Archives for February, 2010
The US Government’s balance sheet is looking a bit unsound lately – $12.4 trillion in public debt. Correcting for the Enron-like accounting that hides the Government’s Social Security and Medicare liabilities, the figure is estimated at $59 trillion. While “can’t” is not in the traditional American vernacular, repaying $59 trillion in debt, or even servicing [...]
This week five corporations, including BP and ConocoPhillips, dropped out of the US Climate Action Partnership (a.k.a. USCAP, with an emphasis on the 'CAP') an industry lobbyist group that sought to mollify the most aggressive instincts of 'green' and government organizations while at the same time advance the environmentalist agenda. USCAP's membership is chock full of corporations that will not benefit from cap and trade laws, yet they lobbied for them. One might assume that five brave corporations saw that global warming is more political than science based, and they made a principled stand by dropping out of USCAP. The real reason is more pedestrian, and a little sad.
When politicians want more money, they rarely ask honestly. V.P. Biden called paying extra taxes a “patriotic duty.” Colorado passed a multi-billion dollar tax increase, Referendum C, by calling it the “Economic Recovery Act.” Sen. R. Dole and Pres. Reagan passed the “Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982.” Lotteries, a tax on stupidity, [...]
This week, the Colorado Legislature debated HB1001, a proposal to require utilities to get 30% of their electricity from so called renewable energy sources within ten years, up from close to zero today. Not only is the proposal ill-conceived and expensive, it is technically impossible too. Best of all, according to Colorado Democrats, utility rates [...]
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