Recently in Ethanol is Evil Category
I imagine good ol' John will become a recurring character in the people are stupid series, because, wow is that man dumb.
Recently John decided to demonstrates how much he cares about the environment by offering a $300 million dollar prize for anyone that invents a better car battery.
Newsflash, idiot: anyone that invents a better car battery is set him/herself up for a shitload more than $300 million for it.
As Tom Lee points out, via hat tip to Ezra Klein, it's not as if car companies are sitting around yelling at their R&D departments to stop working on battery improvements. Seriously, John, I know you are older than polyester, but I know a lot of smart old guys, so I'm going to have to come to the conclusion that you aren't ignorant of economics 101 simply because you went to college before Economics existed, but rather because you are just plain old stupid.
You want to help vs. global warming? Offer a billion dollar prize to somebody who can figure out how to reverse the damage done to the ozone layer. Because last time I checked, there is no huge market for that particular development, which means that anyone smart enough to do it isn't going to "waste their time" on that particular project.
By the way, it completely stuns me that the mainstream press let's John McCain get away with saying really, really genuinely stupid things all the time, particularly on things like economics, a subject in which he has already admitted to having no expertise whatsoever, without just once (one ****ing time!) calling him out for it. I mean, Hillary got more than her share of shit for supporting the gas tax holiday (which was a very stupid idea), but John, who came up with it in the first place, didn't have to face one single reporter asking him "Can you name any economists who support this proposal?". Not one journalist. Seriously?
Recently John decided to demonstrates how much he cares about the environment by offering a $300 million dollar prize for anyone that invents a better car battery.
Newsflash, idiot: anyone that invents a better car battery is set him/herself up for a shitload more than $300 million for it.
As Tom Lee points out, via hat tip to Ezra Klein, it's not as if car companies are sitting around yelling at their R&D departments to stop working on battery improvements. Seriously, John, I know you are older than polyester, but I know a lot of smart old guys, so I'm going to have to come to the conclusion that you aren't ignorant of economics 101 simply because you went to college before Economics existed, but rather because you are just plain old stupid.
You want to help vs. global warming? Offer a billion dollar prize to somebody who can figure out how to reverse the damage done to the ozone layer. Because last time I checked, there is no huge market for that particular development, which means that anyone smart enough to do it isn't going to "waste their time" on that particular project.
By the way, it completely stuns me that the mainstream press let's John McCain get away with saying really, really genuinely stupid things all the time, particularly on things like economics, a subject in which he has already admitted to having no expertise whatsoever, without just once (one ****ing time!) calling him out for it. I mean, Hillary got more than her share of shit for supporting the gas tax holiday (which was a very stupid idea), but John, who came up with it in the first place, didn't have to face one single reporter asking him "Can you name any economists who support this proposal?". Not one journalist. Seriously?
Speaking of Ezra, he has a nice piece about how our Biofuel subsidies are responsible for about 1/3 of the current global food crisis.
I've said this before.
Seriously. This has reached ridiculous levels. I understand that no one that works in the agriculture industry will agree with me (i.e. the ones that benefit from the $8.9 billion that our government put directly in the pockets of large agra firms last year), but the rest of you, COME ON.
Write your congressman/woman. Tell him/her that you get it. You know they saw "An Inconvenient Truth". You know they watched Al Gore get the Nobel Prize. You know they are really worried about being perceived as doing something about global warming. And you need to tell them, RIGHT NOW, that:
a) You will still vote for them even if they don't pass every damn energy efficiency bill or alternative fuel source bill that comes within ten miles of their freaking desk. Quantity is not Quality.
a) You WON'T vote for them if they keep placing politics above smart decision making. Unintended Consequences really freaking matter. PEOPLE ARE DYING HERE. This isn't a joke, and this isn't harmless pandering to some green-earth hippies.
I am genuinely worried about global warming, really. And I am all about reducing greenhouse gases. I'm in favor of the Pigou Club (I think the $1/gallon proposal of the Pigou Club is too cheap, actually), tolls on freeways, an end to coal-powered electricity, etc. I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is, and in a way that isn't popular; pay the price at the gas pump every week and you feel it. But if the government just gives your money away in farm subsidies it feels "free" to you.
But get real here. We (yes, we, as in YOU and I) are starving our brothers and sisters. One hundred million people are going to move from "poor" to "absolute poverty" in the coming year. Not "food stamp" poverty. "Death, Starvation, Famine, Disease" poverty. ONE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE. This must stop! Write your senators and congressmen/women now!
One last addendum.
Good People of Iowa. I understand that much of your economy is dependent on corn (but probably not nearly as much as YOU think it is). But you seriously need to tell Sen. Charles Grassley that shit like this is so not OK:
I've said this before.
Seriously. This has reached ridiculous levels. I understand that no one that works in the agriculture industry will agree with me (i.e. the ones that benefit from the $8.9 billion that our government put directly in the pockets of large agra firms last year), but the rest of you, COME ON.
Write your congressman/woman. Tell him/her that you get it. You know they saw "An Inconvenient Truth". You know they watched Al Gore get the Nobel Prize. You know they are really worried about being perceived as doing something about global warming. And you need to tell them, RIGHT NOW, that:
a) You will still vote for them even if they don't pass every damn energy efficiency bill or alternative fuel source bill that comes within ten miles of their freaking desk. Quantity is not Quality.
a) You WON'T vote for them if they keep placing politics above smart decision making. Unintended Consequences really freaking matter. PEOPLE ARE DYING HERE. This isn't a joke, and this isn't harmless pandering to some green-earth hippies.
I am genuinely worried about global warming, really. And I am all about reducing greenhouse gases. I'm in favor of the Pigou Club (I think the $1/gallon proposal of the Pigou Club is too cheap, actually), tolls on freeways, an end to coal-powered electricity, etc. I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is, and in a way that isn't popular; pay the price at the gas pump every week and you feel it. But if the government just gives your money away in farm subsidies it feels "free" to you.
But get real here. We (yes, we, as in YOU and I) are starving our brothers and sisters. One hundred million people are going to move from "poor" to "absolute poverty" in the coming year. Not "food stamp" poverty. "Death, Starvation, Famine, Disease" poverty. ONE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE. This must stop! Write your senators and congressmen/women now!
One last addendum.
Good People of Iowa. I understand that much of your economy is dependent on corn (but probably not nearly as much as YOU think it is). But you seriously need to tell Sen. Charles Grassley that shit like this is so not OK:
"If part of our problem is that the Chinese are going to eat meat and you've got to have corn and soybeans to feed the Chinese their meat, then why isn't it just as legitimate for the Chinese to go back and eat rice as it is for us to change our policy on corn to ethanol?" Grassley asked in a conference call with reporters.Are you ****ing kidding me? Write your representative now.
The price of food is starting to hurt. I've blogged about this before, but Paul Krugman has brought it up again in his column in the NY Times (Grains Gone Wild), and the mainstream media is starting to pay attention to this. If you travel to poorer countries it can't escape your attention -- my wife recently e-mailed me from southeast Asia and asked "Hey, mr. economist guy, me and my friends want to know why wheat is getting so expensive!" because it is a big story in that area of the world. There are lots of reasons including the fall of the dollar and the rising cost of energy (read: oil), but as Krugman says (and I did in my previous post on this subject), it basically boils down to:
And meanwhile, land used to grow biofuel feedstock is land not available to grow food, so subsidies to biofuels are a major factor in the food crisis. You might put it this way: people are starving in Africa so that American politicians can court votes in farm states.Again, Ethanol == EVIL.
This title is going to become one of my recurring themes, for sure. Ethanol is EVIL. It doesn't help reduce global warming, it isn't cheaper or more efficient than petrol, but worse, some (also pretty evil) PR people have somehow managed to convince everyone that its a weapon in our fight to reduce global warming. As a result, politicians in recent years have lined up to pump money into the (did I mention it's EVIL yet!?) Ethanol industry.
So, this is why economics matters. This is why economics should be a requirement in every high school, rather than an elective that some business majors take and then promptly work really hard to forget. A tiny, tiny bit of economics is all anyone needed to know in advance that these subsidies were Really Bad Things.
Food prices have risen 75% since 2005 (in inflation adjusted terms). This matters a LOT to poor families. And why? Ethanol subsidies.
From the Economist:
The bolded part is pretty amazing. And all the people everywhere patting themselves on the fucking back for how they're helping reduce global warming. The sad part about this is that aside from the Economist, I haven't seen a single mainstream media outlet run ONE FUCKING STORY about how useless Ethanol is, and how reckless and destructive ethanol subsidies are. Oh, sure, every once in a while a biochemist gets 30 seconds on CNN and mentions that Ethanol only really offers about a 1% fuel-efficiency savings over regular gasoline, but the interviewer is always quick to move on.
I'm a big fan of Greg Mankiw's Pigou Club, a huge opponent of agricultural subsidies (especially for EVIL PRODUCTS).
So, this is why economics matters. This is why economics should be a requirement in every high school, rather than an elective that some business majors take and then promptly work really hard to forget. A tiny, tiny bit of economics is all anyone needed to know in advance that these subsidies were Really Bad Things.
Food prices have risen 75% since 2005 (in inflation adjusted terms). This matters a LOT to poor families. And why? Ethanol subsidies.
From the Economist:
"But the rise in prices is also the self-inflicted result of America's reckless ethanol subsidies. This year biofuels will take a third of America's (record) maize harvest. That affects food markets directly: fill up an SUV's fuel tank with ethanol and you have used enough maize to feed a person for a year. And it affects them indirectly, as farmers switch to maize from other crops. The 30m tonnes of extra maize going to ethanol this year amounts to half the fall in the world's overall grain stocks."
The bolded part is pretty amazing. And all the people everywhere patting themselves on the fucking back for how they're helping reduce global warming. The sad part about this is that aside from the Economist, I haven't seen a single mainstream media outlet run ONE FUCKING STORY about how useless Ethanol is, and how reckless and destructive ethanol subsidies are. Oh, sure, every once in a while a biochemist gets 30 seconds on CNN and mentions that Ethanol only really offers about a 1% fuel-efficiency savings over regular gasoline, but the interviewer is always quick to move on.
I'm a big fan of Greg Mankiw's Pigou Club, a huge opponent of agricultural subsidies (especially for EVIL PRODUCTS).
