The Texas Freeze: A Reality Check
“Can the Texas experience lead this nation to a better recognition of reality? Can it help politicians and administrators give priority to the concrete problems of today rather than the vague and speculative problems of the future?” ~ Jane Shaw Stroup
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Economic Impromptus from the Ordinary Business of Life: A Trip to the Park
“As I never tire of telling my students–though they probably tire of hearing it–economics is everywhere. The cool thing is you don’t even need to know where to look.” ~ Art Carden
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The Difference Between Copper and Cucumbers
“Most of the raw materials that we ever brought out of the Earth’s crust are still with us, capable of being used and then turned into something else when that better fits our needs and wants. Cucumbers and renewable crops don’t have that quality. If anything, Circular Economy proponents should be horrified by cucumbers, not copper.” ~ Joakim Book
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Julian Simon: Important Enough to Name Your Kids After
“Simon was a model mind and an outstanding intellectual citizen. He thought through the theory and formulated his hypotheses very carefully. He tested his hypotheses against the data. Importantly, he took real and consequential action based on his beliefs–at great risk to his own reputation, but to the everlasting benefit of the rest of us.” ~ Art Carden
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“Sustainability” Misses the Point
“By standard definitions, what we are doing is ‘unsustainable,’ but most human activities are. Over some time period every activity is unsustainable, but that’s not an indictment, practically or morally, of doing them. When the environment is harming humans (the default position of life), we should offer those humans the best available protection against that – with or without a worsening climate.” ~ Joakim Book
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The Hype Surrounding Environmental, Social, and Governance Investing
“The shares of ESG companies will get wicked expensive as more and more money piles into them. At that point, with the expectation of low returns on ESG and high ones on ‘wicked’ stocks, virtue investors and ESG fund managers will have to eat palpably lower returns or creatively reclassify ‘wicked’ companies to get higher performing stocks into their portfolios, i.e., destroy the meaningful differentiation between ESG and ‘wicked’ companies once again.” ~ Robert E. Wright
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The Tide-Theory of Climate Change
“Adaptation matters. Economic growth matters. Feats of engineering most certainly matter, as do flexibility and ingenuity of unregulated markets. Everyone from serious climate researchers to less-serious climate activists seem to forget that.” ~ Joakim Book
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Climate Catastrophism and a Sensible Environmentalism
“We should deal with the threats of climate change, but we should do so sensibly and in conjunction with other threats. Because one thing is dangerous and potentially harmful, every other dangerous and harmful thing doesn’t just go away.” ~ Joakim Book
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Is the Amazon Really a Market Failure?
“A government strong enough to assign and enforce private property rights in remote areas wouldn’t have a problem with (excessive) deforestation in the first place. A government weak enough – or uninterested enough – that it’s unable to do so, couldn’t credibly abstain from chopping down trees, or promise that its citizens won’t do so either.” ~ Joakim Book
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Let’s Cancel Environmentalism: A Triple Review of Environmentalism’s Opponents
“We need to cancel environmentalism – and replace it with a scientifically sound and carefully deliberated environmental humanism. A humanism where damages and harm to the planet matters, but so do human life, wealth, and well-being.” ~ Joakim Book
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Against the Bambi Syndrome: Nature Is Not Nice
“Nature may be pristine, but nature is not friendly. With climate change making nature even less secure, we would do well to let technology and global economic growth protect us. With wealth and technology, we can both tame it and protect against its worst excesses.” ~ Joakim Book
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What Greta Thunberg Forgets About Climate Change
“Perhaps Greta’s message for politicians to listen to the scientists and take real action has hit home. In one sense, they are already well on the way to following her advice. They read chapter 10 of IPCC’s AR5 report, where they learned that climate change is important – but that other socioeconomic developments matter much more.” ~ Joakim Book
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