Juggling Dynamite

Expert perspective on the accomplishments of Tesla from none other than sober authority Road and Track via columnist and professional race driver, Jack Baruth.

Read the whole article here for some important updates about road safety stats and autopilot, Leave Tesla Alone:

“In any even remotely sane universe, Americans would be as proud of the Tesla Model S as we used to be about the moon landing or about winning the Cold War.”

 …Needless to say, the world of 2016 is a thoroughly insane universe, so none of the above is happening. Instead, there’s a cottage industry springing up of people who are trying to make a name, or a living, or both, disparaging Tesla and its products. Instead of celebrating the existence of a self-autonomous electric car, they are focused on whatever individual gain they can scrape for themselves off the bottom of Elon Musk’s shoe.

These individuals are assisted in their quest by a media that long ago decided that it was completely okay with killing the society on which it parasitically feeds. Every potential flaw in a Tesla, every customer complaint, and every perceived shortfall from perfection in the product, the company, or its people is endlessly chewed into pulp by the mandibles of these filthy dung beetles in an effort to find a morsel of notoriety on which they can subsist. These people can’t look away from their own navels long enough to contemplate the technological miracle of a self-driving electric car that runs elevens in the quarter. They’d rather focus on minor quality issues or customer-relations missteps.

Note that the harshest critics of Tesla and its products are not affiliated with Nissan, General Motors, BMW, or Ford. Instead, they are gadflies who rarely have any industry experience whatsoever. Few of them could change a tire on a minivan without getting help from a mechanic. I’m not aware of any serious Tesla critic who has the ability to design, and engineer, and produce so much as a $19.95 remote-control electric car on his or her own.

Again, in any sane world nobody would pay any attention to the opinions of completely unqualified individuals on any given topic.”

Later today U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron will head to Buckingham Palace to tender his resignation to the Queen, who will then ask Theresa May to form a government. She is expected to start naming her new ministerial team this evening, with the key roles of Chancellor of the Exchequer and a new Brexit minister highest on the agenda.

Here is a direct video link.

I have written many times about the need to return to public banking options where Provinces, Municipalities, Cities and central banks use taxpayer funds to make direct infrastructure loans (as they were mandated to do in Canada between 1938 and 1974). In this way, the public purse can self-fund critical infrastructure investment in the real economy without having to borrow through private banks and waste hundreds of billions on underwriting and interest costs paid to private banks and their shareholders.   See: A solution whose time is now: public banking for a historical overview of this issue.

Thanks to a reader for bringing an encouraging development in this thinking to my attention this week. The proposal is to revamp Canada Post back into a direct banking network (as it was before 1968) for Canadian families who have become increasingly de-banked and dependent on shark-style penalties, overdraft rates and payday loan outlets for their banking services over the past several years.  Here are some highlights, but the whole article is worth reading.  See Postal banking an investment worth delivering: McQuaig:

Indeed, for hundreds of thousands of Canadians who have no wealth to manage and really aren’t richer than they think, banks are increasingly inaccessible places.

As they’ve turned their attention to catering to the wealthy, Canada’s six big banks have shut down more than 1,700 branches across the country in recent years. In many rural communities today, you’re no more likely to see a bank than a buffalo.

This has left hundreds of thousands of Canadians without bank accounts, including many low-income city dwellers – notably young people with poor credit ratings and lack of identification – who now rely on pay-day loan companies charging annualized interest rates well above 300 per cent.

All this suggests there’s a compelling case for Canada Post to offer banking services to the public – as it did for decades until 1968. The possibility of reviving “postal banking” will be considered as part of a sweeping review of Canada Post, announced by the federal government last week.

What makes the idea of postal banking particularly compelling is that offering financial services – even without gouging customers – is a lucrative business.