Utopia, you are standing in it!

Germans have worked out that relying on the weather for your power has one major problem: “The Weather”. They’ve even coined a term for gloomy, windless weather – ‘dunkelflaute’ – periods of days or weeks when their more than 30,000 wind turbines and millions of solar panels produce next to nothing or nothing at all.

Having foolishly trashed their (once enviable) nuclear power generation capacity, the Germans have been forced to re-embrace coal-fired power, like their lives depend upon it – notwithstanding howls of outrage from their lunatic green fringe.

German power prices are the highest in Europe and large-scale power rationing is now routine.

The result for the German economy is, of course, catastrophic, as Claire Lehmann outline below.

Why Germany’s energy blunders offer us a stark economic warning
The Australian
Claire Lehmann
21 July 2023

Since the 19th century, the phrase “Made in Germany” has denoted quality…

Economists assume that poor countries should grow faster than rich countries over time, a process known as convergence.

It’s a reasonable theory, but only if poor countries and rich countries have similar levels of economic liberty.

But that’s often not the case, which is why I put together an anti-convergence club. I have dozens of examples of richer countries growing faster than poorer countries.

And not just for one or two years. Every example in the anti-convergence club is based upon multiple decades of data.

Even more important, every example shows that you get faster growth in nations with free markets and limited government.

Now we have a new member of the anti-convergence club. Here’s a chart that Mike Bird of the U.K.-based Economist shared on Twitter. It shows that Japan has been steadily losing ground compared to the United States over the past three decades.

So…

Europe’s wind and solar ‘transition’ is like watching a train wreck on constant repeat. Germany led the charge and is suffering the inevitable and entirely predictable consequences, with crushing power prices and routine power rationing.

Some of Germany’s neighbours had the wit and temerity to not play follow the leader, or were in a position to backtrack before it was too late. The French sit within the former category, the Swedes in the latter, recently ditching self-destructive plans to rely on wind and solar, plumping for new nuclear power, instead.

The French were, and remain, Europe’s biggest nuclear power generator, delivering reliable and affordable electricity to the German and British neighbours, among others – which is the reason the French are demanding that their dependents start building their own nuclear power generation capacity, instead of sponging off the French every time the sun sets or calm weather sets in.

Voters in Spain have voted in a snap general election today. Polls suggest the support for both of the large national parties, PSOE on the left and PP on the right, has been growing late in the campaign. However, no one expects either major party to be close to a majority on its own, as the PP is leading on only around 33–35% the vote per final polls. The farther left formerly represented by Podemos is running in a new alliance called Sumar, while the far-right Vox may finish in third place. A key question for the election is whether PP+Vox will be a majority and if so, will they govern together (either in coalition or in confidence-and-supply)?

One thing I always watch in Spanish elections is the inevitable differential treatment of parties by the electoral system, which can be consequential for seat shares and thus who can govern. There…

I did a three-part series (here, here, and here) to explain why socialism is a miserable economic system.

As Winston Churchill sagely observed, “Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.”

But it is good for a few laughs.

For today’s column, let’s add to our collection of socialism satire.

We’ll start by noting that East Germany was the most successful part of the Soviet Empire, but even it was an utter failure.

Next, some of my lefty friends make a big thing about belonging to the “party of science,” but I have a hard time taking them seriously given their infantile views on economics.

For our third item, I wonder if our left-leaning friends ever wonder why people try to escape from places such as Cuba and Venezuela so they can be “exploited” in…

If what has been done to energy policy was the work of outside forces, it’d be called an ‘act of war’. Sadly, it’s all from the home team and better described as ‘outright treason.’

Australia is, without doubt, the most over governed country on earth, with more mouthpieces and slackers per head of population than anywhere else.

But, proving that quantity ain’t quality, the clowns in charge have ignored every shred of empirical evidence and, instead, plump for ludicrous models based on risible assumptions.

The result is the destruction of Australia’s once reliable and affordable power supplies.

The damage done is generational; the chaos appears irremediable, with much worse to come.

And yet, as Nick Cater observes below, we’re assured that all’s in hand. Believe that, and you’ll believe anything.

Renewables vision is blind to the cost of calamity
The Australian
Nick Cater
17 July 2021

Given the cost of…