51–60 of 496 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really hope this is one step into a more multipolar world, maybe without a single hegemon the world is easier to change for the better
Historically a more multipolar world has been a more violent and chaotic world, but maybe this time will be better.
Not a good thing. China is an authoritarian regime, which we need to reduce dependency on, not increase it.
Not a good thing. China is an authoritarian regime, which we need to reduce dependency on, not increase it.
Is it a yuan or is it a Renminbi?
The currency code is CNY or Chinese Yuan. Yuan itself is like “dollar,” with many different countries calling their currency “dollars.” Renminbi refers to the Chinese currency as a whole rather than any particular unit.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It means the dollar is dying.
People have been saying the dollar is dying since the 19th century. They said it again during the Great Depression, the end of Bretton Woods and the 2008 Financial crisis..
The US wields incredible negotiating power and hegemony because the dollar is the world’s reserve currency. Like the British pound and the Dutch guilder before it, if that loses reserve currency status it will be harder to borrow on favorable terms, which would affect the entire US economy. This is a big step in that perhaps starting to happen over the next few decades.
The US economy and other countries that export fossil fuels will feel the impact over the next decade or so. The energy transition might go a lot quicker than people seem to expect. Currently about 20% of global car sales is electric. In some countries it's well over 50%. China of course being one of them. And they are making rapid progress with electrifying freight as well. This is already impacting their fossil fuel imports. They still import a lot.
One effect that I think people underestimate is that while it will take a long time for all the ICE vehicles to disappear, the new ones do most of the driving. So, new EVs have a relatively large impact on fuel consumption and imports pretty early on. E.g. Chinese diesel imports apparently already are being impacted by their rapid deployment of tens of thousands of electrical trucks. Soon hundreds of thousands. That's already a third of the market in China and will probably head for well over 50% in a few short years. The EU is not that far behind.
The ripple effect that's going to have on oil trading, refinery capacity, etc. is going to be substantial. Of course current geopolitics is speeding things up massively. LNG and oil scarcity is causing a lot of issues globally and countries are accelerating moves to reduce their dependence on that.
Is it a yuan or is it a Renminbi?
It's a little confusing, but technically RMB (renminbi) is the official name of the currency and CNY (yuan) is the base unit of the currency. Think of it like the difference between USD ("US Dollar") vs "dollar and cents", except there is no fractional yuan equivalent of cents, so it's all just yuan.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Humans can not “move on” from human nature no matter how much people try to will it
It's as much "human nature" as being a slave was once the nature of some (chosen) peoples.