Ethanol, an example of political meddling in markets

The crisis caused by incentivizing of Ethanol is plain to see. Not only is ethanol inherently less efficient than gasoline it also has almost just as many harmful environmental effects. But because of the efforts of the corn farmers and environmentalists politicians have gottn behind ethanol whole heartedly. This has resulted in tax breaks and subsidies for corn based ethanol production in the US while perversely also raising tariffs on Brazillian sugar cane based production. This has resulted in a food crisis on a global level. As farmers switch crops to enjoy the benefit of the subsidies and tax breaks, not only does corn become more scarce but also other staple crops because it is more profitable to produce corn. If we must switch to Ethanol based fuel shouldn't we do it based on solid economics? Brazillian sugar cane ethanol produces a higher yield than corn and has less effect on the food markets yet it is kept out (I feel I also should note that even Brazillian sugar cane has a pretty harmful effect on the environment due to the fact that rainforests are cleared to produce it). This new Green movement seems more about show than results.

"Hope for change and puppies"

Ok enough TV blogging and onto some red meat. I was reading James Joyner's blog OTB and came across a post about Obama's little digs at Hillary. Besides the fact that I love Alex Knapp's line of You can’t credibly go around attacking people while simultaneously promoting “hope for change and puppies". the post got me thinking of the presidential race. A friend of mine actually said to me when discussing the post, "who are we going to vote for". Yes, who indeed. To say that this elections frontrunners were lackluster would be an over generous compliment. Being of a libertarian slant I find myself often voting republican because it is the better choice of the two but c'mon, the candidates this year are terrible. The glimmer of hope for the Replublican party is a Law and Order actor!! On the other side we have Hillary and Obama. Both Democrat celebrities in their own right but neither really lighting my fire. If we look at the issues facing our next president, the first obvious thing that comes to mind is the war in Iraq. The thing is, regardless of who becomes president I seriously doubt we will be out of Iraq before the end of their term. If a Democrat does win you can count on all the bluster and rhetoric dying down because its one thing to makes calls for change when your not holding the bag and quite another to actually enforce those changes without negative consequences. The things I am most concerned about are domestic issues. The democrats are looking to pile on to an already overburdened Medicare system and we have yet to even seriously discuss our Social Security situation. Unfortunately the Republicans are barely even addressing these issues, instead pandering to what they think the base wants: tough talk on Iraq and Iran. So where does that leave us hoping for, change and puppies?