Great commentary. Here’s one thing we should all be able to agree on (if we are all honest). The US Federal give has become a giant money laundering operation.
There was a guy here in Wilmette who had a winter products business, mostly wiper washer fluid and sidewalk salt. He kept two sizes of product, one for general distribution and one for winter emergencies. So you would get a gallon for lets say $2 in the summer, but it would be $6 for a gallon during a snow emergency.
It went along with the snow emergency sku was actually a metric gallon or 4 liters, and had a different label. The ridiculous anti-gouging laws wouldn't allow having price changes based on weather conditions, so he made two entirely different products to ship based on higher demand in winter weather.
Trump knows how to break things, he doesn't know build anything. And that is fine with his voters. You may be a thoughtful one, but it appears that that MAGA folks now are onto the idea that the Superbowl is fixed in order to sway people to vote for Biden.
This is a really good discussion that you will like. It's between Gene Epstein and Michael Munger. 2 non-left people who actually know policy stuff.
Last time I looked Trump's long term financial performance was essentially at market average levels. So OK, not great. Better than a lot of other trust funder babies. And he had operating businesses, casinos, that went bankrupt. Not to mention university and steaks. His current Trump Trading Cards business is transparently a way to extract money from cult members.
Pretty sure both Washington and Jefferson built more and were certainly more entrepreneurial. Trump knows best how to rip off contractors and how to fit a 30,000 sq. ft. apartment into 10,996 sq. ft. Hopefully Rudy's bankruptcy estate has a case.
I will agree with Bill D here on Trump not being able to build any sustaining coalition in the government....building a tower is a lot different than building a sustainable revolution. Trump was a bull in a china shop; 1000% needed. But, you have to put it back together. Trump was hindered for sure by the RINOs and the Dems, and the mainstream media; but does he seem like a guy that could do it?
Still, Trump built more buildings, via private enterprise, than the rest of the Presidents combined. The serial (and crazy) abuse of Trump by the deranged does nothing to change that.
I was ready for someone else to win the R nomination, and the D's are playing with fire if they think he is going down without a fight in the general. Look at what happened to that nitwit Fani Wills in Georgia. The Dems can't withstand the least bit of scrutiny and it is coming if Trump wins.
I agree that tariffs are unlikely to reverse the course of history, and I have no objection to outsourcing the manufacture of trivial items like cheap women's fashion and sweatpants for fat American couch potatoes to China, but outsourcing large segments of heavy industrial manufacturing to a country run by the CPU was a colossal blunder and a major factor contributing to long-term US decline, and I am sick and tired of hearing self-proclaimed 'conservatives' (especially those who made a living in the financial sector) use the mantra of 'free trade' and Ricardo's textbook model of comparative advantage to justify our heavy reliance on China for so many critical manufactured goods, including (apparently) the active ingredients of many pharmaceuticals (Wuhan lab leak, anyone?). China isn't Japan. Japanese producers made inroads into the US car market and other sectors by building better 'mousetraps' at competitive prices. China's manufactured goods were just cheap. Ask some old-timer tradesman about the quality of Chinese tools and hardware compared to the American products they replaced. In my experience, they'll tell you that the Chinese stuff is junk. Chinese producers systematically targeted US industries with their cheap substitutes. One by one, American factories shut down, leaving the cheap Chinese products that don't last as long as the only option. Even if their stuff was great, China is not our friend, and it doesn't make any sense to be so heavily reliant on China from a national security perspective. The geniuses who run are foreign policy are talking about going to war against China to protect Taiwan, but we and our 'allies' don't even manufacture sufficient munitions to keep pace with what Russia is capable of producing. What are we supposed to do, ask the Chinese to sell us the munitions to attack them with?
It isn't just Chinese stuff. The previous owner of my place left me with TVs and laundry appliances from a top Korean brand. But just because a company makes a good TV set doesn't mean they make a good washing machine. Ben's appliance and junk youtube channel recommends against this particular brand of washing machine, and I agree. It has lots of bells and whistles that I don't need (it plays a diddy when it is finished), but it's a piece of junk. At my previous home, the old American-made appliances had service lives of 10-20 years, but nowadays even if you buy an American brand, it was probably assembled in Mexico and/or with Chinese parts, and you are lucky if it lasts more than 6 years.
Free trade is fine, within limits. Markets are generally a superior mechanism for allocating resources. But outsourcing most of your manufacturing to potential geopolitical rivals is stupid.
It's fun to dream about 'free markets' but I think we're far closer to George Gilder's "Life after Capitalism" (2023). It's not dystopian, it's a hard look at where we are--which implies where were going. It's descriptive, not prescriptive.
Javier Milei happened because Argentina is a basket case--and has been for half a century. Argentina was wealthy a century ago--it's been a long fall--and she won't turn around overnight. It's fun to dream, though.
The left in the U.S. has been fully immersed in communism/marxism since good old Woodrow Wilson all those years ago with such stalwarts as FDR, LBJ, Truman, Nixon, Clinton, Obama, Bush 1, Biden pushing the ball down the road for them while the other side has been bereft of anything resembling intellectual fortitude and useless when faced with the "emotionally centered" attacks from the left and their hounds in the media over the last 100 years. I don't want them to agree, because for one side it only works if everyone is in agreement with out how they want to "rule", and trust me rule is exactly what they have been doing and continue to push for evermore power.
To unwind what has been created would be the equivalent of having the band aid torn off over and over again for eternity. One side says "can't we all just get along" while the other says sure, just swallow this latest and greatest program that will be run out of D.C. The intent has always been to separate us from each other, to take us away from our localities, to rip apart our connection to our neighbors and local residents where we live. To take the gaze of all and place is squarely on Washington D.C. To create a culture and society that can not survive without the federal government and all of its myriad of programs, laws, regulations and taxes.
Adam Smith understood the human condition, basically that we are screw ups, and that the safest way to us to be governed, to interact on a social, economic scale of any sort is one on one because the moment you add more people to the equation our imperfection will reach out and do harm in what ever is being done to more then just the two in the original interaction.
"Free markets if applied correctly can restore trust, and create consensus." I'm gonna weigh in with correlation is not causation here. I would argue that free markets require trust and consensus, not the other way around. The lack of both in our current culture is where the problem(s) stem from. And I think Adam Smith is on my side - see 'The Theory of Moral Sentiments'.
We will disagree on that and no amount of mathematical evidence will persuade you. Tariffs are a tax on people and hurt the companies/people they are designed to help. Otherwise the US automakers and US steel producers would be in great shape.
The US automakers are still in business which is a victory and the clever use of tariffs has driven every major foreign car maker to set up shop in the US to avoid tariffs.
This entailed massive capital expenditures in this country rather than abroad. These capital expenditures continue though I think the entire EV capitulation has been a huge mistake.
All of those foreign car makers and their parts suppliers are now employing Americans who are receiving great wages and paying US taxes.
Careful manipulation of tariffs did this as did the requirement of more US content in foreign cars from Mexico under USMCA. Big win.
As to steel, it is a national security industry and given the world situation we are smart to ensure we can produce the high quality steels that are necessary for modern high tech weapons (and knee braces) in this country.
Not that this has anything to do with the wonderful conversation going on- but I am listening to a great audio book entitled Loose Balls which is all about the ABA- American Basketball Association- the stories are even better then the legend would imply and they have not even got to Marvin "Bad News" Barnes yet. Stuff they did to make that whole thing go was both genius and just plain all out crazy at times. Pure free market at its best and craziest. What I think the founders of that league did not understand that college basketball and pro basketball was at that time full of people who either belonged in an insane asylum, jail, or the circus.
Great commentary. Here’s one thing we should all be able to agree on (if we are all honest). The US Federal give has become a giant money laundering operation.
Dan Proft nails it https://youtu.be/vMV-IsRGkx0?si=WxgkGWUP7a5Ducla
If you want to see Milei in action: https://x.com/LibertarianDuty/status/1751873724037378548?s=20
There was a guy here in Wilmette who had a winter products business, mostly wiper washer fluid and sidewalk salt. He kept two sizes of product, one for general distribution and one for winter emergencies. So you would get a gallon for lets say $2 in the summer, but it would be $6 for a gallon during a snow emergency.
It went along with the snow emergency sku was actually a metric gallon or 4 liters, and had a different label. The ridiculous anti-gouging laws wouldn't allow having price changes based on weather conditions, so he made two entirely different products to ship based on higher demand in winter weather.
Was a pretty decent business.
Trump knows how to break things, he doesn't know build anything. And that is fine with his voters. You may be a thoughtful one, but it appears that that MAGA folks now are onto the idea that the Superbowl is fixed in order to sway people to vote for Biden.
This is a really good discussion that you will like. It's between Gene Epstein and Michael Munger. 2 non-left people who actually know policy stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4o-s541UKgI
As an IL voter mine doesn't matter. And I am grateful. The fact that there are 2 dreadful choices speaks poorly for the USA and its electorate.
you should still vote for Trump. The alternative is significantly worse as Jeffrey Tucker shows. Not sure if this link is openable?https://lists.youmaker.com/archive/e5xZqJMT09/5kdG8QBtO/enM1bOvUy3y
Ah….Trump was a real estate developer. He is famous for building a whole bunch of stuff. WTH are you even talking about?
Last time I looked Trump's long term financial performance was essentially at market average levels. So OK, not great. Better than a lot of other trust funder babies. And he had operating businesses, casinos, that went bankrupt. Not to mention university and steaks. His current Trump Trading Cards business is transparently a way to extract money from cult members.
Trump has built more stuff in the private market than any President in history.
I've got my issues with Trump, but he certainly knows how to build stuff.
Pretty sure both Washington and Jefferson built more and were certainly more entrepreneurial. Trump knows best how to rip off contractors and how to fit a 30,000 sq. ft. apartment into 10,996 sq. ft. Hopefully Rudy's bankruptcy estate has a case.
I will agree with Bill D here on Trump not being able to build any sustaining coalition in the government....building a tower is a lot different than building a sustainable revolution. Trump was a bull in a china shop; 1000% needed. But, you have to put it back together. Trump was hindered for sure by the RINOs and the Dems, and the mainstream media; but does he seem like a guy that could do it?
Still, Trump built more buildings, via private enterprise, than the rest of the Presidents combined. The serial (and crazy) abuse of Trump by the deranged does nothing to change that.
I was ready for someone else to win the R nomination, and the D's are playing with fire if they think he is going down without a fight in the general. Look at what happened to that nitwit Fani Wills in Georgia. The Dems can't withstand the least bit of scrutiny and it is coming if Trump wins.
I agree that tariffs are unlikely to reverse the course of history, and I have no objection to outsourcing the manufacture of trivial items like cheap women's fashion and sweatpants for fat American couch potatoes to China, but outsourcing large segments of heavy industrial manufacturing to a country run by the CPU was a colossal blunder and a major factor contributing to long-term US decline, and I am sick and tired of hearing self-proclaimed 'conservatives' (especially those who made a living in the financial sector) use the mantra of 'free trade' and Ricardo's textbook model of comparative advantage to justify our heavy reliance on China for so many critical manufactured goods, including (apparently) the active ingredients of many pharmaceuticals (Wuhan lab leak, anyone?). China isn't Japan. Japanese producers made inroads into the US car market and other sectors by building better 'mousetraps' at competitive prices. China's manufactured goods were just cheap. Ask some old-timer tradesman about the quality of Chinese tools and hardware compared to the American products they replaced. In my experience, they'll tell you that the Chinese stuff is junk. Chinese producers systematically targeted US industries with their cheap substitutes. One by one, American factories shut down, leaving the cheap Chinese products that don't last as long as the only option. Even if their stuff was great, China is not our friend, and it doesn't make any sense to be so heavily reliant on China from a national security perspective. The geniuses who run are foreign policy are talking about going to war against China to protect Taiwan, but we and our 'allies' don't even manufacture sufficient munitions to keep pace with what Russia is capable of producing. What are we supposed to do, ask the Chinese to sell us the munitions to attack them with?
It isn't just Chinese stuff. The previous owner of my place left me with TVs and laundry appliances from a top Korean brand. But just because a company makes a good TV set doesn't mean they make a good washing machine. Ben's appliance and junk youtube channel recommends against this particular brand of washing machine, and I agree. It has lots of bells and whistles that I don't need (it plays a diddy when it is finished), but it's a piece of junk. At my previous home, the old American-made appliances had service lives of 10-20 years, but nowadays even if you buy an American brand, it was probably assembled in Mexico and/or with Chinese parts, and you are lucky if it lasts more than 6 years.
Free trade is fine, within limits. Markets are generally a superior mechanism for allocating resources. But outsourcing most of your manufacturing to potential geopolitical rivals is stupid.
It's fun to dream about 'free markets' but I think we're far closer to George Gilder's "Life after Capitalism" (2023). It's not dystopian, it's a hard look at where we are--which implies where were going. It's descriptive, not prescriptive.
Javier Milei happened because Argentina is a basket case--and has been for half a century. Argentina was wealthy a century ago--it's been a long fall--and she won't turn around overnight. It's fun to dream, though.
The left in the U.S. has been fully immersed in communism/marxism since good old Woodrow Wilson all those years ago with such stalwarts as FDR, LBJ, Truman, Nixon, Clinton, Obama, Bush 1, Biden pushing the ball down the road for them while the other side has been bereft of anything resembling intellectual fortitude and useless when faced with the "emotionally centered" attacks from the left and their hounds in the media over the last 100 years. I don't want them to agree, because for one side it only works if everyone is in agreement with out how they want to "rule", and trust me rule is exactly what they have been doing and continue to push for evermore power.
To unwind what has been created would be the equivalent of having the band aid torn off over and over again for eternity. One side says "can't we all just get along" while the other says sure, just swallow this latest and greatest program that will be run out of D.C. The intent has always been to separate us from each other, to take us away from our localities, to rip apart our connection to our neighbors and local residents where we live. To take the gaze of all and place is squarely on Washington D.C. To create a culture and society that can not survive without the federal government and all of its myriad of programs, laws, regulations and taxes.
Adam Smith understood the human condition, basically that we are screw ups, and that the safest way to us to be governed, to interact on a social, economic scale of any sort is one on one because the moment you add more people to the equation our imperfection will reach out and do harm in what ever is being done to more then just the two in the original interaction.
https://x.com/LibertarianDuty/status/1752248876424200222?s=20 Milei on free trade
https://x.com/LibertarianDuty/status/1752126750094410031?s=20 Milton Friedman nails it
"Free markets if applied correctly can restore trust, and create consensus." I'm gonna weigh in with correlation is not causation here. I would argue that free markets require trust and consensus, not the other way around. The lack of both in our current culture is where the problem(s) stem from. And I think Adam Smith is on my side - see 'The Theory of Moral Sentiments'.
I see your argument, but unless you can point to market rigging, the data would be transparent and plain.
Trump tariffs in reality and as a threat worked like a champ.
We got the USMCA and we had a infinitely more peaceful southern border because Pres Trump threatened the Mexicans with a 35% tariff.
Trump faced down Ford's desire to pull out of the US in some places and put manufacturing in Mexico by threatening a 35% tariff.
Trump and tariffs had game.
Back to our regular programming.
JLM
www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com
We will disagree on that and no amount of mathematical evidence will persuade you. Tariffs are a tax on people and hurt the companies/people they are designed to help. Otherwise the US automakers and US steel producers would be in great shape.
I will take a bit of line back --
The US automakers are still in business which is a victory and the clever use of tariffs has driven every major foreign car maker to set up shop in the US to avoid tariffs.
This entailed massive capital expenditures in this country rather than abroad. These capital expenditures continue though I think the entire EV capitulation has been a huge mistake.
All of those foreign car makers and their parts suppliers are now employing Americans who are receiving great wages and paying US taxes.
Careful manipulation of tariffs did this as did the requirement of more US content in foreign cars from Mexico under USMCA. Big win.
As to steel, it is a national security industry and given the world situation we are smart to ensure we can produce the high quality steels that are necessary for modern high tech weapons (and knee braces) in this country.
JLM
www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com
Not that this has anything to do with the wonderful conversation going on- but I am listening to a great audio book entitled Loose Balls which is all about the ABA- American Basketball Association- the stories are even better then the legend would imply and they have not even got to Marvin "Bad News" Barnes yet. Stuff they did to make that whole thing go was both genius and just plain all out crazy at times. Pure free market at its best and craziest. What I think the founders of that league did not understand that college basketball and pro basketball was at that time full of people who either belonged in an insane asylum, jail, or the circus.