CEI Daily Update
Issues in the News
1. BUSINESS
A federal program to help subprime mortgage holders attracts 45,000 applicants.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Eli Lehrer puts the subprime mortgage shakeup into historical perspective:
“Analyzed relative to the economy as a whole, the current subprime crisis appears likely to have a significantly smaller overall impact than the S&L crisis or the housing foreclosures that took place during the Great Depression. … Analyzed in isolation, economic statistics mean little. The United States, for example, has more unemployed citizens than does France, even though France has an unemployment rate about twice as high as America’s. Raw numbers mean almost nothing: To measure the economic impact of financial events, it is important to look at them in context.”
2. INTERNATIONAL
Russian energy officials seek to expand their access to natural gas supplies in Africa.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Energy Policy Analyst William Yeatman on the implications of Russia’s energy strategy:
“European leaders have been slow to heed calls for a diversification of the continent’s energy sources. Meanwhile, Russia’s state-owned energy giant, Gazprom, has been consolidating control over the regional supply. In May, 2007, Russian and Central Asian leaders came to agreement about the transport of natural gas from the Caspian Sea on terms favorable to Moscow. Algeria, the second largest provider of natural gas to Europe, has talked with Gazprom about better coordination, which has stoked fears of a possible natural gas cartel, like OPEC. And now, Russia is making moves on Nigeria’s promising reserves.”
3. ENVIRONMENT
Over 400 scientists garner headlines for refuting alarmist claims regarding global warming.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Chris Horner on how the climate debate is changing:
“There has been a subtle yet important shift in the rhetoric of some global warming alarmists, whose industry has thrived for years on a disciplined party line of ‘ignore the skeptics.’ This has played out in many absurd ways , including by insisting that only a dozen or so actually exist. The audience for their rhetoric has remained instead the public. We see here what appears to be almost desperation, coming on the heels of widespread pickup given to a recent Inhofe, et al. compilation of more than 400 scientists – from both ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ disciplines, just as is true with the IPCC and alarmists, generally, though they conveniently forget this when attacking.”
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