Utopia, you are standing in it!

The financial crisis recession that started in late 2007 was very different from the 2020 pandemic recession. Even now, 15 years later, we don’t all agree on the causes of the 2007 recession. Maybe it was due to the housing crisis, maybe due to the policy of allowing NGDP to fall, or maybe due to financial contagion. I watched Vernon Smith give a lecture in 2012 in which he explained that it was a housing crisis. Scott Sumner believes that a housing sectoral decline would have occurred, and that the economy-wide deep recession and subsequent slow recovery was caused by poor monetary policy.

Everyone agrees, however, that the 2007 recession was fundamentally different from the 2020 recession. The latter, many believe, reflected a supply shock or a technology shock. Performing social activities, including work, in close proximity to others became much less safe. As a result, we traded off productivity…

The War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1715) was a conflict involving many of the leading European powers that was triggered by the death in November 1700 of the childless Carlos II of Spain.

Prince Louis, The Grand Dauphin, had the strongest genealogical claim to the Spanish throne held by King Carlos II who was his maternal uncle. The Grand Dauphin was the son and heir-apparent of King Louis XIV of France and Navarre.

However, since neither the Grand Dauphin nor his eldest son, Louis, Duke of Burgundy, could be displaced from the succession to the French throne, King Carlos II named the Philippe, Duke of Anjou as his heir. The Duke of Anjou was the second son of Louis, Grand Dauphin, Duke of Anjou as his heir-presumptive.

If Philippe, Duke of Anjou refused the crown, the alternative was Archduke Charles of Austria, younger son of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor.

Once again the courts are cast in the role of arbiter of climate obsessions as so-called ‘campaigners’ try to suppress modern developments, intended to meet rising demand, by the usual claim that any minor increase on the 0.04% carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is a problem rather than a benefit.
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Bristol Airport Action Network (BAAN) has lodged an appeal against the Planning Inspectorate’s recent decision to approve the expansion, after raising more than £20,000 to cover legal fees, reports New Civil Engineer.

BAAN believes the expansion will be damaging for local people and the environment, and lead to a rise in road traffic, increased noise and air pollution and an “inevitable rise in carbon emissions”.

BAAN representative Stephen Clarke said: “This decision is so damaging for the local people and the climate that it simply cannot be allowed to stand unchallenged.”

Salmon P. Chase: Lincoln’s Vital Rival
by Walter Stahr
832 pages
Simon & Schuster
Published: Feb 2022

Walter Stahr’s long-awaited biography of Salmon Chase was published recently and proves worth the wait. Stahr was a lawyer for two decades before embarking on a career as an author. His previous biographies also focus on early American political figures: John Jay, William Seward and Edwin Stanton.

Anyone who has read Doris Kearns Goodwin’s riveting biography of Abraham Lincoln is familiar with Salmon P. Chase (1808-1873). He was a passionate anti-slavery voice, a U.S. Senator, Governor of Ohio, helped establish the Republican Party, served as Lincoln’s Secretary of the Treasury, was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court…and was the inspiration behind a large piece of what is now J.P. Morgan Chase.

This author’s fondness – almost reverence – for Chase is obvious from the book’s first pages and is occasionally distracting…

1337 – Edward, the Black Prince is made Duke of Cornwall, the first Duchy in England. Prior to his elevation to the Duchy of Cornwall the highest title of nobility, outside of King, was that of an Earl.By the 13th century Earls had a social rank just below the king and princes, but were not necessarily more powerful or wealthier than other noblemen. A point had been reached where Earls were infrequently created by the King as it was seen that too many powerful Earls brought restrictions to the Royal Prerogative.

Edward the Black Prince

The best way to become an Earl was to inherit the title or to marry into one—and the king reserved a right to prevent the transfer of the title. By the 14th century, creating an Earl included a special public ceremony where the king personally tied a sword belt around the waist of the…

In the fantasy land occupied by green dreamers, the wind is always blowing and the sun is always shining. Not for them the reality of sunset and calm weather. It’s their truth, and they’re sticking with it.

Destabilising grids and power markets, chaotically intermittent and heavily subsidised wind and solar may be beloved of crony capitalists and delusional acolytes, but the households and businesses struggling to make ends meet are less enamoured.

In this crisp little piece, Steven Hayward explains why wind and solar worshippers treat reality with contempt.

Latest from the Dreamworld of Green Energy
Powerline
Steven Hayward
20 February 2022

A core axiom of “green energy” is that it is actually cheaper than fossil fuels, because “the wind and sunlight are free.” The Rocky Mountain Institute argues with a straight face that “the faster the world deploys renewables, the more money we will save in energy costs.” Tell…

This semester I am participating in a reading group with undergraduate students that focuses on the history and prospects for capitalism and socialism. Lately we have been reading Joseph Stiglitz, who has long argued that China’s transition to a market economy has gone much better than the former Soviet Union. Gradual transition is superior to “shock therapy,” according to Stiglitz.

There’s an extent to which this is true. If we just look at economic growth rates since, say, 1995, China has clearly outpaced Russia.

It’s hard to know exactly what year to start, since GDP figures for former planned economies immediately after transition aren’t reliable, but the start date is mostly irrelevant for everything I’ll say here (please play around with the start year in the charts to see if I’m cherry-picking years). 1995 seems a reasonable enough year to start for reliable post-transition starting…