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The big questions for 2012 - FT.com - 0 views

www.ft.com/...16-11e1-b7ec-00144feabdc0.html

2012 outlook -

shared by Yadkin River on 04 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • With America gazing inward, some will look to China for money and leadership. This began visibly to happen in 2011, when European officials ended an EU summit by jetting straight off to Beijing, in a humiliatingly unsuccessful effort to drum up Chinese interest in buying more European debt.
  • But the leadership of China’s Communist party will also spend much of the year jostling for position. While the identities of the new president and prime minister are widely assumed to be known – with Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang slated respectively for those positions – the slots just below the top two are up for grabs. China’s urge to concentrate on domestic affairs will be accentuated by a growing nervousness about political and economic instability at home.
  • and growing social unrest in China’s manufacturing heartlands
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  • But it will also ensure China has little energy to devote to elaborate international co-operation.
  • Economic inequality: Peaceful acceptance of deep differentials is coming to an end
  • The big debate of 2012 will be over the role of government in the economy,
  • Although this sounds like an economic issue, it is really about politics.
  • Public v private: The state starts to run out of time on how big it should be
  • Headlines such as this recent one in the Los Angeles Times – “Six Walmart heirs are wealthier than US’ entire bottom 30 per cent” – epitomise the new mood. Such scrutiny of the lives and deeds of the “1 per cent” will become obsessive.
  • Yet there is compelling evidence that high inequality is also bad for a nation’s health: it leads to higher political instability and more violence and it hurts competitiveness and growth.
  • This year, elections will take place in the US, France, Russia, Taiwan, Mexico, Egypt and South Korea. China will also change leadership.
  • In Russia, shame among educated classes that Vladimir Putin is just the latest tsar, combined with growing economic desperation and corruption in rural areas, makes another Russian Revolution plausible if not probable. And I would not be surprised to see mass protests in several central Asian countries, in Pakistan, again in Iran, in Algeria, Mexico, Venezuela or Cuba.
  • The difference from traditional technology is speed, scale and resilience. The immediacy, apparent veracity and emotional power of words and images that are instantly transmitted to thousands and then millions of people can transform existing currents of dissent into a raging flood
  • Social unrest: Technology to power rolling disruption to outright revolution
  • Energy: Fuel’s decisive shift in supply will boost security – at a price
  • Energy efficiency in the advanced countries has risen sharply, implying that their demand has peaked, and vast, commercially exploitable discoveries of oil and gas – especially gas – have been made in politically stable areas, including in the US. This suggests that in future gas will account for a much larger proportion of world energy supply. While these developments are positive for geopolitical stability, they may pose difficulties for the climate.
  • This is positive because gas is much cleaner than coal.
  • This means it will reclaim its role as the world’s biggest energy producer and, incredibly, become a net energy exporter.
  • Even in 2040, respected forecasts now envision that fossil fuels will still supply 80 per cent of the world’s energy needs.
  • However, energy security and national security for much of the world will be improved, as the influence of rogue oil states diminishes.
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With Governor Perdue as an Ally > Talking About Politics - 0 views

www.talkingaboutpolitics.com/...overnor-Perdue-as-an-Ally.aspx

governor politics yadkin Pat McCroy Bev Perdue Alcoa

shared by Yadkin River on 18 Dec 11 - No Cached
  • So five rural Commissioners from one small county tackled a multi-billion dollar corporation and, at first, it went exactly as you’d expect. Alcoa had a field day. Then during the 2008 election an odd thing happened: Both candidates for Governor – Pat McCrory the Republican and Bev Perdue the Democrat – sided with the County Commissioners against Alcoa.
Yadkin River

» Blog Archive » Central Park Poll Results of Yadkin Project - 0 views

insidestanly.com/?p=6338

DEC2011 Water Alcoa Yadkin CleanTech

shared by Yadkin River on 10 Dec 11 - No Cached
  • A survey of 500 registered voters across North Carolina indicated that most North Carolinians overwhelmingly oppose such an agreement.
  • Many environmentalists and state and local officials in the region have remained steadfast in their belief that the river should be controlled by a publicly held trust in order to provide better benefits to the region and state. 
  • Alcoa lost a critical water quality permit last year when internal company e-mails showed that officials withheld information that downstream waters may not meet state standards. In addition, although elevated levels of PCBs produced by Alcoa have been found in fish in the river, Alcoa fought the installation of signs along Badin Lake warning people not to eat the contaminated fish, which infuriated many local lake residents.
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  • According to Nancy Gottovi, Executive Director of Central Park NC, the December 15 deadline looks like an attempt to apply enormous political pressure on local officials and the Governor to drop their opposition to the 50-year license
  • 72% of North Carolina registered voters said no to Alcoa being granted a new 50-year license, while 76% stated that they would prefer that a “public trust” control the Yadkin River and use the hydroelectricity as an incentive to bring jobs to North Carolina. The majority of voters (60%) also indicated that they were usually skeptical when a multinational corporation like Alcoa tells a community they will provide permanent jobs. The majority of voters (58%) also agree with the statement “Every effort must be made to protect our water resources, even if it makes recruitment of industry more difficult.”  An overwhelming majority of voters (74%) support Governor Perdue’s opposition to a new 50-year license for Alcoa to control the Yadkin River because she believes the waters of the Yadkin River belong to the people of North Carolina and should be used to help create new jobs and economic opportunity for the region.
  • We were concerned that the Yadkin relicensing issue was being seen as a local Stanly County issue, and that the opinions of residents throughout the entire river basin were not being heard.  We also see this as a major public policy issue that has implications for the entire state.  The control of water resources is immensely important as we plan for future growth in terms of drinking water, but also for clean, renewable energy. 
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U.S. Steel Industry Says Get Ready, Chinese Government Companies Are Coming To America - 0 views

www.manufacturingnews.com/...steel109.html

steel industry chinese government yadkin

shared by Yadkin River on 18 Dec 11 - No Cached
  • "In essence, after creating, developing and nurturing massive 'national champions,' the Chinese government is now strategically deploying these entities overseas to execute the government's agenda: to acquire natural resources and raw materials, obtain technology and expertise, gain entry into new markets and increase China's economic and political influence on a global scale."
  • Such ownership is deemed illegal under the World Trade Organization rules. Yet China has defied them. The Chinese government owns most of the shares of the major steel producers. It is involved in making the business decisions within virtually all of China's major steel companies.
  • The Chinese government has directed its Anshan Iron and Steel Group to directly invest in the United States. On May 17, 2010, the company announced a joint venture with Steel Development Co. of Amory, Miss., to build up to five new steel plants in the United States. "Anshan's investment in SDC is the direct result of China's industrial policies," notes Wiley Rein. The 100-percent state-owned enterprise became China's fourth largest steel producer "through government mandated mergers and the receipt of massive government subsidies." China's 2009 "Revitalization Plan," "explicitly identifies Anshan as a recipient of extensive government support in order to strengthen its international competitiveness and to assist Anshan in acquiring strategic resources and establishing operations abroad. . . Anshan is now investing in the U.S. steel market, with the full force and encouragement of the Chinese government." China is stepping up its global strategy. China's government said it invested $43.3 billion overseas in 2009. Through June 2010, overseas investment had reached $55.2 billion. The OECD says these figures are "substantially" underestimated. Chinese foreign mergers and acquisitions have increased by more than 50 percent in the first half of 2010, according to report from China Daily Online. "Chinese investment into the United States jumped 360 percent in the first half of 2010 compared to the same period last year," according to the Wiley Rein report. "In 2009, Chinese enterprises announced new direct investment in the United States of approximately $5 billion, up from $500 million in 2008, and despite a significant global downturn in such investments. Moreover, Chinese firms acquired or announced that they were starting more than 50 U.S. companies in 2009."
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China's Quest for Energy - YouTube - 1 views

www.youtube.com/watch

chinese

shared by Yadkin River on 23 Dec 11 - No Cached
  • Fuelling China: Daniel Yergin joins a panel of Canadian economists and observers to discuss China's growing need for energy. What does this growth means for Canada? What are the political implications of China re-shaping their energy sector?
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