All Things Economic

live where and not sure what you are implying

@someonecalling

Why don't you give your sources? Interested in whwre you believe the "facts" are.

So Addis Ababa (capital city) with it's population of 5-6 million are sitting around campfires, huh?

From ChatGPT -

"As of the latest available data, about ~58–60% of China’s electricity generation is from coal-fired power plants — a declining but still dominant share of the country’s power mix.

On a capacity basis, renewable and non-fossil energy sources now exceed coal in total installed capacity. However, coal plants typically run more hours and produce more electricity overall, keeping their generation share high.

Countries at or Very Near 100% Renewable Electricity

These nations produce almost all of their electricity from renewables (mostly hydro, geothermal, and in some cases wind/solar):

Paraguay – Electricity virtually 100% renewable, dominated by hydropower.
StatRanker

Albania – Often above 99% renewables due to extensive hydropower.
The Business Standard

Bhutan – Nearly 100% hydropower electricity.
The Business Standard

Nepal – Often above 99% renewable generation, mostly hydro.
The Business Standard

Iceland – ~100% of electricity from renewables (hydro + geothermal).
Wikipedia

Ethiopia – Very high renewable share (~95–99%), mainly hydropower with some wind/solar.
The Business Standard

Democratic Republic of the Congo – Nearly 100% renewable electricity thanks to large hydropower potential.

All of these countries reach ~99.7% or more of electricity from renewables according to data from the IEA/IRENA."

As I said before, we need both plants AND green energy. To openly discourage renewables is not in the US's best interest, but it sure helps keep the money flowing into the pockets of people invested in fossil fuels.

This is what I'm seeing -

Overall Rate: Around 0.54% per year, or 3,800 failures globally from a fleet of ~700,000 blades (based on older data).

Statistics can be manipulated to make this appear worse. There are a number of older wind turbines still running, but like anything else, they have improved over time in both power gen and cost/Kwh. I'm not saying we stop building power plants, but the reason we are falling behind is by under-utilyzing current tech.

If electric generation is a key factor in advancing AI via supplying new data center power needs, compared to China, we are guaranteed to lose with the current energy strategy. We are ALREADY far behind China's electric generation capability and are now dragging a boat anchor trying to catch up. A large part of China's lead is their adoption of what we're calling green energy.

en.macromicro. me/charts/142474/us-vs-china-total-electricity-generation

"The Federal Employment Healthcare Benefits program is heavily subsidized by the government, but for some reason the tax credits through the ACA"

The ACA requires members of congress to purchase health insurance from the exchanges.

Modern utility-scale wind turbines (includes blades): 20–25 years. Power produced by green energy is additive to the grid and can be predicted on a monthly basis. It is the cheapest and fastest to install per KWh INCLUDING construction. You will NEVER see a coal, gas, or nuclear plant unmanned.

It is simply stupid not to leverage green energy. it. It is one of the reasons China has so much more electric gen capacity than the US. Over half of it's capacity comes from green energy.

All of this is common knowledge without a lot of digging, just like the question of how long the blades last.

Wind turbines last way more than 10 years and the off-shore ones do not kill many birds relative to bird deaths caused by other non-turbine related causes. FWIW, cats kill orders of magnitude more birds than "on shore" turbines, so maybe we should ban cats?

Wind and solar require NO fuel and do not need to be manned/operated 24/7. Green Energy cost/KWh is cheaper than any other current means and, if you don't pull permits after construction is started, is also faster to implement. Solar generates power during the day when it's needed most. Yes, the sun isn't always shining, but battery tech is getting better and cheaper so you can still get solar/wind generated power when there is no sun/wind.

The Federal Employment Healthcare Benefits program is heavily subsidized by the government, but for some reason the tax credits through the ACA, which are essentially government subsidies, are deemed unacceptable. Why?

I think we worry too much about things we can't control.

The government, food, drug, clothing, electronic, auto, gas, utilities, home, health/Medine Powers That Be Industies are going to charge what they charge.

If we have to watch our budgets or health, we are limited in our options as consumers.

For those with savings, good incomes, just be glad you're in position to pay whatever the prices are.

Yes, I do have empathy and apathy for those that are less fortunate and struggling, but I'm not going complain about the cost of food and utilities until they're no longer affordable.

Would you drive 20 miles one way to save $0.50 per gallon on 14 gallons? That's only $7 minus the gallon or 1.5 gallons used round trip. Call it 50 mins and $4.25 saved?

Who in this room make less than $5 per hour? Or has an extra hour to burn?

I live in western Pennsylvania. My weekly grocery shopping bill is running about $30 higher than pre-covid. I only buy meat with it is on sale and if I can stock up on it, I do. Some items in the store are still on the high-side and many have come down. My electric bill is a little higher, averaging about $75 a month. I was as high as $110 this summer during the heat wave. My annual gas bill should come in about normal at $525. It's nice being on a private gas well. My insurances (house, truck, boat and liability) are all up some. My Medicare advantage plan is still being covered by my former employer, so no cost increase for me, except for one prescription. I can say that I'm doing well but I have always lived within my means.

Not babbling. Stats taken from credible, bipartisan sources. Despite me asking several times where you are getting your information, I've seen nothing. What you are writing is nothing more than the Trump propaganda, much of which has been debunked. You are certainly free to believe what you want. Actual research and facts is a more credible source for me. Throw out all the numbers you want.

I've enjoyed our little discussion, but in all honestly, you are reading from the same Trump/MAGA playbook of overstating and exaggeration his accomplishments. It's the exact same discussion and your responses are the exact same as every other Trumpist. And your introduction of unrelated subjects is also typical.

I wasn't Biden's biggest fan, but he's gone. it seems many Trump/MAGA people can't stop comparing. Same as Obama.

Again, I'm reminded that trying to have a discussion with a MAGA is pointless.

There is very little difference in grocery prices between Maryland and Massachusetts.

According to published NASDAQ statistics:
In 2024, the average cost of groceries for a Maryland household was $6,108. In 2025, it rose to $6,382 (up 4.16%)
In Massachusetts, a household spent $5,954 on groceries in 2024. In 2025, that rose to $6,216 (up 4.41%).
And the same study says that MD households spend an average of 6.26% of their income on groceries, while Massachusetts households spend an average of 6.13% of their income on groceries. So there is not a massive gap on average between what groceries cost for you or I.

You are also incorrect about grocery prices being significantly down across the USA. The same NASDAQ study looked at grocery prices by state from 2024 to 2025. Every single state's grocery prices INCREASED. From the smallest increase of 3.12% in RI to a high of 12.56% in SD. Most states were higher by 4% to 7%.

You're quoting mis-leading inflation numbers. The 9% inflation was just as we were coming out of the COVID pandemic. It moderated as things returned to normal, and was just under 3% at the time of the 2024 election. The rate of inflation when Trump won the election in November 2024, and for the six months prior to the election was right around 3%.

I would agree with that last sentence. Kind of like rolling back the ACA credits and wanting to dismantle the ACA with no viable replacement plan. It's never a good idea to remove something that is needed without having it's replacement in place.

I can find no evidence that any "completed" offshore wind turbine project is only producing 10% of planned output like you keep saying. The closest I can come to any number that low is for projects that do not have the # of turbines in place as projected. If 10 were planned and only 1 went in so far then saying it's only producing 10% of the planned power is misleading at best. Again, a classic Trump move. Put up obstacles like pulling permits, then complain when the project isn't completed as planned.

As for offshore wind turbines killing fishing, I can see an impact during construction, but once completed and things settle, the impact is considered neutral to slightly positive for fishing. It may impact trawlers to a small degree, but our oceans are already being overfished as it is. and there are plenty of places for them to drag their nets.

Again, I'm not sure where you are getting your numbers. There are many web sites showing data that are easy to find if you do a quick search, and many of them are bipartisan. Exit polling at the 2024 Presidential election indicated that the inflation & cost of living were the overwhelming top concerns of voters. The border & immigration moved up to 2nd. But if you combine inflation & cost of living with jobs & the economy (combining economic categories), it's pretty clear that the economy is the most important factor to people in a presidential election. And if you go back to elections since 1980 when Ronal Reagan asked if people were better off than they were four years ago, the economy has ALWAYS been the most important factor to voters.

The Republicans tried to push the border/immigration issue and it became more important, but the economy affects every single voter whereas the border & immigration issues do not (despite scare rhetoric).

As for fuel prices, a president has very little control over the cost of a gallon of gas. What you pay for gas is more a function of state taxes, supply & demand, seasonality, crude oil production, & production costs. A president can indirectly influence pricing with policies & sanctions on oil producing nations, but those tend to have a more negative effect.

It would be a shame if this thread got moved.

I guess it's not "P".

Someonescoming: Not sure where you got your poll info from, but Gallup just before the 2024 election cited that the economy was the #1 concern of voters heading into that election. In fact, they say that the percentage of people concerned about the economy heading into a presidential election was the highest since 2008. Immigration was 5th most important. Democracy, National Security, and Supreme Court Justice Picks all had a higher percentage of "most important issue" concern than immigration.

It's great that you pick up some good deals at Costco, but not everyone wants to pay a membership and buy in bulk. Regular groceries at regular grocery stores are more expensive today than they have ever been. During the 2024 campaign, Trump promised that he would lower grocery prices on his first day in office. That has not happened. And despite Trump repeatedly saying grocery prices are down, his own government statistics prove otherwise, and predict prices will continue to increase.

Polls, statistics, ignoring facts aside, we bring similar groceries home today to what we bought over the last year, and the same groceries cost us roughly 12-15% more than they did in 2024. Meat & dairy especially are significantly more and we are buying and using the same amount of those than we ever did.

" John Thune"

LOL.

You mean he actually took Trump's dick out of his mouth long enough to say something?

The Green Energy projects I'm talking about produced nothing, because they were stopped by Trump before they were completed. For the ones that are in operation, I can find nothing that shows they produced substantially less than projected. Many have been delayed or cancelled, so if your counting those, it's not really a fair assessment. If you have specific pointers, please provide them.

It's no secret that Trump's minions will believe whatever he says without fact checking any of it. They will oppose things simply becuse he said so. It's no secret he's pushing fossil fuels and dislikes Green Energy. FWIW - I can't find the exact "42 times more expensive" quote below, but he has many times falsely exagerated the cost of Green Energy and it is NOT cheaper than gas, as he has claimed many times.

"Former President Donald Trump often denigrates wind and solar power in his speeches. In December in New Hampshire, he said, falsely, that wind farms only last 10 years, that they kill “all the birds,” that solar energy isn’t powerful enough to run factories and that wind is 42 times more expensive than natural gas."

ww w.usatoday. com/story/news/investigations/2024/02/04/us-counties-ban-renewable-energy-plants/71841063007/

What actually happened is auditors signed up for the ACA with inadequate documentation and were approved. While it shows a flaw that needs to be fixed, it does NOT say that 9 out of 10 people actually on the ACA are fake.

Are you are sayng that 9 out of 10 people using the ACA are fake? It is hard enough to legitimately sign up for these things so that level of corruption is just not believable. Do you have any data to back that up other than perhaps what's coming from Truth Social (aka - out of Trump's mouth)?

Trump pulled permits on some major Green Energy projects along the east coast stopping them in their tracks. One of those projects was 80% complete. You can DEFINITELY lay that at Trump's feet. Imagine you're building a house. You have all your permits and a contract with the builder. In mid stream, you get your permits pulled to "re-evaluate them". In the meantime, you still have to pay the builder to sit on his hands and do nothing. That is a huge WTF.

Gas prices go up and down as does food. Shopping around can make a big difference and prices are somewhat seasonal. For example, right now I can get bone-in rib roast (prime rib) for $7/lb. Normal everyday prices have top or bottom round roasts at close to that price, which used to be less than half that. Turkey around and just after Thanksgiving can be had for $0.49/lb or less even, but the everyday prices are easily 4 to 6x that. Eggs are just stupid money, but not something I'd blame a president for.

Area's where Trump could have made a difference to the masses turned into broken promises, like eliminating tax on Social Security, and he's done nothing of consequence to reduce the cost of healthcare. His big brainstorm was to give the people the tax credits instead of the ACA giving them to insurers directly, but last I heard he was only talking about a max of $4K, which is almost meaningless when your premiums are $24K - $28K/yr.

"Probably nothing much in Ca."

LOL.

So you can't answer the question?

We are doing fine in California. It was 80 degrees yesterday. Plenty of money sloshing around.

So are my healthcare costs, my electric bill, and certain other things, like the coal I bought to heat my house with in the worst part of the winter. All record highs.

Probably nothing much in Ca.

What exactly is better?