Alan Meltzer’s Three Laws of Regulation: 1. Lawyers and bureaucrats regulate, but markets circumvent regulation.  2. Regulations are static. Markets are dynamic.  3. Regulation is most effective when it changes the incentives of the regulated. From a Reason review of … read more >

After dropping to 45% a few days ago, Romney’s current Intrade odds to win the Michigan primary are at about 68%, compared to 35% odds for Santorum. 

I recently posted about how the Netherlands, the nation known for its iconic windmills, decided to throw in the towel on offshore wind power, as Dutch officials determined the country can no longer afford large scale subsidies for expensive wind … read more >

MashableTech — “When a twentysomething’s budget is tight, her smartphone is far from the first expense to go, suggests a new study from Nielsen. The survey of 20,000 U.S. mobile customers found that smartphone ownership skews toward the young and … read more >

Based on data through the middle of February from the EIA, the inflation-adjusted spot price of natural gas (Henry Hub Gulf Coast) this month at $2.50 per million BTUs is close to the lowest price in the history of the … read more >

The Billion Prices Project @ MIT just updated its daily online price index through the end of January 2012, and the annual inflation rates from that index are displayed in the graph above.  After peaking at close to 4% in … read more >

Now this is pretty interesting….  The chart above shows the approval-disapproval ratings for President Carter and President Obama in February of their fourth year in office (1980 vs. 2012), based on the Gallup/USA Today Presidential Approval Tracker website.  Carter’s approval … read more >

Current Intrade odds are shown above for: a) Romney to be the Republican nominee for president (72.5%) and b) Obama to be re-elected (59.5%).