Test Yourself: Are You Being Tricked by Intuition? http://t.co/IMLQYSXCd4
— Harvard Biz Review (@HarvardBiz) April 2, 2015
Not that tough. Think!
Thursday, April 2, 2015
Test Yourself: Are You Being Tricked by Intuition?
Not that tough. Think!
OMG Activist Wants to Raise Minimum Wage in the State of Washington to $16 per Hour
Nick Hanauer, a Seattle based venture capitalist and early investor in Amazon, has apparently never bought, from Amazon, Henry Hazlitt's important book, Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics.
Or if he did buy and read it, he did not grasp the central theme of the book: that there are economic consequences to actions that may not be seen and understood on a quick examination.
Such as that minimum wage laws cause unemployment.
Hazlitt wrote in Newsweek magazine in April 1966 (via Business Tides also available at Amazon)
Hanauer apparently understands none of this.
He plans to launch a campaign to bring a $16 an hour minimum wage proposal to voters in Washington in 2016.
"16 for 16 is a bumper sticker, that's a headline," he said.
-RW
Or if he did buy and read it, he did not grasp the central theme of the book: that there are economic consequences to actions that may not be seen and understood on a quick examination.
Such as that minimum wage laws cause unemployment.
Hazlitt wrote in Newsweek magazine in April 1966 (via Business Tides also available at Amazon)
If there is anything that economists of nearly all schools agree upon, it is the folly of minimum wage laws...We cannot make a man worth a given amount by making it illegal foe anyone to offer him less. We merely deprive him of the right to earn the amount that his abilities and opportunities will permit him to earn, while we deprive the the community even of the moderate services he is capable of rendering.
Hanauer apparently understands none of this.
He plans to launch a campaign to bring a $16 an hour minimum wage proposal to voters in Washington in 2016.
"16 for 16 is a bumper sticker, that's a headline," he said.
-RW
Obamacare: The New Outrageous Full-Time Employment Taxes
"It’s been underestimated in two ways. First of all, a lot of estimates put the number of workers that are really affected by it around 10-15 percent. I’d say it’s more like 25 percent. The reason is this anti-competitive aspect to it that employers are discouraged from becoming large. That hurts even employees who work for a small company, because their employer is no longer willing to compete so hard for employees. So that would be one way it’s underestimated.
"Then the tax treatment: Because salaries are a deductible expense and penalties aren’t, employers really have to cut salaries by over $3,000 in order to have that $2,000 to pay the penalty. Also, it’s not a $2,000 penalty. It’s indexed to health costs, and health costs have already gone up, so that’s going to creep up on us as well...
"If you think of the penalty in terms of the number of hours that somebody has to work to create the value to justify the penalty, that number varies. Some workers need to work a lot of hours to create a little bit of value, and other workers create a lot of value in a short amount of time. So, that’s another major difference.
"I look at the amount of the penalty, making these adjustments for taxes that I mentioned. Then I ask the question, worker by worker, “How many hours do you have to work to create that kind of value?”
"So, a minimum-wage worker, for example, would have to work a day every week of the year in order to create the value that would pay for that penalty that his employer is going to owe for him. One day a week for the government, on top of all the other days of the week we normally work for the government, is a lot."
-Casey Mulligan, Professor of Economics, University of Chicago
"Then the tax treatment: Because salaries are a deductible expense and penalties aren’t, employers really have to cut salaries by over $3,000 in order to have that $2,000 to pay the penalty. Also, it’s not a $2,000 penalty. It’s indexed to health costs, and health costs have already gone up, so that’s going to creep up on us as well...
"If you think of the penalty in terms of the number of hours that somebody has to work to create the value to justify the penalty, that number varies. Some workers need to work a lot of hours to create a little bit of value, and other workers create a lot of value in a short amount of time. So, that’s another major difference.
"I look at the amount of the penalty, making these adjustments for taxes that I mentioned. Then I ask the question, worker by worker, “How many hours do you have to work to create that kind of value?”
"So, a minimum-wage worker, for example, would have to work a day every week of the year in order to create the value that would pay for that penalty that his employer is going to owe for him. One day a week for the government, on top of all the other days of the week we normally work for the government, is a lot."
-Casey Mulligan, Professor of Economics, University of Chicago
Bye, Bye Bitcoin Bowl
The annual college football bowl game held in St Pewtersburg, Florida at Tropicana Field needs a new name.
The Tampa Bay Times reports that after just one season, it will no longer be called the Bitcoin Bowl.
"The decision was reached by ESPN and Bitpay mutually," said a spokeswoman for Bitpay, a global bitcoin payment service provider that paid to have Bitcoin as the bowl game's sponsor.
When pressed further about the breakup — for instance, why it happened — the Bitpay rep, who refused to give her name, said: "I won't comment on that."
Bitpay had signed a three-year deal to have Bitcoin as the game's title sponsor.
Notes TBT:
-RW
The Tampa Bay Times reports that after just one season, it will no longer be called the Bitcoin Bowl.
"The decision was reached by ESPN and Bitpay mutually," said a spokeswoman for Bitpay, a global bitcoin payment service provider that paid to have Bitcoin as the bowl game's sponsor.
When pressed further about the breakup — for instance, why it happened — the Bitpay rep, who refused to give her name, said: "I won't comment on that."
Bitpay had signed a three-year deal to have Bitcoin as the game's title sponsor.
Notes TBT:
[B]itcoin usage has been stagnant lately, with its worth plummeting.
-RW
Greece Tells Creditors It Will Run Out of Cash on April 9
The banksters are in squeeze mode.
Greece has told its creditors it will run out of money on April 9, making an appeal for more loans before reforms on which new disbursements hinge are agreed and implemented, but the request was rejected, euro zone officials said, Reuters reports.
The appeal was made by Athens at a teleconference of euro zone deputy finance ministers on yesterday.
-RW
Greece has told its creditors it will run out of money on April 9, making an appeal for more loans before reforms on which new disbursements hinge are agreed and implemented, but the request was rejected, euro zone officials said, Reuters reports.
The appeal was made by Athens at a teleconference of euro zone deputy finance ministers on yesterday.
-RW
You Will Most Certainly Need Lots of Newly Printed Fed Money for this Condo
 |
| Own the penthouse under construction at Lumina for just $49 million. |
A roughly 14,000-square-foot duplex penthouse under construction in the SOMA district of San Francisco by developer Tishman Speyer is priced at $49 million.
The apartment will have five bedrooms, five full baths, and two half baths ,plus eight terraces and private access to the roof deck.
"We see
-RW
Taking a Long Shower and Thinking About the Water "Shortage"
By Robert Wenzel
As I have written in the past, water is just like any other commodity, if you price it below market clearing levels, you will have shortages,
If you allow market prices, shortages disappear. When you have market prices, incentive is provided for development of new sources of water and the price acts as a disciplinary force against "waste."
Most officials in government jurisdictions through out the globe fail to get this and will attempt to impose rationing when their below market price schemes on various commodities result in major shortages. (SEE: Venezuela Turns Into a Socialist Nightmare and Toilet Paper: The US vs. Venezuela)
But I live in California, where the very unpredictable Jerry Brown is governor. And I do mean unpredictable.
As I have written in the past, water is just like any other commodity, if you price it below market clearing levels, you will have shortages,
If you allow market prices, shortages disappear. When you have market prices, incentive is provided for development of new sources of water and the price acts as a disciplinary force against "waste."
Most officials in government jurisdictions through out the globe fail to get this and will attempt to impose rationing when their below market price schemes on various commodities result in major shortages. (SEE: Venezuela Turns Into a Socialist Nightmare and Toilet Paper: The US vs. Venezuela)
But I live in California, where the very unpredictable Jerry Brown is governor. And I do mean unpredictable.
Is Warren Buffett Wrong About Oil Stocks?
By John Manfreda
Recently, Warren Buffett has made headlines by selling all of his shares in Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), the rest of his position in ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP), and reducing his stake in National Oilwell Varco. This has people wondering if the glory days of oil investing are over.
Warren's opinion of oil investments carries a lot of weight, because over a 32 year period, Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway portfolio has generated an average annual return of 24 percent. His most famous investments are Coke, American Express, and Gillette (which is now Proctor and Gamble). These investments have made him over 3 billion dollars each. This is why when Buffett buys or sells a stock, everyone takes notice. The problem with this generally accepted assumption is that it hasn't been proven that his equity investing success equates to success in the resource sector. In order to find out if this accepted assumption is correct, we first have to visit Warren's history of investing in the resource sector.
Recently, Warren Buffett has made headlines by selling all of his shares in Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), the rest of his position in ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP), and reducing his stake in National Oilwell Varco. This has people wondering if the glory days of oil investing are over.
Warren's opinion of oil investments carries a lot of weight, because over a 32 year period, Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway portfolio has generated an average annual return of 24 percent. His most famous investments are Coke, American Express, and Gillette (which is now Proctor and Gamble). These investments have made him over 3 billion dollars each. This is why when Buffett buys or sells a stock, everyone takes notice. The problem with this generally accepted assumption is that it hasn't been proven that his equity investing success equates to success in the resource sector. In order to find out if this accepted assumption is correct, we first have to visit Warren's history of investing in the resource sector.
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Why You Should Take Notes By Hand — Not On a Laptop
Vox reports on a study comparing taking notes by hand versus using a laptop:
For the first study, the students watched a 15-minute TED talk and took notes on it, then took a test on it half an hour afterward. Some of the test questions were straightforward, asking for a particular figure or fact, while others were conceptual, and asked students to compare or analyze ideas.
The two groups of students — laptop users and hand-writers — did pretty similarly on the factual questions. But the laptop users did significantly worse on the conceptual ones:
The problem appears to be that the laptop turns students into stenographers, people who write down everything they hear as quickly as they can. Students who take handwritten notes, however, try to process the material as they are writing it down so that they only have to write down the key ideas. Forcing the brain to extract the most vital information is actually when the learning happens.The laptops resulted in worse learning even under the study conditions when they were actually used to take notes. In the real world, the laptops are a tempting distraction. I am reminded of the day my son came to my class. He sat in the back and afterwards he said “Dad, I can see why you are so interested in online education. Half of your students are online during your class already.”(via Alex Tabarrok)
Bestselling Books at EPJ-TL in the Month of March 2015
Here are the combined bestselling books at EconomicPolicyJournal.com and Target Liberty for the Month of March 2015.
1. The Secret of Selling Anything by Harry Browne --On list because of this: How to Get a Wall Street Job in One Hour. 11th appearance on the list.
Hot 2. The Power Elite by C. Wright Mills. Because of this: Understanding the Essence of the Power Elite Second month on the list.
Hot 3. Universal Man: The Seven Lives of John Maynard Keynes by Richard Davenport-Hines. Because of this: The Sex Life of John Maynard Keynes
4. The 60-Second Sales Hook: How To Stand Out And Sell More Using the Power Of Your Story by Kevin Rogers. Because of this: The Amazing Million Dollar NYC Sidewalk Potato Peeler Salesman
Recommended 5. The Failure of the New Economics by Henry Hazlitt. Because of this: Austrian School Economists Still Have Much Work to Do
6. Political Economy, Public Policy and Monetary Economics: Ludwig von Mises and the Austrian Tradition by Richard Ebeling. Because of this: Mises the Applied Economist
7. Economic Science and the Austrian Method
by Hans-Hermann Hoppe. Because of this: The Influence of MIT in the World of Economic Policy, Despite Faulty Equations
8. Million Dollar Habits: 10 Simple Steps To Getting Everything You Want In Life by Robert Ringer. Because of this. Eighth month on list.
9. Austrian School Business Cycle Theory by Murray Rothbard---Because of this. Fifth appearance on the list.
10. Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety by Eric Schlosser. Because of this:The Failure of Government Regulations: On the Deliberate Crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 and a Chilling Thought for All of Us
1. The Secret of Selling Anything by Harry Browne --On list because of this: How to Get a Wall Street Job in One Hour. 11th appearance on the list.
Hot 2. The Power Elite by C. Wright Mills. Because of this: Understanding the Essence of the Power Elite Second month on the list.
Hot 3. Universal Man: The Seven Lives of John Maynard Keynes by Richard Davenport-Hines. Because of this: The Sex Life of John Maynard Keynes
Recommended 5. The Failure of the New Economics by Henry Hazlitt. Because of this: Austrian School Economists Still Have Much Work to Do
6. Political Economy, Public Policy and Monetary Economics: Ludwig von Mises and the Austrian Tradition by Richard Ebeling. Because of this: Mises the Applied Economist
7. Economic Science and the Austrian Method
by Hans-Hermann Hoppe. Because of this: The Influence of MIT in the World of Economic Policy, Despite Faulty Equations8. Million Dollar Habits: 10 Simple Steps To Getting Everything You Want In Life by Robert Ringer. Because of this. Eighth month on list.
9. Austrian School Business Cycle Theory by Murray Rothbard---Because of this. Fifth appearance on the list.
10. Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety by Eric Schlosser. Because of this:The Failure of Government Regulations: On the Deliberate Crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 and a Chilling Thought for All of Us
Greece Submits New List of "Reforms" to Eurozone
The sell out of the Greek people, by the new Greek government, marches on.
Greece today submitted a fresh list of economic "reforms" to eurozone banksters.
The 26-page document has been obtained by the Financial Times,
“The larger purpose of this document is, in the first instance, to unlock short-term financing that will permit the Greek government to meet its immediate obligations,” the document states in a short introduction. “The Hellenic Republic considers itself to be a proud and indefeasible member of the -European Union and an irrevocable member of the eurozone.”
Specifically, the document relies on plans to crack down on tax evasion and fraud to raise most of the revenues. These include €875m from audits of offshore bank transfers and €600m from a new lottery scheme aimed at compelling consumers to demand value added tax receipts (That is, it incentivises consumers to become tax operatives for the banksters, against those who sell to them goods). Pure destructive and evil.
-RW
Greece today submitted a fresh list of economic "reforms" to eurozone banksters.
The 26-page document has been obtained by the Financial Times,
“The larger purpose of this document is, in the first instance, to unlock short-term financing that will permit the Greek government to meet its immediate obligations,” the document states in a short introduction. “The Hellenic Republic considers itself to be a proud and indefeasible member of the -European Union and an irrevocable member of the eurozone.”
Specifically, the document relies on plans to crack down on tax evasion and fraud to raise most of the revenues. These include €875m from audits of offshore bank transfers and €600m from a new lottery scheme aimed at compelling consumers to demand value added tax receipts (That is, it incentivises consumers to become tax operatives for the banksters, against those who sell to them goods). Pure destructive and evil.
-RW
Assessing Austrian Economist Eugen Böhm-Bawerk’s Contributions
Richard Ebeling emails:
Dear Bob,This month “Liberty Matters,” the discussion forum for “matters pertaining to liberty,” that is part of the “Online Library of Liberty” run by Liberty Fund of Indianapolis, is featuring my essay, “Assessing Böhm-Bawerk’s Contribution to Economics After a Hundred Years.”I explain the life, ideas and economic contributions of the leading, early Austrian economist, Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk. Famous for his development of the “Austrian” theory of capital and interest, he also was one of the leading critics of Karl Marx and his theory of capitalist exploitation of workers.He also restated, refined and improved the theory of marginal utility and price formation first formulated by Carl Menger, the founder of the Austrian School. In this context, he was a critic of interventionist policies interfering with market-based prices and wagesLess well known is that he also several times served as the finance minister of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire under the Hapsburg emperor, Franz Joseph. Especially during his four-year stint as finance minister from 1900-1904, he followed a strict fiscal policy of limited taxation and restrained government spending, while defending the gold standard and resisting attempts to introduce Keynesian-type public works “stimulus” projects.The format of the “Liberty Matters” series is that after the posting of my “lead essay” summarizing and discussing Böhm-Bawerk’s life and work on April 1, a week later there will be posted “response essays” by Dr. Roger Garrison (Auburn University); Dr. Peter Lewin (University of Texas at Dallas) and Dr. Joseph Salerno (Lubin School of Business, Pace University).After which I will have the opportunity to respond to their commentaries, and then an open discussion will follow among the participants.Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk was one of the great economists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and one of the fountainheads of modern Austrian Economics. Anyone interested in the “Austrian” tradition, and its insights for understanding the free market competitive process, will find, I think, this month’s “Liberty Matters” discussion valuable and worth following.Best,Richard
WOW Galaxy S6 Review: The iPhone 6 Meets Its Match
WSJ's Joanna Stern reviews the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge.
Australia Wants to Tax Bank Deposits. Does Anyone Think the US Won't?
By Simon Black
Several months ago, the government of Australia proposed to tax bank deposits up to $250,000 at a rate of 0.05% (5 basis points).
Their idea was for the money to be invested in a rainy day Financial Stabilization Fund to insure against in the unlikely event of a banking crisis… or all-out collapse.
And as of this morning, it looks like the levy might just pass and become law in Australia. All parties support the idea. Which means that Australia might just have a tax on bank deposits starting January 1, 2016.
Our Current Illusion of Prosperity
By Frank Hollenbeck
President Obama and Fed Chair Janet Yellen have been crowing about improving economic conditions in the US. Unemployment is down to 5.5 percent and growth in 2014 hit 2.2 percent.
Journalists and economists point to this improvement as proof that quantitative easing was effective.
Pile on More Debt
Unfortunately, this latest boom is artificial and has been built by adding debt on top of debt. Total household debt increased 2.5 percent in 2014 — the highest level since 2010.
Coulson, Bedrick, Block and Krasnozhon on Government Tax Credits for Education
In response to Jason Bedrick's comment: A Libertarian Approach to Educational Freedom: A Response to Robert Wenzel, the below email exchange has been going on behind the scenes between Prof. Walter Block of Loyola University-New Orleans, Jason Bedrick, policy analyst with Cato’s Center for Educational Freedom, and Andrew J. Coulson, director of Cato’s Center for Educational Freedom, Dr. Leo Krasnozhon, Assistant Professor of Economics in Loyola University- New Orleans. There have also been several other observers to the email exchange that did not add commentary to it .
This is What an Insane Fed Money Printing Created Boom Phase Looks LIke
It's so hard to get a hotel room in San Francisco for Dreamforce, Salesforce's huge blockbuster annual tech conference, that the company has chartered the Dream Boat, a luxury cruise ship in which attendees can stay for the four nights of the show, reports The San Francisco Chronicle.
"The Dream Boat offers a new housing option for Dreamforce attendees when hotel space is at a premium in San Francisco," Salesforce CMO Lynn Vojvodich told Business Insider in an email.
The Dream Boat will be docked at Pier 27 in San Francisco for the duration. Attendees will be able to check into the Dream Boat on the morning of Monday, September 14th, and check out Friday, September 18th.
Rooms start at $250 a night for an "interior stateroom" without a window and go all the way up to $850 per night for a premium suite with a veranda.
Note well, the nutty politically correct themes in the video below, featuring those great multi-millionaire givers Colin Powell, Al Gore and Hillary Clinton. The masses are very confused.
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