Wednesday Morning Ramblings

1. There is a great editorial in the WSJ today about electric vehicles.  (Remember: most folks on the commission working issues regarding electric vehicles work in Washington, DC, either do not own their own car; have government-issued cars; or drive mostly for pleasure.) The editorial raises issues that have been raised before on this blog. The following are my thoughts based on arguments made in the editorial.

First: the most expensive feature of an electric vehicle is the battery which has a finite life. Electric vehicles have little resale value after three years.

Second: the grid can't handle very many electric vehicles. As it stands, Los Angeles County could not handle 5% of all vehicles charging at one time; based on the numbers provided in the editorial, I doubt if the grid could handle 2%.

Not mentioned in this article but pointed out in an article elsewhere in WSJ today was an article that EV developers have not agreed upon a standard recharging station/receptacle, meaning that recharging may not occur "on the road" but only at home. Bummer. 

2. This is truly incredible: the IMF chief pays no income tax on a salary greatly exceeding one-half million dollars because of her diplomatic status. She has been a constant critic of Greeks cheating on their taxes. (There is a difference between cheating on taxes and not paying taxes not owed: this is known as the Warren Buffet Law.) To their credit the president and vice-president pay their fair share of taxes. In fact, the vice president doesn't take advantage of maximizing charity giving to lower his taxes.

3. There is a great story of New Yorkers and Pennsylvanians moving to Florida, where there is no income tax, no estate tax, no inheritance tax. But, at the article stated:

“Many of these New York and Pennsylvania residents no doubt moved to Florida for the warm weather,”.... sure.

4.  Speaking of tax avoidance, remember that story of John Kerry parking his boat in Rhode Island to avoid Massachusetts taxes? Well, apparently this issue has come up again. When you get to the link, read the last paragraph: I must be missing something. The taxes amount to ... drum roll ... $100. Two thoughts: the multi-millionaire heir (through his wife) is quibbling over a $100 tax bill; and, b) multimillionaires are paying $100 taxes on a yacht? The annual fee to renew the registration for my wife's minivan, payable to a Texas county tax assessor's office, is $65. Blue book value is about $10,000. I suppose the value of the minivan is somewhat less than the Kerry yacht but I don't know for sure because I've never owned a yacht.

5. Wow, the Spurs franchise has put together a strong team. I'm impressed. Two things: they kept the core all these years: Duncan, Parker, Ginobili; Bonner still there; and then the new guys, Leonard and Splitter. Inside the paint, 3-point plays, fast ball handling, -- it really is impressive. Fun to watch. After last night's convincing win, Spurs lead the series 2-0.

6. Eight more states -- bringing total to 19 -- have been granted waivers from no-child-left-behind law: the newest eight: Connecticut, Delaware, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, and Rhode Island.  In addition, 17 additional states (and DC) have waiver requests in for review. Let's see: 19 + 17 --> 36 states will likely have waivers by the end of this school year. When is a law not a law. Sort of like ObamaCare in which any union of any size, and many states, have ObamaCare waivers. This is the official government list:

Twenty-six new states and the District of Columbia have formally submitted requests to the U.S. Department of Education for waivers from key provisions of No Child Left Behind. This adds to the 11 states that the Obama Administration announced earlier this month had developed and agreed to implement bold education reforms in exchange for relief from burdensome federal mandates.

The latest 26 states—Arkansas, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin—along with D.C., have all proposed plans to raise standards, improve accountability, and support reforms to improve principal and teacher effectiveness.

Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Tennessee have already received flexibility from NCLB based on their locally designed plans to spur education reform. 

Using this list I count 37 states and DC. It appears the only states left are the states with historically high success rates on the SAT and ACT, like North Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa. I remember taking the Iowa Basic Skill Tests while going to school in Williston, North Dakota. At the time I never understood why we were taking Iowa tests.

I wonder if the EPA will grant waivers for states requesting relief from duplicative fracking rules?

7. The President's Polish Problem. Three thoughts:

a) product of public education
b) president's comment about 57 states
c) no wonder waivers for education law are needed (and freely given, it appears)