Tesla's Big F***ing Field

[Red Arrow]

Except for some special people making between about $40,000 and $117,000 - they got a 33% rate.  (I remember hearing about that 'bubble' thing but since I was nowhere near that, so it didn't apply to me.)
Also, showed just how catastrophic Reagan really was for the economy.  The big recession in '83/84 was his.  And all his tax cuts combined raised the debt by almost 300%.  Leaving us at $2.87 Trillion.  He took a cheap shot at Bush with the '86 cuts cause he knew tax hikes would be needed.  He really didn't like Bush very much.  Nor the rest of the country!   Debt was $4.4 Trillion after Bush's final spending spree - not quite doubled!
He also raised taxes in 82 and 84 - the biggest tax hikes ever in peace time.   As well as making sure some people got the chance to pay on Social Security income.  There are lots of adjustments, so it is tricky to plan for.
And now we are going up at over $1 Trillion a year due to Trump and his Minions.   More every year than the cumulative total for over 200 years!

Unlike the method where only one variable changes at a time, many things were changed all at once, several times.  Makes it difficult to pin any one item down.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Unlike the method where only one variable changes at a time, many things were changed all at once, several times.  Makes it difficult to pin any one item down.

So true.  But we do know that lowered taxes and fighting 'financed' wars - not pay as we go - have created what and where we are today.

And while 'inflation' is said to be caused by too many dollars chasing too few goods, there is another, equally powerful source as taught by Dr. Steve Steib in Econ 101 at TU.... national debt.  So the official inflation reported is probably on the order of about 1/2 of the real inflation rate.

[Red Arrow]

And while 'inflation' is said to be caused by too many dollars chasing too few goods, there is another, equally powerful source as taught by Dr. Steve Steib in Econ 101 at TU.... national debt.  So the official inflation reported is probably on the order of about 1/2 of the real inflation rate.

I'm not so sure "equally powerful" equates to a linear relationship of 1/2.  But, national debt does contribute to inflation.  At least that's what the econ community professes.

[Red Arrow]

So true.  But we do know that lowered taxes and fighting 'financed' wars - not pay as we go - have created what and where we are today.

Have we ever really gone to war with pay as we go.  We had Continental Dollars, Greenbacks, War Bonds, US Savings Bonds..

[heironymouspasparagus]

Have we ever really gone to war with pay as we go.  We had Continental Dollars, Greenbacks, War Bonds, US Savings Bonds..

Not very much, but at least we didn't go looking for the wrong wars to fight nearly as much as we have in recent decades.  And we did raise taxes in many previous ones rather than giving huge tax cuts to billionaires.   Remember the surcharge during Nixon?

And those ridiculous wage and price controls?   

These obscenities are pretty much always Republicontin driven.

[Red Arrow]

And those ridiculous wage and price controls?   

I remember price controls.  Led to gasoline shortages.  Fortunately, I had a regular gas station and he let his regulars fill up whenever he could.  I was also a volunteer fireman and the city (not Tulsa) let the volunteers buy gas from the city in limited amounts.

[heironymouspasparagus]

I remember price controls.  Led to gasoline shortages.  Fortunately, I had a regular gas station and he let his regulars fill up whenever he could.  I was also a volunteer fireman and the city (not Tulsa) let the volunteers buy gas from the city in limited amounts.

OPEC finally taking the CIA advice on how to control the market is what caused gas shortages.  Several years after wage and price.

[Red Arrow]

OPEC finally taking the CIA advice on how to control the market is what caused gas shortages.  Several years after wage and price.

I just remember the early 70s with gas lines.  I was stationed in Va Beach.  My car almost had enough range to get to Phila, PA area so I carried a 5 gallon can of gas in the trunk even though I hated the safety issue.  Most gas stations were ordered closed on Sunday, my return trip to Va Beach.

OPEC is certainly the direct cause but oil was available elsewhere but not at the same price.

[heironymouspasparagus]

I just remember the early 70s with gas lines.  I was stationed in Va Beach.  My car almost had enough range to get to Phila, PA area so I carried a 5 gallon can of gas in the trunk even though I hated the safety issue.  Most gas stations were ordered closed on Sunday, my return trip to Va Beach.

OPEC is certainly the direct cause but oil was available elsewhere but not at the same price.

Nixon was blathering about no controls as late as July, 1971.  Then Aug, put them in place.


We had been used to oil prices basically about $2.50 a barrel for a long time, then they went up to about $8 a barrel (1973) because of our support of Israel in the Yom Kippur war, and everyone lost their minds.  We had been playing both sides against the middle for decades and one side called our bluff (OPEC side).  

Gas was running from about 26 to 29 cents a gallon from the time I started putting gas into car tanks (driving a while before I was 16), in a 1961 Chevy,  until '73 and 74 when it jumped to the low/mid 30's.   When I started at OSU in 76, the price took a big hike to over 50 cents a gallon - I was commuting in my 1970 Cutlass, at 14 mpg, so that was fun!

There were 'gas wars' all the time, where stations were racing each other to the lowest price they could, and giving away lots of stuff - I still have 3 large amber glass tumblers I got from gas stations of that time.  The other dozen or so have broken over the decades!  There was a wide variety of cookware and eating utensils, such that you could furnish your kitchen with everything you needed to cook and eat on.  Lowest price I ever found here in Tulsa was 17.9 cents a gallon.  A trip to Arkansas led me to Noel, MO in 1969, where they had gas at 12.9 cents a gallon, one night about 9 pm!   I had just filled up in Springdale area, so was full.  But I was NOT gonna miss filling up at 12 cents a gallon.  Drove around half the night in NW AR and SW MO just to empty that Chevy!   Came back to Noel and filled up!   I think it took close to $2.00, IIRC !!

[Red Arrow]

We had been used to oil prices basically about $2.50 a barrel for a long time, then they went up to about $8 a barrel (1973) because of our support of Israel in the Yom Kippur war, and everyone lost their minds.  We had been playing both sides against the middle for decades and one side called our bluff (OPEC side).  
Gas was running from about 26 to 29 cents a gallon from the time I started putting gas into car tanks (driving a while before I was 16), in a 1961 Chevy,  until '73 and 74 when it jumped to the low/mid 30's.   When I started at OSU in 76, the price took a big hike to over 50 cents a gallon - I was commuting in my 1970 Cutlass, at 14 mpg, so that was fun!
There were 'gas wars' all the time, where stations were racing each other to the lowest price they could, and giving away lots of stuff

I remember gas in the Phila, PA area as low to mid 30 cents in the late 60s.  There were refineries in the area so transportation wasn't a major issue.  No major gas wars that I remember but some stations were less expensive.  I drove an extra 2 or 3 miles to save 5 cents/gallon. The '54 Buick got about 10 mpg around town, maybe 12 on the highway.  Dynaflow tranny was smooooth but not very gas efficient.

[heironymouspasparagus]

I remember gas in the Phila, PA area as low to mid 30 cents in the late 60s.  There were refineries in the area so transportation wasn't a major issue.  No major gas wars that I remember but some stations were less expensive.  I drove an extra 2 or 3 miles to save 5 cents/gallon. The '54 Buick got about 10 mpg around town, maybe 12 on the highway.  Dynaflow tranny was smooooth but not very gas efficient.

The family '55 Buick did about the same...don't think it actually ever got up to 10 unless on long, flat highway stretch...

[patric]

On March 13, 2020, venture capitalist Michael Basch sent an email with the subject line "Tesla update" to two members of Tulsa, Oklahoma's economic development team. Basch said he had just spoken to Elon Musk's former chief of staff, Sam Teller, in order to get intel on how Tulsa could entice Musk to build Tesla's next factory in the city. In order to do that, Basch reported, Tulsa needed to get out of Musk's way.

"The biggest, most important thing they are looking for is the speed to which they can go from 0 to getting cars off the line," Basch wrote. "To quote Sam, 'Speed is music to Elon's ears.'"

This email, along with 937 other pages of records obtained by Motherboard from a public records request, provide a detailed example of what it looks like when a city begs a billionaire to open a business or factory there, a process cities across the country repeat on varying scales as a matter of course. While the Amazon HQ2 saga was the most prominent example, cities regularly expend inordinate amounts of energy on such things, and it is a process those who work in the field of "economic development" increasingly recognize is little more than a glorified pageantry to make rich people like them.

--

Back when he worked in economic development in New York City and later in Washington D.C in the mid-2000s and early 2010s, David Zipper used to play that game. But he told Motherboard that now, looking back on his experience, one anecdote stands out. A friend working on moving his company's headquarters told Zipper a joke. "'You know, David,'" Zipper recalled to Motherboard, "'They say there's a 100-page book about how to attract a headquarters to your city.' And I said, is that right? He said, 'Yeah, the first 99 pages are blank. And then the last page says, 'Where does the CEO want to live?'"

--

In the end, none of it worked, for exactly the reason everyone knew it wouldn't. Tesla picked Austin, not because it would save them money or provided some inherent advantage, but because, as Musk put it, "key members of the team that would need to move to Austin...Austin [was] their top pick, to be totally frank."

Whole article: https://www.vice.com/en/article/jgmbp3/last-stages-of-desperation-inside-tulsas-courtship-of-elon-musk
FOI:  https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21210534/tulsa-tesla-motherboard-vice-news.pdf

[tulsabug]

Kinda makes you wonder if the reason so many executives recently left Canoo was due to the plan of moving their headquarters to Arkansas and build a plant in Oklahoma.

Also - it would be really neat if Tulsa would try to help small businesses that are already here with as much vigor as they show towards businesses that aren't (and probably never will be). Years ago the city came up with these concrete Route 66 planters that they placed up and down 11th street. Our building was on 11th but we never had heard anything from the city about these until they started popping up. We noticed a lot of them were placed in front of empty buildings or parking lots which didn't make any sense as the business owner was supposed to take care of the planter by keeping flowers in it and so on and they were putting them where there was no one to do that. So after making a few phone calls we finally got ahold of the person who was more or less in charge of where they were being placed. We told him that we had seen a lot of these being placed in dumb areas and that we'd like to get one in front of our business which was in an original 30's Route 66 building and we had been in business at the time for a decent while. We were told 'tough - there is no more money for more planters and we can't afford to move them either but if you want one you can go buy it yourself from the company who made them'. Amazing how they always have money to court billionaires but can't spare a dime to help companies who are their tax base. 

[heironymouspasparagus]

Kinda makes you wonder if the reason so many executives recently left Canoo was due to the plan of moving their headquarters to Arkansas and build a plant in Oklahoma.

Also - it would be really neat if Tulsa would try to help small businesses that are already here with as much vigor as they show towards businesses that aren't (and probably never will be). Years ago the city came up with these concrete Route 66 planters that they placed up and down 11th street. Our building was on 11th but we never had heard anything from the city about these until they started popping up. We noticed a lot of them were placed in front of empty buildings or parking lots which didn't make any sense as the business owner was supposed to take care of the planter by keeping flowers in it and so on and they were putting them where there was no one to do that. So after making a few phone calls we finally got ahold of the person who was more or less in charge of where they were being placed. We told him that we had seen a lot of these being placed in dumb areas and that we'd like to get one in front of our business which was in an original 30's Route 66 building and we had been in business at the time for a decent while. We were told 'tough - there is no more money for more planters and we can't afford to move them either but if you want one you can go buy it yourself from the company who made them'. Amazing how they always have money to court billionaires but can't spare a dime to help companies who are their tax base. 

How long you been here??   You cannot possibly be surprised by that, even if it has only been 30 minutes or so...

Okrahoma Way!

[tulsabug]

How long you been here??   You cannot possibly be surprised by that, even if it has only been 30 minutes or so...

Okrahoma Way!

Well - not surprised but amazed and I never stop being amazed by stupidity.