Utopia, you are standing in it!

A Scottish Minister, when introducing a Bill into the Scottish Parliament, is required by section 31(1) of the Scotland Act 1998 to state that, in his or her view, the Bill would be within the legislative competence of the Parliament. Such a statement is required, by paragraph 3.4 of the Scottish Ministerial Code, to be “cleared” with the Scottish Law Officers (in practice the Lord Advocate).

It was because the Lord Advocate did “not have the necessary degree of confidence” to clear such a statement in relation to the draft Scottish Independence Referendum Bill that she was requested by the First Minister to refer the question whether the Bill would be within the legislative competence of the Parliament to the Supreme Court in terms of paragraph 34 of Schedule 6 to the Scotland Act.

To date, the Supreme Court has not accepted the reference but has told both the…

Germans are in the midst of a power pricing and supply disaster thanks to the world’s most idiotic energy policy, centred on an unhinged obsession with chaotically intermittent wind and solar.

Already suffering Europe’s highest power prices, consumers are bracing for even worse to come.

Vladimir Putin’s Ukrainian adventure has merely brought things to a head; heavily reliant upon Russian gas – used to shore up its grid in response to total collapses in wind and solar output (think calm weather and sunset) – now that Vlad’s gas is in short supply, Germany has slammed into reality with a vengeance.

Francis Menton takes a ‘don’t say we didn’t warn you’ delight in detailing the root cause of a perfectly predictable and perfectly avoidable calamity.

And The Winner Is, Germany!
Manhattan Contrarian
Francis Menton
29 June 2022

Just over six months ago, in December 2021, I asked the question that was…

Adding to already voluminous research in the area (including studies from Australia, Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom), I wrote yesterday about a new study showing that lower corporate tax rates produce more economic growth.

Not that these results should be a surprise.

Anyone with a basic understanding of economics realizes that taxes discourage the activity that is being taxed (something politicians understand when they discuss levies on tobacco).

And the higher the tax, the greater the damage.

Today, let’s revisit the 2017 Trump tax cuts, particularly the reduction in the corporate tax rate.

The International Monetary Fund has published new research on the issue, looking specifically at the impact of cross-border investment. Here are some excerpts from the study, which was written by Thornton Matheson, Alexander Klemm, Laura Power, and Thomas Brosy.

The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) sharply…

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Call to pride and push for unity galvanize blacks. Cassius Clay challenges America to accept him as Muhammad Ali, who refuses to fight in Vietnam. Students at Howard University fight to bring the growing black consciousness movement and their African heritage inside the walls of the institution.

About this series

Wikipedia

Eyes on the Prize is an American television series and 14-part documentary about the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. The documentary originally aired on the PBS network and also aired in the United Kingdom on BBC2. Created and executive produced by Henry Hampton at the film production company Blackside and narrated by Julian Bond, the series uses archival footage, stills and interviews of participants and opponents of the movement. The title of the series is derived from the folk song “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize,”…

Offshore wind farm [image credit: Wikipedia]
UK governments are legally forced to follow the Climate Change Act and even then they’re coming up short, according to a High Court verdict this week. How long can this climate-induced madness go on?
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A new analysis by Net Zero Watch reveals that Net Zero policies are already costing every household over £2,000 ($2,400) per year, says Climate Change Dispatch.

Spending programs and the Emissions Trading Scheme together cost around £300 ($360), while green levies – mostly subsidies to renewables – are adding another £350 ($420).

Renewable energy also imposes a range of indirect costs as businesses pass on their costs to consumers, which may add up to another £600 ($719).

Finally, there is a significant cost due to the constraints put on fossil fuel extraction in the UK.

I am delighted that my research has recently garnered two prizes, one in international trade and one in regional science.

The Journal of International Economics granted the 2022 Bhagwati Award to “The Comparative Advantage of Cities” (joint with Don Davis). This award recognizes the best trade paper published in the JIE during the past two years.

The City of Heidenheim and the August Lösch Association awarded me the 2022 August-Lösch Prize, recognizing three of my papers published in 2020 and 2021 (“The Comparative Advantage of Cities”; “Cities, Lights, and Skills in Developing Economies”; “How Many Jobs Can be Done at Home?”). This prize recognizes outstanding academic research in the field of Regional Science.

Nuclear power generation is back with a vengeance for two reasons: the evident nonsense of relying upon sunshine and breezes for reliable power; and the political desire to reduce carbon oxide gas emissions. True it is that even Germany’s Greens have dropped their CO2 emission reduction ambitions, but here in Australia the suicidal desire to destroy what’s left of our reliable and affordable power supplies still runs unchecked.

The zealots in the Labor-Green Alliance (and the appeasers in the Liberal Party) mean that Australians are stuck with net-zero carbon oxide gas targets for the foreseeable future, such that the only way of ensuring the lights stay on, in the long run, is to employ nuclear power: the only stand-alone power generation source that does not emit carbon oxide gas emissions during the process and which is available 24 x365, whatever the weather.

Australia’s wind and solar-driven power pricing and supply…

Here is the argument why corporate tax rates should be as low as possible.

• High corporate tax rates discourage investment.
• Less investment reduces worker productivity.
• Lower rates of productivity result in lower wages.

In an ideal world, there would be no corporate income tax (or any income tax).

But I’ll gladly accept any movement in the right direction, which is why the reduction in the corporate tax rate was the crown jewel of Trump’s 2017 tax plan.

The bad news is that Biden wants to undo much of that progress.

Today, let’s look at some new academic evidence on the issue. A new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research, authored by Professors James Cloyne, Joseba Martinez, Haroon Mumtaz, and Paolo Surico, finds that lower corporate rates are especially beneficial for long-run prosperity.

We use…post-WWII U.S. data on output, taxes, productivity…

July 20,2022

The war in Ukraine threatens the world with unprecedented hunger. Even with a deal in place to get Ukraine’s food exports moving, serious weaknesses in the global food system would remain. Can anything be done to prevent future crises?

00:00 – The emerging global food crisis 00:31 – Why is mass hunger on the rise? 02:26 – The impact of energy price rises 03:46 – The food crisis in Tunisia 05:06 – How hunger is driving increased civil unrest 07:06 – Export bans and stockpiling can do more harm than good 09:09 – Why global food crises will keep happening

Find all of our coverage on the war in Ukraine: https://econ.st/3AZyEmO Read our briefing about the coming of the food crisis: https://econ.st/3O5OpM2 How the conflict in Ukraine propelled mass hunger: https://econ.st/3uM4ZcI Why is global hunger accelerating after years of decline: https://econ.st/3ICVLoV Sign up to our daily World in…

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Martin Luther King, Jr. stakes out new ground for himself and the rapidly fragmenting civil rights movement. He is assassinated in Memphis at the Lorraine Motel. .

About this series

Wikipedia

Eyes on the Prize is an American television series and 14-part documentary about the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. The documentary originally aired on the PBS network and also aired in the United Kingdom on BBC2. Created and executive produced by Henry Hampton at the film production company Blackside and narrated by Julian Bond, the series uses archival footage, stills and interviews of participants and opponents of the movement. The title of the series is derived from the folk song “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize,” which is used in each episode as the opening theme music.

A total of 14 episodes of Eyes on the…