[RD] Daily Graphs and Charts

[Monsterzuma]

The formal definition of real interest rate is nominal interest rate (set by the Fed) minus inflation. Do you mean something else?

yes, and policy can't control both at the same time. except to the extent that it mitigates inflation by engaging in sensible interest rate policy (meaning it relinquishes the freedom as to where to just "put" them)

The only way the Fed can lose control of the interest rate given its current powers is if the US loses control of the dollar, which is highly unlikely.

it's only highly unlikely for as long as the Fed doesn't treat the interest rate as something it freely controls as opposed to something it pushes one way or the other out of the necessity of guarding that strength of the dollar.

 

[Hygro]

yes, and policy can't control both at the same time. except to the extent that it mitigates inflation by engaging in sensible interest rate policy (meaning it relinquishes the freedom as to where to just "put" them)

Policy can't control both at the same time because policy only literally controls the nominal rate. I get your argument and I agree, though I might rewrite your parenthesis as "meaning it seeks to target the 'optimal' place to 'put' rates". But it is nevertheless well within the power of the Fed to keep interest rates low enough that interest payments never spiral out of control, with the possible exception a very traditional acting Fed hitting the zero lower bound during GDP contraction--at which point growing interest rate payments would be a good thing anyway.

it's only highly unlikely for as long as the Fed doesn't treat the interest rate as something it freely controls as opposed to something it pushes one way or the other out of the necessity of guarding that strength of the dollar.

You're going to have to explain this one further because it reads like ungrounded metaphor. Control of the dollar is guaranteed by taxation (and spending) so while radically random interest rates could certainly cause a lot of grief, I don't see how they destroy control of the dollar (i.e. destroy the dollar itself).

 

[Takhisis]

Don't worry, anti-socialist crusaders, you're still spending a wee bit more on guns than you are on children.

You Socialist swine fail to realise that without guns, Jesus could not defend our children from children-eating Communists and Arabs.

 

[classical_hero]

I'm feeling that the death rate and life expectancy are two separate functions, but I'm having a hard time figuring out why.

So far the death rate is 100%, but thankfully life expectancy is gaining.

 

[El_Machinae]

So far the death rate is 100%, but thankfully life expectancy is gaining.

93%
Unless you're dead, currently

 

[peter grimes]

So far the death rate is 100%, but thankfully life expectancy is gaining.

True, so true

 

[Monsterzuma]

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/15/rising-sun/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

 

[Arwon]

It's worth noting that the "band" there is likely for wholesale electricity. Household rooftop solar only has to be competitive with the retail price to the end user which is obviously a fair bit higher.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

There's still set-up cost to take into account though.

 

[Arwon]

Yes. That's what the graph is showing. Nearly the entire cost of PV is purchase and installation.

To compare to grid power you take that upfront cost and divide by the amount of kwh you'll get over its lifetime. You compare the resulting per-kwh cost of your solar panels to the expected cost of that same amount of grid-supplied power over that same time period.

When a given area reaches the point where unsubsidised PV is cheaper than mains power that's called "grid parity". A lot of places are there already and it's doing some extremely interesting things to the market.

(Cost per watt is probably more relevant to utility-scale farms but it's not an ideal comparison. A watt of coal power is going to have a much higher capacity factor but won't have commensurately higher returns and it'll depend on the specific generation market and load patterns anyway...)

 

[classical_hero]

I wonder what the real cost would be if you take out subsidies towards solar power.

 

[Arwon]

That's what the graph is. Unsubsidised costs of purchasing per watt. (edit: found the report for 2010 and it's the global average factory gate price to buy a module, page 60)

I know renewable energy has become some insane culture war thing for the hardcore right but the fact remains we're at unsubsidised grid parity in many places, including much of Australia. Subsidy just speeds up the payback time for households.

 

[tokala]

(Cost per watt is probably more relevant to utility-scale farms but it's not an ideal comparison. A watt of coal power is going to have a much higher capacity factor but won't have commensurately higher returns and it'll depend on the specific generation market and load patterns anyway...)

I suspect the "coal/gas band" is already some sort of capacity factor adjusted.

$350-900 per kW capacity sounds way too low, especially for coal. And than there are the running costs for fossile plants, which are much higher than for PV.

E.G. from this chart, it looks more like in the $1,000-10,0000 per kW range for new fossile plants

But on the other hand, that chart doesn't display the cost for complete PV installations, but naked module costs. Which by the way, are down to something like $500-700 per kW in the meantime.
Complete installations for Germany (with one of the lowest costs for complete PV) are slightly below EUR 1,500 (about $2,000) per kW. Those cost are for rooftop-sized installations, including taxes.

 

[Algeroth]

 

[anyoldguy]

Sounds like one hell of a place.

 

[Mise]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lby9P3ms11w <-- this documentary on Kowloon Walled City was amazing.

 

[madviking]

 

[JohannaK]

Is Louisiana some sort of rampaging crime hellhole?

 

[peter grimes]

Privatized prisons.

 

[Cutlass]

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/...e-year-after-the-bangladesh-factory-collapse/