To: bart13 who wrote (122223 ) 9/25/2016 7:08:59 PM From: bart13 Respond to Thursday afternoon links Carpe Diem Chart of the Day (above) . Just out today from the Census Bureau , its monthly retail sales report showed that for the 17th straight month starting in April 2015, and by the widest margin ever ($2.8 billion), US consumers spent more eating out ($55.3 billion) in August than they spent on food at grocery stores ($52.5 billion). Reasons for this trend include: a) Food away from home has been getting more expensive (+2.8% over the last year through July, according to the BLS) while food at home has been getting cheaper (-1.6% deflation over last year), b) the gradual improvement in the US job market and economy leading to more people eating out, c) the gradual lifestyle trend, especially among millennials, in people eating out more often and cooking at home less often, and d) the fact that spending on food at “grocery stores” doesn’t include spending on food at discount retailers like Walmart and Target.Markets in Everything : Meet the LA man who walks people for a living . Fee: $7 a mile around the streets and park near his home.The Law of Unintended Consequences Strikes Again . Free Wi-Fi Kiosks in NYC Sounded Like a Good Idea….. Mayor Bill de Blasio’s aim of providing modern technology to the masses ran headlong into the reality of life on the city’s streets. After months of complaints from residents, businesses and other elected officials, Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, conceded that combining unfettered internet access with free Wi-Fi was a recipe for bad behavior. 4. Who’d a-Thunk It I? Government policies make housing more expensive? One bad policy at a time, Seattle outlawed a smart, affordable housing option for thousands of its residents and killed micro-housing.Who’d a-Thunk It II? Doctors don’t like competition from nurse practitioners? ‘Turf war’ pits Tennessee doctors against nurse practitioners. Airbnb to the Rescue . From Reason :When torrential rain left thousands of Louisianans homeless last month, hundreds of volunteers flooded into the state to help pick up the pieces. And when those volunteers needed a place to stay—along with some flood victims who were unable to return to their homes in the wake of the disaster—it was Airbnb that helped to answer the call. The room-sharing service waived all service fees for rooms in Louisiana and allowed individual property owners to rent rooms for free in the weeks after the flooding—essentially turning Airbnb into an online marketplace for free bedding when a warm place to sleep was most important.and then it ran out of water on the first day . MP : One more example of the superiority of private markets and voluntary action over government bureaucracy and bureaucrats. If you were affected by a natural disaster, who would you turn to for the best and most immediate help: a) your neighbors, volunteers, and private companies like Wal-Mart and Home Depot or b) government bureaucrats like the ones you encounter at the DMV?he Case for Not Voting I : “ Why I Don’t Vote: The Honest Truth ,” from Bryan Caplan.The Case for Not Voting II : “ On Election Day, it’s OK not to vote. Really ,” from Jeff Jacoby.Medical First. University of Oxford surgeons at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital have performed the world’s first operation inside the eye using a robot .Chart of the Day II (below) . In another in a long series of US energy milestones, the Permian Basin in Texas, America’s most prolific oil-producing region, is approaching a daily production level of 2 million barrels per day (see chart below). The EIA estimates that daily oil production in the Permian Basin will reach a new high in October of 1,999,115 barrels, just short of the 2 million mark. When Permian production does reach 2 million bpd, it would be the first time that any oil region in the US has ever reached that milestone. And it places the Permian Basin in just a small handful of elite oil regions anywhere in the world globally that have ever reached that level of production. If that 2M bpd production level is reached this year in the Permian Basin, it would be pretty ironic that a historic energy milestone of that historical significance happened during Obama’s time in office, since Obama has probably been more hostile towards our fossil fuel resources than any previous US president.
