#mercantilism — Public Fediverse posts

“Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor”*…

We’ve become a nation of credit and debit card users. As of this year, Pew reports, 42% of Americans don’t use cash for purchases in a typical week (up from 24% in 2015); another 46% use a mix of cash and plastic; only 12% use mostly (or entirely) cash. The Federal Reserve reports, unsuprisingly, that cash remains the dominant mode for the elderly and the poor; debit cards, for lower-to-middle-income households.

NBER unpacks one little-understood consequence of this shift…

Every time a consumer swipes a credit card, the merchant pays an interchange fee—typically around 1.9 percent of the transaction value—most of which funds the rewards that cardholders receive. Because merchants generally charge the same prices regardless of how customers pay, consumers who use cash or debit cards effectively help finance the rewards enjoyed by credit card users. In Who Pays for Payments? (NBER Working Paper 35067), Mark L. Egan, Gregor Matvos, Amit Seru, Lulu Wang, and Vincent Yao use novel merchant-level data from Fiserv—one of the largest US merchant acquirers—to measure how the payment system redistributes resources.

The primary dataset contains establishment-level payment data from 2006 to 2022, including total payment values, transaction counts, and interchange fees paid for different card types…

… The researchers’ analysis using these datasets suggests that interchange fees transfer approximately $30 billion annually from cash and debit card users to credit card users. Cash users lose about 96 basis points of purchasing power, and regulated debit card users lose roughly 47 basis points, while basic and premium credit card users gain approximately 48 and 59 basis points, respectively. Because credit card use rises with income, the system generates an estimated $9.2 billion annual transfer from households earning less than $150,000 to those earning more.

Two forces moderate this redistribution. First, the tendency for cash, debit, and credit card users to shop at different merchants limits the overlap necessary for cross-subsidization. Second, where overlap does occur, such as at large grocery stores and gas stations, interchange fees tend to be lower due to sector discounts and negotiated rates. Together, these forces reduce the transfer by approximately 25 percent relative to the transfer that would occur with homogeneous consumers and merchants.

The researchers also examine the redistributive consequences of two specific developments in the payment system. The first is the Durbin Amendment, which capped interchange fees on debit cards issued by large banks. The authors show that one perhaps unintended consequence of the amendment was that it primarily benefited credit card users through lower retail prices at the expense of regulated debit card users, who lost approximately $9.6 billion in rewards and free checking benefits. This was a net transfer from middle-income to higher-income households. The second development is the rise of premium credit cards, which grew from 15 percent of credit card volume in 2006 to 60 percent by 2022. This has also been a regressive development. While premium cardholders gained about $7.9 billion, debit card users—not cash users—bore the largest dollar losses because they shop most frequently alongside premium card users…

The rich getting richer: “Who Ultimately Pays Credit Card Interchange Fees?” from @nber.org.

Pair with Annie Lowrey on another burden– a “time tax”– that falls disportionately on the neediest: “How American Bureaucracy (Literally) Steals Years From Your Life“:

Washington currently estimates that Americans spend 12 billion hours a year filling out government forms, meaning the average person spends six 8-hour workdays filing their taxes, signing up for Medicaid, renewing their driver’s licenses, and applying for government loans. At prevailing wages, this uncompensated labor is worth $430 billion a year. If Washington were to create a Department of Bureaucracy to take on the paperwork it shunts to citizens, the agency would require 5.9 million employees, making it four times the size of the active-duty military. The DOB’s payroll would be larger than that of every other federal department combined.

The nation’s paperwork regime frustrates every resident, and particularly lower-income residents who use more government programs and interact more frequently with public officials. The political scientist Elizabeth Cohen has done seminal work exploring time as a potent, if obscure, form of political currency. “The devaluation of a person or group’s political time is a structural obstacle to equality,” she writes. Yet we can’t measure time and effort as easily as we measure dollars, and we don’t even try. The 12-billion-hour estimate is an undercount, and an egregious one…

* James Baldwin (see also Terry Pratchett’s “Boots theory“)

###

As we second-guess secreted subventions, we might spare a thought for Jean-Baptiste Colbert; he died on this date in 1683. A French statesman who served as First Minister of State under the rule of King Louis XIV from 1661 until his death. His lasting impact on the organization of the country’s politics and markets, known as Colbertism, a form of the mercantilism so popular in the Trump Administration today. Colbert also helped craft the Code Noir, a legal instrument that sanctioned an intentionally brutal system of torture and repression to enforce institutional slavery in the French colonial empire and restrict the enterprise of free Black people.

Though Colbert was more competent and less crony-ish than the crew at “work” in D.C. over the last couple of years, his goal of a healthy economy was frustrated by a King whose spending out-ran (and whose favoritism undermined) Colbert’s efforts. In the longer run, many economists suggest that “Colbertism” has contributed to contributed to a lack of adaptability in French industry and a hostility to technological innovation.

source

“Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor”*…

We’ve become a nation of credit and debit card users. As of this year, Pew reports, 42% of Americans don’t use cash for purchases in a typical week (up from 24% in 2015); another 46% use a mix of cash and plastic; only 12% use mostly (or entirely) cash. The Federal Reserve reports, unsuprisingly, that cash remains the dominant mode for the elderly and the poor; debit cards, for lower-to-middle-income households.

NBER unpacks one little-understood consequence of this shift…

Every time a consumer swipes a credit card, the merchant pays an interchange fee—typically around 1.9 percent of the transaction value—most of which funds the rewards that cardholders receive. Because merchants generally charge the same prices regardless of how customers pay, consumers who use cash or debit cards effectively help finance the rewards enjoyed by credit card users. In Who Pays for Payments? (NBER Working Paper 35067), Mark L. Egan, Gregor Matvos, Amit Seru, Lulu Wang, and Vincent Yao use novel merchant-level data from Fiserv—one of the largest US merchant acquirers—to measure how the payment system redistributes resources.

The primary dataset contains establishment-level payment data from 2006 to 2022, including total payment values, transaction counts, and interchange fees paid for different card types…

… The researchers’ analysis using these datasets suggests that interchange fees transfer approximately $30 billion annually from cash and debit card users to credit card users. Cash users lose about 96 basis points of purchasing power, and regulated debit card users lose roughly 47 basis points, while basic and premium credit card users gain approximately 48 and 59 basis points, respectively. Because credit card use rises with income, the system generates an estimated $9.2 billion annual transfer from households earning less than $150,000 to those earning more.

Two forces moderate this redistribution. First, the tendency for cash, debit, and credit card users to shop at different merchants limits the overlap necessary for cross-subsidization. Second, where overlap does occur, such as at large grocery stores and gas stations, interchange fees tend to be lower due to sector discounts and negotiated rates. Together, these forces reduce the transfer by approximately 25 percent relative to the transfer that would occur with homogeneous consumers and merchants.

The researchers also examine the redistributive consequences of two specific developments in the payment system. The first is the Durbin Amendment, which capped interchange fees on debit cards issued by large banks. The authors show that one perhaps unintended consequence of the amendment was that it primarily benefited credit card users through lower retail prices at the expense of regulated debit card users, who lost approximately $9.6 billion in rewards and free checking benefits. This was a net transfer from middle-income to higher-income households. The second development is the rise of premium credit cards, which grew from 15 percent of credit card volume in 2006 to 60 percent by 2022. This has also been a regressive development. While premium cardholders gained about $7.9 billion, debit card users—not cash users—bore the largest dollar losses because they shop most frequently alongside premium card users…

The rich getting richer: “Who Ultimately Pays Credit Card Interchange Fees?” from @nber.org.

Pair with Annie Lowrey on another burden– a “time tax”– that falls disportionately on the neediest: “How American Bureaucracy (Literally) Steals Years From Your Life“:

Washington currently estimates that Americans spend 12 billion hours a year filling out government forms, meaning the average person spends six 8-hour workdays filing their taxes, signing up for Medicaid, renewing their driver’s licenses, and applying for government loans. At prevailing wages, this uncompensated labor is worth $430 billion a year. If Washington were to create a Department of Bureaucracy to take on the paperwork it shunts to citizens, the agency would require 5.9 million employees, making it four times the size of the active-duty military. The DOB’s payroll would be larger than that of every other federal department combined.

The nation’s paperwork regime frustrates every resident, and particularly lower-income residents who use more government programs and interact more frequently with public officials. The political scientist Elizabeth Cohen has done seminal work exploring time as a potent, if obscure, form of political currency. “The devaluation of a person or group’s political time is a structural obstacle to equality,” she writes. Yet we can’t measure time and effort as easily as we measure dollars, and we don’t even try. The 12-billion-hour estimate is an undercount, and an egregious one…

* James Baldwin (see also Terry Pratchett’s “Boots theory“)

###

As we second-guess secreted subventions, we might spare a thought for Jean-Baptiste Colbert; he died on this date in 1683. A French statesman who served as First Minister of State under the rule of King Louis XIV from 1661 until his death. His lasting impact on the organization of the country’s politics and markets, known as Colbertism, a form of the mercantilism so popular in the Trump Administration today. Colbert also helped craft the Code Noir, a legal instrument that sanctioned an intentionally brutal system of torture and repression to enforce institutional slavery in the French colonial empire and restrict the enterprise of free Black people.

Though Colbert was more competent and less crony-ish than the crew at “work” in D.C. over the last couple of years, his goal of a healthy economy was frustrated by a King whose spending out-ran (and whose favoritism undermined) Colbert’s efforts. In the longer run, many economists suggest that “Colbertism” has contributed to contributed to a lack of adaptability in French industry and a hostility to technological innovation.

source

“Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor”*…

We’ve become a nation of credit and debit card users. As of this year, Pew reports, 42% of Americans don’t use cash for purchases in a typical week (up from 24% in 2015); another 46% use a mix of cash and plastic; only 12% use mostly (or entirely) cash. The Federal Reserve reports, unsuprisingly, that cash remains the dominant mode for the elderly and the poor; debit cards, for lower-to-middle-income households.

NBER unpacks one little-understood consequence of this shift…

Every time a consumer swipes a credit card, the merchant pays an interchange fee—typically around 1.9 percent of the transaction value—most of which funds the rewards that cardholders receive. Because merchants generally charge the same prices regardless of how customers pay, consumers who use cash or debit cards effectively help finance the rewards enjoyed by credit card users. In Who Pays for Payments? (NBER Working Paper 35067), Mark L. Egan, Gregor Matvos, Amit Seru, Lulu Wang, and Vincent Yao use novel merchant-level data from Fiserv—one of the largest US merchant acquirers—to measure how the payment system redistributes resources.

The primary dataset contains establishment-level payment data from 2006 to 2022, including total payment values, transaction counts, and interchange fees paid for different card types…

… The researchers’ analysis using these datasets suggests that interchange fees transfer approximately $30 billion annually from cash and debit card users to credit card users. Cash users lose about 96 basis points of purchasing power, and regulated debit card users lose roughly 47 basis points, while basic and premium credit card users gain approximately 48 and 59 basis points, respectively. Because credit card use rises with income, the system generates an estimated $9.2 billion annual transfer from households earning less than $150,000 to those earning more.

Two forces moderate this redistribution. First, the tendency for cash, debit, and credit card users to shop at different merchants limits the overlap necessary for cross-subsidization. Second, where overlap does occur, such as at large grocery stores and gas stations, interchange fees tend to be lower due to sector discounts and negotiated rates. Together, these forces reduce the transfer by approximately 25 percent relative to the transfer that would occur with homogeneous consumers and merchants.

The researchers also examine the redistributive consequences of two specific developments in the payment system. The first is the Durbin Amendment, which capped interchange fees on debit cards issued by large banks. The authors show that one perhaps unintended consequence of the amendment was that it primarily benefited credit card users through lower retail prices at the expense of regulated debit card users, who lost approximately $9.6 billion in rewards and free checking benefits. This was a net transfer from middle-income to higher-income households. The second development is the rise of premium credit cards, which grew from 15 percent of credit card volume in 2006 to 60 percent by 2022. This has also been a regressive development. While premium cardholders gained about $7.9 billion, debit card users—not cash users—bore the largest dollar losses because they shop most frequently alongside premium card users…

The rich getting richer: “Who Ultimately Pays Credit Card Interchange Fees?” from @nber.org.

Pair with Annie Lowrey on another burden– a “time tax”– that falls disportionately on the neediest: “How American Bureaucracy (Literally) Steals Years From Your Life“:

Washington currently estimates that Americans spend 12 billion hours a year filling out government forms, meaning the average person spends six 8-hour workdays filing their taxes, signing up for Medicaid, renewing their driver’s licenses, and applying for government loans. At prevailing wages, this uncompensated labor is worth $430 billion a year. If Washington were to create a Department of Bureaucracy to take on the paperwork it shunts to citizens, the agency would require 5.9 million employees, making it four times the size of the active-duty military. The DOB’s payroll would be larger than that of every other federal department combined.

The nation’s paperwork regime frustrates every resident, and particularly lower-income residents who use more government programs and interact more frequently with public officials. The political scientist Elizabeth Cohen has done seminal work exploring time as a potent, if obscure, form of political currency. “The devaluation of a person or group’s political time is a structural obstacle to equality,” she writes. Yet we can’t measure time and effort as easily as we measure dollars, and we don’t even try. The 12-billion-hour estimate is an undercount, and an egregious one…

* James Baldwin (see also Terry Pratchett’s “Boots theory“)

###

As we second-guess secreted subventions, we might spare a thought for Jean-Baptiste Colbert; he died on this date in 1683. A French statesman who served as First Minister of State under the rule of King Louis XIV from 1661 until his death. His lasting impact on the organization of the country’s politics and markets, known as Colbertism, a form of the mercantilism so popular in the Trump Administration today. Colbert also helped craft the Code Noir, a legal instrument that sanctioned an intentionally brutal system of torture and repression to enforce institutional slavery in the French colonial empire and restrict the enterprise of free Black people.

Though Colbert was more competent and less crony-ish than the crew at “work” in D.C. over the last couple of years, his goal of a healthy economy was frustrated by a King whose spending out-ran (and whose favoritism undermined) Colbert’s efforts. In the longer run, many economists suggest that “Colbertism” has contributed to contributed to a lack of adaptability in French industry and a hostility to technological innovation.

source

“Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor”*…

We’ve become a nation of credit and debit card users. As of this year, Pew reports, 42% of Americans don’t use cash for purchases in a typical week (up from 24% in 2015); another 46% use a mix of cash and plastic; only 12% use mostly (or entirely) cash. The Federal Reserve reports, unsuprisingly, that cash remains the dominant mode for the elderly and the poor; debit cards, for lower-to-middle-income households.

NBER unpacks one little-understood consequence of this shift…

Every time a consumer swipes a credit card, the merchant pays an interchange fee—typically around 1.9 percent of the transaction value—most of which funds the rewards that cardholders receive. Because merchants generally charge the same prices regardless of how customers pay, consumers who use cash or debit cards effectively help finance the rewards enjoyed by credit card users. In Who Pays for Payments? (NBER Working Paper 35067), Mark L. Egan, Gregor Matvos, Amit Seru, Lulu Wang, and Vincent Yao use novel merchant-level data from Fiserv—one of the largest US merchant acquirers—to measure how the payment system redistributes resources.

The primary dataset contains establishment-level payment data from 2006 to 2022, including total payment values, transaction counts, and interchange fees paid for different card types…

… The researchers’ analysis using these datasets suggests that interchange fees transfer approximately $30 billion annually from cash and debit card users to credit card users. Cash users lose about 96 basis points of purchasing power, and regulated debit card users lose roughly 47 basis points, while basic and premium credit card users gain approximately 48 and 59 basis points, respectively. Because credit card use rises with income, the system generates an estimated $9.2 billion annual transfer from households earning less than $150,000 to those earning more.

Two forces moderate this redistribution. First, the tendency for cash, debit, and credit card users to shop at different merchants limits the overlap necessary for cross-subsidization. Second, where overlap does occur, such as at large grocery stores and gas stations, interchange fees tend to be lower due to sector discounts and negotiated rates. Together, these forces reduce the transfer by approximately 25 percent relative to the transfer that would occur with homogeneous consumers and merchants.

The researchers also examine the redistributive consequences of two specific developments in the payment system. The first is the Durbin Amendment, which capped interchange fees on debit cards issued by large banks. The authors show that one perhaps unintended consequence of the amendment was that it primarily benefited credit card users through lower retail prices at the expense of regulated debit card users, who lost approximately $9.6 billion in rewards and free checking benefits. This was a net transfer from middle-income to higher-income households. The second development is the rise of premium credit cards, which grew from 15 percent of credit card volume in 2006 to 60 percent by 2022. This has also been a regressive development. While premium cardholders gained about $7.9 billion, debit card users—not cash users—bore the largest dollar losses because they shop most frequently alongside premium card users…

The rich getting richer: “Who Ultimately Pays Credit Card Interchange Fees?” from @nber.org.

Pair with Annie Lowrey on another burden– a “time tax”– that falls disportionately on the neediest: “How American Bureaucracy (Literally) Steals Years From Your Life“:

Washington currently estimates that Americans spend 12 billion hours a year filling out government forms, meaning the average person spends six 8-hour workdays filing their taxes, signing up for Medicaid, renewing their driver’s licenses, and applying for government loans. At prevailing wages, this uncompensated labor is worth $430 billion a year. If Washington were to create a Department of Bureaucracy to take on the paperwork it shunts to citizens, the agency would require 5.9 million employees, making it four times the size of the active-duty military. The DOB’s payroll would be larger than that of every other federal department combined.

The nation’s paperwork regime frustrates every resident, and particularly lower-income residents who use more government programs and interact more frequently with public officials. The political scientist Elizabeth Cohen has done seminal work exploring time as a potent, if obscure, form of political currency. “The devaluation of a person or group’s political time is a structural obstacle to equality,” she writes. Yet we can’t measure time and effort as easily as we measure dollars, and we don’t even try. The 12-billion-hour estimate is an undercount, and an egregious one…

* James Baldwin (see also Terry Pratchett’s “Boots theory“)

###

As we second-guess secreted subventions, we might spare a thought for Jean-Baptiste Colbert; he died on this date in 1683. A French statesman who served as First Minister of State under the rule of King Louis XIV from 1661 until his death. His lasting impact on the organization of the country’s politics and markets, known as Colbertism, a form of the mercantilism so popular in the Trump Administration today. Colbert also helped craft the Code Noir, a legal instrument that sanctioned an intentionally brutal system of torture and repression to enforce institutional slavery in the French colonial empire and restrict the enterprise of free Black people.

Though Colbert was more competent and less crony-ish than the crew at “work” in D.C. over the last couple of years, his goal of a healthy economy was frustrated by a King whose spending out-ran (and whose favoritism undermined) Colbert’s efforts. In the longer run, many economists suggest that “Colbertism” has contributed to contributed to a lack of adaptability in French industry and a hostility to technological innovation.

source

“Beyond the Ceasefire: The Middle East, Hormuz and the New Mercantilism”

by Craig Murray in Savage Minds on Substack

@[email protected]
@[email protected]
@[email protected]
@iran
@iraq
@palestinenews

“While the US/Israeli alliance were defeated in their attempt to impose regime change on Iran, and indeed have consolidated the popular support of the Iranian government, they have succeeded in expanding Greater Israel. Israel has ethnically cleared and devastated a vast swathe of Southern Lebanon, expanding its military footprint, and notably attempting to repeat its ploy from November 2024 of pushing forward its armour under cover of ceasefire”

https://open.substack.com/pub/savageminds/p/beyond-the-ceasefire

#Press #SocialMedia #Iran #War #Trump #Israel #OperationEpsteinFury #OperationEpicMistake #RegimeChange #WarCrimes #CrimesAgainstHumanity #Hormuz #Empire #Collapse #US #Sanctions #EconomicWarfare #Hegemony #MoU #Negotiations #Switzerland #Mercantilism #GreaterIsrael #Lebanon #Syria #Hezbollah

“Beyond the Ceasefire: The Middle East, Hormuz and the New Mercantilism”

by Craig Murray in Savage Minds on Substack

@[email protected]
@[email protected]
@[email protected]
@iran
@iraq
@palestinenews

“While the US/Israeli alliance were defeated in their attempt to impose regime change on Iran, and indeed have consolidated the popular support of the Iranian government, they have succeeded in expanding Greater Israel. Israel has ethnically cleared and devastated a vast swathe of Southern Lebanon, expanding its military footprint, and notably attempting to repeat its ploy from November 2024 of pushing forward its armour under cover of ceasefire”

https://open.substack.com/pub/savageminds/p/beyond-the-ceasefire

#Press #SocialMedia #Iran #War #Trump #Israel #OperationEpsteinFury #OperationEpicMistake #RegimeChange #WarCrimes #CrimesAgainstHumanity #Hormuz #Empire #Collapse #US #Sanctions #EconomicWarfare #Hegemony #MoU #Negotiations #Switzerland #Mercantilism #GreaterIsrael #Lebanon #Syria #Hezbollah

“Beyond the Ceasefire: The Middle East, Hormuz and the New Mercantilism”

by Craig Murray in Savage Minds on Substack

@[email protected]
@[email protected]
@[email protected]
@iran
@iraq
@palestinenews

“While the US/Israeli alliance were defeated in their attempt to impose regime change on Iran, and indeed have consolidated the popular support of the Iranian government, they have succeeded in expanding Greater Israel. Israel has ethnically cleared and devastated a vast swathe of Southern Lebanon, expanding its military footprint, and notably attempting to repeat its ploy from November 2024 of pushing forward its armour under cover of ceasefire”

https://open.substack.com/pub/savageminds/p/beyond-the-ceasefire

#Press #SocialMedia #Iran #War #Trump #Israel #OperationEpsteinFury #OperationEpicMistake #RegimeChange #WarCrimes #CrimesAgainstHumanity #Hormuz #Empire #Collapse #US #Sanctions #EconomicWarfare #Hegemony #MoU #Negotiations #Switzerland #Mercantilism #GreaterIsrael #Lebanon #Syria #Hezbollah

“Beyond the Ceasefire: The Middle East, Hormuz and the New Mercantilism”

by Craig Murray in Savage Minds on Substack

@[email protected]
@[email protected]
@[email protected]
@iran
@iraq
@palestinenews

“While the US/Israeli alliance were defeated in their attempt to impose regime change on Iran, and indeed have consolidated the popular support of the Iranian government, they have succeeded in expanding Greater Israel. Israel has ethnically cleared and devastated a vast swathe of Southern Lebanon, expanding its military footprint, and notably attempting to repeat its ploy from November 2024 of pushing forward its armour under cover of ceasefire”

https://open.substack.com/pub/savageminds/p/beyond-the-ceasefire

#Press #SocialMedia #Iran #War #Trump #Israel #OperationEpsteinFury #OperationEpicMistake #RegimeChange #WarCrimes #CrimesAgainstHumanity #Hormuz #Empire #Collapse #US #Sanctions #EconomicWarfare #Hegemony #MoU #Negotiations #Switzerland #Mercantilism #GreaterIsrael #Lebanon #Syria #Hezbollah

This is actually very interesting and very similar to a thing #RichardMedhurst spoke about a while ago.

Medhurst called it some kind of modern piracy, while Murray calls it mercantilism.

Basically, the US is the largest oil producer and does not rely on the strait of Hormuz. So either closing the strait or imposing tariffs to use it doesn't harm US exports. It only harms their competitors.

Any agreement with Iran, the US isn't likely to abide to. This is something the US has shown numerous times. They might make peace for the PR value, but what happens next is another story.

#US #Iran #Oil #Mercantilism #Hormuz #Trump

This is actually very interesting and very similar to a thing #RichardMedhurst spoke about a while ago.

Medhurst called it some kind of modern piracy, while Murray calls it mercantilism.

Basically, the US is the largest oil producer and does not rely on the strait of Hormuz. So either closing the strait or imposing tariffs to use it doesn't harm US exports. It only harms their competitors.

Any agreement with Iran, the US isn't likely to abide to. This is something the US has shown numerous times. They might make peace for the PR value, but what happens next is another story.

#US #Iran #Oil #Mercantilism #Hormuz #Trump

This is actually very interesting and very similar to a thing #RichardMedhurst spoke about a while ago.

Medhurst called it some kind of modern piracy, while Murray calls it mercantilism.

Basically, the US is the largest oil producer and does not rely on the strait of Hormuz. So either closing the strait or imposing tariffs to use it doesn't harm US exports. It only harms their competitors.

Any agreement with Iran, the US isn't likely to abide to. This is something the US has shown numerous times. They might make peace for the PR value, but what happens next is another story.

#US #Iran #Oil #Mercantilism #Hormuz #Trump

This is actually very interesting and very similar to a thing #RichardMedhurst spoke about a while ago.

Medhurst called it some kind of modern piracy, while Murray calls it mercantilism.

Basically, the US is the largest oil producer and does not rely on the strait of Hormuz. So either closing the strait or imposing tariffs to use it doesn't harm US exports. It only harms their competitors.

Any agreement with Iran, the US isn't likely to abide to. This is something the US has shown numerous times. They might make peace for the PR value, but what happens next is another story.

#US #Iran #Oil #Mercantilism #Hormuz #Trump

A quotation from Samuel Johnson

That every man would be rich if a wish could obtain riches, is a position which I believe few will contest, at least in a nation like ours, in which commerce has kindled a universal emulation of wealth, and in which money receives all the honours which are the proper right of knowledge and of virtue.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Essay (1759-09-08), The Idler, No. 73

More about this quote: wist.info/johnson-samuel/83923…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #samueljohnson #avarice #greed #honors #knowledge #mercantilism #riches #virtue #wealth #wealthiness

A quotation from Samuel Johnson

That every man would be rich if a wish could obtain riches, is a position which I believe few will contest, at least in a nation like ours, in which commerce has kindled a universal emulation of wealth, and in which money receives all the honours which are the proper right of knowledge and of virtue.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Essay (1759-09-08), The Idler, No. 73

More about this quote: wist.info/johnson-samuel/83923…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #samueljohnson #avarice #greed #honors #knowledge #mercantilism #riches #virtue #wealth #wealthiness

A quotation from Samuel Johnson

That every man would be rich if a wish could obtain riches, is a position which I believe few will contest, at least in a nation like ours, in which commerce has kindled a universal emulation of wealth, and in which money receives all the honours which are the proper right of knowledge and of virtue.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Essay (1759-09-08), The Idler, No. 73

More about this quote: wist.info/johnson-samuel/83923…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #samueljohnson #avarice #greed #honors #knowledge #mercantilism #riches #virtue #wealth #wealthiness

A quotation from Samuel Johnson

That every man would be rich if a wish could obtain riches, is a position which I believe few will contest, at least in a nation like ours, in which commerce has kindled a universal emulation of wealth, and in which money receives all the honours which are the proper right of knowledge and of virtue.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Essay (1759-09-08), The Idler, No. 73

More about this quote: wist.info/johnson-samuel/83923…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #samueljohnson #avarice #greed #honors #knowledge #mercantilism #riches #virtue #wealth #wealthiness

It is sort of absurd that in this day and age, countries that grow cocoa are nonentities for chocolate products, while countries where it's hard to even grow it in a lab are world-famous for theirs.
(The author is actually slightly allergic to cocoa and doesn't consume any, but is still annoyed)

#mercantilism

It is sort of absurd that in this day and age, countries that grow cocoa are nonentities for chocolate products, while countries where it's hard to even grow it in a lab are world-famous for theirs.
(The author is actually slightly allergic to cocoa and doesn't consume any, but is still annoyed)

#mercantilism

It is sort of absurd that in this day and age, countries that grow cocoa are nonentities for chocolate products, while countries where it's hard to even grow it in a lab are world-famous for theirs.
(The author is actually slightly allergic to cocoa and doesn't consume any, but is still annoyed)

#mercantilism

It is sort of absurd that in this day and age, countries that grow cocoa are nonentities for chocolate products, while countries where it's hard to even grow it in a lab are world-famous for theirs.
(The author is actually slightly allergic to cocoa and doesn't consume any, but is still annoyed)

#mercantilism

On this day, 250 years ago, Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith laid the first groundwork for classical economics with his magnum opus, The Wealth of Nations, which challenged the prevailing European attitude favoring mercantilism. A full copy can be read on Wikisource (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Wealth_of_Nations).

#year1776 #AdamSmith #classicalEconomics #freeMarkets #liberalism #mercantilism #TheWealthOfNations

How many more Americans would live below the poverty line if the US government were to ban all imports of consumer goods?
#protectionism #importsubstitution #mercantilism #autarky #tradebarriers #tradewars #poverty #povertyline #americans #affordabilitycrisis #inflation #tradepolicy #usa #donaldtrump #tariffs #consumergoods #economics #imports

How many more Americans would live below the poverty line if the US government were to ban all imports of consumer goods?
#protectionism #importsubstitution #mercantilism #autarky #tradebarriers #tradewars #poverty #povertyline #americans #affordabilitycrisis #inflation #tradepolicy #usa #donaldtrump #tariffs #consumergoods #economics #imports

How many more Americans would live below the poverty line if the US government were to ban all imports of consumer goods?
#protectionism #importsubstitution #mercantilism #autarky #tradebarriers #tradewars #poverty #povertyline #americans #affordabilitycrisis #inflation #tradepolicy #usa #donaldtrump #tariffs #consumergoods #economics #imports

5 Trump #Saudi grifts revealed

Scale & scope of presidential #mercantilism is breathtaking

#Trump family & business partners collected $320 million in fees from new #cryptocurrency, brokered overseas real estate deals worth billions of dollars & are opening exclusive club in Washington called Executive Branch charging $500,000 apiece to join, all in the past few months alone

https://thedemlabs.org/2025/11/23/trump-saudi-grifts/

#corruption #DictatorTrump #tyrant #DementiaDon #violence #mafia #traitor #ComradeKrasnov

5 Trump #Saudi grifts revealed

Scale & scope of presidential #mercantilism is breathtaking

#Trump family & business partners collected $320 million in fees from new #cryptocurrency, brokered overseas real estate deals worth billions of dollars & are opening exclusive club in Washington called Executive Branch charging $500,000 apiece to join, all in the past few months alone

https://thedemlabs.org/2025/11/23/trump-saudi-grifts/

#corruption #DictatorTrump #tyrant #DementiaDon #violence #mafia #traitor #ComradeKrasnov

5 Trump #Saudi grifts revealed

Scale & scope of presidential #mercantilism is breathtaking

#Trump family & business partners collected $320 million in fees from new #cryptocurrency, brokered overseas real estate deals worth billions of dollars & are opening exclusive club in Washington called Executive Branch charging $500,000 apiece to join, all in the past few months alone

https://thedemlabs.org/2025/11/23/trump-saudi-grifts/

#corruption #DictatorTrump #tyrant #DementiaDon #violence #mafia #traitor #ComradeKrasnov

5 Trump #Saudi grifts revealed

Scale & scope of presidential #mercantilism is breathtaking

#Trump family & business partners collected $320 million in fees from new #cryptocurrency, brokered overseas real estate deals worth billions of dollars & are opening exclusive club in Washington called Executive Branch charging $500,000 apiece to join, all in the past few months alone

https://thedemlabs.org/2025/11/23/trump-saudi-grifts/

#corruption #DictatorTrump #tyrant #DementiaDon #violence #mafia #traitor #ComradeKrasnov

Why America is set to lose its mercantilist game

Under Donald Trump, the world has taken a sharp turn back toward the 17th century doctrine of mercantilism…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Economy #%tariff #Business #chinaustrade #dumping #mercantilism #TradeWar #WTO
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/184039/

🚨 #OpenAccess 🚨 This article is also available in #English 👇 doi.org/10.1017/ahss... #mercantilism #diplomacy #animals #skystorians

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:ynwfzn2lk65cgy364cmovmtq/post/3lyzmq3dt5s2p

Animal Mercantilism: Race Smug...

🚨 #OpenAccess 🚨 This article is also available in #English 👇 doi.org/10.1017/ahss... #mercantilism #diplomacy #animals #skystorians

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:ynwfzn2lk65cgy364cmovmtq/post/3lyzmq3dt5s2p

Animal Mercantilism: Race Smug...

A couple of people mentioned that the 'Capitalism ~ a Zero-Sum Game?' episode was a bit dense and difficult to take in, so I've relaxed the edit a little and added some clarifications. #Capitalism #Mercantilism #Socialism #Economics #Economy #Society #WallStreet #ZeroSum #NonZeroSum

Capitalism ~ a Zero-Sum Game?

A couple of people mentioned that the 'Capitalism ~ a Zero-Sum Game?' episode was a bit dense and difficult to take in, so I've relaxed the edit a little and added some clarifications. #Capitalism #Mercantilism #Socialism #Economics #Economy #Society #WallStreet #ZeroSum #NonZeroSum

Capitalism ~ a Zero-Sum Game?

A couple of people mentioned that the 'Capitalism ~ a Zero-Sum Game?' episode was a bit dense and difficult to take in, so I've relaxed the edit a little and added some clarifications. #Capitalism #Mercantilism #Socialism #Economics #Economy #Society #WallStreet #ZeroSum #NonZeroSum

Capitalism ~ a Zero-Sum Game?

A couple of people mentioned that the 'Capitalism ~ a Zero-Sum Game?' episode was a bit dense and difficult to take in, so I've relaxed the edit a little and added some clarifications. #Capitalism #Mercantilism #Socialism #Economics #Economy #Society #WallStreet #ZeroSum #NonZeroSum

Capitalism ~ a Zero-Sum Game?

Donald Trump’s trade policy is mercantilism. Crude & simple: A policy of empires which fight zero-sum-games.

The same policy of economic warfare, so oppressive and unfair, that it prompted the US revolution & war of independence as a response.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercantilism
#mercantilism #empire #usa #revolution

Donald Trump’s trade policy is mercantilism. Crude & simple: A policy of empires which fight zero-sum-games.

The same policy of economic warfare, so oppressive and unfair, that it prompted the US revolution & war of independence as a response.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercantilism
#mercantilism #empire #usa #revolution

Donald Trump’s trade policy is mercantilism. Crude & simple: A policy of empires which fight zero-sum-games.

The same policy of economic warfare, so oppressive and unfair, that it prompted the US revolution & war of independence as a response.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercantilism
#mercantilism #empire #usa #revolution

Donald Trump’s trade policy is mercantilism. Crude & simple: A policy of empires which fight zero-sum-games.

The same policy of economic warfare, so oppressive and unfair, that it prompted the US revolution & war of independence as a response.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercantilism
#mercantilism #empire #usa #revolution

@rms @Piratenpartij @piratenpartei @piratepartyau @PiratenMastodon

I see a very clear #PirateParty case here:

Let’s rewrite the IP law that gives US companies an edge over EU technology companies, and make it work for us instea.

USA is engaged in classic #mercantilism: Use threats & international trade agreements to benefit it’s own companies while undercutting the same sector in potential competitor states.

@rms @Piratenpartij @piratenpartei @piratepartyau @PiratenMastodon

I see a very clear #PirateParty case here:

Let’s rewrite the IP law that gives US companies an edge over EU technology companies, and make it work for us instea.

USA is engaged in classic #mercantilism: Use threats & international trade agreements to benefit it’s own companies while undercutting the same sector in potential competitor states.

@rms @Piratenpartij @piratenpartei @piratepartyau @PiratenMastodon

I see a very clear #PirateParty case here:

Let’s rewrite the IP law that gives US companies an edge over EU technology companies, and make it work for us instea.

USA is engaged in classic #mercantilism: Use threats & international trade agreements to benefit it’s own companies while undercutting the same sector in potential competitor states.

@rms @Piratenpartij @piratenpartei @piratepartyau @PiratenMastodon

I see a very clear #PirateParty case here:

Let’s rewrite the IP law that gives US companies an edge over EU technology companies, and make it work for us instea.

USA is engaged in classic #mercantilism: Use threats & international trade agreements to benefit it’s own companies while undercutting the same sector in potential competitor states.

#AdamSmith on #Mercantilism https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2025/05/adam-smith-on-mercantilism.html

#AdamSmith on #Mercantilism https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2025/05/adam-smith-on-mercantilism.html

#AdamSmith on #Mercantilism https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2025/05/adam-smith-on-mercantilism.html

#AdamSmith on #Mercantilism https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2025/05/adam-smith-on-mercantilism.html

"Upon leaving politics in 2009, the well-connected and effortlessly Anglophone Merz became a senior counsel for Chicago-based law firm Mayer Brown and the supervisory council chairman of the German operations of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager."

by Dominik A. Leusder at Jacobin: https://jacobin.com/2025/05/germany-merz-chancellor-cdu-neoliberalism/

#recession #Germany #assetManagement #law #CDU #budget #austerity #Merkel #industrialPolicy #AngelaMerkel #FriedrichMerz #Merz #ReArmEurope #rearmament #EU #exports #mercantilism #neoliberalism #Jacobin

"Upon leaving politics in 2009, the well-connected and effortlessly Anglophone Merz became a senior counsel for Chicago-based law firm Mayer Brown and the supervisory council chairman of the German operations of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager."

by Dominik A. Leusder at Jacobin: https://jacobin.com/2025/05/germany-merz-chancellor-cdu-neoliberalism/

#recession #Germany #assetManagement #law #CDU #budget #austerity #Merkel #industrialPolicy #AngelaMerkel #FriedrichMerz #Merz #ReArmEurope #rearmament #EU #exports #mercantilism #neoliberalism #Jacobin

"Upon leaving politics in 2009, the well-connected and effortlessly Anglophone Merz became a senior counsel for Chicago-based law firm Mayer Brown and the supervisory council chairman of the German operations of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager."

by Dominik A. Leusder at Jacobin: https://jacobin.com/2025/05/germany-merz-chancellor-cdu-neoliberalism/

#recession #Germany #assetManagement #law #CDU #budget #austerity #Merkel #industrialPolicy #AngelaMerkel #FriedrichMerz #Merz #ReArmEurope #rearmament #EU #exports #mercantilism #neoliberalism #Jacobin

"Upon leaving politics in 2009, the well-connected and effortlessly Anglophone Merz became a senior counsel for Chicago-based law firm Mayer Brown and the supervisory council chairman of the German operations of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager."

by Dominik A. Leusder at Jacobin: https://jacobin.com/2025/05/germany-merz-chancellor-cdu-neoliberalism/

#recession #Germany #assetManagement #law #CDU #budget #austerity #Merkel #industrialPolicy #AngelaMerkel #FriedrichMerz #Merz #ReArmEurope #rearmament #EU #exports #mercantilism #neoliberalism #Jacobin

Ah, #Wikipedia, the place where history professors go to cry 😢 and conspiracy theorists go to edit ✏️. Dive into the thrilling world of #mercantilism, where economic policies are as outdated as your grandma's fax machine 📠. Spoiler alert: It's just countries hoarding gold like it's a Fortnite game 🪙.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercantilism #EconomicHistory #ConspiracyTheories #GoldHoarding #HackerNews #ngated

Ah, #Wikipedia, the place where history professors go to cry 😢 and conspiracy theorists go to edit ✏️. Dive into the thrilling world of #mercantilism, where economic policies are as outdated as your grandma's fax machine 📠. Spoiler alert: It's just countries hoarding gold like it's a Fortnite game 🪙.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercantilism #EconomicHistory #ConspiracyTheories #GoldHoarding #HackerNews #ngated

Ah, #Wikipedia, the place where history professors go to cry 😢 and conspiracy theorists go to edit ✏️. Dive into the thrilling world of #mercantilism, where economic policies are as outdated as your grandma's fax machine 📠. Spoiler alert: It's just countries hoarding gold like it's a Fortnite game 🪙.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercantilism #EconomicHistory #ConspiracyTheories #GoldHoarding #HackerNews #ngated

Ah, #Wikipedia, the place where history professors go to cry 😢 and conspiracy theorists go to edit ✏️. Dive into the thrilling world of #mercantilism, where economic policies are as outdated as your grandma's fax machine 📠. Spoiler alert: It's just countries hoarding gold like it's a Fortnite game 🪙.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercantilism #EconomicHistory #ConspiracyTheories #GoldHoarding #HackerNews #ngated

Mercantilism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercantilism

#HackerNews #Mercantilism #EconomicTheory #History #TradePolicy #Finance

Mercantilism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercantilism

#HackerNews #Mercantilism #EconomicTheory #History #TradePolicy #Finance

Mercantilism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercantilism

#HackerNews #Mercantilism #EconomicTheory #History #TradePolicy #Finance

For the people who talk about "Late Stage Capitalism," this isn't #LateStageCapitalism. This is #Mercantilism, an economic model discarded by the mid 1800's.

https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/03/trump-declares-a-trade-war-on-uninhabited-islands-us-military-and-economic-logic/

#LateStageMercantilism

For the people who talk about "Late Stage Capitalism," this isn't #LateStageCapitalism. This is #Mercantilism, an economic model discarded by the mid 1800's.

https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/03/trump-declares-a-trade-war-on-uninhabited-islands-us-military-and-economic-logic/

#LateStageMercantilism