Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps?

Andrew Samwick signs up for New York Times select. One encounter with Tom Friedman and he needs professional help:

Vox Baby: You Pay Your Money, You Take Your Chances: I finally decided to go in for TimesSelect. I am greeted by Tom Friedman's column, "Let's (Third) Party," where I read this gem about gasoline prices:

Like someone who will tell the truth: The only way Americans are ever going to enjoy relatively cheap gasoline again is if we raise the price now with a gasoline tax--and fix it at that higher level for several years--so investors know that it is not coming down, and therefore it makes economic sense for them to make the long-term investments in alternative, renewable sources of energy. That is the only way to break our oil addiction and ultimately bring down the price.

That's a fascinating "truth." Note that he is not writing here about the externalities associated with our dependence on oil--he is writing about the direct consumption of it through gasoline. So in order to have cheap gasoline later, we should insist on having expensive gasoline today, even if the price of gasoline would fall in the interim. That is beyond silly...

Don't worry too much, Andrew. You do build up an immunity--somewhat--over time.