Further apart?

EUobserver / Merkel backs creation of European credit rating agency: "A European agency could provide 'an understanding of basic economic mechanisms different from the existing agencies, more oriented towards ...[sustainability] of the economy and less on the short term,' she said. 'More competition in this area can not hurt.'"

Well, is the European debt crisis just a result of hostile American credit rating agencies? I guess Merkel is saying that if we just let Greece, Portugal and Spain alone, things will improve. With more competition in the credit rating business it would be interesting to speculate on which type of agency the so called investors would choose. Which type of economic philosophy will reign? What kind of money will stay in Europe?

One more round of Nuclear Power seems necessary

Regeringen vill ha nya reaktorer - DN.se: "Beslutet fattades på torsdagen och propositionen presenteras nästa vecka. Förslaget innebär att de nuvarande tio reaktorerna ska kunna ersättas med nya — och att ett tak om högst tio reaktorer sätts."

Jan Björklund, leader of Folkpartiet, has argued well for the need of replacing at least some of the present reactors for securing electricity until Sweden can become fully renewable. Tomas Ramberg gave Björklund a hard time on the actual percentage of nuclear power that presently generate electricity in a recent Saturday Interview on the Radio program One. However, it still represents a significant percentage that currently cannot be replaced by renewable sources.

The argument that people seem to avoid is that of actual cost when production starts which is hard to calculate. The construction of the latest Finnish reactor which is late and more expensive is generally brought up. Avoiding dependence on Russian natural gas is of course something worth paying defence tax money for as is perhaps substituting for fossil fuel produced electricity from European sources. There is of course a risk that we would damage the prospects of the export industry with too high costs on electricity?

After listening to the speech of Jan Björklund at the Folkparti Riksmöte in Västerås the other day, I realized that he did not mention anything about future sustainability. He advocated full speed ahead. Personally I think it is unwise to not address this issue at all due to its importance. A moderate approach to sustainability from the right would be appropriate as an alternative to more unrealistic approaches of the Greens. It might be that Alliansen, the political coalition of Sweden, now delegates to the Centerparti to argue for sustainability, but it does not yet show on the national stage. Nicolas Sarkozy, a right wing politician, is arguing for sustainability who is also hard pressed by a Red-Green alliance.

The Red-Greens of Europe are coming?

Sarkozy Meets With Leaders of His Party After Defeat in Regional Elections - NYTimes.com: "There also was interest in the good showing of a coalition of green parties, known as Europe Ecology, which ran in third place a week ago and whose active support will be needed by the Socialists if they hope to win the presidency. The anti-immigrant National Front also ran well. The elections were disastrous for François Bayrou’s Democratic Movement party, which tried to position itself as a centrist alternative."

I guess it has finally happened. The awaited surge in social democracy after the financial crisis, that did not materialize as of yet, might be here. Together with anti-immigrant activity and a fright of the center. Perhaps Nya Moderaterna and the Social Democrats in Sweden are approaching a barren center ground? As in Sweden, the Greens are important. Maybe it will even save Labour in the UK in the soon to be elections?

Social liberalism won out in the US as well which I liked very much. President Obama and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi managed to secure 219 votes, of 216 needed, for the historic Health Insurance Reform. The tone of the soul of the US has been set in this mode and not in the Tea Party mode. It is a digital choice rather than a gradual spread. Huffington Post said about the win, Congress: Yes we can! There has be so much talk about the need for bi-partisanism that using a majority for a while seemed like pure sin.

It was probably good for the process to not rush the bill through and to have lots of discussion going on. It is apparently possible with democracy where the representatives have the voters wishes in mind rather than just react on the whip lashes like Fredrik Reinfeldt is pronouncing here in Sweden. For the sake of a favorable interest rate as he said in the Saturday Interview on the Radio program One. Democracy ceases to exist the minute we allow the market to direct our vote and mind.

Sustainable development in the EU?

Apparently sustainable development was first contemplated 1997 in the Treaty of Amsterdam which came into force 1999.

A review of what has been accomplished since then was published 2009. Two things stand out:

The availability of natural resources will be 30% above sustainable in 2050 when the population is calculated to become 9bn.

Furthermore, money invested in research and development have gone from 1.85% of GDP to 1.83% between 2000 and 2007 and thus deviates from the 2010 EU goal of 3%.

The EU goal is set because the current levels for the USA and Japan are 3% and over.

Sustainability?

G20: Gordon Brown calls for global tax on financial transactions - Telegraph: "''I believe we should discuss whether we need a better economic and social contract to reflect the global responsibilities of financial institutions to society,'' he said.
''This is a unique sector that, when it fails, imposes such a high cost to the wider economy and damage to society that government intervention becomes essential. So the taxpayer had no real choice but to step in to keep the system afloat.
"And it cannot be acceptable that the benefits of success in this sector are reaped by the few but the costs of its failure are born by all of us.""

The idea of such taxation and transfer to the poor and victims of for example earth quakes is that a very small fraction of a percent on each financial transaction could generate 100s of billions of dollars per year. People that could use such a bank account are Jeffrey D. Sachs. Critics of the tax claim that global financial flows would dry up but this is not likely given the small relative rate.

Jeffrey D. Sachs writes today in The Times about the same thing. He talks about a Robin Hood tax. Sachs is the Director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University which is dedicated to sustainability questions. The overarching goal of the Institute is to "help achieve sustainable development primarily by expanding the world's understanding of Earth as one integrated system".

There is definitely a need for cash of this nature because it is easy to see what happens when a country like Greece ends up in trouble. People start to discuss who is going to help. Earth quake victims is another source for concern. What follows is of course general questions of global governance and the realization that the world hardly is integrated politically or religiously. However, a G20 governed fund to aid countries might be a good addition to the UN system which has its limitation due to the many countries in charge. A lot of people would probably like this idea but a small country like Sweden would not be in the orbit.