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Must Reads For The Week 4/29/17

April 29, 2017

Fannie Introduces “Innovative Solutions” Allowing Student-Debt-Laden Millennials To Buy a Home, at zerohedge.com. Government and it’s agents are creating debt-serfs for life. Unless the government forgives existing student loan debt. Of course tax payers will have to pay back the forgiven student loans. Heads they win tails we lose.

Puerto Rico Takes First Steps Toward Bankruptcy-ish Filing, at zerohedge.com. At a certain point it’s impossible to pay back the debt you incurred. The whole world, governments and individuals (read above), are heading in this direction. Thank you central banks of the world.

Why “Nothing Matters”: Central Banks Have Bought A Record $1 Trillion In Assets In 2017, at zerohedge.com. This is what we’ve been talking about forever. You can’t counterfeit and borrow your way to prosperity. This is how you steal from the future.

Yale Grad Students ‘Hunger Strike’ Apparently Involves Eating When Hungry, at foxnews.com. A few observations about this article. 1) This reminds me of our school showing solidarity for the homeless by making their own shanty town. Students made their own shelters out of cardboard boxes. Except they moved the shanty town inside the gym because it was too cold outside. 2) A “hunger strike” involving eating is redefining the term “hunger strike”, Isn’t it? 3) The university administration said, ‘they understood the students concerns, but strongly urge that students not put their health at risk or encourage others to do so’. Administrators act like these college students are children. By definition “college students” are “adults”. We’re creating a generation of wimps!

Seattle Socialist Councilwomen Kshama Sawant Calls For Shutting Down Highways and Airport On May Day, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Seattle City Council unanimously passed a resolution proclaiming City workers have a right to request off on May 1, without retaliation, to attend May Day “celebrations” (mass protests). Councilwoman Sawant wants workers and protesters to shut down highways and airports on May Day. May Day was originally a European celebration of Spring. It has been taken over by Marxists, communists and socialists to promote their statist ideology under the guise of helping workers.

Why Politicians Win (And Workers Lose) Under Socialism, by Hans Hermann-Hoppe, at mises.org. Excerpt from the article: “Socialism leads to the politicization of society….If people want to improve their income under socialism they have to move toward a more highly valued position in the hierarchy of caretakers. That takes political talent.”

Under Socialized Medicine, The State Owns You, by Justin Murray, at mises.org. Remember when Candidate Obama said in 2008, “we are five days away from fundamentally transforming America”? Well, here we are. Obamacare has moved us toward a government run single payer system. No bill the Republicans pass, short of repealing all of Obamacare, can change the fundamental transformation that has taken place. State bureaucrats will eventually have to ration healthcare. Which means “death panels”.

The Best History Of How We Got High Medical Prices and Obamacare, at economicpolicyjournal.com. This video explains Market prices vs. Government regulations.

Why We Have A 2nd Amendment: Venezuela Plans To give Firearms To Loyalists To Purge Growing Resistance, at zerohedge.com. Venezuela’s slow socialist march to the bottom is upon us. When socialism destroys a countries standard of living, the leaders only recourse, if you want to stay in power, is to literally kill the people their policies impoverished.

For The Left Socialism Denial Is Holocust Denial, by Robert Trancinski, at thefederalist.com. Socialist central planning has a track record of multiple millions of people being murdered (purged) when they don’t agree with the planners plans. Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia, Mao’s China, Pol Pot’s Cambodia, Castro’s Cuba to name a few. So lets keep going down this socialist central planning road and see if the result is different! No thanks. Take a stand! Now!

 

CARTOONS

From theburningplatform. (more here)

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Must Reads For The Week 4/22/17

April 22, 2017

Busting The “Free College” Myth, Jonathan Newman, at mises.org. The cost doesn’t go away when something is labeled “free”. For the student, free means a new scholarship program. For the college, free means they can increase their prices. For us the tax payers, free means we’re screwed. Free means shifting the cost to someone else. To me free means the professors would teach for…….”free”.

ASU Class Holds Protest Instead Of Final Exam, by Conner Borgelt, at azcentral.com. Tax payers! Would “free college” make the present situation in our college education system better or worse?

Has A Rothbardian Infiltrated The Department Of Education, at targetliberty.com. This is a good thing

San Diego’s Experiment With Higher Minimum Wage: 4,000 Fewer Restaurant Jobs, at reason.com. This doesn’t surprise anyone, does it?

Run For Your Life: The American Police State Is Coming To Get You, by John Whitehead, at rutherford.org. Click on some of the examples in this article. You will be shocked at the abuses of power by Government officials.

Private Equity Sets Its Sites On New Funding Victim: Mom and Pop 401k’s, at zerohedge.com. Private Equity companies have destroyed many of the largest defined benefit pension plans. Now they want to try their hand at destroying defined contribution retirement plans, your 401k. They need a new source of money to fund their skimming operations.

Frederic Bastiat Is Right (Again), by Jeff Thomas, at mises.org. Protective tariffs don’t work. Bastiat told us this in the mid 1800s. The Smoot-Hawley Tariffs (along with other government interventions) helped turn the stock market crash of 1929 into the great depression. Trumps desire for tariffs on foreign goods is a bad idea.

GM Says Venezuela Has Seized Its Car Plant, at cnn.com. Venezuela’s incremental movement toward socialism over the years is almost complete. Since there are no property rights in a total socialist system, this seizure of property may be the final goose step in Venezuela’s march toward economic destruction.

Fannie And Freddie Finally Wake Up, by Doug French, at mises.org. These bad mortgages should have been liquidated (sold at a loss) when the housing bust happened in 08.

How Mises Converted Hayek From Socialism To A Supporter Of The Free Market, at economicpolicyjournal.com.

 

CELEBRATE EARTH DAY

On Earth Day, Let’s Celebrate The Benefits Of Fossil Fuels! This is my Earth Day post from two years ago.

GEORGE CARLIN- Can We Destroy The Planet?

Earth Day 2016, at austrianaddict.com.

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Must Reads For The Week 4/15/17

April 14, 2017

Taxation Is Theft, by Andrew Napolitano, at mises.org. Happy tax day. Here is an excerpt from the article: “With a tax code that exceeds 72,000 pages in length and consumes more than six billion person hours per year to determine taxpayers’ taxable income, with an IRS that has become a feared law unto itself, and with a government that continues to extract more wealth from every taxpaying American every year, is it any wonder that April 15th is a day of dread in America? ……..”There are only three ways to acquire wealth in a free society. The inheritance model occurs when someone gives you wealth. The economic model occurs when you trade a skill, a talent, an asset, knowledge, sweat, energy or creativity to a willing buyer. And the mafia model occurs when a guy with a gun says”: “Give me your money or else. Which model does the government use? Why do we put up with this?”

How Government Meddles In Your Easter Chocolate, by Ryan McMaken, at mises.org. Government tariffs drives up the price consumers pay for chocolate, and also push down the wages of Cacao farmers.

NY Leads 10-State Lawsuit Against Trump Administration Over Stalled Pollution Rules, at huffingtonpost.com. Check out this line up. New York, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon Vermont, Washington, Pennsylvania, and NY City are suing to get these laws reinstated. Why doesn’t each of these states pass legislation that makes these efficiency standards laws in their states? Leave us alone we are fine with reduced standards.

If You’re Wondering Why Trump Can Just Bomb Countries; Ask Obama, Busch, and Clinton, at zerohedge.com. What Trump did was nothing new! Does anybody remember that last 25 years?

Which Graduate Degree Gets You Out Of Debt The Fastest, at zerohedge.com. Do some research before you choose your degree.

Students ‘Fear’ Chick-Fil-A Will  Jeopardize ‘Safe Place‘, at campusreform.com. What degrees to you think these students are going for?

New York Could Become Largest State To Offer Tuition-Free Public Higher Education, at washingtonpost.com. Free! I don’t think the greedy professors are going to teach for free, do you? Free means the cost gets shifted to the taxpayer. Get back in the bottom of the ship with Ben Hur and keep rowing.

Donald Trump’s Travel Expenses In 10 Weeks Cost Taxpayers As Much As Obama Spent In Two Years, independant.co.uk, We slammed Obama so we are going to slam Trump. STOP IT.

Sweden’s Largest Newspaper Demands “Ban Men In Cars To Stop Terror“, at  zerohedge.com. Here is headline I thought could have been from the Onion. I always say, “unbelievable”. But I guess it shouldn’t surprise anyone. Should it?

Cyborgs At Work: Employees Getting Implants With Microchips, at dcourier.com. Workers have a microchip planted in the tissue between your thumb and fore finger. It is used like a swipe card to open doors, operate machines, and to purchase things. There are government central planners all over the world that are loving this idea.

The Worlds Worst Economist, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Venezuela is living proof that big government central planning creates economic disaster. Economist Mark Weisbrot supported the policies that brought about the collapse. Another example of credentialed ignorance.

CARTOON

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Must Reads For The Week 4/8/17

April 8, 2017

Some On The Left Now Criticize The Students They Created, by Dennis Prager, at townhall.com. Here is an except from the article: “It is the left that created the moral monsters known as left-wing students who do not believe in free speech, let alone tolerance. It is the left that taught generations of Americans that everyone on the right is sexist, intolerant, xenophobic, homophobic, racist and bigoted. It is the left that is anti-intellectual, teaching students to substitute feelings for reason.”

Snowflakes Demand University President’s Resignation After Refusal To Support Safe Spaces, at zerohedge.com. Here is a recent example of what the article above talks about.

New York Fed’s Dudley Admits Fed-Inspired Student Debt Bubble Is Headwind for Economy, at zerohedge.com. College Graduates are becoming debt serfs. This is similar to the housing bubble. When will this bubble burst.

South Korean School Teachers Who Earn Over A Million Dollars, at economicpolicyjournal.com. With the price of college sky rocketing, lower cost market alternatives to our current education monopoly will be viable.

IRS Seized $17 Million From Innocent Business Owners Using Asset Forfeiture, at reason.com. Innocent people are getting their bank accounts seized without being charged with a crime. This is not supposed to happen in America. This is an example of the break down of the rule of law.

Audit The Pentagon, by Ryan McMaken, at mises.org. Every government agency should be able to cut their budget by 15%. Shouldn’t they?

The Next Subprime Crisis Is Here. 12 Signs That The U.S. Auto Industry’s Day Of Reckoning Has Arrived, at zerohedge.com. Loaning money to people who can’t pay it back is a bad idea. We didn’t learn anything from the housing bubble. Did we?

3 Lessons Learned From Wisconsin’s War On Foreign Butter, by Ryan McMaken, at mises.org. People are fighting back against Government regulations on Butter. First they are going across state lines to purchase the butter they want. Some consumers are banding together to file a suit against the law which bans this foreign butter.

Creative Destruction: Thousands Of Traditional Retailers Close As Consumers Switch To Online Retailers Like Amazon, by Mark J. Perry, at carpediemblog. Sears started as a mail order warehouse business. Now they are losing to Amazon which is warehouse delivery business. Everything old is new again.

Homeowner’s son Kills Three Would-Be Burglars With AR-15, at nypost.com. Who says AR-15’s aren’t good home defense weapons?

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Must Reads For The Week 4/1/17

April 1, 2017

Trump Threatens To Fight Freedom Caucus In 2018, Freedom Caucus Isn’t Intimidated, theblaze.com. Trump blames the freedom caucus for the defeat of the “Repeal and Replace” bill. He doesn’t understand the members of the freedom caucus are for getting government out of our lives. They understand government central planning can’t work if the goal is to lower healthcare prices. Government central planning transfers power from the individual to politicians and bureaucrats. These guys won’t be intimidated. Most of them had to fight the Republican establishment to win their seats in congress. People are mistaken if they think the Republican establishment wants to shrink the power of government.

Obamacare Explosion Could Happen On May 22nd, Here’s Why, at zerohedge.com. The Republicans won a law suit to stop tax funded healthcare subsidies in 2014.The Obama administration filed an appeal. The Trump administration has to decide whether to continue the appeal. If they decide to stop the appeal it will raise healthcare premiums because the subsidies will disappear. This is a good thing because it will allow economic reality to run its course.

Schools Ready To To Ditch Michelle Obama’s Awful Er’ Healthy Lunches, at tammybruce.com. I hope we keep getting rid of government regulations forced on us by central planning busybodies. Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act Doesn’t Work As Planners Planned.

Your Pension Will Be At The Center Of America’s Next Financial Crisis, at zerohedge.com. Government and union pension plans are underfunded. They will not be able to fulfill the promises they made.

Six Graphs That Reveal Big Problems For Student and Auto Loans, by Jonathan Newman, at mises.org. People are over leveraged. They aren’t going to be able to pay back their loan obligations. Easy credit doesn’t stimulate the economy. It creates debt serfs. It misallocates scarce resources to areas of production that can’t be sustained. It allows the financial system to skim wealth from the middle class.

The Problem With Paid Parental Leave, Xiong Yue, at mises.org. What will happen when the cost of employing a worker doesn’t cover what they produce? The labor will go away. Just like minimum wage increases. Central planners create unintended consequences.

Trump Thinks Your Car’s Gas Mileage Is….Your Business, at zerohedge.com. EPA standards for gas mileage are going to decrease under Trump. Central planners shouldn’t make these decisions. Allow consumers and producers to make these decisions.

The Real Reason Leftwing Groups Are Freaked Out By Trumps EPA Pick, at theresurgent.com. Environmental groups have been receiving money from corporations who have been strong armed by the EPA. The EPA fines Corporations for EPA violations. The EPA tells these corporations if they ‘donate’ a lesser amount to environmental groups, they will not have to pay the full amount of the fine. Government agencies aren’t political are they?

House Committee Passed Bill To ‘Audit The Fed’, at zerohedge.com. This won’t get enough support to be passed. But we need to keep putting it out there so people might get educated on the Fed.

How The Left Learned To Love States’ Rights, by Andrew Syrios, at mises.org. Finally the left agrees that the federal government has too much power. Blue State California Actually Agrees With Red State Texas: The Federal Government Has Too Much Power!

CARTOONS from theburningplatform.com. More here.

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Must Reads For The Week 3/18/17

March 19, 2017

Portable 3D Printer Builds A Tiny House For A Tiny Price, by Adam Williams, at newatlas.com. Increasing output with less imput (becoming more productive) is how economies grow. Printing money doesn’t make an economy more productive. Printing money distorts the process of production. Only real increases in production grows an economy.

Ford Begins Testing 3D Printing Large Car Parts For Cost-Effective Customization, by Darrel Ethrington, at techcrunch.com. Again this is a good thing. Becoming more productive helps everyone.

Students Criticized The University’s Speech Polices, So It Cut Their Social Media Access, by Bre Payton, at thefederalist.com. At first I thought this headline was from The Onion. But The University of Lincoln proved the students right. Did someone in charge have this thought, “I’ll take away their free speech for criticizing our free speech policies”? And then actually think it made sense?

How Middlebury College Enabled The Riot During Charles Murray’s Visit, by Peter Wood, at thefederalist.com. Colleges are really indoctrination camps. If the student didn’t get brainwashed in high school, than it must be completed in college.

Politician Proposes Seat-Belt Law For Dogs, at targetliberty.com. Another example of a possible headline from The Onion, which turns out to be real.

THE SURVEILLANCE STATE

Congress Created The Spying Monster, by Andrew Napolitano, at lewrockwell.com. When you create a potential monster, you have to tie it down with strong enough chains to keep it in it’s own yard. Oh, and check on it every once and a while.

Here Is A List Of More Than A Dozen Proven Victims Of Obama’s Many Wiretaps, by Jim Hoft, at thegatewaypundit.com. Don’t listen to people who tell you these kinds of things don’t happen.

Obama Advisor Rhodes Is Wrong: The President Can Order A Wiretap, And Why Trump May Have The Last Laugh, at zerohedge.com. The President through the Attorney General can order electronic surveillance. This is part of the law Congress created.

INSIDERS DON’T LIKE OUTSIDERS

Although I disagree with Trump a lot when it comes to economics. He is fighting some battles against government insiders who don’t want to give up power. Winning these battles is important if we are to maintain our individual freedom.

Trump vs. The Deep State, by Ryan McMaken, at mises.org. Excerpt from the article: “The deep state, although there’s no precise or scientific definition, generally refers to the agencies in Washington that are permanent power factions. They stay and exercise power even as presidents who are elected come and go. They typically exercise their power in secret, in the dark, and so they’re barely subject to democratic accountability“. Trump is an outsider who is trying to deminish the power of the unelected deep state. He is fighting powerful forces.

Obama Administration Declared War On Trump, Trump Declared War Back, by P.H. Guthrie, at thefederalist.com. I don’t care what tactics Trump uses to fight the insiders (including the main stream media). We are fighting against people who want to take our individual freedom away. When you are in a fight for your life, there are no rules of conduct.

 

CARTOONS. From theburningplatform (more here).

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Must Reads For The Week 3/11/17

March 12, 2017

ECONOMIC STUFF

Donald Trump and Peter Navarro Suffer From ‘Trade Deficit Disorder‘, by Mark J. Perry, at carpediemblog. Here is an excerpt form the article: “In his speech and op-ed, Navarro laid out Team Trump’s trade agenda that involves expanding US exports, reducing imports, and thereby reducing America’s merchandise trade deficit and supposedly therefore increasing our nation’s economic growth. Unfortunately, that’s a pure mercantilist trade agenda, which is an approach to trade that has been discredited now for several hundred years.”

How Did Peter Navarro Ever Get A Ph.D In Economics From Harvard? economicpolicyjournal.com. Regular people being ignorant about economics is one thing. But having a Ph.D in economics and being economically ignorant is dangerous.

What Is Laissez-Faire? by Jeffery Tucker, at mises.ca. It simply means ‘Let it be’. A majority of people believe that complex order comes from top down planning by leaders possessing authority. It is inconceivable to them that unplanned order arises when people are allowed to manage their own lives and interact with others. Language is an example of complex spontaneous order. The rules of English were not written by someone and everyone started to follow them. People communicated with people and over time the ‘rules’ were established after discernible patterns (unwritten rules) were recognized. Attempts by Government central planners to control every aspect of society leads to chaos and conflict. Laissez-Faire. Please!

Repeal And Replace Needn’t Be Complicated, by Hunter Lewis, at mises.org. Do you use the term “healthcare system” or “healthcare market” when talking about ‘healthcare’. Most people talk about our “healthcare system”.  This shows we think of healthcare as a centrally planned system. The cost will never go down unless we see healthcare as an economic good rationed by prices in a market. Obamacare was 2500 pages of rules and regulations designed to ‘fix’ what was left of a healthcare market already encumbered by mountains of government regulations. The only ‘fix’ to our current “healthcare system” is to allow it to become a healthcare market. LAISSEZ-FAIRE! Get rid of all government regulations and a complex healthcare order will almost magically form itself. It won’t be a perfect order (nothing man does is perfect). But it will be the best that can possibly exist in a world of scarce resources and subjective value.

High Prices Don’t Cause Economic Bubbles, by Frank Shostak, at mises.org. When central banks increase the money supply (counterfeit money), scarce resources are misallocated to activities that would have never come into existence under normal market conditions. The 08 bubble was caused by the Fed electronically printing counterfeit money. It was not allowed to liquidate. More electronically printed counterfeit money was created to stop the correction. This counterfeit money has and is creating our present financial bubble. Excerpt from the article: “The emergence of a bubble or a monetary balloon need not be always associated with rising prices – for instance, if the rate of growth of goods corresponds to the rate of growth of the money supply then no change in prices will take place……what matters is not whether the emergence of a bubble is associated with price rises but rather with the fact that the emergence of a bubble gives rise to the emergence of non-productive activities that divert real wealth from wealth generators. The expansion of the money supply, or a monetary balloon, in similarity to a counterfeiter, enables the diversion of real wealth from wealth generating activities to non-productive activities.”

The Fed’s Dependence On The Consumer Will Backfire, by C. Jay Engel, at mises.org. Production is the creation of wealth and consumption is the destruction of wealth. Spending is consumption. Consumption is the destruction of what has been produced. Spending doesn’t grow an economy. We can only spend out of our own production. What we produce allows us to spend. Consumption has to lag behind production for an economy to grow. When consumption is increased by debt and money printing, we start a process where consumption is out pacing production. We start to eat our seed corn so to speak. Artificially increasing spending is a quick shot of adrenaline.  But it has no staying power.

 

CARTOONS

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Must Reads For The Week 3/4/17

March 4, 2017

The Craziest Regulations In The Obama Era, at freebeacon.com. The nanny state is in every aspect of our life.

The Most Ridiculous Occupational Licensing Laws, at generationopportunity.com. Why should you get permission from government to get involved in these professions. Shouldn’t politicians have a basic understanding of economics since their policy decisions interfere with our economic decision-making.

Florida’s Government Built A Train – And It Didn’t Go Well, by tho Bishop, at mises.org. Government decided to construct commuter rail connecting the largest towns around Orlando. You can guess the result. It’s losing money. It is so bad, “the cost of issuing and taking tickets is greater than the revenue from ticket sales“.

Trump Orders Agencies To Reduce Regulations, at news.wghb.org. Regulations interfere with free market activities as we can see from the articles above. We need to take the regulatory shackles off of producers.

NY Teamsters Pension Becomes First To Run Out Of Money, As Expert Warns Of ‘Pension Tsunami’ Is Coming, at zerohedge.com. Many of these Union pension funds have turned into Ponzi schemes like social security.

Trump To Propose 24 Percent In EPA Spending, by David Henry, at thehill.com. Cutting the size and scope of government is as simple as cutting their funding. Government agencies exist by leaching off the tax payers aka producers.

Minimum Wage Massacre: Wendys Unleashes 1000 Robots To Counter Higher Labor Costs, at zerohedge.com. Who would have thought that increasing the cost of labor would lead to less of it being employed? Only those ignorant about economic principles.

Economic Reality Check: US Factory Jobs Are Not Coming Back, by Mark J. Perry, at carpediemblog. Our manufacturing output is increasing as the number of people needed to produce this output is declining. This is a good thing. We are producing more output with less input.

25 Reasons Why Protectionism Is Taken Seriously When It’s Actually A Form Of Economic Suicide, by Mark J. Perry, at carpediemblog. 1st reason. “The false belief that trade is a zero-sum game (win-lose), when in fact it is a win-win”.

Maine Drops 9,000 From Food Stamps After Refusal To Comply With Work Requirements, at zerohedge.com. These people couldn’t perform the minimum work requirements to receive food stamp. Obviously they didn’t need them in the first place, or they wouldn’t have made the decision refusing to comply with the work requirements.

Holder Foretells The Return Of Obama: “He’s Coming And He Is Ready To Roll”, at zerohedge.com. Please be like your predecessor George Bush. Just go away!

CARTOONS from theburningplatform.com.

 

 

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Must Reads For The Week 2/25/17

February 25, 2017

Four Agencies To Abolish Along With The Department Of Education, by Ryan McMaken, at mises.org. The Department of Homeland Security, The EPA, The Department of the Interior, and The Department of Agriculture should be cut along with the Department of Education according to Ryan McMaken. I would also cut 10% from the budget of all the other agencies just for starters.

The “Washington Monument Syndrome” Strikes Again As Trump Imposes Hiring Free, by Tate Fegley, at mises.org. When Government budgets get cut, the first thing a Government Agency gets rid of is the most popular programs. Because nobody notices if you cut things that aren’t important ( shouldn’t have existed in the first place). Government agencies try to protect their fiefdom, at the expense of the tax payer (in dollars and regulations).

With Sales Depressed By Soda Tax, Philly Gorcers Look To Cut Jobs As Mayor Blames “Greedy” Soda Industry, by Eric Boehm, at reason.com. Who would have thought that raising the price would mean less demand? Less demand to the point of laying off workers?

Don’t Strangle AirBnb; Cut Its Competitors Some Slack, by A Barton Hinkle, at reason.com. The hotel industry should be lobbying the Government to get rid of cumbersome regulations on their industry instead of lobbying  government to pass more regulations in an attempt to crush their competition. The consumer looses when Government intervenes.

Move Over Greece, Italy’s Crisis Will Be Worse, at zerohedge.com. The world is changing. Governments in countries attempting to control every aspect of an individuals life are being tossed out by voters. That is what BREXIT was about.

South Australia Falls Victim To Green Hubris, by Jordan McGillis, at instituteforenergyresearch.org. Mandating the use of an intermittent supply of electricity like wind comes with a price. That price is rolling blackouts when electricity use surges past the point where intermittent wind can’t keep up with the increased demand.

Billions Gone: 2016 Olympic Venues In Brazil Are Now In Ruins, by Alice Salles, at mises.org. Why do politicians think that building the infrastructure to put on a three week one and done event, like the Olympics, would have any lasting economic effect? Hosting the Olympics is a waste of scarce resources that have alternative uses.

Obama Allows Wind Turbines to Legally Kill Eagles, at instituteforenergyresearch.org. Once again the left has a choice between two competing interests. In this case they must choose between  their beloved green energy and natures creatures. Obama has made a decision that increasing the amount of eagles killed by wind turbines by 4 times the previous number, is an acceptable trade off for his beloved green energy. But what would you expect from the oracle on green energy just before he left office. Obama’s ‘Science’ Article Long On Symbolism, Short On Substance, at instituteforenergyresearch.org.

Calexit – Beat The Crowd, at zerohedge.com. We’ve talked about California wanting to exit the U.S. But the real Calexit has and is already taking place. The real Calexit is the exit of individuals from California to states that have lower taxes and less regulation. No shock here. When you increase the cost of being a resident of California, you will have fewer residences.

RESPONDING TO FAKE NEWS

MSM Touts New Poll Showing Record Obamacare Support; Ignores 14 – Point Dem Over Sampling, at zerohedge.com. Here is an example of the MSM creating fake news from a fake poll.

White House Bars CNN, NYT, Others From Media Briefing, zerohedge.com. The MSM doesn’t know how to respond to Trump when he fights back, because past Republicans would have caved in at the first sign of media pressure. This should be the new template for how to deal with media bias. The media bullies don’t know what to do when they get their nose bloodied.

CARTOONS from theburningplatform.com. (more here)

 

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Must Reads For The Week 2/18/17

February 18, 2017

THE ECONOMIC REALITY OF OIL

US Rig Count Rise Continues: What Will OPEC Do If The Market Doesn’t Rebalance? at zerohedge.com. The oil market is always balanced between existing supply and demand for oil. It may not be balanced from the perspective of OPEC, but it is always in balance. When the price of oil rose to $120 a barrel  in 2008 the oil price was balanced, and OPEC was happy, because they were the seller. But consumers of oil were not happy. Unfortunately for OPEC, but fortunately for the consumer, this price allowed the US fracking industry to enter the supply side of the market and ramp up production. As a consequence of this price increase, the fracking industry found lower cost ways of extracting oil. On the demand side, people started to use less oil because of the high price. The increased supply and decreased demand eventually reduced the price of oil to $40 a barrel. This price was ‘balanced’ at $40, but OPEC didn’t like this balance. OPEC decided to cut production which would decrease supply and eventually push the price back up. Unfortunately US fracking is now profitable in the $40-$50 a barrel range. As the OPEC cuts raised the price, to above $50, frackers were able to supply oil at this price, establishing a lower price that OPEC is not happy with, but consumers are. The OPEC ‘cartel’ doesn’t have the influence over the world oil market it once had. Thanks to the dynamic US fracking industry. Read my article: Decreased GAsolint Demand + Increased Oil Supply = Decreased Oil Prices.

Goldman Stunned By Collapse Of In Gasoline Demand: “This Would Require A US Recession“, at zerohedge.com. This is the other side of the supply and demand coin that we talked about above. Demand is collapsing. Which means the price will drop to sell off the over-supply which doesn’t coincide with the decreasing demand. The lower price will eventually bring supply and demand back in line with the desires of consumers and producers. Does this collapse mean that the economic activity is shrinking? Maybe. Or will demand go up when the price decreases? Read my article: Gasoline Consumption Is Down: Why?

HEALTHCARE  REALITY

Major Blow To Obamacare Mandate: IRS Won’t Reject Tax Returns That Don’t Answer Health Insurance Question, at reason.com. What does this tell us about Obamacare when bureaucrats don’t want any more paperwork and information? Trumps executive order providing relief from Obamacare seems to be effective.

Healthcare Is No Immune To The Laws Of Economics, by Jonathan Newman, at mises.org. This is why healthcare is not a right. Healthcare is an economic good that has to be produced by someone. You don’t have a right to take what someone produces. You have to exchange something you own for what the healthcare provider produces. Calling healthcare a right doesn’t magically change the reality that it is an economic good.

Judge Rules Health Insurance Companies Matter More Than Taxpayers, by Tho Bishop, at mises.org. The tax payers not only pay for the losses of  insurance companies who participated in government created high risk pools. We have to pay for our own increased insurance costs. Heads they win, tails we loose.

Two Health Insurance Company Mega-Mergers Collapsed Today Update (Humana Out Of Obamacare), at hotair.com. Government intervention always leads to a less optimal economic reality than would exist if the market was allowed to function freely.

DRAINING THE SWAMP

Rex Tillerson Cleaning House At State Department, by Danial Halper, at nypost.com. Getting rid of unelected decision makers who are biased toward big government (insiders) is a great start to changing the culture in the federal government.

E.P.A. Workers Try To Block Pruitt In Show Of Defiance, at nytimes.com. Who still thinks that government workers (public servants) are not biased politically. They don’t want anyone to be elected who they think will cut the size and scope of government. More unelected decision makers are going to be fired.

Over Massive Opposition, Betsy DeVos Is Confirmed As Education Secretary, at thinkprogress.org. If teacher’s unions and their allies are against her confirmation, her confermation must be a good thing. Teacher’s unions main concern is to increase the number of teachers in the country so money from union dues will increases. Educating children isn’t important to the leadership of the teacher’s unions. Although it probably is the main concern of a majority of the teachers who are members of the union.

House Republican Introduces A Bill To Get Rid Of Dept. Of Education, at zerohedge.com. Now this would really drain the swamp. Unfortunately the Republicans don’t have enough hangie down things to pass this bill.

MISCELLANEOUS

‘Medallion’ Bubble Bursts Around The World, at zerohedge.com. Who is shocked that a government created monopoly is collapsing because of an unforseen competitor. Government created artificial scarcity for Taxi medallions drove up their price. Now look who is paying the cost of this artificial scarcity. It isn’t the Government. It is the suckers who bought the medallions at the inflated prices.

Officials Continue To Dodge Attempts To Disclose Use Of Stingrays, at reason.com. Stingrays are cellular surveillance devices used by police.

Riot-Prone Mobs Are A Product Of America’s Cult-Like Education, at thefedrealist.com. Excerpt from the article: “….Today’s street theater is the culmination of decades of radical education revision. The radical Left’s systematic attack on the study of Western Civilization has essentially been an attack against the study of any and all civil societies. It is an attack n the features that make a society civil and free. Those features include freedom of expression, civil discourse, the Socratic method of figuring out truth, value of the individual, and a common knowledge of the classics of history and literature that help us understand what’s universal in the human experience.”

 

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