Category Archives: Economics

Green Energy: Our Future Depends On It

Back in February, 2009, Business Week published my article, Green Energy: Our Future Depends on It. They even asked for a picture – which I was happy to provide.  I just learned that it was picked up by other web-sites:

The article is reproduced below. Continue reading →

King Coal: Wise Monarch or Cruel and Ruthless Despot?

Chris Dorst, Charleston, WV Gazette.

Chris Dorst, Charleston, WV Gazette.

According to Mortality Rates in Appalachian Coal Mining Counties: 24 Years Behind the Nation, by Michael Hendryx, of the Department of Community Medicine, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV <pdf>, mortality is 10.21 % higher in Appalachia than elsewhere in the US, and 18.45 % higher in in coal mining counties where 4 million tons or more of coal are mined. (See also Coal Tattoo.)

Part of the problem is poverty, lack of education, smoking, and other factors, but these are all related to the coal economy.

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Economics: NeoClassical v Ecological

2009 Lamborghini Gallardo LP560 Spyder

2009 Lamborghini Gallardo LP560 Spyder

“All this matters because economists thought, wrote, and prescribed as if nature did not.”

J. R. McNeill, Something New Under the Sun.

“Global Warming is nonsense. Greenhouse gases mean growth, far as I can see. The Earth is one big resource, to exploit and consume, for the grand old party.”

L. J. Furman, Sunbathing In Siberia

Economics, according to Daly and Farley, in Ecological Economics, ISBN 1-55963-312-3, is “the science of allocation of scarce resources among alternative ends,” or  “what we want and what we have to give up to get it.”

Since the Great Depression economics has been about growth. Neo-Classical Economists measure the health of an economy by the growth of Gross Domestic Product, GDP, the sum of the goods an services produced in the market.

Ecological Economists think that the purpose of the economy is not simply to maximize and keep increasing the value of goods and services that are passed around. According to Robert Costanza, Director of the Gund Institute and Professor of Ecological Economics, University of Vermont, “The purpose of the economy should be to provide for the sustainable well-being of people.” Ecological Economics distinguishes growth from development. Growth, an increase in throughput, can waste resources. Development, a qualitative change for the better, results in realization of potential. Ecological Economists distinguish between costs and benefits, and subtract costs.  Rather than the Gross Domestic Product, GDP, Ecological Economists focus on the Genuine Progress Indicator, GPI,and distinguish economic goods from what Donella Meadows calls “economic bads.

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Return To The Giant Pool of Money

The Giant Pool of Money is an outstanding radio documentary which explains, in United States Dollar - via Wikimedia Commons

large part, our current economic woes. If we have the chronology right, this episode of This American Life – now rebroadcast as “Return To The Giant Pool of Money” led to NPR’s creation of the blog Planet Money.  

Click here for other economic coverage by This American Life.

Why is this subject relevant at Popular Logistics? Because widespread poverty – or its effects, fear, limits on health care, housing, and food – constitute disasters, whether caused by a hurricane, indusstrial accident or by  failure.

The False Assumptions of Neo-Conservatives

To paraphrase John Kennedy, “Ich bin ein Keynesian.”

Jude Wanniski coined the term “Supply Side Economics” in 1976 as a reaction to  Keynesian and monetarist thought. In his book, The Way The World Works, Wanniski argues against taxes. “Working together three men can build three houses in three months. Working separately, they can build three houses in six months…. If the tax rate on home building is 49% they will work together … if the tax goes to 51% they will suffer a net loss because of their teamwork and so will work separately in the barter economy and pay no taxes. … the government loses all the revenue and the economy loses the production…”

Here are Wanniski’s assumptions:

  1. Working alone three men can build a total of six houses in one year. Working together they can build 12 houses in the same year.
  2. A 4% change in the tax rate, from 49% to 51%, is significant enough to cause someone to “drop out.”
  3. The government taxes people when they work together but not when they work separately.

These assumptions are flawed. Continue reading →

Statement at Marlboro Green Awareness

In Monmouth County, NJ, the Marlboro Republican Club, and the Manalapan Republican Club, are hosting  a Green Awareness Event, “An Event to Educate and Benefit our Environment” Tuesday, December 9, 2008 @ 7:00 PM, Marlboro Recreation Building – 1996 Recreation Way, Marlboro Township.  This is the statement I planned on making. I did not get a chance to speak.

However, I did get a chance to Listen.

  • Freeholder Barbara McMorrow, Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders, who told us what the Freeholders will be doing for Monmouth County.
  • Mayor Fred R. Profeta, Jr, Deputy Mayor for Environment, Maplewood, NJ, who told us what people are doing in Maplewood.
  • Madea Villere, NJ Sustainable State Institute, Rutgers University, who offered a clear, succinct definition of “Sustainability” – meeting the needs of the present without compromising the needs of the future – and told us what we can do in our communities.

I’d like to thank the Manalapan Republicans and the Marlboro Republicans for holding this event.

I’d am available to talk about Nuclear Power and Coal and then Solar and Wind.

Continue reading →

Making Lemonade out of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

The government recently took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two huge mortgage lenders. I thought the government owned them all along. After all, Freddie Mac” is the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. and Fannie Mae is the FederalNational Mortgage Assoc. But they were privately owned, essentially bankrupt, and in need of a bailout. For more background, see Web of Debt, by Ellen Hodgson Brown, The source of the bailout funds will be my tax dollars, and yours. This gives us the right to a voice on how to execute the bailout. I had a long conversation with Mitchell Kitroser, Esq. , an attorney based in Florida. Kitroseris focused on Real Estate, Probate, Elder Law, Medicaid Planning, Guardianship and Estate Planning.His plan willstimulate the economy,put more money in the U. S. Treasury, and helphomeowners and taxpayers.

As the old saying goes, “If you have lemons, make lemonade.” Here’s my recipe for lemonade. Let’s use the banks we just bought to get us out of the real estate mess those and other banks created, and at the same time, to help American homeowners – to help ourselves. We will stimulate the economy and provide the government – our government – the government “of the people, for the people and by the people” – with a revenue stream. We will even help homeowners stay in their homes.

Since our government just went into the mortgage business, it should start doing refinances. Every American who wants to refinance their primary residence should be permitted to do so, through our new government owned banks, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. These mortgages should be at very low rates – 2% or 3% per year. The savings on the traditional 30 year fixed mortgage, using a $200,000.00 at 6% interest refinanced to $200,000 at 2%, would be almost $450.00 per month. The savings would be about $225 per month on every $100,000 of debt.

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