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News & ArtsThursday, March 7, 2013
Economy More Evidence of Global Economic Recovery
Posted by Charles Mudede on Thu, Mar 7, 2013 at 8:04 AM
The recovery is even in the air:
The amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the air jumped dramatically in 2012, making it very unlikely that global warming can be limited to another 2 degrees as many global leaders have hoped, new federal figures show.Scientists say the rise in CO2 reflects the world's economy revving up and burning more fossil fuels, especially in China.
Marx wrote that when ever capitalism reaches a limit it does its best to transform it into a barrier. You can do nothing more with a limit, but you can climb over a barrier and continue on as before. But the problem with this process is that not all things can become barriers. Somethings do come to an end. Compound growth, which has been sustained by financialization (which comes down to the exploitation of the future—it's telling that the GOP only worries about the future when it comes to government debts) and the relocation of industrial production from rich nations to poor ones—will hit a limit. Eternal compound growth, even at 2 percent, exists only in the minds of madmen. Also, only madmen believe that nature does not have a limit.
1
Valuable gas is continually being generated by landfills around the world, and Danbury-based FuelCell Energy believes that its technology can be used to prevent it from going to waste.
The company has entered a contract to demonstrate a "tri-generation" fuel cell power plant near Vancouver, British Columbia, utilizing landfill gas as the fuel source. It is FuelCell's first opportunity to demonstrate application of its Direct FuelCell technology, which produces hydrogen for sale after the electrochemical process.
Quadrogen Power Systems will refine the landfill gas before it is used by the fuel cell power plant to generate multiple revenue streams, including electricity, heat and renewable hydrogen, hence the "tri-generation" descriptor.
Read more: http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/art…
(I own shares of FCEL - srotu).
3
@2 ...that really, really wasn't the point of this article. It was more that the entire growth-based paradigm is looking increasingly suicidal for our species. Yet neither of the two major political parties are proposing any other construct.
It's actually kind of nuts to think about. "Growth" has replaced any sort of articulated societal goal in America. But growth is largely illusory, fueled by externalizing hidden costs in production, such as environmental damage. As the externalized damage becomes more noticeable, economics increasingly turns into a zero-sum game, with wealth being transferred to a small oligarchy.
Someone asked Bill Clinton a few years back how to fix the economy. His reply was that we'd have to come up with a technological advance as great as the internet. While that would certainly kick-start our growth model again, it's indicative of how the elites seem incapable of examining the larger assumptions our society is based on.
It's actually kind of nuts to think about. "Growth" has replaced any sort of articulated societal goal in America. But growth is largely illusory, fueled by externalizing hidden costs in production, such as environmental damage. As the externalized damage becomes more noticeable, economics increasingly turns into a zero-sum game, with wealth being transferred to a small oligarchy.
Someone asked Bill Clinton a few years back how to fix the economy. His reply was that we'd have to come up with a technological advance as great as the internet. While that would certainly kick-start our growth model again, it's indicative of how the elites seem incapable of examining the larger assumptions our society is based on.
4
This bump is likely due to China's addiction to coal. We will be directly responsible for the next bump upwards if we allow coal trains through Seattle.
5
Economic Rule #1: There are only 4 things that contribute to a nation’s GDP (aka prosperity or lack thereof).
1. Physical Capital- Roads, machines, factories, etc.
2. Human Capital- Skilled (educated) workers
3. Technology- Innovation and access to
4. Natural Resources- that are exploited
The GOP actually KNOWs this rule, and tries to responsibly use it (despite detractors such as Chuck Mud) to make the US a better nation; whereas the Dumbocrats are solely focused on #4 to the detriment of 1-3. Therefore, the Democrat/Union plan will fail, and all jobs will go where it is cheaper to manufacture (like China).
Ergo, the Democrats will kill our nation’s prominence. Yay! Thanks ladies!
1. Physical Capital- Roads, machines, factories, etc.
2. Human Capital- Skilled (educated) workers
3. Technology- Innovation and access to
4. Natural Resources- that are exploited
The GOP actually KNOWs this rule, and tries to responsibly use it (despite detractors such as Chuck Mud) to make the US a better nation; whereas the Dumbocrats are solely focused on #4 to the detriment of 1-3. Therefore, the Democrat/Union plan will fail, and all jobs will go where it is cheaper to manufacture (like China).
Ergo, the Democrats will kill our nation’s prominence. Yay! Thanks ladies!
6
"Both are rising at rates faster than worst-case scenarios" Great! </sarc>
I want to see the bureaucrats and CEO's mining --by hand, with shovels-- landfills in the future. Wearing their 3-piece suits and power ties as badges of shame.
I want to see the bureaucrats and CEO's mining --by hand, with shovels-- landfills in the future. Wearing their 3-piece suits and power ties as badges of shame.
7
@6 God that would be beautiful. You've given me hope for a better(or at least more schadenfreude-fueled) future.
8
@3 I know that. But it's Republicans that scream bloody murder that renewable energies and restrictions on pollution will stymie economic growth. And just as they are wrong about almost everything Obama has done to promote growth, they are wrong about that as well. We can have growth and restrict emission of CO2. And one way I believe gets overlooked is geothermal.
10
LOL Peabrain.
That analysis of yours is fascinating (from a clinical standpoint). Get some of that Obamacare-help he promised his beguiled masses.
That analysis of yours is fascinating (from a clinical standpoint). Get some of that Obamacare-help he promised his beguiled masses.
11
@5
WTF are you talking about (yet again)?
#'s 1-3 all require government spending, which you Chicago School of Economics TeaBaggers are all opposed to. It is you guys who are destroying our infrastructure (physical, technological, educational) and are thus leading us down a path of ruin (at least for the shrinking middle class).
Here's a prime example: most of the United State's bridges were made with a lifespan of around fifty years. Most of them were made around SIXTY years ago. A GAO study several years ago concluded that for the US to MAINTAIN (not improve) it's infrastructure of rail, roads and bridges it would require an investment of over 2 trillion dollars.
How are you guys going to pay for that? Again, that 2 TRILLION figure is to maintain our infrastructure, not improve it vastly. That cost doesn't include bullet trains or huge expanses in urban light rail. It also doesn't include money needed for improving our educational system, our health care system or even our power grids.
So again, how are you going to pay for it? Especially when you have Republican governors who are trying to end gas taxes (like in VA).
Do you make ALL roads toll roads (seems like a "tax" to me)?
Do you privatize all highways (like IN partially did) and make them toll roads?
Do you borrow more money from China (like you did to pay for the invasion of Iraq)?
Since you're against taxes of any kind, how do you propose to pay for it?
Read some John Maynard Keynes and get back to us, please.
WTF are you talking about (yet again)?
#'s 1-3 all require government spending, which you Chicago School of Economics TeaBaggers are all opposed to. It is you guys who are destroying our infrastructure (physical, technological, educational) and are thus leading us down a path of ruin (at least for the shrinking middle class).
Here's a prime example: most of the United State's bridges were made with a lifespan of around fifty years. Most of them were made around SIXTY years ago. A GAO study several years ago concluded that for the US to MAINTAIN (not improve) it's infrastructure of rail, roads and bridges it would require an investment of over 2 trillion dollars.
How are you guys going to pay for that? Again, that 2 TRILLION figure is to maintain our infrastructure, not improve it vastly. That cost doesn't include bullet trains or huge expanses in urban light rail. It also doesn't include money needed for improving our educational system, our health care system or even our power grids.
So again, how are you going to pay for it? Especially when you have Republican governors who are trying to end gas taxes (like in VA).
Do you make ALL roads toll roads (seems like a "tax" to me)?
Do you privatize all highways (like IN partially did) and make them toll roads?
Do you borrow more money from China (like you did to pay for the invasion of Iraq)?
Since you're against taxes of any kind, how do you propose to pay for it?
Read some John Maynard Keynes and get back to us, please.
12
Obviously we need to ship more coal to China and build them a pipeline to send them more oil.
In Upside Down world.
In Upside Down world.
13
Huh? But what of this:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-07…
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/f…
And speaking of weird, if this is true, why did I have to read about it at an Austrian web site, for chrissakes??????
http://www.format.at/articles/1310/931/3…
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-07…
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/f…
And speaking of weird, if this is true, why did I have to read about it at an Austrian web site, for chrissakes??????
http://www.format.at/articles/1310/931/3…
14
@11 Keynes? Shit, that is EXACTLY the problem yo!
Read some Milton Friedman and get back to us, please. Application of those theories will fix our economic woes.
BTW passionate jus, look up the word "pithy" and try to apply it to your excessively long diatribes that nobody reads.
Read some Milton Friedman and get back to us, please. Application of those theories will fix our economic woes.
BTW passionate jus, look up the word "pithy" and try to apply it to your excessively long diatribes that nobody reads.
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