AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS ADDICT

OPEC MONOPOLY?

What OPEC Cut? Iraq Is Boosting It’s January Oil Exports By 7%, at zerohedge.com. OPEC’s “monopoly” never really existed. A cartel can only work if members follow the rules. Many of these countries can’t afford to cut production because oil is the resource they exchange for resources they do not or cannot produce. Cartels are only as good as there weakest links.

MCW Energy Group Limited Lowers Cost With New Oil Sands Extraction Technology, at mcwenergygroup.com. The ability to find new sources of oil, as well as new technologies to extract this oil, are also reason OPEC has lost whatever illusory monopoly power they and we thought they might have had. As long as competitors are allowed to enter a market, their can be no monopoly. Monopolies can only exist because of Government sanctions. If a supposed cartel tries to control price by constricting supply, the price will go up which in turn makes it profitable for competitors to enter the market at the higher price. The increased supply will bring the price down. Market prices are a double-edged sword for cartels who think they have a monopoly. They want a higher price for their resource, but the higher price makes it profitable for marginal suppliers to enter the market. This eventually brings the price down. Free markets work

Fortune 500 Firms 1995vs. 2016: Only 12% Remain Thanks To The Creative Destruction That Fuels Economic Prosperity, by Mark Perry, at carpediemblog. This has nothing to do with oil, but it has everything to do with monopoly. The market isn’t concerned with propping up the status quo that exists at the moment. Government is concerned with that. The market is what results when individuals are free to decide what they will produce, consume, exchange and save, according to each individuals subjective valuations, in a world of scarce resources. The market is about the future, Government intervention is about propping up the past.

ELECTION SHENANIGANS

Mass Detroit Voter Fraud? 37% Of Precincts Counted More Ballots Than Voters, at zerohedge.com. + More Detroit Voting “Irregularities”. 95 Poll Books Missing For Days, 5 Still Nowhere to Be Found, at zerohedge.com. This is what real election tampering looks like.

“Bullet In The Mouth” – Trump Electors Flooded With Death Threats, at zerohedge.com. Another example of tampering with an election.

NY Times Hires Reporter Who Sent Stories To Clinton Campaign For Approval, at tammybruce.com. This Clinton hack reporter’s misdeeds were a resume enhancement. Who’s worried about fake news from the NYT now?

So It Was Not Hacking, Apologies Now, Or Get Out, at theburningplatform.com. NSA Whistle Blower Destroys Obama’s Russian Hacking Narrative, at zerohedge.com. Julian Assange Crushes Obama Narrative. “Our Source Is Not The Russian Government, at zerohedge.com. Who has more credibility, Obama or …. pick someone.

Obama Vows Retaliation Against “Russian Hacking”, at zerohedge.com. I’m sure Putin is quacking in his boots because of this threat. Who would take this threat seriously? Besides the fact that Obama is a wimp, he will be out of office in 4 and a half weeks.

INTERFERING WITH THE MARKET

HEROIC Uber To California Regulators: Drop Dead, at economicpolicyjournal.com. I love it when the status quo is basically told to go  #+(%  yourself.

Portland Asks Businesses To Move Elsewhere, by Per Bylund, at mises.org. Excerpt from the article: “Businesses in Portland, or, who pay “Too High” of Salaries to their CEOs will be hit by a 10% surcharge on their taxes.”  Two things will happen. Either these businesses will move, or they will find creative ways to compensate their CEOs without calling it a salary.

Single Mother Facing Prison For Selling Homemade Mexican Dish To Undercover Cop, by Robby Soave, at reason.com. These undercover cops are risking their lives. They are real heroes! Raise your hand if you think there is too much Government regulation.

A New Victim In The War On Small-Biz Bakeries, by Michelle Malkin, at townhall.com. A bakery employee stopped a shop lifter from stealing two bottles of wine. Since the perp was black, local college students organized a protest against the bakery for racial profiling.

EPA Rushing Through Regulations After Trumps Election, by John Sicliano, at washingtonexaminer.com. Unelected bureaucrats will push their ideology through regulations. Government agencies in general and the EPA in particular have to be reigned in.

Has “Market Failure” Caused High Health-Care Prices? by Dale Steinreich, at mises.org. The high cost of healthcare is a result of decades of government intervention into the healthcare market. The final straw was Obamacare. Healthcare and health insurance are economic goods produced by individuals, not government bureaucrats.

This Is What Hyperinflation Looks Like, at economicpolicyjournal.com. This is what an economy that is centrally planned by government bureaucrats eventually looks like.

This entry was posted on December 17, 2016 at 3:01 am and is filed under Must Reads For The Week. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

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