No new (DIRECT) taxes

Via the WSJ's ECO:nomics Conference:

A worldwide cap-and-trade system to control carbon emissions would prove more effective than a global carbon tax, Caio Koch-Weser, former German deputy finance minister and vice chairman of Deutsche Bank, told the WSJ’s ECO:nomics conference Friday.

Mr. Koch-Weser said one problem with trying to impose a carbon tax around the world is that it would be difficult to guarantee the revenues from it would be used to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A cap-and-trade system, on the other hand, relies on businesses trading credits to help keep down emissions.

Of course the true problem (from a politician's point of view) with trying to impose a carbon tax around the world is the direct nature of such a tax on the individual. We can't have that a time when the proles around the world are restless about their own economic futures. Best for government to tax them indirectly by having the costs of a cap and trade system buried deep in the price of end products for the consumer.

The current epoch of history can be called many things, "Profiles in Courage" is not one of them.