The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget alerted us last week to a troubling (if predictable) trend. With jobs scarce, far larger numbers of workers are applying for Social Security disability benefits. Presumably, this is the result of both the increased incentive to commit fraud and the reality that marginally disabled low-skilled workers have virtually no chance of finding employment in a market full of able-bodied unemployed. Once in, by the way, the incentive structure makes it unlikely recipients will ever get out: to collect benefits, you can’t work at all. Not surprisingly, just one percent ever return to the job market.
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Professor Dieter Helm (Oxford) is a very fine fly fisherman, and an even better economist. If you haven’t done so, take a look at his new book “The Carbon Crunch: How We Are Getting Climate Change Wrong — and How to Fix It” for a bit of unconventional wisdom. He argues that politicians and the general public have not shown any real interest in addressing climate change. Helm argues that places like Europe should focus on setting a price for carbon that would cover consumption (and not just production), and that fracking could be a good “bridge” technology for reducing consumption of coal. The book is readable and insightful for those interested in the inside track on climate policy. 
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