Jonny Law

"Pandas kind of suck"

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Live from the uncomfortably moist surroundings of Houston, Texas, Jonah’s joined by Jonathan Adler—Case Western University professor and trusted law-talking guy—for some scatterbrained political, legal, and economic geekery. Today’s topics include the Trump indictment, the full-spectrum crankery of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the slow decline of common good constitutionalism, and how free markets can help the environment. Throughout, the punditry is unfiltered, the policy talk is relentlessly eggheady, and the Hillary bashing is surprisingly pertinent. 

Show Notes:

– Jonathan: “Learning How to Fish”

– Jonathan: “Senate Goes Nuclear, Expect Fallout”

– Jonathan: “Markets and Dematerialization”

– Matthew Scully’s defense of Robert F. Kennedy Jr…

– …and Jonathan’s response

– Samoa suffered a measles outbreak after anti-vaccine sentiment rose

– Jonah: “Republicans wanted Clinton prosecuted for her emails. And now they defend Trump?”

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Comments (10)
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  1. Chipwatkins

    In 2017, a contractor rebuilt a several-block long elevated section of I-85 in NE Atlanta in 44 days.
    https://cwmatthews.com/projects/i-85-bridge-collapse-repair/

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    Coolidge’s Burner

    Jonah—your equation of Rusty Reno et al. to RFK, Jr. et al. pleases me to no end!

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    Kit

    Enjoyed the discussion, however it got a little off the rails when it came to whales (and other sea life). This is complicated and anyone who is interested is strongly advised to Google around. However, some summary thoughts:
    Japan and Norway ignore whaling agreements and kill a lot of whales. Iceland does, too, but has promised to stop.
    The whale picture is complicated - some species are thriving, some are endangered, and one is critically endangered.
    "Fingerprinting" boats works about as well in whaling as it does in enforcing oil sanctions. The captain just turns off the transponder when they do not want to be easily found.
    Many fish species are also endangered - from overfishing and from "bycatch," bringing up a whole area of the ocean in nets, which can be miles in length, including species you do not want to catch.
    "Fisheries," such as those for salmon, are a good start to managing fish. They have their issues, such as parasites and nutrition challenges, but can be a good solution for certain species.

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    Katenesvick

    This was a good one. Always a good day when both a new Remnant and a new GLoP drop.

    The Kennedy stuff is an example of why I can't justify subscribing to NR anymore. If the Dispatch could poach Charlie and Jim there'd be nothing at NR worth the time.

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  5. P Satter

    https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/12/measles-outbreak-spurred-by-anti-vaxxers-shuts-down-samoan-government/

    Yes, sadly, RFK Jr.'s misinformation was in Samoa.

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  6. Christopher Fetter Eastman

    THE QUOTA SYSTEM IS CRAP! I am now a paying member of the Dispatch just so I could post this comment. If enraging the one fisherman who listens to your commentary into subscribing was your strategy all along it has worked fantastically. I'm glad I got around to it.

    But this is wrong, it really bothers me that everyone who educates people about this issue is never someone who seems to know anything about how these policies effect the fisherman. The quota system limits the catch to hopefully sustainable levels, yes. BUT, it also imposes huge costs on the people actually catching the fish.

    Lease fees or the cost to fish someone else's quota range from 20% to 60%. That means that the owner of the quota takes that percentage off the top of the boats gross revenue for the privilege of fishing their quota. This is a cost that is imposed on the boat as well as the crew (me) since they are also paid a percentage of the boats gross revenue after lease fees are paid. For example I once fished black cod for for 10 weeks and made $8,000. So that was the last time I ever worked in a quota fishery.

    So who are these people profiting from these lease fees and quotas. Sometimes it is the boat itself that owns its own quota. But more often than not its someone sitting on their couch who through a series of fortuitous events happens to own a small share of the worlds fish.

    A natural question about implementing a quotas system is how do you decide who gets what quotas. The answer is usually an arbitration process based on fish tickets or records of historical catch. For Example, If in the past Dispatch fisheries llc was responsible for approximately 9% of the yearly catch of Halibut in the Bearing Sea then they would be awarded 9% of the quota. It's not hard to convince fisherman to take this deal since in this example Dispatch fisheries llc was just awarded a 9% a substantial dividend on all future profits from that fishery.

    In the cost of starting your own fishing operation the cost of quota is almost always your biggest expense. It's the kind of cost burden that keeps almost all new and young potential entrants into the fishery from joining at all. Since the quota shares are inheritable assets it pretty much locks in a form of nepotism where the only people who can afford to own capital in the fisheries are the people who are related to those first class of fisherman for whom the quotas were initially given.

    Who else can afford to buy quotas? That's right large multinational corporations who catch more in a day than I can catch in a month. They are destroying the oceans by the way. the fishing techniques they use are actively destroying the oceans and no fancy wonks economic policy is going to stop them.

    I get the idea behind all this and it was worth a try. It didn't work! Ted Stevens snuck the quota system into an appropriations bill about 20 years ago. We tried it. We've been trying it. None of us like it. USE A DERBY SYSTEM! Talking heads act like this is the only way to regulate how many fish are caught. There are so many other ways. But we the fisherman like a derby system and since for the rest of you it doesn't make a difference we should talk about that on all future flagship podcasts.

    thanks for ready my rant.

    Chris

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      CynthiaW

      That was very informative.

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  7. Philebus

    Interesting guest, and a good conversation. I've heard the name Jonathan Adler so many times in the past, but I can't recall the where or the why. I'll have to figure that out. Another great Remnant on the books.

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    Pastorfbt

    So, will we see video of the Houston event?

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    CynthiaW

    Sounds like lots of fun.

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