Benjamin Zycher

The Passover season is with us. And Governor Jerry Brown should have been content during his first term as governor merely to have delivered a huge blow to state finances by instituting collective bargaining for government unions. And then he should have been content merely to have delivered a huge blow to state infrastructure with his “small is beautiful” malarkey. We now can hope that he is finally content, having delivered a huge blow to California’s competitiveness by signing a bill mandating that 33 percent of the state’s electricity be obtained from wind and solar sources by 2020. (more)

California has to be a leader, the progressives tell us, by which they mean that ordinary people should just shut up and eat their spinach. The spinach is necessary for the good of mankind, ordinary people included, and, anyway, it tastes good, fills you up, and costs next to nothing. Trust us. (more)

You learn something new every day.  And just a few days ago, I learned from former Republican Congressman Sherwood Boehlert (RINO -- NY) that it is high time that the Republicans in the House and Senate get with the program and stop “denying that climate change and global warming are occurring and that they are largely due to human activities.” (more)

“If I am elected, the bald will grow thick hair.” Alas, I am not a candidate for anything, and so the bald will have to continue their suffering in silence.  And, frankly, were I campaigning for a position of public trust, I would lose badly, for reasons entirely separate from my utter lack of schmoozing skills.  The real reason is quite simple: In no universe would I be able to out-promise any randomly-selected opponent here in the land of Hollywood fantasies, San Francisco nuttiness, and 12.4 percent unemployment. (more)

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away -- actually, last spring, right in the heart of Washington, D.C. -- Recovery Summer was upon us, beckoning any and all with not just a promise but a guarantee of bright light at the end of the economic tunnel.  More employment.  Greater growth.  Higher wages.  A reduction in the federal budget deficit.  The end of Reaganism.  The car was being pulled out of the Republican ditch, the Bush freefall was going to end, and a massive increase in the size of the federal sector would be made permanent, along with the Democratic majority in Congress.  And all for a mere $862 billion in stimulus spending. (more)

In a moment of honesty, professor and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, arguing in favor of a single-payer (government) system of health insurance coverage, noted that “… the public sector… sooner or later [would] have to make key decisions about medical treatment.”  And: “… health care---including the decision about what treatment is provided---[would become] a public responsibility.” (more)

Efforts in Congress and by the White House to limit carbon dioxide emissions appear to be dead for this year, and the likely election outcomes this November suggest that dead they will remain for many years to come.  Instead, the current Congressional majorities may attempt to enact a far more modest package of subsidies, regulations, and other meddling designed to increase the production of “renewable” energy. (more)

Let us review the recent record on federal spending stimulus and its relationship to GDP growth, about which data are freely available from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.  In February 2008, $165 billion---for the most part, dollar transfers to the states and increased federal outlays---was spent as economic “stimulus.”  In 2009, the infamous $862 billion Obama stimulus package was enacted, comprising spending increases of $574 billion and various tax reductions of $288 billion.  Over the last few months, with the looming elections and monstrous polling numbers concentrating the minds of White House and Congressional leaders, proposals for $100-200 billion in additional “stimulus” spending have been prominent. (more)

The joys of summer are upon us, foremost among them the approaching Congressional recess in a mere month. As Mark Twain might have put it: Freedom is spelled “Congress out of session”. It is a grim truth that enormous damage still could be done in this remaining time, but the forthcoming departure for home districts and states offers hope that the mischief will be limited and that the elections this fall will restore some measure of sanity to federal policymaking. (more)

With the generic exception of the Flight From Hell, airline routes do not have names. Trains, on the other hand, are more colorful. The Orient Express. The Maple Leaf to Toronto. The California Zephyr. The Barbequed Rib to Kansas City (I’m on yet another of my diets, and my stomach growls as I write.) And then there is former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, whose forthcoming whistle-stop tour in pursuit of the presidency, before even having left the station, already has been christened The Dream On. (more)