No matter what we do to make a living, we’re operating in a bubble. Bubbles grow, and eventually collapse. We may describe our own bubble as one of many bubbles in Bubbleville. The Pony Express was a short-lived bubble. It was punctured by the higher speed and lower costs of the Telegraph Bubble. That was punctured by the Telephone Bubble. We all have this to say about our own, bubble: “I hope my bubble lasts until I retire, and...
How Bad is “Bad” Food?
One of the most routinely demonized companies is McDonald’s. The company is endlessly attacked for providing good food at low prices. There are two sides to this story: “ “A teenage girl who has eaten almost nothing else apart from chicken nuggets for 15 years has been warned by doctors that the junk food is...
Catholicism vs. Cash Flows
Some who are tied in to the cash flows with which they make a living will kill to protect them. When Jesus came to earth, He was more disruptive to the well-established cash flows that supported religious and government recipients than anyone in history. Because He threatened the established order, the religious and governmental organizations...
Value?
People who bought silver a few years ago have been congratulating themselves. An ounce of silver that was then valued at $7.00 is now worth $33.00. A couple of weeks ago, it was worth $50.00. Silver investors are divided in opinions of silver’s future value. Like separate herds of stampeding buffalo, they are racing off...
Spending Cuts
When President Polk left office, he was literally dying from the exertions of fighting Congress to get lower tariffs and to have California, Oregon, and all points in between them and the Louisiana Purchase admitted into the United States. His diary records that he was thoroughly sickened by “the endless stream of second-rate people wanting...
Money. Money.
When Napoleon took control of France, he solved a bankrupt nation’s money problems. The most important thing he did was to stop borrowing for anything except that which reduced the cost of living. He built roads, bridges, telegraphs, and canals which made it cheaper to do things in France. That enriched the nation. Today, nations...
Money.
There are frequent columns on automation’s effect on economies throughout Catholic Fundamentalism’s archives. Professional economists don’t appear to focus much on it, though it has a greater effect on every public policy matter than most other processes. It is a rule that when a cause and effect relationship is obvious and unmentioned, it is being...