The pen is mightier than the sword… (Photo credit: mbshane)
What $1.4 Trillion In QE Buys The US Economy, at zerohedge.com. GDP is a measure of dollars spent on consumption. Consumption is the destruction of what has been produced. If the Fed electronically prints counterfeit dollars, it is really printing a portion of the GDP number. This counterfeit money misallocates scarce resources into areas of production that can’t be sustained when the counterfeiting is decreased of stopped. The Feds electronically printed counterfeit money can only prop up the GDP number for so long before economic reality eventually catches up. The laws of economics are always at work trying to correct what results from the counterfeiting of money. Free money isn’t free. It comes with consequences that are born by people {you and me} down the line from the people {banks, wall street brokerage firms, and our Government} who receive it first.
Texas Oil Output Hits 34 Year High, by Mark J. Perry, at aei-ideas.org. Where would the GDP number be with out the shale oil revolution on private land.
Seattle Announces $15 Minimum Wage Highest In Nation, by Alan Pyke, at thinkprogress.org, I saw this at aei-ideas.org. Here is an excerpt from the article, “There are 102,000 workers in Seattle currently earning less than $15 an hour. Raising those people’s wages will put about half a billion extra dollars of spending money into Seattle workers’ pockets. As SEIU 775 president and coalition co-chair David Rolf said in a statement Thursday, the deal “will pump nearly $500 million into Washington’s economy, proving that a higher minimum wage fuels business and job growth.” Can you see the flaw in their impeccable logic? The money that is used to pay the extra wage is coming from somewhere. It’s either coming from the consumer through higher prices, or the production process through automation which means fewer workers. You’re not creating $500 million of new goods or services, you are just changing who spends the $500. This is like taking water from the deep end of the pool and dumping it into the shallow end of the pool. No new water is being produced, you are just redistributing the same amount of water.
Will Dunbar Rise Again, by Thomas Sowell, at jewishworldreview.com. Anything Thomas Sowell writes is outstanding. Next to economics his writings on education and race are truly in his wheel house.
One Million People Dropped Out Of Labor Force In April: Labor Participation Rate Plummets To Lowest Since 1978, at zerohedge.com. The labor participation rate is the important stat to look at in determining if our economy is producing wealth or consuming wealth. The principle is simple to understand. When fewer people work, less is being produced, and when greater numbers of people work more is being produced. All this government intervention has not helped the economy at all, in fact it has made it worse than if we had let the market work its cleansing magic on previous government interventions.
The USPS Used Its Coercive Monopoly Power To Squash The Digital Mail Start Up Outbox, by Mark J. Perry, at aei-ideas. This is like the cab companies trying to get cities to regulate Uber and Lyft.
The Great Lakes Are Still Almost Half Frozen, And It Could Affect The Environment For Years, by Joseph Erbantraut, at huffingtonpost.com. In the middle of “global warming'” the planet decides to show us how arrogant we are. The planet does what it wants when it wants.
John Kerry Blasts “Propaganda Bull Horn” RT, at economicpolicyjournal.com. I guess it’s only cool when our Government has a propaganda bull horn, aka, the mainstream media.
Stressing The Grid: From Interventionism To Blackouts, by Steve Gorham, at masterresource.org. EPA regulations are going to cause coal fired power plants to close. Where will the electricity come from to replace this lost capacity? Not from wind and solar. Expect higher prices and potential rolling blackouts.
AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS ADDICT 