Posted tagged ‘Negative Interest Rates’

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Must Reads For The Week 5/7/16

May 6, 2016

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.

 

 

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Must Read “Leftovers”

April 13, 2016

Smartphone App Allows Citizens To Rely On Each Other For Emergency Services Instead Of Police, at truthvoice.com. Instead of calling 911 when you need help, you can call the app CELL 411 and alert you friends and neighbors when you need help. This is the Uber world. Great idea.

Democrat Fiscal Mess Forces Connecticut To Spurn Needy, by Mark Fitch, at thefederalist.com. Tax revenue decreased in Connecticut after to large tax increases by the Democratic legislature. Companies and retirees are fleeing to lower tax states. Young people are leaving because they can’t find jobs. When companies leave, jobs leave. You can’t tax your way to prosperity. Economic forces always prevail.

First Denmark, Now Belgium Is Paying People To Take Out A Mortgage, at zerohedge.com. How bad must it be if people are getting paid to borrow money? If loaning electronically printed counterfeit money at low-interest rates to people who couldn’t pay it back created our housing boom and bust in 08, how do you think this will turn out? Negative interest rates can’t be logically defended. Can they?

EPA Putting Red Light On Amateur Car Racing, by Kenric Ward, at reason.com. Here is an example of a tyrannical government agency. When congress creates these agencies, it abdicates its power to a bunch of petty tyrants unelected bureaucrats. Just another example of government being too big.

California Department Of Justice Raids David Daleiden’s House, at thefederalist.com. David Daleiden made the undercover videos of Planned Parenthood Selling Fetal (Baby) Parts Under “Highest Ethical And Legal Standards!“. A Grand Jury Indited David Dalieden for Organ Trafficking because he purchased baby body parts while undercover. They issued no charges against Planned Parenthood. Daleiden said, “….buying fetal tissue requires a seller as well.” Unfortunately Mr. Daleiden is on the wrong side of this issue, and Planned Parenthood is on the right side. This is an example of absolute power corrupting absolutely.

VA Strips 250,000 Vets Of 2nd Amendment Rights, at thehill.com. And people have tried to assure me that the administration doesn’t want to take our guns away. Veterans who are having trouble with their finances are being put on a gun ban list. Tyrants are good at incremental tyranny.

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Observations From The Margin

March 29, 2016

Observation Tower

-On his recent visit to Cuba our President looked envious of the power the Castro’s have been able wield over Cuba. If only he had the power to implement the total “fundamental transformation” of America that he spoke about during his campaign, we would have more economic equality. Unfortunately the gap between the ruling aristocracy and politically connected (crony capitalists) on the one hand, and the masses on the other would be much larger. Although the masses would be equally less prosperous overall.

-Why didn’t any of the players from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays try to defect to Cuba while they were playing an exhibition game there?

-Last week we heard that literacy rates in Cuba are very high and infant mortality rates are very low. Obviously these fantastic rates are the results of education and healthcare being provided by the Cuban Government. I have to ask two questions; 1) how is literacy defined in Cuba compared to the US? and 2) does the Cuban government count infant deaths during child-birth, like the US does? Apples to apples.

-Hillary Clinton recently said foreign leaders are privately reaching out to her and asking if they can endorse her to stop Trump from becoming President. She told them no, this up to the American people (read here). Does anyone believe her? Do you think she told them their donations could be laundered through the Clinton Global Initiative?

-Do you remember Charlie Trie and the Chinese funny money during the first Clinton administration?

-Central Bankers are talking about and in some cases implementing negative interest rates. It doesn’t pass the smell test but most of us don’t know why. Interest rates reveal time preference. People prefer goods in the present as opposed to goods in the future. To incentivize people to loan money (the ability to purchase x amount of present goods) to you, you would have to promise repayment of the money plus a fee, aka interest. Negative interest rates mean that depositors would be depositing money (the ability to purchase x amount of present goods) and at some point in the future would receive less money (less purchasing power) than was originally deposited. How many people would sign up for this deal? Central bankers are always trying to override economic principles. It is what Hayek called ‘The Pretense Of Knowledge‘.

-The Presidents recent indignation that the Republicans are shirking their Constitutional responsibility because they said they would not vote on his supreme court nominee is pathetic. This President, who has made it a habit of using the constitution as toilet paper, is now wrapping himself in it. Unfortunately this is not peculiar to this President. Almost all politicians show little fidelity to their oath when it doesn’t serve their political ends.

-If Hillary is elected President, will she be able to pass a FBI background check in order get a security clearance?

-Do you remember the first Clinton administration had people working for it who couldn’t and didn’t get a security clearance?

CARTOONS

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Must Reads For The Week 3/26/15

March 26, 2016

This is from Mark J. Perry at carpediemblog. “Scaling Back Government: a) A state legislative subcommittee in North Carolina recently approved draft legislation that would dissolve 15 occupational licensing boards in the state, and b) Nebraska hair braiders can’t be jailed for performing their services without a government permission slip, thanks to a new law.” This is a move in the right direction. Shrinking government is possible at the state and local levels. It is difficult at the Federal level.

Venn Diagram Sunday, by Mark J. Perry, at carpediemblog. Mark Perry’s Venn diagrams are always interesting. He shows 12 of his most recent diagrams in this post. Here is an example.

Venn7

Obamacare Turns 6 – $55 Billion In Waste, So Far, at investors.com. We had lower cost healthcare when the 30 million who didn’t have health insurance went to emergency rooms for their care. Why did we pass 2500 pages of rules to help 30 million people when they weren’t denied healthcare in the first case? Answer. Politicians wanted more power.

Under Revised Policy, College No Longer Threatens To Lock You Up For Passing Out The Constitution, at thecollegefix.com. I bet the college administrators are worried that the Marxist propaganda they’re feeding the students might have some competition.

Transgenders And School Bathroom Question Solved, at targetliberty.com. This is an outside of the box solution. “Abolish the public school system.” This would also solve a lot of other problems.

Forget “Unity” We Need The Freedom To Disagree, by Gary Galles, at misesca. In a world of scarcity and subjective value, there can be very little agreement. Using government power to force people to agree has a high cost. To have less contention between people all we need to agree on is individuals have property rights and voluntary exchange (contract). Our country was founded on these basic principles.

This Place Needs A Recession, at economicpolicyjournal.com. From the article: “The power center of America (Washington D.C.), where politicians, crony capitalists and lobbyists plot, continues to grow……..built on the backs of US taxpayers. DC needs a recession.” The growth in the power of government has allowed politicians to split Americans up into groups and pit us against each other. While we waste time bickering with each other about which party or politician has the “solutions”, government power continues to grow. We don’t realize that answers to our problems can’t come from government because the problems were caused by government “solutions” in the first place. Read (People Want A President Who Will ‘Get Something Done”.)

The Nanny Always Wins: Fantasy Sports Stop Operations In New York, by Scott Shackford, at reason.com. This is an example of private property and voluntary exchange being trumped by politicians and bureaucrats using the force of government.

German Response To Negative Interest Rates, by Paul-Martin Foss, at mises.org. Just as Japanese people responded to negative interest rates by purchasing more safes, German people are responding by withdrawing money from their accounts and putting it in safe deposit boxes. This is a perfectly logical response. But it is a response that our anointed central bankers somehow failed to see. Do you think the banks, sanctioned by government, would go into these safe deposit boxes and take the money and leave an IOU?

THE MUST READ OF THE MUST READS

Markets Are Our Best Hope For Peaceful Cooperation, by Andres Syrios, at mises.org. Excerpt from the article: “…although selfish, human beings are a social species who long for a sense of community….and while morality – such as the golden rule, may be applied universally – human cooperation and empathy are not…The question left before us is what societal arrangement does such a nature best lend itself to. Karl Marx envisioned a future that would be “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” But as the biologist E.O. Wilson cleverly noted of communism, “Wonderful Theory, wrong species.” Yes, what works well for ants doesn’t so much for human beings.”…….”Cooperation is a great thing, but it has only been shown to work in small groups. All that’s left with regards to large group interactions is force or exchange. So democracy, on a large scale, is merely people voting on if, when and how to use force against each other.” Read, Individual Liberty Is The Least Contentious Way Of Settling Differences.

 

BERNOPOLY: NEW BOARD GAME FROM BERNIE SANDERS

bern

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Must Reads For The Week 2/20/16

February 20, 2016

Justice Scalia And Constitutional Fidelity, by Andrew Napolitano, at creators.com. Justice Scalia was a great man and jurist. Here are some excerpts from the article: “Justice Scalia was the modern-day progenitor of the idea….of interpreting the Constitution faithful to the plain meaning of its words. He was utterly and unambiguously faithful to this concept……Justice Scalia argued that the Constitution means what it says; it says it is the supreme law of the land; and all American judges have taken a solemn oath to be subject to what it says. It is superior to the jurists who interpret it…..If the text of the constitution is ambiguous, it then becomes the duty of the jurist to ascertain the original public meaning of the words that form the ambiguity……Ascertaining original public meaning often requires the skills of a historian; yet, thanks to James Madison, the historical record is ample….

The rejection of this line of thinking permits jurists to interpret the Constitution in novel and creative or even destructive ways, according to their own ideologies. It permits them to adapt a meaning in the text that they wish had been there to fortify contemporary societal attitudes…..the job of the jurist, he argued, is not to adapt the text of the Constitution to public trends or cultural changes. That is the job of the Congress and the States through legislation.”

“The Court, he said, was just one creature intended to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. The Constitution is the court’s creator. No creature can be greater than its creator. He liked the Court. He loved the Constitution.”

Student Loan Debt Collection, At The End Of A Gun, by Scott Greenfield, at mimesislaw.com. Think twice before going into huge debt for college. Government is creating student loan debt serfs. Government will receive tribute payments for years to come. HT  libertypenblog.blogspot.com.

Occupational Licensing Regulations Stifle Job Creation, at reviewjournal.com. When the cost of doing any activity rises, you will get fewer people doing these activities, (just as increasing the minimum wage decreases the employment of minimum wage workers). I have the solution: The Government should start a student loan type of program for the people who have to acquire Government mandated occupational licenses! HT  libertypenblog.blogspot.com.

Tim Cook Says Apple Will Fight Order To Help Unlock iPhone, by Brian Barrett, at wired.com. Instead of getting an Apple engineer to decrypt the particular iPhone used by the San Beradino terrorists and retrieving the information, the Feds want Apple to give them the skeleton key that will unlock all iPhones, not just the terrorists particular phone. Big Government always wants more and more power over individuals. How long do you think Tim Cook can hold up against the resources and force that the Federal Government will bring down on Apple?

How Government Buys Your Support, by James Bovard, at mises.org. Excerpt from the article, “Politicians and bureaucrats realize that addicting citizens to government handouts is the easiest way to breed mass docility and stretch their power.” Politicians aren’t being charitable when they give out government largess. They are stealing, via taxation, from one group and using it to bribe another group.

Why Negative Interest Rates Will Fail, by Frank Hollenbeck, at mises.org. The Fed wants to incentivize banks to loan out the excess reserves they are holding at Federal Reserve Banks, in the hope of stimulating the economy. Unfortunately there is no one to loan these dollars to.

When Cash Is Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will have Cash, at zerohedge.com. Government wants us to use electronic numbers (money) in our bank accounts instead of actual cash. Easier to control and confiscate electronic money than it is cash.

Check Out This Rare Planetary Alignment Before It’s Gone, electronicproducts.com. Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter will be visible starting tonight (2/20/16) in the predawn all month.

five-planet-alignment-2016-01-21

The State Of Drug Use In America, at huffingtonpost.com. This article shows the drug usage in the US. It shows each states use of  tobacco, alcohol, wine, weed, painkillers, heroin, and meth. It also shows the number of deaths from alcohol and drugs.

 

 

 

 

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Must Reads For The Week 11/7/15

November 6, 2015

Yellen Says Negative Rates On Table “If Outlook Worsens“, at zerohedge.com. The Fed has kept their interest rate at zero percent for the last six years. After talking about raising the rate for almost two years, they couldn’t even raise it a quarter of a point in October. Now they are floating the idea that of a negative interest rate. I have a few questions. Do you think our economy is improving or fragile? Does the Fed really think the economy is improving? Is the Fed just propping up the financial markets at our expense?   Some of the answers are in this article, Fed Admits “Something’s Going On Here That We Maybe Don’t Understand, at zerohedge.com.

The Unseen Victims Of Export-Import Bank Cronyism, at economicpolicyjournal.com. This is bi-partisan crony capitalism. More democrats than republicans voted for Ex-Im reauthorization.

Bernie Sanders Bashes Uber, Uses It For His Taxi Rides, by Blake Neff, at thelibertarianrepublic.com. This is typical. People who hate the free market blast it, while benefiting from the goods and services created by the free market. They have no idea where all their stuff came from.

Airbnb Wins In San Francisco Vote, at targetliberty.com. The leftists in San Francisco stood up for property rights and against the hotel industry. Is this an aberration, or a ray of hope?

Pot Battle In Ohio, at mises.org. In spite of the cartel members spending millions of dollars advertising issue 3 as  marijuana legalization, Ohio voters understood that issue 3 was going to create a cartel for growing pot voting it down almost 2 to 1.

China Two-Child Policy Not Valid Until March, Government Says, at bbc.com. How many people know that China had a one child policy? The Chinese Government said they were changing because of China’s aging population, and to help their economy.

Muslim Man Warns German: “We Will Marry Your Daughters And Conquer You With Births” at zerohedge.com. Demographics is destiny. Mark Steyn wrote about this in America Alone.

Johnny Can’t Read Or Add, at tammybruce.com. All the money we spend on education isn’t benefiting the students. It’s benefiting the teachers unions and school administrators.

For World Health Organization, Red Meat Is A Red Herring, by Yuri Multsev, at mises.org. Excerpt from the article. “This new anti-meat campaign, however is not about your health, but about the “health of the planet”. WHO’s attack on meat is happening just before the Paris gathering on global warming and is a part of the slow motion socialist revolution poorly disguised as “climate change awareness”.”

Why Are More Young Adults Still Living At Home, at stlouisfed.org. Student loan debt, higher housing prices, and unemployment or low paying jobs are the reason given by the St. Louis Fed. It’s funny that all these reasons were caused by the Federal Reserve electronically printing counterfeit money and its zero interest rate policy.

It Begins: Government To Pay Doctors To Tell Patients To Kill Themselves, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Excerpt from the article: “When you are a drain on government coffers rather than a taxpayer, and the crony health insurance sector fears you will become expensive to keep alive, the government would rather see you dead.“

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