The Logistics of Extortion

The global commercial surrogacy industry grew to an estimated $14 billion in 2022. By 2032, that figure is forecast to rise to $129 billion. In Georgia, as in Ukraine, commercial surrogacy programs cost around $40,000-$50,000, while in Mexico they are about $60,000-$70,000. That compares with an average of $120,000 and higher in the U.S.

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The peso is the top-performing major currency this year, according to Bloomberg, and has more than recovered from its coronavirus pandemic weakness. It has risen 8.5 percent this year to trade above 18 to the dollar…
Foreign direct investment in Mexico hit $35.3bn last year, the highest level since 2015, according to economy ministry data. Transport manufacturing accounted for 12 percent of that.
Another source of foreign income has been resilient remittances from Mexican migrants in the US. The transfers from abroad now make up 4 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. Even after growing to record levels last year, in January remittances were 12.5 percent higher than the same month a year earlier, according to Bank of Mexico figures.

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An interview with an MIT professor discusses China’s lackluster technological innovation and why declining foreign investment is more of a concern than a declining population.

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The Logistics of Extortion

The geniuses in the race industry have begun to ask funny questions, like where will the reparations come from?

Vaguely sensing that there’s no such thing as a free lunch, Hannah-Jones asks where the federal government would get the money to pay such a massive amount. Wouldn’t taxes have to be raised, she queries. [Duke University economist Sandy] Darity confidently asserts that no such action is necessary.

“It’s a matter of the federal government financing it in the same way that it financed…the stimulus package for the Great Recession” and the COVID-era CARES Act, Darity continues. To do so, the federal government needs only “spend the money but without raising taxes.” (David Henderson and Phil Magness)

There is a kind of symmetry between the mindless 1619 cult and the mindless view of economics the devotees and hustlers bring to fund it. And stupid ideas and behavior can be innocuous when small and contained. But...