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Obama Should Learn from Germany about Cape Wind
I have an op-ed online in USA Today today entitled “America should learn from Europe on wind power.” In it, I outline how Europe…
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I, Pencil – Simply Perfect
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Oh (Big) Brother
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New Regulations Threaten To Wipe Out Community Banks
The new Basel III capital requirement regulations are supposed to strengthen the international financial system, with their avowed effect being to: improve the banking…
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Give a Man a Fish
Those with an interest in conserving our oceans’ fish stocks and those with an interest in promoting private property should both be interested in my…
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Let’s Lose LOST
The Law of the Sea Treaty would drastically undermine American sovereignty, giving massive powers to the U.N. (aka the Dictators’ Club of New York), but…
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Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Survey of the Regulatory State
The latest edition of my colleague Wayne Crews’s annual snapshot of the regulatory state, “Ten Thousand Commandments,” is out. This year’s lowlights include: Estimated…
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Greek Tragedy Nears a Dramatic End
With the prospects for a Greek pro-austerity coalition fading rapidly, here is a round-up of the most useful stories on the Greek tragedy: The…
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Austerity Bites – But It Isn’t the Problem
The election results in Europe, we are told, are a vote against the austerity of "savage" spending cuts. Veronique de Rugy, in National Review Online,…
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The Great Unanswered Question About the Eurozone
In a column for the FT today, Wolfgang Munchau lays out what may be the only plausible solution to the Eurozone crisis – for…
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John Kay on the Market Economy
In a truly excellent column for the Financial Times today, John Kay lays out in a few hundred words a clear defense of the…
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Re-organizing the Federal Government to Crush Opposition
One of the few virtues of the federal government has been its inefficiency. With functions spread out across different agencies and duplicated powers and responsibilities,…
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A Nice Review of Stealing You Blind
David Hogberg of Investor’s Business Daily and The American Spectator has a very complimentary review of my book, Stealing You Blind: How Government Fatcats…
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Time to Include Britain in NAFTA?
On Monday, I sent this letter to the editor of the Financial Times in response to an appalling column by former British apparatchik Jonathan…
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The Unemployment Discrimination Myth
The defunct American Jobs Act, which Hans skewered so well a while back, contains a provision to end “discrimination against the unemployed.” Apparently, there…
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Stealing You Blind: Some Solutions to Over-Government
The central theme of my new book Stealing You Blind is that America is over-governed – at federal, state, and local level (there’s a…
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Stealing You Blind: The Fate of Greece
Rioters have taken to the streets in the Greek capital of Athens. While not as unusual an occurrence as it is in Athens, Georgia,…
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A Definition of Unsustainable: The Long-Term Budget Outlook
The Congressional Budget Office has released its latest edition of the Long-Term Budget Outlook, and it makes for grim reading. Federal debt is currently…
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Stealing You Blind: Plans for Future Theft
One of the themes of Stealing You Blind is how public sector unions have worked with politicians to organize an industrial-scale transfer of wealth…
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Shovel-Ready Was Never Shovel-Ready
President Obama has belatedly realized that the “shovel-ready projects” he touted so much in his stimulus bill two years ago were anything but: “Shovel-ready…
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A Modest Proposal to Add Jobs and Reduce Injuries
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Stealing You Blind: Drugging Monkeys on Your Dime
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NFL, Players in Court Today
Today is a crucial day in the ongoing labor dispute between the NFL and the supposedly disbanded players’ union, the NFLPA as they return to…
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Deregulatory Baby Steps
In a welcome move, the White House announced this morning that a review of regulations by government departments had found 30 (count 'em) regulations…
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The Loony Left Era
The Economist has this to say about the NLRB’s pursuit of Boeing: The NLRB is an autonomous body, but its board members are appointed…
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Trade Week: Why I Learned to Hate Civilization
When I first played the strategy game Civilization -- on an Amiga computer in the early 1990s -- I was instantly hooked. I was a…
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NFL Case Illustrates Power of Unions
The NFL's protracted labor dispute with The Union Formerly Known As The NFL Players' Association (TUFKATNFLPA) turned another corner yesterday. An Appellate Court ruling granted…
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Trade Week: Fair Trade Isn’t Fair
As I passed by the Commerce Department on my way in to work this morning, I saw the bureaucrats had erected a banner for…
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Time to Recharter Executive Agencies
Several government agencies are mightier today than traditional departments like the Treasury. For instance, the EPA is one of the major regulatory bodies and…
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The Policy Side of the Royal Wedding
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Debt Warning Should Force Decision on America’s Future
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A Definition of Classical Liberalism?
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Paul Ryan’s Budget Proposal is Half the Answer
This morning, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) unveiled a bold proposal to trim trillions off America’s bloated budget. It represents the only serious proposal out there…
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CSR and Oil Companies: The Truth Dawns?
The environmental left is in some disarray following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. After all, BP had trumpeted for years the idea that it was…
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The Environment is a Luxury Good
One of the central insights of Free-Market Environmentalism is that people treat the environment as a luxury good. They are willing to pay for it…
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Life Imitates The Simpsons – again
The Politico reports that Sen. Harry Reid (D.-NV) has hit on a new scheme for passing the chronically unpopular climate legislation that has been…
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Mordor Looks For More Wealth For Its Orcs
John Gapper has a very good column in the Financial Times today. He issues a timely warning that governments are on the prowl, looking…
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EPA Overreach
I have an article in the Washington Times today about the EPA’s new status as a rogue agency. It begins: The Senate undermined its…
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Senator Kerry – Wrong on Iran
Senator Kerry just said during the debate on SJRes 26, the “Murkowski resolution” to disapprove EPA’s rule relating to greenhouse gas regulation that the USA…
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The Enviro-Left Machine in Action
Fenton Communications has a long history of work within the left-wing advocacy apparatus. I’m delighted to see a great addition to the blogosphere, the…
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The BPA Myth – continued
I have an article today on both NRO and NPR about the environmental establishment’s continued war on science as it relates to the…
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The Climate Peer-Review Process: Hopelessly Broken
The Climategate scandal showed how several of the world's top climate scientists were hell bent on keeping "skeptical" views out of the scientific literature and…
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Coming Soon: The Auto Purchase Mandate
As threatened, the new CAFE standards have arrived, with the EPA muscling in on territory reserved by statute to the Transportation Department. As Marlo Lewis…
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Climategate Whitewash
The UK’s House of Commons Science and Technology Committee has issued its report into the so-called Climategate scandal. As might be expected, it’s pretty…
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Should We Celebrate the CFL?
In its story on Human Achievement Hour today, USA Today says we will be celebrating breakthrough technologies "such as the Compact Fluorescent Lightbulb." Hmmm. …
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Be Careful What You Wish For…
For many years, the climate alarmist movement pushed the development of corn ethanol as the “fuel of the future” on the grounds that it would…
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Green Jobs Fantasy
I have a piece in National Review Online today outlining the fantasy behind Sen. Lindsey Graham’s latest attempt to keep cap-and-trade alive. Here’s the beginning:…
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Follow the Money? That’s Exactly What Rent-Seekers Do
This fellow from New Zealand appears to think that Climategate proves that the big money is in climate skepticism. How does that work? Here’s…
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An Authoritarian Climate
Certain influential forces in the environmental movement – most notably James Hansen of NASA – have expressed disquiet with the inability of democracies to deal…
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Fisking Paul Krugman
In today’s New York Times, Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman preens about intellectual dishonesty while presenting the most intellectually dishonest case about the cost of…
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Obama Speech to the UN: The Data
Myron has already pointed out how most of what the President claimed were the threats from global warming are exaggerated. Here’s the data to…
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Finding Something to Praise in Obama’s Speech Today
While this speech is mostly hogwash, I am surprised and delighted to be able to find one thing to praise in it: Later this…
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An Independent Analysis
The Greens keep trying to change the subject when it comes to what the released Treasury documents about cap-and-trade actually show. They’ve got a bunch…
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Firing Blanks on FOIA Part II
In his update to his post, Declan McCullagh notes an objection by the Center for American Progress: The fourth objection is the most compelling.
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Firing Blanks in Response to FOIA
A previously unreleased analysis prepared by the U.S. Department of Treasury says the total in new taxes would be between $100 billion to $200 billion…
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Beer for my Horses
The global-warming industry would probably still be solely owned by assoted cranks and romantics (and the odd vice president) if it weren’t for a…
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New Paper Shows Staggering Cost to Americans of Waxman-Markey
There’s a new cost:benefit study from New York University Law School’s Institute for Public Integrity that, its authors claim, shows that, “From almost…
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We Are The Angry Mob, We Read The Papers Every Day…
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Germanic Hoards
The old central powers (Germany, Austria, Hungary) seem to have come together again in opposition to plans to phase out incandescent light bulbs in…
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Bank Robbers for Transparency!
The news that the Federal Government has forced UBS to give up the details of 4000 of its customers’ transactions has other financial institutions…
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Don’t Forget Cap and Trade!
Even though 4 Democratic Senators are so nervous about the electricity tax called cap-and-trade they are urging their leadership to drop it from the…
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Smart Is As Smart Does
This picture accompanying this post is doing the rounds on the internet. The commentary normally reads: Below is a…
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British Government Pays Lobbyists to Lobby It on Climate Change
More proof that government does things better! In traditional “astroturfing,” a company would pay a PR firm to set up a fake grassroots organization aimed…
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The Right to a Green Job?
Demand for wind turbine blades in Europe has slipped, apparently, so a British company that makes them, Vestas, has plans to let go 625 workers…
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America’s Worst Idea?
I’m very sorry to see that Ken Burns’ new film series is to be entitled The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. As I detail…
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Lamar Smith on Cap and Tax
A good, short, succinct summary of why Rep Lamar Smith (R.-KY) voted against Cap-and-Tax. Hat-tip: The Chilling Effect [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBFwZUiGOWs 285 234]…
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Hybrid Owners Aren’t As Smug As They’re Painted
Very interesting, but of course unscientific*, poll of hybrid vehicle owners over at HybridCarBlog. It turns out that very few hybrid owners bought their…
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Forza Italia!
Italy’s Senate has overturned a 1987 ban on nuclear power, passed in panic after Chernobyl. This is good news for Italians, as they face…
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Blowing Sunshine
Apologies for the late notice, but I had an article on the potential of solar power in last Friday’s Washington Examiner: If the American…
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Compare and Contrast
Bjorn Lomborg, November 2007: …although it may seem almost comically straightforward, one of the best temperature-reducing approaches is very simple: paint things white. Cities…
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Victory for Capitalism in World’s Largest Democracy
India’s Congress Party was responsible for many mistakes when it turned India into a corrupt socialist state in the 1960s and 70s, but it changed…
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The Road to Serfdom
On Hayek’s brithday, the following brief speech from internet megastar Daniel Hannan MEP should remind us that there are all too many paths leading to…
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Kids Know a Bucket of S**t When They See One
I’ve always been a fan of Lewis Black’s take on things, even when it’s obvious we disagree politically, but this take on the way TV…
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We Wouldn’t Have Teaparties If It Wasn’t For Rentseeking
Those who say we tried the free market and it failed should research the history of the Boston Tea Party a little. We didn’t even…
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That G20 Communique
Yesterday’s communiqué from the leaders of the G20 – a motley collection of democracies and dictatorships – has some good points, but in general…
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A Global Green New Deal – What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Showing that he believes Al Gore’s typical misunderstanding that the Chinese word for crisis is made up of the characters for threat and opportunity (…
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Show Your Work!
Fiona Harvey of the FT is one of the better journalists covering the environmental beat, but I’m afraid that is a bit like saying that…
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Parallel Lies
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been talking with President Obama this morning, and high on the agenda was the PM’s call for international banking…
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Alarmism Has Consequences
In a magnificent display of self-delusion, the green movement is holding a demonstration at the Capitol’s power plant today to protest the continued use of…
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The Energy Tax Budget
“Not one dime,” said President Obama in his address to Congress, referring to how much extra tax people earning under $250,000 a year will have…
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SOTU Watch: Energy Claims
The President might make various remarks relating to energy tonight. These are likely to center around grandiloquent claims as to the effectiveness of “green jobs”…
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So What Does He Think of Cap & Trade?
Good news and bad news for drivers from federal Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. The good news is: LaHood said he firmly opposes raising the…
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The Auto Bailout We Need
The automakers have come back for more taxpayer money, which is exactly what we warned would happen when the first bailout was granted…
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Fraud in More Ways Than One
The news of the federal fraud charges against billionaire Texan financier Sir Allen Stanford (he got the knighthood from his dual citizenship from Antigua)…
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Who Cares About the Consumer?
Electricity consumers beware! The so-called-stimulus bill includes provision for something called “decoupling.” E&E Daily reports: Also included in the final version is a requirement that…
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Environmental Policies Kill – Again!
One of the main themes of my book, The Really Inconvenient Truths, is that misguided environmental policies often lead to humanitarian and environmental disaster.
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Book-Banning, 21st Century Style
Remember the fuss when it was revealed that Sarah Palin had enquired about removing books from her town library? It would have been so much…
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Tucker 1 Lovins 0
Those who have been following the “alternative energy” fantasists for a while will recognize the name of Amory Lovins, the so-called “sage” (yet another pseudo-religious…
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The Prince and the Paupers
I still regard myself as a loyal subject of Her Britannic Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, but it’s hard not to come over all Cromwellian when…
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Support for Stimulus Collapses Internationally
Rasmussen reports that support for the borrow-and-spend plan is falling rapidly: The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 37% favor the…
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The Smart Way to Provide Power
It’s not often I disagree with Ron Bailey, but his article about the “Smart Grid” today glosses over the main reason why electric companies…
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Appetite for Creative Destruction
Duff McKagan of Guns n’ Roses fame is going to be writing on financial matters at Playboy.com. What makes this more interesting than the…
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Liveblog of Al Gore Climate Hearing
No TV station seems to be covering this live, but you can watch here. Kerry in his introduction says “if there was a…
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When the Irreversible Effects Meet the Immovable Policy
Apparently, global warming is now irreversible. Or, at least, it is if you don’t consider any of the policy options that might, you know,…
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Stimulus to Hunger
Great. Now USDA head Tom Vilsack is saying the US ethanol industry needs to be protected in the borrow-and-spend bill, and beyond:…
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Krugman is Wrong – Again!
Boy, that wacky Paul Krugman. The newly-crowned Nobel laureate (they should be allowed to wear a laurel wreath everywhere they go, so we’d know of…
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The New Green Economy?
I’ve spent a while crunching the numbers relating to energy and environment spending in the stimulus bill. The bill will spend about $80 billion on…
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The Daddy Knows Best Inaugural Address
Fatal conceit alert! Here’s the text of the Inaugural Address, with some comments from your humble servant. For everywhere we look, there is work…
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Britain Prays for Obama Miracle
With a trillion dollar national debt, a currency crisis and their own bank bailout having conclusively failed, Britain is on the edge of bankruptcy. That…
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A Tide Turning?
Very interesting new poll from Rasmussen that suggests a significant reversal in public opinion over the causes of global warming. Forty-four percent (44%) of…