Lessons From The Hellscape

Saturday, August 15, 2026

I spent the week in Los Angeles and I wish that the title for this post was entirely hyperbolic, but sadly, portions of LA are a hellscape and even when you are not in those portions, the place is still dingy and dull and worn out.  This post provides a nice perspective.  And this song, heard every ten minutes or so when I moved there in the mid-80’s, is now never, ever heard.  I was there calling on what few clients I have left, so I was talking and learning.  There are a couple of lessons from the visit that need recording.

Lesson One – the tariffs are not really working.  Sure they are raising a lot of money for the fed and are sometimes a useful tool of statecraft, but the benefit ends there.  There are two issues.  Firstly they have changed so rapidly that often pricing cannot keep up.  Manufacturers generally have to set their pricing months before they deliver the product, or even begin to build it in many cases.  Then along comes a tariff change, effectively raising the prices of the raw materials, and boom- the profits disappear.  Secondly, even with tariffs in place, foreign produced things remain cheaper than domestically produced ones, even if more expensive than prior to the tariffs being in place, so they do not serve any protectionist role to aid American manufacturing.  If we want to boost American manufacturing, we have to find a better way.

Lesson Two – housing and affordability are not all they are cracked up to be.  What little construction that is happening in the now 20 month old burn zones tends to be much higher density than what was there before – apartments, townhomes and duplexes or triplexes where once a single family dwelling stood.  This, of course, is a part of the regulatory oversight that is generally making things difficult for those that lost their homes – they want their homes back, but are not being permitted to build them – they have to build something else, or sell to someone that will.  The regulators think they are “solving” the shortage of affordable housing in the region with this effort by supplying more housing units – you know the greater the supply the cheaper the cost.  But all they are actually doing is driving out the middle class even faster than before.  It is not enough to merely supply more housing, you have to supply the housing people want.  Yes, people are snatching up the new smaller, denser places, but the neighborhoods are fundamentally changing and generally not for the better.  Let the market work.

I could rant for days, but I’ll end it here.

What’s left from the week:

Speaking of “let the market work” – there is a morality marketplace as well and it will not be forced.

Speaking of morality.

It’s official – Fauci is a crook.  After reading this I wish he were just an egotistical jerk.

Democrats and the D..S.A. – things get worse by the minute.  El-Sayed appears to be the water that hit the Wicked Witch and they are melting…melting, but this is no time to get cocky.