Daily Archives: April 6, 2014

Heard (but not understood) On the Street: The WSJ and Deflation

By William K. Black

A brief update is in order after my three part series on how the troika (the ECB, EU, and the IMF) was acting contrary to its stated policies on deflation, Mario Draghi’s (the head of the ECB) confession that he favored deflation in the eurozone periphery because he wanted these nations to have lower prices and wages so that they could increase exports, and the disgraceful reporting of the subject in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.  The WSJ’s Heard on the Street” feature is out with an April 3, 20014 story on deflation that epitomizes each of these defects.  The title of the article foreshadows the analytical black hole that follows: “Inflation, Euro Test Draghi’s Resolve at ECB.”

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Sorry, Kyoto Signatories, Emissions Traders, Carbon Taxers, Homo Oeconomicus Won’t Save the Climate – Part 1

By Michael Hoexter

[Part I] [Part II] [Part III] [Part IV]

1. Introduction: Context of Existing Climate Policy

Together, as a world economic system, we are currently on an emissions trajectory to achieve anywhere from 4 to 6 degrees Celsius (7 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit) warming by 2100.  Global average temperature increases within this range mean catastrophe for humankind, with sea level rises of at least 3 meters (10 feet) and a vastly more hostile environment for human life and co-evolved species.  Humanity may be, with these emissions levels either bringing about its own extinction as the effects of the resultant warming set in or, at least, so degrading the conditions of life that very few humans will be able to survive.  We will have to reduce the currently escalating rate of increase of emissions to zero and then over a period of two to three decades reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to zero in order to have a chance of stabilizing the climate and not significantly endanger the welfare of future generations.

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