Year: 2008

Subject to Approval

The choice of early Canadians to remain closely tied to the British Empire had a major impact on the development of property rights in this country. Although we as a society tend to see ourselves as having more in common with the United States than with the United Kingdom, our system of land ownership, more accurately called real property ownership, does not permit the same level of rights and freedoms over the land we hold as the U.S. system affords. In the United States, landowners usually hold title to the mineral resources located beneath their land; in Canada, this is never the case.

Featured News

Following Europe’s Lead on Climate Change

Environmentalists, journalists and politicians say tough climate legislation is a moral imperative. Global warming science is settled, the United States is out of step with other nations, America must follow Europe’s lead to prevent climate chaos. It’s great rhetoric. But which European lead should we follow? And how is it morally responsible to enact climate legislation that kills jobs and punishes families and businesses, to reduce global temperatures by perhaps 0.2 degrees?

Financial Turmoil: Market Failure or Government Failure?

Third, we have learned yet again that government regulation often does more harm than good. As the Wall Street Journal observed, the great irony is that the banks that made some of the worst mortgage investments were the most highly regulated. Bank regulators cannot possibly spot all weaknesses. More emphasis must go on caveat emptor – investors and depositors beware.

Global Warming: Why Cut One 3,000th of A Degree?

Global warming is seen everywhere as one of the most important issues. From the EU to the G8, leaders trip over one another to affirm their commitment to cutting CO2 to heal the world. What they do not often acknowledge – in part because it would lose them support – is that the solutions proffered are incredibly costly and will end up doing amazingly little good, even in a century’s time. This is the truly inconvenient truth of the politics of global warming.

Good Intentions, Green Policies, and the Poor

Escalating fuel costs harm the poor disproportionately, acting as a de facto regressive tax. Thus, American families at the median income level pay 5% of each household dollar for energy costs, and families with lower incomes spend 20% of household funds on energy, while households under the poverty line see fully half of their budget spent on gas, heating, and other fuel costs.

Niger Innis, Congress of Racial Equality

Niger Innis, Congress of Racial Equality

Niger Innis is Co-Chair of the Alliance to Stop the War on the Poor and the National Spokesman for the Congress of Racial Equality, one of the oldest African-American anti-poverty groups. It was founded in 1942 as one of the pioneers of the civil rights movement in the United States. Its national Headquarters is located in New York City.