Category: Economics

the end of the road

So, as the days get longer, and the sun comes out of it’s winter hibernation, take a ride down a country road and see the vacant houses, the barns falling down, the rows upon rows of corn and soy.

But, when you see that veggie stand on the side of the road, stop and buy something. Buy everything you can afford to locally.

Your dollar will have a greater impact when you buy anything directly from a local producer than switching to an organic item at a chain supermarket. Truly.

More and more farmers are finally starting to see the writing on the wall, and they’re trying to save themselves. They are returning to growing food instead of commodities, and more importantly they are marketing that food directly to customers, instead of selling it for pennies on the dollar to multinational packing and processing corporations.

Farmers are fiercely independent, and they are indoctrinated with the “pull-yourself-up by your bootstraps” mentality, but they can only partially save themselves. The consumer has to help save them.

Instead of Costco, spend your money at the farmer’s market. Or a buying club, or a co-op, or any farm. Buy your food direct from the farm as often as possible.

Source: the end of the road

Chinese Investors Bought These Iconic American Companies | Investing Magazine

While it’s common knowledge that many of our favorite American products are actually made in China, many don’t know that several popular American companies are actually owned by Chinese investors. It’s not always obvious until you see it for yourself – even some sports clubs have interesting foreign stakeholders.

Source: Chinese Investors Bought These Iconic American Companies | Investing Magazine

Cost of Lockdowns: A Preliminary Report

In the debate over coronavirus policy, there has been far too little focus on the costs of lockdowns. It’s very common for the proponents of these interventions to write articles and large studies without even mentioning the downsides.

Here is a brief look at the cost of stringencies in the United States, and around the world, including stay-at-home orders, closings of business and schools, restrictions on gatherings, shutting of arts and sports, restrictions on medical services, and interventions in the freedom of movement.

All of this is good news to the Communist Democrat Party.

Source: Cost of Lockdowns: A Preliminary Report

Bracken: When The Music Stops – How America’s Cities May Explode In Violence

Dark Ages can last for centuries, after sinking civilizations in a vicious, downward vortex. “When the music’s over, turn out the lights,” to quote Jim Morrison of The Doors. Sometimes the lights stay out for a long time. Sometimes civilization itself is lost. Millions of EBT cards flashing zeroes might be the signal event of a terrible transformation.

Source: Bracken: When The Music Stops – How America’s Cities May Explode In Violence

SCOTUS allows Miami to sue BANKS for its economic and social woes

But it gets worse. How is there standing in this case? Did individual borrowers who were black or Latino sue the banks and demonstrate evidence of discriminatory practices in violation of the FHA? Not a chance. It was the city government of Miami that sued the banks under dubious accusations of discrimination. Where is the injury-in-fact? How is the city a party to a “dispute” over private mortgages?

Are you ready? The argument is essentially as follows: Racist banks offered mortgages to too many black and Hispanic borrows who couldn’t afford them, which led to default, which led to foreclosures, which led to vacant houses, which brought down the values of the adjacent homes, which led to reduced property taxes, which led to more criminal and social problems, which strained the local services (fire, police, inspectors, debris collectors, etc.).

You see, had the evil banks not insidiously lent to black and Hispanic borrowers who couldn’t pay (at the coercion of government), Miami would not have gangs, drugs, poverty, and urban blight. It would be a utopia.

Another abominable, idiotic decision by John Roberts.

Source: SCOTUS allows Miami to sue BANKS for its economic and social woes

I, Pencil

An essay from 1964 that I just became aware of. This shows how inferior a command and control socialist/communist economy is to freedom and free markets. All illustrated by a simple pencil… which isn’t really as simple a product as you might think.

The above is what I meant when writing, “If you can become aware of the miraculousness that I symbolize, you can help save the freedom mankind is so unhappily losing.” For, if one is aware that these know-hows will naturally, yes, automatically, arrange themselves into creative and productive patterns in response to human necessity and demand — that is, in the absence of governmental or any other coercive masterminding — then one will possess an absolutely essential ingredient for freedom: a faith in free people. Freedom is impossible without this faith.

Source: I, Pencil

The Cost of Bad Intentions

Shriver and like-minded policymakers designed programs far more ambitious than those of the New Deal liberalism that had characterized the Democratic Party since Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s election in 1932. Though the New Deal vastly expanded the government safety net, it still recognized a connection between work and upward mobility and viewed government’s role as that of a temporary helper when someone was truly down and out. The officials behind the War on Poverty, by contrast, saw the poor as powerless, crushed by economic and cultural forces that could be overcome only with massive government help. Instead of temporary aid, welfare would now be a right, which the poor were entitled to receive, and benefits became far more generous, so that, by the late 1970s, welfare payments and other government aid now brought in about as much money as low-wage work.

Read the whole thing.

Source: The Cost of Bad Intentions

Reverend Amy Butler Outliberals Her NYC Church

Amy Butler managed to get fired for degeneracy and greed, despite being popular on the “Christian” Left.

The sex toy incident was apparently the final straw amid mounting concerns from the Riverside Church Council about Butler’s judgment, as she was seeking a $100,000 raise. She has a $250,000 annual salary and $8,000 monthly housing allowance — on top of other cushy benefits.

Obviously this is not a ‘church.’ A quarter-million salary AND 8k housing allowance? So much for helping the poor…

Source: Reverend Amy Butler Outliberals Her NYC Church