Henry Ford II:
"Walter, how are you going to get those robots to pay your union dues?"
Walter Reuther:
"Henry, how are you going to get them to buy your cars?"
I just came across yet another article on how automation is going to put everyone out of work in order to increase corporate profit. The dullards who read and write these asinine articles are not capable of thinking one step ahead into the future. Because in their world revenue is no longer a necessary precursor to profit.
Unfortunately for them, Central Banks have made every effort to assure that the rentier class shares in the final pain of this asinine gambit, because Central Banks have subsidized liquidity to assure insolvency. Allow me to explain:
By lowering the cost of capital to 0%, Central banks have subsidized over-investment. In everything. Hence, asset values are inflated and therefore, fixed debts are likewise inflated.
Capacity utilization with Fed Funds rate:
"Free money from free trade. Buy robots"
The only problem is that asset values are not fixed, whereas debts ARE fixed. Therefore while in the short-term Central Banks have made debt service a non-issue, they've also assured inevitable balance sheet insolvency. Because once asset values start falling, insolvency will be a binary event.
But don't tell anyone, because it's still a secret:
U.S. Oil Production
Fracking stocks:
Amazon has entered the shipping business...how many jobs will be lost?
The world's largest container ship only has 19 crew including the janitor, the cook, engineers, captain, navigators, crane operators etc. So as usual Jeff Bezos will be running a loss on his latest venture if he expects salaries to pay for cargo ships. But he's been running losses for 20 years, so it's ok.
But the real question for anyone with half a fucking brain is how many shipping companies will be lost?
A lot. More.
"They bet it all on the jobless consumer. No one saw it coming"
Amazon and Sears
