The only truth: central banking facilitates theft of savings through debasement of the currency. This is the reason the founding fathers fought to keep central banking out of the US.
Of course one would hope this platform single handedly leads to major advancements on industrialisation, permanently eradicating child labour and slavery in all industries. One would also hope that simply not buying chocolate sourced from farms that employ child labourers that should be in school (as opposed to older children that don’t need to be at school, which according to the data I can find actually represents the vast majority of child labourers in the cocoa industry) would also solve the issue. My fear is however that it’s not that simple, and we could even make things worse. For example, child labour numbers have increased in recent years, haven’t been able to find percentages over time so cannot comment on that. One could hardly say that “ethical sourcing” and marketing has proven that it’s reduced child labour given this increase.
Simple: friction cost. Going through a sign up and payments process is simply too much of an investment of time for the value equivalent to a 1c payment. It’s like asking: “why don’t people drive to stores to buy 1c single pack toothpicks instead of picking the food stuck in their teeth out with their fingernails, even though it’s unsanitary etc?”. The answer is friction cost: the time, effort and cost is simply not worth it for one toothpick, so people typically buy at on average $100 when they shop for groceries etc. Another example is quantity preference: why don’t gyms offer weight lifting charged at 10c per kilogram lifted or 1c per 10m run on a treadmill? Because most people prefer to consume in large and varied quantities and don’t want to have to restrict or plan consumption in such low quantities. Same goes for music streaming or video streaming services: most people would prefer to consume as much as they like with a fixed regular committed cost, though pay per movie / view do exist they are not considered micro payments and can be relatively expensive.
Diesel particulate pollution is the primary problem. London black cabs are diesel. There is a good case for banning diesel in metro and even suburban areas over time and requiring at least hybrid. Electric busses actually make more sense than cars due to the high regeneration of stopping.
Most people are scared of losing their jobs for saying / thinking / doing / being accused of doing the wrong thing by the vocal minority of social justice warriors. This is totally obvious if you’re not part part of the minority, but a bitter pill for the woke crowd to swallow.
Payments are not the problem of concern for central bankers: negative interest rates are. Legacy physical cash based fractional reserved banking is inherently not able to support aggressive negative interest rates as depositors can simply withdraw cash to avoid it. Digital currency can self amortise as it never leaves the ledger, allowing effective negative interest rates to turn the momentary policy crazy dial way past 11. Keynes would love the idea.
Until recently blacklivesmatter.com about section touted that the movement “(we) are trained marxists”. Sorry but you’re not racist if you not a marxist. This is straight up Bolshevist tactics. More companies should take an assertive stance against these regressive tactics.
DETROIT – Treatment with hydroxychloroquine cut the death rate significantly in sick patients hospitalized with COVID-19 – and without heart-related side-effects, according to a new study published by Henry Ford Health System.
In a large-scale retrospective analysis of 2,541 patients hospitalized between March 10 and May 2, 2020 across the system’s six hospitals, the study found 13% of those treated with hydroxychloroquine alone died compared to 26.4% not treated with hydroxychloroquine. None of the patients had documented serious heart abnormalities; however, patients were monitored for a heart condition routinely pointed to as a reason to avoid the drug as a treatment for COVID-19.
The study was published today in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, the peer-reviewed, open-access online publication of the International Society of Infectious Diseases (ISID.org).
The actions of the police officers was an atrocity. However I think the Milgram experiments have more to say for this than racism. Free speech ‘ain’t about the speech that is acceptable , it’s about protecting that which is despicable. As for underlying causes for the riots: government bailouts, financialisation, destruction of the American dream, welfare dependence, media sewn division of racism but not actual racism. Where is the data to support anything but equal social progress of local born African American’s on average visa vi “whites”? Where is the data to show that skin colour matters in America, despite Asian American’s and Nigerian American’s exceeding economic outcomes of average American’s by significant double digits levels?
“ Xu Yuan, associate professor at Peking University’s national development research institute, told broadcaster CCTV that because cash transactions were offline and transaction data from existing payment platforms was scattered, the central bank was unable to monitor cash flow in real time.
“Although there is little change from the perspective of user use, from the perspective of central bank supervision, future forms of finance, payment, business and social governance etc, this is the biggest thing ever.”
The bleak reality is that living standards need to fall in developing economies to reduce global carbon emissions, at least with current technologies. Otherwise, increased living standards in developing economies will replace the developed economies reduced emissions due to sheer population size and growth.
“Too much borrowing” “too little spending” versus productive investment is the problem with Keynesian economics caused over supply / under pricing of money. Keynes said debt doesn’t matter because it’s someone else’s asset and it self-amortises: Yes, but it creates mal-investment and uneven inflation in favour of those with access to credit e.g. giant financial asset bubbles of 20/21st centuries.