Environmental Economics

If any policy that leads to higher prices is a tax ...

Ron Chernow:

LIKE many popular insurgencies in American history, the Tea Party movement has attempted to enlist the founding fathers as fervent adherents to its cause. The very name invokes those disguised patriots who clambered aboard ships in Boston Harbor in December 1773 and dumped chests of tea into the water rather than submit to the hated tea tax. At Tea Party rallies, marchers brandish flags emblazoned with the Revolutionary slogan “Don’t Tread on Me” while George Washington impersonators and other folks in colonial garb mingle with the crowds.

via www.nytimes.com

By disrupting supply and raising tea prices, didn't the original tea party impose a tax? Maybe then a slight rise in energy prices is constitutional?

And, as a political aside, the rest of the piece provides a nice history on why the current Tea Party has some misunderstandings about the founding fathers (e.g., Hamilton [my current fav] vs Jefferson).

A Bunny Found a Diamond

My 6 year old knows some economics, or, she knows how the world works, take your pick. She wrote and illustrated a book a few days ago with the above title. Here is how it goes (page number followed by text, he page is illustrated with an original drawing):

1. Once upon a time there was a little bunny and he had no friends and he was lonely
2. And then he found a
3. beautiful diamond.
4. It was behind a rock.
5. It was pink.
6. He was excited and bounced.
7. And he got 5 friends.

I am sure she is open to offers from publishers.

Grease is the time, is the place is the motion

From the ASUFACULTY-STAFF-INFO listserv:

Most departments on campus have kitchens.  In order to prevent harm to plumbing and to prevent waste-water backups, please take note of the information contained on the attached PDF file, ASUGreasePreventionProgram09-23-2010. 

This file contains “Best Management Practices” that will help minimize the amount of grease that is washed into drains.

Campus-wide notification regarding our Grease Management Program is required by state guidelines.

Thank you.

Note: it is impossible to unsubscribe from this list.

Video of the Day: Daily Show on NBER and the Recession

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From the inbox:

On Sept. 29, 2010, the website www.DeepwaterHorizonResponse.com will transfer to www.RestoreTheGulf.gov.

You are receiving this e-mail because at one time you signed up to receive e-mail notifications from the Deepwater Horizon Response website. While the response to clean-up and limit environmental damage from the spill continues, ongoing recovery and restoration work will grow. Therefore the www.RestoreTheGulf.gov website will continue to bring you important information about the federal government's efforts and we will cease using the DeepwaterHorizonResponse.com site. RestoreTheGulf.gov will use a new system to distribute e-mail alerts.

IF YOU WANT TO CONTINUE to receive e-mail alerts and news about the BP oil spill and the ongoing administration-wide response, take no action and you will keep getting your subscription.

IF YOU WANT TO STOP getting e-mail alerts, please opt out now and your information will be removed from the distribution.

Anyone who has not opted out of e-mail by Friday, Sept. 24, 2010, will have their account moved to the www.RestoreTheGulf.gov domain.

Between May 24 and today I had received over 600 Deepwater Horizon emails!

A lot of people ask me ...

... hey, what do your notes look like (no one ever has asked me that). So, in order to keep the people happy, here is my comparison of consumer surplus and compensating variation from Benefit-Cost Analysis course last week (click for a larger image [hope it is correct!]). Today I get to explain "consumer surplus without apology." I haven't worried about this stuff in a long time, but we have a layer of graduate students enrolled in the course this semester (did you hear that SACS?).

Picture of the day: black bear at Grandfather Mountain

Appstate wind turbine

Please ignore my finger at the top of the video.

Download 2010-09-17_10-13-08_735.3gp

Moblogging

This is a test of Typepad mobile blogging.

Matt responds to my earlier Climatopolis post

Not really, but it seems like it to the self-absorbed John (i.e., the real John):

Each day this week I am blogging at  Volokh Conspiracy about Climatopolis.  This is a great chance for me to present my book's main themes.  Carbon mitigation and climate change adaptation go hand in hand.  They are not substitutes. Liberal bloggers are yelling that adapation and mitigation are not  perfect substitutes (like Coke and Pepsi).  I agree with this and I never say that they are.  Adaptation will occur , it will be less costly to adapt to climate change if we take costly mitigation steps now. Given that we have chosen not to mitigate, we need to have a serious discussion about adaptation and climatopolis seeks to start a rational devate.

 If my book catches on, the fear is that the expectation that we can and will adapt to protect ourselves from climate change will further chill our urge to enact a carbon tax.  I support the carbon tax but national and international efforts to overcome the carbon free rider problem will fail.  You can win a Nobel Prize if you can come up with a mechanism that achieves a credible global deal.

via greeneconomics.blogspot.com