Stuff I wrote elsewhere: Diane Albert’s view of the city is different than the one you might get trapped inside a glass-and-steel cage on your morning commute. Out along the Rio Grande bicycle trail on her morning commute, she sees the coming and going of ducks, the cottonwoods changing from green in spring to gold …
The Energy Information Administration’s This Week in Petroleum out today opens with a fascinating discussion of the decline in use of home heating oil in the United States. And, oh, yes, by the way… The U.S. average retail price for regular gasoline jumped to yet another all-time high as the price increased by 10.9 cents …
Environmental economist John Whitehead explains why he won’t sign the economists’ petition arguing for a 100 percent auction of carbon emission credits, rather than giving some of them away for free: Why won’t I sign? I agree with everything in the statement except for the 100% part. 100% auctions seems like a guarantee that some …
Well here’s some good news: China’s strongest earthquake in 58 years may reduce the nation’s energy demand as damaged power plants and transmission lines force companies to idle some generators. The down side, though, according to Bloomberg’s Rob Delaney, is the quake’s possible contribution to food inflation. Oh, yeah. And all the dead people. That’s …
A couple of pieces worth reading in the morning paper by my colleagues on subjects of personal interest: Mike Coleman on the political realities underlying the energy grandstanding coming out of Washington Susan Stiger on the virtues of growing and eating locally
An economist has finally come forward with a cogent argument in favor of the gas tax holiday. In today’s New York Times, Bryan Caplan points out that voters are demanding that Congress do something. There is nothing Congress can actually do to help the situation. But since they’re likely to do something, the gas tax …
Global food prices have leveled off, according to the Economist food price index out today. It’s settled at 251.5, down 0.6 percent from a week ago and up 61.3 percent from a year ago. I don’t understand it well enough to know for sure, but I’ve got to assume that 0.6 percent over a week …
From Tuesday’s New York Times: “It clearly evokes a visceral response because we’re the only industry that has our prices in two-foot-high letters on the street corner,” said John Felmy, chief economist at the American Petroleum Institute. “We’ve seen other things go up in prices, like milk, but if you ask 10 people on the …
Tim Haab’s graph of the day really needs no comment. (But this is the Internet, so I know that won’t stop you.)
My latest idea to save the world.