Car Homogenization: What Have Regulations Wrought?

By Jeffrey Tucker -- December 14, 2012 10 Comments

“Some 30 years ago, futurists imagined that cars of the future would be stunning and beautiful and would bring total joy to driving. …  That future has been entirely wrecked, a dashed dream that had to die to make way for the weird, homogenized stuff we are permitted to buy today.”

The antique car, specially ordered for the occasion, was waiting for the bride and groom to take them to the reception. I was among the wedding guests who found myself more enraptured by the car than by the main event.

The stunning car was a Studebaker. At best I can tell, it was a 1940 Commander convertible. I had to look it up: This company was born in 1852 and died in 1967, and produced some of the most visually gorgeous cars in its day.…

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Romm Polemics vs. Drought Science

By Chip Knappenberger -- December 13, 2012 2 Comments

At Climate ProgressJoe Romm is ever eager to find that bad things are inevitable in our climate future because of fossil fuels. So it really makes his day when a prominent scientist gives him doomster material. Bad news is good news in RommWorld where so many facts and uncertainties contradict his neo-Malthusian worldview.

Romm hones in and hyperventilates over those chosen scientists promoting climate alarm–and swats away with derision that the same have things wrong. In many cases, Romm gets tangled up in the science with partisanship and confusion.

Romm has a long track record of this type of behavior. And perhaps the most recent case involves Romm’s unwavering dedication to NASA’s James Hansen (outlier) view of the coming climate and human’s influence on it. Hansen has a lot of bad stuff to say, which is good for Joe Romm.

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"Price Gouging" Laws: Ten Research Areas in the Economics of Unintended Consequences

By Michael Giberson -- December 11, 2012 4 Comments

For most economists, the workings of “price gouging” laws are simple and predictable. Binding price caps in emergencies create shortages on the most urgently needed goods and services during emergencies.

The recommended policy reform is simple, too: stop harming citizens when they can least afford it!

It would seem to be an open-and-shut case, a slam dunk for economics to inform the electorate and thus policymakers to avoid such folly. Remember the gasoline lines and natural gas shortages of the 1970s? Perhaps no simple event has convinced mainstream economists that price controls have bad consequences despite intention.

Defenders of economic liberty have an even easier argument: merchants ought to be free to ask what ever price they like for the goods and services they offer. Price gouging laws unjustly limit that freedom and government ought not to do that.

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Wind Propaganda by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Orwellian greenwashing calls for correction)

By Sherri Lange -- December 4, 2012 36 Comments

“In its heyday the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was a bastion of objectivity. However this show revealed nothing but wind apologetics. The absurdities were thick and one-sided without a single thread of verity.”

Recently the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) pretended to take on the endless debate around the topic most people know little about – the health problems created by industrial wind turbines. The results were quite disappointing.

The Sunday, October 21st program (two segments) skated around the issues like Barbara Ann Scott.

The first segment was a cut and paste “documentary” by a novice reporter from Kincardine, Ontario about people in her “home town.” Frustratingly, and sadly, this entire set up piece merely touched at the edges of the actual concerns many of which have been reported on CBC by actual CBC reporters.…

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Carbon Tax: Climatically Useless

By Chip Knappenberger -- December 3, 2012 25 Comments Continue Reading

Environmental Battles Under Obama 2

By -- November 19, 2012 3 Comments Continue Reading

Governors Demand Wind PTC to Cover State Costs

By -- November 16, 2012 4 Comments Continue Reading

Halloween: Neo-Malthusian Day

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 31, 2012 4 Comments Continue Reading

U.S. Climate-Change Impacts: A Peer-Review True-Up (Cato Institute study irks alarmists)

By Chip Knappenberger -- October 29, 2012 10 Comments Continue Reading

Twenty Bad Things About Wind Energy, and Three Reasons Why

By -- October 24, 2012 47 Comments Continue Reading