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Must Reads For The Week 7/1/17

July 3, 2017

FAKE NEWS?

Three CNN Employees ‘Resign’ Over ‘Russia Collusion’ Fake news Retraction, at zerohedge.com. For anyone who pays attention, does this surprise you?

Project Veritas Videos Exposes CNN for Russian Fake News, at zerohedge.com. More evidence of media bias. As if we needed more.

Liberals Suddenly Silent When Man Arrested For Murder Of Muslim Girl Is….Illegal Alien, at tammybruce.com. This story fit the mainstream media narrative. Until it didn’t!

Why The Watergate Comparison Best Fits The Obama Administration, at thefederalist.com. The Obama administration illegally acquired information. They used it for political gain. Gov. agencies were used to bludgeon political opponents.

ECON STUFF

Jim Grant Explains The Gold Standard, by Ryan McMaken, at mises.org. We need a gold standard to stop the growth of the federal government. Complex concept clearly explained by Jim Grant.

Why Sound Money Does Not Need A Central Bank, Only The Rule Of Law, by Patrick Barron, at mises.ca. Our fractional reserve banking system is a skimming operation which confiscates the value of your money. Like all counterfeiting operations the first receivers of the money benefit at the expense of everyone else.

The Money Velocity Myth, by Frank Shostak, at mises.org. Great article explaining why the velocity of money has nothing to do with its purchasing power.

Get Ready For “QT1”: A First Look At The Fed’s Hidden Policy, at zerohedge.com. After nine years of QE, Quantitive Easing (pushing counterfeit money into the economy). The Fed is now starting a QT policy. Quantitive tightening (taking money out of the economy). QE stopped the housing bubble from completely bursting (correcting). Of course the housing bubble was caused by the Feds previous easy money policy. QT is what we need to cure the previous misallocation of resources. The recession brought about by the tightening policy will be blamed on Trump, not the Fed.

OTHER STUFF

Since Seattle Placed A Tax On Guns And Ammunition, The City’s Violent Crime Rate Has Increased, at zerohedge.com. When you tax something you get less of that activity. The result of having fewer guns is the increase of violent crime.

Why The First 118 Miles For Te LA to SF Bullet Train Started In Fresno (?) And Could Cost $3.6 Billion More Than Expected, at economicpolicyjournal.com. When there is a pile of tax payer money being passed out, we shouldn’t be surprised that there would be corrupt politicians doing favors for people they know.

Wind Power Sounds Good In Theory, But Rural Residents Across America Are Voting Against It When They get A Chance, by Mark J. Perry, at carpediemblog. There are real problems with wind besides the fact that tax payers subsidize the purchase of expensive electricity.

The Age Of No Privacy: The Surveillance State Shifts Into High Gear, at zerohedge.com. No matter what laws are on the books protecting our right to be secure in our persons, houses, papers, and effects from government spying. Government officials usually find ways to ignore these laws.

New Device Allows Cops To Download All Of Your Smartphone Activity In Seconds, at zerohedge.com. Another example of unlawful searches and seizures.

Dentist Owed Over $200 Million In Illinois, at dmdtoday.com. What we see happening to individual states and cities, will eventually happen at the Federal level.

 

CARTOONS from theburningplatform.

Political Cartoons by Glenn McCoy

Political Cartoons by Steve Kelley

Political Cartoons by Lisa Benson

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Must Reads For The Week 4/1/17

April 1, 2017

Trump Threatens To Fight Freedom Caucus In 2018, Freedom Caucus Isn’t Intimidated, theblaze.com. Trump blames the freedom caucus for the defeat of the “Repeal and Replace” bill. He doesn’t understand the members of the freedom caucus are for getting government out of our lives. They understand government central planning can’t work if the goal is to lower healthcare prices. Government central planning transfers power from the individual to politicians and bureaucrats. These guys won’t be intimidated. Most of them had to fight the Republican establishment to win their seats in congress. People are mistaken if they think the Republican establishment wants to shrink the power of government.

Obamacare Explosion Could Happen On May 22nd, Here’s Why, at zerohedge.com. The Republicans won a law suit to stop tax funded healthcare subsidies in 2014.The Obama administration filed an appeal. The Trump administration has to decide whether to continue the appeal. If they decide to stop the appeal it will raise healthcare premiums because the subsidies will disappear. This is a good thing because it will allow economic reality to run its course.

Schools Ready To To Ditch Michelle Obama’s Awful Er’ Healthy Lunches, at tammybruce.com. I hope we keep getting rid of government regulations forced on us by central planning busybodies. Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act Doesn’t Work As Planners Planned.

Your Pension Will Be At The Center Of America’s Next Financial Crisis, at zerohedge.com. Government and union pension plans are underfunded. They will not be able to fulfill the promises they made.

Six Graphs That Reveal Big Problems For Student and Auto Loans, by Jonathan Newman, at mises.org. People are over leveraged. They aren’t going to be able to pay back their loan obligations. Easy credit doesn’t stimulate the economy. It creates debt serfs. It misallocates scarce resources to areas of production that can’t be sustained. It allows the financial system to skim wealth from the middle class.

The Problem With Paid Parental Leave, Xiong Yue, at mises.org. What will happen when the cost of employing a worker doesn’t cover what they produce? The labor will go away. Just like minimum wage increases. Central planners create unintended consequences.

Trump Thinks Your Car’s Gas Mileage Is….Your Business, at zerohedge.com. EPA standards for gas mileage are going to decrease under Trump. Central planners shouldn’t make these decisions. Allow consumers and producers to make these decisions.

The Real Reason Leftwing Groups Are Freaked Out By Trumps EPA Pick, at theresurgent.com. Environmental groups have been receiving money from corporations who have been strong armed by the EPA. The EPA fines Corporations for EPA violations. The EPA tells these corporations if they ‘donate’ a lesser amount to environmental groups, they will not have to pay the full amount of the fine. Government agencies aren’t political are they?

House Committee Passed Bill To ‘Audit The Fed’, at zerohedge.com. This won’t get enough support to be passed. But we need to keep putting it out there so people might get educated on the Fed.

How The Left Learned To Love States’ Rights, by Andrew Syrios, at mises.org. Finally the left agrees that the federal government has too much power. Blue State California Actually Agrees With Red State Texas: The Federal Government Has Too Much Power!

CARTOONS from theburningplatform.com. More here.

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Must Reads For The Week 2/11/17

February 12, 2017

Human Action Beats Stats In The Super Bowl, by Jeff Deist, at mises.org. Being able to predict the outcome of events relies on how many variables are constant. When human beings are the variables, the predictive nature of stats becomes less effective, if not impossible, because human beings are not constant. Who thought the Patriots were going to win when they were down 28-3? When you looked at the statistical possibilities, you had to conclude there was no way. The face that individual human actors on the field and on the sidelines were making the decisions in the second half made this impossibility all too real. If one of the Patriots 2 point conversions was not successful, or if the Falcons decision to pass late had been successful, the outcome could have been different. The clarity of hindsight allows us to judge if the decision was ultimately correct in bringing about the desired result. But at those particular moments, each decision maker, on the sideline or on the field, thought his action would bring about success, or he wouldn’t have taken his decision. People who say that they wouldn’t have made that decision are speculating about something that can’t be recreated. Can all the particular knowledge and experience of a particular person be recreated in another person? Can the situation at the moment the decision had to be made be recreated? No. It is pure speculation to say you would have taken a correct decision at these particular moments in this game. You may have taken a different decision but that doesn’t mean it would have been successful. There is also another variable that enters into whether a decision turns out as planned. The other team gets a vote on whether you are able to execute your decision as you’ve  planned it. Here is the lesson we should take away from the Super Bowl. If the coaches and the 11 players on one side of the ball can’t make their decisions turn out exactly as planned; Why would we think that the decisions by politicians and bureaucrats, that affect 330 individual actors (non constant variables) aka people, possibly turn out as planned? Thinking that politicians and bureaucrats could make better decisions for people than these people can make for themselves is ridicules. Third party decision making doesn’t work as well as allowing the decision to be taken by the individual most affected by the results of the decision.

Bill Belichick: Entrepreneur, by Tho Bishop, at mises.org. This is a great article about Bill Belichick’s decision making as the general manager and the coach of the Patriots. He has a skill set that makes him “…not only America’s greatest football mind, but one of its greatest entrepreneurs.”

“There’s A Global Riot Against Psuedo-Experts”, Nassim Taleb Explains, “This Is Not About Fascism, at zerohedge.com. Excerpt from the article: “I often say that a mathematician thinks in numbers, a lawyer in laws, and an idiot thinks in words….I think you have to draw the conclusion that there is a global riot against pseudo-experts. I saw it with Brexit,  Nigel Farage….. said “the problem with the government was that none of them had ever had a proper job. Being a bureaucrat is not a proper job”.”…….. “When Trump was running for election, I said what he says makes sense to a grocery store owner. Because the grocery guy can say Trump is wrong because he can see where he is wrong. But with Obama, he can’t understand what he’s saying, so the grocery man doesn’t know where he is wrong.”

Tightening The Money Supply Will Inevitably Lead To A Bust, by Frank Shostack, at mises.org. The last 8 years of a zero interest rate policy by The Fed, was intended to stop the correction (bust) of the housing bubble. But this housing bubble was caused by the previous money pumping by The Fed via their previous low interest rate policy. The bust is the correction. The correction is good for our economic future. But no one wants it to happen on their watch. In our present political climate, The Fed has a scapegoat in Trump if they want to be released from the blame of crashing the market.

US Government’s 2016 Net Loss “More Than Doubled” To $1 Trillion, at theburningplatform.com. Just another trillion dollar deficit that has to be paid back by the Federal Government taking the first fruits from future production.

Cash No Longer King: Europe Accelerates Move To Begin Elimination Of Paper Money, at zerohedge.com. Central planners want to control everything you do by making everything a digital transaction. Because of this many people will barter for goods and services in a black market system. Over all productivity will decrease which means the standard of living will also decrease. Central planning an economy doesn’t create more wealth. All it does is redistribute the lower of wealth produced by their interventions.

16 Fake News Stories Reporters Have Run Since Trump Won, at the federalist.com. No comment needed. Search this story (click here) and let me know if it is fake or real. I’m not quite sure either way.

CARTOONS from theburningplatform. (More Here)

 

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Must Reads For The Week 2/4/17

February 5, 2017

 

CRA: The “Regulatory Game Changer” That Could Wipe Out 8 Years Of Obama Regs In An Hour, at zerohedge.com. The Congressional Review Act could be used to repeal much of the burdensome regulations of the last 8 years. But why stop at the last 8 years?

Trump Taps Net Neutrality Critic To Lead FCC, at economicpolicyjournal.com. ‘Net Neutrality’ is a back door, or maybe a front door, into government regulation of the internet. This appointment will help neutralize this push against a free internet.

A Tale Of Two Cities…..Paris & Washington, at zerohedge.com. As Paris is ramping up environmental regulations, Washington is in the process of getting rid of burdensome environmental regulations. These regulations are a cost to businesses and ultimately the consumer. Paris is putting a ‘tariff’ on itself, while Washington is reducing the amount of the self imposed ‘tariff’. Trump should learn a few things about the results of trade restrictions, subsidies and tariffs from this. If he understands that environmental regulations are costs on businesses and consumers, he should be able to understand that trade regulations are costs on businesses and consumers.

Obama Issued A Massive Ammunition Ban Just One Day Before He Left Office, at zerohedge.com. There is no better way to get rid of guns than to make the one activity that introduces younger people into the use of firearms more expensive. Hunting is how many people are taught the safe use of firearms. People who have never been around firearms are generally fearful of firearms and can be manipulated into thinking people don’t need firearms.

Trump Regulatory Freeze Halts $180 Billion Of Proposed Obama Rules, New Study Shows, at zerohedge.com. If just putting a stop on pending regulations will save $180 billion; what happens if existing regulations are cut?

Construction Equipment Rental, at equipmentshare.com. The sharing economy makes us more productive. HT/ Carpe Diem Blog.

Iron Roughnecks Are Taking Over Oil Rigs, at bloomberg.com. Producing more with less. Fewer people are needed to man oil rigs thanks to automation. This is a good thing if you understand economics. But a bad thing if you don’t. HT/ Carge Diem Blog (click here).

Exposing The Cronyist Argument For Carbon Taxes, at freedomandprosperity.com. You know Government has too much power when big business agrees with something like this. This tax imposes costs on the competitors of these big businesses. These smaller competitors can’t afford the tax, like the big businesses can. The smaller competitors are eventually driven out. The consumer pays for this through higher prices.

Destroying The “Wind & Solar Will Save Us” Delusion, at zerohedge.com. Another example of too much Government power. Politicians use the power of government in an attempt to bring things forward in time, before it’s their time to be in the present. High cost energy from wind and solar can’t compete with lower cost energy from fossil fuels. Trying to use regulation and tax payer backed subsidies and loans to move green energy forward before its time is a waste of scarce resources that could, and should, be used in more productive activities. Unfortunately for the green energy zealots, but fortunately for us,  fossil fuels are going to be our main source of energy for a long time. But this fact won’t stop politicians and bureaucrats from using tax payer money for these green boondoggles.

Identity Politics At It’s Best Worst

As Democrat Representative Andre Carson introduces himself at a rally, you can hear Nancy Pelosi reminding him to “Tell them you’re a Muslim”.

My article this week, “Fake Headlines” , talks about identity politics.

Cartoons from The Burning Platform (More Here)

 

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Must Reads For The Week 4/25/15

April 25, 2015
The pen is mightier than the sword...

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

People Are Voting With There Feet, at washingtimes.com. In the last 10 years the population in over regulated states is decreasing and the population in states with more freedom is increasing.

Can You Solve This Moral Dilemma From A Real Job Interview, by Jason Stevens, at thefederalistpapers.org. One guy comes up with a creative solution. See if you’re this clever.

Two TSA Agents Fired For Pre-Planned Groping, at targetliberty.com. A couple of points. 1) I thought people turned in their pitch forks and horns for a halo when they became public servants? 2) Their union must not be very good because I’ve heard of union members jobs being protected for doing worse. 3) Whats the real difference between a, by the book pat down, and what these two did? Don’t you feel violated either way?

What Happened To Book Sales In Israel After A Year Of Price Controls And Minimum Payment Mandates To Authors, by Sharona Schwartz, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Anyone want to take a guess what happens with these price controls? Why do politicians and bureaucrats think that this time it will be different?

Stunned Greeks React To Initial Capital Controls And The Decree To Confiscate Reserves, And They Are Not Happy, at zerohedge.com. The Government mandated that any idle reserves be transferred to the Greek Central Bank for investment in short term state debt, (Isn’t that theft?). Something like this couldn’t happen here, could it?

DISGUSTING Republicans Vote To Hide Congress’s Obamacare Exemption, at targetliberty.com. The Senate Small Business Committee voted to not subpoena secret documents that show how the House and Senate members got an exemption from joining Obamacare exchanges. They think of themselves as the ruling aristocracy that doesn’t have to abide by the very rules they’ve forced us to obey.

Heal Wants To Be The “Uber” For Doctors Making House Calls, at targetliberty.com. This app brings doctors and patients together without any third party interference. Just as I’ve said before, Obamacare will create a free market for healthcare. Unfortunately the tax payer will have to fund both the free market system and Obamacare.

Regardless Of Obama Care, ‘Self Pay’ Primary Care Models Will Thrive, at selfpaypatient.com. This article explains that getting rid of third party pays is the way to go to fix healthcare. If Obamacare hadn’t passed, market realities would have started to fix the high cost of healthcare. Now we’re stuck with a huge Government program that tax payers will have to fund forever because Republicans don’t have the stones to get rid of it.

Get Ready For The ‘Achocolypse’: The World Is Running Out Of Chocolate, by Kate Taylor, at entrepreneur.com. A fungal disease and dry weather have cut the worlds coca supply by a third, at the same time world demand for chocolate is increasing. If prices are allowed to rise to ration this scarce resource, there won’t be a shortage, like the shortage of water that California is experiencing during this drought because of fixed prices. Read Prices Will Solve California’s Water Crisis.

Lets Laugh! Cartoons From theburningplatform.com.

Political Cartoons by Gary Varvel

Political Cartoons by Steve Breen

Political Cartoons by Glenn McCoy

Political Cartoons by Steve Kelley

 

 

 

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Must Reads For The Week 10/4/14

October 4, 2014

No America Isn’t Communist; It’s  Only 79% Communist, at zerohedge.com. Look at the 10 planks of The Communist Manifesto and tell me we aren’t traveling down the collectivist road. We’re playing incremental Russian Roulette with our freedoms.

Will You Soon Be Taxed To Use The Internet, at economicpolicyjournal.com. A moratorium keeping state and local governments from taxing the internet is set to expire if congress doesn’t act to extend it.

US Government Promises To Forgive Student Debt…If You Work For Them, at zerohedge.com. This is how bureaucrats create more  believers in Government central planning. They will eventually mandate what a students major should be in order to get the college loan that will eventually be forgiven (at tax payers expense).

The Latest Insane Scare: The Pull Of Gravity Is Decreasing Because Of Climate Change, at economicpolicyjournal.com. How do you measure the pull of Gravity?

Good Work Fed: US Now More Unequal Than Roaring Twenties And Ancient Rome, at davidstockmanscontracorner.com. Electronically printing counterfeit money by the Fed benefits the people who have access to it first. The rest of us lose purchasing power as the counterfeit money works its way through the economy. Our labor buys fewer goods and services.

What Do Uber And School Choice Have In Common? by Mark J. Perry, at Carpe Diem Blog. Uber and school choice are threats to the  taxi and public school monopolies, which is why they will fight Uber and school choice to the bitter end. Competition produces better products at lower prices, benefiting consumers.

Sensible Swiss: 62 Percent Of Voters Reject Replacing Private Health Insurance With Public System, at johnrlottblogspot.com. I guess what we did with Obamacare served as an example to the Swiss of what not to do!

Roll Over Plan: Treasury Debt Increasing, by Terence P. Jeffery, at cnsnews.com. Every year the Treasury has to redeem debt that comes due, by issuing new debt. It is similar to someone paying off a credit card with another credit card. This year the Treasury issued $8.3 trillion of new debt, in order to redeem $7.5 trillion in debt that came due. This means the Treasury (tax payers) went in the hole for another $777 billion. Oh the magic of compound interest. Look at the chart at the bottom of the article.

Drone Footage Reveals Just How Massive Hong Kong’s Protests Really Are, at economicpolicyjournal.com. After 156 years of relative freedom under British rule, Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997. Now Hong Kong wants freedom from China (read here). Hong Kong has a culture of freedom similar to what colonial America had. We fought the Revolutionary war to seceded from England. Hong Kong may be able to secede from China without going to war, much like Eastern Europe seceded from the Soviet Union in 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down. We have our own battle for freedom going on in America today. Will we lose more individual freedom to ever expanding Government, or gain back what we’ve lost by shrinking Government?

Breast Cancer Awareness: Woman Wears Bra Cam To Catch Strangers Sneaking Peek, at youtube.com. No explanation needed.

Some Humor, from theburningplatform.com.

154149 600 Hell freezes over cartoons

 

 

154191 600 Catch 22 cartoons

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Must Reads For The Week 6/14/14

June 14, 2014
The pen is mightier than the sword...

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

 

Rehypothecation Evaporation Concerns Grow, As Copper Plunges Most In Three Months, at zerohedge.com. Rehypothecation is simply selling claims on a commodity, a good, a product, etc, above the amount that exists. If the owner of the Mona Lisa wants to store the painting in your art warehouse, you give him a receipt for the painting. This receipt is a claim on a particular painting by the owner, to be redeemed at any time. What if you make a counterfeit receipt and sell it. There are now two claims on the Mona Lisa. If you own a grain elevator, farmers will store their corn, measured in bushels, in your bins, and you give them a receipt for X amount of bushels to be redeemed at any time. You don’t have to give the farmer back the exact bushels of corn he brought in because bushels of corn are homogenous, unlike the Mona Lisa. What if you started selling counterfeit receipts for the corn? What if you have twice as many claims on bushels of corn as you have bushels of corn in your grain bins?  Your theft will remain hidden until such time that you don’t have enough corn to cover a receipt that is presented. The rehypothecation of copper, and the examples of the Mona Lisa and the bushels of corn, are examples of  how our Fractional Reserve Banking System works. Banks can loan out 10 times the amount of money they hold in reserve. If they have $1million in reserve, they can loan out $10 million. Money never exchanges hands, it is transferred electronically when a check {warehouse receipt} is presented. Its a sweet deal for the banks because they get to collect interest on the electronically printed counterfeit money {warehouse receipts}. Unfortunately this counterfeit money has been released in the market and is causing the unintended consequences of misallocating scarce resources and inflation. Read  more about this topic in my article here.

Texas Mom Outraged Because Her Daughters School Won’t Allow Sunscreen, by Rebecca Klein, at huffingtonpost.com. I love it when the rules central planners make come into conflict with each other. In this case officials at the district banned sunscreen because it is a toxic substance. But what about the central planners who have regulated tanning bed use by minors because of the possible danger of skin cancer. Central planners are all or nothing rule makers. They don’t understand that life consists of tradeoffs. But more importantly they don’t understand that decisions concerning these kinds of trade offs should be made by each individual or in this case the parent.  In this case the individual has to trade off one danger, the risk of the toxicity of the sunscreen against the risk of getting skin cancer. As I have learned from reading Thomas Sowell, their are no categorical solutions, just incremental trade offs. Central planners don’t understand that the more incremental decisions they take away from individuals, and make them categorical decisions for everybody, {except for themselves} the more strife they create between us and them.

LET’S LOOK AT MINIMUM WAGE REALITY

1) A Report From The Bakken Oil Fields, Where The Jobless Rate Is 0.9% And WalMart Is Paying 2.4 Times The Minimum Wage, by Mark J. Perry, at aei-ideas.org. The Federal minimum wage rate is $7:25, as is North Dakotas minimum wage rate. Will the central planners, at the federal and state levels, mandate that the wages of these workers at the bottom of the wage scale be dropped to $7:25 an hour just to be “fair” to the other minimum wage workers in other states?  Or should the central planners pass a law that mandates a maximum level of the minimum wage? These planners apparently have more knowledge about what wages should be than the knowledge the market can bring to bear on wage rates. The market in North Dakota is obviously wrong for paying these low skilled workers over double what the mandated minimum wage is. Don’t these central planners exist to correct the inequalities produced in the market?

2) Seattle Business Charges “Living Wage” Tax In Response To $15 Minimum Wage Hike, by Jessica Chasmar, at washingtimes.com. Plans by central planners can’t work like the planners planned. Why? Because there is still enough of a free market remaining that businesses have options other than just paying the new minimum wage rate. They can raise prices like this company, they can replace labor with technology. they can replace low skilled low wage labor with more productive higher skilled higher wage labor, or they can look to cut costs elsewhere in the production process. If raising the minimum wage for low skilled labor would increase production and profit, businesses would already be paying a higher wage, just like what is happening in North Dakota because of the oil boom.

NOW LETS HAVE SOME LAUGHS

12 Things Men Do Differently Than Women, at economicpolicyjournal.com.

Pee Wee Obama, at theburningplatform.com. I’ve been trying hard not to do this, but I can’t help myself.

Compare this video of President Working Out In Polish Gym, to this, Olivia Newton John, Physical video.

I saw these cartoons at theburningplatform.com.

WHEN THESE POWER PLANTS CLOSE, WHERE WILL THE ELECTRICITY COME FROM?

149321 600 Rates Skyrocket cartoons

 COAL POWERED CARS, I PADS, AND I PHONES

149426 600 Coal Industry cartoons

SOCIALIZED MEDICINE BY ANY OTHER  NAME…..

149459 600 Making Obamacare Look Good cartoons

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Must Reads For The Week 4/12/14

April 11, 2014
The pen is mightier than the sword...

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

Equal Occupational Fatality Day Will Occur On December 20 2023, by Mark J. Perry, at aei-ideas.org. When it comes to work related deaths, a huge gender gap exists that needs to be addressed. Women earn only 7.7% of the fatalities on the job, compared to the 92.3% of the fatalities that men collect. Why aren’t women’s rights groups and opportunistic politicians screaming for equality in this area?

The Value Of A Taxi Medallion In NYC Has Increased 5X Faster Than The S&P 500, by Mark J. Perry, at aei-ideas.org. It’s simple supply and demand. When supply is restricted it makes a scarce resource artificially more scarce. The price has to go up in order to ration the scarce resource. Quote from the article, “In fact, there are fewer NYC taxi medallions today (13,605) than there were in 1937 (16,900) when the medallion system first created the NYC taxi cartel.” Ultimately the free market rides to the rescue of the consumer. Read this quote, “… the app-driven ridesharing genie is out of the bottle” and too many consumers in too many cities have “gotten a taste” of the convenience and affordability of ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft, and they’ll never want to go back to the traditional taxi cartel model….”

Former Obama Girl Finds The Light, by Chris Rossini, at economicpolicyjournal.com. I’ve found that many young people are starting to naturally move toward the libertarian ideology. This is good news because young people have more energy, are more tech savvy, and aren’t as risk averse compared to us older people. They will lead the way toward individual freedom and away from big government. Our job is to mentor them, not tell them what to do.

Is Paul Krugman The New Economic Adviser In Rahmaland? at economicpolicyjournal.com. Funny video about the economic benefits of not fixing potholes. It is a version of the broken window fallacy.

Consumer Spending “Recovery” Stalls As Pent Up Demand Fails To Appear, at  zerohedge.com. When will we learn that in an unhampered free market, spending {consumption} doesn’t create wealth, stimulate production, or make an economy grow. Spending {consumption} can only happen as a result of production. You can’t consume something that hasn’t been produced. In a hampered market counterfeiting money can bring about consumption before production. But ultimately counterfeiting destroys wealth, misallocates scarce resources into areas of production that can’t be sustained, and slows or shrinks economic growth.

The Game Is Up For Climate Change Believers, by Charles Moore, at telegraph.co.uk. People are starting to see through the man-made global warming hoax.

I saw these cartoons at theburningplatform.com.

146504 600 How To Deter Putin cartoons

146712 600 Saving for Retirement cartoons

 

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Must Reads For The Week 3/29/14

March 29, 2014
The pen is mightier than the sword...

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

Seattle Socialist Council Woman Sawant Challenged On Proposed %15 minimum Wage Law, by Essex Porter, at kirotv.com. It’s hard enough keeping a regular politician from enacting socialist legislation, how much harder is it when you vote in an avowed socialist. I saw this at economicpolicyjournal.com.

Veterans Affairs Wind Turbine, Built For $2.3 Billion, Stands Dormant, by Tom Steward, at foxnews.com. Government politicians and bureaucrats will always pick economic losers because they don’t have to suffer the cost of making a bad choice like an entrepreneur would have to in the free market. It’s easier to risk tax payer money than your own. I saw this at aei-ideas.org.

How One Hospital Deals With Identity Theft, at economicpolicyjournal.com. You can’t make something like this up.

See What A Parent Wrote On Their Childs Common Core Math Assignment, by Oliver Darcy, at theblaze.com. When you see the complicated way a student used to solve a simple math problem, you have to ask if people in education realize that time is a scarce resource. The extra time spent solving this problem could be used in a more productive way; like learning basic math.

NY Times Reporter Says The Obama Admin. Is The Greatest Enemy Of Press Freedom In A Generation, by Oliver Darcy, at theblaze.com. The press has not been hammering the administration about its abuses of our individual rights. Hopefully they are starting to see how their right to a free press is being infringed. Don’t they understand that tyrannical Governments don’t want a free press, they want the press to be their propaganda arm.

Google Backed Lending Club Brings Peer-To-Peer Lending To Business Loans, by Lena Rao, at techcrunch.com. Since the Government is trying to torpedo virtual currencies like Bitcoin, I doubt that they can be happy with this trend in lending. The Federal Reserve has a monopoly on electronically printing counterfeit money, and member banks loaning out this counterfeit money is one of the ways the Fed injects it into the economy. The Government will fight peer-to-peer lending and virtual currencies because they are a threat to the Federal Reserves monopoly on money printing, which is how the Federal Government finances its debt. I saw this article at aei-ideas.org.

College Students Fail To Name A Single U.S. Senator, at economicpolicyjournal.com. This short video speaks for itself.

Boeing Has Its Own Government Bank: Is It Creating A Bubble In Boeing Jumbo Jets, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Here is an excerpt from the article, “The Export-Import Bank of the United States is a federal agency that subsidizes U.S. exports through loans and loan guarantees to foreign buyers of American-made goods. U.S. taxpayers bear the ultimate risk if these loans go bad.” Boeing is making out like a bandit on these deals. Crony Capitalism at its best, or worst.

Police Say Ride Share App “Lyft” Violates City Ordinance, by Robert Price, at foxanantonio.com. The battle is always between  established businesses who want their monopoly status protected, and new businesses who create a new market for their service. Creative destruction is the rule in a free market, and protecting the status quo is the rule in a crony capitalist system. Politicians and bureaucrats don’t want the decisions of millions of individuals in the market to interfere with who they think should succeed or fail.

 

 

I saw these cartoons at theburningplatform.com.

 

146090 600 Obamacare cartoons

 

146013 600 March Madness cartoons

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Must Reads For The Week 2/8/14

February 8, 2014
The pen is mightier than the sword...

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

11-Year-Old Boy Suspended Under “Dangerous Weapons” Policy For Voluntarily Turning In A Non-Firing Toy Gun, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Are these school officials examples of  “smart people” with no common sense, “smart people” with an agenda, or stupid people

Where The Hell Is Germany’s Gold? by Paul Rosenberg, at economicpolicyjournal.com. The Fed won’t let the Bundesbank (Germany’s central blank) see the gold the Bundesbank has stored in the vault at the Federal Reserve. Is the gold gone, or has it been used as collateral for thousands of loans through rehypothecation. Rehypothecation is similar to a grain warehouse storing peoples soybeans for a receipt (a promise) which can be redeemed on demand, and then selling thousands of receipts on the same soybeans. There are not enough soybeans to fulfill the promise of redemption created by the counterfeit certificates issued by the grain warehouse. Rehypothecation is a version of fractional reserve banking

Schoolteacher Cheating, by Walter E. Williams, at jewiehworldreview.com. It isn’t hard to believe that, yes, even teachers act in their own self interest. Excerpt from the article, “Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, identifies the problem as district officials focusing too heavily on test scores to judge teacher performance, and they’ve converted low-performing schools to charters run by independent groups that typically hire nonunion teachers.”  Students are being sacrificed on the altar of teachers unions.

An Overselling Of Global Warming, by Mark J. Perry, at aei-ideas.org. It isn’t hard to believe that, yes, even scientists act in their own self interest. Excerpt from the article, “Science changed dramatically in the 1970s, when the reward structure in the profession began to revolve around the acquisition of massive amounts of taxpayer funding that was external to the normal budgets of the universities and federal laboratories. In climate science, this meant portraying the issue in dire terms, often in alliance with environmental advocacy organizations. Predictably, scientists (and their institutions) became addicted to the wealth, fame, and travel in the front of the airplane (quoting Garth Paltridge, one of the world’s most respected atmospheric scientists):” Tax payers being sacrificed on the altar of Global warming.

Julie Borowski Video: The Minimum Wage Hurts The People It Is Suppose To Help, by Mark J. Perry, at aei-ideas.org. I’ve written about the minimum wage in these articles, Income Inequality Part II: Increase The Minimum Wage, and Minimum Wage Jobs Create Unemployment.

Censorship By Example: Payback For Dinesh D’Souza, by Edward Cline, at capitalismmagazine.com. I found this at libertypenblog.blogspot.com. Bureaucrats and leaders using Government power to silence people who disagree or criticize them is nothing new. Our second President John Adams used the Alien and Sedition Acts to silence critics. What do you think the IRS targeting Tea Party and Liberty groups was about? When you are losing the argument on the facts you have to find another way to win, and using force is effective, ask the mafia.

Justice Scalia On WWII Camps: “..Kidding Yourself If You Think The Same Will Not Happen Again“, by Jay Syrmopoulos, at benswann.com. In the words of F. A. Hayek, “…The battle for freedom must be won over and over again…”

I saw this at theburningplatform.com.

Michael Ramirez Cartoon

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