Posted tagged ‘Ethanol Boondoggle’

Must Reads For The Week 8/9/14

August 9, 2014
The pen is mightier than the sword...

 The pen is mightier than the sword… (Photo credit: mbshane)

Federal Bake Sale Ban Set To Hit Schools This Fall, by Barry Donegan, at benswann.com. Someone must have slipped some fine print into The Healthy Hungry Free Kids Act (read here) of 2010 that added bake sales to the list of “foods sold on school grounds” that must meet “strict nutritional requirements”. This act was Michelle Obama’s baby, but in the “do as I say not as I do” world  that tyrants live in, she sang a different tune at a White House event this week (read here). She said she told her children, “….to use Instagram to take a picture of something really important rather than their food…I mean, No one really cares what you had for lunch“.  So let me see if I have this correct: No one cares about what you buy at a bake sale, except food Nazis.

FBI To Hire Contractor To Analyze Media Coverage Of The Agency, by Zach  McAuliffe, at benswann.com. In true tyrannical fashion, the FBI is warning reporters to be very careful about writing negative stories about the agency. Just like the IRS, the FBI can make the cost of writing a negative story very high. It”s a subtle threat, but a threat none the less.

Toledo Residence Should Be Complaining About Greedy Water-Hording Panic Buyers During The Cities Water Crisis, by Mark J. Perry, at aei-ideas.org. This is a great article that turns the tables on the conventional wisdom that always complains about “price gouging” during a temporary shortage caused by a crisis. Shouldn’t the greedy person that buys more than they need be the bad guy? If we would just shut up and let prices ration the goods that are in short supply, we wouldn’t demonstrate our ignorance about economic laws related to supply and demand.

Central Planners Fail To Herd Money Market Funds Into Over Priced Stocks, at zerohedge.com. Since the Fed has cut it’s QE money printing from $85 billion a month to $25 billion a month, the central planners have to figure out a way to make up the difference in order to keep the stock market bubble pumped up. They saw $2.5 Trillion sitting in Money Market funds and decided to to after it. The SEC changed the rules pertaining to these funds, creating an incentive to purchase stocks instead of keeping them parked in Money Market funds. They essentially raised the cost of parking. But like all central planners plans, people acted differently than planned. They purchased Treasury Bills instead of purchasing stocks. Central planners will never learn.

Gun Grabbing City Councilman vs. Concealed Carry Citizen, youtube. I wrote a post this week titled Anti vs. Pro-Gun Visions Of The World. The difference in these visions are on full display in this video of a city council meeting in Oak Harbor Washington.

GE Looking To Sell It’s Appliance Division, fool.com. The appliance division has had sluggish sales since the recession. Since GE is a crony capitalist entity, it wants to sell this division instead of compete in the market. It’s easier to have as many of their divisions as possible be subsidized by Government instead of having them compete in the market without Government subsidies . GE capital, aviation, healthcare, energy (wind turbins), feed off of our tax dollars.

Will Tea Partiers Sink Mitch McConnells Kentucky Senate Reelection Bid, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Mitch McConnells antics in his primary and his support of Thad Cochran in the Mississippi Senate Primary, have alienated conservatives, tea partiers, and libertarians. For many of these people this is the marginal straw that has broken the camels back when it comes to voting for him in the general election. He has upset the wrong people.

Is Thinking Obsolete, by Thomas Sowell, at jewishworldreview.com. I don’t have to say much about this article, just read and enjoy. Here is the money quote, In an age when scientists are creating artificial intelligence, too many to our educational institutions seem to be creating artificial stupidity.”

The Ethanol Industry: An Engine Of Economic Destruction, by Joseph Salerno, at bastiat.mises.blog.org. The ethanol industry is a misallocation of scarce resources into an activity that wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t mandated by Government regulation and subsidized by tax dollars. This is a combination of environmental regulations going too far, and agribusiness seeing a pile of Government money that is there for the taking. What could have been produced with all of this wasted land, labor, resources, and capital?

 

 

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Must Reads For The Week 5/10/14

May 10, 2014
The pen is mightier than the sword...

 The pen is mightier than the sword… (Photo credit: mbshane)

Parent Speaks Out At School Board Meeting, Gets Arrested For Disorderly Conduct For Violating The Two Minute Rule, by Oliver Darcy, at theblaze.com. If the school board thinks this is disorderly conduct, then many students should be arrested for how they act in school everyday. People with power will wield it when they don’t want their authority questioned. Citizens are starting to draw lines on what they will tolerate from arrogant people with power. People with power are changing  form servants of the people, to masters over the people. It’s easy to act this way when you have police in uniform with guns as the muscle behind your decrees. This escalation won’t end well.

Milwaukee Sheriff Hits Car Injures Driver, Then Charges Her For DUI, at loiter.com. Our founders warned us not to trust people in power. This is an attempt to blame the victim and cover up the truth by those who serve and protect. If the sheriffs office is willing to cover up this incident to save one officer; How much farther are political hacks and bureaucrats willing to go to cover up Benghazi, and IRS abuses to shield the President from blame.

Wind Power Costs Send Germans Back To The Stone Age, at stopthesethings.com. Germany went all in on wind power. Just as predicted the costs of energy has gone up 80%. Germans who are unable to pay the higher price, have been disconnected from the grid. Their only alternative is to use wood to heat their homes and cook their meals. Were going down this same road. Tell me again how green energy is going to lead us into the future.

The Ethanol Disaster, by Peter Suderman, at reason.com. Here is an excerpt from the article. “America’s ethanol requirement destroys the environment, damages car engines, increases gas prices, and contributes to the starvation of the global poor. It’s an unmitigated disaster on nearly every level.” I could never understand how turning food into a fuel that is not only more expensive to produce than gasoline, but gets less MPG than gasoline, was a good idea. I saw this at libertypenblog.blogspot.com.

Americas Pot Farmers Are Putting Mexican Cartels Out Of Business, by David Downs, at eastbayexpress.com. In an unhampered market Americans can still out produce just about everybody.

Milton Friedman Video: No Possible Employer, at libertypenblog.blogspot.com. This is from 1978 but it is like a broken record. Minimum wage laws hurt the very people the politicians say they are trying to help. When will we learn that the minimum wage law discussion is designed for one reason only and that is to garner votes for the politicians who support it.

Man’s Las Vegas Casino Winnings Confiscated By Police Without Any Criminal Charges, at policestate.usa.com. This is only supposed to happen in third world countries. I saw this at libertypenblog.blogspot.com.

Customer Service Actually Improves When There’s Competition Challenging The Taxi Cartels, by Mark J. Perry, at aei-ideas.org. Taxi cartels would rather spend time lobbying  Government to prohibit competition, than spending time trying to provide a better service than their upstart competitors.