Archive for the Market Solutions Category

Everything Monopolized, Nothing Economized.  Completion Of “The General Theory Of Economics” Is In Remission . . .  Oh, And Happy Halloween! (October 29, 2018)

Posted in Economics, Economics Nobel, Market Solutions, Markets, Monopoly, Noble Prize in Eco-nomics, Price, Technology on October 29, 2018 by e-commentary.org

. . .

J          “Bummer.  After all that time and thought.”

K          “And all that fun.  I tell you I realized that if it was going to be done and if it was going to be done right, I would have to do it to get it done right.”

J          “Been there.  Done that.”

. . .

K          “A construct such as the IS-LM model is largely malarkey but is heuristically valuable.  Today, the fundamental problem trying to describe and direct the operation and function of the economy is that there really is not an operating and functioning economy.  With all of the distortion, intervention and manipulation, price is not tied to anything real.  Every business, every single business in every single industry, is a monopoly.  The business is the industry; the industry is the business.  From pork to politics.”

J          “Yet only a few folks have discovered and understand that we cannot discover price.  Price discovery now is so passé.  Without price, we cannot communicate in the economic marketplace.  And the central bankers working alone and together destroyed the language of the marketplace.”

. . .

K          “He left Iowa with his father marketing the hogs to five potential buyers and returned to find that one buyer sets the price.”

J          “And both Senators from Iowa are Republicans.  You don’t have to ‘go figure’ when ‘it figures’ so clearly.”

. . .

J          “And the Swedish central bankers reward those individuals who provide the economic cover for the crimes and misdemeanors of all the central bankers by giving their ignoble ‘Nobel’ Prize in E-con-omics to the most successful errand boy or girl.”

K          “The Noble Prize in Eco-nomics is the part of the answer.”

. . .

J          “The most vexing monopoly is the government/corporate syndicate that precludes any competing alternative entity.”

K          “The twisted irony is that most industries, and all the major tech industries without exception, are basically ‘natural monopolies’ and thus ‘utilities’ such as the water company.  A utility is a monopoly.  A monopoly must be regulated.  Yet the tech companies/tech utilities own the government and quash any regulation.”

. . .

J          “The Republican political monopoly firmly supports the current economic monopolies who in turn own the Republican political monopoly.  The Death Spiral is spiraling but not changing.”

K          “In a fortnight, the slow boiling coup d’état by the Republicans could be completed by the Republicans.  If the Democrats do not take the House, the control of government will be concentrated in one mega-corporation – the Republican Party, Inc. / the Corporation, Inc.  The political ‘campaign’ is aptly namely for battle because the Democrats are charging east up Jenkins Hill trying to retake the southern flank of the Capitol and the House of Commons under intense enemy fire.  We need to hire the friends and fire the enemy.”

J          “The Presidency is a lock, the Judiciary is the stock and the Congress is the barrel.  Lock, stock and barrel.” 

K          “For the next two years at least, the Presidency is indeed a lock for the Republicans.  For the rest of our time on this Planet, the judiciary is a laughing stock and a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Republican Party, Inc. / the Corporation, Inc. doing their bidding.  And the Republican Congress has the ordinary citizen over a barrel.”

J          “Hook, line and sinker.  We are hooked, they have us firmly on the line and all of us are sunk.”

. . . 

[See the discussion in “This is Not a Market” in “The Automatic Earth” by Raul Ilargi Meijer dated April 23, 2018.]

[See the scary e-commentary last Halloween at “Are ‘Prices’ Language?  Are Antitrust Laws Grounded In The First Amendment?  How Do We Forestall The ‘Frightful Five’ And Other Monopolies. Oh, And Happy Halloween! (October 30, 2017)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Free markets now!

Global Climate Craziness (GCC) And Taxation (March 23, 2015)

Posted in Carbon Surcharge & Dividend, Gas/Fossil Fuel, Global Climate Change, Global Warming, Greece, Market Solutions, Population, Taxation on March 23, 2015 by e-commentary.org

. . .

A          “Global climate change is the most accurate and neutral description of the mess.  The globe is warming in some places and cooling in other places.  And the boundaries are neither certain nor stable.  And the contours are changing and shifting like a lava lamp.”

B          “Global climate craziness, I say.  The changes also involve geopolitical considerations.  In the warmer climates, tax participation is more relaxed.  In Italy, speed limits and tax obligations are purely advisory.  In Greece, tax obligations hardly rise to a nuisance or an inconvenience.  Why bother.  By contrast, in Sweden, Norway, Finland and other cooler climates, tax rates are much higher and tax participation is much greater.  Global climate craziness may have a greater impact on the fiscal health of a nation than the pundits have acknowledged.”

A          “And the Fins finish first in math.”

. . .

B          “The ‘Sunburnt Country’ adopted a celebrated ‘carbon cap and trade program’ for two years before the reactionaries and wankers rejected it.  In the next go round, Australia should take the lead, adopt a ‘carbon fee and dividend program’ and skewer the notion that hot countries are against rational taxes.  It is getting crazy out there.”

A          “Seems that their situation could be described by the outmoded term – global warming.”

. . .

Bumper sticker of the week:

“I worry about the world I am leaving to my five children and my twelve grandchildren.”  “Imagine the world you should be leaving to your two children and your four grandchildren.”

World’s Reserve Currency War I = Cold War 2.0 = WW III (?) (September 8, 2014)

Posted in China, Dollar - World's Reserve Currency, Energy, Fracking, Global Climate Change, Global Warming, Market Solutions, Peak Oil, Russia on September 8, 2014 by e-commentary.org

. . .

7          “Someday someone will realize that the attacks on Saddam Hussein in Iraq and on Muammar Gaddafi in Libya were motivated in part by their efforts to undertake oil sales in something other than American dollars.  If the American dollar is no longer the world’s petro dollar and reserve currency, America will not be able to dictate and drive world economic affairs.  America wants Europe to be dependent on America and American gas and on the American dollar, not on Russia and Russian gas and on some financial measure and medium other than the American dollar.  And along comes Putin who is peddling oil and gas using something other than the American dollar.”

8          “That makes Putin ‘Public Enemy No. 1.’  So the U.S. is imposing economic sanctions on the Russians which are also economic sanctions on the Europeans and others.  The only way for the U.S. to compel continued use of the petro dollar is to be the empire providing, controlling and protecting the petro supply.  Now the U.S. is trying to provide rather than just control and protect the supply.  For decades, the U.S. imported oil and gas from countries that disregarded environmental standards and now the U.S. is disregarding environmental standards and seeking to export gas produced using fluids and processes that are destructive to the land and water here in the good old U.S. of A.  What are we doing?”

7          “America is on the retrograde in overdrive.  Until recently, America ‘imported’ oil and ‘exported’ the pollution necessary to produce it.  Now America seeks to ‘export’ gas and ‘import’ the pollution and degradation necessary to produce it.  Pollution and degradation are externalities that are not paid by the oil and gas companies.  If the oil and gas companies internalized the costs of the pollution and degradation, they could pass the costs on to the consumer and allow the consumer to decide how much oil and gas should be produced.”

8          “And look at those we call our allies.  Among other countries, Britain, France, Poland and Bulgaria are refusing to embrace fracking and the resulting environmental damage.  U.S. interests are interested in obtaining access to the gas reserves in the Ukraine and using fracking techniques to extract the gas.  The lawyers and the lobbyists have been deployed.  The sons of the Ruling Class like Kerry-Heinz and Biden are positioned and poised to make a killing.”

7          “Only after many others get killed.  America cannot secure and dictate the distribution of the gas to Europe and others as quickly as Russia and Europe will be required to respond to the economic sanctions.  Russia and Russians are much more resilient and resourceful than America and Americans.  The Russians won World War II for the West.  Starting World War III with them is not likely to end well.  The Russians will develop workarounds to circumvent the economic sanctions and may dislodge the almighty dollar from the world stage.”

8          “The Europeans also need to learn to accommodate, but they could balk this winter at freezing to fuel the U.S. dollar.”

7          “They could sew American dollars together to make a shawl.  Americans devised ‘Hoover blankets’ from newspapers and Europeans could craft ‘Benjamin blankets’ from American bucks.  No one will strenuously dispute that it is or soon will be ‘Cold War 2.0’.”

8          “The Chinese may break the tie.  China and Russia and other countries could work together to circumvent the sanctions and develop a competing and competitive international economy devoid of the dollar.  Russia could provide China with access to the Arctic and allow them to proceed in the South China Sea.”

7          “Then America would boycott all Chinese goods.  See how they like that.”

8          “A friend is convinced that all the gold in Ft. Knox and all of Germany’s gold in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York was transferred to the Chinese to stave off a sale of Treasury bonds.  They may be prepared.  The economic sanctions are seen as exercises of ‘soft power,’ yet they may expose how soft the American economy really is today.”

7          “That is why so many powerful interests are lobbying so aggressively for the U.S. to use ‘hard power.’  Wars are big business; wars are good for business.  Look at all the misinformation involving the attack on the aircraft flying on flight MH17 that is bandied about to justify military action.  False Flag capers are the easiest way to get the populace to rally ‘round the flag.”

8          “Here there be dragons.”

. . .

8          “Here there be no angels.  The Russian oligarchs who control the gas fields are as corrupt as the U.S. bankers who control oil and gas prices.  Look at the shenanigans and manipulations during the summer of 2008.  No one does anything.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Strategy: Cut off your face to spit your face

Dollar slaves; Dollar serfs

The Minimum Wage: The Market Solution (May 5, 2015)

Posted in Awards / Incentives, Economics, Economics Nobel, Health Care, Less Government Regulation Series, Market Solutions, Minimum Wage on May 5, 2014 by e-commentary.org

. . .

1          “And the private sector solution.”

2          “Without a minimum wage, the government is providing massive subsidies for the workers laboring at major corporations that only provide sixty or seventy percent of the minimum livable wage.  The employees are required to subsist on food stamps and other government subsidies and programs.  If the minimum wage is instituted, more of the cost of production is internalized by the corporation rather subsidized by the tax payer.”

1          “There may be some lost jobs.  However, all the large corporations have deployed their most cunning technicians to find ways to eliminate as many human jobs as possible already.”

2          “Reducing monthly government payments requires some foresighted policy at the outset.  It is a no-brainer, but it requires an extraordinary brainer to understand.”

. . .

1          “The great debate over national health care fails to acknowledge that the United States has implemented the most inefficient national health insurance program in the history of human kind in Title 11, the Bankruptcy Code, rather than in Title 42, governing Public Health and Welfare.”
2          “The solution is simple.  The public shall receive the same health care coverage as the Congress.”

. . .

1          “The Norwegians will not reward that notion with their Nobel in E-con-omics.  If they do not reward that notion, the professional e-con-omists will not propound the notion.”

2          “We should go to the International Court of Justice and seek an injunction against the Norwegians and use the Nobel money for some other virtuous public purpose.”

1          “I am on board.  How could a concerned member of the public organize a public boycott?”

. . .

Bumper sticker of the week:

The Minimum Wage:  The Market Solution And The Private Sector Solution

The American Menu: Three Food Groups (January 6, 2014)

Posted in Consumerism, Food, Health Care, Market Solutions, Plastic, Pogo Plight on January 6, 2014 by e-commentary.org

. . .

The Gyre of Death:

Breakfast:     Sugar, Fat, Salt

Lunch:            Fat, Salt, Sugar

Dinner:           Salt, Sugar, Fat

Rinse and repeat and repeat and repeat.

. . .

A          “New Year’s resolutions are one of the earliest examples of recycling.  The list of resolutions could be stored with the holiday decorations and reused each year.”

B          “We need to reduce.  Hope springs eternal, particularly in the winter.  Better to have propounded New Year’s resolutions and lost than never to have propounded them at all.”

A          “We need to resolve to shed calories responsibly all year.”

B          “Better to have lost pounds.”

. . .

A          “Disregard the class and cultural arrogance and condescension that underlies the discussion and the problem still weighs on us.  We as a people are too chunky.”

B          “Too many Americans drive around all day poisoning themselves at the food shacks that litter the highways and byways and then drive to a bar and poison themselves with liquid intoxicants before taking that last drive of the day late at night back home.  We need to change our life style.”

A          “Obesity imposes a staggering additional tax on health care costs.  If the government chimes in and proposes something, someone whines about the ‘nanny state’ interfering in our lives.”  

B          “Granny may have been right about these things.  Moderation always in all things.”

. . .

A          “Beer companies seek to decant 11 rather than 12 ounces into a bottle and grocers now package five rather than six avocados in the bag.  How do you create the market conditions so that a sugar water company reduces the ounces in the bottle and the purveyor of French fries puts fewer spuds in the bag?”

B          “And change our life style so that no uses plastic bottles.”

. . .    

[See the “e-ssay” titled Back Door Inflation (July 16, 2007).]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Coal (December 2, 2013)

Posted in Book Reference, Carbon Surcharge & Dividend, Coal, Global Climate Change, Global Warming, Less Government Regulation Series, Market Solutions, Markets, Plastic on December 2, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

S          “Books on Cod and Salt discuss the profound impacts of the fish and the element on civilization.  Someone should write a piece titled Coal and its pernicious consequences.”

T          “A few books dig into Dirt.  We have clean dirt but not clean coal.  ‘Clean coal’ is an ironic, oxymoronic and alliterative phrase repeated often enough to fool many folks.”

S          “And ‘Dirty coal’ is redundant.”

. . .

S          “Mother Nature leads us into temptation.  The stuff is not shiny like gold but does provide that warm inner glow and hot outer glow that we all covet.”

T          “We must resist El Diablo Negro.”

. . .

T          “Later this week, coal will be deposited in the shoes of the youngsters who have been naughty rather than nice.  And may not have resisted temptation.”

S          “Some folks leave switches in shoes to acknowledge unacceptable behavior.”

T          “I really never needed candy.”

S          “We need to jolt folks into realizing that electricity is not produced for free at a wall switch.”

T          “We dig deposits out of the dirt and deposit the stuff in our power plants and then deposit the by-products around the Earth and in our lungs.  The death cycle of coal.”

S          “We need to get folks to switch their behavior.”

. . .

T          “I installed compact fluorescent lights (cfls) which admittedly have a little mercury that must be disposed of properly.  My reduced demand for coal reduces the mercury released when coal is burned to produce electricity.” 

. . .

S          “A Carbon Surcharge and Dividend policy (CS&D) enlists the market mechanism to internalize the costs of carbon production and reduce its use without any other government regulation.”

. . .

[See the article on plastics drowning the oceans at http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-gold-plastic-waste-oceans-20131104,0,1147461.story#axzz2jywwzvfA.]

[See the “e-ssays” at On Trading Off (May 9, 2011) and Energy “Manhattan Project”: The “Carbon Tax And Dividend” (March 25, 2013.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

The solution to pollution ain’t dilution.

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis will be available in paper back in March. 

Going The Extra Mile: Today’s Airline Mileage Programs (August 19, 2013)

Posted in Aviation, Market Solutions, Markets on August 19, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

A          “That is correct.”

P          “So I drive from my home near Raleigh to the airport and then fly sitting in a middle seat to Kuala Lampur International and wait for seven hours and then fly to Kathmandu International and sit for ten hours and then fly to Timbuktu International Airport and then I arrive.  That is the best you can do under the mileage program.”

A          “That is correct.”

P          “I get it.  I had to accumulate a lot of miles and then the available routes entail enduring all kinds of miles in the air on inconvenient routes with long delays between flights.”

A          “That is correct.”

P          “So that is why they call it a mileage program.”

A          “That is correct.”

P          “That is the best itinerary to get to Durham Airport.”

A          “That is correct.  Would you like the available flights from Ft. Worth to Dallas?  In August, we can route you through Antarctica.”

. . .

P          “The president of the airline is a Harvard MBA and a sociopath who makes 120 million a year and could not make a HO gauge train in his den run on time.” 

A          “That is correct.” 

. . .

P          “You are required to read from a script and stay on message.” 

A          “That is correct.” 

. . .

[See the “e-ssay” at An Airline (Partial) Survival Guide (January 24, 2005).]

Bumper sticker of the week:

“Remember, we are not happy until you are not happy.”  Today’s Airline. 

Boycott (Advertisers On) AM (Anger Mongering) Radio (March 5, 2011)

Posted in Boycott Series, First Amendment, Government Regulation, Less Government Regulation Series, Market Solutions on March 5, 2012 by e-commentary.org

. . .

C1          “Rather than getting the government into the business of regulating evil, vile and loathsome speech, let the citizens decide.”

C2          “I plan to design an easily remembered website providing an updated list of the names of the advertisers on AM (Anger Mongering) radio and television programs.”

C1          “Don’t buy the products or services.  e-mail your friends and neighbors with reminders not to buy the products or services.  Create something creative to spread the word on the net and design it to go viral.  If it does not go viral, try again.  Viral is virile.  Create a contest for the cleverest post.”

C2          “And tell the companies why you are not buying their stuff by writing a short e-mail note to the “Contact Us” address at the company website.  Make it a regular part of your daily routine.  Make a difference.  Make the airwaves safe for reasoned debate.”

. . .

[See http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/03/05/147954477/limbaugh-loses-seventh-advertiser-over-comments-about-law-student for an example.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Boycott (Advertisers On) Hate Radio

Vote with your dollars

Lapel sticker of the week:

I boycotted _______ .  Ask me why.  [Fill in the product]

Parade of Homes/Charade of Horrors (October 31, 2011)

Posted in Coffee Party USA, Housing, Less Government Regulation Series, Market Solutions, Occupy Movement, Pogo Plight, Population on October 31, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

X          “The event should have been touted as a tour of Halloween Haunted Houses.  Nothing is changing.  No one is learning.  The garage door on the McMansion is only one inch thick.  What did you find?”

Y          “On the subsidized house, the garage door is two inches thick with brush insulation around the outside perimeter.”

X          “The Horror House is heated with an eighty percent efficient forced air system that draws combustion air from the garage and outside.  Even a new generation system that draws air from outside induces a stack effect flow of air that cools the house in the winter and warms it in the summer.  Cozy.”

Y          “The subsidized chateau is equipped with a ninety-five percent efficient forced air system that draws piped combustion air from outside the structure.  Huge energy savings.  The PVC to the outside is run aesthetically.”

X          “The McHorror House has windows splattered all over the place, but they are double paned.”

Y          “The code requires them.  Most of the windows in the bargain bungalow are on the south side with some on the west and a few on the east.  Some of the windows are covered with simple double-cell blinds.”

X          “The kitchen in the McMonster is equipped with shiny stainless steel but marginally efficient appliances.”

Y          “Simple Energy Star appliances.”

X          “The McNightmare is illuminated with regular incandescent light bulbs and T12 fluorescent bulbs in the garage with a smattering of cfls (compact fluorescent lights).”

Y          “Compact fluorescents throughout with T8 bulbs in the garage and two LEDs for the outside lights on the walkway.”

X          “There are so many little things.  The Monster Mansion has regular gate valves that may seize in a decade or two.  They require multiple turns to open and close, yet after a few years are really only good for one turn.”

Y          “They could do a good turn by getting quarter turn valves from the same supplier who outfitted the subsidized place.”

X          “One thing after another.  And I watched everyone else wandering around the McMongo house bedazzled by all the flashy baubles.”

Y          “The market sets the standards for the mansion; the government sets the standards for the subsidized structure.”

X          “We need more citizens less bedazzled by baubles.”

. . .

[Neither rain nor sleet nor snow could rein in or slow the “Enough is Enough!” March in Washington D.C. sponsored by Coffee Party USA on Saturday nor dampen the spirit.  A few hundred hearty souls hailing from Rhode Island to Oregon showed up at the gathering on the west side of the Capital to listen to a wide range of speakers.  They are frustrated but not feckless.  No one was arrested.]

[See the “e-ssay” titled “On Overpopulation (June 14, 2010).”]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Insulate it tight; ventilate it right

Seven billion little miracles are a big problem.  That’s ghoulish.

Practical Price Theory in Practice (December 6, 2010)

Posted in Economics, Journalism, Market Solutions, Society on December 6, 2010 by e-commentary.org

. . .

L          “So you want to maximize attendance?”

M          “It’s a polemical movie.  We want to get as many eyes and ears in the seats as possible.  We have already committed the funds to rent the theater and the movie.  Student volunteers are running it.”

L          “If you offer the movie for free, it may not be worth anything.  Only the committed will attend.  Why not make the movie valuable.  The price of similar movies on campus is three dollars whereas in my day it was one dollar.  State that the cost of a ticket is 25 cents and then print ‘SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE’ in a large font on the pamphlet to entice interest.”

M          “It could peg the value at a quarter and thus not worth considering.”

L          “It might.  And you don’t want to dissuade someone who may not care about the money but does not want to be hassled searching for a quarter.  When someone asks what must be done to obtain the scholarship, ask him or her to state in 25 or fewer words what the movie means to him or her.  Pause and then agree that they are deserving of the scholarship.  Call it ‘Two Bits Production’.”

. . .

M          “We did attract far more viewers than we expected and made some money.  Because of the delay in the line for those seeking scholarships, we set up a second table to conduct the interview, streamlined it to twenty-five seconds and kept the conversation light.”

L          “Super.  It was raining outside that night which may have kept some at home or, if they left the house, drove them inside.  And nothing else was playing in town that night that would appeal to the demographic.  Keep up the experiments.  And keep up the reports.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

“A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”  Oscar Wilde

“At the usual daily rate, The Wall Street Journal would cost $999 for the entire semester, but you can subscribe today and today only for the low, low rate of 25 cents a semester.”