High Five, Fellow Capitalist Pigs!

Thanks to free markets, over the last 20 years nearly 1 billion people have been raised out of extreme poverty.

Lessons From a 1956 Sears Catalog

Fascinating, actually!  For instance:

Sears’s lowest-priced 30″ four-burner electric range, with bottom oven, was priced, in 1956, at $129.95.  (You can find this range on page 1049 of the 1956 Sears catalog.)  Home Depot sells a 30″ four-burner electric range, with bottom oven, today for $348.00.

The typical American manufacturing worker in 1956, therefore, had to work 129.95/1.89 – or 69 hours – to buy an ordinary kitchen range.  His or her counterpart today must work 348.00/19.79 – or 18 hours – to buy the same sized ordinary range.

By the way, the numbers use the following: "[For 2012] ... the nominal average hourly earnings of nonsupervisory nonfarm private production workers in the U.S. [is] $19.79 (as of October 2012) ... For 1956 I instead use average hourly manufacturing earnings of production workers. That figure is $1.89."

"Secretary of Business" as Symptomatic

I've already mocked this, but Ricochet points out that the President's whole risible (and clueless) "Secretary of Business" suggestion is actually (and grimly) symptomatic of Obama's entire approach to business:

This is really how President Obama sees the private sector. It’s just one more interest group in need of care and feeding by Big Government. And since we already have a Commerce Department, let’s just rebrand that sucker and subject it to a little technocratic tinkering. Given this administration’s love of industrial policy — picking winners and losers — Obama might as call the position Secretary of Crony Capitalists.

Do recall, gentle readers, that crony capitalism is not the same thing as actual capitalism.

UPDATE: Well, that took no time at all.  Add this.

Whole Foods CEO John Mackey on the Moral Case for Capitalism

Take a look.  I love how Mackey starts off by noting the nannyish desires of those meddling busybodies who think they "know best."  Don't you also find the politicization of food to be terribly tiresome?  I know I do.

Happy 100th Birthday, Milton Friedman

Alas, the great man is no longer around to celebrate his centennial, but his ideas remain and seem to be more relevant than ever.

Reading Recommendations From An Econ Prof

Usually this sort of thing would have me rushing for the doors, but econ professor Art Carden (Samford University) has some interesting-looking choices.  Carden also links to some cool TED talks and free online lectures.  Ain't technology grand!

New Technology and Creative Disruption

Here, read this.  Innovation isn't for sissies, and - you know - that's as it should be. Oh, and here's a cool quote:

Every new technology that becomes profitable causes people to scream about the plight of existing producers. Then it turns out over time that the sector itself thrives as never before but in ways that no one really expected.

Classic Milton Friedman

Harvard econ prof Greg Mankiw has an intriguing post on what Milton Friedman might say to the Occupy movement.  Get a load of the dipstick in the first video who asks, "Isn't it necessary to forcibly redistribute wealth?"  Um, NO.  Note too how courteously Friedman disassembles these young clowns who have more idealism than sense.

Euro Notes: Excellent Estonia?

Hey, La Parisienne, maybe we should flee to Estonia if we decide against fleeing to New Zealand.  Look at this great quote from the economics minister:

"But when we had finally escaped from Soviet socialism, we were sick and tired of government centralism. We wanted precisely the opposite in all respects: We wanted a transparent state. A country that isn't constantly intervening, nationalizing businesses, placing a bureaucracy above everything and imposing rules on people in every respect."

LOVE!

Quote of the Day: Protests and Missing the Mark

From British MEP Daniel Hannan on the various and variously intellectually incoherent Occupy [Insert Location Here] protests:

The hard-Left protesters who marched in cities across the world today are wrong about many things, but they have got one thing absolutely right: bailing out first banks and then entire countries, is a form of class war against working people. 

The trouble is, the demonstrators are picking the wrong target. The people they should blame are not the financiers, but the politicians who obsequiously agreed to rescue them from the consequences of their malinvestments. 

Please understand, my Leftie friends, that what has taken place since 2008 is anything but capitalism. In a capitalist system, incompetent banks would have been allowed to fail, their profitable operations sold on to their competitors. Shareholders, bondholders and some depositors would have lost money, but taxpayers would not have contributed a penny.

Well, yes.  If these protesters had the least understanding of actual capitalism versus the perverse crony capitalism currently being practiced by corrupt-ocrats on both sides of the Pond and if these angry demonstrators actually had two economically-literate neurons to rub together, they'd be marching on government buildings.  But, of course, they don't.  And, so life imitates "Star Trek II": "You've managed to kill everyone else, but like a poor marksman, you keep missing the target!"  UPDATE: By the way, La Parisienne and I would like to note for the record that we always thought the massive government bailouts were stupid, but of course nobody listens to us.

2 Thoughts on the Wall Street Protests/Temper Tantrum/Whatever

Thought the first and thought the second.  Professor Bainbridge: "absurdity."  Or perhaps we should regard it as performance art or comedy improv?

The (Book)Worms Turns: An Author Comments on the End of Borders

Best-selling sci fi/fantasy author Larry Correia does not lament the end of Borders.  He's convinced that the chain's own bad business practices did it in.  Me, I'm not lamenting either. In fact, I've never spent as much time in Borders as I have in the last few days picking at its corpse like a big bibliophiliac vulture -- and even amid the liquidations I didn't find too many real bargains.  People who are bemoaning the demise of Borders as if it's THE END OF LITERACY AS WE KNOW IT AND WE'RE ALL TURNING INTO GRUNTING MORONS!!!!!  are totally misreading (ha) the situation.  Borders ran a business badly, and their competitors did a better job.  I'm just going to get my books elsewhere ... as I have always done.

If you will permit me a bibliomaniacal digression: 

The Absence of Capital: Thoughts on Haiti and Poverty

Indeed.  Note also the role of a rapacious government. The last paragraph is a firecracker.

Innovation, Tech, Capitalism, and Why Today You Don't Have to Pay $4000 for a Cellphone

Here's something rather cool, plus interesting nerd analysis by Professor Michael Cox of SMU:

Brought to you by the private sector.

Where Do Libraries Come From, Mama?

This Canadian lambasting of British author (and dirtbag du jour) Philip Pullman is a thing of beauty.  Here's just a bit (the last paragraph is just magnificent):

In Terms of Economic Policy, WWMFD

What would Milton Friedman Do?

Quotes of the Day and 2 Thoughts on Capitalism and Wealth Creation

Here is an interesting video and a short but very readable analysis, both by university instructors.  Two quotations from them:

From the video: "Exploitation is not exclusively capitalist, but wealth creation is."

From the article: "The intellectual critics of capitalism believe they know what is good for us, but millions of people interacting in the marketplace keep rebuffing them. This, ultimately, is why they believe capitalism is “bad for the soul”: it fulfils human needs without first seeking their moral approval."

Sign of the Apocalypse: Amazon Now Sells Vuvuzelas

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Then again, it's the whole supply-and-demand thing kicking in.  That goofy South African invention the vuvuzela's the hot accessory of the moment!  I guess I should say "Yay!" for free market capitalism and all that, even if vuvuzelas make my head hurt from all that noise.  (And make me watch World Cup matches on TV on *mute*!)

Also: an evil part of me (yes, I'm unabashedly evil) is now fantasizing about what would happen if I took one to a faculty meeting.  Or a Nerdmoot!

BBBBBBBBBBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!

Well, it sounds about as sensible as some conference papers I've heard.

Heck, it's even an improvement on others.  

Hey, North Korea! How's That Central Planned Economy Working Out For Ya?

Well, well, well -- check this out in the Washington Post:

Bowing to reality, the North Korean government has lifted all restrictions on private markets -- a last-resort option for a leadership desperate to prevent its people from starving.

In recent weeks, according to North Korea observers and defector groups with sources in the country, Kim Jong Il's government admitted its inability to solve the current food shortage and encouraged its people to rely on private markets for the purchase of goods. Though the policy reversal will not alter daily patterns -- North Koreans have depended on such markets for more than 15 years -- the latest order from Pyongyang abandons a key pillar of a central, planned economy.

With November's currency revaluation, Kim wiped out his citizens' personal savings and struck a blow against the private food distribution system sustaining his country. The latest policy switch, though, stands as an acknowledgment that the currency move was a failure and that only capitalist-style trading can prevent widespread famine.

So you've admitted that your horrible system is a dismal failure driving millions of human beings into misery and starvation. You've admitted that you're turning to -- gasp! -- private markets. HEH.

Hilarious and Awesome: Scott "Dilbert" Adams' Investment Advice

Invest in companies you hate! Read the whole thing, but here is a taste:

When I heard that BP was destroying a big portion of Earth, with no serious discussion of cutting their dividend, I had two thoughts: 1) I hate them, and 2) This would be an excellent time to buy their stock. And so I did. Although I should have waited a week.

People ask me how it feels to take the side of moral bankruptcy. Answer: Pretty good! Thanks for asking. How's it feel to be a disgruntled victim?

. . . If you buy stock in a despicable company, it means some of the previous owners of that company sold it to you. If the stock then rises more than the market average, you successfully screwed the previous owners of the hated company. That's exactly like justice, only better because you made a profit. Then you can sell your stocks for a gain and donate all of your earnings to good causes, such as education for your own kids.

Hm! "Exactly like justice, only better because you made a profit." LOL! I'm all for that.