Natural Gas and “Fugitive Emissions”

Why are people who are passionate about saving us from the perils of global warming often found in opposition to natural gas drilling and pipelines?

If you’re worried about global warming and think we need to do something quickly, you should love natural gas. It emits 50% less CO_2More...

How the Fed and Dodd-Frank Killed Jobs

Every economist worth her or his salt has a theory about why the great recession was followed by a nearly jobless recovery. Historically, lots of jobs are created in a surge when the economy is recovering; didn’t happen this time; many people left the work force and never came back.

I’m n More...

Could Romney Give Us Tax Reform Without Even Getting Nominated?

The President's own National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform recommended a much flatter tax structure and elimination of most tax deductions and credits in More...

Decline in Banking and Government Sectors Good for the Economy

We need government and we need banks; but we don't need government to be as big as it's grown and we don't need banks which are too big to fail. When sectors like government or banking grow out of proportion to the benefits they bring, the economy as a whole suffers from a misallocation of resour More...

The Inconvenient Recovery

The US economy is improving. This improvement is inconvenient for both major political parties so it isn't getting much attention or credit. The improvement is slow – but might be faster if it got the recognition it deserves since improvement depends on consumer and business confidence.

Th More...

Another Day, Another Bank Bailout

The US Federal Reserve along with other central banks is making it easier – i.e. cheaper – for European banks to borrow US dollars. In other words we're giving the banks a gift of the half percent discount in interest rates the fed is financing. The action is cloaked in the usual rhetoric abo More...

“Too Big to Fail” Assures Bigness – and Failure

Reader Bobsv57 asks:

"Tom, a question for you. I am under the impression that most, if not all, of the money used to bail out banks has been paid back with interest and it is actually the money used to bail out GM that hasn't been returned. Am I correct in this observation? More...

When Regulation Is Justified

My last post recommended draconian regulation for bailed-out banks and some regulation of all banks which accept federally insured deposits. Reader Lupus Nomen pointed out an apparent inconsistency in a More...

Preparing for the Next Banking Crisis

Since we bailed out the investment banks, we've done almost everything possible to assure that we have another banking crisis and another bailout opportunity.

1. The banks that were too big to fail before have gotten even bigger as weak banks were merged into their less weak brethren. More...

Google Finds Nothing is Shovel Ready, Not Even for Free Fiber Build

"Regulation can get in the way of innovation. Regulations tied to physical infrastructure sometimes defer the investment altogether." – Kevin Lo, head of access at Google, as quoted in Total Telecom.

Google More...