rockfl9

SD. Tks for the article. I did not know this plant existed. I remember during the mid-60s a model project of this technology was proposed in the Arizona desert. A lot of planning but it never came to be. Too expensive to be able to provide power for 10 hours on the best of days AND the harsh desert environment would be a "maintenance Godzilla". It seems that his is one of those projects that once started became too big to fail. But maybe we have learned we shouldn't do it again. One thing is this plant will keep an army of technicians employed No doubt we will need more clean electricity . Wind , solar , nuclear and conventional generators need to be coordinated to make the best use of all. P.S. The city of Oakland Park, Fl. is working on an ordinance that will require all new muli-residential and mixed use commercial to pre-wire parking slots for EV charging stations.

You can be assured that the wildlife is protected when putting in something like a solar farm. Certain species like your tortoise would be relocated or given a preserve . When I said Arabs I should have said ME oil producers. They need to find new sources of income as oil use declines.

I would have liked to read that reply, Sage. There will always be the need for oil products the question is how much for how long? The answer to that question depends on who you want to believe. The world IS getting serious about reduceing carbon and global warming . The Saudi's are planning to sell off another 10% of their oil business for money to develop future income. Planning ahead.

It will come from natural gas now but wind and solar, with storage soon!. Texas big problem is that they do not connected to the US grid AND the systems within the state are not coordinated. It was a domino effect. my state (Fla) shut down it's last oil generating plant 2 years ago ! We have six nuclear and one in moth balls till it is needed. We are 12% solar and 1% wind now . hope to be 20% solar in a few years . We are connected to both the Eastern and Mid-western grids and export some power in the winter months. .Note that Biden's Infrastructure plan has budgets for Grid improvements AND car charging stations. We (the US) have plenty of space for wind and solar but they must be interconnected efficiently.

The pandemic has delayed things a little, but EVs will be in full production in 2023. Tesla , with 4 plants expects to do 2.5 Mil units. All together 5 Mil. Rumor is that GM will intro a new brand. Easy to think that oil demand will decline. That means a lower price. The Arabs know this and are developing alternate source es of income today well knowing that will take 3-5 years. The Iraqi's are sitting on their thumbs, looking for foreign investors to give them the solution.

One explanation is that inflation is due to population increase. As an employer you should know that people are not 100% productive 100% of the time. This "slippage " increases costs and that must be covered by increasing prices if you want to stay in business. All those little "inefficiencies " ADD UP to INFLATION!!! It is there , ignore it and you are in trouble. Iraq is a good example. For years they have hired people to do nothing to solve the unemployment problem. 100% inefficiency. All the while claiming no inflation while importing goods from the real world that was experiencing 2-5% inflation per year in the price of those goods,. When they could no longer afford to hide the inflation they had to adjust the exchange rate to catch up.

Just because you see price increases does not mean official inflation. it is not that simple. These are not normal times. We are seeing shortages in things that never happened before . Shortages in semiconductors is shutting down auto production ??? no need to rush 2022 models. Lack of shipping containers is holding up exports from china, Korea and India. Excessive Outsourcing gone berserk! The containers are stuck in Long Beach and etc. due to lack of trucks and drivers. You might think it is a simple task to hire and train a truck driver , but it is not. You may see increase in copper prices because they cant get enough ore out of Australia.!!! Texas storm killed a lot of pigs and cattle... All happening at the SAME time!!! Although we dont like it price increases are the natural way of spreading out those limited items until the supply catches up. When this clears up I think a lot of businesses will rethink their supply strategies.

I said a little inflation is good. Because it is a natural law.. it is hard to explain. Any time you think there is no inflation some thing is going wrong or you are measure ing the wrong thing.

if the us banks don't buy foreign currency, then where do the dinar investors exchange dinar for dollars? do the dinar investors have to exchange dinar for dollars outside us, like canada may be? Banks do not BUY and HOLD FX. They get rid of it ASAP. Holding it even for a few days would be a drain on their profits. I can assure you that any foreign currency it takes in it has a dedicated buyer for it. For certain they wont take any IQD because there are NO legitimate buyers for it. They would get STUCK with it and cant take that risk.. The CBI should be a legitimate buyer of IQD BUT It only buys from Iraqi banks! Dinarians hold IQD because they have been brainwashed into thinking it will be worth a lot more SOON! Some sitting on it for 15 years. Iraq is BROKE and are deluded into thinking $100 oil is coming back SOON. That is very unlikely. They will not take the advice of the IMF and adjust their budget to meet reasonable expectations of income. That would mean an exchange rate of 1600 or more . Typical Iraqi would not understand that. Where will the RV dollars come from ??? The CBI cant just create dollars it must BUY them with petrodollars and there are not enough of them coming in .

Getting back to the topic. It is projected that plug-in hybrids or full electrics will be shipping in signicant numbers starting 2025. If you reason that the first adopters will be people with long DAILY commutes , That should save a lot of gas year around. If oil prices rise more will switch. Any country heavily dependent on crude sales will be in trouble. The Saudis , UAE and Quatar are using their current wealth to develop alternate sources of income for the future . They KNOW it will take a few years. Kazimi knows this but He doesnt have the answer yet. They are quickly running out of money to do anything. After 2025 oil in the ground will become less and less valuable.

I, and most others dont expect CBs to have a limited life ! It is a mechanical thing and could fail at any time. Even if 100 % tested at the factory . We know it is defective if it fails to close . But failure to trip cant be assured at any age. We must have faith that UL approval would make that a rare possibility. But you do bring up a point,, should I periodically trip and reset as a test?? Of course even if I did that it could still fail the next time ! Several cities here do have license plate readers but generally the records are looked at after a crime. P.S. I checked my bill and I pay 8.8 cents per KWH, and that includes the current fuel adjustment. We mainly use gas.

SD, Home charging stations ARE happening. I dont know if it requires a permit and inspection but any savvy electrician with a well equipped truck should not need a half day to do the work. I live in a 50 year old house with the original 150 A service. If I total the ratings of all the breakers it would need 180 A but that is OK as logically impossible to use that much at one time. The main breaker protects against that. You do have a point about the limited capacity of some systems. Mainly local service, but since the last 3 hurricanes the primary feeds here have been beefed up. There is some thought about nuclear coming back. Certainly ICEs are not going to go away. But the economy of scale will come into play at one point and the car makers will have to go completely electric on some models buyers wont have a choice . OH and the service stations will have to charge more or go out of business. HOW will the gov't track and report every vehicle???? A logistical nightmare. That could be an invasion of privacy . Tinbadge I dont think there is any BILL to cap oil wells. They are private property the owners may cap them if no longer profitable . What Biden did was to suspend oil leases on public lands. That is different.

SD. Hard to believe that anyone would buy EV without a way to charge at home. Tesla website says the onboard charger operates at 15 to 60 amps at 220v. They apparently have a way to limit the current to match the breaker size, Getting 220V to garage or outdoor outlet for most homes should not be a problem . Although at 15A an overnight charge is only good for 50 miles. Tesla provides a registry for electricians willing to do installations. Installing arrays of charging outlets is a piece of business you might want to consider. You are going to have to explain how the government is going to track my mileage ? Operating a car on public roads is technically a privilege, a system for reporting mileage and paying for it would be a logistic nightmare .

SD. Not residential but office and apartment buildings. Charging stations for convenience of tenants . Parking at courthouse garages is free for EVs here so law groups use Tesla or Bolt as company cars. They equip several parking spots for them. I can see in the future reserving a charging spot with your hotel/motel overnight. Right now extended range models will go 250 miles and with a quick 1 hour charge during lunch another 150. But EV battery technology is new and there is some promise of increasing at least another 25%. It may be a while to see an electric "toy hauler" but if they can do an electric semi , can do! Unless you are a felon or under arrest I dont think our laws will ever allow personal tracking. There are many APPS that will report where you are ( good for parents) but not how you got there . Certainly in time the road tax is not going to be fair. I hope they see that just increasing it to make up for the shortfall is not a solution. But for a while it may serve as a prod to got ICE cars off the road.

SD, Living in Tesla Land I wonder if you ever did any private charging stations? Reading about what the Arabs were doing to counter the change to electric cars , I wondered how SOON that would be ! Looks like it is happening. I do expect to get one more car and now looks to be electric. 200+ mile range and optional 30 minute fast charge on the road takes the worry about running out of battery power away.

oil volume will PEAK in 2025 and begin a gradual decline. The price will be very unstable. Most of OPEC know this and reducing dependence on oil income. Reason ?: ! in 5 cars or Lt. trucks will be hybrid or full electric. By 2030 it will be 1 in 4 and you may pay more for a gas engine car. The life of an oil well is 7-8 years and Saudis are putting a hold on expansion and are looking at wind and solar projects. The UAE is planning shift to CNG and Hydrogen(?). Al-Kazimi has seen the smoke signals BUT the rest of the GOI cannot or does not want to admit what is coming.

A lot of firms would not take ppp because they feared the paperwork. If all it took was just the future taxes on the forgiven amount I will take that any day. Good luck.l I don't get anything from the second payment because they raised the threshold. Now the Dems want to put thru a big spending plan i.e. a little something for everyone, And they want to pass it before they loose control. If they get everything it would be a $28T debt. You may be right to be concerned about that. T

SD. I don't know what you mean by FAIL???? The USD IS the most stable currency, The world financial market is "pegged " to it in some way if not directly. Most commodities are traded based on the dollar because of it's proved stability. Our governments geo-political status (except for the recent DJT fiasco ) maintains that. If by free money you are referring to the stimulus hand out I will agree it turned out badly. To get people to honker down to contain the virus ( as that was the only defense available ) they needed to do something fast. A lot of people got the money but went to work and got paid as usual . A lot of people got money they really didn't deserve, but there was no way to select the truly needy from all. The IRS and SSA data bases were all they had. Ideally it should have been an unsolicited LOAN reported later as a tax adjustment. P.s. My check was $240. But I am sure I will end up paying back many times that in future taxes.

LB. I am the most POSITIVE but PRACTICAL person you will ever find. I seldom believe anything I read or hear until I can check it out. One thing I am specially positive about is my belief that the IQD can not increase in value , at least enough to make a real profit. Anyone with the slimmest amount of banking and accounting knowledge can see that. It cant happen EVER. RVers think they have discovered a secret path to RICHES . The RV rumor has been around over 10 years and every currency trader has heard it many times. This is the most clever CONFIDENCE GAME to show up in centuries. The dealer/guru/pumper consortium have preyed on a group of people with a clever combination of fake news/information provided by dubious EXPERTS. The most ridiculous line IS that the dinar would equal a dollar!!! Next is that banks (worldwide ) are preparing to do a mass exchange when it does. I don't know how much longer this can go on?? Maybe forever . Beyond both of our lives. Iraq's only hope is to find a substitute for oil revenue , which will begin to decline in the next 5 years.

If an RV to just one cent were possible . WHY did they go the other way ???? As they explained the CBI was bleeding dollars from the reserves. Another 6 months and the economy would crash. It was a last ditch effort to save the country . If they screw it up and not include the other income producing measures in the budget they will have to hike the rate again to possibly 1650. A death spiral. The CBI reported that the reserves lost $20Bn last year. They say $56 is left but I think some of that amount is in MOF IOUs , not cash.

Unfortunately, Neither of us will be alive .

Economists have to think nationally or globally. Individuals you and i tend to think simply and get burned. Inflation is a global fact and any country that tries to stop it will fall . Accept it and plan accordingly. Another fault is to attempt to achieve full employment , another fault . The FED plans for 6% unemployment and roughly 2% inflation . Anything more or less and they will apply corrections. You cant just SAVE , you must invest and grow your savings . In your business you can't just do the same thing and just increase prices, You must add customers or provide more services. That is where the growth comes in. These new "investments " like crypto and NFTs , I think , are going to screw things up. They are DARK speculations that take money out of circulation .. Making it hard to measure real growth .

Modern economic theory says that the right amount of inflation is necessary for a healthy economy. Wages are increasing and if prices increase only as fast as workers can afford to buy ,all is OK. Hyperinflation is when that parity is lost. The FED is NOT devaluing the dollar. All fiat currencies are diluted naturally. The simple fact that there is a expense to produce and maintain a currency (even seashells) erodes the initial value over and over. But contrary to those promoting a return to a precious metal based system the world is better off with a fiat currency. as long as the concept of VALUE is not violated.. The expectation that a dinar with a value of 0.0068 can arbitrarily become a value of $1 violates the concept. It is a MYTH. It just can't happen.

WHY did the CBI devalue the dinar BEFORE year end? It had to or else the 2020 annual report would show it was insolvent! NOT good for a central bank. Now it is important that the budget include an income tax and some amount of salary reduction. This will allow the GOI to gradually restore the reserves. If not I expect another devaluation at the end of 2021.

The MOF has been RAIDING the reserves to cover budget shortfalls for at least the last 4 years. The CBI replaces the dollars taken with GOI DOLLAR BASED BONDS ... So it looks like the reserves are still $70Bn . But $50Bn in cash is gone! It is a piece of financial engineering. The hope until now is that oil would come back and the GOI would gradually redeem the bonds. But to be really honest that is the LAST thing they would do. The real value of the reserves is less than $20Bn, even the gold may have been sold. The consequence of the devaluation is that they will need 20% more dinar to support the same dollar amount of commerce. The last thing they want to have to do is to print more of today's dinar. They need to get the price of oil back up to the 90-100 dollar range . But that will spur more production in non-OPEC countries producing another oil glut.