Citizens’ Budget Panel Event Audio
On Wednesday March 2nd, the Independence Institute held a panel event at the University Club in Denver to discuss the solutions presented in the Citizens’ Budget project. Presenters included project director Penn Pfiffner, Education Center policy analyst Ben DeGrow, Health Care Policy Center director Linda Gorman, and Fiscal Policy Center senior fellow Barry Poulson. Each […]
Is Gov. Walker Selling Out Taxpayers?
Wisconsin’s Governor Walker is losing the public-relations battle to the public-employee unions whose power he is challenging. Whenever I see this issue discussed on the news, people on Walker’s side are quoted saying the state has to cut costs or it will go broke, while people on the unions’ side say they are willing to […]
The Antiplanner’s Library: The Economic Crisis
The 2008 financial crisis has proven to be a bonanza for at least one industry: Book publishers have issued dozens of tomes about what went wrong and how to fix it. Lately, the Antiplanner has been reading as many of these as possible. Most of the authors have an axe to grind and many blame […]
$590 Million to Increase Speeds by 2.7 MPH
Secretary of Immobility Ray LaHood proudly announced Saturday that the BNSF Railway has agreed to increase Portland-Seattle train speeds from their current average of 53.4 mph to 56.1 mph, saving just 10 minutes (3 hours 30 minutes reduced to 3 hours 20 minutes) over the 187-mile trip. This, said LaHood, is “part of the President’s […]
South Island Tragedies
In 2007, an American scholar teaching in Christchurch uncovered a public-land scandal: New Zealand was giving grazing lands to local farmers at prices that were well below market. In fact, the government often paid farmers to take land that they sometimes turned around and sold at a huge profit. The scholar was Ann Brower, who […]
Missing Comments
Some people have noticed that some of the comments people made on Wednesday’s post are missing. Apparently, the server went down and my ISP lost the last dozen or so comments. It also lost this morning’s post. I was able to recreate this morning’s post, but not the comments. Feel free to remake the comments […]
Giving and Taking Away
When Wisconsin and Ohio elected governors who promised to cancel high-speed rail, Secretary LaHood took their money away before the governors-elect even took office. But when Florida’s governor cancelled that state’s high-speed rail, LaHood gave local governments a week to see if they could form a consortium able to take on the project. Why didn’t […]
Intercounty Connector Opens
Maryland’s Intercounty Connector opens for traffic today, either one day or 41 years late depending on how you count. The toll road connects Montgomery and Prince George County in the suburbs of Washington, DC, an area that has grown by more than 75 percent since the road was first planned in the 1960s. Click to […]
The Anti-Driverless Car Movement Strikes Back
“Hands-free driving. Cars that park themselves. An unmanned car driven by a search engine company. We’ve seen that movie. It ends with robots harvesting our bodies for energy.” Some men get a testosterone thrill from having their hands on the wheel of a car, or so they tell the Antiplanner. I just remind them that, […]
Stop Me Before I Spend Again
The debates over public employee pension benefits in Wisconsin and high-speed rail are, at heart, the same question: what to do about growing government debt? There seem to be four basic views. On the Democratic side are the Krugmanites, who think we need to stop worrying about deficits and spend, Spend, SPEND our way out […]
Updates from All Over
California Republicans are proposing to divert federal grants for the state’s high-speed rail program to improving U.S. Highway 99 instead. Highway 99 is the major route through California’s Central Valley connecting Modesto, Fresno, and Bakersfield, while Interstate 5 skips those major cities. Highway 99 is highly congested and is in relatively poor shape, and Representatives […]
Sticking It to Your Employer
Many people seem to think that high-speed rail won’t work in Florida but still makes sense in the Boston-to-Washington corridor. For example, in a commentary on Governor Scott’s decision to cancel the Florida high-speed train, Michael Barone writes in the Washington Examiner, “I have written rather extensively about the foolishness of most high-speed rail projects. […]
