WSJ Defense Production Act for Solar Power?
The Defense Production Act was intended to mobilize sectors of the economy to support a war effort with incentives and assigned priority for resources. It was not intended to fix baby formula shortages caused by overregulation or to support an uneconomic climate agenda.
Redirecting resources means that other industries will not have the resources the market would have sent their way, there are victims balancing the beneficiaries. The presumption is that Biden is a better judge of priorities than the market.
That worked so well for the Soviet Union.
Tidewater News and Opinion Forum 
“The presumption is that Biden is a better judge of priorities than the market.”
Maybe you need to think this through instead of your kneejerk negativity?
What is Biden actually doing?
The principle action is his removing tariffs that had stopped the solar industry in its tracks. I thought you were all for free trade? But now when Biden promotes it, I guess.
https://www.npr.org/2022/06/06/1103291476/biden-solar-panel-imports-defense-production-act
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As usual, NPR omits the part of the story not favorable to the agenda.
Biden is lifting some tariffs, but imposing others.
More importantly, assigning priority to the allocation of raw materials is an enormous market distortion.
Of course, the market is already distorted by mandates to move away from natural gas for power generation.
But it is interesting that you, and Biden, think this is in any way a free market.
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“But it is interesting that you, and Biden, think this is in any way a free market.”
Freer.
I guess NPR was not the only one who missed it. I cannot find a report that confirms your claim that they left something out. What new tariffs is Biden imposing?
I did not see you get on your high horse when Trump went nuts with tariffs and then added giveaways to corporate farmers to make up for some of the damage. No accusations then of Soviet style central planning. I am starting to think you are a hypocrite whose only goal is sliming political opponents?
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If you don’t remember me criticizing Trump’s protectionism, you might want to check with a memory specialist. Forgetting something that happened that often is an indication of cognitive decline.
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Sure, I remember. You expressed disagreement more or less in passing.
But you attributed them to Trump’s negotiating “genius.” You did NOT get on your high horse. You did NOT label his far more drastic tariff actions as “Soviet style central planning.” You did NOT compare our country to the Soviet Union. You did NOT accuse Trump of arrogantly knowing more than the market. So, whose memory is failing? Who is in cognitive decline?
You did not answer which new tariffs Biden is imposing that led you to slime NPR’s reporting. Was that claim just another of your “alternative facts?”
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The tariff on panels from SE Asia are lifted but not the tariffs directly from China
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“The tariff on panels from SE Asia are lifted but not the tariffs directly from China”
So, this was a FALSE statement. . .
“Biden is lifting some tariffs, but imposing others.”
And, your sliming of NPR was bullshit, right? They did not twist any reporting in service for some “agenda.” Their story was clear and on point. Uncertainty created by Commerce Department investigations as to whether other countries were circumventing the EXISTING tariffs on Chinese solar products were harming the solar industry in this country and Biden did something about it.
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WSJ says, “Mr. Biden also says the DPA can help rescue Europe from Mr. Putin’s energy extortion.”
I wonder what energy extortion Biden thinks Putin is committing. Europe can readily buy all the oil and natural gas it wants from Russia, but has decided not to.
Hence, we see Biden exploiting a fake emergency to drive a dubious green energy policy.
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What we see is a desperate Biden flailing around trying to appear to be ‘doing something’
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What we actually see is Biden reacting with the tools available to a problem. In this case, the problem is that uncertainty over the investigation of possible tariff cheating has been damaging to an important industry, so he has acted to remove that uncertainty.
This has nothing to do with “Soviet style central planning” or “desperate Biden flailing” but if it floats your boat to indulge in silly partisan hyperbole, by all means, carry on.
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“a fake emergency”
Reported on extensively by the “fake news,” right?
One of the many damaging side effects of Putin’s criminal warmongering is that he has stirred the Europeans into seeing the precarious nature of relying on a criminal fascist regime for basic needs like energy.
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What has Putin done to restrict energy exports to Europe?
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He has made using Russian energy morally unacceptable. Beyond that, his launching of aggressive war against Ukraine has resulted in one of the two gas transport options going offline.
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RE: “He has made using Russian energy morally unacceptable.”
That qualifies as the most ridiculous comment of all time.
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“That qualifies as the most ridiculous comment of all time.”
You may think so, but it is none-the-less true. Trading with and thus facilitating the actions of a war criminal is a moral failure. Pure and simple.
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RE: “Trading with and thus facilitating the actions of a war criminal is a moral failure.”
So is forcing an unnecessary recession on one’s own citizens with the possibility that some will die of cold or starvation next winter.
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Oh my. A recession!
I think you will find that the countries who stop buying Russian gas – if Putin is still in power next winter – will find ways to avoid their people freezing or starving.
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RE: “I think you will find that the countries who stop buying Russian gas – if Putin is still in power next winter – will find ways to avoid their people freezing or starving.”
I expect they will: Most likely by buying Russian oil and natural gas from middlemen countries like India and paying higher prices for it. Moral absolutism of the kind you describe is expensive. The virtue of your position will be paid for in human lives.
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RE: “Beyond that, his launching of aggressive war against Ukraine has resulted in one of the two gas transport options going offline.”
Ukraine shut down that pipeline, not Russia.
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“Ukraine shut down that pipeline, not Russia.”
Of course, they did. They are at war. It would be insane to help solve your enemy’s economic problems when they are slaughtering your people. So, the reality is that Russia’s immoral and illegal invasion caused one of two gas pipelines to be closed down.
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RE: “So, the reality is that Russia’s immoral and illegal invasion caused one of two gas pipelines to be closed down.”
No, the reality is that Ukraine made a sovereign decision to stiff Russia’s natural gas customers in Europe.
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So, once again, YOU expect Ukraine to just roll over and be Putin’s lap dog. He wasn’t satisfied by getting TFG to do it because TFG lost the next election. No more Western lapdog for Putin. So now he makes a move to force an independent, sovereign country to be next.
As the Snake Island Forces told Russian warships early on “Fuck you, Putin!”. Or was it, “GO Fuck yourself Putin.” Either way, the defiance is admirable.
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RE: “Either way, the defiance is admirable.”
And futile.
Ukraine has been OUR lapdog since roughly the end of WWII. Today, we can’t even defend them. Talk about morality!
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“And futile.”
There was a time VERY early in this country where the odds were considered insurmountable. 1776 comes to the for. SO I suppose we just should have chucked the entire Revolutionary War for independence and stayed subjects of England.
At least the Jubilee would have some meaning here.
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“Ukraine has been OUR lapdog since roughly the end of WWII”
That is complete bullshit. Where do you even get this stuff? How truly ignorant are you?
Ukraine was an integral part of the USSR from 1922 until 1991. It has NEVER been our “lapdog” unless by that you mean its striving to be part of Europe rather than part of Russia.
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RE: “Where do you even get this stuff?”
In this case from CIA memos dating from the 1940s which discuss the recruitment of Nazi/far-right political activists in Ukraine.
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“In this case from CIA memos dating from the 1940s ”
Well thanks for clearing that up. However, the source cited does not support your silly claim. The CIA also recruited lots of Russians. Does that make Russia our “lapdog” since WW2? I don’t think so.
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RE: “The CIA also recruited lots of Russians. Does that make Russia our ‘lapdog’ since WW2?”
Of course not, but Russia, even as the USSR, has always been a peer nation to us.
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So, when Ukraine was an integral part of the USSR it was “OUR lapdog” because some individuals of Ukrainian ethnicity were recruited to work for the CIA? In the 1940’s. But that is not true of Russia because it was a “peer” nation?
Do you REALLY think this makes any sense or was your original silly claim just that – a very silly claim?
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What seems to be forgotten is that this is not the purpose of the DPA. It’s to mobilize the economy to fight a war or react to a catastrophe. Same as the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, it’s there for emergencies, not to support an agenda or ease the harm done by the government’s own policies. This is a misuse of the emergency powers Congress gave the President.
Unless, of course, you are ready to admit that the Biden Administration qualifies as a catastrophe.
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I would bring up climate change, but you don’t view that as a catastrophe, so I won’t.
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“What seems to be forgotten is that this is not the purpose of the DPA”
So, instead of owning up to spreading FALSEHOODS (Biden did not impose new tariffs) you switch to a different fine whine?
Well, this one is a matter of opinion. The actual invocations of DPA in this instance are in response to the national security implications of dependency on foreign suppliers for key components of our economy. Issues which the “market” will never address without government action. If someone is harmed by this let them take it to the courts.
https://www.energy.gov/articles/president-biden-invokes-defense-production-act-accelerate-domestic-manufacturing-clean
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There is absolutely no urgency to increasing domestic solar cell production as they are readily available at lower prices than we could match on the global market.
This is not about any emergency, it is about paying off cronies and appeasing his base. The DPA is not intended for partisan emergencies trying to affect the midterm elections.
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“There is absolutely no urgency to increasing domestic solar cell production ”
I think that there is. And I am in the majority that voted for Biden based – among many other things – on his promises to treat climate change responses URGENTLY. And, with your pal Putin disrupting global energy markets, our lack of homegrown capabilities in many energy related areas takes on even more urgency.
You can call it appeasing his base if that floats your boat.
I get it that you do not like Biden and NPR but please try to avoid “alternative facts” as the basis for your whines. If you can.
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…”it is about paying off cronies “…
Cronies? Which ones? The VOTERS who supported him? The over 80 million who voted for him? Or is this more of the usual “corruption mantra” you have been chanting since he was elected.
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Central planning actually did work quite well in the Soviet Union. It went from a backward peasant society to a world power rivaling the US in about a generation.
Tremendous gains in literacy, consumer goods, many civil liberties, and standard of living. But those were gains made by working people at the expense of monarchists so, of course, a tragedy in your view.
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But look at the progress the capitalist world was making at the same time.
And, of course, the Tsars kept the serfs ignorant and poor as a matter of control. Anything would be better.
But at the end, the Soviet Union only survived as long as it did because of its black market.
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Nobody is saying the US wasn’t doing well in the 20th century. But the Soviet Union had a significant amount of its territory destroyed and lost over 20 million people almost single handedly defeating the Nazis. The US had every advantage in the world in the post-war years.
Modern China is another example of the potential of central planning.
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Yep. China has planned itself into a corner, with an aging population and a next generation not large enough to support them,
But I do respect the Russian people. Hard working, courageous and patriotic. Just think how well they could have done as capitalists after the Tsar was gone.
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…” I do respect the Russian people”
Too bad you don’t show the same respect to the Ukrainian people. They were working to improving through capitalism, but you think they should just let themselves be taken over by Putin the Puny.
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You just can’t post without misrepresenting what I write.
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You say you respect the Russian people in one post and tell the Ukrainian people to roll over and be a lap dog for Putin in another.
What exactly did I misrepresent about what you wrote?
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What about respect for the people of the Donbas? Are they supposed to roll over and be lap dogs to the Ukrainian Oligarchs?
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…”the people of the Donbas?
You mean the Kremlin-backed, Russian separatists? Living in Ukraine does not make them Ukrainian. And which Ukrainian oligarchs are you talking about? You mention them a lot but never identify them. Could it be because the only oligarchs in Ukraine are Puny Putin’s pals?
And you still did not identify what I misrepresented. Or is is just in your mind?
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Do you think China has central planning type communism? I think they are much more a dictatorship with oligarchs, sort of like Russia became after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Earlier attempts at central planning caused catastrophic famines and bloody destruction of any intelligentsia and their institutions by indoctrinated youth under the control of a crafty dictator, Mao.
The problem is that the corruption in both countries is endemic. And both countries suffered from revolution from the inside by masses of peasants. Peasants who were pushed to the brink by extreme wealth for a few and dirt for the rest.
Our country was founded by merchants who were upset about various trade and tax policies from England. Learned men who realized that freedom, political and economic, can’t be just for a leader and his favored businessmen. At least the appearance of equal opportunity has a much better chance of survival than any dictatorship. (Slavery notwithstanding, of course.)
Capitalism is fine if there are both regulatory and social apparatus to protect against extremes. Russia doesn’t have that to this day. Neither did China except they had leaders who realized they could make anything the world needed if they let the oligarchs go wild, ensured decent chances for a middle class, and kept lid on politically. And importantly, a democratic system of some kind is probably needed for slowing corruption.
Yes, this is a simplified version of history, but I believe it covers the main points reasonably well.
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Well, 20 years ago, when the one-child policy was in force, China was centrally planned.
But the real comparison there was Hong Kong during the British Protectorate. The British governors basically took the attitude that if you don’t kill each other, we will leave you alone, and abandoned the colony to free market capitalism.
The result was a miracle.
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“Yep. China has planned itself into a corner, with an aging population and a next generation not large enough to support them.”
The US is in the same boat, so I’m not sure what your point is.
“But I do respect the Russian people. Hard working, courageous and patriotic. Just think how well they could have done as capitalists after the Tsar was gone.”
Fortunately, that’s not a hypothetical because that actually did happen. The capitalist provisional government was so unpopular, the people were ready to overthrow it before even the Bolsheviks wanted to.
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