Showing archive for: “Energy & Environment”
Public Choice and the Law Textbook
Todd Zywicki and Maxwell Stearns have a draft of their new textbook, “Public Choice Concepts and Applications in the Law,” available for review for profs that are interested in teaching with the manuscript this Fall 2008 or Spring 2009 term (the book is due to be published in 2009). The book is designed for law ... Public Choice and the Law Textbook
Al Gore = Arthur Laffer?
Greg Mankiw explains.
More Kookiness in Chicago
I’ve previously tiraded about paternalism in my beloved Chicago. I won’t beat that dead horse, but I just can’t ignore the latest liberty restriction imposed by our esteemed aldermaniacs. The members of the aldermen’s Buildings Committee recently voted to extend the city’s smoking ban to performers in theatrical productions. What a freakin’ embarrassment. The aldermen ... More Kookiness in Chicago
Midwest Farmers 1, Environment 0, Poor People -1
Friday’s WSJ documented an effect of ethanol mandates: Rising costs for agricultural commodities are making their way up the food chain into the food you eat. Thanks to rising demand for corn-based ethanol, corn prices have nearly doubled during the past year. That’s raised costs for corn products, like the ubiquitous high-fructose corn syrup that’s ... Midwest Farmers 1, Environment 0, Poor People -1
Let Ethanol Fail
The recent State of the Union address, in which President Bush called for an almost 500% increase in alternative fuel consumption by 2017, once again turned the nation’s attention to the various elixirs that promise to make the U.S. “energy independent.” The closer we look, though, the less appealing the leading alternative fuel — ethanol ... Let Ethanol Fail
Familiar Rantings at the Washington Post
In January, Washington, D.C. will join the nearly 500 cities nationwide that have thwarted the free market’s accommodation of heterogeneous preferences and have ordered private property owners to forbid their invitees from engaging in otherwise legal behavior. I am speaking, of course, of Washington’s forthcoming smoking ban. The Washington Post was gracious enough to permit ... Familiar Rantings at the Washington Post
Update: Vandy's PhD in Law and Economics
A few months ago, Keith posted regarding the announcement of Vanderbilt’s new PhD program in Law and Economics. The post generated a lively discussion in the comments (and a follow up post here on GMU’s own Law and Econ program). Much of the discussion focused on the following questions: what would such a program should ... Update: Vandy's PhD in Law and Economics
The Perils of Paternalism
According to Bar None, an op-ed by Jack Turner in today’s NYT, “history shows that, however commendable the reasoning, efforts to control how people drink — or eat, or smoke — tend to backfire.” I’ve made a similar argument in discussing smoking bans. Advocates of such bans (often citing the work of “norms scholars,” such ... The Perils of Paternalism
Saving Tigers (and Other Endangered Species)
Want to save endangered species? Turn them into private assets. So argues Barun Mitra in today’s NYT. In Sell the Tiger to Save It, Mitra observes that our thirty year-old conservation policy, which prohibits harm to individual tigers and the trading of tiger products, has failed to increase the tiger population. The problem, Mitra argues, ... Saving Tigers (and Other Endangered Species)
The NYT on SCOTUS’s Wetlands Decision
Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a fractured decision in consolidated appeals raising the issue of which wetlands come within the ambit of the federal Clean Water Act (“CWA�). The wetlands at issue were next to drainage ditches that, when full of water, would eventually flow into navigable waters. The record did not establish whether ... The NYT on SCOTUS’s Wetlands Decision
Do Positive Externalities Always Justify Government Subsidies? Some Insights From the Austrians and Public Choice
The folks over at Lawyers, Gun$, and Money are chiding me for ignoring (or, as they say, never having heard of) positive externalities. A couple of days ago, I criticized a NYT editorial calling for the federal government to “throw its weight behind” private efforts to develop alternative fuels. My main point was that the ... Do Positive Externalities Always Justify Government Subsidies? Some Insights From the Austrians and Public Choice
Alternative Fuels: Let Markets, Not Government, Decide.
It’s a strange day when the New York Times advocates corporate tax breaks. It’s an even stranger day when I dissent from that recommendation. Well, today must be a strange day indeed, for they did, and I must. The upshot of today’s editorial, Let Them Go Green, is that the federal government should “throw its ... Alternative Fuels: Let Markets, Not Government, Decide.
