The first half of Fall 2009 was a busy season in European politics.
On September 27, the general elections took place in Germany. The results were pretty optimistic–conservatives won the elections and kept the top spot, socialists lost and left the coalition, while liberals became a new member of a ruling coalition. The same weekend, elections took place in Portugal. The results were less optimistic, as the socialists stayed in power and will probably form a coalition with the Left Bloc,…
Starting this week, it will be illegal to make or import 100-watt light bulbs in the European Union. And for what? New Scientist reporter Shanta Barley notes:
The ban could save the EU anywhere from 15 to 53 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, says Matt Prescott, founder of the Ban the Bulb campaign.
And the UK could save 2 to 5 million tonnes of the stuff, he says. Will it make a difference? You decide: the ban will cut Britain’s yearly emissions of…
Today’s excerpt from CEI’s film, Policy Peril: Why Global Warming Policies Are More Dangerous Than Global Warming Itself, offers a free-market perspective on Al Gore’s proclamation, at the end of An Inconvenient Truth, that global warming is “a moral issue.”
Considered in the abstract, apart from its context in movie, this is a completely unremarkable statement. Just about all public policy issues can be described as moral issues, because they directly or implicitly ask us to decide whether a proposed course of action is fair or…
Over at Science Progress, a web magazine published by the Center for American Progress, former USDA biotech regulator Val Giddings and U. of Illinois microbiologist Bruce Chassy offer the Obama Administration a well-reasoned and scientifically-sound blueprint for reforming the irrational and burdensome regulation of biotech crops. They write:
In summary, biotechnology applied to agriculture has enormous potential to enhance our ability to develop seeds for improved crops and for enhanced livestock to enable us to meet the food, feed and fiber challenges of…
Richard Morrison and Cord Blomquist bring back special guest co-host Jeremy Lott to create the work of art known as Episode 42. We start with the continuing buzz over the Supreme Court’s next member, President Obama’s trillion dollar healthcare plan, and an update on how Hugo Chávez is turning Venezuela’s petroleum reserves into his personal piggybank. We add good news from East Texas for beer drinkers, bad news from Europe for technophiles and sad news from Philly for basketball fans.
Listen to the episode HERE.
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In The American Spectator, former CEI Bastiat Scholar Doug Bandow (now at the Cato Institute) describes how “[o]nly the Irish people and Czech President Vaclav Klaus” stand as “formidable obstacles” in the way of Eurocrats’ dream of political consolidation — and how fanciful that dream is to begin with.
After winning some theoretical concessions, essentially promises to make future changes, on issues of interest to Irish voters, the government in Dublin announced plans to hold a revote later this year. Current…
Ask people who buy organic food what they like about it, and chances are, most will say “they’re grown without pesticides.” As I’ve pointed out repeatedly, that’s not actually true. While organic farmers do not use synthetic pesticides, they do use a variety of chemicals to control insects and plant diseases — including such potentially dangerous substances as copper sulfate, rotenone, pyrethrum, ryania, and sabadilla. These “organic” pesticides are derived from minerals or plants, are lightly processed, and thus are…
“The president of the European Union on Wednesday slammed U.S. plans to spend its way out of recession as ‘a road to hell.’ Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, told the European Parliament that President Barack Obama’s massive stimulus package and banking bailout ‘will undermine the liquidity of the global financial market.’”
There’s “one small problem with Geithner’s plan: It will bankrupt the banks,” says analyst Henry Blodgett, triggering a chain reaction of write-offs.…
The European Union has rescinded its ban on some “ugly” fruits and vegetables. AP reports:
The European Union bid adieu Wednesday to rules that have cemented its image as an ivory tower: starting next summer, it will allow the sale of fruit and vegetables that may be crooked, bent or twisted but are fine for consumption.
Seems sensible enough, but, as usual, the EU can only handle so much sanity at any one time. The European Commission actually enumerates the fruits and…
Check out me and Richard Morrison doing another episode of CEI’s weekly podcast, Liberty Week. This week we cover:
The “meltdown” on Wall Street
Hurricane Ike
Nancy Pelosi’s opposition to offshore drilling
The War on Bottled Waterâ„¢
A breakthrough for Paralympic athletes
Also, this week we have Radu Burnete (our Romanian intern) joining us to consider how European Union rules have made short cucumbers, uncurved bananas and unpasteurized cheese crimes against the people.
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