Other stuff – Page 22 – Outrun Change

More indications of the battle between free enterprise and regulation in Washington’s recreational marijuana market

A reader pointed me toward this report from CNBC: Washington has more pot than it can smoke.

Feels like I hit a jackpot in watching the battle between free enterprise and crushing regulation. Follow along with me as I highlight the story with editorial comments on capitalism and regulation.

You may want to get a fresh cup of coffee. This will be along article.

Why so much discussion?

Why am I spending so much time writing about medical marijuana? As a general matter I don’t give a hoot about this marketplace because I have zero interest in this or any other market for intoxicants.

The medical marijuana markets are a natural experiment in a small, separately visible, newly created market and the impact regulation has on the development of that sort-of-legal industry.

Opportunities to see whether regulations strangle an industry are so limited everywhere else in the economy because other markets are large, well-developed, complex, intertwined, and have already adjusted to regulation.

With medical marijuana we can watch a brand-new industry adjust to brand-new regulations.

Back to the article.

There is apparently a huge excess supply of recreational marijuana over demand in Washington State.

Continue reading “More indications of the battle between free enterprise and regulation in Washington’s recreational marijuana market”

Some data points on pricing in newly legal recreational marijuana. We can already see distortions created by regulation.

Comments by a reader of my blog informed me that wholesale prices of state-legal-federally-illegal recreational marijuana have dropped dramatically. That got me to wondering what has happened to the pricing.

I’m am otherwise totally clueless of the pricing in this market. What I know I learn by reading the ‘net.

Just so everyone knows, I am following this story because it is a natural experiment to see the impact of crushing regulation imposed on a newly emerging industry.

The commenter shared a recent report on CNBC quoting a producer saying the wholesale prices had dropped from $1,700 to $2,200 per ounce down to $700 per ounce.

The range in price is due to different qualities. That would give wholesale prices in the range of $60 to $77 per gram in the recent past to around $25/gram currently.

That gives these data points:

Wholesale
$1,700 to $2,200 per ounce sometime prior to the CNBC article
$700 per ounce at the time of the CNBC article (date unknown)

So using the ‘net, which is the most incredible educational tool ever invented, I search for about 10 minutes and found a lot of great info. Spent another 10 minutes reading promising articles and found the following:

Continue reading “Some data points on pricing in newly legal recreational marijuana. We can already see distortions created by regulation.”

Mr. “Worlds far away”, please let me introduce Mr. “Natural experiment in heavy-handed regulation”.

I have multiple interests on this blog. As is extremely obvious, I have been captivated by the energy revolution created by horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Have also been fascinated by the wide open frontiers of education, publishing, private space exploration, energy, and technology in general.

There are at least two other threads. First, dark worlds far away I’ll never visit, such as selling drugs and sundry other illegal stuff on the net (called “dark nets”). Another thread is the watching how much heavy-handed regulation is dragging down the newly legal industry of recreational marijuana.

Just like the closing scenes of Ghostbusters, those two threads have touched each other and merged.

Continue reading “Mr. “Worlds far away”, please let me introduce Mr. “Natural experiment in heavy-handed regulation”.”

Update on marijuana regulation – #15

Only a few articles I’ve noticed recently on the state legal sales of recreational marijuana. In case you are just noticing my articles on the topic, my interest is to watch the natural experiment of whether overbearing, heavy-handed regulations strangle a brand new industry.

1/15 – KOMO news – Too much pot: Growers struggle with glut of legal weed – This is essentially a story on implementation issues in Washington state. Initially there was a shortage of state-legal marijuana, now there is a glut. Since last summer, growers have harvested 31,000 pounds (I have no idea how that count is determined).

Article says many users are staying with the lower taxed medical marijuana.

Continue reading “Update on marijuana regulation – #15”

Price cut on print books

I’ve dropped the prices for the print copies of my books available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iTunes store.

Here is what you can find on-line:

Tragedy of Fraud – Insider Trading Edition

Story of Scott London’s fall from regional audit partner at KPMG to prison inmate because of his insider trading.

$6.99 in paperback, a $3 price cut
$2.99 in Kindle e-book format, a $2 price cut
Also available at iTunes and Barnes and Noble

Continue reading “Price cut on print books”

NCAA agrees to restore Penn State’s wins. Apparently sanctions for covering up child molestation are merely temporary in addition to being mild.

Just in case it isn’t clear, this is an opinion article.

Under pressure of a lawsuit which could have lifted all sanctions on Penn State for their coverup of Jerry Sandusky’s systemic molestation of young boys, the NCAA agreed to reinstate the 112 wins for the university and Joe Paterno.

Two state politicians filed suit against the NCAA. They modified their suit after it was filed in order to claim the entire consent decree was invalid. They didn’t want any sanctions on Penn State for their help in covering up molestation. The University shouldn’t bear any consequences in their view.

NCAA and the Penn State trustees agreed to a revised consent decree.

One trustee of Penn State, who was willing to be quoted, said there ought not have been any punishment of any sort, but he voted to accept the settlement just so they don’t have talk about the NCAA or the minor costs-of-doing-business sanctions any more.

Continue reading “NCAA agrees to restore Penn State’s wins. Apparently sanctions for covering up child molestation are merely temporary in addition to being mild.”

Knowledge is the source of value and wealth

Gotta’ question for you – How much does the economy weigh? (Cross posted from Attestation Update.)

Can’t answer?

Okay. How ‘bout this – Does much does the economy weight today versus 1950?

Before you answer, consider that I just counted 220 books on the bookshelves in my office. I currently have 195 books on my Kindle.

Now, how much does the economy weight today compared to 60 years ago?

Continue reading “Knowledge is the source of value and wealth”

We lost another hero: Dick Winters passes away

A WWII veteran was once asked by his grandson:

‘Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?’ Grandpa said, ‘No, but I served in a company of heroes.’ “

That, and the following quotes are from an NPR article: Dick Winters, “Bank Of Brothers’ Inspiration, Dies.

Dick Winters, key character in the book and movie Band of Brothers, left us on January 2, 2015.

When he finished his memoir, he told his coauthor: Continue reading “We lost another hero: Dick Winters passes away”

Human trafficking – the dark side of life

Forum News Service has a seven part series on human trafficking in North Dakota dealing with multiple aspects of the prostitution issue. Shift in our cultural perceptions is focusing more on the issue of women getting sucked in and trapped by this destructive world.

The series is set in the Bakken oil field of North Dakota. The general issues apply all across the U.S. This is news because many sides of the downside of economic growth are visible in North Dakota. If the series were set in Los Angeles or New York area, this would be ancient, boring news.

In North Dakota we can easy watch as the reporters describe the devastation of prostitution. The scale of the issue is small enough and new enough in a relatively small state that the story can actually be covered in just seven parts.

One thing I’ve learned in the last few years of blogging is that certain names pop up regularly as authors of routinely superb writing. There is a short list of authors for whom I try to read everything they write. Ms. Dalrymple, who is also a very prolific writer, is one of those.

If you are deeply interested in either the Bakken or the trafficking issue, this is a series you will definitely want to read.

12/4 – Forum News Service in Bismarck Tribune – Trafficking in North Dakota is on the rise, and often the victims can’t escape – Seven part series on human trafficking in the state coauthored by Amy Dalrymple and Katherine Lymn.

First article in the series traces one man from looking on-line for an underage girl through his conviction and sentencing to a five-year prison sentence.

Continue reading “Human trafficking – the dark side of life”

Update on marijuana regulation – #12

Not much in the news lately on the crushing effect of overregulation on the newly legal industry of recreational marijuana. (You now know my opinion and can filter my comments accordingly.)

This post will catch up on a few older articles.

11/8 – The Economist – The Marlboro of marijuana – The legal cannabis industry is run by minnows. As liberalisation spreads, that may not last – Here are a few more regulatory restraints that will strangle the industry: Article says that in Colorado, dispensaries have to grow at least 70% of what they sold and growers had to sell at least 70% of what they grew. That recently changed.

Continue reading “Update on marijuana regulation – #12”

Another glimpse into a world I’ll never visit

Fun thing about reading widely on the ‘net is I get to look into worlds that I’ll never, ever visit on my own. Like the world of buying guns and dope online.

Worlds far away I’ll never visit

11/1 – Economist – The Amazons of the darknet – If you thought the days of buying dope and illegal guns on the ‘net ended when the feds took down Silk Road a year ago, think again. Continue reading “Another glimpse into a world I’ll never visit”

Space flight is rocket science. And expensive in lives.

Bill Whittle comments on the crash of a spaceship.

11/21 – The Firewall – A Crash in the Mojave – Space flight IS rocket science. It is dangerous. So dangerous that people will die learning how to fly in space.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/kzyPLgBqGcw]

He points out a lot of men died in the Mojave Desert paying for the knowledge and information that allows us to fly around 30,000 major domestic commercial flights per day with zero, count ‘em zero, fatalities in thirteen years.

The copilot on the Virgin Galactic flight, Michael Alsbury, had 1,600 hours flight time as a test pilot. Sixteen hundred hours. Test pilot time. You don’t get any better trained than that.

Continue reading “Space flight *is* rocket science. And expensive in lives.”

Why separate blogs for nonprofits, accounting, and coping with change? Why so much discussion on banking and energy?

Why do I have so many blogs?
Why are there separate blogs appealing to the nonprofit world and CPAs?
Why do so many posts talk about banking?
Why so much discussion of energy production?

Might be time to mention again how my writing is organized.

The basic idea is that blogs need to have a narrow focus in terms of topics or issues. Then the blog will gather an audience of people with that interest. Cover too many topics and everyone will lose interest.

That means I have split up the core of my writing into three blogs, each designed to appeal to a different audience. People interested in one of those areas may not be interested in the other topics, so I assign my posts to the blog that will have readers who will be more interested in that discussion. The main blogs are:

Continue reading “Why separate blogs for nonprofits, accounting, and coping with change? Why so much discussion on banking and energy?”

Space travel is rocket science

Two disasters in one week naturally leads us to wondering if private space exploration is safe.

Well, no.

It is rocket science.

And it isn’t safe.

But it is wonderful and will be safe enough soon enough.

11/1 – Marginal Revolution – Space Tourism Still Not Ready for Flight – Continue reading “Space travel *is* rocket science”