Iain Murray

When a government sells stock in a company, it is usually trying to maximize short-term revenue. Therefore, the share price is normally pegged at what the market will bear. If the valuation of the total stock offering is less than the value of the company (or a portion thereof) being sold, something is amiss. That is certainly the case with the initial public offering of GM stock sold to investors on November 17. The stock price is telling us something the federal government doesn’t want to admit, all the rhetoric about the supposed success of the GM bailout notwithstanding. (more)

On May 5, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D.-WV) announced that he was “committed” to passing a bill to re-regulate railroads by the end of the year. Such a bill would reduce the railroads’ ability to charge market rates for their services and reverse one of the most successful deregulatory initiatives of the past 40 years. At a time when railroads are just about beginning to become viable again, this would be a major blow to this vital transport industry. (more)

It makes sense to set aside a day to celebrate our planet.  Unfortunately, that is not what Earth Day is about.  Instead, it is a day to celebrate public policies that have had disastrous consequences—both for humanity and for the environment.  If we want to celebrate the environment and humanity, then let’s celebrate Free Market Earth Day and promote the principles of Free Market Environmentalism (FME). (more)

Hard on the heels of the report of the one-day British Parliamentary inquiry into the Climategate scandal comes the report of the grandly-named International Science Assessment Panel set up by the University of East Anglia (UEA). Surprise, surprise, it finds nothing wrong except a few lapses in concentration caused by all the hard work climate scientists are doing to save the planet. Unfortunately for the alarmist cheerleaders who will treat these reports as complete exoneration, they suffer from exactly the same problems as the scientific reports Climategate centered around. They are sloppy and incomplete while pretending to be the comprehensive answer. As such, they damage the authority of science just as much as Climategate itself. (more)

There’s no point trying to deny it: General Motors and Chrysler are essentially nationalized industries. They are largely owned, financed and (at the macro level) managed by the federal government. So it comes as no surprise that some people, especially conservatives, are outraged that these government-owned entities are lobbying the same federal government that backs them. That outrage is misplaced. What looks like a vicious circle is actually a virtuous one—and exactly how things should work. (more)