Japan gets CCP to back down

You may have missed this important geopolitical news; Japan has stood up to China and I think it's in large part because of Trump's election victory Japan has felt emboldened and China has been cowed. 

Japan's birth rate is a warning sign

As nations become more industrialized, birth rates decline. In fact they decline far faster than death rates which means that populations stop growing and start declining. It's happening in China and it's happening in Japan as Elon Musk points out.

This is not just true for Asian countries, Europe is suffering from the same problem and even in the United States the birth rate has declined significantly.  Many on the left are probably thrilled to hear about population decline.  There's this weird earth over humanity, global warming anti-human anxiety for many on the left. You need look no further than their stance on abortion. For some population control is a noble goal.

But it's not. Earth's capacity to handle more people is not an issue, even if you subscribe to the global warming hysteria.  Humanity is constantly innovating and coming up with ways to deal with new issues as they arise; be they manmade or natural phenomena.  

Food production is also not an issue, its poor distribution is the real problem. In addition to constant innovation in agriculture we can certainly produce enough food for everyone.  If you want to debate food allocation, that's a different discussion.

There is a real existential threat to humanity and that is declining birth rates. Yes, third world countries continue to have massive birth (and death) rates.  But since the 1950's thanks to capitalism, the industrialized world has grown to encompass hundreds of millions of more people, meaning the third world is, thankfully, shrinking. The threat of a declining population is not a good thing for humanity.  Look at the era of plagues and what it did for development (or rather to hinder it) in the affected populations.  

It can take centuries to recover.  And with birth rates falling below replacement rates in many countries, recovery may not be possible.  Not without a shift in thinking in many areas; abortion, birth control, the impact of humanity on the planet, and even the roles of men and women in society.  I'm not suggesting the answers just pointing out that these things need to be considered for the sake of humanity.

Dictator Watch - The Latest on China

 Via China in Focus, here's the latest news on the evil communist empire.

Friday Musical Interlude - some Japanese Dreampop for you

2014's "Myrtle" by Tokyo band Oeil.

We need an IPOTO to counter Imperialist Communist China

Indo-Pacific Oceanic Treaty Organization. IPOTO. That's my suggestion for a name for it.  Is it coming?  In order to counter Chinese territorial aggression, it should.  Let Europe increase it's spending and prove it's worth defending with NATO.

This video is from early 2019, but the idea still resonates:

Japanese companies are leaving China.

Japan gets it - China is a predatory nation and they should not be rewarded.

Leaving China, a brief status primer

Japanese companies are leaving China.  President Trump understands it, but it's time American companies face reality - communist China is toxic for America, and the world at large.

It's not just reliance on China,   the problem is that any economy needs to produce things.  Manufacturing strength is a vital pillar of a strong economy.  It's not the only one, but you can't outsource everything for the sake of cheap products because it just won't work.  It never has, it never will.

Proud to be Canadian at this moment (not).

Our Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is a buffoon.  Luckily for Canada, this guy is not long for the office - he will likely be a one-term leader.  Polls for our election this fall, have him trailing the conservative leader Andrew Scheer, the heir to former conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, by a significant margin.

Saturday Learning Series - Geography (Japan)

Land of the rising sun.

Japan's (or anyone's) Debt Problems Visualized

A good visual explaining national debt.  In this case they focus on Japan, but the principle applies anywhere.

What do all of these have in common?

What do all of these have in common?

Nazi Germany.

Soviet Russia.

Communist China.

Mussolini's Italy.

Ancient Rome.

Napoleonic France.

Imperial Japan under Hirohito.

OWS.

Liberals' Selective Broken Window Fallacy

Never good.

I've written about the broken window fallacy recently.  The idea that a broken window is good for the economy because it has to be fixed, and therefore generates business, is indeed fallacy.  But a recent post on Mises about it being applied yet again to Japan, got me thinking about how liberals are selective when it comes to applying that 'disasters are good for business' logic.  Right now it's a good thing for Japan, but what about in the past?

Specifically, where were they after Hurricane Katrina?  Oh wait, who was President?  

Just a thought.

Germans panic, think they're on a fault line

Germany the green?  Apparently Germany is getting ready to divest itself of it's productive manufacturing sector in favor an Obama-esque green agenda. While this story isn't all of Germany, clearly Merkel felt the need to halt production at a number of nuclear reactors in the run up to the election as a result of events in Japan, where earthquakes are a little more common than along the Rhine.

Broken window fallacy destroyed in seconds

Broken windows make bad economies

The broken window fallacy is simply the mistaken belief that damage to some asset is ultimately good for the economy because the effort to replace that asset will generate business.  The example of a broken window needing to be replaced means a factory somewhere has to make a window and the damage will therefore generate more business activity. The fallacy is that the $100 spent to fix the window doesn't get spent elsewhere - it just shifts the economic activity from one area to another.  For a more detailed description and example, check out here or here.

But today, along comes this piece of awesomeness from Peter Foster of Canada's National Post.  He blasts Keynesianism, which falls into the broken window fallacy trap, back to the Middle Ages where it belongs.  He attacks the broken window fallacy with the reconstruction of Japan after the recent disasters there as the backdrop.  I'd encourage you to read the whole piece here, but to whet your appetite, here's two excellent excerpts:

Meltdown, Libya, Debt: Obama's Solution - NCAA picks

Obama 2012 run a jog?

Talk of how Hillary Clinton is feeling disenchanted by the Obama administration should come as no surprise. Put her at number 59,000,000 on the list of unhappy Americans of voting age. With problems in Japan, Libya and unfathomable debt on top of anemic responses to situations in Egypt and Iran before that, the President is looking exceptionally ineffectual and he's dragging the country into that realm along with him.  These are trying times and those 3 a.m. phone calls are coming at all hours of the day and night.

Perino: Right on Energy, Wrong On Obama

Dana Perino, former Bush Press Secretary is quoted in Politico giving her take on President Obama's seemingly snake-bittern energy policy. The context and position of the article in which her comments are quoted is that President Obama had bad timing on agreeing to expand offshore drilling just before the BP disaster and on compromise with Republicans on nuclear power not long before the nuclear reactor problems in Japan as a result of the earthquake and tsunami. Okay, that's a bit unlucky. But luck often follows the decisions or non-decisions of those it affects.

A Nuclear Freeze Too?

In light of recent events in Japan, quasi-Democrat Joe Lieberman, who caucuses with the Democrats, is calling for a freeze in nuclear facilities production in the United States.  Really?  Do we need to do this right now?  On the heels of a de facto moratorium of offshore drilling permits by the administration there are calls to limit nuclear power as well.  I for one am not all that excited about the prospects of a sudden conversion to solar powered tanks and windmill powered submarines defending the United States, or donkey powered assembly lines at General Motors.

Not cool.

It seems the left will not be satisfied until the United States is quite literally, powerless.


UPDATE:  It appears Lieberman is not alone.

Japan disaster has a human cost

I'd like to add my thoughts and prayers to those going out for the people in Japan affected by the terrible earthquake and tsunami.

Frightening scenes.

Devastation

But more importantly there's a human toll, which is very sad:

IWAKI, Japan (AP) — The confirmed death toll from the earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan yesterday stands at 686, but the government says it could be far higher. 

The destruction stretches hundreds of miles along the coast, where thousands of hungry survivors have been huddling in darkened emergency centers cut off from rescuers and aid.  

While the full scale of disaster is not yet known, a top government official says reported cases alone suggest that more than 1,000 were killed.  

One report says four trains disappeared yesterday and still have not been located. Another says 9,500 people in one coastal town are unaccounted for and that at least 200 bodies had washed ashore elsewhere.

The damage to nuclear reactors could still add yet another layer to the tragedy.  Let's pray it doesn't compund the trouble. 

Let's start connecting dots

Actual sign (of the times).

President Bush's pretend border fence was apparently too much for liberals. Meanwhile illegal immigration is rampant. Forget the liberal agenda for a minute, let's think about what's going on with the bigger picture. The bigger picture involves more than just immigration.  It involves the economy.  The two issues do not exist in respective vacuums - they are interrelated.