Energiewende, spare economic capacity, what the heck is FRED, linkages between soft & economic power, Japan, trillion dollar coins, France's economy...

Der zweifelhafte Erfolg der deutschen Stromexporte, Matthias Benz, Berlin, 13.1.2013, NZZ, http://www.nzz.ch/aktuell/wirtschaft...rte-1.17937315

Deutschland hat im vergangenen Jahr so viel Strom ins Ausland geleitet wie nie zuvor. Dies geht aus einer neuen Schtzung des Bundesverbandes der Energie- und Wasserwirtschaft (BDEW) hervor. Demnach exportierte Deutschland 2012 Strom im Umfang von 23 Mrd. kWh. Im Vorjahr war dieser Wert auf 6 Mrd. kWh gesunken. Als Hauptgrund fr das Exportwachstum wird der starke Ausbau der erneuerbaren Energien, vor allem von Windkraft- und Solaranlagen, angefhrt.
Der Chef des deutschen Energiekonzerns E.On, Johannes Teyssen, betont etwa schon seit lngerem, dass man in Polen und Tschechien die Stabilitt des Netzes gefhrdet sehe, wenn die deutschen Windkraftwerke im Norden zu viel Strom lieferten. Beide Lnder wollen deshalb ihre Netze mit sogenannten Phasenschiebern zeitweise abschotten. Dies luft freilich der Idee eines integrierten europischen Binnenmarkts fr Strom entgegen.
How much spare capacity does the world have left?, January 13, 2013 5:12 pm by Gavyn Davies, Financial Times, http://blogs.ft.com/gavyndavies/2013...rld-have-left/

What does all this imply for the future? In the short term, it suggests that any rise in nominal demand, stemming from expansionary policy or a recovery in private spending, is much more likely to be reflected in rising real output than in higher inflation. Demand management policy can be expansionary.

However, in the longer term, it does not support the view that the developed economies can easily return to their pre-2008 trendlines for GDP through demand expansion alone. Perhaps they can never get there, or perhaps there is a speed limit which cannot be safely exceeded [2]. In either case, supply constraints would not be as remote as the use of linear trendlines would imply.
Federal Reserve Economic Data, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal..._Economic_Data

British tin ears leave EU deaf to demands, By Tony Barber in London, January 13, 2013 4:46 pm, Financial Times, www.ft.com

On January 22 Angela Merkel and Franois Hollande, the German chancellor and French president, will lead celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the Elyse treaty of postwar Franco-German reconciliation. Only tin diplomatic ears, or minds closed by arrogance, can explain why British policy makers fail to care that Paris and Berlin might be offended if David Cameron, the UK prime minister, were to choose this almost sacred date for his long-awaited speech on Europe.
Notes on Japanese Numbers (Boring), Paul Krugman, January 13, 2013, 11:28 am, NYT Blog, http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/201...umbers-boring/

In a way, recent developments can be seen as a demonstration of a point I’ve tried to make about bond vigilantes: even if they show up, they won’t drive interest rates up, they’ll drive the dollar down, which is a good thing. In Japan’s case, you can think of what’s happening as a growing belief on the part of investors that Japan will end up inflating away part of its debt. This has led to a currency drop; it has *not* led to an interest rate spike:
Debt Limit Showdown Spurs Debate On Trillion-Dollar Coin, By Ian Katz - Jan 8, 2013 11:33 AM MT, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-0...llar-coin.html

The proposal for the Treasury Department to mint a platinum coin worth $1 trillion and deposit it at the Federal Reserve to give the U.S. enough money to pay its debts...
The Treasury will run out of funds to pay its bills between Feb. 15 and March 1, the Washington-based Bipartisan Policy Center said in a report yesterday.
IMF Concerned With the Pace of France’s Economic Reform, By: Domenico Lombardi, January 8, 2013, Brookings, http://www.brookings.edu/research/op...onomy-lombardi

While the IMF had hoped for a “competitiveness shock” reform package, Paris has responded with selective and incremental measures to be put in place gradually. On the whole, the Hollande presidency has yet to put forward a convincing reform agenda. And yet, experience teaches us that the first months of government are the most fruitful in terms of reform.
Bloomberg Risk Brief, 01.11.13, http://www.bloombergbriefs.com/files/RiskP1_011113.pdf

The 10 largest U.S. money-market funds’ holdings of French bank securities overtook their British counterparts for the first time in at least 16 months on growing confidence in the euro region and cheap U.K. state funding that lessened the need to issue short-term debt.

The funds’ French bank holdings increased by $9.6 billion to $42.8 billion in December, while British banks were cut by $11.2 billion to $29.4 billion, according to a survey of the funds’ bank holdings by Bloomberg Brief: Risk Newsletter. The bank with the largest increase was Natixis SA, the investment-banking unit of Groupe BPCE, France’s second- largest lender by branches.