If a word in the dictionary were misspelled, how would we know?--Steven Wright
Went to Casbah last night with Kelly Meade.
Chris made cinnamon buns this morning. Terrific.
President Donald Trump and China's Xi Jinping agreed to a cease-fire Saturday in their nations' yearlong trade war, averting for now an escalation feared by financial markets, businesses and farmers.
Passive investments control about 60% of the equity assets, while quantitative funds -- those relying on trend-following models instead of fundamental research -- now account for 20% of the market share, according to estimates from J.P. Morgan.
Passive funds have attracted $39 billion of inflows so far this year, whereas active funds lost a whopping $90 billion in 2019, according to J.P. Morgan.
That is quite a commitment. I wonder why geography makes a difference. If people deserve medical coverage or disability payments, why should it matter where they live? We are a wealthy country. Why shouldn't we just pay for all of it, regardless of who you are or where you live? Why should location matter?
Speaking of the debate, at one point the esteemed candidates were shouting over one another in the voter auction, trying to out-bid each other. Kamala Harris jumped in with a since oft-quoted line:.
"Hey guys, you know what, America does not want to witness a food fight," the California senator said. "They want to know how we're going to put food on their table."
So the government is a farmer? A delivery system? Who do these people really think they are?
Today is the birthday of Frédéric Bastiat:
Thanks to exchange, a strong person can do without genius up to a certain point, and an intelligent being without physical strength, for each person would receive the benefit of the distinctive qualities of his fellow-men through the admirable community that it establishes between men.
I wonder if these guys think that reading the Mueller report aloud will make it different?
The wife of Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum has left him — and taken £31 million--to start a new life, "it is understood." Princess Haya, who had not been seen since February, is said to have fled to Germany with her son and daughter.
It is amazing that people who think we cannot afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, and medications somehow think that we can afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, medications and a government bureaucracy to administer “universal health care.”--Sowell
When you examine the full extent of the poverty, inequality, racism, sexism, homophobia, and so on in this country, it can feel crushing. We still have a lot of work to do.--Jill Richardson, on the Fourth if July. This reminds me of the preoccupation of those plastic surgery addicts.
Schiller’s Pharmacy has become Schiller’s Apothecary. The business on the corner of South Aiken Avenue and Walnut Street was purchased in April by New Jersey-based Apotheco Pharmacy.
Small numbers are important over the long term. Over 20 years, a compound return of 5.6% will turn $10,000 into $29,736; at 7%, that $10,000 would grow to $38,697. Over 30 years and starting with $50,000, that “small” difference in return is the difference between $256,382 (5.6%) and $380,613 (7%).
Recent gains have helped the Dow Jones Industrial Average to ring up its best June gain of 7.2% since 1938 when the blue-chip benchmark surged an eye-popping 24.3% on the month, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
The Globe Theater, where most of Shakespeare’s plays debuted, burned down on this day in 1613. The Globe was built by Shakespeare’s acting company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, in 1599 from the timbers of London’s very first permanent theater, Burbage’s Theater, built in 1576. Before James Burbage built his theater, plays and dramatic performances were ad hoc affairs, performed on street corners and in the yards of inns.
Work for its Own Sake
Griswold has a review, forthcoming in the Cato Journal, of Oren Cass’s new book, The Once and Future Worker: A Vision for the Renewal of Work in America. Here’s a passage from the review:
Cass flatly rejects Adam Smith’s fundamental observation that “consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to, only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer.” He argues instead that production comes first: “Production without consumption creates options; consumption without production creates dependence and debt.”
Smith felt that consumption (and the freedom to consume) created value of a product and guided production. On the other hand, the value of a commodity, according to Marx in volume one of Capital, can be measured according to the amount of socially necessary labor-time that was invested in its production. Value can only be expressed in relation to other commodities and manifests itself in exchange-value. For example, bartering.
The idea that production is the linchpin in the economy is an effort to dignify labor above all--a preoccupation of the Nineteenth Century--and to deny the economy's commercial and social nature. The worker's efforts are of value regardless of how it is priced. (If this sounds familiar, it should. This is the essence of "Art for its Own Sake," where the act of creation is beyond critical evaluation.) But there is more at stake; its motive, from a political view, is crucial. If the value of things is in the consumer, then the effort to manage and direct production is useless; the economy can not be shaped and managed--or only can be influenced by such as crass advertising.
And if the economy can not be managed, what's a poor power-hungry politician to do?
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