Friday, August 18, 2023

Oh, what a tangled web we weave When first the market we deceive With bad signaling subsidies.

Fascinating.  As Sir Walter Scott observed.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practice to deceive.

Or, more appropriately in this instance,

Oh, what a tangled web we weave
When first the market we deceive
With bad signaling subsidies.

China decides it wants to dominate an industry, in this case EV auto manufacturing.  They set up subsidies which encourage auto makers to produce massive numbers of EV vehicles.  However, the primary purchasers appear to be fly-by-night taxi services.

Once production is in stride, the subsidies go away.  Without the subsidies, demand goes away and the fly-by-night taxi companies . . . well, fly.  

Apparently the either the confusion over title and ownership, or the lack of utility of the vehicles means that the EVs are abandoned in fields.

There they sit, a monument to bad central planning and unintended outcomes.  


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