Sleepless in Midland

Morning paper reminds us that Republicans will fight budget cuts

In case we needed a reminder, MRT.com provided one. Our own Texas District 11 Congressman Mike Conaway is doing what politicians do. He's all for a balanced budget so long as his own sacred cows are spared.

See Conaway voices concerns over USDA budget.

Agribusiness has been on the dole for so long that to take them off it cold turkey would be portrayed as mean spirited and stingy. OK, but can't we wean them off it gradually and let them adapt to the free market? That makes sense, but it really depends on the strength of their lobby.

As a general rule, if government these days is an organ of income redistribution, and if we're looking at a permanent entitlement in the form of whatever Obamacare becomes, then at least attempt to benefit the maximum number of people rather than narrow industry groups.

Do Texans really want a bullet train?

Imagine traveling between Houston and Dallas in a 240-mile bullet train for a 90 minute ride. Sounds like something from Tomorrowland. Bullet trains are common in Europe and Japan, and they make an impressive sight as they zip along an elevated track.

But are they right for Texas? The cost is atrocious at $12 billion. Oh sure, the promoters say taxpayers won't have to pay it. See How to pay for a $12 billion bullet train without asking Texas for money.

But assuming they can get investors and lenders to shell out the money for laying rails and buying trains, it's hard to believe they won't be looking for a government handout to make up the difference between their revenue and their debt obligations.

Then there are the property rights issues. That problem is going to be big enough if/when The Great Wall comes to Texas. But here one would have to expect property owners to give up their land, one way or the other, for the railway. For a discussion of that issue, see 'Come and take it': Eminent domain dispute at heart of bullet train battles.

At one time Southwest Airlines had a cheap flight between the two cities. If there are $12 billion burning holes in investors' pockets, maybe it's time for a Puddle Jumper Airlines to swoop in and carry passengers around Texas. Or better yet, an autonomous round trip car rental. Tomorrowland, baby!

2:10 PM 2/24/2017

Betsy DeVos to the head of the class

Democrats went all out to defeat Betsy DeVos' nomination. But DeVos prevailed, albeit with the help of an historic tie breaking vote of the Vice President.

Why were Democrats so opposed to her? All conservatives heard about it was that the teachers' union was against her. Surely there was more to the opposition than that, but no, that's all there was. Here's Thomas Sowell in Education at a Crossroads:

What may seem on the surface to be merely a matter of whether the U.S. Senate confirms or rejects the nomination of Betsy DeVos to be head of the U.S. Department of Education involves far bigger stakes.

The teachers' unions and the education establishment in general know how big those stakes are, and have mounted an all-out smear campaign to prevent her from being confirmed.

What makes Mrs. DeVos seem so threatening to the teachers' unions and their political allies?

Some of these charter schools -- especially those in the chain of the Success Academy schools and the chain of the KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) schools -- operate in low-income, minority neighborhoods in the inner-cities, and turn out graduates who can match the educational performances of students in affluent suburbs. What is even more remarkable, these charter schools are often housed in the very same buildings, in the very same ghettoes, where students in the regular public schools fail to learn even the basics in English or math.

You and I may think this is great. But, to the teachers' unions, such charter schools are a major threat to their members' jobs -- and ultimately to the unions' power or existence.

For the longest time we've heard that the unions were more interested in benefiting teachers than improving education. That they fight so hard to maintain the status quo in failing schools is pretty good evidence of that.

1:15 PM 2/7/2017

Free markets work -- generic Epipen now available 2 for $100

Who can forget the screaming from the media when Mylan Labs raised the price of a two pack EpiPen to around $600? The anguish was enough to tempt a person to invest in funeral homes.

But the free market actually does work. And while the heavily regulated pharmaceutical industry isn't really a symbol of free markets, in this case a generic version of the EpiPen had already been approved. It took the big Mylan price hike to unleash it. According to USAToday, CVS targets EpiPen with cheaper, generic version:

CVS Health Thursday that it would start selling the generic version of a competitor to pharmaceutical giant Mylan's EpiPen, an injection for people having severe allergy reactions. The move comes amid public consternation over multiple price increases that left the brand-name allergic-reaction treatment EpiPen with a list price of more than $600, up from about $100 in 2009.

CVS says the generic based off Impax Laboratories’ Adrenaclick treatment will sell for $109.99 per two-pack before potential discounts, or about one-third the initial $300 list price of the generic version of the EpiPen that Mylan announced after criticism about pricing.

If you bought stock in funeral homes, hold on, there will be other scares. There always are.

Why Americans are sour on immigration -- too many in other countries don't understand free markets

We have enough problems already. We don't need more people prone to rioting. OK, not every immigrant is ready to riot, but the face of things at the old country don't look so good.

I'm talking here about the recent deregulation of gasoline prices in Mexico. In a free market prices will fluctuate with supply and demand. With a central economic planning committee setting prices, the market doesn't really get to correct itself when shortages occur.

So when we see items like this, it's troubling. Protests ignited by gasoline price hikes continue to roil Mexico. Excerpt:

More than a week after the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto deregulated gasoline prices, which instantly rose as much as 20%, Mexico is engulfed in a nationwide rebellion.

Four people have been killed and more than 1,500 arrested while looting, staging road blockades and marching in protests such as the weekend demonstrations in Rosarito and along the border.

The price hike, which many believe will lead to higher prices for food and household goods, is opposed by 99% of Mexicans, according to a recent poll, and has drawn the condemnation of business groups, truckers unions, leaders of the political opposition and even the Catholic Church.

What's worrisome about this is the prospect that immigrants from Mexico bring their politics to the U.S.

And Democrats struggle to understand why Trump's promise of a wall was so popular among his supporters.

Meanwhile, is Mexico another Venezuela but with drug cartels? We'll see.

Bill passed in House to nullify clauses that prohibit customers from complaining

We've heard the horror stories: Customer bought a lemon product or engaged a company that did a crappy job. The customer complained on social media. Then the company sued the customer for violation of the fine print in the agreement he had to accept in order to buy the product or obtain the service. Bummer.

Well, the U.S. House of Representatives is trying to rescue consumers from this outcome by passage of H.R. 5111: Consumer Review Fairness Act of 2016. Leonard Lance (R. New Jersey) sponsored the bill which will invalidate gag provisions in consumer contracts.

It passed the House a couple of weeks ago (9/12/2016). So the only obstacles are the Senate and the President. Will they go along with it? The above linked govtrack.us site gives it a 24% chance of being enacted, but that shouldn't stop anyone with a legitimate complaint. Any company attempting to enforce such a clause will have an uphill battle in the court of public opinion. And anyone sitting on a jury who checked an "Accept" button without reading pages and pages of text isn't likely to be too sympathetic to the company trying to enforce it.

Epipen had a government conferred monopoly -- can the government correct what caused it?

"We need to look at what the government is doing to create the environment that is leading to some of these instances." That was Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla) on "Mornings with Maria" Wednesday morning. (Video link below.)

It's common knowledge now that the drug administered by the Epipen wasn't the issue. The issue was that there is no competition for the dispensing device. Drug companies spend big bucks lobbying the FDA to protect their own products against any possible competition. And if this instance of Mylan Labs and Epipen is any indication, it was money well spent. They had a monopoly which was aided and abetted by the FDA.

DeSantis wants to try to get Congress to reduce the regulations that led to this result. Reduction of regulations has been the goal of conservatives for years. Boy, it sure has taken a long time. And only when it gets in the headlines is there any effort put into it. But assuming Republicans in government are serious, it will still take time.

For more immediate relief DeSantis plans to get the FDA in front of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The FDA contends that it doesn't involve itself in product pricing, but the hope is that shining some light on these problems will help them understand the impact they are having and motivate them to move a little faster.

Watch the interview at this Youtube link. It's encouraging to hear a politician propose solutions that might get a government agency like the FDA to serve the people a little better than they have.

The value of the expensive Epipen is convenience -- patients just need to learn to give themselves the shot

Most of us had not heard of the Epipen until the news readers proclaimed that a greedy drug company began charging a small fortune for it. The horrors of the free market!

Turns out that all Epipen is is a delivery device that dispenses a single dose of a hormone called Epinephrine which turns out to be non-patentable. Thomas Lifson explains something important in EpiPen too expensive? You can get the same dose for ten bucks.

Simply buy the Epinephrine and a syringe, learn how to use it, and save hundreds of dollars. Do-it-your-selfers will jump on this. Others -- those who lean toward the cradle to grave nanny state -- will insist on a government regulation mandating a cheap price for the Epipen.

When I was a kid my mom gave me allergy shots once a week. Tuesdays, as I recall. She would boil the needle and the syringe -- yeah we used the same one over and over. Then I would get a shot in the arm. Of course I hated it. But I lived to tell about.

And I got more than a temporary immunity to rag weed. I'm immune to the whining from those people complaining about having to pay for the convenience of the Epipen because they're too wimpy to get a real shot.

Reminder to Alan Greenspan -- Black Monday 1987 would have been a good time to buy stocks

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is quoted at CNBC thusly:

"This is the worst period, I recall since I've been in public service. There's nothing like it, including the crisis — remember October 19th, 1987, when the Dow went down by a record amount 23 percent? That I thought was the bottom of all potential problems. This has a corrosive effect that will not go away."

We do remember Black Monday. There was a lot of panic in the air, and many stock owners dumped their shares as fast as they could, if they could even reach their brokers. But history taught us that it was technical in nature, and while stocks were ready for a correction, the crash was way overdone.

But you know what? For every share of stock sold that day there was a buyer. As the saying goes, buy stocks when there's blood in the streets. And those buyers did OK for themselves.

So Alan, we welcome your advice. But the comparison with Black Monday seems a bit misplaced if you are trying to warn investors about something. And regarding Brexit, if it portends a freer marketplace then that has to be better ultimately than a command and control economy.

Progressives vs freedom

Fox News viewers may have seen that epic clip of Kristin Powers proclaiming that she was liberal and wanted to regulate everything, in effect saying that being liberal and wanting regulations were natural partners.

They are. A crude way of saying it is that progressives are opposed to freedom. Others are more polite. See for example, Randall Holcombe's article The Uneasy Relationship Between Progressivism and Freedom where Mr. Holcombe provides some historic examples while describing how any benefits are offset by the limitations on freedom and economic growth. Excerpt:

The United States was founded on an ideology that viewed the role of government as the protection of individual rights. That view of government was pushed aside by the ideology of Progressivism toward the end of the 1800s. The Progressive ideology envisions a government that not only protects individual rights but also looks out for people’s economic well-being.

A natural tension exists between Progressivism and freedom. Partly, this is because looking out for the economic well-being of some often lowers the economic well-being of others. Increasingly, Progressives also argue that people would be better off if government made their choices for them rather than giving people the freedom to make their own choices.

(Via CafeHayek.com.)

Or as I've said elsewhere:

Americans: Everyone should be entitled to make their own mistakes.

Progressives: No. We should be able to make the mistakes for you.

P.S. If the Brexit movement foretells a universal movement toward more freedom then the Brits have given the world a gift. Freedom, baby!

Banks make money selling cash

I bought a roll of quarters at a local grocery store service window yesterday. And there was a $0.20 fee added to the face value of the quarters. The reason explained to me was that that's what the bank charged them, and I was merely reimbursing them for the fee they paid.

In other words, banks charge more than face value for money.

So for anyone who suspected that banks never miss an opportunity to make money, you're right. Banks sell currency for a profit.

Capitalism is in trouble -- young people don't like it, don't know what it is

Add this to the complaints that schools aren't teaching the kids things that will help them become productive citizens. Apparently, they aren't learning the distinctions among economic systems. That's a pretty big failure if we are ending up with young people who instinctively reject capitalism and accept socialism without knowing what either is.

See A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows. Excerpt:

The Harvard University survey, which polled young adults between ages 18 and 29, found that 51 percent of respondents do not support capitalism. Just 42 percent said they support it.

It isn't clear that the young people in the poll would prefer some alternative system, though. Just 33 percent said they supported socialism. The survey had a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points.

They needn't look any farther than Venezuela to see how disastrous socialism is to the people who have to suffer the consequences. Our local newspaper carries AP articles from time to time about conditions in Venezuela, but try as they might, they can't seem to reach millennials who until recently got their news from the Daily Show. However now that Jon Stewart has left the show, one wonders where they get their news -- social media?

In any event, they want something better from the economy than what they are promised with headlines like this: How the state of the economy is literally killing people.

But ultimately, as Larry Kudlow likes to say, "Free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity."

P.S. Apparently Millennials don't like being called Millennials. Nicknames have been assigned to each generation since the forties. If they're trying to shed theirs, maybe they'll have better luck than the previous generations had.

Employees still can't be required to speak English

This fits in the category of Obama created problems that won't go away. That was his administration's ruling that rules requiring English to be spoken at the workplace were discriminatory.

Most conservatives favor the English language, and many expect the people living and working in the U.S. to be able to speak it, too. Well, in the minds of folks like Obama, that's racist.

The case originated in the summer of 2014 and involved the dismissal of some workers at Wisconsin Plastics, Inc., because they wouldn't or couldn't speak English. Source: U.S. Sues American Co. For Requiring Workers to Speak English, EEOC Sues Wisconsin Plastics for Discrimination Against Hmong and Hispanic Employees and Federal Gov’t Sues Wisconsin Company, Says English-Language Requirement is 'Discrimination'.

These aren't today's headlines, so they aren't in this otherwise hot political environment. But one has to wonder where the presidential candidates stand on it. The two Democrat contenders would back the government. And the Republican candidates would oppose it, for the most part, except Donald Trump. He may say he'll build a wall. He may say he'll expel illegal immigrants. But no way he would tolerate a rule requiring the ability to speak English at any establishment in his hotel empire. It would be adios for half the help.

In any event, the EEOC website says the case was still pending as of last winter, and it's safe to assume it still is today.

When businesses want more regulations it's to keep out competition -- case in point, H&R Block's lobbying for more regs on tax preparers

More regulations, fewer businesses. That's the normal course of action when government intersects business. Cronies in the federal government are being plied by lobbyists for H&R Block to make it harder for mom and pop competitors. See This Company Wants to Make It Harder for You to File Taxes:

Large companies can afford to comply with expensive regulations. Many of their small-business competitors cannot. So big businesses frequently lobby for stricter regulations in order to drive out small-business competition.

It is no accident that small business owners report government regulations and red tape as one of their greatest problems.

H&R Block seems to be trying to do the same thing to the tax preparation industry. Legally, anyone can prepare his own taxes. Anyone can also prepare someone else’s taxes for him. Approximately 350,000 independent tax preparers do exactly that. ...

Nonetheless, H&R Block wants Congress to require tax preparers pass a government exam, pay for continuing education, and pass a background check. These requirements would make working as a tax preparer much more expensive. The continuing education requirement would particularly burden seasonal tax preparers, who work other jobs the rest of the year. ...

That is not enough for H&R Block. It wants expensive licensing imposed on all tax preparers. If passed, these regulations would drive many independent tax preparers out of business.

Being pro-business is certainly not the same as being pro-free market. And in many cases it means crony capitalism.

How I met your mother -- it was love at first sight when she saw my mugshot

We've heard the story. It's a few days old, but it's still so relevant in a cultural evolutionary sense.

A rogue somehow got a flattering mugshot which was plastered on TV. Low and behold, he ended up with agent to negotiate a modeling contract.

His talent transcended his transgressions. What a country -- so full of opportunities.

For some reason this story reminded me of the Robert Redford movie in which he played a prison reformer who went undercover as an inmate to expose corruption. Press releases said they used real convicts as extras. So there we had scarred, tattooed, ugly convicts. And Robert Redford. What a lineup that must have been.

Good luck to Jeremy Meeks with his modeling career. May the only homes he invades be through his magazine ads and the only head shots he receives be through the barrel of a camera.

Most Dems say they prefer socialism, when it's described in a certain way

There's a big disconnect. Many of our fellow Americans say they prefer socialism for our country. But what they don't realize is that the people who would attempt to run the country under such a system aren't smart enough to do it. That's not an attack on anyone's intelligence, it's simply an obvious fact. There are plenty of examples where it was proven to be true. Look at the various federal government agencies and try to find one you would use as a model for how the economy would be run.

How about the Department of Veterans Affairs? It has all the earmarks of a socialist environment, specifically, government run, worker rewards unrelated to accomplishment, under-served clients, and corruption aplenty.

Anyway, back to the point. Rick Moran writes this: Poll: Majority of Dems say socialism has a 'positive impact' on society, and he quotes from Politico:

The two competing economic theories were described to respondents by the pollster. Socialism was defined as a system for those who believe “corporations have too much control and that the capitalist system is set up to favor the rich and powerful,” and that “the only way to police corporations and protect the citizens is for the government to take a larger role in managing the economy to make sure that every individual has equal access to basic necessities and public goods, even if that means that some people have to transfer their wealth to others."

What a distorted view. Little wonder so many people said they favored socialism -- it's all about fairness and equality. Mr. Moran wisely favors Webster's dictionary over Bloomberg/Des Moines Register for definitions.

Advantage of free trade demonstrated by shrinking protectionism to extreme

Just about every time I visit Mark J. Perry's website I come away much more enlightened. It happened again with his article titled The ‘logic’ of protectionism leads to an absurd conclusion: complete self-sufficiency at the individual level where he updated a hypothetical situation written years ago by Walter Block.

Start with the wish for protection of American industrial workers. The jobs they had have gone to China, other Asian countries, or Mexico. If that's the whole story then protectionist tariffs might be justified. But the fallacy is exposed when the principle is shrunk to fit a smaller scale. For example, suppose one state applied tariffs to imports from other states for the same reason. Shrink it further, and one city does it to other cities. Keep shrinking to the neighborhood level, then to the individual level.

The fallacy is obvious. Each of us cannot manufacturer everything we need to survive much less what we want in order to enjoy life as we know it. Read the whole thing.

goodbye fast food staff, hello robot at Eatsa

Since the rise of the very vocal movement to hike the minimum wage, bloggers have been predicting increased mechanization of the fast food business accompanied by a decrease in the number of employees.

It's happening.

Meet Eatsa. It's a highly mechanized fast food joint currently with stations in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The customer uses tablet technology to place his order, and when his name pops up on a window, he opens the door and grabs his food.

The menu consists of quinoa (hipster rice) bowls with a variety of toppings chosen by the buyer. The price seems reasonable at $6.95 per bowl.

But it's not all robots. There are job openings for humans.

Actually, except for the tablet technology, the idea isn't exactly new. TCM fans may recall movies made in the '50s with scenes in cafes with similar food dispensing vending machines.

P.S. I haven't visited a Starbucks in a while, but that business seems like one that could easily transition to a vending machine dispensing system.  That probably helps keep down the cost of a barista.

Uber vs regulatory state

One of the most entertaining contests going on now in Midland, TX, and apparently some other cities, is the battle between the ride sharing company Uber versus regulators. The taxi industry in cities around the country has been trying to block Uber from the beginning. And it looks like Uber is winning in most jurisdictions.

Here at home the taxi industry is taking the back seat and letting the city code makers do the lifting. The fray is between some members of the city council and the ride sharing companies. And the main bone of contention, at least according to the morning paper, is the city's requirement that drivers submit to a background check performed by the police department. Sounds reasonable enough, except the companies say that's redundant since they perform their own background checks.

Driving for a ride sharing company looks like an entry level job that just about anyone could do. That's a good thing. But is the fear of criminals in this line of work realistic? We don't know. The news sources went quiet on that.

Open records queries directed at police departments at the big cities in Texas could get information sufficient to compare crimes accused of licensed taxi drivers and ride sharing drivers so prospective customers could make informed decisions. But that doesn't seem to be forthcoming.

Until there's some evidence to support the contention that the police background check is a more reliable indicator of future criminal behavior, then let's give Uber the benefit of the doubt and relax the regulation.

As Larry Kudlow likes to say, "Free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity."

Milton Friedman was right then, right now

Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., introduced the a bill called the VA Accountability Act which would allow the Department of Veterans Administration to fire employees without a right of appeal. Seems like good thing for veterans given that no one at the VA has been held accountable for their mistreatment of the people they're obligated to serve.

But no. President Obama threatened to veto the bill. Obama has gone from community organizer to union representative, protecting jobs of of the least competent bureaucrats.

In any event, this is a good point to recall some of Milton Friedman's memorable quotes, some of which are dutifully repeated in 22 Quotes to Celebrate Milton Friedman Day. Here are a few from the list applicable to the VA situation, to wit:

1. “If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.”

3. “Governments never learn. Only people learn.”

4. “Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government.”

5. “One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.”

12. “Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned.”

13. “The lack of balance in governmental activity reflects primarily the failure to separate sharply the question what activities it is appropriate for government to finance from the question what activities it is appropriate for government to administer—a distinction that is important in other areas of government activity as well.”

Those are just a few. Read all 22 for a reminder on just how brilliant Milton Friedman was when he presented in simple language principles that seem obvious after they're stated.

Would you rent your car to a total stranger?

Here's an interesting concept aimed at young drivers: Car rentals by the hour from private owners.

Many young people are saddled with a huge college debt, and in this economy they may have to work menial jobs to make ends meet. A new car is not at the top of their wish list. So what they're calling a peer-to-peer rental program might draw some interest. The Washington Post tells us about Ford's program. Take out:

The car-sharing program, running now through November, will cover cars, trucks and SUVs in six of America's younger cities: Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco, Portland, Chicago and Washington. The Ford-financed vehicles are rented to pre-screened drivers through Getaround, an Airbnb for cars, for anywhere between $5 and $9 an hour.

Getaround takes a 40 percent cut, but Ford gets a few perks, too: The car owners get more money to pay off loans, and the renters take a test drive that could persuade them to buy a Ford, if they ever buy a car at all.

How many people would want to rent out their vehicles? There's an auto insurance company currently running a TV commercial featuring a lady looking me in the eye telling me I named my car "Brad" and that I love Brad. Somehow that doesn't really square with the idea of allowing a stranger to handle Brad out on the road. Insurance notwithstanding, renters generally don't treat rented property as they would their own.

But what do I know? I've got a vehicle I've owned for 27 years, and it's part of the family.

In any event, if you want to put your car in the pool go sign it up. Maybe Brad needs a change of pace.

Seemed like a good idea -- make food stamp recipients do 6 hours volunteer work a week -- nope

A blogger called Newsmachete tells us about it at Americanthinker.com in Foodstamps for able bodied childless adults down 80% in Maine following 6 hr/week work requirement.

The article is actually a Fisking of a bleeding heart New York Times article about how the food pantries in Maine are overrun because of a harsh law limiting food stamp availability to able-bodied adults without minor dependents (abawds). Here's the kicker. They don't get the food stamps "unless they work 20 hours per week, take state job-training courses or volunteer for about six hours per week."

No one likes to work for free, and as someone who actually does volunteer work, I can say that sometimes it is a little bit frustrating. So maybe we can throw in a little free market to mix it up a bit. Allow real volunteers to sell their volunteer hours to the abawds. Problem solved.

What if the abawds don't have money to buy volunteer hours? Well, let them work if off, say mow a lawn for three hours in exchange for three hours of volunteer credits. Wait. We're right back where we started. Never mind.

New use for the peace pipe -- Indian tribes mulling marijuana sales

Marijuana sold on Indian reservations somehow seems like a natural fit. Indian reservations are supposed to have the status of sovereign nations, so they can do a lot of things that Americans are prohibited from doing. They've scored big with casinos, and the sale of tax free cigarettes has been a long time profit maker.

Now some tribes are contemplating the sale of marijuana. See Indian Country looks to marijuana as new moneymaker about a tribal pow-wow at the Tulalip Resort Casino in the state of Washington.

Several states have already legalized recreational marijuana, Washington included, but the tribes could easily compete on price if they don't have to collect the state tax.

The real payoff would be the extent that the new competition hurts the drug cartels.

As for new businesses for tribes, I've long thought they would do well to establish webmail services and toss National Security Letters in the trash. Now there's a selling point.

McCoy's crazy prices

McCoy's Building Supply seems to be trying to remain an old style hardware store, and for that I applaud them and give them some of my business.

But their prices are crazy. Here's an example. Yesterday I was shopping in the McCoy's in Midland, Texas, and noticed a short piece of 4" PVC pipe. The store price for a 10' piece is $18.99, but there was one piece that looked to be about 6'. It was just what I needed. So if I buy this I should get it cheaper plus there wouldn't be a bunch of pipe wasted, right?

Here's what's wrong with that thinking. The price for the 6' piece was $23.75, almost $5 more than the 10' piece. What gives? Apparently, some previous customer needed a short piece. So he/she had them cut off 4' and paid a per foot price plus a cutting charge. Now along comes a second customer looking to buy the 6' left over. So they charge him/her the cutting premium, too. It's a cutting fee double dip.

The principle of supply and demand says that no one buys that left over 6' piece unless they chop that price. That's what an old style hardware store would do.

Editor's note: Why didn't you just go to Lowe's and buy a 10' piece for $13.16 or a 5' piece for $9.58. Robo-ed. | I did! Sleepless.

A healthier nicotine delivery system -- if government doesn't choke it to death first

Here's a provocative title from NationalReview.com: Let the Free Market Kill the Combustible Cigarette.

There are some innovative products on the market now which could help eliminate diseases related to tobacco. They're E-cigarettes. They're simple. They vaporize an oil containing nicotine, and the user inhales the vapor. It's a nicotine delivery system that doesn't involve inhalation of smoke. Ingenious.

Nicotine is supposed to be highly addictive, so e-cigs probably won't do much to break the habit. But they look like they would be so much healthier than regular cigarettes.

But then there's the federal government. Some proposals put forth to the FDA would regulate e-cigs the same a tobacco products. That would merely put a lot of the small manufacturers out of business and shift the odds in favor of the big tobacco companies.

As Michael R. Hufford and Gilbert Ross say in the above linked article:

We can extinguish the last combustible cigarette in our lifetimes, but doing so will require a delicate balancing act. Products must be compelling enough to meet the nicotine needs of smokers — today’s products are not there yet, requiring capital investment in innovative technologies. Profits must be enough to satisfy investors, and regulations must be sufficient to protect the public health without impeding the innovation that is needed to radically transform the market for nicotine.

Regulations without impeding innovation -- now there's the toughie.

Charles Koch on how to turn the economy around

The Koch brothers currently hold the top spot for Bogey Men for Democrats. And that means they probably have something worthwhile to offer. Here's an example.  In Charles Koch: How to really turn the economy around Charles Koch lays out some steps to get the US economy going again.

Here's the short form:

1st: Encourage the type of businesses that earn profits by creating value for customers not corporate cronyism.

2nd: Eliminate the hiring restrictions caused by Obamacare.

3rd: Teach kids the value of work.

4th: Eliminate government programs that create incentives not to work.

Here's Koch:

Our government's decades-long, top-down approach to job creation has failed. Its policies have made our problems worse, leaving tens of millions chronically un- or underemployed, millions of whom have given up ever finding meaningful work. In doing so, our government has not only thwarted real job creation, it also has reduced the supply and quality of goods and services that make people's lives better and undermined the culture required to sustain a free society.

If we believe the government numbers, the recession ended in 2009, and everything is just peachy. But we know better. What improvements there have been have occurred in spite of the government, not because of it. Charles Koch has some good suggestions, but it requires that government get out of the way. It's little wonder that Koch brothers are the Democrat's bogey men.

Angela Hawken on C-Span re marijuana legalization

She's an Associate Professor at Pepperdine University and is one of the co-authors of Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know. A C-Span interview with her is available for online viewing.

Some of the highlights of the interview:

- Alcohol is much more harmful than marijuana yet the law is much more relaxed about alcohol.

- A majority of American support legalizing marijuana.

- The big players in California are looking for that state to legalize marijuana in 2016. The effort failed there in 2010 by a thin margin. She expects a other few states to do it in 2014, so California will be a laggard.

- Globally marijuana users comprise 3 to 4% of the population, however among Americans it's around 12%. About a third of those would be called "experimenters." For about 20% of users it's a way of life, smoking every day or every other day. About a third of that latter group meet the clinical criteria for abuse or dependency. That compares with an 88% rate for cocaine users. The typical heavy user of marijuana is not dependent on marijuana. They typical heavy user of cocaine is dependent on cocaine.

- People fitting the clinical description for dependency and abuse of marijuana are unproductive, unable to get things done, and can't quit. Although it affects a small percentage of users, for those people it's a serious issue.

- Marijuana legalization advocacy groups were touting massive tax benefits from legalization. She thought the initial estimates were too high. However, the tax results so far in Colorado were much higher they even the advocacy groups had expected. Keep in mind that there was an influx of tourists seeking marijuana. Demand exceeded supply and the prices skyrocketed. Therefore, the initial tax receipts were quite high but will ultimately fall as the market levels off.

- Marijuana and alcohol have about the same rates of abuse or dependency.

- Alcohol and marijuana have a complicated relationship. Driving while stoned on marijuana is probably not as bad as driving drunk. However, driving after using alcohol and marijuana is worse than driving under the influence of either one alone.

- If the federal government wanted to take on the states that legalized marijuana now is the time. Soon it will be too late.

Ms Hawken is in favor of legalization. What would change her mind? If in the next few years marijuana legalization leads to an increase in drunk driving or if an increase in alcohol use is accompanied by an increase in marijuana use, "I will fundamentally change my mind on marijuana legalization." We'll know in the next few years.

If like me, you are fascinated with this huge social experiment but not enough to actually read the book, watch that interview.

For a good dose of bureaucracy bashing check out John Stossel's latest

John Stossel is always good at pointing out pointless government regulations and run-away bureaucracies. That may even be why he and ABC parted company.

Stossel's latest screed, Bullies Rule, is about a familiar subject, how government does more harm than good with all its rules and regulations. A case in point is the FDA. Their restrictions and delays are keeping good products off the market, and the gauntlet a new products are put through discourages companies from developing new ones.

His closing argument:

Like frightened kids in elementary school, we learn to accept this, to think it’s natural. But it’s not right that government forbids people in pain to make their own choices about what might help them.

Voluntary is better than force. Free is better than coerced. We’re better off when government is small and people are left to do as they please, unbullied.

Maybe it's that too many people don't have the confidence to make intelligent decisions and want government to do it for them.

Washington Free Beacon's Tale of Two Cities contrasts Midland, TX, and Yuma, AZ

Fracking has been very good for Midland, TX, as well as many other cities in the vicinity of fields where the process is in use. Populations have grown. Incomes have gone up. And jobs have been plentiful. That's old news, but less well know is what's happening in the energy city of Yuma.

Washington Free Beacon contrasts the two cities:

As a result of Midland’s fracking-induced oil glut, the town’s increasing population is also enjoying a boost in personal incomes. Per capita income in the city increased by 25 percent between 2009 and 2011. ...

“Every state with shale development across the nation is outpacing the national average in terms job growth,” Energy in Depth spokesman Joe Massaro wrote on Thursday.

In contrast to the successes of those oil and gas boomtowns, Yuma, Ariz., is facing the highest unemployment rate of any U.S. metro area at a whopping 26.1 percent.

Yuma is the site of the Agua Caliente solar plant—the largest photovoltaic solar generation facility in the world.

Agua Caliente received a $967 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy (DOE) in 2011. According to DOE, federal financing helped create 10 permanent jobs.

The money came by way of the same loan guarantee program that financed the notorious—and now bankrupt—solar company Solyndra. ...

“It represents the difference between an industry which exists of its own accord, by providing goods and services that people actually want to buy, and an industry that exists only by the grace of government, which acts to mandate demand and subsidize supply,” said William Yeatman, an energy policy expert with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, in an email.

Will voters wake up to the fact that central government planning isn't a viable economic arrangement? Larry Kudlow is right: free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity.

Why it's so hard doing business in California

Simply put, the regulatory challenges a business owner has to face in California make it unworthy of the effort for many potential entrepreneurs. That's according to one blogger who posted A Milestone to Celebrate: I Have Closed All My Businesses in Ventura County, California. Via Theunbrokenwindow.com.

Although his beef is with Ventura County, not the whole state, he says:

Never have I operated in a more difficult environment. Ventura County combines a difficult government environment with a difficult employee base with a difficult customer base.

So he left. Voted with his feet. Went Galt. Here are some of his bullet points:

- The regulatory environment was so onerous it took years to do simple common sense improvements.

- California has a higher unemployment tax than other states. It was a seasonal business, and some employees collected unemployment while spending the off season in Mexico.

- The prices charged customers were locked in by an agreement with the landlord. So with the coming increase of the minimum wage they had no way to offset the new expense.

- "A local attorney held regular evening meetings with my employees to brainstorm new ways the could sue our company under arcane California law. "

- Finally, the customers from Los Angeles were not exemplary citizens: "At most locations, we would get 1 arrest every month or two (at most). In Ventura we could get 5-10 arrests a day. In the end, I found myself running a location where I would never take my own family. "

This is just one business person's anecdote, but there are probably stories like this all over the state of California. And while some states are better than others, over regulation is a national problem. One wonders why some South American country doesn't offer a free market environment and raid North America for business just like Texas is doing to California.