Vampire Bat Saliva for Strokes?
How cool is this: vampire bat saliva has a clot-busting compound that could lead to new drugs to prevent strokes.
January 2003
New Report Says Electricity Restructuring Is Working In Texas
According to the Alliance for Retail Markets, Texas’s restructuring law is working. They measure that success by consumer switching, which at 6.5 percent is high relative to switching experience in other states, and by estimated consumer savings of $6-14/month for those who have switched. I have quibbles with these measures of success, because it does …
New Report Says Electricity Restructuring Is Working In Texas Read More »
CA Electricity Prices Result Of Market Power, Not Gaming?
Such is the conclusion of a California Independent System Operator report released Monday. This Wall Street Journal article (subscription required) and this LA Times article (subscription required) discuss the report, but interestingly, they have different slants. The LA Times article has the tone of “here’s a list of companies that did what Enron did” and …
CA Electricity Prices Result Of Market Power, Not Gaming? Read More »
Back to Algernon Sidney
Now the Venezuelan opposition is encouraging citizens to stop paying taxes. Again I raise the question: has Chavez abrogated his constitutional responsibilities to his constituents? If so, then you could argue either the Locke argument that citizens have the right to rebel, or the Sidney argument that citizens have the responsibility to rebel. The extent …
The Consequences Of Venezuela’s Oil Strike
Venezuela’s iron and steel industry is in virtual shutdown because of the (natural) gas shortage brought on by the strike. Gas is a by-product of oil production, so it’s been shut down too. It turns out that Venezula is the world’s largest producer of hot briquetted iron, which is an input in the production of …
I Hate To Say “I Told You So,” But …
OPEC is having an emergency meeting Sunday to discuss the extent to which they should raise output. Furthermore, their proposed increase of up to 1.5 million barrels/day is a large increase for them, and drove down crude oil futures prices. Some news reports have argued that this is a dramatic policy shift for OPEC, but …
More On California Electricity
Many thanks to Robert Musil for posting a link to this paper by Susan Pope on electricity price spikes and California. I’ve not looked over it in much detail, as I’m blogging from a Kinko’s and in between sessions at the AEA, but it looks clear, wonderful, and correct. So Davis et al are deeply …
Oil Prices Continue To Swing
Not to beat a dead horse, but oil price volatility will continue to exist for the forseeable future. Today’s markets in London experienced opened 2.2 percent higher today, after the American Petroleum Institute announced a 9 milliion barrel drawdown in inventories last week. That’s a big inventory decline, so it’s no surprise that prices are …