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Samizdata quote of the day

· Slogans & Quotations

Unlike traditional commodities markets, which will eventually involve delivery to someone in physical form, the carbon market is based on lack of delivery of an invisible substance to no-one.

– Samizdata commenter RAB

February 21st, 2010 |

10 comments to Samizdata quote of the day

  • Bubba Thudd
    February 21, 2010 at 7:21 pm

    What could go wrong?

  • RAB
    February 21, 2010 at 8:58 pm

    Gosh! Thanks.
    I think I should point out though, that it isn’t “my” quote, but one I quoted from the linked article on the tread below.
    But as quotes go, it as succinct and on the money about the Carbon trading scam as it is possible to be. Even the Monocular Jock Cunt will be able to understand it straight off, without holding his thumb under the lines and moving his lips.
    Now if you could see your way clear to using one of my original more chucklesome ones next time, well… 😉

  • Pa Annoyed
    February 21, 2010 at 9:53 pm

    And when supply is artificially restricted to create a price-raising shortage, it will result in an absence of… err… um… a lack of…

    But it will make a lot of money for someone.

  • RAB
    February 22, 2010 at 12:16 am

    Well like I said before, we have to keep sticking it to them.
    Another wheel comes off the Juggernaught of the AGW scam.In fact so many wheels have come off this wagon, that it now qualifies as a hovercraft, propelled by its own hot air.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/21/sea-level-geoscience-retract-siddall

    Siddall said that he did not know whether the retracted paper’s estimate of sea level rise was an overestimate or an underestimate.

    That’s what I like to see, dont you? that good old solid, the science is settled, we know what we’re doing, we’ve only made a few minor mistakes, trust us we’re scientists !

    And that is from the Guardian folks!

    When I was in school, the thickest member of staff was our Physical Education teacher, how about yours?
    But they always needed an academic subject to back up with. Well I always found that PE teachers always had Geography as a backup, because it was the easiest exam to pass.

    I recon these Climatologists are nothing more than jumped up Geography teachers.

  • Andrew_M_Garland
    February 22, 2010 at 5:14 am

    Of course there will be tremendous fraud in any cabon market. There is fraud in the usual government program where the intent is to buy something. There will be even more fraud when the intent is to buy nothing (!), in fact to buy a negative something, defined as less carbon than was previously produced. Carbon credits are a license to print money by setting levels politically.

    And, because nothing is actually delivered, the entire scheme depends on regular and detailed investigation to verify that (1) carbon was being produced, and (2) now less carbon is being produced. How are they going to do that?

    For example, there is much fraud in subsidizing biofuels, but it is/was entirely legal and tolerated politically. I would guess that politicians were profiting from the loophole.

    Demands for Crackdown on Biofuels Scam
    12/15/09 – stopglobalwarming.org

    Up to 10% of biofuel exports from the US to Europe are believed to be part of the rogue scheme reaping big profits for agricultural trading firms.

    The “splash and dash” scam involves shipping biodiesel from Europe to the US where a dash of fuel is added, allowing traders to claim 11p a litre of US subsidy for the entire cargo. It is then shipped back and sold below domestic prices, undercutting Europe’s biofuel industry.

    The trade is not illegal, but flouts the spirit of producing green fuel by transporting it needlessly across the Atlantic at a time when campaigners are voicing concern about emissions from global shipping.

    Here is a more recent story about black liquor, another scheme to capture subsidies, with the usual distortions and costs to the markets involved. I suspect that there are a lot of schemes, most of which go unreported, and all of which go on for years before being modified. Politicians can create these schemes faster then public opinion can shut them down.

    Canada threatens trade action against U.S. ‘black liquor’ wood subsidy
    05/21/2009 – Yahoo finance

    In a joint letter to Congress, Canadian ambassador to Washington Michael Wilson and his counterparts call on the United States to close a loophole that allows pulp and paper companies to take advantage of a tax credit for using alternative fuels.

    They say American companies are reaping up to $8 billion a year by mixing in a pulp byproduct called black liquor with diesel fuel, qualifying for the credit, in contravention of World Trade Organization rules.

    Some companies claim credits that amount to approximately 30 per cent of the selling price of pulp, the diplomats assert.

  • RRS
    February 22, 2010 at 1:45 pm

    Is there an erie similarity here?

    A “Sin” is designated.

    Then “indulgences” are sold by the designator.

    Then the indulgences are “traded.”

    Will the bloodiness of “reformation” follow?

  • Dyspeptic Curmudgeon
    February 22, 2010 at 5:39 pm

    Heh RAB, at least I got you to being QOTD!

  • Andrew_M_Garland
    February 22, 2010 at 9:21 pm

    A correction to my above comment.

    The date for the StopGlobalWarming link is 4/1/08 (not 12/15/09). That “splash and dash” scam may have been eliminated in the meantime. I am confident, as a guess, that there are many others.

  • RAB
    February 22, 2010 at 11:16 pm

    Thanks kindly DC 😉

  • Paul Marks
    February 28, 2010 at 7:42 pm

    How can any “market” pushed by General Electric and invented by Enron possibly be a scam?

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