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This seems very much a rubber paragraph, which can be used whenever someone has an axe to grind, and to be ignored when it fits the interests of the Commission. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
And Commissioner Almunia and his staff are going to be controling the process... If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa
Ok, this is what the rules say:
By contrast, general measures are not regarded as State aid because they are not selective and apply to all companies regardless of their size, location or sector
So... offer all companies, no matter what size or sector or owner, the option of taking part in a massively diluting rigths issue, where the government injects, say 10 % of current equity in the company, and in return gets new shares equal to 1000% of the current number of shares. This would be equal and open to all, but no company would ever except the "offer", except one that is already 100% state-owned.
In this way you could issue sovereign bonds and transfer the cash into state-owned power companies while avoiding the illegal state aid rules. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
Fiat money allows such nonsense to be inflated away (which is why inflation-indexed debt is as systemically risky as especie pegs). If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa
.... actually it is even worse than that. Shock implies surprises, but energy production is predictably going to dee upheavals. - it is the one sector of the economy guaranteed to experience technological changes. I dont know how we will be producing electrons in 2032, nor what they will cost, and neither does anyone else. -
I can list half-a-dozen highly plausible optinons for future generation mixes and technologies off the top of my head - some of them are unavoidably moderately more expensive than unmitigated coal, and some of them are ridiculusly cheap. Either of which would completely wreck any currency based off the supply of power. Bad, bad, bad idea.
some of them are ridiculously cheap.
promises, promises...
just supposing we envision a future ever embroigled in the 'winner-takes-all' zero-sum game we call predatory capitalism, couldn't we make at least it fair?
ie no whining when the wheel turns against you and you bet loses to the house. if your currency breaks on the reefs of reality, then cut your losses and bet on another one.
or go home and bake cookies... 'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty
That applied to EDF but also to the Landesbanken, whose business model (borrow cheap and lend cheap to local companies) was broken by the EU to comply with the "competition" demands of the London-based (and US-owned) investment banks. So they had to borrow expensive, and turned to crazy stuff like MBS to earn the equivalent revenue, while their past clients went to the investment banks for loans (and get cut off at times of crisis...) Wind power
This seems very much a rubber paragraph, which can be used whenever someone has an axe to grind, and to be ignored when it fits the interests of the Commission.
Which, given the macroeconomic acumen of the current Commission, translates to "no significant public investment in anything useful."
- Jake Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.
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