Free Republic

The fact that it’s being proposed by Republicans doesn’t make it any more economically palatable. Madness is rare in individuals — but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule — Friedrich Nietzsche ‘Cap and trade was just one way of skinning the cat; it was not the only way,” Barack Obama declared after Democrats’ disastrous losses in the 2010 midterm elections. That shellacking finally killed off the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill. From it was born the EPA’s Clean Power Plan and the Obama administration’s war on coal, in turn a contributory factor to Donald Trump’s election and Republicans’...

A group of Republican senior statesmen are pushing for a carbon tax to combat the effects of climate change, and hoping to sell their plan to the White House. Former Secretary of State Jim Baker is leading the effort, which also includes former Secretary of State George Shultz The group will meet Wednesday with White House officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, senior adviser Jared Kushner, and Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council. Also supporting Baker's effort are Hank Paulson, treasury secretary for former President George W. Bush; Greg Mankiw, who chaired Bush's Council of Economic Advisers; and...

It has spread from New York to Europe and as far afield as Mongolia. And now a new, perhaps unlikely, location has been caught in the Occupy Wall Street crossfire: a Harvard economics class. Around 70 students walked out of Professor Greg Mankiw's Economics 10 class this week, claiming his teachings have driven the inequalities in today’s society. In an open letter, they suggest his conservative curriculum has influenced former Harvard students – including today’s policy makers and bankers – to bring about the financial crisis.

Imagine you have a friend who has a budget problem. Every month he spends more than he earns. His credit card bills are piling up. He is clearly on an unsustainable path. Then one day he comes to you with an idea. Friend: I am going to take off a few days from work and fly down to Bermuda for a quick vacation. You: But isn't that expensive? Won't that just add to your growing debts? Friend: Yes, it is expensive. But my plan is deficit-neutral. I have decided to give up that half-caf, extra-shot caramel macchiato I order at...

In the national debate over health insurance reform, a key issue is whether the government should offer a "public plan" to compete with private insurers. For example, in today's NY Times, Paul Krugman writes, What’s still not settled, however, is whether regulation will be supplemented by competition, in the form of a public plan that Americans can buy into as an alternative to private insurance. Now nobody is proposing that Americans be forced to get their insurance from the government. The “public option,” if it materializes, will be just that — an option Americans can choose. And the reason for...

Winston Churchill famously said "If you put two economists in a room, you get two opinions -- unless one of them is Lord Keynes, in which case you get three." Churchill, however, was wrong. Brad DeLong worked for the Clinton Administration and regularly calls for the impeachment of President Bush. In contrast, Greg Mankiw speaks warmly of President Bush and headed his Council of Economic Advisors. Readers of their respective blogs (DeLong, Mankiw) will know that no love is lost between these two. Yet, both these economists were early and enthusiastic signatories to my Open Letter on Immigration (I didn't...