It is nice to see that Willem Buiter shares my skepticism about Cap and Trade Carbon schemes relative to Carbon Taxes. It is nice because his London School of Economics credentials eclipse mine, and those are just the beginning of why he is held in high esteem in both [...]
On mainstream news this morning I heard our Utah Governor declare US gas prices "outrageous". Memorial Day national news coverage labeled them "sky high." Wrong! Gas prices only seem outrageous to we Americans who George W. Bush correctly noted are "addicted to oil".
Europeans, by contrast, have lived with high [...]
Until a few days ago I had no idea that people were playing with the idea of using compressed air to power vehicles. Now it looks like we may see some within the next few years. Add in a hybrid gas engine to compress more air and compressed air vehicles [...]
Via Brad DeLong who says, "This is, I think, very good work--and the worst news about the human future I have learned in months." :
Forecasting the Path of China's CO2 Emissions Using Province Level Information, Maximilian Auffhammer and Richard T. Carson (2008)
ABSTRACT: Our results suggest [...]
Tired of being told to "go shopping" whenever a national or international crisis occurs?
Tired of hearing that "recycling" will save us?
Note: Recycling is a very good idea, just "not enough."
Want to know how our so-called Consumer Society was manufactured?
Want to know why the linear "produce, manufacture, CONSUME" model is [...]
Can you envision a country that plans to rid itself of both Coal and Nuclear Energy source-dependence? Germany is on track to do so:
Germany is looking to integrate wind, solar, and biofuel natural gas to supply 100% of its [...]
Germany's Plan on video (8 minutes)
Today, the Global Forest Coalition and the Global Justice Ecology Project strongly condemn—on both human rights and environmental accounts—recent carbon trade announcements/resolutions at the UN Bali Glogal Climate Change Conference. "They are going to use the failed model of carbon trading to supposedly protect forests, but just like agrofuels, the [...]
Bloomberg: Carbon tax should replace carbon trading, CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent, Newsday.com, Dec. 13: … "[Cap and trade is] a very inefficient way to accomplish the same thing that a carbon tax accomplishes," [NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg] said. "It leaves itself open to special interests, corruption, inefficiencies." [...]
Folks at Globalization and the Environment provide evidence as to why I've been so skeptical about the Carbon Trading game. Japan is staging up to buy its way out of Koyoto commitments with no pain — buying from willing Eastern European sellers who find themselves with a surplus of [...]
At a Nov. 16 Congressional Budget Office "Director's Conference on Climate Change", CBO Director Peter Orszag argued in favor of a carbon tax relative to an at-least-for-now inferior alternative of a cap-and-trade policy [Issues in Climate Change, Statement of CBO Director - PDF]. Here is a snip:
… [...]
Writing in High Country News, Rick Craig suggests that the US Forest Service's entry into the carbon offsets game is ill-advised. Here's a snip:
Salvaging the Atmosphere: The Forest Service Joins the Carbon Offsets Game, Rick Craig, High Country News, Oct 15: … On July 25, Forest Service Chief Gail [...]
In the NY Times, Tom Friedman wonders aloud why politicans are so afraid of the "T-word" when it comes to what he considers very good rationales for imposing a gas tax sooner rather than later — with sooner being sometime, say, prior to 9/11/01.
Be sure not to miss George Monboit's latest, thought-provoking rant against biofuels. Here's bit of it as posted on his blog:
An Agricultural Crime Against Humanity, George Monbiot, from the Guardian Nov 6: Biofuels could kill more people than the Iraq war. … In principle, burning biofuels merely releases [...]
For more than a year, Greg Mankiw has formally/strongly advocated for Carbon Taxes. Mankiw also keeps tabs on who else supports such. Lately he adds, by reference, several billion new members to his Pigou Club:
Several Billion Join the Pigou Club, Greg Mankiw, Nov 5: The BBC [...]
Pro Football's Philadelphia Eagles are not only green in color but "green" in commitment and action, voluntarily reducing their environmental footprint and providing a much-needed precedent in the sports arena. This is the right way to go: no big government inducements, no notions that somehow government and industry are [...]
Yet-another vote for carbon taxes over cap-and-trade:
A tax on carbon to cool the planet, Christian Science Monitor, Oct 26: Forcing higher prices for fossil fuels would be simple, fair, and effective. Why do politicians fear to do it?Conservative and liberal economists like it. James Connaughton, President Bush's top [...]
If the big banks are pushing for cap-and-trade carbon trading schemes ought we not to be a bit skeptical? Aren't they the ones who have led us down a primrose path with "subpime" and other messes? Big banks are pushing cap-and-trade, reports the NY Times. And yet, [...]
I usually let The Oil Drum deal with oilpatch news, but I found this to be both informative and compact:
Peak Oil is Now . RGE Economonitor, Mikka Pineda, Oct 22: German-based Energy Watch Group released its October Oil Market Report [PDF] which claims "peak oil is now"-Looking at [...]
The Carbon Tax Center endorses Congressman John Dingell's Carbon Tax Legislation, set to be introduced later this year. Dingell is chairman of the US House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce. The Carbon Tax Center says of the proposal, "we think the bill is terrific." Here's more [...]
Sometimes I amaze myself over how little I really know about economics. Too bad my economics education didn't include any real 'history of economic thought'. That, I've had to pick up on my own later. To illustrate my ignorance, yesterday Dani Rodrick focused my attention on what some call [...]
Over at the promising new blog Econospeak, Peter Dorman argues that auctioning off permits for rationing carbon is a better strategy than either a carbon tax or the much-maligned 'cap and trade' system. I'm not yet convinced, still leaning toward a tax. But at least Dorman has it out [...]
Greg Mankiw serves up what he calls the Fundamental Theorem of Carbon Taxation:
… Economists recognize that a cap-and-trade system is equivalent to a tax on carbon emissions with the tax revenue rebated to existing carbon emitters, such as energy companies. That is,Yet [...]Cap-and-trade = Carbon tax + Corporate welfare. …
A friend recently pointed me toward Albert Hirschman's The Rhetoric of Reaction: Perversity, Futility, Jeopardy. As I read it, I wondered, once again, "How many economic arguments are simply the stuff of reactionary rhetoric?" Too many, I fear.
In The Rhetoric of Reaction, Hirschman gives us three theses to [...]
Continuing our airing of heterodox economics perspectives, and our exposé of the mainstream, here are:
Ten Principles of Feminist Economics: A Modestly Proposed Antidote
By Geoff Schneider and Jean Shackelford
In mainstream economics today there is a particularly egregious recent trend toward producing lists of "key economic ideas" [...]
In a recently updated exposé titled Why Economics is on the Wrong Track ('book form' here [PDF], 32 pp., 2002 or find it and other McCloskey' books here) Deirdre McCloskey explicitly notes two "secret sins", argued as peculiar to economic (well, almost). These sins, which we will [...]
To move our ethics/policy conversation along further, let's cut to the chase and talk about 'happiness'. Here is some background reading (from debatingmatters.com). What caught my attention today, however, was this from Mark Thoma (Economist's View):
Should We be Happy with Research on Happiness?What does research on happiness tell [...]
