Monday, September 12
French People Urged to Save Energy
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that his country was ready to deliver gas to Germany this coming winter should Europe's gas squeeze make such a move necessary, urging French citizens to reduce their energy consumption in order to stave off rationing and cuts.
Macron said French gas could help Germany to produce more electricity which, in turn, would allow Germany to contribute electricity to the French power grid during peak hours.
"We are going to complete the gas connections that will allow us to deliver gas to Germany," Macron told reporters after a video call with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Both Germany and France are scrambling to replenish gas reserves after Russia curtailed deliveries in retaliation for western support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.
Germany is more dependent on Russian gas than France, which generates most of its electricity in nuclear power stations. READ MORE...
China's Property & Credit Bubble
Buildings developed by China Evergrande Group that authorities have issued a demolition order on in Danzhou, Hainan Province, China, January 7, 2022. Picture taken with a drone.(Aly Song/Reuters)
The country’s property and credit-market bubble is now showing every sign of bursting — at a dangerous time for both China and the world at large.
The late American Enterprise Institute economist Herb Stein famously wrote that if something cannot go on forever, it will stop.
Mr. Stein might very well have had in mind the unsustainable, decade-old, property and credit-market bubble in China, which is now showing every sign of bursting.
Compounding matters, it is doing so at the very time when the Chinese economy is experiencing a perfect economic storm as a result of President Xi’s zero-tolerance Covid policy, his attack on big business, and his ramping up of political tensions with the United States over Taiwan now coinciding with a severe drought.
A Chinese economic slowdown would have major implications for the world. Not only is China the world’s second-largest economy; until recently, it was also the world’s main engine of economic growth and its largest consumer of internationally traded commodities.
Over the past decade, China’s economic miracle was heavily based on an unsustainable property and credit-led economic-growth model.
Over the past decade, China’s economic miracle was heavily based on an unsustainable property and credit-led economic-growth model.
That led to a situation where private-sector credit grew by more than 100 percent of GDP: a pace of credit expansion faster than that which preceded Japan’s lost economic decade in the 1980s, or that which preceded the 2007 bursting of the U.S. housing and credit-market bubble. READ MORE...
Sunday, September 11
A Week At Myrtle Beach
Today, my wife and I drove to Myrtle Beach, SC for a week's vacation although I am not sure why because we have been retired since 2015 and don't really need vacations. Still, we like to travel and it is nice to get away since we have not been anywhere for over a year. This is only our second vacation since COVID appeared on the scene.
Because of my back surgery, we had to stop every two hours... so instead of 6 & 1/2 hours in the car, we spent a little over 7, stopping for about 15 minutes each time. The traffic was not bad and that might have been because of the day. We left at 7am and arrived at 3pm but stopped for gas and coffee before we left town.
Today, we are reminded of the terrorist attack inside our borders and even though it was 2 decades ago, for some of us, it is like it just happened yesterday.
Do you remember where you were?
I was at work and it was about 30 minutes before my shift started so I was in the lounge watching whatever was on the TV and saw a plane crash into a high rise building. I thought it was a movie. But, was soon told, it was the news.
For 20 years we have worried about another attack and for 20 years nothing has happened. However, I am sure that the Arabs who hate us, have planned numerous events but all have been avoided because of our alert status with the military and homeland security.
Was COVID another terrorist attack except this time, it was unleashed by the Chinese? And, why is our government protecting the Chinese when they are our sworn enemy?
Well, enough of this troublesome shit... I'm at the beach and I'm going to start enjoying myself and I suggest that you do the same.
911: Two Decades Later
Americans watched in horror as the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, left nearly 3,000 people dead in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Nearly 20 years later, they watched in sorrow as the nation’s military mission in Afghanistan – which began less than a month after 9/11 – came to a bloody and chaotic conclusion.
The enduring power of the Sept. 11 attacks is clear: An overwhelming share of Americans who are old enough to recall the day remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. Yet an ever-growing number of Americans have no personal memory of that day, either because they were too young or not yet born.
A review of U.S. public opinion in the two decades since 9/11 reveals how a badly shaken nation came together, briefly, in a spirit of sadness and patriotism; how the public initially rallied behind the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, though support waned over time; and how Americans viewed the threat of terrorism at home and the steps the government took to combat it.
As the country comes to grips with the tumultuous exit of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan, the departure has raised long-term questions about U.S. foreign policy and America’s place in the world. Yet the public’s initial judgments on that mission are clear: A majority endorses the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, even as it criticizes the Biden administration’s handling of the situation.
And after a war that cost thousands of lives – including more than 2,000 American service members – and trillions of dollars in military spending, a new Pew Research Center survey finds that 69% of U.S. adults say the United States has mostly failed to achieve its goals in Afghanistan. READ MORE...
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