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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…
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Regulate First, Think Never?
Twitter can be very useful. Walter Olson of Overlawyered.com sent out a tweet this morning about an Amazon list of toys that…
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RIP Patrick McGoohan, No. 6
Patrick McGoohan, star of the most brilliantly obscure TV series of all time, The Prisoner, has died at the age of 80. Growing up…
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Stimulating Who, Exactly?
Great point by Carter Wood over at the excellent Shopfloor blog of the National Association of Manufacturers. Building on my point at NRO…
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Deregulate Detroit
I have an expansion of my original “deregulatory bailout” plan for Detroit in The Detroit News today. I’m also quoted in their editorial…
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Stimulating Alternative Energy
In his speech on the stimulus package Thursday, President (Elect) Obama promised to double alternative energy use in three years. How likely is this?…
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Elephantine Mistake
In the 80s and 90s, Zimbabwean elephant management was a magnificent illustration of how property rights and markets combine to protect and even…
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The Bureaucratic Mind at Work
In an increasingly rare example of investigative journalism, the UK Times finds a ‘ghost bus’ designed to spare ministers’ blushe. The bus, which is…
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Let the Sunstein In
I was cheered this morning by the news that Cass Sunstein of the University of Chicago is to be the next head of…
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The Thaw Could Melt Our Cynical Hearts
Fans of eco-apocalyptic movies will be happy right now. The past few months have seen a veritable bonanza in human-killing eco-excellence.
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Krugman is No Liberal
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Thank You, 2008, and Good Riddance!
For supporters of freedom and markets, the Year of Our Lord 2008 has been close to a disaster. As D:Ream used to sing, things can…
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The New Energy Blog in Town
CEI mentor and friend Julian Simon called energy the “master resource” in his 1970 book Population Matters. He called it that because “energy enables…
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Prediction 2009: No Agreement at Copenhagen
The global warming community have suggested for a while now that, given the almost-certain change in US administration policy on global warming (remember John McCain’s…
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Point/Counterpoint
Germans build “passive houses” to reduce CO2 emissions. British children fall asleep in stuffy eco-classrooms.
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A Price on Carbon is No Panacea
Environmentalists hate coal. The recent This Is Reality campaign also seeks to point out that Clean Coal technology doesn’t exist yet. And they…
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Jail Time for Conflict of Interest?
David Bruggeman at Prometheus has what I think can only be described as an extreme view of conflict of interest: An Emory University Researcher…
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The Real Auto Bailout: A Six Point Plan for Regulatory Relief
Here’s what the auto companies really need – a reduction in the regulatory burden placed on them by Congress. These burdens have placed Detroit at…
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Bush Bailout Beggars Belief
If there’s one provision in the GM/Chrysler bailout that I just don’t get, it’s the suggestion that the automakers must be financially viable by…
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Taylor Tells of Tol’s Ton Toll
Jerry Taylor of Cato has an excellent summary of what the scientific literature tells us about the social cost of carbon emissions, drawing on…
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No Regrets Greenery for Kids
In recent days I’ve been heavily exposed to commercials featuring the Nickelodeon network’s teen stars advocating The Big Green Help, including, Lord help us,…
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EU Climate Agreement All Smoke and Mirrors
So if the EU has just put together an agreement to reduce emissions by 20% by 2020, why are the climate alarmist groups calling it…
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Deregulatory Bailout
There are hundreds of regulations that Congress and agencies have imposed on the auto industry, driving up their costs unnecessarily. As an illustration, these are…
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The Acceptable Face of Capitalism?
Our simplest and best answer to the whole bailout issue, it seems to me, is that creative destruction has to be allowed to take place.
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German Finance Humor
When the Germans are laughing at you, things are in a pretty serious mess. That’s the case with the British version of the bailout, which…
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Rule of Law at Stake in the UK
Yesterday the UK saw a large group of protesters bring a major London airport to a halt. Plane Stupid (you can’t get them for false…
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Life Imitates The Simpsons, Part CCXXXIV
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More on the Carmakers Recovery Assistance Program
Jeremy Clarkson on the fall of the British Auto Industry:…
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Carmakers Recovery Assistance Program
While lawmakers consider whether or not to bail out an industry they holed beneath the waterline, perhaps they could learn from the history on…
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Credit Spiral
So, say you've had a good relationship with a credit card company and been paying off substantially more than minimum payment over recent months. You've…
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How Not to Solve a Crisis
…is the title of a useful contribution to the discussion from the International Policy Network in London and the Lion Rock Institute in Hong…
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Tories Retreat From Green Taxes
A major part in the rebranding of the British Conservative Party following a traumatic election defeat (sound familiar?) in 2005 was a turn to environmentalism.
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More on Deflation
Good stuff from Joseph Lawler at the American Spectator, defending Robert Samuelson from, err, Robert Samuelson. He concludes: No reasonable observer of government…
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License to Print Money. Literally.
The threat of deflation is so big in the UK, where they have found their version of the financial crisis worsened by the weakness of…
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The Economic Change We Need
I have an article on that very subject over at NRO today. Check it out!…
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Explaining the Election to Brits
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Gore Rebuffs Press, Admits Failure, Still Adored
Paul Krugman once accused me of Gore Derangement Syndrome. In response, I suggested that he and others suffered from Gore Blindness Syndrome. Here’s another…