Bill Bonner

Small Business Support and Wider Issues

Brian Riley Money Matters , , , ,

Silver Liberty EagleBill Bonner (https://uk-mg5.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=adv3o5nver64d) reports that “Amazon has raised $6 billion in additional financing. Investors readily throw their money into the River of No Returns. At only 100 basis points over Treasury borrowing costs, they worry neither about the return on their money, nor the return of their money. Over on the equity side, investors are even more sans soucis. Nasdaq shows Amazon with a p/e of MINUS 714. After 20 years, the giant marketer has never learned to make a profit. The last quarterly report showed it with losses of about $1 a share, or about $2.50 on every hundred dollars of sales”.
This is the equivalent of a 2½% discount on every purchase.
No wonder small traders and everyone else are hurting.
Paul Kruger wrote interestingly in the New York Times in October about Amazon as a monopsonist – a dominant buyer with the power to push prices down. Please see http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/20/opinion/paul-krugman-amazons-monopsony-is-not-ok.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3As%2C%7B%222%22%3A%22RI%3A15%22%7D&_r=0

 

 

Small Country Independence

Brian Riley Political - National and other, Quotation of the day , , ,

Scottish StandardBill Bonner on the 21st February wrote:
“Small states do a better job of controlling their government, their military forces and their debt. Not because they are smarter or more peaceful. But simply because there is less distance between the governed and their governors. Citizens can see what their leaders are up to. If they don’t approve, the politicians can be beaten in the next election, or in the street.
Independence for Scotland? Yes, it’s probably a good idea.”
http://moneyweek.com/bill-bonner-nations-of-the-world-divide/
But later Merryn Somerset-Webb, who lives in Edinburgh, took issue with the suggestion that small governments are, ceteris paribus, better than big ones: “If Scotland votes for independence it will be as a socialist nation, not a wealthy capitalist one. The result will be profound misery. I really don’t think it is something to wish for. It’s already a disaster in the making. What small countries actually do these days if they aren’t tax havens full of educated people (Switzerland) is indulge in one variety or the other of nepotism/theft/corruption/public sector crowding out, and then collapses.”
Bill Bonner then concedes the issue with “She’s probably right about that. Big country or small one, the ruling elite always wants as much mis-government as the country can afford – and often more!
25/2/2014