A deep decarbonization framework for the United States economy – a sector, sub-sector, and end-use based approach

A WTO Agreement on Investment: A Solution in Search of a Problem?

The Food-Energy-Water (FEW) nexus for urban sustainability needs to be analyzed via an integrative rather than a sectoral or silo approach, reflecting the ongoing transition from separate infrastructure systems to an integrated social-ecological-infrastructure system. As technology hubs can provide food, energy, water resources via decentralized and/or centralized facilities, there is an acute need to optimize FEW infrastructures by considering cost-benefit-risk tradeoffs with respect to multiple sustainability indicators. This paper identifies, categorizes, and analyzes global trends with respect to contemporary FEW technology metrics that highlights the possible optimal integration of a broad spectrum of technology hubs for possible cost-benefit-risk tradeoffs. The challenges related to multiscale and multiagent modeling processes for the simulation of urban FEW systems were discussed with respect to the aspects of scaling-up, optimization process, and risk assessment. Our review reveals that this field is growing at a rapid pace and the previous selection of analytical methodologies, nexus criteria, and sustainability indicators largely depended on individual FEW nexus conditions disparately, and full-scale cost-benefit-risk tradeoffs were very rare. Therefore, the potential full-scale technology integration in three ongoing cases of urban FEW systems in Miami (the United States), Marseille (France), and Amsterdam (the Netherlands) were demonstrated in due purpose finally.

The purpose of this article is to examine the innovative component of the transnationalisation of economic activity under the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Statistical and analytical systems analysis methods make it possible to determine the trend of research and development (R&D) expenditures in the world over five years (2017-2021). Methodology. Research methods: theoretical generalization, analysis and synthesis, logical, system-structural analysis of economic processes and relations, statistical, comparative, sectoral and dialectical approaches. Results. In accordance with the theoretical study of the process of investment in innovation by TNCs under the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic, we conclude that innovation for multinational corporations is the realization of innovative and creative ideas, which are the basis of progress and profit. The balance of power in the global innovation space before and during the COVID-19 pandemic is demonstrated by examining the dynamics of innovation in countries and regions. Under the COVID-19 pandemic, companies' R&D spending has fluctuated slightly, while global R&D spending has increased. According to the Global R&D Finance Forecast 2021, Asian countries, including China, will act as the engine of innovation in the coming years. Countries in the Americas and Europe will continue to lose their leadership in R&D, even though their spending will rise as the overall global economy recovers. One of the key indicators of innovation development is the quota of expenditure on research and development in GDP in the world. The leaders in this indicator are South Korea, Israel, Japan, Finland, and Sweden. Practical implications. Innovation is recognized as a central factor in economic growth and development. Interest not only in the promotion but also in the evaluation of the results of innovation activities is growing not only in developed but also in developing countries. According to The Future of Post-COVID Innovation Finance GII (Global Innovation Index 2020/2021), the pandemic crisis had a short-term impact on innovation spending. Research and development (R&D) spending in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic has always been high. In contrast to previous fears, the crisis has had only a minor impact on overall investment in innovation, as well as on the main consumers of innovation. At the company level, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the industry distribution of innovation, but costs and access to innovation financing in developing countries and more volatile companies are at risk. Disparities in access to innovation finance are likely to intensify. Value/originality. The main international research units of TNCs are concentrated mainly in the United States, Western Europe, and Japan. But according to recent global trends, there is a possibility of creating new research units of transnational corporations in China and India, which will allow these two countries to become part of the "innovation core" of the world economy in the future.

ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FIVE YEARS after its ratification, the Constitution of the United States has become the subject of a great book. The reference applies to the recently published two-volume work entitled Politics and the Constitution in the History of the United States, by William Winslow Crosskey, a member of the law faculty at the University of Chicago. Some people will call Crosskey's book vicious, because it proposes a construction of the Constitution which they fear; others will call it an irreverent work, for by implication it criticises those they revere; still others will damn it as a corrupting influence, for it challenges many of the orthodoxies of our legal and political system. Unquestionably it is the most revolutionary commentary ever published on the Constitution. Yet these very controversies are bound to contribute to the acceptance of the construction these volumes expound. When examined, the legal structure which unfolds not only is convincing, but in addition is most compatible with the present political economy of the United States. Logic, evidence, methodology and economic interest are combined so effectively that a break with currently accepted concepts about the Constitution seems almost assured within a few years.

The transportation sector is at the beginning of a transition represented by electrification, shared mobility, and automation, which could lead to either increases or decreases in total travel and energy use. Understanding the factors enabling deep decarbonization of the passenger vehicle sector is essential for planning the required infrastructure investments and technology adoption policies. We examine the requirements for meeting carbon reduction targets of 80% and higher for passenger vehicle transport in the United States (US) by midcentury under uncertainty. We model the changes needed in vehicle electrification, electricity carbon intensity, and travel demand. Since growth in fleet penetration of electric vehicles (EVs) is constrained by fleet stock turnover, we estimate the EV penetration rates needed to meet climate targets. We find for a base case level of passenger vehicle travel, midcentury deep decarbonization of US passenger transport is conditional on reducing the electricity generation carbon intensity to close to zero along with electrification of about 67% or 84% of vehicle travel to meet decarbonization targets of 80% or 90%, respectively. Higher electricity generation carbon intensity and degraded EV fuel economy due to automation would require higher levels of fleet electrification and/or further constrain the total vehicle travel allowable. Transportation deep decarbonization not only depends on electricity decarbonization, but also has a total travel budget, representing a maximum total vehicle travel threshold that still enables meeting a midcentury climate target. This makes encouraging ride sharing, reducing total vehicle travel, and increasing fuel economy in both human-driven and future automated vehicles increasingly important to deep decarbonization.

Organ Trafficking: Global Solutions for a Global Problem

The outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has upended the global and United States economies, exacting a large human toll and shutting down major economic sectors. While there is significant uncertainty about United States economic growth prospects, the impact of the pandemic is severe. The record-long United States economic expansion came to an end as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, with forecasts of a deep recession in 2020. The outlook remains highly uncertain, as it is difficult to gauge the social and economic impact of the pandemic, which will depend on the success of containing the outbreak and the measures to restart economic activity. The economic policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been substantial and immediate. Three stimulus packages were approved by the United States Congress in March to address the impact on households and businesses. New legislation was also approved in April and June to improve the effectiveness of the programmes included in the previous three fiscal packages. The United States Federal Reserve cut interest rates to the zero lower bound, offered unlimited quantitative easing and deployed old and new policy tools aimed at keeping financial markets functioning.

In this paper, we study the link between economic freedom and gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 12 industries making up the United States (US) economy for 50 US states from 2005 to 2020. To measure the industry-specific impact of economic freedom in the US, we use a novel panel data model, named the score-driven latent-factor panel data model of economic freedom, which includes US state- and industry-specific score-driven components, US state- and industry-specific unobserved effects, and federal-level latent factor. We show that the statistical performance of the novel panel data model is superior to those of classical static and dynamic panel data models. With the exception of the ‘Agriculture’ and ‘Utilities’ industries, we find a positive relationship between economic freedom and growth in 10 of the 12 US industries considered for the score-driven latent-factor panel data model.

Fish in the South American genus Arapaima Müller, 1843 (hereafter referred to as arapaimas) have attracted interest for commercial aquaculture development thanks to their rapid growth rate and high market value. However, management agencies in the United States have expressed concerns about importing and culturing arapaimas due to records of non-native establishment in certain other countries where arapaimas were released or escaped from captivity. We used the Freshwater Fish Injurious Species Risk Assessment Model (FISRAM) to estimate the probability that arapaimas would be injurious (able to cause harm) to native ecosystems, humans, or the economy of the contiguous United States. Risk assessment model inputs were elicited from arapaima experts around the world. Model results were sensitive to the estimation of climate suitability for arapaimas within the contiguous United States, with predicted probability of injuriousness ranging from 0.784 down to 0.321 with different climate suitability inputs. Expert assessors predicted that competition and predation on native species would be the most likely mechanism of impact and expressed a high degree of uncertainty about potential for impacts from pathogens and parasites. We concluded that due to the cold sensitivity of these tropically adapted fish, establishment within the contiguous United States would be highly restricted geographically, limiting potential impacts if introduced outside climatically suitable areas. Existing regulations already mitigate risk of escape from aquaculture in areas where establishment is plausible, but further research into arapaima parasites and pathogens would help reduce uncertainties and suggest opportunities to enhance biosecurity measures if needed.

How American Rejectionism Undermines International Economic Law

The first systemic crisis of finance-dominated capitalist systems erupted in 2007 in the US housing market, affecting the whole financial sector across the country with a number of negative consequences in terms of output and employment losses that then spread quite rapidly to the rest of the world, particularly the European Union. The ultimate origins of this crisis are to be found at the structural (rather than at the behavioral) level, as we shall explain in this chapter with respect to money and banking. To be sure, none denies that greed and predatory forms of behavior played a role in the building up of the credit bubble in the United States after the so-called dot-com bubble burst in early 2000. Also, it is widely acknowledged that financial regulators and monetary policy makers in the United States failed to address the systemic risks that were induced by too low rates of interest for a too long period of time, in a framework of increasing deregulation, and liberalization, of both financial markets and institutions that (individually or as a whole) were (and still are at the time of writing) too big to fail without implicating the state and, eventually, taxpayers (see Panzera and Rossi, 2011). The point, and the problem, is that fixing these and other disturbing forms of behavior does not and cannot ensure that another systemic crisis will not happen in the near future. Hence, all regulations that are discussed or already enforced at national or international level at the time of this writing miss the point, as they will not affect the workings of the system as a whole. Indeed, it does not come as a surprise to critics of "micro-founded" macroeconomics (see Rossi, 2010a, for analytical elaboration on this subject) that only a series of correctly designed structural reforms can avert the occurrence of a systemic crisis. As a matter of fact, the latter is the empirical evidence of a structural disorder that remains out of reach if one merely looks at the aggregate outcome of agents' forms of behavior (independently of the functional categories into which these agents are ranged for analytical purposes).

The OPEC Oil Embargo (1973) was precipitated by the Yom Kippur War. The United States was the first country to be sanctioned by Saudi Arabia, Libya, and other Arab countries on October 19, 1973 for its political and military support for Israel (particularly through the delivery of military equipment and arms, which played a key role in Israel's wars against neighboring countries). The 1973 Oil Embargo put a strain on a United States economy that had become increasingly reliant on foreign oil. The research is conducting to analyse the The Opec Oil Price Shock Crisis (1973) and Impact to United States of America. The objectivof this study is to examine the OPEC Oil Price Shock Crisis impact to United States of America. The concept of national interest is used to support the action of United States of America in solving the the crisis. The study is being carried out using a qualitative approach, including data gathered from secondary sources. The secondary data in this study also consists of printed and digital material gathered from articles and books. Findings of the study are several impacts that have a significant impact on the United States where it has already had an impact on the economy, politics and also the United States relationship with the OPEC organization. One of the obvious impacts is from an economic point of view. The U.S. economy undeniably experienced a downward trend during the oil crisis. It left no lasting impression, even more than a year on the United States. Not to forget the impact on U.S. politics. U.S. politics is seen as less stable and volatile after the oil crisis. But the United States Government is still able to work together to overcome this problem. Not to forget the impact on US relations and the OPEC Organization. The relationship between the two was seen to erode when the crisis began and in 1974 to 1975 witness their recovery phase but this crisis has taught the United States not to be too dependent on oil resources from foreign countries.

This paper outlines the development of a universal incident management system across all of government in the United States of America called the National Incident Management System. The system has been incorporated into the National Response Plan and the procedures of United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) agencies, using the United States Forest Service's National Interagency Incident Management System as a model. This model has enhanced USDA's effectiveness in a wide range of emergencies that might affect American agriculture, including natural disasters (e.g. earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, pest and disease outbreaks, and wilderness and other types of fires), nuclear and conventional events, or the accidental or deliberate introduction of a biological, chemical or radiological agent threatening the United States food supply, critical infrastructure or economy.

Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States: Introduction

BackgroundAchieving a net zero greenhouse gas United States (US) economy is likely to require both deep sectoral mitigation and additional carbon dioxide removals to offset hard-to-abate emissions. Enhancing the terrestrial carbon sink, through practices such as the adoption of no-till and cover cropping agricultural management, could provide a portion of these required offsets. Changing domestic agricultural practices to optimize carbon content, however, might reduce or shift US agricultural commodity outputs and exports, with potential implications on respective global markets and land use patterns. Here, we use an integrated energy-economy-land-climate model to comprehensively assess the global land, trade, and emissions impacts of an adoption of domestic no-till farming and cover cropping practices based on carbon pricing.ResultsWe find that the adoption of these practices varies depending on which aspects of terrestrial carbon are valued. Valuation of all terrestrial carbon resulted in afforestation at the expense of domestic agricultural production. In contrast, a policy valuing soil carbon in agricultural systems specifically indicates strong adoption of no-till and cover cropping for key crops.ConclusionsWe conclude that under targeted terrestrial carbon incentives, adoption of no-till and cover cropping practices in the US could increase the terrestrial carbon sink with limited effects on crop availability for food and fodder markets. Future work should consider integrated assessment modeling of non-CO2 greenhouse gas impacts, above ground carbon storage changes, and capital and operating cost considerations.