October 11, 2009
Britain's Central Planning Death Panels
October 11, 2009
Free Market M.D.
October 11, 2009
Economies of Scale in Compliance
October 11, 2009
Balan's Challenge
October 10, 2009
The Pleasure of Telling Others What to Do
October 10, 2009
Gonick the Great - and How He Could Have Been Greater
October 9, 2009
More Scott Sumner
October 9, 2009
Not From The Onion
October 9, 2009
Thoughts on a Second Stimulus
The secret strategy was to form a grain cartel?
Yes, our energy strategy is certainly working -- to impoverish the poor with higher food prices. Brilliant strategy!
Wekk, back to glonal warming.
The amount of cheap fossil fuel is limited, in direct relationship to co2 in the atmosphere. The total carbon accessible to circulation must be limited to the maximum amount of biosphere carbon that evolution can tolerate. Otherwise we would not be here.
So, if it is not global warming taxes, it will be peak oil. One way or another, we are forced to use solar energy to recirculate carbon.
That doesn't follow. For the same reason that I can have more money in my bank account than I ever had in my wallet at a time, we could have many times the total C stuck in the earth than was ever circulating at one time.
And eons ago the Earth had a mostly CO2 atmosphere, which "tolerated evolution" in the sense that life didn't end. I can guarantee you that all animal life would end if we went back to that climate.
Wow! I was thinking about planting a bunch of trees in my back yard and selling them for carbon credits. Maybe I should plant it in corn instead. It's obvious I need to learn to play this game, because I sure don't think the way these people do.
I have not heard Zubrin calling for corn subsidies. His plan seems to be trying to increase demand in an attempt to lower the real price of alcohol.
I have to admit that when I first read this blog I was not familiar with Robert Zubrin and that I reacted emotionally to what I consider the extremely bad Federal policy of subsidizing ethanol. This morning I read some of what Zubrin has to say, and it is worth reading. He is promoting methanol over ethanol and I did not see him calling for government intervention. I believe that the only way some of these dire predictions are going to come true is through the unintended consequences of governments trying to do good.
There is more to the high price of wheat than just the US energy policy. Wheat, like oil, is a global commodity. US wheat production is a large part of supply, but certainly not the only source. High prices will buy more wheat acres around the world and soon supply will meet demand. Isn't that the way it is supposed to work?
That is how it works. But there's also only so much land. new hybrids and genetically engineered crops can increase yields through vertical increase, but those new alternatives can take a few years. The point is that the government distorted the market, and people are hurting from it. As usual.