Tag Archives: political economy

A Couple of Economic Charts

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Via Carpe Diem.

Here is one that illustrates one aspect of the alleged earnings disparity, which in turn is a component of wealth inequality:

Notice when this subset of the gender gap began to close and to be eliminated—the Trump administration.

Here’s one on the subject of atmospheric CO2 emissions, especially pertinent in light of our official withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord Wednesday.

This was accomplished through ordinary free market economics and the application of technology within that market. Restrictions on our economy in order to meet artificial outcomes are unnecessary—and that’s the case regardless of the legitimacy of CO2 emissions concerns. Keep in mind, too, that the People’s Republic of China has voluntary limits that don’t even begin for another decade.

Defunding by Another Name

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Shoplifting has been decriminalized in California. Store management teams that take it on themselves to grab shoplifters can be sued for the effrontery of protecting store property.

Police stopped apprehending shoplifters because it wasn’t worth their time as thieves were released.

It’s broader than that.

Some large retailers including Goodwill, Walmart and Bloomingdale’s sought to punish shoplifters by requiring them to take a class in “life skills” to avoid a criminal complaint. The San Francisco city attorney then sued the educational company that provided the classes for extortion and false imprisonment.

This sort of larceny has exploded since the decriminalization, and the thefts have cost businesses in the state billions of dollars.

This is “defunding” law enforcement at the fount.

Here’s the start, from that, of an economic trend that could get very uncomfortable for Californians if the decriminalization isn’t reversed:

A[] Walgreens store in San Francisco, the seventh this year, is closing after its shelves were cleared by looters.

“Defund” law enforcement at the source.

Fruits of Defunding

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…of police departments. Shootings and homicides are up sharply with less law enforcement possible under reduced budgets and associated police resignations and retirements.

The New York Police Department reported 137 shootings from October 1 to October 31, compared to the 62 reported during the same period last year, newly released statistics show.
…
There have been 387 murders so far this year, compared to the 282 reported in the first 10 months of 2019….

And Chicago:

There have been 655 murders this year through October 31, while the city had 431 during the same period in 2019—a 51% increase. …
At least 3,465 people were shot in Chicago through October 31 this year, a 56% increase from 2019….

Los Angeles:

“As of this morning, here today in the city, we’ve had 261 homicides,” LAPD Captain Ahmad Zarekani said Wednesday. “That is a 25% increase from last year at this point.”

But it’s a good idea, says the Left, to defund police departments.

Sure.

Some Employment Numbers

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…in our energy-related industries.  A letter in last Wednesday’s The Wall Street Journal‘s Letters section laid some out for Louisiana.

…the oil-and-gas industry supports 260,000 jobs in the state, and each industry job generates 3.4 Louisiana jobs in other sectors

That work out to an aggregation of 884,000 jobs in Louisiana alone.

The National Association of State Energy Officials estimates for 4Q2018 that the Traditional Energy sectors (a broader look at our energy industry than just oil-and-gas) employed 2.4 million Americans. Using (albeit naively) Louisiana’s multiplier of 3.4 jobs in other sectors generated by the energy industry, that works out to 8.2 million jobs. That’s 5% of our then-employed Americans.

This is what Progressive-Democratic Party Presidential candidate Joe Biden wants to trash with his “transition” away from hydrocarbons as the source of our nation’s energy—the source of our businesses’ and homes’ production and heating/cooling energy.

Wuhan Virus Recovery Rates

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No one really has a handle on this, especially in the US. Much is made of the lack of a standard definition of “recovery,” and for good reason.

The data are so spotty, public-health authorities say they don’t know what the true count [of recoveries from a Wuhan Virus infection] is. …
The spottiness stems from the absence of both an agreed-upon definition for a coronavirus recovery and a standardized way to track the numbers of patients, the health experts say. What constitutes recovery is so nebulous that some states don’t even track it, and those that do probably undercount the true number.

However, even were there a standard definition, we still wouldn’t have any idea of the true statistic, nor any idea of the accuracy of an estimate for a recovery statistic.

This illustrates the key:

Such measurements [numbers of recovered] might indicate how many people who tested positive for the coronavirus didn’t die, but might miss those who never displayed symptoms and didn’t undergo testing.

The only recoveries, under any definition, being counted are those from confirmed—test-identified—cases. There is no estimate of the number who have been infected, never tested, and recovered.

Those recoveries are not included in guesses of the number of recoveries.