Milei is already proving the Left-wing economic establishment wrong - "Argentina has historically been a country of failed governments, economic collapses, and debt defaults. Yet incredibly there are signs that – against all the odds – the bold, free market reforms of its libertarian President Javier Milei are beginning to work. With inflation falling, interest rates coming down, and the peso on fire in one market, Milei is already proving the global Left-wing economic establishment – addicted to bigger government and endless deficits – wrong. Indeed, it may provide a template for other countries to escape from zero growth. First, what’s changed in the country: inflation has fallen to 11pc and Milei predicts it will fall further. While a monthly figure (this is Argentina after all), price rises may be coming back under control after soaring above 300pc annually. Argentina’s reforms prove it’s possible to slash a bloated state Matthew Lynn 4 May 2024 • 2:00pm Matthew Lynn Related Topics Argentina, UK economy, Debt, Inflation, Currency, Global economy 217 Milei Javier Milei was dismissed as a madman on his election Credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images North America Argentina has historically been a country of failed governments, economic collapses, and debt defaults. Yet incredibly there are signs that – against all the odds – the bold, free market reforms of its libertarian President Javier Milei are beginning to work. With inflation falling, interest rates coming down, and the peso on fire in one market, Milei is already proving the global Left-wing economic establishment – addicted to bigger government and endless deficits – wrong. Indeed, it may provide a template for other countries to escape from zero growth. First, what’s changed in the country: inflation has fallen to 11pc and Milei predicts it will fall further. While a monthly figure (this is Argentina after all), price rises may be coming back under control after soaring above 300pc annually. Last week, Milei announced that the country had recorded its first quarterly budget surplus since 2008, a modest 0.2pc of GDP, but still an astonishing achievement in such a short space of time, especially for a country that has run deficits for 113 of the last 123 years. Then, earlier this week, the central bank, which Milei has not yet gotten around to abolishing as he pledged, cut interest rates for the third time in three weeks. While they are still at an eye-watering 50pc, that will start to feed through into the economy very soon. Investors have started to notice... We keep being lectured, not least by the shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, and by President Biden and his acolytes in the United States, on the need for an active state, an industrial strategy, and more borrowing to pay for investment, and that regulation is the key to industrial and economic leadership, not its enemy. The IMF, meanwhile, was too often a huge cheerleader for the failed Argentinian administrations of the past, extending the biggest loans in its history to the country. On Milei’s election, he was dismissed as a madman who would be removed from office within a matter of months, if not weeks... So how is he en route to deliver such a massive shock to the stale economic orthodoxy? Fundamentally, he got three big calls right. First, even without a majority in parliament, he has been ruthless. Whole government departments have been closed down overnight, regardless of the immediate consequences. The Ministry of Culture was axed, so was the anti-discrimination agency, and the state-owned news service. Only last month, he unveiled plans to fire another 70,000 state employees. Milei hasn’t attempted to cut gradually, to control budgets, or to ease people out with early retirement, or hiring freezes. Instead, he has, as promised, taken a ‘chainsaw’ to the machinery of the state, yielding huge savings in the process. Next, he has been bold. The president massively devalued the peso on day one, taking the financial hit upfront, and then tore up rent controls, price restrictions and state subsidies. He pared back workers’ rights, reducing maternity leave and severance compensation, and allowed companies to fire workers who went on strike. He ripped away fuel subsidies, even though it meant a temporary spike in inflation. Sure, there has been some short-term pain, but the results are now becoming evident. Rents, for example, are falling by 20pc a year as landlords, freed from controls, put more supply on the market, instead of withdrawing it as they do in countries where the price is set by the government. Finally, Milei has never stopped making the argument. He promotes freedom, liberalisation and a smaller state with a messianic zeal. Many of the measures he has taken might be rough, but the president has never attempted to dismiss that, instead explaining patiently and persistently why the reforms are justified, and how they will create greater prosperity for everyone in the long run. Much of the developed world, and the UK in particular, are gradually slipping into Argentinian-style stagnation before Milei came along. Governments are hooked on subsidies and price controls, trying to buy their way out of every challenge with higher spending. Deficits are allowed to rise relentlessly, with no meaningful plan for ever bringing them down again. A corrupt, crony capitalism is allowed to flourish, killing competition. But the Argentine leader is providing a blueprint for how to break free"
The left hate economic growth, so no wonder they hate him
Argentina reports its first single-digit inflation in 6 months as markets swoon and costs hit home - "Milei’s social media feed in recent weeks has become a stream of good economic news: Argentine bonds posting some of the best gains among emerging markets, officials celebrating its first quarterly surplus since 2008 and the IMF announcing Monday it would release another $800 million loan — a symbolic vote of confidence in Milei’s overhaul... He campaigned brandishing a chainsaw to symbolize all the cutting he would do to Argentina’s bloated state, a dramatic change from successive left-leaning Peronist governments that ran vast budget deficits financed by printing money... Argentina’s powerful trade unions and leftist political parties have pushed back against Milei with weekly street protests, but haven’t managed to galvanize a broad swath of society."
Callicrates on X - "Until you've hired for a sub $80k job, you have no idea how incompetent people are. 90% either:
- no show/show up late
- disheveled
- can't follow simple directions
Anyone who thinks they can "solve" wealth inequality is kidding themselves - avg person can barely tie their shoes"
Rewarding merit is fascist, after all
Canada’s supermarkets are losing the battle for your grocery bill - The Globe and Mail - "Even as the federal government courts foreign grocery chains in an attempt to lure more competition to Canada, there’s mounting evidence Canadian consumers have already massively shifted their grocery shopping away from Canada’s supermarket oligopoly. And the big winners include foreign giants such as Walmart and Costco. While Statistics Canada reported a drop in retail sales this week, one big exception was the general merchandise category. Compared to last year, general merchandisers saw inflation-adjusted sales climb 12 per cent, while food and beverage stores suffered a real sales decline of 0.9 per cent."
Do the left hate American companies more or Loblaws more?
Canada Targets 12 Foreign Grocers to Lure to Food-Retailing Market - WSJ - "In a report last year, Canada’s Competition Bureau, which is in charge of antitrust enforcement, said the grocery sector was concentrated and dominated by Loblaw, Metro and Empire. “Canada needs solutions to help bring grocery prices in check. More competition is a key part of the answer,” the report said. It pointed to what transpired in Australia after Germany’s Aldi chain entered, which forced domestic operators to significantly reduce prices. “The successful entry of international grocers into the Canadian industry may be the best option to bring about lower prices, greater choice, and increased levels of innovation,” the bureau said."
Clearly, foreign companies are less greedy than domestic ones
How does York Region pay its employees so well?! : r/askTO - "They have an A rating with regard to their financial sector. Hardly any corruption within York in comparison to Toronto & other cities with a C-D rating. Of course still some corruption runs - but better management of funds allows for the community to prosper."
Clearly we need to force people to live in cities to fund the left wing agenda, like the homeless-industrial complex
Meme - Gallifreyan Jedi @JediofGallifrey: "Give everyone $10k right fucking now. It will save lives and homes, and rich people won't even feel it. Consider it pitchfork insurance. It'll cost 3 trillion, which is the same amount you just casually set on fire over 3 days to give the market crash a few 15 minute breaks so wealthy investors could liquidate. Pony up fuckers."
Highway 413 is a go, with Ontario, federal governments reaching deal : r/ontario - "How about more fundings for transit??"
"There are far more transit projects underway in Ontario right now, with far more funding than this highway. https://www.metrolinx.com/en/projects-and-programs. It literally takes a 2 second google to learn this, people in this sub really do reject obvious evidence if it counters their narratives."
What is Behind Canada’s Growth Crisis? - "As growth has decelerated, governments in Canada have fixated on the distribution, rather than the creation, of income and on stabilizing the short-term course of the economy, rather than raising its long-term potential. Such a focus has reinforced the downward pressure on growth. In particular, policies such as more government spending and relentless monetary stimulus provide at best a short-time fillip to growth, but depress long-term potential, especially through their negative impact on business investment. Recent research, however, stresses the importance of a nation’s culture to economic growth. Without a culture that supports entrepreneurship and innovation, even the best policies and institutions will produce disappointing results. Canadians need to dispense with the mindset that, in the words of a leading commentator, “in Canada, if you run a successful business, you are made to feel you have done something wrong.” Raising growth requires a resurrection of Canadians’ faith in the ability of Canada’s businesses to compete in the global marketplace without constant government guidance and intervention. In the absence of such a revival, Canada will be condemned to the stagnation seen in recent decades in Japan and much of western Europe"
The left hates economic growth, so
The economics of ticket scalping - "To an economist, the existence of a secondary market - where tickets are resold - is a sign that they have been undersupplied, underpriced or a combination of the two. Event promoters, for example, are incentivised to sell as many tickets as possible so they can profit off sales of food, drinks and other concession stand items. This leads them to price tickets low. Scalpers thrive off such conditions as it presents them with an arbitrage opportunity (the chance to make a profit from buying and selling the same thing) that would never have existed in a world where tickets were plentiful and priced in line with demand... people prefer to attend events in a packed-out venue, as opposed to a sparsely attended one. This incentivises event promoters to sell out venues as people’s demand for tickets depends, to some extent, on the demands of others. There is also the somewhat idealistic idea that fairness stops event promoters from setting prices too high. This is the idea, often voiced in the media, that tickets should end up in the hands of “true fans”. But there is an argument that ticket scalping actually enhances the total welfare of concert goers and sports fans. Scalpers act to distribute tickets to those who value them the most, or, as economists’ would say, they increase the allocative efficiency of the market... But scalping and secondary ticket markets are not without their downsides. Enterprising scalpers may be encouraged to buy up large proportions of available tickets in order to maximise their profits. This is called “rent seeking” and has been shown to potentially reduce (or even eliminate) any gains in allocative efficiency... some artists and groups have begun a series of blunt measures designed to tackle the problem. Kid Rock, for example, has embarked on a number of “US$20 Best Night Ever” tours. As the name suggests, almost all tickets are sold for US$20 at supermarkets and venue box offices. Making the ticket price clear and transparent up front is a rather neat trick to try and stop tickets from being sold above face value. Kid Rock also tends to perform many shows at the same venue. This increases the total supply of tickets on offer in a single city, reducing the premium that can be placed on a ticket in the secondary market. The Glastonbury music festival has begun printing pictures of the ticket purchaser on every ticket. This may ensure the purchaser of the ticket and the attendee are the same person. However, the high cost of administering such tight controls make them viable to only the most profitable of events. A similar system will be in place when former 1-Directioner, Harry Styles, plays Sydney’s Enmore Theatre later this year. Ticket holders will be required to attend a “check-in” before entering the venue. Meanwhile Taylor Swift has announced that fans can “boost” their place in the virtual ticketing queue by participating in a range of Swift related activities such as watching music videos and purchasing her music. While Swift’s stated goal of “getting tickets into the hands of fans…NOT scalpers or bots” is admirable, this has been viewed by many as nothing more than an opportunistic cash grab from her most loyal fans."
If tickets were priced properly, there would be no scalpers — so why can’t we get it right? - "research shows cities that brought in anti-scalper legislation actually saw prices for sports games go up — and it’s the teams that benefit, not fans. A ticket for an NFL game saw an average increase of $10 after anti-scalper laws came into effect, according to a research paper in Public Choice, an economics and politics journal. Baseball games went up about $2. The change didn’t affect team attendance, so most of that increase would go straight to the team’s revenue. “The empirical results suggest that banning scalping might lead to a revenue windfall of $2 million per year to the team owner (in baseball or football),” wrote economist Craig A. Depken, II. “What is still unknown is whether anti-scalping legislation improves social welfare.”... The former CEO of Ticketmaster Irving Azoff told New Yorker magazine that a member of Congress in the United States asked him if he was “f—ing stupid,” for leaving so much money on the table and letting it go to scalpers. “You’ve got the only business I can think of where the price goes up as soon as the merchandise leaves the store. It’s crazy,” the congressman said. The politician has a point. If the best shawarma shop in town was selling sandwiches for $2, a savvy reseller could buy sandwiches and sell them for a quick profit outside to people who didn’t want to wait in line. Presumably, the shawarma shop would see the error and raise prices to correct the market inefficiency. As a rough analogy, it works — in general, businesses want to make as much profit as possible — but live events are much more complicated. A research paper published in the Public Finance Review found that promoters tend to be risk-averse when it comes to ticket prices, because most artists are happier with a packed venue, even if it costs them money. Lower prices also mean that more of the artist’s fans will be able to attend, which is valuable to the artist and often makes for a better show... In England, soccer teams have experimented with cheaper tickets for students, in an attempt to inspire loyalty from an early age and create a better atmosphere at the games. The theory is that broke students will be rowdier than the prawn sandwich-eating rich folks and inspire the players to victory... Promoters for musical acts have to predict how much demand the show will attract months in advance and, without dynamic pricing like some sports teams have experimented with, they may miss the mark. Sometimes that means they price the tickets too low and lose out on money or they price them too high and risk an empty venue. In an interview with the Harvard Business Review, pricing expert Rafi Mohammed said resellers are more willing than artists to bite the bullet and cut prices for low-demand events. Artists, with big egos in tow, may be reluctant to lower prices once they’ve been set, even if tickets aren’t selling they way they’d hoped. That’s how scalpers clean up the ticketing market’s inefficiencies. For every ticket that sells for three times the face value, there’s a bargain out there for a savvy fan who keeps an eye on the reseller markets."
Meme - ""I bought a limited item in high demand. I sold it for a much higher price without ever using or modifying it. l am a..."
*concert tickets* "scalper"
*PS 5* "scalper"
*fancy sneakers* "scalper"
*anime doll* "scalper"
*Star Wars Lego* "scalper"
*house* "investor""
Ironic. Scalping happens when items are priced artificially low. But of course, commies are also complaining that rent is too high
Also, investors often improve homes
Reddit ‘antiwork’ forum booms as millions of Americans quit jobs
This would be fine if they didn't bitch and moan about how their not being able to afford to buy a home shows that capitalism is broken and landlords are leeches
‘We need to occupy the house’: Ontario landlord says tenant won’t leave - "A Brampton, Ont. woman and her husband say they’re out more than $22,000 in unpaid rent and can’t occupy their only home because a tenant has refused to leave since he was asked to move... Folkes and her husband rented out the semi-detached Brampton home, their principal residence, to Hermann Founiapte Dakono for about $3,200 a month. She described him as a “good tenant” until she says he refused to move out and abruptly stopped paying rent or paying for some utilities as required. Folkes and her husband had been living temporarily at another nearby home with other family members and the rent was being applied to their monthly mortgage payments... the tenant, who signed a lease agreement as Hermann Founiapte, insisted that the tribunal hearing involving his case be conducted in French, his first language, although he speaks English and has communicated with Folkes exclusively in English. Global News attempted to get comment from Founiapte at his home. Someone inside the house called Peel Regional Police claiming there was a break-in when a crew showed up at the front door. When two police cruisers arrived minutes later, officers interviewed Founiapte, who eventually came outside on the driveway for an interview. Asked why he hadn’t paid rent since October of 2023, Founiapte blamed Folkes. “She told me she didn’t want me to pay,” he told a reporter, insisting Folkes returned his post-dated cheques at the time. But Founiapte continued to live at the home with a female partner and a child for more than seven months. Neighbours and Folkes claim others are living in the home, too, some of whom have their own keys, according to neighbours. “We have a building in Hamilton, (she) can wait until summer; when it’s built, we’ll get out,” he said, explaining they are constructing their own home in the city west of Toronto. Founiapte has not cited an inability to pay rent; he drives a red, late-model Dodge Ram pickup that is parked on the driveway. Founipate runs a trucking company. “No, no, no, I’m not scared of talking to you,” Founiapte tells a Global News reporter. He says he’s familiar with the rules that govern landlord-tenant relations in Ontario, when asked if he knows “the system.” “Of course, I have to know,” Founiapte said. Kevin Costain, author of From Rent to Ruin, says some tenants are betraying the trust of small landlords, many of whom have rented out their only home, as Folkes did. “You can get away with not paying rent for a year now, ” Costain said, referring to the bureaucracy and backlog in the system, a particular challenge for people like Folkes and her husband. Costain says he made a mistake by renting his home out to a tenant whose son caused serious damage to the house and was later charged with arson. He warns about the potential risks of renting a property to a tenant who could be trouble down the road. “A landlord burned like I have (been), I can’t do it again, the fear would terrorize me,” Costain said. Folkes’s tenant was asked by Global News if he will ever pay the back rent and unpaid utilities. “We are going to go to the court and the judge will decide if I’m wrong or not,” he said."
Meme - Richard Hanania @RichardHanania: "Interesting philosophy here. Let’s build a society of Byzantine regulations and then cheer on those who get lucky at the expense of everyone else. Because that’s better than freedom at least?"
Leah Goodridge @leahfrombklyn: "I know that's right! If I snagged a rent-stabilized apt 30 yrs ago for $250 and was then able to live my dream as a writer and photographer because I'm paying affordable rent, I'd be standing tall in front page news too. I don't know her but I'm cheering her on."
"She Landed a Rent Stabilized Apartment 30 Years Ago and Never Looked Back"
wanye on X - "The core problem with all lefty arguments about prices is that they don’t understand, fundamentally, what prices are. A price is a signal that tells you something about the relationship between supply and demand. It is a signal to producers and it is a signal to consumers. It measures something that cannot be measured any other way. You can break the thermometer, but that doesn’t change the temperature. It just makes you less informed about the weather. But that’s not how leftists think of prices. They think of prices as a child might, something set by adults, something inscrutable, something that’s annoying and unfair when too high. If prices get too high, then the only thing left to do is get somebody powerful to make them lower. They don’t really understand what that means, they just want the number to be smaller."
Prior To Being On The Ground on X - "Leftists, like Marx, do not understand economics at all. All key concepts - value, supply&demand, profit, risk, revealed preference, etc. - they simply do not grasp."
Consequence Enjoyer on X - "Adam Carolla has a good analogy about how the Left looks at measurements like this. He says they essentially break the dashboard glass and move the speedometer to 100mph and tell you that the car is now moving at 100mph."
Jeff A 🧙♂️ on X - "Exactly, that's why they tend to jump to the conclusion that "greed" is to blame for higher prices. Virtually all news orgs engage in a similar thought process & they pick & choose what news we consume. These institutions are rotting from the inside."
Left wingers claim the economy is made up, so the powerful can arbitrarily magick the left wing agenda into existence and the fact that they don't shows they're evil
leif hancox-li, bedtime caucus member on X - "Lots of people are like “housing is unaffordable because capitalism” and I’m like yeah I guess Chicago is somehow less capitalist… also capitalism only started in the 1990s in coastal US cities…"
Meme - 1984's George Whorewell @EwdatsGROSS: "Fuck it we're gonna all die anyway, get yourself into extreme debt you never plan to pay off, be 20 minutes late with your iced coffee, buy yourself the thing you can't afford, hook up with the person that has more red flags than a matador. Whatever gets the dopamine flowin"
When your life goes to shit, proclaim that capitalism has failed
Meme - "If you support student loan forgiveness, then you should support tool payment forgiveness. If you don't think these tools are necessary, then your degree probably wasn't either."
Meme - Phil Kerpen @kerpen: "Penn-Wharton: Biden's new student loan plan will cost taxpayers another $84B, bringing total to $559B. The biggest winners are 750,000 people with 20 years in repayment. Their average debt relief is $25,500+ and average household income is $312,000+. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55693d6"
"Table 2: Borrower Characteristics for Individuals and Households Receiving any Debt Relief, Biden New Provisions, April 2024
Eliminating student debt for borrowers in repayment for 20 years or more
Average Debt Relief (Dollars) 25,541.39. Borrowers Impacted (millions) 0.75. Average Household Income (dollars) 312,976.57"
Meme - "TO THE "MY BODY, MY CHOICE" CROWD.. YOUR STUDENT LOAN, YOUR PAYMENTS."
Meme - "It's a shame that the generation of $1,000 phones, $500 concert tickets, and $9 cups of coffee can't pay their college loan."
Doc on X - "If you're a Christian and you're big mad about the possibility of student loan debt being canceled. Let me remind you that the entirety of your faith is built on a debt that you can't pay that someone else stepped in and paid for you"
Left wingers really think that economics and the economy are make believe and magical, like religion. One told me in response: "right wingers think the economy isn't a made up thing to begin with".
This makes sense when you realise left wingers think the government is God
Left wingers keep claiming Christianity supports the left wing agenda. Yet they keep shitting on it. Ironic.
Nick Freitas on X - "I want you to imagine universities sitting on billion-dollar+ endowments lobbying for taxpayer-backed student loans in order to get more people into their schools. Then they raise tuition, spend money on noneducational administrative staff, load up the curriculum with courses focusing on leftist indoctrination, and create a debt crisis issuing degrees that are economically worthless. And after all that, they show up to lobby the government to transfer the loans to taxpayers and lecture us on the importance of “investing in education.” Now remember that the next time Democrats and Universities talk about the economic benefits of “forgiving student loan debt.”"
Tyson Clarke on X - "If investing it education was an actually investment - it would provide a decent return. The argument against is simple, and undeniable. Itemize the ROI for each degree. Cut from existence the ones that don't provide a ROI comparable to a trade school degree."
Urban Bowhunter on X - "Or, and hear me out here, we cut all state and federal loans and let the marketplace organize itself absent the manipulation caused by governments trying to engineer particular outcomes."
Of course, left wingers will claim that the return on investment cannot be quantified. So clearly, unlimited funds need to be poured into "education"
Outrage at $200k pay for traffic controllers in Australia - "The pay deal struck by the powerful Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union applies to stop-and-go sign holders on Victoria's 'Big Build' projects, which former premier Dan Andrews spearheaded. The yearly salary is nearly three times what the average nurse, teacher or police officer earns... According to industry whistleblowers the CFMEU's takeover of the traffic management aspect of the taxpayer funded scheme has increased that part of the budget by $380million, reports The Herald Sun... 'No wonder frontline workers are in short supply. There needs to be a cap on the wages of these unskilled workers,' one person said. 'Labor will never speak out and deal with the issues because it is in the thrall of the unions,' another said. 'There are automatic temporary traffic lights, so if, as John Setka claims, it's a highly dangerous job, this automatic equipment provides solutions on several levels, far more cost effective and safer,' a third added."
The left loves unions, because they don't understand that taxes fund the high salaries