Comments on: Climate Change – What Do Economists Really Think?

By: Bob Murphy

Bob Murphy — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:30:36 +0000

Jerry, interesting post, but I think you bought into the IPI summary too quickly. Yes, the surveyed economists (by a large majority) think climate change poses risks and that a "market-based mechanism" to price CO2 is the way to deal with it, but one could actually interpret the survey as being critical of the pending bills. At IER we have a post on this.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 03:46:47 +0000

I really despise the phrase “market mechanism”. There is no “using” markets in a planned economy, which is what restricting emissions entails. The idea of the government “using” markets is ridiculous. You can’t “use” spontaneous order, it serves only individual’s self interests. If it has to be directed it isn’t a market, it’s a commune.

By: Jon Boone

Jon Boone — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 03:01:36 +0000

Perhaps the winner among these economists, determined by a poll of 250 members of the national media corp, should decide the most efficacious tack for doing “something” to arrest climate change. And this person’s alma mater should then play the winner of the BSC college football championship game in the match of the century to determine the Fantasy Energy League’s MVP–Most Valuable Proposal–refereed, of course, by the National Renewable Energy Lab, to ensure that reality cannot take unfair advantage.

Is our polity now completely at the mercy of university literature departments, where faculty dissertations can really settle the question of how many angels can sit on the head of a pin? In such a post post modern world, there’s evidently a dragon in every garage.

By: Brian Garst

Brian Garst — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:20:22 +0000

And how exactly did they determine which economists had “expertise in climate change?” That sounds like code for “people we knew would agree with us.”