Nobrainer’s Think Tank

I just received my monthly power bill. Of which, I am quite proud. I used less power per day than during any other billing cycle since I moved to Charlottesville. While studying my online bill, I noticed a link to this press release.

Virginia Gov. Mark Warner announced Thursday that he has signed Senate Bill 651 into law. The centerpiece of the legislation was a proposal from the governor and attorney general that keeps retail electricity rates capped in Virginia until Dec. 31, 2010.

Although a novice in economics, I have never seen an example where price ceilings produce a net benefit. As such, I have my doubts about this legislation. According to the company President and COO, “It allows restructuring to continue in Virginia in a careful, methodical and deliberative way, all while saving customers money.” A company in favor of legislation that increases customer savings? What’s the catch?

The extension will provide more time for development of the Restructuring Act’s goal of robust, competitive retail markets for the supply of electricity. As part of Virginia’s efforts to restructure the electric industry, the company’s base rates are capped—essentially frozen—at 1993 levels.

So capping rates increases competition how? Of course, I don’t know what “1993 levels” are. Is the industry efficient enough now to easily produce at sub ‘93 levels? If true, the point of capping rates is unnecessary.

Of course the whole power situation in this state irks me. Whatever “capping” or “saving customers money” means, I still pay 50% more per power unit than I did in South Carolina. Perhaps SC’s program was really regulated beyond belief. I don’t know.

Oh well, just another enigma to keep my mind occupied.

The whole Facebook thing is starting to get weird.

The beginning was innocuous enough. One friend brought it to my attention. I brought it to a few friends’ attention. I added friends as I found them or they found me.

Now, within the last week, I’ve been listed as a friend by 3 people. These are definitely people with whom I have not had ANY contact since I finished high school nearly six years ago. Honestly, I didn’t even have that much contact with a couple of them even when I was in high school.

To my knowledge, I’m still neither rich (but tonight’s mega millions will change all that), famous (see previous parenthetical about the lottery), nor popular (I expect to be really hated once rich and famous) with the old high school crowd.

I’m being punk’d. I know it. I feel it. I don’t know how to prove it. This will ultimately come back to kick me in my ass. The question is how.

Oh well. I’ll go along with it. It’s not as if I always shy away from things that are bound end poorly for me.

Update: In fact I did not win the Mega Millions lottery last night. I’m still just a poor graduate student.

For the Tucker Max fans, you will enjoy today (4/18/05)’s post.

Wow.

The average starting salary for mechanical engineers is now $51,046. That figure, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, is a 4.1% increase over last year. Gee, how horrible would it be for me if I dropped out of grad school. Shit! Only 51g’s per year?

I’m glad to see we’ve still got those civil engineering kids beat by almost 7 large.

It’s also nice how they throw in the liberal arts majors down there at the bottom. Just over $30,000. If I’m not mistaken, that amount is just a shade over what a decent waiter working full time can claim.

The pride of South Carolina, the USC football program, is making more headlines. No no, I’m not talking about the national sports media tripping over themselves to fawn (Fawn Liebowitz died in a kiln explosion) over Steve Spurrier’s return to college football. Nobrainer’s exhibits A, B, C, D, and E. I could go on. (”Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will. I got spare time.”)

Nope, the bad news continues for the coots, as South Carolina arrest total hits 11. I couldn’t make this up if I tried. I realize no program is without fault, but the situation in Columbia is exceeding high comedy.

Since the end of last season, roughly 12% (probably more) of their team has been arrested for one thing or another. No report I have seen shows that the team has any discernible talent. The 40 year-old walk-on receiver may see regular playing time this year. You probably saw him on a bunch of TV shows last fall. USC seems more intent at this point, and perhaps for good reason, on getting media coverage than on winning games. The lack of talent may not be a problem for a CUSA or MAC team, but we’re talking about the SEC. Carolina is looking straight down the barrel of an AK-47 with a round in the chamber and a full magazine.

But for some reason, Spurrier, after coaching disastrously for the Redskins, is given a free pass by the media. Good for him for coming back and trying to reclaim some glory for himself. If he’s successful, it will be a miracle, and he will go down as one of the greatest coaches of all time. Time will tell. For this season, however, it looks like he and his team can only look forward to going down.

The reality, is that suffering through a kiln explosion will probably be more pleasant than sitting through the first half of any game in Williams-Brice this season. Honestly, USC has just put it’s football program into a box with a shiny new Spurrier guarantee. In this case the guarantee fairy isn’t a crazy glue sniffer; it’s drug of choice is something else. I advise you to stay away from the Columbia area kool-aid.

Well, it comes from the NYT, so take it with a grain of salt. Apparently, after actually studying the situation, most of Western Europe really does appear to have a lower standard of living than we, stupid, ignorant, redneck, good-for-nothing Americans. Furthermore,

All this was illuminated last year in a study by a Swedish research organization, Timbro, which compared the gross domestic products of the 15 European Union members (before the 2004 expansion) with those of the 50 American states and the District of Columbia. (Norway, not being a member of the union, was not included.)

After adjusting the figures for the different purchasing powers of the dollar and euro, the only European country whose economic output per person was greater than the United States average was the tiny tax haven of Luxembourg, which ranked third, just behind Delaware and slightly ahead of Connecticut.

… [snip]

Alternatively, the study found, if the E.U. was treated as a single American state, it would rank fifth from the bottom, topping only Arkansas, Montana, West Virginia and Mississippi.

Because that the kind of company you want to keep.

Contrasting “the American dream” with “the European daydream,” Mr. Norberg described the difference: “Economic growth in the last 25 years has been 3 percent per annum in the U.S., compared to 2.2 percent in the E.U. That means that the American economy has almost doubled, whereas the E.U. economy has grown by slightly more than half. The purchasing power in the U.S. is $36,100 per capita, and in the E.U. $26,000 - and the gap is constantly widening.”

To be more specific, over 25 years at 3% American growth would amount to a 109% improvement compared to Europe’s 72%.

Another study… indicated that when disposable income was adjusted for cost of living, Scandinavians were the poorest people in Western Europe. Danes had the lowest adjusted income, Norwegians the second lowest, Swedes the third. Spain and Portugal, with two of Europe’s least regulated economies, led the list.

I’m sure the folks in DC are patting themselves on the back without merit or regard to the next memo that they probably won’t receive. Where the hell is Lumberg when you need him? From Bruce Yandle at Clemson:

While on the precious topic of freedom, consider what has happened to the United States in terms of the Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal’s 2005 ranking of Economic Freedom of the World. The U.S. now ranks below Chile, and well below Estonia. Indeed, the home of the free and the brave has fallen to number 12, tied with Switzerland. Last year the U.S. ranked 10th. The year before, 6th.

Why? Why is the U.S. losing ground in the race for freedom? Does this match the Washington rhetoric?

Two things. First, the federal deficit is large and growing, which means the federal government is getting relatively larger. Regulation is growing as well. In short, the private sector is getting relatively smaller. Second, and this is good news, other countries are gaining freedom.

And where is economic freedom highest of all? Hong Kong still stands at the top of the chart. Singapore is next in line, and then Luxembourg. The United Kingdom is now seventh, well above the Good Ole U.S.A.

I don’t think there’s much else to add other than to thank Vodkapundit and Orange Yeti for leading me to the data sources.