Tim Worstall on the ASI Blog looks at the robust economic tools that are available to control externalities. Here I enlarge on a blog comment looking the limits of these tools in combating climate change. Although economic solutions may be “hugely cheaper than the sort of command and control systems”, that does not mean they [...]
All posts for the month February, 2011
Limits of an Economists Policy Tool Kit
Posted by manicbeancounter on February 27, 2011
http://manicbeancounter.com/2011/02/27/limits-of-an-economists-policy-tool-kit/
Julia Gillard’s Carbon Taxes– An ineffective policy
Jo Nova claims the Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, lied to the Australian public by being circumspect about a carbon taxes, then when in office to introduce a carbon tax to be followed by cap and trade. Betrayal of promises is to be expected and welcomed if to meet changed circumstances. For instance new taxes to close a [...]
Posted by manicbeancounter on February 27, 2011
http://manicbeancounter.com/2011/02/27/julia-gillard%e2%80%99s-carbon-taxes%e2%80%93-an-ineffective-policy/
Richard Black implies UNIPCC scientific conclusions have political bias
Richard Black, an environment correspondent with the BBC, loses sight of the purpose of climate change negotiations in criticizing the USA. There is a proposal to withdraw funding from the UNIPCC, a result of climate change deniers taking control of House of Representatives in the mid-term elections last year. The consequence, according to Black, is [...]
Posted by manicbeancounter on February 25, 2011
http://manicbeancounter.com/2011/02/25/richard-black-implies-unipcc-scientific-conclusions-have-political-bias/
Betraying Socialist Principles to Combat Climate Change
Jo Nova reports that a Carbon Tax is coming to Australia. This is to be followed by carbon trading. Comment submitted In economic theory, in a closed economy and zero transaction costs, with all other things being equal, a carbon trading should work quite well to reduce carbon emissions. In the real world consider these points. [...]
Posted by manicbeancounter on February 25, 2011
http://manicbeancounter.com/2011/02/25/betraying-socialist-principles-to-combat-climate-change/
Name-Calling in Climate Change may harm Our Future
The Economist blog has a posting about the name calling from both sides of the Global Warming / Climate Change divide. Here is my comment, complete with links. The name calling will lead to polarized views and more extreme policy. This is why. There is no balance to all this name-calling. There is abundant [...]
Posted by manicbeancounter on February 21, 2011
http://manicbeancounter.com/2011/02/21/name-calling-in-climate-change-may-harm-our-future/
Climate Change in Perspective – Part 2 of 4 – The Mitigation Curve
The previous posting developed a simple graph showing the consensus case for climate change mitigation. This posting looks at the policy arguments, suggesting a huge gap between what is believed to be theoretically possible and what may be realistically achieved. The conclusion is stark. Mitigation policy optimization requires a political process that cannot deliver a result that [...]
Posted by manicbeancounter on February 13, 2011
http://manicbeancounter.com/2011/02/13/climate-change-in-perspective-%e2%80%93-part-2-of-4-the-mitigation-curve/
Climate Change Policy in Perspective – Part 1 of 4
Introduction In the Climate Change policy there lacks a simple framework to assess the policy. There is a large consensus of scientists telling us that a large rise in global temperature will occur, and that the only policy in offer is to constrain the growth in greenhouse gas emissions globally. Presented below is a simple [...]
Posted by manicbeancounter on February 11, 2011
http://manicbeancounter.com/2011/02/11/climate-change-policy-in-perspective-%e2%80%93-part-1-of-4/
John Redwood and the BNP
Blogger Ralph Musgrave in comments to John Redwood’s posting “Finding our National Identity” claims that John Redwood and the rest of the Conservatives have been moving towards the BNP. This is my response. A sure sign of extremism is to point to superficial similarities, over the substantive ones. In this case the use of a word [...]
Posted by manicbeancounter on February 6, 2011
http://manicbeancounter.com/2011/02/06/john-redwood-and-the-bnp/
Arsene Wenger does not play Cricket
John Redwood has an excellent post on the good points in our national identity. I commented There is something else that I believe that stands out about the British that is distinctive. We play by the rules and are (traditionally) honourable in upholding contracts on a handshake. It works to our disadvantage where rules and [...]
Posted by manicbeancounter on February 6, 2011
http://manicbeancounter.com/2011/02/06/arsene-wenger-does-not-play-cricket/
Climate Change Impacts – UNIPCC and the Skeptics
Climate feedbacks are crucial to climate change forecasts. As Richard Lindzen1 said in his congressional testimony last year A doubling of CO2, by itself, contributes only about 1C to greenhouse warming. All models project more warming, because, within models, there are positive feedbacks from water vapor and clouds, and these feedbacks are considered by the IPCC to [...]
Posted by manicbeancounter on February 3, 2011
http://manicbeancounter.com/2011/02/03/climate-change-impacts-%e2%80%93-unipcc-and-the-skeptics/
