The First Amendment of the Constitution safeguards that most essential feature of democracy: the liberty to communicate ideas and advocate alternatives to the status quo. It protects freedom of the press, speech, assembly, and religion. It guarantees our right to complain to and about the government. Environmental advocates use these freedoms to champion reform. Greenpeace […]
Read More
Election politics brought a wave of “green decrees” from Washington. President Clinton has locked in the support of national environmental groups by resolving environmental controversies by executive order. Most recently, Clinton declared 1.7 million acres of southern Utah (seven times larger than Mount Rainier National Park) a national monument, using authority granted under the 1906 […]
Read More
Some books change our thinking about institutions long taken for granted. Marc Reisner’s Cadillac Desert explained how Western water flows uphill toward political payoffs. Alston Chase’s Playing God in Yellowstone exposed the politics which trump both science and economics in our national parks. They herald fundamental reform by publicizing the gaps between intentions and results. […]
Read More
More young Americans believe in UFOs than believe they’ll receive Social Security. Only 25% of Americans trust the federal government. 30 years ago it was 75%. No wonder — the federal government now runs trillion-dollar deficits, dedicates 15% of its budget to pay interest on the national debt, and spends two-thirds of what remains on […]
Read More
There is a strong tendancy for such organizations to be run for the benefit of those in charge. This has profound implications for those in the agency and for those they are to serve. A bureaucracy is a formal organization that derives all or a substantial portion of its budget from transfers. When the bureaucracy […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More