I had the opportunity to pick up a huge batch of slides a while back. These are pictures span from as early as the late 1940s to as late as the early 1990s. These came to me second hand but the original source was a combination of estate sales and Goodwill. There are several thousand...maybe as many as 10,000. I will be scanning some from time to time and posting them here for posterity.
Apparently, getting your pictures processed as slides used to be a fairly common thing but it was a phenomenon I missed out on. However, my Grandfather had a few dozen slides (circa late 1950s) that I acquired after he died. That along with having some negatives I wanted to scan is what prompted me to buy a somewhat decent flatbed scanner that could handle slides and negatives, an Epson V600. It can scan up to four slides at a time with various post-processing options and does a decent enough job.
This set continues a rather large batch of slides that originally came from an estate sale and appear to have belonged to a locally well known photographer (or perhaps a friend or family member) from the Spokane Washington area and later Northern Idaho named Leo Oestreicher. He was known for his portrait and landscape photography and especially for post cards. His career started in the 1930s and he died in 1990. These slides contain a lot of landscape and portrait photos but also a lot of photos from day to day life and various vacations around the world. Here's an article on him from 1997 which is the only info I have found on him: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/jan/04/photos-of-a-lifetime-museum-acquisition-of-leo/
Many of these slides had the date they were processed stamped or printed on them. I've found that in cases where I could verify the date, either because a more specific date was hand written or there was something to specifically date the photo in the photo itself, that this date has typically been the same month the photos were taken. In other words, I expect that in MOST cases these photos were taken relatively near the processing date.
Click on one of the images or the link below to also see versions processed with color restoration and Digital ICE which is a hardware based dust and scratch remover, a feature of the Epson V600 scanner I am using. There are also versions processed with the simpler dust removal option along with color restoration.
These photos seem to be some of the oldest I have come across. The first one might not be as old as the others. Obviously it is from Christmas, but it is probably from the late 1950s or early 1960s. However, the other three appear to be from the 1940s based on their somewhat cryptic labels and appear to have been taken at a horse track somewhere. The flags all have "W.P." which may be what one of the labels refers to. A quick google search revealed a White Pines County horse race that's been going on since 1934 in Nevada. Could be that's where these were taken but it isn't obvious to me. Honestly, I'm a bit skeptical these were taken in the 1940s. Kodachrome film had been around for a few years by then though so it is possible and I don't know what else the 1941 and 1942 these slides are labeled with would refer to. I'm not enough of a fashion expert to be able to tell if the clothes are 1940s vintage.
WP 1941 - flags on roof
AP 1941 - BFL
WP 1942 - Crowd - Derby Day 1942
The entire collection that has been scanned and uploaded so far can also be found here.
The most widely-used metrics of consumer price inflation are hitting their highest levels in decades, with the Consumer Price Index rising 6.8 percent just from November 2020 to November 2021. These severe price hikes sound abstract—but a new Ivy League analysis shows how the ongoing rise in prices will hurt average households.
The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania ran the numbers to analyze what American households will have to spend in 2021 to maintain the same living standard from 2020 or 2019. Their analysis reports that “inflation in 2021 will require the average U.S. household to spend around $3,500 more in 2021 to achieve the same level of consumption of goods and services as in recent previous years.”
That’s right: Thanks to the ongoing price inflation, families basically just got $3,500 poorer. The Wharton analysis also notes that lower-income households will be hit even harder by these price increases than higher-earning families, because lower-income families tend to spend relatively more of their money on particular goods that have seen the heaviest price hikes.
As families across the country are realizing, inflation is not just some abstract economic phenomenon. It hurts the finances of struggling Americans and makes it harder for families to put food on the table. But there’s another element of this that the public needs to remember: Today’s inflation is ultimately rooted in government policy choices.
Chiefly to blame is the Federal Reserve’s decision to engage in unprecedented digital money-printing to “stimulate” the economy during the COVID-19 recession. As FEE economist Peter Jacobsen has explained, “If more dollars chase the exact same goods, prices will rise.”
This graph shows just how drastic the money-printing binge was:
The increase in prices that stems from increasing the supply of money, as discussed above, is how free-market economists define inflation. But the broader increase in consumer prices captured by the Consumer Price Index also includes price increases influenced by other causes.
For example, during the pandemic, different levels of government all enacted restrictions on economic activity. By reducing Americans’ ability to produce goods and provide services, the government decreased supply. This, rather predictably, leads to higher consumer prices when the things people want become harder to come by.
This isn’t technically “inflation,” but it influences consumer prices and hits Americans in the wallet nonetheless. Regardless, at the end of the day, most of the price increases hurting families right now ultimately trace back to government policy choices in one form or another.
So, the $3,500 cost being imposed on average American families is not just an unlucky occurrence. It is effectively a “stealth tax,” a way the government is taking from us to fund its various schemes while making it look like private companies are the cause of the problem. You don’t need to be an Ivy League economist to see why that’s such an outrage.
Last week New York Times video journalist Johnny Harris asked a simple question.
“What do Democrats actually do when they have all the power?”
It turns out that 18 states in the US are effectively run by Democrats, who control both the executive and legislative branches. As Harris notes, Democratic leaders tend to blame Republicans for foiling their progressive plans, but that’s hardly the case in these 18 states where Republicans stand well away from the levers of power.
To answer his question—what do Democrats do when they have power?—Harris teamed up with Binyamin Appelbaum, the lead writer on business and economics on the Times editorial board and author of The Economists' Hour.
What they found may surprise you.
'Housing Is a Human Right'
First, Harris and Applebaum drilled into the 2020 Democratic Party Platform to see which values were most important to Democrats. They then focused on a particular state: California, the “quintessential liberal state” where Democrats rule with ironclad majorities and control the government in most major cities. Finally, the journalists decided to look at one specific policy: housing.
As Harris notes, housing policy is not exactly sexy stuff. But Applebaum stresses just how important housing is in battling inequality.
“Looking at California, you have to look at housing,” Applebaum says. “You cannot say you are against income inequality in America unless you are willing to have affordable housing built in your neighborhood….The neighborhood where you are born has a huge influence on the rest of your life.”
Moreover, Harris points out that Democrats overwhelmingly agree on its vital importance, noting that the word housing is mentioned more than 100 times in the Democrats’ platform. Indeed, Democrats are shown repeating a common mantra in the Times video.
“Housing is a human right.”
“Housing is a human right.”
“Housing is a human right.”
So How Does California Score on Housing?
Democrats may say housing is a human right, but Applebaum notes their actions say something else, at least in California.
“You know those signs where you drive into a state and it says ‘Welcome to California'?” asks Applebaum. “You might as well replace them with signs that say KEEP OUT. Because in California the cost of housing is so high that for many people it’s simply unaffordable.”
As the Los Angeles Timesnoted in 2019, California has “an overregulation problem,” which is why nine of the 15 priciest metro areas in the US are in California and the median price of a house in San Diego is $830,000. In some cases, people have had to wait 20 years to build a pair of single family homes. (Applebaum, it’s worth noting, appears to misdiagnose the problem. He complains that “the state has simply for the most part stopped building housing.” Perhaps Applebaum simply misspoke, but it’s worth noting the state doesn’t need to build a single unit of housing; it simply needs to step back and allow the market to function.)
Regulations, however, aren't the full story. As Harris notes, Californians themselves have fought tooth and nail to keep higher-density affordable housing out of their neighborhoods. Palo Alto is cited as an example, where voters in 2013 overturned a unanimous city council vote to rezone a 2.46-acre site to enable a housing development with 60 units for low-income seniors and 12 single-family homes.
“I think people aren’t living their values,” Applebaum says. “There’s an aspect of sort of greed here.”
Housing isn’t the only area the Times journalists find where progressives fail to “live their values.” Washington state having the most regressive tax rate in the US is cited as another example, as are the “gerrymandered” school districts in states like Illinois and Connecticut that consign low-income families to the least-funded schools because of their zip code.
The journalists are left with a gloomy conclusion.
“For some of these foundational Democratic values of housing equality, progressive taxation, and education equality, Democrats don’t actually embody their values very well," Harris says.
Applebaum is even more blunt.
“Blue states are the problem,” the economics writer says. “Blue states are where the housing crisis is located. Blue states are where the disparities in education funding are the most dramatic. Blue states are the places where tens of thousands of homeless people are living on the streets. Blue states are the places where economic inequality is increasing most quickly in this country. This is not a problem of not doing well enough; it is a situation where blue states are the problem.”
Harris says affluent liberals “tend to be really good at showing up at the marches” and talking about their concerns over inequality. But when rubber meets the road, they tend to make decisions based on a different calculus: what benefits them personally.
The Butcher, the Brewer, and the Baker
For some, the findings and claims of the Times journalists could be jarring. But they are likely no surprise to FEE readers.
One of the pillars of public choice theory—a school of economics pioneered by Nobel Prize-winning economist James Buchanan—is that people make decisions based primarily on self-interest. (People act out of concern for others, too, but these interests tend to be secondary to self-interest.) Buchanan’s theory rests on the idea that all groups of people tend to reach decisions in this manner, including people acting in the political marketplace such as voters, politicians, and bureaucrats.
Many believe that self interest is part of the human condition, something as natural as hunger, love, and procreation. Harnessing the instinct of self-interest in a healthy way—through free exchange—has long been considered a cornerstone of capitalism and a key to a prosperous society.
“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest,” Adam Smith famously observed in The Wealth of Nations. “We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our necessities but of their advantages.”
For many progressives, however, self-interest has become a kind of heresy. The idea that individuals should be motivated by such things as profit and self-interest is anathema; these are values to be found in Ayn Rand novels, not practiced in 21st century America.
But as Applebaum notes, progressives are in fact making decisions based on self-interest—he uses the word “greed”—not altruism. This should come as little surprise, and it would be perfectly fine if progressives were acting on self-interest in a market economy; but they are not. They are using the law in perverse ways to their own benefit—all while maintaining the belief that they’re acting out of altruism.
The Times article makes it clear that voters and politicians in progressive states still arrive at decisions like everyone else: on self-interest. The results are just far worse when those decisions are made in the political space, not the marketplace.
Jonathan Miltimore is the Managing Editor of FEE.org. His writing/reporting has been the subject of articles in TIME magazine, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Forbes, Fox News, and the Star Tribune.
Bylines: Newsweek, The Washington Times, MSN.com, The Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller, The Federalist, the Epoch Times.
This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.
RUN covered Commodore's 8-bit computer line, primarily the Commodore 64. I bought this magazine regularly starting a few years later, especially after Commodore stopped publishing Commodore Magazine. This was the 13th issue so it would have been published sometime between December 1984 and January 1985. I guess they were selling enough issues at that time to justify publishing an extra bonus issue around the holidays. This issue includes:
Articles
Sound and Music - A programming guide for creating sound on the Commodore 64 and VIC 20.
Introduction to Graphics - An introduction to creating graphics on the Commodore 64 and VIC-20. This article covers everything from the basic PETSCII character set to bit-mapped/high-resolution graphics to sprites.
Color You C-64 Canvas - Another graphics programming article. This one goes into more detail on creating high resolution graphics on the Commodore 64.
Sprite Delight - A type-in program for creating sprites on the Commodore 64.
Create Your Own Characters - A type-in program to aid in the creation of custom character sets on the VIC-20.
Picture This... - A type-in drawing program for the VIC-20.
Do's and Don'ts of Computer Use - Various advice on computers from why you should (or should not) get one, where you should put it, how to expand it and so on.
It's Only a Modem Away - A tutorial on telecommunications and the use of a modem, specifically covering the Commodore 1600 VIC-Modem and 1650 AutoModem. Also some how to's for specific online services such as CompuServe.
The First Step - A beginner's guide to BASIC programming on the VIC-20 or Commodore 64.
Table of Contents from the 1985 Special Edition of RUN Magazine
Features
RUNning Ruminations - The letter from the editor, this month introducing this special issue of RUN.
How To Type Listings From RUN - Some tips on typing in the programs included in the magazine.
Magic - RUN's monthly hardware and software tips and trick section, offering including small pieces of code. This special issue includes a compilation of tips from the previous year as well as new tips and tricks for this issue.
Club List - A list of Commodore computer clubs from around the world with their contact information.
A Commodore Glossary - A glossary of computer terms, emphasizing Commodore computers.
...and more!
Table of Contents from the 1985 Special Edition of RUN Magazine (continued)
I had the opportunity to pick up a huge batch of slides a while back. These are pictures span from as early as the late 1940s to as late as the early 1990s. These came to me second hand but the original source was a combination of estate sales and Goodwill. There are several thousand...maybe as many as 10,000. I will be scanning some from time to time and posting them here for posterity.
Apparently, getting your pictures processed as slides used to be a fairly common thing but it was a phenomenon I missed out on. However, my Grandfather had a few dozen slides (circa late 1950s) that I acquired after he died. That along with having some negatives I wanted to scan is what prompted me to buy a somewhat decent flatbed scanner that could handle slides and negatives, an Epson V600. It can scan up to four slides at a time with various post-processing options and does a decent enough job.
This set continues a rather large batch of slides that originally came from an estate sale and appear to have belonged to a locally well known photographer (or perhaps a friend or family member) from the Spokane Washington area and later Northern Idaho named Leo Oestreicher. He was known for his portrait and landscape photography and especially for post cards. His career started in the 1930s and he died in 1990. These slides contain a lot of landscape and portrait photos but also a lot of photos from day to day life and various vacations around the world. Here's an article on him from 1997 which is the only info I have found on him: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/jan/04/photos-of-a-lifetime-museum-acquisition-of-leo/
Many of these slides had the date they were processed stamped or printed on them. I've found that in cases where I could verify the date, either because a more specific date was hand written or there was something to specifically date the photo in the photo itself, that this date has typically been the same month the photos were taken. In other words, I expect that in MOST cases these photos were taken relatively near the processing date.
Click on one of the images or the link below to also see versions processed with color restoration and Digital ICE which is a hardware based dust and scratch remover, a feature of the Epson V600 scanner I am using. There are also versions processed with the simpler dust removal option along with color restoration.
None of the photos in this set are labeled or dated but they were probably taken in the late 1950s or early 1960s. They appear to have been taken on a farm somewhere out west. Featured are some cows and a peacock as well as the surrounding mountainous landscape.
The entire collection that has been scanned and uploaded so far can also be found here.
A Swedish economist once remarked that rent control “appears to be the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city—except for bombing.” Unfortunately, we may soon see the destructive consequences of laws limiting rent increases running rampant in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The city just approved a rent control measure that will limit landlords’ ability to increase rents on its 65,000+ rental properties. They will not be able to increase prices by more than 3 percent each year under the new law. Controversially, the initiative does not account for inflation and applies to new construction, not just existing properties. This makes the St. Paul rent control measureone of the strictest in the US—if not the world.
Opponents of the measure made all the usual critiques. They pointed out, for example, that a supermajority of economists, 81 percent per one survey, oppose rent control because of its long-run consequences. Yes, some renters save money in the short term by enjoying artificially low rents. But the restricted prices limit future construction and housing supply which ultimately leads to a housing shortage and less affordable housing in the long run.
In St. Paul, these consequences are already starting to materialize.
“Less than 24 hours after St. Paul voters approved one of the country's most stringent rent control policies, Nicolle Goodman's phone started to ring,” the Star-Tribunereports. “Developers were calling to tell the city's director of planning and economic development they were placing projects on hold, putting hundreds of new housing units at risk.”
“We, like everybody else, are re-evaluating what — if any — future business activity we'll be doing in St. Paul," major developer Jim Stolpestad told the newspaper.
Critics of the rent control initiative, understandably, feel vindicated. But this is just the beginning. If nothing changes, investment and construction of new housing will continue to collapse thanks to this short-sighted reform.
There is still hope, though. The new law doesn’t go into effect until May 1, 2022. That means St. Paul still has 5 months to correct its grave mistake.
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Computer Entertainment was not a magazine that I bought at the time it was on the shelves. I didn't even have a computer yet and my only video game system at the time was the Atari 2600. However, I would have definitely have loved it. Computer Entertainment was the (sadly short-lived) successor to the original Electronic Games magazine. Game systems were not doing so well at the time though that would soon change with the introduction of the NES. In the mean time, home computers and gaming on them was really taking off. Computer Entertainment covers gaming of course but also other potential entertainment uses such as music, graphics and even desktop publishing among other things. The June 1985 issue includes:
On-Line - The monthly editorial column, this month discussing the demise of the PCjr and its implications on home computing and computer gaming in general.
Bulletin Board - News of the month including a new 'pet' project by Nolan Bushnell (creator of Atari and Chuck E Cheese), an update on software piracy, the release of Bounty Bob Strikes Back, new adventure games from Infocom and DataSoft, free Atari 2600 games, new games for the Coleco Adam and more.
Line Feed - Letters from readers asking about new Commodore computers, MSX, laserdisc games and more.
Do-It-Yourself-Software - An overview of various game construction sets that let you build your own games without knowing how to program. Titles mentioned include The Arcade Machine, Pinball Construction Set, Music Construction Set, Adventure Creator, Adventure Construction Set, Adventure Master, Adventure Writer, and more. This article also covers games that let you create your own levels or design other aspects of the game such as Lode Runner, Racing Destruction Set and Mail Order Monsters among others.
Building A Better Zork - Infocom may have been the king of text adventure games but they weren't the only player. This article mostly covers Mindwheel and its creator who named the text parser he created 'BTZ' for 'Better Than Zork'.
Compose Yourself - An overview of how to compose music for home computers including coverage of books and software. There were many choices as far as software including Moondust, Musicalc, 3001 Sound Odyssey, Music Processor, Simply Music, Music Studio, and Music Shop for the Commodore 64 and MacMusic, ConcertWare and MusicWorks for the Macintosh.
Electronic Gutenberg - An overview of various desktop publishing software for creating newsletters, banners, cards and much more. Software covered includes Koala's Graphic Editor, Springboard's Mask Parade, DMP Utilities (Apple II), The Print Shop (Atari, Apple II, Commodore 64) plus various add-ons, Fontrix (DOS, Apple II), and more.
ASCII And You Shall Receive - An article about BBSes including coverage of several specific ones. I would loved to have known about the existence of such things earlier but as it was I didn't call my first BBS until the early 1990s, a few years before the Internet took over.
"I Though You Brought The Torches" - General hints and strategy for fantasy role-playing games. Several specific games are mentioned including Beneath Apple Manor, Wizardry, Ultimat III, Xyphus, Galactic Adventures and more.
Boot & Shoot - Early video editing on computers. Well, not really video editing but capture still images from video cameras (and scanners) and editing those. This article includes an overview of software and hardware that you need to accomplish this. Products covered include Computereyes for the Commodore 64 and Apple II, MacVision for the Macintosh and Thunderscan also for the Mac.
Table of Contents from the June 1985 issue of Computer Entertainment
Load & Run - Reviews of new software. Covered this month:
Incunabula - A strategy game by Avalon Hill for the IBM PC and PCjr.
Chipwits - An educational puzzle game of sorts by Brainpower Inc. for the Macintosh.
Adventure Master - A design tool for creating text and graphic adventures by CBS Software for the Commodore 64.
Adventure Writer - A construction set for creating text adventures by Codewriter for the Commodore 64.
Beserker Raids - An action/strategy game based on Fred Saberhagen's Berserkers by Baen Software for the IBM PC, Commodore 64, Apple II and Atari 8-bit.
Wizard Expansion Set - A sequel to Wizard using levels submitted by players using the construction set for the Commodore 64.
Rock 'N Bolt - an arcade/puzzle game by Activision for the Commodore 64
Psychedelia - A Jeff Minter game for the Commodore 64.
Stunt Flyer - A flight simulator involving aerial stunts for the Commodore 64.
Spitfire Ace - A World War II flight simulator by MicroProse for the Commodore 64, IBM PC and Apple II.
Trolls and Tribulations - An arcade game featuring you as the troll by Creative Software for the Commodore 64, Apple II and Atari 8-bit.
Mind Control - What sounds like a not very good arcade type game with a couple of different screens by Mastertronic for the Commodore 64.
Heroism in the Modern Age: Project Contact - A role-playing game for the PC with a "modern" day mission impossible type scenario.
Kik Start - A motorcycle racing game that can be played split screen with two players by Mastertronic for the Commodore 64. I had a blast with this game and Kik Start II.
The Quest for the Holy Grail - An adventure game based on the Monty Python classic by Mastertronic for the Commodore 64.
Mind Castle I - A confusing puzzle game for the Apple II.
Station Five - Actually four different arcade games for the Apple II.
The Ancient Art of War - Strategy/war game set in fifth-century China for the IBM PC/PCjr/PC XT.
Bank Street Story Book - Educational program for the Apple II, Commodore 64 and IBM PC that allows kids to complete stories by adding text, pictures and even animation.
GATO - World War II submarine simulation for the IBM PC/PCjr.
The Alpine Encounter - A graphical/text adventure with a secret agent theme for the Apple II, Commodore 64 and IBM PC.
Swiss Family Robinson - A graphical adventure that follows the plot of the book for the Commodore 64 and Apple II.
Arcadia - Covering the latest games in the arcade including Karate Champ II, Kung-Fu Master, Chinese Hero, Yie Ar Kung-Fu (one of my favorites), All-American Football, Demolition Derby, Paperboy (another favorite) and more.
Hard Copy - Computer related book reviews, this month featuring "Zappers for the Commodore 64". It's a book full of type-in programs (games) for the Commodore 64. The games themselves are at best mediocre but it does teach you a bit about programming. Plus reviews of "The Plain English Guide for Home Computers", "MacGuide: The Complete Handbook to the Macintosh", and "The Adventure Companion".
Q&A - Questions answered about games that use the Mockingboard sound card on the Apple II, Infocom's Infidel, new Commodore computers, programming on the Atari 800, King's Quest II, the VIC-20, Star Fleet I, cleaning your computer and more.
New Products - An overview of new and upcoming products including the TMS-1A 300-baud modem, G.E. computer peripherals, and an LCD for the Apple IIc.
Consumer price inflation just hit the highest level in 30 years. Prices rose 6.2 percent from October 2020 to October 2021, according to new government data, prompting a new reckoning with “temporary” inflation that’s proving not so short-lived after all. I interviewed Senator Rand Paul, a libertarian-leaning Republican from Kentucky, to get his perspective on what’s driving our mounting inflation woes.
“I think inflation is pretty easy to explain and people need to know what causes inflation,” the senator said. “[The federal government] gets debt, then the Federal Reserve prints up new money to pay for the debt, that new money enters circulation, and that expansion of the money supply [leads to] inflation.”
Paul argued that this kind of inflation, rooted in government policies, is a “bait-and-switch” form of taxation.
“Big government politicians offer you things they say are ‘free’: free childcare, free healthcare, free college, free cell phones, free this, free that—but it's not really free,” he said. “Either someone else is going to pay for it through higher taxes, or they're going to pay for it through borrowing and ultimately inflation. And it really is a bait and switch because often the same people that are being offered free stuff are also the ones who suffer most through the regressive tax that is inflation.”
“We have to explain to people the second order of thinking that goes to understanding that it's not free,” he concluded.
But what, specifically, is driving the current inflation surge?
“Really the inflation we have this year is probably a responsibility of both parties,” Paul said, referencing the trillions in deficit-financed spending Congress has passed since the COVID-19 pandemic began. “You know, both parties other than myself and a few others were for all the spending of last year. So we borrowed $3-4 trillion last year, and we're set to borrow at least that much or more this year.”
“I think you may see inflation of 10% or 12% next year,” the senator cautioned. “Now they're all saying the opposite. The Federal Reserve is saying it's transitory, but I think the 6% that we've got now is based on last year's borrowing. And I think there's going to be significantly more borrowing this year. We've already spent an extra $2 trillion on a COVID bailout bill, which really didn't have much to do with COVID, but it was more just a bailout bill, [and now] another trillion on infrastructure.”
But it’s not just Congress, the senator explained, as the Federal Reserve itself shares a large portion of the blame.
“There's joint blame: Congress is initially to blame for spending money it doesn’t have and then the Federal Reserve says, oh, it's just our job to paper over this,” Paul said. “It's our job to buy up that debt and as they do, they create the increased money supply. So really both Congress and the Fed are to blame and they go hand in hand.”
“If we ran a balanced budget, we wouldn't necessarily need a Federal Reserve,” he continued. “Basically we have a Federal Reserve to pay for all that debt.”
Paul warned that if inflation continues unchecked, we could see a “loss of confidence” in US currency and “people fleeing the dollar.” The senator stressed that with the advent of cryptocurrency, people have more alternatives—taking away protection the dollar may have enjoyed in the past.
I asked Senator Paul about President Biden’s argument that in order to combat inflation, the federal government actually needs to spend trillions more on his “Build Back Better” climate change and welfare agenda.
“President Biden has no idea what causes inflation,” he responded. “I mean, someone should ask him that question. How does [the government] spending more money reduce inflation? How does borrowing more money reduce inflation? That's some mental gymnastics. It's hard for me to comprehend.”
I offered the president’s counterargument, bolstered by liberal-leaning economists, that his bill would hugely increase productivity and thus lower inflation pressures over time.
“I think productivity comes from ingenuity and market efficiencies, but I don't think in any way, productivity is increased by government spending,” Paul countered. “In fact, you could probably argue the opposite.”
“If you had a million dollars and you wanted to let your representatives decide how to spend it, or a bunch of venture capitalists who look at profit and loss and look at markets and make estimates, neither are perfect,” he continued. “It's all our guesses about the future. But my thinking is that when it comes to the government, it's politicized. Whereas the investors will only look at profit and loss because their job is narrowly focused towards trying to invest in things that make money.”
“The marketplace is always wiser and smarter than the government,” Paul concluded. “[Remember] what Milton Friedman used to say... that nobody spends somebody else's money as wisely as their own. And that truism will always mean that the government lacks efficiency and lacks really the drive to make the best decisions for investing. So I would say productivity and the productivity of capital… always has to be less with the government.”
So, the senator warned that if President Biden’s multi-trillion-dollar spending agenda was passed by Congress, it would only worsen, not help, our inflation problems. But Paul noted that this may not happen, because even some moderate Democrats like Senator Joe Manchin are acknowledging the reality of inflation and putting the president’s ambitions on pause.
Only time will tell. But if the federal government fails to rein in its reckless fiscal and monetary policies, we may well see inflation get even more out of control. And nobody will be able to say they weren’t warned.
Like this story? Clickhereto sign up for the FEE Daily and get free-market news and analysis like this from Policy Correspondent Brad Polumbo in your inbox every weekday.
I had the opportunity to pick up a huge batch of slides a while back. These are pictures span from as early as the late 1940s to as late as the early 1990s. These came to me second hand but the original source was a combination of estate sales and Goodwill. There are several thousand...maybe as many as 10,000. I will be scanning some from time to time and posting them here for posterity.
Apparently, getting your pictures processed as slides used to be a fairly common thing but it was a phenomenon I missed out on. However, my Grandfather had a few dozen slides (circa late 1950s) that I acquired after he died. That along with having some negatives I wanted to scan is what prompted me to buy a somewhat decent flatbed scanner that could handle slides and negatives, an Epson V600. It can scan up to four slides at a time with various post-processing options and does a decent enough job.
This set continues a rather large batch of slides that originally came from an estate sale and appear to have belonged to a locally well known photographer (or perhaps a friend or family member) from the Spokane Washington area and later Northern Idaho named Leo Oestreicher. He was known for his portrait and landscape photography and especially for post cards. His career started in the 1930s and he died in 1990. These slides contain a lot of landscape and portrait photos but also a lot of photos from day to day life and various vacations around the world. Here's an article on him from 1997 which is the only info I have found on him: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/jan/04/photos-of-a-lifetime-museum-acquisition-of-leo/
Many of these slides had the date they were processed stamped or printed on them. I've found that in cases where I could verify the date, either because a more specific date was hand written or there was something to specifically date the photo in the photo itself, that this date has typically been the same month the photos were taken. In other words, I expect that in MOST cases these photos were taken relatively near the processing date.
Click on one of the images or the link below to also see versions processed with color restoration and Digital ICE which is a hardware based dust and scratch remover, a feature of the Epson V600 scanner I am using. There are also versions processed with the simpler dust removal option along with color restoration.
None of the photos in this set are labeled or dated. The first two feature the same couple, the third a couple of swimmers in a pool and the last is of a monument somewhere.
The entire collection that has been scanned and uploaded so far can also be found here.
BYTE was a computer magazine published from 1975 until 1998, appearing not long after the first commercial computer kits started being advertised. It covered a vast array of computers over the years and included technical content as well as hardware and software reviews. The January 1984 issue was a massive 560+ pages and included:
Columns
Build the Circuit Cellar Term-Mite ST Smart Terminal, Part 1: Hardware - Thanks to advancing technology, you can construct an intelligent video terminal with just 21 integrated circuits.
BYTE West Coast: Beyond the Word Processor - Tomorrow's text editors may facilitate text composition from the earliest conceptual stages to the analysis of finished documents.
User's Column: too Many Leads, or What in *;?!#"*? Goes First? - Jerry covers a lot of territory this month, beginning his journey of a thousand words with a trip to the Circuit Cellar.
Themes
1984 and Beyond - The year calls up inevitable associations with George Orwell's novel of a futuristic, technologically oppressed society and raises questions concerning the present and future significance of technology to our own culture.
Reason and the Software Bus - The Reason research project, exploring artificial intelligence, has developed a software bus that may have a significant effect on future software. As a hardware bus uses ICs, so the software bus manipulates various program components to provide integration, networking, and multitasking.
A General-Purpose Robot-Control Language - By bridging the communication gap between people and robots, a plain-language system called Savvy increases the usefulness of these mechanical assistants.
1984, the Year of the 32-bit Microprocessor - As manufacturers rush to introduce their 32-bit designs, it's time to take a look at what these microprocessors are and what they're good for.
Memory Cards: A New Concept in Personal Computing - Picture a microcomputer without a keyboard, without a power supply, and small enough to fit in your wallet. That's just one possible application of memory-card technology.
Computer-aided Design - CAD capabilities on desktop systems can simplify a variety of tasks, from flowcharting to product design, but the choices in hardware and software can be baffling.
Speech Recognition: An Idea Whose Time Is Coming - While the multidisciplinary nature of the technology may slow its advance, speech recognition is well on its way to becoming a major factor in our interactions with machines.
Using Natural-Language Systems on Personal Computers - Artificial intelligence offers possible solutions to the problems of communication between people and computers.
Portables - 1984 and Beyond: Idea-Processing Software and Portable Computers - When your personal computer leaps off your desktop and into your briefcase, what type of software will accompany it?
Beyond the Application Program: A Different Approach to Integrated Software - Element managers that implement objects such as spreadsheet tables and paragraphs may supplant the traditional concept of the application program.
Reviews
Reviewer's Notebook - This month's notes touch on Seequa Computer Corporation's Chameleon Plus and new trends in the printer market.
The Zenith Z-100 - Supporting both 8-bit and 16-bit software, the Z-100 also offers impressive color graphics.
Pinball Construction Set - Tired o fthe same old pinball games? Try creating your own with this software-design package.
The TRS-80 Model 16B with Xenix - Once of the most significant features of Radio Shack's new computer is its Unix-derived operating system.
Naturallink to Down Jones News/Retrieval - A new software package from Texas Instruments simplifies access to a financial database.
The Vamp DVM-1 Computer/TV Interface Kit - The picture quality of your display can suffer when you use a radio-frequency modulator to interface your computer's video output to a standard color television, but a kit from Vamp offers an alternative.
The Einstein Compiler - In addition to speeding up Applesoft BASIC programs, the Einstein compiler provides statistical information on the programs compiled and can function as a debugging tool
The Basis 108 - Apple compatibility is just one of this German import's interesting features.
Features
Bubbles on the S-100 Bus, Part 1: The Hardware - Using Intel's BPK 72 Bubble-Memory Prototype Kit, you can put together a 128K-byte bubble-memory board for an S-100 bus system.
Mockingbird: A Composer's Amanuensis - The chief purpose of this music notation editor from Xerox is to help composers capture their ideas by speeding up the notation process.
The VU68K Single-Board Computer - You can construct a 68000-based system for under $200.
Translating the SAS Language Into BASIC - A preprocessor program that translates SAS-like statements into equivalent BASIC statements permits SAS-like programs to run on a microcomputer.
A Software Review Method That Really Works - The group walk-through, a process of "playing computer," provides a workable means of correcting programming problems.
Real-Time Clocks and PC-DOS - A device-driver program for the clock chip on a typical multifunction board takes advantage of special provisions in the IBM PC operating system.
President Biden continues to fight to pass some version of his multi-trillion-dollar “Build Back Better” spending agenda through Congress. In its various iterations, the plan includes trillions spent on everything from electric vehicle tax credits and green energy subsidies to taxpayer-funded childcare-for-all to housing subsidies and more. The Biden administration claims that the latest version would involve $1.85 trillion in new spending.
The president has made lofty promises about what we’d get in exchange for such a historic investment. (After all, that price tag is more than the inflation-adjusted cost of FDR’s New Deal!)
“[This is] a framework that will create millions of jobs, grow the economy, invest in our nation and our people, turn the climate crisis into an opportunity, and put us on a path not only to compete, but to win the economic competition for the 21st century against China and every other major country in the world,” Biden said in a recent speech. “It’s fiscally responsible. It’s fully paid for.”
“For much too long, the working people of this nation and the middle class of this country have been dealt out of the American deal, and it’s time to deal them back in,” he continued. “If we make these investments, there will be no stopping the American people or America. We will own the future.”
Simply put, Biden argues that his plan to spend trillions will create jobs, grow the economy, and increase wages—all without adding to the $28.9 trillion (and counting) national debt. Yet a new Ivy League economic analysis undercuts every single one of these claims.
Analysts at the Wharton School of Business reviewed President Biden’s latest $1.85 trillion framework proposal and ran the numbers to project its likely economic impacts, under two distinct scenarios. One is the rather unrealistic scenario where it actually only costs $1.85 trillion. Yet because the proposal is structured with many budget gimmicks and short-term spending authorizations that would likely be reauthorized if implemented, its real cost could be as much as $4.25 trillion. Wharton also modeled the likely impact of this scenario.
In the first case, where the president’s plans cost only what he claims, the analysis still finds his promises falling short on nearly all counts. The tax increases included would not, in fact, pay for the entire proposal, and it would lead to a 2 percent increase in government debt over the long run. (That might sound small, but it’s hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars!) And, while Wharton projects that wages would increase slightly, it finds that the overall economy would shrink, not grow, while business investment and hours worked would decline.
Erm… how’s that revitalizing America? And those dismal results are under Biden’s rosy assumptions. Under the more realistic scenario where spending provisions are accurately accounted for and the real cost is north of $4 trillion, the investment’s return is even more spectacularly awful.
Government debt would increase by 25 percent over 30 years—that’s trillions and trillions in new spending that is not, in fact, paid for. The economy would shrink—not grow—nearly 3 percent over this timeline compared to the baseline, while wages would decline 1.5 percent and hours worked would fall 1.3 percent.
It’s easy to see why government spending could have these meager results. Proponents of big government spending, like Joe Biden, focus solely on the purported benefits of their plans.
Yet every dollar spent somewhere must ultimately, directly or indirectly, come from somewhere else in the economy. The resources invested by the government in one area are, by definition, resources that would have been invested somewhere else by the private sector.
The tax hikes to partially fund the spending discourage work and tax away money that would have otherwise been invested. The debt incurred to partially fund the spending “crowds out” resources available for private sector investment. It’s not just a wash, either. In taking resources that would have been allocated via market signals and instead allocating them based on politics, government redistribution generally leads to net economic losses.
As Ludwig von Mises famously put it, “The government and its chiefs do not have the powers of the mythical Santa Claus. They cannot spend except by taking out of the pockets of some people for the benefit of others.”
It’s with the reality of trade-offs in mind that the Wharton analysis is able to reliably predict the negative impacts of Biden’s plans.
This analysis is nothing short of devastating for the president’s plans. Biden wants to confiscate and spend trillions of our taxpayer dollars and is promising us the world in return for this investment. But Ivy League analysts and basic economic principles alike expose how empty those promises really are.
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I had the opportunity to pick up a huge batch of slides a while back. These are pictures span from as early as the late 1940s to as late as the early 1990s. These came to me second hand but the original source was a combination of estate sales and Goodwill. There are several thousand...maybe as many as 10,000. I will be scanning some from time to time and posting them here for posterity.
Apparently, getting your pictures processed as slides used to be a fairly common thing but it was a phenomenon I missed out on. However, my Grandfather had a few dozen slides (circa late 1950s) that I acquired after he died. That along with having some negatives I wanted to scan is what prompted me to buy a somewhat decent flatbed scanner that could handle slides and negatives, an Epson V600. It can scan up to four slides at a time with various post-processing options and does a decent enough job.
This set continues a rather large batch of slides that originally came from an estate sale and appear to have belonged to a locally well known photographer (or perhaps a friend or family member) from the Spokane Washington area and later Northern Idaho named Leo Oestreicher. He was known for his portrait and landscape photography and especially for post cards. His career started in the 1930s and he died in 1990. These slides contain a lot of landscape and portrait photos but also a lot of photos from day to day life and various vacations around the world. Here's an article on him from 1997 which is the only info I have found on him: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/jan/04/photos-of-a-lifetime-museum-acquisition-of-leo/
Many of these slides had the date they were processed stamped or printed on them. I've found that in cases where I could verify the date, either because a more specific date was hand written or there was something to specifically date the photo in the photo itself, that this date has typically been the same month the photos were taken. In other words, I expect that in MOST cases these photos were taken relatively near the processing date.
Click on the link below to also see versions processed with color restoration and Digital ICE which is a hardware based dust and scratch remover, a feature of the Epson V600 scanner I am using. There are also versions processed with the simpler dust removal option along with color restoration.
Most of these, except the first photo of the snow covered trees, are labeled. See descriptions below.
June 18th, 1953 - Telephoto - Estes Park - Paul W. Nesbit - 711 Columbia Road - Colo. Springs, Colo.
Horse being used to grind grain in mill Aquarena - San Marcus, Texas - Sep 68
Inside of helicopter - Sep 68
The entire collection that has been scanned and uploaded so far can also be found here.
The Sinclair ZX81 and Spectrum were extremely popular computers in the U.K. during the 1980s and even early 1990s. However, while there were variations of those machines released in the U.S. by Timex, they were sometimes incompatible, had relatively limited software compared to other machines like the Commodore 64, Apple II and TRS-80 and only had very limited success. Timex Sinclair User was a magazine dedicated to these machines and issue number 3 includes:
Timexpectations - Software Blues
Letters - On U.K. imports, tape recorders, 16K RAMS and the new 2040
Software - 3D-Orbiter, Galaxia, ZX-Data Finder and other programs reviewed
Cover: T/S Goes to Camp - Ellen Vanstone reports on computer camps that offer the T/S 1000
Books - Four colorful, inviting, fun-filled books from Usborne
In-Depth - Fred Blechman previews the prototype of the 2000, the Spectrum
Focus - Timex Sinclair User rates home management software
Hardware 1 - The Timex Sinclair 2040 printer reviewed
How to Program - John Gilbert on simple ways of sorting data
Program Printout - Dice, Flashcard, Kingdom and five other exciting programs listed
Project - Build your own graphics generatorusing inexpensive components
U.K. Window - In Britain, prices continue to drop on Sinclair components
News - Timex is increasing after-sale support for its products
Hardware 2 - 6 Keyboards Compared: Which is the one for you?
Starting Out - Tips for beginners
Hints & Tips - Warren Smith prescribes ways to prevent overheating
Bulletin Board - News and information of interest to T/S users
A massive labor shortage continues to grip the nation and hold back our economic recovery. With countless pandemic and policy factors influencing the shortage, there’s a heated debate over what’s keeping so many workers out of the labor force. But a new study confirms that the growth of the welfare state is playing a massive role—and that this trend began long before the pandemic.
Published by experts on the Republican side of the Senate Joint Economic Committee, the analysis reports, “the U.S. has witnessed an unprecedented rise in disconnected prime-age workers over time.” As shown in the graph below, the men’s labor force participation rate has fallen from more than 97 percent in 1955 to 89 percent prior to the pandemic, while the women’s labor force participation rate has declined in recent decades as well.
Image Credit: JEC Republicans
What’s causing this decline? Well, the study examines popular explanations like displacement from immigration and technological advancements and finds that they do not account for this drastic drop. Rather, it suggests that the biggest factor is that “many would-be workers are voluntarily disconnected from work, and government programs and policies have likely made work less attractive for these Americans.”
There has been tremendous growth in the welfare state over these decades. Per the committee, in 1998 about 20 percent of working-age Americans living in households between the 20th and 50th income percentiles were benefiting from government programs. As of 2014, that figure was up to 30 percent.
Indeed the study notes that “only 12 percent of inactive, prime-age, able-bodied men said they wanted a job or were open to work.” Why? It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the widespread availability of robust welfare benefits is a key part of the explanation.
“A significant body of empirical evidence suggests that government transfers— especially those without work requirements—tend to lower employment,” the study reports. “For example, labor force participation and earnings fall after receiving housing assistance, losing Medicaid coverage increases employment and gaining the coverage can reduce it, and the introduction of the food stamp program in the 1960s and 1970s decreased employment significantly.”
We can’t overlook these troubling findings. Yes, there’s no doubt that the pandemic and pandemic-specific policies are contributing to the particularly acute labor shortage currently facing our economy. But in the bigger picture, our long-term labor problems are driven particularly by a bloated welfare system that disincentives work and traps people in poverty.
Yet some are learning the opposite lessons. With their $3.5+ trillion spending plan, progressives in Congress are trying to make the welfare state even bigger! This is bad for the economy and actually bad for the supposed beneficiaries, too—the anti-poverty, mental, emotional, health, and social benefits of being employed are widely and extensively documented. Policies should incentivize employment; not discourage it.
“As the number of Americans who receive government assistance has grown, more Americans have voluntarily left their jobs,” Republican Senator Mike Lee commented in light of this report. “Congress’ plan to spend an additional $3.5 trillion to provide households with new subsidies and fewer incentives to work would only make things worse."
Indeed it would. Hopefully, this new study injects some much-needed insight into the ongoing conversation about labor shortages. In the big picture, our labor participation problems can’t be fixed without serious rollbacks of the welfare state.
Like this story? Clickhereto sign up for the FEE Daily and get free-market news and analysis like this from Policy Correspondent Brad Polumbo in your inbox every weekday.
I had the opportunity to pick up a huge batch of slides a while back. These are pictures span from as early as the late 1940s to as late as the early 1990s. These came to me second hand but the original source was a combination of estate sales and Goodwill. There are several thousand...maybe as many as 10,000. I will be scanning some from time to time and posting them here for posterity.
Apparently, getting your pictures processed as slides used to be a fairly common thing but it was a phenomenon I missed out on. However, my Grandfather had a few dozen slides (circa late 1950s) that I acquired after he died. That along with having some negatives I wanted to scan is what prompted me to buy a somewhat decent flatbed scanner that could handle slides and negatives, an Epson V600. It can scan up to four slides at a time with various post-processing options and does a decent enough job.
This set continues a rather large batch of slides that originally came from an estate sale and appear to have belonged to a locally well known photographer (or perhaps a friend or family member) from the Spokane Washington area and later Northern Idaho named Leo Oestreicher. He was known for his portrait and landscape photography and especially for post cards. His career started in the 1930s and he died in 1990. These slides contain a lot of landscape and portrait photos but also a lot of photos from day to day life and various vacations around the world. Here's an article on him from 1997 which is the only info I have found on him: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/jan/04/photos-of-a-lifetime-museum-acquisition-of-leo/
Many of these slides had the date they were processed stamped or printed on them. I've found that in cases where I could verify the date, either because a more specific date was hand written or there was something to specifically date the photo in the photo itself, that this date has typically been the same month the photos were taken. In other words, I expect that in MOST cases these photos were taken relatively near the processing date.
Click on the link below to also see versions processed with color restoration and Digital ICE which is a hardware based dust and scratch remover, a feature of the Epson V600 scanner I am using. There are also versions processed with the simpler dust removal option along with color restoration.
All of the photos in this set appear to have been taken somewhere in Europe. The first one appears older than the rest. The only one that is dated is the last one. It features a boat with the name "Rhenfelden" on it which means this is probably the Rhein river between Germany and Switzerland. This photo was processed in May 1987 making it one of the more recent ones I have scanned.
processed May 1987
The entire collection that has been scanned and uploaded so far can also be found here.
Millennials and Gen Z have grown up watching politicians saddle them with economic hardships and make a mockery of their right to privacy. Now, the Biden administration wants to double down and rob young Americans of their economic privacy.
Alongside the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill is a provision that would force banks to report the transaction details of all accounts with over $600 to the IRS. But the thought of government agents breathing down one’s neck is vexing for young people, who already account for a sizable portion of the $1.7 trillion in student loan debt and have an unemployment rate twice that of older Americans. Whether it’s investing in cryptocurrency, buying a firearm, or giving to charity, this measure will only dissuade young Americans from making financial decisions that best serve their interests and values.
Like any monopoly, the government has a vested interest in shutting out competition, including currencies that compete with the ever-devaluing dollar. Biden’s recent announcements of anational cryptocurrency enforcement team and consideration ofincreased regulations on digital currency are clear signals that this administration is no friend to the crypto market, where more and more young people areputting their money. On top of Uncle Sam taking a big chunk of their crypto profits through capital gains taxes, the threat of the IRS monitoring each time a young person invests in a currency frowned upon by DC will increase buyer hesitancy, creating yet another barrier to getting out of debt and securing financial stability.
Speaking of items frowned upon by DC, it’s not difficult to imagine how increased IRS scrutiny into young people’s bank accounts will deter them from buying firearms. Over the last several years, state and local governments have started violating gun owners’ privacy in unprecedented ways with Emergency Risk Protection Orders (otherwise known as “red flag” laws), which are currently on the books in19 states and Washington, D.C. The Biden administration supports expanding these laws, even as police have used them to kick down young Americans’ doors and—in the case of Maryland resident Duncan Lemp—kill them in their sleep.
A blow to the young philanthropic spirit would be another piece of collateral damage of the IRS provision. A recent study showed onlyone-third of young Americans give to charity, due to high costs of living and unfavorable markets. Whereas the IRS caneasily weaponize itself against ideological enemies—as seen with the IRS’ admitting to targeting at least 40 conservative groups in the early 2010s—economic barriers combined with the stripping of donor privacy will discourage young people from investing in the change they want to see in the world.
Millennials and Gen Z came of age as the surveillance state came into existence, starting with the passage of the Patriot Act in 2001. Now, the government’s oft-spoken mantra “if you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to fear” is coming for young Americans’ bank accounts. But neither the IRS snooping on their Venmo transactions nor demanding 37 percent of your Dogecoin gains will solve the problems that America faces.
This economic tyranny will only continue to build the case for young people that the government is working against their interests, not for them.
Sean Themea serves as chief of staff for Young Americans for Liberty (YAL). A recovering progressive, Sean has appeared on Fox Business, Newsmax, The First TV, and OAN.
This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.
