Price, Cost , Harm

From the NYT: The change would affect the metric that the federal government uses to calculate the harm caused by one ton of planet-warming carbon dioxide pollution. In the Obama administration, White House economists calculated that number at roughly $50 a ton. In the Trump administration, they lowered it to less than $5 a ton. Applying Mr. Revesz’s formula shoots up the cost to nearly $200 a ton. This so-called "metric" of the social cost of carbon is so volatile as to be meaningless. We are told The Market can solve our problems if we just let it find "equalibrium", do the cost- benefit analysis and come up with a perfect price. But in reality the calculation is political. Capitalist economic theory fails miserably, which is why we face climate catastrophe. Here is another snippet from the Times, trying to explain "discounted" pricing of regulations: In 2003, government economists estimated the impact of regulation on future generations by considering the average interest rate on government bonds over the prior 30 years. Totally insane. They would do better to look at the recent article that said insurers were going bankrupt and refusing to issue new policies. Or the article that said Phoenix will no longer issue building permits because they have run out of groundwater. It has nothing to do with what The Market Will Bare. It is what the earth system will bare. We know but act as if we don't.