The EPA has recently begun flexing its muscle and further interfering with the market economy. Under the auspices of a still-developing policy on environmental justice, the EPA has assumed power to determine what industrial plants and waste sites can be built where, and even the number of workers at a plant. The EPA maintains that a
Enron is probably still too new to draw final conclusions about what it all means. There is still too much of the tale yet to be told. Like drinking a wine that has not yet been properly aged, we risk missing the full range of flavor by rushing to pass judgment on the Enron debacle. Over time, our view of this event may be quite different from
Enron : $1 billion write-down of retained earnings, followed by $618 million quarterly loss. 21,000 put out of work in ensuing bankruptcy. CFO Andrew Fastow sentenced to ten years in prison. Jeff Skilling and Kenneth Lay arrested and charged with federal crimes. Worldcom : $10 billion inflation of profits through failure to record expenses. CFO
President Bush tells us to drive less and limit trips to only the essentials, while the EPA’s EnergyStar program is urging us all to “change a lightbulb” in our homes, from a regular one to a government-approved one, which they claim will save hundreds of millions. You are also supposed to take a pledge : “I pledge to do my part to save energy
With the Enron collapse making headlines, all the usual suspects in government and the media are beating the drums for more government regulation of the financial world. As a result, we are hearing specious arguments about alleged “conflicts of interest” amongst brokerage firm equity analysts. This issue is spearheaded by a ruthless New York
The media/political movement for expanded accounting regulations is driven by the claim that more government intervention will “stop the next Enron from happening.” Yet the existing rules did nothing to stop the real Enron. In fact, some of the worst aspects of the Enron calamity would not have happened without government intervention in the
The natural science of climatology and the social science of economics find themselves bound up with each other in the debate on global warming. There are many economic issues to discuss concerning the government’s ability to control the future of weather patterns through regulation and the like. But so far, the debate has focused on the
The April 20 explosion and subsequent round-the-clock oil spill from a BP-operated deepwater drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico 40 miles off the Louisiana coast has generated justifiable anger across the nation. It’s also generated calls for strict sanctions against BP, the most drastic of which is confiscation of all company assets. The front
There is a slogan: “Everyone talks about the weather but no one does anything about it.” It is especially true because so much of our transportation infrastructure is publicly owned. Every winter of bad weather brings us the same scenes of bleak road and highway conditions. Spinning tires, “beached” cars the shoulder of the road, cars stuck in the
Two winters ago back-to-back Nor’easters slammed the mid-Atlantic coast in Maryland and Delaware, causing significant beach erosion and damage to vacation homes, boardwalks, and businesses. Being the owner of a condo in Ocean View, Delaware, I went down to check on any damage. Although it was the middle of February, the ocean resort towns were
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.