French protesting underway.........

No, there's not.

We can generate a lot of renewable energy, however we've problems of intermittency and distribution, which we need to solve. These are problems that are to do with physics, not economics, so just chucking money at them won't do much. Coat the Sahara with solar panels, for example, but you'll lose a pile of production via transmission loss getting from where it's produced to where it needs to go.

Then you've got the intermittent issue - Germany almost found itself it a world of trouble a few years back due to it dropping wind generated electricity onto its neighbours grids and causing brownouts. They had to put filters in.

And this is before we get to the consequences of localized heat on that scale from inefficient conversion - start getting those solar panels in blocs of square kilometres and you will alter weather patterns, both by altering wind patterns (you're creating a thermal gradient) and driving energy into the atmosphere.

We can use nukes, but they're expensive to build, to run and to decommission. If - if - thorium reactors can be scaled up safely and economically, then they'd be a boon for cleanish energy generation whilst recycling nuclear waste.

You need a base load and the ability to ramp up capacity on demand and, right now, renewables are unable to provide that without some form of next generation battery power.

Molten silicon carbide is currently trialled - it's horribly inefficient, but that's not much of a problem if your energy generation is renewable.

Yeah, keep trotting out the "it's just spite and ignorance" line, it seems to be doing wonders.

You've also missed out Poland, Brazil, Hungary, Italy, Finland, Sweden, Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark... I've probably missed a few out, but these all have increasingly nationalist parties.

But you know, keep sticking your plague doctor mask on, kill some cats and chalk crosses on door, I'm sure it's working better than looking at any issues or anything.

Totally warranted attitude to a trivial post there, how are you today? Pissed off with the weather?

Have a coffee from your friendly neighbour halfway down the 62

Of course there's more to the issues of the day than spite and ignorance but there are commonalities between the examples you list and a key one which pretty much always underlies nationalism is the human tendency towards tribalism. It's pretty much a defining trait of the whole concept and whilst individual cases differ on the specific proximate trigger it's not ever going to go away because for much of our evolutionary prehistory it was very much a selected trait in so far as inter group competition for resources was often every bit as important in terms of both survival and consequent reproductive success as intra group individual competition for mates and status.

Alpha (or more commonly supporting beta) status within a tribe was meaningless is the tribe was itself being outdone in the wider game that much later came to be known as politics. Thus there was a strong selection pressure for genes favouring tribal behaviour and whilst that is no longer a positive or desirable state of affairs it's one which is a massive underlying determinant of human behaviour. It's evident in domestic and international policy, in cultural interactions, in the way sporting fans operate en masse, hell even in sci fi fandoms.

Trump et al (and yes, I know the "et al" is far more extensive than we commonly allude to here, but US politics are the default setting) have always had a tendency towards enormous success under circumstances where racial or cultural tensions are riding high precisely because the very nature of nationalistic platforms play directly into this. They reduce the world into simplistic terms where the issues of the day are displaced by association with the outsider and no amount of case by case analysis is going to really explain the phenomenon we are observing on the international stage without reference to that framework which understands human behaviour is shaped by our anthropological heritage.

yeah no shit! Think of all the gas you could buy (even at French prices) if you had no medical bills! Those fuckers are TOTALLY getting over!
BTW I hope I don't end up "taking it to the streets" over the ROMAINE LETTUCE ban! Also are burning cars an alternate, sustainable energy source? Asking for a friend......

I don't for a minute imagine at this stage we can attribute this entirely to fuel prices, there's been growing discontent with the Macron government for some time and he has gained opponents on both sides of the political coin and across the grassroots voting public of all colours. The movement remains largely leaderless, not to mention bipartisan and has shown little sign of responding to his public concessions.

In another age his centrism might well have allowed him to serve as a moderate but we are in an age where moderation is unpalatable for a variety of reasons. His mixed messages on migration and labour relations have led to confusion, with additional spending on asylum housing and open declarations of open borders not offsetting complaints about greater restrictions regarding immigrant labour and the mixed response to the post Paris attacks tightening in national security and focus on Islam which have been polarising to say the least. Cutting military spending on the one hand whilst increasing funding to intelligence agencies has also not been without it's detractors.

Suffice to say his government was already due to be severely rocked and he won't easily regain his initial popularity after this, the question being more which ideological direction the populace will lurch when he (I suspect) either steps down or is unseated. For the reasons I described in my earlier post I'd suggest the default will be strongly to the right.

Oh, @oldfella1962 , it depends how many cars you have spare.....electric ones don't burn too well though

Let's see - France has agreed and committed to Paris Accords (but targets still not yet met nor on pace to meet) and NATO pact (but targets still not yet met nor on pace to meet), and probably needs the revenues not just for "global warming" but for general fund spending. US in contrast exceeds the standards set in both those agreements. France's protestors almost certainly don't even include the 30% or so of the population actively engaged in capitalistic production, basically carrying the water for the bureaucrats and civil servicers comprising the bulk of the rest of the population; need an ecky or Frenchmen for more nuanced details of what the future holds socially with the unrest.

It's not Macron, it's France's 'socialism'; it's France's books - France likely will not (and can not) ever see black ink in the public fisc. And in fairness the US probably won't be able to see a surplus perhaps for decades - and probably won't be able to repeat Andrew Jackson's 'zero national debt' during the lifetime of anyone now alive. But the US at least has the growth potential and 50% larger income that allows for a glimmer of hope. OTOH honest socialists, in France anyway, almost certainly know deep down their situation is untenable, unsustainable, and pretty much hopeless. Pass the cabernet please.

Macron has asked Trump to stay out of French affairs. I must say, I find that kind of nationalism to be troubling.

Your "to be fair" disclaimer is a little optimistic really, compared to GDP France are actually doing somewhat better on national debt than the US, not sure where that leaves your kneejerk finger pointing towards socialism as the culprit:

US:



France:



It was rising pretty steadily since the financial crisis but has actually started to level off under the current administration and even at it's peak still remains lower than yours. Hard to make that a "failure of socialism" narrative really...

I think you'll find the current administration in France were extremely popular only twelve months ago, despite being essentially centrist. Part of my point is those protests represent a bi partisan crowd quite specifically responding to several of Macron's policies across the political spectrum, not just the fuel taxation which was the spark igniting the fire so to speak.

Depends partly on what Trump's intervention would look like, not to mention what other offers he has for help. If he does want outside assistance on any level it's not obvious why he'd choose Trump whose expertise on European affairs is, let's face it, sketchy at best. There are better qualified external advisors out there.

Tuttle has a degree in daytonian economics. It is fresh with stains from where Dayton pulled it out of his ass years ago.