There have been times – there still are countries and times, when and where the rule, founded in justice and nature, that the property of the parent is the inheritance of his children, has been intercepted in its benign operation by the cruel interference of another rule, founded in tyranny and avarice – the crimes of the subject are the inheritance of the prince. At those times, and in those countries, an insult to society becomes a pecuniary favor to the crown. --James Wilson
An economist asks the question, are rickshaws a much better means of urban public transportation than buses or subways because the number of workers required to transport any given number of passengers is much higher with rickshaws than with buses and subways?
The U.S. Army said it removed Chinese-made surveillance cameras from a domestic military base. A congressional panel will hold a hearing into whether businesses face cyber security risks from using the equipment.
In a discussion about legal immigrants bringing their extended families into the U.S., a loophole known as "chain migration," (the bringing of a "chain" of people,) Senator Durban said this: “Do you realize how painful that term is to so many people? African Americans believe that they migrated to America in chains. And when you speak about ‘chain migration’ it hurts them personally.”
These people will distort and exploit anything.
Anthony de Jasay, on an economics forum, argues this month that there's no such thing as natural rights at all. Rights as such are men-made creations composed of many components, both voluntary and involuntary, occupying a space between anarchy and blind obedience.
There's the beginning of a slippery slope if I've ever seen one.
"Marin County has long resisted growth in the name of environmentalism. But high housing costs and segregation persist." So reads the lead of a Los Angeles story on Marin County. It came up in a Henderson article because of his opinion that restrictions limit options and choices--in this case limiting building and raising housing costs. Thus the lead should be not "but" high housing costs and segregation persist (as if the good intentions of environmentalism were some general tonic,) but "therefore."
Just when it seems that the Americans are the constant screw-ups:
November 2007: Nokia had a 37% market share, and its stock price was $39. Today, it has less than 2% of the market, and its stock price is below $5.
Germany’s naval brass dreamed up a warship that could ferry marines into combat anywhere, go up against enemy ships and stay away from home ports for two years with a skeleton crew. But now it turns out it doesn’t work.
March 1999: Oil was $12 a barrel.
Chelsea nee Bradley Manning is running for Senate in Md.. Her ads are very intense and well done. One can only speculate on the reason for this. One commentator compared it to the heartless promotion--and abandonment--of Sydney Sheehan a few years ago although the motives to me at least are less clear.
97% of all wine sold in the U.S. costs less than $13.
Who is.....Naill Fergeson?
In 2016, total corporate debt increased by $717 billion, yet investment in plant and equipment fell by $21 billion. Where did the money go? The majority of it has gone toward share buybacks and dividend payouts.
Police in Pullman, Washington released a statement Tuesday night that they found Washington State quarterback Tyler Hilinski dead in his apartment of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
This is interesting, if true:
The Telegraph (UK) (1/17, Knapton) reports “researchers at Nottingham Trent University and University Hospitals Leicester NHS Trust have discovered that the immune system changes when cancer is present” and that a new, “simple blood test which confirms the presence of prostate cancer could prevent 70% of painful biopsies.”
Contagion!
Scientists believe they may have discovered the cause of an epidemic that struck Mexico’s Aztec population in 1545, killing up to 15 million people.
In a paper published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, they describe how DNA extracted from the teeth of 29 skeletons buried in a cemetery in southern Mexico revealed previously unidentified traces of the salmonella enterica bacterium.
Mortality rates were 80 to 90 per cent by 1600!
This was two decades after a smallpox epidemic that killed up to eight million people just after the Spanish arrival and is considered one of the most devastating epidemics in human history. It affected large areas of central Mexico and Guatamala, perhaps extending as far south as Peru.
A brochure, due to be sent to 4.7m Swedish households, will inform the public how they can take part in “total defence” during a war and secure water, food and heating.
The booklet with the working title If Crisis or War Comes will also give guidance on dealing with threats from cyber attacks, terrorism and climate change, the FT reported.
In September 2017, Sweden held its biggest military exercise in 23 years, with war games involving 19,000 Swedish personnel and allies from Finland, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, France, Norway and America.
The country last year voted to reintroduce conscription.
What?
Source: RAND Corporation
In 1964 nearly 80% of Americans said they trusted Washington all or most of the time; today, about 20% do.
Charles Kindleberger and Hyman Minsky, rejecting classical economics that took the irrational human out of the equation, both recognized the importance of the human propensity to panic, indulge in herd behavior and believe our own propaganda. They outlined the stages of a credit boom, where investors go from optimism and euphoria to depression and panic – a journey that leads to the destruction of wealth.
In Kindleberger’s seminal work – Manias, Panics and Crashes – he rejects two widely-held views in classical economics: that financial markets are efficient and that people are rational. He quotes Isaac Newton, who lost a small fortune on the great 18th century speculative punt, the South Sea Bubble, “I can calculate the motions of heavenly bodies but not the madness of crowds”.
Kindleberger observed that panic can be sparked by a relatively trivial event. Once there is leverage in the system, small events have the tendency to become amplified, particularly if there is no hegemon that will backstop the system when a panic occurs.
Minsky made another crucial observation which helps us to understand panics; it is important to look at the types of borrowers who obtain financing during a boom, the hedge borrower, the speculative borrower and the Ponzi borrower. Each has a different, escalating, risk in a downturn.
According to a 2017 study by the Federal Reserve, 44% of Americans wouldn’t be able to cover an unexpected $400 expense without borrowing or selling something.
George Will in a review of a book by David Goldfield: "He idealizes government as an “umpire,” a disinterested arbiter ensuring fair play. Has no liberal stumbled upon public choice theory, which demystifies politics, puncturing sentimentality about politicians and government officials being more nobly and unselfishly motivated than lesser mortals? Has no liberal noticed that no government is ever neutral in society’s allocation of wealth and opportunity? And that the bigger government becomes, the more it is manipulated by those who are sufficiently confident, articulate and sophisticated to understand government’s complexities, and wealthy enough to hire skillful agents to navigate those complexities on their behalf? This is why big government is invariably regressive, transferring wealth upward."
The president’s lawyer used a private Delaware company to pay a former adult-film star $130,000 in return for her agreeing to not publicly discuss an alleged sexual encounter with Mr. Trump. His lawyer says he paid for it. Sounds like the Edwards scandal. There must be national conferences where you learn how to do this stuff.
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