Category: Economics, Finance, and Political Economy

  • One of the criticisms of fiat currency and manipulation of the money supply, is

    One of the criticisms of fiat currency and manipulation of the money supply, is that it damages the ability to form aristocratic families by means of saving, and drives all great families out of saving and production into financialization.

    ——- via Nick Zito ———

    Dan Kanivas, admirer of the millionaire next door

    Written Nov 10, 2015

    A recent article written by advisors to wealthy families discusses some of the common ways that family wealth is destroyed over multiple generations, as well as techniques to help prevent the destruction of family wealth over time:

    Wealth management usually comes in two parts: financial planning to increase and manage your wealth, and estate planning to protect and pass the wealth along to heirs with as few taxes as possible. Unfortunately, 70% of family wealth is destroyed by the second generation, and family unity is destroyed right along with the wealth. After three generations, the loss of wealth exceeds 90%.

    Some families, however, thwart lost fortunes and family dysfunction by adding a third component to their wealth management strategy: They prepare their heirs to receive an intellectual inheritance as well as a financial inheritance. When heirs are brought into a family’s stories, traditions, and values, they can better relate to their past and become better stewards of the family’s capital.

    The “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations” saying is so true that nearly every culture on the planet has some version of it, including a 2,000-year-old Chinese proverb. It says the first generation works hard to create a fortune; the second generation enjoys the spoils of that fortune, substituting entertainment for hard work; and the third generation, with no role model to follow, squanders what remains of the fortune. Their children have to start all over again.

    What is to blame for the destruction of wealth, and why do so many families experience it? The culprit is not poor investment strategy, nor should people be quick to blame economic downturns or bad markets.

    Roy Williams and Vic Preisser, authors of Preparing Heirs: Five Steps to a Successful Transition of Family Wealth and Values, collected data from 3,250 families who had lost their wealth. Less than 3% said poor planning and investments caused their reversal of fortune. Instead, 25% said heirs were unprepared, and 60% fingered lack of communication and trust in the family.

    The consequences of neglecting intellectual legacy can be seen in the families who ignored it, such as William Henry Vanderbilt’s heirs. Their fortunes could be worth over $300 billion in today’s dollars. However, by 1973, in just two generations, not a single heir was even a millionaire.


    Source date (UTC): 2017-01-11 09:08:00 UTC

  • “A rise in average human satisfaction is the greatest threat to the world econom

    —“A rise in average human satisfaction is the greatest threat to the world economy. Thus, Stoicism is probably the single most dangerous idea to the current world order.”— Julian le Roux

    Genius


    Source date (UTC): 2017-01-07 20:25:00 UTC

  • Falsehood of the day: ‘Company Value’ 1) MONETARY PRESERVATION OR GROWTH VALUE A

    http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/06/investing/amazon-rules-retail-worth-more-than-almost-everyone/index.htmlSensational Falsehood of the day: ‘Company Value’

    1) MONETARY PRESERVATION OR GROWTH VALUE

    A company share value is meaningless. It’s a popularity contest. And not a meaningful measure of comparison. Most of the time one is investing in *psychology* – market momentum, irrespective of its fundamentals.

    2) INVESTMENT VALUE (DIVIDENDS / APPRECIATION)

    Investing in the dividends and appreciation of the company because of its fundamentals.

    3) OPERATING VALUE (PROFITS)

    A company’s market share, revenue, profit, and trends, are meaningful measures of comparison.

    A company’s PRICE can be determined by a multiple of its revenue and profits in relation to the expected time horizon of returns.

    4) EXIT VALUE

    If owner/management wishes to exit, what can they sell the company for? This is usually a multiple of operating profit discounted by the loss of key management.

    5) ASSET VALUE

    A company’s WORTH is its fixed asset value at liquidation.

    WHY DOES THIS MATTER?

    Because the stock market functions as a savings plan for the country and for the world. So the financial sector looks at companies as a way to move money at low cost to where it will, in aggregate, across their portfolio, mix wins and losses into a profit.

    So Amazon is worth more than sears, macy’s target becasue their revenues and market share are worth more than macy’s and targets.

    Apple on the other hand is a fashion brand that becasue of the iphone could be eradicated quickly. Facebook more so. google less so. Although – the moment you can search by voice and actually get the information you want, the opportunity to advertise will disappear, and the company that succeeds at that will destroy google’s market value.


    Source date (UTC): 2017-01-07 10:07:00 UTC

  • MIXED AND UNMIXED ECONOMIES? 0) lets look at these terms: COMMUNISM: unorganized

    MIXED AND UNMIXED ECONOMIES?

    0) lets look at these terms:

    COMMUNISM: unorganized equalitarian production of private and commons. Collective ownership of the means of production.

    (PARASITISM UPON THE INDIVIDUAL)

    SOCIALISM: state (involuntary) organization of production. State ownerhship of the means of production. state ownership of the proceeds of production. state distribution of the proceeds of production to common or private ends.

    (INVOLUNTARY COMMONS)

    SOCIAL DEMOCRACY: state organization of some part of production. State ownership of the MEANS of production, state ownership of the PROCEEDS of production. Individual retains COMMISSION on his production for his private consumption, the remainder is held by the state for the production of commons.

    (COMPETITION FOR PRIVATE AND COMMONS)

    CLASSICAL LIBERALISM: individual ownership of the means of production, individual ownership of the proceeds of production. The voluntary organization of production. individuals contribute to the production of commons by majority assent.

    (VOLUNTARY COMMONS)

    CAPITALISM (market anarchism). Individual ownership of the means of production, individual ownership of the proceeds of production, the voluntary organization of production, and the private construction of common goods.

    (PARASITISM UPON THE COMMONS)

    1) EXTREMES FAIL

    Neither socialism nor capitalism is possible. Hence neither exists.

    2) MONOPOLIES FAIL:

    Instead we develop mixed economies.

    Social democracy (mixed economies) are the constant throughout history. At present the mainstream seeks to identify the maximum taxation possible without disincentivizing production. This appears to be dependent upon the homogeneity of the population.

    3) MIXED WORK, BUT MORE MIXING IS BETTER

    We appear to need a different economic model for each CLASS.

    … Lets look at the hierarchy of labor:

    – barbarian (outside the system – person is candidate or enemy)

    – prisoner (owner bears risk but person is disposable)

    – slave/soldiery (owner bears risk – person is tradable/releasable)

    – serf (split cost of risk) (supported by own production)

    – employee (full cost of risk) (supported by production returns)

    – professional (burgher) (supported by trade returns)

    – capitalist (landowner) (supported by management returns)

    – statist (aristocracy) (supported by proceeds of taxation)

    – warriors (aristocracy) (supported by proceeds of conquest)

    So we do not have ENOUGH of a mixed economy.

    We have no slavery, too small a military, no regiments, too small a disaster releif organization, no commons- maintenance organizations, too few syndicates and unions, and no monasteries or nunneries, and the academy functions as the only monastery. Yet we have a bloated financial sector that is clearly parasitic.

    Why? Because we allowed collective bargaining, and parasitic private and public contracts to award pensions we could not afford at our rates of inflation.

    We have created the worst possible mix of large homes and small expensive urban apartments, rather than large family apartments in large numbers in urban areas.

    We have created an empire with constant political conflict in order to gain mobility, rather than a collection of small homogenous states with constant political satisfaction of local demands, at the expense of mobility. However, that mobility is the reason for the decline of social order and the fmaily and care for the commons, and our culture itself.

    Economists are even WORSE idiots than theologians.

    Curt Doolittle

    The Propertarian Institute

    Kiev,Ukraine


    Source date (UTC): 2017-01-03 13:03:00 UTC

  • “All of civilization in every society consists of nothing but insurance. Sociali

    —“All of civilization in every society consists of nothing but insurance. Socialism and welfare statism take profits from risk and investment in the future and use it in the present. The longer it goes on the more likely society collapses from overconsumption and malinvestment, and the less likely we are to make real progress or to innovate and evolve and expand (including, now, beyond Earth.)”—Delian Valeriani


    Source date (UTC): 2017-01-02 23:13:00 UTC

  • IS THE BEST CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE

    https://www.kyivpost.com/business/ukraine-danger-never-recovering-stolen-billions.html?utm_source=traqli&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=traqli_dailyBANKING IS THE BEST CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE.

    https://www.kyivpost.com/business/ukraine-danger-never-recovering-stolen-billions.html


    Source date (UTC): 2016-12-23 19:02:00 UTC

  • What’s Your Position on UBI (Welfare 2.0)?

    WHAT’S YOUR POSITION ON UBI (WELFARE)? (I HAVE ONE.

    🙂

  • What’s Your Position on UBI (Welfare 2.0)?

    WHAT’S YOUR POSITION ON UBI (WELFARE)? (I HAVE ONE.

    🙂

  • Curt: Are You An Austrian? Well…Yes, But Let’s Clarify that a bit.

    CURT: ARE YOU AN AUSTRIAN? ( New Austrian School of Economics, Austrian Economics Rules ) I am Austrian in the sense that the Austrian program (Menger) sought to discover social science (Truth), the Chicago program sought to discover rule of law (bending truth), and the saltwater school sought to discover the limits of discretion (lying).

    I am Austrian in the sense that I cannot refute the theory of the business cycle as the formation and deformation of Sustainable Patterns of Specialization and Trade. I am Austrian in the sense that I understand mises discovered economic operationalism, but did not understand what he had found. But I am not Austrian in the sense that mises, rothbard, and Hoppe advocate economic pseudoscience: that economics is fully deducible. This is demonstrably false, logically false, and shows a complete lack of understanding of the difference between moral and legal justification (excuse making) and scientific investigation (discovery). Curt Doolittle The Propertarian Institute Kiev, Ukraine
  • Curt: Are You An Austrian? Well…Yes, But Let’s Clarify that a bit.

    CURT: ARE YOU AN AUSTRIAN? ( New Austrian School of Economics, Austrian Economics Rules ) I am Austrian in the sense that the Austrian program (Menger) sought to discover social science (Truth), the Chicago program sought to discover rule of law (bending truth), and the saltwater school sought to discover the limits of discretion (lying).

    I am Austrian in the sense that I cannot refute the theory of the business cycle as the formation and deformation of Sustainable Patterns of Specialization and Trade. I am Austrian in the sense that I understand mises discovered economic operationalism, but did not understand what he had found. But I am not Austrian in the sense that mises, rothbard, and Hoppe advocate economic pseudoscience: that economics is fully deducible. This is demonstrably false, logically false, and shows a complete lack of understanding of the difference between moral and legal justification (excuse making) and scientific investigation (discovery). Curt Doolittle The Propertarian Institute Kiev, Ukraine