Grantcoulson's Blog

     Do not think about, write about or deal with  human behavior without determining the effects of incentives.

    Innovation can have many forms, new ideas, theories, products, projects, etc. Having to get permission cannot help the process.

  excerpt from an article by Alex Taborrok

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“THE RED-TAPE MENACE

Regulation is another area in which we lack an innovation vision. There are good regulations and bad regulations and lots of debate over which is which. From an innovation perspective, however, this debate misses a key point. Let’s assume that all regulations are good. The problem is that even if each regulation is good, the net effect of all the regulations combined may be bad. A single pebble in a big stream doesn’t do much, but throw enough pebbles and the stream of innovation is dammed.

Building in the United States today, for example, requires navigating a thicket of environmental, zoning and aesthetic regulations that vary not only state by state but county by county. If building a house is difficult, try building an airport. Passenger travel has more than tripled since deregulation in 1978, but in that time only one major new airport has been built: Denver’s. That airport is now the fourth busiest in the world. Indeed the top seven busiest airports are all in the United States, not so much because we are big but because without new construction we are forced to overcrowd our existing infrastructure. The result is delays and inefficiency. Meanwhile, China is building 50 to 100 new airports over the next 10 years.

Regulatory thickets are also strangling energy innovation. The U.S. Department of Energy, for example, estimates that small and environmentally friendly hydro-electric projects could generate at least 30,000 MWs of power annually. That’s equivalent to the generating capacity of about 30 nuclear power plants. Moreover, since 97% of U.S. dams are generating zero power today, these projects would not require building any new dams. So what’s the problem? The problem is that building even a small hydro-electric project requires the approval of numerous agencies, including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Army Corps of Engineers, State Environmental Departments and State Historic Preservation Departments. It’s simply too expensive, time-consuming and risky to build these projects when any of these agencies could veto it at any time. The net result is that we generate more electricity than necessary by leveling mountains, burning coal, and filling our air with dangerous particulates and climate-changing CO2.

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    Uncertainty, uncertain time frames, delays, impertinent obstructions by those whose salaries are guaranteed–all are guaranteed by regulation.

BUILDING THE NEXT HOOVER DAM

Our ancestors were bold and industrious. They built a significant portion of our energy and road infrastructure more than half a century ago. It would be almost impossible to build that system today. Could we build the Hoover Dam today? We have the technology. We seem to lack the will. Unfortunately, we cannot rely on the infrastructure of our past to travel to our future. Airports, an electricity smart grid that doesn’t throw millions into the dark every few years, and ubiquitous Wi-Fi are among the important infrastructures of the 21st century, and they are caught in the regulatory thicket.

Our economy is stagnant and for the first time in a long time, and the national mood is deeply pessimistic. To restore our economy and our spirits we need to become an innovation nation. An innovative nation would improve the prospects for economic growth but could do much more. The warfare-welfare state divides the pie and also divides Americans. Americans, however, are an innovative, forward-thinking people and the prospects are good for uniting them on a pro-growth, pro-innovation agenda.”

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     Giving people stuff without effort makes them lazy. You can look it up.  Probably also makes them complacent—to wit, non-innovative.

Cheerio and ttfn,
Grant Coulson
Cui Bono–Cherchez les Contingencies

    Do not think about, write about or deal with  human behavior without determining the effects of incentives.

Battery maker Ener1—DOE recipient—Goes Bankrupt

By Steve Hargreaves @CNNMoneyTech January 26, 2012

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Electric car battery maker Ener1 filed for bankruptcy Thursday, three years after receiving a $118.5 million grant from the U.S. government.

Ener1 (HEVV), which makes a variety of energy storage devices under different subsidiaries, is the parent company of EnerDel, the car battery division that received the government grant to help build a manufacturing plant in Indianapolis.

Unlike bankrupt Solyndra, the advanced solar panel maker that became a lightning rod for critics of Obama’s stimulus spending when it closed its factory and liquidated, Ener1 promised its business will proceed as usual.

The company said the "voluntarily initiated" bankruptcy filing won’t impact any of its subsidiaries, including EnerDel.

"The restructuring will not adversely impact their employees, customers and suppliers," the company said in a press release, noting there will be no layoffs as a result of the action.

The company blamed the bankruptcy on a slower than expected demand for electric vehicles.
Making a battery to replace oil

Analysts have also said any electric car battery maker faces stiff competition from Asian firms, which are largely considered to be well ahead of the curve due to their long experience making batteries for electronics. Ener1 was thought to offer one of the best chances for an American company to compete in this field.

The company said that’s still the case, and that the restructuring will allow it to reduce its debt and free up $81 million for capital spending.

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    The future always looks good for government-supported enterprises until the really embarrassing final closing.

"Our business partners have an appreciation for our future business opportunities," CEO Alex Sorokin said in a statement. "We expect the new funding to provide ample liquidity for our subsidiaries to meet their ongoing obligations to employees, customers and suppliers."

The Department of Energy, which awarded the grant, agreed.

"While it’s unfortunate that Ener1, the parent company, has entered a restructuring process, the new infusion of $80 million in private capital demonstrates that the technology has merit," DOE said in a statement.

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    Government employees talking about enterprise is like cows mooing about making apple pies.

Ener1 received the grant in 2009 as part of a $2.4 billion stimulus effort to jump start the electric car industry.

The program was different from the Energy Department program that funded now-bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra and Beacon Power, a maker of energy storage devices. Nonetheless, critics jumped at the chance to highlight another government grant gone bad.

"Sadly, the Department of Energy’s jobs record seems to grow worse by the day," Florida Representative Cliff Stearns, a Republican, said in a statement. "It is American taxpayers who are paying the price."

But during his State of the Union speech, President Obama struck a defiant tone, refusing to apologize for the decisions his administration has made, which includes the funding of hundreds of clean energy companies or companies engaged in clean technology research.

"Some technologies don’t pan out; some companies fail," said Obama. "But I will not walk away from the promise of clean energy."

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      The promise, always the promise. This circus will just continue. The only way to stop them wasting money is to give them less of it.

Cheerio and ttfn,
Grant Coulson
Cui Bono–Cherchez les Contingencies

 
    Do not think about, write about or deal with  human behavior without determining the effects of incentives.

Winning Goalie Refuses To Go To White House Reception

Thomas gives Obama the brush-off
Turns down White House invitation
By QMI Agency
   

Tim Thomas isn’t just a good goalie, he’s a rather feisty right winger, too.

The Boston Bruins were honoured Monday at the White House for capturing the Stanley Cup last spring, and virtually everyone showed up — even the usually invisible Tomas Kaberle.

But the star of the 2010-11 Bruins stayed away. Thomas — the lone American on the team to get his name on the trophy — opted to snub U.S. President Barack Obama.

Apparently there is no "Tim" in "team."

Even the Bruins brass couldn’t convince the goalie to attend … heck, he could have put on his mask and gone incognito.

"Everybody has their own opinions and political beliefs and he chose not to join us," Bruins president Cam Neely told Comcast Sportsnet New England. "We certainly would have liked to have him come and join us, but that’s his choice."

General manager Peter Chiarelli said he had discussed the issue with Thomas for several months. Chiarelli said he could suspend the 38-year-old goalie for skipping a team event but that he wouldn’t.

Thomas is known for having strong conservative leanings and has been called a "Tea Party patriot."

He released a statement on his Facebook page Monday evening.

"I believe the Federal government has grown out of control, threatening the Rights, Liberties, and Property of the People," Thomas wrote.

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     Aside from distorting the economy, degrading the standard of living, passing the Patriot Act, confiscating wealth and dealing out massive gobs of Federal money to moribund industries, everything is OK.

"This is being done at the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial level. This is in direct opposition to the Constitution and the Founding Fathers vision for the Federal government.

"Because I believe this, today I exercised my right as a Free Citizen, and did not visit the White House. This was not about politics or party, as in my opinion both parties are responsible for the situation we are in as a country. This was about a choice I had to make as an INDIVIDUAL."

Thomas won the Vezina Trophy last season as the NHL’s top goalie and the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the playoffs.

Reaction was mixed, with some media members criticizing Thomas of political opportunism, with others respecting his willingness to take a stand.

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    Good for him. These people have to understand that they can have respect or a government job.

Cheerio and ttfn,
Grant Coulson
Cui Bono–Cherchez les Contingencies

Do not think about, write about or deal with  human behavior without determining the effects of incentives.

     This could be subtitled: Regardless of reality, we’re entitled or The rhetoric should match the decade.

Caterpillar Rally

By Hank Daniszewski, Scott Taylor and Greg Colgan, QMI Agency

LONDON, Ont. – Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. heavy equipment giant Caterpillar Inc. came under fire at a massive rally Saturday for locked-out locomotive workers.

Thousands of labour supporters from as far as the U.S. and northern Ontario filled downtown Victoria Park for a massive show of support for the nearly 500 unionized workers at locomotive-builder Electro-Motive Diesel, now three weeks into a lockout.

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    As the United Auto Workers are finding out, strikes don’t  really work in the face of economic reality. Only government unions have power and the handwriting is on the wall for them.

With London hobbled by the nation’s second-highest metro jobless rate, and fears the EMD jobs could be transferred to a low-cost plant in Indiana, emotions ran high at the rally organized by the Ontario Federation of Labour.

“Get your ass down here, Prime Minister Harper,” Mayor Joe Fontana, a former federal Liberal labour minister, told the whipped-up crowd.

He said the EMD workers, their lockout triggered by a wage-slashing contract offer, “have given their blood, sweat and tears for this plant and built the best locomotives in the world . . . You can’t buy their skills for $15 an hour.”

Labour organizers estimated the crowd at 15,000, but police said the number was more like 5,000.

The rally became a national focal point for many in organized labour, fearful a move by a big multi-national like Caterpillar to reduce wages could set a precedent.

Ken Lewenza, national president of the Canadian Auto Workers union, which represents the EMD employees, blames the Harper government for the loss of 450,000 manufacturing jobs.

He said the federal government should have blocked the sale two years ago of Electro-Motive to Caterpillar, which bought it from a U.S. equity firm that had picked it up from General Motors a few years earlier.

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    Getting the government to intervene would not have changed the international marketplace.

A $58-billion company, with plants and workers worldwide, Caterpillar owns EMD through its Progress Rail Services subsidiary. Caterpillar is a known hardnose in union bargaining, having wrestled wage and other concessions from unions in the U.S.

“Here is a corporation that wants to take $20 an hour from the workers and put it into the pockets of executives and shareholders,” Lewenza said.

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     This is known as argument by envy, one of the highest forms of logic.

The contract offer that triggered the lockout would dramatically cut wages and benefits for EMD workers, many of whom are paid double what Progress Rail pays workers at its locomotive plant in Muncie, Ind.

Lewenza said Harper — he visited the London plant in 2008 — assured EMD workers their jobs are more secure because of corporate tax cuts.

“PM Harper, you can make something that is morally wrong legally wrong,” said Lewenza, pointing out the absence of any Conservative MPs at the rally in a city represented by three Tory backbenchers.

Federal New Democrat leader Nycole Turmel denounced Harper for “hiding” on the lockout issue and urged the EMD workers not to give up.

The rally attracted a who’s who of big labour, including Sid Ryan of the Ontario Federation of Labour that organized the event and Ken Georgetti of the Canadian Labour Congress, who also slammed Caterpillar.

“They want to take away what we have struggled to build for decades,” Georgetti said, saying the EMD lockout has become the focus of labour across Canada.

Caterpillar and its operating divisions, Progress Rail and EMD, have remained silent during the three-week lockout, consistently declining interview requests.

On its website, Electro-Motive Canada has said the London factory “is not sufficiently flexible and cost competitive in the global marketplace. These factors put EMC’s London plant at a competitive disadvantage.”

Wages at the plant, which exports locomotives around the world, range as high as $35 an hour. The union says the offer would cut wages in all job classifications, with the deepest cut about $18.50 an hour for half of the workforce.

Bob Scott, the CAW plant chair at the London factory, said Caterpillar is tangling with the wrong workforce.

“Caterpillar, you want a fight? You got one. You pissed off the wrong membership here.”

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    The 50′s called, they want their rhetoric back.

While the rally attracted many from private and public-sector labour unions, it also drew non-labour supporters. One, a nun, said the lockout is a justice issue.

“Too many people are being excluded from the benefits of the economy and it is tearing at the fabric of society,” said Sister Sue Walker of the Sisters of St. Joseph in London. “Now is the time for the 99% to stand together.”

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    Social justice–that’s the ticket.

Cheerio and ttfn,
Grant Coulson
Cui Bono–Cherchez les Contingencies

   Do not think about, write about or deal with  human behavior without determining the effects of incentives.

    When you’re up to your ass in alligators, your choice of breakfast cereal is less important than you might imagine.

Brown Asks California to Cheer Rail Project
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
Published: January 18, 2012

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday threw his unequivocal support behind a $100 billion high-speed rail line that has come under fire here in California and across the country, embracing it in a strikingly optimistic State of the State speech in which he asserted that government should pursue ambitious ventures even during times of economic strife.

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      This is not a “time” of economic strife, it’s a fundamental change.

With his speech, Mr. Brown firmly linked his political fortunes to the proposed 520-mile bullet train connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles as he urged lawmakers to release the $9 billion in state bonds needed to begin the project this year. His focus on the train line, along with a new emphasis on dealing with the state’s water problems, suggested that Mr. Brown was trying to turn the page after a year in which the legacy of his second turn as governor seemed in danger of being defined by a series of budget battles and spending cuts.

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    Nine billion out of 100. Everyone should already be feeling better.

He made clear that the state’s fiscal problems were hardly behind it: Mr. Brown, a Democrat, formally called for putting before voters in November an initiative that would temporarily increase income taxes on the wealthy and sales taxes. And signaling a potential point of conflict with Democratic lawmakers, the governor said he would insist on further cuts to balance the budget if the tax initiative failed.

Still, Mr. Brown’s speech, coming after five economically tumultuous years here, was notable for its optimism.

“Every decade since the ’60s, dystopian journalists write stories on the impending decline of our economy, our culture and our politics,” he said, adding: “California has problems, but rumors of its demise are greatly exaggerated.”

Mr. Brown championed the rail project at a time when it has seemed increasingly endangered. The cost has doubled to $98.5 billion. The notion of starting the work in a sparsely populated section of the state has been ridiculed. And support for rail projects in Congress has all but died.

This month, an independent review panel created under state law raised questions about the financial feasibility of the plan and urged lawmakers to delay it. Within days, Mr. Brown pushed through a shake-up at the California High-Speed Rail Authority, the agency overseeing the project.

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    If this project is like other government rail lines, it will be cheaper to provide taxis.

“Critics of the high-speed rail project abound, as they often do when something of this magnitude is proposed,” he said in his speech, adding: “The Panama Canal was for years thought to be impractical, and Benjamin Disraeli himself said of the Suez Canal, ‘Totally impossible to be carried out.’ The critics were wrong then, and they’re wrong now.”

State Senator Ted W. Lieu, a Democrat, called the train “a symbol of what California can do,” but suggested that the project was as much about Mr. Brown as anything else.

“He is a much more practical governor now than maybe 30 years ago,” Mr. Lieu said. “But he is still a dreamer. High-speed rail is very evocative and is one of those things that I think he would like to be part of his legacy.”

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    More symbols of “what California can do” will be forthcoming–destroy a once thriving economy–look ridiculous–borrow far beyond the means to repay would be some of them.

Cheerio and ttfn,
Grant Coulson
Cui Bono–Cherchez les Contingencies