Saturday, July 11, 2009

False Charge Industry

There are countless innocent people rotting in prisons, convicted of child sex abuse. Since this this falsely accused officer spent 20 years in prison, it cannot have a happy ending. I was living in Wenatchee in the 1990's when about 45 innocent people were railroaded into prison on false charges. The history of these witch trials reveals much about how things work in USA.

These false prosecutions occurred all over America, and started with a government program. About 1980, Fritz Mondale ran through legislation that put a bounty on child molestation convictions. That got things really rolling. I met a fellow who moved from San Jose to Wenatchee to cash in on the money flowing in to support the prosecutions, and the damage being done to families.

We should never trust government with anything as important as justice.


Exploited Labor Nonsense

Whenever we hear of exploited labor in international trade, it is from the point of view of the outsider looking in. Finally a book on the point of view of the workers. I have not read this book, but I will.


Friday, July 10, 2009

Enough Who Know

There are enough people who know, who have their facts straight, in every field, and they are easy enoough to access, so their is not reason to get trapped in hoaxes like "cancer screening" or ADD/ADHD, or HRT. You just have to ask around.

One reason medical "care" is so expensive, is we all have to pay for these hoaxes, when the price of goods and services include employer-paid medical, which feeds these hoaxes.

When one has employer-paid healthcare, and the system-supported doctors tells you to have a colonoscopy, well, why not, it's only $25 co-pay and it could save my life! Except, it costs us overall tens of thousands and the chances of the procedure saving your life are slim to none.

This article mentions the distress people experience when they are told the tests are positive for cancer, when it fact it is a false positive. I was once told I had cancer of the pituitary and that I was sterile. Well with 3 kids that I know about, that part had to be wrong, and as far as pituitary cancer, I grew up around enough doctors to doubt it seriously. Sure enough, false positives.

There is an alternative to all this nonsense, with is especial barbarity directed at women, but we have to love our freedom to have it.


Thursday, July 9, 2009

Trade Research Update

One important step I lay out in my book and classes as you begin your business is to consult the Directory of US Importers, or the Export version, for a quick list of many of your competitors. Of course the purpose is to see what NOT to copy (what they are doing) and also to learn the terms and conditions of sales, AKA quality and service level that is standard in your industry.

There are many imitators out there, but the real McCoy is to be found here, if you wish to purchase copies. I recommend you consult a copy your local library carries, but consult google books for the name of the nearest library that does so, or call around.

It comes out every year, and is expensive, but the previous years copy goes up on amazon for sale, no doubt by libraries selling the "outdated copy. I doubt any year sees more than 2 or 3 percent change...so last years copy at 90% of list, or 2 years ago edition, at 95% off is a deal.

The other use of this document is to discover what customsbroker or freight forwarders your competition uses, so you can use them too.

John


Stick 'em Up!

One way to show how a new administration is restoring law and order is to falsify the statistics. Leading up to the Atlanta Olympics, city officials made the city safer, on paper at least, by falsifying crime reports.

This is nothing new. The "broken window" policing which suggests if you crack down on small crimes big crimes will be reduced. So if you clean up graffitti and fix broken windows, there will be less murder and rape. Pause a moment, and reflect on that premise. James Q. Wilson, one of the regimes most influential intellectuals, was behind this. It gets better: Wilson's expertise is in studying ants. We pay trillions for this junk, directly and indirectly.

Rudy Guiliani made this broken window nonsense famous as a tough law and order republican mayor of New York City. He cracked down on taggers and the murder rate dropped. Except it did not. His administration simply falsified crime reports. With republicans you do not get better security, you merely get more wars, too.

This comes to mind because I was in Los Angeles last week, and the city is sharing its crime statistics with the citizens in a neat new interactive online website. Problem is, victims fail to see their crimes showing up, to a very large degree. Here again, the success is ersatz. The LA Times is being nice in this report, stating crime goes 40% unreported. Properly stated, it should be phrased the crime rate is 67% higher than reported. (40% underreporting means of 100 points, 60 get reported, and 40 do not. 40 is 2/3rds of 60, so the crime rate is 67% higher than reported).

If we are told crime rates are low, and something bad happens to you, it is just bad luck. If crime rates are high, and something bad happens to you, then the government is to blame for not doing its job.

Personally I am not into guns, but I grew up around them and I think every adult male in my neighborhood had ready access to arms. There simply was not the irrational fear of guns back then we have today. To be much safer, we do not have to have all citizens armed, only a few will do the trick. There are always be a few among us who are naturally adept at arms, competent to use them. These few, if allowed, indeed encouraged to carry, would make us all safer. Right now most protection is provided by private individuals. If we want more safety, we need more armed private individuals. WAshington state is a "shall issue" concealed permit state, which means the state must issue anyone to carry a concealed weapon permit unless there is due process. California is a "may issue" state, meaning it is up to the sheriff in the county if he wants to. Perhaps this is why things are not so safe in California.

There is a business here, the star of the Billy Jack movies is pursuing one angle.


Monday, July 6, 2009

USA Sues China

This is one of those stories that you see in USA newspaper, where official policy is laid out in ways you must decipher, but in this case China Daily is reporting.

The story is about how China is offended USA is complaining to the WTO about China not selling more of its weapon's grade raw materials for export. China points out they are exporting like crazy, even causing he prices to drop. Why, if anything, the editorial suggests, China itself should be stockpiling such minerals.

The posture assumed is innocence, consternation at being maligned, and even waking up to a problem China would otherwise not have considered.

The Chinese are smart enough to know what resources they need, stockpile them for emergency needs, and NOT sell the same to USA. The contradiction is China says they are exporting the minerals like crazy, but USA is complaining they do not export them. Which is true?

I suspect the Chinese are not exporting, they are stockpiling, and USA is using WTO rules to try to either get some strategic minerals (unlikely) or get some info on exactly what China is doing.

Business people in these fields already know the answers to these questions. The only intelligence service a nation needs is a free market.


Sunday, July 5, 2009

Ooops ... Wrong Again

Below I say shortselling to become a free market securities market regulator was a jb you cando with needing no ones permission. I spoke too soon. Although the SEC outlwed shortselling before, with bad results, and here, they are looking to do it again.