It looks like the religious right’s prayers for “additional vacancies on the Supreme Court” have been answered. Nobody is really on top of this one yet, but the place to look tomorrow will probably be SCOTUSblog. Perhaps Arlen Specter’s previous comments that Sandra Day O’Connor might be persuaded to return as the Chief Justice are [...]
It’s not a mystery that most introductory economics courses are of poor quality. I was lucky; my first economics course was taught by Mark Witte, a well-loved lecturer at Northwestern known for his ability to communicate clearly. Most aren’t so lucky, and the discipline as a whole suffers both internally and in reputation as a [...]
Hurricane Katrina has unleashed a fury of misinformation over the link between global warming and hurricanes. Many reporters, politicians, and academics have wrongly asserted that the frequency of hurricanes has increased due to global warming. Their oft-cited “proof” is the high number of hurricanes that ravaged the Florida coast last year. The reality is no [...]
Analysts are saying that gas prices should climb to between $3.50 and $4.00 a gallon in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Here’s a quick-and-dirty calculation as to how that could happen (without any references or explanation– sorry, like I said before, I’m short on the time I can spend on these things this week): Capacity [...]
James Hamilton beat me to the analysis, and gave the the issue his usual high-quality treatment. One passage worth noting: “one measure that will help cope with that problem is today’s announcement from the Environmental Protection Agency that it is exempting all 50 states from federal fuel volatility and sulfur standards through September 15. Those [...]