| Unleash Prosperity Hotline – Weekend Edition Issue #353 08/20/2021, 08/21/2021, 08/22/2021 |
| 1) Someone Please Tell Janet Yellen That There Are 10 Million Job Openings We nearly fell off of our exercise bikes this morning when we read this headline:  This is not a parody, it comes from an actual letter sent yesterday by Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen: “Even as the economy continues to recover and robust job growth continues, there are some states where it may make sense for unemployed workers to continue receiving additional assistance for a longer period of time, allowing residents of those states more time to find a job in areas where unemployment remains high.” The Biden administration is urging states to spend the $350 billion (!) “leftover funds” from the Blue State Bailout slush fund passed in March to yet again extend benefits for unemployed workers. If that happens, workers will go nearly TWO years without working but collecting benefits. A CTUP study estimates that America would have roughly five million more Americans working today if we had cut the payroll tax rather than increased unemployment benefits. Some 25 red states have already cut off the supplemental $300 a week benefits and they have unemployment rates SUBSTANTIALLY lower than the blue states paying people to stay unemployed. Yet the left keeps repeating its fairy tale that UI benefits don’t keep people out of the workforce. |
| 2) Can Hong Kong Be Saved? Hong Kong has arguably been the greatest free market capitalism success story in the history of mankind. After World War II the independent island – with virtually no natural resources – became one of the richest places on the planet through an unrelenting freedom agenda: free trade, open immigration, a 15 percent flat tax, light regulation, and rule of law. Hong Kong residents became five times richer than the average Chinese citizen under Mao. The hope was that Hong Kong would take over China, but the reverse is happening as the communists seize more political and economic control over the once-free market Mecca. Hong Kong has also imposed strict COVID quarantine measures, which has also hurt the economy. One sad effect is people are fleeing. Bloomberg reports that over the last year some 90,000 residents (on net) have left over the past year and this is the largest population loss in 60 years — the last time China tried to clamp down on Hong Kong’s freedoms. See chart Why is it that every time the communists, socialists, progressives try to create a workers’ paradise, people flee? It’s even happening in California!  |
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