Looks like it’s been around since January, but Alan Wasser draws my attention to Colin Doughan’s Space Business Blog, where he has an interview with Alan on space property rights.
Category Archives: Economics
Four Ways
…that Congress caused the financial crisis. And they seem determined to continue (completely leaving Fannie and Freddie out of the new legislation).
[Update a while later]
Some thoughts on popping bubbles and the demonization of short sellers by clueless politicians.
[Update mid afternoon]
Don’t know what happened to the second link above — it was working when I put it up.
Meanwhile, Matt Welch points out that we are out of money. Or more precisely, we are out of other peoples’ money, which is, as Lady Thatcher famously pointed out the point at which socialism quits working.
Where Is My Critique?
You know, the essay I wrote at The New Atlantis last summer has been up for many months now, and I have never seen anyone critique it, with the exception of an idiotic attempt by Mark Whittington. I’ve received nothing but praise for the most part (which is why I wish more people would read it). The editor has also told me that he received no letters to the editor objecting to it. Is anyone aware of a serious, informed critical review? If there are none, I suspect that one of the reasons why is that I circulated drafts of it among a lot of smart people in the process of writing it.
The reason I ask is because I’m in the process of working up a book proposal, and I want to hone it, if there are any serious and useful issues with it, because a lot of the book will be based on it. And of course, people will be reviewing drafts of the book as well.
[Saturday morning update]
I’m not looking for suggestions for improvement (I have no plans to rewrite it or republish anywhere else). I’m looking for things that people think I actually got wrong.
One Good Result From The Oil Spill
It’s apparently, at least indirectly, killed climate legislation for this session.
The Health-Care Fog Clears
…and the case for repeal grows. I really think that we could have figured this out without having to pass it, if there hadn’t been such a rush to pass it. And if we had been allowed to read it.
Off-Shore Drilling
A risk worth taking. Five-dollar gasoline will cause people to come to their senses, I suspect.
[Update a couple minutes later]
From an environmental perspective, off-shore oil drilling is far safer than Mother Nature. As the Wall Street Journal noted yesterday, oil that seeps naturally from the ocean floor puts 47 million gallons of crude into U.S. waters annually. Thus far, Deepwater Horizon has leaked about three million gallons. That sounds like a lot of oil, and it is. But the Exxon Valdez leaked 11 million gallons into Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay. Even those figures are dwarfed, according to the Economist, by the amount of oil spilled in man-made disasters elsewhere around the world. Saddam Hussein’s destruction of Kuwaiti oil facilities during the Gulf War dumped more than 500 million barrels of crude into the Arabian Gulf. The 1979 blowout of Mexico’s Ixtoc 1 well resulted in 3.3 million barrels being dumped into the Gulf of Mexico. In short, Deepwater Horizon is an environmental crisis, but not the apocalypse that alarmists claim.
Unfortunately, perspective, and logic, aren’t politicians’ strong suits.
What Do Dietary Supplements…?
…have to do with finance regulation?
One of the Dems I’d love to see get booted out this November is Henry Waxman. Unfortunately, some of the most destructive politicians (e.g., Waxman, Frank) are in the safest seats. That’s not a coincidence, of course. The safer your seat (or at least the perception of safety), the more outrageous the behavior.
The New Oligarchs
Thoughts on the Wall Street Democrats:
…every time the president accuses Republicans of trying to “block progress” or of defying “common sense,” as he did that night, he is executing a dangerous tightrope walk. His party’s electoral fortunes depend on his making forceful calls for reform of our banking laws. His party’s fundraising fortunes depend on his ensuring that no serious reform—of the kind that endangers the big banks’ size and power—ever happens. That may be why the Democrats’ strategy of painting the Republicans as obstructionists on finance reform has gained little traction. By the same token, if Republicans ever did get serious about reforming the banks—and even about breaking up an industry that has turned into a Democratic war chest—they would put Democrats in mortal peril. There seems no chance of this. Obama’s taunts show a confidence, verging on certitude, that Republicans’ hypocrisy is as deep as his own.
Sounds like the Republicans suffer from false consciousness. I still think that low marginal rates are a good idea, though.
It’s Official
California is the worst state in the country in which to do business. I can believe it.
It’s a tragedy what the vandals in Sacramento have done to such a beautiful and naturally wealthy place.
The Governments Have Learned From Their Mistakes
An interesting discussion (at least to me) on the power and limitations of government regulation.