CEI Daily Update
Issues in the News
1. ENVIRONMENT
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee holds a hearing on a bill to restrict greenhouse gas emissions.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Energy & Global Warming Policy Myron Ebell on why the bill amounts to energy rationing:
“The Lieberman-Warner bill sets goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that would cripple the economy and impoverish people if seriously pursued. The method chosen is the same cap-and-trade scheme that is failing to reduce emissions in the European Union while at the same time enriching powerful special interests at the expense of consumers. There is nothing in the Lieberman-Warner approach to suggest that they have learnt why the EU’s Emissions Trading System is failing or how to fix it.”
2. INTERNATIONAL
The anniversary of the founding of the United Nations focuses attention on the controversial UN-sponsored Law of the Sea Treaty.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Chris Horner on the White House’s attitude toward the treaty:
“As the Bush Administration spends more and more time creating its legacy, the worst collection of initiatives are those that whittle away at American sovereignty. President Bush is many things to many people but he is most clearly a multinationalist. He is playing too nice with UN-types and Europeans eager to diminish our sovereignty in the name of supranational authority. This clearest example is the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), conceived back when socialism was considered the future.”
3. BUSINESS
Both Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Congress propose plans to reform the market for mortgage loans.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Center for Entrepreneurship Director John Berlau on how the financial markets are reacting:
“…the Dow [Jones Industrial Average] had gone back to 14,000 the week before [Treasury Secretary Henry] Paulson opened his mouth and proposed the bailout last week. Today, the Dow rose by more than 100 points when big mortgage bank Countrywide Financial Corp. announced, without any direct prompting by any government agency, that it would refinance or modify $16 billion in mortgages. Part of the rise in the Dow was probably due to the fact that investors knew Countrywide was making a decision that would help its bottom line, rather than responding to the “moral hazard” of a promised government bailout. The market has lots of incentives to smooth out volatility. The problem is the government often gets in the way.”
Blog feature: For more news and analysis, updated throughout the day, visit CEI’s blog, Open Market.
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