#economics news

[workersolidarity]

*closes my eyes and taps my shoes together*

The US Dollar is still the dominant reserve currency

The US Dollar is still the dominant reserve currency

The US Dollar is still the dominant reserve currency

[mysharona1987]

The French really don’t fuck around.

[vyorei]

FUCK YEAH

[jingle-jangle-spurs]

Robert House watching The Courier rip all the copper wiring out the walls of the Lucky 38

[politijohn]

Source

Anyone still defending our rotten for-profit education system can rot with it.

We’ve suffered enough

[lasseling]

2024 should be fun ...

[queerism1969]

[ireton]

There are going to be people that will not comply.

Absolute and total non-compliance is the only way to stop this attempted takeover of our lives and our very way of life.

[why-the-heck-not]

whiskey & writing this thesis bc the introduction chapter is taking more linguistical creativity than what I have with just caffeine (idk what to write in this without it sounding like a 3rd grader’s essay yikes)

[reasonsforhope]

"India’s announcement that it aims to reach net zero emissions by 2070 and to meet fifty percent of its electricity requirements from renewable energy sources by 2030 is a hugely significant moment for the global fight against climate change. India is pioneering a new model of economic development that could avoid the carbon-intensive approaches that many countries have pursued in the past – and provide a blueprint for other developing economies.

The scale of transformation in India is stunning. Its economic growth has been among the highest in the world over the past two decades, lifting of millions of people out of poverty. Every year, India adds a city the size of London to its urban population, involving vast construction of new buildings, factories and transportation networks. Coal and oil have so far served as bedrocks of India’s industrial growth and modernisation, giving a rising number of Indian people access to modern energy services. This includes adding new electricity connections for 50 million citizens each year over the past decade. 

The rapid growth in fossil energy consumption has also meant India’s annual CO2 emissions have risen to become the third highest in the world. However, India’s CO2 emissions per person put it near the bottom of the world’s emitters, and they are lower still if you consider historical emissions per person. The same is true of energy consumption: the average household in India consumes a tenth as much electricity as the average household in the United States.  

India’s sheer size and its huge scope for growth means that its energy demand is set to grow by more than that of any other country in the coming decades. In a pathway to net zero emissions by 2070, we estimate that most of the growth in energy demand this decade would already have to be met with low-carbon energy sources. It therefore makes sense that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced more ambitious targets for 2030, including installing 500 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity, reducing the emissions intensity of its economy by 45%, and reducing a billion tonnes of CO2. 

These targets are formidable, but the good news is that the clean energy transition in India is already well underway. It has overachieved its commitment made at COP 21- Paris Summit [a.k.a. 2015, at the same conference that produced the Paris Agreement] by already meeting 40% of its power capacity from non-fossil fuels- almost nine years ahead of its commitment, and the share of solar and wind in India’s energy mix have grown phenomenally. Owing to technological developments, steady policy support, and a vibrant private sector, solar power plants are cheaper to build than coal ones. Renewable electricity is growing at a faster rate in India than any other major economy, with new capacity additions on track to double by 2026...

Subsidies for petrol and diesel were removed in the early 2010s, and subsidies for electric vehicles were introduced in 2019. India’s robust energy efficiency programme has been successful in reducing energy use and emissions from buildings, transport and major industries. Government efforts to provide millions of households with fuel gas for cooking and heating are enabling a steady transition away from the use of traditional biomass such as burning wood. India is also laying the groundwork to scale up important emerging technologies such as hydrogen, battery storage, and low-carbon steel, cement and fertilisers..."

-via IEA (International Energy Agency), January 10, 2022

Note: And since that's a little old, here's an update to show that progress is still going strong:

-via Economic Times: EnergyWorld, March 10, 2023

[workersolidarity]

🇺🇲 🏦 🚨 U.S. RETAIL SALES DOWN 3.1 pct YEAR-ON-YEAR FROM 2022

U.S. retail sales, excluding consumer vehicles, grew 3.1% year-on-year for the period from Nov. 1st 2023 to Dec. 24th 2023, according to preliminary data from the MasterCard Spending pulse report issued on Tuesday.

Previously, the U.S. economy recorded a 7.6% year-on-year expansion, writes Xinhua News Agency.

In further detail, online retail sales grew by 6.3% year-on-year, while brick-and-mortar retail only grew by 2.2% year-on-year.

Restaurant sales saw a year-on-year expansion of 7.8% for the same period, while sales in Jewelry shrank by 2% and sales in electronics were down 0.4%.

Data was based on non-inflation adjusted aggregate sales activity from the MasterCard payments network in combination with survey-based estimates for certain payment forms including cash and check.

Further, the U.S. National Retail Foundation forecast for holiday spending for Nov. and Dec. 2023 expected growth of a projected 3-4% over 2022 to between $957.3 billion to $966.6 billion.

#source

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[mysharona1987]

[marisatomay]

Been listening to books about the Salem witch trials and it’s so weird to me that there’s this prevailing narrative where people think of Salem as “oh they were deluded primitive folk who believed in witchcraft lol” when there are contemporary documents where prominent people said the accusers and the court (which hadn’t followed standard legal procedures even for that time) were committing crimes so grievous it would forever be a stain on New England

[politijohn]

Source

Eat the rich

[hack-saw2004]

HAPPENING NOW: mass arrests at the seder in the street protest outside of sen schumer's apartment continue, there are hundreds of people there, and they aren't budging.

[tweetingukpolitics]