Category Archives: economy

So, are we going to run out of minerals any time soon?

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Via Guardian.uk:

Through submarine volcanic vents along the mid-ocean ridge, it delivers fresh basalt to resurface the planet’s oceans every 200m years, and to drive the moving pavements on which the continents ride at a few centimetres a year, occasionally colliding to throw up features such as the Alps and the Tibetan plateau. These same forces built the Andes and the Rockies, and power the volcanoes that yearly discharge massive quantities of new water, gas and minerals to the biosphere. Earthquakes, too, are a reminder that the mantle is active, and determined to go on pushing us around. The great seams of concentrated mineral wealth – from the copper, tin, silver and gold that enriched the first civilisations to the rare earths and fissile elements that power new technologies – are ancient casual side-effects of the same process.

You would think oil is formed along with the minerals as well.

My favorite economics writer Tim Worstall asks this question regarding the renewal rate of minerals:

We’ve a certain rate of consumption of the metals in such minerals each year. “Sustainable” should mean that we’re not abstracing more virgin material (ie, after the effects of any recycling) from current stocks than are being added by this process.

So what is the number for the new copper, new aluminium, new whatever, being added as against current rates of abstraction? Are we in fact mining sustainably?

Sustainability. Its the eco-warrior word for ‘diminished standard of living.’

Canada Eliminates Its Penny

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Inflation has rendered the penny less than worthless (costing more to produce than it’s worth). Via Freakonomics:

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you may know that I am devoutly anti-penny. This includes a rant on 60 Minutes in which I argue that the penny should be killed off, as inflation has rendered it worse than worthless.

The U.S. government remains unpersuaded, but our good neighbors to the north are about to take the leap (following the lead, it should be said, of several other countries).

If the United States follows Canada’s (and several other countries) lead and does away with the penny, the move will remind Americans how much the US government has inflated its currency over the last several decades.

Eliminating the penny would also signal the U.S. Government really has no plan for returning to a strong dollar policy any time soon.

Eco-Warriors are still pushing the stupidity known as Earth Hour

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Greenies will not give up. Ever.

Even though global warming / cooling / climate change has been exposed for the fraud that it is, the eco-warriors continue marching forward toward their Marxist utopia.

One corporation caught up in the stupidity known as Earth Hour is Wells Fargo.

According to the Wells Fargo blog:

This is our fifth consecutive year as an Earth Hour supporter. We continue to champion the movement in the ways we’ve blogged about before, in both 2010 and 2011.

We’re particularly proud that our Earth Hour promotion appears on more than 12,000 of our ATMs nationwide from today through March 31, and that it will reach millions of our customers!

Its sad to see a historic company, a symbol of American progress and growth, succumb to the leftist, no growth ideology.

I mean, they wrote songs about Wells Fargo back in the day:

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What will the sing about now? Sitting in the cold and dark to ‘save the entire planet?’

Obama: Raising taxes on oil companies will lower gas prices for consumers

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Really Barack?

“I think it’s time they got by without more help from taxpayers who are already having a tough enough time paying the bills and filling up their gas tank,” the president said. “And I think it’s curious that some folks in Congress, who are the first to belittle investments in new sources of energy, are the ones that are fighting the hardest to maintain these giveaways for the oil companies.”

I have to ask, how , exactly, is raising taxes on oil companies going to lower gas prices?Remember what the brilliant Milton Friedman explained so clearly, corporations and businesses don’t pay taxes, only people pay taxes.

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Once a “community organizer,” always a “community organizer.”

Leftists hate inexpensive energy and are pushing for new regulations on natural gas pipelines

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Now that ‘green energy’ is a proven scam, leftists are turning their sites on a proven and inexpensive energy source. Natural gas:

Government auditors say federal officials know nothing about thousands of miles of pipelines that carry natural gas released through the drilling method known as fracking, and need to step up oversight to make sure they are running safely.

Amid the gas-drilling boom, private companies have put in hundreds of small gathering pipelines in recent years to collect new fuel supplies released through the high-pressure drilling technique.

Nationwide, about 240,000 miles of gathering pipelines ferry the gas and oil to processing facilities and larger pipelines in the major energy-producing states. Many of these pipelines course through densely populated areas, including neighborhoods in Fort Worth, Texas.

The Government Accountability Office said in its report issued Thursday that most of those miles are not regulated by the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, which means they are not regularly inspected for leaks or corrosion.

In some states, officials don’t know where the lines are.

Emily Krafjack, who lives in the gas-rich Marcellus Shale formation in Pennsylvania, said many local residents have no idea that the pipelines near their homes are not overseen by federal regulators. Gathering lines that run in the rural northeastern corner of the state receive no federal oversight if there are fewer than 10 homes within 220 yards of the pipeline.

“Who would ever think that they could run something like this next to your home and it wouldn’t have any regulations attached to it?,” said Krafjack, a former community liaison for Wyoming County, Pa., on gas issues.

And you know, once Federal Regulators get their hands on natural gas pipelines, they will drive prices upward.

EU Pushing to raise prices on plastic shopping bags to ‘encourage’ re-use

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Another shining example of the European nanny state running amok:

Fewer Single-Use Bags in the Future?

The idea behind the higher price tag is that manufacturers would be more likely to produce sturdier plastic bags designed for multiple uses, and that consumers would be willing to pay for this privilege. The charge should be increased over time, the study says, so that pricing remains uncomfortable and people do not grow accustomed to low prices. It estimates that all EU citizens would use an average of only 39 bags per year by 2020, an 80 percent decline. It is unclear what the impact of such changes would be on the plastic bag producers and their employees.

Another case of going green without thinking. Via MCT (July 10th, 2010):

Most folks don’t give the hygiene of their reusable bags any thought, but according to a new study from researchers at the University of Arizona and Loma Linda University, they should.

The study, “Assessment of the Potential for Cross Contamination of Food Products by Reusable Shopping Bags,” found that nearly all (97%) of shoppers who use reusable bags do not regularly (if ever) clean them. Furthermore, most of us freely mix meats, vegetables, and other foods in the same bag, and don’t think twice about it.

According to the study, “Reusable bags, if not properly washed between uses, create the potential for cross-contamination of foods. This potential exists when raw meat products and foods traditionally eaten uncooked (fruits and vegetables) are carried in the same bags, either together or between uses. This risk can be increased by the growth of bacteria in the bags.”

Good thing, most EU countries have socialized medicine to combat the spike in food poisoning this rule would create.

Video: Gas Prices Explained

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This is excellent…

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MCT has been all over this issue for some time.

Via MCT post January 1st, 2011 “Graphs: Obama vs S&P 500.”

During all of 2009 and ’10 oil prices have tracked the S&P 500 nearly 1:1. Based on crude oil prices, Obama has had no gain on the S&P 500.

As they say in the video, “Yet the Bernake claims credit for the white line but says he has nothing to do with the blue.”

Detroit is economically broken

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Detroit Free Press (Detroit’s very liberal newspaper) Rochelle Riley, published another rambling column covering Detroit’s economic collapse. In her column, Mrs. Riley takes Michigan’s Governor, Rick Snyder, to task over his requirement to create a Financial Advisory Board to oversee Detroit’s finances in exchange for a Michigan tax payer funded $100 million bail-out.

Condensing her column to its core, Mrs. Riley believes the city’s problem stems from a lack of co-operation between Michigan’s capitol and Detroit. As she explains it: “the feud between Lansing and Detroit? Enough. … The way the consent agreement was handled was more like a deal the old Detroit leadership might have done rather than something a new positive governor would do.”

Mrs. Riley idea of co-operation?  Michigan tax payers “share” the state of Michigan’s newfound budget surplus.

Gov. Snyder, balancing the state budget faster than any governor in recent history and piling up an $800-million surplus, could have shared some of the money with cash-strapped cities across the state, such as Detroit, lessening the need for emergency managers.

Unfortunately, Detroit’s problems go much deeper than Michigan tax payers ‘sharing’ the state’s budget surplus. Sending money will only prolong the inevitable collapse of Detroit.

There is one cold hard fact that no one is talking about. Detroit is economically broken.

Period.

When a city depends on governmental agencies as three of its top five employers, there is a serious problem. When you drill further into Detroit’s employment data, you find that 47.8% of employees at the city’s top 25 employers work for a tax payer supported (governmental) agency. In other words, a very large (and expensive) percentage of Detroit’s work force does not add anything to the economic growth of the city whatsoever.

This is, using lefty language, is unsustainable.

There are no good solutions left for Detroit. Either a state appointed Financial Advisory Board or bankruptcy. A bail out of the city is not going to force actions that need to happen to hopefully turn Detroit around.

This is not only a Detroit problem either. And it is not only a city problem (California for example). This is a Liberal / progressive government problem.

Detroit’s failure is now systemic. They have an unbroken string of Liberal Democrat governments for 50 years, proving (again) that the progressive economic model of putting government front and center in peoples lives is a recipe for failure.

And, until the bloated liberal democrat government and its oversize payroll are cut down to size, and no bailout no matter how large, will solve the problems facing Detroit.

Two more and important points should be mentioned regarding the State of Michigan running a $800 million budget surplus:

  • When politicians are involved, budget surpluses have a uncanny ability to turn to budget deficits in a hurry.
  • If the State of Michigan us running a $800 million surplus, Michigan taxpayers are being overtaxed by at least $800 million.

Counting on a state budget surplus to finance an economically broken city is not a long term plan for success, Mrs. Riley.

You know, this whole free market – supply and demand thing could really catch on

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Saw this on Marginal Revolution today:

San Francisco is trying to shorten the hunt with an ambitious experiment that aims to make sure that there is always at least one empty parking spot available on every block that has meters. The program, which uses new technology and the law of supply and demand, raises the price of parking on the city’s most crowded blocks and lowers it on its emptiest blocks. While the new prices are still being phased in — the most expensive spots have risen to $4.50 an hour, but could reach $6 — preliminary data suggests that the change may be having a positive effect in some areas.

Good to see this this whole free market – supply and demand thing is actually working. Even is San Francisco.

Long time MCT readers will remember the video describing San Fran’s parking scheme posted her nearly two years ago.