Mother Teresa As Top Cop

Christopher Hitchens wrote a book outlining what a wicked person Mother Teresa was.  I won't recount either his argument, which is puerile, not refute it, which is easy, but point out nonviolence in action.

One thread Hitchens hammers on is the fact that Mother Teresa in her time met and cordially embraced most of the world's leading villains:  The Marcos in the Philippines, Haiti's Duvaliers,  the Reagans, the Clintons, Charles Keating and so on.

She offered to meet with all leaders.  I think the worst leaders noted the reality:  if you meet her, the more wicked you are the less time you have got.  There is more under the heavens than is dreamt of in Hitchen's philosophy.  Sometimes, when you want a bad guy taken care of, send in a Saint.

And Hitchens has made a career of playing to the crazies, whipping up the angry and hurt.  He has a nasty bit of cancer right now.  I have a prediction:  Hitchens will make  deathbed conversion to Catholicism.  It would be just like him.

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Order Out of Chaos

An article on the remarkable progress of recovery from the devastation in Japan has a point in the comments section where a fellow inquires on the difference in progress in Japan and progress in Haiti.

I took a stab at the difference:

DW in Sundbury, The difference between Japan and Haiti is the Japanese have a Rule of Law, Haiti does not.  Japanese society developed over thousands of years, whereas the Haitians have had maybe 300 yeas of slavery, having been kidnapped out of their cultures and put into a lawless regime, that is French slavery.   In Haiti, as in so many places, the locals violently overthrew their masters to merely replace distant oppressors for local oppressors, something we see in just about every country on earth.  IN Japan, the Japanese are merely cleaning up the mess.  IN Haiti, the locals are undergoing a nonviolent revolution.  And cleaning up the mess.  When Baby Doc Duvalier presented himself to the locals so they might avail themselves of his experience in ministrations, they declined.  There is no government in Haiti, so we are seeing anarchy in the academic sense, and in the practical sense, order out of chaos.  This act of God has presented the Haitians the opportunity to introduce law.

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Must Watch Steve Jobs City Council Hearing

Ideas matter, and Steve Jobs has ideas, respect for others property, and he competes on design.  Check out his new building and how he handles a city council.

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Greece and Ireland and Tunis: Invest Like a Rothschild

When taxpayers are obliged to bail out private companies, it is clear there is no delineation between govt and business.  This is the classic definition of fascism.

We hear words in USA like fascism and communism, and we are conditioned to fear them.  They are fearsome "isms" but they need not overwhelm us.  We just need to know they are in play, so we may adjust accordingly.

In USA we are each on the hook for a half million dollars, given what promises to private companies the USA politicians have made.  What cannot be paid, will not be paid. We could easily repudiate the loans, watch a house of cards fall, and start over clean.  The people to which our politicians oblige us are in place because they buy off the politicians who oblige us.  We are told what steps taken are necessary to save THE financial system, when in fact they are saving merely A system.  If this system were to crash down, we would start over with a clean slate, a new system, or even the same system, reset at zero.  Nothing bad would happen, but those powers that be would no longer have the means and resources to advance war, torture, spying, lawlessness, etc.  Nothing bad would come from financial system crash, any more than a bankruptcy in which a profligate is obliged for a few years to live within his means.  But we will not see that.

There are countless ways these debts will be managed.  Hamburgers will get smaller, sox thinner, medicine more expensive, lines longer, and service deteriorate.

Ireland and Greece are in tough shape, but there are countless people in each country running small businesses who sell things, exporting dolmathes from Greece, sweaters from Ireland.  These will continue.

Rothschild said the time to invest was when there is blood running in the streets. In the middle east they are dying for freedom to work.  In USA and Europe government unions are crying out for status quo.  I think there is a difference.

I'd bet on the people dying to work.  If I found my material or workmanship was traditionally from an African source, I'd revisit that source, even if blood is running in the streets, and begin trading. Invest like a Rothschild.

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International Trade Steady

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See, if you blame Obama, you do not have to take responsibility for yourself.  Apparently Immigration retaliated on elderly British Cruiseliner passengers for complaining about yet another "Identity Papers, Please" at the harbor in LA.  The story is a biggie in the UK with some USA commenters adding.  I like this one:

I was wondering, out of the over 300 posts in response to this article, how many posts  it would take before I saw one blaming this on President Obama. It took exactly TWO POSTS to find one. Hilarious.

Perzactly!  How are Geo Bush policies the fault of Obama?  USA voted Obama in for change, and then has done nothing about his staying with the Bush agenda.  With so many Americans saying it was better under Bush, it makes sense that Obama would carry on his policies.

Geo Bush failed to protect us from the second, and successful attack on the World Trade centers, an attack the terrorists clearly advertised in advance, like Babe Ruth pointing out where he planned to hit the ball. (Ramzi Yousef said in his trial for the first bombing they'd be back.) Geo Bush then set up the TSA and put out all of the weird security protocols we have, all following the logic of torture.  Once at a TSA checkpoint, when asked if I minded being patted down by a TSA functionary (as if I have a choice)  I said I do mind, "You do not have the right, but you have the power.")  He immediately called over a supervisor who said if I do not submit they'll "take me to a back room... and I do not want to go there."  So I was threatened for noting my rights.  Such is USA under the democrats and republicans.

The reason the cruise lines and airlines do not protect their customers is that they are subsidized by the government and would not exist, at least in their present form, without these subsidies.  Therefore these carriers at once support but distance themselves from the govt lawlessness.  There is no reason why taxpayers should pay for private companies' security.  Let "how safe" a cruise or airliner is be a competitive item.

When battle hardened states war veteran Irishmen formed a terrorist organization in the 1870s to gangster up the coal mines in Pennsylvania,  the private companies hired private companies to provide security.  Govt wan not in it.  We need to get back to private security and choice.

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Buying Friends

Mush Shedlock is mystified as to why China would load up on Japanese bonds when it is unlikely to pay off, and likely to lose money. How about buying friends?

Both capitalism and communism states defines themselves as a territory with a monopoly on violence.  Communism failed, and now capitalism has failed, so what is left except violence?  There will be a showdown over who gets to lead the world, and it will likely center on USA-India vs. China-Pakistan.  USA presence over there is forcing the issue.  We still have time to declare victory and come home.  But since that is unlikely, it makes sense for the Chinese to economically benefit anyone who may be a USA ally.

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Thailand and Port Congestion

Maybe 50 years ago when raid industrialization was all the rage worldwide, and with an noxious war next door as a result of this economic power struggle (or power struggle masquerading and economic struggle), the King of Thailand expressly deigned that Thailand would stick with light industry.

Thailand is the only Asian country never conquered by a foreign power.  The elderly beloved King is to be followed by an heir who is controversial, perhaps learning his ways from the Western military programs he attended. (Parents should remember that violence pornography and dope are a big part of the standing military.)  People are concerned for the direction of Thailand.

And excellent master's thesis for some graduate student in business might be a study of Thailand, it's economic policies and resultant economic polity.  One item demonstrating the robustness of the Thai economy is the fact the Port of Bangkok is so congested the govt is levying fees (which will get people to pick other ports from which to ship.)

From: Global Container Line and Global Transportation Services, Inc.
Re: Bangkok Congestion Surcharge (Effective July 6, 2011 as applied by carriers)

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Please be advised that we have been notified by our steamship partners of upcoming amendments to:

Bangkok Port Congestion Surcharge   (increase)

Surcharge changes have been filed in our GCL tariff to become effective on July 6, 2008.

These amendments are due to changes in costs and current market conditions.  

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Unless otherwise indicated in individual rate items a Bangkok Port Congestion Surcharge will be assessed on all containers as follows:

Loaded containers

$50.00/ 20’ container

$100.00/ 40’

$100.00/ 40’ H

$100.00/ 45’

for all shipments from and to the following Bangkok Port Terminals:

Port Authority of Thailand (PAT)

Thai Prosperity Terminal (TPT)

BMT Pacific

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Falling Prices - More Good News

Apple announced a new operating system, and the price is $30.  Not $90 anymore, $30.  This is good news.  Good big businesses like Apple are helping our economy recover.

Elsewhere. like the Wall Street Journal, a reporter has noted US Corps are sitting on nearly a trillion in cash reserves, and if an when this is released, (invested in new plant and equipment) we'll see an economic expansion like no other.

So cash sits idle—even as interest rates, after inflation, are so low that cash often produces negative real returns.

And then of course, the article goes on to blame Obama for Bush policies and then claim a lot of it is left overseas due to USA tax policies.  Sigh.

A lot of it is earned overseas because of USA tax policies, which subsidies sales overseas and then rewards corps to money launder other profits overseas.

Mish Shedlock has already, and several time, pointed out why this "cash on hand" is so misleading.  The cash on their balance sheet is borrowed money.  It represents bonds sold.  So it is not cash from profits from operations, it is just a huge debt.

Econ 103: you get wealthy from savings, not debt.  If this money was savings, then great.  It might do wonders.  But it is not.  Unloading it will be a race to the bottom, Quantitative Easing Number 12 or something by the time it happens.  The article cited, with disapproval, that Microsoft way overpaid 8.5 billion for Skype.  Exactly.  Easy come easy go.  Like a homeowner with cheap and easy credit, people overpay, and prices shoot up.  (Not to mention Microsoft will ruin Skype and make it useful only to people who want to waste time.)

Apple invests from its profits and zooms forward.  Most other US industry sells bonds and sits on debt.  But Apple gets investigated.  We are such a lawless country!

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Long Reply

Anony Mous inquires as to why one would see self-employment as a cure-all and a way out of this mess when places such as Italy and Spain have high self-employment and small business activity, yet the self-employed hardly seem to be thriving.  Family members labor away with little or no compensation, life is a struggle.  Why would anyone choose that?  It hardly looks attractive or gainful.

It seems to me in such cases it is unlikely it is a choice, few people choose to underperform, although people very often weigh opportunities, and strike some sort of balance.  The thirty year old living at home in Italy and manning the counter at the wine shop may have not done well enough to get into the civil service or medical school, so someday the wine shop will be all his.  It is a default.

In these countries, once hot-beds of innovation, start-up business is very difficult.  Making changes and adapting is difficult.  Their best and brightest move up or out.  This creates a sort of downward spiral for these countries.

We may wonder at tens of thousands of students in France protesting the raising of the retirement age by two years, for to us, why would students care about any retirement age?  The reason is that in those economies life is something of a conveyor belt.  As people retire after their planned obsolescence, there is a shift up the chain for everyone in the system.  Retirees fall off, everyone in the system moves up one, and there is a a space for the graduates to get on.  If retirement is raised by two years, then the next two years’ graduating classes will have no chance to get on the conveyor belt.  It is not a matter of waiting two years, it is a matter of never getting a chance again.  In two years, the jobs will be given to fresh graduates.  Who wants people who’ve been cooling their heels for 2 years?  Those students protesting know if retirement age is extended by two years, they are lost.  Immigrate, crime, drugs - pick one - but forget about opportunity.

For these people, attempting to start a business in a lock down economy would be revolutionary indeed.

Now I understand the lock down of these economies by the progressive powers that be in those countries. The progressives have no interest in turning over their countries to the welfare queen Walmarts, McDonalds and Microsofts that have proven to be a net deficit to the USA economy.  Better Italy be a museum than a mall.

Our problem in USA is the lawlessness of the government, our courts in particular.  Respect for property rights is gone, with local jurisdictions free to seize the property of one private property owner and give it to another, from homeowners to Walmart.  But this is not limited to property, government lawlessness is rife throughout the US economy.  A particularly good book on all of this is Morton Horwitz’s The Transformation of American Law, 1789 to1860.

Of course that is a false dichotomy, lock down or welfare.  It does not have to be one or the other. It can be something else, something good.  We can catch glimpses of what can be in places like Hong Kong, and places of new freedom, like Vietnam, where property rights are respected and innovation welcomed.  But a challenge for those who advocate freedom is there is no prescription, no prediction of what will be under freedom.  It only guarantees, more better cheaper faster of the good, the true and the beautiful.  Since the result of freedom cannot be predicted, only assurances that things will be beneficial, it is not a very compelling argument.  In essence, Anony Mous is asking to see the brochure before he buys into the community.

I’d say there is no brochure, just a blank slate, for us to draft whatever emerges from our individual but cooperative free market enterprises, and whatever other cultural advances we make given the peace and prosperity that comes from our action in freedom.  And no, I am not stoned.  This is rational and I am arguing from human experience.

But “no brochure” is not quite right.  There is a brochure, of the starting place.  Moral philosophers for a while were arguing for a better way by following Hobbes, who claimed that life was savage - solitary, poor, nasty, british and short.  Such a premise led to policies that are less than desirable. American philosopher John Rawls dominated political discussion the last half century by suggesting instead people operate from an “original position.”  That is to say, regardless of mans’ propensities, we do possess rational faculties, so let’s work out an original, fundamental position (regarding justice, equity, polity) and then start over and build from there.  Social planners whose policies had failed based on the Hobbesian premise were offered a fresh start for a new round of social planning!  Before, when people based social policies on the Hobbesian premises, we got war, famine, denigration of rights, economic chaos and so many other problems.  Working instead the last half century from the premise of “original position”, we have gotten war, famine, denigration of rights, economic chaos and so many other problems.   The problem is the planners preclude the good we get from freedom.  You cannot have freedom and central planning.

Perhaps we can try again.  We very often get the opportunity. How about an original position that life is savage - solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.  And whenever we have failed government policy - say after a Hurricane Katrina - government is forfeit and and anarchy is declared. City, parish, state and federal jurisdiction is null and void.  The people are on their own (they are anyway) and then let the order come out of chaos, which is ever the result in anarchy.

(If your mind runs to security and such, there is massive experience on this, and some time I’ll address it.)

What comes of it?  We can only know that we will get more better cheaper faster of what is good and true and beautiful... there is no predicting what it will be, there is no telling what wonderful things a free people will create.  We see this time and again in history.  We also see any plan will wreck the possibilities, no brochure can capture the future.

So self-employment is not signing up for a program with known benefits, career progression, and retirement plan, like a French waiter, but it is signing on to exercise every aspect of your existence at every level in life and the world around you.  And your retirement plan is you grab your chest, gurgle, and drop dead mid-sentence.

As a practical matter no matter what happens, if you are self-employed, you’ll have something to trade, so you will have options.  When the US Occupation forces’ policies in Germany after WWII were leading to widespread starvation, Konrad Adenauer talked the US General in charge to remove price controls on eggs.  The next day the market was full of expensive eggs, within a week they were cheap and plentiful.  It is always we merchants who save the day.

We’ve been conditioned to make our judgments based on income.  Self-employment is about lifestyle, not income. As I pointed out elsewhere, income is what we want to minimize.  A business needs and owner, but a business needs no physical plant, or can have palatial grounds.  It cannot pay taxes because ultimately its customers pay the taxes. Whether sole proprietor, corporation or some other form, a business outfits and supports the owner.  The owner decides everything.  The owner is self-actualizing.

On the other hand, to be an employee, its to be at the direction of others, and to be directly controlled by others, and feed the beast.  We do not have the right to agree to limit the excercise of our talents by ordering ourselves to the narrow needs of an employer, even if it is a great deal: big payoff for small effort.

Big payoff for small effort is what we are conditioned ot seek.  Such a polity is the result of social engineering, which in fact picks winners and losers.  We ethically cannot agree to a system that chooses who loses just because we are, or might be, chosen as a winner.

(Also, this inevitable leads to chaos, as those who were close to success, or recently lost it, are the ones who pursue armed intervention against the state.  See Eric Hoffer on True Believers).

Regardless of the payoff from “employment” the social engineering aspect of your activity plus the lack of challenge to the powers that be both feed the beast.

Our balance of entrepreneurial to big biz is perniciously out of balance..  If Ron Paul were to win and get his way (he will not win, if he did, he would not get his way...) we’d have mass starvation.  Once farm subsidies were cut, most of usa ag would fail.  We destroyed ag around the world, so we could not import enough from around the world to feed ourselves.  there simply are not enough people who know how to farm in usa to grow enough food to replace usa production of subsidized food.  What arable land that would be freed from franken-farming , such as soy and corn crops, is lethal to real crops for decades.

Austrian school economists pine away “if people could just understand...”  People understand perfectly well, and that is why they reject it.

Austrian economics, while effective, is particularly popular with people who wish to keep hold of ill-gotten gains.  This is why the term capitalist is very popular in the Austrian school, when in fact capitalism is adverse to free markets.  A policy that says expropriation is unlawful if attractive to those who gained much from government policies that fostered the capitalists’ ability to expropriate.

But the Austrians are right. We are in a crack up bust following a boom...  the powers that be are managing well, cooking the frog slowly...inflation here, cut services there...  thinner socks, smaller hamburgers, and bus drivers who say “I dunno” cause they don't know the system routes.  Drugs just are not there.

Everybody is negotiating their own deal, or think they are.  It is everyone for himself.  And if war is inevitable, well it will be fought by 19 year olds, who do not know any better, and then things will get better.  USA has always been big on human sacrifice as a way to propitiate the gods, something we copied from the Aztecs and others who ruled these lands before us.

The people who were describing what we see today 4 years ago were called crazy, and we elect to office and appoint to the commanding heights people who saw none of this, and have no capabilities whatsoever to deal with any of it.  Their continued relevance depends on not dealing with it.  That will not change, because people want that.  They want to believe Timmy Geithner can save us.  They want their corn dog and football game on the big screen TV.

What goes around comes around.  Thoreau complained that in democracy it is too easy for a small group to drag the entire country into war.  He was referring to the Mexican war, a plot by southern planters to get access to fresh cotton fields. General Grant thought the devastation of the Southern States in the war between the states was God’s punishment for the Mexican War.  The overall system is unraveling, specific actions are generating specific results.

Self-employment is no escape, it is just a lifestyle alternative to what will be issued in an ever constricting economy. You’ll have options.

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