Undeligated authority.
SOTUS affirms that when Congress makes a promise, convieniance is not a valid reason to break it.
Public Policy
Self-evident
Traditionally I post the Declaration of Independence on The Fourth. This year, I decided that focusing word for word on the language of the 18th Century is a poor way to celebrate a document that ...
The anatomy of a disaster
Reading case studies in public policy is like watching a good thriller. You see each decision lead down the path to disaster. You know the disaster is coming, you see the many places where the ...
The day after…
I’ve decided how I am going to celebrate the end of the campaign season. While I have commented that this year’s fliers do not burn, with the right tinder anything will catch light. The night ...
Enough!
So, this is what a $50 Million election looks like. With the control of the Senate at stake, everyone is throwing in to the point where this race could well cost $200 per vote. There ...
A carbon tax is coming.
From a cynical point of view, political change comes about when a new group of people find a way to change the rules in such a way that they gain an advantage over previous champions. ...
Words.
So, we’re going to war again. Congress is full of people who claim concern over which countries will have “boots on the ground.” It’s an interesting linguistic trick. I suppose it’s safer to talk about the ...
On carbon
I underwent surgery yesterday. All went well, but the anesthesia knocked me on my ass. Today was a day of recovering, with a mind that was ready to work, and a body that was completely unwilling. ...
The return of the Debtors’ Prison
Sociologists have long talked about the cost of being poor. It’s counter-intuitive on the surface, but it’s as easy to see as the cost of doing laundry in your own machine vs. the cost of ...
Fixating on fixing the debt
We are told that Government should be more like business. The average total debt to equity ratio for the S&P 500 is around 0.88. Our national debt to equity ratio is around 0.075. By rational ...
Eisenhower
I heard a piece on the radio about the Eisenhower memorial. He may be the most under-rated president in modern times. When the Russians launched Sputnik, there were several options we could have taken. We ...
Fixing the market
I was thinking about the long-term effects of the ACA (Obamacare), and there is one thing that strikes me as potentially very big, but I have not read much about it. One of the advantages ...
Conservation
This story is an interesting example of how the government in asking citizens to do something may have inadvertently triggered an opposite response. 1) Water main breaks. The city has 12 hours of clean water ...
The Government and the Market
Here is a perfect example of the externalities of Federal spending. The State of Utah is going to pay $1.67 million to the federal government to have federal parks within the state open for a ...