#FRANCE: PLUMS RIPEN IN PARADISE. @REALCONSTABLE @BATCHELORSHOW.

By SIMON CONSTABLE

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Lesueur, Jean-Baptiste (Paris, en 1749 - Plailly, en 1826), dessinateur, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Briefings magazine: ‘Economists get it so wrong.’ Mission Impossible: Predicting Recessions

 By SIMON CONSTABLE

Over time, recessions come and go. It’s just a fact of life. And if one might be imminent, business leaders and politicians all want to know. After all, if a recession could be right around the corner, a company might want to cut back on expenses or hire new employees. But there’s a problem: Few predictions of these economic collapses are right.

Indeed, try as they might, economists are almost always missing the mark. In mid-2022, many all but promised an imminent US recession—one that still hasn’t shown up more than two years later. Likewise, the COVID-19 recession wasn’t widely foretold, nor the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009. Mere months before the 1930s began, economists weren’t forecasting the Great Depression, says Jack Ablin, founding partner at wealth-management company Cresset Capital. “This isn’t a new phenomenon,” he says.

Famed economist John Kenneth Galbraith summed up the failure with a quip: “The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.” Other pundits substitute weather forecasters for astrologists. Nevertheless, the question remains: Why do economists get it so wrong so often? Read more here.

ATOMS FOR PEACE; QUIZ, @REALCONSTABLE, OCCITANIE @BATCHELORSHOW

 By SIMON CONSTABLE

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WSJ NUCEALR QUIZ

Nuclear power accounts for almost 10% of electricity generation globally and the U.S., with its 94 reactors, is responsible for about 30% of it, making it the largest producer of nuclear-powered electricity in the world.

But how much do you really know about history of nuclear power, beyond, say, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and “The China Syndrome”?

Test yourself with the following quiz.

1 OF 10

1. What was the location of the first nuclear power plant added to an electrical grid?

Read more here.

FRANCE: SOUND BARRIER. @REALCONSTABLE, OCCITANIE @BATCHELORSHOW

 By SIMON CONSTABLE

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French soldiers fire their artillery gun March 7, 2019 at the Grafenwoehr Training Area

 U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Christopher Stewart, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

WSJ: How Much Do You Know About the History of Nuclear Power?

By SIMON CONSTABLE 

Nuclear power accounts for almost 10% of electricity generation globally and the U.S., with its 94 reactors, is responsible for about 30% of it, making it the largest producer of nuclear-powered electricity in the world.

But how much do you really know about history of nuclear power, beyond, say, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and “The China Syndrome”?

Test yourself with the following quiz.

1 OF 10

1. What was the location of the first nuclear power plant added to an electrical grid?

Read more here.

FOX Business: Sticker shock: Why US cars are frozen out of the European market

 By SIMON CONSTABLE

Most people around the world either need or want to buy a car. But when it comes to choosing the model, American vehicles get short shrift. In other words, people outside the U.S. seem to shun buying U.S. vehicles. Instead, they’d rather buy their homegrown version.

Consider these car sales figures. In 2024, the U.S. imported 757,564 new vehicles made in the European Union, whereas the EU imported only 169,152 from America, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association. Put in money terms, that’s EU sales to the U.S. of 38.5 billion euros ($43.9 billion) versus €7.8 billion (approximately $8.9 billion) sold to Europe. Read more here.

Jason Lawrence, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

#FRANCE: SEARCHING FOR RARE EARTHS. @REALCONSTABLE @BATCHELORSHOW

 By SIMON CONSTABLE

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Contributor(s): Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866-1939), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons