Utopia, you are standing in it!

Remember when Amazon first came online in 1995, they would discount books by 33-40%. This pricing lasted for a good 10-15 years then the discounts were reduced under the theory that once they conditioned you as a customer, they could slowly increase their profit margins. After a year of Covid-19 restrictions Amazon’s popularity and bottom line boomed as people were sequestered at home. Today the discount on books is usually 10-15%, and sometimes less, reflecting Amazon’s commitment to the bottom line. Only speaking of book pricing, but I have noticed similar trends with other products. The question is how we arrived at the present juncture, who is responsible, what are the historic trends when it comes to Amazon, and lastly what role has Jeff Bezos played in the process. These questions are answered in full along with a partial biographical portrait of Bezos and how he built Amazon into the…

Henry FitzRoy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset, (June 15, 1519 – July 23, 1536), was the son of King Henry VIII of England and his mistress, Elizabeth Blount, and the only child born out of wedlock whom Henry VIII acknowledged. He was the younger half-brother of Queen Mary I, as well as the older half-brother of Queen Elizabeth I and King Edward VI. Through his mother, he was the elder half-brother of the 4th Baroness Tailboys of Kyme and of the 2nd and 3rd Barons Tailboys of Kyme. He was named FitzRoy, which means “son of the king”.

Birth

Henry FitzRoy was born in June 1519. His mother was Elizabeth Blount, Catherine of Aragon’s lady-in-waiting, and his father was Henry VIII. FitzRoy was conceived when Queen Catherine was approaching her last confinement with another of Henry’s children, a stillborn daughter born in November 1518. To avoid scandal, Blount was taken…

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Power grids are among the most sophisticated organisms on earth, but they were never designed for the chaos delivered daily by intermittent wind and solar.

For power consumers the first realisation that there’s a problem comes with load shedding (controlled blackouts) or mass blackouts (when the grid manager loses control, altogether).

When sudden and unpredictable collapses of wind power (calm weather) and sudden and wholly predictable collapses of solar power (sunset) coincide with periods of peak demand, it’s candles, torches and Gensets to the rescue. Californians know it, South Australians know it and Texans are learning fast.

In Australia, the hard-green left (Greens and Labor) are determined to wipeout every last coal-fired power plants in the country, rendering power both unaffordable and even more unreliable. Sadly, there are all too many amongst the (notionally conservative) Liberal party eager to assist.

With coal-fired power plants providing…

The most famous comment about the US Vice Presidency was uttered by John Nance Garner, a tough Texan who was FDR’s VP for his first two terms:

“The vice presidency ain’t worth a bucket of warm spit.”

You can hit the link for the background to that colourful phrase, including the usual debates as to exactly how it was phrased and when it was said. Incidentally the link states that Garner was the one who first turned the office into a bit of a powerhouse, helping FDR get his policies through the House and Senate, but then Garner came from being Speaker of the House, the most powerful political position in the US aside from the Presidency.

Other VP’s would try the same stunt, notably another man from the rough and barren Texas lands, LBJ, who fell into the job with Kennedy’s 1960 Presidential win. LBJ imagined the VP becoming…

John H. Cochrane writes at Project Syndicate The Fallacy of Climate Financial Risk.  Excerpts in italics with my bolds.

The idea that climate change poses a threat to the financial system is absurd, not least because everyone already knows that global warming is happening and that fossil fuels are being phased out.
The new push for climate-related financial regulation is not really about risk; it is about a political agenda.

In the United States, the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Department of the Treasury are gearing up to incorporate climate policy into US financial regulation, following even more audacious steps in Europe. The justification is that “climate risk” poses a danger to the financial system. But that statement is absurd. Financial regulation is being used to smuggle in climate policies that otherwise would be rejected as unpopular or ineffective.

“Climate” means the probability distribution…

I went along to the Hastings gathering last evening along with about 150 like minded people. The demographics of those attending were interesting. I am 75 and there were only 2 or 3 older than me while the majority of attendees were in the 40 to 65 age bracket there were a few early 20’s as well while there were also a few Maori presentl. Only two genders that I could see with men out numbering women about 2 to 1. A mix of farmers, business people and those like myself curious about what David Seymour and ACT had to say.

While the main man was David Seymour he was accompanied by Mark Cameron, Agriculture Spokesman and Damien Smith Economics Spokesman. Both spoke for about 5 minutes each and Cameron was very good while Smith was a little hesitant and his presentation suffered as a result. Interesting that Cameron is…

Want unaffordable and unreliable power? Then wind and solar are just the ticket. With their grid on the very brink of collapse, Californians are suffering from rocketing power prices – all thanks to a ludicrous attempt to run on sunshine and breezes.

Even when the sun is shining, the wind is blowing and power is being delivered to those in need, a growing number have no hope of paying for it.

Already paying America’s highest power prices, Californians are watching in horror as their power bills continue to soar.

Robert Bryce reports on California’s renewable energy meltdown.

Blackouts Loom in California as Electricity Prices Are ‘Absolutely Exploding’
Real Clear Energy
Robert Bryce
24 June 2021

Two inexorable energy trends are underway in California: soaring electricity prices and ever-worsening reliability – and both trends bode ill for the state’s low- and middle-income consumers.

Last week, the state’s grid operator, the California…

Well, there is some hope from the subject atleast.

An interesting case of how Christine Exley and Elena Battles are using economics (market design principles) to hemp homeless puppies find homes:

So the hype for 2012 is over.  The committee has given the 2012 prize  to Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapely “for the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design”. In a way this paper on knowhow of math and eco was bang on.

Al Roth is ofcourse someone this blog is hugely fond of and has mentioned his research a couple of times. As mostly is the case with Nobel Prizes, I am completely clueless on Shapely’s works which is sad…

The press release says: