CEI Planet: April – May 2008
View the new Montly Planet by downloading the PDF of the issue. Below you’ll find previews of the articles in this issue:
The New Environmental Priesthood By Iain Murray Religion plays a vitally important role in human life. his is especially true in America, and America’s dominant religion has always been Christianity. In 2004, the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that 71 percent of Americans agreed with three central Christian statements: “prayer is an important part of my daily life;” “we will all be called before God on judgment day to answer for our sins;” and “I never doubt the existence of God.” That figure was only 54 percent for self-identified liberals and 52 percent for selfidentified liberal Democrats.
FROM THE EDITORIAL DIRECTOR The Conspiracy to Deny the Poor Mobility—and Opportunity By Ivan Osorio Mobility is prosperity— a fact humans have recognized since towns arose along navigable waterways. Yet this simple fact seems to evade many pundits, environmental activists—and even screenwriters.
How the Community How the Community Reinvestment Act Hampers Reinvestment Act Hampers Access to Credit Access to Credit By Michelle Minton For nearly 30 years, American banks have lived under the burden of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), passed in the belief that banks systematically engaged in discriminatory lending.
Deregulate to Stimulate: Federal Regulatory State Swamps Congress’s “Stimulus” Package By Wayne Crews As Democrats and Republicans in Congress group-hug over their $150 billion smoke-and-mirrors redistributionist “stimulus” package, the federal budget defi cit is now projected to top $400 billion. Spending straddles the $3 trillion mark, the bulk of it going to America’s entitlement, health, and defense budget bonanzas. The same government that claims the new “stimulus” legislation will boost the economy already spends over 20 percent of this nation’s $13 trillion annual economic output.
Junk Science: A New ‘Green’ Body Count Begins By Steven J. Milloy Food riots caused by rising food prices have erupted around the world. Five people died in uprisings in Haiti, perhaps the fi rst of many casualties to come from the fad of being “green.”
The Good, the Bad & the Ugly
The Good: Greenland Not About to Disappear In his movie, An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore conjures up several potential disasters threatening to overwhelm humankind. Naturally, global warming was the culprit in all of them. Gore’s proposed solution is to shut down the world economy. The Bad: Destroying the American Auto Industry Reality rarely has much impact on policy making in Washington, and Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards are no exception. CAFE mandates automakers to improve the mileage of their fleets, with no regard for technological feasibility—or safety. Last year Congress voted to increase CAFE standards. In late April the Department of Transportation issued a new timetable for hiking CAFE. The Ugly: Ethanol Starves he World’s Poor Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) once complained about the sweetheart deal” of providing subsidies on top of subsidies on top of subsidies.” But today, both Republicans and Democrats have jumped on the ethanol bandwagon. Biofuels are supposed to deliver energy independence to America, but instead, they’re exacerbating hunger among the world’s poor.
Media Mentions Compiled by Richard Morrison
Center for Entrepreneurship Director John Berlau explains the fl aws in the recent forced merger of investment banks Bear Stearns and JPMorgan Chase:
“After an outcry from Bear Stearns shareholders in the takeover brokered by the Federal Reserve Bank, JPMorgan Chase has just upped its offer from $2 to $10 per common share. But Bear’s shareholders, as well as U.S. taxpayers, are still getting a lousy deal…”
-Investor’s Business Daily, March 27