In this talk, I will use two recent studies to substantiate the usefulness of Moist Static Energy (MSE) budget analysis for understanding forced regional circulation change. The first concerns the Sahel rainfall response to uniform oceanic warming (http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0785.1), while the second deals with the East Asian monsoon change caused by absorbing aerosols (https://www.gfdl.noaa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Persad_etal_2016.pdf). If time allows, I will touch upon the issue of how to use observations to falsify model simulations, which may hold the key to reliable climate projection.