more evidence that we're watching the empire collapse;

Glenn Beck – after reading ad copy urging his listeners to buy Rough Greens and Relief Factor, which constitutes the bulk of his show – said something so spectacularly wrong the other day that I could not let it pass without comment.

He compared Elon Musk with John Galt – the fictional character created by Ayn Rand in her novel Atlas Shrugged, which was about capitalism. Not crony capitalism. More finely,  rent-seeking masquerading as capitalism. The leveraging of government force to get rich. The redistribution of – as opposed to the creation of – wealth.

What are carbon credits?

They are a wealth redistribution scheme. Company A produces something of value for which there is a market, established by the fact that people are willing to exchange their money for it. Like a truck with a V8 engine (or a car with a V6 engine). But the government says these things produce more “carbon” than it says is allowable – according to an arbitrary standard it lays down based on assertions that “carbon” is causing the “climate” to “change.”

The government – more finely, the regulatory bureaucracy – says this excess “emitting” of “carbon” must be cancelled out via either the production of vehicles that “emit” no “carbon” at all – at the tailpipe – for which there is no (or very little market) or via the purchase of credits from another producer of such vehicles in lieu of producing them.

Obviously, none of this form of exchange is voluntary............more.......