Lame Ducks

And this post isn't even about Hockey.

This week, the leaders of the most powerful economic countries in the world are meeting to discuss a bunch of things. Two of them are not (most likely) going to be the leader of their country next year, and a third is so emasculated at home, that his presence at the G-8 is for the photo-op only. He likes the Schnitzel.

Follow this bouncing ball - The Russians are threatening to mess the talks up and steer the discussion towards the missile defense shield. They are very upset at the U.S., and fear that they will be forced to escalate their military production to compensate- you know, that MAD thing? The U.S. says "Vlad, don't be mad. You don't have to worry about it, the cold war is over. Russia is friend of America, ya?" Yakov Smirnoff diplomacy. The Russians can't afford new military stuff, but what is a guy to do?

The state of Russia's democracy is, at best, questionable. They are also the unintended primary (or backdoor secondary) source of information and commodities for AOE countries with nuclear ambitions. This should put them in the "Bad" books of one former Texas Governor.

Germany and France are pushing the Kyoto Accord. The only way Japan, the U.S. (unratified, but signed) and Canada would be able to meet their targets would be buying foreign credits under the Clean Development Mechanism of the accord. The only viable market for these credits is the former soviet union- which is now a member of the G8 and is threatening to scuttle the talks over military issues.

So, a new cold war is potentially going to be funded by global warming, high level international talks about which are being derailed to prevent a cold war? The irony is delicious.

My view on both issues is the same - neither can possibly work, and the existence of both makes solving the actual underlying problems more costly. In some cases, you could argue that working on these two specific policies is actually at odds to the end goals they are designed to achieve. But both issues will dominate the talks where real progress could be made on other far more pressing global issues.