Another Message Board
Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please.
I’ve moved my irregular email news from Mailchimp to Substack. You can read it here. You can also follow me on Twitter @JohnQuiggin
I’m also trying out Substack as a blogging platform. For the moment, I’ll post both at this blog and on Substack.
John Quiggin 
Joseph Stiglitz releasing;
“Profits Causing Inflation in Australia, Not Wages: European Central Bank & ABS Data Reveal
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” “Australia isn’t experiencing a wage-price spiral, it’s at the beginning of a price-profit spiral,” said Australia Institute Chief Economist Dr. Richard Denniss.
“The national accounts show it is rising profits, not rising costs, that are driving Australia’s inflation. While workers are being asked to make sacrifices in the name of controlling inflation, the data makes clear that it is the corporate sector that needs to tighten its belt.
“While companies are arguing that they have ‘no choice’ but to increase their prices, the fact that they are making record and rising profits is proof of how many choices they really have.
“It’s a shortage of competition, not a shortage of skilled labour, that is driving up the cost of living in Australia.
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https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/profits-causing-inflation-in-australia-not-wages-european-central-bank-abs-data-reveal/
“The new report “Are Wages Driving Inflation in Australia” is being released as the Australia Institute hosts Joseph Stiglitz”…
Click to access Are-wages-or-profits-driving-Australias-inflation-WEB.pdf
Lots if links in article (Ikon).
“More variants mean more infections; more infections mean more variants.”
“The BA.5 Wave Is What COVID Normal Looks Like
“The endless churn of variants may not stop anytime soon, unless we do something about it.
By Katherine J. Wu
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“And with transmission rates this high, the next variant may arrive all the sooner—and could, by chance, end up more severe. “How much do we want to restrict our own freedoms in exchange for the injury that may be caused?” Hodcroft said. “That’s something that hard science can’t answer.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2022/07/ba5-covid-subvariants-forever/670514/
The long term share of the national “cake” for wages and salaries has been just under sixty percent. For profits its been around thirty percent. But since the middle of the 1980s, the share of national income going to profits has risen while the percent of national income going to wages and salaries has fallen, Now wages and salaries get less than half of all national income and profits gets close to forty percent.
Australia National Accounts – growth moderates but wage share falls below 50 per cent
Wednesday, June 1, 2022
http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?cat=19
Nitous Oxide Nose Spray? Shortened viral load x about 20-30% it seems. ymmv. I’d probably use it as, if infectious, likelihood of virus cleared <-4days. Cup of tea with grandma returns in shorter time frame. Already being sold in India etc, and approved by EU. Await real world data.
Study by patent holder and pharma co. Hmmm…
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"A Nasal Spray Seems to Help Clear Coronavirus in Clinical Trial
"Should more research continue to find similarly positive data, SaNOtize hopes that this spray won’t just be useful against covid-19 but other respiratory infections, particularly influenza."
https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2022/07/a-nasal-spray-seems-to-help-clear-coronavirus-in-clinical-trial/
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"SARS-CoV-2 accelerated clearance using a novel nitric oxide nasal spray (NONS) treatment"
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lansea/article/PIIS2772-3682(22)00046-4/fulltext
ICYMI, broadcast on ABC TV last night on 7:30 was a segment titled Australian data reveals long COVID profile. It included these points:
* More than 8.5 million Australians have had COVID;
* It’s not known how many Australians have ‘long-COVID’, but World Health Organization estimates 10 to 20% of COVID-19 cases will acquire ‘long-COVID’ condition;
* Clinicians have seen patients with ‘long-COVID’ spanning 6 months, 12 months, and some for 2 years;
* Clinicians don’t have long-term data on the ‘long-COVID’ condition;
* There is NO CURE for ‘long-COVID’ condition, only management of symptoms with pre-existing treatments;
* ‘Long-COVID’ condition has over 100 symptoms, commonly including fatigue/lethargy, breathlessness, and brain fog;
* Data from Nepean Hospital indicates COVID patients most susceptible to acquiring ‘long-COVID’ condition include women in their 40s & 50s;
* ‘Long-COVID’ affects tasks, including household tasks (29%), work/study (26%), mobility (21%), recreation (19%), self-care (19%);
https://www.abc.net.au/7.30/australian-data-reveals-long-covid-profile/13980068
The Actuaries Institute has estimated those left with a serious disability due to ‘long-COVID’ could reach up to 100,000 in the next three months. Another 300,000 people could have some limitations on their daily activity.
At last a serious initiative on policies for dealing with the inevitable carbon overshooot: https://www.climatechangenews.com/2022/04/22/as-1-5c-overshoot-looms-a-high-level-commission-will-ask-what-next/
I’ve been saying for years that while decentralised capitalism can very probably get us to net zero, it can’t get us to net negative. The sequestration push will be war-economy socialist, though the word will be avoided. I’m relieved that the Overshoot Commission will be steered by statist French technocrats (Lamy and Tubiana). it’s the right mindset for the problem.
Biik: Eat the poor.
Lucky Ducky solves inflation.
Hint… ‘un…’
(Definitely worth a read as oanels contain exact phrasing used in ‘wage’ dogma debates)
https://boingboing.net/2022/07/20/lucky-ducky-solves-inflation.html
https://gocomics.typepad.com/tomthedancingbugblog/2022/06/new-book-tom-the-dancing-bug-eat-the-poor.html
“… recognized virtually every SARS-like betacoronavirus strain we evaluated,” says Caltech postdoctoral scholar Alexander Cohen.
“Nanoparticle Vaccine Protects Against a Spectrum of COVID-19-causing Variants and Related Viruses
July 05, 2022
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“Notably, when vaccinated with this so-called mosaic nanoparticle, animal models were protected from an additional coronavirus, SARS-CoV, that was not one of the eight represented on the nanoparticle vaccine.
“Animals vaccinated with the mosaic-8 nanoparticles elicited antibodies that recognized virtually every SARS-like betacoronavirus strain we evaluated,” says Caltech postdoctoral scholar Alexander Cohen (PhD ’21), co-first author on the new study. “Some of these viruses could be related to the strain that causes the next SARS-like betacoronavirus outbreak, so what we really want would be something that targets this entre group of viruses. We believe we have that.”
“The research appears in a paper in the journal Science on July 5.
“SARS-CoV-2 has proven itself capable of making new variants that could prolong the global COVID-19 pandemic,” says Bjorkman, who is also a Merkin Institute Professor and executive officer for Biology and Biological Engineering. “In addition, the fact that three betacoronaviruses—SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2—have spilled over into humans from animal hosts in the last 20 years illustrates the need for making broadly protective vaccines.”
“Such broad protection is needed, Bjorkman says, “because we can’t predict which virus or viruses among the vast numbers in animals will evolve in the future to infect humans to cause another epidemic or pandemic. What we’re trying to do is make an all-in-one vaccine protective against SARS-like betacoronaviruses regardless of which animal viruses might evolve to allow human infection and spread. This sort of vaccine would also protect against current and future SARS-CoV-2 variants without the need for updating.”
“How it works: A vaccine composed of spike domains from eight different SARS-like coronaviruses”…
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https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/sars-coronavirus-variant-vaccine-bjorkman
Manchin!
Manchin sees interest rates as a climate action action function!?
And have baked in CCS!
“The New Climate Dark Ages Have Begun” – The Atlantic
“A day after Manchin effectively killed the climate provisions, he told a West Virginia radio station that he didn’t object to any of the particulars of the climate provisions, and that he might consider supporting them in a month or so, depending on what inflation looks like then.”
“That means it [carbon removal] will be the centerpiece—or at least a central talking point—of America’s climate agenda for years to come.”
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“We’ve Had Other Climate Defeats. This One Is by Far the Weirdest.
“Seven ways of looking at where climate action goes from here
By Robinson Meyer
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“Today, I’m finding very little to sugarcoat. When Senator Joe Manchinpulled the plug on President Joe Biden’s legislative climate agenda last week, he locked in a genuine setback for the country and the world, all but ensuring that billions of tons of unnecessary carbon pollution will stream into the atmosphere.
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“A day after Manchin effectively killed the climate provisions, he told a West Virginia radio station that he didn’t object to any of the particulars of the climate provisions, and that he might consider supporting them in a month or so, depending on what inflation looks like then.
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“Carbon removal cannot save the planet nor even avert the worst of climate change. But there is bipartisan support for it, and actual legislation has gotten through Congress that supports it. That means it will be the centerpiece—or at least a central talking point—of America’s climate agenda for years to come.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/07/biden-manchin-defeat-build-back-better-climate/670577/
“I think it’s the moral equivalent of a war crime,” says former US Vice President Al Gore of the big oil companies’ efforts to block action.
“I think it is, in many ways, the most serious crime of the post-World War Two era, anywhere in the world. The consequences of what they’ve done are just almost unimaginable.”
“The audacious PR plot that seeded doubt about climate change”
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-62225696
“The Society Of The Spectacle is one long lament for this loss of The Real…”
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“Your Book Review: The Society Of The Spectacle
Introduction
“The Society of the Spectacle will make no sense if the reader feels there is nothing fundamentally wrong with contemporary society.”
“Guy Debord was a Marxist theorist and founding member of the Situationist International, among other things.
…
“”The revolutions of the previous centuries were economic in nature, replacing kings with merchant princes. As a result, all societies began to judge themselves in almost purely economic terms, regardless of their ideological leanings. [2]
“Media developed symbiotically with capitalism, and together these twin forces changed the world. Twentieth-century forms of media were one-way communications. The owners of society were also the owners of the media, and the messaging reflected this power dynamic. Long before the general public became disillusioned with the news, Debord was woke to the fact that ‘the free press’ was largely a myth. He saw the shaping of the narrative firsthand, and well knew the ability of the media to amplify or ignore as convenient.
“As the spectacle conquered the earth, it took on different forms. Debord differentiated between the concentrated, diffuse, and integrated modes of the spectacle:
– Communism and fascism were the primary examples of the concentrated spectacle, with totalitarian control of the economy and the media centralized in the hands of the State.
– The United States exemplified the diffuse form, where the government allowed corporations and private media to operate relatively unimpeded.
– In his later writings, Debord declared that the entire world had turned into variants of the integrated spectacle, where the State is swallowed whole by the economy and subordinated to its needs
…
https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/your-book-review-the-society-of-the
Re James Wimberley says:
July 23, 2022 at 8:31 pm
/britain-the-new-el-salvador/comment-page-1/#comment-254067
James, how much per kWh to fast charge your EV at a commercial site? 60c per kWh?
We, – society – has the chance to lower carbon emmissions, and change r>g to g>r, and what eies Australia do? Provide funding to private carbon companies to provide for profit parking and charging.
“The Trevor St Baker-backed Evie Networks was the biggest winner from the funding round, awarded $8.85 million to deliver 158 fast charging stations across eight regions in Australia, with project partners Tritium and ActewAGL.”
” The big news, though, is with Ampol, which only recently benefited from a controversial $1 billion federal government bail-out of its Australian oil refinery business, a massive fossil fuel subsidy pitched as a measure to protect national security and keep fuel prices down, but tipped by some analysts to be headed straight to shareholders.”
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https://thedriven.io/2021/07/30/ampol-to-add-ev-fast-chargers-at-121-petrol-stations-around-australia/
“First Ampol EV charger site goes live and is free until August
…
“After an initial free period, the pricing will be set at 60 cents per kWh; at a similar rate to some Evie Networks and Chargefox 350kW sites.
“It’s great to see another network launch in Australia. The reliability and footprint of the new AmpCharge network will be the key and lead to higher utilisation by EV owners across Australia.”
…
https://thedriven.io/2022/07/21/first-ampol-ev-charger-site-goes-live-and-is-free-until-august/
EU Infrastructure incentives, no usage prices…
“EV charging infrastructure incentives in Europe 2022”
Last updated on April 22, 2022
https://blog.evbox.com/ev-charging-infrastructure-incentives-eu
https://www.reinventingparking.org/2015/06/how-much-does-one-parking-spot-add-to.html?m=1
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Trevor St Baker
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“Energy Resource Managers Pty Ltd’s development represented 50% of all new power generation projects constructed in Australia during the 2000s.[2]
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“after growing to become the fourth largest electricity retailer in Australia. St Baker went on to pursue and develop electricity retail business in the USA
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“and powermetric customer access devices and electric vehicle fast chargers. Trevor is a Director of six of the companies in which StBEIF is invested, and acts as Chairman of the two most advanced: Tritium Pty Ltd (which produces electric vehicle charging stations)
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“St Baker founded SMR Nuclear Technology Pty Ltd “to advise on and facilitate the siting, development and operation of the safe nuclear power generation technologies, principally by Small Modular Reactors (SMRs).”[5]
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“St Baker ran as a National Party candidate for the Queensland electorate of Dickson in the 1993 Australian election.
“He chaired the National Generators’ Forum for three years, ending in 2013. He was a non-executive director of the Queensland Resources Council prior to 2015 and remains on the board of the Energy Policy Institute of Australia.
…
“In 2017, Baker told The Australian Financial Review that “Baseloading of intermittent renewables to replace coal in the foreseeable future… will just drive business out of the country.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevor_St_Baker
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“How coal baron Trevor St Baker turned a $1m power plant into a money-making machine
“In 2015, the ageing Vales Point station seemed destined for the scrapheap – now, it’s making more than $100m a year
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/dec/05/how-coal-baron-trevor-st-baker-turned-a-1m-power-plant-into-a-money-making-machine
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“Power barons Trevor St Baker and Brian Flannery have slashed the value of the Vales Point power station after a 93 per cent fall in annual profits, but the duo still pocketed a $10 million dividend from the NSW coal plant they bought for $1 million from the state government.”..
https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/plunging-energy-prices-sink-vales-point-power-station-20211203-p59ep4