Water
Business & Economics
More regulators is the wrong fix
The BP oil spill has prompted calls for more federal regulatory power. Yet the behavior of the federal bureaucrats who were supposed to prevent this type of disaster provides no reason to expect better outcomes with more bureaucracy. The Minerals Management Service was the Interior Department agency responsible for regulation ...
Commentary
Less bang for education bucks
California’s public education establishment continually argues that the state ranks near the bottom in funding K-12 education. A just-released study by the U.S. Census Bureau pokes a giant hole in these claims. Those trying to portray California as miserly when it comes to education funding often cite figures put out ...
Climate Change
Why the Going is Tough for High-Cost Legislation on Climate Change
Vol.4 No.7: July 19, 2010 Why the Going is Tough for High-Cost Legislation on Climate Change By Amy Kaleita, Ph.D., Senior Fellow in Environmental Studies, Pacific Research Institute For those favoring legislation on climate change, these should be the best of times. The Democrats, typically the party of the greens, ...
California
Pensions are S.F.’s other golden gate
SACRAMENTO – I’d been starting to wonder about whether there are any true progressives left in California, until I heard about Jeff Adachi, San Francisco’s public defender. Many people describe themselves as progressive, mind you, but few seem to embody the core principles of a movement that is supposed to ...
California
Should The State Decide How Many Nurses a Hospital Must Hire?
Under ObamaCare, those who believe the government should decide how much medical care you deserve, and how it should be delivered, are eager to impose their preferences nationwide. Nurses’ unions lead the charge, armed with a recent study that could use more examination than it is getting from politicians and ...
Business & Economics
Oil Producers’ Liability Should Not Be Unlimited
Everyone loves a villain. And with the Deepwater Horizon disaster at the two-month mark, the love knows no bounds, uniting much of the political-media complex in a sticky goo of opportunism, finger-pointing and phony demands for apologies. That BP–having schmoozed the environmental left for years while compiling a dreadful safety ...
Business & Economics
What an economist learned in Haiti
I recently spent a week in Haiti helping with reconstruction efforts. I volunteered only as someone with two hands and a lot of Gatorade, but my professional background as an economist allowed me to diagnose some of Haiti’s problems. These go much deeper than the earthquake. I registered with the ...
Business & Economics
‘Government involvement’ never leads to lowered prices
After almost a month of repairs, the K.R. Harrington Water Treatment Plant is back in operation. Nashville residents can bathe and wash dishes normally. Now that the crisis has passed, it is useful to reflect on the economic lessons of government pricing and rationing. Let’s start with the basic facts. ...
Climate Change
Report Card for the IPCC
The nations capital has been slammed with storms this winter, and so has the climate-change debate. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) is now attempting to dig out from a scandal that policy makers and ordinary citizens alike will find instructive. In November, emails from the Climate Research Unit ...
California
Voters, not leaders, confront Vallejo’s mess
Two years after Vallejo made history as the first city in the Golden State to file for bankruptcy, voters have grasped the city’s dire financial situation even if some members of local government haven’t. Residents appeared to have approved Measure A by a slim margin last week. The vote count ...
More regulators is the wrong fix
The BP oil spill has prompted calls for more federal regulatory power. Yet the behavior of the federal bureaucrats who were supposed to prevent this type of disaster provides no reason to expect better outcomes with more bureaucracy. The Minerals Management Service was the Interior Department agency responsible for regulation ...
Less bang for education bucks
California’s public education establishment continually argues that the state ranks near the bottom in funding K-12 education. A just-released study by the U.S. Census Bureau pokes a giant hole in these claims. Those trying to portray California as miserly when it comes to education funding often cite figures put out ...
Why the Going is Tough for High-Cost Legislation on Climate Change
Vol.4 No.7: July 19, 2010 Why the Going is Tough for High-Cost Legislation on Climate Change By Amy Kaleita, Ph.D., Senior Fellow in Environmental Studies, Pacific Research Institute For those favoring legislation on climate change, these should be the best of times. The Democrats, typically the party of the greens, ...
Pensions are S.F.’s other golden gate
SACRAMENTO – I’d been starting to wonder about whether there are any true progressives left in California, until I heard about Jeff Adachi, San Francisco’s public defender. Many people describe themselves as progressive, mind you, but few seem to embody the core principles of a movement that is supposed to ...
Should The State Decide How Many Nurses a Hospital Must Hire?
Under ObamaCare, those who believe the government should decide how much medical care you deserve, and how it should be delivered, are eager to impose their preferences nationwide. Nurses’ unions lead the charge, armed with a recent study that could use more examination than it is getting from politicians and ...
Oil Producers’ Liability Should Not Be Unlimited
Everyone loves a villain. And with the Deepwater Horizon disaster at the two-month mark, the love knows no bounds, uniting much of the political-media complex in a sticky goo of opportunism, finger-pointing and phony demands for apologies. That BP–having schmoozed the environmental left for years while compiling a dreadful safety ...
What an economist learned in Haiti
I recently spent a week in Haiti helping with reconstruction efforts. I volunteered only as someone with two hands and a lot of Gatorade, but my professional background as an economist allowed me to diagnose some of Haiti’s problems. These go much deeper than the earthquake. I registered with the ...
‘Government involvement’ never leads to lowered prices
After almost a month of repairs, the K.R. Harrington Water Treatment Plant is back in operation. Nashville residents can bathe and wash dishes normally. Now that the crisis has passed, it is useful to reflect on the economic lessons of government pricing and rationing. Let’s start with the basic facts. ...
Report Card for the IPCC
The nations capital has been slammed with storms this winter, and so has the climate-change debate. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) is now attempting to dig out from a scandal that policy makers and ordinary citizens alike will find instructive. In November, emails from the Climate Research Unit ...
Voters, not leaders, confront Vallejo’s mess
Two years after Vallejo made history as the first city in the Golden State to file for bankruptcy, voters have grasped the city’s dire financial situation even if some members of local government haven’t. Residents appeared to have approved Measure A by a slim margin last week. The vote count ...
