economic

John Nothdurft and Donny Kendal present episode #110 of the In The Tank Podcast. Today’s podcast features work from the Cato Institute, the Heartland Institute and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

In this episode of the weekly Budget & Tax News podcast, managing editor and research fellow Jesse Hathaway is joined by Mercatus Center senior research fellow Daniel Griswold, talking about why “globalization” is not a dirty word, despite what politicians may be telling people this year.

Today we have assembled a panel of independent experts with unique perspectives. We are recording this in late January, and it has already been a dramatic year. After rebounding from a brutal start, the U.S. stock market is still down 5%, while Europe, Japan and China have all declined approximately 8%.

Presidential election years, more than many others, focuses our attention on politics, those running for political office, and the promises the competing candidates make to sway our allegiance and votes toward one or some of them in comparison to others. They want us to give them political power by promising to use that power to benefit some of us in ways that can only come at the expense of others in society.

In this edition of The Heartland Daily Podcast Independent Communications Consultant Jessica Sena and research fellow Isaac Orr discuss the impact of state regulatory plans to restrict development in areas deemed important habitat for sage grouse, a bird which inhabits eleven western states. Many of these rural states depend upon agriculture, mining, and forestry for economic growth, but each of these industries will be impacted by limitations on development because of the sage grouse.

In today’s edition of The Heartland Daily Podcast, Michael Hart, Professor Emeritus and Simon Reisman Chair in Trade Policy in the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University in Ottawa joins Managing Editor H. Sterling Burnett. Hart joins Burnett to discuss Hart’s new book Hubris: The Troubling Science, Economics, and Politics of Climate Change.

On October 5, 2009, President Obama issued an executive order, FEDERAL LEADERSHIP IN ENVIRONMENTAL, ENERGY, AND ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE, that sneak-previewed policies toward reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for the rest of his time in office. The 15-page executive order, divided into 20 sections, provided strict guidance for all agencies in the executive branch and their interactions with outside organizations. Portions of the executive order follows:

Kudos to Senators Mike Lee and Orin Hatch, and Rep. Blake Farenthold for their leadership and wisdom in advancing the SMARTER Act, H.R. 5402, “Standard Merger and Acquisition Reviews Through Equal Rules.”

To try to justify mandating Title II utility regulation of broadband and the blocking of the Comcast-Time Warner acquisition, the Administration and FCC had to gerrymander broadband definitions to reach their political goal that wireless broadband service not be considered an official competitor to wireline broadband service.

In the same way that EPA has extended its control over water—and even land—under clean water laws (See Part 1), it has exceeded Constitutional authority and the intent of Congress under the Clean Air Acts. Once again, it has caused an enormous waste of billions of taxpayer dollars on government itself—and costs approaching a trillion dollars for compliance in the private sector. All this with measures that have little benefit—and often negative consequences—to the environment or human health. Take carbon dioxide for example.

Without investment, everything economic collapses. Stasis is death. We must constantly create and innovate to move forward our massive $14-trillion-per-year economy. That takes lots and lots and LOTS of speculative capital.

“Buy locally” is among the most foolish edicts in the long list of commandments from today’s environmental movement. Local sourcing is proposed by our universities as the solution for saving the rain forests, reducing pollution and halting global warming. We’d expect such advice from an out-of-touch grandparent, but not from our intellectual leaders.

In an effort to get America off of fossil fuels, “free” solar and wind energy is often touted as the solution. However, in reality, the so-called free energy has high costs and does little to minimize fossil-fuel use or cut greenhouse gases.