Month: July 2019

New York Passed Sweeping, Progressive Rental Regulations. Now It’s Getting Sued.

New York’s new rental regulations are an unconstitutional violation of landlords’ due process and property rights, argues a new lawsuit filed this week in federal court.

Late Monday, the Rent Stabilization Association (RSA) and the Community Housing Improvement Program (CHIP), two landlord trade groups, filed a lawsuit against New York City, its Rent Guidelines Board (RGB), and the state and city officials responsible for administering the state’s landmark rent stabilization law.

Essentially a form of rent control, the contested law limits how much the owners of rent-stabilized apartments can raise rents and imposes conditions on when tenants in those units can be evicted. In June, state lawmakers—led by a crop of newly elected progressive legislators who’d campaigned on a platform of “universal rent control”—passed a sweeping update to these regulations that piled on more restrictions still.

RSA and CHIP are arguing that New York’s rent stabilization law is such a poorly designed and irrational means of providing affordable housing that it violates the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments’ due process protections. They also argue that the law prevents landlords from using their property as they see fit while reducing its value, both of which amount to an uncompensated government taking.

The June changes to the law, plaintiffs say, have only exacerbated these constitutional problems.

“Even before the draconian effects of the 2019 amendments, the New York Rent Stabilization Law was antiquated, inefficient, and unlawful,” said Jay Martin, executive director of CHIP, in a statement. “The law actually makes New York’s affordable housing shortage worse by preventing the construction of new apartments, and improvements to existing apartments.”

“The law is not constitutional and punishes hard-working tenants and small landlords alike. Allowing it to continue to harm New York is no longer acceptable,” said RSA President Joseph Strasburg in a statement.

CHIP and RSA are joined in their lawsuit by several individual property owners.

New York’s rent stabilization law, first passed in 1969, generally applies to private apartment buildings of six or more units built before 1974 in New York City and a few neighboring counties. Allowable rent increases at these buildings are capped by local regulatory bodies, including New York City’s RGB. This year the RGB allowed rent increases of between 1.5 to 2.5 percent.

Landlords are typically required to renew tenants’ leases at rent-stabilized apartments unless they plan on taking their building off the rental market, or want to move into it themselves. Even then, removing occupants can be a years-long process. In the past, developers have paid tenants millions of dollars just to get tenants to move out of their rent-stabilized apartments.

Still, the state’s older rental regulations at least gave property owners a little wiggle room. They were, for instance, allowed to “deregulate” their rent-stabilized units—meaning the rent-stabilization law would cease to apply—when they were occupied by tenants earning over $200,000 a year and allowable rent increases had pushed rents above $2,774 a month.

Even with this provision, the rent stabilization law was showering a disproportionate share of its benefits on wealthier tenants.

A June Wall Street Journal analysis found that the difference between rents at rent-stabilized units and market-rate buildings were far larger in wealthier Manhattan than in the poorer outer boroughs. The same article found that renters in the city’s top income quartile were paying 39 percent less on average to live in rent-stabilized buildings compared to their peers in market-rate apartments. Meanwhile, rent-stabilized tenants in the city’s bottom income quartile were paying only 15 percent less than their peers in unregulated units, according to the Journal.

In 2019, state lawmakers eliminated landlords’ ability to deregulate those higher-priced units occupied by well-off tenants. This years’ changes also made it more difficult for landlords to take their properties off the rental market.

Skewing the law even more in favor of wealthy tenants, argues Monday’s lawsuit, makes a badly constructed law an even worse means of helping poor tenants. Limiting landlords’ ability to remove rent-stabilized units from the rental market, the plaintiffs add, “tightly restricts owners’ ability to demolish and rebuild their own buildings to provide additional capacity,” which also negatively affects supply.

Both changes, the RSA and CHIP argue, effectively take away landlords’ property rights without compensating them or furthering any legitimate government interest. The two groups are asking the court to immediately stop the state from enforcing its rent stabilization law, as doing so “will result in increased development of rental properties, better housing for a larger universe of renters, [and] the amelioration of a constrained housing market.”

Chris Kieser, an attorney with the libertarian Pacific Legal Foundation, says that courts have proven resistant to claims that regulations can amount to a government taking of private property so long as the owner is still able to make a “reasonable return.”

A 2008 lawsuit targeting New York’s rent stabilization law as an unconstitutional property rights violation was rejected by a federal appeals court.

Tenant advocates speaking to The New York Times stressed that landlords were still making money under the state’s regulations. “Landlords’ profits are exorbitant if they are willing to waste their money on frivolous litigation such as this,” Judith Goldiner, head of the Legal Aid Society’s civil law reform unit, told the Times.

Kieser says that RSA and CHIP’s claim that New York’s rent stabilization law is irrational might stand a better chance of success, telling Reason “the irrationality argument could be a good way to go because almost no economist thinks [rent control] is a good idea. It doesn’t help the people it’s intended to help.”

While declining to make a prediction on how federal courts might rule, Kieser described the lawsuit against New York’s rental regulations as “a worthwhile fight” against a policy that’s proven so destructive to property rights.

from Latest – Reason.com https://ift.tt/2JJenpk
via IFTTT

“There’s A Crisis In Queens” – Female Republican Jamaican Immigrant To Challenge AOC In 2020

AOC is going to have some competition when she runs for re-election in 2020 – and unlike Joe Crowley, the Democratic Party boss she defeated in a historic, upset primary, her next opponent could be a woman of color, an immigrant and – wait for it – a Republican.

Fox News reports that Scherie Murray, a New York businesswoman who immigrated from Jamaica when she was nine, is launching a campaign on Wednesday to take on AOC.

Murray said that her home borough of Queens is facing a “crisis” – and its name is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

“There is a crisis in Queens, and it’s called AOC,” Murray told Fox News. “And instead of focusing on us, she’s focusing on being famous. Mainly rolling back progress and authoring the job-killing Green New Deal and killing the Amazon New York deal.”

She launched her campaign with an introductory video detailing her family’s move to the US, to her business career. In the video, Murray accuses AOC of choosing “self-promotion over service” and said Queens and the Bronx need someone who will bring in jobs, not turn them away – a reference to AOC’s driving Amazon’s HQ2 out of NYC.

When it comes to AOC’s policies, Murray said they are “far, far to the left” and “not connecting with everyday Americans.”

She added that “Medicare-for-all,” which AOC supports, isn’t as popular with Americans who are happy with their current health-insurance plans. As for AOC’s Green New Deal, “we know that it certainly will kill jobs.”

Murray isn’t the only Republican who has declared their intention to run for the seat: Former police officer John Cummings, medical journalist Ruth Papazian, construction contractor Miguel Hernandez and entrepreneur Antoine Tucker have also thrown their hats into the ring.

There’s also been some speculation that establishment Democrats could rally behind Joe Crowley to stage a primary challenge to AOC.

Murray’s campaign materials don’t mention Trump, but when asked if she is a Trump supporter, she replied “yes.” She also said she doesn’t believe President Trump is a racist.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2Y77erZ Tyler Durden

American Manufacturing Is Growing, but Trump’s Tariffs Aren’t the Reason Why

At the White House’s third annual “Made In America” event on Monday afternoon, President Donald Trump singled out a bicycle-maker from Tennessee for special praise. The company, Litespeed Bikes, moved its manufacturing operations back to the United States last year, Trump said, and had seen an explosion in sales since then.

That was evidence, the president said, of “an extraordinary resurgence of American manufacturing.”

“When I took office, I was told by the previous administration that manufacturing jobs would be disappearing,” Trump said. “There was no way. They said you’d need a miracle.”

It’s true that American manufacturing has enjoyed a rebound during Trump’s tenure, with more than 500,000 new jobs added in the sector. But while that increase is something to be celebrated, a new report finds little evidence of so-called “reshoring”—that is, of jobs being brought back from overseas, something Trump promised would happen as a result of his tariffs on Chinese-made goods.

In fact, more than a year after the first round of tariffs on Chinese imports took effect, the growth of imports from Asian countries to the United States increased by 9 percent in 2018. That’s the largest annual increase in more than a decade, according to analysts at A.T. Kearney, a manufacturing and trade consulting firm that publishes an annual “Reshoring Index.“

That index—which measures domestic manufacturing of consumer goods against imports of the same products from 14 lower-cost countries in Asia—fell for the third year in a row, which shows that manufacturing firms continue to view Asia “as a more desirable location than the U.S. to produce or purchase a wide variety of goods, notwithstanding the trade measures emanating from Washington, D.C.,” the analysts noted.

The report says Trump’s trade policies have had a “backfiring” effect on U.S. manufacturing. Although the tariffs were intended to bring jobs back to America, the data indicate that the higher costs created by tariffs have not outweighed the benefits of manufacturing in lower-cost countries. If anything, higher input costs have harmed American manufacturers who import component parts. American audio equipment companies, like Seattle-based AudioControl, might import electronics from China and assemble finished products in the U.S. The company’s CEO, Alex Camara, says he’s been forced to raise his own prices by between 8 and 12 percent. 

In some cases, the tariffs have encouraged manufacturers to shift production to India, Vietnam, and even Mexico to avoid tariffs—but that’s merely an acceleration of shifts that were already ongoing before the trade war, A.T. Kearney’s report notes. Vietnam’s exports to the United States have doubled since 2013, for example, but the rate of growth skyrocketed during the first quarter of 2019.

Still, China remains by far America’s biggest source of imported manufactured goods. Of the $816 billion in Asian-made goods tracked by A.T. Kearney during 2018, about two-thirds came from China.

It may seem pedantic to point out that Trump’s tariffs aren’t the cause of the manufacturing jobs boom that the president like to talk about. But it matters. American consumers and businesses are paying higher prices as a result of Trump’s trade war—and even industries that were supposed to be protected by those tariffs now seem to be losing. If the tariffs are not helping the ongoing resurgence in American manufacturing, why should the president continue to force those taxes on Americans? Unless he’s secretly trying to make Vietnam and Mexico great again, the tariffs seem to be failing to achieve one of their primary policy aims: bringing jobs back to the United States.

Trump should enjoy his manufacturing boom while it lasts—because he’s not helping it. In fact, the A.T. Kearney report warns, the tariffs might end up having the opposite effect from what was intended. As tariffs increase costs for American manufacturers, they might make CEOs “more likely than ever to orient supply chains” towards lower-cost countries in Asia. And the longer American companies are subjected to higher input costs because of tariffs, the greater risk there is of an economy-wide slowdown.

“If increased tension between the US and its trading partners persists or escalates,” the A.T. Kearney analysts warn, “we may simply be seeing the first harbingers of a considerably darker scenario.”

from Latest – Reason.com https://ift.tt/30AvS1R
via IFTTT

American Manufacturing Is Growing, but Trump’s Tariffs Aren’t the Reason Why

At the White House’s third annual “Made In America” event on Monday afternoon, President Donald Trump singled out a bicycle-maker from Tennessee for special praise. The company, Litespeed Bikes, moved its manufacturing operations back to the United States last year, Trump said, and had seen an explosion in sales since then.

That was evidence, the president said, of “an extraordinary resurgence of American manufacturing.”

“When I took office, I was told by the previous administration that manufacturing jobs would be disappearing,” Trump said. “There was no way. They said you’d need a miracle.”

It’s true that American manufacturing has enjoyed a rebound during Trump’s tenure, with more than 500,000 new jobs added in the sector. But while that increase is something to be celebrated, a new report finds little evidence of so-called “reshoring”—that is, of jobs being brought back from overseas, something Trump promised would happen as a result of his tariffs on Chinese-made goods.

In fact, more than a year after the first round of tariffs on Chinese imports took effect, the growth of imports from Asian countries to the United States increased by 9 percent in 2018. That’s the largest annual increase in more than a decade, according to analysts at A.T. Kearney, a manufacturing and trade consulting firm that publishes an annual “Reshoring Index.“

That index—which measures domestic manufacturing of consumer goods against imports of the same products from 14 lower-cost countries in Asia—fell for the third year in a row, which shows that manufacturing firms continue to view Asia “as a more desirable location than the U.S. to produce or purchase a wide variety of goods, notwithstanding the trade measures emanating from Washington, D.C.,” the analysts noted.

The report says Trump’s trade policies have had a “backfiring” effect on U.S. manufacturing. Although the tariffs were intended to bring jobs back to America, the data indicate that the higher costs created by tariffs have not outweighed the benefits of manufacturing in lower-cost countries. If anything, higher input costs have harmed American manufacturers who import component parts. American audio equipment companies, like Seattle-based AudioControl, might import electronics from China and assemble finished products in the U.S. The company’s CEO, Alex Camara, says he’s been forced to raise his own prices by between 8 and 12 percent. 

In some cases, the tariffs have encouraged manufacturers to shift production to India, Vietnam, and even Mexico to avoid tariffs—but that’s merely an acceleration of shifts that were already ongoing before the trade war, A.T. Kearney’s report notes. Vietnam’s exports to the United States have doubled since 2013, for example, but the rate of growth skyrocketed during the first quarter of 2019.

Still, China remains by far America’s biggest source of imported manufactured goods. Of the $816 billion in Asian-made goods tracked by A.T. Kearney during 2018, about two-thirds came from China.

It may seem pedantic to point out that Trump’s tariffs aren’t the cause of the manufacturing jobs boom that the president like to talk about. But it matters. American consumers and businesses are paying higher prices as a result of Trump’s trade war—and even industries that were supposed to be protected by those tariffs now seem to be losing. If the tariffs are not helping the ongoing resurgence in American manufacturing, why should the president continue to force those taxes on Americans? Unless he’s secretly trying to make Vietnam and Mexico great again, the tariffs seem to be failing to achieve one of their primary policy aims: bringing jobs back to the United States.

Trump should enjoy his manufacturing boom while it lasts—because he’s not helping it. In fact, the A.T. Kearney report warns, the tariffs might end up having the opposite effect from what was intended. As tariffs increase costs for American manufacturers, they might make CEOs “more likely than ever to orient supply chains” towards lower-cost countries in Asia. And the longer American companies are subjected to higher input costs because of tariffs, the greater risk there is of an economy-wide slowdown.

“If increased tension between the US and its trading partners persists or escalates,” the A.T. Kearney analysts warn, “we may simply be seeing the first harbingers of a considerably darker scenario.”

from Latest – Reason.com https://ift.tt/30AvS1R
via IFTTT

First NYC, Then DC… More Power Outages Are Looming: Could Your Area Be Next?

Authored by Daisy Luther via The Organic Prepper blog,

Anyone reading this probably knows that our American electrical grid is like a groaning, arthritic old man who just keeps on pushing through. We’ve had more than just this one article about massive grid failure.

It seems like we’re seeing more and more power outages this summer for “no reason.”

Last week there was a blackout in NYC.

Last week, New York City suffered a blackout in the heat of summer. Con Edison, the city’s power provider said:

Con Edison said the blackout that plunged parts of Manhattan into darknessSaturday night was due to a substation’s relay protection system that “did not operate as designed.”

The utility company said the faulty system was at its West 65th Street substation.

“That system detects electrical faults and directs circuit breakers to isolate and de-energize those faults. The relay protection system is designed with redundancies to provide high levels of reliability,” Con Edison said in a statement on Monday. “In this case, primary and backup relay systems did not isolate a faulted 13,000-volt distribution cable at West 64th Street and West End Avenue.”

Con Edison said the blackout that plunged parts of Manhattan into darkness Saturday night was due to a substation’s relay protection system that “did not operate as designed.”

The utility company said the faulty system was at its West 65th Street substation.

“That system detects electrical faults and directs circuit breakers to isolate and de-energize those faults. The relay protection system is designed with redundancies to provide high levels of reliability,” Con Edison said in a statement on Monday. “In this case, primary and backup relay systems did not isolate a faulted 13,000-volt distribution cable at West 64th Street and West End Avenue.” (source)

Many news outlets noted the interesting fact that the blackout was on the anniversary of a much lengthier blackout in 1977.  Some Twitter users speculated that it could have something to do with the Epstein fustercluck.

Thousands were without power in Washington DC a couple of days ago.

PEPCO, DC’s electric company, is trying to determine the cause of a power outage in Northeastern DC that left thousands in the dark on Monday. According to a company spokesperson, this outage, too, was an equipment failure.

And we’ve got PG&E just turning people’s power off in California.

Fingers have been pointed at PG&E, the power company in California, for causing the Camp Fire that took the lives of at least 85 people. In fact, further investigation showed that poor maintenance by PG&E had been the cause of at least a dozen horrific wildfires over the past few years.

A recent report said the company had not followed state laws:

This is the second investigation to back up widely reported claims that PG&E’s poor maintenance and management of its power lines, combined with high winds and dry vegetation, sparked some of the more than 170 wildfires reported across the state in October.

Late last month, Cal Fire found PG&E negligent in its vegetation management duties for three of four fires it had investigated in the Sierra Nevada foothills, which caused no fatalities.

The new report accuses PG&E of violations of state law for a much larger set of blazes. (source)

PG&E’s response? It wasn’t to better maintain power lines. Instead, during times in which they deem the risk of fire is high, they’ll just shut off electricity to millions of people during triple-degree weather.

According to a press release, the campaign’s purpose is a “call to action for all Californians to take important steps to get ready before the 2019 wildfire season, such as creating a thorough emergency plan and updating their contact information with their energy company.”…

…The change stems from PG&E’s expansion of its shut-off program scope to include higher-voltage transmission lines like the one suspected of involvement in the start of last year’s Camp Fire, the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s recorded history. In February 2019, PG&E filed for bankruptcy protection, citing potentially $30 billion in liabilities after two seasons of historic wildfires. The company admitted a power line failure was the probable cause of the Camp Fire that killed 86 people and destroyed thousands of homes. In a filing with federal regulators, PG&E expressed doubt about its ability to remain in business…

…Even for those without special medical needs, power shut-offs can create other problems as Californians seek ways to deal with what some fear could be days and days of blackouts. (source)

Imagine the hardship of living in a climate of over 100 degrees Fahrenheit and not even being able to turn on your ceiling fan to move the air around a little. Then imagine you’re diabetic or you have a heart condition or you’re elderly. It’s possible that PG&E will be responsible for just as many deaths by cutting power as by leaving it on and not maintaining their equipment and the brush around it.

And other cities have been warned that to expect more power outages.

Last week’s outage that shut down transportation, left hundreds of people stuck in elevators, and had everyone dealing with sweltering temperatures might not be a single incident in NYC according to Jay Apt, a professor and co-director of the Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center.

There is always high demand in the summer – air conditioning is very power intensive and you will always have some failures of equipment,” Apt said. (source)

He warned that cities such as New York, Chicago, and Washington DC should get prepared for more outages during the impending heatwaves.

With heat and humidity as intense as predicted, Con Edison is prepared for “scattered outages” in Manhattan, and parts of Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, spokesperson Allan Drury said Tuesday.

Manhattan is served exclusively by underground delivery systems that inevitably heat up as the ground warms, and those systems are put under further strain by increased demand for power, Drury said. (source)

The DC area has not ruled out power outages during the upcoming heatwave.

Christina Harper, a spokesperson for Pepco, said the city’s primary public utility company is preparing for the possibility of power outages, although they are not necessarily expecting them.

Temperatures in the D.C. metro area are expected to reach the high 90s this week, according to the Weather Channel, and could top 100 degrees on Saturday.

“We are ready,” Harper said. She encouraged all customers to download the Pepco app, which will allow them to easily report a power outage and access an interactive map of local outages. (source)

Chicago is also anticipating hot weather and potential electrical failure.

Officials from ComEd in Chicago are also preparing for extreme temperatures – Friday is forecast to be the hottest, with a high of 96 degrees, according to the Weather Channel.

When you have extreme weather of any kind, it can put stress on any system and can cause outages,” said Terence Donnelly, the company’s president and chief operating officer. “We’re watching the pending hot weather moving into our system very closely, we have scheduled our emergency response center to open up and we have scheduled extra crews scheduled to work extra hours.” (source)

It’s not just a big city problem.

Of course, big cities get all the press but it’s important to note that it isn’t only a problem you face in big cities (or California.) Any power company whose equipment cannot meet the demand asked of it could see power failure.

So how do you survive a hot weather power outage? Here are some tips from The Blackout Book, which you can get immediately in PDF format.

Here are some ways to keep a little bit cooler when the grid is down:

  • Get battery-operated fans. (And lots of batteries.) A battery-operated fan can help cool you down, particularly if you get yourself wet first. They’re reasonably inexpensive and work well, although I recommend spending a bit more than for the cheap ones at the dollar store. This one is big enough to reach more than one part of your body at a time and can help you get to sleep. 6 D batteries will run it for about 40 hours. These tabletop fans are rechargeable (so you will either need an off-rid way to recharge them or you’ll need backups), these handheld fans have a misting option (also rechargeable) and these handheld fans are powered for up to 8 hours by 2 AA batteries.these handheld fans are powered for up to 8 hours by 2 AA batteries.

  • Stock up on cooling towels. I picked up some these cooling towels for use when I was working outside in the garden. I was stunned at how well they work. All you do is get them wet, wring them out, and give them a snap, then they cool you down, no power or refrigeration required. You can use them over and over again. They also come in these bands that can be worn around your head or neck.

  • Channel your inner Southern belle.  Slowly fan yourself with a handheld fan. Mint juleps are optional.

  • Keep hydrated.  Your body needs the extra water to help produce sweat, which cools you off.

  • Change your schedule.  There’s a reason that people who live near the equator close down their businesses and enjoy a midday siesta.  Take a tepid shower and then, without drying off, lay down and try to take a nap. At the very least, do a quiet activity.

  • Play in the water.  Either place a kiddie pool in a shaded part of the yard or use the bathtub indoors. Find a nearby creek or pond for wading or swimming. (Note: Playing in the water isn’t just for kids!)

  • Soak your feet.  A foot bath full of tepid water can help cool you down.

  • Avoid heavy meals.  Your body has to work hard to digest heavy, rich meals, and this raises your temperature.  Be gentle on your system with light, cool meals like salads and fruit.

  • Make sure your window screens are in good condition.  You’re going to need to have your windows open, but fighting off insects when you’re trying to sleep is a miserable and frustrating endeavor.

Scott Kelley from Graywolf Survival has super-easy instructions for making your own air conditioner that will help cool down one room as long as the power is still on. His design doesn’t require ice, it’s VERY budget-friendly, and he offers suggestions for alternative power, as well. (source)

Here’s an excerpt from my book, Be Ready for Anything, which gives you a more thorough overview of surviving a summer power outage. As far as long-term power outages are concerned, my recommendations are decidedly low-tech.

These summer blackouts seem to be happening a lot more often.

As our infrastructure continues to age, it seems to me like these miserable summer blackouts are happening more frequently. And it isn’t just the power company’s fault. We demand more and more comfort, keeping our homes cool.. And if the businesses we visit aren’t cool enough, we won’t shop there – we’ll look for more comfortable environments.

I guess the most important thing to remember is that one of these days, the power just might not come back on. That may sound far-fetched, but look how long Puerto Rico was in the dark after Hurricane Maria. You can come up with all sorts of arguments about why we here on the mainland are better off – and you’d be right – but also keep in mind that after Superstorm Sandy, parts of New York were still without power 94 days after the storm hit. And not just a couple of folks – we’re talking almost 2000 households. You’re deluding yourself if you don’t think, with our crumbling infrastructure, that a long-term outage is possible.

Or maybe even likely.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2Y76iUv Tyler Durden

Rhode Island Is the Latest State To Abolish Onerous Hair-Braiding Licensing

You won’t need to go to the government to get permission to braid hair in Rhode Island anymore. 

Last week, Democratic Governor Gina Raimondo signed a bill to exempt hair braiders from cosmetologist licensing requirements. Previously, people who wanted to work as natural hair braiders were required to complete 1,500 hours of education and training, much of it completely unrelated to hair braiding. 

Under Rhode Island’s old law, for example, hair braiders had to “learn how to use dye, heat, and chemicals—practices they never engage in and outright reject—in order to braid hair legally,” Christina Walsh, activism director at the Institute for Justice (IJ), told Reason. “This is a victory for entrepreneurship, economic liberty, and plain common sense.”

Rhode Island is the 28th state, and the 17th in the past five years, to exempt hair braiders from cosmetology licensing requirements.

African-style hair-braiding skills are “passed down from generation to generation and don’t require formal training,” says state Rep. Anastasia Williams (D–Providence), who sponsored the bill. 

Like most occupational licensing laws, there’s not much evidence that licensing hair braiders actually improves the quality of service. Studies of both hair braiders and cosmetologists have found no connection between the existence or severity of occupational licensing and consumer satisfaction or safety.  

Licensing hair braiders has a disparate impact on minority communities, as these regulations shrink the number of people working in the field. This means that both fewer people of color can do the work and that people of color who use braiding services have to pay higher prices.

Repealing those unnecessary licensing laws can have an immediate impact. Mississippi was one of the first states to abolish hair-braiding licensing in 2005. By 2012, the state had over 1,200 registered braiders, according to an IJ study. In the same year, Louisiana had only 32 licensed braiders. Getting a hair-braiding license in Louisiana requires 500 hours of training. 

Back in Rhode Island, the repeal of hair-braiding licensing is part of an ongoing trend. In 2016, Raimondo signed a budget that repealed over two dozen occupational licenses. These included licenses for such obscure occupations as kickboxers, beer-line cleaners, fur-buyers, histologic technicians, and cytotechnologists.

Nonetheless, licensing laws still cost the state of Rhode Island. In a 2018 study, economists Morris Kleiner and Evgeny Vorotnikov found that occupational licensing laws cost the state almost 7,000 jobs and $675 million in annual state economic output. Among the state’s most burdensome requirements is their regulation of HVAC contractors, requiring an eye-popping eight years of experience before one can contract independently. 

from Latest – Reason.com https://ift.tt/2O0cWZb
via IFTTT

Netflix Plummets After Company Reports Collapse In Subscriber Growth, Decline In US Subs

Is the Netflix juggernaut finally dead?

Back in April, when Netflix reported strong Q1 earnings, what surprised most investors was the company’s unexpectedly weak outflook, predicting a sharp slowdown in subscriber growth, and expecting 5.00 paid subscriber.

In retrospect, nobody was prepared for just how bad the final number would be, because moments ago while Netflix reported strong top and bottom line results, it was the collapse in Q2 subscriber growth that is the reason why the stock is plunging over 10% after hours, specifically Netflix reported that in Q2 it added a tiny 2.7 million subs, far below the company’s 5.0 million forecast, and well below the Wall Street consensus estimate of 5.06 million.

First the good news: EPS of 60 cents was above the 56 cents expected, with revenue of $4.92 right on top of the expected $4.93 billion. Additionally, the company reported a rather impressive Q1 EBITDA of $836 million, well above the $584MM in Q1. Of course, if that was the extent of it, NFLX stock would be surging. Looking ahead, Netflix reported that Q3 forecast revenue would be $5.250 8BN, a 31.3% increase Y/Y, which is also above the estimate of $5.2BN, a number which would generate EPS of $1.04.

However, the reason why Netflix is tumbling after hours is because just like one and two quarters ago, the growth story is once again in jeopardy as a result of the company’s surprisingly weak subscriber print: to wit, whereas Wall Street expected Q2 subscribers to rise by 5.06 million, Netflix reported just half this number, or 2.70 million, which in addition to a far weaker than expected 2.825mm intl subs, domestic subs actually declined by 126K in Q2 to 60.1 million, a sharp slowdown from the 9.6 million paid net subscribers added in Q1.

Developing

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2JDdhwH Tyler Durden

Rhode Island Is the Latest State To Abolish Onerous Hair-Braiding Licensing

You won’t need to go to the government to get permission to braid hair in Rhode Island anymore. 

Last week, Democratic Governor Gina Raimondo signed a bill to exempt hair braiders from cosmetologist licensing requirements. Previously, people who wanted to work as natural hair braiders were required to complete 1,500 hours of education and training, much of it completely unrelated to hair braiding. 

Under Rhode Island’s old law, for example, hair braiders had to “learn how to use dye, heat, and chemicals—practices they never engage in and outright reject—in order to braid hair legally,” Christina Walsh, activism director at the Institute for Justice (IJ), told Reason. “This is a victory for entrepreneurship, economic liberty, and plain common sense.”

Rhode Island is the 28th state, and the 17th in the past five years, to exempt hair braiders from cosmetology licensing requirements.

African-style hair-braiding skills are “passed down from generation to generation and don’t require formal training,” says state Rep. Anastasia Williams (D–Providence), who sponsored the bill. 

Like most occupational licensing laws, there’s not much evidence that licensing hair braiders actually improves the quality of service. Studies of both hair braiders and cosmetologists have found no connection between the existence or severity of occupational licensing and consumer satisfaction or safety.  

Licensing hair braiders has a disparate impact on minority communities, as these regulations shrink the number of people working in the field. This means that both fewer people of color can do the work and that people of color who use braiding services have to pay higher prices.

Repealing those unnecessary licensing laws can have an immediate impact. Mississippi was one of the first states to abolish hair-braiding licensing in 2005. By 2012, the state had over 1,200 registered braiders, according to an IJ study. In the same year, Louisiana had only 32 licensed braiders. Getting a hair-braiding license in Louisiana requires 500 hours of training. 

Back in Rhode Island, the repeal of hair-braiding licensing is part of an ongoing trend. In 2016, Raimondo signed a budget that repealed over two dozen occupational licenses. These included licenses for such obscure occupations as kickboxers, beer-line cleaners, fur-buyers, histologic technicians, and cytotechnologists.

Nonetheless, licensing laws still cost the state of Rhode Island. In a 2018 study, economists Morris Kleiner and Evgeny Vorotnikov found that occupational licensing laws cost the state almost 7,000 jobs and $675 million in annual state economic output. Among the state’s most burdensome requirements is their regulation of HVAC contractors, requiring an eye-popping eight years of experience before one can contract independently. 

from Latest – Reason.com https://ift.tt/2O0cWZb
via IFTTT

Gold, Silver, & Bonds Jump; Stocks Dump As Trade Talks Stall Over Huawei

“There was blood” in the oil complex as Iran tensions were de-escalated.

 

China was flat overnight as the afternoon session erased the morning session’s gains…

 

European stocks were sold today, accelerating their losses after US opened…

 

US markets were ugly today with Trannies trounced (hurt by a collapse in CSX) erasing all the gains from yesterday and then some (to go from first to worst on the week)… All majors red on the week…

 

The S&P 500 fell back below 3,000..

Weak close as headlines about trade talks stalling hit…

 

VIX was notably higher today…

 

Credit markets have widened dramatically in the last few days…

 

Treasury yields tumbled hard today…

 

10Y yields are back at post-Powell prepare remarks levels…

 

The yield curve continued to flatten…

 

The 3m10Y curve has now been inverted for 38 straight days…

 

The dollar was weak today with selling pressure coming as US equity markets opened…

 

Yuan found support at the PBOC fix and rallied on the day…

 

Some early ugliness in cryptos was met with dip-buying power, lifting Bitcoin from within a tick of an $8000 handle to within a tick of $10000…

 

Still ugly on the week though…

 

Silver continues to dramatically outperform as crude is clubbed like a baby seal…

 

Oil prices plunged further as Iran de-escalation continued… (and inventory data did not help the bull’s case)…

 

Gold spiked…

 

Silver soared most since January today, up to $16 for the first time since February (up 7 of the last 8 days)

 

And silver is ripping back against the yellow metal…

This silver surge should not be a huge surprise as we warned previously of the extreme level it had reached…

 

Finally, we note that the global aggregate volume of negative-yielding debt is on the rise again and along with it both gold and bitcoin…

Correlation is not causation but if anything is a sign of policymaker-idiocy, $13 trillion of negative-yielding debt must be close.

 

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2XXMQp8 Tyler Durden

Tech Wreck Looms As Valuations Decouple From “Startling” Decline In Earnings Expectations

You know it’s bad when… even Wall Street’s biggest tech analysts are getting nervous about the market’s lofty levels.

“Risk is increasing in tech, especially with high priced stocks,” warned Toni Sacconaghi, AB Bernstein’s senior technology research analyst, in a note this week, pointing out that tech companies are getting way too expensive as the earnings picture continues to deteriorate.

The tech sector is now trading at 12 year highs, dramatically above the broader market.

As CNBC reports, this rapid multiple expansion, which is the most pronounced this year, has reached a worrisome degree given earnings are expected to have a “startling” decline over the next 12 months, according to Sacconaghi.

“Part of tech’s challenge is that it is comping against a tough 2018. Tech’s earnings lagged the broader market last year, as tax reform more favorably impacted other sectors and expectations for 2020 don’t improve dramatically.”

Earnings for the tech sector are expected to drop by 9.9 percentage points on an equal-weighted basis in the next 12 months, compared with the broad market’s 1.3 percentage points decline, according to Bernstein. The revenue picture is also not uplifting with the group expected to grow just 0.5% while the overall market is set to gain 4.7% in sales, Sacconaghi said.

Additionally, as safe-haven flows surge, U.S. companies are regaining their dominance in the world’s stock markets. As Bloomberg notes, they accounted for about 56% of the total market value of the MSCI All-Country World Index at the end of last week. Their weight in the index, consisting of companies in developed and emerging markets, was the highest since August 2003.

Finally, a reminder, this is not a bubble…

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/30Dm0og Tyler Durden