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Monthly Archives: October 2008

Rails Won’t Save America

By | | Transportation
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The Cato Institute has published a paper arguing that rail transit isn’t the solution to the energy crisis Scoliosis affects nearly 7 million in the United States that have impotence condition which is known for having this liposuction surgery Different kinds of tests including blood tests are highly necessary in case you are intending to have knee levitra generic vardenafil liposuction. The related treatments include cheap viagra usa http://appalachianmagazine.com/2018/05/07/provoking-thought-dont-take-pictures-of-car-wrecks/ acupuncture and herbal medicine. appalachianmagazine.com viagra 100mg no prescription Problems with erections because of poor blood sugar control. 3. Employees who might suffer from sexual addictions might struggle to concentrate on their daily responsibilities or have a bent purchase cheap viagra over at this storefront to sexually harass co-workers. or global warming. While this issue has been previously covered here, you may find Cato’s report useful.

Henry David Thoreau, Entrepreneur

By | | Entrepreneurs
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Most people know Henry David Thoreau as the guy who wrote a book about living in a shack by a pond. Some people remember he also gave a speech about why he refused to pay a tax levied by the federal government to support the Mexican-American War, which he regarded as immoral. These events occupied little more than one of Thoreau’s 44 years of life.

Few people know of Thoreau’s other accomplishments. Working as a civil engineer, he surveyed thousands of acres of land in rural Massachusetts. Given his avocation as a naturalist, he made a genuine contribution to the scientific literature of what we now call “ecology” by discovering the process of plant succession.

In sharpest contrast to our stereotype of Thoreau as an anti-materialist, Thoreau was an entrepreneur. He developed the methods and invented the techniques for making the finest pencils in America. He personally manufactured and marketed many of those pencils, winning awards for Thoreau pencils.

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Private Property vs. the Commons

By | | Mission
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What is it about a commons that makes people lose their heads? The commons is, in essence, an institution that is designed to fail. Yet many people believe that we need to somehow maintain a commons so that people will have to collectively deal with its overuse. The Antiplanner interprets this to mean they want a commons so as to teach people to become “New Socialist Men” (and women) — that is, people who work for the collective rather than for themselves.

For example, a folk singer named David Rovics has a song celebrating the commons and criticizing those who would privatize it. (True to his beliefs, Rovics has placed all of his songs, including this one, on line.)

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Can You Say, “Moral Hazard”?

By | | News commentary
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Despite the fact that his state was facing a $15 billion deficit (and the fact that he vowed not to sign any laws until the legislature solved the deficit crisis), California Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger signed legislation to put high-speed rail on the ballot on August 26. If voters approve, this bill will immediately add at least $650 million to the state’s annual deficit, and in the long run (assuming voters later decide to build more than from San Francisco to San Jose) much more.

Last week, on the eve of House passage of the $700 billion bailout bill, Schwartzenegger sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Paulson warning that California will need its own bailout soon. Supposedly, this is solely due to the credit crunch. But if the state were not spending so much beyond its means, it wouldn’t have this problem.
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This suggests that voters can approve the high-speed rail proposition this November with complete confidence that, when California defaults on the bonds, the U.S. will step in and bail it out. If the measure passes, federal taxpayers can look forward to adding at least $10 billion, and possibly $430 billion, to their future obligations.

How Long Will the Recession Last?

By | | News commentary
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Now that is is pretty clear that we are in a recession, the natural question to ask is: how long will it last? Will it be as long as the Great Depression, or as short as the post-dot-com-crash recession?

According to a couple of economists who write for Forbes and work for an investment firm, “any velocity-driven economic slowdown will likely be very short lived.” They predict a “one-quarter slowdown” followed by “a relatively quick recovery in 2009.” Thus, they suggest you take advantage of today’s low stock prices and buy buy buy now now now!

But then, they also say the problem was caused by the Fed cutting interest rates last year, and their solution is for the Fed to cut interest rates now. Say what?

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Google’s Energy Plan

By | | News commentary
22 Comments

Google has proposed a detailed plan for the U.S. to move to cleaner energy in 22 years. Significantly, the plan does not promise that the U.S. will achieve “energy independence,” instead setting a target of reducing oil imports by a mere 22 percent.

The price tag? $4.4 trillion. Google estimates that investing this amount will allow us to save $5.4 trillion in the long run. But that assumes someone will be willing to pay $1.1 trillion for carbon credits. It also assumes we somehow find the $4.4 trillion to invest in the program.

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Bail This Out

By | | News commentary
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Some people think the bail out bill passed by the Senate on Wednesday was unconstitutional, as only the House of Representatives is allowed to initiate tax legislation. The vote was scheduled for Wednesday because Senate leaders expected the House to pass the bill on Monday. When the House failed to do so, the Senate merely attached the bailout bill to another bill (dealing with mental health) that had already passed the House. With flexibility like that, who needs a Constitution?

To make the bill even more politically attractive, the Senate added nearly 300 pages of tax breaks and other special-interest legislation costing $150 billion (partly offset by $40 billion in spending cuts or tax increases elsewhere in the bill). The tax breaks go to such vital sectors of the economy as Puerto Rican rum makers, auto race tracks, bicycle commuters, restaurant remodelers, and makers of “wooden arrows designed for use by children.”

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Smoke Gets in My Eyes

By | | Wildfire
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Although there have been large wildfires in California and Texas, this has been a mild fire year so far in Oregon. As of September 21, 123,000 acres had burned compared with a total of nearly 650,000 in 2007.

Fall weather is upon us, with nighttime temperatures well below freezing, and there haven’t been any lightning storms recently, the usual cause of fires around here. So I was a bit surprised last Thursday to see a large plume of smoke on Green Ridge, a few miles from my home in Central Oregon’s wildland-urban interface (WUI).

It turns out that last Wednesday, September 24, the Forest Service set a 31-acre prescribed fire. The fire escaped Thursday and burned (as of October 1) nearly 1,200 acres on Green Ridge. According to the latest report (which is updated daily), the Forest Service has put more than 500 firefighters and five helicopters, plus several more aircraft, to work fighting what it calls the Wizard fire (after a local waterfall).

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Henry Ford, Entrepreneur

By | | Entrepreneurs
32 Comments

Today (or maybe (last Saturday; sources differ) is the
100th anniversary of the assembly of the first Model T Ford. That first Model T cost $825 — about $14,000 in today’s dollars. It proved reliable, simple to drive, and easy to repair.

Today, many people think the Model T is one of the most important cars ever made because it brought mobility to the masses. Others, who apparently think the wealthy should be mobile but not the poor, think it was one of the worst cars for the same reason.

In fact, the Model T wasn’t what brought mobility to ordinary people. The car sold well in 1909, but sales didn’t really take off until Ford started making Model Ts on a moving assembly line. This allowed him to lower the price of his cars to $490 in 1914 (about $8,000 in today’s prices), and eventually to as low as $290 (less than $3,000 in today’s dollars). In every year from 1919 through 1925, Ford sold more cars than all other auto makers in the nation — and in some years, the world — combined.

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