We goofed in yesterday’s HOTLINE when we inadvertently wrote that poverty had risen under Trump. Of course, we meant to say that poverty has soared under Biden.
So to clarify the situation, here are two charts based on the new Census Bureau data on Income and Poverty that show the big decline under Trump and the big and fast increase under Biden. Under Trump the poverty rate in 2019 (right before COVID-19) reached its lowest level ever recorded (since 1959) – and for every ethnic group – blacks, Hispanics, and whites.
2) Is This the Most Dangerous Lawsuit in American History?
There is something tyrannical and anti-American about a White House that takes to court one of the nation’s most innovative and profitable companies on the grounds that the company is TOO successful and consumers like it TOO much.
That is the essence of the Biden vs. Google case that went to trial before a federal court this week. We know many of our readers don’t like Google’s politics and some of its search algorithms – and neither do we. But putting that aside, the villain in this case is the Justice Department – not Google.
We’ve noted many times the reason that the United States emerged as the massive winner in the "tech wars" of the last three decades is that Congress made a rare wise decision by passing a law in the mid-1990s (thank you Chris Cox), which essentially declared this new and revolutionary communications device called “the internet” tax-free, regulation-free, and lawsuit free. This laissez-faire strategy sparked a wild west gold rush of creativity and entrepreneurial explosion – unimpeded by government – that created tens of trillions of dollars of wealth and sprouted trillion-dollar companies from Google to Apple to Amazon to Facebook. They are all predominantly owned by more than 100 million American shareholders. If you are wondering who America won this tech race big time. We blew away the Europeans, the Japanese, the Chinese – all who got left picking up the crumbs.
Google was the first monster search engine – a great American success story. It now dominates 79% of the U.S. search market and an even higher share internationally. Why? Because it’s a monopoly. Hardly. There are scores of search engines from Bing to Apple’s Safari to Mozilla. Why does Google dominate? The same reason the Boston Celtics won 11 titles with Bill Russell. They have a superior product. Period. It processes a mindboggling 100,000 words per SECOND, and some 10 billion searches a DAY.
As we’ve said dozens of times on these pages, monopolies are supposedly harmful because they use their market power to raise prices and hurt consumers. Hello!!! A Google search is FREE. It’s the greatest consumer bargain in world history. Google is rated one of the most trusted brands in America.
Are the prices of Google services to consumers going up? No. Even in the era of Bidenflation, the technology/smartphone sector is lowering prices.
As usual, the government lawyers and regulators are three moves behind the industry on the high-tech chess board. In the months ahead, there is going to be a flood of new competition in tech and it isn’t coming from nuisance government lawsuits, but from the creative gales of destruction in the AI orbit (which could be bigger than the internet).
In the case of Biden vs. Google, we are rooting for Google all the way.
3) The Left Is STILL Censoring the Truth About COVID
Three years later, here’s the latest example of why you still can’t believe nary a word the medical “science” community says or advises about COVID. The truth is still being censored out of existence on leading academic exchanges:
The huge Social Sciences Research Network (SSRN), is a behemoth in academia, extremely important to professors for getting their work out there and advancing within the academic community.
It's the go-to site for all respectable academic working papers...
So now we see some very odd censorship occurring there:
An important meta-study, or study of studies, on the efficacy of lockdowns worldwide, titled "A Literature Review and Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Lockdowns on COVID-19 Mortality," later published as a peer-reviewed book titled "Did Lockdowns Work? The Verdict on Covid Restrictions" by the Institute of Economic Affairs in London, was effectively censored by the SSRN, just as the government has been caught meddling in other kinds of censorship related to COVID, and is out talking up COVID again.
The authors of the study were none other than academic heavyweights Steve H. Hanke, professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University, Lars Jonung, professor emeritus of economics at Lund University in Lund, Sweden, and Jonas Herby, special advisor for the Centre for Political Studies in Copenhagen. They began their research by following standard operating procedures: they published a detailed, nine-page protocol on SSRN. After completing their research, Hanke, Jonung, and Herby published a first and second edition of their work as working papers in the Johns Hopkins “Studies in Applied Economics” series. Both editions were mysteriously stonewalled by SSRN.
They were never published.
Steve Hanke of Johns Hopkins University.
We think we have an explanation for this "mysterious outcome."
The "Hanke et al study" the health care academics tried to bury, dared to show almost no effect of the COVID lockdowns on the spread of – or the death rates from the virus. But if that were the case, the public health community would have to admit they made one of the greatest mistakes in medical history – which they did.
China isn't just building coal plants. They are also building out nuclear plants rapidly while the US is standing still:
China will surpass the United States as the world’s largest producer of nuclear power within a decade. The U.S. holds 30% of the world’s nuclear capacity, but has stalled for 30 years. China, meanwhile, tripled its supply in 10 years. Before 1986, the world was adding 500 terawatts of nuclear — enough to power around 750 million homes — per decade, but growth slumped after the Chernobyl disaster.
Oh, and incidentally, the left is against nuclear power even though it emits close to zero carbon emissions. Go figure.
