America's Growing Energy Security

From Daniel Yergin in today's Wall Street Journal.  The author of a number of books on the oil industry discusses America and Canada's growing energy production.

Looting the Future to Bribe the Present

Mark Steyn hits the nail on his head in his weekly column.  Writing about our current budget situation,

"The political class looted the future to bribe the present, confident that tomorrow could be endlessly postponed."

As they used to say on TV "the future is now."

News from Durban

Did you know that the annual UN climate conference is now going on in South Africa?  There has been little news of the proceedings in Durban and for good reason.  As Walter Russell Mead reports, fewer and fewer countries seem willing to sign on to a global carbon control scheme, even as the existing Kyoto treaty is set to expire.

Chalk this one up to "no news is good news."

How Competitive is Minnesota?

As it turns out, (slightly) worse than average.  Unfortunately, our neighbors are doing much better.

Hank Robison and Rob Sentz over at New Geography took a look at how states are doing competing with each another to create jobs.  Not surprisingly, oil-rich North Dakota, Texas, and Alaska rank first, second, and third, respectively.  Oil-rich and post-Katrina Louisiana ranks forth, in the period that covers 2007 through 2011.

But non-oil neighbors South Dakota and Nebraska come in at 5th and 6th, while Minnesota clocks in at a disappointing 31st.  Iowa ranks 11th and Wisconsin comes in at 22nd.  Minnesota does not rank ahead of a single neighboring state, unless you count Michigan (we share a water border in Lake Superior), which ranks 4th from last, ahead of only Florida, Arizona, and Nevada--which were hit hardest by the real estate crash.

Robison and Sentz use a methodology that seeks to screen out the effects of national economic trends, to try and tease out how each state competes against expectations in creating jobs.  About states like Minnesota doing worse than average,

"If a state is losing, then it stands to reason that there are factors within the state that make it less competitive...If a state is hemorrhaging jobs faster than the national economy, there should be cause for concern.  There are likely toxic conditions within industry sectors and economic policies that make it very difficult for employment and economic activity to flourish."

Last Night on "Late Debate" with Jack and Ben

Jack and Ben indulged my ego by having me as their guest for the full two hours last night.  Download the December 6, 2011 show at itunes.  I come in around the 25 minute mark.

Jefferson v. Hamilton: The Debate Rages On

Walter Russell Mead comments on how the ancient debate between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton continues to play out in today's politics.

The Problem with Regulation

Phillip K. Howard of Common Good makes the case for "results-based" regulation, rather than the micro-regulation we have today.

University Administrators Outnumber Faculty

Ever wonder why college tuition keeps increasing faster than inflation?  Perhaps one reason is that full-time administrators now outnumber full-time faculty members, 54% to 46%.

Doesn't sound sustainable.

Too Many Counties? I Say, Too Few

For some time I have heard the argument that Minnesota, with 87, has too many counties.  A County Commissioner from Ottertail is the latest to make the pitch, suggesting that we consolidate to between 30-35.

The argument, of course, is efficiency, economies of scale, eliminate duplication of costs, etc.  As a resident of the state's largest county by population (Hennepin), I can attest that just the opposite is true.  Huge diseconomies exist when a single political entity tries to serve 1.15 million people with a $ billion plus budget.

The latest controversy in Hennepin involves the Commissioners (on a 4-3 vote), giving themselves a backdoor $2,000 raise on top of their $97,080 a year salary.  I doubt that is what the gentleman from Ottertail has in mind.

In Jefferson's "Ward Republics" concept, government would move closer to the people not further away.  If we are looking for savings in government waste, look to eliminate the duplicate layers: watershed districts, soil and water districts, park districts, sewer districts with overlapping jurisdictions and similar missions.  In fact there are 26 different kinds of taxing districts in Minnesota.

A for Counties, look elsewhere for savings.

My One Year Blogiversary!

Today marks the one year anniversary of this web log.  It's been a blast.  A few highlights:

• My first post, a short note linking to the Wall Street Journal piece by the Breakthrough Institutes's Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger and their efforts to reframe the climate debate.
• The most read post, discussing our growing energy independence.  Most read thanks to a timely link from the great Walter Russell Mead's blog.
• The most read essay, where I discuss new ideas for marketing electricity.

Thank you, the reader, for keeping this going for a whole year.  I look forward to the next year and the adventures ahead.