So says the italicized, boldfaced, bright red headline on the Drudge Report. All that’s missing is the little siren graphic.
What the sensationalized headline doesn’t mention is that the price of oil was below $138 from the beginning of time until a few weeks ago. Doesn’t seem like much of a plunge in that context.
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Posted in Media
The UK has quietly become one of the most-surveilled societies on earth. The isle sports an eye-popping one surveillance camera for every fourteen people.
The town of Swindon is finally pushing back — if for the wrong reasons — by opting out of a traffic camera program. The town council accurately claims that the cameras generate money, but not safety. The real objection, of course, is that the money raised goes to London, not Swindon.
So their motives may not be pure, but at least the results should be good. Accident rates tend to go up at camera-bearing intersections; authorities sometimes shorten yellow light times to nab more drivers running red lights.
Let us hope more localities follow Swindon’s lead, whatever their motivation.
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Posted in Security Theater
I have a piece in today’s American Spectator Online about what the CC Sabathia and Rich Harden trades mean for the pennant race.
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Posted in Publications, Sports
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a hyperbolic article entitled “Milwaukee lags behind on parks spending.”
Call me crazy, but shouldn’t the quality of the parks be judged by their actual quality, and not by how much money is spent on them?
Dairy farmers in the EU are upset that milk prices are lower than they prefer. Production quotas were raised by two percent in April. The farmers have several options for raising their prices:
A) Produce less milk; scarcer supplies mean higher prices.
B) Move into a different, more lucrative line of work.
C) Mail 10,000 liters of milk to Brussels in protest, where bursting cartons and no refrigeration have raised quite the stink.
Needless to say, farmers decided on option C. Note that milk prices are actually 32% to 74% higher than they were a year ago.
If this is how farmers react to a two percent quota increase, imagine what they would do if the EU were to reform its Common Agricultural Policy…
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Posted in Economics, Price and Wage Controls
More and more people are starting to see (radical) environmentalism as the New Religion.
The scientist Freeman Dyson has his say:
Environmentalism has replaced socialism as the leading secular religion… some members of the environmental movement have also adopted as an article of faith the belief that global warming is the greatest threat to the ecology of our planet.
He goes on:
[Skeptics] are horrified to see the obsession with global warming distracting public attention from what they see as more serious and more immediate dangers to the planet, including problems of nuclear weaponry, environmental degradation, and social injustice. Whether they turn out to be right or wrong, their arguments on these issues deserve to be heard.
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Posted in The New Religion
While I was away on vacation, a short study I co-authored with Fran Smith was published. It makes the case that Congress should quit obfuscating and pass the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.
Human Events mentions the study favorably.
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Posted in Economics, Publications, Trade
In an otherwise misguided article, Ken Rosenthal brings up an excellent point that I missed about the Brewers’ acquisition of C.C. Sabathia. When he leaves Milwaukee this winter for a big-market team, the Brewers will be compensated with two extra draft picks next year.
Ben Sheets, the Brewers’ incumbent ace pitcher, will also be leaving the team in free agency. That’s another two bonus picks for the Brewers.
What’s more, Yovani Gallardo, another ace-caliber Brewers pitcher, will be back to full strength next season after a season-ending injury from a freak play earlier this season.
All of a sudden I don’t feel so bad about the Brewers giving up four (at latest count) of their top prospects to rent Sabathia for three months. Milwaukee has perhaps the best scouts in baseball; their top scout is the only non-GM to ever win baseball’s prestigious Executive of the Year award. Now those scouts get four extra high-round draft picks to play with next year. The team will be able to replenish itself just fine.
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Posted in Sports
The Brewers have just completed a deal with the Cleveland Indians for C.C. Sabathia, one of the best pitchers in baseball. He is the reigning Cy Young award winner, stands 6’7″ and weighs 290 pounds, and has an eye-popping 2.16 ERA since the end of April.
I have some reservations about the deal, though. Sabathia will be a free agent after the season ends, and he is well out of small-market Milwaukee’s price range. He’ll probably be in New York or Boston next year. He is basically a rental for half a season. But the Brewers want to win now, and think the deal will help their chances.
The Brewers, renowned for their farm system, are giving up three of their top prospects in return for Sabathia’s services. The only one confirmed at this point is Matt LaPorta, one of the best pure hitters in the minor leagues. As last year’s top draft pick, he’ll probably be ready to move up to the big leagues next year. He may even be a late-season call up this year.
The deal will be good for LaPorta, a first baseman and left fielder. The Brewers currently have Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun at those positions. Fielder hit 51 home runs last year. Braun was Rookie of the Year last year, and is starting in this year’s All-Star Game. They’re not going anywhere, so LaPorta is blocked. There is plenty of room for him in Cleveland.
Meanwhile, the Brewers haven’t made the playoffs in 26 years. Sabathia improves their chance to end the drought. The deal also lets Sabathia play for a winning team, something he is missing in Cleveland. The last-place Indians will get some good young players they can develop.
The loser is Milwaukee’s farm system. It looks deep enough to take the hit, but I worry; injuries happen. Hopefully those worries are unfounded.
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Posted in Sports
The United States Postal Service lost $4.5 billion last year. It projects losses of $600 million this year. To stanch the bleeding, the USPS recently announced a reorganization plan:
The change will create two “focal points” for the agency, one to deal with shipping and mailing services and the other to work with customers and others outside the post office.
A better idea would be to end the monopoly that the USPS now enjoys. It is literally a federal crime for anyone else to deliver mail. Competition will provide a much stronger incentive than “focal points” for the USPS to shape up.
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Posted in Economics
Inertia Wins! 