SURPRISING STUFF
A great part of the economic system we all subscribe to, and are forced to participate in, is called capitalism.
It’s not a fair system. It can be a fair system, but it generally isn’t. Monopolies rise up and force awful decisions and stuff on so many people around. Think of paying for luggage on airline planes. How rottenly unfair and even ridiculous. But they are all doing it. Think of the gas prices you are seeing skyrocket and yet there’s no real good reason for the terrific increase. The U.S. is now an oil and gas exporter. The country has only bought Russian oil to help Russia. Yet simply the word that Russian oil might be cut off, with no mention of how much the nation doesn’t need it, the prices skyrocket. No oil has been cut off. But the U.S., due to the influence who get to own the oil rights under all of our feet for almost nothing, have our country pegged to OPEC prices in the Middle East. This was done back in the early 1970s when almost everyone thought the world was going to run out of oil.
Today, having no need for OPEC oil, the U.S. sits fat, pretty damned dumb and unhappy, as a few entities and individuals pocket billions, if not trillions, simply because they can. Think about that when you get to the gas station today, and in the coming weeks. They have a monopoly and a quasi-reasonable argument. That’s all they need and off we go. Please, as you go about paying four dollars a gallon for gas, and more, do not get the idea that this is all about suppliers and refiners. It is not. They are all doing it. They are all taking a big bite of the public and the only thing that allows for that is the public not knowing or believing that it’s them doing it.
Bitcoin continues to develop and grow, but problems abound.
Here’s a recent problem. Most of the organizations that place themselves between the actual Bitcoin operations and the consumer/customer (like Plaid, Voyager, Robinhood and more) require financial information to add money to any bitcoin account. What financial information? How about your bank account username and password? Never ever give this information out, except to that bank you have the account at. It’s unknown why these organizations want this data, except they say it is the only way you can transfer money instantly to invest.
That’s not true, as there’s PayPal, Zelle and more. If you give up your bank account username and password, then the entity or person who has that data can withdraw whatever they feel like and you are helpless to do anything about it. You can go to the bank, when you find money has disappeared, but the bank will ask why you gave out your username and password…which is considered tacit permission for the holder of that data to take the money. Don’t give out this data. These ‘middle’ organizations are not banks and are not bound by the same federal rules and regulations, which are necessarily very rigid because of prior misuse of such information.
Business of the Week
Chili’s in Delavan is a new ‘one stop shop’. Customers can now order from all three restaurants shown if ordering online.
