Friday, May 13, 2022
Friday, May 6, 2022
Sunday, May 1, 2022
Redefining American Capitalism | Libertarianism
I sometimes get annoyed by this guy for his leftism. He presents some interesting thoughts here. I share his skepticism of Ayn Rand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kWjJPQXCyc
Capitalism is often used as a pejorative. I think that the correct term is a "free market", meaning that you are free to make choices. The opposite of a free market is different degrees of tyranny.
This notion of deregulation in 2008 is inaccurate. There were far more regulations in 2008 than in 2000. Part of that regulation was the Community Reinvestment Act, which was a real thing, requiring banks to lend to people who were not otherwise creditworthy. Since Government Sponsored Entities (GSEs) were buying up most of the loans, this removed risk from the loan market. Banks aren't normally in the business of making bad loans until the government gets involved.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kWjJPQXCyc
Capitalism is often used as a pejorative. I think that the correct term is a "free market", meaning that you are free to make choices. The opposite of a free market is different degrees of tyranny.
This notion of deregulation in 2008 is inaccurate. There were far more regulations in 2008 than in 2000. Part of that regulation was the Community Reinvestment Act, which was a real thing, requiring banks to lend to people who were not otherwise creditworthy. Since Government Sponsored Entities (GSEs) were buying up most of the loans, this removed risk from the loan market. Banks aren't normally in the business of making bad loans until the government gets involved.
Friday, April 29, 2022
Tuesday, April 12, 2022
Thursday, March 24, 2022
Is This The End Of Capitalism? | Answers With Joe - YouTube
In response to...
I wrote...
The word capitalism is used as a pejorative. The correct term should be a free market, which is the freedom to own a business and run it with minimal interference from the government. The opposite of this is different degrees of tyranny. Do you want the government running your business, or taking it away from you?
Corporations are used as a whipping boys, but corporations are a way of democratizing business ownership. My retirement fund invests in the S&P500, meaning that I have some tiny ownership in 500 companies. People resent corporations because they are a concentration of power, and this could possibly be a threat to freedom, but without corporations, very few people could afford to invest in business ownership.
The socialist left keeps looking for excuses to give us a command and control economy. The most recent is a fear of automation, but history shows that automation leads to more prosperity, more jobs not less.
Milton Freidman said that the robber barons were mostly a myth. People flocked to difficult factory jobs because that was better than the alternative. Nobody forces you to give a corporation a dime. Nobody forces you to work for an employer. In a command and control economy, everything is done by coercion. They will tell you what to buy, who to work for, what type of energy you can use, what kind of health care you are eligible for, and what you can say.
Saturday, March 19, 2022
Tuesday, February 22, 2022
Tuesday, February 1, 2022
Sunday, January 30, 2022
Tuesday, January 25, 2022
Sunday, January 23, 2022
Sunday, January 2, 2022
Friday, September 24, 2021
Thursday, July 29, 2021
People aren't returning to demeaning jobs; Hamptons labor shortage proves my point.
I think that this is an interesting take on the current economic situation.
Thursday, July 22, 2021
Re: Who owns this country?
He appears to be talking about Mutual Funds or Exchange Traded Funds, which are actually owned by individual investors. I have some of these in my retirement account.
Tik Tok is owned by China.
On Thu, Jul 22, 2021 at 2:17 PM al wrote:
I don't know how much of this is true, but I thought you might be interested:
Friday, June 25, 2021
Housing prices
Although the Zillow estimate on housing value might not be perfect, it is a pretty good judge of which way the market is going.
The housing prices in Salt Lake City have gone through the roof. The house that I paid $130,000 back in 1999 is now estimated to be worth $647,000. I sold it for a fraction of that.
Indiana is not as bad, but it seems recently that prices have taken off. The home I purchased less than 3 years ago is up by 25% from what I paid. My previous home in New Whiteland that I paid $120,000 for six years ago is now estimated to be worth $220,000.
The key point is that I could not afford to move if I wanted to. I would have to sell my home first or make my next purchase contingent on selling my home first.
Tuesday, June 15, 2021
Monday, June 14, 2021
Tuesday, May 25, 2021
CRYPTO CRASH. I'M DONE (as a millionaire)
The first seven minutes give a pretty good reason why as to why cryptocurrency might be a bad idea. The rest is just technical analysis.
Bitcoin has no value other than the willingness of other people to buy it or accept it as payment. This is called the "bigger fool" theory, where you hope that there is a bigger fool than you out there.
I could have bought bitcoin at $5, $50, and $5,000. I could have made a fortune. During an inflationary period, some assets will increase in value. Someday Bitcoin could be worth a million dollars. However, the moment that people decide that they don't want it, it could lose all its value. Likewise, the government could regulate it out of existence.
Sunday, April 18, 2021
Saturday, March 27, 2021
Wednesday, March 17, 2021
Inside Apple's $5 Billion Headquarters
As great as Apple Park is, it doesn't seem very cost-efficient.
Thursday, March 4, 2021
China's Reckoning: Demographic Collapse
This is deeply fascinating. I wanted to hear more about whether the U.S. has the same problems.
Monday, January 25, 2021
Why mainstream media's slander of wall street bets pisses me off regarding GME.
This is interesting.
I think that Gamestop will eventually go out of business. There is a very strong trend toward buying or renting videogames off of the internet. Retail sales of games can't last more than a couple of years. Video is headed in the same direction.
Games were distributed on media because that was the only practical way to transfer large data. Storage of the data was also an issue if you had a bunch of games. These are no longer limitations.
Tuesday, September 29, 2020
Saturday, August 8, 2020
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