An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.
The House of Representatives is planning on voting this week on the week Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill. This bill requires entities to hold one allowance for any fuel whose combustion would emit one ton of greenhouse gas. The below image shows the Heritage foundations estimation of the costs of this program.
There has been push back from environmentalist for the lack of stringency of the bill (see this op-ed), whereas conservatives criticize the bill for the negative consequences to the economy and increased costs to households (see this report).
For me …
Posts on all things economics. Why we do what we do, why we chose how to do it, and who gets a piece of what’s done.
Today the House will be voting on the American Clean Energy and Security Act (Waxman Markey Bill).
See my last post on my view of GHG legislation. This post is reserved to express the concept of certainty.
Vote Yes, For Certainty
I work in the energy industry and part of my work involves helping utilities make decisions. Over the last few years it is increasingly difficult for energy industry professionals to make decisions. This isn’t because of a change in culture or increasingly complicated decision making …
The War on Drugs was started by President Nixon 40 years ago and a recent Op-Ed in the NY Times explains how it has failed.
Nicholas Kristof describes three ill-effects of the War on Drugs:
1. Increased incarceration.
The United States now incarcerates people at a rate nearly five times the world average. In part, that’s because the number of people in prison for drug offenses rose roughly from 41,000 in 1980 to 500,000 today. Until the war on drugs, our incarceration rate was roughly the same as that of other countries.
2. Increased …
I came across a presentation of Google’s new product, well its not quite out yet, and its not quite a product in the traditional sense of having to be bought. Regardless, this made me excited about the possibilities of the internet, which I think we as a society are only beginning to appreciate. I am spending time lately thinking about using wikis as collaboration tools for companies as well as microblogging. Check out the first 20 minutes and/or skip around for screen shots of Google Wave (minute …
I was just watching an interview with Milton Friedman and he stated that,
There is a smoke stack on the back of every government program. That is to say that every government programs impose a cost on third parties where the third parties are not receiving compensation.
This came out of the context of discussing when government may need to intervene in the market. Milton Friedman and some other classical liberals (libertarians) think that the only case for government is when it is not feasible for market arrangements to make …
I came across this via an email chain and thought it worth sharing. I had to travel over the last few days and was surprised at how many places now have a huge bottle of hand sanitizer on their counter. In fact I visited a perspective client and the security guard rubbed Purrell all over our badges before handing them to me. I understand precaution, but the badge attaches to my suit, and I tend not to chew on it, at least when it is a perspective …
