Satsa på fred och säkerhet – gå med i NATO.

Posted on 16 January, 2021 by gubbdjavel

I korthet: Den här debattartikeln på unt.se skickades in som en replik på ett antal kremliners debattartikel. De vill inte att vi ska kunna förbereda oss för att försvara vårt land gentemot ryska aggressioner. Deras nonsens här. En av undertecknarna ljuger om sin akademiska titel. Igen. I debattartikeln kallar han sig adjungerad professor. Denna titel innehade han under tre år, se här. Han var adjungerad professor i tre år för en extern anställning, alltså inte vid universitetet. Det sista året före sin pensionering arbetade han som forskare vilket alltså var titeln han innehade vid sin pensionering.

Summary in English: This post is a letter to a newspaper. The purpose of the letter is to reply to a letter sent by some pro-Kremlin people who don’t want us to be able to defend Sweden or help the Baltic countries against Russian aggression. One of the co-signers is a man regularly assumes academic titles he doesn’t have. Pathetic as most Kremlin trolls.

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Brexit fait accompli

Posted on 31 December, 2020 by gubbdjavel

Spoiler: The Brexit-deal is finally done. A hard Brexit was fortunately avoided. The EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement is perhaps the freest trade agreement concluded so far. Yet it raises barriers to trade compared to when the UK was part of the EU. The agreed zero tariffs and quotas are a fantastic achievement. But that only applies for trade in goods. Trade in services restricted. And services constitute 70% of UK GDP.

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Technology is about to put an end to Putin’s fossil Czardom.

Posted on 10 December, 2020 by gubbdjavel

Spoiler: Technological progress is making green energy cheaper. This is bad news for Putin. He became president when oil prices started to rise again. Putin has done nothing to reform the economy, so the Russian is still heavily dependent on fossil fuel prices. Energy related revenues constitute more than a third of Russian budget revenues.

World market demand for fossil fuels falls as countries strive to attain zero carbon emission targets. This will translate into low future growth for the Russian economy and make it difficult for Putin to fulfil his promises about higher living standards for the Russian people. Russian foreign policy will also have fewer instrument. The Kremlin won’t be able to use gas or oil to weaponize foreign policy when other economies become less dependent on fossil fuel.

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Why European Champions is a bad idea.

Posted on 7 December, 2020 by gubbdjavel

Spoiler: French and German government want to create “European Champions”. Following the EC decision to block the merger between Alstom and Siemens, Berlin, and Paris push for less strict competition rules in the EU. They were later joined by Rome and Warsaw. Pushing for European Champions is a bad idea. EU competition rules are designed to benefit consumers. Consumers will be harmed by relaxed competition rules that allow some firms to gain more market power by weakened competition.

In concentrated markets become, prices are higher, and outputs are lower. Profits are higher but real wages are lower, so capital shares of income are higher and labour shares lower. Income inequality is higher in a society with weak competition.

In fact, it would be counterproductive to amend the pro-competitive EU framework for making it easier to subsidise potential large EU tech firms. Intense competition on domestic markets is beneficial for innovation and export competition on international markets.

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