But haven't there been wars to avoid that Nicaragua gets an own canal (afair even supported by the USA and later by the CIA. Eg their Civil War or before that the US occupation [1])
Back then mainly to avoid having such important routes in the hands of pro-communist states, later to keep their financial interest in Panama in check.
Wasn't the last state the the USA got the exclusive right to build such canal - basically just to allow nobody to do it.
How come that this isn't mentioned at all in the article?
(As said before all cited from vague history memory. Happy to get a correction/update on that.)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_occupation_of_Ni...
"Some opponents of the canal worry that the financing will actually come from the Chinese government itself, which Richard Feinberg, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, describes as "the Chinese planting their flag right in the heart of the Western Hemisphere.""
NPR is a news outlet funded in part by the US government it isn't particularly surprising that they aren't going to delve into history that makes the US look bad.
"While NPR does not receive any direct federal funding, it does receive a small number of competitive grants from CPB and federal agencies like the Department of Education and the Department of Commerce. This funding amounts to approximately 2% of NPR’s overall revenues."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NPR#Funding
Perhaps you were thinking of Voice of America, or the way it used to be funded 30-40 years ago?
http://www.npr.org/about-npr/178660742/public-radio-finances
NPR certainly has its own biases in reporting, but it is not solely funded by the US government and it is not a US government mouthpiece.
Is digging disturbing volcanoes really a serious concern?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Par%C3%ADcutin
Some stories have the farmer plowing the initial fissure open. If only he'd left that dirt alone, right?
Volcanic activity can lie very close to the surface, but I'd imagine that opening one by accident wouldn't make much difference. If a volcano's coming, it coming, and there can't be much in the way of human activity that'll make a real difference.
Anyway, it's really the Balrogs you gotta watch for. Those can be a real problem.
> And there was that pit on Dionisio Pulido’s farm. It had been there a long time. Señora Severina Murillo had played around it as a girl, fifty years before. It was maybe five meters (16 feet) in diameter, and maybe a meter and a half (5 feet) deep. It made strange noises, underground noises, sounds like rocks falling. The kids found it warm, and their sticks never reached the bottom. Storm waters drained through it in the winter, and sometimes there would be a mist, but it was never hot, not so Sr. Pulido noticed. He’d stash his yoke and plow there, sometimes, when he didn’t feel like hauling them all the way back to Parícutin village. He and his brother would sometimes try to fill in the hole, but no matter how much material they threw in to it, they could never fill it. A depression had formed around it the previous August. But no one thought much of it.
Part I: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/rosetta-stones/2013/02/2...
Part II: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/rosetta-stones/2013/02/2...
Panama seems to make $1B/yr on the canal, even restricted as it is, so I can see where they're coming from if you believe in a strong and growing unmet demand (for very large ships). But with the existing competition you really have to believe in a level of traffic that will saturate the Panama Canal in any reasonable expanded configuration. And probably the Suez as well.
And I'd be very worried about the Northwest Passage.
US is the US of America because of the Panama channel, without it transporting something from coast to coast is so expensive.
That is the reason they basically invaded Colombia and make independent Panama (from Colombia, it made it dependent of the US).
Now, while in theory Panama is now independent from the US, in practice it is not.
If the US wants to create sanctions to those that treat the petrodollar or US hegemony, like Russia(now) or China(tomorrow), and make their commerce with West Africa-Europe and Brazil way more expensive, they could simply close the Panama channel to those countries.
This is unacceptable for China. So China (and Russia) wants an alternative.
It is also a good way to spend their huge stockpile of US dollars China has that loses value with each Quantitative easing.
I think saying that Russia is an economic threat to US hegemony is a bit misplaced. In international trade, Russia has as much trade volume as Spain (which is around 1/5 of the trade volume of China/EU/US).
In the one area it does dominate (Natural Gas), basically all of it goes to the EU anyways. So at best Russia could help create a petroeuro (because Russia certainly doesn't have the international trade necessary to cancel out energy price volatility,so using the rouble would be very dangerous)
Besides, Russian use of the Panama canal is practically nil (they don't show up in the top 25 countries using it, in country of origin or destination). They have enough land routes to most of the big economies already.
The Panama Canal cost between $7b and $10b in today's dollar ($375m originally), and of course thousands died in the process of construction. Between higher labor and material costs, making this much larger, nicer, and avoiding thousands dying, a $40b or $50b cost wouldn't be surprising.
I think that this project is not really about a canal. That's a mouse trap. It's about a possible oil in the atlantic coast what Ortega and Co. are seeking. The treaty that was signed between HKND and Nicaragua gives the right to HKND to appropriate "any land" it may require for the project. Few days later of the singing, a British oil explorer announced a "very possible" presence of oil in the atlantic coast of Nicaragua.
As far as Oil, building a canal is not the way to reap rewards from oil. Here is a more relevant quote "U.S. firm, Noble Energy has given up on an exploratory oil well in Nicaragua, dubbed “Paradise 1,” after spending $90 million at the site. The firm concluded that there was not oil in sufficient quantities to justify further investment in the site." November 15th, 2013
Let's say the canal is able to generate twice the income (revenue minus costs) that panama canal currently generates indefinitely, which comes to 2.8 billion every year forever.
Let's assume the cost of capital for this project is 10% (a standard amount depending upon the investors).
With a 50 billion dollar initial investment the Net Present Value of the project is -22 Billion. In other words, in an ideal scenario the investors are better off lighting 21 billion dollars on fire right now than investing in the project...run.
I would expect his funding expectations are based on what he could borrow in China to finance this. Based on the number of "ghost cities" that have been constructed - not just buildings, but entire cities with no occupants or revenues - it's not out of the question.
I think this gives us a sense of how bad banking problems are in China.
Big issue is that this will take 120 miles to cut, will they be able to recoup their investment if their fees to traverse are lower than panama, because they have to be to compete. Time crossing this canal has to be slower than panama's 48 mile long canal. So assume 2.5x travel time, you have to charge lower fees because of the travel costs associated with the extra distance etc. time = fuel
Edit : See this recent article about wang jing http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/04/us-china-canal-ins...
It is slow at each end going through the locks, but not so slow going through the lakes.
... outsiders impose their ideas on the locals, deciding what is good for them. This project should be entirely up to the people of Nicaragua, especially those who will lose land or livelihood.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671244094/bobsutton-...
