It has been a long time since I've run anything about economics and since the weather is pretty calm right now, it is a good time.  Unfortunately, the U.S. is a long way from capitalism as it should be practiced. These days we have a lousy version some call "crony capitalism." The well-connected prosper. In order for capitalism (I prefer the term "free enterprise") to work properly, a society needs a strong moral foundation -- which we have frittered away the past 50 years.  When I was in college, we used to argue whether it was excessive for the President of a company's salary to be more than 15 times that of the lowest paid, full-time worker. Unfortunately, today, it sometimes 4,000+ times -- terribly excessive*. Regardless, what we have now is better than socialism or, especially, communism which do nothing but breed misery and poverty for the average person.  At the end of the above cycle, a nation looks something like this.  Remember with this year...

Wall Street Journal Sheesh.  In order to make this type of calculation, one would have to be able to forecast the weather 50 years from now, which is impossible. The Journal  is showing the remains of the Los Angeles wildfires which had nothing to do with global warming . 

Milton approaching the Florida Coast Based on the latest radar and other trends, the eye should move ashore along or between the two arrows. Near the eye and for about 50 miles to the south a catastrophic storm surge will occur.  It is still possible that the eye will move through Tampa Bay. The eyewall will cross the coast with 120 mph winds and a few higher gusts. Power outages will rapidly increase through the evening and overnight hours and the power will be out for days or weeks in most areas.  Milton will be a historic storm. I wrote about its effects on the economy, et cetera, over at LinkedIn .  Most of the power outages up to the moment are due to tornadoes and damaging thunderstorm winds earlier in the day. But note the green tinting near the coast: that is due to the approaching hurricane. All of that will spread inland this evening.  More than a foot of rain will fall causing severe flash flooding and flooding on major rivers.  The rash of tornadoes ...

The proposal to take over our food supply isn't even giving over well with the liberal media, including the leftist media like the Washington Post  (lower right): One of Milton Friedman's many brilliant observations applies..... I guarantee this will result if Tim and Kamala get control of the grocery supply chain . Of course, they -- and Congress -- will exempt themselves .  I'll have more on this topic as election season continues. As Jordan puts it...

....   If wind farm operators are to avoid creating an environmental and economic disaster in the longer term, they need to begin factoring realistic maintenance and decommissioning costs into their projections. Exactly what we have been saying for years. The entire article, which should further put the brakes on wind energy, is here . 

Thus spoke President Joe Biden referring to Hurricane Idalia on Thursday afternoon. I realize that tying global warming to things is red meat for his party's base.  Only one problem: the facts don't support his position. It is impossible for climate change to "cause" hurricanes.  Can climate change "contribute" to hurricanes? Theoretically, yes, but the evidence is weak.  Hurricane Strength and Duration The peer-reviewed " ACE Index " ( A ccumulated C yclone E nergy) is the gold standard as to hurricane frequency and intensity (wind speeds). It is available back to 1970, when we first had worldwide weather satellite coverage. There is no upward trend whatsoever -- it is flat. There is no increase due to climate change!  Hurricanes are not getting stronger. What about disaster costs? Of course, those are rising but it is because so many are building expensive homes and businesses in high risk areas. Let's look at what causes losses. Landfalls Le...

Increasingly, engineers -- the people actually understand how the grid works -- are speaking out against the mindless installation of wind and solar with no real plan as to how the new grid is going to work.  This is an excellent piece that I highly recommend. The bottom line is that nuclear is incompatible to wind+solar: that if you install nuclear, there is no reason for those poor technologies. As we have previously discussed, wind (especially) and solar advocates hate nuclear for that reason -- with it, the global warming problem is solved (no more issue for fundraising) and their ideas for a quaint semi-1890's American energy dissipate.  However,  as the piece points out, this only works if the nuclear is reasonably priced. The laughably expensive plants currently under construction are so expensive because the industry seems to be in love with one-off designs. There were plans to create standardized designs that would be much less expensive. Those need to be dusted...

There have been numerous articles the past six months stating that all we need to do is hook batteries into the wind (and solar) farms so that we get electricity even when the wind is calm.  R...i...g...h...t... I haven't written on this topic before because, instinctively, I thought this won't work because our current technology isn't even close to being sufficiently capable to make this scheme work.   Now, there is a price tag for this. Are you ready?   $175 trillion dollars The details are at the link, along with the quotation that is the title of this post.  Yes, global warming advocates want us to spend eight times  the U.S.'s gross national product to replace a system that worked very well (the U.S. grid prior to 2000) and inexpensively (the U.S. grid prior to 2000) for something that doesn't work -- with any consistency consistency -- as we again learned over the Christmas period.  And, remember, the more wind and solar we install the worse the prob...

Bjorn is an expert in the field. 

Polls in the United States demonstrate that many talk a good game about their concern about global warming -- but talk is easy. When it comes to spending their hard-earned money, nope ! Now, we have more evidence of this sentiment from a poll taken earlier this month in the nation of Australia .  Keeping in mind that $1 AUS is worth just 74¢ in the United States, these amounts of money are miniscule. The vast majority (73%) are only willing to spend $0.74, or less, to mitigate the problem. Just 7% are willing to spend $7.50/week or more.  In spite of many tens of millions spent on propaganda and public relations , most people are too smart to buy what Big Climate is selling. That is not to say that global warming isn't a problem -- it is. But, it is not the existential threat that some (i.e., tweet below was to Dean Cain yesterday) many want you to believe. People say  they are highly concerned about global warming but that just isn't reflected in their actions or financi...

Yesterday, I discussed how Big Climate and Democrats really don't want to solve global warming.  Yesterday, environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg wrote about how ineffective windmills are and how our current course of action is  incredibly expensive .  What we are doing now is just stupid. There is no other word for it. The only people benefiting are Big Climate and wind and solar manufacturers. Wind and solar energy produce few jobs and they do not pay as well as the traditional energy jobs they replace.  As climate scientist Dr. Judith Curry puts it: The biggest risk from a rapid transition away from fossil fuels is arguably an opportunity cost – we are at risk of squandering our resources on effort that may not change the climate in a meaningful way, so that we do not have resources available for better solutions that improve human well-being in both the short and long terms.  Further, we are ignoring other risks that are arguably more important to near-term human...

"Inert blocks of wood." Love it!

I rarely post economics articles on the blog but I think this one is well worth your time. And, yes, I believe we going to see very significant inflation in both the short and medium term. 

The Twitter and other outlets today (including the Today Show, above) have been communicating propaganda pertaining to disasters and global warming. I suspect this has something to do with the (likely) Biden Administration doing battlespace preparation for the Green New Deal or for appointing a catastrophic global warming advocate as head of the agency, or both. The easiest way to raise support is by telling people the boogeyman is going to get them in terms of a disaster destroying their home.  Except it isn't true. Not even close.  NOAA, an organization which often does good things , has plunged into the global warming morass. One of the many ways is these preposterous yearly 'Billion Dollar Disasters" that are nothing of the sort.  The 2011 Joplin Tornado was a billion dollar disaster. The 2020 Corn Belt Derecho was a $7.5 billion-dollar disaster. "Central and Eastern Severe May, May 3-5" is not.  Throwing different types of storms storms from different parts ...

This article was forwarded to me by a nationally prominent physician. It is an excellent, non-political  summary of where we are with regard to COVID.  I try not to post more than one "must read" per month and I didn't post one at all in October. This article is truly a must read before we make up our minds how we wish to vote as President Trump and former Vice President Biden have different approaches to COVID going forward. The article is here . 

[I have bumped this to the top of the blog because of all of the attention this topic has received today Saturday, October 31.] -- ORIGINAL POSTING -- Two weeks ago, as Hurricane Delta was approaching the Louisiana coast, the usual suspects were trying to convince the public that hurricanes are getting worse due to global warming. That simply is not true. I'm going to run down the evidence so you can see for yourself.  The United States With a big thank you to Dr. Roger Pielke, Jr. for compiling the data, here is the record of yearly landfalling hurricanes in the United States. The trend line is slightly down.   If global warming was causing hurricanes to increase, the bars on the graph would be more or less consistently moving up along with global temperatures (orange background). Global Hurricanes There is no effect here, either. The ACE index (above) is a peer-reviewed metric that combines hurricane number and intensity. The green line is the global ACE since 1972...

This quote is pertinent during this election season.

The United States for much of its history was the freest nation on earth. Sadly, that is no longer true. We need to regain our respect for the Constitution and Declaration of Independence and the principles they expound. For our nation and its people to prosper in harmony there are five essential elements: Individual liberty with the smallest government possible (history has shown the bigger the government, the bigger its temptation to meddle) Free enterprise  The rule of law Judeo-Christian values (note: I'm not saying everyone should be a Christian or a Jew, I'm saying those values  are essential) All underpinned by a great education for everyone From what I can tell, today's educational system often does not adequately explain the reasons free enterprise  (a/k/a, capitalism) is -- by far -- the best way to guarantee prosperity for everyone. The late Dr. Milton Friedman was an economist who had the gift of explaining economic concepts in an engaging way....

Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez says "Miami will not exist in a few years." In my dictionary, a "few" means a "small number" and most interpret that to be three or four. Whatever the exact number of years, someone better tell the Miami banks that are offering 30 year mortgages!   After all, the city won't exist "in a few years." Keep in mind, these low rates are directly correlated with the fact that both hurricanes and sea level rise are judged by the smart money to be very low risk over the next three decades (remember, if the property is destroyed, the loan likely cannot be repaid). Or, are they still offering these very low rates (which implies very low risk) mortgages because no one truly believes the catastrophic global warming nonsense?  I think you know the answer. It is the same answer that is fueling the hotel boom in the Maldives .