The Story of DDT

Think for a moment about the last time you had a bad case of the flu: the headaches, the chills, the vomiting, the congestion, the depressed mood, the inability to function normally for days. But imagine it felt 10 times worse, and lasted for months or years, robbing you of anything resembling a truly human life. That is life for …

A Nation of Traders

With the economy stuck in neutral and a presidential campaign well underway, one word has remained on the lips of political and economic commentators alike: jobs.  Jobs were at the center of the President’s State of the Union address.  Jobs, we are told, drive economic growth.  Jobs will determine who wins the presidential election.  Recently, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney …

The Power of Aspirational Advocacy

In the latest edition of CIP Insider, our new newsletter about CIP’s strategy for changing the way Americans think about energy and industry, I discuss what I call Aspirational Advocacy. Here’s an excerpt: If we focus our efforts on arguing against environmentalism, without offering a clear, defined, illustrated, inspiring alternative, then our best-case scenario is to get from bad to …

Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources Condemns The Green Gauntlet

The most important story about the American economy is the one that gets the least attention. America has enormous, incalculable, untapped potential to revolutionize its economy through industrial progress–through far greater productivity in energy production, in manufacturing, in construction, in mining, in transportation. But our industrial progress is halted by a labyrinth of so-called “green” policies–policies that have nothing to …

Power Hour: Marlo Lewis on The Year in Energy

On this month’s Power Hour, Dr. Marlo Lewis of the Competitive Enterprise Institute joins the program to discuss the top three energy stories of 2011 and 2012. Toward the end of the program, starting at 37:40, we get into an interesting discussion of what strategy the free-market energy movement should take for the 2012 election and beyond. Enjoy! Download and …

Remembering John Lewis

I recently learned that historian and activist Dr. John Lewis has passed away after a long battle with cancer. I was fortunate enough to have many interactions with John over the past dozen years, and he repeatedly inspired me in both word and deed. I first encountered John back in 2000, when we were both taking a year-long writing class …

Econ-Gate!

A large group of academic economists has publicly given its endorsement to the Occupy Movement under the banner of “occupy economics” or “Econ4”– a “new” economics “4 the people, 4 the planet, 4 the future.” What does this mean?In typical Occupier fashion, the Econ4 Mission Statement is incredibly vague about its intentions. Fortunately, Eric Dennis and I have “discovered” an earlier draft that makes …