I’ve wondered this for years: why do we get shampoo, but not toothpaste in hotel rooms?
It really does seem to be a true market failure, and one that’s become more acute since the stupid new TSA rules about carrying such things in carry ons.
Category Archives: Economics
Peak-Oil Blogging
…has peaked.
Now, let’s hope the same happens to climate-hysteria sites.
The Lawless Rolling Train Wreck That Is ObamaCare
The Affordable Care Act’s Section 1513 states in black-letter law that “(d) Effective Date.—The amendments made by this section shall apply to months beginning after December 31, 2013.” It does not say the Administration can impose the mandate whenever it feels it is politically convenient.
This selective enforcement of laws has become an Administration habit. From immigration (the Dream Act by fiat) to easing welfare reform’s work requirements to selective waivers for No Child Left Behind, the Obama Administration routinely suspends enforcement of or unilaterally rewrites via regulation the laws it dislikes. Now it is doing it again on health care, without any consultation from, much less the approval of, Congress. President Obama probably figures business and Republicans won’t object because they don’t like the law anyway.
Probably. But it’s a mess, and it’s only going to get worse.
America 3.0
On the anniversary of the birth of America 1.0, Michael Barone reviews a timely new book
ObamaCare
It’s so popular that it had to be passed in the dead of night and delayed for two elections.
[Update a few minutes later]
“The best delay for ObamaCare is a permanent one.”
Also, suckers!
Insect-Sized Drone Assassins
What is the political equilibrium?
One thing I can imagine is setting up a defensive perimeter around yourself with your own swarm of them. But that’s the kind of world that lies ahead, absent a technological collapse (which would be even more horrible).
Raising the Minimum Wage
…and destroying an economy.
But gee, it seems like such a good idea. If you’re economic ignoramus, that is.
Obama’s Five-Year Plan
…for the climate:
Speaking at Georgetown University on Tuesday, President Barack Obama outlined his “new national climate action plan,” which amounts to a federal top-down five-year plan—although he has only four years to implement it. Obama’s plan ambitiously seeks to control nearly every aspect of how Americans produce and consume energy. The goal is to cut the emissions of greenhouse gases and thus stop boosting the temperature of the earth. The actual result will be to infect the economy with the same sort of sclerosis seen in other centrally planned nations.
This is doubly hubristic: that he thinks he knows what’s happening with the climate, and that he thinks he know what best to do about and that it will work.
A Sweet Deal
Not for the taxpayers or sugar consumers, though:
That’s right: The federal government protects the sugar industry, lends it money after promising that the loans wouldn’t cost anything to taxpayers, and after all that still ends up having to buy part of its sugar production because borrowers can’t repay the loans. Customers pay higher prices for sugar, and then they pay again when their tax dollars are used to buy over-priced sugar and bad loans. And yet, lawmakers on the Hill continue to support farm interests in spite of the unfairness and inefficiency of the whole system.
This is the opposite of good government.
Food Stamps And Farms
This is long overdue:
The plan being contemplated by Cantor closely tracks an earlier proposal by Indiana Republican Marlin Stutzman. In a press release issued last week, Stutzman pointed out that “Eighty percent of the spending goes toward food stamps” in the original farm bill. He called on the House to “do our work in the full light of day by splitting this bill and having serious debates on both farm and welfare policy.”
It’s a shame that Congress doesn’t seem capable of having a serious debate about anything.