September 2017

Episode #161: Free-Rider Friday - September 2017

Ed’s Topics

Price Gouging

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Anti-Price Gouging Laws Make as Much Sense as Anti-High Temperature Laws, Mark J. Perry, American Enterprise Institute

Kevin Williamson, National Review’s economics reporter called price gouging “a public service.”

Robert Wood, TSOE’s Scifi Contributor asked Ron if he’d sell his generator to a rich person offering $10,000—to run his air conditioner—or to a family who needs it to keep a member alive on oxygen?

Free market prices don’t mean that allocations are made to the most worthy cause, otherwise the Kardashians would not be rich.

Self-driving cars update

Magna’s new MAX4 self-driving platform offers autonomy up to Level 4.

AI Lawyers

In an article from Washington Post by Elizabeth Dwoskin, Silicon Valley startup Atrium is looking to replace lawyers with computers. It has raised $10.5 million in capitalization, and it’s not going to bill by the hour!

Decentralized Predication Market

Check out www.augur.net, a decentralized (read can't be shut down) prediction market based on the Etherium blockchain.

Fascist Manifesto

In the 1919 document, Mussolini called for: universal suffrage; proportional representation; formal councils for experts; a minimum wage; reorganization of railway and transport sectors; reduction in retirement age from 65 to 55; a strong progressive tax on capital; outright seizure of 85% of profits on companies manufacturing military goods. Not exactly what you think of when you hear people say someone is a "fascist." 

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Ron’s Topics

“My car’s sexier than yours,” Schumpeter, The Economist, July 8, 2017

Ford and GM are at the bottom of the price-earnings ratio in the S&P index; the walking dead.

Terrifying signal: $18 billion combined profit last year, but a combined market value of $98 billion. Profits will half or worse in coming years.

Uber, Tesla, and Waymo are all worth more, yet all lose money and bring in little revenue.

Detroit execs sniff that Silicon Valley no idea how to make millions of vehicles safely. Tesla’s production is 1% of GM’s.

Both Ford and GM are making investments in the future, GM owns 9% of Lyft and Ford has invested $1 in Argo, AI for autonomous vehicles.

Investors don’t seem to care.

We may be at Peak Auto.

New strategy: ring-fence autonomous divisions, New Ford, New GM, for example, but the income statements won’t be pretty, nor have none of Tesla’s pixie dust (or subsidies). This is a typical incumbent’s dilemma.

Law firms can’t call nonlawyers ‘CEO’ or ‘chief technology officer,’ ethics opinion says

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Listener Jim Borchers, a lawyer in St. Charles, MO sent us this.

From a Texas Bar ethics committee opinion: The word “officer’ indicates the person has the power to control either the entire law firm or significant areas of the firm’s operations.

Nonlawyers cannot direct or control the professional judgment of a lawyer.

Also, you can’t pay bonuses based on revenue or profit targets. Ethical guides ban sharing legal fees with a nonlawyer.

Firms can take revenue and profits into account for bonuses.

American Men, Quit Your Whining,” John Tamny, Foundation for Economic Education, May 23, 2017

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The last people to rate our compassion is men without work.

The rest of the non-English world working feverishly to learn English. American males already know the language.

Is the USA the land without opportunity? “Men without work”?

The per capita income of Shanghai, China’s richest city, $7,000. Aliquippa, PA, over $20,000.

Feminism has neutered men. Right, Tom Brady, Jeff Bezos, Derek Jeter curl up in the fetal position each night. By this logic, men wouldn’t be thriving in professions of all kinds.

This is a certain sign that the USA is so rich it must find problems to invent as opposed to solving real ones.

The book Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance makes the same point about social capital, and argues we need to stop the blame game.

“Human capital: The People’s Champion,” The Economist, August 5, 2017, Six big ideas

Gary Becker and human capital, RIP 2014. 1992 Nobel winner, pushing economics into new spheres of human behavior.

In 2004, a panel of German linguists deemed “human capital” the “most offensive word of the year.”

Why do families in rich countries have fewer children? Because they invest more in each one’s human capital.

Why do companies in poor countries provide meals to workers? To keep them rested, well-fed, makes them more productive.

Why each new generation spent more time in school than one before? Because a longer life expectancy raised profitability and ROI of education.

Why have earnings of highly skilled workers risen even as their numbers have also increased? The increasing returns from human capital.

Human Capital is defined as: the abilities and qualities of people that make them productive.

Economist Arthur Pigou coined the term.

America’s GI Bill, post WW II, is usually believed to be the dawning of the knowledge economy.

Becker did distinguished between specific and general human capital.

¼ rise in per-person incomes from 1929-1982 is due to increases in schooling. Much of the rest is harder to measure.

Two interpretations: government should invest more in education; or 2) returns so big to individuals, they should pay for it themselves.

Becker distinguished between bad inequality and good inequality. Doctors, scientists, programmers, etc., motivated to tackle tougher subjects, thus pushing knowledge forward.

According to The World Bank, human capital is 80% of the developed world consists of human capital.

Episode #160: Interview with Magatte Wade

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Ron and Ed interviewed the dynamic Magatte Wade. Magatte is the founder and CEO of Tiossan, a high-end skin care products line based on indigenous Senegalese recipes and ingredients. Tiossan products are distributed via www.tiossan.com, as well as through selected boutiques and Nordstrom. Tiossan commits at least ten percent of profits to the creation of entrepreneurial schools in Senegal designed to develop the next generation of Senegalese genius. Previously, Magatte founded Adina World Beverages, with African-inspired drinks sold throughout the United States at retailers including Whole Foods and Wegmans. Prior to her departure from Adina, she assembled an executive team featuring a co-Founder of Odwalla, CEO of SoBe, and ex-co-Chairman of PepsiCo. Her latest company is www.SkinIsSkin.com, the purpose of which she explains during the show.

She came to Ron and Ed's attention due to her role in the documentary film, Poverty Inc. We interviewed Father Robert Sirico about the movie on Show #134, March 17, 2017.

Questions We Asked Magatte

Your background, how did you become an entrepreneur?

You upset the president of Senegal in your FEE talk, would you tell that story?

Near the beginning of the movie Poverty, Inc., you took on the 1984 Band-Aid song, “Do They Know it’s Christmas,” performed in response to the famine in Ethiopia. You say:

It perpetuates false image of Africa as barren, and a sentimental image of Africans as helpless and dependent. Africa has no rain, no river, and they don’t know it’s Christmas. One critic said "It was the most self-righteous platform ever in the history of popular music."

You then met Bono at a TED talk. Did you get through to him, because seven years later he admitted commerce and capitalism take more people out of poverty than aid? In the same speech he says, “But, we still need aid! Deny this and you’re brain-dead and heart-dead.”

Do you still believe Bono will leave Poverty industry? He seems to have one foot on each side.

The late Christopher Hitchens said: Mother Theresa was not a friend of the poor, but a friend of poverty. I don’t think he was right about Mother Theresa, but when it comes to the entire poverty industry exposed in the movie—foreign aid, NGOs, social entrepreneurs, celebrities, etc.—it seems to apply nicely. Do you agree?

One my favorite sayings is the German Proverb: If you want equality, visit a cemetery. Do you worry more about inequality or poverty?

The World Bank's list measuring the ease of the ability to do business in each country.

Magatte’s Companies

Magatte on solutions to poverty

Episode #159: Interview with Daniel Bennett

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Join Ed and Ron for their insightful interview with Daniel Bennett, Senior Behavioral Strategist with Ogilvy Change in the UK. He works with Rory Sutherland, who we also interviewed on Episode #9. Daniel shares his insights and experience on how behavioral science and economics can be used in business, enhancing both customer loyalty and profitability. Don't miss this fascinating discussion.

Daniel's Bio

Dan is a Practitioner, Speaker and Writer on the application of Behavioural Science to Marketing. The World's first 'Choice Architect' (until proven otherwise) joining Ogilvy Change in 2012 working on over 50 of the worlds major brands across retail, health and nutrition, organisational change, and society. His proudest achievements have been delivering behavioural interventions that deliver millions of pounds of revenue for some of the world's biggest brands such as Unilever, Nestle, Public Health England, Fox, ITV, the Times, British Airways, Unilever, Adobe, the EU Parliament, Comic Relief and many more. And winning a range of awards from the Creative Circle, Cannes Lion to the Nudge awards. He's been lucky enough to speak to audiences in over 15 countries about the unseen opportunities behavioural science brings. Some highlights have been the Super Yacht congresses, National Security summits, Marketing and Social Media conferences, financial conferences, and academic institutions.

Resources mentioned

Calculating needed sample size

Episode #158: On Healing Leadership

This episode is dedicated to the possibility that the majority of leadership thinking is wrong as it is ultimate based on manipulation - trying to “get someone to do something.” Coming to terms with this idea is difficult and not for everyone because it requires us to examine some of our most deeply held beliefs and either dismiss them or at least think differently about them. If you are interested in hearing a conversation about healing leadership, you are invited to listen to this episode with Ron Baker and Ed Kless. 

This material is based on the work of Howard Hansen and Steve Geske, who have appeared previously on The Soul of Enterprise - Episode # 11.

For more visit the Healing Leaders website

Books

Ron's Notes on Leadership BS

Most conventional wisdom on leadership offers more hope than reality; wishes rather than data; beliefs instead of science; and is filled with fables, not facts.

He calls it “lay preaching,” like religion it offers a false sense of control.

Leaders fail with unacceptable frequency, and the leadership industry has failed in its 40-year history to improve the human condition.

Most people look for an “inspiring leadership course,” yet how manymedical schools advertise as “inspiring?” Inspiration does not produce change.

 Leadership industry obsessively focused on the normative—what leaders should do and how things out to be—whiling ignoring what is true, and what is going on, and why.

 Pfeffer debunks the five Leadership Attributes

  1. Modesty—this is rare among most leaders; most are narcissists

  2. Authenticity—not true to themselves, rather true to what the situation calls for (in sports, “play through the pain”). Anthony Weiner was authentic! Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr. inauthentic? Who cares? True to which self? We are constantly changing.

  3. Truthfulness—leaders frequently lie and face few consequences

  4. Trustworthiness—notable mostly by its absence.

  5. Concern for welfare of others—Officers eat after enlisted men. Yet CEOs earn 330x the pay of average worker, receive severance packages when they screw up, which is certainly not taking care of others first.

It is more helpful to understand why and how people who don’t have the above attributes reached such powerful positions.

His recommendations for improving leadership

  1. Measure and hold people accountable—what gets inspected gets affected (he admits that measuring the wrong things is worse than measuring nothing; e.g., student evaluations ≠ learning)

  2. Acknowledge the different interests of leaders and their companies (align career success with organizational success)

  3. Use more scientific methods and worry about credentials

Did You Pray?

The Book That Started It All

Episode #157: Memorable Mentors - Henry Hazlitt

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Henry Hazlitt (1894-1993) was one of the greatest economic journalists of the 20th century. He is the author of Economics in One Lesson, among twenty other books; was a chief editorial writer for the New York Times; and wrote weekly for Newsweek. He was a founding board member of the Foundation for Economic Education, where he served in an editorial capacity at The Freeman. We discussed the nine chapters included in the FEE’s free book, "The Essential Henry Hazlit," the last of five books in this Memorable Mentor series.

1. The Lesson (Economics in One Lesson, 1952)

“Economics is haunted by more fallacies than any other study known to man.” As Thomas Sowell says: It’s not the economics that’s complicated, it’s the fallacies. Why is economics bedeviled by these fallacies?

  1. Not in physics, mathematics, or medicine do you find self interested individuals

  2. Economists who only look at the immediate effects of a policy

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 2. The Early History of FEE (The Freeman, March 1984)

 Leonard Read was the General Manager of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. In 1947 he organized a conference in Vevey, Switzerland, with 43 libertarian writers, which was the beginning of Mont Perelin Society.

FEE opened March 16, 1946, Irvington, New York. In mid-1954 FEE took over The Freeman publication, one of Ron’s favorite (now available only online).

FEE published Roofs or Ceilings, by Milton Friedman and George Stigler, and Planned Chaos by Ludwig von Mises. Neither publication had a direct effect on legislation but even Adam Smith’s book, The Wealth of Nations, took time to influence policy.

3. Understanding “Austrian” Economics (commissioned by the Silver and Gold Report, 1981)

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 Three prominent Austrian economists are discussed: Carl Menger (1840-1921), Friedrich von Wieser (1851-1926), and Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk (1851-1914).

Menger (and Stanley Jevons and Leon Walras) came up with marginal utility (Wieser coined the term), between 1871-1874.

Goods have no inherent value; they only have value because they help to satisfy some human want or need.

There are goods of the first order (consumption), the goods of the second order (machinery, labor, etc.) used to produce first order goods.

What a good has cost cannot determine its value. What it will cost determines how much gets made. Whether you mined a diamond or found one on street is irrelevant to its value.

Money is not a measure of value—it’s a measure of transactions at an agreed upon price.

After these three economists passed on, economics went to the mathematics of general equilibrium, which Austrians don’t believe. Balance is for tires and ballerinas, after all. Equilibrium doesn’t exist in capitalism because it is in constant dynamic disequilibrium. Austrians speak of a market process, not market equilibrium.

4. The Problem of Poverty (The Freeman, June 1971)

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The history of poverty is the history of mankind. The Encyclopedia Britannica identifies 31 major famines from ancient times to 1960.

Thomas Robert Malthus (1798), author of Essay on the Principles of Population as it affects the Future Improvement of Society, was a pessimist who influenced Ricardo and even Darwin.

Hazlitt writes that this essay led British journalist Thomas Carlyle to coin economics as “The Dismal Science.” But this is not true (Hazlitt is wrong).

Carlyle was a racist who believed in slavery. The economists of his day, all of them from Adam Smith to David Ricardo, were against slavery. Hence, Carlyle’s epithet for economics.

Malthus posited his theories just as the Industrial Revolution was about to falsify them.

The population of England and Wales in 1700 was 5.5 million; in 1750, 6.5 million; in 1801 9 million (1st census); and by 1831 it was 14 million [due mostly to a continuous fall in the death rate, not an increase in birth rates].

Not one Famine since end of 18th century fell in a single country in the industrialized Western world.

5. False Remedies for Poverty (The Freeman, Feb 1971)

 Hazlitt identifies the chief evil from the left’s perspective is inequality, not poverty. There are several remedies proposed.

Land reform, guaranteed income, which destroys incentives at both ends of economic scale.

Unions and strikes, overtime rules that obliged employers to hire additional workers (more dues-paying members). Minimum wage laws, but we can’t mandate productivity. As Thomas Sowell points out: The real minimum wage is always zero. Price and Wage Controls. And outright socialism.

None work.

6. On Appeasing Envy (The Freeman, March 1972)

“Your levelers wish to level down as far as themselves; but they cannot bear leveling up to themselves.” Samuel Johnson

Justice Holmes: “I have no respect for the passion for equality, which seems to me merely idealizing envy.”

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Helmut Schoeck wrote Envy, 1966.

Societies engage in redistribution to prevent a supposed actual revolution. But this is the opposite of the truth. Appeasing envy provokes more of it. We should never try to buy off a revolution.

7. Planning vs. The Free Market (The Freeman, December 1962, originally a lecture at the 1962 Mont Pelerin Society)

The question is not having a plan or no plan? The question is: whose plan?

Planning always involves compulsion.

8. Can We Keep Free Enterprise?

No defense of capitalism will ever be generally accepted. Hazlitt identified give main impulses inherent in human nature to explain why this is true:

  1. Genuine compassion

  2. Impatience for a cure

  3. Envy (graduated income tax)

  4. Propensity to think only of the intended or immediate results, overlook secondary and long-term results

  5. Propensity to compare any actual state of affairs, and its inevitable defects, with some hypothetical ideal

“Each of us is as free to practice what he preaches as to preach what we practices.”

Yet, as Charles Murray writes in his book, Coming Apart, the upper class is not preaching what it practices.

9. The Lesson Restated (Economics in One Lesson, 1952)

 The Forgotten Man of William Graham Sumner, essay in 1883:

Their law always proposes to determine what C shall do for X or, in the better          case, what A, B and C shall do for X…What I want to do is to look up C…I call      him the Forgotten man…He is the man who never is thought of.

Amity Shales book The Forgotten Man is an excellent history on The Great Depression.

The forces of self interest exceed forces of altruism. This is because our sphere of altruism is smaller.

We interact with many more people when we purchase goods and services in the market than we do in personal and social institutions. We couldn’t rely on altruism alone for food, automobiles, and the many other items we purchase in the free market.

Changes in tastes and preferences cause harm too, just like technology. If we increase sobriety, we reduce bartenders. If we increase male chastity, we decrease the world’s oldest profession.

Other Resources Mentioned

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