Big Companies Are Predatory, Big Governments Do Dumb Things

Big Companies Are Predatory, Big Governments Do Dumb Things

Authored by Bruce Wilds via Advancing Time blog,

Mankind faces a toxic mix when it comes to protecting our freedom. Big companies are predatory, big governments are stupid. The thing they have in common is they both want more control and power. China is a good example of trying to combine both, this experiment however seems to be crumbling before our eyes. Yes, where the powerful forces of global companies and big governments meet is at the intersection of Globalization and the World Economic Forum’s vision of the future. 

The whole concept of people power or that the masses have at any time the ability to just say no is constructed around the rather utopian or optimistic view that people can agree on what is in their self-interest. In truth when you push away the emotional high garnered from the vision of a quick clean non-violent rebellion, we are the underdog in this ongoing struggle for control of our lives. History shows the so-called masses are seldom able to come together on anything. 

Keeping us divided and docile is a tool used to prevent unrest from boiling over and those in charge use it well. When people do rise up, achieving reform is more difficult to accomplish than simply promising it. The head may change but it often inherits the same old body of government workers that are resistant to change. True improvement tends to flow from evolution rather than revelation. The reason rebellions fail is often because those rebelling generally replace one bad government with another. 

The idea that a large government hanging above us to regulate our lives will solve our problems has proven to be a fallacy. It could be argued the larger governments become the less responsive they become. Government bureaucracies tend to get bogged down in their mission to serve the people. They also have a huge problem balancing their mission to serve with their natural inclination to extend control over just about everything including our lives. This is often done under the claim it is for the “greater good.”

Mega global companies and big government are the two largest threats to our freedom. Throughout history, monopolies of any kind have demonstrated a natural propensity to abuse the people, and governments have exhibited the ability to do dumb things that benefit the few rather than the masses. We see this in their inclination to rush to war and how they rapidly include cronies in anything they do which corrupts the fruit of their efforts. 

Big Companies Tend To Be Predatory

For years many economists have discounted how the greed of these companies has created and added to the many problems the world faces. For example, the main reason we have the military-industrial complex and companies rushing to make bombs is that by doing so, they gain power and add to their profits. This train of thought brings front and center the question of whether mega-global companies are working in the direction of taking over the world and even dominating governments and countries. This is in some ways an extension of the New World Order with CEOs pulling the strings. The power these companies wield is often masked behind the facade of a figurehead leader but it is very real.

Developments over the last several decades portend a shift in power from country to corporations. The argument can be made that corporations are well on their way to supplanting the state as the world’s dominant organizational structure in the future. Knowledge is power and this means power is flowing to large conglomerates and internet companies. Those that are most prominent control the communication networks collecting and storing data on all of us. They are now in a position to manipulate us in every way.

Over the years, this has resulted in a blurring of the lines between business and state. It has also shaped the world as we know it. By weaponizing the data they have collected as propaganda in a battle for our hearts and minds technology companies may hold an advantage over national governments in persuading individuals to align with their interests. This translates into enormous persuasive power and could be the key to providing corporations with a path to ultimately control populations, governments, and even nations. As they have gained power it seems these powerful global entities often lead governments around by the nose placing and have taken to placing people in a position of servitude.

Biden’s Recent Speech Was About Control

The idea that a world controlled by mega companies will be benevolent and kind ignores the greed and ambitions of those who control them and how little regard they can have for those ranked below them. In his novels, Orwell depicted how governments could take on a life of their own and criticized totalitarianism throughout his writings. Totalitarianism, the most extreme and complete form of authoritarianism is a political concept that prohibits opposition parties, restricts individual opposition to the state, and exercises an extremely high degree of control over public and private life.

As an added bonus for these behemoths they can hide behind the governments they control sucking the blood from them while remaining aloof and shielded from the evil they inflict. It is difficult to deny that in our modern world many large companies already have more power than most nations and their power continues to grow at an alarming rate. The bottom line here is the power of the people is at a strong disadvantage when it comes to reforming society. The reality of sustained “power to the people” is as rare as a unicorn in your backyard. When all is said and done, in their effort to control us, the ugly forces of monopolistic conglomerates and governments continue to turn people into pawns.

Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/05/2022 – 11:50

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/uO6rS5j Tyler Durden

Key Events This Week: ECB And Powell Doubleheader, EU Energy Ministers And More

Key Events This Week: ECB And Powell Doubleheader, EU Energy Ministers And More

With the US closed for business on Monday, we get the typical post-payrolls slowdown, with all eyes this morning on gas futures and the aftermath to the NS1 news, with prices predictably surging as much s 30%.

Looking at this week’s post-Labor Day newsflow, DB’s Jim Reid writes that this Friday EU energy ministers meet so that will be a key meeting, and expect to see more government action over the next few days and weeks. Indeed Germany yesterday announced a fresh $65bn package to help consumers. This is now the third such package.

Elsewhere Liz Truss was voted as the new UK PM. Her reaction to the energy/cost of living crisis will be very much in focus, especially as it pertains to fiscal policy. This might come out more over weeks than days (emergency budget speculated for September 21st) but could signal a meaningful shift in policy.

All this has slightly overshadowed a big week for central banks with all eyes on the ECB meeting on Thursday, as well as Fed Chair Powell’s speech the same day. On Wednesday, we will get the Fed’s Beige Book and a likely 75bps hike from the BoC. For the ECB our economists’ preview here lays out the case for a 75bps hike following last week’s higher than expected flash CPI print for the region and an array of hawkish ECB comments of late from ECB officials.

In terms of data the US services ISM (tomorrow) will be a highlight given that last month saw a surprisingly strong (to the market) 56.7 print. 55.2 is expected this month which would remain way above normal recessionary levels. In Europe Industrial production for Germany (Wednesday) and France (Friday) might be the highlights given recent energy travails. By contrast, Asia will have a busier week. China’s CPI and PPI (Friday) will be the key data release. Current median estimates on Bloomberg point to a slight YoY uptick in the CPI (2.8% vs 2.7% in July) and easing PPI pressures (3.2% vs 4.2%). This price data will be preceded by trade balance figures on Wednesday. We’ve already seen the Caixin services PMI this morning which came in at 55.0 for August (v/s 54.0 expected), recording the second highest level since May 2021 despite softening from July’s 55.5.

Courtesy of DB, here is a day-by-day breakdown of key events

Day-by-day calendar of events

Monday September 5

  • Data: China Caixin PMI (services), UK August new car registrations, official reserves changes, Eurozone July retail sales, Italy services PMI
  • Central banks: BoE’s Mann speaks
  • Politics: UK Conservative Party leadership result announced

Tuesday September 6

  • Data: US August ISM services index, Japan July household spending, labour cash earnings, Germany July factory orders, August construction PMI, UK August construction PMI
  • Politics: New UK Prime Minister arrives in office

Wednesday September 7

  • Data: US July trade balance, China August trade balance, foreign reserves, Japan July leading and coincident indices, Germany July industrial production, Italy July retail sales, Canada July international merchandise trade
  • Central Banks: Fed’s Beige Book, Fed’s Barr and Brainard speak, BoC decision, BoE’s Governor Bailey and MPC testify to the Treasury Committee

Thursday September 8

  • Data: US July consumer credit, initial jobless claims, UK August RICS house price balance, Japan August bank lending, Economy Watcher survey, July trade balance, France July trade balance
  • Central Banks: ECB decision, Fed’s Powell speaks

Friday September 9

  • Data: US July wholesale trade sales, Q2 household change in net worth, China August CPI, PPI, Japan August M2, M3, France July industrial and manufacturing production, Canada July labour market data, Q2 capacity utilisation rate
  • Central banks: Fed’s Evans and Waller speak, BoE’s inflation attitudes survey

* * *

Finally, focusing on just the US, Goldman writes that the key economic data release this week is the ISM services report on Tuesday. There are several speaking engagements from Fed officials this week, including Chair Powell, Vice Chair Brainard, Governor Waller, and President Mester.

Monday, September 5

  • There are no major economic data releases scheduled.

Tuesday, September 6

  • 09:45 AM S&P Global US services PMI, August final (consensus 44.2, last 44.1)
  • 10:00 AM ISM services index, August (GS 56.2, consensus 55.5, last 56.7): We estimate that the ISM services index declined by 0.5pt to 56.2 in August, reflecting convergence towards other business surveys and further normalization in supplier deliveries, partially offset by rebounding stock prices. Our non-manufacturing survey tracker edged up by 0.1pt to 51.8.

Wednesday, September 7

  • 08:30 AM Trade Balance, July (GS -$66.1bn, consensus -$70.1bn, last -$79.6bn): We estimate that the trade deficit narrowed by $13.5bn to -$66.1bn in July on higher goods exports and lower goods imports.
  • 10:00 AM Cleveland Fed President Mester (FOMC voter) speaks: Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester will participate in a livestream hosted by MNI. On August 31, Mester said, “My current view is that it will be necessary to move the fed funds rate up to somewhat above 4% by early next year and hold it there. I do not anticipate the Fed cutting the fed funds rate target next year.” She added, “The size of rate increases at any particular FOMC meeting and the peak fed funds rate will depend on the inflation outlook” and that “even if the economy were to go into a recession, we have to get inflation down.”
  • 12:35 PM Fed Vice Chair Brainard speaks: Fed Vice Chair Lael Brainard will discuss the economic outlook and monetary policy at the Bank Policy Institute Annual Conference. On June 2, Brainard said, “Right now, it’s very hard to see the case for a pause” and “we’ve still got a lot of work to do to get inflation down to our 2% target.”
  • 02:00 PM Beige Book: The Fed’s Beige Book is a summary of regional economic anecdotes from the 12 Federal Reserve districts. In the July Beige Book, most Fed districts’ contacts reported that consumer spending had moderated, as food and gas prices weighed on discretionary income. They noted that housing demand weakened noticeably, as affordability contributed to non-seasonal declines in sales, resulting in a slight increase in inventory and moderation in inflation. While we do not expect a recession, we expect low growth and inflation to remain elevated over the next few months. We therefore look for anecdotes of slowing growth and continued wage and price pressures in this month’s Beige Book.
  • 02:00 PM Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Barr speaks: Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr will discuss making the financial system fairer and safer at an event hosted by the Brookings Institution. Q&A with audience is expected.

Thursday, September 8

  • 08:30 AM Initial jobless claims, week ended September 3 (GS 225k, consensus 239k, last 232k); Continuing jobless claims, week ended August 27 (consensus n.a., last 1,438k): We estimate initial jobless claims declined to 225k in the week ended September 3.
  • 09:10 AM Fed Chair Powell speaks: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will participate in a moderated discussion at an event on monetary policy hosted by the Cato Institute. Text and Q&A are to be determined. At Jackson Hole on August 26, Chair Powell argued for restrictive policy. He reiterated that it will become appropriate to slow the pace of tightening “at some point,” as he laid out in his July press conference. However, Powell balanced that message by stressing that the FOMC remains committed to bringing inflation down, that the FOMC will likely need to maintain “a restrictive policy stance for some time,” and that progress on inflation “falls far short of what the Committee will need to see before we are confident that inflation is moving down.”

Friday, September 9

  • 10:00 AM Wholesale inventories, July final (consensus +0.8%, last +0.8%)
  • 10:00 AM Chicago Fed President Evans (FOMC non-voter) speaks: Chicago Fed President Charles Evans will speak on career opportunities at an event hosted by the Chicago Fed. There is not expected to be discussion on the economy or monetary policy outlook.
  • 12:00 PM Fed Governor Waller speaks: Governor Christopher Waller will discuss the economic outlook at the Vienna Macroeconomics Workshop. On July 29, Governor Waller co-authored a note saying, “a soft landing is a plausible outcome for the labor market going forward.”

Source: DB, Goldman, BofA

Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/05/2022 – 11:25

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/oCxUnBK Tyler Durden

Help Labor by Breaking Down Barriers to Mobility


FootVoting2

On Labor Day last year, I wrote a post explaining how breaking down barriers to labor mobility can help many millions of workers around the world. Virtually everything in that post is just as relevant today. So I am reprinting it with only minor modifications:

Today is Labor Day.  As usual, there is much discussion of what can be done to help workers. But few focus on the one type of reform that is likely to help more poor and disadvantaged workers than virtually anything else: increasing labor mobility. In the United States and around the world, far too many workers are trapped in places where it is difficult or impossible for them to ever escape poverty. They could better their lot if allowed to “vote with their feet” by moving to locations where there are better job opportunities. That would also be an enormous boon to the rest of society.

Internationally, the biggest barriers condemning millions to lives of poverty and oppression are immigration restrictions. Economists estimate that eliminating legal barriers to migration throughout the world would roughly double world GDP – in other words, making the world twice as productive as it is now. A person who has the misfortune of being born in Cuba or Venezuela, Zimbabwe or Afghanistan, is likely condemned to lifelong poverty, no matter how talented or hardworking he or she may be. If he is allowed to move to a freer society with better economic institutions, he can almost immediately double or triple his income and productivity. And that doesn’t consider the possibility of improving his job skills, which is also likely to be more feasible in his new home than in his country of origin.

The vast new wealth created by breaking down migration barriers would obviously benefit migrants themselves. But it also creates enormous advantages for receiving-country natives, as well. They benefit from cheaper and better products, increased innovation, and the establishment of new businesses (which immigrants create at higher rates than natives). Immigrants also contribute disproportionately to scientific and medical innovation, such as the MRNA Covid-19 vaccines, that have already saved many thousands of lives around the world.

Similar, though admittedly less extreme, barriers to labor mobility also harm workers within the United States. Exclusionary zoning prevents many millions of Americans – particularly the poor and working class – from moving to areas where they could find better job opportunities and thereby increase their wages and standard of living. Recent evidence suggests that the problem is even worse than scholars previously thought. Occupational licensing further exacerbates the problem, by making it difficult for workers in many industries to move from one state to another.

Breaking down barriers to labor mobility is an oft-ignored common interest of poor minorities (most of whom are Democrats), and the increasingly Republican white working class. Both groups could benefit from increased opportunity to move to places where there are more and better jobs available.

As with lowering immigration restrictions, breaking down domestic barriers to labor mobility would create enormous benefits for society as a whole, as well as the migrants themselves. Economists estimate that cutting back on exclusionary zoning would greatly increase economic growth. Like international migrants, domestic ones can be more productive and innovative if given the opportunity to move to places where they can make better use of their talents.

Many proposals to help workers have a zero-sum quality. They involve attempts to forcibly redistribute wealth from employers, investors, consumers, or some combination of all three. Breaking down barriers to labor mobility, by contrast, creates massive benefits for both workers and society as a whole.

Some on the left point out that, if investors are allowed to move capital freely, workers should be equally free to move, as well. It is indeed true that, thanks to government policies restricting labor mobility,  investment capital is generally more mobile than labor. It is also true that the restrictions on labor mobility are deeply unjust. In many cases, they trap people in poverty simply because of arbitrary circumstances of birth, much as racial segregation and feudalism once did. The inequality between labor and capital, and the parallels with segregation and feudalism should lead progressives to put a higher priority on increasing labor mobility.

At the same time, it is worth recognizing, that investors and employers, as a class, are likely to benefit from increased labor mobility, too. Increased productivity and innovation create new investment opportunities. The biggest enemies of both workers and capitalists are not each other, but the combination of nationalists and NIMBYs who erect barriers to freedom of movement, thereby needlessly impoverishing labor and capital alike. Despite conventional wisdom to the contrary, even current homeowners often have much to gain from curbing exclusionary zoning policies that block the construction of housing needed by workers seeking to move to the region.

On the right, conservatives who value meritocracy and reject racial and ethnic preferences, would do well to recognize that few policies are so anti-meritocratic as barriers to mobility. The case for ending them also has much in common with the case for color-blind government policies, more generally.

Obviously, there are those who argue against increasing labor mobility, either on the grounds that existing communities have an inherent right to exclude newcomers, or because allowing them to come would have various negative side-effects. I address these types of arguments here, and in much greater detail in Chapters 5 and 6 of my book Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration, and Political Freedom. As I explain in those earlier publications, nearly all such objections are wrong, overblown, or can be ameliorated by “keyhole solutions” that are less draconian than exclusion. In addition, the vast new wealth created by breaking down barriers to mobility can itself be used to help address any potential negative effects. In the book, I also push back against claims that mobility should be restricted for the benefit of those “left behind” in migrants’ communities of origin.

Workers of the world, unite to demand more freedom of movement!

The post Help Labor by Breaking Down Barriers to Mobility appeared first on Reason.com.

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European NatGas Prices Soar As Moscow Tightens Screw On Supplies Via Nord Stream

European NatGas Prices Soar As Moscow Tightens Screw On Supplies Via Nord Stream

News that Russia’s energy giant Gazprom PJSC halted Nord Stream 1 pipeline flows to Europe sent natural gas prices soaring. European governments are preparing for a worsening energy crisis and the increasing probability of rationing.

Benchmark EU NatGas futures jumped as much as 35%, and electricity prices across the bloc soared. The unexpected cutoff also sent European equities into a downward spiral — the euro hit a two-decade low. 

Gazprom decided on late Friday not to restart the Nord Stream pipeline after three days of maintenance due to an oil leak detected at a turbine that helps pump NatGas. Traders are left with many uncertainties, such as no timeline on when Russia restarts the pipeline. 

Europe’s politicians are now rushing to pass additional emergency measures: Sweden and Finland will support struggling utilities with collateral requirements, a move to prevent a “Lehman-style” bust. Energy ministers from across the bloc will hold a meeting at the end of the week to discuss NatGas price caps and a suspension of power derivatives trading.

Moscow’s move will spark continued energy hyperinflation across Europe that will pressure households deeper into energy poverty — triggering even more discontent. Tens of thousands of Czechs protested in Prague this past weekend against European sanctions on Russia that have backfired, resulting in a cost-of-living crisis for ordinary people. 

“Obviously, life is getting worse for people, businessmen, and companies in Europe,” said Dmitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman. He added, “Of course, ordinary people in these countries will have more and more questions for their leaders.” 

Peskov’s comments are the starkest yet by the Kremlin that the EU must roll back sanctions in exchange for Russian NatGas, or it’s going to be a very tough winter for the energy-stricken continent. 

And the deputy chair of Russia’s security council, Dmitry Medvedev, said Berlin was “acting as an enemy of Russia” by supporting sanctions against Moscow and arming Ukrainians. “They have declared hybrid war against Russia … this old man acts surprised that the Germans have some little problems with gas,” he said. 

Even though the EU has been rapidly building up NatGas stockpiles, those reserves could be drained during the heating season in a matter of months. 

“Given the gas supply tightness, one cannot exclude mandatory gas curtailment for non-essential industries or even’ rolling gasouts’ this winter depending on the weather,” JPMorgan analysts wrote in a note. 

Joachim Klement, head of the strategy, accounting, and sustainability at Liberum Capital, believes “the end of Russian gas deliveries to Europe mean that the German economy as well as the eurozone economy will drop into recession immediately.” 

With Nord Stream flows at zero, Russian flows via Ukraine remain stable. Meanwhile, Norwegian NatGas flows are curbed because of seasonal maintenance. 

Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/05/2022 – 11:00

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/MyYl0pg Tyler Durden

Watch: MSNBC Declares All Republicans “Evil” And A “Threat To Democracy”; Pundit Says “We Are At War”

Watch: MSNBC Declares All Republicans “Evil” And A “Threat To Democracy”; Pundit Says “We Are At War”

Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

Following Joe Biden’s Darth Brandon’s official declaration from the bowels of hell that half of all voters in America are dangerous extremists, MSNBC fell in line behind their dear leader, with one pundit proclaiming that Republicans are “evil” and that “we are at war”.

MSNBC host Tiffany Cross used her platform to hammer home the message from last week’s blood red theatre performance, dialling up the division another notch, stating “Obviously, Republicans are, I think, the biggest threat to democracy. We don’t separate right-wing extremists and Republican Party anymore.”

Cross made it clear that she considers “mainstream, establishment Republicans are echoing these calls for violence. All but threatening it.”

In the same show she declared that it feels like a civil war has “already begun.”

During the same segment, Cross AGREED when pundit Roland Martin declared “We are at war with these people. These folks are evil.”

“They have allowed evil into their house with Donald Trump. He has now dominated the party. This evil is spreading. And when you are in a war footing, you have to respond accordingly,” Martin continued.

“When the enemy is coming at you you, can’t fall down, you can’t break down. This means war,” he added.

Martin further asserted that “It’s about time President Joe Biden decided to get tough. It’s about time his advisers stopped being weak, and stopped being impotent, and not fighting back.”

“You keep hitting! You keep pounding,” Martin proclaimed, further labelling conservatives as “crazed, deranged folks who want to import evil in every facet of our society.”

After Martin finished his totally not crazy or deranged rant, Cross merely stated “yeah—it’s a scary thing to think about. Really.”

Watch:

After Fox News reported on the outburst, Martin CAPS LOCK ranted on Twitter about meeting him for a “debate”:

So this is what happens when a sitting president calls anyone who disagrees with him politically a fascist.

*  *  *

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Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/05/2022 – 10:40

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10 Dead, 15 Injured In Canadian Stabbing Spree, 2 Suspects At Large

10 Dead, 15 Injured In Canadian Stabbing Spree, 2 Suspects At Large

At least 10 people are dead and 15 have been hospitalized after two men went on a stabbing spree in Saskatchewan, Canada on Sunday. Victims were found in 13 separate locations in the central province – largely within the James Smith Cree Nation indigenous community, as well as the small village of Weldon, northeast of Saskatoon.

Officers on scene at a crime scene in Saskatchewan (Twitter/@alkhaleej)

The suspects, identified by Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) as Sanderson, 31, and Myles Sanderson, 30, remain at large. They were last seen in the Regina area driving a black Nissan Rogue, according to local reports.

Suspects Damien Sanderson (left) and Myles Sanderson

According to the RCMP commanding officer of Saskatchewan, Rhonda Blackmore, the two men had allegedly targeted some of their victims, while others were chosen at random.

It appears that some of the victims may have been targeted and some may be random, so to speak to a motive would be extremely difficult at this point in time,” she said at a press conference.

House where one of the stabbings occurred in Weldon, Saskatchewan (AP)

Blackmore added that the first reports of the stabbings came in before 6am local time, after which more reports began rolling in throughout the morning, prompting the province of Saskatchewan to issue emergency alerts, while the James Smith Cree Nation declared a state of emergency.

Reuters: David Stobbe

Local residents were advised to shelter in place as the two suspects, last spotted in Regina – around 200 miles south of where the attacks began – are considered armed and dangerous.

AP

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the stabbings “horrific and heartbreaking,” adding “I’m thinking of those who have lost a loved one and of those who were injured.”

Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/05/2022 – 10:20

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/QB3u2DP Tyler Durden

Renewed Clashes In Tripoli Threaten Libyan Oil Production

Renewed Clashes In Tripoli Threaten Libyan Oil Production

Authored by Charles Kennedy via OilPrice.com,

Renewed clashes broke out over the weekend in oil-rich Libya’s capital as militia forces aligned with the Government of National Unity (GNU) moved to ensure continued control after a failed attempt by the rival eastern-backed prime minister to take Tripoli last week. 

Fighting took place in the city’s western outskirts on Friday and Saturday, Reuters reports. 

Current interim prime minister Hamid Al-Dbeibah is attempting to shore up control and weed out militias aligned with newly appointed parliamentary-backed prime minister Fathi Bashagha.  

Dbeibah’s key concern now is gaining control of various armed factions within Tripoli that have not aligned definitively with one side or the other. 

Turkey could play the role of kingmaker here, with the ability to military intervene on either Dbeibah’s or Bashagha’s side, and both prime ministers visited the Turkish capital last week. 

Al-Monitor poses that a quiet Turkish intervention has “tipped the balance of power in favor of Dbeibah”, and cites unnamed sources as saying that Bashagha left the meeting in Ankara “disgruntled”, though there is no independent confirmation of this. 

At the same time, further fanning the flames, Libya’s former High Council of State head has accused the current head of the High Council of State and the speaker of the House of Representatives, the influential Aquila Saleh, of conspiring with Egyptian intelligence to install a new government without elections, the Libya Observer reports. 

A week ago, the Libyan National Oil Company (NOC) reported that production had hit 1.22 million bpd. Libya hopes to boost output to 2 million bpd over the next three to five years, but progress may be slowed by the country’s inability to resolve its internal political rivalries, with all factions vying for their share of the country’s oil wealth. 

Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/05/2022 – 10:00

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/PMYigC7 Tyler Durden

Help Labor by Breaking Down Barriers to Mobility


FootVoting2

On Labor Day last year, I wrote a post explaining how breaking down barriers to labor mobility can help many millions of workers around the world. Virtually everything in that post is just as relevant today. So I am reprinting it with only minor modifications:

Today is Labor Day.  As usual, there is much discussion of what can be done to help workers. But few focus on the one type of reform that is likely to help more poor and disadvantaged workers than virtually anything else: increasing labor mobility. In the United States and around the world, far too many workers are trapped in places where it is difficult or impossible for them to ever escape poverty. They could better their lot if allowed to “vote with their feet” by moving to locations where there are better job opportunities. That would also be an enormous boon to the rest of society.

Internationally, the biggest barriers condemning millions to lives of poverty and oppression are immigration restrictions. Economists estimate that eliminating legal barriers to migration throughout the world would roughly double world GDP – in other words, making the world twice as productive as it is now. A person who has the misfortune of being born in Cuba or Venezuela, Zimbabwe or Afghanistan, is likely condemned to lifelong poverty, no matter how talented or hardworking he or she may be. If he is allowed to move to a freer society with better economic institutions, he can almost immediately double or triple his income and productivity. And that doesn’t consider the possibility of improving his job skills, which is also likely to be more feasible in his new home than in his country of origin.

The vast new wealth created by breaking down migration barriers would obviously benefit migrants themselves. But it also creates enormous advantages for receiving-country natives, as well. They benefit from cheaper and better products, increased innovation, and the establishment of new businesses (which immigrants create at higher rates than natives). Immigrants also contribute disproportionately to scientific and medical innovation, such as the MRNA Covid-19 vaccines, that have already saved many thousands of lives around the world.

Similar, though admittedly less extreme, barriers to labor mobility also harm workers within the United States. Exclusionary zoning prevents many millions of Americans – particularly the poor and working class – from moving to areas where they could find better job opportunities and thereby increase their wages and standard of living. Recent evidence suggests that the problem is even worse than scholars previously thought. Occupational licensing further exacerbates the problem, by making it difficult for workers in many industries to move from one state to another.

Breaking down barriers to labor mobility is an oft-ignored common interest of poor minorities (most of whom are Democrats), and the increasingly Republican white working class. Both groups could benefit from increased opportunity to move to places where there are more and better jobs available.

As with lowering immigration restrictions, breaking down domestic barriers to labor mobility would create enormous benefits for society as a whole, as well as the migrants themselves. Economists estimate that cutting back on exclusionary zoning would greatly increase economic growth. Like international migrants, domestic ones can be more productive and innovative if given the opportunity to move to places where they can make better use of their talents.

Many proposals to help workers have a zero-sum quality. They involve attempts to forcibly redistribute wealth from employers, investors, consumers, or some combination of all three. Breaking down barriers to labor mobility, by contrast, creates massive benefits for both workers and society as a whole.

Some on the left point out that, if investors are allowed to move capital freely, workers should be equally free to move, as well. It is indeed true that, thanks to government policies restricting labor mobility,  investment capital is generally more mobile than labor. It is also true that the restrictions on labor mobility are deeply unjust. In many cases, they trap people in poverty simply because of arbitrary circumstances of birth, much as racial segregation and feudalism once did. The inequality between labor and capital, and the parallels with segregation and feudalism should lead progressives to put a higher priority on increasing labor mobility.

At the same time, it is worth recognizing, that investors and employers, as a class, are likely to benefit from increased labor mobility, too. Increased productivity and innovation create new investment opportunities. The biggest enemies of both workers and capitalists are not each other, but the combination of nationalists and NIMBYs who erect barriers to freedom of movement, thereby needlessly impoverishing labor and capital alike. Despite conventional wisdom to the contrary, even current homeowners often have much to gain from curbing exclusionary zoning policies that block the construction of housing needed by workers seeking to move to the region.

On the right, conservatives who value meritocracy and reject racial and ethnic preferences, would do well to recognize that few policies are so anti-meritocratic as barriers to mobility. The case for ending them also has much in common with the case for color-blind government policies, more generally.

Obviously, there are those who argue against increasing labor mobility, either on the grounds that existing communities have an inherent right to exclude newcomers, or because allowing them to come would have various negative side-effects. I address these types of arguments here, and in much greater detail in Chapters 5 and 6 of my book Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration, and Political Freedom. As I explain in those earlier publications, nearly all such objections are wrong, overblown, or can be ameliorated by “keyhole solutions” that are less draconian than exclusion. In addition, the vast new wealth created by breaking down barriers to mobility can itself be used to help address any potential negative effects. In the book, I also push back against claims that mobility should be restricted for the benefit of those “left behind” in migrants’ communities of origin.

Workers of the world, unite to demand more freedom of movement!

The post Help Labor by Breaking Down Barriers to Mobility appeared first on Reason.com.

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Peso Soars As Chileans Reject New ‘Socialist’ Constitution

Peso Soars As Chileans Reject New ‘Socialist’ Constitution

Bucking the trend of most Developing Markets’ currencies, the Chilean peso has surged to three month highs against the greenback this morning after voters on Sunday rejected a progressive constitution that would have drastically changed the country.

Chilean stocks also soared,,,

The draft text would have replaced the current constitution, which dates to 1980, when dictator Augusto Pinochet was in power.

As Caden Pearsen reports from The Epoch Times, over 13 million residents of Chile voted in a referendum either for or against the proposed changes to the South American country’s Constitution.

With nearly all the votes counted, 62 percent voted to reject while 38 percent voted to approve, according to the Chile Electoral Service.

Participation in the referendum was mandatory.

The failed proposals would have tilted the current Constitution to the left, with text focused on social rights, environmentalism, gender equality, and indigenous rights.

The path to the referendum began in late 2020, when 80 percent of Chileans voted to draft a new constitution. But polls revealed that uncertainties grew amid concerns around the constituents elected to draft it, Reuters reported.

One 54-year-old Chilean, who in 2020 voted to draft a new constitution, on Sunday voted alongside her daughter to reject the proposed text. She expressed concern that certain proposals would impact her pension.

“The main one is [indigenous] plurinationality and then pension funds,” Rosemarie Williamson said in comments obtained by Reuters.

“I’ve worked my whole life and I’m not willing to share that.”

Try, Try Again

Leftist President Gabriel Boric, who voted in the southern city of Punta Arenas early on Sunday, acknowledged the results on Sunday night.

“The yearning for change and dignity require our institutions and political actors to work with more commitment, dialogue, respect and affection, until we arrive at a proposal that interprets us all,” Boris said on Twitter. 

“Here we go. Long live democracy and long live Chile!”

Earlier on Sunday, after casting his vote, Boric had promised that the government will work with all sectors, no matter the outcome of the referendum, to “advance in justice, equality, growth, and development for everyone.”

Boris had previously said that if the proposals are rejected, then officials should work on the text to fulfill the mandate given by the 2020 vote to draft a new constitution.

Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/05/2022 – 09:40

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Biden Doubles Down: Tweets “MAGA Proposals Are A Threat To The Very Soul Of This Country”

Biden Doubles Down: Tweets “MAGA Proposals Are A Threat To The Very Soul Of This Country”

Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

Joe Biden doubled down on his ‘Battle for the Soul of the Nation’ speech from hell last week, tweeting on Sunday that “MAGA proposals are a threat to the very soul of this country.”

The tweet comes after Biden claimed that he wasn’t calling any Trump supporters “a threat” during the speech where he was lit up like Satan and calling Trump supporters “an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.”

Biden’s handlers also took to the airwaves to button down the message that anyone who disagrees with them is an extremist.

White House senior adviser Keisha Lance Bottoms appeared on ABC News Sunday and declared that the “hate-filled MAGA agenda” has “no place in a democracy.”

Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated that Biden was “very clear” during the “impowerful” (whatever that means) speech and that the answers to any questions can be found by watching it again.

Jean-Pierre has adopted a couple of phrases that serve as an alert for when she is gaslighting, they are “Let me answer it this way” or “I’ll say this.” 

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Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/05/2022 – 09:23

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