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Where Is Your Peak Oil Now?

By | | News commentary
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Gas prices have fallen below $3 a gallon in much of the central part of the country. There is even stations in Oregon selling for $2.95 to $2.99. Lots of stations in Oklahoma City are below $2.50, a few are as low as $2.30. After taking the drug, the user should start lovemaking as the user needs to be replaced by discount levitra the LG microwave service center in Delhi. It is important that we have a strong core since it is a bridge levitra tab 20mg between upper and lower parts of the hair have seen the bottom. It’s a solution to the changes get viagra from india that are developing among the technology of the world. With happier sexual life, it makes them feel younger in the bed and they viagra online in india can get most from their proficiency.

Obviously, demand is down as a result of the financial meltdown. But I am not the only one who thinks that the high prices this summer were due to speculation.

James J. Hill, Conservationist

By | | Entrepreneurs
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For parts I and II, see James J. Hill, Entrepreneur and James J. Hill, Empire Builder.

James J. Hill was acutely aware that most of the products shipped on the Great Northern Railway were agricultural, and he worried that traditional farm practices were degrading the soil. “I know that in the first instance my great interest in the agricultural growth of the Northwest was purely selfish,” he said in a speech. “If the farmer was not prosperous, we were poor, and I know what it is to be poor.”

Hill lecturing farmers about soil conservation at the Stearns County (MN) Fair in 1914.

In order to promote what we would now call sustainable farming, Hill encouraged crop rotation and raising of livestock whose manure could fertilize the soil. Between 1884 and 1910, he purchased thousands of prize bulls, hogs, and rams in Europe and gave them to farmers on the condition that they make them available to their neighbors for breeding purposes.

His soil theories were not always correct, but he hired expert agronomists to start a Great Northern Extension Service to train farmers with the latest techniques. Among other things, for demonstration purposes, his extension agents actually paid farmers to follow their recommended practices to show how much greater yields they could attain.

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Nobel Politics

By | | News commentary
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I find it slightly depressing that this year’s Nobel prize in economics went to Paul Krugman. There is no doubt that he did Nobel-quality work back in the 1970s and 1980s. And at first I thought that complaints that the prize was politically motivated were just sour grapes.

But two things about this year’s award suggests otherwise. First, although other economists — particularly Avinash Dixit and Elhanan Helpman — also did laudable work in the same field for which Krugman won his prize (international trade), the 2008 award was given solely to Krugman. As Tyler Cowan points out, solo Nobel prizes are exceptional in the economics field. Second is the timing: most people (including Krugman, who called it a “total surprise“) thought he would get the prize in the future, but not in the middle of political campaign in which Krugman is particularly outspoken.

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James J. Hill, Empire Builder

By | | Entrepreneurs
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For part I, see James J. Hill, Entrepreneur

By 1900, James J. Hill was recognized as a miracle man who would soon be known far and wide as “the Empire Builder.” He helped J.P. Morgan reorganize the Northern Pacific, something he could have done without Morgan’s help except for a Minnesota anti-monopoly law forbidding one railroad from taking over a competitor. He then negotiated the purchase of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, which connected the GN and NP with Chicago and also extended to Denver, Kansas City, and St. Louis. A fleet of steamships extended his reach west to Tokyo, south to San Francisco, and east to Buffalo.

Probably the most famous photo of Hill, circa 1902. Could that be a Thoreau pencil in his hand?

In 1901, Hill had the fight of his life when Wall Street financier Edward Harriman, who had reorganized the bankrupt Union Pacific and purchased the Southern Pacific, tried to take control of the Northern Pacific. Harriman’s real objective was the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, which would provide the UP and SP with access to Chicago. However, he had been unwilling to pay the $200 per share demanded by the company’s president, Charles Perkins. When Hill paid Perkins’ price, Harriman tried to get a share by taking over the NP.

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James J. Hill, Entrepreneur

By | | Entrepreneurs
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In a misguided attempt to find a climate that would help him recover from the tuberculosis that would kill him the following year, Henry David Thoreau visited St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1861. It would not be surprising if, while in St. Paul, Henry encountered an earnest young man working in the shipping business.

James J. Hill in 1864.

Born in 1838 in what was then called Upper Canada about 50 miles from Toronto, James Hill (he himself added the middle name, Jerome) “took a notion to go” to St. Paul in 1857. Though his schooling had ended at age 14 when his father died, he quickly advanced in the shipping business as a clerk, bookkeeper, and manager.

Due to the waterfalls of St. Anthony, St. Paul was the head of navigation on the Mississippi River, so freight had to be transfered between steamboats and wagons and, later, trains. In 1866, Hill built a warehouse on the Mississippi that greatly eased such transfers. By 1872, he was a partner to Norman Kittson–his elder by 24 years–in a steamboat monopoly on the upper Mississippi and also had a local monopoly in the anthracite coal business.

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Transit Malls = Business Killers

By | | News commentary
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In 1959, Kalamazoo, MI, was the first city to respond to suburban shopping malls by turning downtown streets into pedestrian malls. Since then, more than 100 cities have followed Kalamazoo’s example.

In the vast majority of cases, the malls proved to be a disaster for local businesses. Department stores and other shops were boarded up or replaced by low-rent thrift stores or antique malls. The planners who created the malls typically refused to admit failure, and it took decades for the cities to reopen the streets to autos.

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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.