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RITTER: MY STAFF AND I DECEIVED COLORADO ON THE STATE BUDGET DEFICIT

December 31, 2008

People simply cannot say that they were not warned. From the Independence Institute to Gunny Bob the warning was sent out loud and clear.

Gov. Bill Ritter’s office now says its economists used outdated information and underestimated the size of the budget shortfall that Colorado is facing this year.

The new forecast from Ritter’s budget office puts the shortfall in the current fiscal year ending in June at $230 million — more than three times the $70.2 million the governor’s office forecast on Dec. 19. A forecast from legislative staff put the shortfall at $604 million, and the two offices agreed to sit down and go over their calculations together.

Evan Dreyer, a spokesman for the Democratic governor, said a major difference in the forecasts from the two offices was in how they projected revenue from capital-gains taxes levied on the sale of securities or property.

“They (legislative staff) were utilizing a more current data source for their capital-gains projections,” Dreyer said, saying that information came from the Internal Revenue Service while Ritter’s office was relying on older information from the Colorado Department of Revenue.

“We adjusted accordingly,” Dreyer said. “That said, we are going to make every contingency necessary to achieve even deeper cuts if we need to.”

Ritter now is asking state agencies to submit proposals to cut their budgets by 10 percent in the next fiscal year, which starts in July. He had already asked departments to show how they could cut 2.5 percent from their budgets in the current fiscal year.

Even after the revisions from Ritter’s office, there is still a nearly $400 million difference between the executive and legislative branches in their visions of how bad the current year will be.

Dreyer said there are still differences between the offices in how they project revenue from sales tax as well as corporate and personal income taxes.

“Forecasting is an extremely difficult job, even in the best of times, and this is an unprecedented bad time,” Dreyer said, adding that economists had not done anything wrong.

“For the past several months, we have been adjusting the budget and creating the necessary flexibility to keep the budget balanced,” he said. “Regardless of the differing forecasts, we will work together with the legislature to continue prudently managing the budget.”

For members of the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee, whose job it will be to slash spending, the difference in the forecasts is unsettling.

“From a budgeting standpoint, it leaves us as a legislative body the difficult task of deciding which scenario — and we’ll probably be cautious and use the worst scenario — to balance our budget for the current year,” said Sen. Moe Keller, D-Wheat Ridge.

Rep. Al White, R-Hayden, another member of the panel, agreed.

“We are tasked with picking a lane here, and we’ve got two different road maps that have drastically different destinations,” White said. “We can only take the most conservative one because therein lies the least danger.

SOURCE

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Posted in Economics, Editorial, Opinion, Education, Law, Local Politics Colorado, News, Politics, Wordpress Political Blogs | 1 Comment »

2008 Liberal Media Awards

December 26, 2008

I spent a little more than thirty years living in the Denver area, and one of the things that I most enjoyed while there was listening to the blowtorch of the Rockies, 850 KOA Radio.

The entire line up is great, and they certainly do have the best trafic reports. What follows is commentary, and awards by Mike Rosen. Enjoy!

ROSEN: 2008 liberal media awards

It’s time for the 21st annual Media Research Center’s awards for the most biased, manipulative or downright goofy quotes from liberals in the “mainstream” media. I’m honored to serve, once again, on MRC’s distinguished panel of conservatively-biased judges. Here are some of the lowlights from among the winners and runners- up of Best Notable Quotables of 2008:

* Quote of the Year: Co-anchor Chris Matthews: “I have to tell you, you know, it’s part of reporting this case, this election, the feeling most people get when they hear Barack Obama’s speech. My – I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don’t have that too often.”

Co-anchor Keith Olbermann: “Steady.”

Matthews: “No, seriously. It’s a dramatic event. He speaks about America in a way that has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with the feeling we have about our country. And that is an objective assessment.” (Exchange during MSNBC’s coverage of the Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., primaries, Feb 12)

* Barbra Streisand Political IQ Award for Celebrity Vapidity: “If you can read, you can walk into a job later on. If you don’t, then you’ve got the Army, Iraq, I don’t know, something like that. It’s not as bright.” (Novelist Stephen King at an April 4 Library of Congress Event for high schoolers, later carried by C-SPAN2)

* The John Murtha Award for Painting America as Racist: “What do you think the bigger obstacle is for you becoming president, the Clinton campaign machine or America’s inherent racism?” (ABC’s Chris Cuomo to Barack Obama in a Dec. 20, 2007, interview on Good Morning America)

* Half-Baked Alaska Award for Pummeling Palin

“You know the one thing that I don’t think anybody’s said yet is that she’s very mean to animals, this woman. Why does she have it in for these poor polar bears and caribou, and she aerial-kills wolves? That’s a very mean thing to do. I think that that’s an important point.” (ABC’s The View co-host Joy Behar on CNN’s Larry King Live, Sept. 9)

* Let Us Fluff Your Pillow Award for Soft & Cuddly Interviews

“What of the attacks has busted through to you? What makes you angriest at John McCain, the Republicans? What’s being said about your husband that you want to shout from the mountaintops isn’t true?” (NBC’s Brian Williams to Michele Obama in a taped interview shown on the Aug. 27 Nightly News)

* The Irrelevant Rev. Wright Award

“He was assassinated by sound bites . . . His whole career was being summed up in sound bites that added up to no more than 20 seconds, endlessly played through the media grinder of our national press. He was angry about that . . . he was like a man who goes out and picks up the morning newspaper and gets hit by a cyclone!” ( PBS’s Bill Moyers talking about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show on May 13.

* The ‘Pay up, You Patriots’ Award

“It’s early April, which means these are the few days of the year when Americans of almost any political stripe unite in a perennial ritual: complaining about taxes. Count me out. I’m happy to pay my fair share to the government. It’s part of my patriotic duty – and it’s a heckuva bargain . . . There seems to be an inconsistency about people who insist on wearing flag pins in their lapels, but who grumble about paying taxes . . . Genuine patriots don’t complain about their patriotic obligations . . . Pay up and be grateful.” ( Former ABC and CNN reporter Walter Rodgers writing in the Christian Science Monitor, April 2)

* Politics of Meaninglessness Award for the Silliest Analysis

“Media bias largely unseen in U.S. presidential race” ( Headline over Nov. 6 Reuters dispatch claiming no liberal tilt in favor of Barack Obama)

If your stomach is strong enough to handle the complete awards list, you can get it online at www.MRC.org.

Mike Rosen’s radio show airs weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon on 850 KOA. He can be reached by e-mail at mikerosen@850koa.com.

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Posted in Contemporary Quotes, Economics, Editorial, Opinion, Education, Humor, Immigration, Law, Local Politics Colorado, Men's Issues, News, Politics, Wordpress Political Blogs | 3 Comments »

Are Democrats Better on Privacy and Surveillance?

December 25, 2008

This piece by James Bovard points out the application of Historical Fallacy by various leftest organizations. Not the least of which is the Democrat Party. To be sure, the Republicans lost any and all credibility over the past eight years as the party of limited government, if indeed they ever truly deserved such a moniker.

The call for a new political party that actually does more than give lip service to the Constitution and Bill of Rights is nothing new. I have serious doubts that anything will come from this need though. Not to mention that the two majority parties have passed laws making any attempt to effectively remove them from the halls of power doomed to utter failure.

The Bush administration has probably illegally violated Americans’ privacy more than any presidency in at least a generation. Many Americans are understandably ready to throw out Republicans who trampled the Bill of Rights.

But is the solution to elect a Democrat? Many liberals were shocked in July when putative Democratic Party presidential nominee Barack Obama voted in favor of the bill to retroactively immunize illegal wiretapping by Bush officials and telephone-company executives. Even worse, the bill authorizes the federal government to conduct far more warrantless wiretaps whenever the president claims the nation is endangered.

Some Americans are looking back at the 1990s as a comparative Golden Age for Privacy. Unfortunately, most people have forgotten that the Democratic Party’s record on surveillance was dreadful.

The Clinton administration consistently championed the right of government employees to stick their noses almost anywhere — into people’s email, car, house, or personal effects. Clintonites set off one false alarm after another to justify extending government’s right to intrude. The administration consistently sought to exploit technological development in order to maximize government’s control over the citizenry.

The Fourth Amendment states,

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

The purpose of the Fourth Amendment was to prevent government officials from having dictatorial power over citizens.

The prohibition against unreasonable searches is the key to the Fourth Amendment.

As law professor Jeffrey Standen observed in an article he wrote for Legal Times, each extension of government power makes further extensions “reasonable” — since “reasonable” is defined on a sliding scale by however much intrusion people will tolerate from the government. The Clinton administration often sounded as if the only searches that were unreasonable were the ones that government officials did not care to do.


Public housing and the Constitution

In 1993, the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) began warrantless sweep searches of residents’ apartments to confiscate firearms. Other cities, such as Baltimore and Philadelphia, also used warrantless mass sweeps of public housing apartments to seize guns and other items. Law professor Tracey Maclin observed, “During these sweeps, officers would rifle cabinets and dresser drawers, look inside refrigerators, overturn mattresses and sofa cushions, and inspect private papers and closed boxes.” In early 1994, the CHA proposed beginning routine no-knock raid sweeps. On April 7, 1994, federal judge Wayne Andersen ruled that the dragnet searches were unconstitutional, warning, “The erosion of the rights of people on the other side of town will ultimately undermine the rights of each of us.”

President Clinton was outraged that a judge limited the power of the police, and announced, “I’m so worried that all the progress that’s been made will be undermined by this court decision.” Two months later, he visited the Chicago housing projects, again endorsed the searches, and declared, “The most important freedom we have in this country is the freedom from fear. And if people aren’t free from fear, they are not free.”

In Clinton’s view, public-housing residents apparently had no reason to fear the housing police’s storming into their apartments. Yet, court testimony showed that the warrantless searches, none of which occurred within 48 hours of actual shooting incidents, were ineffective at reducing crime. Harvey Grossman of the American Civil Liberties Union observed,

Instead of meeting their obligations to provide real safety, Chicago officials perpetrated a hoax by convincing many residents that warrantless sweep searches of all apartments would enhance their safety.

CHA officials have complained that they are forbidden by federal regulations from even checking whether applicants for public housing have a criminal record.


Pawing is not searching

The Clinton administration consistently argued that few, if any, government searches were blocked by the Fourth Amendment. In early 2000, the Supreme Court heard the case of U.S. v. Bond. A Greyhound bus was stopped at an internal Border Patrol checkpoint in Texas. After agents checked all the passengers’ identification, one agent went through and pawed, squeezed, and manipulated each piece of luggage in the overhead bins. He detected a suspicious object in one canvas bag — and Steven Bond was shortly thereafter charged with possession of a brick of meth. Bond’s lawyer argued that groping the luggage was an unconstitutional search.

The Clinton administration argued that no constitutional rights were violated because Bond and other passengers had no “legitimate expectation of privacy.” The Clinton administration brief asserted,

The fact that tactile inspection of a bag’s exterior may reveal information about its contents no more establishes a search than when officers standing on a public sidewalk or in open fields make observations of the contents of a car or a house. Passengers handling bags in a manner similar to the manner of Agent Cantu may not pay attention to what they sense, or know how to interpret it. But nothing bars government officers from using specialized knowledge to keep themselves alert to, and to help them interpret, that which any other member of the public might have sensed. To take this reasoning to its logical conclusion, since people in rush hour subway trains are occasionally most uncomfortably pressed against each other — so cops should be allowed to press their bodies against that of any passenger.

The Supreme Court, in a decision written by archconservative Chief Justice William Rehnquist, scorned this particular minimalist interpretation of the Fourth Amendment. He declared, “Physically invasive inspection is simply more intrusive than purely visual inspection.”

Some of the Clinton administration’s anti-drug policies were highly egalitarian, striving to violate everyone’s privacy. During the 1996 presidential campaign, Clinton proposed mandatory drug tests for all teenagers applying for a driver’s license. This followed the Clinton administration’s endorsement of mandatory drug tests for school students in a 1995 Supreme Court case. Clinton administration Solicitor General Drew Days argued that a school district “could not effectively educate its students unless it undertook suspicionless drug testing as part of a broader drug-prevention program,” as Cato Institute lawyer Tim Lynch noted.


High-tech hustles

A 1998 ACLU report observed that the Clinton administration had

engaged in surreptitious surveillance, such as wiretapping, on a far greater scale than ever before…. The Administration is using scare tactics to acquire vast new powers to spy on all Americans.

On April 16, 1993, the Clinton administration revealed that the National Security Agency had secretly developed a new microchip known as the Clipper Chip. A White House press release announced “a new initiative that will bring the Federal Government together with industry in a voluntary program to improve the security and privacy of telephone communications while meeting the legitimate needs of law enforcement.” This was practically the last time that the word “voluntary” was used.

The Clipper Chip presumed that it should be a crime for anyone to use technology that frustrates curious government agents. The ACLU noted,

The Clipper Chip proposal would have required every encryption user (that is, every individual or business using a digital telephone system, fax machine, the Internet, etc.) to hand over their decryption keys to the government, giving it access to both stored data and real-time communications. This is the equivalent of the government requiring all home-builders to embed microphones in the walls of homes and apartments.

Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, observed, “You don’t want to buy a set of car keys from a guy who specializes in stealing cars.” When the federal National Institute for Standards and Technology formally published the proposal for the new surveillance chip, fewer than one percent of the comments supported the plan.

The administration eventually abandoned its Clipper campaign but stepped up its attacks on purveyors of encryption software.


Wiretap mania

When the Clinton administration proposed legislation to massively increase the number of wiretaps, they named their offering the “Digital Telephony and Communications Privacy Improvement Act of 1994.” Apparently, the more the government could invade people’s privacy, the safer they would be. In the final cut-and-paste on Capitol Hill, the bill was renamed the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act.

On October 16, 1995, the telecommunications industry was stunned when a Federal Register notice appeared announcing that the FBI demanded that, as a result of the new law, phone companies provide the capability for simultaneous wiretaps of one out of every hundred phone calls in urban areas. As the ACLU noted, the FBI notice represented “a 1,000-fold increase over previous levels of surveillance.”

The 1994 law led to five years of clashes between the FBI and the communications industry over the new standards. The Federal Communications Commission was designated as the arbiter of such clashes in the act; in August 1999, the FCC caved and gave the FBI almost everything it wanted.

The FCC bowed to FBI demands and required that all new cellular telephones be de facto homing devices. Cell phones must now include components that allow law enforcement to determine the precise location where a person is calling from.


Conclusion

The Clinton administration’s attitude towards high-tech should have alarmed any Americans who think the government is not entitled to read their email, tap their calls, or know precisely where they are. Clinton’s power grabs should have taught Americans of the perils of allowing politicians to ignore the Fourth Amendment. Any such “lessons learned” were declared “null and void” after 9/11 by the same politicians who quickly put their own boot prints on the Constitution.

Unfortunately, neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have a good record of respecting citizens’ privacy. Perhaps it is naive to expect politicians to obey the Constitution when so many Americans believe that omnipotent government is their only hope for survival. Americans need to relearn why the Founding Fathers distrusted politicians across the board, regardless of nation, party, or creed.

James Bovard is the author of Attention Deficit Democracy [2006] as well as The Bush Betrayal [2004], Lost Rights [1994] and Terrorism and Tyranny: Trampling Freedom, Justice and Peace to Rid the World of Evil (Palgrave-Macmillan, September 2003) and serves as a policy advisor for The Future of Freedom Foundation. Send him email.

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GOVERNMENT & POLITICS

December 25, 2008

From the Left: Blagojevich saga continues

The Illinois state legislature officially launched an impeachment inquiry into the shenanigans of Democrat Governor Rod Blagojevich this week. Several weeks of hearings into Blagojevich’s pay-to-play schemes and other questionable acts are set to take place, perhaps leading to a full scale impeachment trial that may remove him from office. It is not, however, an open-and-shut case, which may explain why Blagojevich has no intention of stepping down quietly from his post. In fact, he has been reporting for duty as if nothing has changed, even signing into law a bill involving the same casino and horse-racing industries that he allegedly used to squeeze campaign contributions in exchange for his signature.

It turns out that prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald was not able to catch the sale of Obama’s Senate seat on tape, which would have greatly solidified his case. He was rushed into arresting Blagojevich because the Chicago Tribune was no longer interested in holding onto the story without publishing it. Great moments in American journalism, indeed.

Whether Blagojevich walks or pays the price for his corruption remains to be seen, but right now, all eyes are on Obama’s Senate seat. Illinois Democrats want Blagojevich out the door, but they are not interested in stripping him of his power to appoint Obama’s replacement. Still, Blagojevich’s lawyer says the governor will not make an appointment. Such a move would likely lead to a special election for the Senate seat that a Republican could win if the voters make Chicago’s crooked Democrat Party pay for playing. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has vowed that the nation’s senators will not welcome a Blagojevich appointment to Washington. But if that appointment came from Illinois’s Democrat Lt. Governor? Well, that’s a different story.

Meanwhile, Team Obama has officially cleared itself of any wrongdoing in the scandal by releasing the following statement: “At the direction of the president-elect, a review of transition staff contacts with Governor Blagojevich and his office has been conducted and completed and is ready for release. That review affirmed the public statements of the president-elect that he had no contact with the governor or his staff, and that the president-elect’s staff was not involved in inappropriate discussions with the governor or his staff over the selection of his successor as U.S. senator.” Let’s move on folks, nothing to see here.

Ponzi scheme benefits Democrats

Speaking of corruption, Bernard Madoff, founder of Manhattan-based Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, was arrested and charged with securities fraud this week in what may be history’s largest Ponzi scheme. Investors in Madoff’s hedge funds may have lost anywhere from $17 billion to $50 billion. Investment details aside, Madoff was a major player in Washington politics — for the Democrats. Since 1993, the Madoff clan has donated more than $380,000 to individual politicians and political action committees, including $100,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. In particular, DSCC head Sen. Chuck Schumer (the other senator from New York) received money from Madoff — $39,000 for his 1998 and 2004 races. One will search in vain for such details in Leftmedia stories about Madoff, however. Apparently, it isn’t worth a mention.

Hope ‘n’ Change: Obama’s education secretary

At first glance, Arne Duncan, Chicago’s top public school official, appeared to be a safe pick as Obama’s education secretary. Naturally, however, Duncan’s record doesn’t seem to merit his elevation. In America’s third-largest school district, Duncan did manage to improve graduation rates, but other statistics are disturbing, such as the fact that only 17 percent of eighth graders can read at grade level, and only 25 percent of all Chicago students scored above the national average in math. Duncan was also instrumental in the proposal of a homosexual high school in Chicago. Furthermore, Duncan is tied to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, Bill Ayers’ brainchild for radicalizing, rather than educating, Chicago’s youth. Now Bill Ayers can influence all publicly educated American children. Finally, we find it curious that Obama thinks Duncan is worthy to be education secretary for his work in Chicago, even while the Obamas didn’t dare put their children into the public school system Duncan oversees.

In other Obama news, the president-elect has asked Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration on 20 January, a move that has created more anger on the Angry Left, if such a thing is possible. Obamaphiles are upset mainly because Warren led conservative support for California’s Proposition 8, which sought to re-ban same-sex marriage. Kevin Naff, editor of the homosexual rag the Washington Blade, called the choice a “slap in the faces” of homosexual voters. “We have just endured eight years of endless assaults on our dignity and equality from a president beholden to bigoted conservative Christians. The election was supposed to have ended that era. It appears otherwise.” On the other hand, we’re not convinced Obama has truly seen the light.

Clinton reveals donors

Bill Clinton released the list of 205,000 donors to the Clinton Foundation Thursday as part of the deal with Barack Obama for Hillary Clinton’s spot in the cabinet as secretary of state. The donors include members of the Saudi royal family and other Middle Eastern leaders, and total foreign donations total more than $140 million. Though Clinton released donation amounts only in ranges and not exact amounts, we now know that Saudi Arabia gave at least $10 million and the ruling Zayed family of the United Arab Emirates donated between $1 million and $5 million. The governments of Oman, Qatar and Kuwait gave more than $1 million each, as did those of Australia, the Dominican Republic, Norway, Brunei and Taiwan. To put it mildly, considering U.S. interests around the world and in the Middle East in particular, these donations create an interesting dilemma for Hillary. The Clintons’ practices, which show how small time Gov. Blagojevich really was, should also provide some fodder for Republican senators interested in challenging her nomination.

News from the Swamp: Federal deficit skyrockets

Federal spending grew 25 percent in 2008 according to a joint White House-Treasury Department report released this week. Taxpayers will end up more than $1 trillion in the hole thanks to this steep rise, which is accounted for mostly by significant growth in veterans’ benefits and tax revenues that have remained static due to a yearlong recession. The scary part is that this trillion-dollar red mark comes before Uncle Sam’s bailout escapades are taken into account. President-elect Obama’s plan for another stimulus package early next year will only increase the federal deficit, which went from $162.8 billion in fiscal 2008 to $454.8 billion just one year later. But never fear, members of Congress are set to receive a pay raise of $4,700 a year beginning in January.

This “damn-the-torpedoes” strategy of not worrying about the deficit during times of economic strain will one day sink the American economy. This year, the federal government will spend $450 billion on just the interest on the national debt. That interest payment ranks fourth in total government outlays, behind Medicare-Medicaid, Social Security and defense. In 30 years, the government’s current tax revenue will cover only half of what it owes. We’re soon going to be looking for change, all right.

GOP House cleaning

After their devastating defeat in the November elections, Republicans are cleaning House in an attempt to reinvent the party and regain voter confidence. For starters, they have followed the scent of pork to the state of Alaska, where Rep. Don Young is the latest casualty in a purge that took down former Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski in 2006 and, more recently, Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens. But unlike Murkowski, who was given the heave-ho by voters in favor of Sarah Palin, and Stevens, who was found guilty of accepting improper gifts, Young is being booted by Republican leadership in an effort to avoid another full-blown scandal.

Already associated with the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere,” Young is now rumored to be under criminal investigation for allegedly earmarking funds for a Florida freeway interchange (yes, 5,000 miles from home) that would have enriched a friend. At the time, Young was serving as chairman of the Transportation Committee.

Young’s descent began with his recent removal from the Republican Steering Committee, and his effective exclusion thereafter from party decision-making in Alaska, from having a role in setting the GOP agenda; it continued last week, when House Republican leader John Boehner informed Young that he will no longer be the Republican top dog of the Natural Resources Committee. Young has held a seat on the committee for many years, and served as its chair in the 1990s.

Still, Young will retain his office, his seniority, and his committee memberships, including the Natural Resources Committee. He continues to deny any wrongdoing and has expressed his confidence that he will be vindicated and will regain his post.

Vol. 08 No. 51
19 December 2008

Patriot Post

Posted in Economics, Editorial, Opinion, Education, Law, Local Politics Colorado, News, Politics, Wordpress Political Blogs | 1 Comment »

What Is the DEA Smoking?

December 22, 2008

The Drug Enforcement Administration is in an optimistic mood. A new DEA report insists that the antidrug campaigns Washington has undertaken with Colombia and Mexico in recent years have dramatically slowed the flow of cocaine into the United States. The DEA’s principal piece of evidence is that average street prices for the drug have soared over the past twenty-one months from $96.61 per gram to $182.73, which suggests “that we are placing significant stress on the drug delivery system.” There’s just one problem with the DEA’s proclamation of success. We’ve heard it all before. Many, many times before.

For example, in November 2005, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy asserted that a 19 percent increase in cocaine prices since February indicated a growing retail shortage, thus validating Washington’s multibillion dollar Plan Colombia, designed to stanch the torrent of drugs coming from the Andean region of South America. “These numbers confirm that the levels of interdiction, the levels of eradication, have reduced the availability of cocaine in the United States,” White House drug czar John P. Walters boasted. “The policy is working.”

And what was the sky-high street price of cocaine that justified such optimism? $170 per gram. Adjusted for inflation, that price was actually higher than the latest price spike to just under $183. Yet clearly that earlier alleged supply-side victory in the drug war was short lived. According to the DEA’s own statistics in the December 2008 report, cocaine prices had declined to a mere $96 per gram by January 2007.

The reality is that street prices for illegal drugs act like the famous observation about prices in the stock market: they will vary. Over the past fifteen years, the retail price of cocaine has moved in a range between roughly $90 and $200 per gram. The latest spike is nothing abnormal, just as the plunge in prices from November 2005 to January 2007 was not unusual. Indeed, if one examines price trends over a longer period, any cause for optimism evaporates. During the early 1980s cocaine sometimes sold for more than $500 per gram. Obviously, that did not herald a lasting victory in the drug war.

Moreover, if the DEA had issued its 2008 report just three months earlier, there would have been even less evidence of supposed progress. For the previous five quarters, the street price had hovered around $120. The agency is simply grasping at straws to “prove” that the nearly four-decades-old effort to shut off the supply of illegal drugs is finally working.

cont.

This article simply points out what I have been saying for years; If you are for the drug war, you are for making thugs into wealthy men.

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Insanity, it’s not just a Boulder thing

December 15, 2008

Insanity, it’s not just a Boulder thing, and it never has been. Take a look at New York. The place is in so much trouble you would think that it’s California. The Governor in New York must have been sleeping when he was being lectured about fundamental economics. He thinks that taxing cash strapped New Yorkers is the path to fiscal stability. Read on about the coming fiasco

HERE

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Public Lands Newsletter

December 15, 2008

Plenty to read and speculate on in this issue.

PUBLIC LANDS NEWS BULLETIN #11: November 24, 2008

Dear Subscriber:

This bulletin reports on the following:

* TRANSITION BEGINS WITH LONG LIST OF DOI POSSIBLES

* OMNIBUS BILL GOES DOWN THE TUBES, UNTIL JANUARY

* BLM MEETS DEADLINES WITH OIL SHALE REGS; LAWSUIT SURE

* MS. PICKENS MAY ADOPT 30,000 WILD HORSES

This bulletin is a supplement to your regular edition of Public Lands News. It is NOT your regular issue. The next issue will be published November 28.

The Editors

——————————————————————

CLINTON VETS PREDOMINATE AS OBAMA TRANSITION BEGINS

President-elect Barack Obama has chosen transition advisors in the public lands arena with strong affiliations with the Clinton administration.

Former Interior Department Deputy Secretary David J. Hayes is heading the Interior Department transition team. He currently works as a senior fellow for the World Wildlife Fund.

The Interior team also includes former Interior Department Solicitor John Leshy. He is presently professor of law at the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. Both Hayes and Leshy served in the Clinton administration. Leshy in particular was the scourge of the hard rock mining industry.

It is not unheard of for transition team members to become agency heads. Thus both Hayes and Leshy are being mentioned – if not by themselves – as candidates for Secretary of Interior.

OBAMA CABINET: The competition for posts in the Obama administration has already begun in earnest, as real and imaginary candidates for administration positions circulate their names, or have their names circulated. One prominent public lands player, Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), is already mentioned as Secretary of Energy or Secretary of Interior. But an aide to Bingaman told us his boss is happy where he is.

Other names being circulated as a possible Secretary of the Interior include former Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles (D), Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), Leshy and Hayes.

Numerous western governors have held the Interior post over the years, so New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D), Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D) and Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal (D) by that definition top the list.

Other intriguing possibilities include Rep. Norman Dicks (D-Wash.), chairman of the House subcommittee on Interior appropriations; Dan Beard, who has a long curriculum vitae with stops at the Interior Department, the House Natural Resources Committee and the office of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.); and John Berry, Clinton’s assistant secretary of Interior for Policy.

HILL POSTS: In Congress the election strengthened the Democratic majority significantly but it hasn’t yet provided a super majority of 60 Senate votes that could overcome holds, i.e. filibusters. Best guesses put the Democratic edge in the Senate, when combined with two Independent senators, a couple of votes short of the magic 60. Best guesses put the Democratic edge in the House at about 80 votes. A few contests, including for Minnesota and Georgia Senate seats, are still in doubt.

As we reported in the last issue, committee and subcommittee leaders who oversee public lands programs are expected to stay pretty much the same, although some could play musical chairs. The House Democratic Caucus November 21 chose Rep. Nick Joe Rahall (D-W.Va.) to continue as chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee. On the Republican side Rep. Don Young (Alaska), ranking natural resources committee member, will return.

In the House subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands chairman Raúl Grijalva (D-N.M.) was reelected, as was ranking minority member Rob Bishop (R-Utah.) In the House subcommittee on Interior appropriations Dicks is likely to remain the chair.

In the Senate Bingaman is a good bet to continue as chairman of the Senate Energy Committee and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) is expected to continue to oversee Endangered Species Act legislation as chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

A major change is due on the Republican side of the energy committee where ranking Republican Pete Domenici (N.M.) did not run for re-election. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) is in line to replace Domenici. In fact we understand that Murkowski has already begun lining up staff members.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) returns as chairman of the Senate subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) served as chairman of the Senate subcommittee on Interior appropriations in the last Congress and may do so again.

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SENATE DOESN’T ACT ON OMNIBUS; REID PROMISES JANUARY VOTE

Faced with increasing opposition, Senate Majority Harry Reid (D-Nev.) November 17 postponed Senate action on an omnibus lands bill until next year.

But Reid warned critics of the 150-bill measure that the bill (HR 5151) will be a top priority when the new Congress meets in January with a large Democratic majority.

“One of the first things we’ll do (in January) is there will be a bipartisan piece of legislation introduced that will include all the stuff that was held up these past two years, so-called lands bills,” Reid said on the Senate floor.  “That would be first or second thing we do when we come back in January.”

The bill was tripped up by increasing hostility from a wide range of interests, beginning with western House Republicans and extending to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, private property rights advocates, and conservative think tanks.

Reid said he quit on HR 5151 because critic Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) would insist on a reading of the bill that could take more than 24 hours. The Senate’s time is limited because it was working on a short week and still had to address an economic stimulus bill. “But I think the discretion is the better part of valor and we will alert everyone that we will do this when we get back,” said Reid.

The Heritage Foundation led the intellectual campaign against the bill with a widely distributed position paper. “The lands bill removes public land that would be available for recreational, commercial, and private ownership use by designating such land as wilderness areas, heritage areas, conservation areas and wild and scenic rivers,” said author Nicolas Loris. “Furthermore, the bill places restrictions on existing federal property.”

Loris said the cost should also be considered. “The Congressional Budget Office places an $8 billion price tag on the omnibus lands bill: $7.1 billion in discretionary spending and over $915 million in mandatory spending,” he said.

The critics most object to a provision in HR 5151 (S 1139 as a stand-alone bill) that would give Congressional certification to the 26 million-acre National Landscape Conservation System managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM.) The House approved its version of the NLCS bill (HR 2016) on April 9.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and conservationists are swimming against that tide by asking the Senate to expand the NLCS by adding 6 million acres from the California Desert Conservation Area to it. The NLCS already includes 4 million acres of CDCA land, but Feinstein wants to add the whole CDCA on the Senate floor, bringing the system to 32 million acres.

Karen Schambach, California coordinator for the environmental group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, sees mischief in the exclusion of the CDCA acreage from the NLCS.  “The unspoken plan is for corporate conversion of large parts of the CDCA into giant energy farms and transmission corridor superhighways,” she said.

The Senate Energy Committee developed the omnibus lands package based on committee-passed bills. However, not all committee bills made the cut because both Democratic and Republican committee leaders enjoy a veto.

The idea was to produce a bill that would provide something for everyone on both sides of the aisle. However, one key senator, Coburn, objected to the cost and possible land use restrictions. When we asked a Republican Senate Energy Committee staff member if he knew of any other Senate Republicans who publicly opposed the measure besides Coburn, he said, “No.”

Indeed, there is considerable support for HR 5151. Twenty-four Democratic House members wrote Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) October 30 and asked her to schedule a vote on HR 5151, if the Senate acted on it.

But the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, western House Republicans and their allies won the day, for now. Their main objection is to the NLCS provision. Back on August 4 27 House Republicans had asked President Bush to veto HR 2016 if it came to him by itself. However, they did not mention a recommended veto of an omnibus bill.

In addition to the NLCS measure, HR 5151, as amended by Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) from committee passed bills, would:

* WYOMING RANGE: The omnibus includes a bill (S 2229) from Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) that would authorize non-federal interests to buy out oil and gas leases on 1.2 million acres of the Wyoming Range of the Bridger-Teton National Forest.

BLM and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have offered different estimates of the amount of oil and gas the range contains. BLM said on Feb. 27, 2008, that the area may contain 331 million barrels of oil. But on June 19 the USGS estimated only 5 million barrels of oil. Similarly, BLM estimated the area may contain 8.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and USGS estimated 1.5 trillion cubic feet.

* OWYHEE LANDS (IDAHO): The omnibus includes this bill (S 2833) from Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) that would designate 517,000 acres of BLM-managed wilderness. An alliance of retired BLM employees, the Public Lands Foundation, objected recently to the bill and said that before designating wilderness sponsors should work with BLM to identify precise boundaries. The retirees also objected to a grazing permit buy-out provision. The administration supports.

* WILDERNESS (NINE OTHER BILLS): The omnibus includes several individual wilderness bills that would protect up to 2 million acres, including: Wild Monongahela Wilderness (West Va.), Virginia Ridge and Valley Wilderness (Va.), Mt. Hood Wilderness (Ore.), Copper Salmon Wilderness (Ore.), Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument (Ore.), Owyhee (Idaho), Sabinoso Wilderness (N.M.), Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Wilderness (Mich.), Oregon Badlands Wilderness (Ore.), Spring Basin Wilderness (Ore.), Eastern Sierra and Northern San Gabriel Wilderness (Calif.), Riverside County Wilderness (Calif.), Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks Wilderness (Calif.), and Rocky Mountain National Park Wilderness (Colo.)

In addition, the amendment includes individual bills that would designate two new National Park System units, authorize additions to nine existing National Park System units; authorize by our count a dozen land exchanges and conveyances; designate four national trails; authorize studies of additions to four National Historic Trails (all in the West: Oregon National Historic Trail, Pony Express National Historic Trail, California National Historic Trail, and The Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail); add three wild and scenic rivers including the Snake River Headwaters in Wyoming; and designate a Snowy River Cave National Conservation Area of about 3.5 miles of cave passages in Lincoln County, N.M.

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OIL SHALE REGS WILL GO INTO EFFECT BEFORE OBAMA MOVES IN, COURTS WILLING

BLM issued final commercial development oil shale regulations November 18 in time for the rules to go into effect before President-elect Barack Obama takes over on January 20. If the regs are in effect when Obama becomes President, his administration would be hard-pressed to reverse them.

However. A federal court could issue an injunction stopping the rules and directing BLM to begin over. In fact a coalition of six environmental groups virtually promised a lawsuit the day before the rules were published in the Federal Register.

“(W)e herby inform you that unless you respond to this letter immediately and inform us that BLM is withdrawing the ROD and reinstating the public protest period, we will have no choice but to consider initiation of litigation in federal court to protect our rights,” said the environmentalists, led by Melissa Thrailkill, staff attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity.

The environmentalists share the concern of Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) that BLM doesn’t know what the environmental impacts of commercial shale development will be. They say BLM should review the results of research and development projects before writing regulations. Salazar, who is being mentioned as a candidate for the next Secretary of Interior, said at a November 19 press conference:

“For all the people of Colorado I would simply ask the question: Where are we going to get what could be as much one billion acre-feet of water to move forward with oil shale development? Where are we going to get multiple coal-fired power plants probably that will create the power that makes the technology function if it can be proven technologically feasible? The fact of the matter is there are many unanswered questions, so in my view it is foolhardy to create the regulatory regime for development of oil shale when we don’t know the facts.”

The lead oil shale development company in the three-state oil shale country (Colorado, Utah and Wyoming), Shell Exploration& Production Co. – Unconventional Oil, has told us the company wants BLM to complete commercial development regs as soon as possible to provide formal guidance.

In January 2007 BLM issued five, 160-acre R&D leases in Colorado (Shell holds three) and in May 2007 issued one R&D lease in Utah. The R&D leases constitute the first step in what could be a major new energy industry in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. The Green River Formation of Colorado alone could produce an estimated 800 billion barrels of oil, or 100 years worth of the nation’s annual consumption of 8 billion barrels.

On its behalf BLM said completion of the regulations (along with a programmatic EIS and record of decision) doesn’t automatically commit the bureau to approve any oil shale development project. The bureau said, “Before any oil shale leases are issued, additional site-specific National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis would be completed on the proposed development. Once a lease is issued, the lessee will also have to obtain all required permits from state and local authorities, under their respective permitting processes, before any operations can begin. Another round of NEPA analysis would be conducted before any site-specific plans of development are approved.”

Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), ranking minority member of the House Natural Resources Committee, said, “With this positive step, Americans have hope for vast supplies of clean synthetic oil and natural gas to fuel our homes and businesses for decades.  If American innovation succeeds with the technology to develop this resource, it could supply America’s oil needs for more than a century.”

BLM chose a sliding scale for royalties that would begin at 5 percent during the first five years of production, and then increase 1 percent each year after that until reaching 12.5 percent. The standard oil and gas royalty is 12.5 percent.

Salazar said the BLM formula could cost taxpayers billions of dollars in lost revenue.” “I will study these regulations closely, but I am immediately concerned about the royalty rates that it has established.  A royalty rate of 5 percent, of which Colorado would receive half, is a pittance,” he said. “The Administration is setting up Colorado to be sold short.”

The 160-acre research and development leases entitle a lessee to a preference right (but not a guarantee) to a commercial lease of 4,960 contiguous acres, subject to further environmental analysis. Regular commercial leases would be for 5,760 acres and a company could hold up to 50,000 acres in any one state.

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MS. PICKENS SAYS SHE WANTS TO ADOPT ALL STORED WILD HORSES

There is nothing in writing yet, but the wife of famed oilman T. Boone Pickens says she is willing to adopt more than 30,000 excess wild horses and burros that BLM can no longer afford to store.

Madeline Pickens has told BLM she would like to establish a 1 million-acre range in the West – perhaps with leased federal land – to store the animals. She reportedly is willing to spend between $10 million and $50 million. As part of the plan (1) the animals would be sterilized and (2) donors to her operation would receive tax credits.

For now BLM is intrigued. “We welcome her interest,” said Tom Gorey, BLM spokesman. “We welcome anything she can do. It would be a great step forward in reducing our holding costs.”

As PLN reported in the last issue, BLM’s wild horse and burro program is facing an imminent crisis from an overpopulation in holding facilities. The bureau doesn’t have enough money to expand holding facilities. But if it returns the animals to the range, it may create an environmental disaster. And if it euthanizes the animals or sells them without limitations (i.e. to slaughterhouses) animal rights groups and their Congressional allies will hit the roof.

At a regularly scheduled public hearing in Reno, Nev., November 17 of BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board Pickens expressed her interest in adopting all 30,000 excess animals and placing them on a range in the West. Pickens reportedly envisions the wild horse ranch as a tourist destination.

With Congress facing a $1 trillion deficit in fiscal 2009 the outlook is dim for increased appropriations above the fiscal 2008 appropriation of $37 million for the program. (A temporary fiscal 2009 money bill extends the 2008 level until March 6.)

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) in a recent report praised BLM for making progress toward meeting an appropriate management level of wild horses and burros on the public range of 27,200. But to do that BLM has had to put 74,000 animals in holding facilities since 2001, far more than it can put out for adoption or euthanized under strict limits. The number of animals in storage has climbed from 9,807 in 2001 to 30,088 as of June 30.

The price of managing the holding facilities has increased concomitantly. In 2000 total storage costs were $7 million. In fiscal 2008 holding costs exceeded $27 million, or three-quarters of the annual program appropriation.

The GAO report, Effective Long-Term Options Needed to Manage Unadoptable Wild Horses, is available at: http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-77.

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Public Lands News is published by Resources Publishing Co., P.O. Box 41320, Arlington, VA 22204. EIN 52-1363538. Phone (703) 553-0552. FAX (703) 553-0558. E-mail: james@resourcespublishing.com. Website: http://www.publiclandsnews.com.

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More from the Gore

December 12, 2008

Pumping the new religion of man caused global warming Al Gore is set to make yet even more millions. Never mind that his theory has been totaly debunked by responsible scientists the world over… I mean hell, it snowed in the deep south! Someone please tell those folks how that is global warming!

H/T to Texas Fred!

POZNAN, Poland (AP) — Climate campaigner Al Gore has urged negotiators at a U.N. global warming conference to free themselves of outdated ways of looking at the planet.

Gore says the delegates — like everyone else — are vulnerable to misperceptions, just as man once thought the sun revolved around the Earth.

He said scientists disproved that, beginning with the Polish astronomer Copernicus. Today, misperceptions may mislead us to believe there is little urgency to fight climate change. But scientists say quick action is needed to avoid catastrophic consequences.

Follow the Money!

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It’s the economy stupid!

December 9, 2008

It’s the economy stupid! Remember that being   said not all that long ago in a campaign speech? I sure do, and I also remember another politician being blasted because of what he said about the “fixes” that were being talked about back then.

Well, things have not really changed all that much have they? Nope, not that I can see. So, like a phoenix, the wraith returns.

by  Patrick J. Buchanan

In a deepening recession, what does the reasonable man do?

Seeing friends laid off, he will get rid of all but essential credit cards, dine at home more often, terminate unnecessary trips to the mall, put off buying a new car, give up the idea of borrowing on the vanishing equity in his house. He will begin to save and start paying down debt.

A company that has reached the limits of its credit and is staring at Chapter 11 will batten down the hatches, lay off nonessential workers, cut employee hours, put off expansion plans, cancel year-end bonuses and try to ride out the storm.

This is the natural behavior of people responsible for others in an economic storm of the magnitude of the category 4 hurricane heading our way. Yet, to see and hear our government, folks are doing exactly the wrong thing.

For the U.S. government is set to borrow on a colossal scale, unprecedented save in World War II, and to take America trillions of dollars deeper in debt to pick up the slack in the economy caused by the rational decisions of individuals and corporations.

The Fed, whose easy money policy created the housing bubble that has exploded in our faces, is back printing money and shoveling cash into the banks. And, though the Bush deficits are said to have been responsible for our troubles, a new Congress and president have advanced a deficits-be-damned, full-spending-ahead policy.

On top of Bush’s $455 billion deficit and hundreds of billions in bailouts for AIG, Bear Stearns, Fannie, Freddie and CitiGroup, Obama is talking up a new stimulus package of $500 billion to $1 trillion.

Our governors and mayors — who, facing deficits, had been cutting back — have now reversed field and are demanding to follow the federal formula.

When Obama arrived at the National Governors Association Conference in Philadelphia, they pounced. Led by Pennsylvania’s Ed Rendell, they handed Barack a bill: $138 billion. The governors want U.S. taxpayers to relieve them of what U.S. families face: the need to cut spending, pay down debt, make sacrifices, take pain and live within their means.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the mayors have now followed the governors’ lead, declaring they have 4,100 projects “ready to go,” which they want U.S. taxpayers to fund.

What are these projects?

Under the ever-popular rubric “infrastructure,” they include roads, bridges, schools and public buildings. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he has $28 billion worth “ready to go,” which he would like folks in the other 49 states to fund.

Now, historically, bridges, highways, roads and public buildings have been regarded as pork. In the campaign, they were “earmarks” — payoffs for powerful constituents, a form of political corruption that reformers like Barack and John McCain were going to end.

Now, it seems, earmarks are our salvation.

Why are governments at every level doing this?

Because government believes that the restoration of economic health requires us to act against our natural instincts in a recession, and start buying and financing new homes and cars, and get back to the malls, lest this Christmas season become a bummer for retailers.

After all, 70 percent of our gross domestic product is now based on consumption, though Americans in recent years have had a savings rate of zero.

The disconnect between the instincts of average citizens and the policies of government could not be greater. Governments want us to act prodigally, while natural instincts and inclinations are telling us to act conservatively.

Conservatism and capitalism are giving conflicting signals.

Average Americans are behaving as though in rehab, trying to kick a bad habit of spending more than they earn and borrowing more than they can pay back, while the U.S. government is suggesting that what we really need is to return to the auto showrooms and malls, and start spending again, only in radically increased dosages.

Beyond the present recession, questions arise as to whether the U.S. model is sustainable. If government spending were the remedy to recession, why, after Bush’s deficits, are we in recession? And if the easy money of Ben Bernanke’s Fed is the cure for what ails us, how did we get sick when Alan Greenspan’s Fed was conducting a never-ending policy of easy money?

How does it stimulate the private economy to pump hundreds of billions of dollars into consumer checking and credit-card accounts, when more and more of what we consume — from computers to cars to clothes — isn’t even produced in America anymore?

What do conservatives, few of whom have opposed the Obama plans and fewer of whom have called for repeal of Bush’s big-spending social programs, believe is the alternative approach to ending the recession and creating a sustainable economy?

For the economy we have seems to be condemned to an ever-deepening and widening cycle of crises, each brought on by the cure for the previous crisis, which is always the same: more government.

SOURCE

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Trying to make sense of bailouts and other such Socialist ideas

December 2, 2008

All over the internet I keep hearing things like, or along the lines of; Obama will save us from ourselves, and other such drivil. I hear on a near constant level that this is what free market economics gets for the people. When, in point of fact, the United States does not operate in a true free market economy, much less in a  laissez faire model. Which is actually what these very same people imply has been being used in recent memory. These are most often self appointed masters of economic thought. Picking and choosing bits and pieces of what they have learned, or just heard along the way. Never mind the basic tenets of Macroeconomics and Microeconomics, after all they have an agenda to pursue. That most often being the destruction of western society in general, and capatilism in particular. They are in fact usualy espousing Social Economics. However they do so based upon emotion, not upon reasoning and most often without any sense of logic.

Hence, I will post a bit about the Natural Laws of Economics. Please follow the link, as there is a wealth of information to be had there.

A natural law is a proposition that is universal to a subject matter. In science, a natural law consists of propositions describing and explaining observed regularities. There are in economics some basic regularities which have been designated as natural laws of economics. These include:

1. The law of demand. When the price of a good falls, the quantity demanded does not fall. Usually, the quantity demanded rises with a fall in price. Strictly, the law of demand applies to the substitution of cheaper goods for more expensive goods due to a relative change in price. The law of demand also applies to the whole economy: when the whole price level falls, with the amount of money remaining constant, a greater amount of goods will be purchased. 2. The law of supply. When the price of a good rises, the quantity produced does not fall. Usually, a higher price for a produced good results in a greater quantity produced.

3. The law of diminishing returns (law of decreasing marginal productivity). Given a fixed amount of some input, when ever more amounts of the variable input are added, eventually, the marginal product (the last unit’s contribution to output) declines.

4. The law of one price. In an efficient market, a financial asset will tend to have one equilibrium price, because of arbitrage.

5. Gresham’s law. Bad money drives out good money when the bad money is legal tender.

6. The law of reflux. In competitive free-market banking, there cannot be a permanent over issue of banknotes, since any issued in excess of the quantity demanded will be redeemed.

7. Law of supply and demand. In a free market, the equilibrium price of a good is that at which the quantity supplied equals the quantity demanded.

8. The law of diminishing marginal utility. As one obtains more and more of a particular good, eventually the marginal utility (value from one more unit) declines.

9. The law of unintended consequences. Human actions, and especially governmental acts, have consequences which were not intended and not anticipated by the actors.

10. The law of iterated expectations. One cannot use the limited information at some previous time in order to predict the forecast error one would make if one had better information later.

11. Engel’s law. The proportion of income spent on food in an economy is inversely proportional to the general welfare of the society in that economy.

12. Wagner’s law. As an economy grows, government spending has increased by a greater proportion.

13. Foldvary’s law of inequality. Inequality equals the concentration of a distribution times the number of units (I=CN).

14. Say’s law of markets. The supply of goods will pay the factors of production such that the payments are equal to the value of the product, and therefore aggregate quantity supplied equals aggregate quantity demanded.

15. Law of time preference. People tend to prefer to obtain goods sooner rather than later, and will pay a premium (i.e. interest) to shift buying from the future to the present.

16. Law of the market. Statements made by market participants are assumed to be truthful, and products are presumed to be safe and effective unless stated otherwise.

17. Pareto’s law of distribution. There is a general tendency for 80 percent of the consequences to result from 20 percent of the causes, which often applies to property, 80 percent of the wealth owned by 20 percent of the population.

18. Law of cost. All costs are opportunity costs, the true cost being what is given up to get something.

19. Law of comparative advantage. Trade takes place because parties specialize in the products which have a lower opportunity cost, rather than merely a lower physical cost.

20. The law of wages. The wage level of an economy, where labor is mobile and competitive, is determined by the marginal productivity of labor at the margin of production, i.e. the least productive land in use.

21. The law of rent. The economic rent of a plot of land equals the difference between its output and the output at the margin of production, i.e. the least productive land in use, using the same quality of labor and capital goods.

22. The law of capital goods. Investment in capital goods and human capital expand until the expected return on investment, adjusted for risk, equals that of the long-term real interest rate.

23. Walras’ law. If there is an excess quantity supplied in one market, there must be a matching excess quantity demanded in another market.

24. The law of economizing. People tend to economize, maximizing gains for a given cost, and minimizing costs for a given gain.

25. The law of economic rationality. Human action is economically rational if one’s preferences are consistent and if one economizes.

26. The Gaffney effect. The public collection of rent equalizes the discount rate for land usage, since otherwise people would have different credit costs for purchasing land.

Fred Foldvary


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