Lynne Kiesling By now you all have probably heard that Hillary Clinton and John McCain are proposing gasoline tax holidays this summer to take some budget pressure off of voters who drive a lot (c’mon, let’s be honest about the true audience of these proposals). Barack Obama does not support such a proposal. Criticizing this …
Piling on the Criticism of a Summer Gas Tax Holiday Read More »
Lynne Kiesling I’m taking a little time this morning to catch up on the reading I’ve missed over the past month, while I’ve been focused elsewhere. One worthwhile observation, with which I agree, comes from Virginia Postrel’s note about carbon policy positions of Presidential candidates, among other things: It’s infuriating how all three presidential candidates …
Lynne Kiesling We’ve been talking about the interaction of biofuels subsidies and food markets here at KP for at least the past year. The interaction is reaching a crescendo, as seen in the increased media coverage of the increased food prices, riots in poor communities, and impending increased hunger and starvation. See, for example, the …
Michael Giberson At the Becker-Posner Blog, the authors tackle rising food prices and the latest Neo-Malthusians concerns that the world is reaching the limits of the earth to produce food. Curiously, both cite the thoroughly flogged old Neo-Malthusian book, Paul Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb, but no current examples. Gary Becker writes to claim the Neo-Malthusians …
Becker and Posner on Food Prices and the New Neo-malthusians Read More »
Michael Giberson The New York Post explains political prediction markets in this 2 1/2 minute video clip featuring the Intrade exchange, among others, and including a interview with Yahoo! prediction market scientist David Pennock. See also Chris Masse’s comments on the piece at Midas Oracle and David Pennock’s comments at Oddhead Blog. ADDENDUM: Also on …
Michael Giberson In a post at Common Tragedies, Erica Meyers reports the release of an addendum from the RGGI auction design team that responds to certain of the comments filed in response to their earlier report. As she reports, “One of the more interesting findings is that ‘clock auctions’ may be more susceptible to explicit …
Collusion in Ascending Price Auctions: Rggi Auction Designers Respond to Comments Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Is high, as are the prices of most commodities worldwide. Amid growing demand due to economic growth, and in the wake of recent poor yields, rice prices are rising. This NPR story from this morning did a good job of discussing the nuanced situation for rice farmers in Vietnam; they get higher prices …
Michael Giberson Employment prospects must be looking up for economists with experience in electric power. Three times in the last week I have received unsolicited notices – first, from out West came an email hoping I could recommend someone with expertise in state utility policies; then a day later, from a friend and former manager, …
Michael Giberson Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), co-sponsor of the proposed Clean Energy Tax Stimulus Act, says if Congress and the President don’t act fast to enact the bill, as much as $20 billion in investment will be delayed or canceled and and more than 100,000 jobs lost. At the Environmental Economics blog, John Whitehead says, “Show …
The Environmental Economics ‘lost Green Jobs Challenge’ Read More »
Michael Giberson On Monday night, Republicans in the Kansas House voted to apply a tax of $37 per ton of CO2 emitted from coal fired power plants for emissions in excess of 110 percent of the statewide average. Proceeds from the tax would be distributed to the large coal plants in the state with the …
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