Power Pal

I watched former VP Al Gore's testimony before Congress earlier this week on CSPAN today regarding climate change. Given how partisan the debate is, it's amazing that we actually get anything done in Washington D.C. I saw the movie An Inconvenient Truth, so Al Gore's testimony wasn't that new. I thought it was even more interesting to watch the economist that the Republicans called to testify before Congress. Bjorn Lomborg, a professor at the Copenhagen Business School, provided his testimony before Congress shortly after Al Gore did. He offers a very different perspective on the climate change challenge. He wrote a book called The Skeptical Economist . Basically, he was suggesting that there are higher return investments than dealing with climate change. For example, controlling HIV/AIDS or malaria would result in far more human benefit. He offered some interesting perspective on solutions like the Kyoto Protocol, taxing carbon emissions, cap-and-trade solutions, etc...

I finished up my Essentials of Economics class yesterday. Took a 2 hour exam on macroeconomics. I have to say that the class definitely exceeded my expectations. The instructor's goal was to allow us to pick up the Wall Street Journal and understand the majority of what's written in there. It's amazing how much I just used to gloss over most of those articles about the economy. I can only hope that every major world leader understands the basics of economics. Now that I finished the class I can't imagine having not taken it.

I finally gave in to the urge to start my own Blog. Seems like a good way to capture ideas and reflect on things. I figure I can focus on books and articles I'm reading that are interesting, the non-profit idea I'm working on, and just general observations about life and work.