Water
Business & Economics
What an economist learned in Haiti
I recently spent a week in Haiti helping with reconstruction efforts. I volunteered only as someone with two hands and a lot of Gatorade, but my professional background as an economist allowed me to diagnose some of Haiti’s problems. These go much deeper than the earthquake. I registered with the ...
Business & Economics
‘Government involvement’ never leads to lowered prices
After almost a month of repairs, the K.R. Harrington Water Treatment Plant is back in operation. Nashville residents can bathe and wash dishes normally. Now that the crisis has passed, it is useful to reflect on the economic lessons of government pricing and rationing. Let’s start with the basic facts. ...
Climate Change
Report Card for the IPCC
The nations capital has been slammed with storms this winter, and so has the climate-change debate. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) is now attempting to dig out from a scandal that policy makers and ordinary citizens alike will find instructive. In November, emails from the Climate Research Unit ...
California
Voters, not leaders, confront Vallejo’s mess
Two years after Vallejo made history as the first city in the Golden State to file for bankruptcy, voters have grasped the city’s dire financial situation even if some members of local government haven’t. Residents appeared to have approved Measure A by a slim margin last week. The vote count ...
Commentary
The Massachusetts health care mess is coming soon to the rest of America
Devotees of big government, like Archimedes, believe that if they have a long lever and a place to stand, they can move the world. In 2006, a bipartisan band of such politicians in Massachusetts immersed themselves in wishful thinking, ignored both hard facts and proven theory, and used their political ...
Health Care
The Federal Government Can Never “Fix” the “Doc Fix”
Key Points: Medicare Part B beneficiaries are facing a crisis of access to physicians, because the federal government sets fees at an inadequate level. The U.S. government has promised physicians that it will “fix” the fees for the long term, but has proven incompetent to do anything more than patch ...
Environment
Trying to Recapture That Old Earth Day Magic
The contrast between PBS’s celebration of the huge public events of the first Earth Day in 1970 with the sleepy affair it is today tells you what’s wrong with today’s environmentalism: it is stuck in the past. For the last 15 years, Earth Day has been the occasion for me ...
Climate Change
How EPA Renewable Fuel Standard Threatens the Environment
Earlier this year, the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the final version of the advanced renewable fuel standard, known as RFS2. The new standard sets greenhouse gas emission performance standards for the nation’s transportation fuels. Requirements for annual volumetric use of renewable fuels more than double in a decade, ...
California
HOW OBAMA-ED HURTS CALIFORNIA
California’s rigorous academic content standards are one of the few bright spots on the state’s otherwise dismal education landscape. Now, however, President Obama’s drive to nationalize education could doom the standards. Created in the late 1990s, California’s math and English standards give guidance to educators regarding the grade-level knowledge and ...
Commentary
California Lawmakers Should Read the Writing on the Wall
Black, Hispanic, and low-income Florida fourth graders now outperform all California fourth graders in reading, according to National Assessment of Educational Progress results released last month by the U.S. Department of Education. Also known as the Nation’s Report Card, experts consider NAEP fourth-grade reading a leading predictor of success since ...
What an economist learned in Haiti
I recently spent a week in Haiti helping with reconstruction efforts. I volunteered only as someone with two hands and a lot of Gatorade, but my professional background as an economist allowed me to diagnose some of Haiti’s problems. These go much deeper than the earthquake. I registered with the ...
‘Government involvement’ never leads to lowered prices
After almost a month of repairs, the K.R. Harrington Water Treatment Plant is back in operation. Nashville residents can bathe and wash dishes normally. Now that the crisis has passed, it is useful to reflect on the economic lessons of government pricing and rationing. Let’s start with the basic facts. ...
Report Card for the IPCC
The nations capital has been slammed with storms this winter, and so has the climate-change debate. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) is now attempting to dig out from a scandal that policy makers and ordinary citizens alike will find instructive. In November, emails from the Climate Research Unit ...
Voters, not leaders, confront Vallejo’s mess
Two years after Vallejo made history as the first city in the Golden State to file for bankruptcy, voters have grasped the city’s dire financial situation even if some members of local government haven’t. Residents appeared to have approved Measure A by a slim margin last week. The vote count ...
The Massachusetts health care mess is coming soon to the rest of America
Devotees of big government, like Archimedes, believe that if they have a long lever and a place to stand, they can move the world. In 2006, a bipartisan band of such politicians in Massachusetts immersed themselves in wishful thinking, ignored both hard facts and proven theory, and used their political ...
The Federal Government Can Never “Fix” the “Doc Fix”
Key Points: Medicare Part B beneficiaries are facing a crisis of access to physicians, because the federal government sets fees at an inadequate level. The U.S. government has promised physicians that it will “fix” the fees for the long term, but has proven incompetent to do anything more than patch ...
Trying to Recapture That Old Earth Day Magic
The contrast between PBS’s celebration of the huge public events of the first Earth Day in 1970 with the sleepy affair it is today tells you what’s wrong with today’s environmentalism: it is stuck in the past. For the last 15 years, Earth Day has been the occasion for me ...
How EPA Renewable Fuel Standard Threatens the Environment
Earlier this year, the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the final version of the advanced renewable fuel standard, known as RFS2. The new standard sets greenhouse gas emission performance standards for the nation’s transportation fuels. Requirements for annual volumetric use of renewable fuels more than double in a decade, ...
HOW OBAMA-ED HURTS CALIFORNIA
California’s rigorous academic content standards are one of the few bright spots on the state’s otherwise dismal education landscape. Now, however, President Obama’s drive to nationalize education could doom the standards. Created in the late 1990s, California’s math and English standards give guidance to educators regarding the grade-level knowledge and ...
California Lawmakers Should Read the Writing on the Wall
Black, Hispanic, and low-income Florida fourth graders now outperform all California fourth graders in reading, according to National Assessment of Educational Progress results released last month by the U.S. Department of Education. Also known as the Nation’s Report Card, experts consider NAEP fourth-grade reading a leading predictor of success since ...
