Michael Giberson Inventor James Dyson is a fan of Thomas Edison and making lots of mistakes. From the November 2011 WIRED UK: Thomas Edison, the American inventor, is synonymous with trial-and-error innovating. He would build a prototype, test it, watch it go wrong, tweak the design and build another. Over and over again. … Dyson has …
Michael Giberson We talk a bit about the economics of electric power transmission and wind power here, but there is more to understanding the world than economics. Previously we have noted Virginia Postrel writing on the techno-glamour of, among other things, wind turbines. Now we take note of the Pylon Design Competition and its recently …
The Beautiful Transmission Tower, the Glamorous Wind Turbine Read More »
Michael Giberson Among U.S. water utilities, some are publicly owned and some are privately owned. Same thing for gas utilities and electric utilities. But unlike in the gas and electric power industries, the water business has become predominantly organized by publicly-owned utilities. Scott Masten explores why it was that public utility ownership became dominant among …
Why Did Water Utilities in the U.S. Become Mostly Publicly Owned? Read More »
Michael Giberson Bob Jenks of Oregon’s Citizens’ Utility Board, writing at EnergyPulse, explains “Why Smart Grid Advocates Should Learn About Utility Regulation.” Reading between the lines a bit, the reason smart grid advocates should learn about utility regulation seems to be so that they will understand that their talent, inventiveness, and desire to make the …
The Smart Grid and the Regulatory Barriers Thereto Read More »
Michael Giberson At Reason.com, social psychologist Jonathon Haidt writes about the foundational moral concerns that animate the Zuccotti Park protestors. Working from a Moral Foundations Theory* perspective, which Haidt and several others have developed, he said, “In my visit to Zuccotti Park, it was clear that the main moral foundation of OWS is fairness, followed …
What Do the Occupy Wall Streeters Care About? Haidt on the Moral Foundations of Ows Read More »
Michael Giberson I’m writing in praise of a New York Times article on natural gas fracking. Yes, really! Even more surprising, I’m writing in praise of a New York Times on fracking written by Ian Urbina. Yes, really! What is this marvel, you ask? I answer, “Rush to Drill for Natural Gas Creates Conflicts With Mortgages.” What is so …
Michael Giberson Two multi-billion dollar deals in the news this weekend provide additional evidence of how advances in drilling technology have unlocked vast new energy resources and are reshaping the energy industry. Norwegian oil company Statoil is paying about $4.4 billion for Brigham Exploration, getting “a stronger foothold in unconventional resources” according to the Wall …
Michael Giberson Michael Levi, at his CFR blog, explains “What The Nobel Prize Tells Us About Oil“: Do you think that it’s straightforward to figure out whether high oil prices cause recessions? Many people apparently do. The 2011 Nobel Prize in Economics, awarded today to Thomas Sargent and Christopher Sims for “empirical research on cause and effect in the macroeconomy”, should make …
Michael Giberson In a randomized control experiment, subjects unconsciously primed to think about markets were more trusting in a subsequent anonymous economic exchange. The authors note that the positive effect of trust on economic growth is well documented — in particular, widespread market activity requires people to trust anonymous strangers — but scholars have been …
Markets Make You More Trusting, but Not Necessarily More Trustworthy Read More »
Michael Giberson Congress asked the National Research Council to evaluate the economics and environmental effects of the advanced biofuels mandate in the Renewable Fuels Standard (“RFS2”). The result? It isn’t pretty: barring unforeseen technological advances that dramatically reduce costs or oil prices consistently in the neighborhood of $190 a barrel or higher, RFS2 just doesn’t …
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