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Germany Falls into Recession

cnn.com

161–170 of 203 posts

Re: Germany Falls into Recession

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> New York has been under Democrat control since 1975 [1] and California since 1959 [2] - Neither of those claims are supported by those links (and even the control that actually is shown by those links may be misleading, in that it ignores things like “controlling all of the separately elected executive offices and having majorities in both houses of the legislature is insufficient to govern California since it take…

An inability to operate government even under single-party conditions strengthens my argument.

Its not “single party conditions” if another party holds enough seats to block critical legislation.

Re: Germany Falls into Recession

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is nuclear not green?

The tinfoil hat theory is this: Nuclear is expensive and takes forever to build. Right now there is a lot of effort and money pushing for renewable energy sources, and it has been immensely successful at proving its viability. Certain groups make a lot of money off fossil fuels, and even though they know that will eventually end, every year they can delay that end is billions in their pocket. The push for "we shouldn…

[deleted]

Re: Germany Falls into Recession

#163
post #92

We need new terminology to distinguish between macroeconomic recessions and living standard recessions. Traditionally, those two things are more or less intertwined, so the term "recession" carries connotations of both. With the steady increase of economic inequality, the link between the two meanings becomes less and less firm. The median living standard in Germany has been in free fall for 20 years. By that criteri…

Here is some relevant terminology:

Stagflation https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/stagflation.asp

Gini index (coefficient) https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/gini-index.asp

Re: Germany Falls into Recession

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Curious how does federal govt subsidize them? Through the VA Loan, FHA Federal Home Loan, and USDA Rural Loan programs.

These sounds like specialty programs ? > Cheap 30y fixed rate home loans are an American thing. The federal government subsidizes them. This statement sounded like 3oy fixed rate is possible only because of fed govt. meaning if its wasn't for fed govt subsidies 30yr fixed rate wouldn't have been possible.

> These sounds like specialty programs ?

FHA alone accounts for something like 1/5-1/4 of all home mortgages, varying slightly over time; and, its entire purpose was to shift the whole market (which it did).

Re: Germany Falls into Recession

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a good deal of misinformation, astro turfing, and I think also nerdy love for fancy toys. And there is also the problematic trend of the right wing to demonize environment- and green politics. It seems it has reached a level of conspiracy theories now.

Is nuclear not green?

Not really. Building the plant, and mining+refining the nuclear fuel involves a significant amount of emissions. Far more than most renewables have on the list. Overall it's greener than fossil fuels, but less green than renewables. And we are at the point where such differences matter. And that is not the only problem with nuclear. The high costs and the political problems are another things. Russia has their hands deep in nuclear fuels too.

Re: Germany Falls into Recession

#166
post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The decision to shut down our nuclear reactors came from a conservative government, where the greens were in the opposition. Wrong. The nuclear phase-out original came from SPD/Greens: > https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomkonsens > The prices have not been rising due to the shutdown of our nuclear plants, but due to price gauging by electrical companies, and due to russia falling away as a cheap gas supplier. They h…

> Wrong. The nuclear phase-out original came from SPD/Greens: The phase out in it's current form was decided by a CDU led government. "Chancellor Merkel was so shocked by Fukushima that she turned Germany’s energy focus from nuclear (of which she closed 41% and will close the rest within a decade) to efficiency and renewables." > After all, the German Ministry of Economics is working on a law to subsidize electricity…

You are spreading misinformation. Base load is hardly a dead horse. Batteries might eventually solve that problem, but so far no country has deployed significant amounts of battery storage, let alone done so at a cost that would allow for heavy industrial uses. Until battery storage is proven to work on real power grids, nuclear power remains the only viable option to deliver reliable base load.

Re: Germany Falls into Recession

#167
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cheap 30y fixed rate home loans are an American thing. The federal government subsidizes them.

> The federal government subsidizes them. Curious how does federal govt subsidize them?

In most cases it isn't a literal subsidy. Fannie Mae acts as a government-sponsored market maker to purchase home mortgages from lenders, then package and sell them to investors. By providing an "artificial" source of liquidity and taking on significant balance sheet risk they keep mortgage interest rates much lower than they would be in a free market system.

https://www.fanniemae.com/about-us

Re: Germany Falls into Recession

#168
post #166
post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Wrong. The nuclear phase-out original came from SPD/Greens: The phase out in it's current form was decided by a CDU led government. "Chancellor Merkel was so shocked by Fukushima that she turned Germany’s energy focus from nuclear (of which she closed 41% and will close the rest within a decade) to efficiency and renewables." > After all, the German Ministry of Economics is working on a law to subsidize electricity…

You are spreading misinformation. Base load is hardly a dead horse. Batteries might eventually solve that problem, but so far no country has deployed significant amounts of battery storage, let alone done so at a cost that would allow for heavy industrial uses. Until battery storage is proven to work on real power grids, nuclear power remains the only viable option to deliver reliable base load.

Hydrogen gas turbines are also a viable option for that and they have proven to run on real power grids, we will need hydrogen infrastructure not for cars but for steel manufacturing and turbines.

Re: Germany Falls into Recession

#169
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a good deal of misinformation, astro turfing, and I think also nerdy love for fancy toys. And there is also the problematic trend of the right wing to demonize environment- and green politics. It seems it has reached a level of conspiracy theories now.

How's advocating for nuclear power related to demonizing environmentalist politics? Shouldn't it be an obvious fit to help reduce CO2 - which is the currently the biggest topic of the green movement?

Nuclear plants are not green, just greener than fossils. And they have no real benefits overall, but bring many problems to the table. So yeah, while they technically would reduce emissions, other options will reduce them even more, with significant less problems and more flexibility.

But the actual point is that people who rage about shutting off nuclear plants, usually don't bring these arguments, and don't care for the environment. Many of the more vocal ones somehow have adopted the mindset that environmentalists aim to destroy modern society, because they are against cars and harmful industry, so they want to reset everything into a medieval state. And nowadays, they seem to drift very hard into arguments of the "Great Reset" conspiracy and the like. And one result of this thinking is to be against everything which their enemies want, and support all of what their enemies hate, like nuclear plants.

So, what I mean to say is, there is a loud group of people who support nuclear plants, because they hate environmentalist for whatever reason, not the other way around. And while not all supporter of nuclear plants are from that group, it seems to be at the moment the msot vocal group.

Re: Germany Falls into Recession

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is nuclear not green?

Not really. Building the plant, and mining+refining the nuclear fuel involves a significant amount of emissions. Far more than most renewables have on the list. Overall it's greener than fossil fuels, but less green than renewables. And we are at the point where such differences matter. And that is not the only problem with nuclear. The high costs and the political problems are another things. Russia has their hands…

"Green" has nothing to do with costs/politics.
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