Climate Change Legislation & the Developing Word

Yale 360 reports that India, like China before them, has announced that they will not agree to emissions’ restrictions. Obama has said that he opposes trade sanctions against countries who do not agree to carbon caps. From the Times’ article: The House bill contains a provision, inserted in the middle of the night before the [...]

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Deceptive Perception

The other day I posted a long, detailed musing on the price of gasoline and whether the recent price increases would have a long-term impact on our domestic demand. I drew extensively upon the work of Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist, formerly of MIT, now of Duke. I enthusiastically recommend his book Predictably Irrational, a [...]

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Think Unhappy Thoughts

I’ve always been skeptical of people who seem a smidgen too happy, exuberant, or optimistic, who see the glass not as half-full but brimming, who flatter everyone with a pulse. I think of the English teacher who responds with affirmation no matter how preposterous or inane the student’s interpretation is; what do we learn from [...]

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Crack Addicts & Gas Pumps

I don’t mind the high price of gas these days, not because I don’t drive–I do–but because I think gas ought to be priced this high, and probably even higher. These high prices should reduce the demand for gasoline, and the sooner this happens, the better; the continued unmitigated consumption of cheap fossil fuels could [...]

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A Lack of Sympathy

I don’t think I’m capable of mustering much sympathy for the employees of Lehman Brothers. I know most of its employees aren’t responsible for its disappearance. But when many Americans are losing their homes, their dreams dissipating in Ch. 11 courts, the travails of the now unemployed denizens of Wall Street, no matter how innocent [...]

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