New York Taxi Industry Update, And The Problem With Unsustainable Government Giveaways

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New York Taxi Industry Update, And The Problem With Unsustainable Government Giveaways

Way back in August 2015 I wrote a post titled "Uber Shows How To Break Crony Capitalism."  At the time, Uber was just getting going in New York, and the taxi medallion system was just starting to crack.  As recently as the previous year (2014), New York taxi medallions, conveying the exclusive right to pick up passengers on the street, had been going for over $1 million each.  But the decline had begun:

[W]ith the advent of Uber, the value of the medallions has suddenly plummeted.  This article from CNN Money in July reports that the value of a medallion is off by some 40% from its peak just last year. 

The post described how the medallion system imposed large inconveniences on passengers and potential passengers, but had up to then been unbreakable due to vested interests of owners and lenders in the value created by artificial scarcity.  The owners and lenders (mostly the latter) then made massive contributions to local politicians to assure the continuance of the system.  At the time of the post, the taxi industry had just contributed a reported $500,000 to the first (2013) election campaign of supposed "progressive" Bill de Blasio, and, to no one's surprise, de Blasio was making fighting Uber a signature issue of his first term.

Here we now are, only about two and a half years later, and the former medallion taxi industry seems to be in its end game.

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Klimate Kraziness: A California Judge Holds A "Tutorial" On Climate Science

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You may recall that back in January I identified a group of lawsuits filed by municipalities in California (as well as a copycat case filed by the City of New York) as candidates for "the stupidest litigation in the country."    These are the cases that accuse five major oil companies (Exxon Mobil, BP, Shell, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips) of "nuisance" for supposedly causing global warming, that is supposedly causing the sea level to rise, that is supposedly going to cause damage to the California municipalities some time in our great grandchildren's lifetimes, maybe.  I particularly got a good laugh out of the lack of any credible scientific basis for the claims. . . .

[O]n February 27 Judge Alsup ordered the parties to present to him a "tutorial" on climate science, to be held on March 21.  On March 8 the good judge went another step and presented a list of questions that he wanted the parties to answer at the March 21 "tutorial."

If you take a look at the judge's questions, you may immediately note that he starts from a fundamental misapprehension of what "science" is.  Take, for example, his question 8: "What are the main sources of heat that account for the incremental rise in temperature on Earth?"  I guess the idea is that you must address these kinds of questions to "scientists," because after all "scientists" are the true knowers of this kind of a body of esoteric knowledge.

Unfortunately, Judge Alsup did not think to pose the one question that is fundamental to real science, which is that, if you claim that some hypothesis has been established (here, that human CO2 emissions are the principal cause of dangerous global warming), then can you kindly demonstrate that credible empirical data prove that the null hypothesis must be rejected? 

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In The UK, The Alternative To The Conservatives Is Classic Old-Fashioned Socialism

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If and when there is a new election, what is the alternative for the UK?  Recent polls show the prospective vote about evenly split between the Conservatives and Labour, with the lead in the polls seesawing back and forth every few weeks.  The most recent (March 18) ICM/Guardian poll had the Conservatives up by 3 (44/41), but as recently as March 8 a different poll had Labour up by 7.  Clearly, an election could go either way.

So what is the alternative offered by Labour at the moment?  Remarkably, after decades of "New Labour" under leaders including Tony Blair, it seems that the Labour Party has now gone back to traditional old-fashioned socialism with all its trappings.  Wouldn't you think that the collapse of the Soviet Union, let alone the ongoing disasters in places like Cuba and Venezuela, would have discredited this approach to policy for all time?  Yet somehow, there is always coming along a new generation of airheads with no memory going back more than a few years, and no knowledge of history or even of current events in foreign lands, and ready to be seduced by the promise that government can achieve perfect fairness and justice in human affairs by the simple device of sufficient use of the state's coercive powers. 

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Is It Possible For A Dictatorship To Be A Top World Power?

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Every day you read something scary about Russia or China, or maybe both, flexing their muscles on the world stage.  Russia interferes in the U.S. elections!  Russia sends cruise missiles into Syria! Russia tests new "invincible" nuclear missile!  Russia poisons ex-spy living in England!  China builds militarized islands in the South China Sea!  China expands its navy!  China helps North Korea avoid sanctions!

Then you consider the political news coming out of both countries.  The short version is that, after a few decades of flirting with nascent versions of liberalism, both countries are most if not all the way back to absolute dictatorship. . . .

So both Russia and China are now going to have near-absolute rulers in power for life.  Is there any problem with that? 

 

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For Now, Germany Will Continue Its Energy Self-Delusion

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WELT AM SONNTAG: Mr. Vahrenholt, what do you think of the coalition agreement between CDU/CSU and SPD with regards to energy and climate policy?
 
FRITZ VAHRENHOLT: When it comes to energy policy, the 177 pages of the coalition agreement are an act of stupidity. In 2019 and 2020, the expansion of wind power in Germany is set to be massively accelerated even though nobody knows what to do with all this wind power in times of heavy winds. And when there is little wind, the expansion does not help, as electricity production then remains close to zero. It is like the foolish acts by the people of Schilda (Schildbürger) who tried to carry sacks of light  into the windowless town hall.

And you thought the Germans were smart, at least in matters that involve science or engineering?    Yet here they are, already in a spot where they have more electricity than they can use when the wind blows at full strength, mixed with periods where the wind system provides nothing because the wind isn't blowing.  And the solution is, "massively accelerate" the development of wind power!  Do they know that double zero is still zero?  And, by the way, triple zero is also still zero.

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At The Times, Promoting The Climate Scare With Fake Information

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Over at the New York Times, as we all know, they have a quota of at least one big front-page article per week designed to play on your emotions to get you on board with the climate scare.  Today's entry, occupying three of six columns on page 1 (plus a big color picture that covers four columns) has the headline "Fastest Drying in 2,000 Years Imperils Millions."  The sub-headline is "Many of World's Poorest Face Warming Crisis in Horn of Africa."

You get the basic theme from the headlines:  "Climate change" and "warming" are causing a great drought in a wide swath of eastern Africa.  It's not just any old drought, but the "fastest drying in 2,000 years."  Millions are "imperiled"!  

Unfortunately, as is often the case over at Pravda, somebody forgot that in the age of the internet, the actual data are out there and easily available for all to check.  As you will see, this is beyond embarrassing.

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