Maddog's wry look at economics, history, society, culture, and politics

Old New York: Street View done old school

7/31/2016

This guy used over 80,000 old photos to create a Google Street map of New York City in the 1800s

If I was only more interested in New York.

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this captures the election nicely

7/31/2016

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The Decline And Fall Of The American Empire - Small Dead Animals

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Don Boudreaux is correct that globalization is a great good . . .

7/31/2016

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Pity the Misunderstanding - Cafe Hayek

. . . and that the “the pitiless evolutionary march of globalization” is a positive bringing abundance, wealth, and increasing the standard of living of all who trade.

More after the break, with Milton Friedman videos.

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The good, the bad, and the ugly

7/31/2016

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The Good:

Maryland hit by severe storms, flooding

The Bad:

Seattle house party shooter who killed ex was 'depressed' after split

Narcissistic troll cannot stand the idea of a woman breaking up with him, so he murders her and two others. The gun, the magazine, the bullets and pretty much every other inanimate thing is blamed instead of the narcissistic evil young man. As we have seen in Europe these people will not be denied by limiting a particular tool, and instead will use whatever is to hand, knife, auto, cudgel.

The Ugly:

Elderly man shot in his own home when cops went to wrong address

Police use force after making very grave mistake. Police went to the wrong house on a 911 hangup call, and went to the back door where they apparently pounded, shown flashlights, and yelled through the door. The home owner thought they were intruders.

Nearly everything in this situation was done wrong from the homeowner shooting through the door, to the police actions. Tragic consequences arise from incompetent action.

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Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel: Chicago budget balanced, pension plans fixed!

7/31/2016

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Chicago Pension Situation Improving Says Mayor: Careful Analysis Uncovers Lies | MishTalk

Oh, wait, that was a Friday news dump, so it was designed to hide the ball. The ball Emanuel is hiding is the fact that the city is not making necessary pension contributions today, but is deferring them to the future, long after Emanuel will be gone. This is another story of the Boomers simply acting fiscally irresponsible, and forcing the Millennials to pick up massive payments in the future.

So what does that generational fraud look like? This:

The city will never catch up to these payment problems with this approach. It must get ahead of the problem, and contribute the necessary amounts to fund these pensions today, not long in the future. Millennials will rightly see this as an attempt to allow Boomers to live high on the hog today, press the city's current bills into the Millennials future, expect the Millennials to accept these payments, and accept the fact that they will never have the rich benefits enjoyed by the Boomers.

When this finally explodes, it will hurt many Boomers. I suggest making sure your retirement savings are sufficient regardless of undependable external benefits like pensions, and Social Security benefits. Fair warning.

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Happy birthday Milton!

7/31/2016

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Happy 104th birthday, Milton Friedman

Lot's of links, and quotes.

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Sanders supporters, do you feel the Burn?

7/30/2016

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Election Justice USA Study Finds that Without Election Fraud Sanders Would Have Won by Landslide

Because Hillary, and the DNC burned you big time.

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Venezuela's slow collapse

7/30/2016

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Is This The Beginning Of The End For Venezuela's Oil Sector? | OilPrice.com

The only thing floating Venezuela today is oil revenue, it cannot afford to lose this revenue. The disaster accelerates.

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Someone didn't see the Killing Fields!

7/30/2016

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Venezuela's new decree: Forced farm work for citizens

And how about that recent article about Mao and the Cultural Revolution!

"We Thought Mao Was Doing a Wonderful Thing" - Ricochet

Sadly, the people of Venezuela are closer to reprising the Killing Fields, and that would be a tragedy of great magnitude.