India

America’s Trade Policy Will End Up Destroying The Dollar

usissuescom Foreign Policy, Monetary Policy , , , , , , , , ,
By Alasdair Macleod – Re-Blogged From Silver Phoenix

America’s tariffs against China are already showing signs of undermining the global economy and will create a funding crisis for the Federal Government when it leads to foreigners no longer buying US Treasury debt and selling down their existing dollar holdings. A subversive attempt by America to divert global portfolio investment from China by destabilising Hong Kong will force China into a Plan B to fund its infrastructure plans, which could involve actively selling down her dollar reserves and hastening the introduction of a new crypto-based trade settlement currency.

The US budget deficit will then be financed entirely by monetary inflation. Furthermore, the turn of the credit cycle, made more destructive by trade tariffs, is driving the global and US economy into a slump, further accelerating all indebted governments’ dependency on inflationary financing. The end result is America’s trade policies have been instrumental in hastening the end of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency, ultimately leading to its destruction.

Continue reading →

Asians Better Hope It’s A Trump Win In 2020

usissuescom Energy Policy, Foreign Policy , , , , , , , ,

By Tilak Doshi , originally posted at Forbes – Re-Blogged From WUWT

“On my first day as president, I will sign an executive order that puts a total moratorium on all new fossil fuel leases for drilling offshore and on public lands. And I will ban fracking—everywhere.” So tweeted Elizabeth Warren, the likely Democratic presidential nominee. (Fracking combines horizontal drilling and hydraulically-fracturing shale rock with high-pressure liquids to force open existing fissures and extract “unconventional” oil and gas.) In the intention to ban all fracking in the US, she joins Senators Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris, her fellow presidential candidate hopefuls. In the demonization of fossil fuels and support for some variant of the multi-trillion dollar “Green New Deal”, Warren is not alone among the candidates running in the Democratic presidential primary. Nearly every nominee for the Democratic primary, including the other leading contender Joe Biden, has signed on to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s grand plan to save the planet from a 12-year deadline to global extinction.

Continue reading →

Dinner in Hanoi

usissuescom Foreign Policy , , , , ,

By Jeff Thomas – Re-Blogged From International Man

“Trump is doing the right thing. Without him, we have no protection against China. China doesn’t only wish to dominate Asia, but the world.”

Here in Hanoi, so said my dinner companion – a major manufacturer and worldwide exporter of steel products.

He, like so many other major Asian producers, sees an opportunity in international trade for all of Asia to capitalize on.

In the Western world, the argument rages as to whether the US tariff war will benefit the US or not.

Continue reading →

Coal to Remain ‘King’ in Southeast Asia

usissuescom Energy Policy, Foreign Policy , , ,

By David Middleton – Re-Blogged From WUWT

Making Southeast Asia Great Again…

‘Coal is still king’ in Southeast Asia even as countries work toward cleaner energy

KEY POINTS

• Not only will coal continue to be the dominant fuel source in power generation in Southeast Asia, its use will grow and peak in 2027 before slowing, according to a Wood Mackenzie study.

• The Indonesian government has targeted generating 23% of electricity from renewable sources by 2025 — almost double the 12% now, but it will be “difficult to achieve because capacity expansion plans are still dominated by coal,” Moody’s analysts say.

Continue reading →

Climate Concerned India’s Coal Imports Surging

usissuescom Energy Policy, Foreign Policy , , ,

By Eric Worrall – Re-Blogged From WUWT

h/t ResourceGuy; despite a recent survey which suggested India is more concerned about climate change than most countries, Prime Minister Modi‘s determination to extend the electric grid to poor people, coupled with a drop in domestic production, appears to be driving a surge in demand for coal imports.

India coal imports
Indian coal imports surging. source Indian Central Electricity Authority
Continue reading →

India’s Massive, Scary New Detention Camps, Explained

usissuescom Foreign Policy , , , , , , ,

By Sigal Samuel – Re-Blogged From Vox

The Indian government stripped citizenship from 2 million people, mostly Muslims. Now it wants to put them in camps.

What would you do if the country you were born in, or the country you’ve lived in for decades, suddenly announced you had to prove your citizenship or else face detention and deportation?

This is the situation nearly 2 million people — most of them Muslims, some of them Hindus of Bengali origin — now find themselves in, because their names do not appear on India’s National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Four people sit at a table in front of an ornate window in India.
People check their names on the final list of the National Register of Citizens in an office in Assam.
AFP/Getty Images

Continue reading →

Solar Energy Badly Harms the Environment

usissuescom Energy Policy, Foreign Policy , ,

By Sanjeev Sabhlock – Re-Blogged From Times of India

The Modi government has been shovelling scarce taxpayer resources into solar energy, with a further $6.5 billion promised till 2022. This is over and above indirect subsidies that people pay through higher electricity bills because of renewable energy certificates. And while Donald Trump did the right thing by walking out of the Paris Agreement, Mr Modi unthinkingly remains committed to it and Niti Ayog has been touting subsidised electric vehicles.

Our party disagrees with this approach. First, because we oppose subsidies for any industry. But second, because we believe there is a strong case to impose Pigovian taxes on solar energy given the economic and environmental harm it causes.

Continue reading →