Saturday, March 26, 2016

Violent Crime and Housing Projects

A new Census studies shows if you build housing projects highly violent crime concentrates there.  If you tear them down, it goes away.

Oh.

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Friday, March 25, 2016

Good Friday

As I understand it, subject to correction, Satan tempted Jesus with all power over all hegemons.  Jesus refused, he had a better plan. AS to hegemons themselves, Jesus taught do not be like them.  That's all.  Not overthrow them, not cheat them, just don't be like them.  Vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord.

The hegemons killed Jesus, and then Jesus played it His way.  I think that is how it goes.

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Thursday, March 24, 2016

Khorgas!

Lawrence of Arabia's claim to fame was he took the city of Aqaba, by coming in from the desert instead of the sea.  Aqaba was impregnable from the sea, and the desert was thought to be uncrossable.  Lawrence 1, Ottoman 0.

China has decided to take most of the world trade by coming in from the desert.  Europe, Middle East, SE Asia, India, Africa, reachable by land and a 100 year long development project.  Crossing the desert is no longer a problem. Worthy of a great nation.
In September 2011, the State Council issued Several Opinions on Supporting the Building of the Kashgar and Khorgas Economic Development Zones, which clearly spelled out the relevant supporting policies and established Khorgas' special position in the opening up of Xinjiang, and indeed China, to the outside world. Khorgas was officially established as a city in September 2014 and combines the characteristics of a border area, a customs checkpoint, a commercial city and an international city. It is positioned as a gateway for international trade "linking the east and the west" and a bridgehead for opening up to the west. 
This suits China, a huge project people.  The city they built is empty right now, and China has built several empty cities.  but what is different this time is they have built one of each thing that worked in the last 30 years, plus under the rules that work.

It appears they'll let Uncle Sam keep the seas for now.  It's time to read the tea leaves, and let China, with one quarter of its landmass native to Islam, deal with Islamic extremists.  Declare victory and get out of the middle east, and buy our oil once, instead of twice: coast of oil and cost of war.

We have our own country to rebuild after the ravages of capitalism, and create a renaissance in free markets.  Then we'd be invincible, prosperous and free.

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Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Is Blockchain the Tool for Small Business Renaissance?

Bitcoin had all the elements of fraud from the beginning, and I am glad to see my hunches proven right so quickly.  But as improvisational theatre work teaches, the first idea is rarely good.  Skip that, and see what you think of next.  Bitcoin was based on something being called blockchain, whatever that means, and the next ideas based on blockchain look promising.  Check out this article on something called Ethereum, touted as a new internet platform.

From a business point of view, although I once wavered, I am now convinced the internet has changed nothing, and if anything, it is a net deficit as far as human progress goes.  As one who recalls vividly a world of interest-free finance, and content-rich existence, unmediated human interaction, I wonder at the applause for a pixel-mediated existence.  And to say discos are superior to twitter is severe condemnation indeed!  (And here again, like google and amazon and indeed even the airline industry, twitter has not turned a profit either.)

Internet marketing is a zero-sum game, it is at best self-service checkout for commerce.  From a business point of view, the internet has only widened access to communication and research, but at a cost too high when considering the quality of the results is no better, or worse.

Back in the day families could have a business that afforded a lifestyle from middle class on up, and the tech level was no nationwide UPS service, let alone Fedex, no internet, only telex, catalogs and phone numbers at libraries  (and most corporations had private libraries with well-paid librarians; your library collection was a trade secret since its content would reveal your thinking.)  Sure things took longer, and were more expensive, but access to content was merit based for the expense, and the product was much better.

When everyone paid a couple of bucks for a phone service, now everyone pays around $60 for the ability to send value-free content around the world.  And to be fair, taxpayers must pay for the indolent to join in as well.

Deregulating telecommunications, and hooking computers up to telephone lines was a huge opportunity. We might have had a lowering of cost and a widening of access to communication and research, but since we went off the gold standard lite in 1971, mal-credit poured into this vacuum and we have a dreadful mix of spam, porn, psy-op addictive gamification and privacy violation.

With the USA policy of get big or get out, family run gas stations are gone.  Who needed GPS when you could stop at any gas station for accurate directions and a map?  Today we have people clueless as to where anything is, but we pay an astronical amount to self-report our location to the unaffordable security state, so we are "safe."  Except this security state that searches me at the airport cannot spot the San Bernardino killers (or find the third shooter) or prevent 9-11, or track violent ex-con Islamic extremists related to previous killers who gathered bomb ingredients unnoticed.  But I get searched at the airport.

If we muck out the barn, will we find some gems?  Well, there is Adobe .pdf, truly a gem.  But if keep finding UBER is what peer-to-peer rideshare becomes, if self-driving cars are preferenced over mag-lev, if bitcoin is money, then no other gems, just horse...

End corporate welfare.  Yes, cut every dime of corporate welfare before you cut a dime of personal welfare, but end all welfare.  Give it back to the religions.  End corporate welfare and prosperity will obviate the need for personal welfare.

Let's escape to anarchy.

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Let's Get Weird: Pay Interest on Gold Deposits

Is the situation not weird enough, with negative interest rates?  Now the offer to pay interest on gold holdings is gaining traction? The only way to pay interest is to lend it out, if it is lent out, it is gone, so the internal contradiction is to claim it is safe but necessarily lent out at the same time.
Getting interest on your gold: that sounds suspiciously close to what fractional reserve banks do to incentivize depositors to fund them with the unsecured liability known as cash; a liability which as Europe is learning the hard way can be bailed in at any given moment. But that is impossible, because as Ben Bernanke will attest, gold is not money, it is tradition. So how can this be?
Read the article for the rundown on this odd development.  What other upside down phenomena are heading our way?

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Tuesday, March 22, 2016

The Belgian Bombing Crime

Putin declared victory and is leaving Syria.  Reagan declared victory and got out of Lebanon.  We need to declare victory and get out of the Middle East.

In the past terror atrocities have proven to be false flag.  Who knows what is going on today, except our ally, Saudi Arabia is having existential problems.  Qui bono?

I get searched every time I pass an airport.  A hegemon certified conscientious objector.  All of my communications are noted.  But the intel services that monitor me just can't seem to spot killers.

There is a difference between law enforcement and intelligence work.  Law enforcement wants to make arrests, intelligence groups want to wait and see.

Get rid of intel.  Let cops handle the terror threat, until we can have free markets.  Then this all goes away.

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Russell 2000 Now Negative PE, to Match Negative Interest Rate

GAAP is something the minions adjust every 15 minutes so the false economy's equities will qualify as worthy of your pension money.
The as-reported P/E of the Russell 2000 is negative because of the many ‘1 time’ non-cash charges that must be reported because of GAAP.
Will there be a race to the bottom, who can get lower, equities or bonds?

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If Not Stopped, Trump Might Be An Improvemnet

One reason Trump is winning is in his work he has faced the unending whimsy of the unelected regulators.  He knows what the rest of us are up against on a daily basis.  Trump is the ultimate "none of the above" and if not stopped, may represent some improvement.

One associate sent me this list of stories straight from the third world division of USA government enforcement:

Sell a cookie, go to jail

You need your competitor's permission to do business

Archdiocese of Newark can't sell headstones

IRS steals $29,000 from dairy farmer

IRS agents rob convenience store

Tour Guide needs license

New cab companies need not apply

Florida governments don't want street vendors

IRS steals over $100,000 from convenience store

Dept of Ag redefines "skim milk"

Equine masseuse needs vet's license?!?

Dept of Business Affairs doesn't like business

Illegal to advertise raw milk

Hair braider arrested in Texas

Feds steal grocery store's bank account

Business signage not cool

Texas says no to internet vet

Government tries to steal old folks' motel

Licensing tax preparers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-1IEqYy4lc&list=PLCE9EF147C3C7C3AA&index=46

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Monday, March 21, 2016

Russia Continues to Benefit from Anti-Russian Sanctions

When apparently Ukrainians shot down a Malaysian Airliner, the USA gained backing for sanctions on Russia.  Those sanctions just keep helping Russia:

Overall, Russia's transit through the Baltic State seaports contracted by some 15%-20%. This was down to the government policy of prioritising cargo flows through the national seaports around St Petersburg. This policy was reinforced by the counter-sanctions Russia imposed on the EU countries as a consequence of the Ukrainian crisis.
Russia's seaports have also benefited from the fact that import tariffs and other fees are payable in the Rouble, with its devaluation making the Euro payments expected by the Baltic ports less competitive. For the coming year, it is expected that coal, petrochemicals and iron ore exports will continue to be consolidated into the Russian Baltic seaports.

It's a crazy, upside down world right now, and the hegemon can't catch a break.

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Somebody Robs NY FED for $80 Mil: Escapes!

To my mind the fascinating thing about this story is SWIFT, the System for Worldwide Interbank Financial Transfers, which still uses the old telexes for security reasons, got hacked.  As far as I know that never happened before.  The article wonders if it was an inside job, but since two bankers have collared as participants, the fact is it was.  From SWIFTs point of view, this is a relief.  But the big question is whether the "inside man" is a central banker.

Two parts, first, finally a mainstream writer restates the obvious:

It’s an unfortunate historical anomaly that people think about the paper in their wallets as money. The dollar is, technically, a currency. A currency is a government substitute for money. But gold is money.
Now, why do I say that?
Doug has to get apologetic?  "Technically?"  Sheesh.... nothing technical about it, and no need to apologize.

Now even less so is digital media.  What was stolen is tallies of Bengla Deshi accounts, last seen going into Filipino casinos, and there the trail goes cold.    (I doubt that, forensics will tell all.)

But here is the story, no doubt soon to be a movie starring Jet Li:
Now, the first thing that should jump out at you there is that Friday is a weekend in Bangladesh, a fact which probably should have set off alarm bells. But alas, it didn’t and by the time the hackers who sent the transfer instructions screwed the pooch by spelling “foundation” wrong in one of the requests, more than $80 million was sent to the Philippines where it landed in four accounts and eventually ended up transferred to at least two casinos and one unidentified man “of Chinese origin” who has since been named as a Weikang Xu.
Read the whole article, especially the point where the Filipines has an exception to anti-money laundering laws: casinos!  So if you can get digits in to a casino, trade for chips, then return the chips for dollars, and then disappear without a trace, you converted from digital to paper, a step up.  With paper you can buy gold without a trace.

Hong Kong has private companies that compete against each other with their currencies, as we once had in USA (indeed the legal fiction is USA has twelve private banks which issue our currency, but that is well... fiction.)

We see further insecurity in the hegemons' gargantuanism here.  We need strict separation of banking and state.

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Long Term Care Gets Wobbly

I have a specific retirement plan:  I grab my chest mid-sentence at a trade show and drop dead on the floor.  I hope I make it to 900, but I'll be lucky if I make it to 90.  Long term care has never interested me, because long term care places, even the nice ones, are contrary to human nature.  All elderly is no place to live, no way to live.  I don't like concentration camps.

Social Security is a scam, and the private sector version is now getting wobbly:

Life insurers’ stock prices have suffered. Shares of 10 of the most prominent U.S. life insurers have lost 12% since 2008, wiping out nearly $30 billion in market value in a period when the broader market gained 40%, according to FactSet.
Long-term-care insurance is one of the products hardest hit by low interest rates, because insurers bank on investing customers’ premiums for 20-plus years before claims come due. Eight million Americans own the policies, and many face annual bills that are 50% higher than before the financial crisis, according to regulatory filings and interviews with financial advisers.

This is what happens when the hegemon gets a monopoly on currency.  We need strict separation of currency and state.

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Sunday, March 20, 2016

New Portland Oregon Import Export Start Up Seminar

If you live in the Portland, Oregon area, on Saturday, April 23, 2016, I will offer an all-day intensive international trade start-up seminar at Portland Community College.  You will be taken through finding customers, suppliers, developing product, lining up the finance, logistics and legal structure all in a one day seminar highly rated by participants for content, pace and humor.  Enroll now!
Write down the CRN 24328 of your selected class to register.
CRNCampus / Bldg / RmTimeDaysDates
24328CLIMB Ctr / CLIMB / 30309:00 AM-04:50 PMSa23-Apr-2016 thru 23-Apr-2016
Instructor: John W Spiers 
Notes: One hour lunch break. 
Tuition: $79.00 Fees: $0.00 
http://www.pcc.edu/enroll/registration/non-credit-registration.html

Please bring recorders or anything you like, I provide handouts and after-class follow-up by email.  I look forward to meeting with you personally!

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Small Biz People Lament NSA Constraining Small Business: Solution

Didn't we solve this problem before?  Why is it USA small business gets less creative every day?  When Uncle Sam circa 1992 said super-encrypted (40 bits!!!) software could not be exported from the USA, Sun Microsystems simple farmed out the software work to newly free Russian contractors and then the work was not USA-based so no export controls applied.  And then no one in USA had the keys.  Brilliant work, Uncle Sam!  Is there no Scott McNealy among entrepreneurs today?
So if the government can snoop on the data of foreign customers, they become a party to those contracts, and we can’t control that. We’re just businesses and private individuals. We have no power over what the government does, especially on national security. But it certainly has an impact on our growth. Because you’ve seen it—after the leaks from Edward Snowden, the sales of American cloud companies have been reduced in Europe.
Sigh.  Just outsource the work to Russia, or China, of Burkina Faso for that mater, and work around the people who write rules utterly disconnected from reality.

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Deregulate Medicine Now

When I was a kid, I was in the emergency room often, since I had the gift of ADD/ADHD. No one every worried about the cost of health care, because the Catholics had an awesome range of hospitals whose prices reflected what people could pay, and the difference was made up by charitable donations. Nobody went without health care.  But then big government got access to unlimited credit, and socially conditioned people to worry about "health insurance" instead of health care.  By driving up costs through monopolies (patents) and control over how many beds may be licensed for health care, the Catholics were driven out, and now the corporations run the shows, even in hospitals still bearing Catholic names.

While awaiting the birth of a daughter, I recall reading the early registries of admittd patients from a historical record in one of Providence Hospital display cases.  Names redolent of soul, Asia and native predominated.  These people could not pay, but they got fixes and cures.

I also recall when kids with glasses had to be careful because their glasses cost an arm and a leg, and countless people had to go without reading because optometry was a racket for these doctors to charge too much to do too much.  Some effort was made to deregulate optometry, and the pushback assured us untold gnerations of people stumbling around for lack of glasses if optometry was deregulated.  I am wearing a pair of 1.25 glasses I got for $8 at a Walgreens, now that optometry has been deregulated.

The hegemon is a thug, and professionals like to have a thug enforce their private rents.  Here a doctor is threatened for charging a low price to the poor.  We need strict separation of health care and state.

Completely deregulate medicine.

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