaf a bread in my childhood and early adult life was a quarter and so was a gallon of gas. Never seen those price again. Also simple math will the you value of the dollar is 75 cents compared to three years ago. Just because it won’t hit 50 cents in the next three is nothing to celebrated because more than likely it will be worth 65 cents compared to 2019. Politicians like Biden and his ilk get away with the crap they pull because you and people like you swallow their lies.
scvblwxq,
I strongly suggest you investigate how the US government manipulates “inflation” accounting to defraud the public . . . implementing machinations such as “chained CPI” and not including some major financial impact items as part of CPI accounting.
See, for example, https://www.marketplace.org/2021/11/22/whats-included-in-the-consumer-price-index-and-what-isnt/
Don’t be a sheeple. Also, been shopping lately???
Sure. After prices went up 50% or more they are now not going up as fast as they were.
I am the food shopper in the family
I am buying about the same items each week
My food bill in 2023 is about 40% higher than in 2000, before COVID
Yep what he/she means is the rate of inflation has fallen, when there’s deflation, negative inflation if you like, the country is in as much trouble as when there’s hyperinflation.
Biden’s policies have put our economy in a very bad place.
Biden’s war on fossil fuels will just continue to add costs to Americans. If gasoline prices go higher, inflation goes higher.
“Sure. After prices went up 50% or more they are now not going up as fast as they were.”
That is the proper way to look at it.
And the prices that have already gone up are not going back down but are remaining elevated, with some exceptions.
And don’t you love how the CPI doesn’t include food or gasoline in the mix. If those items were included, the inflation rate would be much higher.
Inflation was on top of Mt Everest, and now it is on top of Mt Pikes Peak, plus the federal CPI understates by about a factor of 2.
See my above comment
“Inflation is going down” means prices are still going up–just not as fast.
Correct. That’s better than prices going up faster.
No mention of the horrific vehicle fires involving EVs.
From the WSJ
‘Wall Street’s ESG Craze Is Fading: Investors pulled more than $14 billion from sustainable funds this year’
https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/esg-branding-wall-street-0a487105
Somebody wake me up if Larry Fink jumps out of a 10th floor window, otherwise…
The universal cheering will wake you.
2001 ??
Speaking of products needing fossil fuels, you forgot to mention steel, aluminum, concrete, glass, solar silicon and lithium. None of these have EVER been produced with wind or solar power.
The plan to convert to “Green Renewables” is impossible.
“Today, the collapse of FTX and the recent criminal conviction of founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (who is facing a lifetime behind bars) brings Enron, Skilling, and Lay to mind.”
Elsewhere, I have seen a lawyer point out that the terms on which Sam Bankman-Fried was extradited back to the US means that he won’t/can’t be charged and convicted of certain crimes relating to campaign funding for a certain US political party he favoured.
Convenient, huh, since he was credited with being a very large donor to the Democrats before 2022 midterms.
Will those terms of extradition stand up in court or would a judge be able to overturn them if, say, there was a change in the ruling party?
I bet those terms won’t prevent the Republican House of Representatives from investigating Sam Bankman-Fried’s political contributions.
He made a lot of them. He had a lot of money to throw around.
The most disturbing thing is that the CAGW crowd is living a lie and demanding that we also live a lie. I won’t do it.
Enron lacked the religious aspect, for my, er, money.
They’ve got religion now
Enron surely was the embodiment of Gordon Gekko – Greed is good.
Do you voluntarily offer to have your salary cut whenever you are earning more money than you you need to support your family?
If not, you are being greedy.
It really is funny how so many people consider it to be greed whenever someone else has more money than the first person believes they need.
How many now ex Enron employees do you know? How many of them would you employ?
On the subject of inflation: Depending on the industry, it takes from about 5 to 18 months for government deficit spending to affect prices. Remember this when you vote for Trump, since he was certainly no cost cutter. The COVID spending, like an extra $600/week for people that were unemployed, was downright idiotic.
Biden was much worse and would be worse still if he remains somewhat sentient and gets reelected. His handlers have no downside to spending the US into oblivion since they will never get the blame (but likely will get a lot of the money).
I doubt that there is anyone who could cut spending so your vote is picking the lesser of two spenders. If Trump is elected, your life savings will probably disintegrate at a slower pace than if Biden, Newsome or Michele Obama is elected.
Yes, none of them really believe in restraint, the argument is what to spend it on.
Funny that everyone rips republicans for being fake deficit hawks, but they just had the speaker fiasco because a few actually wanted to cut some spending (I know, there were other reasons in there) and of course they are attacked for being right wing loons.
Heads I win tails you lose.
May as well put congress in Vegas.
“or Michele Obama is elected.”
I heard some idiot gushing over Michele Obama yesterday, saying how she would make a marvelous president.
My thought was : Based on what? What has Michele Obama ever done that would give this guy the impression that she was qualified to be President of the United States?
Michele said she never respected the United States until the day they elected her husband president. Who wants a person who thinks this way as president? Answer: A very foolish, ignorant person.
We would be better off picking someone off the street to be president than to elect Michele Obama as president.
Democrats consider her being black and a woman are qualifications enough. Not even close! We went that route with Kamala Harris and look what we ended up with.
We have a lot of low-information voters out there. Their ignorance endangers our personal freedoms because they don’t see the dangers involved in putting Democrats in office.
We are going to find out how many smart people we have in about one year.
The “philosophical fraud” has not been identified here. It is simply this :
Spot-price radical ¨free-market¨ Austrian School nuttiness from the London School of Economics (LSE) is shown in all it’s glory with intermittent energy. As Prof. von Hayek of the LSE said – the economy springs spontaneously, unknowably from trade.
In other words believe in the “magic of the markets”. No concept whatsoever of actual energy production, merely trading prices. Magic versus reality.
To make this work, accounting firms are essential – Arthur Anderson which folded because Enron imploded, simply moved staff to PWC, PriceWaterhouseCoopers at the The Amsterdam TTF energy trading outfit which is a carbon copy of the Ranch at the Crooked E, ENRON, the Ranch at the Crooked EU.
No mention either here what to do about this.
Simple – any firm can go bankrupt. The point is NO BAILOUTS from savings. How to enforce this?
Easy, end 1999 Pres. Clinton repealed the Glass-Steagall banking separation active since 1934, just in time for ENRON bailouts – $50 billion in CA alone. Followed by blowout after blowout, bailouts. With Glass-Steagall in place, players would look very hard at ENRON/FTX/ESG knowing they have no FDIC tap to suckle.
I’m pretty sure that everything you said is completely wrong. Unfortunately I can’t be sure, because none of it made any sense.
Not your area of expertise then.
Who will get the blame? Donald Trump, of course.
Or George Bush.
I’m curious who numbers one and two were in the worst CEO list?
Maybe headed for a crash?
Robert Bryce has been outlining the carnage recently
https://robertbryce.substack.com/
In Memory of Ken Lay
I said, Kenny, all I ever wanted
Was the summer barbecues out back
Of the small house, in the paved yard
The kids in high school or college
The touch of Jesus on Sundays
And whatever you wanted, for you.
But you can’t go home again.
And he said, me too girl, me too,
Thing was, I never knew it.
Anonymous, don’t now recall where it was published.
From the article: “But does anyone truly believe Biden is calling all the shots here?”
No, I don’t think Biden is calling all the shots, but I do think Biden is in agreement with all the things his administration is doing. Biden is a radical Leftists. He’s in his element right now.
Gummint loves inflation as it pays off their helicopter money printing. Like my annual Land Tax bill that just lobbed in. My rentals land valuations went up 42.7% and my tax payable went up 98.8% because I’m richer. Unfortunately my tenants aren’t richer.
EVs are a ridiculous scam.
Let’s start with my 2nd attempt at renting an EV vehicle. The first one was a disaster – I spent more time charging the damn thing (for a trip of ~150 miles round trip) than I did at the actual wine-tasting + lunch which said vehicle was rented for. But some of this was unfamiliarity, so I tried again.
This time, the trip was a far less ambitious 100 mile round trip. This time I carefully planned out time for charging etc. But here’s the problem: I live in a big city, and there are NO places that can charge quickly that aren’t paid parking. So even though the electricity charge for those 100 miles was under $10 – I had to pay $21 for the parking fees. If I had rented a gas fueled car, I would have paid no more than $15 for fuel even at downtown city prices.
The charging was furthermore super slow even at a “fast” charger. The rental started at basically 100% and dropped to 58% for the 100 miles driven. It took an estimated 37 minutes but actual 31 minutes to charge to 80%, but of course I needed to return with at least 95% charge. It took nearly another hour to get to 98% (margin) which was good since the charge level dropped 2% just going from there, through the APEC summit closure traffic, to the car return facility. So around 90 minutes and over $30 to charge vs the 5 minutes and $15 that a gas refueling would have taken.
This got me thinking: if magically all cars were switched to EVs, and equally magically the transmission grid and new electricity generation were created, and all gas stations were also magically transferred to EV charging stations – the net effect would be to reduce refueling capacity as in miles per hour by 95%. Note the above: 18x more time to charge = 95% less miles refueled per unit time, assuming the amount of miles traveled via EV or gas is identical. While there is certainly at least some excess capacity in gas station pumps, I very much doubt it is 2000% excess.
Sure, you can charge your EV at home – if you have a home. This won’t work in a condo, or an apartment, or a house with old wiring, or if you have to drive more than the relatively short range which EVs have.
Just imagine, before the industrial revolution and internal combustion engines arose out of exploration and ingenuity without any government arrogance and meddling, when transport was largely by horse and cities steeped in the odor and manure that flooded the streets, imagine leaders of the day matching our current caliber of leadership, launched a brilliant solution – that no horse or other beast of burden could be sold or purchased unless it be certified zero emissions – and that rule would come into effect in only a few years after some very clever university folk sorted out all the troublesome details. Exactly how far could society move forward pulled by dead horses.
We are ruled by idiots who wish to take us back in time to a life of disease, hunger darkness and population collapse while they line their own pockets. We didn’t remove our dependence on beasts of burden because the government had a brilliant idea, but rather because invention and discovery were allowed to progress honestly without the painful attention of politics.