Source: Niskanen Center
by Rachel Levin & Swad Sathe
“Electrical transmission infrastructure is the backbone of the U.S. electric grid, ensuring reliable power delivery from generation sources to homes and businesses across vast distances. A strong transmission network is vital for grid stability, economic growth, and an inclusive energy strategy that incorporates diverse generation sources. With electricity demand rising for the first time in decades, expanding and modernizing transmission is essential to maintaining a resilient and uninterrupted power supply. Below, we review key legislative milestones from the last session of Congress and examine the challenges the 119th Congress will need to address to strengthen the nation’s transmission infrastructure.” (02/14/25)
“Madmen Trump and Musk are moving with warp speed to illegally and dictatorially wreck America and enrich themselves in the process. Forget the use of the terms ‘autocracy’ and ‘constitutional crisis’. This is a savage dictatorship, getting worse by the day. Trump is attacking the courts, ignoring Congress run by a cowardly GOP, pushing to cut off critical assistance for tens of millions of Americans, devastating health, safety, food (Meals on Wheels), education (Head Start), and Medicaid insurance protections. The rabid, ravaging, unstable Musk and his Chief Musketeer Trump are shutting down whole agencies, like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Agency for International Development (only Congress can do this).” [editor’s note: Dementia plus paranoia is such a cruel ending for you, Ralph – SAT] [additional editor’s note: Dementia plus paranoia also describe Trump, but an ending seems far off – TLK] (02/15/25)
“A number of reporters, including some who write for Brownstone Journal have legitimately expressed concern that third-world countries would bear the brunt of the withdrawal of the US from the World Health Organization (WHO). Areas of concern include public health programs to address HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria. I share these concerns, but I will now connect a few dots to see whether these concerns are overblown.” (02/14/25)
“Congress long ago began to create independent agencies — the so-called alphabet agencies — with the power to regulate our peaceful pursuits. As many people have long pointed out, Congress has in effect illegally created a fourth branch of government by fiat, not by constitutional amendment, which seems to be required. That needs to be reversed — but not autocratically, unless a specific statute permits it. The new president has been signing executive orders apace. Some of them are to be applauded (for instance, the end of DEI, the ban on censorship); but some not so much (the attempted abolition of constitutionally acknowledged birthright citizenship). He’s done some of this by declaring national emergencies, which is doubly worrying. The record of governments abusing people after declaring emergencies is horrible.” (02/14/25)
“When New York Governor Kathy Hochul, whose state has banned natural gas pipelines because of ‘climate change’, goes all in for nuclear energy, you know the revolution is under way. For decades, the anti-nuclear movement moved from protesting nuclear weapons to oppose nuclear energy as well. But not today. Gov. Hochul, in an adjunct to her state of the state speech in January, said her administration supports a grant request by Constellation Energy for federal funding to build one or more small modular nuclear reactors at its Nine Mile Point site in Oswego. Constellation’s four New York State reactors provide about a fifth of the state’s electricity. Hochul’s announcement dovetailed the release of a state ‘Blueprint for Consideration of Advanced Nuclear Energy Technologies,’ crafted by the Brattle Group for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.” (02/15/25)
“More than one issue boosted Donald Trump ahead of main rival Kamala Harris and back into the White House, but inflation was key among them. A federal spending spree diminished the purchasing power of the dollar and sent prices higher, inducing sticker shock among Americans that influenced their choices on Election Day. Now we’re seeing indications that inflation is back, and the new administration will have to live up to promises to bring the cost of living under control.” (02/14/25)
“‘Free’ parking has a huge cost. That’s the message that UCLA planning professor Donald Shoup, who died last week, took to the world. He lived to see his research gain credibility and influence, bit by bit, until just a few years ago a nationwide parking reform movement burst onto the scene and started winning policy victories. Shoup was trained as an engineer and an economist, but he made his mark in urban planning, which he taught at UCLA for over four decades. He is best known for his 2005 book, The High Cost of Free Parking, published when he was 66 years old.” (02/14/25)
“Several of us here at TPOL have been chided by family and friends because we ‘hate’ public schools. Of course, it is difficult to briefly explain to someone the failings, risks, and consequences of public schools – or as we more accurately call them: government-run, tax-funded (GRTF) schools. (And when particularly irritated with them, ‘government-ruined, theft-funded’ institutions. Especially when people assume that (a) being opposed to GRTF schools is hatred of them, the teachers, the parents that send their children to them … and sometimes the children themselves. We here at TPOL do oppose GRTF schools – very much so. To some people, our opposition may seem to be so strong as to constitute hate. But one of the many reasons we opposed these institutions in out of love.” (02/14/25)
“The fog of war is a good analogy for what has transpired the past few days in the federal workforce. After getting a favorable ruling to move forward, the so-called ‘deferred resignation’ program closed Wednesday night, with 75,000 workers signing up. This represents about three percent of federal employees, short of the administration’s goal of 5-10 percent. Some agencies saw higher pickup, like the eight percent of staff at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation who opted for it. But some IRS employees who took the offer were then told they had to stay until May 15 because their jobs were ‘essential’ to tax filing season. It’s the first documented shenanigan of a program that is still being challenged in court.” (02/15/25)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Katrina Gulliver
“Credit itself, in various forms, goes back a long way. Everyday consumers of the 19th century may have been familiar with shopkeepers allowing them to pay on a weekly or monthly basis. In the 20th century, department stores’ customer accounts became the direct precursor of credit cards. Valued customers were allowed to run up a tab and pay on a monthly basis. … The limitation, of course, was that these accounts were store-specific. Having credit with Bloomingdale’s in New York wouldn’t help much if a shopper went to London and wanted to charge a fur coat at Harrods. Increased travel drove the need for this new, portable credit form. The first real credit card to meet this need was Diners Club.” (02/14/25)
