Obamacare Repeal Is Dead. Here Come The Bailouts, at reason.com, by Peter Suderman, at reason.com. Outside of the freedom caucus, Republicans never really wanted to get rid of Obamacare. Excerpt from the article: “Even if congressional Republicans wanted to take another shot at rewriting the health law, they have little time left, thanks to Senate rules: The reconciliation instructions that would have allowed the bill to pass in the upper chamber with a simple majority expire at the end of the month.” Socialists of both parties want Obamacare.
If You Can’t Beat ‘Em ….Ban Em’, at ericpetersautos.com. If you can’t sell enough electric cars even with tax payer subsidies, what is your next move? Get bureaucrats to use government power to ban the sale of cars with internal combustion engines. Why would you mandate a more expensive way to travel and ban a less expensive way to travel? The only way for an economy to become and remain wealthy is increases in productivity. Banning more productive methode is how an economy becomes poorer.
Elon Musk Magically Extends Battery Life Of Teslas Fleeing Irma, at zerohedge.com. Excerpt from the article: “Tesla CEO Elon Musk has magically unlocked the batteries of every Tesla in Florida to maximize the distance that people fleeing from Hurricane Irma can travel before stopping to refuel at one of the company’s “superstation” charging centers….this is either a generous act of charity or an unnerving example of the control Tesla exercises over the vehicles it producers, or perhaps both.”
Trucker: ‘Overregulation’ Looks Like Deciding When I Work, Eat, And Sleep, by Matthew Garnett at thefederalist.com. An example of government central planners knowing more about trucking than the people who actually drive the rigs. Government busybodies know no bounds.
Republicans Furious After Trump’s DOJ Declines To Charge Lois Lerner, at zerohedge.com. This is why there is a breakdown of the rule of law. The rules only apply to us peons and not to our betters in the ruling elite.
FDA: To Keep Your Kid From Peanut Allergy, Introduce Peanuts Early, by Joy Pullman, at thefederalist.com. Try to protect kids from germs and allergens when they are young makes them more susceptible as they grow older. Don’t try to be smarter than the human immune system. It has a purpose. Let it work.
Hey Advertisers: The Data-Mining Emperor Has No Clothes, by Charles Hugh Smith, at oftwominds.com. Excerpt from the article: “The data-mining advertisement industry as it stands can’t identify which clicks are fraudulent or accidental, which ads actually trigger a sale, or which ads actually alienate potential customers. When a big advertiser pulls its online adverts and its sales remain unchanged, that tells everyone who’s paying attention something important: the industry isn’t doing a very good job for the billions it’s being paid.” As for me. I don’t pay any attention to any advertisements. The reliance on data and algorithms to predict outcomes can’t overcome the most important fundamental in economics; Human Action. Human action guarantees one thing; predicting is unpredictable.
ECONOMIC STUFF
3 Good Things About “Price Gouging“, Robert P. Murphy, at mises.org. Prices convey knowledge to producers and consumers about the supply of and demand for scarce resources. Resources are scarce under normal market conditions and have to be rationed some how. Prices are the most efficient and “fair” (I can’t believe I just used the dreaded four letter “F’ word) way to accomplish the rationing of these scarce resources. How much more are free-flowing prices needed when a disaster hits and resources become more scarce?
In an unrelated article: Which Do You Prefer: High Prices For Goods That Are Available vs. Low Prices For Goods That Are Not Available, by Mark J. Perry, at carpediemblog. When bureaucrats and politicians set price floors and ceilings on scarce goods, this will be your choice.
In another unrelated article from Mark J. Perry: Photo Of The Day: If Only There Were Some Market Mechanism To Discourage This Type Of Over-Buying. This photo shows why there should be no price controls. Let prices do their job. Free market prices utilize more knowledge than a whole army of bureaucrats and macro economists could ever possess.
How The Feds Blocked Effective Flood Insurance, by Dale Steinreich, at mises.org. When bureaucrats intervene in the market, knowledge about real world circumstances are distorted. Risk can’t be assessed properly and the cost of paying for the risk is usually shifted to the tax payer and away from the parties making the risky decision.
Does Government Spending Create More Economic Growth? by Frank Shostak, at mises.org. Government produces nothing. In order for Government to spend anything it must first take resources from producers in the real economy. So whatever amount government bureaucrats and politicians spend, is the same amount not spent by the people in the real economy because it was taken from them. Government spending produce no more economic growth than if the resources were used by the people who produced them in the real economy. In fact we can make the argument that economic growth is negative when government spends the confiscated resources. Why? Because resources are taken from wealth producers in the market and transferred to wealth consumers in the government.
CARTOONS
AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS ADDICT 