Category Archives: markets

Worrying about the Wrong Time Frame

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A Wall Street Journal opinion piece subheadline well summarizes the piece itself:

the Speaker pushes Democrats to take votes that will end careers in 2022

The WSJ‘s Editors write this as if they take the matter seriously. But they, and far too many others who also should know better, are taking far too short a view.

“Career ending” votes were taken in favor of Obamacare, too. Obamacare survives, and here is the Progressive-Democratic Party back in power.

So it will be with the Progressive-Democrat reconciliation bill and the pre-amendment to it that is the “infrastructure” bill. A few Progressive-Democrats might lose their seats as they vote to force passage, but these two destructive bills will live on.

And, dangerously, the Progressive-Democratic Party will recover.

Affordable Housing

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People’s Republic of China style.

The PRC is cracking down on excessive debt in the country’s housing industry, or so it claims. The government also claims it wants

to lower inequality and keep housing affordable for the masses.

But it just blew up 15 high rise apartment buildings. Those were already built, their cost sunk. Those complexes could have been at the core of the Communist Chinese Party’s claim of affordable housing.

Oh, wait—nobody wanted to live there.

That’s centrally planned economics in action. And a lesson for us, were our politicians interested in learning.

Did He Do It?

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Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley stands accused by the journalists Bob Woodward and his co-author Robert Costa of having made apparently treasonous calls to his counterpart in the People’s Republic of China government to assure them that an attack was not imminent and promising to give them a heads up if the US were about to attack.

He’s also accused by these journalists of having illegally inserted himself into the chain of command, instructing the generals involved to not act on the Commander-in-Chief’s (i.e., the President of the United States) order to launch our nuclear weapons under any circumstance without first involving him, Milley, in the decision.

These are plainly treasonous actions, and Milley deserves serious sanctions, as do those Generals who meekly went along with his illegal actions.

If Milley did the deeds.

However, the accusations are made by journalists who chose to cite only unnamed, carefully hidden, sources. Two hundred of them.

Which raises the question, as put by Huntsman, a logistician and founder of Fortis Analysis:

I want to know about the 200 sources who apparently corroborate this account about Milley and the PLA…
….And subsequently didn’t step forward to report it.
They leaked to Woodward, but didn’t say boo until now?
Something is way off here.

In addition to that, I want to know why Woodward and Costa, individually or together, chose to sit on these seemingly treasonous actions until they were ready to release their book and make some bucks.

Maybe the something is that the “sources” don’t exist. Maybe the something—8-10 months after the supposed deeds occurred—was intended to keep alive the Irrational Trump idea that is the lead conspiracy theory of the Left. And a source of book sales.

 

H/t Ralph Schwartz

California’s Regulations

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Do they impact other States?

One regulation, in particular, concerns California’s potential regulation, under the upcoming Proposition 12, which seeks to control the amount of space hog farmers devote to each hog.

Nominally, Prop 12 is causing non-California hog farmers (and, presumably, the two or three California hog farmers) confusion, according to Tasha Bunting, the Illinois Farm Bureau’s Assistant Director of Commodities & Livestock Programs:

Prop 12 really doesn’t have all of their rules implemented yet. What exactly it is going to look like hasn’t been finalized. It is really putting our producers behind the eight ball from the get-go[.]

And then California finalizes its rules—however late in the game—and confusion supposedly disappears, and hog farmers around the US begin to adjust.

Or not.

Prop 12’s impact spreads beyond California’s borders only to the extent other States, hog farmers domiciled in other States, allow it to. There are plenty of markets, domestic and foreign, for hog producers. They don’t have to sell into California at all.

Government Fiat

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This is what the Progressive-Democrats in charge of our Federal Government are plotting [sic] in the way of drug pricing under Medicare Part D (the drug provision of Medicare), per the Tax Foundation.

Under HR 3 [the Elijah Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act], if drug manufacturers do not agree to participate in negotiations, or do not agree to the negotiated price, they would be subject to an escalating excise tax on the sale of the drug in question. The tax would kick in at 65 percent and would rise by 10 percentage points each 90 days the manufacturers are in “noncompliance,” reaching a maximum tax rate of 95%.

What “negotiation?” This is the price we’re negotiating for, says the Health and Human Services Secretary, the Government official that HR3 says will represent the Government.

Here’s our counteroffer, says the drug manufacturer.

No, no, that’s too high, says SecHHS, repeating his original offer. Then he says, Here’s your noncompliance tax.

This isn’t negotiation, yet that’s what will occur, with the Government holding all the cards. Targeted drug manufacturers and sellers would not even be allowed to opt out of Medicare under HR3.

The Tax Foundation is concerned about drug innovation, and rightly so.

I’m also concerned about the fate of free enterprise and of individual freedom.