Forbes: Is America’s Fossil Fuel Empire Collapsing?

The most ambitious clean energy project in history, Europe’s Green Deal marks the beginning of a new era in clean energy policy. Notwithstanding its challenges, Europe’s plan represents a “broad roadmap” for remaking its entire economy with the aim of creating the first climate-neutral region in the world by 2050. Underwritten by one trillion Euros in investment, the Green Deal calls for establishing the first-ever climate law anchored to the 2050 climate neutrality target. [...]

China is of course the world’s largest manufacturer and distributor of cleantech, but it is also the world’s largest carbon emitter. As the world’s manufacturing hub, China remains the largest producer of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and electric vehicles, but it is also the top investor in clean energy. In addition to this, China is the world’s leader in renewable energy patents with the U.S., Japan, and Europe lagging behind. Together with China, the EU’s Green Deal could successfully remake the economy of Europe and much of Asia.

The larger significance of a green EU-China partnership is that it would provide the economies of scale and scope that the world desperately needs. Together, China and Europe could make it much cheaper for other regions in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to decarbonize. China is already globally dominant in renewables, electric vehicles (EV), energy storage, rail infrastructure, artificial intelligence (AI), telecommunications, and robotics. Even as the country’s rapidly expanding heft now rivals the United States, its massive capacity for cleantech production could effectively move the world beyond fossil fuels. [...]

At home, the United States faces the real possibility of social and political implosion. Its market-led society has given birth to a kind of corporate feudalism that has effectively nullified its democracy. As Jeffrey Sachs points out, each U.S. election cycle now costs $8 billion or more, and is routinely subverted by billionaires, Big Oil, the military-industrial complex, and the private health-care lobby. To put this in perspective, the richest four hundred Americans now have more wealth than 185 million of their fellow citizens.

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Forbes: Foreign Spies Hunt For Angela Merkel's Medical Records After Shaking Fits, Reports

The world stage is no place for secrets. And this has been made abundantly clear by suggestions in the German media that foreign intelligence agencies are now attempting to access Merkel's health records to discover whether the recent bouts of televised shaking are indeed something more serious, with reports that "one western intelligence agency believed that the German leader was suffering from a 'neurological problem'." Those health records are reportedly locked within a secure military facility. [...]

Despite that speculation, Bild also acknowledged that Merkel's schedule would trouble the fittest of leaders—"seven hours time difference, 32 hours in Osaka on site, plus a total of 22 hours on the plane... four working sessions and ten appointments for two-person talks, as well as meetings with US President Donald Trump, China's President Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin." [...]

The German public is usually more respectful of the privacy of their country's politicians than we are used to seeing in the U.S. or U.K., but even they are "now demanding answers." Speculation is mounting as to whether the Chancellor will see out her final term in office. She is set to be replaced—sooner or later—by Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who replaced her as leader of her Christian Democratic Union Party late last year.

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Forbes: Europe Circumvents U.S. Sanctions On Iran

The three governments announced the successful implementation of INSTEX at a meeting of the Joint Commission of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on June 28, 2019. The meeting was chaired on behalf of the EU by the Secretary General of the European External Action Service (EEAS), Helga Schmid, and was attended by representatives of China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and Iran. [...]

This was widely seen as a setback for the EU, which had been hoping that SWIFT would defy the U.S. and maintain payment services to Iran. But European governments were still determined to find a way of keeping trade with Iran going. If SWIFT wouldn’t help, they would create something to replace SWIFT for Iranian trade. Thus, INSTEX was born.

Exactly how does INSTEX facilitate trade with Iran without making sanctions-busting cross-border payments? In a word – barter. INSTEX matches the Euro payments of companies buying goods from Iran with the Euro receipts of companies selling goods to Iran. Imagine a company based in France wants to sell transport equipment to a buyer in Iran. Receiving Euro payments directly from that buyer would break U.S. sanctions. So instead, the French company would register the sale documentation with INSTEX. INSTEX would look on its own books for a company buying foodstuffs from Iran. It would match the two cash flows so that in effect the two European companies pay each other. The goods would still travel to and from Iran, but the money would stay entirely within the EU. [...]

Secondly, as the JCPOA statement indicated, the aim is to open INSTEX to third countries. China and Russia were both present at the meeting, and both have an interest in trading with Iran. Crucially, their trade could include oil. The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) observes that “the SPV is more likely to succeed if it links with revenues related to Iran’s oil exports to countries such as China, India, and Japan.”

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Forbes: The Top 11 Books Americans Tried To Ban Last Year

Hundreds of individuals in the U.S. issue challenges to their local schools or libraries every year, attempting to get certain books banned. The typical reasoning is that the book in question highlights or endorses a value that the challenger doesn't hold, and doesn't want their child exposed to.

As a result, the running list of the top most challenged book titles in the U.S. — operated by the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom — offers a unique window into the state of the union: Any hot-button topics that parents are the most up in arms about will be revealed through the books that they found most offensive.

The eleven most popular titles on the list for 2018 include plenty of titles from previous top-ten lists of banned books: George, by Alex Gino, a Lambda Literary Award-winner for elementary-age children that features a transgender child, was the number one most challenged book in 2018, after reaching number five in 2017. 2017's number one, Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher, dropped to number six on the 2018 list.

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Forbes: 5 Important Takeaways From Google's Two Year Study Of Remote Work

Recently, the folks at Google published their findings from a two year study they conducted on remote work. The company is certainly in a good position to study this, as a full 30% of the meetings held there involve at least two time zones. The report published, ‘Working Together When We’re Not Together’ had some interesting insights that both remote workers and employers considering a remote arrangement for their teams should know about. [...]

When teams work together in a single location, they have the opportunity to connect with one another through daily interactions and microinteractions. They stop by one another’s desks to chat. They may even socialize outside of work. These connections can act as a buffer when more difficult conversations must occur. For example, it’s easier to point out a mistake or critique an idea when all parties involved have a history of goodwill. [...]

If a team or organization is new to remote work, there may be hesitance to acknowledge any problems. After all, nobody wants to be part of the team that caused management to reconsider allowing employees to work remotely. However, it’s imperative that teams do just that. Just like each team must be free to establish their own communications methods, tools and standards, they must also feel comfortable acknowledging any roadblocks they face.

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Forbes: The Brutal Reality Of Brexit

For Brexiters and Remainers alike, this is the worst of all possible solutions. But horrible though it is, this deal satisfies the conditions set by Mrs. May in her Lancaster House speech. It also satisfies the EU’s conditions. No other proposal achieves this. It is, therefore, the best deal available. The U.K. Government has struck a deal that allows Britain to have its cake and eat it - but the cake tastes so disgusting that no-one wants to eat it.

The hard-Brexit European Research Group (ERG) seems to think that if it succeeds in replacing Mrs. May with a hard Brexiter, he or she could negotiate a deal more to its liking. On the other side of the political divide, the Labour party seems to think that if it succeeds in replacing Mrs. May with Jeremy Corbyn, he will be able to negotiate a deal more to its liking.

Both are deluded. The EU has no incentive whatsoever to renegotiate any of the deal. The road to this point has been long and painful, and the U.K. government has negotiated in bad faith throughout, repeatedly saying one thing to the EU then the opposite to its own politicians and the British press, and hurling insults when things don’t go its way. There is very little goodwill left on the EU side, and negotiation fatigue has well and truly set in. [...]

But if there is no second referendum – and at present neither the Government nor the Labour party seem to be seriously considering it – then Parliament must decide whether a complete break with the EU in the interests of sovereignty, even at the cost of a deep economic recession, is better or worse for the British people in the longer term than “frozen Brexit”. Or, of course, whether it is best to call the whole thing off.

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Forbes Why White Evangelicalism Is So Cruel

Robert Jeffress, Pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas and an avid supporter of Donald Trump, earned headlines this week for his defense of the president’s adultery with a porn star. Regarding the affair and subsequent financial payments, Jeffress explained, “Even if it’s true, it doesn’t matter.”

Such a casual attitude toward adultery and prostitution might seem odd from a guy who blamed 9/11 on America’s sinfulness. However, seen through the lens of white evangelicals’ real priorities, Jeffress’ disinterest in Trump’s sordid lifestyle makes sense. Religion is inseparable from culture, and culture is inseparable from history. Modern, white evangelicalism emerged from the interplay between race and religion in the slave states. What today we call “evangelical Christianity,” is the product of centuries of conditioning, in which religious practices were adapted to nurture a slave economy. The calloused insensitivity of modern white evangelicals was shaped by the economic and cultural priorities that forged their theology over centuries. [...]

Southern denominations faced enormous social and political pressure from plantation owners. Public expressions of dissent on the subject of slavery in the South were not merely outlawed, they were a death sentence. Baptist ministers who rejected slavery, like South Carolina’s William Henry Brisbane, were forced to flee to the North. Otherwise, they would end up like Methodist minister Anthony Bewley, who was lynched in Texas in 1860, his bones left exposed at local store to be played with by children. Whiteness offered protection from many of the South’s cruelties, but that protection stopped at the subject of race. No one who dared speak truth to power on the subject of slavery, or later Jim Crow, could expect protection. [...]

What developed in the South was a theology carefully tailored to meet the needs of a slave state. Biblical emphasis on social justice was rendered miraculously invisible. A book constructed around the central metaphor of slaves finding their freedom was reinterpreted. Messages which might have questioned the inherent superiority of the white race, constrained the authority of property owners, or inspired some interest in the poor or less fortunate could not be taught from a pulpit. Any Christian suggestion of social justice was carefully and safely relegated to “the sweet by and by” where all would be made right at no cost to white worshippers. In the forge of slavery and Jim Crow, a Christian message of courage, love, compassion, and service to others was burned away.

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Forbes: Pope Francis's Welcome To World's Only Openly Gay Prime Minister Rekindles Vatican Controversy

Conspicuous, as well - particularly to the more conservative members of the Catholic Church - was the warm welcome extended  to Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel who was accompanied by his husband, the architect Gauthier Destenay, which for some analysts was  a “powerful message” on the Vatican’s position on gay rights. [...]

“The Vatican has just taken a new step in its forced relativisation of homosexuality, which is what Pope Francis had attempted with the texts of the synod on the family,” Media-Presse, the Catholic information site wrote in an article in which, like other Catholic publications, it uses quotation marks to refer to Bettel’s “husband,” “companion” and “marriage.” [...]

“Francis has not changed church doctrine," the gay publication Advocate wrote.  "Indeed, only the most wildly optimistic would expect him to do so. The Church continues to consider same-sex relationships unequal to heterosexual marriages (and sinful as well) and the concept of gender transition or fluidity as a violation of God’s plan for humanity,” 

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Forbes: Post-Brexit, European Cities Battle For London's Crown As Supreme Financial Capital

As interesting is that 82% believed that among financial capitals, London has the most to lose while rivals including Luxembourg, Amsterdam, Paris, Dublin and Frankfurt had been strengthened by the British decision – with Frankfurt and Dublin in the lead. [...]

That said, Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna told Bloomberg during a post-Brexit-vote London trip that while the country is not trying to “lure” banks, it’s the ”obvious choice” for those that must move employees to retain free access to the E.U. single market. “We have already many British players in our country,” he said. “We are a triple-a country…And we have a lot of political stability and hence a lot of predictability.”

Some companies are already making moves in the wake of the vote. Gibraltar-based Elite Insurance, for instance, is planning to set up an insurer in Luxembourg for its European, non-U.K. business. [...]

France has been among the most vocal E.U. members to urge a fast U.K. exit and has been open in its efforts to promote itself as an alternative. Meanwhile, Frankfurt – host to the European Central Bank and considered a leading contender, established a web site and hotline to encourage potential transplants, while Ireland has intensified its campaign, emphasizing its standing as the only English-speaking, E.U. and eurozone member.

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Forbes: How Europe Was Lost: Five Ways The 'Remain' Campaign Failed In Britain's European Union Referendum

What are the answers to these questions? Mostly, they have not been articulated or done so without conviction or passion. Instead, there have been threats of emergency budgets, defensive manoeuvres over immigration and a barely defended war of words over the alleged undemocratic nature of the EU. No wonder many of the electorate now say they did not know what the vote was all about. [...]

There should have been a mission, a reforming zeal, a continued passion for the European project – something that’s unparalleled in the history of the continent. Britain leads the world’s advertising industry. What were none of its brand message leaders up to the task of getting the message right? [...]

The lack of a powerful, positive Remain campaign meant its cause was constantly playing a defensive catch-up game to the other side’s agenda. “Leave” fought with conviction on issues that it knew mattered to people. Immigration, with its alleged effects on jobs and housing was allowed to move to center stage, while the constant mantra that the EU is undemocratic was so successful that it passed into public parlance without much debate. [...]

The resulting uncertainty is clear to see in the stock and currency markets’ reaction to the vote. Yet it would not have been difficult to have put much better contingency plans in place.

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Forbes: Selling The Crown Jewels; The New Game In Russia, Brazil and Saudi Arabia

One proposed sale of crown jewels is interesting. Two is highly unusual. Three is definitely a trend and a pointer to the problems which are crushing the economies of countries which have become too dependent on commodities.

At times of high prices the problem of dependency is not obvious though in all three cases there were warning bells ringing a decade ago. [...]

But, one thing is certain, after years of mismanagement and the use of profits from commodity sales to prop up incompetent government and maintain social welfare spending to suppress unrest, the sales plans prove that the pips are really squeaking in Russia, Brazil and Saudi Arabia.

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