Isaac Schrödinger

Pay the new predators

The solution, as always, is more government power.

Time to pay up!

The beast is hungry:

A proposed hike in Illinois’ annual registration fee for electric vehicles, from $17.50 to $1,000, is being called unfair by current EV owners, and a sales disincentive by manufacturers — just as the new technology is beginning to gain broader traction.

This is what happens after decades of out of control spending and debt accumulation: taxes go up! That, by the way, is a 5,614% increase in the registration fee.

No money for you!

A woman got tired of paying the stupid tax. So, she doubled down:

Quebec's Court of Appeal has ruled that a woman who claimed Loto-Quebec misled her on her chances of winning a jackpot cannot launch a class action against the provincial Crown corporation.

This was an easy case because:

[...] the odds were printed on the back of tickets [...]

You might as well set your money on fire.

The Rise of Canopy Growth

From a $3 share price to $66 in just five years.

5 years ago today, we sold our very first gram of dried flower. Since then, we've introduced all kinds of new products and formats, from softgels to seeds. Just wait until you see what we have coming next. Bring on the next 5! #FutureGrowth pic.twitter.com/Tl4xbp2lIs

— Canopy Growth (@CanopyGrowth) 5 May 2019

At the time, the market capitalization of this company was around CAD$50 million. Today, it's over $22 billion. That's 10 billion more than the second biggest cannabis company.

Debt and death

The fruits of the health care system in Canada:

A mother in Nova Scotia living with cancer is challenging Premier Stephen McNeil to meet with her after a years-long battle with the province's health-care system.

In an emotional video posted to her Facebook page this week, Inez Rudderham said she went undiagnosed for two years because she couldn't access a family doctor. By the time she was diagnosed, her anal cancer had progressed to its third stage.

This is what happens when you have "free" public health care and private facilities are largely illegal. The government is drowning in debt. Result? Insanely long wait times for access to a doctor. The only realistic option is to save money and visit another country for treatment. For example, tens of thousands of Canadians visit hospitals in the US every year. For all the flaws of the American system, at least, you can get prompt access to a doctor and immediate treatment if necessary.

The debt is already high and the government revenues are insufficient; something has to give:

City of Toronto officials are calling on the province to reverse public health funding cuts that they say could put residents' "health at risk," amid a growing battle between the city and the Ministry of Health over the true financial impact of the changes.

Last week, Premier Doug Ford's government notified health units that it will reduce cost-sharing from levels of 100 per cent or 75 per cent, to 60 to 70 per cent for some municipalities.

In Toronto's case, the cost-sharing for some programs drops to 50-50 by 2021.

Millennials and real estate

Debt, immigration and restricted housing supply is crushing the younger generation:

For the purposes of this study, Statistics Canada considered millennials to be between 25 and 34 years old in 2016. The agency then compared them with the same age group in 1999 (generation X) and young people in 1984 who are today's baby boomers.

The millennial cohort had a median after-tax household income of $44,093 in 2016, by Statistics Canada's calculations. That compares with $33,276 for gen-Xers and $33,350 for boomers at the same age. And those figures are inflation adjusted, which means it's an apples-to-apples comparison.

I was chatting with an older gentleman last month who was very surprised to find out that I don't own any real estate. He said that owning a house is one of the best financial decisions he made. I asked him, "How much did you pay for your house?"

"$54,000."

"Do you remember your annual income at that time?"

"Hmm, about $20,000."

"Did you have a mortgage?"

"No, I borrowed from family and paid them back in a few years."

Yeah. The average annual income today is roughly $40,000 but the average house price has skyrocketed to $600,000. If you want a nice neighborhood, then we're talking a million dollars in Ontario. That's a mountain of debt that no reasonable person would carry.

Alberta smokes

Alberta pot smokers are expected to spend about $940 million on legal weed by 2024, with the province becoming Canada's second-largest market for cannabis behind Ontario, according to a new forecast.

U.S.-based research firms BDS Analytics and Arcview Market Research said in a new report Albertans spent about $216 million on medical and retail cannabis last year. They will more than quadruple that spending in the next five years, the forecast predicts.

The news story ends with this blunder:

Edmonton-based Aurora Cannabis, which is worth more than $12 billion on the stock market, is the second-largest pot producer in Canada based on market capitalization, trailing only Canopy Growth Corp., which is valued at $14.6 billion.

Wrong. The market capitalization of Canopy Growth Corporation: $19.2 billion. It has been over $19 billion for over two months! Seriously, how does one even make an error like that?

Ah! Just a couple of seconds after publishing this post, it clicked. The reporter is comparing Aurora's market cap in Canadian dollars to Canopy's market cap in US dollars!

A Very Bad Idea

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., has proposed a so-called mark-to-market version of the capital gains tax. Put more simply, investors would pay capital gains taxes each and every year in which their assets go up in value, instead of only when they are sold. [...]

The annual tax would also apply to illiquid investments like the value of a private company, real estate and other complex investments.

This will hurt low-income folks the most. Imagine, an old, retired couple today with a house which they bought for $100,000. In a roaring real estate market that house could be worth $200,000 next year. Should the couple get a $25,000 tax bill for that increased value even though they haven't sold the house?

Furthermore, the government will become even more insane and tight with their building permits -- maliciously spiking real estate prices to gobble a larger tax bite. The rich will survive it but the lower middle class will be devastated.

The Canadian Cannabis Goliath

The beginning of Canopy Growth Corporation:

In response to several key changes to the Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR)—particularly the phasing-out of home cultivation and easier access through medical prescriptions—one company, in particular, saw cannabis’ burgeoning potential before anyone else. The founders of Tweed recognized the opportunity to become a substantial licensed commercial operator in the Canadian marketplace, and became among Canada’s earliest cannabis entrants.

Its ticker symbol was TWD five year ago. The share price fluctuated around $3 for a year and then crashed to $1.10 by the fall of 2015. The Liberal victory in the federal elections saved the company as the market for legal cannabis was likely to increase by an order of magnitude in Canada alone.

Today, its share price fluctuates in the high 50s. Canopy went from a market capitalization of roughly $50 million to $20 billion in five years. Now, what matters is execution as they must go from an annualized revenue of $333 million to $2 billion to justify their sky-high valuation. As America and Europe slowly but surely go towards legalization, it's possible that Canopy just might hit a $200 billion valuation by the end of the 2020s. That would imply a share price of approximately $360 then.

The myth of equality

Looking at JUST hours worked diff between men and women:

Man and Woman both paid $20/hr.

BLS stats say man will work 42 hours per week, woman will work 37 hours.

End of week EARNINGS:
Man: $840
Woman: $740

Equal pay for equal work =/= equal earnings

— Ashe Schow (@AsheSchow) 2 April 2019

On a related note: no wonder nobody watches women's basketball.

Happy #EqualPayDay pic.twitter.com/UvUqQZHJN7

— Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) 2 April 2019

I knew how that was going to end. Still, watching it made me laugh.

Crazy Croissant Conspiracy

As the price of labor increases, how will that impact the price of a croissant? https://t.co/dZLn0ZmOvo

— RAMZPAUL (@ramzpaul) 1 April 2019

I've heard so many people say that they support $15 or a $20 minimum wage for workers (especially those hard-working waiters). This loud support is followed by complaints about the ridiculous spikes in food prices at restaurants!? The idea that low-margin businesses need higher revenues to pay for increased costs is completely alien to them.

Constellation and Canopy

In August 2018, Constellation Brands said it would increase its ownership to about 38% and pour another $4 billion US into Canopy. The terms of the deal allow Constellation to take up to a 55% stake — something Sands thinks it will do, calling a still larger investment a "no brainer."

The hefty sum has already spooked investors.

In January, Constellation slashed its 2019 forecast because of additional expenses from the deal and expected weakness in its wine business. Shares of the company plummeted.

Constellation Brands is down 29% from its all-time high. This is strange considering that the US market just opened up for hemp products this year. Anyway, let's see what they do with the US$4 billion in the upcoming months. Given Canopy's mediocre marijuana harvest in the last quarter, I wouldn't be surprised if they acquire a Canadian cannabis firm. Organigram, CannTrust and Aphria are the best targets.

"The only way to solve the crisis ..."

A small, bare-bones apartment near Cabbagetown that garnered gasps over social media on Thursday may pass as an acceptable rental unit under government regulations, and tenant advocates are concerned that it signals a worsening state of affordable housing.

The glorified closet is renting for $1,100 per month.

Federation of Metro Tenants' Associations executive director, Geordie Dent, called it a "ridiculous condition to live in" that fills him with a sense of "crushing sadness."

[...] Dent said he's seeing "more and more" apartments such as this, as Toronto faces a brutal housing shortage.

The only way to solve the crisis, he said, is with government-funded affordable housing.

What's strange is that we don't have shortages of cars, clothes, refrigerators, microwaves, faucets, phones, etc. Why? Is it because those items are "government-funded"? The province of Ontario has more area than France and Germany combined. Yet, by some miracle, those two countries together have ten times the population!

So, what's the problem? Not enough supply and too much demand.

• The governments stand in the way of housing development. This limits the supply. Prices of houses and condos have skyrocketed. Rent is now becoming difficult for many.
• The government imports hundreds of thousands of immigrants every year. The diversity wants to live in the GTS (Greater Toronto Shithole). This, obviously, results in higher prices.

Conclusion: Let's get the government involved! That way average folks can grovel in front of the political elite for the chance to live in an affordable place.

Seriously, build more houses and severely restrict immigration. This isn't rocket science.

Meme of the Year

Dumber and dead:

Near-monopoly power

How badly are we being ripped off on eyewear? Former industry execs tell all.

I have often seen eyeglasses that retail for over $500 in Canada. Go online and you'll find similar eyeglasses for under $100. The margins for physical retailers are just insane.

Higher wages, lower work hours

Whole Foods is cutting work hours:

Workers at Whole Foods (which Amazon bought in 2017) told the Guardian that after Amazon enacted a $15 minimum wage last fall, they’ve seen their shifts cut dramatically. One employee in Illinois said they dropped from 30 hours a week to 20; their take-home pay actually declined after the hourly raise. These shift reductions have affected workers across the board, particularly part-time workers, who saw their hours reduced from 30 to 21 per week on average.

[...] This cost cutting on the part of Amazon and Whole Foods has reportedly resulted in understaffing issues at stores. Employees in California told the Guardian that there are not enough people to work the cash registers to prevent long lines, and fewer staff are available to help customers on the floor.

These workers who merely lost a few hours are the lucky ones. There are businesses, especially restaurants, that completely shut the door. The work hours of those employees are reduced to zero.

Thermonuclear goodness!

Wisconsin plans to give ID cards and driver's licenses to illegal aliens. Why? Because it's good for the economy! Vox Day writes:

Well, if it strengthens the economy, then it must be good. Pursuant to which I note that the Japanese economy exploded upward after it invaded Manchuria.

That's nothing. The really amazing growth came after Little Boy and Fat Man were detonated over Japanese cities.

The solution is simple: Nuke Wisconsin for an explosive economy!

The economics of power

Why Renewables Can’t Save the Planet:

You can make solar panels cheaper and wind turbines bigger, but you can’t make the sun shine more regularly or the wind blow more reliably. I came to understand the environmental implications of the physics of energy. In order to produce significant amounts of electricity from weak energy flows, you just have to spread them over enormous areas. In other words, the trouble with renewables isn’t fundamentally technical—it’s natural.

Dealing with energy sources that are inherently unreliable, and require large amounts of land, comes at a high economic cost.

Tesla fans wept.

The reason nuclear is the best energy from an environmental perspective is because it produces so little waste and none enters the environment as pollution. All of the waste fuel from 45 years of the Swiss nuclear program can fit, in canisters, on a basketball court-like warehouse, where like all spent nuclear fuel, it has never hurt a fly.

Miserable Millennials

Millennials are now truly understanding the pain of increasing interest rates. The mortgage payments go up!

Nearly half of all homeowners have buyer’s remorse, according to a new survey from Bankrate. While 44% of all homeowners have regrets, that number swells to 63% for millennial homeowners. It’s the highest proportion of any generation, and nearly double that of baby boomers – 35% of those aged 55-73 regret buying a home.

I was doing a house search online a few years ago. I narrowed the search to two houses that were roughly the same size but about one kilometer apart. The house which was closer to grocery stores and bus stops was twice as expensive. That is a staggering premium in a time when average wages are stagnant.

Homeowners also say that bad location, high mortgage payments, and buying the wrong size home can cause them to think differently about their purchase.

Millennials should think differently before they make the biggest purchase decision of their life. Renting for a few years can definitely be a sensible option.

Can't trust CNN

Just in the first few seconds, the CNN host says that CannTrust is the third Canadian marijuana company to list on the NYSE. False!

The Big Three from Canada listed on the NYSE in the last calendar year.

1. Canopy Growth Corp. (NYSE: CGC)
2. Aurora Cannabis (NYSE: ACB)
3. Aphria (NYSE: APHA)

Seriously, how hard is it to get this basic stuff right?

The mythical gender pay gap

Just listen to what this woman says between 4:24 and 4:44. These women will just make up surreal shit to keep the lie going.

Misery repeats itself

Everyone Who's Never Read A History Book Shocked As Socialist Turns Into Authoritarian At First Whiff Of Powerhttps://t.co/C3mNhcgEhe pic.twitter.com/aLNIUWVifw

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) 26 February 2019

Sick Swedes

Strandhäll wrote that Prime Minister Viktor Orban's demand for "more genuine Hungarian children" was offensive, "reeked of the 1930s" and effectively offset the benefits of feminism.

"What is happening in Hungary is alarming. Now Orban wants more 'genuine' Hungarian children to be born. The policy reeks of the 30s. A right-wing populist you need smokescreens for what this type of policy does to the independence women have been struggling for", Strandhäll tweeted.

White women taking care of their beautiful children = LITERALLY HITLER!

White women wasting away for a faceless, uncaring corporation = INDEPENDENCE!

This is how women react after the education complex and the media have pumped poison into their minds for decades. SLAVERY is FREEDOM!

Oh, it gets worse:

Viktor Orban's call for "Hungarian children" didn't resonate well with the Swedish press, either. Sydsvenskan's columnist Sofia Nerbrand wrote that Orban "should be ashamed" of steps to stimulate childbirth in Hungary.

"Viktor Orban's stated goal is that the Hungarian people will increase with the help of white Hungarian offsprings, not migrants," Nerbrand wrote, calling this approach 'unsavoury'. "Rhetoric and politics that put one's own people first and shut out the others should have no place in today's Europe."

These wicked elites truly are insane and anti-White.

Death by debt

Central bank chiefs are often reticent to criticize policy settings abroad. Not today: Australia’s central bank chief Philip Lowe questioned the wisdom of America’s fiscal largess and warned the U.S. will struggle to deploy stimulus in the next downturn.

America has had zero fiscal discipline for a long time.

Responding to a question on whether Australia should be more concerned about the spiraling American budget deficit, Lowe said: “you’re better off using fiscal policy than extreme monetary policy. But you can only do that if you’ve behaved yourself in the good times. And my judgment is that the U.S. has not.”

The American governments have been borrowing increasing amounts of money for decades. They've basically pulled forward and spent the wealth of their progeny and then left them with the largest debt in recorded history.

"U.S. federal debt held by the public as a percentage of GDP,
from 1790 to 2013, projected to 2038"

The only question is: when will it come crashing down?

What is "Enough"?

Print baby print!

Assuming steep declines in the costs of each form of renewable electric power generation, just running the electrical grid using only renewable power would still cost roughly $7 trillion by 2030. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation calculated that the total cost of an earlier version of Jacobson's scheme would amount to $13 trillion. And based on how fast it has taken to install energy generation infrastructure in the past, Jacobson's repowering plan would require a sustained installation rate that is more than 14 times the U.S. average over the last 55 years and more than six times the peak rate.

You can do it!

Where is the money to pay for this massive transformation going to come from? The headline over at The Week sums it up pretty well: "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants to pay for her Green New Deal by essentially printing more money."

Awesome! Soon, all Americans will be billionaires!

The Quintessential Tawker

Preston Byrne makes Manjoo lassi out of Farhad:

Your job, @fmanjoo, only exists because Carlos Slim - a Mexican billionaire - bailed out the New York Times in 2009 and saved it from a $1.1 billion debt cliff.

There's a lesson there. https://t.co/TB0oxRDdn3

— Preston Byrne (@prestonjbyrne) 7 February 2019

Low intelligence and lack of experience brings us this gem:

To do $250MM convertible debt deals, e.g. the 2009 @nytimes bailout, it helps to have one guy worth $50bn. 500 people worth $2MM shouldn't invest $500K of their net worth in one high risk investment, but 1 guy worth $50bn can absorb a $250MM hit. https://t.co/7cltHfWP6t

— Preston Byrne (@prestonjbyrne) 7 February 2019

To take his "logic" further, why do we even have millionaires when some people are starving? Surely, a few million thousandaires can front a few hundred dollars of capital to save a business.

Also, it's easy to convince one multi-billionaire to part with $1 billion in cash than to grovel in front of hundreds of risk-averse millionaires. And seriously, how many millionaires would have given money to a failing business in the middle of a major financial crisis?

Here's another ignorant fool:

Another favorite.

Wealth isn't zero-sum, people. It's not like rich people have "our stuff" because they're rich. They have money, which they spend, which keeps other people employed.https://t.co/3fEzwOXMaN

— Preston Byrne (@prestonjbyrne) 8 February 2019

It's amazing how so many people who don't have a clue about economics or finance are willing to put artificial and asinine limits on income and wealth.

This time socialism will work!

The far-left South African EFF party unveiled Saturday its programme for legislative elections in May, with land expropriation and jobs at the top of the list.

And then the people cheered for their doom:

"The economy is in the hands of the white community, we want to change that," he told the crowd to cheers and raised fists. "We are going to place all land under the custodianship of the state, for equal redistribution to all," he pledged.

The US will bern

The 550 US billionaires together are worth $2.5 trillion. If we confiscated 100% of their wealth, we'd raise enough to run the federal government for less than 8 months.

Perhaps our problem isn't how much billionaires have but how much politicians spend.@SenSanders @AOC

— Antony Davies (@antonydavies) 1 February 2019

Yup. What's worse is that these insane politicians want to spike government spending! The US government is already borrowing $1 trillion annually, what's a few trillion more?

Sen. Bernie Sanders' "Medicare for all" plan would boost government health spending by $32.6 trillion over 10 years, requiring historic tax hikes, says a study released Monday by a university-based libertarian policy center.

Forget 60-70% tax rates, the entire wealth of those filthy rich billionaires in the US wouldn't even cover one year of his asinine health care plan. Of course, the Leftists love it.

Royal trolling

The Big Mac is a McDonald's classic, loved by fast food fans all over the world.

And earlier this month, the fast food giant lost its trademark for the Big Mac burger's name in the EU after European regulators ruled in favour of Ireland-based fast-food chain Supermac's.

The team at Burger King Sweden deserve an award for their new menu:

These include burgers such as "The Like a Big Mac, But Actually Big", "The Kind of Like a Big Mac, But Juicier and Tastier".

Hard work

Americans work an average of 35 hours a week.

The average CEO works about 60 hours a week.

Americans have an average IQ of 98.

The average IQ of a Fortune 500 CEO is 124. https://t.co/LrcQcNkgjY

— Lauren Chen (@RoamingMil) 31 January 2019

Another thing: Many businesses fail. A lot of CEOs make negative money for many years. So, it's important to have sky-high incentives to get them back in the game. You can fail multiple times but end up being successful by wiping out your collective losses by making millions in the end. Of course, this is the "unseen" part of reality. The majority doesn't know about all those failed businesses because, well, they failed!

Just take a look at the leaders in the marijuana space; specifically the CEOs of Canopy Growth Corporation and Tilray. Those CEOs went through hell from 2012-2016 before their fortunes turned around.

Also, Elon Musk. The economics of electric vehicles at the present time is extremely risky and highly unprofitable. That doesn't stop Musk. He worked over 100 hours a week for the Model 3 ramp up. The guy is a multi-billionaire. He could bang supermodels in his mansions all day but instead he works to the bone.

"Fairness"

The economics ignorance continues:

Asked earlier in January by “60 Minutes,” how she might pay for a Green New Deal, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez noted that top marginal tax rates in the mid-20th century were “as high as 60 percent or 70 percent.” A slew of articles have since debated whether higher tax rates would actually raise much revenue. But these articles miss the point. Taxes on the very wealthy are corrective taxes, like tobacco taxes, that should be judged by their societal impact, not simply their revenues.

This should work well.

The democratic argument was once central to the case for progressive taxation. In 1910, Theodore Roosevelt called for progressive income and estate taxes because, “unfair money-getting has tended to create a small class of enormously wealthy and economically powerful men, whose chief object is to hold and increase their power.” The goal of progressive taxation, for Roosevelt, was “to change the conditions which enable these men to accumulate power which it is not for the general welfare that they should hold or exercise.”

The income tax was fully legalized in 1913. The highest marginal income tax at that time? Approximately 7% for incomes over $500,000. That would be like having a 7% rate for incomes over $13 million today. The modern progressives want a rate that's ten times worse. All for what? To punish the rich to make the poor feel better.

From Scrooge to Smaug

What is a billionaire? Here's a "description" from a progressive:

"Billionaire" isn't a qualification. It's the description of a person who is hoarding more resources than they could use in 100 lifetimes while other people are starving. It's the name for a human dragon sleeping on its pile of rubies and gold.

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) 29 January 2019

Lenin and Stalin would definitely approve of the use of "hoarding" in that sentence.

Seriously, what a stunning display of ignorance and stupidity. It would be nice to see one of those mythical mega-vaults in which the rich swim in their billions of dollars.

Cortez explains the tippy tops!

That YouTube image screams: I drink your milkshake. I DRINK IT UP!

Seriously, taxing the income of the rich with a nose-bleeding rate of 70% is a horrible idea. For one, that's immoral. Second, the rich will restructure their finances to reduce their income and boost, for example, their capital gains. Of course, the next step for Cortez and her ilk would be to go after the wealth of the rich people. That's another horrible idea because capital in the modern world is highly mobile. For instance, European countries would be more than happy to transfer in hundreds of billions of dollars from Americans who want to protect their wealth.

The simple trick has always been to make America a more attractive place for money and talent. Shockingly, that happens with lower tax rates.

Canopy vs. Aurora

Fast Company: How Canopy Growth became the Jolly Green Giant of cannabis.

Terry Booth, the CEO of Aurora, offered his unfiltered comments:

[...] in the year or so leading up to nationwide legalization, Canopy’s publicly traded “Big 5” rivals–Aurora, Tilray, Cronos, and Aphria–had dramatically boosted their capacity and seen their market caps surge well into unicorn territory. “Bruce’s problem is he underestimated us,” says Aurora’s famously salty CEO, Terry Booth, outside an industry mixer during MJBizCon, the annual cannabis gathering, in Las Vegas in November. The companies applied for medical cultivation licenses at the same time, but Canopy got its license first, and grew faster. Aurora stayed nimble, saving up for late-stage acquisitions that have helped it catch up with its rival: In quarterly reports released in November, Aurora showed net earnings of $77.6 million (260% revenue growth), while Canopy, whose results were too early to reflect recreational sales, had a $247 million net loss. “Bruce bought new. He threw a fucking chocolate factory into it [with the Smiths Falls operation]. Then he got a little bit bigger, kinda like a station wagon. Then he turned it into a soccer van–and now it is a fucking school bus. And we’re in a Lambo, saying, ‘Adios, muchachos!’ ”

(Laughs.) There's no question that Canopy and Aurora are fighting for the crown in 2019. By February of next year, we'll have the yearly revenue numbers for both companies. Considering that Canopy has $4 billion in the bank and a market capitalization of nearly $20 billion, it would be shocking if they didn't have the highest top line.

Also, Aurora got to their position today by taking over CanniMed and MedReleaf which together cost them $4.2 billion in stock in the past 10 months. Canopy hasn't bought any established licensed producer of cannabis in two years. If they do, then game over for Aurora.

It's okay to be White

Upon watching the ad, I thought of price discrimination based on race. Andrew, to his credit, mentions the same. Assuming that this campaign actually happened, then it was illegal.

Do you even math, bro!

So many smug, ignorant clowns have no clue about what cumulative means. Ryan "Thank you, Affirmative Action" Mack takes the cake. This dumbass graduated from the University of Michigan Business School and yet he doesn't get basic arithmetic. He even shows up in the YouTube comments of the above video but doesn't have the balls to acknowledge his moronic mistake.

The Founder of Vanguard

The King of index funds has passed away.

Jack Bogle, the founder of Vanguard who created the first index mutual fund for individual investors in 1975, died Wednesday at the age of 89, the company said.

Bogle transformed the way people invest. He believed that investors should own a mix of bonds and stocks but shouldn't pay investment managers to pick them.

Jack Bogle provided simple, low-cost investing to hundreds of millions of people around the globe. Even today, investment firms charge ridiculous fees for passive funds -- especially in Canada. It's common to see Management Expense Ratios (MERs) of over 2%!

I used to have a retirement savings plan through my work. The employees had to choose from Investors Group (IG), a predatory Canadian firm, that charged MERs as high as 3% a year. By contrast, out of all the funds that Vanguard offers, the highest MER is 0.39%.

Note that it's difficult to make apples-to-apples comparisons between companies and their funds because they don't really offer the exact same investments. So, one has to look at similar funds. I do remember comparing the relevant funds through my workplace and Vanguard and realized that IG charged 25 times more than Vanguard. In other words, Investors Group would charge me $25 for every $1 fee from Vanguard for the privilege of buying similar equities. Over decades that could result in a net loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars for the average worker.

Jack Bogle, unlike many financial charlatans, did a lot for the little guy.

Bad accountant

Parts of the, per person, monthly budget for the homeless woman and her daughter follow.

Phone: $112
Food: $450

Here's my relevant budget in Canada, in US dollars, for comparison.

Phone: $34
Food: $230

Note that Canada has, on average, higher prices! One of the constant things I hear about people who travel to the US for family visits, conferences, and vacations is: the food is so cheap! Yet, here we have a woman in America who burns over 50% of her take-home pay on food and phones and then has a total of, maybe, $100 for rent. No wonder, she doesn't have a proper roof.

Diversity and the Left

A micro view on the decline of America:

Over four years and over $1 million dollars. That's the cost in time and money for just getting the bloody approval for a new building in San Francisco.

Cut them down!

The reason why most people labor under a misapprehension about the state of the world’s forests is that news stories often ignore reforestation. In about half the world, there is net reforestation—not despite economic development, but because of it. https://t.co/3RphSJliVF

— HumanProgress.org (@HumanProgress) 13 December 2018

How many trees are there in Ontario, Canada?

85 billion. Population of Ontario: 14.2 million people. So, for each person in the province there are 6,000 trees. The problem isn't not enough trees. The problem is that there is not enough space for real estate. Canada is absolutely huge. Yet, two of the most expensive real estate markets in the world are in Vancouver and Toronto. Banks are definitely happy but the average Canadian suffers in this artificial supply crunch.

The fruits of socialism

VIDEO: Cubans line up at bakeries across Havana, waiting hours for a loaf of bread, a basic good that has become hard to find after some important mills broke down on the island resulting in a shortage of flour pic.twitter.com/VUaEp09ylN

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 15 December 2018

But unlike those uncouth Americans, the Cubans have free health care!

The illegal economist

Demand is hot for marijuana

Shortages of cannabis in Alberta, Canada:

"I kind of thought there were going to be shortages," he said. "I figured certain strains would sell out faster and it would be harder to get those in. I didn't realize there were going to be shortages of every single strain with every single LP [licensed producer]."

Canopy Growth is the only licensed producer that consistently seems to have product available, he said. 

Trevor Bamsey owns two Rocky Mountain Collective cannabis stores in Hinton. He, too, said Canopy has the biggest selection and the most consistency with its products.

That's surprising because one would think that Aurora Cannabis, the largest marijuana cultivator in Alberta, would have the most consistent supply. Anyway, the sales numbers in February 2019 will give us a bigger picture. The real winners and losers can be judged in February of 2020 as we'll have sales data for an entire year.

Hyper volatile

Closing share price of Aphria on Friday: $10.51

Closing share price of Aphria today: $7.55

Oh, by the way, the share price went up 51% today!

Aphria needs to respond to the severe allegations. Otherwise, they're going to have serious trouble attracting capital and talent. The cannabis space is taboo as it is; this only makes it worse.

Marijuana producer Aphria Inc. says its board of directors has appointed a special committee of independent directors to review the company's acquisition of Latam Holdings Inc., which has been criticized by short sellers.

The company says it remains confident in the deal, but is undertaking the comprehensive review in the face of what it called "inaccurate and misleading accusations" by the short sellers.

Quintessential Capital Management and Hindenburg Research have alleged that the cannabis grower's acquisition of assets in Colombia, Argentina and Jamaica totalling $280 million US from Scythian Biosciences were "largely worthless."

Short attack!

Aphria: A Shell Game with a Cannabis Business on the Side. 

Aphria is the third largest seller of cannabis in terms of revenue in Canada. It is one of only two companies to have a recreational supply deal with every province in Canada. This is a serious business. The report, if true, is utterly shocking. The Latin American acquisitions are basically fraudulent. It's -29% in just under two hours -- the largest one-day drop in its entire trading history. The share price has crashed through the 52-week low. It's down by 70% from its all-time high in January.

Also, the report is dragging down the entire cannabis sector.

Eeevil Disney

LP nightmare

More photos here. The Redecan't jokes have already started.

Black Swan

James Cordier, in a dark suit, cuff links and expensive-looking watch, sits in a brown leather chair and stares into a camera, his hands folded in front of him.

Then he delivers the bad news.

His voice near-breaking at times, the hedge fund manager employs nautical terms to tell his clients in a roundabout way that he’s lost all of their money — in the neighbourhood of US$150 million, according to one estimate.

Oh, it gets worse:

[...] FCStone borrowed on margin against the accounts to cover money-losing positions. In the end, the clients didn’t just lose all their money, they also now owe FCStone for the loans [...]

Losing all the money in a speculative enterprise is bad enough, this genius borrowed money and lost even more! Why did he put himself in a position where the catastrophic loss would be over 100%? Apparently, he thought that he's an expert who could beat the cruelty of probability:

The collapse is a stunning turnabout for Cordier, who literally co-authored a book on the topic, “The Complete Guide to Option Selling.”

He should have read N. N. Taleb.

The tough life of wahmen