End June Links

# Having just moved to Zürich in Switzerland, this post, Alive and awake in the dreaming time from the Wee Ginger Dug, makes me a bit wistful and homesick! "Sleepwalking? This country has never been more alive. ... We’re excited at the countless possibilities that are springing up like Scottish bluebells after a long cold winter of the soul. We’re not sleeping walking to independence, we’re casting off our crutches and getting up on our own two feet, we’re running towards the future with hope in our hearts, we’re dancing towards it with our own rhythm, we’re singing dreams into being with our own tunes. We’re following the songlines to a future we seize in our own hands. It’s good to be alive in the Scottish summer, and it’s even better being awake. Alive and awake in the dreaming time."

# I never liked Angela Knight when she used to feature in the media on behalf of the British Bankers Association, so I'm kind of pleased to have my prejudices confirmed by finding that she is a former tory MP who opposes renewable energy: time to rethink 'green' power policies in Brussels. The article shows that Scotland's huge comparative advantage in renewable energy is objectively ill-served by the UK political establishment.

# I think I agree with Matthew Kahn that Krugman is wrong (!!!) on Carbon Mitigation, Self Interest and Ideology: sub-urbanites with a high rate of time preference (and no infinitely negative utility attached to civilisational risks) rationally oppose carbon pricing. Krugman's point is that the cost is low in aggregate GDP terms, but those individual sub-urbanites stand to lose a lot.

# Research on VoxEU to read: Are large headquarters unproductive?