Bailouts, Wind Energy, and Credit Card Regulation

Bailouts

The Obama administration will announce today a new $14 billion bailout program to bail out some people who are underwater on their mortgages. 

CEI’s Counsel for Special Projects Hans Bader argues that this bailout makes responsible citizens “Suckers.”

“So if you saved money for a down payment, you were a sucker.  If you’d spent your money instead, the government might give you a bailout.  But since your down payment reduced the size of your mortgage, your mortgage is smaller than the value of your house, and you don’t qualify for a bailout.”

Wind Energy

Many people are wondering whether offshore wind farms will be able to withstand Hurricane Earl, or other hurricanes in the future.

CEI’s Director of energy and global warming policy Myron Ebell thinks it is doubtful.

“The people who manufacture the wind turbines insist they can handle high winds. But then there’s the example of that windmill in Oregon that collapsed in 25-mph winds back in 2007 and killed a guy who was working on it. That means wind power has already killed more Americans than have been killed by nuclear power in all our history.“

Credit Card Regulation

A Washington Post editorial “On better terms” conceded that overall interest rates have risen on credit cards after the passage of the Credit CARD Act and that the limits on credit that have resulted may be slowing economic growth. It concluded, however, that these drawbacks are tolerable because “the consumer-credit business is being put back on a more sustainable basis.”

Director of the Center for Investors and Entrepreneurs John Berlau argues that proponents of the CREDIT CARD Act overlook the role credit cards play in business startups.

“According to a survey by the Kauffman Foundation, 48 percent of new businesses used personal debt of the owner, most commonly with personal credit cards, for financing.“