Google, Ethanol and a Housing Trust Fund
Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) grills Google on consumer privacy concerns.
Gas prices dip slightly from their record high.
The Senate considers a housing “rescue” bill.
1. TECHNOLOGY
Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) grills Google on consumer privacy concerns.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews and Research Associate Ryan Radia on why e-commerce privacy worries are overblown:
“Washington’s drive to regulate online business and consumer relationships threatens to undermine diverse individual privacy preferences and hinder the evolution of better standards. Government should get out of the way of e-commerce innovation. Web sites often collect and sell information about their visitors. The latest twist is that behavioral marketing firms ‘watch’ our clicks to better target their ads. This has stoked privacy concerns that are overblown; a seller does not need to know who you are, but simply what someone like you tends to buy.”
2. CONSUMER
Gas prices dip slightly from their record high.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis on why even with high oil costs, ethanol is still more expensive than regular gasoline:
“With oil topping $135 a barrel, ethanol must be cheaper than gasoline, right? Not if you adjust for the fact that ethanol has about 30% less energy content than gasoline by volume. The American Automobile Association monitors daily average national prices for gasoline and E-85, motor fuel blended with 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. When the ethanol fuel-economy penalty is taken into account, E-85 cost $4.704 a gallon compared to $4.486 for premium gasoline and $4.078 for regular gasoline.”
3. FINANCE
The Senate considers a housing “rescue” bill.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Center for Entrepreneurship Director John Berlau on the “trust fund” proposal that’s part of the legislation:
“But the granddaddy of all phony government trust funds may be soon enacted in housing bailout legislation before Congress. The so-called Affordable Housing Trust Fund — part of the legislation that passed the Senate Banking Committee in May and is poised to come to the Senate floor as early as this week — is almost set up from the beginning to be diverted to purposes other than affordable housing. The holes in this ‘trust fund’ would allow the money to be easily siphoned off to liberal activist groups such as Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) for lobbying and even political campaigning.”