Tom Friedman on the gas tax and more

Tom Friedman returns to the New York Times op-ed page with a bang, scrutinizing not only Senators McCain and Clinton's support to a gas tax holiday this summer, but also congressional ITCs (investment tax credits) for clean energy.

Kristof on the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement

Nicholas Kristof makes the point that Congress should pass the U.S.-Colombian free trade agreement because, unlike most other trade deals, it will only lower tariffs on American exports to Colombia, and not on Colombian exports to the U.S. This is because tariffs on Colombian exports are already piratically zero, thanks to an older anti-drug trafficking law from the elder Bush administration.

So, the risk to American jobs from this agreement is minimal, since any outsourcing to Colombia has mostly already happened. On the other hand, lowering tariffs on exports to Colombia should help America's trade deficit, since it will make its exports more competitive compared to exports from other states around the world.

Rating Agency, Downgrade Thyself

This Sunday's New York Times magazine has an excellent piece on the rating agencies (i.e. Moody's, S&P, Fitch) and their role in the current credit crisis.

One thing that the article does not mention is that in addition to all of the conflict of interest and underlying data problems, the rating agencies also could not keep up with the plethora of new structures being created. They could not adequately model each and every new structure, and so we were forced to make even more approximations when determining default profiles for securities.

West Wing meets Clinton/Obama Brokered Convention

Former West Wing producer and congressional staffer Larry O'Donnell wrote a hilarious script for an Obama/Clinton brokered convention. It's worth a read.

Pennsylvania Primary Predictions

In today's long-awaited Pennsylvnania primary, Hillary Clinton will win, with a margin of 5-10%.

Obama and trains

Last Saturday, Senator Barack Obama (and Senator Bob Casey Jr.) held a whistle-stop tour campaign tour of eastern and central Pennsylvania. The campaign rented a train car at the back of an Amtrak train, made up in the style of President Harry Tuman's whiste-stop tour 60 years ago.

Their first stop was the Wynnewood train station, where a crowd of 6500 gathered to hear Obama. This station, along with many of the others between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, has been in nearly continuous operation for over 150 years. It is now on SEPTA's commuter R5 rail, which carries commuters to and from downtown Philadelphia every day.

Obama gave his standard stump speech at the event, which was nothing short of electrifying. If he wins Pennsylvania today, it will be on the backs of these suburban supporters who will likely turn out for him in droves.

However, Obama missed an opportunity at this rally. One solution to this country's energy problems is to re-invigorate its trains. Trains have the lowest carbon footprint per passenger-mile than any other form of transportation, and dollar for dollar are often the most comfortable.

At the very least, we need a high speed train line between Washington DC and Boston, which can rival air travel for efficiency. Other countries have had high speed trains for years, yet the American ones travel only twice as fast as they did one hundred years ago.

Beyond this, faster local trains can link communities currently only linked by car. The trains around New York City are the best example, but the ones around Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington also serve their purpose of efficiently transporting commuters from near their homes to near their offices. Cities like Detroit, Los Angeles, Houston, and Miami could drastically decrease their carbon footprints by investing in rail infrastructures.

It's time that a presidential candidate make upgrading the nation's train structure a campaign priority. Obama has put energy policy in the center of his campaign. It's time to add trains too.

Cabbie and GPS navigators

In the good old days, cabbies were renowned for their ability to get anyone anywhere faster than any other motor vehicle (and perhaps some small aircraft).

Today, however, every cabbie seems to have a GPS navigation device (often Garmins). Beyond that, many still even ask for directions. Two weeks in a row, Philadelphia cab drivers have been unable to get from the Airport to the suburbs, and even find themselves asking for directors once they get near their destination, unable to trust their Garmins while unable to get to their destination.

A colleague of mine even had a New York cabbie who couldn't get from the east side to La Guardia airport. He turned on his Garmin and subsequently began making following its advice to make seemingly random turns that got him even more lost.

The art and skill of cab drivers used to be instantly knowing the fastest route to your destination and being able to lightning-quick in game changes whenever needed. Today's cabbies seem to be one step up from a guy with a rent-a-car and Garmin.