Krugman Skirts Merits of Carbon Tax. Commentary by James Handley, CarbonTaxCenter.org, April 10, 2010. "Krugman refuted denialist assertions about climate data and neatly explained the problem with discounting the cost of future climate damage. Normal discounting (typically applied to business investments) drastically reduces the present value of future climate damage. That supports only a low carbon price with a very slow ramp-up. Krugman agrees with Nicolas Stern that such large discounting is unfair to future generations; it effectively assumes away the potential for global catastrophe. Krugman also acknowledged [James] Hansen's (and our) point that cap/trade punishes individual initiative to reduce GHG emissions. Krugman skirted the merits of a carbon tax, instead relying on a political argument that doesn't even mention the broad support that could be built around direct distribution of revenue. I take Krugman seriously in his field -- economics -- but not so much on his political judgment."
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