Power Line - From the milk carton files

[Email] When calling in to complain this morning, my wife could hear other lines being answered in the background apologizing for the technical difficulties, that it wasn't their fault.

Is this how government run healthcare is going to be like? Wait, wait, hello, click, we're sorry, it's not our fault.

Why a Climate Treaty Is Impossible  | GlobalWarming.org

...But a global response to global warming is impossible, as I’ve been arguing for a long time, because there is no precedent for interstate burden-sharing of this magnitude, short of war. The International Energy Agency estimates that it will cost $45 trillion to limit warming to 2 degrees Celsius, and history indicates that the countries of the world are incapable of agreeing who should pay what portion of this gargantuan tab.

The impossibility of a meaningful climate change treaty is a sure thing, despite what you may hear from silly idealists who claim that China will hamstring its economy to fight global warming as soon as the United States does so. Yet this realistic portrayal of climate diplomacy is rarely admitted.

Top-down Regulation Dressed in Cap-and-Trade Clothing » The Foundry

Free allowances do not lower the costs of Waxman-Markey; they just shift them around. Although the government awarded handouts to businesses, the carbon dioxide reduction targets are still there, and the way they will be met is by raising the price of energy and thereby inflicting more economic pain. Prices have to go up enough to force people to use less energy, and so if anyone is bought off with free allowances, the costs for everyone else are that much higher.

How Cash for Clunkers Destroys Wealth » The Foundry

So let’s imagine that the average car destroyed is worth $2,000. If you assume a lower number, you’ll get a lower wealth loss, and if you assume a higher number, you’ll get a higher wealth loss. Even if the $2,000 car is destroyed, maybe the spare parts that are “spared” are worth $200. So for that $4,500, $1,800 in wealth is explicitly destroyed. So, the net loss per $4,500 payment is $1,650 plus $1,800, or $3,450, minus the small environmental gain.