Posts Tagged ‘Economics’
Thursday, January 14th, 2016
Remember those predictions of “peak oil” certain economists/ environmentalists were pushing last decade? The idea that oil production would soon peak, supplies would soon dwindle, and gas prices would rise into the stratosphere? (And, not so incidentally, this was the reason we had to hand out billions of dollars in green subsidies for renewable energy to companies that just happened to be connected to Democratic Party bigshots.)
Back in 2008, I remember a senior New York editor telling me that science fiction convention attendance would continue dwindling because “gas prices will never go down again.” Peak oil was treated as an ironclad inevitability second only to global warming.
Yeah. Not so much.
“They’ve been talking about a peak in the global production of oil for the last two decades now and it still hasn’t happened, and I think the reality is that they are going to remain wrong going forward.”
In fact, thanks to improved technology, fracking, shale oil, and declining demand, quite the opposite has occurred, as a worldwide glut has oil down near $30 a barrel.
Once again the market has proven much better at adaptation than erroneous neo-Malthusian thinking. Anyone telling you they know exactly how things will unfold should be treated with severe skepticism.
The future’s not ours to see…
Tags:Economics, Energy Policy, Malthusian, Peak Oil
Posted in Economics | No Comments »
Monday, December 28th, 2015
I hope everyone had a merrier Christmas than I did. (My father recently went on hospice care after a two year fight with cancer, so I was back home helping my mother care for him.) Here’s a LinkSwarm to start your week with.
Inside Obama’s pity party.
Remember, Obama’s policies never fail, and all opposition to him is because his opponents are bitter clinging racists.
We live in a nation founded by geniuses but run by idiots.
“Many Obamacare customers pay more than 10 percent of their incomes toward coverage (and some paying considerably more).”
What would Democrats do to defeat the Islamic State? Not a damn thing.
Iraqi government forces retake Ramadi, the Anbar province city the Islamic State took in May.
“Two weather occurrences – the Arctic Oscillation and El Niño – are combining to shake up temperatures from coast to coast in the U.S., bringing springlike conditions to the Northeast for much of this month and leaving parts of the West colder and wetter than usual.”
2015: The year Europe reached the breaking point:
Adjusting for inflation, the gross domestic product of the 19 countries now sharing Europe’s common currency, the euro, was less in 2014 than it was in 2007. Widespread joblessness and diminishing opportunities confront an entire generation of young Europeans, especially in Spain, Italy, France and Greece. The economic malaise tinges everything: Young people resist marriage for lack of economic opportunity. Poorer European countries are experiencing brain drains as many of their best young professionals and college graduates move abroad. Numerous Greek doctors, for instance, now work in more prosperous Germany while Greece’s health system is in crisis.
Sweden tries to force a cash-free society on its citizens. Wait, did I say “citizens?” I meant “vassals.”
Spain continues to be screwed.
Democrat Jim Webb contemplating an independent run for President.
Pennsylvania’s insane, disgraced Democratic Attorney General Kathleen Kane accused of suborning perjury.
Democrats in congress have proposed a sweeping gun control bill. Because that’s always such a big electoral winner. It just kills liberals that free citizens are allowed to remain armed…
The left eat their own.
Black teenagers riot, shut down mall in Kentucky.
Another entry in the annals of criminal SUPERgenius. (Hat tip: Moe Lane.)
“Database Leak Exposes 3.3 Million Hello Kitty Fans.” This is a real headline from the real world we live in…
Here’s a swell Christmas story from Dwight.
Tags:2016 Election, 2016 Presidential Race, Crime, Democrats, Economics, El Nino, Elections, Euro, Europe, Eurozone, flash mob, Global Warming, Guns, Iraq, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Jim Webb, Kathleen Kane, LinkSwarm, Military, Obama, ObamaCare, Spain, Sweden
Posted in Border Control, Crime, Democrats, Economics, Elections, Global Warming, Guns, Military, ObamaCare | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, December 8th, 2015
It turns out that 100% inflation, widespread repression and corruption and endemic shortages of basic consumer goods are not a recipe for electoral success:
Electoral authorities in Venezuela say the opposition coalition won a key two-thirds majority in the National Assembly in legislative voting.
The National Electoral Council has published on its website the final tally of results from Sunday’s elections showing that two previously undecided races had broken in favor of the opposition, giving them 112 out of 167 seats in the incoming National Assembly. The ruling socialist party and its allies got 55 seats.
The supermajority gives the opposition a strong hand in trying to wrest power from President Nicolas Maduro after 17 years of socialist rule. It now has the potential votes to sack Supreme Court justices, initiate a referendum to revoke Maduro’s mandate and even convoke an assembly to rewrite Hugo Chavez’s 1999 constitution.
Sooner or later, socialists always run out of other people’s money.
Though Maduro is still President, there are a lot of things the new government can do to improve the lives of their citizens:
To end food shortages, the new congress can immediately lift price controls so entrepreneurs have an incentive to produce or import. The only way to strengthen the “strong bolivar,” as the late Hugo Chávez named the currency, is to make it valuable enough for people to hold. That means lifting capital controls and ending the central bank’s multiple exchange-rate system so business can get access to dollars. On current course Venezuela will run out of international reserves and face default in 2017. Restructuring debt now with creditors would make that prospect less painful.
Which brings us to oil. Chávez used the country’s energy wealth to buy permission in Latin America—and Massachusetts; remember Joseph Kennedy’s Citgo PR campaign—for his many human-rights violations. As long as governments in the Caribbean were getting low-priced petroleum from Venezuela, they voted with the military government in Caracas at the Organization of American States.
Chávez and Mr. Maduro have also traded oil for security help from Cuba’s intelligence apparatus. Putting an end to these trades would retain more resources inside Venezuela and send a signal that the days of government repression are numbered. Meanwhile, rejoice that one of this hemisphere’s lost countries has a chance at revival.
Tags:Economics, Elections, Foreign Policy, Hugo Chavez, hyperinflation, Latin America, Nicolas Maduro, socialism, Venezuela
Posted in Communism, Economics, Elections, Foreign Policy | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 28th, 2015
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before:
Germany’s Suddeutsche Zeitung reported that just two (or is it three, this past summer is one big blur) months after Greece voted through its third bailout, one which will raise its debt/GDP to over 200% on a fleeting promise that someone, somewhere just may grant Greece a debt extension (which will do absolutely nothing about the nominal amount of debt), its creditors have already grown tired with the game and are refusing to pay the next Greek loan tranche of €2 billion.
Specifically, the payment of the first €2b tranche of €3b is now sait[sic] to be delayed because Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras failed to implement reforms on schedule, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reports, citing unidentified senior EU official.
And evidently one of the latest sticking points is that Tsipras wants to prop up deadbeat home loans for houses worth as much as $331,185.
Greece edges close to default. Greece’s creditors demand reform. Greece agrees to reforms at last minute. Greece gets bailout. Greece fails to implement reforms.
Rinse. Repeat.
Tags:Alexis Tsipras, Economics, EU, Euro, European Debt Crisis, Foreign Policy, Germany, Greece, Welfare State
Posted in Elections, Foreign Policy, Welfare State | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 21st, 2015
I could roll this up into the next California vs. Texas update, but I thought this Texas Public Policy Foundation paper by Vance Ginn on why Texas’ low tax, low regulation model generates prosperity was meaty enough to be worth a separate post.
The Texas model has been touted as an approach to governance that other states and Washington, D.C. would be wise to follow. This approach promotes individual freedom through lower taxes and spending, less regulation, fewer frivolous lawsuits, and reduced federal government interference. Does this Texas restatement of the unalienable rights of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” actually promote freedom, prosperity, and jobs when compared to the largest states and U.S. averages?
To answer this question, this paper (in most cases) compares various measures in California, Texas, New York, and Florida—the states with the largest populations and economic output—and U.S. averages during the last 15 years. Five fiscal measures of economic freedom and government intervention for these states show that Texas generally leads the pack as the most free with the least government intrusion. Eight measures of the labor market indicate that Texas provides the best opportunities to find a job. Five measures of income distribution and poverty show that Texas leads in most categories with a more equal income distribution and less poverty despite fewer redistributionary policies than these large states, particularly California and New York.
Though a mere 15 pages, the paper offers up an in-depth survey of various economic metrics and studies, where Texas repeatedly comes out on top, and New York and California repeatedly come in last and second-to-last.
A few more tidbits:
In a “Soft Tyranny Index” (measuring state government bureaucracy, state spending, income tax, and tax burden) “Texas ranks first with the least government intrusion, Florida 17th, California 49th, and New York 50th.”
“Texas outpaces the rest of the U.S. in nonfarm job creation since December 2007.”
“Texas’ distribution of income is more equal compared with other large states.”
Read the whole thing.
Tags:Budget, California, Economics, Florida, New York, Regulation, Taxes, Texas, Texas Public Policy Foundation, Vance Ginn
Posted in Budget, Economics, Regulation, Texas | No Comments »
Friday, October 9th, 2015
If you want to attend tomorrow’s blogshoot/meetup/tweetup, try to drop me a line (lawrenceperson at gmail dot com) so I’ll know how many will attend.
Now the LinkSwarm:
ObamaCare co-ops are going bankrupt.
Thanks to The Magic Power of Socialism™ and an estimated 800% inflation rate, Venezuela is now the most expensive place to live in the world, at least going by the official exchange rate. “Depending on which exchange rate you use, Venezuela can either be one of the cheapest countries in the world, or the most expensive.”
Democrats last year: “All those gun-toting white racist redneck freaks from Jesusland will be lining up to vote for Hillary!” Pollsters this year: Not so much.
Hillary Clinton now totally opposes the very Tran-Pacific Partnership she helped negotiate.
“Let’s take Malcolm Turnbull at his word that it’s only “a very very small percentage of violent extremist individuals”. What is the actual percentage? In the aforementioned Malmo, where up to a thousand mostly young male “refugees” arrive each day, suppose the “very very small percentage” is two per cent. That’s 20 brand new “violent extremists” per day. During the Northern Irish “Troubles”, MI5 estimated that there were no more than a hundred active members of the IRA at any one time – that’s to say, people actively involved in shooting and killing. So Malmo is taking in the equivalent of the entire IRA every week.”
How spree killers get their weapons. Or, once again, the New York Times twists facts to fit the narrative.
Speaking of the Times, this is what happens when the professional editors and proof-readers edit and proofread professional writers.
Wendy Davis thinks the reason she lost is she didn’t talk about abortion enough. Sure, Wendy, that’s it. Go with that… (Hat tip: Perry vs. World).
The Nairobi mall attack revisited. If this report is to be believed, armed civilians actually contained the threat, then army and security forces showed up and promptly managed to start shooting each other.
“In zombie world, the man who relies on the government for his safety will be zombie chow in short order…In zombieland, there are three kinds of people: those who know how to use guns, those who learn how to use guns, and zombies.”
Remembering the Yom Kippur War.
Tags:abortion, Arab-Israeli Wars, Border Controls, Economics, Guns, Hillary Clinton, inflation, Israel, Jihad, Mark Steyn, Media, ObamaCare, Texas, The New York Times, Trans-Pacific Partnership, Venezuela, Welfare State, Wendy Davis, Yom Kippur War, zombies
Posted in Border Control, Crime, Democrats, Economics, Elections, Foreign Policy, Guns, Jihad, Media Watch, Texas, Welfare State | No Comments »
Monday, July 27th, 2015
A new trade agreement was struck at the World Trade Organization.
A new global trade agreement that eliminates tariffs on more than 200 kinds of IT products should result in lower prices to technology buyers around the world as it is implemented over the next three years.
The tentative deal, struck on Friday at a World Trade Organization meeting in Geneva, affects a wide variety of products ranging from smartphones, routers, and ink cartridges to video game consoles and telecommunications satellites. It covers US$1.3 trillion worth of global trade, about 7 percent of total trade today.
This is one of those pieces of Snooze Inducing News that could very well turn out to be A Great Big Hairy Deal. Free trade is a win-win for the nations involved, so this could potentially help alleviate the real nasty recession that’s careening down the pike at us.
A complete list of the products covered range from the excessively specific to the frustratingly general (“memories”). But a whole lot of them look related to semiconductors and semiconductor manufacturing equipment, an industry that American and Japanese companies dominate. (Almost makes me wish I hadn’t sold all my Applied Materials stock. Almost.)
(Hat tip: Slashdot.)
Tags:business, Economics, Regulation, World Trade Organization
Posted in Economics, Regulation | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 8th, 2015
Maybe those are connected, maybe not.
As Zero Hedge has been reporting for weeks, China’s stock market continues to slid with no end in sight, despite such measures as making it illegal for some people to sell stocks.
In a possibly unrelated story, trading on the New York Stock Exchange has been suspended, supposedly due to a computer glitch. Maybe that’s true, maybe not.
How does it feel to live in interesting times?
Tags:China, Economics, New York Stock Exchange
Posted in Economics | No Comments »
Saturday, June 20th, 2015
The bank runs have started in Greece. Why the Greek peeople would even keep their money in banks, having the example of Cyprus’s bank “bail-ins” before them, would keep any but the most minimal amout of cash in a Greek bank is a mystery.
Given that Greek banks are insolvent without the European Central Bank’s backstop, one wonders why Greek PM Alexis Tsipras thinks he can continue to bluff the EU caving on reform demands. It’s tough to bluff when you have no hole cards…
There’s talk of a “new” Greek proposal, which could mean Tsipras and Syriza are finally coming to their senses and giving in to EU demands, or it could be just another smokescreen. I mean, we’ve only seen about a dozen “new” Greek proposals this year that didn’t offer meaningful reform. What’s one more?
Stay tuned…
Tags:Alexis Tsipras, bank run, Budget, Economics, European Central Bank, European Debt Crisis, Foreign Policy, Greece, Syriza, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Economics, Foreign Policy, Welfare State | No Comments »
Friday, May 15th, 2015
I knew if I was just lazy enough, I could get the Friday LinkSwarm back to Friday!
“If Baltimore wants to get its economic act together, it has to get something else right first: policing.”
What the left says is the same thing the 9/11 hijackers told the passengers: “Stay quiet and you’ll be OK.”
ObamaCare exchanges are melting down across America.
Coalition airstrikes against ISIS are increasingly targeting frontline fighting positions.
ISIS list of states to be attacked strangely doesn’t include Texas. Gee, I wonder why…
Is Hillary the new Bob Dole? Without, of course, the war service or dry wit…
Real editorial, or masterful New York Times trolling? “Let Syrians Settle Detroit”.
Mark Halperin asks Ted Cruz to play “Babalu.”
“This is America: You can go to the bookstore and buy yourself copies of everything from The Basketball Diaries to The Motorcycle Diaries to The Turner Diaries.”
On the other hand, the DEA can just take your money without a trial.
Verizon buying AOL. Remember when AOL was important enough to merge with Time Warner as an equal?
I chuckled:
It’s not enough to believe in climate change, you must also abjure cost-benefit analysis of how to tackle it.
George Stephanopoulos: It’s conflict of interest all the way down. What, did you expect Renfeld to actually serve any other master? (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
“The vile dishonesty of the Democrat-Media Complex is exceeded only by the vile hypocrisy of the Democrat-Media Complex.”
Ben Carson gets to pandering early.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has said UT must turn over requested documents to its own regent Wallace Hall. So why haven’t they?
Bill to mandate E-verify for all Texas agencies moves forward.
Psychologist discusses porn and video game addition and a discussion of modern manhood’s discontents breaks out.
Seattle pizza shop closes due to minimum wage hike.
So former Smashing Pumpkins front man Billy Corgan is going to form a tranny wrestling league? The proposal seems as ill-conceived as his entire post-Melon Collie career…
Tags:AOL, Baltimore, Ben Carson, Billy Corgan, Bob Dole, Border Controls, business, Crime, DEA, Democrats, Detroit, Economics, Elections, George Stephanopoulos, Global Warming, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton Scandals, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Jihad, Ken Paxton, Kevin D. Williamson, Mark Steyn, Media Watch, Military, ObamaCare, police, Republicans, Robert Stacy McCain, Slashdot, Social Justice Warriors, Ted Cruz, Texas, Texas 84th Legislative Session, Verizon, Wallace Hall
Posted in Border Control, Crime, Democrats, Economics, Elections, Foreign Policy, Global Warming, Jihad, Media Watch, Military, ObamaCare, Republicans, Social Justice Warriors, Texas | 3 Comments »