Energy Legislation, Interest Rates and Futurism
The Senate prepares for a vote to end debate on major global warming legislation.
The value of the dollar climbs slightly after the Federal Reserve indicated that further cuts in interest rates were unlikely.
Futurist Ray Kurzweil grabs headlines for his dramatic predictions of future technological advances.
1. ENVIRONMENT
The Senate prepares for a vote to end debate on major global warming legislation.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Energy & Global Warming Policy Myron Ebell on the politics behind the bill:
“The Democratic leadership in the Senate wants to end debate on the Lieberman-Warner-Boxer bill so they can quietly withdraw the bill from public scrutiny. It’s no surprise that leadership is looking for a face-saving way of making this bill go away. As a result of the brief debate this week, Americans are beginning to wake up to its disastrous consequences.”
2. FINANCE
The value of the dollar climbs slightly after the Federal Reserve indicated that further cuts in interest rates were unlikely.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Special Projects CounselHans Bader on the damage the Fed has already done with previous interest rate cuts:
“In a blistering attack, the Wall Street Journal today criticized the Federal Reserve’s inflationary easy-money policy, which aims to bail out mortgage borrowers through low interest rates, but caused the dollar to collapse in value against foreign currencies…The Fed’s policy has also been condemned by international investors and economists, like investment bank Julius Baer, who criticized the Fed for spawning an “Age of Decadence.”
3. TECHNOLOGY
Futurist Ray Kurzweil grabs headlines for his dramatic predictions of future technological advances.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Research Associate Ryan Radia on the accelerating pace of technological change:
“Even the wildest soothsayers could not have foreseen that in 2008, 50 percent of the world’s population–3.3 billionUnited States experienced nearly a century ago.” people–would own a handheld device capable of communicating instantaneously with anybody, anywhere on the planet. The information age has empowered hundreds of millions of people living under otherwise despotic regimes to enter the public sphere and engage in political discourse, freed from the constraints of living in a low-tech world. And a whole new generation of youths living in the developing world are witnessing an explosion of prosperity and wealth creation comparable to what the
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FOR MORE INFORMATION
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