Dirty Secrets About the CLEAN Future Act
This article is a pretty good summary of my main points on climate change econ/policy over the last several years. An excerpt:
The official framework for the CLEAN Future Act repeatedly alludes to “the scientific consensus that all countries must shift to net-zero GHG emissions by 2050 to avoid the most devastating consequences of climate change,” and it cites the UN’s IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C as the source for this claim. As this statement is the bedrock upon which the entire CLEAN Future Act rests, it’s worth analyzing.
In the first place, even on its own terms, and even if there were nothing misleading about it, the statement does not justify a policy of moving to net-zero GHG emissions by 2050. Don’t believe me? Consider this analogous claim: “The medical consensus is that Americans must stop driving motorcycles to avoid the most devastating consequences of traffic accidents.”
If we play with definitions, this claim about motorcycles is true. After all, “the most devastating consequences” of traffic accidents are that people die, and apparently you are 37 times more likely to die in a motorcycle accident than a car accident. So QED, we should ban motorcycles, right?
Most readers will probably disagree, or at the very least will understand that a mere statement about the downside of an activity—in my example, motorcycle riding—is not proof that it should be eliminated.
Bob Murphy Show 95: Tareq Haddad on the Syrian Chemical Weapon Scandal and Why He Resigned From Newsweek
This is an important conversation that I encourage you to absorb when you have the time. Below is the video of course, and this link is to the audio if you prefer that.
Jimmy Dore Rips Lawrence O’Donnell and FBI
This is from a month ago, but it’s great. I knew I liked his tweets but Jimmy Dore is (like Glenn Greenwald) an honest progressive:
Bob Murphy Show Ep. 93: Lindsay Goldwert on Stand Up Comedy and Standing Up For Yourself
Lighter fare than impeachment or a war with Iran… Here’s the audio and video below.
Murphy Twin Spin
==> The final installment in my trilogy at IER on “Should We Trust the Climate Models?”
==> The first (which happens to be Chapter 4) chapter released for my book on Money Mechanics for the Mises Institute.
How Great Men Allocate Their Time
One of my favorite articles for Mises.org was, “Superman Needs an Agent.” I reached the surprising conclusion–even to myself–that Superman should focus on public exhibitions of his powers (rather than amazing one-off things), if his goal is to help humanity in a nuts-and-bolts manner.
In a perhaps related vein, recently I was musing on how Jesus spends some of His time in the gospel accounts going around and engaging in mass healing. Like, a town would bring up their sick and He would heal everybody.
But that’s not all that Jesus did. And so it occurred to me to ask, “Why not?”
And the answer, of course, is that Jesus had such important things to teach people, that at a certain point “on the margin” it was much more valuable for Him to take an hour to deliver the Sermon on the Mount, rather than go track down another group of people with diseases.
Finally, I want to mention that Jesus frequently took time to step away from everybody and pray. One might think that as busy and as connected to His Father as Jesus was, He could “skip leg day” but oh no.
BMS ep. 92: FBI Spying and the Gaslighting of America
I read the Executive Summary of the IG report, so you don’t have to.
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