There have been many new developments with wind energy. Even at the high initial capital cost it now rivals solar for the lowest-cost alternative (both are more cost-effective than coal). If you want to know some of the details please check out the following links.
If you are a Republican the economy is in shambles and headed for disaster. If you are a Democrat, the economy is simply working its way out of COVID and improving. If you are neither (like me) it isn’t easy to know the truth. I decided to do some research and here is what I found:
As 2/3rds of the country was fully vaccinated COVID restrictions were eased and demand increased significantly. Suppliers had significantly reduced employees, inventories, and production during the last half of 2002 and through 2021 were slow to gear up while demand accelerated. Higher Inflation was inevitable (regardless of who was in charge) and will continue until our ability to supply gets back to normal.
How do we measure the condition of the Economy? Actually, several factors are important including GDP (I prefer GDP per capita), unemployment, the stock market, inflation, and recently the invasion of Ukraine. Following is an examination of each.
GDP in $ Trillions
Year Nominal Real Change Factors
2016 $18.745 $17.73 11.7% Presidential race
2017 $19.543 $18.144 2.3% Tax Cuts & Jobs Act (TCJA)
2018 $20.612 $18.688 3.0% Deficit spending
2019 $21,433 $19,092 2.2% Trade war
2020 $20,893 $18,384 -3.4% Covid-19 pandemic
2021 $22,996 $19,427 5.7% Covid-19 vaccine
Unemployment Rate
Month Year Rate
June 2016 4.9%
4.9
June 2017 4.3%
June 2018 4.0%
June 2019 3.6%
June 2020 11.0% (COVID)
June 2021 5.9%
June 2022 3.6%
S & P 500
Month Year Index Change Rate Change
June 2016 2,083
June 2017 2,434 351 16.9%
June 2018 2,745 311 12.8%
June 2019 2,890 145 5.3%
June 2020 3,102 212 7.3%
June 2021 4,238 1,136 36.6% Rebound as COVID eased
Originally the 3rd was for $600, but it was increased to $1.400 in March of 2021
Ukraine Invasion
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will slow global growth and raise inflation. J.P. Morgan Research views the macroeconomic impact largely through the commodity markets, while the financial linkages between Russia and the rest of the world are comparatively smaller.”
All factors considered the economy is about where we should have expected it to be regardless of which political party had the advantage. Inflation is primarily a supply and demand issue (COVID facilitated) and it will moderate over time. My biggest concern is workforce availability. Without immigration, we have negative population growth. We need to establish an easier legal process to secure much-needed immigrant workers. Additionally, we need to correct the distribution of income and wealth inequity. As GPD increased by 100% over the past two decades real middle-class family income only increased by 8%
I favor both the capitalistic system and free global markets. Capitalism works best in free markets. If one country is more productive than others in a particular industry or product line, then they deserve to gain a large market share. In the long term, productivity and quality will determine the market position.
Cheap labor tends to place some countries in a short-term advantage. In many instances, a lack of capital tends to level the playing field. Projecting longer emerging economies will find wages rising as well as the availability of capital. I repeat, eventually productivity and quality will determine market position. Countries with smaller populations will be forced to focus their efforts on a limited number of industries to remain competitive.
Protectionism is not in any countries best interest. Any country that chooses to protect its domestic market will find that other countries will have no choice but to retaliate. Protectionist countries will lose out in the long run and hamper the standard of living for their citizens.
In my opinion, the key to how well the Capitalistic system works is determined by the ratio of population that participates in that system.
One measure of capital participation is the stock market.
Recent studies report that the top 1% of the wealthiest in our country own over 50% of stocks and the top 10% of the wealthiest own 89%. Of the remaining 11% a majority are owned by institutional investors, pension funds and other groups. What that means is that 90% of the population has a minuscule representation.https://share.smartnews.com/HdZHt
