Month: July 2021

Authored by Grant Atkinson via The Western Journal,

With Independence Day upon us, the United States faces rising inflation and higher prices on many common commodities. Yet according to President Joe Biden’s administration, everything is just peachy.

The White House tweeted Thursday bragging that the average price of a cookout for July 4, 2021, is a whole 16 cents cheaper than last year.

Planning a cookout this year? Ketchup on the news. According to the Farm Bureau, the cost of a 4th of July BBQ is down from last year. It’s a fact you must-hear(d). Hot dog, the Biden economic plan is working. And that’s something we can all relish. pic.twitter.com/7h9qLauIbC

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) July 1, 2021

According to the White House, this incredibly minor decrease in the average price of a summer cookout proves “the Biden economic plan is working.”

There’s a glaring problem with this happy-go-lucky announcement filled with picnic puns: Prices on most common items have gone up since Biden took office.

According to the New York Post, a gallon of gas cost the average American $3.09 on Monday. That is the highest average heading into the July 4 weekend since 2014.

“Today, 89 percent of US gas stations are selling regular unleaded for $2.75 or more,” AAA spokesperson Jeanette McGee said.

“That is a stark increase over last July 4 when only a quarter of stations were selling gas for more than $2.25. Road trippers will pay the most to fill up for the holiday since 2014.”

This shows just how tone-deaf the White House’s tweet really was. Anyone who saves 16 cents on their picnic food will pay that and more in increased gas prices just to get to the grocery store or a friend’s house.

A big factor contributing to the soaring gas prices is a severe shortage of drivers for tank trucks in charge of delivering fuel to the gas stations.

“It used to be an afterthought for station owners to schedule truck deliveries,” Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis for the Oil Price Information Service, told CNN. “Now it’s job number one.

“What I’m worried about for July is the increased demand works out to about 2,500 to 3,000 more deliveries needed every day. There just aren’t the drivers to do that.”

Some gas stations fear they will run completely out of gas over the holiday weekend. The New York Post reported prices are likely to keep skyrocketing through at least the end of the summer.

It is all okay, though, because you can buy a pound of sliced cheese for 1 percent less than it would have cost you last July 4. Hooray!

The Daily Wire perfectly summed up the irony of the situation in a Thursday tweet sarcastically celebrating the 16-cent savings.

When gas prices went up but you saved .16 cents on your bbq pic.twitter.com/vDp5af6317

— The Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) July 2, 2021

Unfortunately, gas is not the only commodity experiencing significant price increases, according to a June 12 article from The Washington Post.

In just one year, furniture prices are up 8.6 percent, used cars are up 29.7 percent, airfare is up 24.1 percent and clothes are up 5.6 percent.

If you want a new bathing suit to wear or a nice lawn chair to sit in during your summer gathering, you will once again have to cough up that 16 cents you saved on your cookout. A dime, a nickel and a penny can only stretch so far.

If Biden’s ultimate goal was to save the average American a few cents on a half-gallon of ice cream, it’s fair to call his economic policies a success. But by any remotely realistic measure, they are already an abject failure.

*  *  *

The White House’s ridiculous statement even raised the eyebrows of The Babylon Bee crew…

Local man Henry Truckman was filling up his gas tank today in preparation for the holiday weekend.

The 19-gallon tank in his 2016 Camaro cost nearly $95 to fill up, and he was feeling pretty down about how expensive gas is under the Biden administration—that is, until he pulled up Twitter and saw that a slice of cheese would cost him 16 cents less this year, thanks to Uncle Joe.

“Wow — a whole 16 cents! Thanks, Biden!” he said, his mood having instantly shifted to one of joy and optimism.

“This will change everything! I’d better drive home and tell the wife!” He happily drove toward his house, spending over $5 in gas to drive the 20 miles home.

Americans everywhere are pumped for the full 16 cents they will be saving on barbecues this year, as long as they don’t have to drive anywhere to pick up their groceries, since the gas costs would offset any savings on onions, mustard, and relish. But, according to the White House, as long as the nation is willing to walk to the grocery store, keep their air conditioning off, and not buy any chips or soda, they’ll have a full 16 cents to burn.

“And you can take that to the bank!” said President Biden happily.

“16 cents will buy a lot. You can go get a sody pop down at the hop, pick up 16 candies, or even go see one of those new talkies!”

Ten days after the condo building in Surfside, FLA. collapsed, search-and-rescue efforts have been suspended as officials prepare to demo the rest of the building ahead of Tropical Storm Elsa. 

According to AP News, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava halted search-and-rescue efforts around 1600 ET Saturday as demolition crews were preparing to demolish the portion of Champlain Towers South still standing. 

“Search and rescue does have to pause while the demolition preparation is underway,” Cava said at a news conference. “Preparation includes actions like drilling into columns in the unsafe structure.”

“It has been determined by our engineers and our fire department in constant communication with the demolition team as the process is underway, that we need to put a temporary pause,” she said. 

“We will begin the search and rescue once again on any sections of the pile that are safe to access as soon as we are cleared,” she added.

Plans for demolition of the upright portion of Champlain South were accelerated in the last 48 hours as weather models forecast Tropical Storm Elsa could impact South Florida early next week. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said, “We have a building here in Surfside that is tottering, it is structurally unsound. If the building is taken down this will protect our search and rescue teams.”

“If the building is taken down, this will protect our search and rescue teams, because we don’t know when it could fall over,” DeSantis said. “And, of course, with these gusts, potentially that would create a really severe hazard.”

Cava also declared a local state of emergency as Elsa moved west-northwest at 14 mph with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph. The storm’s center is about 85 mph east of Kingston, Jamaica. 

There remains a lot of uncertainty about the storm’s trajectory after it tracks across central and western Cuba on Monday, then moves near the west coast of Florida on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

Local and state officials are taking no chances and are set to demolish the remaining portion of the condo building before the storm hits. 

As of Sunday, the death toll sits at 24, according to the mayor. At least 191 people have been accounted for, but 121 remain missing. 

Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

Market Rallies To All-Time Highs

With the 4th of July weekend upon us, this week’s newsletter will be slightly shorter than usual. Such will ensure you “pitmasters” can get to work doing what you do best.

As we discussed last week, the market not only got off the mat and rallied back to new highs. That action continued through this week.

The technical backdrop is not great. With the market back to 2-standard deviations above the 50-dma, conviction weak, and investors extremely bullish, the market remains set up for additional weakness.

However, we are in the first two weeks of July which tends to be bullishly biased. After increasing our equity exposure previously, we will give the market the benefit of seasonality for now. 

Complacency Concerns

With the “money flow buy signal” not yet back to a typical peak, such suggests another week or so of upside is likely. However, as noted, we suspect there is not much upside in the market for current levels.

Lastly, we discussed the high level of complacency in the markets previously. To wit:

“Currently, complacency has reached more extreme levels. As noted last week, the 15-day moving average of VIX, on an inverted scale, suggests a correction is likely. By this measure, the correction should begin somewhere around July 21st – August 10th.”

The same gets confirmed by the exceptionally high reading of the SKEW index. 

“One such indicator is the CBOE SKEW index. The index measures the perceived tail risk of the distribution of S&P 500 investment returns over a 30-day horizon. It is similar to the VIX index, but instead of measuring implied volatility based on a normal distribution, it measures the implied risk of future returns realizing outlier behavior.

A SKEW value of 100 indicates the options market perceives a low risk of outlier returns. Conversely,values above 100 reflect an increased perception of risk for future outlier events.” 

We are clearly above 100 currently.

The bulls are indeed in charge of the markets currently, but the clock is ticking.

As Good As It Gets

There is much at risk in the market as we head into the 3rd quarter and begin Q2-reporting for the S&P 500 index. For clarity, we need to review the “second-derivative” effect.

“In calculus, the second derivative, or the second-order derivative, of a function f is the derivative of the derivative of f.” – Wikipedia

In English, the “second derivative” measures how the rate of change of a quantity is itself changing.

I know, still confusing.

Here is a simplistic example.

Assume the economy is $1000 in value in Year 1. Then, in Year 2, there is a 50% recession. However, in Year 3, the economy grows back to $1000. And, in Year 4, the economy remains at $1000.

The “second derivative” effect is evident in years 3 and 4. In year 3, the economy recovers by $500, a 100% increase from Year 2’s level of $500. However, in Year 4, the growth rate falls to zero as the economy remains at $1000.

A Coming Change

Why am I telling you this? Because we are at that point in the recovery cycle. Over the next couple of months, we will see the most significant numbers of the recovery cycle as we compare Q2-2021 to Q2-2020, which was the depth of the economic shutdown. As shown in the chart below, we will see a robust GDP report, but such will be the cycle’s peak.

The manufacturing activity indices have already peaked, which has a high correlation to the annual change in the S&P 500 index.

We will also see a peak in the annual rate of change in earnings as the economy slows. (Note: Current earnings estimates are exceptionally optimistic. By the end of 2021, the peak in earnings growth will likely move forward.)

With valuations highly elevated on a two-year forward basis, when earnings are eventually revised lower with slower economic growth, valuations will rise. (You will often see media types compare forward P/E’s to current reported P/E’s, suggesting markets are cheap. However, that is not apples to apples as you are comparing forward to trailing P/E’s. As shown, two-year forward P/E’s are at the highest level since the “Dot.com” peak.) 

The point here is that much of the growth in the economy is currently “priced in” to expectations. When things are as “good as they can get,” that is usually the point where things inevitably start to go wrong.

With no more stimulus coming from the Government and 9-million people coming off of unemployment benefits by September, a “fiscal cliff” is fast approaching. Such could well lead to a disappointment in expectations in a market currently priced for perfection.

Fully Invested Bears

The problem in discussing “investment risk” is that such commentary is summarily dismissed as being “bearish,” By extension, such means I am either sitting in cash or short the market. In either event, I have “missed out” on the last advance. However, now, the discussion of “risk” is even more futile due to the Fed’s massive interventions. 

Such reminds me of something famed Morgan Stanley strategist Gerard Minack said once:

“The funny thing is there is a disconnect between what investors are saying and what they are doing. No one thinks all the problems the global financial crisis revealed have been healed. But, when you have an equity rally as you’ve seen for the past four or five years, everybody has had to participate.

What you’ve had are fully invested bears.”

The idea of “fully invested bears” defines the reality of the markets we live with today. Despite the understanding that the markets are overly bullish, extended, and valued, portfolio managers must stay invested or suffer potential “career risk” for underperformance. 

The reason I bring this up is because of this comment from the legendary Leon Cooperman.

“I have a strong feeling the cycle we’re going through won’t end well but I have no idea where it ends,” hear the full details of what Lee Cooperman told @BeckyQuick at yesterday’s @cnbcevents #FASummit at https://t.co/Rc4p9phRer. pic.twitter.com/NnjIezNOvN

— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) June 30, 2021

The clip is fascinating because Becky Quick refers to Leon as a “fully-invested bear” as he states:

“You have to be in the market right now.”

The Two Big Risks

There are two inter-related risks to the market currently. The Fed and “inflation.” 

As Leon correctly notes, companies should be able to pass on inflated materials costs to their consumers:

“Everybody is worried about inflation. Inflation is a positive for common stocks because inflation in companies’ costs works its way into selling prices, which lift the nominal level of revenues and earnings.”

In theory, that is true, but as noted above, with the “fiscal cliff” approaching, there is a risk that consumers can’t absorb as much “inflation” as he hopes. Moreover, as I showed previously, the gap between CPI and PPI already indicates that companies are retaining inflation.

The other problem is the Fed. The markets will not react kindly to the Fed moving to curb inflationary pressures.

In either case, the risk to markets remains elevated. While I certainly agree you “have to be invested in the markets currently,” we are also fully aware of the risks.

Yes, that makes us “fully invested bears.” 

One day ahead of this week’s blockbuster DIDI IPO in which the Chinese Uber sold at the top of its $13-14 range, broke for trading at $16.75 then tumbled only to rebound on Thursday, we warned readers that this is one they want to stay away from as a result of Beijing’s aggressive intervention in publicly traded tech giants, to wit:

China’s regulatory crackdown on its internet giants is likely having a ripple effect on the IPO, given the uncertainty around outcomes. Didi was among 34 internet firms ordered by regulators in April to correct excesses, and it has warned in U.S. filings that it couldn’t assure investors that government officials would be satisfied with its efforts or that it would escape penalties.

It then took just 3 days since this warning (and 2 days since Didi’s IPO) for this prediction to come true, because on Friday morning, Didi shares tumbled more than 10%, plunging from $17 to as low as $15, after a report that China had launched an investigation into Didi Chuxing. According to a statement from Cyberspace Administration of China, Didi Chuxing will halt registration of new users during the review. The move is to prevent data security risks, safeguard national security and protect public interest, according to statement.

That was just the start of Beijing’s campaign to put the latest Chinese IPO – which disrespectfully dared to go public on the 100th anniversary of the communist party – and just two days later, on Sunday, China’s cyberspace administrator ordered Chinese app-store operators to remove the Didi ride-hailing app, saying it has serious problems involving illegal collection of personal data.

The Cyberspace Administration of China also ordered Didi Chuxing, the company’s China business, to address the issues according to relevant Chinese standards and to ensure the safety of the personal information of users.As noted above, while the CAC didn’t specify on Friday what it will look into, the timing of the announcements was significant, coming not just on the heels of Didi’s IPO but also the Communist Party’s 100th anniversary celebrations in Beijing.

The crackdown requires the largest app stores in China, operated by the likes of Apple, Huawei and Xiaomi to remove Didi from their offerings. But the current half-billion or so users can continue to order up rides and other services so long as they downloaded the app before Sunday’s order.

“We sincerely thank the responsible departments for guiding Didi to look into the risks,” Didi said in a statement posted on Weibo, a Twitter -like platform. Didi also promised to “conscientiously rectify” the issues. The company also said on its official social media account that it had already halted new user registrations as of July 3 and was now working to rectify its app in accordance with regulatory requirements. Didi’s IPO was led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co. In all, the ride-hailing firm appointed 20 advisers to manage the float.

As Bloomberg notes, “the surprise probe and rapid decision by China’s powerful internet regulator piles on the scrutiny of Didi over issues ranging from antitrust to data security.” The company has been grappling with a broad antitrust probe into Chinese internet firms with uncertain outcomes for Didi and peers like major backer Tencent Holdings Ltd. It lost as much as 11% of its market value at one point on Friday, after the watchdog revealed its investigation.

But what’s really behind the recent crackdown on China’s powerful gigacap companies is that Beijing has been aggressively curbing the growing influence of the country’s largest internet corporations, widening an effort to tighten the ownership and handling of troves of information that online powerhouses from Alibaba to Tencent and Didi scoop up daily from hundreds of millions of users. The crackdowns come as Beijing has been aggressively rolling out its digital currency, whose reception so far has been catastrophic, and which assures even more aggressive crackdowns on local tech companies as long as the local population refuses to adopt China’s laughable “digital currency.”

Didi, one of the single largest investments of habitual bubble blower Masa Son’s SoftBank Group, defeated Uber in China in 2016 before embarking on an ambitious international expansion. However, as as result of Beijing’s recent crusade against tech companies, Didi had to settle on going public at a far lower market value than previously targeted. It IPOed at a valuation of $67 billion, barely up from its last round of funding in 2019, and far short of the most bullish expectations for $100 billion — a reflection of the regulatory scrutiny that’s hounded it ever since a pair of murders in 2018 that founder Cheng Wei has called its “darkest days.”

The latest escalation against Didi underscores the uncertainty surrounding the Chinese government’s crackdown on the internet sector. Earlier this year, the State Administration for Market Regulation announced it was looking into alleged abuses, including forced merchant exclusivity arrangements, at Meituan, also days after China’s third-largest internet company raised $9.98 billion from a record share placement and convertible bonds sale.

That too was an escalating personal vendetta of China’s despotic ruler against potential threats to his power: in May, Meituan CEO Wang Xing lost $2.5 billion of his wealth over two days after he posted verses from a millennium-old poem about the misguided attempts of China’s first emperor to quash dissent. Wang, a usually plain-speaking engineer who enjoys literary classics, later scrubbed his post and explained he was really calling out the short-sightedness of his own industry, trying to clarify there was no implied criticism of the government. But the damage was done: Meituan shed $26 billion over two days.

In any case, with Beijing now clearly seeking to make a political statement in the capital markets, it is unclear who, if anyone, will be there to invest in China’s next mega public offering in the US.

“This is deeply unfair to investors,” Brock Silvers, chief investment officer at Hong Kong-based private equity firm Kaiyuan Capital, said on Friday. “And as a crucial matter of market integrity, China’s regulators should cease allowing companies to list while under investigation.”

Authored by James Jay Carafano via 19fortyfive.com,

Once upon a time in America, journalists wrote “holiday pieces” out of desperation. In a world where amusement parks and beaches beckoned, where businesses carpet-bombed consumers with holiday sales ads, recreation and crass commercialism overmatched the remembrance of important historical persons and events.

The “holiday pieces” were rearguard actions, waged to recall Americans to “the reason for the season.” Now, these holiday defenders are even more badly outnumbered. The Left’s culture warriors have supplanted commercials as the chief enemy of public memory. They don’t aim to hijack commemoration days to serve their commercial ends; they aim to erase the meaning of these holidays altogether.

Consider the efforts of the Randolph School Board in New Jersey. They wanted to remove Columbus Day from the school calendar, renaming the holiday to “Indigenous People Day.” When parents pushed back, the board—acting out of spite—voted to get rid of all holiday names, just calling them “days off.” That triggered national attention and even greater pushback. After a lengthy meeting with angry parents, the board abandoned the whole renaming exercise. The Left lost that skirmish. But they’ll be back.

Even a few years ago, such antics would have been unthinkable—but not anymore. This fight has become America’s new endless war.

School boards are, in fact, just the point of the spear in the culture wars, targeted by the left and right as a choice objective for reshaping America’s civil space. Civics have been a prime target in these campaigns, reshaping the American political identity as a precursor to reshaping American politics.

One of the most prominent controversies in the culture wars swirls around curriculum that would implement concepts introduced by Critical Race Theory, the 1619 Project and anti-racist doctrine. These beliefs insist that our nation’s civic structures are inherently oppressive, biased, and racist. Historical persons and events become fodder for this fight because historical memories are the billboards of these racist structures. They must be torn down.  That’s why the Randolph School Board went after Columbus.

That is also why July 4th and other patriotic holidays are on the purge list. The radical agenda to reimagine civic memory would reconceptualize Independence Day as an event not worth celebrating or, even “better,” a day to protest against what is wrong with America.

If this agenda wins out, the rising generation of Americans will grow up unable to describe what happened on Independence Day, much less its critical importance to the worldwide advance of human rights and liberty. They will know it only as an important occasion for criticizing and denigrating the idea of America.

Independence Day should be marked to affirm the importance of political freedoms and recognize importance of fighting to secure and protect them. This is a day to honor the virtue of battling to secure the right of the Randolph School Board to debate whatever it damn well pleases. Generations of Americans fought and died so generations of Americans could argue over how to teach civics.

But make no mistake; there is no honor in what the would-be re-interpreters of America’s holidays have in store for America. Their agenda is not about education. It is about indoctrination—indoctrination that would overturn how America is governed.

Critical Race Theory as civics education offers, perhaps, the starkest example of a radical political agenda hiding under the guise of objective inquiry in search of a just society. This method of query is rooted in Marxist ideology, whose primary purpose was never truth-seeking, but creating critical instruments to undermine political legitimacy and justify new political orders that are both harshly repressive and demonstrably unjust.

Indeed, if Critical Race Theory were implemented in practice, this doctrine would violate Civil Rights Laws that secure equal protection under the law and outlaw discrimination.

Americans have labored for centuries to fulfill the promise of the American Revolution, striving to create a just society where the people are sovereign and there is equal opportunity for all.

We have made tremendous progress.

The ultimate heresy would be to substitute a new meaning of July 4th based on a power-hungry radical political agenda.

A C-130 Hercules transport aircraft of the Philippine Air Force with 85 servicemen on board crashed a few kilometers from the Jolo Airport in Sulu Province at 11: 30 local time on July 4. 

#Philippines military #Aircraft C-130 crashed,death toll rises to 29 ,total 90 no .Of troops were carrying from Cagayan de oro, on the southern island of #Mindanao.#PhilippinesPlaneCrash#planecrash #sulu pic.twitter.com/NIGYXIor7n

— Bapun (@Bapun_27) July 4, 2021

At least 31 soldiers were killed as a result of the accident. 50 soldiers were found injured and were taken to the hospital of the 11th Infantry Division in Busbus.

Most of the passengers had recently graduated recently from basic military training and were being deployed as part of a joint taskforce fighting terrorism in the Muslim-majority region.

The chief of the armed forces, Gen Cirilito Sobejana, said the aircraft had been carrying troops from Cagayan de Oro on the southern island of Mindanao when it missed the runway as it tried to land on Jolo.

A photograph purportedly taken near the crash site shows a large billow of smoke rising up into the sky.

TINGNAN:

Makapal na usok mula sa bumagsak na eroplano sa Patikul, Sulu ang sumalubong sa mga residente ngayong Linggo ng umaga, Hulyo 4. pic.twitter.com/7wcnQOBOzb

— PTVph (@PTVph) July 4, 2021

Other videos and photographs posted to social media appear to show a large fire at the scene of the accident.

The Philippines military also released images taken at the site. 

LOOK: Photos of crash site in Patikul, Sulu released by the @TeamAFP thru the 11th Infantry Division of the @yourphilarmy based in Jolo | @cnnphilippines pic.twitter.com/vrY5sBIrJu

— David Y. Santos (@davidyusantos) July 4, 2021

In a statement, the Philippines defense department said that it was focusing all available resources on the rescue operation, and asked the public to refrain from “speculative statements about the unfortunate incident.”

Via SchiffGold.com,

Earlier this week, a federal court threw out an antitrust case against Facebook. The lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission, along with 48 state governors, sought to force Facebook to divest itself of WhatsApp and Instagram, but the court said the FTC failed to prove that Facebook holds monopoly power. In his podcast, Peter Schiff said whatever problems Facebook may present, the only monopolies we should really be afraid of are the government-protected monopolies.

Peter said Facebook isn’t a monopoly and doesn’t need to be broken up.

Antitrust laws were ostensibly passed to protect consumers. If a company achieves monopoly power, it can jack up prices and take advantage of the public. The consumer is served best in a competitive market because competition tends to keep prices low. Therefore, the government needs the power to break up these monopolies and preserve a competitive environment. Peter said the argument that Facebook is gouging consumers falls a little flat given they give their base product away.

If a company is giving its products away for free, by definition, it’s not gouging anybody. So, even if Facebook had a monopoly, which it doesn’t, but even if it did, who cares? It’s giving away the products. They’re free. So, nobody is being harmed by this so-called monopoly.”

You could argue that the public isn’t really the customer. In a sense, people with Facebook accounts are the product. Advertisers pay Facebook to reach those account-holders. But Facebook clearly doesn’t have a monopoly on advertising. Peter said the advertising market may be more competitive than at any time in history.

Peter said if you look at the history of anti-trust, it has never benefited consumers, nor the broader economy. And in fact, there have never been real-world examples of a monopoly naturally forming in the economy that has wielded enough power to charge these predatory prices that everybody worries about. The only time this happens is when the government gets involved. Economist Murray Rothbard made this very argument and said “natural monopolies” don’t even exist.

The only time monopolies have ever been able to engage in the type of pricing that everybody is worried about is when the government comes in and grants them a legal monopoly and then uses the power of the state to quash their competitors and to keep other people from entering the market. So, absent government intervention, there will not be any predatory monopolies.”

Peter said that’s not to say a private sector couldn’t become so dominant that you might call it a monopoly. But consumers don’t have anything to fear.

In a free market, the only way that you can maintain your dominance in a market is by giving the consumers high-quality products at a low price. Because if you don’t do that, you will lose your monopoly to a competitor.”

Proponents of government antitrust action argue that once a company achieves monopoly power, it can drive competitors out of business with predatory pricing. It will temporarily slash prices and the upstart won’t be able to compete. Once the competitor is out of business, the monopolist will reassert its high prices. This sounds plausible, but it doesn’t happen in practice, as Peter explains.

The way the monopolist keeps the competitors away is by being so efficient by offering prices that are so low and quality that is so high that it doesn’t make any sense for anybody to compete.”

Why do we want competition in the first place? To get low prices.

We don’t want competition for the sake of having competitors. Well, if we get low prices without competition then we don’t need it. Because the fear  of potential competition in many cases can be just as good as actual competition.”

What we’ve seen throughout history is when the government gets involved in breaking up so-called monopolies, it’s not the customers who are complaining. It’s the competitors of the so-called monopolist because they can’t compete.

Peter gave an example of the absurdity of government antitrust in the case of a proposed merger of Blockbuster and Hollywood video.

Think about the absurdity of the US government, in 2005, worried about companies having monopoly on home video rental, when within a few years, nobody was renting videos for home.”

Nobody considered that a company formed in 1997 would totally revolutionize that market — Netflix. The US government couldn’t see that. This illustrates the absurdity of empowering the government to insert itself into the marketplace. It has no idea what it is doing.

Peter goes on to talk about the story of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil. The narrative you probably learned in school doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.

In this podcast, Peter also talks about a government-protected monopoly that price gouges consumers indirectly – labor unions.

Tensions between Russia and the West are still soaring after the June 23rd incident with Britain’s HMS Defender wherein the Russian side fired “warning shots” and shadowed the destroyer which had come near Crimea with no less than 20 Russian aircraft and two ships. That’s why Russia’s new aerial drills over the Black Sea present another dangerous opportunity for the next potential “close call” incident which could easily trigger direct conflict.

Russian fighters are now engaged in their own drills at a moment NATO’s large-scale Sea Breeze 2021 exercises are underway in waters below. Russia’s Black Sea fleet made the announcement confirming the active exercises on Saturday.

Russian reconnaissance aircraft which specialize in sea surveillance are also said to be active. No doubt they are further monitoring the some 40 warships currently taking part in the nearby NATO exercises, which has an estimated 4,000 personnel as part of what NATO has hailed as its largest naval drill in two decades.

The official Russian military statement was reported in TASS as follows:  

“Plane crews of the Black Sea fleet’s naval aviation and air defense units, jointly with the Southern Military District’s aviation, carried out training flights above the Black Sea, practicing missile and bomb attacks on vessels of a notional enemy. The Black Sea fleet’s naval aviation was represented by Su-30SM multirole fighter jets and Su-24M front-line bombers, the Southern Military District – by Su-34 fighter bombers and Su-27 air superiority fighter jets,” the statement says.

The Russian press report further highlighted Ukraine’s controversial involvement in the NATO drills. The Kremlin has long condemned Kiev’s growing closeness to NATO ‘partnership’ and recent requests seeking a “path to membership”, which Russia has in the past warned would trigger certain war.

Happening NOW: 🇺🇸 @USNavy #USSRoss pulls pier-side in #Odesa, #Ukr after completing the first phase of #ExerciseSeaBreeze

Who is ready for the weekend? ALL the dozens of countries that have worked so hard!!!! #SB21 #SeaBreeze2021 pic.twitter.com/WfU51sse44

— Exercise Sea Breeze (@ExSeaBreeze) July 2, 2021

“At the moment, an international naval exercise codenamed Sea Breeze-2021 is being held in the Black Sea with NATO countries and Ukraine taking part,” TASS wrote, while also emphasizing that Russian aircraft “carried out training flights above the Black Sea amid the Sea Breeze 2021 exercises of NATO and its partners in the region.”

As the rapidly unfolded events of last week demonstrate, with these rival military drills happening in such close proximity near contested waters, there remains very high risk for another live fire incident, particularly should NATO vessels or planes get too close to Russia-claimed waters and coastline.