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[#] Fri Jan 06 2017 14:35:26 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

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After the Sears company was bought by K-Mart, I thought they'd do more to integrate, but they didn't. I actually went into a K-Mart a couple of years ago looking for some cheap tools that I knew were going to get wrecked from what I planned to do with them, but all I found were Craftsman tools. So it appeared to be on the way, but then it just sort of stalled.

Black and Decker does seem poised to move itself firmly into the lead now.
Actually they had merged with Stanley in 2010, so now Stanley, Black & Decker, and Craftsman are all going to be the same company. They also announced yesterday that they are going to move a lot of their manufacturing back into the United States (MAGA!)

[#] Fri Jan 06 2017 15:41:02 UTC from zooer

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I can never remember if Sears bought K-Mart or K-mart purchased Sears.  In July 2015 Sears closed in our city, the K-mart remained.  I didn't understand this, the K-mart was in horrible condition, the store outside looked well worn, the grocery store that was next to it moved 30 years ago, the space was never filled.  The parking lot always looked empty. The last time I was in the K-mart the floors were filthy, cracked and missing tiles. The ceiling tiles had stains, or were missing.  Product and shelving looked unkempt and dirty.  I never understood why they closed Sears but kept the K-mart.  It was just announced they are closing the K-mart as well.

I thought Sears was one of those stores that would always be around.

 



[#] Fri Jan 06 2017 15:45:04 UTC from zooer

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Sears did purchase K-mart, this is from the article on Sears closing.

The store and auto center have a combined 109 employees. Associates who are eligible will receive severance and the opportunity to apply for open positions at other area Sears or Kmart stores, both of which are subsidies of Sears Holdings

 

Unless of course, Sears was holding it for K-mart.



[#] Thu Jan 12 2017 18:48:47 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

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I thought Sears was one of those stores that would always be around.

Kind of like Radio Shack, which went out of business but the damn stores are somehow still open.

[#] Thu Jan 12 2017 20:42:03 UTC from zooer

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Their stuff was so overpriced the rent is paid until 2023.



[#] Wed Jan 25 2017 17:29:43 UTC from LoanShark

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[#] Thu Jan 26 2017 20:25:07 UTC from LoanShark

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Trump wants a weak dollar. He's not going to get it unless he pursues policies that are unpalatable to his base--or to his buddy-buddies.

https://www.ft.com/content/2a01d6c2-de6f-11e6-86ac-f253db7791c6

[#] Thu Jan 26 2017 23:56:16 UTC from zooer

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The link you provided requires a subscription.  Can we please have your username and password?



[#] Fri Jan 27 2017 15:00:15 UTC from LoanShark

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It's a free registration.

[#] Fri Jan 27 2017 19:39:47 UTC from zooer

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There is no such thing as free.

There is not a free subscription option on the page.

notfree.png



[#] Fri Jan 27 2017 19:55:30 UTC from LoanShark

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It's carefully hidden. The Alphaville blogs are free with registration. This also gets you access to certain select FT articles - the ones where they want to get the word out...

Go to any Alphaville post and you should get the free registration option. Such as - https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2017/01/27/2183344/americas-growth-has-a-slowed-a-lot-in-the-past-two-years-why/

[#] Tue Feb 14 2017 15:17:12 UTC from zooer

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Jim Rogers prophesies death of cash & total govt control of spending.

The time will come when you won't be able to buy a cup of coffee without being traced, warns investment guru Jim Rogers. To control people, governments will increasingly seek to hunt down cash spending, he adds.

LINK

https://www.rt.com/business/377307-jim-rogers-currency-control-cash/



[#] Tue Feb 14 2017 16:06:39 UTC from the_mgt

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The narrative here in Germany is "Cash is bad, mkay?!", too. The Greyfaces are also suggesting, that other countries (ze Scandinavians) are pretty much ahead of us and almost already do it.

The thing is, small payments in Germany are hell, no matter how you do it. There are so many 50€ bills in circulation and ATMs will gladly give you more, that they drive small businesses nuts. They simply can't give you change in the later hours of the day. So you might think that they offer payments by cards... but no! Ze usual german as no trust in credit cards, so the places you can use one are limited. But even normal "ec cards" (no clue what your equivalent is. the ones your bank gives you, the ones that are no credit card.) can hardly be used for small payments. "No card payment under 10€" is a very common sign, if they have the option at all. And if they have one, they are still mostly operated via telephone lines, so slow baud rates. The smaller the shop, the bigger the chance it fails completely.

All anti-cash asshole should die in an ATM fire!



[#] Tue Feb 14 2017 18:41:37 UTC from LoanShark

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All anti-cash asshole should die in an ATM fire!

Starting with Narendra Modi. If you weren't following what he did late last year, dear God, it was so terrifyingly stupid. Declared probably the majority of the circulating cash in his third-world country illegal. The results were predictably horrible, and yet his supporters are so many and so misguided that he may still cling to power.

[#] Tue Feb 14 2017 22:04:27 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

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"The end of cash" is semantically equivalent to "massive expansion of black markets everywhere."

Where "cashless society" goes is pretty obvious:
1. All within-view-of-the-government transactions become electronic
2. Cash payments become forbidden; all remaining cash becomes redeemable only for electronic currency
3. A barter economy comes into existence
4. Because like-for-like value is difficult to achieve, some "fiat currency" comes into existence. It could be a foreign currency, or even something electronic-but-not-the-government.

From there, two possible outcomes:
A. Government cracks down and starts killing anyone found with cash, because The Russians
B. Non-fiat currency comes back into existence

Of course, the government wants to collect tax anyway [ https://www.irs.gov/uac/four-things-to-know-about-bartering-1 ] but it's a LOT harder to track, which means another massive expansion of your country's tax collection agency (IRS, Finanzamt, etc). This by itself could be a motive for them to want to go cashless.

[#] Tue Feb 14 2017 22:08:48 UTC from zooer

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This was a thing a few years ago, I don't know if it still is.

https://www.google.com/#q=laundry+detergent+drug+dealers

 



[#] Tue Feb 14 2017 22:10:32 UTC from zooer

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I was thinking for cash transactions people would buy those debit/gift cards.  It is still traceable but works for simple cash transactions between people.



[#] Thu Feb 16 2017 18:46:00 UTC from fleeb

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Heh... oh man... that'd be chaos, to get away from cash altogether.

The hackers would have a field day.

Just flip a few bits and you can create money from literally nothing.

Nothing to account for it. Nothing to protect the economy from malfeasance.

It could be interesting.

[#] Thu Feb 16 2017 22:22:28 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

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Just flip a few bits and you can create money from literally nothing.


Bankers and traders have been doing that since forever.

[#] Fri Feb 17 2017 15:59:46 UTC from LoanShark

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Back to the discussion on automation, productivity, and the welfare state. There are two ways this could play out:

(1) Universal basic income. (Latest proponent to add to the list: Elon Musk)
(2) Scapegoat the guys causing the problem (software developers) and kill (US citizens) or deport (Indians) them all. (The Donald Trump approach.)

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