AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS ADDICT

Government Busybodies

300 Hours Training Required To Shampoo Hair In Tennessee, by Elizabeth Nolan Brown, at reason.com. Licensing laws to shampoo hair! Shouldn’t individuals contracting in a free market make these decisions on who should and shouldn’t shampoo hair? No say the busybodies.

California The Ultimate Nanny State, by David Harsanyi, at thefederalist.com. Go to the article and look at the list of activities you are not allowed to do. Here are a few examples: “No one can use foam takeout containers or plastic carryout bags or play online poker. You can’t purchase raw milk or caffeinated beer, and E-cigarettes are treated as if they were tobacco even if they are not.”

FDA Imposes A Slow-Motion Ban On E-Cigarrettes, by Jacob Sullum, at reason.com. I haven’t understood why the powers that be have a problem with e-cigarettes. This is just a way of getting your nicotine fix without inhaling the carcinogens that are present when smoking cigarettes. It’s safer. What’s the problem.

The FDA’s New Tobacco Rules Will Be Terrible For Cigar Smokers Too, by Jacob Greer, at reason.com. There is nothing that government won’t try to regulate out of existence.

Airbnb: Regulation Without Government, at fee.org. Most people think that if there is not government regulation through the political process, there is no regulation at all. Not true. There is private regulation through the free market if there is no government regulation. This private regulation is less contentious and costly than government regulation.

Economic Reality

Puerto Rico Says Will Default Tomorrow, Begs Congress For Help, at zerohedge.com. You do know that Congress means you and me the U.S. tax payer. When you incur more debt than you can pay off, you have to default and start over. Getting “Help” (more money), will only make the eventual default more costly. Take your medicine sooner rather than later.

This Is The End: Venezuela Runs Out Of Money To Print New Money, at zerohedge.com. This socialist paradise has printed so much money they don’t have enough money to pay for printing more money.

Elon Musk Crony Capitalist, by Veronique de Rugy, at reason.com. Musk’s Tesla Motors, Solar City, and Space X are subsidized by the government (you and me). In a true free market, these companies either made it on their own or they cut their losses and went out of business. Musk has said in the past that these companies would be profitable without the subsidies. How do we know unless they actually try to make it on their own? Could you be a successful businessman if the government gave you enough money?

Federal Bureaucrats Are Paid 78% More Than Private Workers, at fee.org. We are paying high salaries to people to do not just nonproductive work, but  in most cases it is destructive work. When these people make it more difficult for free market businesses to be productive, that is destructive. We would be better off if we paid these people to do absolutely nothing every day.

It Finally Happened: 500 Euro Notes, Will No Longer Be Produced, at economicpolicyjournal.com. When central banks artificially set interest rates it leads to this. Central banks can only implement negative interest rates if they get rid of cash. Rational people will hoard cash rather than pay to have it kept in these banks. Central bankers can’t let this happen.

U.S. Jobs Growth Slows Down In April, at marketwatch.com. I think it is amusing to here it reported that 160,000 jobs were created in April. In reality there was only a net of 10,000 jobs created. There are 150,000 jobs lost every month under normal economic conditions because of the creative destruction of the free market. So each month there has to be 150,000 jobs created just to break even. The starting point for counting jobs is 150,001. That is one job.

Is Donald Trump The Second Coming Of FDR?, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Just because you know how to make money in your chosen field, doesn’t mean you know anything about economics. Now that Donald Trump is the Republican nominee I suggest that he read Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell. That’s just for starters. I can suggest other books after he gets a base of knowledge from Dr. Sowell’s book.