We all want the safety and dependable quality that “regulation” is supposed to provide. Government can provide it to some extent, but markets can do it better, if we let them. Howard Baetjer of Towson University explains.
The city of Los Angeles agrees to pay $645,000 to settle a lawsuit that claimed L.A. sanitation workers stole or destroyed property of homeless people during periodic clean-up efforts in the city’s sprawling Skid Row area. Do homeless people have a Constitutional right to squat on public property, stockpile pallets, refrigerators and other scavenged items, and generally drag down property values and tourist appeal? Bill Whittle Now deals with the news of the day from a foundation of conservative principles five times each week. If you enjoyed this, you’re the kind of person who becomes a producer of this — and 47 other shows each month. Join us today at https://BillWhittle.com/register/
“Debate: What To Do About Poverty” by @LearnLiberty ► Get Learn Liberty updates in your inbox! http://LearnLiberty.org/subscribe This Learn Liberty debate presents arguments for and against more government assistance to help the poor in the United States. Prof. Steven Horwitz argues that the government has created too many problems and that lifting government-imposed barriers to the poor will go a long way toward solving the problems of inequality in the United States. Prof. Jeffrey Reiman takes the view that government, while not perfect, will have a key role to play in creating better programs to help the poor. What do you think? * This debate was filmed in front of a live audience at the 2013 International Students for Liberty Conference in Washington, DC
What if there were no prices? How would you use available resources? To appreciate why market prices are essential to human well-being, consider what a fix we would be in without them. Suppose you were the commissar of railroads in the old Soviet Union. Markets and prices have been banished. You and your comrades. Passionate communists all. Now, directly plan how to use available resources. You want a railroad from city A to city B, but between the cities is a mountain range. Suppose somehow you know that the railroad once built. Will serve the nation equally well. Whether it goes through the mountains or around. If you build through the mountains, you’ll use much less steel for the tracks. Because that route is shorter. But you’ll use a great deal of engineering to design the trestles and tunnels needed to cross the rough terrain. That matters because engineering is also needed to design irrigation systems, mines, harbor installations and other structures. And you don’t want to tie up engineering on your railroad if it would be more valuable designing those other structures instead. You can save engineering for other projects. If you build around the mountains on level ground. But that way you’ll use much more steel rail to go the longer distance and steel is also needed for other purposes. For vehicles, girders, ships, pots and pans and thousands of other things. Which route should you choose for the good of the nation? To answer, you would need to determine which bundle of resources is less urgently needed for other purposes. The large amount of engineering and small amount of steel for the route through the mountains, where the small amount of engineering and large amount of steel for the roundabout route. But how could you find out the urgency of need for engineering and steel in other uses? Find out more as Professor Howard Baetjer Jr. from Towson University explains market prices through the railroad thought experiment.
QUESTION: Good day Mr. Armstrong, I have been a student of yours since 2001 and am always amazed at your work. I am not one that can afford to go to your seminars, but would love to know all that you discuss there. Could you write a book about what all is discussed there?
My question is, I am in the process of moving from California, due to politics and their financial mismanagement. I am in escrow, but I am afraid of where to put my money from the sale of my home, it is my retirement, as I have put all of my savings into the home over the years. I plan on moving to a location with lower taxes and lower home prices and purchasing a home much less in price and save the rest of the money in case social security runs out. Are banks going to be a safe place to put money, or maybe a high paying dividend stock, or should I just bury it in my new homes backyard?? This is really quite frightening as I do not want to be forced out into the streets as a poor person after working hard for 65 years! We are very, very frugal so do not need a lot of income, just do not want to loose what we have. Thank you so much, and sorry to bother you, as I know you are very busy.
Bill
ANSWER: U.S. banks will probably be safe in general for the next two years. Just anything you put in a bank, do not lock it in long-term. Stay short-term — 2021 is where things start to go nuts.
As far as good equities, we will be in a position to look at that next year. As far as places, look at Texas or Florida. Florida has the better place for housing (homestead). Also, there is a high concentration of retired people in Florida. That provides greater resistance to dramatic changes
You keep stating that the center of Finance will move to China. However, the world distrusts China, rightly so. How can they become the Financial Center if no one trusts them?
RLK
ANSWER: That will come only after 2032. Keep in mind, the West will be tested and the failed system of continually borrowing is why the confidence in the West will break. After that, it will become the lesser of two evils. The financial capital of the world always migrates. The British never saw how America could take their crown. Throw in a world war, and capital moves. I have dealt with this issue in detail. That report is available (see the Store for “China on the Rise”). It is available in printed form or in digital forma
Making the assumption that Iowa voters are the most engaged current Democrats; and considering that all candidates have spent the most time there so far; it’s worth taking a look at how Iowa Democrat voters are aligning with their field of candidates.
According to the latest CNN Poll of likely Iowa voters, Creepy Joe leads the way with 34%; followed by Crazy Bernie at 16%; Indian Liz sneaking up with 15%; Dopey Buttigieg jumping to the four position with 14%; and media darling Spank-Me Harris at 7%.
All other candidates, including Booker and Beto, are not attracting much Iowa support beyond their campaign team paychecks. Down twinkles…
WASHINGTON (CNN) – Joe Biden leads as the top choice of likely participants in the first-in-the-nation Iowa Democratic caucuses, but his advantage there is smaller than the one he has held in recent national polling, even as just five candidates out of a field of 23 crack 5% support.
A new CNN/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll conducted by Selzer and Co., finds Biden leads among both those who plan to participate in the caucuses the traditional, in-person way, or via a new process for caucusing virtually.
Overall, 24% say they favor the former vice president, with 16% backing Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, 15% Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and 14% South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg. California Sen. Kamala Harris rounds out the five over 5% with 7% support.
Biden has regularly been above 30% in national polling since announcing his candidacy in April, with his nearest competitor trailing by double-digits. But there hasn’t been high-quality polling in Iowa since his entry to the race. (read more)
Obviously it’s still early, but barring an unforeseen late entry, it looks like the Iowa final tier is going to be Biden, Sanders, Warren, Buttigieg, and Harris.
Statistically, barring some unpredictable event, however the polling data aligns July 1st, 2019 through August 1st, 2019, will be the exact same line-up outcome when the first 2020 primary is held seven months later. It won’t change much (if at all) between August 1st 2019, and the 2020 Iowa caucus.
The DNC has a LOW-ENERGY problem, and a lack of authenticity problem, and they know it. Yes, it’s still a hot mess….
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Knowing it’s likely the ♦UniParty DNC is following a similar ♦UniParty RNC strategy, we can combine the personal characteristics and political traits together and contrast them against the similarly sized GOP field in 2016. Here’s the way it looks:
♦Governor Jeb Bush was to 2016 as…. Vice-President Joe Biden is to 2020
Senator Ted Cruz was to 2016…. as Senator Elizabeth Warren is to 2020
Governor John Kasich was to 2016… as Senator Bernie Sanders is to 2020
Senator Marco Rubio was to 2016… as Mayor Pete Buttigieg is to 2020
Dr. Ben Carson was to 2016… as Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke is to 2020
Governor Rick Perry was to 2016…. as Senator Kamala Harris is to 2020
Senator Lindsey Graham was to 2016 as… Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is to 2020
Governor Mike Huckabee was to 2016… as Senator Corey Booker is to 2020
Senator Rand Paul was to 2016…. as Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard is to 2020
Governor Chris Christie was to 2016 as… Governor J. Hickenlooper is to 2020
Governor Scott Walker was to 2016 as… Governor Jay Inslee is to 2020
Senator Rick Santorum was to 2016…. as Senator Andrew Yang is to 2020
Governor George Pataki was to 2016 as…. John Delaney is to 2020
Governor Bobby Jindal was to 2016…. as Julian Castro is to 2020
Carly Fiorina was to 2016 as…. Senator Amy Klobuchar is to 2020
Governor Jim Gilmore was to 2016 as… Rep. Tim Ryan is to 2020
Gas Station Sushi was to 2016 as… Eric Swalwell is to 2020
Eating Steak with a Spork was to 2016 as… Michael Bennet is to 2020
Drinking a bucket of sweat was to 2016 as… Steve Bullock is to 2020
Inhaling a fly was to 2016 as…. Marianne Williamson is to 2020
Free Chinese WiFi was to 2016…. as Wayne Messam is to 2020
I am a huge fan of yours and have followed your blog for probably 8 years now, I watched your many predictions using the AI models and have been amazed by their accuracy. I am a very concerned small investor and with this big shift coming in the ECM in January 2020 am wondering where you think I should be invested… Gold, the DOW, real estate, cash? I have bought far out of the money Jan 2021 GLD options which are extremely cheap right now. How do you best recommend your fans to position themselves for the coming storm?
Hopefully I will be able to make your next conference.
All the best.
Sincerely
RW
ANSWER: It is still too early to make a reliable forecast just yet. But generally, the next wave of the ECM business cycle should be an inflationary one. It certainly appears that all of this Quantitative Easing has caused tremendous damage and has now trapped the central banks to the point that the biggest debtor is the government. They have tried to use interest rates under Keynesian economics to manipulate “demand,” which is used to force us to borrow or stop borrowing. But all of these manipulations have no impact on preventing government borrowing. The danger now is that after 10 years of QE, governments are addicted to low interest rates and raising them this time will blow up the government budgets. They will respond by raising taxes to try to keep the ball rolling, but that will result in civil unrest and deflation
I appreciate all you share. I watched a series on the Great Depression and they talk about how socialism saved capitalism. If true, is this part of a healthy cycle between the two? Could anything have been done to prevent the Great Depression?
Thank you!
LB
ANSWER: It was not socialism that saved capitalism, it was a shift in the understanding of money itself. George Warren convinced Roosevelt to devalue the dollar and end AUSTERITY, as Germany imposes on Europe today, which reversed the economy.
The Dust Bowl was the primary cause of the rise in unemployment to 25%. In 1900, 41% of the civil workforce was in agriculture. The invention of the combustion engine began to displace jobs as the internet has done recently. Tractors replaced workers in fields, so there was a huge transition in the labor force. Then the Dust Bowl took place and that created the hobos.
There was nothing the government could have done to prevent the Great Depression. The best that one can hope for is to understand the business cycle and prepare for the downturns. In that manner, it becomes more like Joseph warning the Pharaoh of 7 years of plenty to be followed by 7 years of drought. If we accept that the business cycle is complex and not a single source that can be controlled, then we will live with the cycle and understand it.
FDR’s programs came in 1935. The economy had already bottomed and turned up from July 1932. I find the argument that socialism saved capitalism as self-serving for the socialists, but the timeline does not agree
Do you gander that President Trump is aware that a higher dollar will cream the economy and is doing all he can to fight that trend?
Maybe he is reading AE but like other politicians still thinks he can manipulate the economy?
Trump is battling the Fed over interest rates. What does it mean for your money?
MDC
ANSWER: Trump does realize that there has been a flight to the dollar. I believe his bashing the Fed to lower rates is inspired by the hope of keeping a lower dollar for trade. I do not believe higher rates are on his radar with respect to the markets. He is probably seeing briefings of the rise in rates and what is taking place with the national debt.
As far as what does it means for your money: the trend from public debt to private will be accelerated by this trend. I believe that the Fed will try pegging rates with caps rather than engaging in QE as Europe has don
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This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America
