What I See When I See a Wind Turbine, by Vaclav Smil
From the March 2016 issue of Spectrum, the magazine of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Wind turbines are the most visible symbols of the quest for renewable electricity generation. And yet, although they exploit the wind, which is as free and as green as energy can be, the machines themselves are pure embodiments of fossil fuels. Continue reading
America has been plagued for many years by mass shootings in public places. The loss of life has been dreadful: 663 deaths since 2003 according to an article in the print edition of Time magazine of August 4, 2019. Continue reading
I have received the comment that follows from a scientist who read Landscapes & Cycles published in the Blog section of Capitalism: The Liberal Revolution. Continue reading
On May 25, 2020, a man named George Floyd died of asphyxiation in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He died lying prone on the pavement with a police officer’s knee on his neck. Continue reading
Landscapes & Cycles is an excellent book, one of the very best of nearly forty books on climate science that I own and have studied. The book’s subtitle is “An Environmentalist’s Journey to Climate Skepticism. Continue reading
For the United States to resemble Sweden economically, it would
On the Big Island of Hawaii there is an example of the power of an individual to imagine and then create something beautiful and beneficial for many other people. It is Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden (HTPG), the creation of Dan J. Lutkenhouse (1921-2007).
GLOBAL WARMING FOR THE TWO CULTURES is a lecture by Richard S. Lindzen, presented to the Global Warming Policy Foundation, London, England on August 8, 2018. The lecture is reproduced here with the permission of the author.
Welcome address by Lord Lawson, chairman of the Global Warming Policy Foundation
Good evening everybody. Thank you all for coming to this great annual event, the GWPF Lecture. Continue reading
Sunlight and wind are provided by nature. Sunlight and wind are widely considered at present to be renewable and sustainable sources of energy. Sunlight and wind can be harnessed by converting them to energy that is used to do work, but not without cost. Continue reading
As of the end of the second decade of the 21st century, in some urban and suburban areas of America, many people in a variety of occupations do not earn enough income to afford to rent or buy a residence. Continue reading
Whether or not climate change is a factor in recent destructive wildfires in California and Australia, there is another factor—forest management—that, unlike climate, is within human power to control. Continue reading
Sixteen-year old Greta Thunberg of Stockholm, Sweden has become famous for her widely publicized concern about climate change. Continue reading
The text below is quoted from “Austin’s Fix for Homelessness: Tiny Houses, and Lots of Neighbors: Texan Good Samaritans built a village for those in need–no public funding necessary,” by Megan Kimble,* Reason Magazine, November 12, 2018. Continue reading
CLIMATE: Variability of local weather
With the current concerns about possible changes in global climate, unusual local weather events are cited often as circumstantial evidence of a change in the climate of the Earth. While earth scientists have identified twenty-nine separate regional climates on earth, climate in the largest sense is considered to be a global phenomenon, while weather is considered a local phenomenon. Continue reading
Climate science has become a hodgepodge of unreliable statistics, arbitrary research techniques and politicized groupthink. Continue reading
The opinion essay that begins in the third paragraph below was published on August 7, 2018 in The Australian, the most widely circulated daily newspaper in Australia. Continue reading
The misery and plight of the people of Venezuela in the second decade of the 21st century is virtually beyond belief and unimaginable for most residents of the United States. Continue reading
The current President of the U.S. has imposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum effective March 23, 2018 and proposes tariffs on products imported from China. Continue reading
On May 7, 1915, 1,198 people perished in the sinking of the British ocean liner Lusitania, in a totally preventable act of war.
Continue reading
The subject of global warming has evoked differing opinions among scientists and citizens on the proposition that human activity is causing dangerous warming of planet earth. It is said by proponents of that proposition that the science is settled, and that there is a consensus of scientists in favor of the proposition.
Contrary to the assertion that the science is settled on this issue, there are numerous scientists who differ with the proposition. Continue reading
In their acceptance speeches at the respective political party conventions in 2016, the problem of unfunded liabilities for social welfare programs, primarily Social Security and Medicare, was not mentioned by either of the candidates for the office of President of the United States. Other than avoiding war and defending against terrorism, there is no bigger issue and problem for the American people. Where is the leadership? Why will neither of the two nominees for election as President say anything about the unfunded liabilities of the United States for social welfare programs? Continue reading
This is follow up to the original post entitled The Voyage of Laura Dekker, posted here on September 2, 2014. Continue reading
The Washington Post reported in 2014 that under U.S. and state laws, in a federal program known as “Equitable Sharing,” since 2001 state and local police have seized $2.5 billion from people who were not charged with a crime. 1 Continue reading
Notes:
Reproduced below is a recent article from the New York Times about the Internal Revenue Service program of seizing bank accounts of people who are never charged with any illegal act—except making too many cash deposits of less than $10,000. Continue reading
In August 2009, a thirteen year old girl, Laura Dekker, announced her plan for a two-year solo ocean sailing voyage around the globe to begin the following year. Solo sailing voyages around the world had been done before. However, it was Laura’s goal to become the youngest person to sail alone around the world. Continue reading
America is a true world country, made up of people from every other country. America is unique in its rapid acceptance of immigrants who are readily assimilated into the population with no stigma or ill will attached to their foreign origins, although perhaps Australia is not far behind America in welcoming immigrants. Continue reading
“Pay Your Bills by Mail,” is a neatly printed bumper sticker on U. S. Postal Service (USPS) trucks, as of summer 2014. A sticker like that does not appear on USPS trucks at the whim of an individual mail carrier. It must be the product of a decision in management of the USPS. Continue reading
Many people believe that protecting the safety of the public is an indispensable service of the state that cannot be provided by free and private enterprise; and that the state protects safety in health care by licensing and regulating physicians, dentists and other health care providers such as hospitals. Unfortunately, government regulation does not work that way, as illustrated in the following example of federal regulation of hospitals. Continue reading
The Los Angeles Times reported on August 1, 2014 that members of “militias” are patrolling the U.S. Mexico border on private lands at the request of the landowners. See “Militias patrolling Texas border draw scrutiny, concern,” by Molly Hennesy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times, August 1, 2014. 1
On July 26, 2014 we published a new chapter of Capitalism: The Liberal Revolution (CTLR), entitled Credit and Reputation, https://www.capitalismtheliberalrevolution.com/chapter/credit-and-reputation/
On July 29, 2014 we noticed a column in the Los Angeles Times directly relevant to part of the CTLR chapter on Credit and Reputation. The Los Angeles Times column is “In the front seat at the ride-sharing revolution,” by Sandy Banks, Los Angeles Times, July 29, 2014, http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-0729-banks-uber-lyft-20140729-column.html Continue reading
In a prior post we pointed to the Federal Reserve System (the Fed) as the engine of inflation and the source of repeated booms and busts. See “Inflation, booms and busts, their pathology and their cure,” at https://www.capitalismtheliberalrevolution.com/blog/inflation-booms-and-busts-their-pathology-and-their-cure/
In this post, inspired by responses of readers of the prior post, we augment our comments about the Fed and the U.S. banking industry as follows.
Never in history has a country that financed big budget deficits with large amounts of central-bank money avoided inflation. The Federal Reserve (the Fed) has been creating enormous amounts of money for years. The Fed is playing with fire, risking enormous price inflation in its efforts to stimulate the economy and avoid deflation. Inflation in producer and consumer prices always starts with and is caused by a preceding inflation in the supply of state fiat money. 1 Continue reading
Notes:
National socialist political actions have been the ruination of Argentina. The Peronist political party is a parasite which has attached itself to the Argentine nation and continually eats away at the economic life of the people. Argentina, like Venezuela, is an extreme case of the political pathology which affects even as vibrant a society as America. Continue reading
David W. Harvey is a professor at The City University of New York. He is an avowed Marxist. The Wikipedia biography of Dr. Harvey states that in 1961 he was awarded a Ph. D. degree by Cambridge University. His field of teaching is anthropology and geography. According to the Wikipedia biography of Dr. Harvey “. . . he positioned himself centrally in the newly emerging field of radical and Marxist geography.” Continue reading
The official motto of the police department of the City of Los Angeles is “To protect and serve.” 1 The Mission Statement of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff states that “We, the members of your Sheriff’s Office . . . are committed to protecting persons and property.” 2 Unfortunately, neither the Los Angeles police nor the Santa Barbara sheriff, nor police in any other city or town in America actually have shown that they can protect people from harm. Continue reading
Notes:
On May 17, 2014, Lufthansa, the flagship German airline, suspended ticket sales to Caracas, the capitol of Venezuela, joining ten other airlines that have taken similar actions due to Venezuela’s currency controls. As of April, international airlines had an equivalent of US $3.9 billion stuck in the rapidly depreciating bolivar, the Venezuelan monetary unit. The $3.9 billion cannot be taken out of Venezuela because of the Venezuelan state’s currency controls. Continue reading
“Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future”—Niels Bohr
The quotation from the great physicist Niels Bohr begins this post, as acknowledgment that the forward-looking statements below include both explicit and implicit predictions of rising inflation and a corresponding rise in the market value of assets that cannot be inflated in quantity by the actions of the state in debasing its monopoly supply of money. In the view of the author of this post the predictive problem is not whether, but when Americans will see large-scale price increases due to the federal state’s manipulation of its monopoly supply of money. Continue reading
We know very well a married couple who traveled in spring 2013 to vacation in Ireland and England. While on the first part of their trip, in Ireland, each of them contracted a bad case of influenza, part of the flu epidemic of 2013, which is considered the worst in recent history. The symptoms started with a sore throat and headache followed by a runny nose and significant fever combined with extreme fatigue that made even getting out of bed a chore. Continue reading
In our blog post of March 22, 2013, entitled “Your Money and Your Life,” we said that the U.S. Congress, the Department of the Treasury, and the Federal Reserve are pursuing a policy of debasing the U.S. dollar. The continuous debasement of the U.S. dollar propels a long-term upward movement of the dollar price of real assets—that is assets such as precious metals, petroleum, and shares of companies that are called “real” in contradistinction to paper money created by the state. Continue reading
Following the introductory comments in the first two paragraphs immediately below, there are quotations from “When North Korea roars, South Korea yawns,” by Jung-yoon Choi and Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times, April 6, 2013. Sub-title: “Decades of living next door to an erratic, menacing neighbor have made the South nearly deaf to the saber rattling.” Continue reading