California Utilities

California’s Latest Hustle: Utility Bills Based on Ratepayers’ Income

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Utility bills—for electricity, natural gas, water, and garbage—have by long-standing tradition been based on customer usage, measured in kilowatt-hours of electricity, therms or Btu of natural gas, hundred cubic feet of water, or number of garbage cans. Every residence and business has electric, gas, and water meters that measure utility usage… But what if utilities based their fixed fee on customers’ income levels rather than a flat uniform fee for every customer?

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Gold- Barbarous Relic?

The Barbarous Relic Rides Again

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 Gold has shown some resiliency in 2024. Recently, John Authers at Bloomberg published the following comparison of gold vs. the S&P 500. With all the hype around the magnificent gains in the stock market you might think that it has massively outperformed gold. But currently, one ounce of gold buy the same number of shares of the S&P 500 as in 1971 when Nixon severed the link between gold and the dollar.

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Argentina Inflation

Argentina Sees First Monthly Budget Surplus in 12 Years

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Argentina’s Javier Milei is racking up some solid wins, with the fiscal basket case seeing its first monthly budget surplus in 12 years. Apparently, it took Milei just nine and a half weeks to balance a budget that was projected at 5% of GDP under the previous government. In US terms, he turned a 1.2 trillion-dollar annual deficit into a 400 billion surplus. In 9 and a half weeks.

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Lincoln Money

America’s Fiat Money Gestapo: The Untold History of the Secret Service

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There is an untold story in American monetary history. Some are reluctant even to discuss it. I’m referring to the US Secret Service’s very own role in the destruction of sound money in America.
As constitutional, sound money in the form of physical gold and silver coins—whether minted privately or not—became an annoying impediment to expanding the size and power of the federal government, central planners began circulating unbacked paper proxies and formed a Gestapo-like police agency to enforce the scheme.
Founded in 1865, toward the tail end of the American Civil War, the Secret Service originated as a branch of the US Treasury Department.

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Argentina Inflation 12-2023

Argentina Mulls Dollarization- What is it?

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As the new President of Argentina mulls the idea of dollarization to reduce Argentinian inflation we look at “What is Dollarization? ” and “Will it help Argentina?”.
According to Reuters, “Argentina’s annual inflation rate hit 161% in November… the monthly inflation was rate 12.8% in November alone”. Argentina’s new President Javier Milei campaigned on the promise of fixing Argentina’s economic crisis, and on Tuesday his government announced a more than 50% devaluation of the local peso currency plus sharp spending cuts. One of Milei’s ideas for reducing inflation is “Dollarization”. So, what is Dollarization? And how does it work?

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Federal Receipts

If the Economy Is So Great, Why Are Tax Revenues So Weak?

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It seems pretty obvious that when the economy is weak individual’s earnings go down, and unemployment goes up, consequently tax revenues go down. After all, if people aren’t making any money they can’t give it to the government. So, it seems logical to ask about falling tax revenues and rising deficits. In today’s article, Ryan McMaken looks at the current situation.

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Money Supply Growth Aug 2023

Bidenomics: Boom or Bust?

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Joe Biden recently claimed on Twitter that “Bidenomics” has increased the real wages of low-income workers. A counterclaim was made through Twitter’s Community Notes that wages adjusted for inflation were actually lower at the time of Biden’s claim. But data without theory is unsatisfying, so it is worth asking if conditions of the last few years have been conducive to higher real wages, especially for lower earners.

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Israel vs Palestine

Could a Hamas vs. Israel War Trigger a Worldwide Recession?

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According to a recent article by Bloomberg entitled, Wider War in Middle East Could Tip the World Economy Into Recession, it is a distinct possibility. The article presents 3 possible scenarios, i.e., Confined War, Proxy War, and Direct War. Confined War Scenario In the confined war scenario conflict is limited to Gaza, Israel, and the Palestinian

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