Doylent Green: The Final Solution

About a year ago, I reviewed the report of the Governor's Task Force on Global Warming. It's a long post--and I hardly scratched the surface of the report--but what should be recalled is that the most prominent industrialist on the Task Force voted "NO" on its final report.

There was a reason for that, as WPRI tells us in a comprehensive and frightening report.

To produce accurate estimates of the economic impact of the GTF recommendations, BHI utilizes its Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model for Wisconsin. WI-STAMP (Wisconsin State Tax Analysis Modeling Program) identifies the economic effects of a variety of state policy changes.

WI-STAMP is a five-year dynamic CGE model that simulates changes in taxes, costs (general and sector specific) and other economic inputs. As such, it provides a mathematical description of the economic relationships among producers, households, government and the rest of the world. It is general in the sense that it takes all the important markets (such as the capital and labor markets) and flows into account. It is an equilibrium model because it assumes that demand equals supply in every market (goods and services, labor and capital). This equilibrium is achieved by allowing prices to adjust within the model. It is computable because it can be used to generate numeric solutions to concrete policy and tax changes.

Umnnhhhh, yah, so what?

Here's what:

The first set of results, labeled “All Policies,” is based on all 13 policies except for cap-and-trade. This combination of proposals would have significant negative effects on the state economy. The state would shed 43,093 private-sector jobs. Annual investment would drop by about $619 million and real disposable income by $7,908 million. The second set of results, labeled “cap-and-trade,” would eliminate 25,767 private-sector jobs. Disposable income would fall by $1,836 million, and investment would decrease by $561 million in 2020.

The Wisconsin Legislature will soon be making law of all 13 of those policies.

To Doyle, being 'tied for 9th-worst' in State economic/fiscal health is simply not good enough. He and his Democrat Legislative leadership fully intend to overtake Aaaaahhhhhhnold's Golden State.

Full-speed-ahead to Bankruptcy!