Category Archives: Government

Updated: Unintended Consequence of Enforcing Ethanol

Economy, Energy, Environmentalism & Animal Rights, Government

Bad things happen when production is driven by ignorant special interests (the gangreens) in cahoots with government, instead of the free market.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported tonight that food shortages were already being felt in Europe because one of the biggest wheat growers in the world, the USA, was incentivizing its farmer to grow corn for ethanol instead of the wheat staple. The prices of food have been rising steadily as a result of this ill-fated intervention.

Oil is efficient. “It requires only a narrow hole in the earth,” explains the WSJ, “and is extracted as a highly concentrated form of energy”—it “is up to 1,000 times more efficient than solar energy, which requires large panels collecting a less-concentrated form of energy known as the midday sun. But even solar power is roughly 10 times as efficient as biomass-derived fuels like ethanol.”

The other eco-awful consequence of mandating via legislation the incremental replacement of oil with “absurdly inefficient, corn-based ethanol” is a “giant slurping sound, as Midwest water supplies are siphoned off to slake Big Ethanol”:

“[O]ne gallon of ethanol requires a staggering 1,700 gallons of H2O.”

“Writing in Science magazine, Renton Righelato and Dominick Spracklen estimate that in order to replace just 10% of gasoline and diesel consumption, the U.S. would need to convert a full 43% of its cropland to ethanol production. The alternative approach—clearing wilderness—would mean more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere than simply sticking with gasoline, because the CO2-munching trees cut down to make way for King Ethanol absorb more emissions than ethanol saves.”

“Slowly but surely, these problems are beginning to alert public opinion to the huge costs of force-feeding corn ethanol as an energy savior.”

Update (March 26): About the sentiments expressed in the Comments Section whereby more expensive, unviable energy sources are favored: I understand that this is not a policy prescription but a personal preference, rooted in perceived morality. Good intentions, and all that stuff. I would argue, however, that this too is misguided.

Look, noble sentiments notwithstanding, inefficient energy sources pollute more and waste resources. Drilling for oil, if I am not mistaken, is the second most efficient, cheapest—and hence cleanest—source of energy. Nuclear is the first. Think of the totality of the production process (minus the eco-idiots’ romantic catchphrases). If you expend fewer resources on bringing a fuel to market, then the process is also CLEANER.

Updated: Presidential History

America, Government, History, Pseudo-history, The State

“Of all historical genres, one of the least respected, at least among academics, is Presidential history. Mixing the unfashionable (with scholars) but generally popular fields of political history and biography, Presidential history is often a vehicle for national celebration and myth-making. Presidential historians often tend to narrate heroic tales of an unfolding national drama that sees the expansion of liberty and justice; words like “courage” and “leadership” abound. Nowhere does the “Great Man” history become greater than in histories of the White House. If patriotism is a kind of American civil religion, then Michael Beschloss, Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough are its high priests.” (Andrew Preston, TLS, December 21 & 28, 2007)
Goodwin is particularly repugnant.
Discuss.

Update (Jan. 15): From political economist Bob Higgs comes the quintessential guide to properly rating presidents:
“Washington, I think, actually does deserve a high rating–not even the historians can be wrong all the time. He established the precedent of stepping down after two terms, which lasted until it clashed with FDR’s insatiable ambition, and he prescribed the sensible foreign policy, later slandered as ‘isolationism,’ that served the nation well for more than a century. Other early presidents who were not entirely reprehensible in office include Jefferson and Jackson, though each committed grave derelictions.

Of the presidents since Cleveland, I rank Coolidge the highest. He sponsored sharp tax cuts and greatly reduced the national debt. As H.L. Mencken wrote, ‘There were no thrills while he reigned, but neither were there any headaches. He had no ideas, and he was not a nuisance’—high praise in view of the execrable performance of other twentieth-century presidents. Taft and Eisenhower were a cut above the rest, but that’s not saying much…”
A guide to the perplexed in “No More Great Presidents.”

Update # II: Support the Draft…

Foreign Policy, Government, Iraq, Military, Politics, The State

For politicians, bureaucrats, and their family members.

Serving in Iraq is a “potential death sentence,” a member of the foreign service moaned. I have “post traumatic stress disorder” after serving there for a year, another whined. Who will take care of our children if we (gasp) die, was a complaint one audacious emissary of the American state (in good times) sounded.

Now they know how soldiers and their families feel when subjected to back-door drafts in the form of indefinitely extended tours-of-duty; now the political parasites know how taxpayers feel about a war that is sapping their savings and making it hard for them to provide for their retirement and their children. (Ordinary Americans don’t have hefty, free pensions and perks for posterity, such as the blood suckers at the State Department enjoy.)

Update # I: In response to John Smith’s letter: Make sure you read your contract; it is the solemn duty of members of the foreign service to go where they are posted.

Update # II/Nov. 8: To those who keep wanting to spare the foreign service from hardship: if you’re a friend of freedom, and wish to see the state shrink—or at least cease availing itself indiscriminately of tax dollars for its endless exploits—you ought to stop coddling its recruits. Why on earth would you wish to create a risk-free workplace for privileged government workers? The riskier their endeavor the less likely they are to engage in callous and confiscatory practices. I say let as much of the state apparatus as possible shoulder the consequences of in Iraq policy.

Update # III: As you can see from his demands, John want’s to work for government, but at the same time be able to pick and choose to serve in the promotion of only those policies he supports. Unfortunately, given the excessive power unelected bureaucrats wield, they’ll probably get what they want.
On another matter, the public sector, incidentally, was never supposed to be able to strike; that’s a later socialistic privilege they were granted. In addition, government employee, politicians included, should not be allowed to vote. This is because they are paid from taxes garnished involuntarily from taxpayers, and will always vote to increase their own powers and wages.

Capital Flight

Business, Capitalism, Economy, Free Markets, Government

Be afraid when a Democrat-dominated, “influential House committee is set to hear testimony from all five commissioners of the Securities and Exchange Commission today—the first time that has happened in at least 10 years.” Yes, the SEC is making a House call, as the Wall Street Journal put it.

What new havoc the SEC wrecking ball will wreak? That’s too early to tell. So far, according to FreedomWorks, the Republican Party’s Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 has had the following effects on American capital markets:

“Between 1996 and 2001, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) averaged fifty new non U.S. listings annually; in 2005, it gained nineteen.

London’s AIM (Alternative Investment Market) had 335 initial offerings of securities in 2005 – twice the total in 2000, while Nasdaq had 126, down 65 percent.

In 2000, nine of every ten dollars raised by foreign companies were raised in the United States; in 2005, nine of the ten largest offerings were not registered in the United States, and of the largest twenty-five global offerings, only one took place in the U.S.

The government accounting office (GAO) found that the number of public companies going private increased from 143 in 2001 to 245 in 2004.

In 2000, nearly half, 46.8%, of the global IPO equity was raised on U.S. exchanges. However, in 2005, only 5.7% of dollars raised by non U.S. company IPOs was raised through shares listed on U.S. stock markets subject to U.S. regulatory rules and oversight.

The total inflation-adjusted value of securities class-action settlements increased to $9.6 billion in 2005 from $150 million in 1997.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which placed extremely costly additional financial burdens, is estimated to have ‘cost in lost market value of U.S. companies at $1.4 trillion.’ In addition, it appears that the requirement for independent-director majorities on corporate boards has reduced the willingness of corporations to take risks, which will have a long run, adverse effect on U.S. economic growth.”