BEYOND BLUE SKY

 This month is being dubbed "Awful April," with bills rising across the board and affecting almost everyone. I have also had to recalibrate my finances, meaning that, as a result, I will no longer be able to go to Scarborough for The Feast of Tabernacles in October.  Instead, I will focus on paying down my debts and spending a smaller sum at the time based at home.  It is less than ideal.  However, being unemployed and with no savings, I have no choice!

 ...anyone looking to China for lessons in economic policy.  They may be rich now, but they are storing up trouble for the future!

...should be abolished.  Such a move would help the poorest in society. 

..should offer more affordable micro-loans in The Tees Valley , and in doing so invest in the local economy! With the money it earns, after taking a reasonable profit, it could then reward its savers.

 Today, Adar 23 in the Jewish calendar, I was supposed to fast to draw nearer to God as Passover approaches. I managed from sunset Saturday until midnight, after which I succumbed to a McDonald's as I was craving sugar. I'm back home now (it's 01h35) and will see if I can resume the fast until sunset at 18h24 local time. Let's Pray!

It is God's Will that I should plan on spending the Feast of Tabernacles in Scarborough, Yorkshire, this year. It runs from Monday Octobeer 6 to Tuesday 14 Octobeer including the Last Great Day. Come join me there!  All welcome!

Their song, Enjoy The Silence!, has it so WRONG. The Lord's Word is Truth manifest in The Holy Bible.  The DN postcode area, also known as the  Doncaster postcode area , covers parts of eastern South Yorkshire, north Lincolnshire, parts of north Nottinghamshire, and the south-west of the East Riding of Yorkshire.  

This week, I took out a £ 200 Social Fund Loan from the Government at 0% over 4 months. It will help replace debt at 35% which I had accumulated, in part, by buying furniture (a bed mattress) last autumn - thus saving me just over £23 in interest. However, I have donated most of this - £20 - to INSEAD's Giving Day on 20 March, meaning I will only start next month with £180 instead of £200.  And yet, the years 200-7 and 200-8 (lucky that they both were for me), ought to have forewarned me about giving to charity (when I can't afford it), and getting into debt. A resolution for the New Year starting 31 March: I must start seriously living within my means.  I now owe the grand sum of £2,387 which 6 months ago I had hoped would be fully paid off by the end of next month (April), However, with Bobby & Zoe's wedding expenses to also factor in (we are staying in a hotel in York in June), the revised calculations now show the total will be paid off by the end of August instead ...

 The Limit to Growth debate, started by the Club of Rome in 1972, is based on flawed economics. It ultimately sees an end to economic growth and instead espouses embarking on a modern form of communism, which, as the Soviet Union showed, is an abject failure. We have no choice but to continue on a capitalist path of progress in the national interest and aim to raise per capita living standards as a result. This happens primarily because of access to cheap energy—whether fossil fuels or renewables, even as the latter is preferable to stave off the worst excesses of Climate Change. However, any 'green policy' we pursue must be cost-competitive.  Anything else will simply be a waste of taxpayers' money and add unnecessarily to the National Debt.  That is not to say we should compete economically with foreign nations that subsidize their industries and 'illegally' dump their goods on us.  There is a role, after all, for tariffs to bring manufacturing back home and in so...

Today is the first day of Springtime in the Northern Hemisphere. I have joined The United Church of God and will start fellowshipping with them this coming Sabbath, Saturday, 22 March 2025. 

After listening to Kemi Badenoch 's speech about Net Zero , I'm taking a day out (starting at sunset Tuesday) for my own mental health and to collect my thoughts.

The Ides of March. 

Economic Growth Tension A clear tension exists between carbon emissions and economic growth since the latter depended on cheap fossil fuels for the past two centuries - with low-cost energy fundamental to growth.  The challenge then is to 'decouple' effectively growth from carbon emissions and so guarantee a clean energy future. Integrated Assessment Models would argue here that we need optimal carbon taxes to effect this but these, in turn, would increase the costs of travel, food, and goods at least in the short run.  Two fundamental problems that would need to be addressed here are 1) international cooperation and 2) internal wealth transfers to the poor in society.  Of course, if we can access cheaper renewable energy then this, too, could be a driver of economic growth. Economic Growth In the last version of this book, this current chapter focuses on Economic Growth and agrees with Lord Stern (2009) that growth of the 'right kind' is needed, i.e. a move away from c...

It is now exactly one calendar month away (in the Gregorian calendar) til Passover on the evening of Friday 11 April (Nisan 14 in the Jewish calendar). Time to reflect on sins over the past year, grow spiritually, and begin the process of deleavening the house in time for The Feast of Unleavened Bread which begins on Nisan 15 (Jewish Passover). 

Give me a break! I am an avid student of Economics and The Bible.  I know I shouldn't swear, but sometimes I get so frustrated with people.

Dictionary.com's Word of The Day! 

I had a bacon sandwich for breakfast this morning at Cooks at The Forum Gym - breaking yesterday's resolve already (I forgot!). It may well be the case that, as a result, I will be unable to pay my credit card bills due next 17 March (a week today, on St. Patrick's Day).  I will now be £20 short on the day, assuming I spend my reserve cash of £10 on 2 pints of Guinness to celebrate. Should I be celebrating St. Patrick's Day?  Although I'm not Irish, St. Patrick was a Saint who kept the Sabbath and Biblical Holy Days.  It may be inappropriate to drink excessively, but I am sure 2 pints will DO NO HARM. Correction: After some financial juggling, and a commitment to spend no more than £60pw on groceries, coffees, and eating out, I now have a budget of £11 for St. Patrick's Day AFTER paying my credit card dues! 11 is a significant number:  The 11th commandment is to LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR.   However, before you are in a position to love your neighbour, one has to take c...

I had a McDonald's breakfast this morning - an egg and bacon McMuffin. I will have to stop eating pork (apart from in The Shambles!) - it's not right.

Take instructions from RCG!

Today we celebrate women and girls around the world.  If we could do one thing positive, in my mind it would be to eliminate deaths from breast cancer within the next decade.

..needs to be completely rewritten for a world where trade is diminished.   Not only is this required to predict the future from tariffs coming out of the United States, but it also makes sense to roll back globalism which is at odds with protecting the environment.  I will start my research tomorrow, 9 March 2025!

Live life abundantly!  (John 10:10). What To Do About Climate Change? The fundamental problem is that carbon emissions are so inexorably linked to economic activity (IT, housing, agriculture, manufacturing, and transport) that reducing them and operating a 'green' economy is no small task.  Thinking negatively, economy derailment could be the solution - although to be positive the focus should be a major change along the continuum of slowing, stabilizing, and reducing CO2 emissions within a fully functioning economy, which runs counter to many environmentalists' thinking.  However, we definitely need a new economy based on a clean-energy future. We are, truly, in a Climate Emergency.  As outlined throughout, unless bold action is taken to change the economic system while carbon budgets allow, we may well be facing a long drawn-out equivalent of the sudden extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago - and certainly the worst set of circumstances since The Flood i...

...kids. 

Dangerous Climate Change Based on the best available scientific evidence, it is clear that increases in CO2, and other greenhouse gases in CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent), which constitute F in the Kaya Identity (see earlier), result in temperature elevation.  The relationship between the two is known as climate sensitivity.  It is accepted by most scientists that a CO2 doubling (from pre-industrial 280ppm to 550ppm) will probably lead to a roughly 3C temperature rise.  The IPCC calculated a range of 1.5C and 4.5C depending on the emission scenario.  Unfortunately, this is far from exact since fossil records estimate that climate sensitivity could be as high as 6C (Hansen). Are temperature increases dangerous? The overriding consensus is a resounding yes.  There is no question that biomes, including pathogenic species, would survive and even proliferate.  The concern is that widespread ecosystem collapse would occur specifically concerning biomes on which ...

Trump's tariffs are all SET to go into EFFECT at midnight.  A strong leader, he is sticking to his resolve.

We - I, am now in Economic Lockdown for the rest of 2025.  At midnight, Eastern Time (ET) , the US will an extra 10% tariffs on Imports from China, as well 25% on Canada and Mexico.

Travis Perkins  ! 😀 Let's Trade - including food and on the NHS!

Trump is right.  Zelensky is gambling with WW3 by bringing ever-increasing troops and weaponry from foreign powers into his homeland, Ukraine, to fight Russia. It is time to cede peace and give up control of the ethnic Russian Eastern Region and Crimea to Russia.  Under no circumstances should the United States put troops on the ground and risk further escalating the war.  For that matter, neither should the UK. Zelensky finds himself in hot water after Friday's disastrous meeting with Trump at The Oval Office. It is now time for Zelensky to step down with fresh efforts made by Kyiv to negotiate peace. There is a role for European powers, in particular the UK and France, to play in diplomacy between West and East.  However, Germany should be kept out of the loop with its invariable talk of creating a pan-European army. 

For many years, I have supported electric cars. I argued that we need to transition from petrol and diesel combustion engines to electric ones before eventually making a final switch to hydrogen in the 2040s. However, some problems seem to be surfacing with the electric roll-out, particularly around battery life.  It would now seem prudent to keep a backup of petrol and diesel engines in some parts of the world since these are known to work.  The areas would have to be limited as they emit large amounts of CO2.  Elsewhere, efforts should now be made to advance towards a hydrogen economy. Think of the PlanET!

It begins TODAY!