Environment
Environment
Goals of bill to reduce carbon dioxide emissions impractical
The primary goal of cap-and-trade legislation is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. It’s really that simple. But, as someone once said, the devil is in the details. And, that saying holds true for cap and trade, too. Steven Hayward, a Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, put pencil to paper ...
Commentary
Save the D.C. 216
A new campaign from D.C. Parents for School Choice called SaveThe216 launched today calls that a “slap in the face.” As one scholarship mother asks, “Congressmen and people in the [Obama] Administration get to choose the best school for their kids, why can’t I?” Despite efforts by Education Secretary Duncan ...
Commentary
Something Fishy
The Obama administration has made a terrible mistake. On Tuesday, August 4, the White House posted a blog entry enjoining Americans to spy on one another, and to report any “disinformation” which might undermine the administration’s health-care reform: “There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there. ...
Business & Economics
Santa Is a Hoosier
For Barack Claus, if it’s Wednesday, this must be Indiana. The state’s recreational-vehicle industry is hurting badly — the local unemployment rate is around 17 percent — and his empathy knows no bounds, particularly since the land of the Hoosiers is a swing state. But what sort of gifts should ...
Agriculture
Clunker Cash and Me
And so I asked the question on the minds of millions of my fellow concerned citizens: How can I get my snout into this trough? Easy: I buy a small car qualifying for the $4,500, and keep it for a few months until the cash-for-clunkers boondoggle has run its course. ...
Commentary
What Do School Tests Measure?
The New York Times, August 4, 2009 According to a New York Times analysis, New York City students have steadily improved their performance on statewide tests since Mayor Michael Bloomberg took control of the public schools seven years ago. While statewide passing rates on the tests have risen in every ...
Climate Change
Californians’ Global Warming Fervor Cools
New York Times, August 3, 2009 Californians’ eagerness to battle global warming seems to be cooling a bit: The latest survey on the state’s environmental attitudes, released on Wednesday, showed that 47 percent consider the threat of global warming very serious, a decline of seven percentage points from two years ...
Environment
California Says No Thanks to $100 Million; Never Mind to $4 Billion
Even after all the spending cuts and state worker furlough days, the state continues to be short on cash. The Assembly’s vote against the offshore drilling lease is troubling because it seems to lack any acknowledgment of California’s dire position both today and in the long term. Offshore drilling in ...
Commentary
Expanded Government — and No More Tonsil Theft?
In his televised press conference on Wednesday evening, President Obama said three separate times that he was being “honest” with the American people. So we know he was telling the truth. Therefore, we know that we can take the president at his word when he said: If you already have ...
Climate Change
Climate Economics 101 and Policy Activism
(1) The Discount Rate. Economists give wildly different estimates of the “social cost of carbon” and hence the “optimal” tax on an additional unit of emissions. These differences are not primarily due to the assumptions about climate systems or human vulnerabilities to warming. On the contrary, the main difference between, ...
Goals of bill to reduce carbon dioxide emissions impractical
The primary goal of cap-and-trade legislation is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. It’s really that simple. But, as someone once said, the devil is in the details. And, that saying holds true for cap and trade, too. Steven Hayward, a Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, put pencil to paper ...
Save the D.C. 216
A new campaign from D.C. Parents for School Choice called SaveThe216 launched today calls that a “slap in the face.” As one scholarship mother asks, “Congressmen and people in the [Obama] Administration get to choose the best school for their kids, why can’t I?” Despite efforts by Education Secretary Duncan ...
Something Fishy
The Obama administration has made a terrible mistake. On Tuesday, August 4, the White House posted a blog entry enjoining Americans to spy on one another, and to report any “disinformation” which might undermine the administration’s health-care reform: “There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there. ...
Santa Is a Hoosier
For Barack Claus, if it’s Wednesday, this must be Indiana. The state’s recreational-vehicle industry is hurting badly — the local unemployment rate is around 17 percent — and his empathy knows no bounds, particularly since the land of the Hoosiers is a swing state. But what sort of gifts should ...
Clunker Cash and Me
And so I asked the question on the minds of millions of my fellow concerned citizens: How can I get my snout into this trough? Easy: I buy a small car qualifying for the $4,500, and keep it for a few months until the cash-for-clunkers boondoggle has run its course. ...
What Do School Tests Measure?
The New York Times, August 4, 2009 According to a New York Times analysis, New York City students have steadily improved their performance on statewide tests since Mayor Michael Bloomberg took control of the public schools seven years ago. While statewide passing rates on the tests have risen in every ...
Californians’ Global Warming Fervor Cools
New York Times, August 3, 2009 Californians’ eagerness to battle global warming seems to be cooling a bit: The latest survey on the state’s environmental attitudes, released on Wednesday, showed that 47 percent consider the threat of global warming very serious, a decline of seven percentage points from two years ...
California Says No Thanks to $100 Million; Never Mind to $4 Billion
Even after all the spending cuts and state worker furlough days, the state continues to be short on cash. The Assembly’s vote against the offshore drilling lease is troubling because it seems to lack any acknowledgment of California’s dire position both today and in the long term. Offshore drilling in ...
Expanded Government — and No More Tonsil Theft?
In his televised press conference on Wednesday evening, President Obama said three separate times that he was being “honest” with the American people. So we know he was telling the truth. Therefore, we know that we can take the president at his word when he said: If you already have ...
Climate Economics 101 and Policy Activism
(1) The Discount Rate. Economists give wildly different estimates of the “social cost of carbon” and hence the “optimal” tax on an additional unit of emissions. These differences are not primarily due to the assumptions about climate systems or human vulnerabilities to warming. On the contrary, the main difference between, ...
