The feuding between the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Hooters chain of restaurants results from government overstepping its bounds. Government has made “Hooters” a household name by stimulating confrontations between market forces and those who abhor sexism and their allies in the Nanny State. People become hot and bothered over Hooters simply because […]
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Whether we’re trying to save species or specie, decisions are based on information and incentives. Reform that generates poor incentives simply won’t work. Good intentions are not enough. Congress tried to protect endangered species via the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973. Prior to 1973, landowners could operate even if their activities harmed the habitat […]
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Congress passed the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1973 to protect species threatened or in danger of extinction. Federal judges have an especially difficult time dealing with it. In the ESA, they confront nasty conflicts between Congressional intent to save endangered species and our Bill of Rights. In Saving All the Pieces, Rocky Barker notes […]
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AMERICA experienced a major energy crisis in 1978. Ill-conceived federal price controls and OPEC’s last successful petroleum embargo combined to create an emergency. The results were disastrous, the predictable consequence of policies that disrupt the market process and favor special interests In response to this “crisis,” Congress passed the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act, commonly […]
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In the late 1800s and early 1900s, there was great concern that America would run out of trees. Predictions of a timber famine were common among forestry “experts” of the time, especially from Gifford Pinchot, first chief of the Forest Service Pinchot and others correctly noted that timber harvests were far exceeding reforestation, but incorrectly […]
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OCCASIONALLY on the way to work, I see people in wheelchairs working their way south along the sidewalk of Sand Point Way. When they reach 41st Avenue Northeast, the sidewalk ends. These people then wheel themselves into Sand Point’s rush-hour traffic and travel down the street until the sidewalk resumes a block later Officials should […]
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THE 104th Congress convenes today. Many environmentalists see the new Republican majority as America’s repudiation of an environmentally friendly administration. Because the Clinton administration had a green facade, they fear that this change portends environmental doom The Clinton administration has a green posture. Vice President Gore wrote an impassioned green book, “Earth in the Balance.” […]
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HOW HAS Forbes magazine, the self-described capitalist tool, become a green advocate? The influential people at Forbes see markets as the most ethical and efficient means to coordinate much of society. In contrast, political management implies economic inefficiencies and ecological destruction. These are logical consequences of political incentives. A recent Forbes feature by Ellie Winninghoff […]
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IN addition to their disappointment with the elections, major environmental groups are learning the pain of limits to growth. From 1990 to 1993, membership fell 33 percent for Greenpeace and 35 percent for the Wilderness Society. The Sierra Club has lost 130,000 members and has accumulated deficits of nearly $3 million. Although groups such as […]
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LAST week, the Mont Pelerin Society met in Cannes, France, to celebrate the work of its founder, Nobel Prize winning economist Friedrich Hayek. The Mont Pelerin Society is the world’s foremost group of classical liberal academic, business and governmental leaders. Six of its 500 members, including Milton Friedman, Gary Becker and George Stigler, a Seattle […]
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