Articles by Jason D Scorse

A response to a plan to dramatically increase the scope of whaling

Earlier this summer Japan, Norway, and Iceland announced that they planned to dramatically increase the scope of whaling, extending it to species that currently aren't hunted. (They were eventually rebuffed by a small margin.) Upon learning this, I remember experiencing a strong sense of anger and frustration. Part of this was due no doubt to my recent trip to Hawaii and the opportunity I had to get up close to humpback whales, which were slated for slaughter by the Japanese. These magnificent creatures pose no threat to humans, are highly sentient (their famous songs are as complex as symphonies), and every year take part in the longest migration on the entire planet.

Fair Price Energy has some ideas.

A new website entitled Fair Price Energy includes some interesting proposals for moving forward with sensible energy policy in America. While the author admittedly offers no entirely new ideas to the discussion, the combination of policies and the clear presentation merit a look.

Although economists for decades have proposed a host of policies that would greatly improve the energy situation (economists were among the first to call for gas taxes decades ago), the key issue is political viability; this is where the ideas at Fair Price Energy are somewhat lacking. Both the suggested tax on energy imports and a lack of compensation mechanism for industries hurt by the proposal seem to make it more than a long-shot in the current political landscape. But it is still worth a look, especially since it has a nice system for redistributing the tax revenue from higher energy prices in a very progressive manner, which would ease the concerns among many environmentalists about the potential regressive effects of higher energy costs.

Jason D. Scorse tries to clear up the confusion

There is a lot of confusion over the meaning of free markets and property rights, for a variety of reasons. The following are some additional clarifications for all interested environmentalists (please see earlier posts for some background):

A great article on managing fisheries

For a nice discussion on how property-rights systems are an essential ingredient for improving the world's fisheries check out this article.

It covers all of the basics with lots of nice examples.