The Answer is Blowin in the Wind Part?

A report in this morning's Wall Street Journal (unfortunately behind a subscription firewall) investigated federal stimulus funds given to alternative energy companies, and found that wind farms receiving a total of over 4.3 billion dollars in stimulus funds currently employ 300 people. Even if every one of those jobs is simply a creation of the stimulus package, that works out to over 14 million dollars per job.

"High Rates Don't Always Deliver ...High Revenues"

I was telling Doug that I have been deliberately not posting for many weeks, for the simple reason that many of the policy issues that I wish to address (such as the marginalization of the voluntary and faith sectors from the public sphere) have become highly partisan at this point in the election cycle, and I don't want to post a partisan politics blog. However, here is a good economics example from outside the United States. In the U.K. the coalition government imposed a new surtax on wealthy individuals. The result has been....lower tax revenue. Humans are not electrons; they adjust to incentives, and apparently wealthy individuals in Britain were easily able to adjust their economic activity to avoid the tax. Now, there is a broad call for repeal of the tax as a fear that Britain is losing a generation of entrepreneurs creeps in. Here's the article with the details (thanks to HotAir for the tip).

I'll Be Back

The scene was set. We had a good party going and one of the hosts decided to go catch his breath as he was drowning in school work. Now I want to come back to the party, but, I'm afraid all my guests have left. Nevertheless, I will write. Let me explain why (if there is anyone reading this still).

This weekend my wife and I were walking and talking about the future. She is in planning mode, submitting all kinds of forms for residency and she asked a simple question, "Given what you want to do, what would be the best locations for me to apply?" I stumbled.

Why? Because that would imply that I knew what I wanted to do. I feel in these last semesters I've become a little bit lost. The zeal for economics is still there, but, I feel tired and uninspired. I have lost my sense of direction and now, more than ever, I need this blog.

Though I am busy, yet I will be back with a vengeance.