Yes, you did read that title correctly, and no, it is not a joke. This is what happens when wasteful subsidies distort the market: In the first half of 2008, prices were below zero nearly 20 percent of the time. During March, when negative prices were most frequent, prices were below zero about 33 percent of the time. After mostly taking the summer off, negative power prices were back to near 10 percent in October. This seems a little crazy. During these negative price periods, suppliers are paying ERCOT to …
John McCain made a point of mentioning Citizens Against Government Waste during all three presidential debate. He cited the National Taxpayers Union in the last two. Today both organizations responded with a list of government waste that’s just waiting to be cut. NTU’s research arm, the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, through its BillTally program has compiled a list of pieces of legislation in the current Congress that would reduce spending, including examples like H.R. 5957, which would eliminate $35 billion worth of agricultural subsidies over five years. NTUF also holds …
There’s a lot of finger-pointing going on as to who’s to blame for the extraordinarily high oil prices. The primary targets are big oil and speculators and both are unlikely to be true (see here for speculators and here for big oil). Another target, rising demands from rapidly developing countries like India and China, is beginning to be heard and has a great deal of truth to it. Yet another target, one that is hardly ever discussed, is the number of fuel subsidies overseas. Keith Bradsher of the New York …
A few weeks back Heritage hosted a briefing on Capitol Hill to discuss the economics of building new nuclear power plants in the United States. The briefing featured Michael Metzner, senior vice president and treasurer for Exelon Corp., and Caren Byrd, executive director of Morgan Stanley’s investment banking division. Metzner asserted that the economics “have never been stronger” for nuclear power, but also commented that it would cost between $6 billion and $8 billion to build a new plant, quite a large investment for a firm to make. Byrd noted …
Looking at the relationship between protectionism, subsidies, and world hunger, American Enterprise Institute visiting scholar Adam Lerrick writes: The world has the ability to feed itself at affordable prices. There is no shortage of productive land. Large tracts in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Brazil offer huge potential. Putting fallow acres back into production could quadruple Russian cereal output to 300 million tons each year. The labor, technology, and capital are all at the ready. So why has the market failed to respond to this most basic of human needs? In the …
Domestically produced corn based ethanol has enjoyed preferential federal treatment for years including a $0.51 per gallon tax credit and tariffs that discourage potentially cheaper sugar cane-based ethanol from Brazil. Federal government government support for ethanol has only increased in recent years with the first ever renewable fuel mandate for gasoline in 2005 and the significant raise of the mandate in 2007. Few in Washington predicted the costs of this government interference in the energy market, but now they are beginning to be widely accepted. Heritage scholars Ben Lieberman and …
The reason Congress has an approval rating at an all-time low (only 16% approve in the latest survey) is that the American people simply don’t trust their leaders to look beyond their own narrow interests and do what is good for the country. The farm bill that passed the House yesterday, and is set to be passed by the Senate by the end of the week, justifies the American people’s deep mistrust in the federal government. Both parties deserve blame on this fiasco. At a cost of $290 billion over …
“So you bought an overpriced house or cashed out your home equity like an ATM? Here’s an idea: Take responsibility for your actions!” That’s the mood over at AngryRenter.com. The plain-spoken Web site run by FreedomWorks gives voice to what might be termed “the Silent Minority” of the mortgage- bailout debate: the one-third of American households that don’t have a mortgage. Although less than 2 percent of all homes are in foreclosure, the Web site notes, lawmakers are tripping over themselves to bail out the homeowners with tax dollars taken from …
