The Exemplary Entrepreneurs.

Ah, the pursuit of happiness at its best. Free enterprise in all its glory.

As cleaning supplies and hand sanitizer fly off grocery store shelves in a rush of coronavirus panic shopping, two Tennessee men are being ordered to stop hoarding and reselling in-demand products online. Noah Colvin, of Hixson, Tennessee, took a 1,300-mile road trip in early March across Tennessee and Kentucky, racking up thousands of bottles of hand sanitizer to resell online. Meanwhile, his brother Matt stayed at home, waiting for pallets of antibacterial wipes and even more sanitizer to be shipped, according to a New York Times article. The two then sold sanitizer online at a steep markup — $8 to $70 a pop. But Amazon quickly removed their listings amid a larger effort to stop coronavirus-related price gouging. Now, the brothers reportedly have more than 17,000 bottles of hand sanitizer — and two attorneys general who demand they stop buying more.

Evidently, now Attorney Generals of two states got interested in this community-oriented business by these two scumbags and it is all for the better. Good that the names of these two practitioners of free enterprise are well publicized--the country needs to know the names of its "heroes". The so called "price-gouging" or, in other words, primitive speculation always follows some emergency situations. I know, I have been there--"lovely" very late 1980s and early 1990s in Russia became famous for deficit of cigarettes and food. As a result, prices skyrocketed, until, as it was the case with cigarettes, early 1990s the deliveries of Western-made brands, ranging from mysterious Magna (pretty good, actually) to varieties of Pall Mall and venerable Marlborough and Camel flooded Russian market and relived deficit and a horrible state of smokers who were suffering in the absence of cigarettes, literally. That also killed speculation.  

But while at it, and having a clear understanding of these two as two of the major ass-holes populating the field of the crushing demand for toilet paper, hand sanitizers and other products, we should not forget our real "heroes" who reside not in Lexington KY, but in New York, namely at the Wall Street. Talk about speculation. These guys sold the whole damn country to the highest bidders, while having it for a fraction of price, and they did it fully officially and, in fact, even with the sound of deafening applause from all quarters, praising these guys' ability to sell and to make money out of a thin air. They also were encouraged, and while two scumbags were selling hand sanitizers at atrocious prices, Wall Street and its "investors" got $1.5 trillion issued to them to keep their ponzi scheme running for a little bit longer.  That's the scale! That's what I am talking about! And what is most interesting, bar some few exception such as Maddow's operation, no Attorney Generals anywhere in sight. Can this pandemic (is it really?) finally shed the light on the fact that the so called US "economy" is nothing more than a gigantic financial bubble driven by the irrational greed and paranoia, having zero relation to actual economy, which it tries to completely finish off. Even Fed's attempts, even those are met with this:

Michael O’Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading: “They blew it. The Fed panicked and the market is spooked. The S&P 500 registered all time highs less than a month ago and the Fed has expended all its conventional and unconventional tools. The key takeaway will be that they have truly expended all of their ammunition and this is the action of a central bank that is scared.” Fiscal First. James McCormick, global head of desk strategy at NatWest Markets: “The fact is global equities are still getting slammed. It shows markets worried more about infection rates and growth and need to see a large fiscal response. Monetary policy will not have the same potency for financial markets -- it is not enough on its own and there isn’t much ammunition left. The theme has been clearly on display in markets since the Fed’s first rate cut two weeks back. But this is not the end of monetary policy, not by a long shot. Fiscal policy announcements will now be watched more closely and discounted more quickly by financial markets.”

I have an immediate question: what "equities" this McCormick dude is talking about? What is equitable anymore in US economy with the exception of grossly (if not criminally) overpriced real estate, a financial fraud of shale oil and of the virtual paper of derivatives which are mortgaged, then mortgaged again and then again, and again. That's the only thing they know: "large fiscal response". One has to wonder at this point, when will there be any "large response" to America's continuing de-industrialization, collapsing infrastructure, grossly overpriced healthcare system, horrendous educational system and dying out white population. Anyone wants to give "large response" to that? Maybe, when AGs see those "financial markets" for what they are--a main engine of the American decline, financial Sodom and Gomorrah, or, if one wishes, Augean Stables which need to be either cleaned or burned to the ground.  Meanwhile, observe those one-trick ponies from Wall Street trying to figure out what may have finally bit their asses and starting to get a hint (maybe) that all their monetary theories are a pile of whiteboard steaming shit.