Stocks vs Bonds, or Gold / Actions, obligations ou l’or ?

09 - 26/05/2022

Height countries and four major crops / Huit pays et quatre cultures principales

10 - 26/05/2022

The prospects for geothermal energy are heating up, by James Pethokoukis, May 19, 2022

A recent Wall Street presentation by key startups has boosted my optimism about this emerging sector.
See fasterplease.substack.com


Chart of the day (century?): Price changes 1997 to 2017, by Mark J. Perry / Variations des prix réels

11 - 26/05/2022 Voir aei.org

Record Fuel Price in USA

12 - 26/05/2022

The NY Times reveals how Haiti became the poorest country in the Americas… France’s ransom

Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world, and a new Times investigative series explores why. One stunning detail: France demanded reparations from Haitians it once enslaved. That debt hamstrung Haiti’s economy for decades — and kept it from building even basic social services, like sewage and electricity.

The series is based on more than a year of reporting, troves of centuries-old documents and an analysis of financial records. I spoke to my colleague Catherine Porter, one of the four reporters who led the project, about what they found.
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After Haiti’s independence in 1804, France came back and demanded reparations for lost property — which turned out to include the enslaved humans. French officials encouraged the Haitian government to take out a loan from the French banks to pay.

It became known as a double debt: Haiti was in debt to former property owners — the colonists — and also to the bankers. Right from the get-go, Haiti was in an economic hole.
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We haven’t even gotten into the U.S. occupation from 1915 to 1934 and Haiti’s dictator family, both of which further looted the country. It was one crisis after another inflicted on Haitians.

That’s true. A dictator, François Duvalier, came into power in 1957. Before that, the Haitian government had finally cleared most of its international debts. The World Bank had said that Haiti should rebuild. Instead, Duvalier and then his son put the country into increased misery.

As if that wasn’t enough, after Haiti’s president asked for reparations in 2003, France removed him from office, with U.S. help. Have France and the U.S. owned up to the damage?

France has had a slow softening. In 2015, its president, François Hollande, said that France had imposed a “ransom” on Haiti, and that he would pay it back. But very quickly, his aides corrected him, saying that he meant he was going to pay the moral debt back; he wasn’t talking about money.
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See nytimes.com


Les Cornards, fête locale à Sauxillanges (2) / Horn bearers, a local festival in Sauxillanges

10 - 19/05/2022

Perspective: Distorting the narrative about bee health hurt, by Amanda Zaluckyj, The Farmer’s Daughter USA, May 20, 2022

Spring is the time of year when farms bloom into life as they emerge from winter hibernation (well, at least crop farms). Farmers take to their fields to plant the new crop, usually working long hours to get it all done. But they aren’t alone in those fields. As warmer weather returns, pollinators also emerge and get to their important work.

Everyone knows that bees are important for their pollinating activities. There are over 250,000 plant species that rely on bees to mix and spread nectar and pollen for reproductive purposes. The result is the wide array of foods that we enjoy, including some staples of our diets, like apples, melons, broccoli, and almonds. According to the Food and Drug Administration, the bees’ service accounts for $15 billion in added crop value.
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These hysterics didn’t sway the Environmental Protection Agency in the U.S. The EPA already has a robust regulatory framework for pesticides, including neonicotinoids. Farmers are required to follow the EPA’s label instructions for safe use. In 2022, the EPA released changes to neonicotinoid labels to reduce the chances bees would come into contact with the insecticide. As one entomologist told me, bees are insects and can die from insecticide exposure. But that doesn’t mean neonics are causing an extinction-level event.

Unfortunately, individual states aren’t always as rational and measured as the EPA. A number of states — including New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Jersey — have passed legislation reclassifying neonicotinoids as restricted-use pesticides. That means only licensed applicators can use them, increasing costs and potentially making them inaccessible for some farmers.

Unfortunately, neonicotinoids are just the latest example of how an activist message can lead to new laws, regulations, and bans. Farmers obviously care about pollinators and bee health — they’re vital to what we do. But somehow the narrative was distorted to make it seem as though our crop-protection tools are the problem. It’s a reminder that we need to be vocal about issues and confront disinformation.
See agdaily.com


Les Cornards, fête locale à Sauxillanges (3) / Horn bearers, a local festival in Sauxillanges

11 - 26/05/2022

Old Jewish Joke

A priest, a minister and a rabbi are playing golf.

It is the looooongest front nine holes they’ve ever played.

Maybe three hours long. They go into the pro shop to complain, and the pro says, “Oh, didn’t you know? The foursome ahead of you are all blind.”

The priest says, “Forgive me Father, for I know not whereof I speak.”

The minister says, “Forgive me Father, there but for the grace of God go I.”

And the rabbi says, “What? They couldn’t play at night?”