November 17, 2009. A short new book explains what to do now that cap-and-trade has hit a dead end at Copenhagen. Read the abstract and download it at SSRN

Also visit the website of the new Global Energy Policy Center. The trouble with Copenhagen is not a disagreement over the need for strong policy. The problem is that the world cannot agree on how too cooperate. Strategy is required..

July 16, 2009. If you want to set back environmentalism, just enlist California's Air Board. They gave us those millions of Zero Emission Vehicles back in the 1990's. This time we're getting way-cheaper-than-free climate control. They say "It's amazing." Here's ... more >>

June 29, 2009  No, no, no said the Environmental Defense Fund. We can't have a re-funded carbon tax. Any tax would sink like the 1993 BTU (gas) tax, which passed the House 219 to 213. So they pushed through a cap, which passed the House 219 to 212.

June 22, 2009  Shot to death by the Iranian government after getting out of a car trapped by the demonstration in Tehran. She has become the dictatorship's most feared symbol of Iran's Democracy Movement. Processions on the 40th day of mourning for fallen ... more >>

July 9, 2009  At the Major Economies Forum (MEF) in Italy, the top 17 polluting nations decided they cannot even set an "aspirational goal" for the world for 2050. This reflects the more serious problem that China and India will not accept any cap on their own emissions until at least 2020. The G8 summit, one day before the ... more >>

July 8, 2009. Microsoft security glitches, amplified by Microsoft policy, are now being used to disrupt the White House, the NY Stock Exchange, and ... more >>

July 7, 2009. One side says green subsidies will create jobs, and the other side says the cost of those subsidies will destroy jobs. Both sides see half the picture—the half they want to see. If the government taxes us and subsidizes corn ethanol ... more >>

June 6, 2009   No American President could leave Afghanistan—even if they thought our chances there were poor. What would happen if Obama just brought our troops home? (1) The Taliban would take over most of the country for sure—they almost have now. (2) They would invite al Qaeda in again—they are still ... more >>

Why didn't Time just call up the Energy Dept. and ask what they meant? DOE's forecast is more than double what it was in 2007, the year before we hit $147. And DOE is not talking about peaks. It's like the weatherman ... more >>

June 1, 2009  When we chased bin Laden from Afghanistan, he went to Waziristan in Pakistan. The Pakistan army is now starting operations there, and today the Taliban took 100 hostages. Bin Laden works closely with the Taliban. He's worried because the Pak army is getting too close, and that this time most Pakistanis support the army and oppose the Taliban. Pakistan is doing us a huge and costly favor by going after al Qaeda's hideout. Update: Good news, the Pakistan army has freed all but one hostage.

May 25, 2009.  Nonconservative Dick Cheney's undocumented claim to have "prevented the violent death of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands" reminds me of last fall's big neocon scare story, which eventually made it onto FOX News. On August 21, 2008, the MV Iran Deyanat, sailing from Nanjing China, was hyjacked off the cost of Somalia. By the time it left Somalia, the neocon rumor that it was delivering "weapons to Somalia's Islamist insurgents" had escalated across the extremist blogosphere, turning the ship into a dirty bomb full of ... more >>

May 24, 2009  China cares about global warming, but it knows how to bargain. Gore just cares: "If the United States leads, China will follow," AP foreign. Why should China follow? Just to be nice? Like in Tibet? Meanwhile Waxman's cap-n-trade bill is offering China a $5 billion bribe not to follow. Here's how that "works." Cap-n-trade ...  more >>

May 14, 2009.  Afghanis earn an average of $1 per day. That includes all the drug lords and government officials. We can bribe the bottom half of the population away from the Taliban for what the military costs us in three weeks. The only trick is knowing how to make the bribe in a way that knocks out opium and helps develop the country.

The trick is to pay them to grow the crop they need most and that ...   more >>

Obama did not release any new information about U.S. torture, only about who authorized it and when. I personally read the details of all of the torture techniques used by the CIA a week before President Obama released the Bush memos.   more >>

... compared to conservation. More wind turbines or more insulation—which is best? I've always loved cool new technology. But that's no excuse for more wind subsidies.

Consider three factors: carbon saved, jobs created, ... more >>

Well that's what Bloomberg recommends. The market values them at 30 cents on the dollar, “But that 30 cents is going to look good in three months. [Later this year ...] those assets will be going for five cents or 10 cents on the dollar. Absolutely they [the Treasury] should move faster.”

Move faster so we can buy them and take the loss? Geithner may be... more >>

I know. We gotta stop global warming, and cap-and-trade has been our band-wagon for 15 years, and ... well that's my point. It's been nothing but trouble and that's not changing. Keep repeating what doesn't work—that's crazy. All our best economists economists say this econo-scheme is bad. And Al Gore's climate adviser says it "will practically guarantee disastrous climate change." Cap and Trade: The Dark Side

As Krugman explains, this could be a bank panic—just psychology, or it could be the banks are insolvent. The market for toxic assets is saying "insolvent," and Krugman agrees. Geithner says their assets are good—just you wait and see.

Why the disagreement? Geithner thinks he can turn the economy... more >>

"It's time for government to tighten their belts and show the American people that we 'get' it." —House Republican Leader John Boehner

The old mistake, repeated by Boehner, kept us in the Great Depression. But our government spent like never before or since to win WWII and end the depression.

The recession has knocked over $25,000 per person off the value of stocks. Obama's carbon cap-tax, which is refunded except for $15 billion spent on green energy projects comes to $50 per person per year. So why do extremists get so worked up over ...   more >>

GDP dropped at it's fastest rate since 1982 in the last quarter of 2008. Why? Mainly because consumer spending dropped faster than at any time since record-keeping began. But supply-side economics says: "That's no problem. When people buy less, business cuts prices, and people buy more at a bargain price. Markets are ...  more >>

Obama's Budget, proposes a carbon cap and trade system with "a 100% auction"—no free permits (but $ handouts). Revenues from the auction have been estimated at anywhere from $50B to $300B per year.  more >>

Van Hollen, a close associate of Nancy Pelosi, will soon introduce a "cap and dividend" proposal. This will challenge the main House cap-trade bill coming out of Waxman's Committee. As Carbonomics explains, this is the best type of cap, and will likely lead to the untax proposal of Senator Corker and James Hansen, Al Gore's   more >>

I've just published Carbonomics, which explains the climate-energy how policies like cap and trade work, why they're needed and how they may fail. Includes Hansen's 100%-refunded carbon tax and much more. —Steven Stoft