1) Big Coal's Big Comeback

Have you noticed that just about everything you've been told about energy and climate change policy is one big fat LIE after another? We've exposed many of these falsehoods on these pages over the past five years.

No, there isn't a green energy transition. No, wind and solar are not cost competitive or scalable (just ask Germany). No, China isn't trending toward green energy.  

And here’s the latest: no, coal is NOT dead.  It's back on the rebound.

Let's start with the reality of China.  In 2024, China added more than 500 TWh of coal fired power generation, equivalent to half of Japan's entire grid.

More than half of China's power generation comes from coal. China has more coal fired power generation than any nation on earth.  China constitutes more than half of global coal consumption. Does this sound like a country that is going green or that cares about climate change?

Then there is this headline admission from the Guardian last week about worldwide coal consumption reaching a new all-time high in 2024:

Does that sound like a phase-out? And how can there be a renewable surge when utilities are turning against it in favor of coal?

Coal use keeps rising because it's a cheap, reliable source of power. The enviros' policies have inadvertently raised emissions of carbon dioxide, by declaring war on clean-burning natural gas and nuclear plants, thus steering nations into more coal usage.  

The stupidity of these “scientists” is mind-boggling.

2) Why Is the FDA Keeping Potentially Life-Saving Drugs Off the Market?

Here's a disturbing headline:

At the very time we should be putting new promising drugs on the market, the FDA is slowing down approvals.

Regular readers of the HOTLINE know that we've argued (as Milton Friedman often did) that the FDA kills far more people than it saves. That’s because of the needlessly lengthy drug approval process that denies Americans with terrible and painful diseases the right to take medications that may or may not help them.

So we have a radical idea: What if patients had the right to try any drug they want? There could be two types of drugs: those that have FDA approval and those that don't.  For the latter, we would simply require a warning on the bottle: NOT FDA APPROVED.

This would allow patients to try a whole range of experimental drugs and treatments. The only requirement would be basic safety testing.

Why not a drug policy based on the principle of: "my body, my choice"?  Why is it that people have to fly to South America to get very promising stem cell treatments still not allowed here?

None of this makes ANY sense to advancing health and well being.

What do you think?

3) Debit Card Price Controls Failed, So Why Would They Work With Credit Cards?

It's been 14 years since passage of "the Durbin Amendment," that capped interchange fees that banks charge retailers for use of debit cards. This was supposed to save consumers money.  

It didn’t. In the years after the price controls passed, there was virtually no discernible effect on prices consumers paid. An estimated 98% of retailers raised or kept prices the same, meaning shoppers never saw any savings. Merchants saw small gains, but fraud increased by 60%, negating most of the gains.

Consumers were the big losers because many lost or faced restrictions on popular rewards programs. Cash back debit ended. Many banks added various account fees to offset the lost revenue. Small businesses were supposed to benefit, but they merely faced higher costs and weaker payment systems.

Now, Senator Durbin and even some Republicans in the Senate are pushing the same failed policy on credit cards. Price controls would likely cripple most rewards programs, which is where almost all of the swipe fees go as card issuers compete for consumers.

Still, Durbin wants the proverbial second kick of the mule.

Our congressional spies tell us that Durbin is trying to sneak the credit card caps into must-pass bills-- perhaps as amendments to unrelated legislation like the CLARITY Act, and possibly the NDAA.

We debunked this proposal in a 2023 paper:

The biggest losers are likely to be lower income consumers who will more likely be denied access to credit cards and will have to carry around big wads of cash to buy things. Our view is: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Credit cards are wildly popular. The average American carries three to four and with accounts now connected to cell phones, tapping is replacing swiping, making payments even easier.

4) Is "Comedy Central" Star Jon Stewart a Closet Reader of the HOTLINE?

We wondered about that when this week Stewart challenged the Democratic talking points on the government shutdown: that health costs will rise if COVID-emergency supersized subsidies to health insurance companies aren’t extended.

In an interview with Senator Bernie Sanders, the comedian asked a serious question:

"When the government promises endless funds to insurance companies or private universities without any cost controls -- and Trump seems to understand this -- prices rise far beyond the rate of inflation. And we have seen it in tuition, we have seen it in pharmaceuticals, and we have seen it in health care. So my question is, will Democrats recognize the poison pill that they have often placed into well-intentioned policy?"

Sanders quickly agreed that current government subsidy programs "are designed to make huge profits for the insurance companies" and can't be defended. Then he called for replacing them with single-payer, government-run health care.  At least he’s honest that the Obamacare system is broken.

Hey Bernie: maybe we need less government involvement in health care, not more.

5) California's Still a Great Place to Live - If You're Super Rich

When Gavin Newsom announces his run for the presidency, he's going to  have to explain how the Golden State has become "a tale of two economies," where great wealth coexists with the highest unemployment rate in the nation, job growth is stagnant and the cost of living has driven much of the middle class to flee the state.

Michael Berwick, a former director of California's Employment Development Department, says the state now has a two-tier economy, which has magnified inequality due to the progressive policies the state's left-wing leadership has championed.

"The state Legislature has imposed an empire of rules and costs that has undercut the ability of California employers to create stable, decently-paid jobs," he writes in Forbes. "In the place of a jobs strategy, an expansive benefits system has been assembled.... It is one thing to serve others and another to serve others in a position of low pay, status, and authority."

Bernick says it's important that liberals ponder how their purported concern for "social justice" has instead created many Californians a vicious cycle of less equality, failing public schools and low wage jobs with little mobility.  

What's ironic about all of this is that progressives love to bloviate about the gap between rich and poor. Nowhere is that more evident than in the once-Golden State.

6) Just a Little Remodeling

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