China isn’t going to let a bunch of stuffy Eurocrats stifle its economic progress. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, “China has banned its airlines from paying charges on carbon emissions imposed by the European Union, state media reported Monday.

“The charges that took effect last month are aimed at curbing emissions of climate-changing gases but airlines say they are an improper tax. Dozens of countries including the United States, China and Russia oppose them.

“The official Xinhua news agency quoted the Civil Aviation Administration of China as saying the airlines are not allowed to pay the tax or add other fees without government permission.

“The ratings agency Fitch warned in December that the conflict could spiral into a global trade dispute.”

Great. So the global-warming fanatics could launch a global trade war, such as the one that sank the global economy in the 1930s Great Depression. But the enviro-crazies would like that because the population might drop, thus reducing greenhouse gases and allowing them to frolic in the new Garden of Eden they want to create once everybody else on the planet has vanished, like that “Twilight Zone” episode where Burgess Meredith is the only man left on earth, “Time Enough at Last.”

But the Chinese aren’t buying any of it.

The Middle Kingdom still has about one third of its population impoverished on farms; it’s moving them into the full-blown industrial economy.

The Chinese have enjoyed capitalist industrial progress for only 34 years, since they dumped Maoism in 1978.  By contrast, Europe has enjoyed capitalist industrial progress since around 1790 in England, then the rest of the continent in the 19th Century. The United States has prospered under capitalism since about 1800.

The Chinese figure: The West didn’t worry about pollution and global warming until they were prosperous. Why should we? Besides, maybe global warming is a fraud.

So the Chinese are bucking the EU. And if California imposes its nutty new carbon-credit schemes on China, the Chinese will rebuff them. The Chinese, of course, will be happy to sell California the technology for us to comply with the enviro-edicts.

And unlike the EU, USA and California, China is a creditor nation, not a debtor. It lends money to the deadbeats. That gives it long-term leverage.

California’s fantasy — enshrined in AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 — is that we are the fulcrum of the world. We’re not. We’re just 2 percent of the global economy. So reducing greenhouse gases by 25 percent by 2020, as mandated by AB 32, would reduce global greenhouse gases by 0.5 percent.  That’s nothing.

Meanwhile, the Chinese are laughing as we adopt an environmental version of the Maoism they sloughed off long ago.

Feb. 7, 2012

According to legend, fabled bluesman Robert Johnson made a pact with the devil at a “crossroads” in Mississippi where he sold his soul to gain mastery of the blues. Eric Clapton long has played a version of Johnson’s song, “Crossroads.”

Now, reports the Bee:

Standard & Poor’s said Thursday that California sits at an “important crossroad” for its credit rating depending on how it deals with its structural deficit problems in the coming weeks.

California has never defaulted on general obligation bond repayment, but the state’s A- rating already ranks lowest in the nation in the wake of annual budget woes.

Indeed. For decades, California has made a pact with the Devil: Increase spending infinitely, without having to pay for it. But the Devil always lies.

It’s like in that classic “Twilight Zone” episode, “Escape Clause,” where they guy makes a pact with the Devil for immortality. The guy gets immortality, then goes out and tests it various ways, such as by trying to get involved in fatal accidents — which he always survives.

After his wife dies accidentally, he confesses that he mudered her. He wants to test the electric chair. But instead of getting a death sentence, he gets — life in prison.

That’s California. It’s supposed to be the Golden State. But the government, run by the government unions, has stuck is in a fiscal prison for eternity.

Click here for Part 1 of “Escape Clause”

Click here for Part 2.

Click here for Part 3.

May 19, 2011