Cross Country Core CPI Trends

Core CPI has accelerated in many countries.

Using Ha, Kose and Ohnsorge (World Bank) database:

Figure 1: Core CPI, s.a., in logs 2021M03=0. Australia series, n.s.a., interpolated from quarterly data by author. NBER defined recession dates peak-to-trough shaded gray. Source: Ha, Kose, Ohnsorge/World Bank, OECD (for Australia) via FRED, NBER, and author’s calculations.

This database is described in this post.

And using OECD (mostly) data:

Figure 2: Core CPI, n.s.a., in logs 2021M03=0. US series is BLS, s.a.. China series, s.a., from Ha et al. French series excludes tobacco and alcohol. Australia series interpolated from quarterly data by author. NBER defined recession dates peak-to-trough shaded gray. Source: BLS, OECD via FRED, Ha, Kose, Ohnsorge/World Bank, NBER, and author’s calculations.

So, while cumulative US core inflation is high, other countries’ cumulative inflation is also up. UK, Canada, and Australia are the closest (once again, anglophone countries!).

It’s important to keep in mind that US inflation was higher than all the countries plotted, pre-pandemic. That’s why I did diffs-in-diffs in my previous assessments.

 

175 thoughts on “Cross Country Core CPI Trends”

    1. ltr

      https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/16/opinion/lweb16brooks.html

      Did Haiti’s Poverty and Culture Worsen the Tragedy?

      To the Editor:

      “The Underlying Tragedy,” * by David Brooks:

      The appalling tragedy in Haiti is indeed hard to think about, and the understandable tendency to blame the victims all too naturally pops up, as in Mr. Brooks’s column. It is really a whole culture, Mr. Brooks seems to be saying, that makes those Haitians, and other recalcitrant poor people, so hard to help.

      It seems more likely that the causes of poverty and lack of development are quite a bit more complicated.

      In times of tragedy it might be advisable not to leap to easy conclusions or judgments.

      * https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/opinion/15brooks.html

      Joseph Adams
      New York, Jan. 15, 2010

    1. AndrewG

      A good case can be made for Summers’ position too:

      “It’s very important that we have antitrust policy based on facts, based on economic science, based on consumers — not on a kind of generalized feeling of hostility and outrage towards business,” Summers told Bloomberg Television’s “Wall Street Week” with David Westin. “I’m frankly worried about that.”

      The following quote from Kanter fits the bill.

    2. Ivan

      The whole theoretical concept of capitalism is based on free and unrestricted competition between entities that offer products and services. When we allow those entities to either collude or merge to gain gain pricing power, we hurt society. Anything that does more harm than good for society should be banned. That includes gaining more than 20% of the market for anything. When a company hit that market share, it should either be subject to strict price controls or broken up.

      1. Moses Herzog

        @ Ivan
        Well said. Arguably less than 20%, because if you still have only 5 players in a given market, it creates the fertile ground for collusion that we have had for decades now. Summers gets paid to be a mouthpiece for it. Plus his own personal narcissism and arrogance tells him he is one of the “masters of the universe” who deserves the hedonistic pay scale. If he verifies CEOs and boardrooms don’t deserve the multiples of pay their frontline workers get then he has to face the fact he’s just an arrogant prick who was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple.

      2. pgl

        One example – baby formula. Of course their domestic oligopoly is bolstered by the FDA limits to the import of European products as well as other tariff and trade barriers made worse by Donald Trump.

      3. AndrewG

        We should break companies up when they reach an arbitrary 20% market share? That’s exactly the kind of uninformed thinking Summers is talking about and he’s right to warn us about it. The world is way more complicated than whatever model you have in mind.

    1. Moses Herzog

      @ pgl Let’s point out, from a moral perspective, Germany “gave them permission”. If there’s no “high horse to ride on” what can westerners say to China about it?? Absolutely nothing.

    2. Ivan

      At some level we do want Russian oil to sell at a 30% discount rather than being removed from the market at least for the next year or two. It is not in our interest to see oil prices exploding because not enough is offered for sale on the world markets. However, we want to see that discount all going to the rebuilding of Ukraine. If any country simply harvest that discount for its own profit, we should put a tariff on its products to get that money back where it belongs – the rebuild Ukraine fund.

      I am more in favor of a tariff on all Russian products than a ban. Make it financially undesirable to continue purchasing from Russia and use that money to rebuild Ukraine. Any country that refuse to participate should be subject to tariffs on anything they sell to western markets.

      1. pgl

        “I am more in favor of a tariff on all Russian products than a ban. Make it financially undesirable to continue purchasing from Russia and use that money to rebuild Ukraine.”

        Now that’s a tariff I could endorse!

      2. AndrewG

        I think your thinking about this matches what I’ve read from some people who suggest we are too fixated on volumes of oil and global oil prices, and that we should be focused on Russia’s current account. The point is the reduce the money (foreign exchange) going into the country. I don’t have clear ideas on this, but it feels right. Plus, we can get all the delicious oil we pine for.

  4. ltr

    https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=FHr8

    August 4, 2014

    Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for Dominican Republic, Haiti and China, 1971-2020

    (Percent change)

    https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=FHrh

    August 4, 2014

    Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for Dominican Republic, Haiti and China, 1971-2020

    (Indexed to 1971)

    [ Since 1971, the Dominican Republic has been the fastest growing country of the Americas. Haiti has a far smaller per capita GDP now than in 1971. ]

  5. Moses Herzog

    So you are saying relative higher inflation is an inherent defect of anglophone countries!?!?!?!? Menzie, you’re forgetting something….. saxophone privilege.

  6. Bruce Hall

    While the core CPI is where economists may focus, consumers (and politicians?) will be watching these this year.
    • https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CPIUFDNS
    • https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUSR0000SETB01

    Though I suspect this will be more important:
    https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WPU05730302

    The one thing I don’t really understand is why refining costs for diesel fuel should be so much higher relative to gasoline:
    https://www.eia.gov/petroleum/gasdiesel/

    1. pgl

      “The one thing I don’t really understand is why refining costs for diesel fuel should be so much higher relative to gasoline”

      Wow – you finally figured out that the high prices of gasoline and diesel are due to unusually high downstream margins? I guess you are too dumb that you do not get that you have once again undermined all your drill baby drill comments!!!

  7. Bruce Hall

    While the core CPI is where economists may focus, consumers (and politicians?) will be watching these this year.
    • https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CPIUFDNS
    • https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUSR0000SETB01

    Though I suspect this will be more important as it will affect many consumer product prices:
    https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WPU05730302

    The one thing I don’t really understand is why refining costs for diesel fuel should be so much higher relative to gasoline:
    https://www.eia.gov/petroleum/gasdiesel/

    One economist blames it on widening low-sulfur diesel regulations:
    https://www.freightwaves.com/news/diesel-prices-soaring-beyond-crude-gasoline-and-likely-to-stay-that-way

      1. Bruce Hall

        Aw, gee, the article to which I linked had his name prominent noted. You didn’t have to do much searching to get his background. But go ahead and take credit for your meager effort if it helps your self-esteem.

    2. pgl

      Bruce you have grossly misrepresented what this economist said when you suggest:

      ‘One economist blames it on widening low-sulfur diesel regulations’

      No – he did not blame this on your usual Biden is a socialist with new harmful regulatory BS story.

      ‘In a recent report, Verleger makes a similar argument. He sees the biggest difference as the structural changes in the market, many of them related to government mandates, having permanently altered the diesel market into a situation where traditional spreads between crude and diesel, and diesel and gasoline, have disappeared and won’t be returning. (Addendum: Nothing in the oil market is truly permanent, so it’s a relative term.)’

      Existing mandates maybe but diesel used to be cheaper than gasoline. OK it is temporarily higher for reasons he clearly noted. And of course those reasons do not support your Biden is a socialist parade. I would say you are lying again but of course I get you are way too dumb to understand what he is saying.

      1. Barkley Rosser

        Some of the factors mentioned by Verleger, who is a highly credible commentator on this topic, is a decline in Nigerian production where a lot of low sulfur oil comes from,, and the imposition three years ago at the global level of a low sulfur mandate for diesel used in ships. Obviously neither of these have anything to do with Biden or his policies.

        1. pgl

          You know what else Brucie boy is blaming Biden for – he found this:

          Prices for battery-related commodities have surged in recent months, and analysts expect them to rise further over the next few years.
          Electric vehicle makers have already begun passing those higher costs on to their buyers.

          Now let’s pile on – it is hot in NYC. Damn those Biden socialist policies!

        2. pgl

          Me thinks Bruce Hall is confused with respect to what socialism even means. After all economists are taught that changes in the price of a good is how the market allocates scarce resources. But Brucie sees an increase in the price of something like fuel and starts immediately chirping Biden is a socialist.

          No a socialist would be mandating price controls even when the good is in short supply. But I can understand Bruce here as he started with zero knowledge of basic economics even before he put on his MAGA hat which is known to make dumb people dumber.

        3. Bruce Hall

          The US produces 6-7 million barrels of sweet crude oil per day which far exceeds our need for just the production of diesel fuel. But not all of that light, sweet crude is used for diesel fuel oil.
          https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=35692

          So, what’s really behind the rise of diesel fuel prices in the US? Perhaps policies that are discouraging production from shale where much of the US light, sweet crude is extracted? Nah, Biden wouldn’t do that, would he?

          Of course, climate concerned NE US doesn’t want that dirty natural gas coming into its area so…
          U.S. demand for distillate fuel has been high since early 2021 because of increased demand for trucking and rail freight transport. Furthermore, cold weather in January 2022 contributed to increased demand for heating oil in the Northeast this winter, a region that relies on heating oil to heat almost 20% of its homes.
          No, that’s not Biden’s fault; that’s the eco-terrorist politicians in the Northeast whose bad governance becomes a problem for everyone.

          1. pgl

            “So, what’s really behind the rise of diesel fuel prices in the US? Perhaps policies that are discouraging production from shale where much of the US light, sweet crude is extracted?”

            Gee Bruce – when you write such nonsense without a reliable source, EVERYONE hear knows you are lying. And yea putting your next lie in italics does not change the fact that you just make up one dishonest claim after another.

          2. pgl

            https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/energy/refined-products/gulf-coast-ultra-low-sulfur-diesel-usld-platts-calendar-swap.html

            I decided to check the futures market for Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel since Bruce Hall is trying to abuse the current high prices for his political support of racists like Trump, Tucker Carlson, and V. Putin. Gee the future markets is predicting a rather steep decline in prices over the next several months.

            Gee Brucie – did Kelly Anne Conway not inform you of this? Or maybe she did but put you under her strict orders to continue to lie to us.4

            Oh well lower fuel prices might be good news for most of us but it is going to be terrible news for the likes of you and Tucker Carlson.

      2. Bruce Hall

        OK it is temporarily higher for reasons he clearly noted.

        If a decade or so of diesel priced higher than gasoline is “temporary”, I guess you are correct in your thinking.
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_and_diesel_usage_and_pricing#/media/File:Gas_diesel_and_oil_prices.jpg

        The only difference is that the pricing differential is widening and that’s a big problem.

        Oh, and Biden’s alternative of buying electric vehicles…
        https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/21/electric-vehicle-prices-rise-at-tesla-rivian-gm-and-other-carmakers.html

        Yeah, that’s not working out so well. But don’t worry, Biden and Schumer will work out a plan to have everyone else subsidize the 1-percenters who buy those overpriced battery skateboards. Of course, that’s not socialism; that’s just really bad economic policy.

        1. pgl

          Gee you used Wikipedia to do a FRED graph. ltr is snickering at you as she does this all by herself.

          She would also point out that those price per gallon prices have risen by much more than can be explained by any rise in oil prices. I guess you are Mr. Magoo as you have repeatedly ignored the role of higher downstream prices – until now. Which was the point of Menzie’s earlier post which indeed was the best take down of a troll in internet history.

          2. pgl

            “Gee, it seemed not too long ago that you were attempting to chide me for not using Wiki.”

            Now that is clearly a lie. I did chide you for providing NO sources but I never have thought Wikipedia was the most reliable source. And a Facebook post? And Menzie mocks CoRev’s questionable sources when unreliable sourcing is all you know how to do.

          3. pgl

            Bruce Hall uses Facebook to provide something called Rita’s Weekly Reality Check. Who is this Rita you ask?

            Rita Panahi Australian right-wing opinion columnist working for The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia. She is less reliable than Tucker Carlson. Oh wait – Tucker is Bruce’s hero.

            Come on Bruce – did you think we would not check your latest bat$hit insane “guru”? No – we are not nearly as stupid as you are.

          4. CoRev

            Bierka, remembers: “And Menzie mocks CoRev’s questionable sources when unreliable sourcing is all you know how to do.” Unreliable is synonymous with a source providing information that clashes with liberal views.

            With current polling that number of clashing views to liberals’ is ~3/4 of voters. Why do they clash? Because we’ve had ~1 and 1/2 years of your policies, and they have been a social and economic disaster.

            We all now have to live with the stupidity of liberal policies. You’ve been warned about your QUESTIONABLE policies for years, and now those warnings have come to fruition.

          5. pgl

            More evidence CoRev is unhinged. It is like he is responding to totally made up demons:

            ‘CoRev
            May 23, 2022 at 4:14 am
            Bierka, remembers: “And Menzie mocks CoRev’s questionable sources when unreliable sourcing is all you know how to do.” Unreliable is synonymous with a source providing information that clashes with liberal views. With current polling that number of clashing views to liberals’ is ~3/4 of voters. Why do they clash? Because we’ve had ~1 and 1/2 years of your policies, and they have been a social and economic disaster. We all now have to live with the stupidity of liberal policies. You’ve been warned about your QUESTIONABLE policies for years, and now those warnings have come to fruition.’

            I have no clue what this means. I have no interest in WTF CoRev is babbling about. And I bet everyone else is just as clueless yet disinterested. In fact I am sure CoRev has no effing clue what that rant said.

  8. ltr

    https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=PGXn

    January 30, 2018

    Consumer Prices for United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan and China, 2017-2022

    (Percent change)

    [ The way in which China limited consumer inflation through a fairly sudden failure of pork production then restructured pork production, and the way in which China is currently limiting consumer inflation, strike me as important to study. ]

    1. ltr

      Do read of the Haitian revolution in “Before the Mayflower” by Lerone Bennett Jr. * Also, keep in mind that in recent years a fine, hopeful president was twice removed from office with the approval of a US President, while yet another US President undermined family agriculture in Haiti (though this president would subsequently apologize).

      * https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/before-the-mayflower

  10. ltr

    Murderous dictators stick together.
    Murderous dictators stick together.
    Murderous dictators stick together.

    [ China has of course not been at war for decades, for generations. To slander the President of China who has worked ceaselessly for the well-being of the Chinese people and for the “shared well-being” of others is horrid, horrid, horrid. ]

    1. ltr

      https://english.news.cn/20220329/d7662525f7e14f21b1c75074133c6b5e/c.html

      March 29, 2020

      All flowers in full bloom make a beautiful spring

      BEIJING — “A single flower does not make spring, while one hundred flowers in full bloom bring spring to the garden.”

      President Xi Jinping has quoted this old Chinese saying to express his vision on the common development of the world and to convey his appreciation of diversity and inclusiveness.

      It comes from a popular collection of Chinese aphorisms that was first compiled in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and later supplemented by literati throughout the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

      The blossoming flowers proverb stands out today because of its rich philosophical content. It addresses the dialectical relationship between part and totality, the interconnectedness of things, and the respect for diversity as a law of nature.

      It helps explain a China that has invested itself in the Belt and Road initiative, international import expos, building a community with a shared future for humanity, not to mention the long-term commitment to opening-up.

      “We will unswervingly pursue a win-win strategy of opening up, seeking development impetus from the world and contributing more to the world with our own development,” said Xi in an October 2020 speech marking the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, a “window” of China’s epic journey of reform and opening-up.

      He also used the proverb to express his appreciation of the diversity of civilizations.

      “Civilizations have come in different colors,” said Xi at the UNESCO headquarters in March 2014. “If there were only one kind of flower in the world, people would find it boring, no matter how beautiful it was.”

      Exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations must not be built on the exclusive praise or belittling of one particular civilization, he added.

    2. Moses Herzog

      It looks like ltr has built up a very large lead for “Econbrowser Satirical Humorist of 2022”. This will be the third consecutive year he’s won.

    3. Barkley Rosser

      ltr,

      Oh dear. The problem is not war, it is about various minority groups that have had many members killed. It is one thing to justify this by saying that poverty rates have declined and tourism is up, as you have noted several times regarding Xinjiang. It is quite another to deny that anybody has been killed. And Xi has certainly amassed enough power to be called a “dictator.” So the use of “horrid, horrid, horrid” here is a bit overdone.

    4. macroduck

      A rose by any other name would still make you a liar:

      https://carnegieendowment.org/2020/06/04/hustling-in-himalayas-sino-indian-border-confrontation-pub-81979

      “As of early 1996 Beijing had redeployed forces from other parts of the country to the coastal areas facing Taiwan and set up new command structures for various kinds of military action against Taiwan.”

      “In early March 1996 China began a week-long series of ballistic missile tests and announced it will conduct an additional set of live fire military maneuvers as well. Together they constituted the fourth set of major military exercises the People’s Liberation Army had undertaken in the straits since July 1995. On March 5, 1996, the Xinhua News Agency announced that the People’s Republic of China would conduct missile tests from March 8 through March 15, 1996, within 25 to 35 miles of the 2 principal northern and southern ports of Taiwan , Kaohsiung and Keelung. On March 9, China announced plans to conduct live-ammunition war exercises in the Strait of Taiwan until March 20.”

      “These tests, and the military exercises that preceded them last year, were clearly meant to intimidate the people of Taiwan in the run-up to the presidential election.”

      https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/taiwan_strait.htm

      And

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Vietnamese_conflicts_(1979%E2%80%931991)

      There is also the violence against ethnic minorites within China, which doesn’t amount to war, wo I guess that doesn’t count.

      ltr, your slavish repetition of Chinese propaganda is utterly dishonest, utterly shameful.

      1. AndrewG

        Dude, Xi himself developed those missiles, and they rain down not nuclear apocalypse, but food aid.

  12. ltr

    The one thing I don’t really understand is why refining costs for diesel fuel should be so much higher relative to gasoline…

    [ An important question that suggests at least looking to past refining difficulties to rule out an artificial problem:

    http://www.pkarchive.org/economy/Wolak.html

    May 27, 2002

    Frank (Wolak) Thoughts On the California Crisis
    By Paul Krugman ]

        1. pgl

          This relates to retail prices. Apparently diesel right now has a huge distributor margin and perhaps a bit more in excess taxes. Wholesale prices which cover the cost of oil plus refinery margins are not that different.

    2. ltr

      The one thing I don’t really understand is why refining costs for diesel fuel should be so much higher relative to gasoline…

      [ The questions are, how much specific diesel refining capacity is there in this country or controlled by US companies, and is the capacity consistently used and especially used now, and where does the diesel go when refined? ]

  13. ltr

    Don’t you hate all these corrupt…

    [ Vile language and imagery is of no interest to me, though meant to be harassing. ]

    1. Moses Herzog

      @ ltr Thanks, I needed those chuckles today. Always worth the extra effort with you.

  14. ltr

    Haiti’s first democratically elected president who was twice forced from office, twice forced to exile though dramatically popular with poorer Haitians, was the subject of a subsequent call to South Africa by a US President asking that the former Haitian president be prevented from returning to Haiti before a Haitian election.

  15. AndrewG

    Figures 1 and 2 are literally “America good, China bad.” Right up your alley, ltr!

  16. Moses Herzog

    Did anyone else notice Seth Klarman was the owner of the winning horse at the Preakness today?? Kind of a legend in the value investment community.

  17. ltr

    https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-05-21/Chinese-mainland-records-201-new-confirmed-COVID-19-cases-1acYj2FQoBW/index.html

    May 21, 2022

    Chinese mainland records 201 new confirmed COVID-19 cases

    The Chinese mainland recorded 201 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Friday, with 181 linked to local transmissions and 20 from overseas, data from the National Health Commission showed on Saturday.

    A total of 1,010 new asymptomatic cases were also recorded on Friday, and 41,812 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation.

    Confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland now number 222,976, with the total death toll from COVID-19 at 5,219.

    Chinese mainland new locally transmitted cases

    https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-05-21/Chinese-mainland-records-201-new-confirmed-COVID-19-cases-1acYj2FQoBW/img/f972148d776144e3b68006d2a550cfdf/f972148d776144e3b68006d2a550cfdf.jpeg

    Chinese mainland new imported cases

    https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-05-21/Chinese-mainland-records-201-new-confirmed-COVID-19-cases-1acYj2FQoBW/img/1c582a524f0c435c8d184d692bf7d0b8/1c582a524f0c435c8d184d692bf7d0b8.jpeg

    Chinese mainland new asymptomatic cases

    https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-05-21/Chinese-mainland-records-201-new-confirmed-COVID-19-cases-1acYj2FQoBW/img/dd45d7734be34946ae6a4b7ee004cf34/dd45d7734be34946ae6a4b7ee004cf34.jpeg

  18. pgl

    Bruce Hall struggles with even simple concepts. He actually thinks diesel fuel always costs more than gasoline but he has no clue why. Yep – he cannot even read something as plain as this:

    https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/articles/4/

    According to our data set of 161 countries, gasoline is more expensive than diesel fuel in 84% of all countries. On average, diesel is 9,84% cheaper but the difference varies considerably across countries as well as within countries over time. Here we discuss several factors contributing to the price spread.

    Both gasoline and diesel fuel are produced from crude oil and therefore the cost of crude oil is the main factor influencing gasoline and diesel prices. However, fuel prices also reflect refining costs, taxes, and distribution and marketing costs. Additionally, retail prices are affected by market demand. These factors lead to a price spread between gasoline and diesel.

    Refining costs: During the process of refining, crude oil is separated into different components and these components are converted through further treatments into gasoline, diesel fuel, and other petroleum products. Diesel fuel is heavier and less volatile than gasoline, which makes it simpler to refine from crude oil. As a result, diesel tends to be cheaper than gasoline in most countries around the world. However, the introduction of Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD) between 2006 and 2010 increased diesel production costs since ULSD requires more refining.

    Taxes: Many countries tax diesel and gasoline differently. For example in the USA the federal excise tax on gasoline is 18.4 cents per gallon and 24.4 cents per gallon for diesel fuel. In contrast, most European countries tax diesel more lightly than gasoline. Since taxes are one of the major components of the final consumer prices of fuels, tax policy determines to a great extent the cross-country differences in gasoline and diesel prices.

    The spread between diesel and gasoline prices also varies over time with the following factors:

    Demand: In contrast to gasoline, diesel fuel is used to power not only cars but also public transportation vehicles, large delivery trucks, off road vehicles, boats, machinery, generators, etc. During periods of economic expansion industrial sector energy demand increases significantly and diesel prices rise more than gasoline prices. If the demand for diesel fuel is higher, the price spread will widen.

    Seasonality: Fuel oil used for home heating is made from the same basic components as diesel fuel. As a consequence diesel prices are affected by heating oil demand. In winter, the demand for heating oil rises and this tends to increase diesel retail prices. As a result, the price spread between gasoline and diesel exhibits seasonal variations.

    We have asked Brucie before to READ many of the informative posts provided here. Dr. Hamilton has gone through the US numbers many times for us but of course Brucie cannot be bothered to check out his posts as he is too busy watching Fox and Friends.

    1. Bruce Hall

      You’ve already attempted this “retort”, but the graph of diesel vs. gasoline prices clearly shows that US diesel prices have been higher than gasoline for over a decade and that gap is widening.

      Biden’s overt antipathy toward the fossil fuel industry, evident on day one of his administration, plus bureaucratic bungling in his Administration, have resulted in an economic environment where the fossil fuel industry is reluctant to aggressively invest in expansion of the US fossil fuel energy sources.
      https://www.cruz.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/cruz_et_al_to_sec.raimondo.pdf
      https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/21/us/biden-climate-social-cost-of-carbon-court/index.html
      https://www.wsj.com/articles/joe-bidens-fossil-fuel-blockade-onshore-drilling-leases-oil-gas-russia-11646409502

      The Biden Administration makes statements of the “plenty of oil leases” and “we’re doing all we can” for public consumption and then creates as many roadblocks as it can behind the scenes that the Democratic Party managed media does report.

      1. pgl

        Diesel prices depend on whether one is in NY, LA, or the Gulf. And it seems you always report the highest prices as the typical price. Yep – your lies are becoming more and more apparent.

        BTW – your own Dallas FED report exposes your oil lease solution to be a fraud. And yet you repeat that discredited nonsense over and over.

  19. ltr

    https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/20/world/americas/haiti-history-colonized-france.html

    May 20, 2022

    The Root of Haiti’s Misery: Reparations to Enslavers
    By Catherine Porter, Constant Méheut, Matt Apuzzo and Selam Gebrekidan

    https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/20/world/french-banks-haiti-cic.html

    May 20, 2022

    How a French Bank Captured Haiti
    By Matt Apuzzo, Constant Méheut, Selam Gebrekidan and Catherine Porter

    https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/20/world/haiti-wall-street-us-banks.html

    May 20, 2022

    Invade Haiti, Wall Street Urged. The U.S. Obliged.
    By Selam Gebrekidan, Matt Apuzzo, Catherine Porter and Constant Méheut

    https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/20/world/americas/haiti-aristide-reparations-france.html

    May 20, 2022

    Demanding Reparations,and Ending Up in Exile
    A firebrand Haitian president tried to hold France to account for its years of exploitation. He soon found himself ousted from power.
    By Constant Méheut, Catherine Porter, Selam Gebrekidan and Matt Apuzzo

    [ Exceptional social-economic research and reporting, and profoundly relevant in economic development. ]

  20. Steven Kopits

    Inflation and Avocados

    In the supermarket, perhaps no item has been more affected than avocados. In our area, the price has risen from $1.67 to $2.49 per avocado, a rise of nearly 50%. I was at BJ’s Club yesterday and bought a bag of avocados. Historically, these are all hard in the store and require a few days to ripen. Last time, though, I noticed that a number were ripe right out of the bag. Yesterday, in the first bag I tried, they were all fully ripe. I did not buy these, as they require eating almost immediately.

    What do soft avocados at BJ’s tell us about inflation expectations? They suggest that consumers are now balking at the current price of avocados (we have certainly reduced consumption in our household) and that BJ’s will have to cut prices in order to move its inventory. Not reduce the pace of inflation, but outright cut prices back to the level of wages. And of course we can see these trends across the board, with Target and Walmart both seeing soaring inventories in Q1. Moreover, the rate of inventory gains in housing are adjusting at phenomenal speed. Put another way, as the stimulus begins to wear off, shortages are rapidly being displaced by surpluses. Retailers look to be forced to cut prices to move inventory.

    If this is the case, then not only may we see inflation abate, we may see actually price declines as the stimulus passes through the system. Having misdiagnosed a suppression for a depression, the Fed absolutely blew monetary policy. Ordinarily, this leads to a typical recession. Notwithstanding, it’s not entirely clear to me that we will see a stereotypical recession now. Clearly, some kind of nasty rebalancing is coming, but it may not be the same suite of issues that we would normally expect.

    1. pgl

      Avocados? I thought it was bagels with you. Good grief – you have trouble sourcing two of your favorite foods at cheap prices and you act like the world is coming to an end. I have not eaten Mexican food since the pandemic began and I am not complaining.

      1. Steven Kopits

        Avocados are no more Mexican than bananas are Guatemalan. You may be surprised to learn that some people eat them outside the Mexican dishes.

        1. pgl

          Whatever Stevie. And you have no clue what macroeconomics even is as evident by your latest dumb rant.

    2. pgl

      ‘Having misdiagnosed a suppression for a depression, the Fed absolutely blew monetary policy.’

      You are still using this stupid word in lieu of actual macroeconomics. Damn – even Judy Shelton is that THIS STUPID.

      Listen troll – you do not get to comment on monetary policy until you learn basic macroeconomics.

      1. Steven Kopits

        And yet inflation blew through the roof, so someone misdiagnosed something, didn’t they?

        1. pgl

          You misdiagnose your own intelligence – hint your IQ is even lower than the current inflation rate.

    3. Barkley Rosser

      Well, there is something odd in these recent reports about inventories. One of the major reasons for the odd decline in GDP in Q1 for the US was a reported substantial decline in inventories. Now we have all these reports of rising inventories in major retailers like Wal Mart and Target. Is this all during April since Q1? It is my understanding that consumer spending was still holding up for most of April, if not in May. Did inventories decline in other parts of the US economy even as they rose in these big retailers?

      Oh, I suppose I should go and check on all this myself to straighten out what look to be somewhat conflicting numbers, but I am feeling lazy. I shall let somebody do it and explain what is going on with all this.

  21. ltr

    https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202205/1265773.shtml

    May 16, 2022

    Refining-petrochemical project to cut imports of chemical raw materials

    China’s largest integrated refining-petrochemical project was officially put into operation on Monday, and the facility is expected to reduce the imports of chemical raw materials by up to 10 percent.

    The integrated refining and petrochemical complex, built by Shenghong Refining & Chemical Co in Lianyungang, East China’s Jiangsu Province, includes a refinery, an aromatics unit, an ethylene plant and supporting terminals, with an annual processing capacity of 16 million tons of crude oil.

    The percentage of domestically-made core equipment exceeds 90 percent, setting a number of records including the largest diameter tower, and the largest normal-decompression distillation unit and cracking furnace in China.

    Yu Huiyong, a senior official of the company, said in an interview with the China Media Group the facility will greatly enhance the self-sufficiency rate of China’s basic chemical raw materials sector and reduce dependence in imports, especially for paraxylene….

    1. ltr

      A significant aspect of limiting the cost of petroleum products in China, is limiting refining costs and that is what China is about. Similarly, Bolivia is the only country in Latin America that produces fertilizers and this is proving of prime importance in limiting food costs. Bolivian fertilizer is a state production which was begun during the Morales presidency but was stopped by a succeeding coup government. Fertilizer production was immediately begun again when the coup government was defeated in national elections. “The Economist” has just ranked Bolivia the best prepared of any Latin American country for general energy and food price increases.

      1. pgl

        “Bolivia is the only country in Latin America that produces fertilizers and this is proving of prime importance in limiting food costs.”

        This is not even remotely true. Bolivia was not even the main producer of fertilizer in Latin America. Where on earth do you get this utter nonsense?

  22. pgl

    The Republicans in the Senate react to the threat of racist domestic terrorism by basically telling these terrorists what they are doing is fine with them:

    https://thehill.com/news/senate/3496328-republicans-vow-to-kill-domestic-terrorism-bill-in-senate/

    Senate Republicans are lining up against a House-passed bill that would authorize special offices within the government to investigate and monitor domestic terrorism, which is being pushed in the wake of a racist shooting in Buffalo that left 10 people dead. The GOP compares the proposal, which sets up offices in the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice and the FBI to target domestic terrorism, to the recently paused disinformation board set up by the Biden administration. “It sounds terrible,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) of the House-passed bill, predicting it won’t get 10 Republicans in the Senate.

    1. AndrewG

      To paraphrase FDR, judge them by the things they oppose for no explicit reason. Lisa Cook, naming a court after a black person, empowering Homeland Security to go after right-wing terrorists …

    1. Moses Herzog

      I always thought Dark MAGA was just QAnon.

      I don’t see what the hell he is talking about or what the hell was the point?? He seems to be saying he’s closely watching something that doesn’t even exist so he can be sure to “be the first” to report it. I have no doubt whatever clown wrote this will “be the first” to report “it” (you know, the thing he says he’s eager to report on but doesn’t exist), because he apparently has no editor, has no shame in having about 3 typos per paragraph, and really doesn’t write well at all. That eliminates a lot of barriers in journalism to “being the first”. I swear the amount of typos this guy has, I have more self-conscious shame writing a two sentence blog comment than this guy does being paid to write something half-intelligible. If he does have an editor, that “editor” should be fired Monday morning. WOW.

      Here’s some advice~~~tell this Mother Jones clown to reach in his pocket to check for lint. If he finds it, try to write a single paragraph about his “exclusive” on lint in his pocket, without making more than two typos.

  24. pgl

    How high are diesel fuel prices? Not as liar Bruce Hall says. Here is the price for the Gulf Coast:

    https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DDFUELUSGULF

    The price in Los Angeles is also less than $4 a gallon. OK prices in NY are high. And it seem Brucie has been reporting these prices as typical for the US. Yea – this troll does lie a lot.

    1. Bruce Hall

      Not sure where that data being used by the Fed for the West Coast originates. The picture on May 22 looks considerably different:
      https://gasprices.aaa.com/page/9/
      https://gasprices.aaa.com/?state=CA
      https://gasprices.aaa.com/?state=OR
      https://gasprices.aaa.com/?state=WA
      Tables at the bottom of each page show the prices for 3 grades of gasoline plus diesel.

      https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Bay-Area-diesel-prices-are-soaring-The-cost-of-17177205.php
      You need to get out of the basement more often.

      Another well known economist had something to say about the Biden Effect:
      https://cafehayek.com/2022/05/whos-really-gouging-consumers.html

      2. pgl

        DON BOUDREAUX is well known for writing rightwing looney tune nonsense. BTW – no one is denying that diesel prices are high. They are high because the downstream margins are very high. More oil leases will not change that moron.

      3. pgl

        “Ms. Pelosi’s screeching is as preposterous as would be that of an obdurate alcoholic who complains about his hangover and, to solve the problem, calls for his bartender to pour him more stiff drinks.”

        Your well known economist is a sexist pig – like you. But I will say this insulting and meaningless sentence is the closest old Don came to writing actual economics. The rest of his post was almost as dumb as the drivel Bruce Hall excels at.

      4. pgl

        BTW old Don is his pathetic rant never even mentioned Biden so your “Biden effect” was another one of your dishonest misrepresentations of your own stupid link. Come on Bruce – do you lie about everything? I bet you even tell your wife that you have never hit on a guy with a girl’s name.

  26. pgl

    https://www.freightwaves.com/news/protectionism-red-tape-hinder-baby-formula-resupply-analysts-say

    Additionally, the Trump administration, under pressure from the U.S. Export Dairy Council, then headed by current Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, included provisions in the United States‐​Mexico‐​Canada Agreement to restrict exports of formula from Canada. The USMCA’s agriculture annex limits Canadian exports of infant formula anywhere in the world, not just to the U.S., largely to minimize sales to China after China’s largest formula maker, Feihe International, invested $175 million to build a baby formula plant in Ontario. Canada is considered a safe, clean source of infant formula by Chinese parents after a 2008 scandal in which tainted, domestically produced baby formula resulted in the deaths of six infants and led to deep distrust of locally made formula. Trump officials reasoned that if China was purchasing more infant formula from Canada, then it wasn’t buying from U.S. companies.

    OK the anti-China anti-trade big babies in the Trump Administration contributed to the baby formula mess but Tom Vilsack is now running around patting himself on the back for getting European imports into the US. Vilsack should be asked about his advocacy for the Export Diary Council.

    Under the USMCA rules, Canada is required to apply an export charge of CA$4.25 per kilogram to global exports of infant formula in excess of 13,333 metric tons for the remainder of the dairy year. The quota increased to 40,000 metric tons in year two of the trade agreement and by only 1.2% annually after that.

  27. Left Coast Bernard

    From Prof. Greg Mankiw’s blog:
    FRIDAY, MAY 06, 2022
    An Inflation Puzzle
    A common story about the recent inflation surge in the United States–especially among members of Team Transitory–is that the surge is largely due to global supply shocks, such as rising energy prices, chip shortages, and various bottlenecks in the wake of the worldwide pandemic. Why then do we not see a similar inflation surge in Japan? There, inflation is running at about the same rate as it was pre-pandemic. I am puzzled.
    http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/
    I can’t get the FRED data graph from his blog to paste.
    Perhaps Prof. Chinn will add Japan to his data graphs.
    Bernard Leikind

    1. pgl

      Any nation can keep inflation down if it is willing to undergo a deep recession. Just ask Reagan ala 1982/3.

        1. Moses Herzog

          I’m surprised Summers hasn’t chimed in with how wise and visionary Japan’s policymakers were with their stimulus package:
          https://www.piie.com/publications/policy-briefs/overheating-debate-why-not-japan

          https://www.piie.com/research/piie-charts/japans-government-spent-less-covid-19-stimulus-headline-numbers-suggest

          Here’s Larry Summer’s private letter to PM Kishida
          “Dear PM and fiscal genius Kishida,
          I knew when you chose a stimulus package that only amounted to 16% of total GDP, you were following my “Larry Summers’ Not in White House and Resentful Super Genius Doctrine” Which I only take the time to make when I feel old and non-relevant. I want you to know that since you followed my advice and now your most recent numbers were 0.4% GDP growth and 0.2% GDP growth you have now earned the ‘Larry Summers Out-To-Pasture Super Genius Award’ This is only given to national leaders who think that stimulus caused global supply chain problems. All of my genius friends, Mankiw, fill in any Republican name of your choosing here, Joe Manchin, agree with me, you are now the greatest leader in all of the world to know that stimulus creates global supply chain clusterf*cks. Thanks for being a hell of a guy”.

          Your Narcissist Friend, in any fantasy zone of our choosing,
          Super Genius “The Lare”

          P.S. If you send you grandkids spending money, and their next Amazon delivery comes in 6 months late, NOW you’ll know why~~~”The Larry Summers is ALWAYS Right Super-Genius Doctrine” I’d show you with a DSGE model why your grandkids’ Amazon delivery was late, but your just not as SUPER-Genius as me.

          Again, Much Love, “The Lare, the WH left out Super Genius”

          1. AndrewG

            Your comment is kind of nutty, but putting that aside, an effectively much smaller stimulus in Japan helps explain why they didn’t overheat.

            I just don’t see what the controversy is about here in the comments at Econbrowser. Inflationary policies are inflationary. What is the point of pretending otherwise? People are pissed about inflation and taking it out on the president. How would denying that help anyone? How does making fun of Larry Summers help in any way?

      3. CoRev

        Bierka claims: “Any nation can keep inflation down if it is willing to undergo a deep recession.”, and I respond with: “Any nation can raise inflation if it is willing to indiscriminately give residents large government cash subsidies. Just look at the efforts of the past couple of years.

        Moreover, if policies attack commodities, such as fossil fuels, raising their prices. Price rises in these base commodities effects their down stream products’ prices, and it is the liberal mind set to ignore these economic fundamentals.

        Just read the comments on this economics blog and you can see this attitude goes beyond simple ignorance al the way to willful liberal ignorance. Bierka is a quantity leader in this class of comments, but he is far from alone.

        1. pgl

          Just read the comments from CoRev and you too will realize this troll has gone full bonkers insane.

          1. CoRev

            Bierka, just can not resist showing his ignorance. Instead of responding to the core of a comment he introduces external issues. Y’ano issues like, personal attacks, admitting his inability to understand simple opposing facts/concepts/policies, and even more telling failing to accept the current polling re: his liberal/Biden’s policies.

            It won’t matter soon.

    4. AndrewG

      Nice share, thank you. Mankiw is only a cynical stooge when in government (and nowhere as bad as Hassett). I find him perfectly reasonable outside it (way, way better than Hassett).

    5. Macroduck

      Lefty,

      Three things:

      It is remarkable to me that a Harvard economics professor could miss something as obvious as the better recovery in output in the U.S. relatively to Japan. That is a trade-off which could help explain faster inflation in the U.S. without prejudice to questions of supply or demand-side effects:

      https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=PJ0H

      It is also remarkable that a Harvard economics professor could miss the fact that Japan has long had a lower inflation rate than the U.S., suggesting persistent structural differences. This, too, offers an explanation for inflation differentials without prejudice to questionsof supply or demand-side causes:

      https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=PJ1u

      But then, Mankiw is pretty good at missing things which don’t support his views.

      Finally, pic files don’t render in blog comments. Gotta draw your own and link to them.

      1. AndrewG

        “It is remarkable to me that a Harvard economics professor could miss something as obvious as the better recovery in output in the U.S. relatively to Japan. That is a trade-off which could help explain faster inflation in the U.S. without prejudice to questions of supply or demand-side effects:”

        Doesn’t that mean both the 2021 stimulus and Fed inaction last summer caused our current inflation woes?

        Would Japan’s unique macroeconomics shield it from inflation due to a huge supply shock? In what way?

        His points are entirely reasonable.

        1. pgl

          “Would Japan’s unique macroeconomics shield it from inflation due to a huge supply shock?”

          Japan’s real GDP is back to where it was in 2014. And CoRev gets all insulted when I point out that large output gaps are one way to keep inflation low.

          1. AndrewG

            Let’s say Japan has had a persistent output gap, and that’s what accounts for its low inflation over the past 20 years. (This is debatable. For example, the BOJ doesn’t think so. https://www.boj.or.jp/en/research/research_data/gap/index.htm/)

            Why would this be insulation against inflation due to a supply shock?

            Maybe high prices in certain things (like commodities or computer chips) are very likely to spread to other products and services in a low-output-gap country, but less so in a high-output-gap country.

            If so, that just highlights the point Mankiw is trying to make: poorly managed aggregate demand is what drove persistently high inflation during these last few months. The supply shock was not sufficient to cause persistently high inflation.

            I think that point is entirely reasonable (and that reasonable people can disagree). But I see yourself, Macroduck and Moses crapping all over Mankiw’s post. I don’t think that’s warranted.

        2. macroduck

          “His points are entirely reasonable.”

          So you’ve settled the issue, have you, by posing questions without offering answers?

          A country which is less prone to inflation for structural reasons is less prone to inflation? That’s what it means. So yes, Japan would ge shielded against inflation.

          My point was not that there has not been a demand shock along with a supply shock. My point is that Mankiw, in his language and his argument, is being slippery and disingenuous. That’s Mankiw in a nutshell. He’s capable of doing good economics, but resorts to Beck-style trickery.

          1. AndrewG

            “So you’ve settled the issue, have you, by posing questions without offering answers?”

            I’ve hinted very clearly at the argument which I make explicit elsewhere in the comments on this post. Everyone here at Econbrowser is entirely aware of the arguments here. They’ve been widely discussed for months, expressed in detail by Posen and Summers and now increasingly hinted at by Krugman. It’s entirely reasonable. You may not like Mankiw’s tone or style but the implications are obvious: Japan did a better job at demand management with respect to inflation. Maybe they could have done more stimulus and would have been better off without risking very high inflation, but that doesn’t rule out the argument of many hawks: that the US pushed aggregate demand (through fiscal policy and MP) too far. This is the context in which Mankiw is arguing and which you, pgl and Moses are entirely aware of. There’s nothing disingenuous or slippery about his argument.

            Mankiw and I may disagree about one thing: I think when Congress is acting under a lot of uncertainty, it’s reasonable for them to overshoot on fiscal policy, especially given recent history, and assuming a competent Fed. But I’m with the hawks on monetary policy: The Fed screwed up, and that’s why we’ve had peak inflation of about 8% and a Democratic president with 40% approval at a time when the Republicans are as dangerous as ever.

      2. AndrewG

        OK, let’s be more precise. Why is Japan unique? Pokemon,* yes, but what else?

        – demographics. It’s much older than other advanced countries
        – zombie banks, lots of them, even to this day
        – a peculiar inequality structure: not a surging ultra-rich 0.1% like the US, but a particularly down-and-out bottom quarter
        – particularly weak welfare provision (related to the above I think)
        – a bunch of big companies that struggle to compete outside their borders (for various reasons that have been discussed widely)
        – not a lot of dynamism in the corporate sector
        – basically no labor movement; not even government workers are unionized (IIRC, would be happy to learn more)
        – super low unemployment (like other advanced Asian countries)
        – a big net energy importer
        – a female labor market that looks more European than Anglo-Saxon (there’s high participation, but they’re mostly working part-time)
        – Pokemon
        – world’s best bar food
        – other things I’m missing (I’m neither a Japan expert nor a macroeconomist!)

        Also different compared to the US:
        – the US had a much, much larger spending surge due to Covid

        What among these would make Japan
        a) less susceptible to high inflation due to supply shocks, compared to the US, and/or
        b) less susceptible to high inflation in general, compared to the US?

        While it’s interesting that Japan has had amazingly low inflation for a couple decades (too low really), that’s not enough to explain the exceptionality of Japan today in terms of inflation, specifically in terms of a supply shock driving or not driving a sustained inflation. Supply shocks should hurt Japan in a similar fashion to how they affect other countries. This is Mankiw’s basic point, and I don’t see how the points I mentioned above should change that (unless I’m missing something important).

        Likening Mankiw to Glenn Beck (a non sequitor if I ever saw one) doesn’t make him wrong. Mankiw is a New Keynesian who has spent big parts of his career trying to figure out why prices are sticky. That doesn’t make him right, but it does help make his comments credible, unlike Glenn Beck’s resume.

        * As a kid I thought Pokemon was Latin American because of the accent on the e. True story.

        1. Barkley Rosser

          Some years ago Alan Blinder pubbed a paper in the JPE called “The Phillips Curve of Japan Looks like Japan.”

    6. Macroduck

      Mankiw is doing his best Glenn Beck impression, shrugging and saying “I’m just asking the question.”

      Mankiw starts with “Team Transitory” and supply shocks, then points out that Japan does not have rapid inflation. He ignores the fact that nearly every other country in the world does have more rapid inflation than before Covid, making Japan the outlier. He fails to explain how Japan’s outlier performance undermines supply-side explanations of inflation. He ends with “I am puzzled”, his version of “I’m just asking the question.”

      If a tenured professor of economics can do no better than passive-aggressive blog posts, he needs to rethink his vocation.

      1. Moses Herzog

        @ Macroduck
        Amen. See, this is why I like you. You take the same train of thought I have, and communicate it about 30 times better than I can.

      2. AndrewG

        The arguments he is hinting at aren’t “JADE HELM IS THE DEEP STATE TAKING OVER TEXAS” but those made by prominent macroeconomists in the past year that you are well aware of. You are also well aware of how they apply to the questions he is asking. Reasonable people can disagree, but you are not being very reasonable by going to town on Mankiw and likening him to anti-government conspiracy theorists.

        And no, I am not his student, and I have a history of speaking out against cynical Republican economists.

    7. pgl

      “There, inflation is running at about the same rate as it was pre-pandemic. I am puzzled.”

      Mankiw claims to be the author of the leading macroeconomic textbook so I am puzzled why he has not looked at how weak Japan’s real GDP is was is running at about the same rate as it was in early 2014.

      We could help Mankiw out if his blog allowed comments but he cut that off years ago – not because of malicious comments but because people would write comments that brought this advocate a little bit of the real world.

  28. ltr

    Oh dear. The problem is not war, it is about various minority groups that have had many members…

    [ Prejudice, which is falseness as such, leads only to further falseness. Du Bois sought to explain long, long ago. Possibly reading the New York Times series could help:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/20/world/americas/haiti-history-colonized-france.html

    May 20, 2022

    The Root of Haiti’s Misery: Reparations to Enslavers
    By Catherine Porter, Constant Méheut, Matt Apuzzo and Selam Gebrekidan

    https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/20/world/french-banks-haiti-cic.html

    May 20, 2022

    How a French Bank Captured Haiti
    By Matt Apuzzo, Constant Méheut, Selam Gebrekidan and Catherine Porter

    https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/20/world/haiti-wall-street-us-banks.html

    May 20, 2022

    Invade Haiti, Wall Street Urged. The U.S. Obliged.
    By Selam Gebrekidan, Matt Apuzzo, Catherine Porter and Constant Méheut ]

    1. ltr

      https://english.news.cn/20220518/2467e74f57fd4fd7af90fcdc6aac132c/c.html

      May 18, 2022

      Multiethnic family reflects Xinjiang’s diversity, unity

      *China’s Xinjiang has been a multiethnic region since ancient times. Members of 56 ethnic groups now live there.
      *In the city of Tacheng, there is an extended family of over 50 members, who are from various ethnic groups. Their stories reflect Xinjiang’s diversity and ethnic unity.

      By Sun Zhennan, Gao Han and Zhao Ge

      1. Barkley Rosser

        ltr,

        Gosh, of course you are just so right. That Xinjiang has multi-ethnic families shows for sure that there are no problems for minorities there. Why we know this from the US. Black Justice Thomas is married to his White wife, Virignia, so of course it is fake news that a racist killed 10 Black people in Buffalo. Hey, the US has had a multi-racial president and now has a multi-racial female VP. Of course, our good and wise friend Moses thinks you are male and the US VP should be sent to a vocational retraining camp in Xinjiang, which we all know must be paradise on earth, especially given the high levels of tourism there along with the declining poverty rate. But then, CoRev thinks pgl is a dog, so, hey, one can learn all sorts of things on this blog.

        Oh, and of course, we should all apologize for distracting people from your posts on Haiti, which is of course the main topic of this thread as not established by the host. Shame on all of us, including our host, tsk tsk.

        1. Moses Herzog

          “Moses thinks…… and the US VP should be sent to a vocational retraining camp in Xinjiang,”

          Always interesting imaging the “facts” that Barkley Junior presents to his students. I’ve read very believable tales of lots of attention wanton screaming and an old man wearing leather pants to the classroom. Other than that I’m only left to conjecture.

          1. Moses Herzog

            *imagining the “facts”. excuse me. My bonnet sometimes gets sideways when reading this senile and desperate for negative attention bastard.

          2. Barkley Rosser

            Oh, Moses, are you losing it as badly as ltr is? She has gone after me on Econospeak for calling Xi Jinping “Paramount Leader.” Says that is “prejudiced” and “false.” This when the late Deng Xiiaoping was called that who was not even President or General Secretary of the Party. But, hey, if you want to be as big of a loony bird as she is, be my guest.

            You have been going after the VP relentlessly. And you want to have cow because somebody makes fun of you for doing so? Really losing it, Mose, really.

            As for leather pants, ancient history. I don’t fit in them anymore. But I do still rant and rave sometimes in classrooms. Actually, the big complaint is that I go from whispering to yelling suddenly, which upsets some poor souls, although it definitely keeps the students paying attention to me rather than their phones or laptops, and they do, :-).

          3. Barkley Rosser

            Mose,

            Given that both you and ltr have lost it over this snarky comment by me, I expect any minute we shall have CoRev showing up here barking loudly, :-).

          4. Moses Herzog

            Saying that a strongly dislike Copmala Harris is different than saying I want her tortured and killed Which is what you’re basically saying when you say I want Copmala sent to a Xinjiang internment camp. (Maybe waterboarded for 45 seconds with the Benny Hill theme song playing in the background. NO, people that’s a joke).

            The woman exhibits sociopathic tendencies (only slightly stronger than Barkley’s if I stop to think about it) and continually misrepresents herself (i.e LIES). What I wish Copmala would do is retire from politics, go away someplace where I don’t have to look at her FAKE smile, and do what she is more suited for—possibly a criminal defense lawyer or litigation lawyer for corporations. She can get someone else to do the dirty work (her favorite hobby) and hang around wealthy people. Possibly she can get more Black people put in jail for their entire lives for minor drug offenses and unpaid court fees. Copmala really loves that.

          5. Barkley Rosser

            Gosh, Moses, you are so sober that you do not want “Copmala” sent to a reeducation camp like wicked me suggested you wanted (totally humorously, but you were too out of it for whatever reason to pick up on that). But we get that for you the problem is much bigger. We have you denouncing Nancy Pelosi as “senile” (along with me and Joe Biden occasionally), with her love of expensive ice cream the sign. Somehow you are not calling her neighbor, Diane Feinstein, that, whom many insiders are in fact claiming that label really does apply to.

            And we have your wretched past with E. Warren, whom you have more or less laid off criticizing recently, although you are so out of it that you forgot that you made an utter fool of yourself arguing about population genetics in an effort to side up with the Trump.GOP sl;anders of her. You were utterly shameful on that matter to begin with, before you completely fell apart intellectually in your efforts to support your garbage. But you brought this stuff up with your wisecrack about me supposedly not knowing what a skewed distribution is, which claim on your part totally dates from this utter and total fiasco on your part on these matters. I have lost count of the number of times you have informed all of us that a gene and a population are one and the same thing. Really.

            I do not know if you are getting any help for your problem with this sort of thing, but everybody here knows you have one. Really, if you are not doing so, you should.

      2. AndrewG

        US meddling with other countries’ politics is worse than internment camps with 1m minorities? Are you joking? Your post is disgusting, ltr.

        China’s Xinjiang Crackdown Under Scrutiny Ahead Of UN Rights Chief Visit
        https://www.ibtimes.com/chinas-xinjiang-crackdown-under-scrutiny-ahead-un-rights-chief-visit-3516164

        China’s crackdown on Muslim minorities in the remote region of Xinjiang will return to the spotlight next week when Beijing hosts the United Nations human rights chief for the first time in nearly two decades.

        The highly scrutinised six-day trip by High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet will begin Monday, with stops in the cities of Urumqi and Kashgar in Xinjiang, as well as Guangzhou in southern China, the UN announced Friday.

        Bachelet will meet “a number of high-level officials”, her office said, adding that she would “also meet with civil society organisations, business representatives, academics, and deliver a lecture to students at Guangzhou University”.

        But hopes of a thorough investigation into rights abuses have given way to concern among rights advocates that the ruling Communist Party will use the visit to whitewash its alleged atrocities.

        China is accused of incarcerating one million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in detention camps in the far-western region in a years-long security crackdown that the United States and other countries have called a “genocide”. …

    2. Macroduck

      There you go again, pretending Du Bois is on the side of China’s racist regime. You are once again going for the große Lüge. Herr Hitler would admire your “impudence to distort the truth so infamously”.

      I will grant you this. Your falseness does indeed lead you to further falseness, every time you pretend China is other than a racist state. Please stop sullying Du Bois’ name by using it to defend China’s monstrous human rights record.

  29. ltr

    https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/20/world/americas/haiti-aristide-reparations-france.html

    May 20, 2022

    Demanding Reparations,and Ending Up in Exile
    A firebrand Haitian president tried to hold France to account for its years of exploitation. He soon found himself ousted from power.
    By Constant Méheut, Catherine Porter, Selam Gebrekidan and Matt Apuzzo

    https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/world/americas/19haiti.html

    March 18, 2011

    Just Days Before Election, Aristide Returns to Cheers and Uncertainty in Haiti
    By Randal C. Archibold

    President Obama had even called President Jacob Zuma of South Africa, where Mr. Aristide made his home while in exile, in hopes of preventing the former Haitian president’s return because of the “destabilizing” effect it might have…

  31. pgl

    EIA.gov is a great source of data if one knows how to use it. Here we see retail v. wholesale prices of both gasoline and diesel. The difference is the distributor margin plus the excise taxes paid by the distributor:

    https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/prices.php

    Note that the wholesale price of diesel and not that different from the wholesale price of gasoline. In other words the oil contribution plus the refinery margins are not that different. But damn – retail margins and taxes makes up about $1.20 per gallon for diesel. $0.60 per gallon for the distributor margin is about twice what it normally is.

  33. ltr

    http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/20220328/102681a10d4643d0a5b58b9f509d8123/c.html

    March 28, 2022

    From serfdom to freedom — Tibet’s progress on democracy, human rights

    * Sixty-three years ago, about 1 million people in Tibet were liberated from the feudal serfdom.
    * In old Tibet, serfs accounted for 95 percent of its population. Now, the region has more than 35,000 deputies to the people’s congresses at various levels and more than 8,000 political advisors.
    * “Who would ever have thought that life would become this beautiful?” said Tibetan Tenzin Wangchug.

    LHASA — Sonam Tobgye, whose parents were serfs in old Tibet, once lived in an adobe house without windows next to the cowshed.

    Two spoons of zanba, a traditional Tibetan staple food made of barley flour, were all that his parents earned for each meal from their lord, while children younger than 13 were given nothing despite a day’s hard work.

    “Hunger during childhood has become a memory that I can never forget,” said Sonam Tobgye, now 78, from the rural area of Comai County, southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region.

    Such a plight came to an end in 1959, when the family was granted farmland, grains and livestock. It was then that the family had decent clothes and shoes.

    In March 1959, the central government led the people in Tibet to launch the democratic reform, abolishing Tibet’s feudal serfdom under a theocracy. In 2009, the regional legislature announced March 28 as a day to commemorate the emancipation of about 1 million serfs.

    Now, the shabby adobe house of Sonam Tobgye’s family has been replaced by a two-story concrete Tibetan building, and the members of his extended family have new jobs: cleaner, driver, teacher, doctor and public servant.

    FROM SERFS TO MASTERS …

      1. Moses Herzog

        https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Report-Access-Tibet-004633.pdf

        When I was in China, had I made a special request for paperwork to the central government (no doubt helped by a Chinese friend looking for a free vacation from me), and accompanied by that same Chinese friend/colleague, I probably could have gone to Tibet. But it is/was a long process getting the paperwork, and even after getting the paperwork, foreigners/Americans are delayed at the border. And at least at the time I went there, it would have been a hellish ride by large truck or their version of a “Range Rover”, but more likely a large truck of some kind. And even then, AFTER having gotten the special permission I was hearing stories about foreigners being turned back from the Tibetan border by Chinese officials~~after spending the money and making large plans to explore Tibet. I decided there were other places in China I wanted to see (such as Yunnan, which would have been a terrific place to go about 17 years ago) and wasn’t willing to have weeks of my life ruined by Chinese bureaucracy and denial of murder/torture of Tibetans. Then of course you’re going to be intensely followed/monitored after getting into Tibet. I wasn’t in the mood to feel paranoid and feel I was in some Hollywood B-movie production and telling my friend I “felt like we were being followed” every 10 minutes of our journey. If you exclude the domestic tourists to Tibet (even that domestic tourists number is most likely ALSO a lie) you could probably count manually with your fingers the number of foreigners who get in, and those foreigners that get into Tibet I can promise you, are monitored more closely than recently released felons on parole.

        1. Barkley Rosser

          Moses,

          Actually things have changed. Now there is a high speed train to take you right in there quickly from outside and indeed foreigners are not folllowed nearly so intensely as they used to be. After all, it is now some time since those 1.2 million Tibetans were killed by the Chinese…..

          BTW, I have a suspicion our ltr is losing it because Joe Biden said “yes” when he was asked in Japan if the US would militarily defend Taiwan if PRC attacked it. That got “walked back” afterwards, but no doubt this has set off a major fit in Beijing, as well as among those who defend all that Beijing does.

          1. Moses Herzog

            I encourage Econbrowser readers not to take at face value the words of elderly white guys who overuse the word “actually” in their daily lexicon, and who often claim to have more expertise than they probably have, and that readers of Econbrowser do their own homework on Tibet. Then maybe they won’t believe someone who stated over a period of at least 10 weeks the chances Russian aggression/war in Ukraine were nil, and less apt to make complete fools of themselves at whatever the modern version of “conversation by the watercooler” is.

            https://www.voanews.com/a/china-tibet-tourism/4795655.html

            https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/10/06/tibettourism/

            Although this WaPo article is a little less than 6 years old, I would submit to readers that the difference between 8 million tourists (most of those domestic) and 23 million tourists (China’s official count for Tibet in 2016) is quite large, especially when WaPo was trying to lean their number–8 million–to the high side. But then I don’t expect a man who doesn’t know the true definition of a skewed distribution to “get” that 15 million overshot. Are we to guess China is better at counting those tourist numbers now, 6 years later?? I leave it to the gentle reader to decide for themselves. But…… I have no doubts that if international super spy “Mr Bean” was following Barkley Junior around in a bad wig and a chuba, Barkley might “get a stiffy”, but not have a clue he was being surveilled.

          2. Barkley Rosser

            Oh lord, Moses, you are really losing it again here, so desperate you are to score points on me on anything, even on an issue where you and I are basically on the same side. You did not notice me citing the 1.2 million killed number that completely shreds ltr’s claims of peace and benevolence by China in Tibet?

            I did not cite any particular numbers, but the articles you provide completely support what I said, that tourism is indeed up since the Chinese opened the high speed railway. You are now beginning to resemble Bruce Hall here, putting up links that do not support what you think they support. I do not disagree that Chinese exaggerating the increase, but your link supports there has been an increase, as I said.

            As it is, on Econospeak ltr has made a complete fool of herself by throwing out this “false” and “prejudiced” bs in connection with me calling Xi Jinping “Paramount Leader,” a title that was used for Deng Xiaoping, who did not even have all the titles Xi has. You want to make yourself look like more of a not only a complete fool by major a-hole by piliing on in this wahy on this matter? Have you been drinking too much again? That would explain your losing it so badly and stupidly.

          3. Barkley Rosser

            Moses,

            The clear sign that you have been drinking excessively here is your claim that somehow I do not know what a skewed distribution is. This was probably the most embarrassingly stupid and most frequently debunked claim you have made going back to your racist assault on Elizabeth Warren and your false claim that there is an even distribution of Native American genes among the White European population in the US. Do you really want to remind people how ignorant and stupid you were on that whole matter, unable to tell the difference between a gene and a population? How much did you guzzle this evening? Really completely and totally losing it. You have me almost worried about you, Moses.

          4. Moses Herzog

            Barkley, I love how you have to change what your opponents said to justify the incorrect things that you say. It’s very special world you live in. A world where you tell people for 10 weeks “there won’t be a war in Ukraine”. And do you know how I feel confident people won’t believe what you say about skewed distribution and similar things?? They just only have to look what you said about war in Ukraine and Kharkiv and then they think “Did this guy have a single clue about what’s going on in the world??” And I feel they will know how much you know about probability distributions, I feel very confident they’ll know what the facts are.

    2. AndrewG

      OK, here’s the point where I have to ask Menzie Chinn why comments whitewashing Chinese atrocities in Tibet and Xinjiang are acceptable. They wouldn’t be if I had a blog and this were it. Though reasonable people can disagree about which comments are worth deleting, I hope we can agree that these ones are morally outrageous.

      1. Moses Herzog

        There have also been some offensive (and completely unfair) comments made about China on this blog (Hell…. for all I know maybe Menzie thinks I am one of the perpetrators). Menzie leans towards openness on the blog, which is to his credit. The fact of the matter is, anyone of intelligence knows Menzie must have tons of Chinese American friends, I’m guessing Hong Kong located Chinese friends/colleagues, etc and he is going to “catch sh*t” from both sides. Has it ever occurred to you how difficult that has to be for Menzie?? He has to swallow it from both sides and no matter what he does he’s going to take punches that he is being “unfair”.

        1. AndrewG

          “Has it ever occurred to you how difficult that has to be for Menzie?? He has to swallow it from both sides and no matter what he does he’s going to take punches that he is being “unfair”.”

          Fair point.

    4. Barkley Rosser

      1 milliion “liberated” versus 1.2 million killed.

      But, hey, not only has the poverty rate gone down, but tourism is up. What could be better?

  34. pgl

    Our Usual Suspects likely love the latest from Marjorie Taylor Greene who says we should not worry about 18 year old domestic terrorists who do things like kill a lot of people in East Buffalo:

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/marjorie-taylor-greene-can-t-figure-out-why-people-are-picking-on-murderous-white-supremacists/ar-AAXBxJ6?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=1e919a35f288418d99fae13625a351bb

    Oh no – our entire focus should be on immigrants, Asian people, Black people. But hey – this is not about race according to Marjorie Taylor Greene.

    1. Moses Herzog

      She’s telegraphing to her adoring racist KKK fans, who as I have stated before, have always been there “dormant” inside of the American woodworks~~that she has no problem openly waiving the large banner of her personal racism.

      “She’s not afraid of those dirty liberals!!! She’s making clear the Blacks and Mexicans are the problem!!!! She’s not afraid to speak her mind!!!!”

      donald trump, Taylor Greene are showing us things that have always been in the American voting block, I doubt she has recruited two “newbies” to the fold (other than angry non-college white guys, in mostly rural areas,) who if Taylor Greene hadn’t have recruited, Alex Jones or Tucker Carlson would have anyway, as they sat there steaming angry watching their TV or steaming angry listening to their radio, steaming angry reading QAnon bulletin boards, wondering why they couldn’t get a solid job/career. “Why am I failing in life?? Well, it can’t be myself that is the reason. I know what it is!!!!! …… ”

      Cold here for late May, 53 degrees near lunchtime. That 53 degrees is very rare here in late May. You know what is good on a chilly and rainy day?? The David Lynch prescribed cherry pie and coffee. It’s made by Sarah Lee, but they call it Chef Pierre pie. It’s about the best commercial cherry pie I have found for $9 for a whole pie. Couple years ago could get a whole cherry pie for $6 before tax. Maybe one place you could do that now and the quality might not match up. I’ll probably have to have some protein later, but if I eat normal food at normal times my body won’t know how to react and I’ll go into to neurogenic shock.

      1. pgl

        “She’s telegraphing to her adoring racist KKK fans, who as I have stated before, have always been there “dormant” inside of the American woodworks~~that she has no problem openly waiving the large banner of her personal racism.”

        Her district is the home of the current KKK. It also borders on the part of North Carolina that protected the 1996 Olympic bomber (Eric Rudolph) from authorities for years. The state of Georgia would be much better off if her district was just given to another state if not nation. Maybe we should surround her district from the rest of America using something akin to the Berlin Wall.

        1. AndrewG

          “Maybe we should surround her district from the rest of America using something akin to the Berlin Wall.”

          Maybe Putin can pull off a Berlin Air Lift?

    2. Moses Herzog

      BTW, I am thinking about later this week getting this product at Aldi called “Cherry Kolsch”, which is made near Wanaukee Wisconsin, slightly northwest of Menzie’s neck of the wilderness. If anyone has had it before and has thoughts, please let me know.

      1. Moses Herzog

        Sorry *Waunakee. Been listening to too many “W” Bush speeches lately and I got the dyslexia by osmosis.

  35. joseph

    Here’s Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy channeling Steven Kopits who made a similar claim:

    “About a third of our population [Louisiana] is African American; African Americans have a higher incidence of maternal mortality. So, if you correct our population for race, we’re not as much of an outlier as it’d otherwise appear.

    I love the phrase “correct our population for race.” At least they are being up front about it. “Correcting the population for race” is the objective of the supremacists like Tucker Carlson screaming about Replacement Theory. Need more white babies.

    1. pgl

      Providing better health care and nutrition for his citizens I guess is not an option. Gets in the way of tax cuts for the rich.

    3. AndrewG

      Well this is what’s so disgusting (not using the term “correcting for race”): The racial (and spatial) disparities in health care are a huge part of Covid lethality. Republicans don’t give a crap about that. For them it’s a feature, not a bug.

  36. pgl

    An informative and honest analysis of the market for lithium which is a key ingredient for the batteries that charge EVs:

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/lithium-shortage-expected-to-spike-ev-prices-and-battery-costs/ar-AAXCn0V?ocid=uxbnd

    I offer this as an alternative to the dishonest and dumb chirping from Tucker Carlson’s minnie me who told us that we would depend on China for lithium. The informed folks however note that it is Australia and Chile that are the two largest producers of lithium.

  37. ltr

    https://english.news.cn/20211229/6e52d2168f8a4e64949e4c1346c3cfc8/c.html

    December 29, 2021

    China’s Tibet sees booming tourism in first 11 months

    LHASA — Southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region received 40.43 million domestic and overseas tourists in the first 11 months of this year, up 15.9 percent year on year, local authorities said on Wednesday.

    The region’s tourism revenue surged 22.4 percent from a year earlier to 43.85 billion yuan (about 6.9 billion U.S. dollars) during the period, according to the regional tourism department.

    The strong growth was partly due to the effective COVID-19 control in the region.

    By Tuesday, Tibet had reported no new confirmed or suspected cases for nearly 700 consecutive days, according to the local health commission.

    Preferential policies for Tibet’s winter tourism have also been introduced to spur the region’s tourism growth, including lower hotel prices and free entrance at many tourist attractions from mid-October to the end of the year.

    1. ltr

      https://english.news.cn/20220102/e5275efd7bd441409b918733b219656c/c.html

      January 2, 2022

      A-Z of Tibet in 2021, an extraordinary year

      LHASA — The year 2021 was extraordinary for southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, characterized by a visit by the country’s top leader, grand celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of its peaceful liberation, and all-round progress in various domains.

      The following is a lexical walk through some of the major landmarks and achievements of the region throughout this important year:

      A

      Assistance

      Thanks to a pairing-up assistance mechanism for Tibet set up in 1994, provincial-level regions, central government departments and centrally administered state-owned enterprises injected 52.7 billion yuan (about 8.3 billion U.S. dollars) into Tibet by 2020, read a white paper * released in May.

      * http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2021-05/21/c_139959978.htm

      1. Barkley Rosser

        ltr,

        This piece claims Tibet was occupied by China “peacefully.” I have just rechecked. Number dead of Tibetans killed by the Chinese was around 1.2 million.

  38. ltr

    —— is doing his best Glenn Beck impression….
    —— is doing his best Glenn Beck impression….
    —— is doing his best Glenn Beck impression….

    [ So, a brilliant, thoroughly broad-minded economist, even in asking an important question, is demeaned. ]

    1. Moses Herzog

      @ ltr
      Well, many of Mankiw’s (of Ukrainian descent) relatives are probably having a real fun time avoiding Putin’s missiles and rapist soldiers. I just hope Mankiw can get through this rough time in his life where he can’t make sense out of Japan’s 0.2% growth rate. Do you think Mankiw cries himself to sleep every night after promoting his papers/textbook on his blog??

      https://www.oregonlive.com/education/2015/02/a_280_college_textbook_busts_b.html

      Maybe when Mankiw feels those dark dark moments watching the textbook revenue checks clear, he does a “self pick-me-up” by looking at this photo in the Harvard Crimson.
      https://www.thecrimson.com/flyby/image/2017/2/27/karl-marx-mankiw/

      I don’t know about you people, but while thousands are dying and being raped in Ukraine, I’m going to say a prayer tonight, that Mankiw can drive home to the Massachusetts suburbs without hitting any squirrels, where he “suffers silently”.

    2. AndrewG

      I’m with you on this one ltr.

      But you should consider replying directly to people’s posts. I think it’s clearer for the reader, and maybe more polite. You can hit the “Reply” link right under the comment you are replying to.

  39. ltr

    Oh dear. The problem is not war, it is about various minority groups that have had many members…

    [ Prejudice, which is falseness as such, leads only to further falseness. Du Bois * sought to explain long, long ago. Possibly reading the remarkable and relevant New York Times series on Haiti could help.

    * http://www.gutenberg.org/files/408/408-h/408-h.htm#chap01

    April 25, 1903

    The Souls of Black Folk
    By W.E.B. Du Bois ]

    1. Barkley Rosser

      ltr,

      A person who claims as you have just done elsewhere that using the term “Paramount Leader” in connection with Xi Jinping, who holds all three of the top positions in PRC and is now demanding to continue to do so against precedent is “prejudiced” and “false” when this term was regularly used to describe Deng Xiaoping who only held one of those positions has utterly lost the right to use these terms because this person has descended into utterly immoral and idiotic lying. Such a person should be ashamed of themselves.

    2. Barkley Rosser

      ltr,

      Since you do not like the term “Paramount Leader,” then I think it is only proper to be truly accurate and not lie and call Xi Jinping exactly what he is an EVIL DICTATOR. Got it?

    3. AndrewG

      I acknowledge things like the My Lai massacre, the bogus Iraq War of 2003, indefinite detention and torture, a long and continuing history of racial oppression, and many other things my government is guilty of. Real atrocities. I stood up against them, wrote against them, spoke out against them, marched against them

      But that acknowledgement buys me credibility when I criticize other governments. It doesn’t make me a hypocrite; in fact it helps me counter that accusation.

      Talking with you about US bad behavior would be so much easier if you would at minimum acknowledge China’s bad behavior. But because you don’t, you don’t just sound like a hypocrite, you sound like your job is to protect China’s reputation abroad. Worse than hypocrisy.

      1. Moses Herzog

        This is why I don’t think Germany/Europe have any ground to stand on in bad-mouthing China on picking up cheap commodities/oil from Russia, until Germany and Europe stop buying natural gas and oil from Russia. They have zero room to cast aspersions. i.e. Germany/Europe needs to stop buying Russian natural gas. Yesterday, not tomorrow.

        1. AndrewG

          Yes, agree completely, but I’ve also thought more about this and have to acknowledge that Chinese nationals don’t have a lot of room for criticizing their government even if they live abroad. (This does not absolve ltr, but does provide important context.)

  40. ltr

    I have to ask Menzie Chinn why comments whitewashing….
    I have to ask Menzie Chinn why comments whitewashing….
    I have to ask Menzie Chinn why comments whitewashing….

    [ Precisely the way in which European Jews were attacked for generations. Simply make an accusation, such as well-poisoning and Jews were repeatedly endangered and attacked and even driven from countries. The horrid accusations made against the 1.4 billion people of China are completely untrue, completely untrue, and the untruth of the accusations is supported by people about the world, but as with the Jews in Europe the falseness about the Chinese is driven and driven and driven.

    After all, there was just an American president who made a repeated point of attacking and scapegoating the people of China. So, the Chinese are subject to the very vilification and attacks as the Jews of Europe once were and the nightmarish prejudice against the Chinese recalled from our past and engendered and reinforced persists.

    Importantly, there is a reason why the Chinese always observe Jewish memorials to the impossible sadness of the Shoah. Just as the Chinese saved Jews who escaped from Europe through the years of the Shoah, just as the Chinese build a museum memorializing the Jews rescued in China, the Chinese profoundly understand intolerable prejudice and should never be subject to it. ]

    1. AndrewG

      Now you’re likening our entirely valid criticisms of the Chinese government to the anti-Semitism that led to the Holocaust? Are you serious?

      If there’s a mirror around, do take a look. You just keep doubling down on disgusting.

  41. ltr

    Distressingly sad that a just past American President could curse the people of Haiti, and curse African peoples as well, and that President could repeatedly vilify the people of China. I however will not allow a return to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and to “Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood” and beyond.

    1. AndrewG

      I can call out anti-Asian racism and violence AND call out the actions of the Chinese government, at the same time. You don’t seem capable of that, repeatedly implying (ludicrously) that the Chinese government is beyond reproach.

      By the way, you don’t know my ethnicity, do you?

    1. Barkley Rosser

      Especially the 1.2 million Tibetans the Chinese killed, really full “members of the community of the Chinese nation.”

  43. AndrewG

    In a post where I have called people racist, sparred with Ivan and Macroduck, made fun of ltr, called for a comment by ltr to be deleted, then agreed with ltr, here’s one that’s more on topic:

    BofA: “High hurdles to rebalance the existing home market”
    https://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2022/05/bofa-high-hurdles-to-rebalance-existing.html
    As we have been writing, mortgage rates have spiked this year to around 5.5% creating a record affordability shock. This should lead to a major pullback in home sales and turnover. However, home prices will likely continue to move higher, and we recently revised up our home price appreciation forecast this year to 15%. It is hard to understate how tight the housing market is right now. …

    1. Barkley Rosser

      AG,

      Gosh, you are a true Hero Of The People I mean, who else around here could possibly call people racist, spar with both Ivan and Macroduck (without doubt the toughest hombre gut fighters on this blog), made fun of ltr while calling for a comment of hers to be deleted but then, oh heaven forfend the irony!, agreeing with her!!! For this you clearly deserve a gold star and maybe even a red one as well, :-).

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