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Must Reads For The Week 10/7/17

October 8, 2017

To Combat “Hate,” Make Government Weaker, by Justin Murray, at mises.org. Excerpt from the article: “Politicians are actively tapping into modern stress that is generated by the state itself. Emotion is a powerful political motivator. People are heavily motivated to believe things that hit their emotions strongly……..Simply asking people to get along isn’t going to work so long as there is a massive power structure in place that is driving the actual fear. If the people are afraid of the Trumps and KKKs of the world, they could demand their politicians dismantle the power structures at the federal level so it cannot be taken over by disfavored groups and reinstall them at a local level where it is far easier to control who hold the reins of power.”

San Franciscans Pissed To Learn Their Liberal Policies Caused A Wave Of Restaurant Failures, at zerohedge.com. Socialists in San Fran are dealing with the consequences of their economic policies. Restaurants are closing because of the increase in the minimum wage, heath care costs and rents. Because of the closings, it is difficult for them to find fine dining at an affordable price. The sad thing is they probably don’t understand that it is their policies that caused the closings.

To Seattle City Council: Do Higher Prices And Wages Reduce Demand Or Not? , by Mark J. Perry, at carpediemblog.

Here Are The Congressional Aides that Traded On Insider Information Over The Past Year, at zerohedge.com. This is the breakdown of the rule of law. When our “public servants” don’t have to follow the law, regular people get pissed off. Especially when they are getting dinged for a seat belt violation or speeding ticket. If laws don’t apply to them, we won’t follow the laws. The breakdown of the rule of law starts with them. Not us.

NCAA Violations Are Now Federal Crimes? William L. Anderson, at mises.org. Excerpt from the article: “So far, we are looking at what, frankly, are garden-variety (with the added twist of shoe company money) NCAA violations in which players or their families receive monetary or in-kind compensation that goes beyond the standard athletic scholarship of meals, books, tuition, fees, and board. Furthermore, the prospect of making these actions into federal crimes truly brings a new and, frankly, perilous dimension to federal criminal law.”

Obama-Era Surveillance Timeline, at SharylAttkisson.com. You must look at the timeline in this article. It will blow our mind. You have probably forgotten most of these incidences.

Utah Cop Wants To Apologize For Cuffing Nurse, at nypost.com. A few weeks ago we posted the video of the cop who temporarily arrested the nurse because she wouldn’t let him draw blood from a patient (click here to see the post). Now he wants to apologize for the “mistake” he made. Watch the video and ask yourself if this was a “mistake”. What does the word mistake mean. A mistake is when you make a math error in your check book. This guy acted intentionally.

The Progressive Octopus, at victorhanson.com. From the media, to Hollywood and entertainment, to sports, to our education system especially colleges, you can’t escape the progressive ideology. Most non progressives have reached their limit and won’t concede any more ground. Finally!

California Mulls Combustion-Engine Car Ban: “You Can Stop All Sales By 2030, at zerohedge.com. The politicians in California are going to try to do away with the economic law of supply and demand. If you out law gasoline powered cars. And you’re thinking about mandating your state go to all green energy by 2040. Can you produce enough energy to power your state? Will the price of that energy be low or high? The utopian world of politicians can’t exist in the real world.

7 Independence Movements That Could Destroy The EU, at zerohedge.com. Decentralization of government power is what the masses want. They are sick of being told what to do by the anointed. Tyrants with government sanctioned power will not want to give up that power. We are living in interesting times.

 

 

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Economic Ignorance Has Caused Our Political Chaos.

March 8, 2017

Microeconomics or Micro Economics as a Concept

What do Jeffery Sachs (economics professor at Columbia), Bill Gates, the Pope, Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress have in common?….. Economic ignorance!

Why are  pronouncements by people with authority rarely challenged?….. Economic ignorance!

I found some recent articles on economicpolicyjournl.com which have a similar theme: People with authority demonstrating their ignorance about basic economic principles.

Here are the articles.

Harvard Educated Economist Clueless About The Fundamentals Of Economics.

I Never Realized The Economic Ignoramus Bill Gates Is….Until Now.

The Pope’s Problem With Basic Economics.

Trump In Melbourne Spilling His Economic Plans And How Non-Free Market Are They.

House Republican Border Adjustment Tax Plan Gains Support In White House: Prepare For Higher Prices And Less Product.

Jeffery Sachs, Bill Gates and the Pope don’t have the power of Government behind anything they say. Their authority exists in the minds of the people who believe they have authority. They can’t force their economic ignorance on us

The President and Congress have the power of Government behind their policies. Politicians and bureaucrats can force their economic ignorance on us.

OUR ECONOMIC IGNORANCE

The increasing political chaos existing in the U.S is rooted in the economic ignorance of a vast majority of people. Both the masses, and people with “authority”, bear responsibility for our present political and economic situation.

People with “authority” being economically ignorant creates a problem because we the masses accept what they say as truth. This leads to the passage of Governmental policies which can’t produce the outcomes predicted by the people with authority.

We have the power to be a check on these people with authority. But we reinforce their authority on the one hand, and increase the economic ignorance of the masses on the other, when we don’t challenge the economic validity of what they say.

People with authority always want more power. Their power can’t be increased unless we allow it. Authority not backed by the force of Government isn’t real authority. We voluntarily give people their position of authority.

With politicians and bureaucrats it’s different. Their authority is backed by the force of Government. Our first non-violent voluntary recourse to their power is to vote the economically ignorant out of office, or not to vote them into office in the first place. Our second is putting political pressure on politicians. But this only works if a overwhelming majority of people put political pressure on them.

The ability of politicians and bureaucrats to grow their power, rests on the economic ignorance of the electorate. If the economic consequences of the policies passed by these politicians were known by the voters, they wouldn’t have been passed. Understanding basic economic principles allows us to look over the horizon and see the consequences of these policies.

EXAMPLES OF FAILED POLICIES

The Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare sounds great. But the laws of economics will not allow the ACA to lower the cost of healthcare. The costs can be shifted, but not lowered by government decree. The result of passing the ACA is chaos in the healthcare market, or what is left of a healthcare market.

Increasing the minimum wage for low skilled workers sounds great. But the laws of economics won’t allow increasing the minimum wage, above what that labor produces. The result of passing this law is fewer low skilled workers will be employed.

FORSEEABLE CONSEQUENCES

If, we the people, understood some basic principles of economics we wouldn’t allow these interventionist ideas to be planted, let alone take root.

Some of these basic principles are: 1) Scarcity, 2) Subjective Value, 3) Supply and Demand 4) Production Precedes Consumption.

Lets look at the Affordable Care Act and mandated minimum wage increases through the binoculars of scarcity, and supply and demand.

Scarcity is the first rule of economics. Scarcity simply means, “what everybody wants adds up to more than there is”. Put differently. Their are limited means available to satisfy the unlimited ends we seek. These limited means have to be allocated toward producing the ends we seek. There are two ways to allocate these means. One way is voluntary cooperation, through prices in a free market. The other way is force, through the edicts of politicians and bureaucrats using government power.

Supply and Demand is easy to understand. Put simply; More is demanded and less is supplied at a low price, and more is supplied and less is demanded at a high price. Prices reflect and drive supply and demand. If their is a sudden drop in the supply of a product, the price rises. This increase in price rations the existing supply, and sends a signal that more needs to be produced. On the flip side of the coin, if their is a sudden increase in the supply of a product, the price will go down. This decrease in price sells off the existing glut, and sends a signal less needs to be produced.

AFFORDABLE CARE ACT AND MINIMUM WAGE LAWS

The Affordable Care Act forced “30 million” uninsured people to enter the healthcare market. This meant the demand for healthcare was going to increased. Even though the supply of healthcare couldn’t be increased as quickly. (Example) It takes years for people to become doctors and nurses. Increasing the supply takes more time than the almost instant increase in demand brought about by the stroke of pen. If we apply the economic principles of scarcity, and supply and demand to the Affordable Care Act, what was going to happen to the price of healthcare? And this is not even calculating the cost of the regulations and new bureaucracy created by the 2500 page bill.

Raising the minimum wage increases the price of labor. According to the law of supply and demand, less is demanded at the high price. Voting for laws which increase the wages of people who we think are not being paid enough doesn’t help these people. Fewer people will be employed at the higher price. Many times these low skilled workers jobs will disappear all together because they can be replaced by automation. The price of labor was artificially increased to the point where it was economical to automate (read here). If we apply the law of supply and demand to the rhetoric of increasing the minimum wage, people wouldn’t have been fooled into thinking they were helping the people the law was actually hurting..

OUR CHOICES

Economic principles are always in play. Government edicts can’t negate economic reality. The political chaos we have today is the result of ignoring the reality of basic economics. We can’t wish these realities away because we don’t like the fact they limit what we demand.

I’m going to quote a person with authority at this point. So don’t take this quote as authoritative. Figure it out yourself.

F. A. Hayek a Nobel Prize winning economist, (how is that for status), said: “Planning, or central direction of economic activity, presupposes the existence of common ideals and common values; and the degree to which planning can be carried is limited to the extent to which agreement on such a common scale of values can be obtained or enforced.“

Let’s get educated in basic economics. Life is easier to understand when you understand how the world works. Here is another quote.

F. A. Hayek: “The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little the really know, about what he imagines he can design.”

We have two choices. Scarce resources can be rationed through prices voluntarily in the free market. Or Scarce resources can be rationed forcibly by politicians and bureaucrats through the power of Government. Which direction are we moving?

CONCLUSION

Political insiders of both parties have shaped the battle field into a choice between the R’s and the D’s. In reality the real battle is between the insiders in both parties who want to grow the power of Government, and people who stand for free markets and want to cut the power of government. Neither group is a majority. The majority of people are the economically ignorant. These people have been fooled into fighting the battle through the R and D paradigm.

Our job is to educate the economically ignorant. When this majority understands basic economic principles, they will they stop fighting on the fake R and D battlefield and start fighting on the real battlefield: central planning vs. voluntary cooperation.

 

Related Article – Minimum Wage Laws Create Unemployment, at austrianaddict.com

Related Article – Income Inequality Part II: Increase The Minimum Wage, at austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – The Reality Of Obamacare, at austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – The Economics of Healthcare vs. The Right To Healthcare, at austrianaddict.com.

 

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Some Econ Homework

May 11, 2016

How You Don’t Cure Poverty, by Henry Hazlitt, at mises.org. Here are some excerpts from the article:

“From the beginning of history sincere reformers as well as demagogues have sought to abolish or at least to alleviate poverty through state action…..The most frequent and popular of these proposed remedies has been the simple one of seizing from the rich to give to the poor…… The wealth is to be “shared,” to be redistributed,” to be “equalized.” In fact, in the minds of many reformers it is not poverty that is the chief evil but inequality….. all schemes for redistributing or equalizing incomes or wealth must undermine or destroy incentives at both ends of the economic scale. They must reduce or abolish the incentives of the unskilled and shiftless to improve their condition by their own efforts, and even the able and industrious will see little point in earning anything beyond what they are allowed to keep. These redistribution schemes must inevitably reduce the size of the pie to be redistributed. They can only level down. Their long-run effect must be to reduce production and lead toward national impoverishment.”

“This brings us to the subject of minimum-wage laws. It is profoundly discouraging that in the second half of the twentieth century, in what is supposed to be an age of great economic sophistication, the United States should have such laws on its books, and that it should still be necessary to protest against a nostrum so futile and mischievous. It hurts most the very marginal workers it is designed to help…..I can only repeat what I have written in another place…… We cannot make a man worth a given amount by making it illegal for anyone to offer him less. We merely deprive him of the right to earn the amount that his abilities and opportunities would permit him to earn, while we deprive the community of the moderate services he is capable of rendering. In brief, for a low wage we substitute unemployment.”

“We come now to the final false remedy for poverty to be considered in this article—outright socialism. By “outright socialism” I refer to the Marxist proposal for “the public ownership and control of the means of production”…..Now the word “socialism” is loosely used to refer to…….the redistribution of wealth or income—if not to make incomes equal, at least to make them much more nearly equal than they are in a market economy. But the majority of those who propose this objective today think that it can be achieved by retaining the mechanisms of private enterprise and then taxing the bigger incomes to subsidize the smaller incomes.”

Why Private Investment Works & Government Investment Doesn’t, at Prager University.

“When government tries to pick losers and winners, it typically picks losers. Why? Because in the free market consumers pick winners to leave the losers to Government.”

Another reason Government can’t out perform the free market is because it doesn’t have a tenth of the knowledge that exists in the free market. Also, in the market, when the individual takes the risk he knows he takes the loss if he is wrong. When the Government picks a loser it tries to keep it propped up by subsidizing it with tax dollars. The wasting of scarce resources is kept at a minimal level in the market, because the risk taker stops the unprofitable activity before too long. Resources are liquidated and put toward a more productive use according to consumers desires. Government has no such incentive to stop the nonprofitable activity. They continue wasting scarce resources long after the activity had proven unproductive. If Government bureaucrats were truly in the venture capital business, they would have gone bankrupt years ago.

Economics: It’s Simpler Than You Think, by David Gordan, at mises.org.   From the article:

“…. Skilled entrepreneurs succeed, but many in business fail. The market operates by sorting out of the successful from the failures by the test of profitability. Given this fact, it is as essential that the failures be allowed to fail as it is that those who succeed be allowed to keep their profits. Attempts to prop up failures disable the market.”

“This vital point can be used to answer a common objection to free trade. Many people object to free trade because, in some cases, foreign competition drives domestic companies out of business, causing unemployment. To the response that expanded trade creates jobs elsewhere in the economy, the reply often given is, what about the workers who do lose their jobs? They are often unable to secure new jobs as good as those they had previously. The fact that others are better off is small solace to them.”…….“In a free economy, capital migrates to talented entrepreneurs eager to pursue profitable opportunities. Innovations like the automobile, computer, and online retail services destroy jobs, but the process leads to better, higher-paying jobs … to create jobs in abundance, we must allow the free marketplace to regularly annihilate them.”

” According to Ben Bernanke, Timothy Geithner, and many others, only the massive bailouts of financial institutions in response to the collapse of the housing market saved the economy from disaster…in the financial crisis of 2008….. but it is essential to the proper working of the market to allow the businesses that had acted recklessly to fail. Had this been done, the economy could have quickly readjusted. “Capitalist societies can rebound from anything. In particular, they can bounce back from bank failures that do not exterminate human capital or destroy their infrastructure. An interfering government is the only barrier to any society’s revival, and that is why the global economy cratered amid all the government intervention in 2008.”

 

Related Article – Here is Some Econ Homework, at austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – Your Economic Homework, at austrianaddict.com.

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Must Read “Leftovers”

April 28, 2016

“Affordable” Care Collapses: Top Crony Healthcare Firm Starts To Pull Out Of Some States, at econmicpolicyjournal.com. This is no surprise. A single payer government healthcare system was the original goal of our progressive central planners. Obamacare was the first step on the road to a single payer system.

Minimum Wages Were First Designed To Keep Women And Minorities Out Of Jobs, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Excerpt from the article:  “When California legislators voted to raise the statewide minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2022, labor activists cheered. Discounting fears that a $15 minimum might cost some low-wage workers their jobs, activists and their political allies celebrated a victory for fairness and economic justice.  Progressive labor activists took a very different view 100 years ago, when 15 states established America’s first minimum wages. Labor reformers then believed that a legal minimum would hand a raise to deserving white Anglo-Saxon men, and a pink slip to their undeserving competitors: “racially undesirable” immigrants, the mentally and physically disabled, and women.”

U.S. Judge Rules Sandy Hook Victims Can Sue “Military Style” Gun Maker, at zerohedge.com. If this is true, I guess GM and Ford can be sued when an individual uses the car they produced and kills someone in an accident. I thought the person who committed the crime is the responsible party. This judge should be impeached.

From Ironic To Asinine: Global Gun Control Developments, by Dan Mitchell, at freedomandprosperity.org. Evidence is showing that law-abiding people are safer in well-armed societies.

How Central Planners Crippled Japan’s Economy, by Yonsthan Amselem, at mises.org. State regulation along with money printing by Japans central bank have created this mess. Freedom is the cure.

China Launched Yuan Gold Fix To Exert More Control Over Price Of Gold, at zerohedge.com. While we are caught up in the question of who should be on the $20 bill, China moves closer to adopting Gold as its currency.

Fundamentally Transforming America, at zerohedge.com. This cartoon is sad but true. Before Obama became  President said, “we are five days away from fundamentally transforming America.” No one asked the question, “transform it into what.”

The Progressive “Consensus” Is Dictatorship For Rest Of Us, by George Will, at jewishworldreview.com. Progressives know what is best for us, and we will not be allowed to question what they’ve chosen. This isn’t micro-aggression, this is macro-aggression.

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Must Reads For The Week 4/16/16

April 16, 2016

I HATE POLITICS!

Donald Trump Blasts Colorado GOP For ‘Corrupt System’ In Picking Delegates, at foxnews.com. Here are a couple of comments. If you are going to play in the political arena, you have to know all the rules in order to compete against the people who do know the rules. It doesn’t matter what you think of the rules, because you are not in a position to change them. I’ll use a golf analogy to explain Colorado, because Donald Trump plays golf.

Trump is playing Cruz in a match and on a par 4 Trump hits his tee shot in the fairway and Cruz hits his tee shot in a water hazard. Trump hits his second shot on the green. Under the rules, Cruz can play his ball from the water hazard with no penalty, play another ball from the tee with a 1 stroke penalty, drop a ball two club lengths from where his ball last crossed the hazard and play it form there with a 1 stroke penalty, drop a ball behind the hazard as far back as he wants as long as he keeps it in line with the flag and the point where his original ball last crossed the hazard (and you thought delegate rules were complicated) with a 1 stroke penalty. Cruz decides on the fourth option. He drops his ball 150 yds from the green which is his perfect 7 iron distance. He hits his third shot to two feet and taps in for par. Trump three puts for a bogey. Trump now complains the the rules pertaining to water hazards are corrupt. He says it isn’t fair that someone can hit it in the water and win the hole. Cruz knew the rules and used what he thought was his best option. He didn’t cheat. He played within the rules.

What if this situation was reversed and Trump hit his ball in the hazard. He than plays his third shot from the tee because not only does he not know all the rules, the caddie he hired doesn’t know the rules. After he loses the hole he complains the rules are convoluted and impossible to understand. The rules are set up so golf insiders have the advantage. The rules about hazards, water hazards, lateral hazards and out of bounds should all be the same. These rules of golf are set up so golf insiders have the advantage.

If you’re playing a competitive game (which is what politics is) you must first know the rules of the game so you don’t lose because of what some would consider a ‘loophole’. The truth is either Trump didn’t know the rules, in which case he isn’t the winner he thinks he is. He didn’t know the rules and is just trying to spin his way out of his ignorance. Or he did know the rules and decided the cost of doing what Cruz did in Colorado was to high compared to the political hay he could make by complaining about the rules after the fact. The truth is Cruz used the rules to his advantage and Trump didn’t. If you want the rules changed you have to figure out a way to use the existing rules to get in positions of power. When you get enough like minded people in these positions, you will now be able to  change the rules. The establishment became the establishment through this process. The rules are written to protect the position of the status quo by making it difficult for outsiders to overthrow them. The only way to change the status quo party system is through the electoral process. Unfortunately this change is slow and incremental which means non political people get burnt our and lose interest.

‘Equal Pay Day’ This Year Is April 12; ‘Equal Occupational Fatality Day’ Will Be In 2027, by Mark J. Perry, at carpediemblog. The gender pay gap is another political scam. Since politicians continue to think they can gain by politicizing this issue, it is apparent that we haven’t done enough to educated the ignorant. Educating the ignorant isn’t a one time and your done proposition because our education system is constantly producing new generations of ignorant citizens.

Quotation Of The Day, On The Real Minimum Wage Of $0.00 An Hour, by Mark J. Perry, at carpediemblog. Here is another issue that is a winner for politicians and a loser for minimum wage workers. Here is all you need to know about minimum wage. Less is demanded at a higher price than a lower price. This includes labor. Quote from the article by Thomas Sowell: “Unfortunately, the real minimum wage is always zero, regardless of the laws, that is the wage many workers receive in the wake of the creation or escalation of a government-mandated minimum wage, because they either lose their jobs or fail to find jobs when they enter the labor force.” Read Minimum Wage Laws Create Unemployment and Income Inequality Part II: Increase The Minimum Wage and The New, Old, Buzz Words, “Income Inequality“.

Union Leaders Champion Higher Minimum Wages But Support Loopholes To Exempt Union Workers, by Mark J. Perry, at carpediemblog. Do as I say not as I do! Unionized hotels in L.A. have been granted an exemption from paying the higher minimum wage that L.A. city council mandated. Excerpt from the article: “Critics see this as a cynical collusion between politicians and big-city labor interests. By making unions the ‘low-cost option’ for businesses seeking to avoid paying better wages, they assert, the exemptions are designed to drive up union membership – and revenue from dues – at the expense of workers.”

Campaign Lies, by Thomas Sowell, at jewishworldreview.com. From the article: “If you took all the lies out of political rhetoric, how much would be left? Apparently even less than usual this year…..The success of campaign lies depends ultimately on how willing the public is to be stampeded without bothering to stop and think.”

 RELIGIONS AREN’T EQUAL!

Canadian Newspaper Censors Refugee Abuse Of School Children, at tammybruce.com. Muslim refugees criminal behavior is happening all over the world. This is close to home. We are not exempt from this.

Gay Air France Attendants Refuse To Fly To Iran, Fear Executions, at tammybruce.com. Homosexuals are figuring out who they should fear. It’s not Christians who are carrying out executions.

ECONOMICS

The Fed Can’t Save Us, by Robert J. Murphy, at mises.org. Excerpt from the article: “Janet Yellen and her colleagues are stuck with a giant asset bubble that her predecessor inflated. If they begin another round of asset purchases, they might postpone the crash, but only by making the subsequent reckoning that much more painful…You don’t make the country richer by printing money out of thin air, especially when you then give it to the government and Wall Street.”

Cash Banned Freedom Gone, by Thorsten Polliet, at mises.org. In order for central banks (Government) to steal your money with negative interest rates, the Government must first ban cash. If negative interest rates are implemented and people still have the ability to take their cash out of the banks, Negative interest rates are useless.

Austria Just Announced A 54% Hair Cut In Senior Creditors In First Bail In Under New European Rules, at zerohedge.com. An example of government force being used to steal people’s money. I know…It can’t happen here!

THE DAY AFTER TAX DAY

“Brutus” And Our Brutal Taxes, by Gary Galles, at mises.org. One of our founders Robert Yates was a profit when he talked about the taxing power of the federal government over 200 years ago. His predictions are amazing.

101 Years Of The Income Tax, at zerohedge.com.

CARTOONS

 

 

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Must Read “Leftovers”

September 22, 2015

Bernie Sanders’ War On Chinese Bobbleheads, at reason.com. Protectionist trade policies like the ones socialists like Bernie Sanders pushes, sound similar to many of the things Donald Trump says about trade with China. These policies sound plausible at first glance, which is why many people fall for these ideas. If people would look below the surface at the economic reality of these policies they wouldn’t be fooled by slick or ignorant politicians. This short video should help.

This is just my subjective value judgement; I think economics is much more riveting when explained by an attractive woman with an Australian accent.

On Third World Sweatshops, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Many sanctimonious do gooders want wages payed to these workers increased, even though they freely chose to work in these “sweatshops”. These do gooders want to export minimum wage (floors) laws to these third world countries. Do they understand that Minimum Wage Laws Create Unemployment? How can we expect them to understand what the results will be in other countries when  they are ignorantly pushing the same policies in our country. Berkeley To Consider Raising Minimum Wage To $19:00 Per Hour, at economicpolicyjournal.com.

“Nope” & Change, at zerohedge.com. No comment necessary.

Now You Can Find Out If The NSA Is Spying On You, by Kim Settler, at wired.com. In case you’re interested, you can find out if you’ve been spied on.

High School Football Team Defies Atheist Bullies By Doing THIS, at thefederalistpapers.com. The Bell County Bobcats say their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion allows the students to lead a pre-game prayer. First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech…....  I don’t see how this can be construed to mean anything else.

Hillary Clinton Says Female Sexual Assault Accusers ‘Have A Right to Be Believed‘, at dailymail.co.uk. Don’t listen to what Hillary Clinton says. Look at her past actions when she had opportunities to believe female sexual assault accusers. “What you do speaks so loudly, that what you say I can’t hear.”

 

 

 

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Must Reads For The Week 8/15/15

August 14, 2015

The pen is mightier than the sword...

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

Fed Finally Figures Out Soaring Student Debt Is Reason For Exploding College Costs, at zerohedge.com. The Fed has figured out that when money, from debt and money printing, is injected into a particular area of the economy, it raises the price (creates a bubble). Does this revelation hold true for all of the Feds printed money that has gone into the stock market?

The Doctor Won’t See You Now, at Forbes.com.  The laws of economics will be strictly obeyed.  The money quote from the article, “Many exchange policies limit patients’ choices of doctors and hospitals in order to keep premiums down in the face of Obamacare’s intrusive regulations and costly mandates.”  Who could have predicted that?

Navajo Nation Vows To Hold EPA Accountable, at zerohedge.com.  The EPA is responsible for releasing 1 Million, 3 Million gallons of toxic waste water into Colorado’s Animus River.  Like all Government agencies they are currently blaming the contractor for the accident.  Tough luck for New Mexico and Utah who are downstream from the toxic release.  I haven’t heard a peep from the media or environmental groups about this.  I guess it’s neither illegal nor a big deal if the government does it.  I wish the Navajo nation good luck in any lawsuit.  It’s great to be the tyrant, king!

Did EPA Intentionally Poison Animus River To Secure SuperFund Money?, at zerohedge.com.  It appears that a retired geologist predicted that the EPA would foul the Animus River a week before it actually occurred.  The implications of his accusations are chilling.  Never let a good crisis go to waste?

The Battle Intensifies: Police Raid Uber’s Hong Kong Office, at economicpolicyjournal.com.  Car Wars! Return of the Jitneys continues.  At this point, a rational government would realize they can’t put the genie back in the bottle.  Protecting special interests always trumps rationality but it can’t defeat the basic laws of economics.

Going Breadless in Venezuela, at economicpolicyjournal.com.  Socialism and price controls rear their ugly head again as bread shortages are the new norm in Venezuela.  Weren’t there food riots last week?  Don’t they have a toilet paper shortage as well?  Hey, let them eat cake!  Sorry, that’s reserved for the rulers.

Minimum Wage Effect?, at Carpe Diem Blog.  January to June job losses for Seattle area restaurants reaches 1300.  While there are many reasons for declining employment, artificially raising the price of labor means you will have less of it.  Businesses must make adjustments to increased costs.  My guess is that one unintended consequence will be less tipping for servers.

China’s Currency Policy: Devastating Manipulation or a Form of Generous Foreign Aid to Americans?, at Carpe Diem Blog.  This is a very different take on China’s recent efforts to devalue their currency.  Government intervention in currency whether it is printing counterfeit money, zero point interest rates, fractional reserve banking, or devaluing will always have unforeseen and negative consequences.  As for devaluing currency, how do you jump off a cliff halfway?

The Disturbing Messages In Police Recruiting Videos, at The Washington Post.  You don’t have to watch all the videos to get the point.  Why would you stress violent confrontation in your recruiting videos?  Even the Marine Corps doesn’t do that and they have the best military recruiting videos bar none.  If it is part of the recruiting tactics then it is likely the emphasis of their training.  When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.  Make sure you check out the last recruiting video by the Decatur Alabama police.  Quite the difference!

Serfdom USA!, at economicpolicyjournal.com.  Let’s end the week with some laughs.  This is for all of the true Austrian Economics Addicts out there.

 

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Must Reads For The Week 5/23/15

May 23, 2015
The pen is mightier than the sword...

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

LETS START WITH TECH

Electroloom Is a 3D Fabric Printer In The Making, by Natasha Lomas, at techcrunch.com. This is mind-blowing. Even when I watched the video of the 3D printer in action, I thought, what am I watching? The one question I had when I watched the video was; Why did they go to China to make Electroloom into a more usable product? Why couldn’t they do what they wanted to do here? Was Government regulations a reason they couldn’t finish there work here? I’m just asking, I don’t know why.

BioBots Is A 3D Printer For Living Cells, by Natasha Lomas, at techcrunch.com. BioBots can “build 3D living tissues and miniature human organs for research and pre-clinical screening, such as drug testing as a replacement for animal testing“. You can test on more complex human cells instead of less complex animal cells. A step forward to the possibility of 3D printing usable human organs.

Bocusini Will 3D Print Your Food Like A Fine Robotic Pastry Chef, by John Biggs, at techcrunch.com. The 3D printer uses small cartridges of chocolate, fudge, sugar, and marzipan, to create tasty small objects. I the day coming when you can fill the cartridges with some type of eatable food product that can be transformed to taste like your favorite meal.

GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION

Warning: Put Away All Sharp Objects!

Illinois, Chicago Run Out Of Options, Christine Williamson, pionline.com. Years of kicking the pension can down the road has finally caught up with politicians and bureaucrats.

Where Greeks Are Stashing Their Cash—German Cars, Not Mattresses, at davidstockmanscontracorner.com. When a currency is perceived to be loosing its value, people will not hold it. They will exchange it for goods. The Greeks are getting German cars, and the Germans are getting printed depreciating currency. It’s a something for nothing exchange.

School Cafeteria Food Fight: FLOTUS vs. Students, at tammybruce.com. Students are posting photos of their paltry lunches on social media. The US Department of Agriculture has decided to post photos to counter act the students photos. All I know is, you are not going to win a social media food fight with young people if you make it an, us against them scenario.

The Governments Message For Heavily Indebted Students: Don’t Pay Us Back, at zerohedge.com. The Federal Government takes over student loans. Than it hooks students into huge debt. Now it is taking the first steps to forgive the loan balances. Is this the start of Universal College Education, like Universal Health Care. Watch out tax payers.

Regulations Holding Back U.S. Energy Infrastructure Investment, by Mark J. Perry, at investors.com. In New England, a pipeline shortage caused by unpredictable Government regulations, has led to significantly higher costs of electricity and natural gas. We’re shooting ourselves in the foot with over regulation.

Net Neutrality: Obama’s FCC Puts Internet, American Innovation At Risk, by George Gilder, at discovery.org. George Gilder knows about the economics of technology. This is ‘the’ must read of todays must reads.

DEA Strikes Again: Seize Mans Life Savings Under Civil Asset Forfeiture Without Charges, at zerohedge.com. This is a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment. How can this go on in America. This is the kind of thing that happened behind the iron curtain back in the day.

Why Minimum Wage Laws Are ‘Phased In’, (Hint: It’s An Attempt To Hide The Terrible Consequences). by Bryan Caplan, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Obamacare was and is being phased in like this. When consequences happen gradually, people don’t notice as much. Even though the end result is still the same: fewer jobs at the higher price.

JUST LAUGH OR YOU’LL LOOSE YOUR MIND

Al Sharpton’s Daughter Suing NYC For $5 Million Over Ankle She Sprained On Soho Sidewalk, at dailymail.co.uk. She said the sprain left her in “permanent pain and mental anguish”. Who says kids don’t learn from their parents?

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Observations From The Margin

November 6, 2014

Observation Tower

 

OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE ELECTION

What does the Republican party gaining control of the Senate, increasing their majority in the House, and winning Governorships in Democratic strongholds like Illinois, Massachusetts, and Maryland tell us?

-Maybe a growing number of individuals are finally seeing what big Government central planning really looks like, and they don’t like it. The President’s interventionist policies over the last 6 years made him the face of big Government. This made it possible for Republicans to run against him specifically, instead of running against a faceless entity called big Government.

– When the President said “his policies were on the ballot”, no truer statement has ever come out of his mouth. In his press conference the day after the election though, he tried to spin his way out of that statement. It didn’t work. He said the election showed ” the people” wanted their Government to “get stuff done”. No Mr. President, with all due respect, many people want You to get out of their lives and leave them alone. They want the Government to stop “doing stuff”, and/or repeal “the stuff” you have already implemented.

-I love how politicians say “the people” as if it’s a monolithic entity that has a single mind. “The People” is made up of millions of unique individuals. This fact is the reason why Big Government central planning won’t work, because one plan can’t please millions of individuals. Individuals are only happy when they are allowed to make choices based on what they value, not “the” choice that some totalitarian politician tries to force on them.

-If Republicans think that “the people” are now on their side, they are sadly mistaken. I think many individuals understood that the only way to stop the current Government intervention into their lives was to vote in Republicans and try to hold their feet to the fire. Many of us know there is no chance that the Democrat party will ever be for smaller Government. But that doesn’t mean the Republicans are for smaller Government. If establishment Republicans don’t try to stop the growth of Government, if they won’t stand up to the President, guess what happens in the next election.

-If the implementation of Obamacares employer mandate had been implemented in 2014, instead of unconstitutionally delaying it until 2015; if the shale oil revolution hadn’t created a vast majority of the new jobs the President is taking credit for; how much worse would Nov. 4th had been.

-Republican analysts  moan about the fact that Romney got 4 million fewer Republican votes than Bush got in 2004, and crow about the fact that they got 5% more votes from Independents than Obama. They say if the Republicans had turned out, they would have won. Did they ever consider that the 4 million Republican votes they didn’t get are actually the 5% increase in independents. Many Independents used to be Republicans and probably still vote Republican.

-The Republican establishment doesn’t like the tea party and the libertarian wing of their party. Why? Because the tea party and the libertarians want Government to shrink while the establishment just wants to win elections so it can take big Government for a test drive. Do we realize that we are putting individuals in power and asking them to give up some of the power they wield? How hard is it to get rid of entitlements? Being in power is the ultimate entitlement.

-Alaska (69%), Arkansas (65%), South Dakota (55%), and Nebraska ((59%), all passed laws that increased the minimum wage. How can voters in these states who voted against expanding Government on the one hand, vote for Government intervention on the other? We know that economic reality won’t allow minimum wage laws to work like the central planners planned (Read: Minimum Wage Laws Create Unemployment). But, from The stand point of individual liberty, do these voters understand that they are interfering with a contract to which the employer and the employee voluntarily agreed. Do they realize that on the same ballot they voted to intervene in individuals lives, and to stop individuals in Government from interfering into their own lives. We have a lot of work to do in educating individuals about economics and individual liberty.

-It has taken 100 years of progressivism to get to this point in time where Government is involved In every aspect of our lives. How long do you think it will take to turn the ship around? It will take more than a few elections cycles. As F. A. Hayek said, “The battle for freedom must be won over and over again, the socialists of all parties must be persuaded or defeated if they and we are to remain free men“. The battle for individual freedom is going to be won at the state and local levels. Governors have to have the stones to stand up to the Federal Government. Rolling back Government is going to happen from the bottom up not from the top down in D.C.

LET’S LAUGH!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Must Reads For The Week 10/11/14

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

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

How Michelle Obama’s Daughters Eat vs. The Rules She Has Set Down For Public School Kids, at economicpolicyjournal.com. The fact that the ruling elite don’t have to abide by the rules they impose on the benighted masses is one thing. The more important point is, a  Government that has the power to make this mandate has too much power, and is therefore tyrannical.

How The Real World Reacts When Minimum Wage Laws Raise The Cost Of Labor Above What It Produces, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Here is the money quote from the article,“If government could transform unskilled entry-level positions into middle-income jobs, the Soviet Union would be today’s dominant world economy. Spain and Greece would be thriving.”

Mayo Clinic To Bring A Medical Kiosk To An Employer Near You, by Jeff Hansel, at m.postbulliten.com. Health care “affordability” would have taken care of itself if politicians in the Democrat party would have passed legislation that moved healthcare toward a free market system instead of passing “The Affordable Care Act”. This article is an example of markets reducing costs and providing a better product for the consumer.

Obamacare Causes Wal-Mart To Cut Benefits For Some Part Time Workers, by John Lott, by johnrlott.blogspot.com. This is the opposite of what you read about in the above post regarding the Mayo Clinic. Government intervention in the free market produces outcomes that have higher costs and inferior products.

3D Printing Entire Homes And Neighborhoods May Be Just Around The Corner, by Michael Krieger, at libertyblitzkrieg.com. Technology is in the process of changing how we do things in ways we can’t even imagine. Technology is advancing  faster than Government can regulate it (the fracking revolution is another example). This gives me hope that at some point, our current experiment with big government will someday be a chapter in history that people will read about and say, “what made them think that would work”.

“Common People Do Not Carry This Much Currency”. How Police Justify Theft via Civil Asset Forfeiture Laws, at zerohedge.com. Taking money without probable cause, is only going to escalate the tension between police and citizens. Watch the video in this post, it makes great points in a humorous way.

Hong Kong Ranks First In Economic Freedom, The US Is Twelfth, at freetheworld.com. We were ranked second in ‘2000’ , but a decade of regulation, Fed counterfeiting, loss of property rights, and growth of Government has us cheering, “we’re number 12, we’re number 12”! We are not moving toward more individual, economic, and political freedom.

How The US Ranks In Corporate Tax Rates (Not Pretty), at economicpolicyjournal.com. The US has the highest corporate tax rate in the world! We’re number 1, We’re number 1!

Upcoming Anniversary: Oct. 1st Will Mark 18 Years Of No Global Warming, by Barbara Hollingsworth, at cnsnews.com. The evidence doesn’t match the chicken little rhetoric.

A Decade After Welcoming Wind, States Reconsider, by Sean Murphy, at eaglefordtexas.com. Here is a quote form the article, “Today, many of the same political leaders who initially welcomed the wind industry want to regulate it more tightly, even in red states like Oklahoma, where candidates regularly rail against government interference.” Politicians used Government subsidies and tax breaks to allow an industry to exist that would have probably had problems competing in a free market. Government picked the winner. Now they want to regulate an industry that wouldn’t have existed without the previous regulation. Here is my advice; repeal all regulations pertaining to wind, and allow the market to pick the winners and losers.

Reasons For Political Hope, by Bruce Thornton, at victorhanson.com. I know it’s hard to believe, but I am optimistic that freedom will win out over tyranny. It may not seem like it right now but there are signs that we are starting to wake up.

 

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