Monthly Archives: July 2013

CEI Podcast for July 3, 2013: The EPA’s Assault on State Sovereignty

Posted on July 3, 2013 | Comments Off on CEI Podcast for July 3, 2013: The EPA’s Assault on State Sovereignty

EPA_logo
Have a listen here.

William Yeatman discusses his new study, “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Assault on State Sovereignty.”

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Posted in CEI Podcast, regulation, The New Religion

Silly Walk Subsidies

Posted on July 3, 2013 | Comments Off on Silly Walk Subsidies

In a new LearnLiberty video, Art Carden explains how subsidies work. He also executes a quality crab walk at about the 1:19 mark. Click here if the embedded video below doesn’t work.

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Posted in Economics

CEI Podcast for July 2, 2013: The True Story of European Austerity

Posted on July 2, 2013 | Comments Off on CEI Podcast for July 2, 2013: The True Story of European Austerity

europe satellite night
Have a listen here.

Warren Brookes Fellow Matthew Melchiorre discusses his new study, which finds that, despite the prevailing narrative of severe austerity across Europe, only 4 countries out of 27 have actually cut taxes and spending.

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Posted in CEI Podcast, Economics, International, Spending, Taxation

Utilitarianism vs. Natural Rights

Posted on July 2, 2013 | Comments Off on Utilitarianism vs. Natural Rights

Most classical liberals use a combination of utilitarianism and natural rights in their philosophical framework. Some, like Jeremy Bentham, reject rights altogether in favor of a purely “greatest good for the greatest number” approach. This is all well and good, except for the fact that it is impossible to calculate a person’s utility function.

Even if you could, you can’t meaningfully compare different people’s utility functions to each other. You can make ordinal comparisons (order of preference), but not cardinal (strength of preference) comparisons. This throws a rather large wrench into the pure utilitarian enterprise.

Bentham’s faux pas led to a Hayekian riposte from the mid-18th century philosopher and theologian Bishop Butler, shared by George H. Smith on page 155 of his excellent new book The System of Liberty:

Bishop Butler expressed a similar concern when he said that although God is probably a utilitarian, it is better that men not be, for they are likely to commit serious errors in calculating what will promote the greatest happiness for the greatest number.

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Posted in Books, Philosophy

CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation

Posted on July 1, 2013 | Comments Off on CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week in Regulation

school-lunch
This week in the world of regulation:

  • Last week, 80 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. There were 96 new final rules the previous week.
  • That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 2 hours and 6 minutes — 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
  • All in all, 1,768 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year.
  • If this keeps up, the total tally for 2013 will be 3,605 new final rules.
  • Last week, 1,461 new pages were added to the 2013 Federal Register, for a total of 39,104 pages.
  • At its current pace, the 2013 Federal Register will run 78,208 pages.
  • Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. One such rule was published last week, for a total of 15 so far in 2013.
  • The total estimated compliance costs of this year’s economically significant regulations ranges from $5.78 billion to $10.39 billion.
  • So far, 124 final rules that meet the broader definition of “significant” have been published in 2013.
  • So far this year, 306 final rules affect small business; 28 of them are significant rules.

Highlights from final rules published last week:

  • This week’s economically significant rule sets national standards for school lunches and breakfasts. The rule does not include a cost estimate, claiming that “it is not possible to define a level of disease or cost reduction expected to result from implementation of the rule.” This is a basic failure of transparency. That the Food and Nutrition Service is unwilling to include cost-benefit analysis implies that even the agency believes that this rule’s effect on childhood obesity will be imperceptible. I have placed this rule’s costs at the bare minimum of $100 million needed for it to qualify for its economically significant status. Given the multi-billion dollar costs of other federal school lunch rules, this is could be a severe underestimate.
  • It took the Forest Service nearly two pages to define what a ski area is.
  • The Coast Guard is establishing 23 different safety zones, security zones, and the like for fireworks shows and other summer events across the country.
  • The Postal Service is updating its refund and exchange policies.
  • New safety standards for infant walkers and swings.
  • The National Park Service is changing its policies regarding protesting and pamphleteering in national parks.

For more data, go to TenThousandCommandments.com.

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Posted in regulation