“As Bloomberg reports, China has over the course of the year revealed the extensive scope of its plans for nuclear, an ambition with new resonance given the global energy crisis and the calls for action coming out of the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow. The world’s biggest emitter, China’s planning at least 150 new reactors in the next 15 years, more than the rest of the world has built in the past 35.”

But then, THESE DAYS, China, as the world’s most dynamic economy/society, ALWAYS GETS IT FIRST.

WHY?

Right or wrong, they see themselves OWNING the future.

One powered for years by NUCLEAR.

Expect other countries to follow.  The JUST-IN-TIME GREEN ECONOMY — as reverentially envisioned — is HALLUCINATORY.

You want reverential?  Stick to psilocybin.

Look smart!  Charts ahead!

Barring a miracle, NUKES are where we’re headed.

From Peter Driessen via WhatsUpWithThat.com:

• “Survival becomes far less likely . . . if climate treaties and energy policies prohibit efficient air conditioning and heating, ration them, subject them to recurrent blackouts, or make them harder to afford amid rising oil, natural gas, coal and electricity prices.“Yet that is exactly what’s being advocated and implemented. Britain and various US cities and states want to ban natural gas heating and cooking – and replace them with expensive heat pumps and other electric appliances, powered by expensive, weather-dependent wind turbines and solar panels. Meanwhile, energy prices have been skyrocketing in response to Covid recovery and anti-fossil-fuel policies.”

TUDOR PLACE:  SOUNDS LIKE KILLING THE PATIENT INSTEAD OF THE DISEASE.

• “Energy policies that favor wind and solar over fossil fuels beget ‘fuel poverty’ that can make adequate heating impossible, causing numerous health problems and deaths. Poor, minority, elderly and fixed-income families are most severely and inequitably affected . . . .”
• “Cold homes bring increased risks of respiratory and circulatory problems (including asthma, bronchitis, flu, cardiovascular disease and stroke) and exacerbate existing adverse health conditions. Cold household temperatures also increase depression, anxiety and other mental health problems. Already vulnerable groups – young children, older people and those with preexisting health issues – are especially susceptible to hypothermia, more illness and death.”

TUDOR PLACE:  WHAT’S THE POINT OF DEALING WITH LONG-TERM HEAT IF COLD HERE AND NOW COSTS US LIVES?

• “One-third of American households already had difficulty six years ago adequately heating and cooling their homes – and one-fifth of households had to reduce or forego food, medicine and other necessities to pay energy bills. Even before Covid, low-income, Black, Hispanic and Native American families were spending a greater portion of their incomes on energy than average US households.”

TUDOR PLACE:  TALK ABOUT A CHILLING EFFECT ON THE WOKE!

• “The overall effect of . . . anti-fossil-fuel policies on livelihoods, living standards, health and life spans will be profoundly negative. Countless people will perish, many of them cold and jobless in the dark.”
• “Under Joe Biden, the United States is already on a trajectory to Europe’s real climate crisis: unaffordable, unreliable energy.

  That crisis better wake America up. Otherwise, self-righteous activists and governing classes will destroy our American middle class jobs, families – and lives.”    

TUDOR PLACE:  THIS IS NOT SOLELY A JOE BIDEN ISSUE.  THIS IS A CASE OF “VIRTUOUS THINKING” IGNORING ENGINEERING REALITIES.

THERE IS NO WAY TO DECARBONIZE THE GLOBAL ECONOMY AT THE PACE ENVIRONMENTALISTS SIMPLISITICALLY ENVISIONED OR AT ANYTHING LIKE THE NOMINAL COST THEY IMAGINED.

THE NAIVETE HAS BEEN BREATHTAKING.

Battening down the hatches.

From Katharina Buchholz at STATISTA:

Here’s the REALITY.

THE WEST DOESN’T WANT DEVELOPING COUNTRIES’ PROBLEMS.

Did the West bring this on itself? Probably.

Is that any excuse NOT TO STOP THE INFLUX?

NO.

WESTERN CULTURE IS AT STAKE.

As each of these countries moves further away from EU norms, I watch them ever more closely.  The paradox here is that while they’re less ATLANTICIST from an EU perspective, they’re MORE ATLANTICIST from a defense perspective and favor a harder, US-flavored line towards Russia and Belarus.

And, remember, they’re part of a larger Eastern European bloc within the EU that has a culturally much more conservative approach than its western neighbors.

Here’s a blurb from Jose Nino at the Mises Institute that caught my eye.

“As members of the Visegrad Group—a contrarian bloc of countries within the EU made up of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia—Hungary and Poland have differentiated themselves from their Atlanticist peers in how they have not bought into some of the obsessions with multiculturalism, mass migration, and alternative lifestyle habits most Western democracies vigorously promote both in the state and corporate sectors. Similarly, Hungarian and Polish leaders’ constant reminders to their constituents that they belong to a broader Western Christian civilization further enrages the lifeless technocrats in Brussels, who worship at the altar of managerialism.”

THERE’S NOT ONE WORD OF THAT QUOTE I FIND OBJECTIONABLE.

Impressive graphs suggesting a lovely WHAT.  But where’s the numbers-crunched HOW?

HINT: THERE IS NO NUMBERS-CRUNCHED HOW.  Because there’s no way to PREDICT our actual energy mix 30 years from now.  And certainly not by attempting to make the future conform to a scenario based on a set of ever-moving targets.  It’s all JUST SMOKE with more of it coming and much of it from BURNING MORE CARBON.

This is where VIRTUE SIGNALING on the LEFT meets the MARKET’S INVISIBLE HAND on the RIGHT, viz. FANTASY SQUARED.

Nice graphs, John, but useless without backup.

There’s LESS here than meets the eye.

. . . and It Will Kneecap China’s Economy.

Good one from Daniel Lacalle.

China Will Not Be Able to Offset Its Property Bubble Easily

Two passages worth noting:

• “Considering construction and other real estate services, the sector accounts for more than 25% of China’s GDP. Just to consider other previous examples of property bubbles, the average size of the sector was somewhere between 15 to 20% of a country’s GDP. And none of those economies managed the excess of the property sector.”
• “The Chinese government may contain the financial implications, but it cannot offset the real estate sector impact on the real economy. This means weaker growth, higher risk, and lower consumption and investor appetite for China exposure. Furthermore, the central bank cannot solve a problem of solvency with liquidity.

  “Property bubble-driven growth always leads to debt-driven stagnation.”

WATCH THIS SPACE.

What price ownership?

THIS crazy.

Now with Q-Anon and NFT/JPEG manias in full swing, there’s now TUNGSTEN.  One can only wonder how long will it be to the TUNGSTEN TULIP.

This all started with BITCOIN — the arbitrary ASSIGNMNET OF VALUE to VALUELESS THINGS.  Or, in THIS CASE, the disconnect between UTILITY VALUE and MARKET/EXCHANGE VALUE.  Or as Jean Baudrillard expressed it: the rupture between the SIGN and its REFERENT. 

This is DOCUMENTED LATE-STAGE BUBBLE BEHAVIOR.  It arises when people’s despair tips over into IRRATIONAL EXUBERANCE.  Or what ZERO HEDGE calls MELT-UPS. 

Right now, we’re in a rolling wave of ECSTATIC MANIA even as we realize that our CURRENCY has next to NO VALUE when properly appraised and that MOST DEBT in the world is ESSENTIALLY UNPAYBALE. 

But back to TUNGSTEN: 

Cube review @nic__carter @NeerajKA pic.twitter.com/nRD0aNV8nk

— The Bitcoin Rabbi (@thebitcoinrabbi) October 18, 2021

The Onion couldn’t have come up with this: pic.twitter.com/QkDxLUwbkv

— Conor Sen (@conorsen) October 28, 2021

From the Wall Street Journal:

“The demand for tungsten came out of twitter and chat service Telegram. Crypto traders and other tungsten enthusiasts prompted a major run on tungsten supplies in recent weeks, with some paying $400 apiece for 2-inch cubes weighing around 5 lbs, and others paying $3,000 for the 4-inch version, which is about as heavy as “a low-horsepower outboard motor.”

THESE ARE DARK DAYS, FOLKS.

My money is on TRIAL BY COMBAT next.

Is accusing someone of racism the only viable face card in WOKEDOM’s deck?

These attacks are looking more and more pathetic and more than a little boring.  Because, by now, we all know each variant of the script.

This one features THE ANGRY MINORITY WOMAN attacking AN OLDER WHITE MAN — and here’s the hilarious part — calling him a Republican when HE’S ACTUALLY A DEMOCRAT.

But by writing this piece, the New York City Councilman who’s been accused — and of what exactly? — is fighting back.  AS SHOULD WE ALL.

Check it out.

NYC Councilman Robert Holden Punches Back

And here’s his conclusion:

“As a member of a multiethnic family, I know racism is a serious matter; accusing someone of it must never be done frivolously. Moreover, as elected officials, we have a responsibility to unite rather than divide Americans.

New York City needs vigorous debate, outside-the-box thinking and a polity unafraid of new ideas that go against conventional thought. Which is why our leaders need to stand up to bullies, even when they claim to be victims.”

AND THAT’S ALL SPOT-ON.