Jeff Foust has a report on two speeches at the recent ISDC, from Jeff Greason and Paul Spudis.
[Update a few minutes later]
Grant Bonin explains the economics of rockets, and why the Senate Launch System is a waste of money.
Category Archives: Business
NASA Comes To Its Senses
It looks like the “two-phase” approach to the Senate Launch System, which would have resulted in a rocket that flew only four times for billions per flight, is dead. The problem is, they still have to operate within the absurd design constraints imposed by the porkers on the Hill.
Going Galt
Obama tunes out, and business goes on a hiring strike:
After April 13 Obama Democrats went into campaign mode. They staged a poll-driven Senate vote to increase taxes on oil companies.
They began a Mediscare campaign against Ryan’s budget resolution that all but four House Republicans had voted for. That seemed to pay off with a special election victory in New York’s 26th Congressional District.
The message to job creators was clear. Hire at your own risk. Higher taxes, more burdensome regulation and crony capitalism may be here for some time to come.
I’m hoping for not more than another year and a half, until January, 2013. We’ll probably survive that long, though there will be a lot of unnecessary suffering. I don’t want to think about another five years of it.
The GM Bailout
A critique of the economic simplemindedness of its defenders. These people need to read Bastiat.
[Update later afternoon]
Todd Zywicki lays out the ugly story.
Back From Florida
But taking a day off to rest from my “vacation.”
Meanwhile, go read my CEI colleague Iain Murray’s thoughts on the hidden tax and the cost of federal regulations.
How Big Is The National Debt?
This big. Scary.
An Update On The Loren Thompson Piece
I’ll probably try to update the post itself over there, but I’ll also note here that, since the publication of my piece yesterday, I have been reliably informed that the United Launch Alliance has no budget for this sort of thing, and if it did, it would spend it more effectively than on the sort of second-rate hackery put out by Mr. Thompson.
The Legacy Space Companies
Their desperation continues.
I wish more people would read and follow this how to. Though I still think that top posting is wrong under most circumstances. I’m just old fashioned that way, from the days before AOL and Microsoft ruined email.
Economic Stagnation
…explained at thirty-thousand feet. And our masters in Washington have no idea how destructive their idiotic policies are. Or perhaps they do.
[Update a few minutes later]
The Marxian worm. Which reminds me of the piece I wrote a while back: You just might be a Marxist.
[Update a couple minutes later]
It occurs to me for the first time that a cost-plus contract is intrinsically Marxist in nature. There is an implicit assumption that value is produced when the contractor is reimbursed for time and materials.
[Update a few minutes later]
An oldie but goody: Cultural Marxism.