Chocolate Monster

Lindt Chocolate does not cost the same in Oxford and Cape Town. “The Law of One Price” (LOOP) is the theoretical idea that the same thing should sell for the same price. The LOOP does not hold, because there are trade frictions. What something is does not determine its price, because price is not value. Price is a negotiation between the buyer and the seller of a thing *in a container*. The container determines the barriers to entry and barriers to exit. The container determines the story. The story determines the agreement. Money is made by solving problems for decision makers with money. The decision maker does not know everything, is not everywhere, and each decision maker has their own set of competing things that they value. More than half the battle of making money is becoming a part of a decision maker’s value recognition. “The thing” is not what determines the price.

Lindt Chocolate Cake

Keyhole Solutions

Keyhole Surgery is a minimally invasive approach to fixing a problem that restricts the collateral damage. I had my appendix out when I was a little guy. Embarrassingly (now) I was quite excited about it. My Gran used to bring me sweets when I was sick, and my older brother seemed to have such fun when he had his out. Balloons, TV, comic books. Hospitals aren’t scary. I turned out not to have appendicitis, but just an ulcer. Fortunately, the surgeon still felt the surgery was necessary. I still have the scar. Mine was small for the time. Now they are tiny. We are getting better at dealing with the specific problem. Immigration would be a massive financial boost to the global economy. Economist Bryan Caplan calls it “Trillion Dollars Bills on the sidewalk”, but people have concerns. In his book “Open Borders”, he takes the concerns seriously and provides keyhole solutions. The step forward with Capitalism was realising win-win wealth creation beats win-lose wealth extraction. The same is true of Property Rights. Freedom of Movement (Capital, Goods, Services, Labour) doesn’t take anything away. You can surgically remove Global Apartheid while protecting the things we rightly value. Wealth Creation doesn’t require oppression. Holding someone down doesn’t lift anyone up.