Craig Westover
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Cap and Trade: Deja Vu All Over Again
In a recent post drawing a comparison between potential speculation in carbon credits and the meltdown of the subprime mortgage industry, “Cap and Trade Draws An Ace – Rebuilding The House of Cards” Doug Williams quoted Rachel Morris.
You’ve heard of credit default swaps and subprime mortgages. Are carbon default swaps and subprime offsets next? If the Waxman-Markey [that's the main Cap and Trade legislation - ed.] climate bill is signed into law, it will generate, almost as an afterthought, a new market for carbon derivatives. That market will be vast, complicated, and dauntingly difficult to monitor. And if Washington doesn’t get the rules right, it will be vulnerable to speculation and manipulation by the very same players who brought us the financial meltdown.
In a one-minute speech on the floor of the House, Democrat Peter DeFazio puts a populist spin on that idea and affirms the point of Doug’s article.
Why I’ll Never Make It to the Big Couch
The Wednesday before Memorial Day, I made a road trip to Duluth to appear on Almanac North with Dane Smith of Growth & Justice. We discussed the pre-allotment environment at the state legislature. Needless to say, it was a lively discussion. Dane and I didn’t give the hosts too much opportunity to get questions in — just kept jabbing back and forth.
Dane: “Craig and I actually share some common ground …”
Craig (interrupting): “Yes, we both want to control my life.”
The full discussion is available on the Minnesota Free Market Institute YouTube Channel.
(Note: While in Duluth, I paid a visit to my tax dollars.)
category: Blog Posts
National School Standards? Can’t. So, Ought Not.
I am completely convinced of two things: That the greatest advances in Western civilization have been lost somewhere between the third and fourth beer for want of a dry napkin; and that the more widely a public policy is heralded as something we ought to do, the less likely it is we actually can do it.
Case in point is the sobering announcement by Minnesota Education Commissioner Alice Seagren that Minnesota is joining the Common Core Standards Initiative, a state-led process to develop nationwide English-language arts and mathematics standards for K-12 education.
