Yellen Junks 200 Years of Economics to Block China Clean Tech - "a protectionist disaster" - Bloomberg
Yellen Junks 200 Years of Economics to Block China Clean Tech
The Treasury secretarys plan is
a protectionist disaster that will impede the path to net zero.
David Fickling | Bloomberg | April 8, 2024
Imagine if a Chinese company announced plans to build the biggest electric-vehicle battery factory the world had ever seen.
Up to $5 billion would be spent on a single plant to manufacture more power packs every 12 months than the world produced last year. The sprawling facility might cover 1.5 square miles (4 square kilometers), employ an army of 6,500 people, and drive costs down 30%, devastating any competitors that failed to keep pace. The company in question, furthermore, had racked up more than $1 billion of losses over the past seven years, and would post another $5 billion over the coming seven.
Does that sound like the definition of predatory overcapacity, hollowing out the worlds manufacturing sector in the service of aggressive Chinese mercantilism? If so, its worth considering that the facility were talking about is how Elon Musk pitched Tesla Inc.s Gigafactory One, a half-hour drive east of Reno, Nevada, when he first announced it 10 years ago.
That should be a consideration for Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who is visiting China in an attempt to persuade the government and companies that their investments in clean technology are excessive and damaging.
Government support is currently leading to production capacity that significantly exceeds Chinas domestic demand, as well as what the global market can bear, Yellen said in a speech to the American Chamber of Commerce in Guangzhou. That excess is building in solar, EVs, and lithium-ion batteries, she said last month at a US solar plant...more
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-04-08/yellen-junks-200-years-of-economics-to-block-china-clean-tech
alt:
https://archive.ph/rNjfZ
"Free Trade" For ME but NONE for THEE!
Yellen:
But we were all told that we MUST give our jobs to China!
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