Elaine Kamarck
Lecturer in Public Policy
AP Photo
December 9, 2009
"A Carbon Tax Would Provide a Sunnier Forecast"
Op-Ed, Politico
By Robert J. Shapiro and Elaine Kamarck, Lecturer in Public Policy
"Politically, a tax shift can help neutralize the glaring political liability of all climate programs: that they raise everyone's energy costs. Just as important, a tax-based climate program can provide stronger and more stable incentives than the Senate's cap-and-trade approach to get businesses and households to transition to low-carbon technologies and fuels. The critical aspect of using a tax shift to address climate change is that it applies a known price to carbon, so companies can figure out how much they might earn by developing climate-friendly fuels and technologies, and other businesses — along with the rest of us — can calculate how much could be saved by adopting them."
AP Photo
August 3, 2009
"Gore's Carbon 'Tax Shift' Beats Cap-and-Trade"
Op-Ed, Roll Call
By Elaine Kamarck, Lecturer in Public Policy
"At the core of the cap-and-trade approach is a new financial market in carbon permits. The economics of a cap mean that permit prices will be very volatile, inviting a frenzy of financial speculation by Wall Street. As Americans suffer through the worst recession in their lifetimes, they will find it hard to trust the fate of the planet to the same individuals who brought us credit default swaps, subprime mortgage securities and other exotic financial instruments."
AP Photo
November 29, 2008
"Look to the Internet to Fight Poverty"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Elaine Kamarck, Lecturer in Public Policy
"Internet innovation has transformed business, entertainment, and even government. In an Obama administration, it can transform approaches to poverty at home and abroad. The government's efforts should be focused on expanding access to Internet and other technologies for as many Americans as possible while continuing to develop our national broadband capacity. An expanded technological infrastructure will help Obama make good on a broad social justice agenda as he confronts the myriad problems he has inherited."
AP Photo
August 27, 2008
"Political Conventions are Just as Fun on TV"
Op-Ed, Newsday
By Elaine Kamarck, Lecturer in Public Policy
"...[T]here's only one thing I'm missing by not being in Denver, and that's the ability to walk around outside and say to the Hillary/McCain supporters, "What are you thinking!?"
I've been bombarded by their e-mails for months now and frankly, I'm mystified. When you're a loyal member of an American political party, as they claim to be, you sign up to be inside a big tent, where compromise is the name of the game. When parties have real divisions, they're usually over big, ideological issues. It's hard to see where all this venom is coming from...."
AP Photo
March 31, 2008
"Young Voters May Not Remember McCain's Heroic Past"
Op-Ed, Newsday
By Elaine Kamarck, Lecturer in Public Policy
Half of all living Americans today were born after McCain's A4E Skyhawk was shot down in an attempted bombing run on the Yen Phu power plant....his "rescuers" stripped him and beat him before handing him over to the military, which put him in Hoa Lo and then moved him around to several other prisons, where he continued to be repeatedly tortured....The Democrats can't compete with John McCain's past. But given the emergence of the millennial generation and its contributions so far to the Democratic comeback, they should be more than able to compete with John McCain for the future.
AP Photo
February 14, 2008
"A History of 'Super-Delegates' in the Democratic Party"
Op-Ed
By Elaine Kamarck, Lecturer in Public Policy
Elaine Kamarck, lecturer of Public Policy at the Kennedy School, gives a detailed history of how today's "super delegates" came into being.
December 26, 2007
"Increasing Internet Capacity"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Elaine Kamarck, Lecturer in Public Policy
"In any other business model, growing to meet this demand would be easy. Rapid growth usually provides more money for investment. But the Internet business got started as a flat-fee business — we all pay one monthly fee regardless of how much bandwidth we use."
May 11, 2007
"How Blair Modernized the U.K."
Op-Ed, Newsday
By Elaine Kamarck, Lecturer in Public Policy
"...[H]e began to modernize the British Labor Party. His first big move as party leader was to repudiate the infamous Clause 4 of the Labor Party platform, a section calling for national control of industries. In doing so, Blair signaled to his party and his country that the links between them and their socialist past were history.
November 12, 2006
"Democrats Have Two Years to Show Americans They Mean Business on War, Health and Reform"
Op-Ed, Newsday
By Elaine Kamarck, Lecturer in Public Policy
"Americans gave George W. Bush six years in which to match his actions to his words. He didn't. They won't be so patient next time around."
April 25, 2006
"Dems Try to Overcome 'Katrina Brain'"
Op-Ed, Newsday
By Elaine Kamarck, Lecturer in Public Policy
The New Orleans hurricane relief efforts are giving a party stunned by losses a chance to revive.
