When he’s not busy picking “winners” like Solyndra, Energy Secretary Steven Chu has time to engage in original, peer-reviewed research.
In a forthcoming paper, Chu and his co-authors argue that federal mandates for energy efficiency actually don’t increase prices for consumers, because the extra hoops force the producers to learn how to innovate. As usual, Chu’s views are at complete odds with basic economics.
If you pay a person $1 to dig a hole and another person $1 to fill it up, $2 goes into the economy, but no useful work has been done. The $2 was taken from someone that would have done useful work. The money supply is up $2 but nothing is produced so there will be inflation. Economists have estimated that $1 taken in taxes or through regulation cost the economy $3. Would someone send this on to Dr. Steven Chu and ask him to read it each morning.
Not to be political, but one can see the urgency to get this gang (Chu, Jackson, and Holdren) out of power.