Utopia, you are standing in it!

Most Republicans and Democrats have a self-interested view of divided government.

They obviously prefer if their party controls everything. After all, that’s how Republicans got tax reform in 2017 and it’s how Democrats got Obamacare in 2010.

But they also like gridlock if that’s the only way of stopping the other party from wielding all the power.

Which is why Democrats liked gridlock after the 2018 election (they won the House of Representatives) and Republicans are going to like gridlock after the 2020 election (assuming they hold the Senate).

But what about those of us who want more economic liberty? Is gridlock good or bad?

As a matter of political economy, gridlock is good because it is harder for politicians to do anything when there’s divided government. Indeed, America’s Founders created a “separation of powers” system precisely because they wanted “checks and balances” to limit the power of politicians.

That’s…

The French get 70-80% of their power from nuclear plants and haven’t suffered so much as a scratch since they started in 1962. By contrast, the wind industry (which really only got off the ground in the late 1990s and still generates a trifling amount of electricity) has clocked up around 200 fatalities, (eg, see above) and the helpful collection of stats compiled by Caithness Windfarm Information Forum all available here: www.caithnesswindfarms.co.uk

Climate alarmists railing about carbon dioxide gas and not talking about nuclear power generation, can’t be taken seriously. Nuclear power is the only stand-alone power generation source that does not emit carbon dioxide gas during the process.

When the argument eventually turns to the obvious merits of nuclear power, the zealots start frothing at the mouth about Chernobyl and Fukushima. Nothing about the facts, mind. Just the usual emotional claptrap about the horrors of radiation, blah…

Infante Felpie of Spain was unhappy at the conditions imposed on him in his marriage to Queen Mary, but he was ready to agree for the sake of securing the marriage. He had no amorous or romantic feelings toward Mary and sought the marriage for its political and strategic gains; Felipe’s aide Ruy Gómez de Silva wrote to a correspondent in Brussels, “the marriage was concluded for no fleshly consideration, but in order to remedy the disorders of this kingdom and to preserve the Low Countries.”

To elevate his son to Mary’s rank, Felipe’s father, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V ceded to Felipe the crown of Naples as well as his claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Therefore, Mary became Queen of Naples and titular Queen of Jerusalem upon marriage.

Their wedding at Winchester Cathedral on July 25, 1554 took place just two days after their first meeting. Felipe could…

Image credit: BBC
Of course the assumption behind most of this is that the climate needs ‘saving’ from the demonic trace gas CO2, according to failing climate models anyway. We’ll skip most of the BBC commentary and show the main points of the plan. The expressed aim is ‘to put the UK on track to meet its goal of net zero emissions by 2050’. No sign of the eye-watering costs, in this report at least.
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New cars and vans powered wholly by petrol and diesel will not be sold in the UK from 2030, Boris Johnson has said.

But some hybrids would still be allowed, he confirmed.

It is part of what the prime minister calls a “green industrial revolution” to tackle climate change and create jobs in industries such as nuclear.

Apparently, not every cloud is silver lined, especially when it’s a bank of cumulonimbus stubbornly parked between your solar panels and the Sun.

Since ‘global warming’ was rebadged as ‘climate change’, we’ve been told to expect all sorts of ‘unprecedented’ extremes. Which means there’s a possibility of more calm weather (with unprecedented calmness), which doesn’t augur well for our wind powered future.

Likewise, we’re now being told to expect more heavily clouded skies, no doubt, unprecedented, as well.

If, indeed, our days become cloudier and/or there are more of them, then solar’s occasional contribution to our daily demand for power will plummet to a measly trickle.

What a delicious irony it will be if it’s a changing climate that throws a spanner in the works, and brings our ‘inevitable transition’ to an all wind and sun powered future to a grinding halt.

Olivia Rudgard takes a look at a new…

Japan is an interesting country to examine if you want insights about public policy.

• We can study the impact of population aging on fiscal outcomes.
• We can learn about the utter failure of Keynesian economics.
• We can understand why it’s a very bad idea to impose a value-added tax.
• We can find out that a higher tax burden is bad news.
• We can determine that higher spending is bad news.

Overall, I have a pessimistic view of Japan, but not because it has terrible policy by world standards (it’s currently ranked #20 for economic liberty).

Instead, my concern is that it is drifting in the wrong direction (it was ranked in the top 10 for economic freedom in the mid-1950s) and the country is dealing with grim demographics.

But not everyone shares my view. Indeed, some people even think Japan is a role model. Here are some…