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Saturday March 25th 2023

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Author Archive

Flying Cars

Flying Cars

When I was young, probably in my pre-teens, I had an old Zenith “tombstone” radio next to my bed (probably a Zenith 5S-228). I’d listen to comics late at night and news early in the morning. At some point, probably in the late 50’s Dad [...]

Does Boulder Have Too Many Jobs?

Does Boulder Have Too Many Jobs?

Does Boulder have too many jobs? If you are out of work, then Boulder needs at least one more job. If you are a commercial developer then Boulder needs as many jobs as you can convince the planning department to let you squeeze onto your particular [...]

Other People’s Money

Other People’s Money

Screen clip from a City of Boulder online zoning map Macon Cowles and Steve Pomerance (Boulder Daily Camera, January 5) both address the same issue: what Cowles calls using Other People's Money and what economists frame as externalizing costs. [...]

Vote No on 310

Vote No on 310

Rail cars loaded with coal Why is Xcel fighting so hard to stop Boulder's effort to start a municipal utility?  Make no mistake, Xcel is behind the wording of Question 310, and is behind the many mailings and full-page ads in support of the [...]

All the Easy Things Have Been Done—a Response to Ken Wilson

All the Easy Things Have Been Done—a Response to Ken Wilson

Second Flat Iron, Boulder, CO by Chad Podoski (flickr creative commons) Good grief, Ken Wilson is such a raging pessimist. We get it, Ken, this is going to be hard. But evidently you did not get the memo: All the easy things have been done. Yes, [...]

Utilities Can Make Huge Business Blunders Too

Utilities Can Make Huge Business Blunders Too

Ralph Shnelvar asks us to imagine a catastrophic business blunder by the City of Boulder.   We don't have to imagine this, as such a thing actually happened...to a utility. Montana Power would have been a 100-year-old company if it had survived [...]

Staying with Xcel Is Too Risky

Staying with Xcel Is Too Risky

I support Ballot Issues 2B and 2C because staying with Xcel is too risky.  Whoa, you say, that's not what I've heard.  That's because what you've heard is what Xcel has spent half a million dollars, so far, to tell you.   The next time you get a [...]