Archive for Roy Cordato

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Roy Cordato is vice president for research and resident scholar at the John Locke Foundation in Raleigh, NC.

Climate Confusion: How Global Warming Hysteria Leads to Bad Science, Pandering Politicians, and Misguided Policies that Hurt the Poor

“The only way to create wealth is for people to do useful things for each other.” “[In a free market] the rich become rich only because consumers voluntarily give them money in exchange for the valuable goods and services they offer to society.” “Wealth is only possible through free markets, allowing the people to decide [...]

21May2009 | Roy Cordato | 6 comments | Continued

Deficit Spending and Future Generations: Not What You Might Think

Ultimately, the real choice is not between deficit-financed and tax-financed spending. The moral question is whether we should have more spending and bigger government with less liberty or less spending with a smaller government and more liberty. The hand-wringing on the left and right about passing the cost of “stimulating” our economy onto future generations is misplaced. No matter how it’s financed, Obama’s new spending has the potential to stimulate only one thing: the size, scope, and power of government.

21May2009 | Roy Cordato | 3 comments | Continued

A Higher Gasoline Tax Will "Solve Everything"? It Just Ain’t So!

1Apr2006 | Roy Cordato | 0 comments | Continued

The State of the Air: Propaganda, Not Science

Each May the American Lung Association (ALA) issues “The State of the Air” in which it reports on ground-level ozone pollution county by county over a three-year period. The study gives each county a grade (A-F) based on what are called “ozone exceedence days” and calculates the number of people “put at risk” for respiratory [...]

1Oct2003 | Roy Cordato | 0 comments | Continued

In Bureaucracy We Trust? It Just Ain’t So!

What makes the American capitalist system, as opposed to the “capitalism” practiced in other countries, work so well? If your answer includes flexible prices or relatively low taxes, secure property rights or efficient capital markets, you would be woefully misguided. According to Thomas Friedman in the July 28 New York Times (”In Oversight We Trust”), [...]

1Nov2002 | Roy Cordato | 2 comments | Continued

Terrorism Is Good for the Economy? It Just Aint So!

Following the disastrous attack on New York, Washington, and our country, the purveyors of economic quackery began spilling gallons of ink in describing how they think the tragedy will affect the U.S. economy. One of the most prominent views to emerge, and also the most wrongheaded, is the idea that the destruction of the [...]

1Dec2001 | Roy Cordato | 0 comments | Continued

Energy Taxes and the Pretense of Knowledge

Roy Cordato is vice president for research and resident scholar at the John Locke Foundation in Raleigh, N.C.
“The current net tax per gallon [of diesel fuel] is 13 percent of the price, while the environmental cost per gallon is 50 percent of price. The tax on this fuel could be raised substantially to promote its [...]

1Oct2001 | Roy Cordato | 0 comments | Continued