Sears Death Spiral Accelerates: Vendors Halt Shipments As Cost Of Default Insurance Soars, at zerohedge.com. This is an example of a company not keeping up with a changing market. What is interesting is Sears started as a mail order warehouse business similar to Amazon today. As population changed from rural and cities to suburbs Sears began to open brick and mortar stores. It became the largest retailer in the US until 1989. It is amazing that Sears doesn’t remember it’s mail order roots, as internet sales is similar to what their original mail order business was. The company which started as a mail order company is about to go under because of the competition from on-line businesses. No company owns a share of the market at any time as long as others are allowed to compete. Sears would have been better off lobbying Government to make selling on the internet illegal. That is what a true crony business would do.
Tesla Is The World’s 4th Largest Automaker (Despite Only Selling 76,000 Cars In 2016) at zerohedge.com. Excerpt from the article: “Tesla is producing less than 1% as many cars as GM, but is worth more in market value.” Tesla’s value is based on expectations of future sales. The fact that Tesla is being subsidized by tax dollars creates a distortion about the reality of its future sales. This is crony capitalism at its best or worst.
Are Central Banks Nationalizing The Economy, by Daniel Lacalle, at mises.org. Excerpt from the article: “ The government is not issuing “productive money” just a promise of higher revenues from higher taxes, higher prices or confiscation of wealth in the future. Money supply growth is a loan that government borrows but we, citizens, pay. The payment comes with the destruction of purchasing power and confiscation of wealth via devaluation and inflation. The “wealth effect” of stocks and bonds rising is inexistent for the vast majority of citizens, as more than 90% of average household wealth is in deposits. In fact, massive monetization of debt is just a way of perpetuating and strengthening the crowding-out effect of the public sector over the private sector. It is a de facto nationalization. Because the central bank does not go “bankrupt,” it just transfers its financial imbalances to private banks, businesses, and families.”
The Relationship Between Saving And Money, by Frank Shostak, at mises.org. This article explains the difference between real savings and money. Excerpt from the article: “Saving as such has nothing to do with money. It is the amount of final consumer goods produced in excess of present consumption……It is not money that funds economic activity but the saved pool of final consumer goods. The existence of money only facilitates the flow of the real savings.“
Grab A Beer In Philadelphia, The Soda Is Too Damn Expensive, at zerohedge.com. When a soda tax makes soda more expensive than beer, we shouldn’t be surprised when more people choose to buy beer. Will the government be held liable if we start to see an increase in drunken driving accidents?
The Eclipse: How Markets Could Have Prevented The “Traffic Nightmare“, by Ryan McMaken, at mises.org. After the eclipse there were more cars trying to travel on the highways than there was room on the highways. It was a situation of overcapacity. More demand than supply. Short supply can be rationed by increasing prices or by waiting in line. Since there was no way to make people pay, long lines were the default position.
How Welfare States Make Us Less Civilized, by Per Bylund, at mises.org. In a market people have to cooperate to get what they want. The freer the market the more civilized we become. Welfare doesn’t promote cooperation. The welfare state forcibly takes goods from producers and gives a portion of the stolen goods to non producers while keeping a portion of the stolen goods for the state. The people who are having their production stolen don’t have warm fuzzy feelings for the other two groups. The people receiving the stolen money feel entitled. And the politicians feel the increase of their power.
Overall The NFL Gets A Letter Grade Of A+ For Players” Race, But an F- For Kickers And Punters, by Mark J. Perry, at carpediemblog. Sports is great because it rewards value. Why does it reward value? Because coaches are being paid to win. And winning or getting fired incentivizes coaches to keep players because of the value they consistently produce.
Mizzou Pays A Price For Appeasing The Left, at theburningplatform.com. College administrations don’t have to give in to the leftist radicals causing problems on campuses. The fact that they do tells us they either agree with the radicals, or they are surrendering because they are cowards. The only way to change the behaviour of the administration is to make them fear losing revenue more than they either fear the radicals or agree with the radicals.
Europe Is Committing Demographic Suicide, at zerohedge.com. The Muslims are playing the long game. Excerpt from the article: “Europe is committing demographic suicide, systematically depopulating itself in what British historian Niall Ferguson has called “the greatest sustained reduction in European population since the Black Death in the fourteenth century…..Europe’s Muslims appear to be dreaming of filling this vacuum……Muslim believers know very well that their fertility is such today, that they call it…the Great Replacement. They tell you in a very calm, very positive way: ‘One day all this, all this will be ours’ ….”
Police Report: Crazed Kennedy Behavior That Got Them Arrested, at targetliberty.com. It’s not surprising that politically connected families think they are above the law.
Former U.S. Attorney On Awan Indictment: “There Is Something Very Strange Going On Here”, at zerohedge.com. This story is a perfect example of why the mainstream media is being called fake news. This story is not fake which is why the mainstream media is not covering it. They advance their ideology not just by deciding which stories we should know, but also deciding which stories they think we don’t need to know. This is fake news by omission.
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AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS ADDICT 