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Nato’s failure to save Ukraine raises an existential question: what on earth is it for?
  • Please read the article

    "Nato should have intervened robustly to deter Russia’s aggression right from the start, as repeatedly urged here. No-fly zones could have prevented thousands of civilian casualties and limited damage to Ukraine’s cities."

    So stupid. The author is casually handwaving away the implications of nuclear armed countries directly going head to head when no NATO countries have been invaded. The author needs the most basic prior on geopolitics.

    "Imagine how future historians may view all this."

    I can imagine it going something like this: "It looks like they remembered the the implications of the death of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and successfully avoided WWIII"

  • Russian court seizes assets from European banks UniCredit, Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank
  • A St Petersburg court has seized over EUR700 mln worth of assets belonging to three western banks - UniCredit, Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank - according to court documents, the Financial Times and Reuters reported Saturday.

    These banks deserve what they got. The writing has been on the wall for over 2 years they needed to get their people and assets out. Instead these banks stayed in to make money working with Russia.

  • Ford asks suppliers for ideas to cut EV costs in an all-win-or-lose push for profitability
  • I can’t help but detect a bit of passive aggression here.

    Yeah, after repeatedly explaining the macroeconmic implications in multiple ways, you either aren't getting it or you don't care and could be one (in the future) to suffer the consequences. I'm trying giving you the benefit of the doubt but I think I'm running out of patience. Your post indicates you're in a similar position with me. My apologies, if we can both be civil, I'm happy to continue out discussion.

    Do you calculate out macroeconomic moves decades into the future when deciding to buy a product?

    Not usually, because that would be a microeconomic action.

    However, occasionally I do. I don't own a Sodastream because they were manufactured on seized Palestinian land. That one small action on my part has a tiny tiny tiny macroeconomic impact as with my I (and may others) actions the company later moved the factory out of the West Bank. I also chose to buy my solar panels and inverters from domestic manufacturers in the USA because I want to support domestic production of green energy technologies. I don't buy cotton products sourced from Xinjiang either because of the treatment of the Uighur people there by the CCP. I bought my cast iron pan from a Ukrainian manufacturer because I wanted to support their economy in the face of the Russian invasion.

    Do you really not pay attention to where the things come from that you buy? Do you not think how your spending is funding things that are possibly against your personal interests?

    I definitely do, seeing as I’m the economic minister of a mid sized country it’s more or less my job.

    Cool, then you should understand the difference between micro and macro economics.

    Are you an economic minister too? If you’re not, it seems a bit ridiculous to be thinking much beyond your own personal finances, yes?

    You think you have to be an economic minister of a country to think about the impact of your personal spending power and how your dollars affect or don't affect change?

    Here’s something you may find interesting: https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1776486765463048674

    First, I wouldn't recommend using someone's twitter post as compelling research. It could lead you down an incorrect path as this one has.

    That analysis contradicts the BS your spreading.

    The source he's citing about Tim Cook and Apple against China's sagging manufacturing is from 2017 (his source). Being seven years out-of-date means its contradicted by current events. Here's one thats more recent from January of this year:

    "Apple's suppliers have so far spent $16 billion to move from China" source

    I could post half a dozen more trusted news sources about Apple divesting from China to other areas of India and Southeast Asia.

    Here’s some more for you to read: https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2024/04/10/chinas-unfair-overcapacity/ China is outperforming the West in everything important for the future. Their economy fine. Their growth rates have been higher than the west’s for awhile now.

    A wordpress blog post as a secondary source? That source is quoting your first twitter source as its source. I'd be highly worried for the blog post facing a "garbage in garbage out" problem. I read through most of the blog post and see a couple tenuous links of source to conclusion that are worrying me about the objectivity of the author. Further, that blog post author seems to say that all the experts in economics and global banking are wrong and he himself is right. I don't immediately dismiss him for that, but its certainly a red flag.

    Something occurs to me. You yourself are claiming to be an economic minister, which, while possible, would usually seam unlikely for a random internet poster. However, you were quick to post that same twitter post as a source here on Lemmy, just like the author of the blog post. Here's the "about" section of the blog you posted as your source:

    "[NAME REMOVED BY ME] worked in the City of London as an economist for over 40 years." source

    Are you possibly quoting yourself as source? I'm certainly not trying to dox you so I removed the actual name from my post here, if I came too close to guessing right, message me and I'll happily edit my post to remove this part.

    Assuming I guessed correctly, I'd actually really like to hear your opinion on Brexit. It seems like it would have some parallels to our discussion here on the importance of support of domestic industries.

  • Ford asks suppliers for ideas to cut EV costs in an all-win-or-lose push for profitability
  • Well the way things are at the moment, a Chinese car is one of maybe three affordable options, even with a 100% tariff. Plus they’re making the type of car that I want, so I’m still failing to see the problem.

    Thats understandable. Its not a obvious process to calculate out macroeconomic moves years and possibly decades into the future.

    It’s also a good move in regards to reducing global CO2 emissions.

    True.

    I guess they are overproducing EVs and solar modules, but is preventing the worst of climate change their main motivation?

    Its not. Foreign manufacturers are fleeing China because of the crackdowns by the CCP and more importantly the rising cost of labor in China. Since there are thousands of factories dark and empty and millions of factory workers unemployed, China is trying to boost domestic consumption and exports via government investment in an effort to prop up their sagging economy. They're making and selling EVs in high quantities because they hope the rest of the world (outside China) will buy them.

  • Zelensky: 'Our partners fear that Russia will lose this war'
  • So much of the current internal domestic Russian zeitgeist is the idea of national strength compared to other nations. Pride comes with their strongman. If they are finally faced with the truth that neither Russia or its strongman are strong, it could lead to Russia/Russians trying to assert it in other ways to try to rationalize it. Or Russia could simply collapse from within orphaning hundreds of nuclear warheads leading to opportunists selling warheads to the highest bidders. The only thing worse than Russia having nuclear weapons is every two-bit terrorist or backwater dictator getting their hands on them.

    Keep in mind none of this in my mind means we stop supporting Ukraine economically and militarily. Russia made its bed. We can't choose our actions based upon trying to save Russia from itself.

  • Ford asks suppliers for ideas to cut EV costs in an all-win-or-lose push for profitability
  • Doesn’t the USA subsidize electric vehicles a ton too with tax credits and other subsidies at both the consumer and producer levels?

    First, yes, but there's some pretty big differences in the how which change the end result. With EVs there's three types of subsidies:

    1. Subsidies on developing the technology/manufacturing techniques - This is where the government, in an attempt to bootstrap an industry, will pay for some of the up-front costs for developing specific parts of technologies that are too large or risky for a company to do on their own. So there is benefit to the nation and the manufacturer in that the resulting cars can be less expensive because that initial development cost doesn't have to be recovered from the sale of each unit. However, there is no incentive for the manufacturer to produce any more cars than will sell. Both the US and China have used this subsidy to pay to develop battery and EV drive train technologies domestically.

    2. Subsidies on the consumer purchase - This is where a person buys something and gets a rebate on taxes. So a manufacturer/nation benefit on the domestic sale of the unit, and a tiny bit of benefit in helping their economies of scale for production. Remember though, this is a domestic consumption subsidy. The rebate can only be claimed by a citizen in that country under their taxation/monetary system rules. Nobody in Belgium is able to claim the US tax credit of $7500 for purchasing an EV in the USA. So the benefit is really only felt internally. No amount of $7500 rebates claimed in Chicago is going to help someone that wants a US EV in Antwerp. With this subsidy there is no incentive for the manufacturer to produce any more cars than there are people willing and able to claim the rebate domestically.

    3. Subsidies on the production - This is where the manufacturer receives subsidies from the government just for making the car irrespective of which country it ever ends up in. This is where it goes off the rails. The manufacturer gets money from the government simply for building the car. Neither the government nor the manufacturer need a buyer for the car. The manufacturer gets the credit it wants immediately after the car exists. Again, both the USA and China use this too, but the USA policy has the capability to create tiny amounts of potentially unwanted cars ("compliance cars"). A good example of this is the BEV MX-30 EV. The total sales of this vehicle over the last 3 years was only 485 cars. The scale China is using can create huge fleets of unpurchased domestically cars. This ends up creating lots of cheap cars for export.

    Its this last point that, if continued, allows for government of China to pay for a chunk of the cost of a buyer in Antwerp Belgium or the USA.

  • An Arizona Republican blocked a total abortion ban, betraying the GOP — and her judge husband
  • How is this a betrayal to her judge husband?

    The purpose of the courts is to interpret the laws on the books as written. The purpose of the legislature is to add, remove, or change laws on the books. Each did their job and I see no conflict between the judge husband and the legislator wife.

  • Ford asks suppliers for ideas to cut EV costs in an all-win-or-lose push for profitability
  • There is absolutely no reason for EV’s to cost so much. China is just making them and pricing them appropriately.

    "Chinese state subsidies for electric and hybrid vehicles were $57 billion from 2016-2022, according to consulting firm AlixPartners, helping China become the world's biggest EV producer and to pass Japan as the largest auto exporter in the first quarter of this year." source

    Scrap the entire outdated and useless patent system

    I don't think that would have the positive effect you think it would.

  • Going insane watching conservatives realize that sometimes cops go insane for no good reason
  • How did the police go insane?

    They shut down traffic to work a fatal accident, he ignored a detective who told him to stop, something happened that led to the guy getting dragged for 30 feet and sent to the hospital with minor injuries, so they arrested him

    I have no idea who this guy is but for the couple of decades that cheap video cameras have existed we've seen dozens (hundreds?) of cases where the stated police narrative doesn't even come close to the captured video. Usually the targets are minorities and they rarely see justice against the police that make up the false narrative.

    I give ZERO credibility to the written police narratives. Show me the video that they should have captured from a dozen different car and body cams. Its entirely possible the police description is correct, but I won't believe word of it without the video to back it up.

  • Republicans want a database of pregnant people. In many ways, abortion surveillance is already here
  • People are freaking out about the database thing but check out the zinger on the last 3 pages of the 23 page bill.

    It looks like this law would allow a woman to accuse any man of being the father of her unborn child, force immediate child support payments while she's pregnant, and the accused man would not be able to question or confirm he is the father with a paternity test.

    ‘‘(35) provide that the State will establish and13 enforce child support obligations of the biological fa-14 ther of an unborn child (and subsequent to the birth15 of the child) to the mother of such child provided16 that—"

    (skipping unrelated sections A-D then comes section E)

    "‘(E) any measure to establish the pater-9 nity of a child (born or unborn) shall not be re-10 quired without the consent of the mother; and"

    source (PDF of the text of the bill)

  • Republicans want a database of pregnant people. In many ways, abortion surveillance is already here
  • I agree with you.

    B. There are no protections for this data. Who gets access to it?

    The only protection the requires is that there is a "privacy policy". Here's the actual text of the bill:

    on page 3

    "‘(4) A mechanism for users to take an assess-8 ment through the website and provide consent to use9 the user’s contact information, which the Secretary10 may use to conduct outreach via phone or email to11 follow up with users on additional resources that12 would be helpful for the users to review."

    and page 13

    "have a privacy policy and procedures13 in place to ensure that—14 (i) the name, address, telephone num-15 ber, or any other information that might16 identify any woman seeking services sup-17 ported through the grant is not made pub-18 lic or shared with any other entity without19 the written consent of the woman; and20 (ii) the grantee adheres to require-21 ments comparable to those applicable22 under the HIPAA privacy regulation (as23 defined in section 1180(b)(3) of the Social24 Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1320d–9(b)(3)))"

    source - PDF

  • China tries drastic measures to boost ailing property sector
  • Not surprising. The fallout in China will be far worse than when something similar happened in the USA. For most regular Chinese retail investors, they invest in real estate. Instead of putting money in a 401k or IRA, or even buying stocks, many there buy homes/apartments on speculative markets. It was one of the big drivers for the explosive growth in their house building market.

  • Like magic
  • I spent more than 5 seconds on it because I examined each word closely looking for a reason that it would take someone 5 seconds to read it.

    This feels like the bell curve meme..

  • Comedian Tom Smothers, one-half of the Smothers Brothers, dies at 86
    apnews.com Comedian Tom Smothers, one-half of the Smothers Brothers, dies at 86

    Tom Smothers, half of the Smothers Brothers and the co-host of one of the most socially conscious and groundbreaking television shows in the history of the medium, has died at 86.

    Comedian Tom Smothers, one-half of the Smothers Brothers, dies at 86

    Tom Smothers, half of the Smothers Brothers and the co-host of one of the most socially conscious and groundbreaking television shows in the history of the medium, has died at 86.

    The National Comedy Center, on behalf of his family, said in a statement Wednesday that Smothers died Tuesday at home in Santa Rosa, California, following a cancer battle.

    “I’m just devastated,” his brother and the duo’s other half, Dick Smothers, told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday. “Every breath I’ve taken, my brother’s been around.”

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