Our Sick State: I don’t quite know what you’d call these rituals, but the term “private health-care system” doesn’t seem the most obvious fit. Indeed, as in so many other areas of American life — the Fannie-Freddied mortgage market, the six-figure college education — the main purpose of these dysfunctional labyrinths ever more disconnected from any genuinely free market seems to be to discredit the very concept of a “private” …
Category: economics
Manufactured spectacle at Oakland
The police toss smoke grenades, not tear gas grenades, a short distance upwind, between themselves and the protestors. This is not riot control, it is a manufactured photo opportunity Observe the hand motion. He is tossing a smoke grenade just in front, not at the protestors. If you are wondering how heavily outnumbered protestors accomplished their goal of occupying the city hall, despite announcing it at least a day in …
Why Bernanke is not panicking
The stimulus is finally taking effect. As Zimbabwe and the Wiemar Republic demonstrate, one thing that governments armed with the ability to print fiat money really can do is stimulate. From 2009 May to 2011 November total business sales in dollars rose twenty six percent, ten percent a year, which to me, though not to Bernanke, looks like good reason to scream panic and hit the brakes, to raise real …
Ben Bernanke pledges to throw gasoline on the fire
Bernanke pledges to keep interest rates low for at least the next two years – meaning real interest are several percent negative. Large negative interest rates rapidly lead to economic crisis. “The low level of inflation is a validation,†Bernanke said. “There are some who were very concerned that our balance-sheet policies and the like would lead to high inflation. There’s certainly no sign of that yet.†Really? Sales have gone …
Inflationary crisis?
According to the US census, estimated monthly sales have gone up ten percent in dollars between 2010 November and 2011 November. Have living standards gone up? Clearly living standards are falling. Total physical volume of goods shipped by rail has been falling over the past year, consistent with the general experience of falling living standards. Can anyone explain what is going on? This looks to me like slightly worse than …
The latest evil from Google
Google has recently been nailed in two more scandals: cold calling ignorant Kenyans with a scam offer and scary lies about Google’s competitor, and vandalizing open source maps which competes with Google Maps. While Google is wonderfully politically correct, and would never dream of suggesting that black people are stupid, the scam service they are selling in Kenya is predicated on the assumption that black people are stupid.
Mitt Romneycare, enemy of capitalism
Mitt Romneycare tells us: In the general election I’ll be pointing out that the president took the reins at General Motors and Chrysler – closed factories, closed dealerships laid off thousands and thousands of workers – he did it to try to save the business. Now that is an unusual strategy for winning elections.
Economic Decline
The BLS is arguably understating inflation and unemployment.
Ron Paul, only non leftist left standing
The three major candidates are Governor Romneycare, the man who provided the model for Obamacare, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum. Rick Santorum’s nephew tells us: When Republicans were spending so much money under President Bush, my uncle was right there along with them
Economic effect of leftism
I found the 2005 and 2010 values for nominal gross state product of US states. I looked up Wikipedia for which states were right to work states. Over the five years, right to work states grew ten percent relative to non right to work states