Perspectives

Mitigation costs are a matter of personal value

February 14, 2019
By Daniel Sutter
The "Sand Palace," a private residence in Mexico Beach, survived Hurricane Micheal due to mitigation efforts in its construction. (FEMA photo/Wilsey)

Last October, Hurricane Michael slammed the Florida panhandle with 155 mile per hour (mph) winds. Mexico Beach was largely destroyed, except for one exceptional, and now much reported on, house called the Sand Palace. Does it offer a guide for building for the future?

Strengthening buildings to reduce damage from natural disasters is called mitigation,…

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It Came from the Archives: TROY in the 1950s

January 31, 2019
By Dr. Marty Olliff
Dr. Marty Olliff's monthly column shows a photo collection of Troy University in the mid-1950s.

“Selected Views of Troy State College” – An Artvue Post Card Co. Souvenir Booklet

In the mid-1950s, Artvue Post Card Company of New York published a booklet depicting ten buildings on the Troy University Campus. Artvue was founded in 1936, and in 1952 purchased the Albertype Company, which allowed it to publish Baseball Hall of…

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Politics and the Economics of the Carbon Tax

January 31, 2019
By Daniel Sutter
Economists should not let the allure of an optimal tax create an impression that carbon taxation will benefit the economy. (photo/Dori)

A carbon tax involves some good economics and is probably the best way to address global warming. And yet I think that adopting the tax represents bad policy. My reservations involve the politics of policy implementation as examined by Nobel prize-winning economist James Buchanan.

Before getting to my concerns, let’s consider two other arguments against…

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