Roberts is a good man and he is on our side, but he and Buchanan and the others are dead wrong with the close the borders stuff.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Anthony Demands an Explanation
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Software Contract Stipulation - Trade Lead Opportunity
I am looking at a service provider for a software program. The company developed its own proprietary programs, and customers interface with the software over the internet. The customer downloads nothing, all software and files and databases are stored on the software vendors servers. This is not uncommon, but I do forget the word for this model.
Anyway, what makes me nervous is the "all the eggs in one basket" risk to this. What if the internet goes down for a while? What if this particular company goes under? What if they get acquired by some beastly firm, like Microsoft? What I will propose in our contract negotiations is should any of these events occur, it triggers an event: I get a copy of the software and all of my databases with a perennial royalty free license. In this case I will not be left high and dry should some unfortunate event occur.
(Of course, I would own a status quo copy. Any new owner would proceed to upgrade and naturally make mine less desirable over time. Or maybe not. I use circa 1994 versions of MYOB because after that MYOB integrated all its new cool benefits with MicrosoftWord, and I have never seen a version since 1994 that I would like.)
But such a contract stipulation is no good if I cannot actually get a copy after a trigger event. I would want a back-up copy of the software and my files created every day, and stored in a 3rd party "warehouse" where I could collect a copy if an when a trigger event took place. Sort of a software escrow.
This is the business opportunity, the trade lead... an escrow warehouse for software contracts.
Garment Workers Riot In Cambodia
You cannot riot without a certain amount of freedom, and when workers riot it is always good news. Naturally, The Cambodian gals want better wages and conditions, and since management is not going to roll over, the gals take direct action. This is part of the process of improving conditions and wages. People who normally would not be violent are either pushed beyond their endurance or simply see violence and legitimate, and thus take it to the streets.
Forget about labor union organizers and NGOs, with a little bit of freedom these gals have made big strides. With more, they will move further. Pray for freedom for Cambodian workers, so the genius of Cambodia can flower and we have a new trading partner contributing to the good of the world.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
New Hong Kong Flag
If we are going to have an autonomous region, or special economic zone, as a part of USA, then it will need its own flag, for vessels and such. I think its symbolism would be obvious.
Here is Hong Kong, China Flag:
Ford Has A Hit In Its Lineup
It seems the taxpayer bailout of the bankrupt Ford Motor Company has paid off: Ford, once the #1 truck seller in the USA, has come up with a wildly successful new truck.
It is made in Turkey for Ford, and imported. It has been designed to get around US import duties on trucks, those very duties that made trucks wildly profitable for Ford. By putting another row of seats in this very neat little delivery van, it's a car, not a truck. Of course, any biz person is going to take out the extra seats, and use the delivery van as intended. I expect to buy one soon.
Or wait until competitors jump in.
Now if Ford had never received the benefit of huge duties on competitors' trucks, they would not have had such easy, lavish profits, which in turn led to slovenly designed other products. If they maintained a design advantage, there would never have needed to be a taxpayer bailout. Then Ford would not need to take their taxpayer bailout to give it to Turkish workers to make a truck Americans will buy. Hahaha... and GM gave its USA operations, now worthless, to the autoworkers union, and took their bailout money overseas, and overseas, where taxes are lower. hahaha! What are you going to do about it, vote for the other party?
But it is what you want, when you vote for an Obama or McCain or Bush or Gore. Or any republican or democrat running for office, especially any tea party candidate. They will be much worse than what we have now. Remember the Republican 1994 "Contract with America?" hahaha!
Also note, part of the economic decline of USA is our rolling stock is getting smaller and flimsier. USA did tend to over-engineer its products, so maybe this is not bad in a delivery van. But it is coming to food, medicine and housing too. Freedom from subsidies, freedom to contract will save us.
Minimum Orders Topic - Class Transcript
Fred Checks In From Brazil
The US is a great country thanks to its constitution, political system,
universities, institutions, and so on. There are problems but who doesn't?
When I say I would be better in Brazil, I'm talking about my financial
situation, my own goals. I explain:
I left Brazil in 1994. By that time I had almost $1 million dollars made out
of the construction of 4 high-rise built from 1985 to 1991. Each building
had about 40 condos, most 100% financed. The profit margin was 1 for each 4
condos built. The demand for homes in Brazil is by far above the offer. From
1992 up to 2005 loans for construction were basically inexistent. I decided
to move to the USA motivated by a builder I met in Florida when I came on
vacation with my wife. By that time new construction was flourishing in
Florida. I would have had some difficulties in Brazil to find loans and to
sell, but I still would be able to build small buildings, one after the
other, with my own money. I would not move as fast as I would like but I
would not lose. Property prices in Brazil never go backward. In 2005 new
construction picked up again but I was too far away building homes in
Florida. By that time, I learned, most lenders started financing
construction and mortgages in Brazil. I would be capitalized to take
advantage of it. Instead, as I said, I was building homes in Florida. When
the crisis began I was caught with several homes for sale. I was unable to
sell most of them. Prices dropped from $200k to less than $100k. So, you can
figure out.
As a matter of fact, even before the crisis, I never made money as in
Brazil. This is because there are thousands of builders all over the place
in the US and too much regulation. The profit margin is much less than in
Brazil. I was really surprised to learn how low it was. It took me some time
to realize. If you work with loans a small profit margin may represent big
risk if take you longer than expected to sell. I didn't realize for instance
that big construction companies, like Lennar, mostly use equity from the
shareholders. This is a lot different than a small business like mine. On
this aspect, America is much more for big businesses.
I would like to restart my construction business in Brazil. However, I need
investors because I no longer have my equity. Investor would make a heck of
money with low risk but I didn't find one yet. I know there are some
investors from the US investing in real estate in Brazil. One of them is the
mega investor Samuel Zell. As far as I learned, he is happy as never. Just
search the Internet on his name to check.
On the energy business I can give you a real example. I am right now bidding
on a small job for the county. The job is to replacing lights in a public
fitness center for energy savings. The products must conform to Buy America
Act. The price of one of the specified LED is $150 each, made in USA. I
could have the same from China for $30 but it would not be acceptable. Local
manufacturers have distributors and representatives on an established
network to distribute their products. Therefore, I make nothing by selling
their products.
It is the same with LED streetlights. Most cities in the US are considering
LED for saving energy. The federal government is funding them for
retrofitting. There are just a few manufacturers of LED in the US. Most
products are not that good mainly because they just started. I found an
excellent manufacturer in China established since 1994; a company with 850
workers and 50 engineers. Great product, better then any local product I
have seen, top technology, low price, but it is not UL certified, and it is
not made here. So, engineers will not specify and nobody will buy.
I also started, about one year ago, a vitamin and sport nutrition business.
Best product for prostate. I take myself and my doctor takes as well. As a
matter of fact I have several doctors as clients. However I sell just
through the Internet. As you may know to sell through the Internet is not
that easy as it seems to be. So sales are just incipient. I believe those
are great products for exportation provided I have the right contacts. I
have sold some to Australia, Romania and UK through the Internet.
Sorry for the long paragraphs. I hope I was able to convey the message.
Regards,
Fred
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Misallocation
When you make war you manufacture and build things to destroy other peoples things. This redirects money from local needs, like small dams. This one fell down for lack of maintenance, in a rain storm.
REbuilding America would be good business, if it was private property america.
IPR and Clairvoyance
An exchange:
"An ounce of gold, mister, is worth what it is because of the human labor that went into the findin' and the gettin' of it." Howard from Treasure of the Sierra Madre..
Why can't you substitute your creative innovation in the sentence for gold? Doesn't your labor searching for creative ideas have the same value?
How does the free market address this argument...
If there are no copyright/patent laws then businesses wouldn't have the incentive to invent anything. The initial investment in the act of innovating wouldn't be worth it if someone else could just steal the result of that investment.
In your book, you cite Tylenol (no patent) as the number one selling drug. Are there other examples?
Alvaro Is Back With More Advice on Inflation
Long before top economic writers mentioned it, I was presenting "what to do in financial collapse" posts. Here is Alvaro, who lived through such times recently, again:
Two other tips that might come handy in case of financial trouble:
Always keep some cash readily available. There was a bank holiday here in 2003, many folks didn't have money to buy essentials when the ATMs became empty.
On the same line, buy and keep a cache of goods you need for your day to day life. Not only food! Toilet paper, toothpaste and spare bulbs are nice to have too :)
Why USA Managers Cost Too Much
Another reason is because they have to foot the bill for people who are not productive. We learn that in the USA, there are nearly one million people with Top Secret security clearance (something tells me there are probably a dozen levels higher than "top" given govt ruination of language whenever it uses it.) My first reaction was "and how many of those million are working for the other side?" Point is, for someone to have such a security level, they must work in a very expensive secure environment, with lavish expense and support. The cost comes out of the pockets of the productive.
We learn a Private First Class has released a 100,000 pages of documents telling us of the criminality of our attack on the Middle East. Of course we all knew this before his leaks, but he is a true Jeffersonian American, and should be in USA explaining himself instead of a Kuwaiti prison. Bring Pfc Bradley Manning home! But back to the topic, all of this is paid for, at least billed to, productive Americans.
When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, USA and China supported the formation of al Qaeda, and trained bin Laden and his crew. Taliban just means "students" in Pashtun, and was a student movement, a reaction to the chaos which followed the Soviet withdrawal. When they did not let our oil cross their country on our terms, we attacked.
China seems to have played their cards better: they get more oil from the middle east than we do, and have no troops committed there. As I said before, it is a lot cheaper to buy the oil than fight for it.
To get into a service academy is a political process: a congressman nominates you to West Point or Annapolis, etc. Congress decides who becomes a general or admiral. The Bush family always removes the serving officers before they start a war, likely because the officers who know best are against the adventure. This means our top officers in war are political hacks, and certainly unworthy of the soldiers who serve under them.
Losing a war is costly too. The powers that be will remain in power win or lose. Cheney and Rumsfeld and most of the neocons were serving in the Nixon administration when Vietnam defeated the USA. They went on to do the exact same thing again in the middle east.
AS long as USA is directing its productive capacity to pointless elective war, USA productive management has to bear the cost. China's economic success is relative: they are not fighting wars. Declare victory, come one home, and let's get back to work.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Postal Service Monopoly
A good story about an entrepreneur in the 19th century who took on the US Post Office monopoly. The Hamiltonians instituted control of the press shortly after "freedom" of the press was established. Sure, you can write what you want in USA, it just won't see wide distribution if it is not approved. This is another example of how USA has a safety valve for the powers that be: conscientious objectors are removed from the anti-war scene, tax-loopholes makes anti-tax people go away, you can write what you want, but it won't get anywhere. Pure genius.