Single-Party Stalemate

At his blog, Grumpy Economist, John Cochrane ponders the possible implications of the left tripping over its own feet in California, prompted by an Ezra Klein piece on how long it takes to build things over there:

If you believe this, fix your own regulations. (Image by Markus Spiske, via Unpslash, license.)

The article is ... interesting on the fight within the left. There is really a deep philosophical divide. On the one hand are basically technocrats who really do see climate as an issue, and want to do something about it. They believe their own ideology that time matters too. If it takes 10 years to permit every high power line, Al Gore's oceans will boil before anything gets done.

You can get the gory details from Cochrane, but this is no surprise: The party that spent decades creating a legal and regulatory regime that makes it nearly impossible to build anything -- and now wants us to "transition" to "green" energy in less than a decade -- will have to embrace regulatory reform if it wants to see any of this get done.

In that, Cochrane sees some hope for a "liberalism that builds" coming out of this quagmire, and offers evidence from the longer-simmering housing crisis:

In the larger picture, a movement among good progressive democrats in places like California has figured out that if we want more housing at more reasonable prices, just letting people build houses might be a good idea. Houses, apartments, any houses and apartments, not just dollops of incredible expensive government-allocated ("affordable") and homeless housing. This is the YIMBY movement in California. It is sadly instantly opposed by Republicans, but maybe that's for the better given how reviled that brand is in Sacramento. And it is also making slow headway. [bold added]

I recommend reading the whole thing both for some much needed (if guarded) optimism and for a reminder that blindly raging against "the librulz" is a poor way to revive our country. Note the possibility of Democrats (!) becoming -- though the above process and aided by such stupidity -- the home of free marketers.

This capitalist has certainly felt like something of a political hobo for quite some time.

-- CAV