SA Economy

[SBD]

“Copper is an essential component of solar panels and wind turbines, as well as electric vehicles, which use around four times as much copper than petrol-based cars,” he said.




and we're supposed to believe electric vehicles are more environmentally friendly and sustainable...

copper isn't a limitless resource either

Old copper is relatively easy and cheap to turn into new copper. That’s why people steal pipes and cables from building sites.

[abc]

“Copper is an essential component of solar panels and wind turbines, as well as electric vehicles, which use around four times as much copper than petrol-based cars,” he said.




and we're supposed to believe electric vehicles are more environmentally friendly and sustainable...

copper isn't a limitless resource either

Old copper is relatively easy and cheap to turn into new copper. That’s why people steal pipes and cables from building sites.

this logic is really special

the reason they steal it is because its scarce and has high resale value... and EV's are going to make it even scarcer

you can recycle plastic too, but they're not stealing that

[SBD]

“Copper is an essential component of solar panels and wind turbines, as well as electric vehicles, which use around four times as much copper than petrol-based cars,” he said.




and we're supposed to believe electric vehicles are more environmentally friendly and sustainable...

copper isn't a limitless resource either

Old copper is relatively easy and cheap to turn into new copper. That’s why people steal pipes and cables from building sites.

this logic is really special

the reason they steal it is because its scarce and has high resale value... and EV's are going to make it even scarcer

you can recycle plastic too, but they're not stealing that

Thank you.

It's not that much harder to make new plastic than to recycle plastic, and as you pointed out, plastic is not as valuable as copper.

There'd be more theft of other metals if recycling them was as lucrative - we don't hear of theft of aluminium window frames from building sites, but we hear of installed copper cables being stolen.

[abc]

Old copper is relatively easy and cheap to turn into new copper. That’s why people steal pipes and cables from building sites.

this logic is really special

the reason they steal it is because its scarce and has high resale value... and EV's are going to make it even scarcer

you can recycle plastic too, but they're not stealing that

Thank you.

It's not that much harder to make new plastic than to recycle plastic, and as you pointed out, plastic is not as valuable as copper.

There'd be more theft of other metals if recycling them was as lucrative - we don't hear of theft of aluminium window frames from building sites, but we hear of installed copper cables being stolen.

aluminium isn't conductive

that concludes our science lesson for today

[PD2/20]

this logic is really special

the reason they steal it is because its scarce and has high resale value... and EV's are going to make it even scarcer

you can recycle plastic too, but they're not stealing that

Thank you.

It's not that much harder to make new plastic than to recycle plastic, and as you pointed out, plastic is not as valuable as copper.

There'd be more theft of other metals if recycling them was as lucrative - we don't hear of theft of aluminium window frames from building sites, but we hear of installed copper cables being stolen.

aluminium isn't conductive

that concludes our science lesson for today

High voltage transmission lines are made of aluminium strengthened with a steel core. Aluminium has a resistivity of only 1.5 times that of copper but is only one-third the density of copper.

[SBD]

Thank you.

It's not that much harder to make new plastic than to recycle plastic, and as you pointed out, plastic is not as valuable as copper.

There'd be more theft of other metals if recycling them was as lucrative - we don't hear of theft of aluminium window frames from building sites, but we hear of installed copper cables being stolen.

aluminium isn't conductive

that concludes our science lesson for today

High voltage transmission lines are made of aluminium strengthened with a steel core. Aluminium has a resistivity of only 1.5 times that of copper but is only one-third the density of copper.

Thank you abc for such a comprehensive science lesson.

[Jaymz]

Thought i'd post an article from News.com.au that I found quite interesting. It's part factual, part opinion piece. Take out of it what you will....

Warning Aussie dollar could drop to 40 cents to US dollar
The Australian dollar is getting whipped and it could take for it to go as low as 40 cents to the US dollar before anything is done about it.

David Llewellyn-Smith
2 min read
October 4, 2023 - 11:31AM


Economist and philosopher John Maynard Keynes is famous for saying that markets can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.

As the Australian dollar (AUD) plunges, Aussie importers and international travellers must wonder if he was referring to them. The AUD is once again swooning towards new lows.


In truth, the currency has been getting whipped for more than a decade. There have been ebbs and flows, some lasting years, but a pattern of lower highs has been intact since 2011.

A tale of two superpowers

So, are the recent falls irrational? The answer lies in the relative prospects for our two great and powerful friends, the US and China.

It is no coincidence that the AUD has almost perfectly tracked the rise and fall of Chinese catch-up growth.

From 2002, when China joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the AUD rose considerably as China built a modern economy using Aussie commodities. It did so by siphoning off developed market industrial complexes. So, they, in turn, had weak currencies versus the AUD.

However, since 2011, that dynamic has reversed. Other developed markets have rebuilt industrial bases while Australia has not:


Developed economies like the US are, once again, becoming more diverse, self-sufficient and sophisticated.

This has the flow-on effect of lifting productivity and the labour share of income, which boosts growth and, ultimately, a currency.

Conversely, Australia has chosen to grow its population via immigration, rather than its industrial base.

This has the opposite effect. It weighs on wages, lifts input costs like land, and is disproductive as capital (machines, infrastructure etc) is shallowed across more people.

In effect, we get more people but less output growth per person as the economy gets less sophisticated.

Why use an efficient automated car wash when you can employ twenty underpaid workers to scrub your hubcaps?

The end game

The great superpower transition is still ongoing. China still has many years of slowing growth and diminishing investment.

Its apartment and infrastructure busts have just begun, leading to further downsides for Aussie resources revenues.

The Australian government’s commodity forecaster, the Office of the Chief Economist, is pulling no punches in this regard:


Also, the US industrial recovery is gathering steam for another surge in the next cycle. Its technology firms have seized leadership in artificial intelligence, guaranteeing further capital deepening in sophisticated value-added growth.

So, the two forces that brought the Australian dollar down from $1.11 to today’s 0.63 cents are ongoing. And, heaven forbid, may be pricing for a conflict between the two in which weak Chinese growth triggers outward aggression and US industrial strength fights it off.


In effect, the shifting relativities of superpower risk keep sending the AUD lower, encouraging Australia to diversify its industrial base. But Canberra keeps refusing to take yes for an answer, preferring to grow the population.

An AUD with a four in front of it may be needed to deliver the message.

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geopolitics and economics portal. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.

[claybro]

Anyone remembering around the late 90's early 2000's will recall an aussie dollar around .50c US. The thinking at the time was that this prevented Australia going into recession, as commodities became easier to sell due to our lower prices, manufacturing ticked up due to the domestic lower costs, Aussies spent more of their travel money at home and more overseas tourists were attracted to Oz as it became a cheaper destination based on their currencies. A lower dollar does have an upside- even if our buying power for imported goods is diminished...and this is also not all bad. What surprises me is that the Euro stays relatively strong, when much of their energy is imported, and their manufacturing is fleeing due to higher costs of energy, materials and green tape.

[rev]

Conversely, Australia has chosen to grow its population via immigration, rather than its industrial base.

This has the opposite effect. It weighs on wages, lifts input costs like land, and is disproductive as capital (machines, infrastructure etc) is shallowed across more people.

In effect, we get more people but less output growth per person as the economy gets less sophisticated.

When some of us say things like this, just not so well put, we get called racists and bigots and so on.
But facts are facts.
Maybe when economically the country is well and truly in the fucking sewer, people will realize what's happening is not sustainable?

[abc]

Conversely, Australia has chosen to grow its population via immigration, rather than its industrial base.

This has the opposite effect. It weighs on wages, lifts input costs like land, and is disproductive as capital (machines, infrastructure etc) is shallowed across more people.

In effect, we get more people but less output growth per person as the economy gets less sophisticated.

When some of us say things like this, just not so well put, we get called racists and bigots and so on.
But facts are facts.
Maybe when economically the country is well and truly in the fucking sewer, people will realize what's happening is not sustainable?

the majority will never realise...they still haven't figured out the number that was done on them with covid and the jibby jab
they'll just blame climate change

[Jaymz]

the majority will never realise...they still haven't figured out the number that was done on them with covid and the jibby jab
they'll just blame climate change

Ummmmmmm, okkkkkkaayyyyyyy!!

[abc]

the majority will never realise...they still haven't figured out the number that was done on them with covid and the jibby jab
they'll just blame climate change

Ummmmmmm, okkkkkkaayyyyyyy!!

exhibit A

[rev]

Can you just stick to the topic and keep your conspiracy theories to say The Pub thread.

[abc]

Can you just stick to the topic and keep your conspiracy theories to say The Pub thread.

exhibit B

my comment was completely relevant to the economy

people like you think a bad economy is a random event

[Spurdo]

the majority will never realise...they still haven't figured out the number that was done on them with covid and the jibby jab
they'll just blame climate change

What the actual f*ck does the Covid vaccine have to do with economic collapse? I swear one day I expect to come on here and see you ranting about the “Zionist Occupied Government” or some stupid brainlet shit