Obesity is being blamed for increasing global warming. Or, as The Sun so delicately puts it, “Fatties cause global warming.”
Overweight people tend to eat more, which increases food production, which increases carbon emissions, which increases global warming.
The chart below shows global temperature over the last decade. As CO2 emissions have been increasing, temperatures haven’t:
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Posted in The New Religion
The logic behind the Bush-Obama stimulus runs like this: if people aren’t spending enough money to keep the economy afloat, then government should increase its spending to make up the difference. It’s conventional Keynesian theory.
Surprising, then, that President Obama asked federal departments to find $100 million dollars in cuts.
Does that mean that a $787 billion stimulus package is too much, but $786.9 billion is just right?
Think tanks don’t have as much impact as they could, or should. Economists talking to each other has its uses. It is the first stage in generating ideas and trickling them down to the masses. Trouble is, in subsequent stages, those ideas tend to get lost.
Case in point: we live in a democracy. In the long run, the people get what they want. Good or bad. Looking at polling data, people tend to want bad economic policies. And that’s exactly what we’re getting.
Sound policy needs to become popular policy. Think tanks should increase their popular outreach. Going on cable news is great, but most people don’t watch cable news. Getting published in the Wall Street Journal or New York Times is great, too. But most people don’t read them.
That’s why there’s been a push toward grassroots-style activism lately. Maybe that could aid in trickling good ideas down to the masses. The tea parties that happened on tax day are only the latest example.
I would be hard pressed to find a less effective form of activism.
Many kind, sane people were there, holding up their signs and saying their peace with a quiet dignity.
They were drowned out by nuts, cranks, and assorted loons; such people are drawn to protests like moths to a flame. They make for more exciting media coverage than the average attendee. They’re louder, for one, visually and sonically. The crazies are also very good at making any event at which they appear look bad.
They hijacked an event that was supposed to be about taxes and spending. A taxing-and-spending message that I generally agree with quickly became something else entirely.
Abortion kills! End the Fed! No gay marriage! Then the conspiracy theorists. We must stop the cabal of five Jewish bankers who run the world financial system from impoverishing us all for the benefit of Israel!
Where do these people come from? They were everywhere.
It almost made me embarrassed that I favor lower taxes and spending. Are these my fellow travelers? What am I thinking?
By comparison, even the loftiest, most disengaged think tank is an effective agent of change. People do listen to economists, even if they don’t understand them. We can be taken seriously. Meanwhile protesters are politely ignored, or a nuisance.
Yes, we think tankers need to spend more time speaking to ordinary folks. A lot more time. But at least we do have some influence.
Which is better than none at all.
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Posted in Argumentation, Philosophy
One wonders if it’s because Brett Favre isn’t playing any more. Go to about the 4:55 mark in the video below.
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Posted in General Foolishness, Sports
The latest trillion-dollar government proposal comes to us from the London G-20 summit: $1.1 trillion for the IMF and World Bank.
The human mind is not capable of comprehending numbers that large. Anything past the low hundreds, our brains simply categorize as “large.” This neat illustration can help.
Keep that picture in your head. One for the trillion-dollar stimulus. Another one for the new trillion-dollar banking bailout. One more for the federal budget deficit. And now yet another to cover the donations to the Bretton Woods institutions.
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Posted in Economics
Rick Wagoner is stepping down, apparently on White House orders.
New leadership may well be a good move for GM. But that is a decision for GM’s board and shareholders to make. They have years of auto industry experience.
They also have a vested stake in the matter. If they fail, they lose the shirts off their backs. They have all the incentive in the world to choose wisely.
President Obama and the Presidential Task Force on Autos have none of these advantages.
Their line of thinking seems to be that GM is not fit to run itself. Given GM’s recent performance, they may well be right.
But how on earth does that imply that Washington can do better? The logic just doesn’t follow.
This mindset is arrogance. It is hubris.
Worse, it is poison to an already ailing economy.
(Cross-posted at Open Market)
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Posted in Economics, Political Animals
I’ll be celebrating Human Achievement Hour instead.
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Posted in The New Religion
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Posted in General Foolishness, Political Animals
California is mulling banning black cars because they require more energy to keep cool.
The New Religion continues its post-reductio phase.
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Posted in Mankind's Doom, The New Religion
The American Spectator Online ran an article of mine today on sales taxes on the Internet. Taxation without representation at its finest. Read it here.
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Posted in Economics, Publications, Taxation
Inertia Wins! 