The bonus season comes around

It must be wonderful to own a business that the government has decided is too important to fail, wonderful and very comforting. Such businesses are usually so massive that they are never owned by a single person or even a small group of people. If you cannot own such a business the next best thing must be to be employed in a senior position in such a business, where your perceived value to the business is heavily rewarded.

Of course I am writing about the banks. The UK major banks received a subsidy of £50 billion in 2008 and £100 billion in 2008, according to the Bank of England. They needed these subsidies because they had made losses on such a scale that without the subsidy the banks would have failed and when they failed, thought the government, they would drag down the economy into massive turmoil (there has been turmoil since 2008 in any event) and depression.

Without such massive government subsidy these loss making banks would be no more. What is astonishing is that the banks will be paying bonuses to so called talented employees before the banks have repaid their debts to the government – or perhaps I should write more accurately – until they have repaid their debts to the taxpayer.

China’s energy consumption reduction target

The Chinese government have set a target for reducing energy consumption. China is a vast country, with plenty of coal reserves but little other fossil fuel. It has been growing its economy aggressively and the growth has been dependent upon energy use. It is no surprise that China is seeking to reduce energy use, and its target of reduction – 15% – is expressed in terms of a reduction of energy consumption per unit of GDP and the ambitious 15% reduction is targeted for 2015.

The efficiency of wind turbines

Wind turbines derive their energy form the kinetic energy in wind. When the wind blows the turbine revolves and the turbine is connected to a generator which generates direct current electricity. The electricity is inverted into alternating current electricity and then fed into a grid or into a place where the electricity is used. There is a limit to the energy in any given amount of wind, but there is also a limit to the maximum amount of energy that any turbine can collect and harness.

The reasons for making electricity more expensive

People in the United Kingdom will be paying more for their electricity in the coming years. Prices will increase by more than the cost of producing the electricity in order to finance the cost of photovoltaic systems and wind turbines, which are expensive ways of generating electricity. It may sound like a poor bargain to many people who will have to find the money to pay more for their electricity or else significantly cut down on its use.

We need darker skies

For the whole of my lifetime a haze has hung of Los Angeles. It is not made by the beating of angel’s wings but by the mass of pollution that this great city and those that live and work in it create. Most of the pollution comes from the energy that the city uses. Its bright lights, its traffic and its homes all use power and heat and the by product of this use is a mix of pollutants, not just the dreaded carbon dioxide, that nature eventually will clean up, if we let it.

Controlling inflation involves controlling public spending

Inflation in the United Kingdom is running at about 3.3% a year. In the USA it is about 1.5% a year and the in the Eurozone at about 1.9% a year. All three economic areas have had a policy of attempting to control inflation and that policy was until very recently very successful.

Yet another fine start – but we are all in it together

Leaders of the western world have explained to their electorates that when it comes to the credit crunch “we are all in this together”. Of course that is simply not true. When it comes to economic wealth and economic turbulence we are not all in it together. No one for a single moment believes that Mr Fred Goodwin, former Chief Executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland is really suffering as much as a family whose breadwinner has lost his or her job, or

Petrol Prices will rise

In the United Kingdom petrol, which Americans call gasoline, is always expensive. It cost does not seem to restrict the demand for it. Now just before Christmas, petrol costs, according to Experian Catalist and average of £1.22 a litre. That is equivalent to about $7 a US gallon. I understand in the United States gasoline sells at between $3.20 a gallon in California to $2.60 in Colorado.

Is Wikileaks a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize?

People who dissent from authority are usually ill treated by the authority from which they dissent. In England Mr Assange, founder of Wikileaks, is in prison awaiting conclusion of extradition proceedings to Sweden in respect of rape charges. Mr Assange’s organisation has certainly wounded many countries by disclosing documents that those countries had resolved to keep secret. Those who support the “leaking” of secret documents are claiming that Mr Assange’s arrest is politically motivated.

Compensation for global warming

With only two days left of the Cancun Climate Change Conference there seems to be little prospect of any binding regulations or treaty coming out of all the negotiations and discussions. Poorer nations, Norway suggested, should have $100 billion to deal with climate change from richer nations. Richer nations say that is too much and poorer nations say it is not enough. The negotiators must feel that they are about as useful as a sinking ship’s crew who spend their time re-arranging the deckchairs.