Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis |
| Posted: 26 Nov 2014 03:39 PM PST If you are traveling tonight or tomorrow, please take extra time. If you are traveling by plane, please check your flight schedule. Hundreds of flights have been cancelled, thousands of other flights delayed. Thanksgiving Travel Nightmare Accuweather reports Snowstorm Creates Thanksgiving Travel Nightmare in East A snowstorm pummeling the East has produced lengthy flight delays and treacherous travel on roadways Wednesday. As snow rapidly exits the Northeast into Thanksgiving Day, there will still be some travel trouble spots in the wake of the storm.Snowfall Wednesday-Thursday  Accuweather's Live Blog reports Accidents in Eastern Snowstorm Create a Maze for Thanksgiving Travelers Over 700 Flights Cancelled Flight Aware shows over 700 flights cancelled into or within the United States. There have been over 7,000 delays. Flight Aware Misery Map  For an interactive map, click on Misery Map then click on a city to see the accompanying misery. Black Ice on Black Friday Finally Accweather predicts Patchy Ice, Snow May Slow Early-Morning Surge of Shoppers. Please drive safely! Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com |
| Google vs. Sun vs. France: Too Big, Too Powerful, Too Free Posted: 26 Nov 2014 10:34 AM PST I happen to like the sun. By definition, the earth would not even be a planet without the sun. No one on earth would be alive without free sunshine. I happen to like Google. I could survive without Google, but like the sun, much of what Google provides is free. Free Google Things
For a discussion of the implications of a self-driving car, please see Google Unveils Self-Driving Car, No Steering Wheel, No Accelerator, No Brake Pedal; Self-Driving Taxi Has Arrived. Who, other than city bureaucrats with their taxi licensing scheme will not want lower taxi fares? For a discussion of other Google robotic research, please see More Robots: Google's "Atlas" Robot Mimics "Karate Kid"; Flying Defibrillator "Ambulance Drone" Unveiled; Fed Has No Answer. Green Energy Handouts vs. Google Unlike "green energy" parasites that could not exist without government subsidies (taxpayer dollars), Google, like the sun does what it does for free. Google does not ask for money from the government to promote autonomous cars, robots, or anything else. Instead, Google research has created thousands of very high-paying jobs. Those job-holders pay taxes. What's not to like? Enter the French France does not like Google. Yesterday, Yahoo! reported on France's Desperate Battle to Erase Google, Netflix and Uber from Existence. Ever since Minitel bit dust, the continental power has been hopping mad about American domination of Internet services. And over the past weeks, attacks on U.S. giants have escalated from Paris to Lille.Google's Tax Setup Faces French Challenge Yahoo! noted numerous French attacks on Google. Here is a key one as described by the Wall Street Journal: Google's Tax Setup Faces French Challenge. I have a simple remedy for this tax avoidance madness. Abolish corporate income taxes. No country would have any tax advantage over any other country and all of the waste in time and effort and legal costs to maneuver taxes can be spent on research and more productive activities! Right to Be Forgotten Now the EU is in on the Google Attack. Please consider the New York Times article 'Right to Be Forgotten' Should Apply Worldwide, E.U. Panel Says. Privacy watchdogs in the European Union issued guidelines on Wednesday calling on the company to apply the recent ruling on the so-called right to be forgotten to all Google search results.Guidelines Optional Guidelines are not rules. It will be up to European Union member countries to decide how to apply them. Enter France once again. France insists whatever it decides applies to the entire world. For example, the Guardian reports Google's French arm faces daily €1,000 fines over links to defamatory article. Google's French subsidiary has been ordered to pay daily fines of €1,000 unless links to a defamatory article are removed from the parent company's entire global network.Too Big, Too Powerful, Too Free This is what it all boils down to. Google is too big, too, powerful, and above all, too free for the French. France does not like anything cheaper, or better. Thus the attacks not only on Google, but on Amazon (for free shipping of books), on Facebook, on Netflix, on the Uber taxi service, on anything and everything cheaper. Save the Bookstores July 10, 2014: Amazon Charges Penny for Shipping Following France Ruling Shipping Cannot Be Free; "No Competition" Laws October 03, 2013: France Vows to "Save the Bookstores", Fixes Price of Books What's the Goal? France's Cultural Minister called Amazon a "destroyer of bookshops". But what's the goal? Is it to save the bookstores or to get people to read? If the goal is to get people to read books, logic would dictate the cheaper the price the better. Kindle, Nook, and other eBook readers come to mind. Petition of the Candle Makers Ironically, French economist Frederic Bastiat lampooned protectionism back in 1845 when he penned 'Petition of the Candle Makers', mocking the sun's "unfair trade advantage" over candle-makers. We are suffering from the ruinous competition of a rival who apparently works under conditions so far superior to our own for the production of light that he is flooding the domestic market with it at an incredibly low price; for the moment he appears, our sales cease, all the consumers turn to him, and a branch of French industry whose ramifications are innumerable is all at once reduced to complete stagnation. This rival, which is none other than the sun, is waging war on us so mercilessly we suspect he is being stirred up against us by perfidious Albion (excellent diplomacy nowadays!), particularly because he has for that haughty island a respect that he does not show for us." "No Competition" Laws "Unfair competition" laws should be called what they really are: "No competition" laws, complete with higher prices, poor service, and higher unemployment. France Cannot Compete Government spending is already 56% of GDP. Hollande has threatened to take over steel, auto makers, and other industries to preserve jobs. Every month, France becomes less and less competitive. People flee France because of excess taxes. French corporations are reluctant to expand because of preposterous work rules. France forced inane agricultural tariffs on the rest of Europe to save inefficient French farms from "unfair competition". The economic fools in France would tax the sun if they could. They can't, so they do the next closest thing: attack Google. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
Postări
