“Simon’s idea is simultaneously simple and startling. Once grasped, its truth is undeniable. Yet its implications are profound — none more so than the realization that the amount of resources on earth is not fixed.” (Donald Boudreaux, below)
Some articles are worth revisiting to keep the fundamental ideas fresh in our minds. I recently ran into one of them by the noted economist and educator Donald J. Boudreaux.
It was Professor Boudreaux, in fact, that switched his major to economics and pursued teaching when a professor explained the cause of the then-experienced natural gas shortages.
A few years back, the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) published a piece by Boudreaux, simply titled “There Are No Natural Resources.” I reprint the article in full:
… Continue ReadingRecently I had a very enjoyable conversation over dinner with some impressive undergraduates at Bowling Green State University.
“It’s pointless to reduce carbon emissions inside Europe, to then import them from outside.” (Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy and Finance, France)
“When I was our ambassador to the EU, I spent a lot of time on some very difficult trade issues. This could become the mother of all trade issues if not handled right.” (Richard Morningstar, Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center)
– Quoted in “How Europe’s Border Carbon Tax Plan Could Force the U.S. to Act on Climate Change,” Time, March 4, 2020.
Tariffs and quotas in the name of CO2 reduction, euphemistically called “border adjustments,” is the wolf at the international door. From the U.S. side, Joe Biden and other Democratic candidates have threatened such protectionism if elected. Part III of Biden’s Climate Plan states:
… Continue ReadingAs the U.S.
“The Green New Deal is a massive investment program, not an expenditure. The question isn’t how will we pay for it, but what is the cost of inaction, and what will we do with our new shared prosperity created by the investments in the Green New Deal.”
“The Green New Deal sets a goal to get to net-zero, rather than zero emissions, at the end of this 10-year plan because we aren’t sure that we will be able to fully get rid of, for example, emissions from farting cows or air travel before then.”
It was an embarrassment–and, to my knowledge, the most ill-conceived energy proposal in the history of the United States by a wing of a major political party since the oil-industry nationalization proposals of the shortage 1970s (yes, Bernie was part of that).…
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