OpenMarket: January 2020

The kind of American chain stores and retail formats that dominated the second half of the 20th century have fallen on hard times in the 21st, and commentary on this dislocating trend has become a cottage industry. Our friends at Learn Liberty recently weighed in on the debate with a video titled “Dead Malls, Explained.”

The Trump administration is doing a good job reducing red tape and streamlining the permitting process for energy production and energy infrastructure projects, but on minerals mining, the record is mixed, with some measures helping undo decades of anti-mining policy but others maintaining existing roadblocks.

A recent story in the Guardian alleges that almond growers are somehow uniquely responsible for substantial losses of honeybee hives, and that may eventually lead to their extinction. The article gets a large number of facts wrong, but the story really isn’t about almond farms or even honeybees. It’s about the author’s wrongheaded belief that high-yield farming is bad for the environment. Ironically, the author’s implied “solution” would actually wreak havoc on the environment.

There are a number of problematic Department of Energy (DOE) efficiency standards for home appliances. Perhaps worst of all is the one resulting in dishwashers taking hours to do the job. Fortunately, DOE’s recent process rule, applicable to all future appliance rulemakings, contains a number of useful measures.

Last Friday on the Daily Kos, an anonymous blogger called “Climate Denier Roundup” (CDR) posted a hit piece on a new study by Kevin D. Dayaratna, Ross McKitrick, and Patrick J. Michaels. According to CDR, Dayaratna, McKitrick, and Michaels (DMM) claim “we should actually subsidize fossil fuel use because higher carbon dioxide levels are good for crops.” Their study says no such thing. DMM have no wish to play central planner or encourage others to do so. Neither are they “deniers,” as CDR insinuates.

After almost a decade of ambiguity, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has finally offered some clarity to its definition of what constitutes an “abusive” practice by lending institutions like banks and credit unions.

Coverage of the outbreak of illness linked to “vaping” has been handled poorly in general, but the New York Post's recent reporting is especially egregious. Not once does a recent article mention that illicit marijuana vapes—not nicotine e-cigarettes—are the products linked to the outbreak. That information might have been useful to residents who use these products and might want to know how they can best protect themselves against the “vaping linked” lung injuries.

Many contemporary environmentalists share two important beliefs: a) that anthropogenic climate change is the biggest threat to the future of humanity and b) that a profit-based economic system is the biggest barrier to addressing that problem. A new short documentary from Reason TV makes the opposite case, arguing that accelerating economic growth and advances in technology are the best strategy for mediating the impact of both the planet’s growing human population and the future dislocations climate change will present us with.

The Federal Register had a four-day week due to Martin Luther King Day, but agencies still found time to issue new final regulations ranging from researching beef to propane tank arrangements.

President gave a powerful speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in which he challenged the politically correct platitudes and energy-rationing agenda that dominate discussion in Davos.