January 09, 2023

New York City Housing Follies, 2023 Edition

January 09, 2023/ Francis Menton

Mostly I write about energy policy; but another important topic for this blog is housing policy, particular as practiced here in my home town of New York.
For reasons that might not be immediately obvious, these topics of energy and housing policy are closely related. Both involve ignorant politicians promising to supplant the imperfect freedom-based economic system and achieve utopia by using their coercive powers to order that it shall be so.
Yet somehow, utopia continues to elude us, and the government mandates only make things worse. And no lessons are ever learned.
Today’s topic is the latest in New York housing policy, and its inevitable consequences.

January 07, 2023

The Coming Future Of Electric Vehicles: Something Here Does Not Add Up

January 07, 2023/ Francis Menton

Supposedly, we are rapidly on our way toward a zero-carbon, all electric energy future. But has anybody done the arithmetic to see if this adds up?
I’m carving myself out a niche as the guy who does a few simple calculations to check if the grand schemes of our central planners make any sense. So far I’ve taken that approach to the question of energy storage to back up a wind/solar electricity grid, and on that one the schemes of the central planners most definitely do not add up.
But the energy storage question, although involving no math beyond basic arithmetic, does have some complexities. How about something somewhat simpler, like: If we convert our entire automobile fleet to all-electric cars, where is the electricity going to come from?

January 05, 2023

January 05, 2023/ Francis Menton

Here’s a question where I’ll bet you think the answer ought to be completely obvious: Should the purpose of government “anti-poverty” programs be to help the beneficiaries rise from poverty and become successful and independent, or alternatively should the purpose of such programs be to entice the recipients of aid into a life of permanent dependency upon government handouts?
From the earliest days of the anti-poverty programs back in the 1960s, the programs were sold to the public as being a temporary boost by which the poor could be helped to escape from poverty and achieve self-sufficiency. And yet, about six decades in, the rate of poverty never seems to go down, and the number of program beneficiaries grows inexorably. Did something change along the way?
The answer is yes.

January 03, 2023

January 03, 2023/ Francis Menton

Over in Europe, the energy cost crisis, particularly as to electricity, proceeds apace.

Germany, deep into its Energiewende (energy transition) that began in 2010, leads the way. Almost all coal and nuclear power plants have been closed in favor of a massive building plan for wind and solar facilities. After a decade of that, for the past couple of years, Germans have suffered consumer retail electricity prices of over 30 euro cents per kWh — close to triple average U.S. consumer rates. . . .
Can we here in the USA learn anything from this folly before it is too late? The answer is, if it is up to our EPA, then no.

December 31, 2022

December 31, 2022/ Francis Menton

The big news in political lies at the moment comes from a guy named George Santos.
Santos has been newly-elected to Congress from New York’s 3rd District, a competitive seat covering parts of Queens and Nassau Counties. Although the districts got re-drawn for this election, most of Santos’s district was previously held by Democrats, Tom Suozzi and Steve Israel, for the last decade. So Santos became part of the mini-wave of Republican pickups that will lead to the takeover of Congress by a thin margin come January 3.
On December 19, several weeks after the election, the New York Times published a story exposing Santos as having lied extensively about his background during the campaign. . . .
Let’s face it — Santos’s fabrications are pretty bad. But are they really “unprecedented,” or even unusual, among the lies told by politicians to advance their careers and gain office, including among current office-holders?

December 28, 2022

December 28, 2022/ Francis Menton

Every day it seems that more and more information comes out showing our federal law enforcement agencies — the FBI and the Department of Justice — to be partisan enforcers working on taxpayer money for the exclusive benefit of the Democratic Party.
In the most recent two weeks, it’s the Twitter Files, with the FBI caught red-handed pressuring the social media giant to suppress completely legal and First Amendment-protected (but disfavored) speech unfavorable to Joe Biden’s election (e.g., the Hunter Biden laptop story), or to the authoritarian dreams of our public health establishment (Covid-19).
And this is only the latest episode in the long-running sordid story. For large numbers of prior examples, see my posts from July 2, 2021 (“Justice In This Country Is Not Dispensed Impartially Between Democrats And Republicans”) and February 18, 2020 (“How Confident Are You That ‘Justice In This Country Is Dispensed Impartially?’). . . .
And now along comes a new instance that may top them all.