Carbon Taxapalooza

Last Monday Terence Corcoran declared Carbon Taxapalooza Week:

We hereby declare this to be Carbon Taxapalooza Week. The objective is to acknowledge and deplore the great stampede of provincial governments to tax the hell out of fossil fuels.

On Tuesday, Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission, a self-appointed group of allegedly market-oriented economic policy wonks, will release a report calling for the provinces to adopt “carbon pricing” to help Canada tackle climate change. [Here's the full list Ecofiscal "commissioners".  It includes Preston Manning, Jean Charest, Paul Martin, Bob Rae, Peter Robinson (Suzuki Foundation CEO), etc.  With that rats nest of progressives and eco-illiterates what could possibly go wrong?]

Until now, Ontario hasn’t had much interest in carbon pricing ... But now, having exhausted a range of bad policies, Ontario’s Environment Minister, Glenn Murray, is pushing to adopt another set of allegedly less bad policies.

 Peter Foster: The way backwards on carbon policy:

... On Tuesday Canada’s self-appointed Ecofiscal Commission released a study, The Way Forward, that amounts to a recommendation for policy chaos in pursuit of the ever-more dubious cause of fighting catastrophic man-made climate change. ...

Peter Foster: Chris Ragan, market beautician:

You can always tell a fan of Big Government by the way he or she addresses the Invisible Hand, Adam Smith’s metaphor for free markets. ... This week, McGill economist Christopher Ragan, chairman of the self-appointed Ecofiscal Commission, came up with a more subtle put down - “Sometimes the Invisible Hand needs a manicure, and the way is to improve market signals.”

See also, Dennis Ambler at The SPPI Blog: A nest of carbon vipers

Vast sums of money, influence and power are involved in carbon mitigation schemes, and yet there is never any mention in the media of these massive and lucrative conflicts of interest. They appear quite content swallowing the diversionary tactics pushed by the likes of DeSmog Blog and Greenpeace ExxonSecrets with their claims of “oil- company funded deniers”.  It is doubtful that mainstream journalists ever bother to look behind the scenes at these people, yet it is all available on official websites.

Peter Foster with Ezra Levant

Ezra Levant discusses the demonization of capitalism with Peter Foster on the occasion of the publication of Peter's new book "Why We Bite the Invisible Hand: The Psychology of Anti-Capitalism":




It was great to see Peter on Ezra's show.  We should see a lot more of him!

The Psychology of Anti-Capitalism

Peter Foster's new book "Why We Bite the Invisible Hand: The Psychology of Anti-Capitalism" has been excerpted in the National Post:

Socialism’s die-hard true believers;

Biting the (invisible) hand that feeds us; and

The perils of ‘do-it-yourself economics’

Book review here - looks like a great read!
Available at Amazon.com (but, oddly, not at Amazon.ca).

No sign of Adam Smith during Sandy

Peter Foster:

... Both the Democratic governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, and the Republican governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, leaped into Sandy’s wake to assure their constituents that under no circumstances would they allow markets to work. The most immediate and obvious result of their interventions was four-hour lineups at gas stations.

... Governor Cuomo managed not merely to disrupt markets but to cause outright panic with the kind of initiative more associated with the likes of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. He promised consumers 10 gallons of free gasoline ...

Mr. Christie, ... imposed gas rationing over the weekend, allowing gas purchases on alternate days based on whether your licence plate is odd or even. He had already invoked collectivist solidarity by suggesting that “During emergencies, New Jerseyans should look out for each other ... Thus he suggested little or no ... grasp of Adam Smith’s two-centuries-old insight about the butcher, the brewer, the baker and the gasoline retailer: that they serve us best by serving themselves.

The biggest culprit? Public ignorance of  free market principles:

In the marketplace of what passes for political ideas, a primitive sense of “fairness,” condemnation of greed and selfishness, a belief that higher prices will advantage “the rich” (because only they can afford the pricier goods), and a seemingly immutable faith that government force is the answer will beat out Economics 101 every time.

Is there a chance that we'll see our school system begin to teach free market basics any time soon?  Nah, they're too busy flogging "social justice".

facebook's Mark Zuckerberg is "a self-serving hypocrite"

Peter Foster: "Two-faced book"

... [Adam] Smith noted that businessmen — like all human beings — are often self-serving hypocrites. His point was that free commercial markets turned self-interest into public benefit. We can only serve ourselves by serving others. Meanwhile Smith scoffed at those who would “trade for the public good.”

Posturing obviously comes more easily to the search engine and Internet tycoons because they can claim they are more virtuous than those who run wicked old smokestack industries. Except, that is, when they are advertising their products, which just happens to be how the new tykes make most of their money. This brings us to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s letter in this week’s IPO filing.

... In his letter, Mr. Zuckerberg, who stands to be worth up to US$28-billion, claims that Facebook was “built to accomplish a social mission — to make the world more open and connected.”

... Where it really gets murky is where he writes, “Over time, we expect governments will become more responsive to issues and concerns raised directly by all their people rather than through intermediaries controlled by a select few.”

... We have representative democracies for a reason. They don’t always work that well, but they are certainly preferable to the rule of any NGO-stoked Occupy cybermob.

... it’s worth noting that while rattling on about higher purpose and the voice of the people, Mr. Zuckerberg ... is keeping a firm grip on Facebook control via a dual share structure.  ... while he is paying lip service to the meddlers, he is doing his best to insulate himself from them. We knew he was a smart young man. Shame about the bafflegab.

Great column!  Read any corporate annual report and you'll find it filled with the same kind of posturing bafflegab about "stakeholders", "corporate social responsibility" and "sustainability". They dedicate people as full-time generators of this bullcrap and to sucking up to NGOs.