Energy and the Joy of Work

Part 4 of OR, MENA and the Sharing Economy

Process: For each region of the world, a Transportation/Allocation?module for solar, wind and geothermal resources, the Trifecta, can be created with Operations Research (OR):

One axis represents supply by source, and another represents demand/need by country within a region. Distribution is allocated in accordance with the priority, such as lowest transportation and distribution cost - so long as the capacity for allocation exists. When the lowest cost is exhausted, we move to the next lowest cost.

The Energy Conundrum

Despite the deceptive political declarations about energy independence, this goal has not been achieved by the economically developed nations of the world. America, for example imported $300 billion worth of oil last year. The objective of energy independence has also been frustrated by the diesel-gas differential.?

The Diesel/Gas Differential

The difference between gas and diesel in logistics has made an outsized contribution to inflation. To explain, most of the long-haul logistical deliveries in the U.S. and in many other developed countries, are made by diesel-powered trucks. Diesel prices have been higher, despite this fuel requiring less processing than gasoline. The consumer, as a result, has had to pay a premium, an inflation-causing premium, for consumer goods and food - much of which is delivered by diesel-powered trucks.?

We have not yet solved the energy and energy independence needs of our country and are hardly in a position to solve those of other nations.

Competition

Providing the non-illuminated world with light and electric power is?a competitive process. As we evolve, competition to provide the world with green hydrogen made with the?Trifecta?of available solar, wind and geothermal energy has been frustrated by several factors. Among these is the lithium-ion production trap. China dominates the production of lithium-ion for battery-powered vehicles. U.S. investment and government subsidies, have favored the lithium-ion sector, creating yet another cartel, a new dependency that rivals our dependency on foreign and domestic oil:

The Economist

with its resulting pollution.

The Bridge

The transition from oil to natural gas is a bridge?to the eventual powering of regions and nations with green hydrogen. Fear of this transformation's effects has led incompetent, autocratic and violent regimes to war. Other regimes, like that of the U.S. have subsidized lithium-ion and lithium-ion battery-powered vehicles as I’ve mentioned, and massive amounts of money have been poured into such other alternatives to global trade as the misuse of A.I.?

The Great Saudi Hedge

Saudi Arabia has hedged its bets by investing in oil, natural gas, decarbonization, blue ammonia and green hydrogen-through Aramco. The amounts involved are staggering. Wood MacKenzie, a consultancy, estimates that Saudi Arabia will disburse more than $200bn on exploration and production between 2024 and 2030, far and away the most in the industry (The Economist).?Saudi Arabia aims to be #1 in the word in natural gas production and exports.

On to the Future, Debt and Winning the Prize?

Regrettably, Americans are not educated in international business, logistics and finance, the world’s largest enterprise; subjects I've taught for 10 years and knowledge of I've honed and practiced since 1975.

We cannot solve the dilemma of dependencies and addiction to oil with AI because we can’t teach machines the processes that we ourselves have no deep knowledge of:

We also cannot imbue our work, our purpose with joy:

If we don’t know what we’re doing and are enslaved by both debt and dependency.

A New Enlightenment?

Enter AI?

Fortunately, AU can play an important role in global trade. AI will play a key role in the processes of sustainable economic development and job creation. The initial purpose of AI is to make us more productive by increasing the use of machines that we "teach" through parameters of thought, while hoping that these machines do not misinterpret our instructions by "hallucinating." It AI is not used properly; the result will be decreased employment and an increase in depression as more and more people are deprived of the joy of work. Additional problems will be caused by repetition of the mistakes of the past and an encouragement of our global competitors. The U.S. has 4% of the world’s people and has been responsible for 25% of the world’s output.?

Maintaining such competitiveness is and will be a great challenge.

Trust but Verify

AI can be used to determine the authenticity of parties in a trade transaction with Correlation, the principal product of?The Following Sea:

ensuring the full participation of SMEs in global trade.

QR will be used to simplify and make more efficient the communication of shipping documents?by the voluntary use of Incoterms:

This will apply to shipping documents used to file the Importer Security Filing (ISF), as well as filing with the Automated Manifest System (AMS) and adherence to C-TPAT, the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, for security purposes.?

The authenticity of financial documents will be verified by using AI. This verification will be of information shared privately beforehand among buyer and seller.?

Commercial Banks and Financial Institutions

Banks’ LC checkers were never inventory control clerks and so it is not a record of what is shipped in the form of invoices that will be matched against what was ordered - in the form of purchase orders - as with the SWIFT TSU:

to settle trade transactions. Nor does payment need be tied to SWIFT’s TSU as there are now so many much simpler and secure payment technologies available today.?The challenge is to streamline the payment process with ease, flexibility and accessibility for SMEs.?

?Deep Knowledge of Process?

Payments do not provide for?accommodation, except through expensive buy now, pay later schemes and Factoring - whereby receivables are purchased outright by the lender. Such financing is based on the availability of assets (asset-based lending), and the ability to communicate credit-worthiness - quickly and securely.

Correlation*?the principal product of?The Following Sea,?will provide the benefit of pre-export financing, post-export financing and dynamic discounting:

with accommodation. By being able to pay vendors quickly with dynamic discounting, the manufacturer/exporter takes advantage of vendor discounts in exchange for paying its vendors early. These pre-export discounts are extraordinarily valuable. Pre-export discounts combined with the cumulative increase in production results in production of a cheaper, more affordable product. The result is also that innovative and excellent products become more accessible and more desirable to the consumer who can now afford their purchase.

Winning isn’t Everything. Winning is the Only thing

Winning is a habit. Watch your thoughts, they become your beliefs. Watch your beliefs, they become your words. Watch your words, they become your actions. Watch your actions, they become your habits. Watch your habits, they become your character- Vince Lombardi?

Continued